Nikki A.S.H. Talks Inspiration Behind Superhero Character

WWE star Nikki A.S.H. appeared on Instinct Culture by Denise Salcedo to talk about her transition to her new superhero character. Nikki believes that the change from Nikki Cross to Nikki A.S.H. is her character evolving, similar to how people evolve over the course of their life.

"People evolve and I think wrestling characters should too," Nikki said. "For me, like I said, the heart of this character is for a young audience to feel inspired and be good and be kind to each other as a superpower. It may not be super strength, it may not be the coolest superpower like super strength or super speed or x-ray super vision or laser eyes. But I think there is something very important in being good to one another and being positive as a superpower and that's the message, that's the heart of what we're trying to do."

Nikki is the latest of superhero wrestlers to grace WWE, with the most notable being The Hurricane. Nikki confirmed that Hurricane was a big influence for the character, while she's also setting out to carve her own path.

"I always loved watching the Hurricane," Nikki said. "The Hurricane left such a valuable great blueprint and I wanted to pay respect to that path and pay respect to what came before me but also carve my own path and have my own message for our younger audience and just be a positive role model and a positive inspiration. You put on the mask and you feel like you could try anything and it's okay if you fall down because you just need to pick yourself up and I think there is a lot of love and positivity that I really wanted to get out there with this message. Use it to connect with people, that's my hope, that's my belief on what the character stands for. That's just the message."

Nikki also talked about her love for superheroes and superhero cartoons, which helped to inspire the gimmick.  She sees Nikki A.S.H. as a combination of her love for comic book superheroes and her love of WWE sports entertainment.

"It really started from my love of watching superhero movies and watching superhero cartoons," Nikki revealed. "When I was growing up in Glasgow, Scotland I would always watch the X-Men cartoon and the Spiderman cartoon. Then growing older and growing up with the Marvel Universe, the MCU and watching a lot of DC and the Justice League and Suicide Squad. I just finished watching Loki, we watched Black Widow last week so a lot of superheroes and it seemed like the perfect time. For me it was combining my love of Sports Entertainment, WWE, and combining that with superheroes."

You can watch the full interview below.