Nia Jax Explains How She Signed With WWE

– Nia Jax recently spoke with Talk is Jericho (transcript via wrestlinginc.com), here are the highlights…

On Attending WrestleMania 28: “WrestleMania 28, me and my other cousin Christian. He’s like this 6’4 dancer. We decided to go out to Miami, Florida to watch The Rock vs John Cena. I’ve been to shows before, but we were sitting in the front row during the main event and I was just thinking, holy crap, this is insane,” said Jax. “This energy, this feeling. I had mentioned something to my aunt real quick; I asked her if she thinks that I could do something like this, I’m athletic, why not?”

On Going to The Performance Center: “We were in the process of trying to get me into a wrestling school. Afa, the Wild Samoan, has a school in Orlando, so my aunt was trying to get me to go there, and I was doing the stuff that I needed to do,” said Jax. “Dwayne [Johnson] had heard about the Performance Center, and he said that I should try out to see if maybe that is something that I would want to do; to get in there and see how it is. I had a three-day tryout at the Performance Center. ”

On Her Athletic Background: “I’m an athlete; my dad had made sure I played all the same sports as boys growing up so I was always super competitive. Basketball is my main sport, which I got a lot of scholarships though, but I chose modeling over basketball though.”

On Her WWE Tryout: “After the three days Canyon Cemen said that we will get back to you to see if I get signed up or not. I didn’t hear anything from anybody, but Hunter had contacted Dwayne and said that we were going to give her a shot in Orlando, so that was when I was signed.”

On Life at The WWE Performance Center: “At the Performance Center, I moved from San Diego to Orlando, and you train Monday through Friday, and have shows Thursday, Friday and Saturday where you learn the ins and outs of the business,” said Nia. “So, not only are you getting in the ring three hours a day, and in the weight room two hours a day, you also have school sessions where you are watching wrestling and breaking down the psychology of it. It’s an amazing place and complete 9-5 basically. There was a drill where I am afraid of heights sometimes, and I was kind of freaking out, but they told me to just fall. There’s a big pillow pad, and they just kept telling me to fall down, but that was kind of what made me afraid.”