Posted on 6/18/125 by Colin Vassallo
Former WWE star Shotzi sat down with Chris Van Vliet on the
latest episode of Insight to discuss her time in WWE coming
to an end and what’s next, missed dream matches, how her
tank entrance was created and where the tank is today,
suffering an injury on NXT and the return, getting married
in Las Vegas and wrestling that night in her wedding dress,
her love of horror movies and more!
On her time in WWE coming to an end:
“My situation is different than others, because I had my
injury for like nine months that I was gone from that. Then
I was at NXT for a small stint, and then I wasn’t on TV for
a little bit. So I was ready for it. I feel like I had
already done the grieving process, and I was already out of
the locker room for a little bit. So it didn’t come as a
shock to me. I was just like, Okay, now I get to work.”
On expecting the call:
“I don’t know. Honestly, I felt like I had a good run at
NXT, and I was hopeful that there would be something for me
at SmackDown. I kept getting little glimpses of ‘Okay, we’re
gonna run with this storyline,’ or this or this. It wasn’t
until around Mania that I started to think maybe they’re not
gonna re-sign me, because it was just like storylines
getting cut week after week. Then I was just like, Okay, I
see where this might be going.”
On the tank:
“I still can’t believe I got them to do that. So I found
this mini Tank at Walmart, and I bought it for the Indies. I
used it only on a couple of shows, because obviously I can’t
travel with that tank, I don’t have the buses that WWE does.
So for local shows, I would come out in the tank. There were
actually some indie promotions that were like, we bought one
for our show, they would bring me in, and I’d have a little
tank there. But I sent Hunter a video of my little mini
Walmart tank, and he was like, ‘Can you get it to Full Sail
tomorrow?’ And I was like, Oh, yes. And I ordered an Uber XL
to get this Mini Tank over to Full Sail.”
On whether the tank will make an appearance post-WWE?
“I’m still trying to get that tank back. Okay, so my little
tank, they actually cut in half to make the bigger tank that
you see on TV. So half of that is mine, which is the point
that I made. I was like, ‘Can I have half of the tank, or
maybe all of it?’ So, I mean, I’m willing to drive to
Connecticut and get it out of the warehouse if I have to.”
On her wedding and wrestling that night:
“That is something that I’m so grateful for that WWE let me
do. So I got married in Vegas, and this was completely
unplanned. We had been engaged for a few months, we were
planning a big wedding, and I got booked on a Vegas live
event after the holidays. I turned to my husband, and I was
like, ‘What if we just eloped in Vegas?’ He was like, ‘Yes!
Absolutely, let’s do that.’ I’m so glad we did it, because
it was so stress-free and so much fun. And then when we
decided that we were gonna do that, I hit up Road Dogg and I
was like, ‘Hey, I’m getting married before the Vegas live
event. Can I wrestle in my wedding dress and can we make it
a whole thing?’ He was like, ‘Absolutely!’ Road Dogg is so
down for the fun stuff. So yeah, he was game on. That’s
probably my favorite WWE memory.”