McKenzie Mitchell looks back on some of her memorable WWE interviews while also manifesting a pair of dream interviews.
As an on-air broadcaster, McKenzie Mitchell prides herself on the art of storytelling, especially in her work throughout the professional wrestling space. Through her work as a backstage interviewer for WWE NXT, Mitchell had the opportunity to speak with a variety of characters and create several memorable moments. During a chat with WrestleZone’s Ella Jay, Mitchell was asked to recall a specific interview of hers that she feels conveyed a compelling story.
“Everybody talks about my moment with Javier Bernal. I think that was one of my first opportunities to really get to express who I was on camera,” Mitchell said. “It’s interesting, as an interviewer, you want the superstar to have their moment, but then you look at someone like Renee Young who is in a different league. It’s her non-verbal, it’s the way you communicate whenever you’re not saying anything at all. I think that’s so important as an interviewer. That allows you to connect to an audience and connect to people where they don’t even know what it is. They don’t know why they like you, but they like you and they can’t put their finger on it.”
“I think with Javier, I was able to lead the interview, rather than just stand back and say, ‘What are your thoughts?’ Because I think there’s so many times in wrestling where it’s an easy answer. It’s an easy question, I should say. ‘What are your thoughts? How are you feeling? What are you planning to do? What’s next for you?’ You’ve heard it time and time again, but it allowed me to express who I was as McKenzie Mitchell as an on-air personality with Javier Bernal.”
Creating A ‘Natural Flow’ Of Conversation
In addition to Javier Bernal, Mitchell named Grayson Waller and Wes Lee as two other notable NXT interview guests. Much like Bernal, Mitchell was able to seamlessly bounce off the heelish energy of Waller, cultivating a natural flow of conversation. Mitchell established a similar chemistry with former WWE NXT North American Champion Wes Lee as well, especially given the fact that they had been long-time colleagues through their work in IMPACT Wrestling and WWE.
“We look at Grayson Waller, I was able to bounce back and forth off of him and then Wes Lee on a positive note. A lot of the heels [like] Grayson and Javier, I had a lot of conversation with them back and forth that was just banter because I just was allowed to. He would say one thing, I’d bounce off of him and say another, and a lot of it wasn’t scripted. It was able to just have that natural flow,” Mitchell said.
“Then when we look at Wes Lee with the high fives, that just naturally happened one day, I don’t know how. I don’t even remember the moment of where the high-five came from, and then it stuck. Then people loved it, and they took to it, and Wes and I took to it to where Wes was like, ‘McKenzie, you can’t high-five anybody else. This is our thing only.’ And I’m like, ‘Okay, yeah, I’m not mad at it. Let’s do it.’ So I’m really thankful that I got to have those experiences on camera to show who I was as a personality.”
Musical Dream Guests
Outside of the wrestling sphere, Mitchell has expressed interest in potentially working in the music and entertainment businesses. When asked about dream interview guests within those industries, Mitchell pointed to two of music’s biggest stars.
“I’m not particularly a Swiftie, but I think having Taylor Swift on a resume reel would be like, ‘Wow, okay, you made it. You made it.’ So I think Taylor Swift would be a dream interview. Plus, I think she’s so down to earth and just real, so it would feel very authentic,” Mitchell said.
“I mentioned Beyonce before [as one of my fashion influences]. I think Beyonce is so iconic. I’d love to have her for an interview as well. I don’t know, I think that those two are really strong players when we talk about interviews. Of course, it would be a blessing to have several different celebrities, but I think those are two major ones that you’d be like, ‘Wow, okay, cool.'”
Watch our full interview with McKenzie Mitchell:
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