Alexa Bliss says The Masked Singer is ‘one of the hardest things I’ve ever done’

We learned last night that Alexa Bliss’ absence from WWE television over the last two months might be explained away by her gig with The Masked Singer.

In an interview with TV Insider, Bliss admitted that doing the show helped her get over a bad case of stage fright:

I thought it would be an amazing opportunity. I’ve watched the show. I’ve had friends on the show. And it just looks like something that would be so fun to do. WWE was awesome in pitching me for the show.

For me, it was more so I wanted to get over my stage fright. I have a really bad stage fright of singing in front of people. I had this karaoke thing happen a long time ago in WWE. We had this Christmas party where all the talent got up and sang karaoke in front of everyone and it was a contest and the winners got gift cards. I went up to sing and I froze and just started looking around and shaking and sweating and I just sat the microphone down and I went and sat down and just was so embarrassed and I hadn’t sung since.

So this was one of those things where it used to be something that was so fun and I don’t know why, but my anxiety just got me. I wanted to do this to finally face my fear of singing in front of people because it was something I used to love to do in the shower, obviously, but I wanted to face my fear and prove to myself that I can do it and get over that hurdle.

Later in the interview, Alexa said she was surprised by how physically exhausting the entire experience turned out to be:

How difficult it is to sing and dance, oh my gosh! I can have like a 15, 20-minute match in the ring, which is very taxing on your body in energy. But singing and dancing, that’s a whole ‘nother beast. I remember, Amy, the vocal coach I was working with, had me doing jumping jacks and singing, and it was seriously one of the hardest things I’ve ever done and that really surprised me. And breathing. I also worked with Eric Vetro when I first got the call that I was doing The Masked Singer. I did a couple sessions with him, and he was so sweet. And working on your breathing, that’s a whole other exercise that I didn’t even think about.

So Eric helped me a lot with my breathing and using my voice and Amy helped me with my cardio when it comes to singing. I was very winded during the performance, which was really surprising because I wrestle for a living, and so it was so surprising how your body uses different things for different actions. I learned that I cannot sing and dance at the same time without getting winded, and I need to start working on that.

When we last saw Bliss in WWE kayfabe, she was being haunted by Uncle Howdy after losing to Bianca Belair at Royal Rumble. I guess we’ll find out soon enough if WWE picks up right from that point when she returns, or if creative will come up with a new direction for her after WrestleMania.