Nia Jax Reveals Her Reaction To Men’s Royal Rumble Appearance

Like many of her peers, Nia Jax had a controversial exit from her former employer. Jax was released from her WWE contract this past November while she was on a mental health break. Now going by Lina Fanene, Jax was scheduled to make her first in-ring appearance outside of WWE at Wrestling Entertainment Series’ debut show this past June, but that appearance and the show altogether never came to fruition. Regardless of what the future holds for the former WWE Women’s Tag Team Champion, Jax has plenty of immortal moments already in her professional wrestling resume. Aside from the championships and marquee WrestleMania matches, Jax can lay claim to being the only superstar to compete in two Royal Rumble matches in the same night.

“I think they were just wanting to spice up [the 2019 Men’s Royal Rumble], make it different,” Jax told the Wives of Wrestling podcast (h/t Fightful). “Johnny [Laurinaitis] said he suggested it to Vince and Vince loved it. I mean, it was crazy because it wasn’t just like being in the men’s match. I was in both rumbles on the same night. Somebody said that to me that night, I got obliterated that night, and everybody was buying me a shot and I was hammered. [Rey Mysterio] was freaking getting me wasted, Shane McMahon. Anyways, we were just, we were sloppy messes. Somebody was like, ‘Did you know you were in both [Royal Rumble matches] tonight?’ I was like, ‘Ah, I was! S–t, that’s huge.’”

Jax’s WWE Royal Rumble 2019 run puts her in elite company. Even beyond the two battle royals in a single night, Jax became the fourth woman to enter the men’s Rumble match. Jax joined fellow female entrants like Kharma (Awesome Kong) and Beth Phoenix by scoring an elimination, but she was also subject to a flurry of finishers from Dolph Ziggler, Rey Mysterio, and Randy Orton. Still, Jax said she was all in on the moment from the initial pitch.

“Well, I’ve always just been — I call myself a ‘Vince Girl,’ right? Whatever he wants, whatever match he wants to put me in, whatever opponent, whatever kind of weird gimmick he wants me to do, I’m just like, ‘Yeah, whatever you want,’” Jax said. “Like, it’s my job, you know? I was like,’ Yo, whatever you’d like.’

“You know, when you’re in it, it’s just a cool moment and you’re just trying to soak it all in, and then when you get past it, you’re honored that they thought of you to be in that position,” Jax continued. “I always had a good relationship with Vince. We chatted and laughed, we joked and so I even went up to him and just said, ‘I’m very grateful that you thought of me for this.’ He [responded], ‘Of course, of course, I wanted to see you get your a– kicked,’ like, you know, jokingly, Vince is, but it is a huge opportunity. Because if you don’t get put in that position, that’s it, you’re easily forgettable. You can go up and be on the main roster and have a couple of matches here and there. But if you don’t get put into some seriously cool storylines or matches like that, you kind of get forgotten. So it was a super, super cool moment, and I was super honored.”

Speaking of the Royal Rumble match, Jax was originally pitched to return to WWE at this year’s multi-woman battle royal, but she explicitly shot it down.