Xia Li has become the protector on WWE television.
Xia made her SmackDown debut on the December 10 episode, helping Naomi in her battle against Sonya Deville. Vignettes aired for Xia to build up her debut, telling the story of how she protected her family after her father passed away.
Speaking to Character Media, Xia explained how she wanted to put her real life on television.
"I had some issues when I was a child, so I want to protect myself and I want to protect my family. My dad died when I was 4 years old, and I have two sisters and one brother. My father’s job was to protect my family. When I feel I have power, I need to help people around me or just do what I can do, do my best to help people. There’s the culture of martial arts—when you have power, you should use your power to protect people, to do good things. Actually, I had a dream when I was a child. I wanted to be a superhero. When I started martial arts, [I thought,] ‘Oh, I can do this to protect myself and my family.’ So then I kept doing martial arts and competing, and I had a gold medal, a silver medal. I was competing a lot, so that gave me a lot of power [and made me] feel safe," she said.
She continued by saying, "This new character is what I want to do. The whole package that [WWE] put on TV is my real-life story, so I’m very happy to show the world. It’s my dream come true. There’s people who have been waiting for my new character, and finally they can see me."
Xia has yet to compete in an official match on SmackDown, but did work dark matches before she was drafted to the brand from NXT.
If you missed anything from Friday's SmackDown, check out Fightful's full report on the show by clicking here.
