After months of rumours and weeks of video packages, Eva Marie recently returned to RAW and has since been in the midst of a weird storyline involving NXT UK Superstar Piper Niven (now renamed Doudrop). It appears that her new gimmick is claiming the victories of others as her own, but it's impossible to say where this is leading beyond a possible feud with her current partner.
During a recent interview with Bleacher Report, Marie opened up on her WWE return (she was released by the company in 2017) and confirmed that it had been delayed multiple times.
"There’s always so many things where creatively, story-wise, there were so many thing where I was going to come back before ‘Mania, and then I wasn’t," she explained. "Timing is everything, and just making sure it made sense. That’s kind of where it was at where I thought I was returning a lot sooner, and then it didn’t make sense."
"WrestleMania wasn’t the right moment, and right after wasn’t, either. It was just looking for that right little slot to insert the storyline and create it and start it."
Inevitably, many fans aren't on board with seeing Eva on RAW each week, but that criticism isn't slowing her down. In fact, she admitted to using it as motivation! "Obviously, first coming into the company so brand-new you’re trying to take everything in stride," Eva said. "At the same time, I was brand-new to social media, brand-new to WWE, brand-new to Total Divas."
"You’re taking certain things and trying to learn as you go. Now that I’ve learned so much, especially outside of the company, I take everything in stride. Any type of criticism, to me, is like, ‘Good, I’m doing my job.’ No matter what, you have to think no one is going to be happy. You’re not going to appease every single person. If you’re taking certain things to heart, then you shouldn’t be in entertainment."
Regardless of what your feelings on Marie are, there's no denying that she seems to have the right attitude, and it's going to be interesting seeing how fans respond to her when they start returning to WWE's shows this month. There's a big difference between heel heat and "go away" heat, and that could be pivotal in how the company chooses to book her as a Superstar moving forward.