Eva Marie Talks Original WWE Idea For Doudrop Pairing

WWE star Eva Marie joined Oral Sessions with Renee Paquette during SummerSlam weekend to talk about her recent run since returning to the company. Eva Marie has been paired with Doudrop (aka Piper Niven) since returning, both as friends and now enemies, and she had nothing but praise for her counterpart.

"Doudrop is a savage. She's phenomenal," Eva Marie said. "Don't get it twisted, I handpicked her from the NXT UK because she is that bomb. She's incredible. I love working with her, she's phenomenal. Just an incredible athlete. I'm really fortunate because when we first met, we exchanged messages prior to meeting in person. And we just hit it off. We knew we were going to work together, we just didn't know what it was going to look like yet.

"It basically was kind of simple. You know how WWE is; you think that a lot of storylines and things are going to go a certain way, and it completely transforms and goes a whole other direction. So really the gist of it all was that I was going to have a protégé, and we were going to take over the locker room and the division."

Eva Marie returned to the company this year after a four year hiatus to pursue a film career. Despite the layoff, she always knew she was going to come back due to WWE always believing in her from the word go.

"I love this company," Eva Marie said. "They took a chance on me, from Vince McMahon to Triple H to Steph, in 2013, a Diva Search, no name kid and gave me a start. And that start was absolutely incredible, talk about being thrown into the wild real quick. But as soon as I stepped away, it was because I got the support from Vince, Triple H and Steph to go ahead do my first movie and then continue to do movies and TV and film.

"But I always knew when I left that I was going to be coming back. I just didn't know what that would look like, or when that was going to happen. And then throughout the last four or five years, I always kept in communication with the company. Then the door kind of opened and I was like 'I'm coming right back in.'"

Eva also talked about how her WWE career prepared her for acting in films with the likes of Gina Gershon and Nicolas Cage. She also believes her time away from WWE has helped make her a better performer since returning.

"It's one of those things where you'd be silly to not want to be part of such a global company," Eva Marie said. "Just from that standpoint alone, it's the biggest stage, it's the best show in the world. But also, it just seemed like when I left WWE in 2017, right then and there, anybody that is a WWE superstar, I say this all the time, you are the baddest on the planet. Because if you're able to handle not only the travel, the physicality, being able to get handed a promo or something ten minutes prior to being live television?

"Walking onto my first movie set and TV set, I was like 'this is a piece of cake. I can do this all night long.' So the fact I was able to experience WWE and then go to Hollywood entertainment and then really kind of learn the craft there, as well as entrepreneurship, opening up my own businesses and things of that nature. I just feel like a more well rounded performer, in all aspects."

Paquette asked Eva how she prepared for her return to WWE after such a long layoff. She revealed she had done some training with one of NXT's top trainers.

"I have to give a shoutout to Norman Smiley," Eva Marie said. "He's the man for sure. When I first started talking about coming back and things of that nature. That's when I went out to Florida and hopped in the ring with that guy. He's incredible, I love him and his patience is through the roof."

If you use any of the quotes in this article, please credit Oral Sessions with Renee Paquette and provide a h/t to Wrestling Inc. for the transcription