WWE Superstar Lacey Evans on Wanting to Be a Positive Role Model for Her Daughter
It’s a special Mother’s Day for WWE superstar Lacey Evans as she approaches the biggest match of her career so far. A Raw women’s championship match against Becky Lynch at the Money in the Bank Pay-Per-View is on the horizon. This comes less than six months after the call-up from the developmental brand NXT. The former United States Marine is motivated to succeed by her six-year-old daughter, who was a regular at NXT tapings on the shoulders of her dad cheering on mom in the ring.
“Sometimes on the road, whether it’s NXT or on Raw, it can be stressful,” Evans said. “It impacts you mentally in a lot of ways. You’re pulled left and right. She kind of grounds me and centers me and allows that stress to not be so harsh. She is my outlet in every way.
“No matter how rough things get or how stressed I am, all I have to do is look at her. She is my little getaway. Everything else doesn’t matter in my life because there is my baby, and in her eyes, I can do no wrong. Whether I’m a champion, win or lose, she is convinced she has the coolest mother in the world. It’s a breath of fresh air when she is around.”
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Evans strives to use her experiences growing up and even today to help inspire not only her daughter, but others going through a hard time. The “Sassy Southern Belle” wants others to see how determination and hard work can change your trajectory. Evans persevered despite having a mom who left the household when she was 10 and a father with a history of alcohol and substance abuse. He overdosed two months before her WWE tryout.
“My goal, even when I was so young, was to be a role model. I want to have a positive impact on everyone including my own children,” she said. “The minute I had a daughter, not only did it save me from the lifestyle I was used to. It let me start fresh to teach and be that positive role model that I never had growing up.
“My upbringing impacted my ability as a mother and what I do offer as a mother because I needed to break the cycle. I needed to not be the only thing I knew growing up. I didn’t know what I wanted to be. I just knew what I didn’t want to be. My baby allowed me to set that example. It has taught me to push myself to continue to be a positive influence period as a person every single day.”
Evans has never forgotten where she came from. All the 29-year-old endured led up to getting the call-up to the main roster. She got the news on the last day helping out with tryouts at the WWE Performance Center right before Christmas vacation.
“My family had already been in the car waiting to get on the road to head home. I asked if I could bring them in to tell them,” Evans recalled. “My daughter was just so excited. She was excited to move back home because once I made it to Raw, a lot of things change in your life as far as being a WWE superstar. My husband, daughter and I were just so excited because it was a huge step in our lives.
“We are excited to be on this journey together because when I started my husband and daughter, they’ve been through a lot through this transition and me working hard to become a WWE superstar. And it paid off the minute I received this information. Now we can move back home and have a normal life considering. While you’re at NXT, you’re never sure where you’re going to end up. You’re waiting and wondering. Now that I actually know, we can actually have long-term goals and meet them.”
Lacey Evans
Home is Parris Island, South Carolina, where she was stationed in the Marine Corps. Evans, whose resume includes running a construction company, is happy to be on the road with Raw and return to familiar surroundings.
“You get to NXT, where you’re uprooted from what you know. You work hard and push yourself. The end result is to get on Raw or SmackDown. Once you make the main roster, now you know your schedule,” Evans explained.
“NXT is week-to-week. You’re working hard and getting booked on live events. You may get booked on the out-of-state loop. You may not. But with being on the Raw brand, I know what to expect as far as scheduling goes and to be ready for this and that. My family comes with me, and her school I work around that and schedule what I need to schedule in advance for my family, for my company and everything I do in my life.”
The emerging Raw superstar admittedly didn’t follow WWE product as a child. Though from her tryout on, it was love at first sight. She earned the developmental contract in 2016, thrown into a new world. Evans has become accustomed to thriving in the series of trial by fire situations.
“I’m just learning as I go,” she said. “Now I’m here on Raw and still learning as a go. And there isn’t a producer or sports entertainer, male or female, who isn’t helpful. They are there for travel, financial questions, in-ring performance questions, everybody across the board has been so friendly and helping. It’s incredible. Even in regard to my family, everyone has been amazing. There is not a single question they have not taken their time out to help me with.”
Evans’ character complete with pin-up style and knockout Woman’s Right is starting to gain steam. A perfect adversary to “The Man” Lynch. However, those familiar with her story wonder why it’s not shown more on television.
“That’s the hardest part of doing this job. As a sports entertainer, you’re expected to tell a story. Your real-life story, it really can’t come to light because it really has nothing to do with the story that the company wants right now,” Evans said. “As much as I would love to every day bring this emotion and story out there, that is not always the case.
“It depends on your character or what the story is at hand. I wish I could. There is a lot of motivation that has come from my past and what I’ve been through. I definitely without a shadow of a doubt have every intention of impacting people on a high level. But I have to focus on the opportunity that I have on hand to prove I am capable of being a long-term asset to this company.
“That’s what I intend to do…I’m a firm believer in telling a story. You tell me the story that needs to be projected to the WWE Universe, and I can do that. And as much as I can in my own time and in the future, I do plan on bringing more of that to light. If they can just bear with me. That is a major goal of mine, but it’s a business. You have to do what is best for business when you have opportunities like I do.”
WWE
And that chance to prove herself as a viable main event caliber talent comes at Money in the Bank. Evans intends to impress and provide a further glimpse of what she is truly capable of.
“I’m keeping my feet grounded and staying humble. I definitely didn’t expect the opportunity of this caliber to come this quick,” Evans admits. “But same thing I learned in the Marine Corps and my whole life. Whenever you have an opportunity, you have to take it and run as hard and as fast and give the best you can. I’ve always done that my whole life.
“One thing I do have is grit, determination and a hell of a lot of initiative. There is no way I’m going to let this opportunity slip through my hands if I have anything to do with it. I’m just so blessed to be here, to be in a story this big. There is only one thing you can do, and that’s make the best of it and give it 100 percent all the time. That’s what I plan to do.”
WWE Raw, Mondays, 8/7c, USA Network
Money in the Bank, Sunday, May 19, 7/6c, WWE Network & Pay-Per-View
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