Summer Rae was one of the mainstays of the women’s division in the early to mid-2010s. She would eventually leave the company in 2017 and left the pro wrestling business for good. She is now the director of marketing and social engagement for Cornerstone Global Management

She worked for around six years for the company and is well-known for being Fandango’s dancer and a love interest in a storyline involving Dolph Ziggler, Rusve, and Lana. She also made appearances on Total Divas

While speaking on Oral Sessions with Renèe Paquette, Summer Rae talked about becoming Fandango’s dance partner during her time in WWE. She claimed that Triple H wanted to be the dancer after a massive reaction from Twitter.

“When I debuted with Fandango on Monday Night Raw, it was in London and it was because the backup dancer girl — at first they were hiring a different girl and she couldn’t go over there because she wasn’t an employee, well none of us are employees, but she’s not like independent contracted by WWE. So, she couldn’t go over there so it was like, ‘bring up Summer, teach her a little dancey dance. Let’s just send her and she’ll stay on the tour with Dango the whole time and then she’ll come back and we’ll replace her.’ I went up, did live events, did Raw, trended like crazy and people thought I debuted. Then I went back and I think that Monday in America I even went on TV. Then, they sent me back down.

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After the tour, they sent me down and the next week they had the girl back on Raw. The fans went wild. They loved her, but they were like, ‘No, where is Summer? What’s going on.’ They couldn’t believe it. Maybe two weeks they were like, ‘it’s fine, they’ll forget.’ Maybe one or two weeks, I remember going up to TV and Hunter was like, ‘Well, you’re here because Twitter threw a fit and they wanted you to be here.’ I understand why they didn’t want me with him because he is the main attraction in that pairing, it was his big debut and me being a name vs. a no name dancer, it would be us.

Hunter was like, ‘it’s very much Chyna with me,’ even though she became such a big entity. ‘You looking at him the whole time, don’t look in the camera, you valet, how can you make it about him? That was our worry about having you two up there.’ I just loved that I was getting any kind of direction. You’re very much thrown to the wild and they want to see how you do it and then you get in trouble instead of ‘XYZ.’ I feel like it’s best to do ‘XYZ’ and if it doesn’t get over it’s like, ‘Well I told you to do that.’

Dusty would always be like, ‘Do it and ask for an apology afterward,’ I think about that all the time. Do what’s best for you and then ask for an apology after. I was just thankful to be up before I went up, a girl hadn’t been up in a year and a half, it was the Funkadactyls. Trin [Naomi] was already up and then Cameron went up and she was really new. When I went up, it was a year and a half. I felt very fortunate. Then, after me, it was every three months and every month and now people just go up and down all the time. I was just like, ‘Cool, let’s try it, this is my ticket in.’ I never took anything that personal.”

Summer Rae also previously revealed that her Royal Rumble appearance was supposed to be a surprise. We will have to wait and see whether Summer Rae’s appearance will be a one-time thing only or if she will make a full-time comeback to the company.

Subhojeet Mukherjee

Subhojeet is a professional wrestling fan for over 22 years. He got captivated by the sport during the Monday Night Wars and has a passion for it ever since. He also enjoys TV shows, movies, anime, novels and music, which broadens his perspective and appreciation for wrestling. He is a knowledgeable and respected voice in the industry.

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