Nia Jax On Relationship With The Rock, Modelling, What Match Influenced Her To Get Into Wrestling
Recently on Talk Is Jericho, Chris 'G.O.A.T.' Jericho welcomed current WWE Superstar Nia Jax to the podcast. Among other things, Jax talked about her relationship with her cousin, WWE alum and Hollywood heavyweight 'The Rock'.
According to Jax, her grandfather is the uncle of The Rock's grandfather. Despite being actual blood relatives with The Rock, Jax did not spend much time with The Rock and his family much growing up. 'The Samoan Cyborg' says she has spent more time with The Rock since attending the premiere of 'The Great One”s movie, Walking Tall.
"Dwayne's family, like Peter, my aunt, and of them, they were traveling the world wrestling and my dad was in New Zealand. My parents met in Australia, so we didn't move here till I was like seven [years old] to California and whatnot. I think one time in Hawaii we all met up when I was a baby, but honestly, they were living and traveling all over the world. And, actually, I didn't get to really re-meet him again till the premiere of Walking Tall because we were living in San Diego and he had the premiere in L.A. My aunt was like to my dad, like, 'oh, do you want to come up and see the premiere?' And my dad was like, 'do you want to come with me?' and I was like, 'uh, yeah! That'd be cool.'"?
At the film's premiere, Jax appropriately found herself walking tall, albeit awkwardly. Lucky for Jax, she is not like most girls.
"I was a plus-size model in my 20s and I was kind of used to being around celebrities, but I'm so tall and celebrities, like, when you meet them [it is much different from seeing them on TV]? When you see them on TV, you're like, 'oh my gosh! That's crazy!' And when I went there [to the Walking Tall premiere], I was a giant in comparison to everybody. I was in these heels and it felt very awkward."
On the subject of being a plus-size model before transitioning to pro wrestling, Jax divulged that she was discovered out of high school and modelled on and off for about a decade.
"I got signed out of high school to New York [for modelling]. There was a scout. There was a manager. He just like saw my face and said, 'I think you should get into modelling and send some pictures to Wilhelmina New York,' this modelling agency, and they signed me." Jax recalled, "I did a lot of lingerie modelling, like, for plus-size, like Macy's, and Dillard's, and Bloomingdale's. I was like on a billboard in New York one time in like a bra and underwear. Yeah."
During the interview, Jax shared that seeing The Rock face John Cena at WrestleMania 28 really inspired her to pursue a career in professional wrestling.
"Well, WrestleMania 28, me and my other cousin, Christian, like this 6'4" dancer, he's crazy, we decided to go out to Miami to go watch Rock versus Cena. And I've been to shows before, but we were sitting front row during the main event and I was just like, 'holy crap, like, this is insane, the energy, the feeling.'"
As Jax looked into attending the pro wrestling school of Afa, The Wild Samoan, The Rock urged 'The Palomar Comet' to go for a tryout at the WWE PC instead.
"We were in the process of trying to get me into a wrestling school, Afa, yeah Afa, he has a wrestling school over near Orlando and so my aunt was trying to get me to go there and I was doing all the stuff that I need to do. And then, Dwayne had heard about the Performance Center. And he said, 'well, why don't we have you tryout to see if maybe that's even something that you'd like to do, like go in there and see what it is.' And so I had the three-day tryout at the Performance Center."
Jax claimed that The Rock has been extremely supportive of her pro wrestling career and is always there to offer pep talks.
"Oh yes, he definitely gives me advice. When I first started, well first, we just tried not to let everybody know I was related because the first thing he said was, 'you might get a little heat being related to me.'" Jax continued, "but yeah, he was just like, 'you don't need to go around repeating that,' which I didn't. Yeah, he was just like, 'make sure that you're respectful, always shaking hands, asking questions, staying later, working as hard as you can.' And he was like, 'that's one thing, as long as you're always working hard they can never question who you're related to' and whatnot. Yeah, he's constantly giving me advice on things because this is such a different culture and when you're not coming from it right off the bat, you have learn the ways." Jax added, "he really cares and even when I'm insecure about my body or they started announcing my weight before matches and I was kind of like, 'oh gosh. Yeah, I know I'm big, but knowing my weight is a-whole-nother story. I'm a heavy-ass chick! And I hit him up immediately and he was like? he's so good at, I don't want to say, 'spinning,' but just seeing the positive side to everything. And he just put me completely at ease and that's what he does. Any insecurity I have, he just [puts to rest] 100%, yeah."
Get the remedy for boredom here. If you use any of the quotes from this article, please credit Talk Is Jericho with an H/T to Wrestling Inc. for the transcription.
Source: Talk Is Jericho