Paige VanZant is feeling a mix of emotions as she prepares to step into the squared circle.
During an appearance on Sirius XM’s Throwing Down w/ Renee & Miesha, Paige VanZant spoke about how her wrestling training compares to MMA. VanZant feels like she’ll pick things up quickly, but one key is breaking old habits.
“Honestly it’s amazing. A lot of similarities. And I think that I’m gonna pick things up quickly but the hard thing is to break some of the habits. The moves are so similar from MMA training to pro wrestling training, but there’s just those few differences that you really want to focus on. So I think that’s gonna be the hardest thing is just to adapt because I am still training MMA, to separate the two when I’m doing separate things just to make sure alright I’m wrestling now, I need to just make those few adjustments,” VanZant said.
“The difference I think for the pro wrestling, for me, it’s not as complicated yet just because I’m learning the basics and just learning the differences between what I do in MMA and what I do at American Top Team and what I will be doing for AEW. It’s very similar and luckily I’m an athlete,” she explained, “so I’m picking things up really quickly. But it’s still a lot of differences so it’s more we’re just doing the basics and breaking it down. It’s more tedious right now than hard, hard work.”
One adjustment she will have to make is cutting more promos and having the physical aspect only be one element of her repertoire. VanZant says that she’ll need to learn to speak in a new forum, but she’s feeling nervous and excited about the whole experience.
“Yeah that is gonna be honestly the hardest part, is learning to work the microphone, learning to speak in public. I feel like I’ve always done well speaking in public, but all the questions are about me, and it’s pretty easy to just kind of like talk about yourself. But in this instance, it’s going out there and I’m gonna be calling people out,” VanZant said, “I’m gonna be talking to other female wrestlers, it’s making it in the entertainment industry as well. But at the same time, I do know that luckily I’m going in there and I’m still Paige VanZant at the end of the day, and that’s who got signed to be a pro wrestler, and that’s who they’re gonna all have to face and that’s who they’re gonna hear on the microphone.
“I wouldn’t say it’s pressure. More from my nerves, of course. I wanna be successful at absolutely anything that I try. It’s almost the same transition that I had going from the UFC to bare knuckle boxing. It’s just exciting, you know. It’s a big career change, it’s a big life change. But I knew it was something that I had wanted to do for a long time. And I wanna be really good at it. I want to go out there and I don’t want to look terrible. I don’t want to fall straight on my face. I want to go prove who I am and why I signed in pro wrestling and I do think I bring a lot to the table. So there’s just more nerves and excitement on my end.”
VanZant also spoke about her meetings with WWE and how her experience with AEW has been more beneficial to her mixed martial arts career.
“It’s been amazing, honestly. I showed up the first few times just having Dan Lambert’s back. I did know that my career would take me into pro wrestling eventually, I wasn’t sure what venue that would be, if that would be WWE, if that would be AEW. I’ve been a fan of both, so I actually did make it out about a year ago to the WWE headquarters. And they had a different plan for what they wanted for me. Whereas at AEW, I’m so excited that they were happy to partner with me and let me continue to fight MMA, continue to do bare knuckle boxing. They’re really honestly on board to just build my career, build me as a wrestler and still let me be myself.”
Read More: Paige VanZant Focusing On AEW, But ‘I’m Not Done MMA Fighting At All’
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