8 Things WWE Fans Need To Know About Nia Jax
There's more to Raw's newcomer than meets the eye.
One of six NXT wrestlers to make their way to WWE’s main roster in the 2016 Draft, Nia Jax has officially arrived. Dispatching a local enhancement talent with relative ease on this week’s Raw, Jax was immediately presented as a threat in the WWE women’s division, and if her career trajectory thus far is anything to go by, her prominence is only likely to grow from here.
Hers was a controversial call-up. When the NXT call-ups were first announced, it was implied that at least two would come from the female side of the roster. Bayley felt like a dead-lock: the former NXT Women’s Champion had nothing left to prove after a successful title run and a catalogue of great matches with the likes of Charlotte, Sasha Banks, and Asuka.
But Bayley’s call-up never came. Instead, WWE fans were given Jax, Alexa Bliss, and Carmella, and the response was mixed to say the least, with Jax prompting a particularly divisive reaction. Was she ready for mainstream exposure? Had she spent enough time in developmental? Had she paid her dues?
Regardless, Nia Jax is here now, and she’s about to become a major fixture on Monday Night Raw. Despite the circumstances that brought her here, there’s much more to Nia than first meets the eye, and her journey to Monday Night Raw wasn’t as easy as you think.
Here are 8 things WWE fans need to know about Nia Jax.
8. Basketball Was Her First Sport
Nia Jax is a lifelong professional wrestling fan, but like so many of her peers, she started her athletic career in a completely different vocation. Born in Hawaii to a Samoan father and German mother, Nia and her family moved to San Diego, California at a very young age. She became a huge fan of the city’s two major sports teams - the Chargers (NFL) and Padres (MLB) - and chose to take-up basketball while attending Carlsbad High School.
She was a natural on the court, and continued to play basketball all the way through her college career. With coaches praising her elite-level athleticism, discipline, and dedication, Jax became one of Palomar College’s most widely-respected student athletes, and if it weren’t for her subsequent career moves, there’s a strong chance she could’ve wound-up in the WNBA.
It was her basketball scholarship that took her to college, but Jax also excelled away from the court. Her passion for basketball was slowly drifting away, and after leaving college with a bachelor’s degree in business administration, Jax found herself transfixed by a new passion.