Ahead of her match in her hometown of Jacksonville, FL against Ronda Rousey on next week’s (August 6th) Monday Night Raw, Alicia Fox spoke with Void Live Magazine to discuss long tenured WWE career, her proudest accomplishments and the WWE Women’s Revolution. Highlights of the interview below.
On first becoming a wrestler: I was in school at FSCJ. I really thought I’d be an Optomologist because of what I went through with my eye [during high school, Fox contracted an infection that led her to be blind, temporarily, in her left eye]. I had done a little bit of modeling for Venus and WWE was looking for girls with no wrestling experience between the ages of 17,18, or 19. I went for a tryout in Orlando with Kelly Kelly. I thought it’d be an opportunity to help pay for school. We watched some tape of a wrestling show. I was impressed. Then we just did some interviews. The next phase was like a week tryout. Taking falls. Hitting the ropes. Body slamming. They wanted to see if we had any athleticism, at all. We signed a developmental deal and moved to Louisville. Kelly moved on pretty quick, but I stayed in developmental training. I was still trying to figure out what wrestling was. I‘m grateful for that time because I got to home my craft.
Her proudest accomplishments: Definitely having such a long career is a great accomplishment in this business. But being the first African American Divas champion, I’m really proud of that. Really though, being a brand ambassador and going around the world, working with the UN and visiting the military. We went to Africa and visited a refugee camp with the UN and met with women who’d witnessed genocide. Being able to come back and share those experiences with friends and family and fans, as a job, has been really rewarding. Lastly, I’m proud of not losing my mind [laughs].
On her tailbone injury: It was a really humbling moment. Three months of recovery time. I was here for that whole time. The first half was rehab and sitting on a donut [laughs]. It was interesting though, it was the first time where I could take a moment to step outside of my character. Not that I like, embody Alicia Fox, but when you’re on the road nonstop, performing all the time, you don’t really get to take inventory of your life. As I was looking back at my journey, it was like the volume turned down a bit. Learning how to be Victoria Crawford was a little uncomfortable. I had to learn a routine. A bedtime. Getting up and going for a run. I missed out on developing routines when I was on the road.
Her ‘Crazy Fox’ persona: My character, well, she’s I guess kind of sassy. Her thing is like, “fancy as a fox.” [laughs]. I’ve developed into this like off the wall, firecracker. The word ‘crazy’ might not capture it. But I came back from injury and turned into a heel [bad guy]. We’ve been reintroducing the character. I’ve been bullying people. It’s really fun to play the bad guy, the coward. I get the crowd riled up, throw drinks at them [laughs]. It started in one match, where they told me just to throw a fit. [WWE Executive] Vince [McMahon] told me to just go crazy, tear things up, knock the announcer’s hat off his head. Throw iPads in water. So after my match, I didn’t know how it was going to go, but I just did it. And the crowd really reacted. It was this whole mood swing. It really worked. But currently, there’s a lot of great, talented girls. I’m loving working with everyone. Ronda Rousey is on the roster now, too, which is really cool.
On the Women’s Revolution: It’s so amazing. Even like looking back, 2006, when I got started, females were used as like enhancement to the male talent—walk them to the ring and whatever. Or if they had matches, they were short. Or, they had like Bra and Panty Matches. Then we started getting more TV time for our women’s matches. But social media, the audience really played a big role in saying, “What’s up with the girls’ matches being only one minute?” [The audience] made it such a big deal that WWE had no choice but to respond and give us longer matches. It started to evolve quickly. I went from having matches that were literally 45 seconds to big main event cage matches. Now Evolution on October 28 will be the first all female pay-per-view.
Fox also discusses the challenges of becoming a wrestler, her appearance on Total Divas and putting a match together.
You can read the full interview here.
What did you think of the interview? What have been your favorite Alicia Fox moments? What do you think is next for Alicia Fox? Let us know in the comments below!
