Nikki Cross Says She’s Been Studying Ricky Steamboat In Recent Months

Nikki Cross is excited about her future in WWE.

Last year, Nikki Cross was regularly receiving opportunities at the WWE SmackDown Women’s Championship. However, in recent months, Nikki Cross has been off of television and was searching for her place on the roster.

Over the last several weeks, she has picked up victories over Charlotte Flair and Rhea Ripley in Beat the Clock Challenges. Now, she’s opening up in a new interview with Stephanie Chase of Digital Spy about how she’s been staying motivated in recent months and who she has been studying tape of.

“So the last few months I’ve been training in-ring as much as I can,” Nikki said. “I’ve been training four times a week, just doing everything I can to be the best competitor that I can be, working on different things and just introducing new moves to the move set.

“I’ve been studying as much tape as I can, watching a lot of matches. I’ve been watching a lot of Ricky Steamboat, a big favorite of mine. Or even watching older matches of my own just to say, ‘Okay, what can I do better? What can I maybe change, what I can improve on?’ Or to be like, ‘Let me keep that, that’s a great little move that that takes people off your feet,'” she continued. “It’s been such an amazing period of growth for me as a performer and as a competitor and as a person and just really just throwing myself in and being immersed in a wrestling ring again.”

Nikki Cross recently picked up her third victory in a row on Monday Night Raw. This time, she was in a tag team match alongside Asuka and she picked up another pinfall over the WWE Raw Women’s Champion, Rhea Ripley. You can check out the full coverage here.