Nikki Cross sat down with Chris Van Vliet in Orlando, FL to discuss her journey from being an extra on WWE TV to signing with the company, her multiple personas including Nikki Cross, Nikki A.S.H. and Abby The Witch, winning the Women’s Championship as Nikki A.S.H., where the inspiration came from for her superhero persona, being the final 24/7 Champion, purchasing PROGRESS Wrestling with her husband Big Damo, and more!

Was it hard to say goodbye to that character? Because I feel like all of the Wyatt Sicks getting released was very unexpected.

“It was unexpected. For every character I’ve played. Whether it be Sanity, whether it be Nikki A.S.H., even Nikki Storm when I said goodbye to her in 2016 before I joined WWE and Abby the Witch, I always feel attached to the characters, so it’s always difficult to say goodbye. With WWE, I was there for 10 years. I got to travel the world. I got to make amazing friends, make these incredible friendships with people like Sarah Schreiber, with people like Giulia, and I get to take them forever. With WWE, I was there for 10 years, so it’s always hard to say goodbye to such a substantial, significant chapter in your life. That being said, I’m so excited for my next chapter, and I’m so excited for what’s next for myself, and I can’t wait to go out to the world and go out to the galaxy. It was unexpected, and it’s always hard to say goodbye to a character in people that you become so bonded with. Myself and Dexter and Joe Gacy, Bo Dallas and Erick Rowan, we’ve shared something that I don’t know if anyone will ever be able to relate to: the five of us sharing this experience. So it’s always hard to say goodbye, but I think I don’t ever want to be stuck in the past. It was a great 10 years, but I’m also excited for the next 10 years.”

You and your husband bought Progress Wrestling. So congratulations. I feel like you are one of the very few women who own a pro wrestling company.

“Yes, it’s been a crazy couple of months. It’s been insane the last couple of months. It was just perfect timing. I don’t know if it would have still happened if I was still with WWE, so it just felt like perfect timing, the right place, the right time, the right circumstances with Progress Wrestling. Our goal is to make Progress Wrestling the number one independent promotion in the world, and we’ve got a long way to go. But that’s the mission, that’s the goal, that’s our aim. We want to take young talent and give them opportunities, and push them, and give them a platform. In Europe right now, it’s a hotbed. So the talent is there and just waiting to be tapped into, and that’s what we want to do with Progress Wrestling. We want the style to be aggressive and intense, but we also want the three-ring circus. So we want our stories to be involved. We have such funny, wonderful characters, funny wrestlers at Progress. So we want there to still be space for them, but we really want that three-ring circus and really push that aggressive, intense ring style and become the number one company. Even with the women’s wrestling, it’s such a hotbed right now in Britain, and not only do I get to work with these girls in the ring. I also can’t wait to work with them for Progress and make it a hotbed because it is a hotbed. Progress Wrestling, we want to be at the forefront of that, and we want to work with all the companies we can. We want to cross-promote. We want good relationships worldwide. Whether that be in Japan, America, Canada, Europe, other places in England, in Scotland, in Ireland, like we want it all covered, and if we can do it. We’re excited for this next step.”

With the Wyatt Sicks, how did that come about for you? How did you get selected for it?

“So I was playing the Nikki A.S.H. character; she had been turned villain, she had turned heel on Rhea Ripley, she was a heel, and then at that point the creative had changed, and Triple H loved the Nikki Cross, the SAnitY character, because when I started at NXT in 2016, and it was Triple H, SAnitY was his brainchild. So he always loved Nikki Cross as that little crazy, little gremlin, mischievous, like wild Tasmanian devil. So we made the switch to that, and I don’t know when, but I think at that point Triple H started to think about me being in the Wyatt Sicks. So I think that’s how we kind of got from Nicky A.S.H. to Abby the Witch. We went back to Nikki Cross, and then it was something was happening. That was when you saw me staring off into the distance, because I think at that point in the creative’s mind they were like, we want to start to tell this story. We’re not there yet because we’ve not debuted the Wyatt Sicks yet, so we’ll have people know that something is going on in our head. I’m a little crazy anyway, so it wasn’t a big wide stretch. So it was, you know, being in the trance, and something is going on there in kind of Easter eggs and the slow-term storytelling, which I think the creative likes that kind of longer style.”

Did you know Nikki A.S.H. had the potential to be a main event character? Because you win Money in the Bank, the next night you cash in, and now you’re the Raw Women’s Champion.

“It was what I’d built my career towards. I always wanted to be that person for the company. I wanted to be the top girl. After winning Money in the Bank and after cashing in, leading up to SummerSlam, I did the triple threat with Charlotte and Rhea, I was so blessed because that time leading up to SummerSlam, I was doing all the press interviews, I was doing all the media interviews, and it was great. It was great preparation. I look at everything like a learning experience. So that month, you’ve got me doing all the interviews and doing all the major newspapers in Britain. First of all, I thought, what a compliment! The one month before one of the big four, right? WrestleMania, SummerSlam, Royal Rumble, Survivor Series. 60,000 people in that arena at SummerSlam. So what a compliment that the company saw something in me to give me that ball and trust me to present the company as the top woman, and that’s something I always wanted and I worked towards. Getting to do that, carry out those responsibilities, and I feel like I did myself proud. I did the company proud, and I made my family proud. And to me, that’s the most important thing. As long as I’m making myself proud and my family proud, that’s key.”

Do you remember being told you’re going to win Money in the Bank, and you know what this means? You’re going to cash in.

“So I didn’t know I was winning Money in the Bank until we got to the rehearsal, and even then, I didn’t know. It wasn’t until the producer was like, ‘Okay, Nikki’s going to win this.’ You just don’t want to have a big reaction in that moment because you’re so happy, but you also realize that there’s five other girls that aren’t getting that, so you want to be very respectful of your peers and your co-workers and your colleagues. But I also want people to know, hey, I’m really happy about this. But again, don’t rub it in people’s faces. I always want to try and be empathetic and respectful, and everyone was happy for me. We do the match, and I just thought maybe I’m gonna have a bit of a run with it. They’re gonna have me do fun stuff as a superhero with the briefcase. I get there to Raw the next day, I don’t think anything’s happening. There’s nothing in the script. So I’m like, oh, maybe I’m just doing something on social media. Maybe I’ll just film something for digital. Maybe I’m just doing a quick interview. Then all of a sudden, a writer comes up to me and they’re like, ‘Okay, Vince wants to see you in his office.’ I’m like, no! The seed starts to form. No way they’re going to do a cash-in the next night, no way. Okay, let’s just see how it goes. Let’s just see what happens. I get in there, Rhea’s in there, Charlotte’s in there, Vince’s in there, and he tells us the plan. Again, I don’t know if sense is the right word-but you’re like, okay, professional environment. Be a businesswoman, okay. Then you’re like, thank you so much for also this opportunity. I’m going to kill it.”

“I will never forget that night. I’m in Gorilla. Rhea and Charlotte are having their match, and I’m like, don’t fall. Do not trip and fall! I’ve always loved running, as you’ve probably seen with some of my entrances. I’ve always been a runner. I did the Disney Marathon last year. I love running, so I was like, don’t trip, don’t fall. Again, it was one of those: if you trip and fall, it’s game over. Don’t ruin this! The show was almost out of time. I have never ran so fast in my life, and ran up, did the top rope cross body, 1, 2, 3, and I was Women’s Champion. I got to celebrate into the crowd, and that’s something I had always wanted to do. So I loved being able just to jump into the crowd because no matter what, we don’t have a show without the fans. The fans are so so critical to what we do. They’ve got me to where I am. There was so many days where preparing for a tryout. Christmas Day, you’re meant to be at Christmas dinner and I’m at the wrestling school by myself running these drills. Every moment, every time where it got really hard, it’s always the buzz from the crowd. It’s always the reaction of the fans, it’s the support from the kids in the audience, the girls in the audience, everyone. So it was super important to get that moment in. So yeah, I maybe could have stayed in the ring longer, but I was like, no, go be with the people. I’m a woman of the people. So I was super grateful that we got that moment, and then it was there. Then with the next Monday Night Raw, I got to like do the introduction, like ‘Welcome to Monday Night Raw.’ Again, you’re telling the 10-year-old girl, hey, look what you got to do. But at the same time, I always knew I had that talent and that ability, because that’s what I trained for. That was always my mindset. So, being at the top of the mountain and getting to enjoy that moment was incredible.”