An extensive conversation with Niven.
Dating back to early February, Piper Niven has been sidelined. She provided an update on her whereabouts when she sat down with Gorilla Position. She told the outlet that she suffered a broken hand in February while training.
Who wants to see my gross hand? I broke my hand (she laughed). Training, trying to be a better performer. So obviously, the universe was like, no, no, no, you’re too good. They was like, hey bro, you can’t — come on, you gotta give everybody else a chance. So yeah, broke my hand unfortunately… This happened the 7th of February. So, just over two months. Just over two months but it’s getting a little better. So, and now I have this gnarly little bone callus that I can’t wait to backfist people with. So yeah, that’s what I’ve been doing.
Piper went on to add that she’s not cleared, but is hoping she will be soon. She explained why she thinks she needed to take a step back.
Not as of just yet but hopefully soon, hopefully soon (I’ll be cleared)… Honestly, I feel like this was kind of necessary. I’ve never broken a bone or really had — I’ve been out before, especially with COVID and stuff, but I never had any real injury and I kind of feel like this was a very necessary learning experience for me and so, even though I’ve been injured with a broken bone and rehabbing that and everything that comes with that, I have been doing so much work. Inner work, ring work, learning about myself and my profession and honestly, I really think this was a necessary setback to be better as a performer. So I’m very, very excited to show everyone that when I get back.
Because of the injury, Piper thinks when she comes back, it’ll be a reset for her character in addition to there being a better understanding of it.
Yes, I think so (when I come back, it’ll be a reset of my character). Or maybe, a better understanding of the character. A better understanding of myself and really I feel like when you are more comfortable and confident in yourself then, it’ll be easily transferable in the ring and for everybody else to see.
She then dove into the name changes throughout her career as she went from Viper to Piper to Doudrop to now being Piper again. It was Paul ‘Triple H’ Levesque’s call for her to drop the Doudrop name. She feels she tried her best to get a grasp of that character. She’s grateful for it and situations like that, she takes it as a learning experience.
The former WWE Women’s Tag Team Champion feels she got her identity back with the Piper Niven name. Further discussing the Doudrop persona, there were no clear instructions given to her about what the character should be. She feels before she switched back to Piper, she was beginning to figure out who Doudrop is.
Yes (Triple H is responsible for me going back to Piper Niven). So, it was very bizarre how the whole thing even came about, because for over 10 years of my life, I had put stock into Viper which then became Piper and then suddenly, removed from my environment, brought to the big, bad America and really, it was a sink or swim moment and you know, I really didn’t have any other choice but to at least try and keep my head above water and swim and I really felt like I tried my best to understand Doudrop and make her work but, for me, I’ll be thankful for her because again, I believe everything from the universe is a learning experience and it’s all a necessary thing that we have to go through. But, getting Piper back to me was just, I got my identity back… For me, Piper was always the person that I wanted to be when I was younger. I wasn’t allowed to be angry, I wasn’t allowed to fight and stand up for myself when I was younger so, Piper was that person that I always hoped I could be and I hope that — I know there’s a lot of kids who are bigger kids that maybe get picked on and stuff like that. I hope that when they see Piper, she makes them feel like they can stand up for themselves as well and it was kind of like the antithesis of all of that. I got to stand up for myself again, I got to be Piper. So that’s how that felt for me.
Do you know what’s a shame? I kind of just… (she laughed) Because it wasn’t really a whole lot of help in understanding it. It was just, ‘Your name’s Doudrop now’ and I was like, ‘Okay. What’s the character?’ Nothing… I feel like I eventually just got a hold of, like oh, she’s bubbly and she’s peppy… and then he went, ‘Just kidding, you’re gonna be a bad guy now.’ I was like, aha, I don’t know how to do that (she laughed).
Niven hails from Kilbirnie, Scotland. She spoke about WWE hosting Clash at the Castle from Glasgow, Scotland on June 15th. The podcast co-host mentioned the idea of Niven versus Rhea Ripley headlining that show and she said herself and Ripley have had bangers before and it’s time to run it back.
When she saw the initial announcement about Clash at the Castle which did not include the location, she recognized the Rampant Lion logo and knew the company was headed to her home country. She went to Gorilla where Paul Levesque, Bruce Prichard and William Regal were seated and asked if they were going to Scotland. They confirmed it to her.
Niven responded by asking if she could go. Levesque jokingly asked if she knew anyone in Scotland and she said she knows a few people there.
Why not? Why not? (Niven said in response to idea of main eventing Clash at the Castle: Scotland against Rhea Ripley) I don’t know if you know this but, Rhea and myself had some absolute bangers back in the day and I think it’s time to run it back. Mhm, we sure did, we sure did (put on bangers in NXT UK). But, this announcement was very, very satisfying for me because the people of Scotland have deserved this for such a long time. Without the British boom, it’s my belief that there probably wouldn’t have been an NXT U.K. and Scotland was a massive part of that boom. Scotland was a huge part of that boom. Most of the people that I’ve met by chance here (at WWE World in Philadelphia) this week are Scottish. There’s just such a huge fan base in Scotland and they deserve this, they deserve this. So, I’m very happy, I’m very proud for them and I hope that I’m there for them in that ring and I hope they’ll be cheering for me.
There’s definitely a lot more freedom with things like that (asking to be on shows & making pitches) and you know, not even so much that you couldn’t do things like that before (Paul Levesque took over), but you know what? I wasn’t very confident before so I maybe didn’t feel really confident to come up with ideas and go and talk about it. But actually, I was in Gorilla Position when it came up on the screen that, ‘Tune in tomorrow for the next Clash at the Castle announcement’ and I saw the logo and I went, ‘That’s Lion Rampant’ and I stuck my head in front of — so, you know, being in Gorilla Position, it’s Paul, Bruce (Prichard) and William Regal. I stuck my head in front of the monitor and I went, ‘Are we going to Scotland!?’ And they went, ‘What?’ And I went, ‘Are we going to Scotland?’ And they’re like, ‘Yeah’ and I went, ‘Can I come?’ And Paul went, ‘Well, do you know anybody?’ And I went, ‘A few people.’ So, I take that as a bit of a contract (she laughed).
The company has eight Premium Live Events that are currently announced through August and only one of those shows will be taking place in the USA. That event is NXT Battleground from Las Vegas, Nevada.
If the quotes in this article are used, please credit Gorilla Position with an H/T to POST Wrestling for the transcriptions.
