11 Things You Didn't Know About WWE's Tatum Paxley
8. Alexa Bliss Was The First Wrestler She Clicked With
When she was getting lost in the dizzying amount of content available on YouTube, Paxley found herself gravitating more and more towards one Alexa Bliss. She's openly credited Alexa as the first worker to sell her on the idea of story, characterisation etc. Whilst watching, Tatum found Alexa’s character compelling and wanted to learn more about her, what she was about, what she was capable of and that sort of thing; that's when she realised that there’s more to wrestling than just the moves or matches.
It's about telling a story and taking people on an emotional journey. That sounds so simple to somebody who has been watching since they were knee high to the proverbial grasshopper, but Tatum the younger wasn't a fan of the biz in her formative years. So, in other words, she had to learn everything as an adult, but came into it with fresh eyes without rolling them about 'how fake everything is'.
She was far too busy being entertained.
Keeping everything she'd gleaned from Bliss in mind helped to overcome a slow start in NXT. It's so fun that she’s linked with Bliss on SmackDown now. Things have a magical way of working out sometimes. Paxley went from checking out some of Alexa's best matches on YouTube during her lunch breaks or at home to buddying up with her on episodes of SmackDown. Nobody, including the woman herself, could've predicted that.
Obviously, the more out there aspects of Alexa's gimmick had a huge impact on Paxley's own characterisation as well.