The Women’s Evolution continues to be one of the most talked-about subjects in professional wrestling today. Whatever your opinion on the subject may be, it’s certainly one that inspires debate regardless of the circumstances it’s brought up under.
Recently, Femmes Fatales Champion Alexia Nicole joined me to discuss her feelings on the origins of the Women’s Evolution and the origins of her nickname among other topics.
How the Women’s Evolution started on the independent scene:
“When I started training, part of the reason I started training was because I’d watch TV and the Diva’s matches would be five-minute pillow fight matches. I didn’t like that, personally, and then when I started training I realized wow, there’s these really great female wrestlers working everywhere. It was kind of fun to see because as I started wrestling more, you saw Shimmer becoming a bigger deal, Rise started, Shine started. All of these women’s promotions started and became huge in Japan. The Knockouts in Impact, you just saw them getting better and better. Literally everywhere started having great women’s matches and really showcasing them. I honestly feel that WWE was the last place to really do it, and when they did it, they just came out – on NXT, they were using the women, but I remember one night on RAW Stephanie McMahon came out saying ‘this is the Women’s Evolution!’ And I’m like, if you just say it, it doesn’t mean anything. Show me it, don’t just tell me it’s happening.
I want to see it. I don’t want to be forced into thinking this is going to happen.”
“I was excited for them to be brought up because I was a fan of all three of them, but to just flat-out tell me ‘we’re starting an evolution now,’ don’t tell me. I don’t want teams going after each other. I just want good matches!”
The origins of the nickname “The Bubblegum Princess”
“It was at a Smash show. I chew gum when I’m nervous, or, I used to at least. Now, it’s just I do it because I have to. I just chewed it out of habit so that I wouldn’t grind my teeth. I was at a Smash show, I was backstage, I was supposed to cut a promo. I was chewing bubblegum at that time, so I just used it in the promo because I was really bad at promos at that time.
It went over really well, I used it in my match right after that. I saw the pictures after, (and) people thought it was the coolest thing for some reason. So, I was like ‘okay, I can roll with this. This works,’ and it’s just really evolved over time into something that I’m actually really comfortable with doing.
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Differences between working adult crowds versus kid-friendly shows:
“It’s so funny – there will be times where I’ll wrestle a really ‘adult’ show on one day, and then go to a super kid-friendly show the next day and I’ll really have to think about ‘oh god, should I wear this gear? Should I not wear this gear?’ If I’m a heel, I really have to tell myself to not swear, and I always still let one out by accident.”
“I don’t think there’s one I prefer; I just like when fans are really into the show. There’s definitely a couple of promotions that I’ve worked for that are great promotions, the locker room’s fantastic, you can have these great matches, but the fans just do not care no matter what. I hate it so much, because why would you spend your money to come to a show to not make noise?”
“I love working different types of shows, but the one thing I hate doing is working a show where nobody cares. Whether it’s because they’re not wrestling fans or they don’t get it – and that also comes with, again, adjusting your style. If they’re not wrestling fans, don’t do crazy shit. If you see they’re not biting for the hokey stuff, or they’re not biting for the crazy shit, change it up. But, there’s definitely been shows that I’ve been on where all of those things have been tried and nobody cares.”
Please credit Spencer Love/Love Wrestling with any transcriptions used.
