One of the best talkers in professional wrestling history played an influential role in helping Alexa Bliss develop her current promo skills.
Dusty Rhodes was responsible for promos like this:
In his role behind the scenes at the WWE Performance Center, he helped the current and future generation of WWE wrestlers develop -- including Bliss.
Appearing on the latest episode of Talk Is Jericho, Bliss recalled how "The American Dream:" helped give her early confidence on the microphone.
"Dusty gave me a voice, do you know what I mean? When I first started doing promos in promo class, I would get so nervous. I would shake, I couldn't look at the camera, I had to look down, I had to basically just kind of hide myself, which is not a good thing to do here, you know? Don't be antisocial in front of the camera. He pulled me aside and he was like, you have a gift," she recalled. "... He said, 'You look into somebody and you can look into their soul.' Like when I was speaking, if I actually did look at the camera, he felt a connection. Did I believe him at first? No. … but he was so helpful and he had me doing so many different things."
The end result is that Bliss appears increasingly comfortable on the microphone, whether it be in the ring or on Talking Smack.
Bliss noted that part of Dusty Rhodes' training involved having the various prospects -- her included -- trying out a wide variety of characters and gimmicks.
"At one point I was Scott Dawson's southern sassy girlfriend. At one point I was a southern belle. And then I was a fairy girl. And then I was with Shaul Guerrero. He really helped me branch out and to see everything's a body of work. …. one time I was even in the mirror room in NXT, [which is] where you cut a promo and you go and watch it. He was like, 'I want you to be a country singer. I'm going to bring in a band, we're going to do a vignette, it's going to be great, you're going to come out on stage singing.' I'm glad that only lasted 5 minutes. ... He always had the best ideas and I miss him so much."
Click here to listen to Bliss' entire interview with Chris Jericho.
