Kaitlyn is looking back at one of the roughest parts of her WWE run, and she says the body pressure hit her almost immediately.
During her interview with TMZ’s Inside the Ring, the former WWE Divas Champion was asked about the pressure women faced during the Divas era, especially since she had a different look from many of the women on the roster at that time. Kaitlyn came into WWE with a bodybuilding background, and she said that even though she was already in strong shape, WWE still told her to drop weight right away.
“Anybody like any woman that was in the Divas era during that time will probably tell you the same thing. Like as soon as I got hired, they told me to lose 10 lbs. So, it was like immediate. And when I tried out, I was coming from competing on a bodybuilding stage. Like, I was in pretty good shape. I wasn’t like stage lean or anything, but I was in pretty good shape.”
Kaitlyn said that pressure became part of how she saw herself on television. She explained that she did not fit neatly into the usual Divas mold, but she also was not presented like Beth Phoenix, so she tried to carve out her own lane as the “Hybrid Diva.”
“That’s why I started calling myself the Hybrid Diva. I started that on Twitter and I used to, I was starting to tell the commentators to get that on air because it’s truly how I felt. I wasn’t this supermodelly type in the way that my body looked and also how I acted and in real life, like who I was. I was athletic and kind of just like, you know, a tomboy.”
She said the struggle came from not knowing how WWE wanted to categorize her, while she was also still trying to figure out who Kaitlyn was as a character.
“I struggled with that a lot because I didn’t know how to categorize myself and I don’t think that the creative team knew how to categorize me. So, I’m like, let me just try to create something different, something new.”
Kaitlyn admitted that the weight pressure stuck in her head. She said watching herself back on television became hard because she was focused on how she looked instead of simply studying her matches to improve.
“There was always that voice of like I need to be skinnier, I need to be leaner. And I also didn’t like watching myself on TV because I was like, I could be leaner, like I’d look a lot better.”
That insecurity also carried over into her actual in-ring work. Kaitlyn said it affected how she moved, how she carried herself, and how expressive she allowed herself to be.
“Because I didn’t have this like exuding confidence in my physique, it showed in my posture and how I held my body and how I wrestled. Like I wasn’t, I didn’t allow myself to be super expressive because I was self-conscious.”
She said watching her matches back was sometimes devastating because she did not just dislike how she looked, she also felt her movement lacked flow.
“It was really hard to watch myself back on television to get better. You know how you watch your matches so you can improve? That was like devastating to watch myself every time because I just didn’t like not only how I looked, but I didn’t feel like there was any flow in my movement. There wasn’t artistry. It was kind of like blocky.”
Kaitlyn eventually found more confidence in the ring, especially during her run with AJ Lee. She said their different styles worked well together, and their rivalry helped her understand how to use her strength more effectively.
What do you think about Kaitlyn saying WWE told her to lose weight right after hiring her? Do you think the Divas era put unfair pressure on women’s bodies? Please share your thoughts and feedback in the comments.
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