Alexa Bliss Discusses Her Character Transformation, Why She Prefers Being A Heel
Alexa Bliss has been in the midst of a character transformation on WWE SmackDown in recent weeks. Bliss was attacked by "The Fiend" Bray Wyatt following a heated moment between Bliss and her tag team partner, Nikki Cross, in a show-closing segment back in late July. That followed the Wyatt Swamp Fight at Extreme Rules between Braun Strowman and Wyatt earlier that month which saw Bliss make a cameo appearance, drawing on her history with Strowman in the Mixed Match Challenge a couple of years ago. Following the SmackDown attack, we have seen Bliss's character slowly morph into something different, culminating this past Friday night with Bliss using the Sister Abigail on Cross during a fatal four-way match before walking off in a trance.
ComicBook.com had a chance to speak with Bliss last week about her new podcast, Uncool With Alexa Bliss, but we were also able to talk about the transformation we have seen with her character recently.
"I definitely did not see that (story) coming," Bliss explained. "I didn't know I was doing anything until I filmed the stuff with the swamp match and I thought that was it and that was going to be it and done. But it's continued since then, which is a lot of fun. I love doing anything that's different, anything that's acting related, for trying different characters and having the character evolve. And it's been a lot of fun."
Bliss originally rose to prominence on WWE's main roster as a heel ("bad guy"), winning the women's championship multiple times on both Raw and SmackDown. However, Bliss has been playing a babyface ("good guy") character since she started teaming with Cross. We asked Bliss if she prefers portraying a heel or babyface.
"I like being a bad guy," Bliss said. "Being a good guy is always fun, but I think being a bad guy is a lot more fun and it's a lot more fun getting booed than cheered. That's just me. And I've been a bad guy for seven out of the eight years that I've been signed with WWE. And so it's just a better fit I think for me.
"I'm still learning how to test the waters as a good guy and still show a lot of personality. And it's a hard transition going back and forth too because I remember when I was the bad guy and I had just talked about the debut of A Moment of Bliss, I was being nice to my guests and people just thought I was full of crap. So it's hard to find that balance and to change back and forth, but it's definitely been a really fun challenge and maybe one day I could be a bad guy again, but right now, what I'm doing is a lot of fun."
As previously mentioned, this isn't the first time we have seen Bliss's character change. When she debuted with NXT, she was a babyface character that came out wearing a tutu and smiling. That original heel turn when she started teaming with Black and Murphy was a drastic change from what we had seen from her prior.
"It was hard at first for me to transition to a bad guy because when I first started in NXT, the tutu and all that stuff, that was neat," Bliss said. "That was just me being me. And so what I did is I just kind of channeled everyone that I went to high school with and just became the Alexa Bliss that people see. And I people watch a lot and I would pick up mannerisms from people. If they annoyed me, I would just use it in the ring and it would work. So if that bothers me, it's going to bother someone else too. And so I would just people watch and get my inspiration for that character from people."
You can subscribe now to Uncool With Alexa Bliss on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts. The first episode drops o Tuesday, September 22nd, but there is a teaser edition available right now. And don't forget you can give me a follow on Twitter @ryandroste for all things WWE.