Anna Jay Discusses Original AEW Idea For Why She Would Wear A Mask

Dark Order's Anna Jay was the latest episode of Talk Is Jericho where she discussed being recruited into Dark Order as well as the original ideas for her character in AEW. Jay talked about the mask that she wore when she started in AEW.

"So the original mask was actually one you see all the other guys wearing. The full-on mask, the tie in on the back and everything," Jay described. "I still have it in my house. They bedazzled it for me and everything, and then as soon as I went to wear it, they were like, 'No, don't do that. We're going to do a different one.'

"So then I think Charlie Ramone went to some store to get me one of those cardboard, masquerade masks. They bedazzled that for me. I wore that I think once to the ring or twice maybe. I think I wore that a couple times, and then Tony Khan ended up being like, 'No.'"

Chris Jericho asked why AEW wanted her to wear a mask in the first place. Jay noted that other members of Dark Order like Alan Angels, Preston Vance and Evil Uno also wore masks, so the idea was to keep that aesthetic.

"I think it's just because a lot of the guys wore masks, and they just wanted me to kind of have the look of that," Jay said. "They didn't really ever say why really because I think they went back and forth a lot on whether or not they wanted me to, and they did the half mask."

Jericho recalled the idea for Jay wearing a mask being that she was shamed into wearing the mask, and Jay confirmed that. She noted that there was a whole vignette filmed but was later nixed.

"I think one of the ideas originally that I remember hearing was rather than just bring you in as a typical diva, whatever the word is, they're going to shame you for being a pretty girl," Jericho recalled. "So they're gonna put you under a mask.

"I did hear that," Jay added. "Then they ended up doing a vignette that was kind of going along with that and me being the typical diva or whatever, and then they scrapped that. So it kind of ended up making sense for them to scrap the mask too because it kind of went in a different direction."

If you use any quotes from this article, please credit Talk Is Jericho with a h/t to Wrestling Inc. for the transcription.