Trivia / Nidia

• Acting in the Dark:
  • On the first season of Tough Enough, there appeared to be an attraction between Nidia and Chris Nifong. According to her, that was entirely down to editing.
  • She was also surprised that the show portrayed her as an underdog - as at the tryouts they told her she was a natural.
• Creator Backlash: She didn't like her move to Raw, as she hadn't wanted to leave Smackdown. By the summer, she was already burnt out due to the backstage politics that were different on Raw.
• Doing It for the Art: Despite Smackdown's bookers constantly putting the Divas in bikini contests or T&A matches, they continued to put work in at live events and training to get better at wrestling. Torrie Wilson talked up how hard Nidia worked in particular; they had a bikini match on an episode of Velocity, and opted to ignore the gimmick and make it entirely about wrestling.
• Hostility on the Set: The Dudley Boyz were "rough" with her at first, as she was new and didn't understand the backstage politics at the time.
• Irony as She Is Cast: Nidia was a vegetarian at the time of her debut, making it ironic that she'd have to eat beef jerky for her first segment.
• Method Acting: During the storyline where she'd been blinded with Tajiri's mist, she would have to pretend to be blind whenever she was around fans. She recalls one Australian tour where she was hungry and ran into Bob Holly in the elevator, and had him pretend to be the one guiding her through the hotel in case anyone saw her.
• One-Take Wonder: She and Jamie Noble did their first promo together perfectly on the first take. Everyone had expected it would take forever to finish, as Nidia had never taped for TV before.
• Real-Life Relative: Nidia's sister was briefly signed to a developmental contract, and appeared for OVW as Nurse Lulu.
• Real Life Writes the Plot: Nidia's decision to get breast implants was written into the storyline when she needed time off.
• Reclusive Artist: She doesn't have any social media, and rarely goes to signings or gives interviews.
• Screwed by the Network:
  • Despite being a co-winner of the inaugural season of WWE Tough Enough, she was reduced to a valet/Jobber, receiving very few title shots.
  • Her last match was against Miss Jackie (Gayda) on NWE Destiny #5, December 17, 2005 (taped November 26th). The referee was Ekmo (Eddie "Jamal"/"Umaga" Fatu), who showed up for the match obviously drunk, guaranteeing that the match would be a disaster and a sign of colossal unprofessionalism on the parts of both Ekmo and the promotion itself.
• Vacation, Dear Boy: After leaving WWE, she picked places to wrestle that would be fun to visit.
  "I only did shows in places that I wanted to go to, and then I would extend my stay, right? So, it was just like, ‘Oh, cool, free ticket to Italy! Awesome. Three weeks? Make it for six. That’s fine, you guys go home, I will stay here for a little bit.’"
• What Could Have Been:
  • Nidia was supposed to be part of the Six Pack Challenge at the 2001 Survivor Series to crown a new Women's Champion (the other participants were Trish Stratus, Lita and Jacqueline on the WWF side, and Ivory and Mighty Molly on the Alliance side). Deciding that it would be too confusing for Nidia to debut on the last night of the storyline, they gave the spot to Jazz - because of her history with ECW.
  • There had been talks of moving Nidia to Raw much earlier than the 2004 draft - as she was taking to wrestling so quickly. She liked being on Smackdown and kept talking them out of it.
  • Nidia actually wasn't sad about her 2004 release. The reason? She had been wanting to leave for a while, and stayed only because she was afraid of breaching her contract. She jokes that Johnny Ace was sadder than her (as he had several more phone calls to make), and she was consoling him.
  • She had some talks with TNA about joining them - as they helped arrange some bookings in Australia for her - but nothing ever came of it.