10 Things You Didn't Know About Eva Marie

10. She Dreamed Of Being A Soccer Star

Footballer, soccer, whatever. Either way, Eva Marie had major aspirations of making it as a pro in the world of the beautiful game.

As the story goes, young Natalie Marie Nelson grew up wanting to be a professional soccer star. Those plans were initially hit hard when Natalie suffered a major ankle injury during her senior year of high school, but that didn't put off the future Eva Marie from pursuing a living in the soccer world.

Playing as a striker, Natalie was responsible for bagging her team the all-important goals that would win games, and she continued to do just that upon enrolling at Pleasant Hill, California's Diablo Valley College. A switch from Diablo Valley to Arizona State University followed, but Natalie suffered a crisis of confidence and temporarily gave up on her soccer dreams.

Another transfer would be on the horizon - this time to California State University - and the soccer coach here persuaded Natalie to once again return to the soccer pitch. Unfortunately, she was soon labelled ineligible for NCAA consideration due to having missed the criteria for the five-year clock rule - meaning she hadn't played consistently at Division I for at least four of the past five years.

Speaking to ESPN in 2017, Eva Marie explained

"I wouldn't have run into that problem if I just believed in myself from the start. Now that I'm older, I know it's so much better to have tried and maybe you fail, then to have never tried at all."

Authored by Andrew Pollard

Senior Writer

Once described as the Swiss Army Knife of WhatCulture, Andrew can usually be found writing, editing, or presenting on a wide range of topics. As a lifelong wrestling fan, horror obsessive, and comic book nerd, he's been covering those topics professionally as far back as 2010. In addition to his current WhatCulture role of Senior Content Producer, Andrew previously spent nearly a decade as Online Editor and Lead Writer for the world's longest-running genre publication, Starburst Magazine, and his work has also been featured on BBC, TechRadar, Tom's Guide, WhatToWatch, Sportkskeeda, and various other outlets, in addition to being a Rotten Tomatoes-approved film critic. Between his main day job, his role as the lead panel host of Wales Comic Con, and his gig as a pre-match host for Wrexham AFC games, Andrew has also carried out a hugely varied amount of interviews, from the likes of Robert Englund, Kane Hodder, Adrienne Barbeau, Rob Zombie, Katharine Isabelle, Leigh Whannell, Bruce Campbell, and Tony Todd, to Kevin Smith, Ron Perlman, Elijah Wood, Giancarlo Esposito, Simon Pegg, Charlie Cox, the Russo Brothers, and Brian Blessed, to Kevin Conroy, Paul Dini, Tara Strong, Will Friedle, Burt Ward, Andrea Romano, Frank Miller, and Rob Liefeld, to Bret Hart, Sting, Mick Foley, Ricky Starks/Saints, Jamie Hayter, Britt Baker, Eric Bischoff, and William Regal, to Mickey Thomas, Joey Jones, Phil Parkinson, Brian Flynn, Denis Smith, Gary Bennett, Karl Connolly, and Bryan Robson - and that's just the tip of an ever-expanding iceberg. Where his beloved Wrexham AFC is concerned, Andrew is co-host of the Fearless in Devotion podcast, which won the Club Podcast of the Year gong at the 2024 FSA Awards.

Posted On: 27th Oct 2020

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