Shotzi Blackheart is NXT’s wild child and she is about to have perhaps the biggest match of her career on this week’s NXT. After WWE’s Backlash event on Sunday, Blackheart and her tag team partner Tegan Nox now know they will face Sasha Banks and Bayley for the Women’s Tag Titles.
It is rare that the tag titles come to the black and gold brand despite the fact they are supposed to be defended on all brands. Blackheart spoke with Sports Illustrated about her upcoming match among several other topics.
When asked about her reaction of when she found out that she would be sharing the ring with Sasha Banks and Bayley she had the following to say:
“The first thing in my mind were the amazing matches that Bayley and Sasha put on together against each other. They broke ground for women’s wrestling at [the first Brooklyn] TakeOver. I’ve always been a big fan of theirs. Bayley is from San Jose and I was born in San Jose. It’s all just really cool and really insane to me that this is happening.”
Another topic discussed included the positive impact she wants to make in society. Proceeds for her new t-shirt will be given to the Trevor Project and she was asked why this was so important to her.
Blackheart said, “I definitely want to give back, especially since it’s Pride Month. Recently, someone in the wrestling community committed suicide, and it was just heartbreaking to me. I dealt with a lot of depression as a kid, and I think that the Trevor Project is a beautiful thing and I really wanted to donate to that.”
When some talent comes into NXT from either other promotions or the indie scene they tend to go through a gimmick transition. Many have a name change and a whole new persona. Blackheart was able to keep everything. She said the following in regards to this:
“Deep down, within me, I had a feeling they weren’t going to rebrand me. I feel like, you just can’t. I’m just too loud. You can’t contain me too much. I did get told by a lot of people, ‘Oh man, you’re going to have to change your name, you’re going to have to change your gimmick. You won’t be able to do this or do that.’ So it was great to come here and learn that everyone was on-board with what I already had going on. I’d already done it on the indies, and it was working, so why mess with it?”
If she had to change her name, this is what she would have wanted:
“I always thought I could come out and be Christine Fury, an ode to one of my favorite movies, Christine. She’s a demon car named Christine and she’s a Plymouth Fury.”
For the full interview you can check it out by clicking here.
Blackheart and Tegan Nox will be trying to gain their first gold in the company on tonight’s NXT. They face Sasha Banks and SmackDown Women’s Champion Bayley for the Women’s Tag Team Championships. NXT is on the USA Network at 8:00 P.M. EST.
Check back in with Diva Dirt after the show for a Winners & Losers to see if we have new champions.
