Nikki Storm Recalls How She Got Selected for the Wyatt Sicks, Her Relationship With Bray Wyatt

Former WWE Superstar Nikki Storm (formerly Nikki Cross) recently spoke to Insight with Chris Van Vliet to discuss how she got selected for her role as Abby the Witch in the Wyatt Sicks, how well she knew the late Bray Wyatt, and more. Below are some highlights from Insight:

Nikki Storm on How She Got Selected for the Wyatt Sicks

“So I was playing the Nikki A.S.H. character; she had been turned villain, she had turned heel on Rhea Ripley, she was a heel, and then at that point the creative had changed, and Triple H loved the Nikki Cross, the SAnitY character, because when I started at NXT in 2016, and it was Triple H, Sanity was his brainchild. So he always loved Nikki Cross as that little crazy, little gremlin, mischievous, like wild Tasmanian devil. So we made the switch to that, and I don’t know when, but I think at that point Triple H started to think about me being in the Wyatt Sicks. So I think that’s how we kind of got from Nicky A.S.H. to Abby the Witch. We went back to Nikki Cross, and then it was something was happening. That was when you saw me staring off into the distance, because I think at that point in the creative’s mind they were like, we want to start to tell this story. We’re not there yet because we’ve not debuted the Wyatt Sicks yet, so we’ll have people know that something is going on in our head. I’m a little crazy anyway, so it wasn’t a big wide stretch. So it was, you know, being in the trance, and something is going on there in kind of Easter eggs and the slow-term storytelling, which I think the creative likes that kind of longer style.”

On the Group’s WWE Debut

“The debut was special, and that’s going to live forever. I think that’s going to live forever in people’s minds. It was such a perfect debut, I was the first one to crawl out. I remember that day in rehearsals. It’s the same pressure I put on myself: do not ruin this. Do not ruin this crawl. I was like thinking about everything: how I want to move my elbows and my arms and my hands. But you also can’t overthink. You also have to kind of let go and follow your instincts. And at this point, I trust my instincts better than I trust anything else. So, it was such a mixture of get this right, but enjoy the moment.”

On Her Relationship With Bray Wyatt

“So one of the first times I came up to the main roster. So I was on NXT, and they would call me up to do live events for Raw and SmackDown when it was that kind of strange period for me when I was like an NXT, but maybe the call-up was going to happen soon. So they were kind of prepping me, and I was working with the girls on live events. Bray would be at the live events, and he would always be like, ‘Hey sister, let me know if you need anything.’ I was like, ‘Oh, thank you.’ He went out of his way, and he did this with so many of the guys. He did this with Damo too. He went out of his way to be like, ‘Hey, how you doing? If you need anything, let me know.’

“No one was asking him to do that. He would do that, and no one was watching. No one was around. But it was almost like he understood what it was like to be [in that position]. I remember one time it was just the two of us in the gym, and there was this kid and his dad. It was in somewhere in Europe, maybe in England somewhere. I was stretching or whatever, working out, and there was this kid that was just waiting outside the gym. They were just waiting for Bray to come out so that he could get an autograph. I remember watching Bray just literally go bring the kid in and made the kid feel like it was Christmas morning. I just watched that, and I was like, that’s how I always want to be. It was such a great example he set. And again, it wasn’t like there was a lot of us in the gym.”

On Having More Freedom to Wrestle Now But Liking the Valet Role

“Yes, and I love valeting. When I first started wrestling training, I actually began as a valet because my wrestling teacher at the wrestling school. I picked things up pretty quickly with wrestling because I always loved sports and being an athlete. So I picked up wrestling pretty quickly. I trained like every day, after university I concentrated more on my wrestling training than I did my bachelor’s degree, which is why one of the reasons why I went back to do my master’s I wanted a re-do over my education. But when I started at 18 years old, I was going to wrestling training every day after university, and then after wrestling training, I worked in McDonald’s. So I was doing overnight shifts in McDonald’s.”

As previously noted, WWE released Nikki Storm and the rest of the Wyatt Sicks in April. Storm and her husband, Big Damo, later acquired PROGRESS and Defy Wrestling in May.