Mia Friday recalls her recent match against WWE NXT star Roxanne Perez.
While WWE has often restricted their contracted talents from competing in outside companies, 2023 saw WWE make some exceptions. In February 2023, WWE NXT star Ivy Nile made a special appearance at WWE Hall of Famer Booker T’s Reality of Wrestling promotion.
In the months following, several more followed suit. Most recently, former NXT Women’s Champion Roxanne Perez returned to ROW to challenge Mia Friday for the Interim ROW Diamonds Championship.
This, of course, wasn’t the first time Perez and Friday had faced off, but it was their first meeting since Perez inked a contract with WWE in early 2022. Given Perez’s elevated status, Friday initially felt some added pressure ahead of this title defense. Once the two locked up again, though, those nerves quickly subsided.
Wave Of Emotions
During a recent interview with WrestleZone’s Ella Jay, Mia Friday opened up about the wave of emotions she experienced heading into her title match against Perez.
“I think I found out about it in October or November, and from that point to when I wrestled her in January, [it was] just the most stressful time of my life,” Friday said. “A lot of people were telling me like ‘That never happens. She’s under contract. That’s such a big opportunity.’ The local news interviewed me, and everybody was making such a big deal out of it. I’ve been under a lot of pressure before, but this kind of pressure felt personal. When I had that match, I wanted to be really proud of it because I knew there were going to be so many eyes on me. So definitely leading up to that, I put so much pressure on myself thinking like ‘Oh I gotta fix this. I got to fix this.’ [I was] thinking that I needed to change a whole bunch before that match.”
“And whenever I got there, met her, and we started talking, all that stress went away a little bit. It felt like seeing a longtime friend. I didn’t feel that kind of nervousness anymore. I kind of felt that comfort. She helped me out and she made things so easy. We had a great time and I was proud of it. I put so much pressure on myself, and then on the actual day of the show, it was just all magic. It was so amazing and I was so grateful that it happened.”
Due to interference from Ladybird and Rache Chanel, the title match between Perez and Friday officially ended in a contest. They eventually bounced back from this assault, however, as they scored a win over Ladybird and Chanel in the impromptu tag team match that followed.
Watch our full interview with Mia Friday below:
