One of the best things to happen in the magical world of NXT over the past few months has been the audience’s love affair with Blue Pants, aka indie vet and former Shine tag champ, Leva Bates. It’s one of the best examples I’ve ever seen of a wrestler being given absolutely nothing, the color of her pants is literally her only character trait, and still finding a way to shine. Now imagine if they let her pair her blue pants with her Cobra Commander outfit. I think the NXT audience may literally die.
"Know that I am the one you seek! I am the one born to rule, destined to conquer!" Cobra! Pic by @JoelLoeschman pic.twitter.com/dGbBeEYzjd
— Leva Bates (@wrestlingleva) February 22, 2015
Well, ol’ Blue Pants’ popularity has become such that she actually scored a WWE.com interview. They outed her true identity and everything! So, how did Leva get her shot with WWE? Turns out she just filled out one of those submission forms you always thinks nobody looks at.
“I actually filled out the recruit page, because you always hear, “Hey, fill out the recruit page,” and I got a call asking if I would be interested in wrestling a match at NXT! So, of course, I said yes.”
Also, it turns out the legendary blue pants almost weren’t worn during her first NXT appearance…
“The name Blue Pants actually came about when I was stretching near the ring. At that point I was told I was going to wrestle Carmella, and Enzo & Cass were brainstorming an intro just off the top of their heads. They were like, ‘Maybe we should call her out, the girl with the blue pants.’ I laughed about that, I just thought it was really funny. I went, ‘Absolutely! Do that!’ I was just wearing the pants to roll around in, I wasn’t sure I was going to actually wrestle in that outfit. I have a crazy amount of costumes. I always over-pack so I have hundreds of things with me. I just put the blue pants on real quick to roll around in the ring, stretch, kind of get comfortable and it just stuck.”
So, how did King of NXT, Triple H respond to Leva’s popularity? Well, it sounds like his response was pretty typical Triple H.
“The first time I came back he said, ‘You got a Blue Pants chant. I don’t even. I can’t,’ and then he started laughing. I shook his hand and said, ‘Well, thank you for everything, I really appreciate this opportunity.’ He said, ‘You’re welcome,’ and then he just started laughing at my blue pants! That was kind of a really awesome moment for me, to make Triple H laugh.”
No matter how good NXT gets, never forget that Triple H is still Triple H.
Finally, Leva talked about her NXT following and the possibility of making WWE a more permanent thing.
“It’s absolutely heartwarming and overwhelming in a good way. I’m so scared one day I’m going to come out and they’ll be like, ‘Alright, we’re over the blue pants,’ but I feel like it just keeps growing and growing. I love the fans and I appreciate that. It really touched my heart, because I’m a fangirl at heart.
If it continues to go on and becomes a permanent thing, hallelujah, that’d be awesome. Even if it doesn’t, I still accomplished a dream of mine. Actually a couple of dreams of mine! I got to wrestle for WWE, I got to wrestle in front of a huge crowd and I got to win in a match for WWE, so all of these dreams have happened! To keep pursuing it? Absolutely, I would love to do that. I’m just enjoying it while I can.”
Aw, keep being lovely forever, Blue Pants.
Via WWE
