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Nia Jax is bringing a whole different message to the 'Women's Evolution.' Yes, we are athletic. Yes, we can go just as hard as the men, but women come in all different shapes and sizes.
I did a lot of lingerie modelling, like, for plus-size, like Macy's and Dillard's and Bloomingdale's. I was, like, on a billboard in New York one time in, like, a bra and underwear. Yeah.
I had actually had an injury that happened to me personally on a flight - an overhead bag fell directly on top of my head while I was on a plane. I was out of it; I was completely out of it.
Somebody we never talk about is Stephanie McMahon. She is such a huge power influence in our company. She is always pushing us to go the limit, and she doesn't take much credit for what she's done.
I've always been a part-time model since I graduated from high school. I was hired by one of the major agencies, Wilhelmina in New York, so I modeled there and played basketball during the school season.
I submitted a bunch of names. Nia is, like, a Samoan girl name that a lot of women have. Jax is from 'Sons of Anarchy.' I was super into Jax, so I threw the name Jax in there, and it came about that way.
I considered wrestling at a young age, but I never could relate to any of the Divas. I have always been a bigger girl, and I did not think that WWE would want a girl my size, so I never expressed my dream to wrestle.
That's something I've dealt with my whole life, people making fun of me and my size. Everything from having a huge forehead to the size of my feet, and not being able to wear the same size shoes as my friends, definitely.
Sports helped me become super, super confident in my body growing up, especially in my high school and college careers. I wasn't going to be a hot prom chick that everyone wanted to go on dates with, but I was a stellar athlete.
I have nothing but positive things to say for anyone who wants to come to the WWE because it is not an easy place to get into and not an easy place to get through, so if you feel like you can make it here and get through, I say welcome.
People who've never played a sport in their life come to WWE and can kick butt. On the other hand, people who've played football or some other professional sport can come here and get in the ring and not do what we do. It's a different tango.
On 'Raw,' I'm more of a strong, silent type because I don't need to talk it up because I can back it up. But on 'Total Divas,' it's definitely different, because I'm unapologetically myself. I speak my mind, I'm goofy, and I like to have fun.
Personally, I know that it's taken me a few different kinds of workouts to find out what's good for me because I completely relate sometimes, when I'm like, 'I don't really want to go to the gym because I don't want people to see me like this.'
I really take pride in doing my own make-up all the time, which takes me about 40 minutes, and my hair takes another 15 to 20 minutes. Putting on my gear is probably another 15 minutes, so all in all, I don't think an hour and a half is too bad!
I'm inspired to post a lot of positive messages on my social media because, growing up, I felt as though I needed somebody that looked like me in the limelight or in entertainment to promote being different and promote accepting your differences.
I always had a love for the business. I remember hearing the stories about the patriarch of our family, 'High Chief' Peter Maivia, starting out wrestling in a rundown gym back in Auckland, New Zealand, then traveling the world, wrestling all over.
Don't get me wrong: there have been many occasions where I wished I could be thinner or have a different nose or hairline to fit in, but I realized that fitting in is not always as important as it seems; I realized that I love standing out in positive ways!
I get bullied for my size, my weight, and my look constantly. It's something that I'm glad we touched on in WWE. I'm glad we touched on it because it's real: it's something that happens in real life to kids all the time, especially in the age of cyber bullying.
I remember I was playing basketball, and an entire arena was, like, chanting 'Big Foot.' It was a high school game, but... you're constantly being reminded you're bigger; you don't look like everybody. There were days where I would be upset, and, like, I'd cry about it.
A lot of people who've been athletes have come here and not been able to just pick it up right away. I hate using this example, and I love her to death, but Eva Marie. She was an amazing soccer player and athlete, but coming to WWE and getting in the ring was a whole different ball game for her.
Byron Saxton is creepy. He has a relationship between me and him going on in his head. I'm not included in this personally - like, I am, but I'm not. He has a weird fetish with my feet: he loves to call me different kinds of names, like 'Samoan Sweetcake' and 'Twinkle Toes.' It goes on from there.
Winning the championship at 'WrestleMania' was a dream come true because not only had it more than a decade since there had been a women's singles match at 'WrestleMania,' but the fact that I got to win it against my best friend in a storyline that was so close to my heart, it was just all kinds of emotional.
Oh there's so many, but the one that I would love to see, that I would love to go up against, is Beth Phoenix. I would love for her to return. It would be something for me, kind of like a a childhood thing, growing up seeing her being such a dominant woman. I would love for her to show up and be in the ring with her.
I was having a lot of issues with just a lot of social media trolls: people would try to make fun of my size and my weight to the WWE and what not. I just decided to go out there and post a picture of me in a bathing suit. I said, 'You know what? This is my body. I'm going to embrace it, and I'm going to show the world.'
Most challenging, mainly for me, learning how to bump, learning to trust your body and trust somebody else with your body, when we're learning how to do bodyslams and suplexes and figuring out how to kick somebody right while making sure to protect each other. In the beginning, for me, a forward roll was pretty challenging.
Even when I go out to the ring, yes, I am the big, bad heater monster, but I'm out there showing young girls that I can still be athletic just because I'm a big, bad heater. I can still go out there and cut promos like the other pretty girls and wear my hair down and put makeup on and do everything that they say that you can't.
When I started coming on the scene, just really new into NXT, and people started seeing me, I got a lot of positive feedback from my friends, my friends back home. They were like, 'Oh, you are doing such great things for young girls,' and then it clicked in my head, like, 'Wow! I didn't know that was something I could do here.'
