My team and I were talking about the recent hurricane that hit my home state of Florida. Besides coming up with a new side hustle of tornado food delivery, I was really grateful that my home was fine during the recent storm. That got me thinking about how the weather has affected wrestling shows and traveling to wrestling shows. I was reminded of the time when I, Bayley, Apollo and a few others literally got stuck in Colorado due to a snowstorm. We had to stay because driving the six hours to the next town was way too dangerous. That was rare. The term the show must go on was probably written for wrestling because I know no other world that lives up to that notion.
All this talk of weather and shows got me thinking about my first time on RAW as an NXT Superstar, and the lessons I learned from Summer Rae and Cameron. We had to take part in an 11-hour drive through a huge snowstorm. I was new to wrestling. But worse than that, I had just gotten my driver’s license, literally, a month before. I was SO nervous to get behind the wheel. I was driving with Summer Rae and Cameron, and, as the newbie, I was expected to drive the entire time. That’s a wrestling tradition, or it was, at least at that time. It was super scary driving through that, not to mention how hard it was to stay awake. But when you love something and are passionate enough about it, your adrenalin kicks in, and you get past it. I had dreamed of being on Raw since I was age 13, so you bet your ass I was going to get us there – and I did!
It’s all part of Wrestling Newbie Culture: You Drive AND You Buy! The thing about being a wrestle newbie is that you more or less need to be doing everything to support the vets and the show. You try to offer to pay for gas and even hotels, and you do things like drive the veterans the entire way. It’s more or less a rite of passage – or at least it was.
These wrestle traditions are unwritten and have been passed down from veterans through the decades. In my case, I have Tamina to thank for passing them down to me. Tamina taught me how to be a leader on the road and how, even as a young person, to have respect for the wrestling culture. However, she was more evolved than the typical wrestling veterans. She taught me to always pay it forward – and to pay it forward with kindness. I’m not sure how many wrestling veterans passed those sentiments down, but Tamina sure did. She was so unique that she, ‘the veteran’ actually paid for me, ‘the newbie.’ I remember her covering my hotel because even though I was an NXT Superstar I didn’t have the money! I’ll always be grateful for that and the lessons.
Weather can definitely affect a match too! A couple of years ago, I remember when the WHOLE Smackdown crew- yes ALL the GUYS were late coming to SmackDown from Saudi Arabia! We had to call in a whole crew from NXT to SmackDown. We didn’t even know what was going on and, even more crazy- only girls were available. So literally one hour before, Shayna Baszler ended up attacking me. The show turned into the NXT Takeover. All due to the travel issues of the SmackDown crew.
The audience was so surprised, and the talent was so surprised. It was such a skeleton crew but, it was a surprisingly good show! Surprises are fun sometimes, right?
