As a four-time qualifier for the career-changing ladder match, there are few ladies on WWE‘s roster extra certified (or overdue) to win Cash within the Financial institution than Naomi.
An uber-athletic, high-flying veteran who’s spent greater than 12 years wrestling for WWE, the longtime fan-favorite shocked viewers again in March by turning heel and revealing she’d attacked former pal Jade Cargill.
The most recent cease on Naomi’s reign of terror throughout WWE’s ladies’s division is Los Angeles, the place she’ll compete towards 5 different ladies within the Cash within the Financial institution ladder match for a assured title alternative. Forward of Cash within the Financial institution 2025, Naomi spoke to Selection about turning heel, dream world title feuds, and which stipulation could be the proper finish to her feud with Jade.
Although for the higher a part of a decade, followers have identified her because the energetic, infectious character with an affinity for neon, Naomi says her determination to reinvent herself was a very long time coming.
“I’d been interested by this for some time, about the place I wished to go and what I wished to do if I used to be going to vary,” she explains. “I wished to do one thing utterly reverse and outdoors of the field, from the brilliant, the glow, the neon colours and the brilliant, bubbly stuff.”
“With what I did to Jade, and leaving a criminal offense scene, it popped into my head – oh man, that is good. Warning tape is common. All people is aware of what meaning after they see it.”
Naomi’s new “Proceed With Warning” mantra additionally meant new entrance music, swapping her bass-heavy “GLOW” theme music for an alt-rock monitor with livid, screaming vocals. “That was loopy,” she says of listening to her new music for the primary time.
“I cherished it. Once more, I wished to go along with one thing completely different, extra of an edge. I do love various rock, and once I requested new music, I used to be in a position to have just a little enter. I undoubtedly wished to be rock as an alternative of the EDM that I had performed earlier than, or the hip-hop vibes I had with different music. I’m very proud of it.”
Although Naomi was pleased together with her new, edgier look and persona, she admits she was initially nervous about how followers would obtain such a drastic shift in character. “It’s all the pieces that I wished it to be,” she gushes. “It feels good to have the ability to change the viewers perspective of me in such a fast time frame.”
“That’s one thing I used to be undoubtedly nervous about, as a result of they’ve seen me as a great character and a ‘good lady’ for thus lengthy. To only utterly change it up – you by no means understand how or if it’s going to work, or whether or not or not followers are going to purchase it. That was an enormous problem for me.”
Positive sufficient, followers did purchase Naomi’s heel flip, and her conflict with Jade has blossomed into one of many hottest, longest-running WWE feuds of 2025. Whether or not buying and selling barbs on social media or interfering in one another’s matches, Jade and Naomi’s feud has ignited a debate amongst followers as to which member of the now-defunct “massive three” is in the correct.
“To see the response and the reside response, that’s what I care most about. The followers are participating with me and interacting with me throughout the present, that’s the important thing. I undoubtedly really feel the power, so I’m gonna preserve doing what I’m doing, which is being completely nasty.”
Although being “completely nasty” has gotten the new-and-improved Naomi a slot within the 2025 Cash within the Financial institution Ladder match, it’s going to take greater than nastiness to clear a area that features former WWE, NXT, CMLL, NJPW, Stardom and ROH Ladies’s World Champions.
Requested to explain her fellow Cash within the Financial institution opponents in just a few phrases, Naomi assigns “jacked” and “Massive mama” to Rhea Ripley, whereas current call-up Stephanie Vaquer is “demonic.”
Former Cash within the Financial institution Winner Alexa Bliss is “fury,” in line with Naomi, whereas she thinks of Giulia as “lovely insanity,” like her moniker. Rounding out the sphere is 23-year-old prodigy Roxanne Perez, who Naomi describes as “[a] child, straight out of the womb.”
If Naomi can outwit, outlast, or just out-climb her 5 fellow opponents, she’ll earn the Cash within the Financial institution contract – a briefcase containing paperwork for a assured title shot any time, anyplace within the subsequent one year. A Cash within the Financial institution winner can try and money in on any champion of their selecting, and Naomi has her sights set on present WWE Ladies’s Champion, Tiffany Stratton.
“I need the massive championship, particularly as a result of Tiffany has made it so troublesome for me,” she says.
“After I was going after the championship, she made my life hell, and I haven’t forgotten about that.”
Although cashing in on Stratton could be long-overdue payback for Naomi, it could even be her first time maintain a singles title in WWE since 2017.
“I’ve actually solely held a championship each 5 to 6 years all through my profession,” she displays. “This time, I feel it’s been seven or eight, if I do win a championship once more. To me, it’s all the time concerning the journey, about getting there and incomes it. I by no means need it if it’s not deserved or earned. Time will inform this go round, if I can proceed to maintain up this momentum because the Warning Queen.”
Cashing in and taking Stratton’s title would make Naomi certainly one of three champions in her household: she’s married to fellow wrestler Jimmy Uso, whose twin brother Jey Uso at present holds the WWE World Championship, whereas her cousin-in-law Jacob Fatu is the present WWE United States Champion.
“It’s actually a blessing,” she says. “I get a lot of my gas and motivation from them, being married into this household and being surrounded by such superb wrestlers who know a lot about this enterprise.”
“It makes me need to be good – and I don’t need to be the loser within the household! I don’t need to be the one one who ain’t bringing residence no gold. They undoubtedly impressed me to work as onerous as they do, to be pretty much as good as they’re, to symbolize the household dynasty I’m part of.”
As for what a Naomi Ladies’s World Championship reign would appear like in 2025, she says she’s not choosy concerning challengers.
“All people can get it. We have now a lot new expertise on the market, there are such a lot of new matchups for me. I’d like to get in there with Rhea [Rhipley] at this stage, with Iyo [Sky] at this stage. Becky [Lynch], so long as she and I’ve been right here, me and Becky ain’t ever actually needed to sq. up in a championship-level match, and she or he’s undoubtedly nonetheless one of many top-tier ladies in our division.”
“Bayley is certainly one of my finest mates,” she continues. “I haven’t actually gotten to speak to her a lot and clarify the state of affairs, however we’ll see the place Bayley lies and hopefully I can get her on my aspect. There’s so many – Roxanne, Giulia, all of those new ladies. I wouldn’t thoughts happening to NXT and giving the ladies down there a whooping and possibly serving to just a little.”
Vaquer, Perez and Giulia are all current NXT call-ups, however Naomi says there are nonetheless loads of ladies in WWE’s developmental model she has her eye on, together with former NXT North American Champion Kelani Jordan.
“There’s fairly just a few I really like. What I actually love are the ladies that everybody thinks are so good and candy, as a result of they get taken benefit of. Kelani [Jordan] is an ideal instance. I’d wish to take a few these ladies beneath my wing and present them what occurs after they flip the script and launch the beast.”
In October of 2024, Jordan teamed with then-tag-team champions Cargill and Belair, who visited NXT to compete in a six-woman tag match. Naomi, who was an energetic roster member on the time, says she didn’t respect being swapped out of “the massive three,” the casual trio of herself, Cargill, and Belair.
“They’ve been shading me and doing little issues like that the entire time, and once I lastly did one thing about it, they couldn’t deal with it. They’ve been enjoying with me, they’ve been pushing me apart, they’ve been performing like I used to be replaceable on this dynamic, on this group. However now we see how the actual star of the ‘massive three’ is.”
Although she got here up quick towards Cargill at WrestleMania, Naomi says their feud is way from over, and that she’s keen to place their points to mattress in a stipulation match – the extra violent, the higher. “Completely I need a stipulation match for Jade,” she says.
“[Falls count anywhere? Last woman standing?] I’ll take any of the above. What do you assume she would get essentially the most damage in? What’s essentially the most brutal? Possibly a coffin match. I simply need to have the ability to use my razor blades.”