Alexa Bliss Discusses Her Struggles With Her Image & Wrestling With a Shirt On

Alexa Bliss is today’s guest on Chasing Glory with Lilian Garcia (transcript via Wrestlezone) and spoke about her battles with eating disorders, her image, wrestling with a shirt on and more…

On Being Naturally Anti-social: I’m very anti-social when it comes to people. If I’m with one person, I’m very talkative. I’m very personable. I’ll talk your ear off; but, if there’s another person interjected, I get so awkward. If it’s a group of people, I’m the quiet one. I’m just very awkward in that sense, but I feel like a lot of creative people are. Do you know what I mean? I feel like a lot of creative people are socially awkward.

On How Her Eating Disorder Began: That’s kind of how mine started [working out excessively]. If I ever ate something, I would go immediately and try to work it off. It’s kind of that, if you eat anything, you immediately – let’s say you eat one thing and you’ll go and work out for hours.

On If She’s Still Affected By Her Eating Disorder & Why She Wrestles With Her Shirt On: Absolutely. I feel like no matter what, someone’s gonna say something somewhere; but, you have to know that it’s OK. For me, my biggest struggle is eating on the road because it’s so hard to eat clean on the road and eat enough on the road and I know sometimes I’ll go, ‘Wait did I eat anything today?’ And I just didn’t. I have to catch myself or check myself being like, ‘Wait, I need to eat this and need to do that.’ Sometimes it does get me if we’re traveling and if I get off a little plane and I’m holding a bunch water, which is normal. Sometimes it affects me. I’m like, ‘Oh my Gosh, my gear is screaming.’ You know what I mean? That’s part of the reason why I always wrestle with a shirt on. Sometimes it’s to promote my merch; but, most of the time it’s because I don’t like my stomach. I don’t like how I look that day or something. That’s kind of one of those things that still affects me to this day, but I have a healthy balance of how to deal with it and if I’m like, ‘Oh, I don’t feel very good today,’ that’s fine I’ll wrestle in my shirt. It’s a lot healthier version now than it was years ago.

On Being Uncomfortable W/ The Nia Jax Angle: The only thing I’ve ever had a situation not being comfortable with was when I was doing the story line with Nia Jax. There were certain things, where even though I had to be the one that was bullying and body shaming and stuff like that, we wanted to make the story real, so we needed it to have real situations and there were some things I didn’t feel comfortable saying. I didn’t feel comfortable; but, it was stuff obviously that Nia provided. She would say, ‘You can say this about me. Say this about me. You can say this about me,’ to pull real emotions. Some of the things I was like, ‘I don’t feel comfortable saying that,’ but it was fine and so we just didn’t do it and we just went another route.

Alexa Bliss On Facing Trish Stratus At Evolution & How She Found Out About The Match: The day I started with WWE I always said, ‘I would love to be able to face Trish Stratus one day.’ I was like, ‘If she ever returns to the ring, I would love to face Trish Stratus.’ I said that in probably almost every media interview I’ve ever done. We both came from similar backgrounds and I just thought she’s amazing and I’m really excited to face her at Evolution. I found out on Twitter like everyone else. I first thought that it was photo shopped. I was like, ‘Oh, that would be awesome,’ because people on Twitter, they photo shop everything. I was like, ‘Oh that would be cool, if only.’ Then WWE tweeted it and I was like, ‘Oh my gosh.’ Apparently she found out the same way. We didn’t know we would be facing each other and it was made into a tag match, which is awesome because what’s better than being in the ring with one legend? Being in there with three and getting to team with Mickie [James] and it’s so awesome and it’s so cool and I’m so excited.

On Why Her Evolution Match Was Changed From A Singles Bout To A Tag Team Match: I have no idea. I know there was a lot of speculation on social media because I was injured or this, that, and the other; but, no, I think it was just the direction they wanted to go in and we were told when it was announced earlier in the day. They were like, ‘Hey it’s gonna be a tag match.’ No reason. I think it makes it exciting. I think it makes it really cool because you have Team Bestie (Trish & Lita) and the dynamic, I think it would have been – not the word a waste, I don’t want to use the word waste. I think it would have been, I don’t know. I feel like it’s a lot more fun to have Mickie involved because of Trish and Mickie’s history. It needed to be done. That’s just my personal opinion. It makes sense. Mickie and me have been teammates for God knows how long now and Trish and Lita are Team Bestie, so why not? I feel like that saw that from a creative standpoint and saw the value in that and wanted to go with it and there wasn’t anything that happened that turned it into a tag match. I think it was just what they wanted to do.

Alexa Bliss On Her Desire For A Singles Match With Trish Stratus: Obviously, I wanted to have the one-on-one with Trish. I thought it would be a freaking dream come true; but, it’s still a dream come true because now I’m getting into the ring with Lita too. It’s so cool.

On What It’s Like To Get In The Ring With Ronda Rousey: [I was] sore, bumps and bruises. None of us are used to – we’re all trained to perform in a certain way and when you have someone from another background come in, you’ve got to adapt. You’ve got to change and all around it makes us better performers; but, obviously, I was sore. I was very sore because it’s something your body’s not used to. I remember thinking the first time we ever had a match at a live event and thinking, ‘I have muscles I never knew existed that are sore,’ but it’s just because it’s a different movement. She’s so strong and so gifted in what she does. It was a lot of fun facing her. It really was. It was so much fun and during the live events we’d be trying to make each other laugh and stuff, but it was a lot of fun. It was a great story line. I was really happy to be the person that could be her counterpart when she won her title. That was a very special moment. I always say, ‘Every other opponent in the octagon with her had lasted one, two, three minutes. I lasted seventeen minutes and thirty four seconds.’ If I was gonna lose my title to someone and it’s the Baddest Woman On The Planet, I’m OK with that. I went toe to toe with Ronda Rousey. I didn’t succeed, but I went seventeen minutes and thirty four seconds.

On Being OK Not Being Champion: I guess I can easily separate work from reality. When I first got the title, I was full expecting to lose it a week later. That’s just how I assumed it. So I saw it as every weekend I had the title it was kind of like a little blessing because things change so much. It was awesome to have a title on both brands, going to my first WrestleMania as SmackDown Women’s Champion, my second WrestleMania as RAW Women’s Champion and I’m kind ready for a new start. It’s nice being champion and I couldn’t ask for a better two years. I’m so grateful for the opportunity that I’ve had with WWE; but, I’m excited for the chase again. I’m excited to be able to stand in the ring across from someone – if I get this opportunity again, you never know – if I ever have the opportunity to stand in the ring with someone who’s champion at the time, that’s what I’m excited about, that chase and to redevelop my character because for the longest time, as a bad guy, I could just hide behind the title. That’s my heat. I’m excited to kind of restart and reboot and kind of give Alexa Bliss a little more dimension and that’s how I think of it. I’m excited for this new chapter. I’m excited to see who has the title after Ronda and after that person and after that person. I’m excited to see the other women get these opportunities because I’m sure people are sick of seeing me with the title. I’m not gonna lie. I’m excited to see everything in the future and I feel like now that I’ve had those moments, it’s someone else’s turn.

On Dropping The Title To Nia Jax At WrestleMania: I told Nia – we were backstage at WrestleMania and I told her, ‘I am so happy to have this moment with you, my best friend.’ I was dropping the title to my best friend at WrestleMania. That’s what you want. You want that for your best friend. I was so happy to be a part of that with her. I wasn’t, ‘Aww boo, I’m losing the title.’ No, this was amazing. I’m dropping the title to my best friend at WrestleMania, in front of her family and friends. I had that moment with my family and now she gets to have that moment and we were just so happy for her. She was crying and it was just such a beautiful moment and it was cool to be a part of that. If you’re not gonna be the main focus, it’s cool to be a part of something and knowing that you had part in someone else’s success.

On Her Friendship With Nia Jax: She’s so busy with Total Divas & I’ve been busy with media. We still hang out backstage and we’re still really really really close. Obviously, our paths kinda went in different directions and on the road it’s so hard to keep in touch with people. There have been times where I’ve been home on the road maybe one day a week and then I know she’s always travelling on Total Divas and I remember when I had the Total Divas schedule, I didn’t have any time at all. I didn’t even speak to my parents. I know that we each like our time at home…..and I don’t want to disrupt that time. We’re still really close. We were just travelling together this weekend at the airport and we were hanging out. We sat next to each other on the plane. We’re still really close. I think our schedule just kind of took over our life for a little bit, which happens.

Alexa Bliss On Her Relationship With Buddy Murphy: We actually never see each other. We still care about each other so much. We’re best best best friends. We’re still on that path; but, we just don’t see each other ever, especially now that he’s been doing 205 [Live] and he does a lot of loops and everything. When we’re on the road, sometimes we are on the road at the same time, but I ride with Ember [Moon] and he has his car group. It’s a respect thing. You don’t just leave your car group. You just don’t, so we hardly see each other. It’s very rare when we do. I have to focus on my career. He has to focus on his. He was very supportive when I was never home because of becoming on the main roster and getting the title. He has been nothing, but proud of me. Now it’s his turn to live that schedule and I know that I’m gonna be supportive of him every step of the way and I want to see him get his career where he wants it and what he deserves because he’s been in NXT so long and he really deserves to show what talent he has and if that means sacrificing personal life for a bit, so be it. He’s worked so hard, I would never want to disrupt that in any way. There’s no timeline on forever. If we want to make it work forever, there’s no rush on forever. This is the time when we can put our relationship on hold for him to be able to succeed and that’s what’s needed right now. That’s what relationships are. They’re a balance of meeting in the middle and working on things. When we’re home, we hang out and we go to the movies. We hang out with the animals and we have so much fun, but when it’s time to go out on the road, he goes out on the road and I go out on the road. It is what it is and you have to the personal life aside and put it on hold until you’re both comfortable on where you are in life. We have dogs, we have a pig, we have a house. It’s just that next step, it’s just not time yet.