Chapter Three: …And the Just Plain Bizarre…

Welcome Home, Victoria
By Victoria

My grandfather was an actor in Japanese movies. So although she’s not Japanese, my mother spent most of her childhood in Japan. That’s actually how my parents met. My father was in the air force and was stationed in Japan where he met my mom. You could see that my mother’s time in Japan influenced her a lot, as there were a lot of things she took from the culture. For example, when I was a child she sang me Japanese children’s songs.

Whenever I saw Japanese photographers backstage at our WWE shows, I’d tell them my family history, even singing a few of the songs I learned from my mother.

I was really excited about my first tour of Japan with WWE — it was my first time there, the place where my mother grew up. When we got off the plane in Tokyo, everyone was kind of loopy from the really long flight. And the fans mobbed us like no other place. It’s like we were rock stars.

The freakiest part, though? All these fans were singing one of the children’s songs to me! It was surreal. I guess the photographer passed along the story of how my mother would sing me certain Japanese songs and it was reported all over the media.

At the shows there were signs that said things like “Welcome Home, Victoria.” At one of the press conferences, they asked me several questions, none of them about wrestling, but all about my family and my mom.

It was all such a moving experience and one of my most treasured trips ever.