AEW’s Anna Jay is the guest on the latest episode of Chris Jericho’s “Talk Is Jericho” podcast. Anna talked about her journey that led her to become a pro wrestler, how she met Brodie Lee at the tapings in Georgia, the backstage atmosphere in AEW, and much more.
Here are some highlights:
Anna Jay talked about Brodie Lee’s influence on her: “It was great. First off, he was super welcoming. Then being the only girl with all those guys, he was super nice. He was super helpful with my character telling me how I should portray myself. He also helped me get people to be interested in what I was doing which helped a lot. He gave me the Queen Slayer and 99 names. He would always watch my matches. Every segment that I did, when I would come to the back, he would tell me what I should do differently or if I did good or what I should fix for the next time. He helped a lot.”
Where did he get the name Queen Slayer nickname?: “Honestly, I don’t know. I didn’t even know he was going to call me the Queen Slayer until we were live and he did it in the ring. Then it caught on.”
How about 99?: “Yea, that was cool too. I didn’t even know about that until his Unrestricted interview came out. He never even told me and it’s funny because in the interview, he literally said it only matters to me. So he never even told me that’s what it was for. But now to know that, it’s crazy and it’s cool and I will keep that forever. 99 is Wayne Gretzky the hockey player. I don’t know much about hockey, but obviously, he was a huge fan. It’s an honor to have that number even though I think people were confused that I had 99 and everyone else was 1 through 10.”
Tell us about the idea of originally having you wear a mask: “The original mask was actually one you see all the other guys wearing, so the full on mask, the tie in the back and everything. I still have it at my house. They bedazzled it for me but as soon as I went to wear it, they were like, “No. Don’t don’t do that. We are going to do a different one.” Then they went to the store to get me one of those cardboard masquerade masks. They bedazzled that for me. I wore it, I think, once to the ring. Maybe twice? Then Tony Khan was like, no.”
Why did they want you to wear a mask in the first place: “I think it was because a lot of the guys wore masks and they wanted me to have the look of that. They didn’t really say why because I think they went back and forth a lot on whether they wanted me to.”
If you use any portion of the quotes from this article please credit Talk Is Jericho with a h/t to WrestlingNews.co for the transcription
