5 months ago
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WWE
Tuesday's episode of "WWE NXT" featured a pair of surprises in the debuts of Ethan Page and reigning TNA Knockouts World Champion Jordynne Grace. Grace had previously debuted in WWE during this year's Royal Rumble in January, but she returned on Tuesday to stake her claim for the NXT Women's Championship held by Roxanne Perez at the upcoming Battleground event. During an interview with Fightful, the TNA star detailed how her second inter-promotional crossover appearance came to be.
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"[TNA and WWE have] been talking for, I want to say a couple months now," Grace said. "I think they were just trying to figure out the right timing, and then maybe three weeks ago they had talked about [WWE] wanting to use me, and then it just kind of snowballed from there. I didn't even know that I was going to be doing the "NXT" appearances at first, because originally they had just asked if I would be available for Battleground ... But then it snowballed into 'Oh, well we want to kind of reintroduce her after the Rumble,' so I ended up doing those "NXT" appearances too."
Grace noted that WWE books travel much later than TNA, so she wasn't sure the appearance was even still happening until the last minute. Her arrival in "NXT" had been kept under lock and key for the most part, making it a truly rare surprise; as Grace explained, even the NXT Women's Champion refused to learn of her challenger beforehand.
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"They were actually going to bring [Perez] back five minutes before the segment happened, like see who it was," Grace said. "She was kind of frustrated, and I think she was almost being a little petty about it. She was like, 'You know what, I don't want to know now, I'm just gonna find out when everybody else finds out,' so she just decided to not see me."
Jordynne Grace had her WWE physical in a hotel room
WWE
Part and parcel of keeping her appearance a secret was having to squeeze the essential into the unorthodox. Jordynne Grace had been hidden in Cezar Bononi's garage the morning of that day, but she also described having to get her WWE physical done from inside her hotel room.
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"They were just so good about keeping the secret, they actually had the doctors come to my hotel room to my physical and my blood work there," she said. "I've never got my blood drawn out of a doctor's office, so that was the first time I got it drawn, in like a hotel. And they had me come late, they had me come at like 8:30 maybe, 30 minutes before the segment, they had a parking spot reserved and then someone came out and ushered me in the back and they didn't even have me go down the hall. It was just the first door on the left as soon as you come in. It had a sign there saying reserved or whatever. It was really, really awesome."
Grace will prepare for her title challenge at Battleground at the UFC Apex in Las Vegas on June 10 with a bout against Stevie Turner this coming week on TV. Her next title defense in TNA will air on June 6 during the 20th Anniversary of "IMPACT" against Allysin Kay, and she will also defend her title in an open challenge slated for TNA's Against All Odds pay-per-view on June 14.
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