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WWE is being taken over by UK superstars, and Lizzy Rain is proud to be part of the wave.
The 28-year-old Londoner, whose uncle is late Iron Maiden legend Clive Burr, recently made her debut on the company’s NXT show with a style paying tribute to her love for heavy metal, while friend and fellow Brit Mason Rook has also been turning heads, with the likes of Blake Monroe, Kit Wilson and more already on the main roster.
Speaking exclusively to Metro, Lizzy said: ‘To get to represent my home on such a global scale is really beautiful, and get to do it with my friends like Mason Rook is so cool.
‘Hopefully, you never know, there was just a UK tryout with more European talent on there. Hopefully they all get to come over, we all get to work together and take over the world.’
Lizzy, who was known as Rayne Leverkusen before joining WWE, has loved making memories on the UK independent scene, and it feels wild to have people over here staying up till the early hours to watch her matches.
‘I can’t believe this is our life,’ she beamed. ‘People are staying up till 1am just to watch us wrestle in the UK, on Netflix. It’s really overwhelming.’
She’s glad to be doing it with Mason, formerly known as Will Kroos, by her side, and Lizzy is enjoying seeing him catch fire online with stars like John Cena already singing his praises.
‘It’s so nice to have a friend here at the PC, and then to see him go viral on socials is very cool,’ she said. ‘To see my friend do that is amazing!’
When it comes down to it, Lizzy can’t really believe she’s here.
‘It’s like saying you want to be an astronaut, but you know you’re never going to do that. Saying I want to be a professional wrestler for the WWE was something I always wanted to say and always said, but never thought I would do it,’ she admitted.
‘I don’t think I’ve still settled in yet, and I don’t really want to. I wake up with a smile on my face every day thinking, “Wow, I’m living the dream”. And to be honest, I don’t think they’ll ever go away.’
The Londoner was at a service station a couple of months ago when she got the call from WWE scout Jim Smallman offering her a contract.
‘I feel like my eyes are already tearing up,’ she said as she recalled the moment. ‘I’m quite an emotional person and when I got that call, I just burst into tears.’
She added: ‘I was sitting in a services on the way to London, got a call, and just remember bursting out crying in the middle of these services.’
She’s been helped by the Pretty Deadly duo, Elton Prince and Kit Wilson, who pointed her towards her first wrestling school years ago, and have been a rock since she made the move to the US.
‘They know it’s hard to move eight hours across the world, away from all your family, away from what you know,’ she pointed out.
‘It’s really nice that people are there to support you and be, “Hey, I’m someone to lean on if you need any help in wrestling or getting an apartment or getting a car, any end of the spectrum.”‘
Lizzy arrived in WWE a few weeks ago and has already caught the eye of fans with her heavy metal persona.
‘I’ve always loved this music even before knowing Clive was my uncle,’ she admitted. ‘We’d always grow up listening to Kiss, listening to Alice Cooper, Metallica, Black Sabbath. My brother was a massive influence on me, and then it’s just really cool to have this like legitimacy to this character.’
Of course, it’s not really a character, and it’s clear from our conversation that it’s simply Lizzy dialled up.
It makes sense, then, that she steps out each night wearing her late uncle’s leather jacket.
‘To have that connection to something is really cool,’ she smiled. ‘It’s such an honour to get to wear that to the ring.’
Since arriving in WWE and starting training at the Performance Centre in Orlando, Lizzy has been working closely with wrestling legend Jazz, who recently joined as a coach.
‘She’s a legend and an icon, so getting to talk to her and have her produce some of my matches at the live events on the weekends is very surreal,’ she said.
‘It kind of gives me goosebumps, and I get a bit giddy when I see her demonstrating some of her strikes. I think, “wow, that’s the legend Jazz, just casually showing us how to be intense”. It’s so cool. She’s so great and so supportive.’
Like any wrestler, Lizzy’s goal is to reach Raw and SmackDown, and after facing male stars on the indies, she’s got an opponent in mind for the big leagues.
‘If I could wrestle CM Punk, that would be my dream match,’ she revealed. ‘He’s just always been unapologetically him. He’s anti-authority, anti-establishment, and that’s how I think Lizzy Rain is as well.’
She elaborated: ‘He was never the top pick. He was not the tallest with massive muscles. That always kind of spoke out to me, being an outcast myself. CM Punk was just my guy.’
Meanwhile, Lizzy is hoping to emulate former NXT stars, Roxanne Perez and Trick Williams.
‘It’s so cool to see the real-life transition of how they’re on WrestleMania, but they were at the PC with my colleagues,’ she said. ‘It really puts into perspective that the system here works. That could be us, no matter how long it takes.’
Netflix is the home of WWE in the UK, including weekly episodes of Raw, NXT and SmackDown. Don’t miss WWE when it visits the U.K. this summer, including stops in Liverpool, Cardiff, Birmingham, Sheffield and London. Tickets available now from http://www.wwe.com/events.
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