Earlier today a new interview from Warrior Wrestling Women’s Champion Athena (who previously went by Ember Moon in WWE) was released, where she told Chris Van Vliet that during her last four months in the company she and other stars had to attend a meeting in which they were encouraged to dress sexier. She pointed out that she shouldn’t have to dress like Mandy Rose since they are two very different people, and also said Rose is phenomenal but not everyone is her. Fightful Select now has released new details about these meetings and says they were NXT meetings under the guise of “fashion consulting” and “fashion aid”, playing up that the women on NXT were larger than life stars.
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The company brought in fashion expert Melanie Pace to conduct these meetings back in October of 2021, and one wrestler in NXT said that it was a stark contrast to how things were prior to this point, as people in NXT were previously just encouraged to either wear their gear or an available merchandise shirt.
Along with Athena, several other members of the roster expressed displeasure that these meetings happened, and the name that came up as the reason for them was John Laurinaitis, who had just stepped back into a more powerful role. Fightful also notes that they haven’t confirmed whether he was the reason for them though or that he had anything to do with them.
A talent also said that while they were encouraged to dress similarly backstage, and while “dressing sexier” was not outrightly said, it was implied. They were also given pamphlets of tops, heels, and outfits, and looking at just a part of Pace’s collection of looks, it does match the dress sexier mantra that seemed to be a focus at the time. You can find Athena’s original comments below.
“We would have to sit through stupid meetings about how we’d have to dress sexy. I remember looking at someone else (and laughing). I cater to children. I’m not about to wear fishnet booty buttcheek shorts because we had a two-hour meeting about how to dress like Mandy Rose. That’s not fair. Mandy is absolutely phenomenal and an amazing person, but not everyone is Mandy Rose. I started seeing this downslope as soon as Hunter was gone. For the first bit, we didn’t know why, we just knew he wasn’t there. I got so angry. I was sitting there thinking, ‘I did nothing wrong. I didn’t piss off Vince.’ They take Shotzi away, Hunter is gone. ‘You guys promised me this wouldn’t happen. You promised I wouldn’t be lost in the shuffle. I went on this losing streak to help you guys out and build other talent so I could get a reward,’” Athena said.
