Summer Rae said that it's a nice experience for the "NXT" girls to be backstage, she was irritated at what occurred to a fellow WWE alumnus.
Follow Us
Nearly half of the competitors (13) in the 2022 women’s Royal Rumble event were former WWE stars, ranging from Hall of Famers (Lita, Ivory, The Bellas) to Legends (Michelle McCool, Melina, Mickie James). One of them was Summer Rae, who in the weeks before to the occasion reignited her feud with Natalya from “Total Divas” on social media. Though Rae’s time in the Rumble bout was brief, her social media followers admired the work she put into her outfit and wished to see more of her.
Rae explained that she hadn’t been backstage at the 2023 Royal Rumble as a substitute because she was presenting the exclusive watch party and live stream of the Pegasus World Cup in response to a question from a fan during a virtual signing stream for Golden Ring Collectibles. Rae commented that while it’s a nice experience for the “NXT” girls to be backstage, she was irritated at what occurred to a fellow WWE alumnus the prior year when she was notified by the presenter regarding who was backstage as the backups (Ivy Nile, Maxxine Dupri). I feel like that’s kind of sh**ty when you fly like Aksana, who hasn’t been on TV in like 10 years, and then you don’t use her, she remarked.
Aksana was one of two alumni—the other being Jillian Hall—who were not included in the 2022 women’s Royal Rumble event. She last appeared on WWE programming in June 2014. Despite the fact that she was nowhere to be seen, Aksana shared a 10-second video clip on social media of herself in front of the entry stage as well as pictures with Naomi, Sasha Banks, Charlotte, Tamina, and Maryse with the message, “no words, just a great time with these beauties.”
“I miss performing in general,” Rae said when questioned if she misses wrestling. “I miss telling stories. That’s such a Dusty Rhodes thing to say. Getting, especially the women, getting a girl over and getting people over is so important. A lot of wrestlers, we love the moves and the wrestling, that’s really important once someone is over or once there is a storyline. I look at my career and I think a lot of people probably say, ‘You didn’t have those amazing matches or those moments,’ but I was in storylines where I feel like there was nothing better than having the crowd in my hands and having them like putty and being able to control grown men and women in their 40s and 50s and make them mad or happy. That’s what I miss.”
She added, “Through that, the byproduct would be having matches and taking bumps, and I miss that as well. I got in the ring last week to see what that was like. I miss the acting part. So many fans are so passionate and they can really hate you. If you have T n A, it’s hard for them to hate you. If you’re a girl and you really have heat, it’s amazing. I remember watching AJ and she was so good. She didn’t have matches for really two years with the boys, just being an amazing character and there was a lot I wanted to do in WWE that I didn’t get to do from that standpoint and there’s a lot of things I’ve done since WWE to better my craft. I miss it a lot, of course.”
