Starting with the summer of 2021, WWE Smackdown imported a couple of names from NXT in Toni Storm and Aliyah. While the latter managed to stick with the blue brand, the other one has been granted her release from the roster. But her former colleague from NXT can certainly expect to excel in the mainstay league of the WWE.
Aliyah joined WWE as part of NXT, starting with 2020 while in reality, she’s been with the WWE since 2015. It was on NXT that she sharpened her in-ring skills for a long time before coming to the main roster. After a lot of anticipation, she was finally called up to Smackdown as part of the WWE Draft last year.
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Aliyah was then selected to participate in the 2022 Women’s Royal Rumble match where she was honored to participate with the likes of WWE Hall of Famers The Bella Twins, Lita, and the Impact Knockouts Champion Mickie James.
In a sit-down with Denise Salcedo of The Sportster, Aliyah then went into detail about her main roster call-up. Since it was a long journey for her on the way to the mainstay league, she couldn’t control her emotions to flow down. Plus, WWE didn’t let her know about the news in advance which made the news even more shocking for her.
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Aliyah’s main roster call-up was a sudden idea
“I had no idea that I was clueless, to say the least {laughs}… I found out the day before TV {NXT}… I just remember my drive that morning to the Performance Center to the shoot, I was just in tears, like I could not stop crying because I couldn’t fathom that that was the last drive I was gonna make there, little did I know now that I am still training there, I am still going {laughs} but back then I just remember the whole drive I was just bawling,” Aliyah noted in her comments.
It was during the same interview Aliyah revealed how she was inspired by former WWE female legends to pursue a wrestling career belonging to a country that had restrictions for female sportspersons. Check out her comments on who inspired her wrestling character and ring gear.
“Trish Stratus, Mickie James, a little bit of Dolly Parton. Earlier on when I started getting newer gear when I first saw the first season of Euphoria I was obsessed with that show. So I kind of pulled, there’s this character named Maddy, I kind of pulled a bunch of things from her.” (courtesy Wrestling INC)
