Speaker 1: As promised, we have a second episode of a Podnet's
Speaker 1: world side Quest. We have two more interviews from the
Speaker 1: Into It Dome where w W E.
Speaker 2: RAW was in Los Angeles.
Speaker 1: We had so much fun talking to Roquel Rodriguez. Will's
Speaker 1: biting his lip. I'm not I'm not gonna just be
Speaker 1: too obvious about it, but I'm.
Speaker 3: Not saying anything. I enjoyed the interview.
Speaker 1: I know there was a big smile on your face.
Speaker 3: I enjoyed the interview.
Speaker 2: I know she's super cool, she is something.
Speaker 3: Just such a force.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and it doesn't help that she is gous.
Speaker 3: I'm not saying that. I think she was. It was
Speaker 3: a very fun interview.
Speaker 2: I know you enjoyed it, maybe more than most.
Speaker 1: So we have two episodes for you in this episode,
Speaker 1: two interviews for you. In this episode, we have Raquel
Speaker 1: Rodriguez and we are finishing it off with Maxine Dupree.
Speaker 1: So stick around listen to both of those. We had
Speaker 1: a great time. Thank you all for listening. Enjoy Podmeats World.
Speaker 1: She's a member of the Illustrious Judgment Day faction, first
Speaker 1: tired as the muscle to make sure live. Morgan's always
Speaker 1: running mouth only got her in a little bit of trouble,
Speaker 1: but she's since morphed into a personality that somehow.
Speaker 2: Matches her size. A staple on raw.
Speaker 1: She recently ran through a fatal four way with Bailey,
Speaker 1: JC Jane and Keana James like it was an appetizer,
Speaker 1: beat Sky in the semis and got within inches of
Speaker 1: forcing soul Ruka to wipe out and hand over that
Speaker 1: Women's Intercontinental title she deserves. She's a record setting six
Speaker 1: time WWE Tag Team title holder and a former NXT
Speaker 1: champ and the woman I want standing next to me
Speaker 1: when someone steals my parking spot at Whole Foods. Her
Speaker 1: future is so bright she has to wear shades.
Speaker 4: Please.
Speaker 1: Welcome to Pod Meets World, Roquel Rodrigue.
Speaker 5: What an introduction.
Speaker 4: Gosh, how you're ripping through people and she's still at
Speaker 4: Whole Foods.
Speaker 5: Yeah, yeah, you know. Let me know when you're going
Speaker 5: to Whole Foods. I'll be there.
Speaker 1: I'll wipe through anyone like an appetizer. Thank you, I
Speaker 1: do appreciate that. Welcome to Pod Meets World. We are
Speaker 1: thrilled to have you on the show. I am a
Speaker 1: judgment day Stan your partner in crime Live Morgan is
Speaker 1: the official Pod Meets World champ.
Speaker 5: We gave heard that title.
Speaker 3: She hasn't lost the belt yet.
Speaker 1: She hasn't lost the belt yet, so we have high
Speaker 1: expectations for you.
Speaker 6: Okay, this is great. I love this for us. We'll
Speaker 6: keep it in the Judgment Day house.
Speaker 5: That's right.
Speaker 1: I think one of the reasons fans gravitate to the
Speaker 1: Judgment Day is that it genuinely seems like you guys
Speaker 1: are close friends. What has it been like developing a
Speaker 1: close bond with co workers because we are still working
Speaker 1: on that.
Speaker 6: Yeah, it's tough, but you know what I mean. I
Speaker 6: think because we were all hands selected by Dominic by Live,
Speaker 6: it was a very interesting group with our characteristics. We
Speaker 6: just all just seemed to gell so well with each other,
Speaker 6: And honestly, it's really hard to get work done when
Speaker 6: we do have to be serious, because I mean, I'm
Speaker 6: sure as you guys know that once the jokes start,
Speaker 6: the jokes don't stop.
Speaker 3: Yeah, giggles will start.
Speaker 6: I saw a meme and I reposted it not too
Speaker 6: long ago, but it said these five parrots were separated
Speaker 6: at a zoo because they were heckling people as they
Speaker 6: were coming in, And I was like, Wow, that feels
Speaker 6: like us. So we weren't at a Saturday night main
Speaker 6: event where j d Russell, Dan Housen, Me and Roxanne
Speaker 6: Worth there and I was like, I feel like I've
Speaker 6: been separated from my birds zoo.
Speaker 2: This is terrible, Like we cannot let them there together.
Speaker 5: We know what will happen. It's gonna be too much trouble.
Speaker 6: I mean, I think if Froxanna and I were there,
Speaker 6: we could have definitely handled those mini dan Housens easily.
Speaker 1: I think you're right for sure about that. The mini
Speaker 1: dan Housends needed soud.
Speaker 4: You have handled Danielle Housen though, Oh the question, daniel
Speaker 4: that's right you were there was Yeah, Danielle, that's a
Speaker 4: good question.
Speaker 6: I haven't had a chance to interact with her yet,
Speaker 6: so we'll see what what's to unfold later.
Speaker 1: Crazy You and Live especially seem like you're having fun.
Speaker 1: I wanted to show you one instance here. This is
Speaker 1: in Las Vegas. It's a WrestleMania after party and I
Speaker 1: love it.
Speaker 6: Yes, thank you, Yeah us as tag champions to Yeah,
Speaker 6: we were invited to Club Live to be like hosts
Speaker 6: that night. Mind you, we had like a whole day.
Speaker 6: I think we were at SmackDown, so we got there
Speaker 6: super super late. By the time we're ready, it was
Speaker 6: like two am. Have to be up at six am.
Speaker 6: But honestly, like when Live and I are together, we
Speaker 6: just we make the most of every situation.
Speaker 5: We have so much fun.
Speaker 6: I honestly can't imagine doing anything without her in this
Speaker 6: business ever. Again, truly, like my story with her started
Speaker 6: off in a way.
Speaker 5: That was like, we didn't think we'd be this tight.
Speaker 6: You know, we're just like workers, and we worked together,
Speaker 6: and then we just got so close, and we got
Speaker 6: so close so fast that she's literally my sister.
Speaker 5: Literally.
Speaker 6: Yeah, so you have to protect your little sister, you know,
Speaker 6: it's just the big sister, and.
Speaker 5: We has to do it.
Speaker 1: It does seem like the two of you are a
Speaker 1: group of people I want to hang out with. Like,
Speaker 1: I'm like, can I.
Speaker 5: Be the third here?
Speaker 6: I just join our join our click. Okay, I'll go
Speaker 6: to Whole Foods together. I don't want to mess with us.
Speaker 2: Can imagine us at Whole food could you imagine?
Speaker 5: Yeah?
Speaker 2: What about Trader Joe's. Talk about you know, fights in
Speaker 2: the parking lot.
Speaker 6: Yeah, yeah, they better watch out at Trader Joe's because
Speaker 6: I don't play if you're going to steal my coconut water.
Speaker 4: To ask, this conversation would be, I'm sorry, we'll find a.
Speaker 5: Spot for you.
Speaker 1: I want you to take us back to April the
Speaker 1: Head but from Oh yes, Live in the Rocks and
Speaker 1: Perez accidentally collide, and I was very scared watching it
Speaker 1: from home. Now everyone has seen Live's tennis ball size
Speaker 1: bump on her forehead. You were there staring at it
Speaker 1: in person. I'm sure she's asking does it look okay?
Speaker 3: Can you see anything? Is there a mark?
Speaker 5: Are you terrified? What are you telling her? In the moment?
Speaker 6: In the moment, I you know, because she was okay,
Speaker 6: and she was standing and everything seemed fine. I was
Speaker 6: kind of laughing inside, just because a couple months before
Speaker 6: I had a match with Stephanie and with Nikki Bella.
Speaker 6: Nikki Bella pushed me into the steps and I also
Speaker 6: hit my head and also got a little egg. And
Speaker 6: that night she was laughing right, and we took a
Speaker 6: picture with her pointing and laughing at it, and I
Speaker 6: was like, oh, payback, right, I want to get a
Speaker 6: picture with me pointing and laughing at her. But then
Speaker 6: to see how serious it was, and how it still
Speaker 6: hasn't gone away and all those things, Like in the moment,
Speaker 6: I feel like I should have felt a little bit.
Speaker 2: More, but you were just so excited that it's so.
Speaker 6: Excited that all three of us as the Judgment Day
Speaker 6: girlies now had an egg, you know what I mean.
Speaker 5: I was like, we're even now.
Speaker 3: Oh yes, I mean has it not fully gone away yet?
Speaker 5: Uh No, not fully like she still has a little
Speaker 5: tiny bit.
Speaker 6: But they've been doing a lot of therapy and stuff,
Speaker 6: so it is it's coming down, thankfully.
Speaker 2: What is the therapy for that is it? Is it massage?
Speaker 6: Yeah, like lymphatic or cuppying, I think is what they're
Speaker 6: doing here. I think she talked about getting maybe like
Speaker 6: a lighta kinge shot just to help it as well.
Speaker 6: Hopefully she doesn't need surgery for something like that, but
Speaker 6: I just hope he keeps going down.
Speaker 1: Yeah, it's been since April. That's a long it's a
Speaker 1: long time. And cupping leaves a nice little uh b.
Speaker 1: So you're like, yeah, go ahead, yes, cup on my forehead.
Speaker 6: And almost every night after all when she does do
Speaker 6: her therapy, she always asked me for my bandana too.
Speaker 6: That I just wrestled in because it puts the pressure
Speaker 6: to keep it down as well.
Speaker 5: And so I'm like, you need to wear it on
Speaker 5: the plane, you need to wear it all the topact.
Speaker 6: It's a compression sock for her head exactly. So she's
Speaker 6: pulling Overul Rodriguez at night. In case anyone was wondering if.
Speaker 1: You had to choose one other WWE superstar to join
Speaker 1: Judgment Day, Oh, who are you picking?
Speaker 3: This is tough?
Speaker 5: This is tough. Is it a female? Is it another male?
Speaker 3: Good? Question up to you.
Speaker 2: You could pick one of each if you want. If
Speaker 2: you want to say, like.
Speaker 4: If if there were five birds at the zoo, five, yes,
Speaker 4: so then who would you could make five?
Speaker 3: Who's going to be?
Speaker 5: Oh?
Speaker 6: Man, I feel like the guys because we're such a
Speaker 6: heavy we're big heavy women Judgment Day right now, I
Speaker 6: think the guys need some muscle on their site. Not
Speaker 6: the JD and Dominic aren't strong. They're very muscular men,
Speaker 6: the most manliest men on the No one more manly.
Speaker 5: No, No, I mean you see JD, that.
Speaker 6: Guy walking around carrying that big oldhead of his that
Speaker 6: takes a lot of muscles.
Speaker 2: Love, Your JD traps are strong.
Speaker 5: His traps are real strong.
Speaker 6: Oh man, you know, I like almost almost just joined
Speaker 6: Dominic on Triple A. I don't know if you guys
Speaker 6: saw so, like he'd be a good heavy hitter for muscle.
Speaker 6: We're going and for the women to hopefully take advantage of.
Speaker 5: We're going to Triple A in September in Vegas. Are
Speaker 5: you really Yeah?
Speaker 3: Just wait, I'm not going.
Speaker 5: No, No, they're taking We're taking our kids.
Speaker 3: They're taking the kids. I don't get invited to the
Speaker 3: fun stuff.
Speaker 6: Well yeah, it's because you're not one of the kids, exactly.
Speaker 3: I'm treated like one of the kids.
Speaker 5: Yeah, do you want to come?
Speaker 7: No, he doesn't like Vegas. Veggas is Vegas is a
Speaker 7: little rough for Vegas is a lot.
Speaker 3: Vegas is a lot.
Speaker 5: Tell you.
Speaker 6: The smartest thing we did this WrestleMania was not staying
Speaker 6: in a casino, right, Not that I don't love the casinos.
Speaker 6: I think they're great and everything, but like just to
Speaker 6: escape the energy for a little bit, you know, just
Speaker 6: to get away and have like a moment.
Speaker 3: My first ever wrestling event was here.
Speaker 7: Yeah, in La there was Netflix on Netflix, and it
Speaker 7: was it was what a night.
Speaker 3: It was phenomenal.
Speaker 5: That was a crazy way. Yeah, it was great, amazing, incredible,
Speaker 5: it was.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 1: We've only taken him to good ones since then WrestleMania.
Speaker 1: You know, he only goes to the flashy.
Speaker 6: Yeah, that's why you're here tonight, right of course, because
Speaker 6: you're going to watch me become the new Intercontinental Women's champion.
Speaker 5: We've heard it here.
Speaker 6: It's a big hurting her first, right, Yeah, you picked
Speaker 6: a good one. Yeah, she's going down, going down.
Speaker 5: You got to hold the belt.
Speaker 3: I just held the belt.
Speaker 5: Oh you did so.
Speaker 2: I just want you to know we gave it. Good
Speaker 2: luck for you.
Speaker 5: Thank you, thank you.
Speaker 6: I know you did because you're technically a Judgment Day
Speaker 6: girly and you're on the line of.
Speaker 3: Because judgment judge Judgment.
Speaker 2: Day girly, a judgment girl.
Speaker 5: Oh, he's a judgment day girl.
Speaker 4: I don't want to let you know any secrets. But
Speaker 4: she's got like this, this serious ending move. It's the
Speaker 4: soul snatcher. I think I felt it once, but she
Speaker 4: said and again, not picking sides, she said, no one's
Speaker 4: reversed it on her yet.
Speaker 5: Interesting.
Speaker 6: Okay, well it could be me. You know, she also
Speaker 6: hasn't felt as my Tahana bombs, so huh. Let's just
Speaker 6: see how quickly she can.
Speaker 5: Get out of that one. Today.
Speaker 3: They're going to name a drink after that. I hope, right,
Speaker 3: I hope.
Speaker 6: So yeah, I was like that something with tequila.
Speaker 3: Perfect name for a.
Speaker 5: Drink, thank you, Almost like Hannah bomb?
Speaker 3: Is it giving?
Speaker 6: Like Irish car bomb but more of like have you
Speaker 6: ever had a Mexican car bomb?
Speaker 8: No?
Speaker 6: Oh, this was something new for me a couple of
Speaker 6: years ago. So it's a Mexican beer maybe like a modello,
Speaker 6: and then you get tequila, whatever tequila you want, and
Speaker 6: for the cream part, because you know how the Irish
Speaker 6: car bombs have like that Bailey's there's something called drum Chatta.
Speaker 5: Have you had rumshotta and rum? It's so good?
Speaker 3: And then you drop the shot in the man down the.
Speaker 6: House so it tastes like cinnamon, like word chatta kind of,
Speaker 6: and then you mix it with your hot chocolate during Christmas.
Speaker 5: It's the best. It's the best. Don't get me started.
Speaker 5: We're talking Christmas beverages. The Tanabam will be a year
Speaker 5: round for everyone to enjoy it.
Speaker 4: To figure out exactly what that is, because that's a
Speaker 4: great idea for a drink.
Speaker 5: We'll make it happen.
Speaker 1: Okay, you are a second generation wrestler. Your dad performed
Speaker 1: locally in Texas. What are your earliest memories around the ring?
Speaker 6: Oh man, A lot of my earliest memories have been
Speaker 6: in the ring with it and him just picking us
Speaker 6: up for like lifts and stuff, running the ropes.
Speaker 5: My favorite memories are.
Speaker 6: Though, when we get to the shows and he always
Speaker 6: tells us, you know, when we're outside watching the show,
Speaker 6: He's like, you don't call me dad. Don't call me
Speaker 6: dad when you're out there, especially if he's the bad guy,
Speaker 6: and don't cheer for me. He'll tell us, don't cher
Speaker 6: for me. But my sister and I being us. I
Speaker 6: remember us standing up in the back watching him make
Speaker 6: his entrance the night of the show on a table,
Speaker 6: just like ten or eleven years old, probably standing on
Speaker 6: a table, let's go down. I just remember looking over
Speaker 6: and him being like, now does he not.
Speaker 5: Want you to call him dad?
Speaker 1: Because automatically a man with kids in the audience, you
Speaker 1: have a hard time thinking of him as a heel.
Speaker 6: I think so yes, And I think it was also
Speaker 6: still they had that cafe back then, you know what
Speaker 6: I mean, And so like back then too. When my
Speaker 6: dad wrestled, nobody would. The heels and the baby faces
Speaker 6: were separated the entire time. They never talked, never touch you.
Speaker 6: Not allowed, yeah yeah, not allowed to friends, not allowed
Speaker 6: to mingle or anything like that. So it was very,
Speaker 6: very different then. So the shows that we would watch
Speaker 6: were just always so entertaining because the characters were over
Speaker 6: the top. I remember we had a guy I called
Speaker 6: the English Bulldog I think, but he came out with
Speaker 6: like a leash and his dog biscuits. He gave me
Speaker 6: a dog biscuit one time and I was like, oh,
Speaker 6: this can't be real dog food.
Speaker 5: Been into it. It was real dog.
Speaker 6: My sister, she was always in love with the hottest
Speaker 6: wrestlers too. She would always be like Shotgun and that
Speaker 6: one's mine, Shotgun, that one's when I'm like, I don't
Speaker 6: even get a chance, she'd be calling them out, but
Speaker 6: before I even get a chance to decide if I
Speaker 6: think they're cute or not. So we had so many
Speaker 6: fun memories just traveling with him and doing that.
Speaker 3: So then, other than your dad, who was your favorite
Speaker 3: wrestler growing up?
Speaker 6: I think because I was watching the Attitude Air at
Speaker 6: that time, I loved China. I loved Beth Phoenix because
Speaker 6: they were like bigger girls like me, so it made
Speaker 6: me feel a lot more comfortable with being my size
Speaker 6: at my age. I loved watching Stone Cold just because
Speaker 6: he was so much fun driving in Yeah, yeah, he
Speaker 6: was so much fun. Randy Orton too, just because I
Speaker 6: thought he was the best looking man in WWF at
Speaker 6: the moment.
Speaker 5: Respect respect Randy, and I.
Speaker 6: Loved John ConA too. I remember I had his inflatable hand.
Speaker 6: The first time I went to a WWE show. I
Speaker 6: was in high school and they came down to where
Speaker 6: I'm from the border of Texas, and you know, we
Speaker 6: don't go down there that often because it's such a
Speaker 6: rural part of the states, and so when they came
Speaker 6: down when I was in high school, it's like, oh
Speaker 6: my god, my first WWE.
Speaker 5: Show bought the hand.
Speaker 6: Went to Waterburger after just to hear that Johnsena stopped
Speaker 6: at water Burger.
Speaker 5: I was like, this is insane.
Speaker 3: Oh that's so funny.
Speaker 6: So getting to like work with him at Survivor Series
Speaker 6: for me too, I was like, Wow, this is like
Speaker 6: a full three sixty surreal moment for me as well,
Speaker 6: Like I was just really crazy but I'm so grateful
Speaker 6: that I get those kinds of opportunities and it wouldn't
Speaker 6: happen without my family and judgment Day.
Speaker 4: Well, since you've hit the heights, have you been able
Speaker 4: to go back to your hometown and kind of wrestle
Speaker 4: in that area? I have?
Speaker 5: We have live events.
Speaker 6: So I'm down where I graduated from is called Tilago, Texas,
Speaker 6: and it's right on the border and they literally built
Speaker 6: an arena there when I was in high school to
Speaker 6: have more events to have like B team, NBA teams
Speaker 6: come down and play, to have WWE come concerts and
Speaker 6: all that stuff. So we extence have been able to
Speaker 6: go for live events and it's been so amazing and
Speaker 6: just heartwarming to like take my my friends from work, Oh,
Speaker 6: let's go have tacos here and there. They make the
Speaker 6: best breakfast tacos. You guys got to get breakfast tacos.
Speaker 3: Did people that you grow up with come and watch
Speaker 3: you wrestle?
Speaker 2: Yes?
Speaker 5: Yeah.
Speaker 6: I had people from high school hit me up and
Speaker 6: message me and like go and meet them and see
Speaker 6: their kids, you know, because so many of them have
Speaker 6: kids and families now that it's it's so different going
Speaker 6: it's such a big difference going back home. But it's
Speaker 6: amazing every time I get that opportunity.
Speaker 5: It's cool.
Speaker 1: Yeah, wow, I started this. I started your intro wearing sunglasses.
Speaker 1: Where did they come from? Because they feel like they've
Speaker 1: become a bit of a calling card for your character.
Speaker 5: Yeah, they have. And you know what, it was lives Idea.
Speaker 5: Really it was lives idea. Yeah. Yeah.
Speaker 6: So when we were tagging before she got injured, before
Speaker 6: I kind of went through my medical illness year, she
Speaker 6: was like, you should try wearing sunglasses here and there,
Speaker 6: and we were still baby faces at the time, so
Speaker 6: I did. There's like a picture of me in my
Speaker 6: ar matching yellow tag team outfits and I have like
Speaker 6: these silver shades, just trying to be cool.
Speaker 5: But then when I came back, I was like, no,
Speaker 5: we're gonna try again. We're gonna try again.
Speaker 6: We're gonna make them a moment. And so just despite
Speaker 6: what other people were telling me, I was like, no,
Speaker 6: they're going to be a moment. It's going to be
Speaker 6: a thing. And it's just become a thing now. So
Speaker 6: I'm so happy that. And then I found the rape
Speaker 6: and the metas and I was like, oh my god,
Speaker 6: who knew that these videos that I've been taking in
Speaker 6: the ring were going to have such a moment too
Speaker 6: great idea.
Speaker 5: It was insane to me.
Speaker 6: That the one from Elimination Chamber when Tiffany hit the
Speaker 6: glass I just laught, went so viral, and I was like,
Speaker 6: I've been doing these on the live events. I get
Speaker 6: such great, great content of the guys laughing and talking
Speaker 6: and just like having our moments that like the audience
Speaker 6: doesn't get to see. But I didn't realize that was
Speaker 6: going to be just something too that would be a
Speaker 6: fun little staple of my social media.
Speaker 1: Now, yeah, that's so great. Were you ever scared for
Speaker 1: your dad? Like watching when I was on Dancing with
Speaker 1: the Stars, which, by the way, can I say you
Speaker 1: were robbed?
Speaker 6: How dare they? How dare they? My sister and I
Speaker 6: were very angry, all right. We stopped watching after you
Speaker 6: I know, I.
Speaker 4: Did a podcast every week just talking about how she
Speaker 4: kept getting.
Speaker 5: So sweet.
Speaker 1: It was such a great season. We it was incredible.
Speaker 1: I mean, every single thing about it was the best.
Speaker 1: But when we did it was Halloween week and we
Speaker 1: did a dance where Pasha was going to turn around
Speaker 1: and I had, you know, I revealed blood, and it
Speaker 1: was as if he was he ran at me and
Speaker 1: like he was attacking me. And I had to warn
Speaker 1: my children who were in the audience. I was like,
Speaker 1: it's going to look like Pasha is attacking me. He
Speaker 1: would never hurt me, he would never attack me. It's
Speaker 1: part of the dance. It's part of the show. And
Speaker 1: they totally understood it. But I did, like give them
Speaker 1: a lot of prep. When you were a kid watching
Speaker 1: your dad wrestle, you said you were like god Dad,
Speaker 1: But did you ever get scared watching some of the stuff.
Speaker 5: Not that I can recall in the moment.
Speaker 6: I do remember him coming home from shows sometimes with
Speaker 6: like he came home one time with two black guys
Speaker 6: and a broken nose. And I remember we like woke
Speaker 6: up when he got home. It was like three am.
Speaker 6: I think he just drove in from Corpus Christie and
Speaker 6: we were just like He's like, it's okay. You know,
Speaker 6: it was an accident.
Speaker 5: I got caught by the chair. No big deal.
Speaker 6: But my grandma, she she is very passionate. She has
Speaker 6: one of those passionate watchers that when she would watch
Speaker 6: my dad get wrestle wrestle, and he was you know,
Speaker 6: getting beat up or whatever. She had a moment where
Speaker 6: she was sitting ringside. She got up, picked up her
Speaker 6: chair and was ready to hit the guy. Security had
Speaker 6: to take the chair and grab her and they were
Speaker 6: about to escort her out.
Speaker 5: My Dad's like, that's my mom, and so now when
Speaker 5: I call her.
Speaker 6: And I had a picture recently where I started bleeding
Speaker 6: from the nose, and I guess she saw it somehow,
Speaker 6: maybe my cousin showed it to her, and she was
Speaker 6: crying and I was like, Grandma, what's wrong?
Speaker 5: She goes, I, Nika, I.
Speaker 6: Just can't watch you getting hit like that or see blood.
Speaker 6: And I'm like, but Grandma, you've been around this for
Speaker 6: so long, I think you would like you know by
Speaker 6: now was an accident. And she's like, no, absolutely not.
Speaker 6: I don't like it. I can't watch when you're getting
Speaker 6: beat up like that. I just I just can't.
Speaker 3: So it's the grandmother's remember.
Speaker 4: Leon White, who played who was Vader, told us a
Speaker 4: story about he was in a wrestling match and he
Speaker 4: said he was beating the guy and then the guy
Speaker 4: had to push me against the ropes and he said
Speaker 4: he felt a pain in his back and he turned
Speaker 4: around and there was a little old woman who had
Speaker 4: just stabbed him to do it, and it literally stabbed
Speaker 4: him through the ring. Oh my goodness, it was this
Speaker 4: tiny little like the guy's.
Speaker 3: Grandmother or something just came up and stabbed me. So yeah,
Speaker 3: it's crazy.
Speaker 6: I get scared about inviting my grandma to some shows,
Speaker 6: like like when we were in the Valley for those
Speaker 6: Life shows. I kept her backstage because I was like, oh,
Speaker 6: if I get her out.
Speaker 5: She knows she's gonna do something. She has no control,
Speaker 5: no control.
Speaker 4: That sound's great though, the passion of the fans come
Speaker 4: on the family members and the fans.
Speaker 6: But that's where I think I get my anger problems from.
Speaker 6: I said another way, Yeah, I get my passion from her.
Speaker 2: Thank you, Grandma for this passion. It's gotten me.
Speaker 5: Far, got me wrong far.
Speaker 2: Did your dad encourage you to follow in his footsteps?
Speaker 4: Well?
Speaker 5: How did he feel when you wanted to do this?
Speaker 6: Not at first, because I actually I told him when
Speaker 6: I was very very young, when I mean my dad
Speaker 6: was out wrestling the day I was born, you know,
Speaker 6: so like I grew a love and a passion for
Speaker 6: it just from watching him and being around him all
Speaker 6: the time. And I told him when I was very
Speaker 6: young I wanted to do and he was like, no,
Speaker 6: absolutely not. It was brawls and panties back then, you know,
Speaker 6: like the women's evolution really hadn't happen. And he's also
Speaker 6: someone in the business that was like, you know, I've
Speaker 6: seen what it can be like for women, and I
Speaker 6: don't want that for you. So he's like, you'll go
Speaker 6: to college and you'll graduate and then maybe we'll revisit this.
Speaker 5: So I did that.
Speaker 6: I played basketball and I got a scholarship, went to college,
Speaker 6: and the day I graduated, I was like, Dad, I
Speaker 6: want to try. Yes, it's different now, the women's evolution
Speaker 6: has happened at this point, like I would love to
Speaker 6: just give it a go. And he was like, okay,
Speaker 6: you have two years, but you're only going to go
Speaker 6: and train with people I know. So for like the
Speaker 6: first year, I would have to drive and meet him
Speaker 6: from my college town and him from the valley to
Speaker 6: train whenever we could, maybe once a month, twice a month.
Speaker 6: And then I saw WWE was having an open tryout
Speaker 6: at the Arnold Classic. I said that might be my shot,
Speaker 6: bought a ticket, went to the Arnold Classic, showed up
Speaker 6: in front of the recruiter and they had their people picked,
Speaker 6: but he was like, go ahead and email me, and
Speaker 6: then got an email back and they were like, yeah,
Speaker 6: we'd like to invite you for a tryout.
Speaker 5: And the rest is history.
Speaker 2: Wow.
Speaker 3: Okay, So I have to ask where did you play
Speaker 3: college ball?
Speaker 5: Sam Houston State Inville.
Speaker 6: I played two years at Texas A and in Kingsville,
Speaker 6: and then I transferred to sam Houston State.
Speaker 4: Yeah, my mom was the one who taught us how
Speaker 4: to play basketball. So the Yukon women that's all we watch.
Speaker 6: I got iconic, iconic Yukon and Tennessee. That was the dream,
Speaker 6: right dad, be a volunteer or.
Speaker 3: Be awarewol of it. Yeah, that was it. That's always
Speaker 3: that's that was my life.
Speaker 6: So I love too that women's basketball is having a
Speaker 6: moment right now, is having such a huge moment. Those
Speaker 6: women are getting so many like they're just fighting for
Speaker 6: what they deserve and it's so cool to see.
Speaker 5: I fully supported.
Speaker 6: I'm so happy for them, Like, what a big step
Speaker 6: in women's sports for them.
Speaker 1: Well, speaking of which, I would love to get your
Speaker 1: opinion surrounding Caitlin Clark. There's a lot of opinions a
Speaker 1: lot of people think she's targeted for flagrant fouls. Some
Speaker 1: say the officiating is inconsistent, but this type of exposure
Speaker 1: around the w NBA is actually more than WWE. It's
Speaker 1: more WWE than ever. Yeah, so what are your feelings
Speaker 1: on Kaitlin.
Speaker 6: I feel like we need a reality show on Kaitlyn Clark. Yeah,
Speaker 6: it's really good.
Speaker 3: I love I love her.
Speaker 6: Yeah, she's you know, she's been such a respectable player
Speaker 6: all throughout her college years, even that first year in
Speaker 6: the WNBA. She's tried to represent and be held to
Speaker 6: the pedestal that she's been placed on. But like I mean,
Speaker 6: you know, we got to say what it is the
Speaker 6: other players, and sometimes some of those fowls are not
Speaker 6: what they should be. Yeah, and they it's called one way.
Speaker 6: Sometimes you can say it's one way. We all know
Speaker 6: if we played basketball. I'm sure you understand. Sometimes the
Speaker 6: referees do call it one way, and it is what
Speaker 6: it is.
Speaker 4: It seems more flagrant than ever because there's I mean,
Speaker 4: some of the some of the women that came before
Speaker 4: the Diana's, Rossi's and the Sue Birds, these are phenomenal players,
Speaker 4: but it seems like with the spotlight on her. It
Speaker 4: is becoming more and more flagrant. And at first, yeah,
Speaker 4: I didn't blame any of the other teams. I blamed
Speaker 4: her teammates for not standing up in like, how is
Speaker 4: it not a fight every week?
Speaker 1: Yeah?
Speaker 4: Yeah, And now that's started to happen more and more
Speaker 4: with they're like, yeah, you're not going to touch her,
Speaker 4: and that's when I'm kind of like, all right, here
Speaker 4: we go, there we go.
Speaker 6: So yeah, I'm all for supporting her and her team.
Speaker 6: I think like what they're doing is they're standing up
Speaker 6: for themselves. I think they've taken enough heat for everything
Speaker 6: that's been going on, but I'm all for it too,
Speaker 6: And I think they should get a reality show somewhere.
Speaker 4: Well, it's all good for the wa it's all good
Speaker 4: for the WAA.
Speaker 6: More exposure on how these women like what they do,
Speaker 6: if they have other jobs outside of the WNBA, Like,
Speaker 6: it just be really good stuff for like even younger
Speaker 6: girls to watch who are aspiring to be like these
Speaker 6: professional athletes. There's so many out of them out there,
Speaker 6: and I think if more women knew that those were
Speaker 6: opportunities that they could get, they'd be even more inspired
Speaker 6: to do it. In school, and to do it outside
Speaker 6: of school and all those things too.
Speaker 4: Well, how much do you feel like you're doing that
Speaker 4: for a whole new generation of female wrestlers.
Speaker 6: I hope I'm doing that a lot, you know. I'd
Speaker 6: like to think that especially the kids from back home,
Speaker 6: from where I'm from, know that you know, they're not
Speaker 6: going to be stuck in this box that we've been
Speaker 6: placed in because you know, back home too, we can
Speaker 6: say kids usually you know, sometimes they have kids already
Speaker 6: in high school, or they get married right out of
Speaker 6: high school and start.
Speaker 5: Their families immediately.
Speaker 6: I want them to know there's more opportunities and there's
Speaker 6: more things that you can do if you just give
Speaker 6: yourself the time and the patients and also put yourself
Speaker 6: in the right spots when you can, you know, and
Speaker 6: just being open to every opportunity that comes your way.
Speaker 5: So I hope I'm doing that for them. Ey girls
Speaker 5: in the Valley, Where was that You.
Speaker 1: Arrived in the WWE universe as part of the twenty
Speaker 1: seventeen inaugural May Young Classic, an event that, now looking back,
Speaker 1: was filled with a lot of future superstars making their debut.
Speaker 1: Kyrie Sane, Ria Ripley, Dakota Kai, Candice Larray, Bianca bell Air.
Speaker 1: The list goes on and on. What do you remember
Speaker 1: from those two days in Florida.
Speaker 6: Oh, I had just started with NXT two, so that
Speaker 6: was like fairly new, the first big thing I was
Speaker 6: doing with WWE. With NXT, it was an amazing, amazing weekend.
Speaker 6: I will not like like you to have so many
Speaker 6: women from so many backgrounds, so many cultures and all
Speaker 6: there just representing women in sports and women's wrestling. It
Speaker 6: was beautiful to have Beth Phoenix there, to have Mickey
Speaker 6: James there as like our people to go to to
Speaker 6: talk to. It was just so inspiring. And honestly, it
Speaker 6: was that year and the following year when we did
Speaker 6: it again, that just kept me going and kept me motivated.
Speaker 6: I was like, this is what it's about, bringing women
Speaker 6: to the front, to the front page. And I remember
Speaker 6: watching the Cruiserweight Tournament right before I started in NXT,
Speaker 6: and I just thought, Wow, these guys are so athletic.
Speaker 6: Everything they're doing, they're bringing like a new vibe to wrestling,
Speaker 6: a new class to wrestling. That's what I hope this
Speaker 6: does for women, and I think it did. It really
Speaker 6: opened the doors for so many women across the world
Speaker 6: and to see how many women like we have a
Speaker 6: wrestler from Malaysia, you know who's coming out more and
Speaker 6: she's a part of the NXT, the new program. It's
Speaker 6: just really really cool to see people like her getting
Speaker 6: an opportunity to shine.
Speaker 5: Truly.
Speaker 1: Yeah, now the rock Hew we saw back then is
Speaker 1: much different than the one we see on TV today.
Speaker 2: What do you think is the biggest difference.
Speaker 6: Definitely confidence, Definitely confidence. I feel like it took me
Speaker 6: a while to really get used to seeing myself on TV,
Speaker 6: to being put in a position with all these beautiful
Speaker 6: women who have great figures, great like beautiful just from
Speaker 6: top to bottom, beautiful and so talented too, and to
Speaker 6: know that I belong in that position, you know what,
Speaker 6: I need to know that I'm.
Speaker 5: Part of that group.
Speaker 6: It's so crazy to kind of get your mindset into
Speaker 6: that space.
Speaker 5: But that's what I really took from it.
Speaker 6: I was like, I just I feel like I gained
Speaker 6: so much confidence and I could tell there was a
Speaker 6: point where I was trying to like hide it a
Speaker 6: little bit with the half mask while still trying to
Speaker 6: represent my culture and find what was gonna work best
Speaker 6: for me with like the Western style because I'm coming
Speaker 6: from Texas, so it was all just playing with you know,
Speaker 6: we're just playing with different elements. But it definitely shows
Speaker 6: how I've changed and grown throughout the years. And to
Speaker 6: know that next year that'll be ten years since that's happened,
Speaker 6: that's insane.
Speaker 5: Yeah, it goes it goes by.
Speaker 3: I know.
Speaker 1: We'll take it from two people who are looking at
Speaker 1: thirty three years, you know, yeaeah, it goes by fast.
Speaker 4: And if you if you had one piece of advice
Speaker 4: you could give to the new freshman class of wrestlers
Speaker 4: coming in, what would you tell them.
Speaker 6: I would tell them that it's it's a hard road.
Speaker 6: It definitely is, and to never feel discouraged. Whatever kind
Speaker 6: of feedback they get, whatever situation they've been put in,
Speaker 6: whether they were in a match that they weren't too
Speaker 6: happy with or whatever the outcome is, they have to
Speaker 6: keep persevering. I think perseverance is the biggest word I
Speaker 6: can use to describe the one characters any wrestler would
Speaker 6: need in this business because you get so many no's,
Speaker 6: you get so many negatives, you get so many opportunities
Speaker 6: that you think are for you, but it ends up
Speaker 6: going for someone else. And I think the more you
Speaker 6: can come back in with a good attitude, the more
Speaker 6: you can come back in with that urge to persevere,
Speaker 6: the better it'll just keep being for you in your journey.
Speaker 6: Everyone's journeys on this is different.
Speaker 5: You know.
Speaker 6: Some of them take longer to get to a certain spot.
Speaker 6: Some of them happen so fast. I think the most
Speaker 6: joy you can find is within the journey itself and
Speaker 6: within the people that you get to meet. And I
Speaker 6: look back on those ten years and think about the
Speaker 6: people that I worked with in the first may Young
Speaker 6: Classic and the second Mayn Classic, How I still follow them,
Speaker 6: How I'm still interested in what they're doing, and they
Speaker 6: still catch up with me. It's just really cool to
Speaker 6: know that we went through something together and we are
Speaker 6: still connected through that.
Speaker 1: I know there are still so many great things on
Speaker 1: the horizon for twenty twenty six, but I am dying
Speaker 1: to know what are your big goals for twenty twenty seven?
Speaker 6: Oh, you know, my big goals are obviously to get
Speaker 6: a singles title and to keep it and to keep
Speaker 6: it and to hopefully main event WrestleMania. Ellie, That's always
Speaker 6: going to be on my goal Chary is to main
Speaker 6: event WrestleMania, to have a singles title match at WrestleMania.
Speaker 6: That's the big one for sure for anyone, I think
Speaker 6: in this career.
Speaker 5: So that's what I'm really focusing on. Yeah, it's going
Speaker 5: to be in.
Speaker 2: So are you ready to go to Saudi Arabia.
Speaker 4: It's probably an easier trip than Vegas. That flight to
Speaker 4: Vegas is like this the whole way.
Speaker 9: I mean, man, you could probably lie flat on the
Speaker 9: way to Arabia.
Speaker 6: And they serve great food in the air Saudi Airlines. Wow,
Speaker 6: it's amazing. Yeah, delicious teas, great fresh juice. You don't
Speaker 6: even feel like you're in an airplane. You know, there's
Speaker 6: no airplane food up there.
Speaker 4: Those the planes that have like the apartment in the front,
Speaker 4: like with the I haven't seen that stuff. Yeah, that
Speaker 4: would be nice. Will knows a lot about planes. I do,
Speaker 4: taking lots of trips.
Speaker 1: Rockel, thank you so much for being here. Cannot wait
Speaker 1: for your match tonight. I'm going to be in the
Speaker 1: audience with my kids. We will be cheering very loud
Speaker 1: for you.
Speaker 6: Thank you guys, thanks for having me and my sister
Speaker 6: and my brother in law. Going to be so jealous
Speaker 6: that I'm to be here talking with you guy. We
Speaker 6: talked about mister f All, and I didn't tell them
Speaker 6: I was doing this podcast because I want them to
Speaker 6: be surprised.
Speaker 2: So we want to take a picture too, so you'll
Speaker 2: have a picture to send.
Speaker 5: So thank you. You're jealous, Mattie.
Speaker 2: Our next guest went from yelling defense.
Speaker 1: At basketball games to assembling an offense that has wreaked
Speaker 1: havoc on an entire WWE women's division. She's been a model,
Speaker 1: a cheerleader, a gymnast, and a dancer, but it looks
Speaker 1: like she's finally found her calling as one of the
Speaker 1: most improved WWE superstars of this era. She recently shocked
Speaker 1: the WWE universe by ditching her goofy fitness students the
Speaker 1: Alpha Academy to saddle up with the Vision and get
Speaker 1: a little more serious and sensual with stable MVP Austin Theory.
Speaker 1: And all this after she walked into Madison Square Garden
Speaker 1: and beat Becky Lynch for the Women's Intercontinental Championship.
Speaker 5: In the type of biggest stage performance.
Speaker 1: Usually reserved for guys with the last name Brunson. It
Speaker 1: would be difficult to predict the future of the WWE
Speaker 1: without including her name.
Speaker 5: She went from all smiles to all.
Speaker 1: Vile, but we are so happy to have her on
Speaker 1: Podmeats World.
Speaker 5: Let's give it up for Maxine Dupree. Thank you. I
Speaker 5: love that intro. Oh I think that is my ring tone.
Speaker 5: I love that.
Speaker 2: Thank you so much for joining us.
Speaker 1: I'm so excited to get into your journey because it
Speaker 1: is super inspiring.
Speaker 5: Thank you.
Speaker 1: But first, we have one thing in common other than
Speaker 1: both being very young and cool. Yes, we are both
Speaker 1: competitive dancers. The difference is I started at forty five
Speaker 1: years old. When did you start?
Speaker 5: I started at three? Okay, so yes, I started dancing
Speaker 5: it was three.
Speaker 8: I didn't start competing very seriously until I was ten,
Speaker 8: and then from like ten onward, it was like six
Speaker 8: days a week, competitions, NonStop, flying to la a lot
Speaker 8: and just really like chasing dance.
Speaker 5: Like dance was my.
Speaker 10: Favorite passion little baby I ever had.
Speaker 5: I was in love with it.
Speaker 3: Yeah. Did you have a style that you studied?
Speaker 4: Yeah?
Speaker 5: I did everything.
Speaker 8: We competed in lyrical, contemporary, jazz, tap, hip hop, point,
Speaker 8: but contemporary and jazz were my favorite, my bread and butter.
Speaker 9: Did you ever do ballroom? Or Latin No, and I
Speaker 9: would love to.
Speaker 5: I would love to.
Speaker 8: Yeah, we didn't have that at our studio growing up,
Speaker 8: but that's something I would.
Speaker 5: Have loved to do.
Speaker 3: So was Dancing with the Star Is something that you'd
Speaker 3: be interested in?
Speaker 5: Oh my god, Yeah, of course I would die to
Speaker 5: be on that show. It would be so fun.
Speaker 8: It would be such a challenge because I don't think
Speaker 8: I've exercised that part of my in five years, Like
Speaker 8: when I stopped dancing, I quit cold Turkey and jumped
Speaker 8: into this. So it would be such a challenge and
Speaker 8: it's just so much control and ballroom.
Speaker 5: Yes, it would be crazy, but I would love it.
Speaker 2: Okay, good to know.
Speaker 1: Was wrestling in your life at all as a kid,
Speaker 1: or did you ever dance to the DX theme or
Speaker 1: something similar?
Speaker 8: You know what's crazy is I had never seen Monday
Speaker 8: Night Raw, I had never seen SmackDown.
Speaker 5: I had no idea.
Speaker 8: My grandpa, my dad's dad, was a die hard Monday
Speaker 8: night wrestling fan, but I didn't even know, Like, I
Speaker 8: had no idea. And then in high school I fell
Speaker 8: in love with Total Divas. Still never watched wrestling there,
Speaker 8: Like I was just like, these women are it? They
Speaker 8: are stunning, they're bad ass, they have all these businesses.
Speaker 8: I was just really infatuated with them. But I had
Speaker 8: no idea that what I was watching was what my
Speaker 8: grandpa was watching. And then it became this like fun
Speaker 8: little banter. We had a like holidays between me and
Speaker 8: my dad and my grandpa and I would be talking
Speaker 8: about the girls, and you know, he would be like, Oh,
Speaker 8: that's so and so's husband and so and So's boyfriend,
Speaker 8: and like we'd be comparing all the things. Yeah, it's
Speaker 8: kind of like a joke for me to like go
Speaker 8: into it. Like it was like my grandpa told me.
Speaker 8: He was like, well, you can't be in the WW
Speaker 8: unless you can do a kip up. And I was like,
Speaker 8: say less, Papa went outside of Thanksgiving and showed him.
Speaker 5: I was like, I can do that. I can do that.
Speaker 8: What's a kipp It's when you lay on your back
Speaker 8: and you spring up to your feet.
Speaker 3: Oh okay, yes, okay, like the old school martial arts move.
Speaker 5: Yes.
Speaker 8: And I don't know why he felt like that was
Speaker 8: the move. You have to have to be here, that
Speaker 8: was the one.
Speaker 2: He was like, you have to be at the bottom
Speaker 2: of a mat and.
Speaker 5: You have to be able to hop up like that.
Speaker 5: He was very passionate about that.
Speaker 3: Okay, and then he's like.
Speaker 5: All right, maybe you could do it.
Speaker 3: That's cool.
Speaker 5: Yeah, I know.
Speaker 1: You bounced around between dance and gymnastics, eventually landing as
Speaker 1: a cheerleader for the Rams, Yes, who lost in the
Speaker 1: super Bowl.
Speaker 5: Yeah, it was pretty horrific.
Speaker 1: And then you pivoted to the Phoenix Suns Yes, who
Speaker 1: also lost lost in the finals.
Speaker 5: Now until you won here. Yeah, were you ever nervous?
Speaker 5: You were bad?
Speaker 3: Yeah?
Speaker 8: No, I think the problem was is that a bunch
Speaker 8: of men were in charge of our destiny.
Speaker 5: Okay, thank you in charge, and we'll get it done.
Speaker 5: That's exactly right. I know.
Speaker 1: With cheering and synchronized group dance, part of the skill
Speaker 1: is blending in becoming one unit. And now you are
Speaker 1: in a business that really rewards standing out as a
Speaker 1: larger than life individual, which is more comfortable for you.
Speaker 8: It's funny because growing up competing in dance in high school,
Speaker 8: we would compete as a team, and then we'd also
Speaker 8: do like solos, duets, trios. I always did best in
Speaker 8: a solo. I was always a much better solo performer.
Speaker 8: I always had a really hard time, and our group
Speaker 8: routines a blending especial because I'm so like lengthy, So
Speaker 8: that was like my biggest challenge. So when I started
Speaker 8: doing NFL and NBA dance, it's so sharp and precise
Speaker 8: and I learned that really quickly, but that wasn't what
Speaker 8: my bread and butter was. So I feel like this
Speaker 8: is actually so much easier for me because I don't
Speaker 8: have to look the same as anyone else. In fact,
Speaker 8: it's so much better when you look like no one
Speaker 8: else and you do moods differently. So I feel like
Speaker 8: it's actually been a blessing that, like, yeah, I don't
Speaker 8: have to blend.
Speaker 5: Yeah, that's a good strength to have.
Speaker 1: Yeah, to be like I can shine on my own, yes,
Speaker 1: especially here. Okay, And then I want to know, how
Speaker 1: did you, at twenty two years old decide to create
Speaker 1: your own clothing line.
Speaker 5: I don't know. I don't know why I did.
Speaker 3: Just bored.
Speaker 5: Yeah, I think so.
Speaker 8: Both My parents are entrepreneurs, and so I always had
Speaker 8: this instilled in me. Like growing up, I'd be like, oh,
Speaker 8: I want to be a dance teacher, and they'd be like, no,
Speaker 8: you need to own a dance studio.
Speaker 5: You want to like make money right while you're be
Speaker 5: the owner for the creed.
Speaker 8: So that was always in my mind. And when you
Speaker 8: cheer for the NFL or NBA, it's very part time.
Speaker 8: You have to have other jobs. You're making like just
Speaker 8: a a minimum wage. You're getting paid by the hour,
Speaker 8: you have no benefits. So I had a bunch of
Speaker 8: other jobs like teaching fitness classes and that kind of stuff.
Speaker 8: But I just like knew I wanted more than that,
Speaker 8: so I just I didn't go to college, So I
Speaker 8: just like went on YouTube and taught myself everything like
Speaker 8: legally set up and trademarked and all the stuff.
Speaker 5: And I really enjoyed it. It was so much fun.
Speaker 8: And when I moved to Phoenix, I opened a storefront
Speaker 8: and had my first brick and mortar and.
Speaker 5: It's called Jaunt.
Speaker 2: Yes, and that was your first Ye had a brick
Speaker 2: and mortar store in Arizona and you were twenty four
Speaker 2: years old.
Speaker 8: Yeah, it was so fun. I don't know what I
Speaker 8: was doing. I like hired my best friend. We would
Speaker 8: like we would just be hanging out, like running the store,
Speaker 8: and then we'd be.
Speaker 5: Like should we close and go to happy hour?
Speaker 1: I know, I mean it does it feels really it
Speaker 1: feels equally as scary to just be like I'm going
Speaker 1: to just start wrestling.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 8: Really, the crazy part was that when I opened the storefront,
Speaker 8: four months later, I got signed and I had to
Speaker 8: move to Orlando. So then I was like trying to
Speaker 8: manage employees from AFAR, which was like really a challenge.
Speaker 8: So that's when I ended up getting out of my
Speaker 8: lease there going back all online okay, which has been
Speaker 8: awesome and I love it. But I think it's one
Speaker 8: of those things where like, obviously this is my current passion,
Speaker 8: and I feel like in order to thrive here, you
Speaker 8: have to be one hundred and ten percent in. So
Speaker 8: it's something that I think later down the line in
Speaker 8: life off like folks on more and it's something I
Speaker 8: always want to have. But I think it's one of
Speaker 8: those things where it's like, if you spread yourself too thin,
Speaker 8: you can't be amazing at any of it.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 4: Interesting, So now when you were i mean performing growing up,
Speaker 4: is it one of those things where that has one
Speaker 4: of the things I'm learning, So I'm learning about the
Speaker 4: wrestling world. Daniel's bringing me in and so I'm really
Speaker 4: seeing it's the balance between the athleticism, but it's also
Speaker 4: your character and it's really coming out with a persona.
Speaker 4: Was growing up as a cheerleader and as a dancer
Speaker 4: and everything. Did that help you more with the persona
Speaker 4: side as well as the athletics, Yes, Like.
Speaker 8: I've always loved acting, like since I was little, Like
Speaker 8: you remember when Disney Channel used to do the like
Speaker 8: you can do this to submit here, I'm like, mom,
Speaker 8: submit me, Like I always just wanted to be on camera,
Speaker 8: on screen, and my parents were very like I was
Speaker 8: not allowed to do anything in that world in Los
Speaker 8: Angeles until I was eighteen, okay, And then when I
Speaker 8: was sixteen, I think they were like, Okay, she's has
Speaker 8: her head screwed.
Speaker 5: On enough that like it'll be fine.
Speaker 8: So they let me get an agent when I was sixteen,
Speaker 8: and then I started flying to LA more to do
Speaker 8: more like commercial acting and modeling. But I always wanted
Speaker 8: to be in TV and film, and I think.
Speaker 3: It was Disney Channel the goal growing up.
Speaker 8: I think when I was little, Yeah, like I was
Speaker 8: watching Hannah Montana, like why am I not Miley Cyrus
Speaker 8: right right?
Speaker 5: And now I feel like I am. I'm living the
Speaker 5: best of both worlds.
Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah, where you go.
Speaker 8: But yeah, I always wanted to be on screen, so
Speaker 8: that side of it is so easy and fun for me.
Speaker 8: Like I love performing, I love playing a character. I
Speaker 8: love acting learning a new craft, and like trying to
Speaker 8: make this art look real and vicious and also stay
Speaker 8: safe and keep your opponents safe. That's the part that
Speaker 8: has always been the biggest.
Speaker 5: Challenge for me.
Speaker 4: How does your dance background and the gymnastics background lend
Speaker 4: itself to learning the moves to be a professional wrestler.
Speaker 5: I think it's having body control like I have.
Speaker 8: I think I have very good like muscle mind connection
Speaker 8: from doing it from such a young age. And I
Speaker 8: competed in gymnastics when I was like seven, eight and nine,
Speaker 8: and then I stopped.
Speaker 5: But I think during that time.
Speaker 8: I like hated it because they were like making me
Speaker 8: do pull ups and have five hour practices.
Speaker 5: When I was eight, I was like, I was like,
Speaker 5: can we go? Can we go to a dancer?
Speaker 3: Remember?
Speaker 8: But I think that discipline like really instilled something in me,
Speaker 8: and just the ability to like have control over your body.
Speaker 8: I think that has been the biggest benefit for me.
Speaker 1: You mentioned after you opened the storefront in Arizona, you
Speaker 1: were twenty four years old. Just four months later you
Speaker 1: were signed. How did you end up at WWE tryouts?
Speaker 8: So we were it was either Thanksgiving her Father's Day.
Speaker 8: I always forget, but it was like one of those
Speaker 8: things where my papa was joking around, and I emailed
Speaker 8: my modeling agent and said, like, this is so random,
Speaker 8: but like, if you know anyone, I would love a
Speaker 8: tryout for the WWE. And then around the same time,
Speaker 8: I had submitted online a bunch, but this was right
Speaker 8: after COVID, so I don't think they had I think
Speaker 8: I was the first tryout after COVID. Okay, and like
Speaker 8: my modeling agent never responded. But then two weeks later
Speaker 8: I got an email saying that I was invited.
Speaker 5: To Las Vegas for the tryout. I was like, okay, I.
Speaker 8: Don't know if they saw my submission online. I don't
Speaker 8: know if she forwarded to someone. I don't know what happened,
Speaker 8: but I got a tryout. I went in Las Vegas
Speaker 8: at Summer Slam that the last day of the tryout
Speaker 8: was a three day tryout.
Speaker 5: They pulled.
Speaker 8: I want to say, there was fourteen of us and
Speaker 8: they offered us contracts and staid you're moving to Orlando
Speaker 8: in thirty days and that was that was.
Speaker 3: That can you do me?
Speaker 4: Because I keep hearing like I'm getting I gotta try out,
Speaker 4: I gotta try out.
Speaker 3: What what does that entail?
Speaker 4: I mean if you've never wrestled before, do they just
Speaker 4: throw you in a ring and say go You're like fight?
Speaker 1: Yeah?
Speaker 10: What is it?
Speaker 4: I mean?
Speaker 3: Are they showing you moves and seeing if you can
Speaker 3: mimic them? Like? What what is a trial?
Speaker 8: Okay, So the first day you're getting in the ring,
Speaker 8: it's a lot of like cardio. I think it's a
Speaker 8: lot to say who you are as a person, like
Speaker 8: are you going to quit? Or are you going to
Speaker 8: enjoy this? And like do you want to be here?
Speaker 8: So they're trying to get you to be like so exhausted.
Speaker 8: So you're riding the ropes, you're doing grape squishers.
Speaker 5: You're doing like.
Speaker 8: Ford rolls, backward rolls, handstand rolls, just to see like
Speaker 8: your footwork and athleticism.
Speaker 3: What's a grape squish?
Speaker 8: You're sitting in the corner doing high knees and then
Speaker 8: they'll say down and you dropped down into.
Speaker 5: A burbie, jump back up?
Speaker 3: Yes, okay?
Speaker 5: Actually horrific yeah, not a great time.
Speaker 8: And then you do a one minute promo in front
Speaker 8: of everyone on camera.
Speaker 5: I think that's probably like the.
Speaker 8: Scary part because you're just like you also have to
Speaker 8: have like manage that sixty seconds because they don't want
Speaker 8: you to go over under and you want to perform well.
Speaker 8: But you also have to like kind of know what
Speaker 8: you're trying out for, so it's like we're on TV,
Speaker 8: so don't be using cuss words and all those like
Speaker 8: little nuances that you may not know unless you've kind
Speaker 8: of studied it.
Speaker 5: Then the next day is like.
Speaker 8: Back to more cardio and like my the back of
Speaker 8: my ribs were bruised from the ropes because I'd never
Speaker 8: run the ropes really, you know, like for a long
Speaker 8: time like that. And then the next say they do
Speaker 8: more like promo things and groups and different activities and
Speaker 8: just kind of like see who has it interesting?
Speaker 3: Okay?
Speaker 5: Man.
Speaker 4: That's a lot different than auditioning for like a Cheerios
Speaker 4: commercial as a kid. It's a little different, you know
Speaker 4: what I mean. Like if I walked in and they
Speaker 4: were like, all right, burpies, I'd be like what yeah, no, no, no,
Speaker 4: I'm not.
Speaker 3: Going to do that.
Speaker 1: You're lighting your cigarette at eight Well yeah, yeah to
Speaker 1: get yeah.
Speaker 5: Exactly, a black coffee and a cigarette.
Speaker 3: And I wasn't a heavy smoker until I was ten.
Speaker 5: Sovallid to be fair.
Speaker 1: Yeah, So the first time anyone sees you in NXT,
Speaker 1: you're a manager. You're a mouthpiece for a tag team,
Speaker 1: which a lot of WWE superstars can stay in their
Speaker 1: entire careers. But was your goal always to be a wrestler,
Speaker 1: like the center of attention?
Speaker 8: Yes, this was like a misconception that happened, And I
Speaker 8: think it was just that they wanted me on TV
Speaker 8: and I had only been there for six months. I
Speaker 8: didn't know how to truly wrestle yet, so they just
Speaker 8: put me in this group. But I truly wasn't even
Speaker 8: like the mouthpiece yet because we had mister Stone in
Speaker 8: the group, Robert Stone, who's still at NXT. He's awesome,
Speaker 8: and he was more the mouthpiece. So I was just
Speaker 8: kind of like there, Okay. I was just there like
Speaker 8: I would point and then von Wagner would beat someone
Speaker 8: up and I was like, what's going on? I don't know,
Speaker 8: And then I actually fractured my ankle and was out,
Speaker 8: like couldn't put weight on. It was out in training,
Speaker 8: and then like two weeks after that, I got called up.
Speaker 8: It was like really crazy that I was not trained.
Speaker 8: My name in NXT was Sophia Cromwell, so I like
Speaker 8: they had given me a new name and they were like, okay,
Speaker 8: you're going to be Maxine Dupre. I get called up.
Speaker 8: I'm not cleared. I like can't walk. They wanted me
Speaker 8: to wear high heels, like my foot won't even been
Speaker 8: that way.
Speaker 5: It was so crazy.
Speaker 8: It was a crazy time and I was like I
Speaker 8: always say, like that day like.
Speaker 5: Got intervened because I should not be here.
Speaker 8: After that first day on the main roster, I was
Speaker 8: supposed to have a five minute in ring promo.
Speaker 5: I'd never done an enring promo. We're doing rehearsals.
Speaker 8: I'm like, I was up all night trying to memorize
Speaker 8: this promo, like and.
Speaker 5: I'm so nervous. I don't know anyone.
Speaker 10: It was.
Speaker 5: It was crazy.
Speaker 8: Thankfully it got changed to like this like two sentence backstage,
Speaker 8: and I feel like if that didn't happen, I would not.
Speaker 3: Be sitting here right right.
Speaker 2: I would.
Speaker 8: I know because of dance, Like if you forget something
Speaker 8: on stage, you have to stay. You have to stay
Speaker 8: out there and perform. So I would have.
Speaker 5: Gotten through it, but it would have been horrific. Yeah,
Speaker 5: but yeah, maybe it wouldn't have been. Give yourself some credit.
Speaker 5: You would have kept it going. I mean, I kept
Speaker 5: it going.
Speaker 2: But but you're happy that the way it worked out,
Speaker 2: Like you said, intervention on your behalf somewhere and it
Speaker 2: all worked out.
Speaker 8: Was worse the dialogue or the ankle, honestly both because
Speaker 8: it was in ring and I was like, I can't
Speaker 8: walk to the ring in these heels. And they're like,
Speaker 8: we'll just bring you out in the dark, like it'll
Speaker 8: be dark, no one will see you. I'm like, I'm
Speaker 8: gonna be limping out here in this black dress and heels.
Speaker 1: It was crazy, I mean, to be fair, she had
Speaker 1: no prior experience in wrestling.
Speaker 5: She was a twenty four year old with a clothing
Speaker 5: line and.
Speaker 2: Here we go and actually the.
Speaker 5: Story of my life there you go.
Speaker 3: Wow, that's amazing.
Speaker 4: So growing up you said that you weren't really a
Speaker 4: wrestling fan, you didn't know anything about it. Now that
Speaker 4: you're in, have you gone back and kind of studied
Speaker 4: as much of it as you possibly get?
Speaker 5: Yes? Yes, And I love watching things now.
Speaker 8: It's funny. I was thinking about this the other day.
Speaker 8: When I first got called up, I had so much
Speaker 8: anxiety around this business, just because I felt so out
Speaker 8: of place that I almost would like go home and
Speaker 8: like not want to watch anything, Like I just wanted
Speaker 8: to clock out because the thought of it was like
Speaker 8: like I just was like so overwhelmed, and I feel
Speaker 8: like I'm in this place now. Where When I started
Speaker 8: training at a place called Flatbacks with Sean Spears and
Speaker 8: Tyler Breeze and I had a couple of friends there,
Speaker 8: John and Noel, and we would train and it was
Speaker 8: like the first time I trained with no pressure and
Speaker 8: we were just like selling moves funny and really having fun.
Speaker 5: And I really started like fall in love with the
Speaker 5: art form.
Speaker 8: And then when we got like our little Monday Night
Speaker 8: Raw friend group, and I spend a lot of time
Speaker 8: with a lot of these girls and getting to see
Speaker 8: like Lyra and Roxanne who grew up loving this and
Speaker 8: seeing like their perspective on things, like I've really fallen
Speaker 8: in love with it and now I just like love
Speaker 8: watching and I love watching the stuff that they watched
Speaker 8: as a kid, like that they have these like pure
Speaker 8: memories of and I love getting to watch it now
Speaker 8: and be like, wow, this is so cool.
Speaker 4: So then if you've gone back and watched them of
Speaker 4: the older stuff, is there a favorite era you have
Speaker 4: of the Oh, Nikki Bella's biggest fan.
Speaker 5: Okay, so like anything Nikki's do anything the divas are doing.
Speaker 4: You know.
Speaker 5: I love Stacey Keebler.
Speaker 4: Oh.
Speaker 5: I love watching aj Lee. I love it all.
Speaker 8: But then I also love watching and He when it
Speaker 8: was Becky Lynch, Bailey, Charlotte, when they're all coming up
Speaker 8: those matches Mercedes, Oh my gosh, it's crazy.
Speaker 2: Those are incredible matches.
Speaker 5: Yes, I know.
Speaker 1: The WWE universe has seen the entire journey from your
Speaker 1: very green days where everyone was so critical to now
Speaker 1: where you are out there shining with some of the
Speaker 1: all time greats winning a title in Madison Square Garden.
Speaker 5: When do you think it all started to just click
Speaker 5: for you?
Speaker 8: Honestly, when I started working with Becky, I think, yeah,
Speaker 8: I think that like really changed my life. Don't tell
Speaker 8: her I said that, but yeah, that really like changed
Speaker 8: things around for me. I think when you get to
Speaker 8: work with someone who's just has so much more experience
Speaker 8: than you and has so much knowledge and is willing
Speaker 8: to share that with you.
Speaker 5: It changes the game. Those are my favorite matches.
Speaker 9: I still like look at them and I'm like, wait,
Speaker 9: I can't believe it that that I'm still good there.
Speaker 1: I'm like, what's going on there? I loved all of
Speaker 1: the stuff you did with Natty too. Yes, I have
Speaker 1: to imagine working with her was a huge help.
Speaker 5: Yes, my total divas queen.
Speaker 2: Yeah, to pick a better mentor so.
Speaker 8: Yes, and training with her and TJ at the Dungeon
Speaker 8: was nuts. That like as another pivotal moment in my
Speaker 8: career where I learned so much, so much about aggression
Speaker 8: and I think, you know, dealing with her in the
Speaker 8: ring and her beating me up NonStop, but also getting
Speaker 8: to train with her, I think has really played into
Speaker 8: where I am now and getting to just unleash on everyone.
Speaker 3: I always love the names of these places.
Speaker 4: It's always the Dungeon and yeah, it's never like we're
Speaker 4: going to happy House, exactly, like.
Speaker 5: You're going to help right exactly Ellen Is.
Speaker 4: I've found that for the most part that people have
Speaker 4: have made it easier for you to join, and they're
Speaker 4: accepting and they want to give you that knowledge and
Speaker 4: they want to make sure that the next generation is
Speaker 4: prepared to take over eight thousand percent.
Speaker 8: I think when you come into this locker room and
Speaker 8: you're eager to learn, and you show that every single
Speaker 8: one of us will give you every ounce of information.
Speaker 8: I think what's really cool is like we all feel
Speaker 8: the same way about you know, like lifting each other up.
Speaker 5: We're all rising together.
Speaker 8: It doesn't benefit any of us if someone's not thriving,
Speaker 8: being in the ring with someone that's not doing well,
Speaker 8: or something's not going right, like it's it's a it
Speaker 8: takes two to tango. It's not going to help you
Speaker 8: to that to hurt anyone else in the process.
Speaker 1: You know totally that probably that mentality is probably there
Speaker 1: for you from dance too. You know, like the group
Speaker 1: needs to thrive in order for me to look as
Speaker 1: good as I possibly can.
Speaker 8: And I think it's similar where it's like there it
Speaker 8: is an individual sport, but it's.
Speaker 5: Also a team sport exactly.
Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah, that's great.
Speaker 1: Well, now you've joined the Vision. You are just a
Speaker 1: despicable humor.
Speaker 5: I am so ashamed. I think, so I didn't do
Speaker 5: anything wrong.
Speaker 9: How has it felt being booed? It's amazing I don't
Speaker 9: care about these people. I love hearing them upset, like
Speaker 9: y'all made me upset for years.
Speaker 5: Take that, enjoy it.
Speaker 3: I do not care.
Speaker 5: I love it.
Speaker 6: Is it fun?
Speaker 3: Is it really fun to play the best?
Speaker 8: I mean, I would be pissed too if if they
Speaker 8: were looking at me hanging all over Austin theory and it.
Speaker 5: Sucks for them, they would ring for us in theory. Worse,
Speaker 5: look at that.
Speaker 4: I know.
Speaker 1: I am very excited for an eventual Austin and Maxine
Speaker 1: versus Dom and.
Speaker 2: Live matt Y.
Speaker 5: See, that's what everyone wants.
Speaker 1: I feel like that's got WrestleMania written allah over it.
Speaker 1: Who else is in your sights?
Speaker 8: Soul?
Speaker 5: Ruka? Who's walking around with my title acting like it's.
Speaker 3: It was really great?
Speaker 4: It's kind of a nice heavy belt, it seemed kind
Speaker 4: of it seemed it seemed like it looked kind of
Speaker 4: at home on her shoulder.
Speaker 8: I'll be honest with you, Well, yeah, she is a
Speaker 8: little too comfortable, so I don't disagree. She probably does
Speaker 8: think that it's sitting right at home, but it won't.
Speaker 1: Be for long.
Speaker 5: It won't be for long. Yeah, I think I would
Speaker 5: love to.
Speaker 8: Get my hands on Soul Ruca. We have a crazy division,
Speaker 8: you know. I know Lyra has really taken out Bailey,
Speaker 8: which is super nice. So if she wants to like
Speaker 8: leave you know, her sloppy seconds, I'd hop on that too.
Speaker 5: Okay.
Speaker 1: Yeah, wow, got some matches to look forward to.
Speaker 4: Its just kind of the joy and happiness and then
Speaker 4: this underlying hatred where it's.
Speaker 10: Get that they did that to me like I was
Speaker 10: a joyful child. The w universe caused this. Yeah, so
Speaker 10: I don't feel bad, so you have we have to
Speaker 10: deal with it now exactly.
Speaker 1: Is there anyone in NXT right now that you know
Speaker 1: is going to dominate on one of the flagship shows?
Speaker 8: Oh my gosh, yes, there's several nxt is stacked. Jada
Speaker 8: Parker Okay, I love I love watching her. She has
Speaker 8: it like she has she has it. Lola Ice hmmm,
Speaker 8: Klawnie Kendall Gray, great, there's a ton like that. Whole
Speaker 8: division is Kelly Armstrong. Yeah, love her. Okay, Yeah, you've
Speaker 8: heard it here.
Speaker 3: It's amazing. Yeah, very excited.
Speaker 1: Yeah, well, Maxine, thank you so much, thank you for
Speaker 1: having me. This was really great. I can't wait to
Speaker 1: see where this all goes for you. I feel like
Speaker 1: you're really your claws are sunk in and now it's
Speaker 1: getting very exciting. Thank you well, stay tuned, guys, we
Speaker 1: will thank you, Thank you, Thank you all for listening
Speaker 1: to this episode of Pod Meets World. As always, you
Speaker 1: can follow us on Instagram pod Meets World Show. You
Speaker 1: can send us your emails pod Meets World Show at
Speaker 1: gmail dot com and we've got merch.
Speaker 5: What yeah, well, I call on you what march Oh?
Speaker 3: I was trying to do the thing where you think
Speaker 3: you're out but you yeah.
Speaker 5: Okay, I'll count again. Yeah one, two, no, no, no, no,
Speaker 5: there we go perfect.
Speaker 2: Pod Meets World Show. We love you all, pod dismissed.
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