WOW’s Teal Piper Talks Building a Character, First Promos, Creating a Finisher, and More

Women Of Wrestling recently announced that Teal Piper would be joining the roster, which will be her first foray into professional wrestling. If the name sounds familiar, it should, as Teal is the daughter of legendary WWE icon Rowdy Roddy Piper, but she will be bringing a style all her own to WOW over the coming months. First up though is a big debut at All Elite Wrestling’s All Out pay-per-view event as part of the Women’s Battle Royale, and ComicBook.com had the chance to talk to Piper all about the journey thus far, her upcoming WOW debut, finding her style, working on her finisher, and more!

Piper is entering a big stage for her first pro wrestling match, but the good news is that everyone seems to be team Piper in the locker room and behind the scenes.

“Yeah. A lot of the girls there, especially the trainers, are super supportive, and they’re all rooting for me, which is really cool,” Piper said. “I think most of the advice I got was, don’t break anything. Good luck. Mostly they’re just moral support and obviously they’ve been there. They’ve been helping me train for the match itself and I think they’re just as excited to see it happen as I am. It’s such a big thing, it’s hard to put in words.”

Piper has also had support from the company in coming up with her own style, look, and voice for her character at every step of the way, something she truly appreciates. That look will include some nods to her father, but it won’t overshadow her character in any way.

“I think I’ve been really blessed as far as that goes,” Piper said. “I’ve had a very, very heavy hand in creativity with all that. Pretty much whatever I want to do, everyone’s been cool with. Everything you see is my creation, which is the blessing of the independent circuit and where I’m at right now in my career. That being said, if you guys hate it, I’m definitely the person to blame. For sure, that was because of my decision making there. But it’s been really cool because I’ve been able … you’ll see in my outfit, there’ll be nods to my dad, but at the same time it’s still very much me and my own character, my own thing.”

Another big part of wrestling is delivering promos, and while she doesn’t have many under her belt just yet, her background in theater has helped quite a bit, as did growing up around one of the best talkers in the business.

“To be honest, the promos you’ve seen are pretty much the first few that I’ve ever cut,” Piper said. “I’m coming from a theatrical background, and I learned a lot from my dad as far as all of that goes, so I think it was something that came naturally as far as, I know who Teal Piper is. I know the kind of character that I want to be and I know what I can and cannot pull off on camera, that stuff. I think that that is the most organic part of the whole thing for me. I mean, the promos came pretty easily to be honest.”

If you’re going to throw down in the ring, you’re going to need a proper finishing move. While Piper isn’t ready to reveal details regarding what that move is just yet, she is working on one, and we will probably see it for the first time in her solo debut.

“Well, I was thinking of just straight murder because I figured that would be really recognized and go a long way, but apparently they won’t let me do that,” Piper said with a laugh. “A finishing move needs to be very much perfected and I’m still working on what I want to carry out as my finishing move. I think all careers develop as they go a little bit and for me, the craziest thing about the whole process is just learning your own style in the ring. Taking the fall hurts. That’s been pretty intense. Finding my own style in the ring and incorporating everything. I think my finishing move will become more and more organic as I get to my first solo match down the road.”

When asked what she thinks will surprise fans the most about her character, the fact that it’s happening at all was what sprung to mind. “I think the most surprising part already happened. I think people did not see it coming that I was going to get in the ring, and I’ve been holding that as a secret forever. It’s exciting to get to talk about it because it’s been my dirty little secret I’ve had in my life for a while now. But I think other than that, I think people will hopefully be surprised and enjoy Teal Piper as a character and as a heel.”

“I try not to take any influence from current wrestling just so, I think you don’t want to put yourself in a box or start inadvertently thinking one way,” Piper said. “I try to stay doing my own thing because I think it’ll help me establish my own character and stand out a bit. I think that that type of stuff is what people are going to be pleasantly surprised by when it comes to Teal Piper.”

Piper will hit the ring tonight as part of AEW’s All Out kickoff show The Buy-In, where she’ll compete against stars like Britt Baker, Brandi Rhodes, Jazz, Ivelisse, and more. Her big WOW debut will take place at live events on September 18th and 19th, and the season premiere of WOW will take place on AXS TV on September 7th at 8 pm est.

Are you excited for Piper’s debut? Let us know in the comments and you can hit me up on Twitter @MattAguilarCB for all things WOW!