Lacey Evans was interviewed by Sporting News and the WWE star touched upon several topics including her rough childhood, her time in the Marines Corp, being a mother and not being afraid to get physical in the ring. Evans also touches upon the ability to talk trash thanks to her tenure as a Marine and her real reasons for venturing into professional wrestling. Quotes are below:
Sporting News: I know Mondays are always a busy day leading up to “Raw.” Do you have a regular routine and how do you stay focused on what you need to do for the show?
Lacey Evans: I don’t really have a regular routine because, like you said, it’s always chaos. There’s always things that change. We get here early. You’ve got hair, you’ve got makeup, you’ve got whatever they want to be on live television. I’ve got my daughter right here by my side so I’m juggling a lot of different things, but I’m always ready regardless of what they put on my plate.
You mentioned your daughter. You’ve had some adventures taking her on road with you in WWE. What has that been like for both of you?
It’s amazing. It definitely motivates me. It reminds me why I do what I’m doing and it really helps me through this process. I’m learning a lot within WWE. The biggest thing that I like is the fact that she’s here and she can watch me first-hand work really hard to fight for becoming a champion and doing good at whatever is expected from me. Life is hard, new jobs are hard. They really put you out of your element and it takes a lot. So, to be able to show her first-hand the work that gets put in and show her that she’s capable of anything as long as she works hard, it means a lot to me.
When you came over to WWE, for the first few months you were mostly walking down to the ring and back in trying to make an impression and letting people see you. How anxious were you during that time to do more and get physical?
Oh, I’m a very physical person. Blame it on the military if you want, but I’m mean. I’ve very mean and I was excited to get my hands on somebody. It didn’t matter who. I was just blessed that I got to walk out and show my face and remind the WWE Universe that Lacey Evans is here and ready for whatever the hell she wants. It was cool but, definitely, I was excited to get in the ring and start proving what I’m capable of.
You’ve told your story about having a rough childhood, growing up in a home with parents who suffered from depression and addiction. Then when you were 19, you joined the Marines. Where would you be right now if you hadn’t made that choice?
There was depression, addiction and it was never enough. My father, unfortunately, lost his battle just two months before my WWE tryout. The Marine Corps saved me as far as getting my mind clear and being able to get myself in a place with better influences and role models in my life because I didn’t have that growing up.
If I didn’t join the Marine Corps, there’s no telling what would have happened to me, my family. Me as a mother, me as a wife, but it’s definitely one of the best decisions I ever did make because growing up without a positive role model, you’ve got to find them somewhere and I found that in the United States Marine Corps. I found that in the leadership I had while in active duty and I couldn’t be more blessed to have that in my life because it definitely made me the woman that I am today.
You’ve talked a lot about growing up in that household and then turning to the Marines. How did you not fall into those same pitfalls, especially with what you experienced beginning at a young age?
Whenever good comes to light to my siblings that didn’t take the best path that they could have taken or my father, I don’t know why I am who I am today, but I know what who they are because I was there. We’ve been through a lot of hard times, but I just stay busy. At a young age, it was sports, getting my first job washing dishes at a pizza place when I was 14. An idle mind is the devil’s handy work. Keep your mind going. Stay in sports. Do whatever extra activities. Anything you can do that doesn’t leave you sitting in the same life cycle as the negativity that is absorbing these children, absorbing young adults.
Stay busy whether it’s fighting college, staying in school, staying in sports. Keep your mind motivated. Keep your mind busy. That way you don’t have time to sit there and be a victim because of the things you’re going through in life because of drugs and depression. Stay busy and stay motivated and that’s what I did my entire life growing up from the time I was able to walk to be honest with you. I did not sit there and tell myself I was the victim of anything. I worked every day to achieve those little goals and break the cycle I was used to growing up in a home like that. No matter what type of cycle you’re stuck in, you are capable of breaking that.
You have an incredible story of what you’ve gone through in life and it’s very inspiring for people. Do you think there will be a time when that story becomes more a part of your character that we see on WWE television?
I can only hope and pray that it is. One of the biggest reasons I chose to be a sports entertainer was not to be famous, but actually to be famous to show the entire world these babies that are suffering, these young adults that are making these decisions thinking that they don’t have any other option, that it doesn’t matter the cards you’ve been dealt.
You can become anything that you want to be. You’re not a victim and you can break the cycle. It just takes a mentality to stay strong and keep busy. I’m blessed to have this platform and I could only hope that one day it is, to a point, where I can verbally say that. I was in their shoes. I know what it feels like. If someone would have told me that growing up, I probably would have made the decision a lot sooner than 19 to finally step out of that situation.
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