Nidia getting the chance to do what she loves: wrestle
By: Phil Speer
People involved in the sports-entertainment industry have known for a while now what fans are just starting to learn: Nidia can wrestle.
Being drafted to RAW finally gives her the opportunity to show off her mat skills.
“Wrestling is what I love,” she said.
Referring to her primary responsibilities on SmackDown!, she added, “Being a valet is great. And bikini contests are fun. But I really feel challenged and driven when I’m wrestling. After a wrestling match, I come to the back and I want to know everything – (like) how to improve. I’m hungry.
“On SmackDown!, I got very comfortable, but when I found out I was going to RAW, that hunger came back and I was like, ‘Wow, I’m going to play with the big girls.’”
Nidia says she relishes the opportunity to compete for the Women’s Championship. Her peers say she’s been ready to do so for a while now.
“I’m very high on Nidia’s skills,” said Danny Davis, founder and trainer at Ohio Valley Wrestling, where Nidia trained for seven months after winning Tough Enough. “Of course, she hasn’t had the opportunity to display her in-ring skills; I think now she will. I think everyone will be pleased with the way she wrestles. She’s very good. Very aggressive. I think she’ll surprise most everyone because if it’s down-on-the-mat wrestling, she can do it. If there are any aerial maneuvers, she can do those as well.”
Born in Mayaguez, Puerto Rico, Nidia moved to Houston at a young age and grew up there. She said she never participated in organized sports in high school – only the color guard. But she “played around in the neighborhood” and could always keep up with the boys.
“We used to jump on trampolines and try to slam dunk,” she said with a laugh, “which was fun until we bent the rim.”
On the first season of Tough Enough, Nidia proved that she had natural athletic ability, as she was one of only two women to survive until the end of the season. Upon being named Tough Enough co-champion, along with Maven, she reported to OVW to further hone her in-ring skills.
Nidia calls her time in OVW some of the most fun she’s ever had, training alongside future WWE Superstars like Rob Conway, the Bashams, Shelton Benjamin and John Cena.
She remembers, “We’d stay after practice for hours and hours and it’d be like, ‘Oh shoot, we haven’t eaten yet.’”
Nidia quickly realized that wrestling was her passion.
“Once you love it, it doesn’t even feel like work,” she said.
“You learn, and you learn quickly, but you don’t even feel like you’re learning because it just feels like you’re having a good time.”
Soon, she arrived on SmackDown!, aligning herself with Jamie Noble, who she calls a great teacher and credits with helping her develop further as a wrestler, even if she rarely got the opportunity to show it on television.
In fact, her match with Molly Holly on Monday’s RAW was just her second-ever actual wrestling match on live television. (The other was her Blindfold Match against Noble at February’s No Way Out.)
Asked if she was nervous before the match on RAW, Nidia said, “I always get nervous, but the worst is like three hours before, because you’re thinking about it. But then 20 minutes before show time, all that that nervousness turns into adrenaline. And then once you go through the curtain and see the crowd, it’s like, ‘Oh yeah baby. This is why I’m here. Let’s do this.’”
With Nidia’s arrival, the women’s division on RAW is perhaps stronger than ever. Nidia can’t wait to step into the ring with Superstars like Jazz, as well as the current Women’s Champion, Victoria, who Nidia “wrestled so many times, it’s insane” in OVW.
Nidia also said she realizes she needs to continue to improve, and she intends to do just that, working with agent Fit Finlay to learn some new techniques.
“Now I’ve got to up my game,” she said. “It’s like being thrown into moving traffic. You’ve got to keep up. I love being challenged because it keeps you on your toes.”
Written: March 30th 2004
Publication: WWE.com