Thursday, March 28, 2024
NewsAthena (Ember Moon) Continues To Open Up On Her Release From WWE

Athena (Ember Moon) Continues To Open Up On Her Release From WWE

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During a recent appearance on Chris Van Vliet’s “Insight” podcast, former WWE Superstar Athena (Ember Moon) commented on her time in WWE, why she wasn’t happy at the end of her tenure with the company, and more.

You can check out some highlights from the podcast below:

On her last four months in WWE: “My last four months was just one of those moments where I wasn’t having fun anymore. It started with Shotzi being gone and drafted,” Ember said. “I remember thinking — I was sitting at home and I got a phone call saying, ‘Hey, we don’t want you to be upset, but Shotzi just got moved to SmackDown and she’s debuting with Tegan Nox as a tag team.’ I was sitting there and I’m getting this phone call about her getting drafted, ‘Oh my God, I’m so happy for her,’ and then the tag team thing popped up and I was like, ‘but we’re the tag team and we have merch and we’re doing fun things and we had just gotten into our groove with the banter.’ They were like, ‘Don’t worry, we have something for you.’ ‘Okay, cool.’ I remember going to Hunter and he was like, ‘I have no clue what’s happening, we’ll figure it out together.’

On the political culture and environment and how she reacted: “The problem I had was, some of these new writers were coming from Raw and SmackDown, ‘we had no idea you and Shotzi were a tag team.’ A lot of WWE backstage is having to play the game”, said Moon. “‘It’s cool, we get it, we’re down in NXT. It’s not like we were front page (of the website) when we won the titles. That’s fine, yes.’ You’re just having to eat the s–t sandwich and smile with s–t in your teeth a lot of times. It’s all about not making waves.”

On working with Triple H and others to point her career in a new direction: “Me, Hunter [Triple H], and the head writer at the time had come up with doing a heel turn with me because it was new and different. During this process, we wanted to do a losing streak. That was my thought. I see the new faces coming through and part of my job at NXT was to help new talent on TV I love this business so much that I didn’t mind. Let me do a losing streak, let me get frustrated, and let me turn. ‘This is a great idea. Then the first match happened and I’m off TV for four weeks. ‘Don’t worry, we got this.’ Then, Hunter disappeared.”

On conflicting messages being delivered by WWE coaches: “One of the head coaches goes, ‘will you do me a favor and work 205 Live with Cora Jade. We like her, she’s a sweet girl, we think this will be a fun match, you two are in the main event.’ Cool, that sounds great, I’m never going to say no to having a match on TV, regardless of where it’s airing. We have a fun banger of a match. They go, ‘you’re turning in this match, but we want to make it subtle.’ They kind of turned me, but they don’t, there was confusion about what would happen.”

On things taking a turn for the better: “Then, off TV for three weeks, I have the match with Mandy and they’re like, ‘We’re finally pulling the trigger on this.’ I get a note that week saying, ‘In two weeks, we need you to dye your hair fire color again, get the red contacts, you’re going back to the old Ember Moon character. This is per Vince. You’re going to turn heel, but turn heel as your old character. We’re trying to get the old music and stuff together.’ Alright, great, this is great.”

On political obstacles which impacted her return to TV: “I show up to TV, I’m motivated, just had to wait it out. Ryan Katz and I went and filmed a demo of the vibe that I wanted. Comeback, I get the video ready, I’m ready to show everyone after TV and they’re like, ‘Hey, we have some bad news. Vince is pulling you off TV indefinitely.’ I just sat there and was like, ‘What did I do wrong?’ ‘You did nothing wrong.’ ‘I’ve done everything you guys have asked me, I’ve gone over and above.’I showed up to TV, it’s 2 AM, and I’m like, ‘I’ve done everything you’ve asked me to, I’ve branched out.”

On her decision to leave the WWE: “I remember going to my makeup artist and saying, ‘I am so unhappy.’ We would have to sit through stupid meetings about how we’d have to dress sexy. I remember looking at someone else (and laughing). I cater to children. I’m not about to wear fishnet booty buttcheek shorts because we had a two-hour meeting about how to dress like Mandy Rose. That’s not fair. Mandy is absolutely phenomenal and an amazing person, but not everyone is Mandy Rose. I started seeing this downslope as soon as Hunter was gone.”

“For the first bit, we didn’t know why, we just knew he wasn’t there. I got so angry. I was sitting there thinking, ‘I did nothing wrong. I didn’t piss off Vince.’ They take Shotzi away, Hunter is gone. ‘You guys promised me this wouldn’t happen. You promised I wouldn’t be lost in the shuffle. I went on this losing streak to help you guys out and build other talents so I could get a reward.’”

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