Leticia Cline joined the Daily Suplex Radio (http://www.thedailysuplex.com) Sunday evening for an interview with the hosts Brian Thomas, Big Luther and Jon. She spoke about her entrance into the wrestling business, the reaction of the veterans, TNA’s backstage morale, and much more. Here is a recap of what went down in this 30 minute interview:
On being a fan as a kid: Leticia was a fan when she was young because her dad watched it. She enjoyed the Junkyard Dog as a kid. She got away from it when she got older, but got back into it when she was approached by TNA.
How did she get into the business: Jesse Ward found her on MySpace when they were looking for local talent for backstage announcer. The process went on for a couple of months
Why she left TNA: Leticia took a leave to do Playboy and Maxim and when she came back she was told by Terry Taylor that she wasn’t needed for the next taping because creative was coming up with something for her. She feels TNA was using her at the end to get publicity with the Playboy shoot since they asked her to make sure it said TNA Knockout on the cover. She confronted them about it and asked to be let go because of it.
On her scripted altercation with Crystal: Leticia doesn’t know if her angle was heading anywhere and that it was just kind of thrown together. She had been training with some of the girls and Jerry Lynn for a while to be able to get in the ring and more physical, but never got to use it.
On whom she liked working with: Leticia really enjoyed working with Christian Cage. She enjoyed working with everyone.
On backstage morale in TNA: Leticia said that the morale was pretty good. Everyone seems to like TNA and they work closer together with each other, including Jeff and Dixie. She doesn’t have a whole lot of negative to say about the TNA roster and office people.
On the Basic Instinct and Christopher Daniels Videos: Jessica Ward came up with the ideas and they were approved by TNA, but Jessica was fired due to the videos because TNA stated she was not allowed to post them on the internet. TNA was unhappy because Daniels was portrayed out of his character that at the time was a darker character who was mimicking Sting.
On the Howard Stern appearance: Leticia said she lost one of her racing jobs because of the show, but doesn’t believe it will affect her career very much. She has already received a job because of it for a no knuckle fight league in Brazil and has another job she will be interviewing for later this week. She also does not believe that it will hurt her chances in the wrestling business at all.
On chances of going to WWE: Leticia has had talks for a couple of weeks with WWE, but she is concerned about the schedule WWE runs and would like to only work a couple of days a week. She is still talking and negotiating with them, but can’t really comment on the talks right now.
On returning to TNA in the future: She would like to go back there because TNA is like family to her. She doesn’t have hard feelings towards anyone and they are very close to home. She called TNA a great company to work for.
On Kurt Angle coming to TNA and taking over the show: Leticia says Angle did nothing but help TNA and she never heard of anyone complaining about him being on TV so much. She said if there are any problems (which she doesn’t know about) people have a hard time with the decision makers, but not Kurt.
On her fondest memory of TNA: Leticia pointed to St. Louis because she got a chance to go out and hang out with a lot of the talent. She never really hung out with the group afterwards, but they all got together there. She connected with Bubba Ray that night and learned a lot about the history of the business and how you should interact with wrestlers in the back. She started talking about proper respect in the wrestling business and learning that she was not being respectful to the wrestlers when she believed she was.
On being an outsider in the business and the reaction of the veterans: Leticia pointed out Mike Tenay and a lot of the veterans treated her differently because they felt she hadn’t paid her dues. She said it took a while, but feels that she connected with everyone in TNA and those feelings went away. She said she went to all meetings, arrived early, stayed late and did everything she could to learn as much as she could about the wrestling business.
On whether her perception of the business changed while working for TNA: Leticia said that she looks at the wrestling business in a completely different way now that she knows what goes into putting on the show and how the business works. She didn’t realize that the guys are wrestling everyday before joining TNA.
On Vince Russo: She said she worked with Vince Russo about 90% of the time⦠Unfortunately for us, Leticia’s phone died at about the 27 minute mark and she was unable to call back in. We hope to get Leticia back on in the near future.
