Kamille details her previous encounters with WWE prior to her uprise in the National Wrestling Alliance.
Eager to become a professional wrestler, Kamille began her journey by approaching the doors of the WWE Performance Center. With her resume in hand, the future NWA Women’s Champion inquired about the possibility of training with WWE to become a wrestler while simultaneously working a job there in a different department. While Kamille was later informed that taking on a day job for WWE amidst her potential training wasn’t plausible, her bold gesture did grant her an in-ring tryout with the company.
During an appearance on the Pro Wrestling Boom Podcast, Kamille recounted her various interactions with WWE, including her initial tryout.
“The tryout that I had was in 2016, and then I had another one later. The first time tryout I ever had, I had zero wrestling experience. And I got that tryout by walking up to the doors and saying that I wanted to be a wrestler. So, obviously, I had something that they were interested in because I got to try out by walking up to the doors. It was the biggest female tryout they ever had. They were looking for girls for that first ever Mae Young [Classic] that they did,” Kamille said.
“Canyon Ceman (WWE’s Senior Director of Talent Development), at the time, he took to the side and said, ‘Hey, we really like you. We really like your look, we really like your promo. You’re athletic, but right now, we just need people that are match ready. We need people that we can put on TV and to be able to have matches. So we will be calling you again.’ So I was like, ‘Okay.'”
“I left knowing that nothing was going to happen there obviously disappointed because everyone when you think you got to tryout, most people at least are going to have the highest hopes and be like, ‘Yeah, I’m definitely going to get signed.’ But it just pushed me to [be like], ‘All right, now it’s time to get out there and get some match experience.’ So I went back to school and I said, ‘Guys, I need to start having matches,’ which they were like, ‘Whoa, slow your roll. You just started training.’ So that was that.”
‘Timing Is Everything’
“Then the second tryout I had, the only feedback I got there was they said, ‘Everyone here really loves you. You’re great. You’ve worked really hard we can tell, but unfortunately, timing is everything.’ That was the only feedback I got. And I was like, ‘What the hell does that mean?’ In retrospect, I realized around that time they had just signed Rhea [Ripley] and Lacey Evans. Rhea used to be blonde, and Lacey, same thing. So I was like, ‘Ah, okay. Well, they just signed two girls that are similar to what I had going for me at the time’. So that’s really all I can take from that, but nothing negative, only positive then. Anyone that has been around enough in wrestling [knows] it’s really about the right place at the right time. Everything kind of has to fall into place perfectly, honestly.”
Her aspirations to join WWE may not have panned out, but later Kamille found massive success in the NWA, earning a historic reign as NWA Women’s Champion.
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