Jordynne Grace talks her surprise appearance in NXT.
Grace shocked fans around the world on the May 28 edition of NXT, as she was announced to be Roxanne Perez's opponent for the Battleground premium live event. This appearance came just months after Grace made her debut for WWE in the Women's Royal Rumble match.
While speaking to Fightful for a new interview, Grace said that she was relieved that news of her appearance didn't leak out before it happened.
"I’m relieved that I got to do the surprise. That’s awesome. Surprises in wrestling, I feel like it made it bigger. When no one expects it. I feel good. I feel excited. This is a huge thing for the wrestling world."
Grace went on to talk about how the company started making plans to bring her back about three weeks ago. Grace also stated that she didn't get travel booked until the Sunday before Tuesday's NXT.
"They’ve been talking for, I want to say, a couple of months. They were just trying to figure out the right timing. Maybe three weeks ago, they had talked about wanting to use me. Then it snowballed from there. I didn’t know that I was doing the NXT appearances at first. Originally, they had asked if I would be available for Battleground. ‘Oh, that’s cool,’ then it snowballed to, ‘We want to re-introduce her.’ So, I ended up doing the NXT appearances. WWE is very different from TNA in that they book travel last minute. I didn’t hear anything until Sunday night. The travel lady messaged me, ‘We need you for NXT.’ I didn’t want to bother anyone, but I didn’t think it was happening anymore."
Grace also went on to talk about being in Orlando and running into Ethan Page, who ended up being another surprise appearance on the show.
"Me and Ethan Page are good friends. We talk every single day. We had no idea that we were both on the same show as a surprise until I went down to the hotel gym and he was in there. We were both confused. The first thing he said to me, he was panicked, ‘Please don’t ruin this for me.’ Anyone who knows Ethan knows that it’s hard for him to keep a secret like that to himself. I kept it from everybody except my husband because it would be super weird if I’m like ‘I’m going somewhere, I can’t tell you where.’ [Ethan] said he was going to work out at Cezar’s, and I just invited myself because I knew it was going to be safer than going to the gym because in Orlando, there are so many wrestling fans. You can be spotted anywhere. [Cezar] was awesome. He gave us a workout, he fed us, he made some healthy ice cream. It was perfect."
Grace also confirmed that Roxanne Perez didn't know about the appearance ahead of time.
"They were going to bring her back five minutes before the segment happened to see who it was. She was kind of frustrated, and I think she was almost being petty about it. ‘You know what, I don’t want to know now. I’m going to find out when everyone else finds out.’ She just decided to not see me."
Grace went on to reveal that she showed up to the venue just 30 minutes before the segment.
"That was crazy. That’s not something, in a positive light, you would hear WWE fans chanting in a million years. They were so good about keeping it a secret. They had the doctors come to my hotel room to do my physical and blood work. They had me come late, like 8:30, maybe 30 minutes before the segment. They had a parking spot reserved and someone came out and ushered me to the back. They didn’t even have me go down the hall. It was just the first door to the left as soon as you come in. They had a ‘reserved’ sign."
Fans can check out Fightful's full interview with Jordynne Grace in the video linked at the top of this article.
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