By Jason Powell, ProWrestling.net Editor (@prowrestlingnet)
Ring The Belle interview with Taynara Conti
Interview conducted by DS Shin
Available at Ring The Belle Youtube Page (or below)
Being discovered by WWE and rejecting them initially: “[The photographer] asked what if we do a photoshoot in [judo] kimono. Then he was like let’s do a sexy one. And I wanted to do it to piss my ex-boyfriend. When he posted the pictures on his Instagram. He was from France so he had a lot of followers, and WWE found my pictures. They were looking for Brazilian talents. They figured out that I was just not just a model, and someone contacted me. I was like no. I didn’t have any idea what it is. To be honest, I thought it was something with like prostitution.”
Thoughts on her last name Conti being the butt of joke: “I don’t care. You need to do so much to really affect me. If they’re having fun, it’s whatever. It is my husband’s last name. My husband is half Italian, ‘Conti’ is an Italian name. But then I think WWE found out all the jokes and stuff, and they changed it. They took out Conti.'”
Asking for her release in February: “I was not happy there in the last couple of months. I’m so grateful for the opportunity. I will never forget that it changed my whole life, and I will be forever grateful. But at the same point, I need to get better. I need to think about my future. I need to feel that I’m useful. I was trying to have conversations asking for opportunities. I never asked for something big. I never asked for a Takeover. I never asked for a title shot. Because I know everything’s step by step. But I was like, ‘Oh, I have been doing this for a long time.’ I think it’s time to get better. It’s time to show them more about me. I have never done a promo. I was never in a storyline. [WWE was] keep saying that I’m good, that I’ll be a star. All the feedback was always amazing. I tried to change like a hundred times. Believe me, I pitched like a hundred different gimmicks. They were like, no keep doing what you’re doing. Just keep going, the opportunity is coming. But opportunities never came.”
Getting the call from WWE: “I was not expecting it at all. When I talked to them a couple of months ago, they told me that they are not letting me go. Not gonna lie, what a bad moment. When I got the call, I was by myself at home. And I was just crying. I just started crying, and they were like, ‘Okay, I’m gonna, you know, let you digest.’ I was feeling really bad for a couple of days, but after that I was happy. Of course, that was not the right time for me, because I was not expecting that it was in the middle of the pandemic. I don’t know much about indie or other companies. But I know I can learn, and it’s exciting. There’s no chance I’m going back to Brazil and forgetting about wrestling.”
Representing Brazilians and the Latinx community: “I feel in my heart, that I was born to represent my country and to represent my people. I don’t know where. I don’t know how. But somehow I will represent them. I will always do my best to represent my people and my country.”
…She should probably go back to Brasil and forget about wrestling.