A full-time WWE return wasn’t in the cards for Nia Jax when she entered the 2023 Women’s Royal Rumble match.
RAW Superstar Nia Jax was a recent guest on WWE After The Bell with Corey Graves. When asked how her Royal Rumble appearance earlier this year came about, Jax said she never intended to return full-time and was only doing it because she believed it was Tamina’s last Rumble match.
“So you obviously know my cousin Tamina,” Nia Jax began. “She was just like, ‘I don’t know sis, this might be my last Rumble.’ And I’m like, ‘Oh no. Is it your last Rumble? I would love to be a part of it.’ Because they had asked me the previous year at just newly released, they had asked me to return for the Rumble, and I said with a very expletive no.
“And so this year, I was like oh if they ask me and if this is going to be Tamina’s last Rumble, I really want to be a part of it. Like anybody who knows Tamina, she’s got the biggest heart in the world. And I was like, dang, I would love to be a part of that. So, I had reached out to — I told TJ [Wilson], I said, ‘Hey, if there’s any way they want to put me in the Rumble. I would love to be a part of the Rumble.’ And I told John Cohn, and so then apparently, it worked out.
“I was at my mom’s house in California like two weeks before. And Dan from TR had reached out and was like, ‘Hey, so you’re gonna be in the Rumble.’ And I was like, okay! So thankfully, I had gear makers that got it together. But I had no intention of being full-time again. I thought like come back, have a cool little Rumble entrance, do something cool with my cousin, which didn’t even happen, and then kind of go off and go back to the farm.
Nia Jax’s Royal Rumble experience
“So yeah, I wasn’t intending on coming back permanently at the Rumble. But when I did get in the ring at the Rumble, and I did experience the crowd and seeing everybody backstage, I was like I freaking miss it. I wasn’t in there long enough, I want to do this, and I want to do that. So yeah, then my fitness goals, I was like okay, I want to lose more weight.
“I want to be more mobile. That was when I said okay, let me get some more cardio with Nattie and see how it is. I just got in the Rumble for like a minute and got tossed out. I didn’t do a match or run some spots. So that’s when I was like — you know, Nattie and TJ are so amazing. They’re like, absolutely come on in, and Nattie loves a good blow-up drill.”
READ MORE: Nia Jax: My Actions Speak Louder Than My Words
What do you make of Nia Jax’s comments? Did you think her Royal Rumble appearance was leading to a full-time return? Let us know your thoughts by sounding off in the comments section below.
If you use these quotes, please credit After The Bell with a link to this article for the transcription.
