Ember Moon Discusses the Origins of Her Character, Not Sure About Being on Total Divas

– Ember Moon spoke with the New York Post before Money in the Bank about the origin of her gimmick, being trained by Booker T and more. Highlights are below:

On the origin of her character: “To be honest, the qualities about myself that I always … I’ll say used to feel ashamed of. I used to be very secluded. I used to just kind of chill out on my own, but then when the opportunity presents itself, I just like fire up and just do it. I always felt that there was a lot of rejection thrown at me outside of wrestling and I always overcame that every single time and I just won’t be told “No” and I won’t stay down and that’s just amplified through Ember Moon. Man, it’s crazy. It is me times one thousand.”

On experiencing rejection as a kid: “When I was younger and I was a kid, I was bullied maliciously for being different, for liking video games, for liking wrestling. Just no one wanted to be around that. And so, I became like the reclusive person that kind of hung in the shadows and that became me, like I was kind of, for years, afraid to be me and ashamed of being me because so many people disliked me. And just coming full circle, it’s like now everything that people doubted me on or like bullied me for — and that’s the word for it — I just kind of proved to be stronger than that. I proved to be better than that. I kept standing up and kept proving that I am not going to follow the group. I am going to follow my own path and it’s OK to do that. That’s kind of what Ember Moon is. I followed my own path.”

On growing up watching wrestling with her grandfather: “I remember it being you have to do chores or you have to watch wrestling and that’s how it was introduced to me. Like you know what, I’m not doing chores. I’m gonna watch wrestling. But wrestling back then was like religion. I remember the Von Erichs, that’s about it. I couldn’t tell you one person who was on there because I was watching it as a disinterested kid. Now when I got bullied later on in life, the person that reintroduced me to wrestling was a massive WWE fan, [my friend Kim]. She’s the one that got me super hooked on it. This was like when I was 9 or 10, so I was in middle school. I remember just jumping like headfirst, gung-ho, there may not be any water in the pool, but I was in. That’s when I really started getting into it. You had Eddie [Guerrero] and Victoria and Trish and Lita. You had Taka Michinoku, Funaki, Rikishi, Too Cool, The Rock, Kurt Angle, all of these amazing people. But the reason I was drawn to them was because they stuck up for themselves. They had their own opinions and they weren’t afraid to follow their own path. At that time I was, and that’s how I got into it. After I got sucked back into it, I’d go over to grandpa’s house, spend the summer over there and be like, “Grandpa did you see Raw this week? Grandpa, you see SmackDown?” One of my favorite things that I remember watching was The Rock versus Hurricane, when Hurricane finally choke slammed The Rock and I remember we just jumped for joy when that happened. It was great. So long story, when [my grandpa] passed away [in 2006] the last thing he said to me is if I really felt like I could do this and it was something I really loved, I should pursue it. He goes, “I can see you up there. I can see you doing this.” Sadly, he never made it to the point where he could see me wrestling for WWE, but that stays with me to this day, to know he knew how much I love this and that’s what gave me that leap of faith.”

On being trained by Booker T: “He’s kind of the person that started telling me to branch out and to start going to different states and just make a name for myself on the independent scene. It’s crazy because his knowledge extends well past what you guys have seen of him on WWE TV and I will forever be thankful for that. He’s the reason why the Eclipse is off the top rope.”

On developing the Eclipse: “So, when I first started doing the Eclipse, I’m terrified of heights, I was doing it on the middle rope. And, Booker was the one who talked me into doing it on the top rope and it just worked so much better because I had more time to adjust and spin.”

On if she’d do Total Divas: “You see everything. Me being the reclusive person that I am, I don’t know if that’s something I would do. I’ve been on Total Divas a couple of times in a guest role and I just don’t know. I really don’t. I’m not saying I would say “No.” I just don’t know.”