Former SmackDown Women’s Champion Naomi is the special guest on Lilian Garcia: Making Their Way to the Ring this week, telling Lilian where she got the idea for her glowing gimmick, how she got her WWE tryout and more. You can read a few excerpts, and watch the episode below. Making Their Way To The Ring is also available on iTunes.
How Naomi feels about winning the SmackDown Women’s title:
Even though I’ve been here for years I’ve finally just arrived, which is strange. But I finally feel like I’m here. This is me. I found my niche, and finally things are starting to connect with me and knowing who I am and what I’m about.
Her reaction after watching her first live wrestling show:
I saw those girls and I was like, I want to do that. I can do that. That is awesome. Then from there I started asking questions and then I ran into Ricky Santana who actually got me my tryout, helped me get my tryout at FCW and then I was signed from there in 2009.
Why Naomi sometimes finds it difficult to enjoy her success:
I think it’s so competitive, and I think because I kind of have been on the back burner for so long and social media and there’s many things that, there’s just so many critics out there and things that make you sometimes doubt yourself and just want to improve and I think that plays a big part in it.
Where she got the idea for “Feel the Glow”:
The inspiration comes from a movie from the 80s, called The Last Dragon. It’s about this martial artist who is on this journey to find the glow. It’s all about him really at the end of the day finding his confidence. He had it all along. He just had to look within himself.
Was the company quickly receptive to her idea?:
No. Absolutely not. Two years. It took me two years to get them to finally hear me out on this concept, this idea, and the entrance and everything.
Naomi says she doesn’t know why she’s been cut from the cast of Total Divas twice:
I never could get a straight answer, and I think there are a lot of us girls, and I don’t know if it’s just them wanting to give everyone an opportunity, or they just like the idea of switching people in and out, to give the fans a different taste.
