Eve Torres was a recent guest on Chasing Glory with Lilian Garcia, and the former WWE Divas Champion opened up about breaking into the entertainment industry and memories of competing in the WWE’s Diva Search.
Torres spoke about the struggles she faced when she chose the entertainment business, saying she had an engineering degree, but ultimately decided to chase her dreams of being a performance artist:
“When I went to college, I got an engineering degree and a full scholarship. That experience taught me how to manage time and work hard, but I didn’t go into engineering. For me, my degree was a safety net. I did the easy path, now I can take risks and do what my heart desires. Pursuing dance initially and then WWE.
I remember when I was pursuing dance, I was just at an audition. I injured myself, I tore up my shoulder and couldn’t finish. I had to leave because of the injury, and I didn’t have health insurance. I go to a grocery store to get cold peas to ice my shoulder. I was still in the clothes in my audition, a skirt and some flip flops. I came out and someone had keyed the most vulgar phrase you could think of into my Ford Focus. I didn’t have the money to fix it at the time so I had to drive around with that on my car. I just remember breaking down crying and feeling so defeated. I had that car until I signed with WWE.”
Torres shared some Diva Search memories, saying she had some initial doubts about the whole thing:
“I remember, there were all these contests and you’re surrounded by all these women who are in incredible shape. I walked in and remember thinking “Why am I even here?” It’s like Imposter Syndrome, the belief that even if you’re extremely capable, just rocking whatever you’re doing, you always have that subconscious thought that everyone will realize that I’m a big scam. People will just realize that I’m just me and not a great person. You feel like an imposter, and it’s not true, but deep down you just remember who you are.
When I won, I had second thoughts. Can I even do this, can I be this representative? You can remember, whenever a woman comes into WWE without a wrestling background, just the torment you receive. You really need to learn your stripes there, and I felt that right away. Thankfully, I had pledged to a sorority, so I applied that experience forward.”
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Torres also talked about considering herself a very high achiever growing up, and how her mother being diagnosed with oral cancer affected her. Torres says she was hard on herself growing up, and later felt guilty about her mother’s health as if she contributed to it. She said it was a hard situation to explain, but thankfully her mother survived it.
“Whether it was in gymnastics or school, I felt like that was the way. It wasn’t until later in life that I started to question why I did what I did. My parents never really pushed me, but I was so hard on myself. I would say I had some perfectionist quality, to a fault. You start to reflect on your past later in life, what was it that created this situation? I think I’m still figuring it out, some part of it is nature but also I saw inspiration from my parent’s successes.
It’s not like it used to be. Some people work hard, go to college and then don’t end up with a great job. Right now, it’s all about finding your passion. When I was young, I loved gymnastics, but I discovered when I was 15 that I wanted a teenage life.”
Torres added:
“When I was in 4th grade, my mom was diagnosed with oral cancer. It was not looking good, it was serious when they found it. Obviously, I didn’t know much about what was going on. I remember feeling a lot of guilt about it, feeling like I somehow contributed to it. I think that’s just something that kids often do. It’s hard at a young age that things happen that don’t involve them. It’s hard to explain the situation, but I felt like I had to fill in and be a caretaker to help Mom. I had that same quality that my Mom had, working hard. Thankfully, my mom survived, and she’s said she wouldn’t have survived if she didn’t have kids.”
Listen to “Eve Torres – Creating Opportunities That Didn’t Exist” on Spreaker.
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