Nikki Cross Recalls Finding Out When She Was Being Called Up To The RAW Brand

Former WWE ring announcer Lilian Garcia spoke with WWE Women's Tag Team Champion Nikki Cross on her Chasing Glory podcast. During the interview, Cross was asked about what it was like when she was called up to the main roster to be a part of the RAW brand.

"It was a Monday afternoon," Cross recalled. "I was in Scotland, when I got the news of getting called up. I saw that I had these missed calls and voicemails and I thought I was in trouble. Matt Bloom had called me and told me the news. He told me that I was going to see a graphic on Raw tonight and I was going to get called up.

"This was at the very end of December, we had a taping for NXT at Full Sail, so I got to go back there to say my goodbyes, which was very important to me. The Full Sail crowd watched me grow for a few years and they made me feel so loved and made me feel so good.

"I got to work with Bianca Bel Air, who is awesome to work with. I did that taping and that was the last of NXT, which was around the 4th of January, 2019."

Since coming onto the main roster, Cross has developed real chemistry with Alexa Bliss, who she became a holder of the WWE Women's Tag Team Championships back in August.

"It was Fit Finlay that told me," Cross explains about when she learned she would become one half of the WWE Women's Tag Team Champions. "I love Fit. He has helped me so much and helped me tweak things and made me a better wrestler. When Fit told us that that was the plan, you say, okay, but you know that things can always change. You keep yourself at a level and chill, but for me it was exciting. I was like, okay, let's do this.

"[The title victory] showed that they wanted to continue the story with me and Alexa Bliss. There's so much there and we have a really good chemistry. We get along really well, so we know that here is so much more that we can show.

"The trust and faith that the company puts in you and in your character and in your story and our stories and characters so when it happened, it doesn't sink in. John Cone was the referee and he gave the title to Alexa Bliss and then she gave the title to me. I have dreamed about being a WWE champion so I thought it was weird. Half of me feels like I had done what I set out to do, but then you realize that this is the start not the end, it's not the end of the journey."

Cross realizes that being on the WWE main roster and being one half of the WWE Women's Tag Team Champions is not the end of her journey and that there will be other chapters in her career.

"I want to wrestle for as long as I possibly can, for another 10 years or so. I was always trying to get my tryout for NXT and Robbie Brookside said that the hard part starts when you get to the Performance Center. Anything before then it was just you preparing for it. The hard work starts when you get on NXT television.

"It was never the end; there's always new chapters, it was almost like the same thing with the championships, we now start. We both want to have the best tag matches that we can. We want people to be talking about the Women's Tag Team division as much as we can. We are just so excited.

"I was always more of a single's wrestler, so then you realize that tag team wrestling is different storytelling and it's so creative and exciting. For the first 11 years it was mostly singles, and now it's a bag of new treats. There's going to be some things that we try that will be good and some things that will be great so it's all about exploring new things, which is what is exciting about pro wrestling.

"I love learning because there's new ways of storytelling. There's four people involved in the matches now."

If you use any of the quotes in this article, please credit Chasing Glory with a h/t to Wrestling Inc. for the transcription.

Peter Bahi contributed to this article.