Alexa Bliss On Which RAW Star Has Helped Her, Success Following Being An "Underwhelming Draft Pick"
WWE RAW Women's Champion Alexa Bliss was recently a guest on Sam Roberts' Wrestling Podcast. Among other things, Bliss talked about gaining confidence as a sports entertainer, who influenced her the most in NXT, and the controversial first ever women's Money In The Bank ladder match.
According to Bliss, everything "clicked" when she won the SmackDown Women's Championship for her first title reign. 'Five Feet Of Fury' said she was one of the most "underwhelming" WWE draft picks from the 2016 lottery, but was determined to succeed on the main roster.
"It definitely was when I won the SmackDown Live Women's Championship for the first time. Being drafted to SmackDown, even then, I didn't have the confidence of thinking that I was ready because there were so many things I wanted to accomplish at NXT, like I never had a TakeOver match. I barely had many matches because I was selling Blake and Murphy and I never held the [NXT Women's] title. There were just so many things that I knew that I just was supposed to accomplish before being able to move to the main roster and when I did, I was like, 'well, alright, I guess I'll come in under the radar and kick down the door'. And that was my plan and that's how I wanted to do it because I knew that I was one of the most underwhelming draft picks, I guess. And so, I knew that going in, so I was like, 'I'm going to run with this opportunity because if you don't run with it, the opportunities don't come back.'"
During the interview, Bliss credited WWE PC Assistant Coach Sara Amato with much of her training and went on to say that she learned a lot from Bayley in the ring and learned a lot about character development from Blake and Murphy.
"In the ring-wise, I've learned a lot from working with Bayley. From working with Charlotte and Becky [Lynch] and Sasha [Banks], they've all made me a better performer in some way or another. And I've had some of my best matches in NXT with Bayley, which raised my confidence in the ring because I didn't have a whole lot of in-ring confidence because I was with Blake and Murphy. And Blake and Murphy helped me develop the actual Alexa Bliss character. I wouldn't be the bratty person without them because I was this little, happy, glittery tutu-wearing thing and when I joined Blake and Murphy, I got to really experiment and got them to help me evolve and develop who Alexa Bliss really is. And those are definitely people who've helped me and influenced me the most in NXT, for sure."
With respect to the inaugural women's Money In The Bank ladder match, Bliss acknowledged that she was excited for the performers involved, but wished she could have been a part of it as well.
"I was really excited for the women of SmackDown because RAW has always been deemed the flagship show and there were times when I was on SmackDown when we didn't feel like we were getting the same opportunities as the women on RAW, the Hell In A Cell match, but then we started to get opportunities. Becky and I had a steel cage match and a tables match, so we were getting opportunities as well. And the fact that they get to have the first ever women's Money In The Bank ladder match, I was super excited for them. Obviously, I would love to be a part of that, but I feel like I have moved to a different brand and I have other things to accomplish on RAW. I was super excited for them. Part of me was like, 'oh man, I wish I could be part of that' because that group of girls is so amazing to work with and it would have been so, so good to be able to have that moment with them, but I'm doing other things."
Although Bliss expressed her pleasure that Carmella won the match, 'The Goddess Of WWE' was upset by the way it actually happened, with James Ellsworth securing the prize for 'The Princess Of Staten Island'.
"I was happy for Carmella. I actually called it, okay? I said? I did a thing on WWE.com, I said, 'Carmella is going to win it because if she's in trouble James is always there to help her,' so I kind of expected it to happen. In my mind, I kind of wanted to be right about it to be that person that's like, 'I told you guys!' But I was shocked that it actually did happen because I thought it was so farfetched that wasn't going to happen. Then, it did, and I was like, 'oh, man?' Well, I was very happy for Carmella, super excited for her and I love her character, who she is, but I was very disappointed that the first ever women's Money In The Bank ladder match, the briefcase was taken down by a man. No offense to James, but this was supposed to be a moment where our women get to have this moment and the fact that a man had to climb up and take it down for her is what was really kind of disappointing."
Become a Notsamsonite here. If you use any of the quotes from this article, please credit Sam Roberts' Wrestling Podcast with an H/T to Wrestling Inc. for the transcription.
Source: Sam Roberts Wrestling Podcast