Doudrop on Almost Being Called ‘Viper,’ How She Got the ‘Piper Niven’ Ring Name

– Speaking to Ariel Helwani for BT Sport before the WWE Royal Rumble 2022, WWE title contender Doudrop discussed how her WWE ring name for the Mae Young Classic was going to be “Viper” at one point before it later became Piper Niven. Below are some highlights (via Fightful):

On her ring name originally being planned to be Viper for the Mae Young Classic: “No. What it actually was, so it kind of came about accidentally. Back when I was being scouted for the Mae Young Classic, they were like, ‘Oh yeah, you’ll be able to,” because back then I was called Viper. They were like, ‘Oh yeah, you’ll be able to be called Viper.’ I said, ‘Okay. Are you sure? Are you definitely sure?’ They’re like, ‘No, yeah, that’s no problem.’ Then three weeks before I was due to leave on the flight, they called me and were like, ‘Hey, you can’t be called Viper so you’re going to have to think of a new name.’ So I was like, ‘Goddammit. Because all of my gear was either snake skinned or had the word Viper on it.’ I was like, ‘Okay, this is a problem.'”

Doudrop on coming up with the name Piper Niven: “I was actually sitting in the office of my mom and dad’s business at the time and so my dad, typical dad, always used to have a, ‘Oh, you should get a real job. You should do this and you should do that.’ So I used to play bagpipes and my dad never quite got over that I stopped playing bagpipes. I’m sitting there and trying to think of a name and me and my mom are trying to come up with stuff and he just randomly calls out, ‘You should have never given up the pipes, you should be a bagpiper.’ I was like, [gasps] ‘Piper!’ It was a big eureka moment. I was like, ‘Thanks dad,’ and he had no idea what he just did.”