Summer Rae Explains Why She Was Worried About WWE Return

One of the more surprising returns announced for this year’s Women’s Royal Rumble was former WWE star Summer Rae, who left the promotion back in October 2017.

She will join the likes of Mickie James, the Bellas, Kelly Kelly, Lita and Michelle McCool as nostalgia stars taking part in the match.

Speaking on the latest episode of Renee Paquette’s Oral Sessions podcast, Summer Rae explained why she was worried about returning to the company after so long away.

She said:

“When they called me about Rumble and stuff, at first they were like, ‘would you be interested? Would you even consider it?’ That was like the second thing that I said, ‘Oh, I’m red-headed now.’ I guess Sasha has every hair color under the world and [Naomi], but I think I look extremely different and some people don’t even recognize me, especially on socials. John Cone was like, ‘Johnny [John Laurinaitis] and I, will bring it up to Vince.’ I remember saying it in front of my sister and she was like, ‘Don’t use it as an excuse.’ ‘It’s not an excuse. I can’t just show up like this and Vince see me and be like who the hell is that?'”

She went on to note that she was also worried about a possible lack of preparation, as she didn’t have access to a ring. Summer went on to discuss how she wasn’t expecting WWE to announce her return so soon.

“Then they called me last Friday and said, ‘Vince wants to announce a couple of people tonight and he’s thinking about announcing you. Just a heads up, your socials are going to surge.’ I’m thinking, ‘I haven’t told any of my best friends. I’m going to look like such a bad person.’ I hadn’t told anyone because I didn’t want anyone to ruin the surprise. When it happened, I was a little taken aback, ‘That stinks, it was supposed to be a surprise.’ Also, in my head, I was like, ‘I’m going to use this to market the crap out of me and what I’m doing.’ When I’m in the gym it’s ‘Road to Rumble,’ I can reignite my beef with Nattie. Bayley wrote me and started putting me over. I talked to a bunch of the girls and they were like, ‘it’s an insane match to put together. Everything changes until the moment you walk out.’ How is that even possible? I have no ego and feel I’m easy to work with and think producers have a time with the matches with the personalities and egos and getting your s**t in. I would love to have a Total Divas moment and maybe a spot with Nattie and then wave to my friends.”

While WWE has announced several surprise entrance ahead of time, it’s widely expected we’ll get even more surprises once the Rumble match comes around.

Credit to Fightful for the transcription.

To make sure you stay updated with all the latest wrestling news, add WrestleTalk.com to your Google Discover feed and follow us on Twitter!

• Renee Paquette
• summer rae
• Royal Rumble
• wwe

Share this article with friends