Gigi Rey opens up about her role in Asuka’s WrestleMania 39 entrance.
WrestleMania week remains arguably the busiest week of the year for both professional wrestling fans and performers. With this year’s festivities based in Los Angeles, California, WWE decided to cultivate a “Hollywood” theme for their big event. With this theme in mind, many WWE Superstars elevated their WrestleMania 39 entrances to include some special elements. As Asuka made her way down the entrance ramp, she was accompanied by four masked clones, one of which is now confirmed to be independent star, Gigi Rey.
Speaking with WrestleZone’s Ella Jay, Gigi Rey discussed the “surreal” experience of taking part in Asuka’s WrestleMania 39 entrance. While she was initially unaware of what she’d be doing at WrestleMania, Rey said she was grateful in just being backstage at WrestleMania. Once Rey was informed that she’d be acting as a clone of Asuka, she knew it was time to get to work.
“It was awesome. It was great, it was so cool. I felt so fortunate to be able to get booked as an extra on WrestleMania,” Rey said. “So, I went out to Los Angeles and I didn’t really know going there if you were going to do anything. You kind of just go, and if [WWE] have something for you, they do. If you don’t, they don’t. I still thought it was cool to kind of just to be backstage at WrestleMania biggest show of the year. I’ve been a fan of wrestling my whole entire life, so it’s one thing to be an extra at like Raw or Smackdown, but to be it at Mania, it’s cooler than the other ones, I guess.”
“Then to be able to do like the Asuka thing was really, really cool. They just give you your costume. They kind of tell you what to do and you go out there and practice on the stage with Asuka. Then Triple H comes out and he’s directing what to do. It’s just such a surreal moment,” she said. “Then you’re on that huge stage. And I think it was night two. I wasn’t there for night one, so I had already known what like the stage looked like and all that stuff. But just to go out there and walk out there and kind of just to be like part of, I guess, the small crew that you’re part of was really neat.”
“Then you’re walking around and we still have our little Asuka gimmicks on and all the signed talent are like ‘Oh, it’s the Asukas!’ It was cool just to be an Asuka for a day, or for like five minutes. It was just a really great experience, and I’m really, really thankful that I got to do something like that. I think growing up as a fan and Asuka being someone who really inspired me to get into wrestling, to be able to be a part of her entrance was really, really, really cool.”
In addition to acting as an Asuka clone, Rey revealed that the four extras also received the opportunity to choose the ensembles they wanted to wear on the stage. Rey also noted that all the costumes were all formerly worn by Asuka herself.
“The gowns that we were wearing were like the actual Asuka gowns, like gowns that she’s worn on NXT Takeover. They let us pick which one we wanted, I knew exactly which one I wanted. I was like, ‘That one is mine. No one else gets it.’ [Mine] was orange. It kind of had like a leopard print on it, like fur. I’m pretty sure she wore it on like one of the NXT Takeovers, one of her championship matches. I saw it and I just recognized it so much. It was just like that vintage NXT Asuka robe and I was like, ‘That’s the one I want to wear.’ I don’t know if I just like called it dibs too early maybe, but yeah, so that was cool. So you’re like wearing like her actual robes, which was like really cool.”
During their dress rehearsals, Rey noted that their masks were difficult to see through, which caused some internal concern. In fact, Rey’s mask almost fell off.
“When we’re on the stage for the entrance, we did our little thing. Then you had to like walk to the end of the like stage, And I’m like, ‘You have this robe on, someone’s going to step on it behind you.’ Because we kept doing that while we were rehearsing. I don’t want to trip. I can’t see where I’m going. It was so nerve-wracking. I’m like, ‘Please, just don’t fall. Please just don’t fall. Not on the WrestleMania stage in front of like, what was it, like 80,000 people.'”
Despite the nervousness heading into their big moment, Rey prevailed through the performance with no stumbles and no accidental unmaskings.
