Nita Strauss Opens Up About Playing Shinsuke To The Ring At WrestleMania, Working w/ Mick Foley, More

We actually got confirmed for the WrestleMania performance the week of WrestleMania. There was no long preparation time, but the process started months earlier. My manager Josh really is a visionary, and he has a knack for coming up with cool ideas and then finding ways to make those ideas happen. He had me make a video playing Shinsuke’s song backstage at an Alice Cooper show, and he was sending it out to WWE. They said they’d had me on their radar for quite some time, and it was synchronicity that made it work out the way it did.

When I got finished their match [Nakamura vs Styles] started, and I immediately got shuttled off to do press, so I didn’t get to see any of it. But, they had my guitar still in Gorilla, so I had to go back and get it, and when I went back to get it Roman and Brock were there warming up. That was quite a unique thing, and I got to watch that backstage in catering with the rest of the wrestlers.

I think it’s so much cooler as a fan to do something like that. I think the WWE Universe have really accepted me, because they know I’m one of them. I’m a mark, I read WrestleZone just like everybody else, so it’s been a really really great experience for me as a newer wrestling fan.

We’ve known Mick for a couple years now, and he’s a big music fan too. He knows what a big wrestling fan I am, and anytime he’s in the city he’ll come see me play. Mick is a really cool, genuine person, and to get to do something for him, to get to be a part of his entrance is really really cool for me.