Roxxi Sets the Record Straight

Originally posted on http://www.tnawrestlingnews.com/ on 8/02/09.
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Roxxi Sets the Record Straight

by FK9
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From time to time I take part in an internet wrestling show a la Monday Night Mayhem called QCWradio. Recently, we had the good fortune to have as a special guest, former TNA Knockout, Roxxi a.k.a. Nikki Roxx. The following is the interview that hosts, Chessarmy & the Quintastic One, along with myself, conducted with her on 7/07/09.
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CHESSARMY: All right, ladies and gentlemen, we have, formerly known as the Voodoo Queen and the Hardcore Knockout -- she is Roxxi Laveaux a.k.a. Nikki Roxx a.k.a. Roxxi. Roxxi, are you on the line?

ROXXI: Yes! What’s going on, guys?

CHESSARMY: Finally. Welcome to the show.

ROXXI: Yes. I’m sorry about last time with the confusion. I apologize.

CHESSARMY: It’s okay. No problem at all. We, of course, thank you for joining us. You’re not getting paid after all so it’s really nice of you to do this little interview here on QCWradio. We’re going to try to make this as quick as possible. We know you’re a busy girl so we don’t want to keep you too long. Basically, we have 3 people on the line. Each of us are going to ask you 4 questions and we’re going to try to make this as fun as possible. We’re not serious-faced here, we’re here to have fun.

ROXXI: All right, good (laughs).

CHESSARMY: Everybody in the chatroom is excited that you’ve finally called in, so let’s get this thing started. I have a couple of questions of my own that we’re going to do here before we switch it over to my 2 buddies that are on the line with me. I guess I’ll start it off with probably one of the more generic questions to ask a worker when you interview them, but it’s something I’m actually interested in. How did you get your start in professional wrestling?

ROXXI: When I first got into wrestling I went with a couple buddies to Killer Kowalski’s school. I just went to watch and stuff and then, I think it was about 6 months later I ended up getting in the ring and I haven’t left the ring since then. It was almost like an accident. I was never like, “I’m going to be a wrestler when I grow up,” or anything like that. It was kind of strange.

CHESSARMY: That’s very interesting, of course. A lot of people don’t know what their future is going to be until it finally hits them. I’m sure you didn’t imagine yourself to be in this profession but it ended up happening and it definitely worked out for you, so I’m happy it did happen.

ROXXI: Oh, thanks.

CHESSARMY: The next thing I wanted to ask is about the Voodoo gimmick – something that you did in TNA. I just wanted to know who came up with the Voodoo gimmick and did you enjoy doing it?

ROXXI: It was actually TNA that came up with it. Abyss had actually… I’d been on a show with Abyss in New York several months before they actually called me. He watched my match and stuff and he liked what I could do so in creative meetings he kind of pitched me and stuff because they needed a Voodoo girl. So they called me and had kind of an idea of what they wanted to do and I had to kind of make it my own, but I actually really enjoyed doing it. I thought it was a lot of fun. There’s not too many girls that are that creepy. I had a lot of fun with it.

CHESSARMY: Yeah, I definitely enjoyed it as well. One of my favorite parts of your stint in TNA was definitely that Voodoo gimmick. Somebody in the chatroom is asking, Roxxi, will you ever go to WWE?

ROXXI: Well, if they had room for me, if they were interested, I would love to. Wrestling is what I love to do and I try to stay with it as much as I can. Right now I’m kind of regrouping and getting back into the groove of everything and trying to figure out what I plan on doing because, like you were saying, nobody really knows what the future really holds so I’m kind of along for an adventure.

CHESSARMY: No doubt about that. Next question is, again it’s about your gimmick, but this is something I was really interested to know about. The whole hardcore knockout thing – was that just a gimmick or do you actually enjoy working hardcore matches?

ROXXI: Actually, if anyone ever checks out my older stuff when I first wrestled as Nikki Roxx… I’m more of a grappler, brawler type thing. I’m never usually into hardcore. I was just something I got put into and I kind of just tried to do the best I could with it. It’s not something that’s my first decision to do. I would never want to be billed as just a hardcore wrestler. That’s not really my style.

CHESSARMY: Okay. And my last question… basically, what does the future hold for Nikki Roxx? Unfortunately you’re not on TV anymore but you belong on TV, that’s for sure.

ROXXI: Aw, thanks.

CHESSARMY: What does your future hold in the world of professional wrestling?

ROXXI: Right now I’m not exactly sure. Right before I got into TNA I was actually doing figure competitions, kind of like body building. So right now I’m focusing a little bit with that and still wrestling. I’m actually not sure yet. I’m trying to figure that out. I’m giving myself a little bit of a break to see what I feel like doing for now.

CHESSARMY: All right. We’re going to switch it over to Foolkiller99 -- we’ve got gimmick names too, Roxxi.

ROXXI: That’s awesome.

CHESSARMY: Foolkiller99 has got some questions for you. Go ahead, man.

FOOLKILLER99: All right, thank you. Let no one say that QCWradio shies away the hard questions, Chess. I think it would be a huge wasted opportunity to have Roxxi, or Nikki if you prefer to be called that, on the line for an interview if we didn’t ask her about the thing that everybody wants to know. The giant pink elephant in the room. The burning question that’s been on the minds of all her fans since she left TNA a few months ago. Simply put: Roxxi, is it difficult to function with only half of your brain when Taylor Wilde has the other half?

ROXXI: It so is, actually! You have no idea (laughs)! It’s very strange with her and I. We’ll be doing the same thing on the same day or we’ll make plans to do something and we haven’t even talked to each other. It’s really, really weird. I get very flustered sometimes when I finish sentences and she’s not there to do the rest (laughs).

FOOLKILLER99: I did my homework, Chess.

ROXXI: That’s awesome (laughs).

FOOLKILLER99: You learn strange things about a person from Twitter. It’s a wonderful thing.

ROXXI: Yeah, I’m sure you got a bunch of different things off there (laughs).

FOOLKILLER99: Oh yeah. How’s your car, by the way?

ROXXI: Right now it’s still in the shop and I’m waiting for them to ask me for a limb or something to fix it. I’ve got my fingers crossed that it’s something stupid like I didn’t turn the car on or something. That would be great, but sadly I’m thinking it’s something much more major (laughs).

FOOLKILLER99: Okay. Good luck with that. To give you a little shameless self-promotion time here, you recently outlasted 19 other women in an Uncensored Rumble match to become #1 contender for the WSU championship if my information is correct here. Current champion: Mercedes Martinez. That match scheduled to take place on August 8th. The rematch booked for August 22nd. Obviously, you and the Latina Sensation are no strangers to each other. Talk about your upcoming bouts with her for a minute and what’s your strategy going into the match?

ROXXI: Lots and lots of cardio because in that same show Mercedes Martinez and Angel Orsini went, I think it was like 72 minutes in a match and I was almost going to get sick watching because (laughs) my cardio I don’t think is that good. So right now I’m just trying to up my cardio a bit and do a little bit of weight training because Mercedes is a pretty friggin hard hitter. So I’m just kind of getting ready for that.

FOOLKILLER99: Okay. I heard through various online sources that you’re actually writing a travel cookbook, is that right?

ROXXI: Yeah, it’s just a little bit hard to do because stuff that I think is second nature, you have to write down everything as you’re cooking and then type it up and it takes so much longer than I thought because I’m one of those people where I’m like, “Hey, I’m going to do this!” and then I’m like, “Oh, man, this takes a long time. Shit.” Right now it’s kind of like halfway through because there’s a lot of recipes that I do and a lot of things that, with preparation and stuff, if you’re trying to eat clean and everything. So it’s a little bit harder than I expected but I’m still working on it.

FOOLKILLER99: Cool, cool. You should totally finish that thing, by the way. You could get that published easily. It’s a great idea.

ROXXI: That’s what I’m hoping for.

FOOLKILLER99: One more question before we turn it over to the Quintastic One. Going back to the Taylor Wilde thing for a minute. You and Taylor formed a partnership on TV in the Fall, leading into the Spring. You 2 fought Awesome Kong together, had a great feud with her that IMO was the best women’s feud in either company at the time. You fought the Beautiful People with the whole Governor/Daffney thing. And it was obvious just from the way you guys interacted that you were really good friends, not just on-screen, but off. Talk about Nikki & Taylor for a minute. How’d that all come about?

ROXXI: It’s really weird. I think creative in the back might’ve saw how well we got along because there wasn’t a time in the back when I was somewhere and she wouldn’t be there or vice versa. We would go to the gym and train in the morning before TV, we’d share hotel rooms, we were always together. And so I think they kind of saw that we had really good chemistry and decided to try out the tag team. And it went great because the majority of the time we were just telling jokes to each other or she was kicking my ass because the majority of the time when she was supposed to be working with me she was beating me up. There was a couple of times she went to tag me in and slapped me in the head so hard I lost hearing for a little bit (laughs) and after that we just kind of laughed. We still bring it up and make fun of each other for it.

FOOLKILLER99: Yeah, she does work stiff, I’ll give her that.

ROXXI: For some reason we turned into the Highlanders (laughs).

FOOLKILLER99: Cool. Quintastic One, you’re probably chomping at the bit to ask some questions.

CHESSARMY: Real quick, before we move it over there, somebody in the chatroom wants to know, Nikki Roxx, who do you think is your greatest opponent thus far in your wrestling career?

ROXXI: My greatest opponent. That’s a tough one (laughs). I’m trying to think. I would probably have to go along the lines of Awesome Kong because she’s somebody who’s so diverse in her wrestling. Trying to figure out what she’s going to do next and the stuff that she can do is just amazing and sometimes you’re not prepared for it, so I would probably go with her. And she’s really hard-hitting which is one of my favorite things about her – that probably has a lot to do with. I’d have to go with Awesome Kong.

CHESSARMY: Good choice. Good choice.

FOOLKILLER99: That was actually one of my alternate questions.

[Roxxi records a promo for the show.]

ROXXI: You should see me do promos on TV. Those are fun.

CHESSARMY: I remember when you were doing the hardcore knockout gimmick and they had you cutting promos where you were cursing the entire time. Good god!

ROXXI: (laughs) What’s really funny is that, what nobody saw before that, there were like 6 promos that were stopped because I didn’t swear once.

CHESSARMY: Wow.

ROXXI: They were like, “You didn’t swear at all. That’s supposed to be the whole thing,” and I was like, “Oh, man!” And then they were like, “You can’t say the F word,” and I was like, “That’s what everyone says when they swear. You don’t have anything else when you’re mad.” That was always a good time (laughs).

FOOLKILLER99: You would think it would be the other way around in pro wrestling.

ROXXI: I know! That’s what was so weird! I kind of have a little bit of a potty mouth but not to that extent. And then they were like, “You didn’t swear once!” “Not even once?” “No.” “Oh, okay, let’s do it again (laughs).”

CHESSARMY: All right, Quint. You’ve got some questions. Go ahead and ask them.

THE QUINTASTIC ONE: All right! It’s on like Awesome Kong in a tangerine thong and you can all thank me for that mental image (laughs)!

ROXXI: I’ve actually seen that. It’s not that bad.

THE QUINTASTIC ONE: You’re a lucky, lucky woman. Moving on (laughs). My very first question, I do want to follow up with Foolkiller asking the first question being the hardball question. We’re going to get right into the nitty gritty on this. This has actually been on my mind for a very long time since your release from TNA. I do want to ask, is it true about the incident between you and Rhaka Khan backstage, getting into an altercation about working stiff and how did that all come about?

ROXXI: There was an altercation, but it wasn’t a fist fight in the back like everybody thinks. Sadly, everybody wants to hear something juicy like that. In the ring there was a miscommunication and both of us ended up getting hurt. Well, not hurt, but both of us ended up getting hit and in the back there was a bit of an argument and then when you’re right out of your match your adrenalin’s going, everybody’s temper’s going, and so we started arguing a little bit, but then after that we were like, “Oh, it was just a miscommunication. It happens. It’s wrestling. It’s not ballet. Stuff like that happens in the ring.” And we were fine. We hugged afterward, we were hanging out afterwards in the same room. If I saw her today I would say hello to her. It’s not even that big of a deal (laughs).

FOOLKILLER99: I saw the match where that happened. It looked like the whole thing was an accident.

ROXXI: Yeah. That’s basically what it was. It happens in the ring all the time. People get hit, shots get thrown, things happen by accident, somebody will get mad, everybody yells and then afterward you’re fine. I think the only big thing was it was 2 girls and people weren’t used to that.

THE QUINTASTIC ONE: Speaking of that, that’s actually a great transition into my second question, which is rather bizarre because not a lot of people expect this. But I want to ask, since we never usually hear about this for obvious reasons, what is it like being in the backstage area, being a women’s wrestler? We hear about with males dealing with the bosses, having backstage politics. Do the women’s wrestlers go through the same kind of thing? Do they have to deal with the bookers and glass ceilings and are there locker room leaders that you have to deal with that are too big for their britches? Basically, is there any difference being a female wrestler and a male wrestler when it comes to being backstage at a wrestling event?

ROXXI: With as many girls as there were at TNA you would expect there to be more than what had happened, but a lot of the time when it comes to guys they usually… I don’t want to say everyone because then I’ll be stereotyping and I don’t want to do that, but a lot of male wrestlers have the idea in their head that if you put that many girls together there’s going to be catfights and everybody’s going to be jealous of the other one and all this stuff, but at TNA all the girls were really close nit. We have to deal with the same politics, sometimes a little bit more. We do have locker room leaders and a lot of the time we’re all very respectful of that person. I think the girls can be a little more close nit and that makes the guys a little worried. Our own little army (laughs).

THE QUINTASTIC ONE: Definitely the intimidation factor is on the Knockouts’ side.

ROXXI: Exactly. That’s what it is (laughs).

FOOLKILLER99: I know that would give me chills (laughs). In a good way.

THE QUINTASTIC ONE: For my third question it’s a little more on the fun side. It’s definitely not wrestling related, but I wanted to ask. Stealing a page from a popular wrestling magazine for what questions they ask their wrestlers, but if you were on a desert island and you had a choice between having a book that was a never-ending story, a never ending supply of food, or a companion with a limitless amount of conversation, which of those 3 options would you bring with you on a desert island?

ROXXI: I would, of course, have to bring Taylor Wilde because she would totally have endless conversation and I could never be without the other half of my brain. So she would be who I would bring on my deserted island.

THE QUINTASTIC ONE: Awesome. I’m going to start asking that question a lot more with our wrestling guests. You were officially the trial member of that (laughs).

ROXXI: Yay!

THE QUINTASTIC ONE: Anyway, I do have one more question for you. This is also a very generic question that I ask to all our interviewees at the end of all of our interviews because I do feel that this is probably the most important question in terms of the fans of QCWradio and the Angry Marks podcast network. Do you have any advice for any young person who may be looking to break into the wrestling business? And this question is especially important being that you have the experience of being a women’s wrestler, and I’m not going to assume anything, but I would hope we have at least a few female viewers on this show. Do you have any advice for any men, women, anything like that who want to break into the business? What should be the first starting steps?

ROXXI: Firstly, look for a credible school. Somebody that, if they’re going to train you, they’ve actually been on TV or they’ve gone as far or as close to TV as they possibly could, even if it was over seas or something like that. Just because there are a lot of people out there right now that are training and they don’t exactly know the tools to get further along in their career. Secondly, I would get a really, really thick skin because wrestling can be really, really crazy. For me, I was brought up around all guys. I was the only girl in my classes. And still, when I go to training now I’m the only girl who gets in the ring and wrestlers like the guys. So you have to have a thick skin and not take things to heart and keep pushing and not let anybody hold you back.

THE QUINTASTIC ONE: Well, thank you very much, Roxxi. That’s going to be all for my questions. I personally, want to thank you for taking time out of your day to do the QCW podcast. It’s been a real pleasure hearing from you.

ROXXI: Oh, thank you, guys. Thanks for having me. I’m sorry for before. I apologize.

CHESSARMY: It’s no problem. You were able to get on anyway and I think we did a good job with this interview. One last thing before you go, someone in the chatroom is wondering, one of your fans actually is wondering, did you mind getting your head shaved back at Sacrifice 2008? Did you mind doing that angle where they shaved your head?

ROXXI: No! I actually didn’t because what was so great is when you have long hair you have to do it all the time. And I didn’t have to and it was the cheapest hairstyle I’ve ever had. My friends would come over and shave my head for me. It was amazing (laughs)! And for me it was like after I did it, it made me stand out from the other girls and it was a really, really easy thing for my life, so I was really happy with it (laughs).

CHESSARMY: Do you plan on growing it back to full length or are you going to keep it the way it is?

ROXXI: I don’t know about full length because that’s like work (laughs), but I’m going to grow it a little bit longer than what it is now. Right now I’ve kind of ripped off Pink’s hairdue, so I don’t want her to come after me and beat me up (laughs).

FOOLKILLER99: It’s really nice that you were so cool about that because I was…

CHESSARMY: Yeah.

FOOLKILLER99: I was kind of angry on your behalf after that PPV.

CHESSARMY: Same here.

ROXXI: A lot of people said that. They were like, “I’m so sorry!” and I was like, “No, it’s okay! I don’t mind. Now I don’t have to actually… It takes me 5 minutes to get ready.” I was the best girl ever (laughs). My friends would want to go out and they were like, “It’s so easy for you to get ready now.” “And I was like, “Isn’t it great?”

CHESSARMY: Yeah, you definitely made a lot of sacrifices for that company. The funny thing is what the fans were chanting while it was going on.

ROXXI: Yeah, they were yelling about Russo and they were telling me I was still hot. “Oh, thanks! All right, I’ll take it.”

CHESSARMY: That was great.

FOOLKILLER99: You halted the “Fire Russo!” chant (laughs). That’s something to be proud of.
ROXXI: Yeah! I heard that and I was like, “Oh, my. I don’t even know if this was his idea (laughs).”

FOOLKILLER99: That’s a real testament to your popularity if you could stop the “Fire Russo!” chant, seriously (laughs). That’s a popular chant.

ROXXI: Yeah, and I always feel so bad because a lot of times I’d be like, “I don’t think he thought that up.” Okay.

CHESSARMY: Most of the time he doesn’t even write the stuff that we bitch about.

ROXXI: Yeah, a lot of times that’s what happens. A lot of times people chant “Fire Russo!” and you’ll hear him in the back, “That wasn’t even my idea,” and I’d be like, “Aw, it’s okay.”

CHESSARMY: He definitely gets a lot of heat for nothing, that’s for sure.

ROXXI: Yeah.

CHESSARMY: All right, well, thank you for spending your time with us, Roxxi. We really appreciate it. Glad to have you on the line. Have a good week and once again, thanks for joining us. We really appreciate it.

ROXXI: Oh, thanks for having me, guys.

CHESSARMY: No problem at all.

ROXXI: Okay, I’ll talk to you later.

CHESSARMY: Later.

ROXXI: Bye.

FOOLKILLER99: Bye.

[Roxxi hangs up.]

FOOLKILLER99: Wow…

That was the interview in its entirety. If you want to hear Roxxi record a promo for QCWradio as well as hear the rest of the show, download episode 35 at HYPERLINK "http://www.blogtalkradio.com/qcwradio" www.blogtalkradio.com/qcwradio.