Leva Bates talks about her time as Blue Pants in WWE.
Long before she was a librarian, Leva Bates became a fan favorite on NXT as “Blue Pants.” Blue Pants became a phenomenon after she was chosen to have Carmella's first matches on NXT TV. Eventually, she would even help The Vaudevillians win the NXT Tag Team Championship from Blake and Murphy by neutralizing Alexa Bliss at TakeOver: Brooklyn.
Despite becoming a phenomenon and even having merchandise, Bates is now revealing that she was never signed by WWE as a talent, even though she had a merchandise deal.
Legit, I was never fully signed. I had a merchandise contract but I feel like I was a science experiment,” Bates tells Thunder Rosa on her taco vlog. “ I came in for a one-time-only thing, they didn't expect it to be like it was. We got the ‘Blue Pants’ chant. Hunter [Triple H] came out and was like, “You guys got a ‘Blue Pants’ chant,’ and just starts laughing, cackling, and walks away.
“I was asked to come back to the next taping, ‘Hey, we want to see if this Blue Pants thing is a thing.’ So, I’m like, ‘Sure!’ I'm waiting behind the wings and Carmella comes out, that's who I wrestled the first time. As soon as she comes out, they started chanting, ‘Blue Pants’ and it was wild. So, I was standing next to The Ascension, scared out of my mind not knowing if this was going to bomb or not, and I got a ‘Blue Pants’ chant. They were like, “Holy Shit, she got a chant.’ So yeah, they just kept bringing me back to see if it worked. ‘Well what if we add a weird, cheesy Titantron? What if we add silly music? Why don't we add this silly t-shirt?’ Legit, a year-and-a-half until, basically, I broke my ankle.”
She also spoke about the possibility of her being moved over to SmackDown as she was called in for several Smackdown events and scheduled to take part in segments but would eventually be removed.
“I broke my ankle and I was out for a long time. Then, I was told a couple of different things. I was told, ‘The joke is over now. It's been too long,’ but also they were bringing me into SmackDown because the writer from NXT that was writing all the Blue Pants stuff, got moved to SmackDown, so they brought me in to SmackDown a couple of times but I was never actually used. I was like, ‘Oh, I'm supposed to be in the spot.’ Then like, a couple of hours before taping, I would get removed. So finally, one day, I was told by someone, a friend of mine in the office, he was like, ‘Hey, this isn't a reflection of you. I'm not going to say any names, but a producer and a writer are butting heads a lot and he was nixing all of his ideas,' so I was just a byproduct from what I was told.”
Bates also mentioned that perhaps someone took offense to her not saying hello to them backstage but she did not hear them say hello to her first because she has issues with her hearing and the only reason people don't know is that she does not advertise it.
Elsewhere in the interview, Bates spoke about the nature of her double-contract with AEW. Learn more here.
Should you use any portion of the quotes above, transcription credit should go to Fightful with a H/T linking back to this article.
