Through adversity came Bliss for WrestleMania 35 host

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NEW YORK — You wouldn’t think that the host of Sunday’s WrestleMania 35 once broke down and cried during promo class in WWE developmental, but it’s true. It’s also true to say that Alexa Bliss has come a long way from that teary-eyed moment.

The native of Columbus, Ohio, had gone from gymnast to competitive cheering to learning to be a professional wrestler, inspired in part by a love of Rey Mysterio Jr. She liked the spotlight of All-Star Cheer, but never had to speak to a crowd.

“When I first started in WWE, I cried during promo class. I couldn’t cut a promo. I couldn’t look at people and talk to them. I couldn’t speak in front of a large group,” Bliss explained on Friday during WWE media day at the New York City’s Hard Rock Cafe.

Looking into the past, she called her personality “extrovert/introvert” where “when it’s one-on-one, I can talk someone’s ear off all day, but when you insert a third person, I’m the quiet one,” Similarly, in a small group, she’s okay speaking, but in a large group, she was petrified. In class, she’d be at the back, hoping not to have to make any presentation.

The key for Bliss was being paired with Scott Dawson in NXT. “That’s what allowed me to really help get me out of my shell and speak, because it’s hard to do it on your own, but then when there’s someone there, that’s developing at the same time as you, it makes it easier and you could bounce off each other, feed off each other, and then you really learn your voice.”

Then she was assigned to accompany the hot tag team, Buddy Murphy and Wesley Blake, to the ring. It worked, she said.

“I was forced to be a mouthpiece. I knew that was my role with them. I had to be the one that does all the speaking for them. And I was very nervous because I didn’t know how to be a bad guy,” she said.

While Bliss did get TV time in NXT, she did not get a lot of in-ring time to shine. In July 2019, she was promoted to Smackdown.

“When I was drafted to Smackdown Live, I knew that I wasn’t given a TakeOver match, I was never a Four Horsewoman, I’d never held a title in NXT, but I knew that I was a very underwhelming draft pick, I knew that, because I didn’t do much in NXT,” she admitted.

“So I knew that when I came to Smackdown, my first thing was a promo. And in WWE, if you don’t deliver on your opportunities, they’re not coming back, it doesn’t matter how many times you ask for them — ‘You messed up, you’re not doing them again.’ So I knew that I had to deliver and try to over-deliver, and I just knew that I had to kick down the door and run with it. If not, I wasn’t going to have a job. That was kind of the fire under my butt. It was sink or swim.”

From there, it has been hard to deny Bliss, on the microphone, where she has shone, or in the ring, where she’s held the women’s titles on both Raw and Smackdown.

She credits the development of her character to WWE creative team member Johnny Russo, who worked at one point primarily with the women’s roster. “He was amazing, and he helps me with all the promos, to find my voice. When I first came onto Smackdown, I was assigned to Johnny Russo and he does an amazing job at finding the Alexa Bliss voice, and we married it to now, I know what the character would say, and it’s a team effort. It’s never just one person. Someone can be amazing at promos but it’s not just that one person, it’s a whole team of writers and producers behind them that are helping get to that point.”

For inspiration at being mean and nasty, she thought of her past.”The Alexa Bliss character is every girl I went to high school with, you know what I mean?” she said with a laigh. “It’s every girl I grew up with. There’s been scenarios that I’ve taken and actually looked at my opponent and saw someone I went to high school with. It’s that person, everyone knows that person in high school, and that’s where the character came from, so I was like, what’s relatable? Then I started thinking back to the people that did me wrong in high school. That’s the character.”

As for her pop culture costumes, that’s all her. “It’s things that I genuinely like. I like scary movies, I like villains, and that’s why I’ve done a lot of cosplay like Iron Man, Freddy Krueger, Chucky, that’s my personal thing. It’s not my character turned my personality turned up to a hundred, it’s my character, as a person, is right here.”

Given that Bliss dropped the Raw women’s title to Ronda Rousey, it’s not impossible to picture her in a featured in-ring spot at WrestleMania 35. But a concussion in October 2018 derailed that plan.

It was supposed to be Bliss and Mickie James against Trish Stratus and Lita at the all-women’s PPV, Evolution; Alicia Fox took her place in the bout.

“It was difficult when I was taken out of the Evolution match, that’s the match that I really wanted to have. I always said that I wanted to be in the ring with Trish and Lita, and to have that moment kind of taken away the day before sucked. It is what it is,” she said.

Instead of wrestling, Bliss was given a segment called Moment of Bliss on Raw, and will host Sunday at Mania at MetLife Stadium in East Rutherford, N.J.

“I like the fact that I’ve been hosting and I’ve been doing A Moment of Bliss, because I feel like it gives me an opportunity to wear different hats for the company,” she said. “I feel like it helps me all around as a performer to be able to host.”

The odd thing wasn’t being on the microphone, it was the perplexed fans.

“When I first started hosting, everybody had seen me be a bad guy for six years straight, so when I first came out as a host, it was nice, but people thought I was full of crap. They were waiting for me to say something mean,” she said. “Example, Elimination Chamber. I started off saying nice things and then I turned. So I feel like when I was starting to say nice things on A Moment of Bliss, people were like, ‘Wait for it.’ Huh, there’s that, I never gave it to them, because I was genuinely trying to be nice, but then I just came across as full of crap.”

Bliss is taking it all as a positive.

“It’s been a lot of fun though. It’s allowed me to hone my craft and develop different avenues to the character, different layers, which I actually really like. So I’m not upset that I’ve been out of the ring, because you develop more of a passion for it when you’re not able to do it,” she said. “But it has been kind of sucky that I haven’t been able to be a part of these moments. But I’ve also had my moments, if that makes sense. I went into my first WrestleMania as Smackdown women’s champion, my second was Raw women’s champion, so I’ve done these amazing things, and I always said the only thing I haven’t done is main event WrestleMania. Well, it’s just not my time yet.”

While she participated in the women’s Royal Rumble in January, Bliss hasn’t wrestled much at all, but she has been working out, away from the spotlight. “I’ve done a lot training, I’ve been working with Mike Quackenbush on sharpening up my in-ring skills, so when the time is right, I’m more than prepared to do that.

Alexa Bliss has her eye on the main event, and why not. She laid out a scenario.

“Hopefully Alexa Bliss is in the main event next year, that’s all I’m saying. I want to be in the main event. I don’t know who I’d be against. Hell, actually, here’s my plan — have I told you my plan about this yet? Charlotte-Becky-Ronda. Here’s my plan. So, I’m the host, which means I can handle stuff until Mania is over. I’ve made some matches. I’ve gone in, I’ve shaken some stuff up … It’s been great. But I only have this power until Mania ends, so I’m really hoping Charlotte wins — unpopular opinion, I know — but when I was on Smackdown, me and Becky had some issues, I put her through a table. I can’t help it, that’s just what I did. Raw, Ronda put me through a table. She could 100 per cent help that, she didn’t have to do it, but she did. So personal issues. Never had personal issues with Charlotte. We had one match at Survivor Series. Loved it. Thought it was great, thought it was a lot of fun, I would love to have that match again. But, if we have that match again, I would like to take the titles from her. Just saying. So, if anything, I would like to see Charlotte win, and then I’d like to have Charlotte be my next target.”

The costume was ready for Mania too, she revealed. It’ll have to wait. “I’ve been doing Disney villain stuff. I was supposed to do Cruella de Ville gear for WrestleMania if I was participating, so hopefully that’ll be used very soon, because it was already made. They were like, ‘You’re hosting.’ I was like, ‘That’s cool. The gear can wait.'”

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