Nikki Cross sat outside Vince McMahon’s office for hours on a Raw day with a binder full of box office figures, and walked out having sold him a superhero.
The character became Nikki A.S.H., Almost A Superhero, and inside two months of debuting it she had won Money in the Bank and cashed in for the Raw Women’s Championship. It started because she had nothing to do.
Speaking on Insight with Chris Van Vliet, Cross explained that her tag team with Alexa Bliss was winding down and nothing was coming after it.
“That was my brainchild. The Nikki Cross and Alexa Bliss tag team, she was doing more stuff with Bray Wyatt, so I knew that was coming to an end, and that was kind of it for me for a while. There wasn’t anything for me in the storylines, so I was like, all right, I need something.”
She built a case rather than an idea.
“I was always the biggest fan of Hurricane Helms, and I was always a huge fan of Mighty Molly, and I loved superheroes. I loved the X-Men cartoon when I was growing up. There was a gap on the roster. We didn’t have anything like that. We hadn’t had anything like that in a really long time. And at this point, superheroes were that genre. The Avengers, Wonder Woman had just come out, so the box office numbers were talking.”
“I came up with this entire pitch. I had a portfolio, like a binder, and I did the market research for it. What were the box office numbers for Wonder Woman, the figures of what they grossed, and then Captain Marvel and Avengers, all the big major superhero movies and the television shows and what was available on streaming. Put it together, put together possible names.”
She also commissioned a Scottish artist to draw the costume, in blue and gold for the X-Men colours and again in green, in case McMahon wanted an alternative.
Then she queued.
“I waited outside Vince’s office for about a few hours. Monday night Raw, it’s not that far away from starting, and I didn’t have a lot of time, so I just basically gave it to Vince and was like, hey, I’ve got an idea. This will make you money. I just went in and gave him an elevator pitch. This will make you money. This is why. Here’s the proof. Here’s my pitch. Here’s my idea.”
Nothing came back for weeks. Then a text arrived on Mother’s Day.
“I got a text on Mother’s Day from him saying, I think your idea is genius. And hearing this from him, I was like, whoa. He’s literally saying this idea is genius. And I knew it was a good idea. I don’t know if I would have used the word genius because I’m a little more humble than that. And he was like, tell creative to get started on it. And I literally texted every creative member who I had the number for.”
The one change he made is the one she now defends. Her version had been polished and elaborate. His was a homemade costume and a woman who knows she has no powers.
“He wanted it to be Nikki Almost A Superhero, because almost, it’s like she’s not quite a superhero. She’s like a superhero in training. Vince wanted it to be something little girls could relate to, like if they wanted to make themselves a Nikki A.S.H. costume, they could. Mentally, she doesn’t think she has superpowers, but her mindset is that she’s a superhero and can take on the world.”
“When I first got the call from the company, I posted something on my Instagram and Twitter. The first photo I used was a little girl holding my hand in a Nikki A.S.H. costume, and I’m holding the Raw Women’s Championship. That photo is framed in my office because I will never forget that little girl’s face. In that very moment, I understood why make the superhero relatable.”
She went to Shane Helms before any of it aired.
“I wanted to make sure he was okay with it. I always call him Papa. He was so supportive. His advice was, no matter what, your mask has to stay on, because you cannot do a superhero character and then get a wardrobe malfunction with the mask coming off.”
Jason Baker, who built the Wyatt Family masks, made hers from a face cast taken in Pittsburgh, and went through four versions before it was tight enough. It gave her headaches and left a dent in her nose.
“If that mask had come off, it would have been game over.”
She did not know she was winning Money in the Bank until a producer said so in rehearsal, and had no idea about the cash-in until she was called in the following afternoon.
“I get to Raw the next day and I don’t think anything’s happening. It’s nothing’s in the script. So I’m like, maybe I’m just doing something on social media. And then a writer comes up to me and they’re like, okay, Vince wants to see you in his office. And I’m like, no way. No way they’re going to do a cash-in the next night.”
Charlotte Flair and Rhea Ripley were already in the room. Cross spent their match standing in Gorilla repeating one instruction to herself.
“Don’t trip and fall. Don’t trip, don’t fall. If you trip and fall, it’s game over. Don’t ruin this.”
Cross won Money in the Bank on July 18, 2021 and cashed in the next night to beat Flair for the Raw Women’s Championship. It was one of the first weekends with full crowds back after the pandemic period, which she thinks was part of why it landed.
“Maybe that’s just what the world needed at that time, just something joyful.”
