Izzy Moreno Says NXT TakeOver Moment In 2015 Happened Organically, Didn’t Understand Criticism

Izzy Moreno didn’t understand the early criticism.

After her appearance at NXT TakeOver: Respect in 2015, Izzy Moreno recieved a ton of online hate throughout the years, with some people claiming WWE used her a plant to boost the heel character of Sasha Banks (Mercedes Mone).

As the years went on, Moreno continued to receive unwarranted hate as she grew up and planted the seeds to become a wrestler. Speaking with Fightful for a new interview, Moreno spoke about the organic nature of her TakeOver appearance.

“It did. It was, for me, it was hard because I was just this eight-year-old that popped up on TV very organically. It wasn’t like I was a plant or my parents were like, ‘Come on Izzy, get to the front row.’ It was just I fell in love with a female wrestler and I was like, ‘This is my girl and I love this industry and I wanna be able to recreate what she’s doing, like a fraction of that one day.’ So it just happened super organic. So for me, it was just always odd when I did receive criticism, because I don’t get it. It’s kind of like Tom Brady telling a kid, you shouldn’t be playing football and that kid is like, ‘No, you’re my hero. I like you.’ It was also really fun when it came from people who I’ve had zero association with beforehand or I’ve never met or I was like, ‘I don’t even know who you are’ type deal. So that was just always just really interesting.”

Moreno also spoke about receiving criticism from people for being involved in grappling/MMA training.

“My favorite thing was I went to a WrestleMania Axxess and this one wrestler was like, ‘Izzy, I see you’re doing MMA.’ I was like, ‘Yeah,’ and then they were like, ‘Yeah and I also saw you were doing matches.’ They were like, ‘I can go along with the MMA stuff, just not the wrestling.’ That was really just so perplexing for me, because I was like, ‘Okay, you’re cool with me actually possibly getting beaten up on the mats, but then wrestling—‘ because I’m not going to say the F word. Just because I’ll really piss off people. But I was like, ‘The dots aren’t connecting. I don’t see it. I don’t see the vision.’ I get what they’re trying to say, but I was like, ‘I don’t get it.”

Elsewhere in the interview, Izzy Moreno spoke about winning Fightful’s Rookie Of The Year award in 2024. Check out her full comments by clicking here.

Fans can check out Fightful’s full interview with Izzy Moreno in the video linked at the top of this article.