Ex-WWE Star Says Going Against Vince McMahon Was Best Business Decision

A former WWE superstar thinks that doing something Vince McMahon didn’t want was a smart business move.

Eva Marie is going to be remembered by WWE fans for being a legendary in-ring performer, but she did stand out during her two runs in the company.

The first time Eva was under a WWE contract was from 2013, originally as part of the Total Divas reality show, and she remained on the main roster until 2017. Her second run was much shorter, from October 2020 to about one year.

What fans will remember about Eva Marie is her bright red hair, which made her stand out from the rest of the roster.

In an interview with Insight’s Chris Van Vliet, Eva Marie spoke about her red hair and gave an elaborate answer about how she decided to go with it.

“So best business decision I have ever made without me knowing it. My mom’s a hairdresser, so I’ve been dyeing my hair since I was stealing all her stuff since I was like, 15. So I had black, dark hair. That’s my natural hair color. You see my eyebrows? That’s the natural color. When I got a call on Saturday saying that I got the job, they mentioned a lot of the girls that have left were platinum blonde. Because the twins are Mexican-Italian too, so we don’t want you to look like one of The Bella Twins.

Are you okay with changing your hair to platinum blonde? I didn’t care. I was like, Yeah, sure, whatever. I’ll dye my hair freaking purple, whatever.”

As she continued, Eva Marie also mentioned that her first day on the job with WWE was at WrestleMania 29 in 2013 in New Jersey, but the company promoted it as being in New York.

“So I get to New York for WrestleMania. That was my first day on the job, also, which is unheard of, and they had set this appointment and everything with this really nice salon in New York to dye my hair blonde, we’re going platinum. Well, I’ve been blonde, not like a really cute blonde, whatsoever, in high school, and it was horrible. It was so bad. So in the show, season one, or I think it’s like the first episode. That was real sh*t.

That was literally like, I’m in the chair, and they’re stripping my hair color from previous colors and stuff, and it starts to kind of look orangey. I literally look at JoJo and I was like, I can’t do it. I literally say in the chair, I look like Mufasa from The Lion King. I look insane. It looks terrible. It’s orange. There is no way.

Well, I was listening to Rihanna’s album at the time, it was when she had that crazy fire-red hair. I think her album was called Loud at the time. I was like, dude, her hair is sick. It was just such a fire engine red. I was like, f*ck it. Let’s go red.”

WWE Higher Ups Like Vince McMahon Wanted A Certain Hair Color, But Eva Marie Had Other Ideas

Eva Marie went on to reveal that she was willing to go against what WWE Chairman Vince McMahon and other higher-ups wanted.

“I don’t know exactly what really sparked me to kind of go against the grain, because it was a big gamble, because the Vince and the higher ups were the ones that were requesting this to happen, but deep down, I knew if I were to really go platinum blonde, like Maryse or Kelly Kelly, like that type of blonde, I would be bald, and there’s no way that I would be able to maintain that type of white color for very long without it just ruining [my hair].

I literally would be bald to have that colour hair, because my hair is so dark. So I just really took a gamble, and at the time, because we were called Divas, my saving grace, because I got in trouble, and the girls thought that I was gonna get fired, and I’m sure, looking back, they probably hope that I did. But my saving grace, why I went red and went against the grain was because being a WWE Diva, being a WWE superstar, even to this day, is all about your inner confidence and showcasing that and feeling good about yourself, and then being able to hopefully radiate that from inward to outward.

I said that if I went blonde, there’s no way I would be able to put forth the most confident individual, because I would be insecure and self-conscious from the very jump, and that’s not what a Diva embodies.”

Also read: Eva Marie Reveals What May Have Led To WWE Firing