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Nita Strauss has gained a cult following amongst members of the WWE Universe in recent years. As Alice Cooper's guitarist, Strauss is used to performing in front of passionate fans during a Cooper concert.
This experience, plus her fandom for professional wrestling, has allowed Strauss to make a seamless transition into the WWE Universe as a regular musical performer.
Nita Strauss has performed at several major WWE events during her career. Most recently, Strauss opened NXT TakeOver: Stand & Deliver Night One by playing the American National Anthem to start the show.
Strauss has also performed at events such as WWE Evolution in 2018 and at WrestleMania 34 where she performed during Shinsuke Nakamura's entrance before his WWE Championship match against AJ Styles.
Nita Strauss recently sat down with Sportskeeda Wrestling's Sid Pullar for another episode of UnSKripted to discuss a variety of topics in the world of professional wrestling.
Let's take a closer look at five things we learned from Nita Strauss' Sportskeeda interview.
#5 Nita Strauss shares her experience of performing at WWE NXT TakeOver: Stand & Deliver Night One
Nita Strauss' most recent WWE appearance came during Night One of NXT TakeOver: Stand & Deliver on USA Network. Strauss opened the show by playing the American National Anthem on her guitar.
Strauss discussed how great it was to perform in front of a crowd once again and shared her experience of WrestleMania week with WWE:
"It was incredible, it's been a crazy year and a half with the pandemic of course, everyone's life's completely turned upside down and it was amazing to just get out there and perform for anybody not even counting the fact it's my WWE family, getting to perform at NXT for the first time. I've had song used for NXT TakeOver, but I've only ever performed at WWE events. So, it was just an amazing experience to finally get to be there in the building with NXT and perform for a crowd, you know it's 200 people but it was like a loud 200 people, it felt like 20,000 people. It was just an incredible experience then to get to stay for the rest of TakeOver and Mania was absolutely awesome"
WWE has since revealed that NXT TakeOver: Stand & Deliver was the most-watched NXT TakeOver event in WWE history.
#4 Nita Strauss reveals how her WrestleMania 34 performance for Shinsuke Nakamura's entrance came to be
Arguably Nita Strauss' biggest WWE performance came at WrestleMania 34. The Alice Cooper guitarist played Shinsuke Nakamura's entrance theme as The King of Strong Style made his way to the ring for his WWE Championship match against AJ Styles.
Speaking about her WrestleMania 34 performance, Strauss revealed how her iconic WrestleMania 34 performance came together:
"Oh it was so much fun. Yeah, WrestleMania 34 was unbelievable. It was my manager Josh, who's also my boyfriend, really was the one it was his brainchild, he had this incredible vision for me to perform Shinsuke's song and he specifically thought of that. We didn't know anybody, we didn't have the connection to be like 'oh hey call them up and make it happen.' He really worked hard and tried his best to get it to a lot of people and finally at the 11th hour it got to the right person, his idea and WWE contacted us back and said 'we love it, we have an idea to do it really huge and have Shinsuke have this incredible entrance' and it was unreal, it was absolutely amazing and so happy it led to so many other great experiences with WWE from Evolution to having my song used at TakeOver in LA and then again to TakeOver this last week."
Unfortunately for Nita Strauss, Shinsuke Nakamura was unsuccessful in capturing the WWE Championship at WrestleMania 34. AJ Styles defeated Nakamura to retain the WWE Championship at the event.
#3 Nita Strauss discusses if she has any aspirations to wrestle and what her in-ring style would be
Nita Strauss has professed her professional wrestling fandom for WWE on several occasions. But, would the Alice Cooper guitarist ever like to compete inside of a WWE ring at an event such as WrestleMania or NXT TakeOver? Strauss admits just like every other fan, she has thought about it:
"You know it's so funny throwing this idea of actually wrestling because i feel like every fan thinks about it. Every fan thinks about it like 'what would you do?, what would your move be?, how would you talk?, would you be face? would you be heel?' And like I'm just like every other fan in that, I think about that stuff. So of course if someone asks me about it im like 'yeah i'd get in the ring' and my nickname is Hurricane Nita so of course i'm going to do a hurricanrana."
Nita Strauss was also asked if she had any dream opponents and what kind of wrestling style she would implement inside of the ring:
"As far as dream opponents, i haven't really thought about it. But in my mental image of myself as a wrestler, i'm pretty athletic in my regular life, i actually just finished working out. So i imagine being a pretty athletic wrestler if i was to ever get in the ring, hopefully some day and get to do a couple of spots. So, i would like to have an interesting match. I dont know if i can ever be as accomplished as the real Lucha Libre guys but you know get some high-flying spots in, get some interesting move sets in, that's what I'd want to do."
Would you be interested in seeing Hurricane Nita Strauss compete inside of a WWE ring in the future?
#2 Nita Strauss gives her opinion on Bad Bunny's in-ring debut at WWE WrestleMania 37 Night One
Nita Strauss was in the crowd at WWE WrestleMania 37 Night One to witness the WWE in-ring debut of rapper Bad Bunny.
Bunny teamed up with Damian Priest to defeat The Miz and John Morrison in tag team action. The match was critically acclaimed by all members of the WWE Universe, including Nita Strauss, who highly praised Bad Bunny's high-quality performance:
"I thought it was so great. I really did and i went in, like no offense to Benito, with no expectations. You know we were there, we were sitting 5 or 6 rows back. I really thought that it was going to be sort of your typical celebrity coming in and staying back and reaching for the tag, maybe getting in for a few minutes. He wrestled the whole match! Like, i was waiting, at some point i was like 'is Damian Priest going to come in and do anything?' because he's an amazing wrestler himself. So I was wondering, 'Are they even going to use Damian Priest in this match?' I thought Bad Bunny totally, he slayed it, the crowd was behind him. I wish you guys could have all felt the energy in that room the first time he got up on the top ropes."
Strauss even suggested that she initially felt bad for Sasha Banks and Bianca Belair having to follow Bad Bunny's incredible match. Nita Strauss stated that she was concerned because of the energy and atmosphere in the crowd for Bunny's match, which Strauss could feel herself. However, Nita Strauss felt that Banks and Belair "crushed it" when it came to their WrestleMania 37 Night One main event performance:
"It was unbelievable and i actually felt really bad for Sasha and Bianca having to follow that match because the energy there, his fans were there, it was loud it was rowdy, and like when he finished, a big part of the stadium was like 'ah it's over' and it was a shame that it was over and of course, Sasha and Bianca went out there and crushed it. But it was definitely a tough act to follow for sure."
#1 Nita Strauss reveals if Alice Cooper keeps up with the current WWE product
Nita Strauss is perhaps best known for being Alice Cooper's guitarist. Similar to Strauss, Alice Cooper himself has a lengthy history with WWE and WrestleMania.
Cooper famously accompanied Jake "The Snake" Roberts to the ring during his match with The Honkey Tonk Man at WrestleMania III and even threatened Jimmy Hart with Damien after the match.
When asked if Alice Cooper keeps up with the current WWE product, Nita Strauss revealed that while the rock icon doesn't keep up with current WWE, he has some great stories about his WrestleMania III experience with Jake "The Snake" Roberts:
"He doesn't keep up with the current product. But don't fault him for that, the guy does not own a phone. I'm not exaggerating he actually doesn't have a phone. He's very old school. Sometimes it's funny when people think, these fake accounts are him messaging on Twitter or Instagram, like he literally does not have a cellphone. He's got this presence but he's not the one personally going on and tweeting things. But he speaks really fondly of the old days, you know WrestleMania III and Jake The Snake. He's got great, great stories about his time at WrestleMania."
Nita Strauss also explained that Cooper is emotionally attached to wrestlers he knows and loves, telling a story about when WWE Hall of Famer Mick Foley attended an Alice Cooper show:
"Mick Foley actually came to our show and Alice got really excited that he was there, he's like 'wow that's Mankind,' he was really excited. I don't think he keeps up with any of the new stuff but he definitely is still really emotionally attached to the wrestlers that he knows and loves."
