Both Velvet Sky and Joey Ryan share their respective experiences.
It is the norm in professional wrestling for enhancement talents to be brought in to further highlight a wrestler that a company and/or promotion wants to further expose. Some of the current stars in the business today who are already established worked as enhancement talents such as IMPACT Wrestling star Scarlett Bordeaux. Scarlett worked as an enhancement talent for Nia Jax on an episode of RAW in 2016. Eli Everfly appeared on episode[s] of WWE SmackDown and 205 Live as an enhancement talent and even picked up a victory on the blue-brand exclusive show.
Joey Ryan and Velvet Sky commented on their experiences as extras in WWE but their experiences were not positive. Ryan shared on Twitter that WWE wrestlers were told that "indie wrestlers" were coming for their jobs so they were indirectly instructed to treat said performer lesser than they would a fellow WWE superstar which earned a response from Lance Storm:
Painting with an awfully wide brush here. https://t.co/uqSyoO1e8Y
— Lance Storm (@LanceStorm) February 20, 2019
Former two-time TNA Knockouts Champion Velvet Sky chimed in and added that she was seen as a threat amongst the women of WWE and was kicked out of the locker room and had to change in the men's bathroom when she worked as an extra for the sports-entertainment company.
Shit ur lucky u got the broom closet. Lol In ‘06 I was invited there as an extra & a certain female wrestler had me kicked out of the divas locker room by the makeup lady & made me change in the men’s bathroom w/ a bunch of dude extras cuz I was a “threat” to her job. Fun times.
— Velvet Sky (@VelVelHoller) February 22, 2019
No I’m not & wasn’t. This was way before TNA. Following my dream to try and make it happen, & the hard times I was given back then at that place was discouraging & disheartening. Joey wasn’t wrong in his tweet. That stuff went on for a lot of Indy guys & girls trying to make it.
— Velvet Sky (@VelVelHoller) February 22, 2019
While on the topic of enhancement talents, Fightful's Sean Ross Sapp has a new series which features stories from those who've worked as extras in WWE and to keep an eye on that, check out Fightful's "Wrestling exclusives" section.
