- The SmackDown star is a cousin of The People’s Champion
- Jax credits seeing The Rock vs John Cena main event WrestleMania 28 as the reason she wanted to become a wrestler
- Jax returned to WWE in 2023 after being released in 2021 and has won Queen Of The Ring and the WWE Women’s Title in her first year back
When you’re part of the extended Anoaʻi family, there’s probably a lot more pressure than usual on your shoulders as you step into the world of professional wrestling as a career move. Your performances inside the squared circle are immediately measured up against the legacies of The Rock, Yokozuna, Umaga, the Wild Samoans, Rikishi, High Chief Peter Maivia and The Usos.
It’s a Hall of Fame lineage, make no mistake.
And for Nia Jax, returning to WWE in September 2023 was not just a second chance. It was her time to cement her own legacy.
In the 12 months since Jax returned to the old New York territory, following her release in 2021, she has headlined a stadium show in her birth country of Australia in front of 50,000 people. She has been crowned Queen Of The Ring and has become WWE Women’s Champion. Statement made.
The opportunities that have come Jax’s way have been anything but nepotism, however, if that’s the way your mind is wandering reading this. These opportunities have been earned. These opportunities have been gripped with both hands and moulded into an on-screen presentation that is far beyond anything seen during Jax’s initial run with the company between 2015-2021.
I sat down with Jax this week ahead of her Women’s Title defence against former champ Bayley at Bad Blood, in Atlanta on Saturday (October 5th) and, during a wide ranging discussion, asked about how her family helped during her two years away from WWE.
“Well our family, as you can see, is huge. You can’t get away with hiding from them,” Jax laughs, “The love is very strong. But at first I just wanted to be left alone. My family has always supported me regardless of what I do, whether it’s wrestling or not wrestling. Since coming back they have been nothing but supportive.
“My mom and my aunt were front row when I won the title at SummerSlam. And that was an incredible moment because my aunt was with me, front row, when we were watching Dwayne versus Cena at WrestleMania 28. And that was when I turned to her and said ‘I think I wanna try this out’. So it’s such a cool full circle moment because she was also there when I won my first title against Alexa Bliss, with my brothers. So my family is very, very loving and supportive. I’m very lucky.”
And what of that aforementioned family member who’s done pretty well for himself inside and outside of a WWE ring? What advice and wisdom has Dwayne ‘The Rock’ Johnson, Jax’s second cousin once removed, imparted on the Queen Of The Ring?
“Dwayne has such a big heart, he always loves to help and give back whenever he can. So it’s cool when people are able to pull him aside and pick his brain because he’s the best to ever do it. You want to be able to see where he comes from as he was such a huge star in the ring and now look to where he’s taken his abilities.
“The best advice he gave me was, he always says, ‘it’s nice to be important, but it’s more important to be nice’.”
Jax’s upcoming schedule, which sees her defending her gold against Bayley in a rematch from SummerSlam, at Bad Blood on Saturday (October 5th), then touring the United Kingdom, including a huge first ever show in Manchester’s Co-Op Live Arena, is one befitting of a star that the company has placed plenty of faith in for the long-term. With WWE’s Premium Live Events now keeping card lengths to a, well, premium, the fact Jax is regularly booked in positions of prominence on them speaks to her current standing within the company.
And with her second cousin once removed rumoured for a return in the near future, maybe there will be a few more words of wisdom coming the champ’s way as she navigates a route towards WrestleMania season.
WWE Bad Blood airs live on Saturday October 5th from 8PM BST on Peacock and the WWE Network
