Nia Jax comments on how WWE has changed since Triple H took over from Vince McMahon
While speaking to Chris Van Vliet, Nia Jax commented on how WWE has changed since Paul “Triple H” Levesque took over from Vince McMahon. Here was the exchange…
Nia: “Some of the girls that I came up with, we all kind of made WWE our whole lives. Like morning, noon, and night—storylines, talking about it all the time, and worrying about our bookings. And back in the day, if you got hurt, you were forgotten about. It was hard to get back in the rhythm. So we just didn’t, you know—we pushed through things like, ‘I’m not hurt, I’m fine,’ and I’m going to stay, and I want to, you know, skip all my friends’ weddings and baby showers.
And then coming back, it felt different, you know? Where it’s like, no, WWE is my passion and I love it and I want to be a part of it, but it’s not going to be my entire life. I’m not going to make it the focal point. But it also gave me a different perspective, like making sure I realized that I— I won’t say the prize—but I’m kind of, you know, like I felt like I wasn’t the prize before. Where it’s like, no, I bring a lot to the table. There’s a lot in me that I can bring to the table. So it gave me a different perspective coming back.”
Van Vliet: “Who do you think is the version we see of you now versus, say, like 2018 in the ring?”
Nia: “What do you mean?”
Van Vliet: “It feels like maybe it’s a different style, maybe a different approach that you take to it. How do you contrast the two?”
Nia: “I feel as though before I was taught a certain way—like you’re a certain size, you can’t do these things. Stay away from this. Don’t let them do this to you. So I was kind of pigeonholed into a little bit of a box, and I was afraid to get out of it because the person telling me was somebody who runs the show. You work for an audience of one.
And this time around, Hunter [Triple H] was more like, ‘Be you. Be you. Show them what you can do,’ because he’s like, ‘I know what you’re capable of.’ So I feel like the difference is just me being myself a little bit more. I’m adding who I am into my character instead of feeling like I have to stay here and make sure that somebody’s happy.”