Rumble Road by Jon Robinson Page B
Authors: Jon Robinson
those highlights I missed when I was on the road.”
And while every trip would be a whole lot smoother if all you had to do was get to your room, relax, write lyrics, and watch sports, unfortunately for the WWE Superstars, that’s not always (and sometimes never) the case. From sleazy hotels to mystery stains in random rooms, sometimes just finding a clean, safe place to sleep is the hardest part of the job.
Or as Tommy Dreamer puts it, “Some of the hotels we’ve had to stay in are absolutely disgusting. You wouldn’t believe we actually paid money to rent these rooms.”
These stories detail what goes on in a WWE hotel when things get downright dirty (and a little bizarre).
The Dirty Divas
Maria
I thought life on the road would be a little more . . . clean. I think that’s the best way to explain it. Some of those hotels we stay in have giant bugs! You wouldn’t believe it. There was this one night where I found a huge spider in my bed. So I throw the blankets off me and jump out of bed, and this spider is seriously coming to attack me as I’m getting out of bed. Five minutes later, I hear Layla start screaming, and there was a giant spider in her bed too. Then we look up on the wall and what do we see? Another spider! The next day, we got back to the room, and the spiders were gone, but there was this strange yellow beetle flying around. So I take a picture of it and Twitter it to show people what was in our room. Eve’s brother sees this, and he tells us the official name, how it was an arachnid blah-blah-blah [not the official name], but it was hilarious. I guess I always thought life on the road would be more glamorous. But at the same time we have a lot more fun than I thought we would. We’re all so close, and we all know even the smallest details about everyone. We know who sleeps well together—like I need to sleep by myself because otherwise I end up elbowing people in the face. But sometimes you have no choice and you have to share a bed because the hotels run out of rooms or they give you a room with only one bed. The other night this happened, and it was me, Layla, and Eve all in bed together. I hit Layla like three times with elbows while I was sleeping. I was trying to hug the side of the bed, but I guess I rolled over in the middle of the night and got her pretty good.
The other thing that happens in the hotel is we all tan each other. When we’re getting ready for a show, it’s like a fog of tanner overtakes the whole hotel. The Divas are actually the Dirty Divas, because we’re pretty nasty.
In a Pickle
Beth Phoenix
I traveled very little before I got on the road and started in the wrestling business, so it was all kind of new to me going from town to town to town. When I first started with WWE, the money wasn’t really coming in yet, so I was trying to skimp and save every penny I could wherever I could. So I would go on Hotwire and look for the lowest stars of any hotel in town just so I could get the lowest prices.
I remember one time, it was only my second or third loop with Raw , and I ended up getting a place called something like the Econo Motel . . . something very generic like that, but when I pulled up, it looked more like the Bates Motel. It was one of those motels that was one floor, with the red roof where the doors accessed outside, and when I walk into the main area, all I see is this guy with two dirty socks up on the desk. He had a hole in one sock, he was smoking a cigar, and I see that his office looked more like an area where maybe he had been living. There were empty McDonald’s wrappers everywhere, and the whole scene was just quite chaotic and filthy. All I wanted to do was get my key as fast as possible and lock the door to my room. I just remember, I’m walking to my room, and as I look around, there are shady characters everywhere. I hear yelling and screaming coming from different rooms, but I don’t spook too easily. I just put my head down and
And while every trip would be a whole lot smoother if all you had to do was get to your room, relax, write lyrics, and watch sports, unfortunately for the WWE Superstars, that’s not always (and sometimes never) the case. From sleazy hotels to mystery stains in random rooms, sometimes just finding a clean, safe place to sleep is the hardest part of the job.
Or as Tommy Dreamer puts it, “Some of the hotels we’ve had to stay in are absolutely disgusting. You wouldn’t believe we actually paid money to rent these rooms.”
These stories detail what goes on in a WWE hotel when things get downright dirty (and a little bizarre).
The Dirty Divas
Maria
I thought life on the road would be a little more . . . clean. I think that’s the best way to explain it. Some of those hotels we stay in have giant bugs! You wouldn’t believe it. There was this one night where I found a huge spider in my bed. So I throw the blankets off me and jump out of bed, and this spider is seriously coming to attack me as I’m getting out of bed. Five minutes later, I hear Layla start screaming, and there was a giant spider in her bed too. Then we look up on the wall and what do we see? Another spider! The next day, we got back to the room, and the spiders were gone, but there was this strange yellow beetle flying around. So I take a picture of it and Twitter it to show people what was in our room. Eve’s brother sees this, and he tells us the official name, how it was an arachnid blah-blah-blah [not the official name], but it was hilarious. I guess I always thought life on the road would be more glamorous. But at the same time we have a lot more fun than I thought we would. We’re all so close, and we all know even the smallest details about everyone. We know who sleeps well together—like I need to sleep by myself because otherwise I end up elbowing people in the face. But sometimes you have no choice and you have to share a bed because the hotels run out of rooms or they give you a room with only one bed. The other night this happened, and it was me, Layla, and Eve all in bed together. I hit Layla like three times with elbows while I was sleeping. I was trying to hug the side of the bed, but I guess I rolled over in the middle of the night and got her pretty good.
The other thing that happens in the hotel is we all tan each other. When we’re getting ready for a show, it’s like a fog of tanner overtakes the whole hotel. The Divas are actually the Dirty Divas, because we’re pretty nasty.
In a Pickle
Beth Phoenix
I traveled very little before I got on the road and started in the wrestling business, so it was all kind of new to me going from town to town to town. When I first started with WWE, the money wasn’t really coming in yet, so I was trying to skimp and save every penny I could wherever I could. So I would go on Hotwire and look for the lowest stars of any hotel in town just so I could get the lowest prices.
I remember one time, it was only my second or third loop with Raw , and I ended up getting a place called something like the Econo Motel . . . something very generic like that, but when I pulled up, it looked more like the Bates Motel. It was one of those motels that was one floor, with the red roof where the doors accessed outside, and when I walk into the main area, all I see is this guy with two dirty socks up on the desk. He had a hole in one sock, he was smoking a cigar, and I see that his office looked more like an area where maybe he had been living. There were empty McDonald’s wrappers everywhere, and the whole scene was just quite chaotic and filthy. All I wanted to do was get my key as fast as possible and lock the door to my room. I just remember, I’m walking to my room, and as I look around, there are shady characters everywhere. I hear yelling and screaming coming from different rooms, but I don’t spook too easily. I just put my head down and