Alexa Bliss has made WWE history for a female wrestler, and earned significant acclaim, for her emergence as a strong heel character. However, when WWE originally told Bliss she would be turning to "the dark side" of professional wrestling, she actually was very nervous about it.
She discussed her difficulty making the adjustment during an appearance on the latest episode of Chris Jericho's podcast, Talk Is Jericho.
"When I first was told I was turning heel, I had such mad anxiety," she said. "Because the character that I portrayed before that was very bubbly, very fairy princess, completely not relatable whatsoever. When I was told I was turning heel, I had mad anxiety over it, because I was like, 'Oh my gosh, I don't know how to be mean.' I don't know how to, literally, just make someone just hate me. I would have anxiety over it. We would do heat drills and stuff in the PC and there was times where I'd just stop and start crying."
That's not an issue for Bliss now.
"It's a lot of fun," she said of being a heel.
Bliss has become such a strong heel that, last month, she became the first in WWE to win both the Raw and Smackdown Women's Titles. Before moving to Raw as part of the "Superstar Shake-Up", she was a two-time women's champ on Smackdown, facing Becky Lynch in a tables match as well as a cage match that headlined an episode of Smackdown Live.
"It's such a good time to be a woman right now in WWE," she said. "When I started, there was even rules and things of what we could and couldn't do. You're allowed to do more hair pulling and slapping and stuff like that, no big crazy moves, and you can see how our girls kept pushing the envelope and kept pushing it and pushing it and pushing it. I never thought I've had a steel cage match. I never thought I'd have a tables match."
