Ivy Nile on Chad Gable, Main Roster Debut, Rhea Ripley, More – During an interview on Insight with Chris Van Vliet, Ivy Nile covered her experience on The Rock’s Titan Games, what she’s learned from Chad Gable, her main roster debut match with Rhea Ripley, and more.
On becoming a part of Titan Games:
“For a little bit after I got out of Taekwondo, I got involved in Jiu Jitsu, and I fell in love with it. It’s awesome to fight these big dudes, because if anything, if anyone’s ever going to attack me, it’s going to be a big dude, not like a small whatever. So loved rolling around with bigger guys. Got into MMA for a little bit, boxing, all that stuff. I got my hands on everything because I just wanted to be someone who was well-rounded. So when I did my first MMA fight, and I lost. At the time, I was a massage therapist, and I was like this is a crazy life, because I was massaging during the day, and MMA at night, totally different world. I’d show up to my massage job with busted lips and people thought I got lip injections or something. I was like, No, I got punched in the face. This is nuts. Anyway, so after that first MMA fight, it was rough. Fight camps are rough. Cutting weight is rough; it was a rough time. So shortly after that, I was watching Jimmy Fallon or something, and my sister and I were watching it, and The Rock was on there talking about his new competitive show, the Titan Games. That was like, six, seven years ago. That’s crazy to think it was that long ago. My sister was like ‘You should try out for it.’ I was like, ‘What do you mean? Just fill out a form or whatever?’ She’s like, ‘Yeah, do it.’ I was like, ‘No, that’s ridiculous, that’s absolutely ridiculous.’ So at the time, I filled out the form online, and then I just put it down, I didn’t finish it, this is never gonna happen. This is silly. So a couple of days later she asked me, ‘Did you fill it out?’ [I said] ‘No, this is crazy, they already are picking people or whatever.’ So a couple of days later, I finished filling out the form, and not even a day later, LA called me, and I half assed it. I sent in pictures and videos I already had on my phone, it wasn’t anything crazy. And they called me and said they loved my story. They loved the stuff that I sent, and I thought it was a prank. I really thought someone just got my number from the website, and they were just pranking me, like this is mean, whatever. They said, let’s set up a Skype call. So went to my gym, I did a Skype call, and I still thought it was a prank. I was like, whoever this is, this is so mean, but I’m going with it.”
“So then the interview was weird, because the lady was outside. It looked like she was on a roof or something. I was like, this is a prank, this is silly. Next thing you know, I was getting legit emails from the Titan Games. And I was like, Oh, this is actually [happening], someone living in a tiny town in Tennessee, you’re going to pick me? This is crazy! So they had a big combine thing, sent me out to California. Never been to California. I was like a Beverly hillbilly walking up to California. I was like cool, no one knows my story. No one knows me. No one knows I’ve barely been on a plane, barely been to California. I don’t think I’ve ever been to California at this point, and I was there competing on a show with Dwayne Johnson. I was like, what is happening right now? I went out there, there’s over 100 people, and I made it through to the actual show. Then once I was on the show, I did really well. I didn’t win the whole thing, but I was crowned one of Dwayne Johnson’s Titans. Went on the show, and it was the best life-changing experience I ever had.”
On learning from Chad Gable:
“Chad has been in this business for so, so long. When I first started with the company, I kind of started unlike anyone else. I started three months before COVID hit, and then I was in the COVID era as one of those people in the audience behind the hockey windows, or whatever. So I was one of those people always there cheering and whatever. And at the time, you know, he was Shorty G at the time. It was crazy to see his growth from there, because I’ve always admired him since then, because it’s crazy no matter what you give him, he kills it. So I think once you get to that level of whatever they throw at you, they know that you can kill it and run with it. It’s such an amazing skill to have that. I aspire to be that.”
On her match with Rhea Ripley:
“We got moved up, and my first match on Raw was Rhea. Because sometimes when you get to main roster, it’s like, Who are you? Can you hang? It’s a whole different playing field. The crowds are bigger, the stars are bigger. So on main roster, it’s almost like, can you hang? I kind of felt like I was treading water a little bit. But once I got that Rhea match. I was like, I deserve to be here.”
On future dream matches:
“Absolutely Asuka, she’s incredible. Haven’t had Bianca one on one, Tennessee girl from Knoxville. I’ve had Rhea. I love Liv, I would love to have the singles with her. Stephanie [Vaquer] was amazing. Loved working with Stephanie. Lash Legend and I have had amazing matches in NXT. She’s one of my favorite people to work with ever so Lash is definitely one of my I would love to work with her on main roster.”
Ivy Nile on Chad Gable, Main Roster Debut, Rhea Ripley, More
