Nia Jax on Turning Down WWE’s Royal Rumble Offer, COVID-19, Her Unsafe Reputation, Charlotte Flair

A recent episode of The Sessions with Renee Paquette podcast had Lina Fanene, former Nia Jax in WWE, as the guest. Some of the topics discussed included Fanene revealing that she had turned down WWE’s offer for a surprise appearance at this past Saturday’s Royal Rumble 2022 event, if her status as being not vaccinated for COVID-19 cost her job in WWE, her reputation of being unsafe to work with in the ring, and her heated in-ring incident with Charlotte Flair during an episode of RAW last year.

On the topic of turning down WWE’s offer to appear at this past Saturday’s Royal Rumble 2022 event, Fanene stated:

“Oh, yeah, I did [receive a call to be in the Royal Rumble]. I was in the middle of trying to get my stuff back. I had a bunch of crap. You know how it is, like you’re just shoving stuff in everybody’s boxes, whatever. So, I’m in the middle of getting my stuff back. They sent me a box and, like, more than half was missing. I’m like, ‘Yo, what’s going on?’

When I got the call, I thought it was about like, ‘Where’s my stuff?’ So I answered, I’m like, ‘Hey, what’s up?’ My homie in TR [talent relations], they were like, ‘Hey… we’re just calling to see if you’d be interested in participating in the Royal Rumble.’ And I started hysterically laughing because I thought it was my friend joking with me. I was like, ‘Oh, you’re freaking hilarious.’

Then he was like, ‘Actually, no, this is an official call.’ And I was like, ‘Oh… f*ck no, I’m not coming back.’ And he was like, ‘Oh, we’d like to offer you this.’ I said, ‘First of all, I already know I’m still under my 90 days. You’re still going to be paying me anyway, so you’re not offering me anything.’ I was like, ‘No, I’m not f*cking coming back, absolutely f*cking not.’ I was like, ‘Is this all this was?’ And he was like, ‘Yes.’ I’m like, ‘Okay, bye.'”

When asked if it felt like a slap in the face to be released and then get called because WWE desperately needed people to fill up the Women’s Royal Rumble match, Fanene stated:

“That’s exactly what it was. And guess what, they were accumulating a list. This is what I was told — they were accumulating a list, they wanted to offer me the opportunity. Accumulate a list that they send to Vince, then Vince goes through the list and says who he wants and who he doesn’t. I was like, ‘So, you’re asking me to be part of a list to go to the next step?’ I was like, “F*ck no. How much more can you sh*t on me, dude?’ Somebody was just like, ‘We didn’t want her to feel left out. If it got around that she didn’t get asked, we didn’t want her to feel left out.’ I was like. ‘F*ck you, that’s such bullsh*t.’ You needed people and I definitely [nixed] that.”

On the topic of if not being vaccinated for COVID-19 caused issues with her job status in WWE, Fanene stated:

“I stood my ground on certain things that I know that they weren’t happy about. I was choosing not to go and get the vaccine and it was a personal choice and I remember sitting down with Vince [McMahon] because the whole entire two years I was there, I re-tested every day. I never popped positive, I never had COVID the whole time and it was like, ‘Well, okay, you’re not gonna be able to fulfill some of your contractual duties’ and I was like, ‘Well if that’s the case, then that’s the case.’ It’s business, it’s a business and I understand you gotta run your business. But that’s when I was like, ‘You know, I feel really –’ because I made the decision for myself and I stood by my — I stood by how I felt. I always go by my gut feeling. If it doesn’t feel right in my stomach, I just can’t force myself to do something I don’t feel good with. That’s just how I’ve lived my entire life.”

Fanene also gave her thoughts about being released while in an extended break away from the company due to health reasons.

“It went by so fast — my break — I was like, ‘Oh sh*t, it’s coming up’ and I’ll never forget, I just hit Johnny [Laurinaitis] up and I was like, ‘Hey, I know that my break’s coming up but I just don’t feel right-right now. Is there any way we can kind of extend it to Rumble?’ And then I was like, ‘I know I’ll be in a better place,’ whatever, whatever and that was like on a Wednesday I hit him up about that and Thursday, he called me and of course I see his name, I’m like, ‘Oh! He’s calling to talk about this. So cool’ and then I pick up the phone and he was just like, ‘Hey kid, I hate to do this’ and instantly when he said that and I said, ‘Oh, am I getting released?’ And he said, ‘Yeah.’ He was like, ‘I’m so sorry. Due to budget cuts,’ you know, the whole spiel and I was just like, ‘Oh, okay, well I’ll take a pay cut.’ I was like, ‘If that’s what’s needed,’ just because I knew it was a whole script and he was like, ‘Oh, that’s not it’ and I was like, ‘Oh, so you just want like a total different change?’ He’s like, ‘Yeah, yeah, that’s it. We’re just gonna put you on your 90 days’ and I hung up the phone and I was relieved.”

On the topic of her online reputation of being someone who is unsafe to work with in the ring, Fanene stated:

“It hurts a little bit [negative comments on social media]. You can’t sit here and act like it doesn’t because they say some seriously mean stuff and that’s my work. If anybody who knows me in the locker room, I know I was so much bigger than everybody, I know that I’m a lot stronger and that like, I’ve already acknowledged that. My coach Sara Amato had always said, ‘You always have to be aware because you are so much bigger that you throwing your arm and hitting somebody in the face is not gonna be the same as, you know, somebody smaller than you.’ I was always conscious of that and I always try to take pride — I worked with Lexi [Alexa Bliss] most of my career, right? She’s so tiny and she trusted me and so like, that hurt when people just like, ‘Oh, she injures everybody, she hurts everybody’ and I’m like — and I can tell you this right now, in my career, I know I’ve injured two people. Obviously Becky [Lynch] was one of ‘em and there’s another one that like — you know, I don’t wanna call her out but, I know I did and I profusely apologized and other things. I’m like gosh, they made a whole YouTube about certain things of like — hey, guess what? We get in there 300 days a year and not all of my moves are gonna look super clean and smooth and just come out like cherries but, I’m not injuring people, I’m not purposely going out to hurt people. That’s what hurt me the most because I was like, I consciously make an effort to make sure that I can make everybody look good and keep it safe and make sure we all get out like laughing and having a good time and safe.”

On the topic of her heated in-ring incident with Charlotte Flair during their match together on the August 31, 2021 episode of RAW, Fanene stated:

“Obviously, Charlotte is just an insane competitor. She puts her all into it and is very passionate. There was a miscommunication, I don’t know where it was, but she started laying into me. It happened a few times during the break in that match, so not a lot of people saw it on TV, but some of the announcers were like, ‘damn.’ We were laying into each other and I’m like, ‘what the heck is going on right now.’ At the point that everyone saw on TV, I was like, ‘fuck this, you’re laying into me. I don’t know what’s going on,’ so I just gave her a two-piece back that kind of rocked her back into, ‘let’s finish up this match and get shit together.’ I didn’t know what was going on. It was definitely intense. She is one of my best friends, so I wasn’t sitting there and we were super mad, but there was some sort of miscommunication.

We got backstage and I was like, ‘what the fuck.’ I look at her and was like, ‘Are you good?’ ‘Yeah, yeah, just out there, something went off, I didn’t feel right.’ ‘Are you sure?’ ‘Yeah.’ One of the producers was like, ‘are you okay?’ ‘Yeah, Nia is one of my best friends, I swear.’ Literally, we went backstage, I said, ‘give me a break,’ we walked away from each other for the night and then the internet went crazy. I hit her up and was like, ‘we’re fine. Let it go.’ Shit happens. Everyone’s emotions and egos get really worked up and stuff happens. At the end of the day, she’s one of my best friends and I didn’t want people to think anything serious really happened because we were fine.”

Fanene revealed that she was involved in a similar incident with another unnamed talent in the past.

“On live events that’s happened before with somebody. When I first got up and I was kind of getting ‘the push’ and this certain person wasn’t too happy about it. She kind of did it with a lot of people and I was the project at the time. At one point, I had it with her and I’m bigger. At the end of the day, I get that you might be a bigger star and personality, whatever you think you are, but I can handle you. I don’t have to do much, I can just handle you. I handled her at a live event, she got really mad and her and some other psycho yelled at me and I remember looking and laughing and being like, ‘Okay, see you tomorrow.’

There was a locker room meeting about it. Fit Finlay had to wrangle us all in and it was funny because, I’ll never forget, these girls were yelling at me about something so stupid, about like how I bump. I remember Fit Finlay standing up for me and was like, ‘actually, this is directly from Vincent Kennedy McMahon that she does not bump until the end of the match, so I don’t know why you’re mad at her.’ Literally, everyone shut up and that was the end of that. In the company, there are egos and everyone wants to get up on top. The person and me are super cool now and we look back at it and laugh like, ‘what a crazy time.’ Shit happens. Yeah, we laid into each other in the ring and got a little scrappy. At one point, I didn’t know where it was going to go. I was like, ‘Oh shit, we’re about to go in front of all these people.’ It was like a dead silence in the crowd. Everyone was cheering and then they were like, ‘Oh shit, this is real.’ It got real quiet around us. I remember being like, ‘If she goes back at me, we’re about to go.’ Thankfully, we all snapped out of it.”

Transcript h/t: F4WOnline.com, PostWrestling.com, Fightful.com