During an interview with Chris Van Vliet, Liv Morgan commented on her transition from working for the Hooters restaurant chain to WWE…

“So with a little backstory, everyone at Hooters knew I loved wrestling. I’d be doing my bar shifts I’d put WWE on the TV. I’d be serving with WWE on the TV like everyone kind of knew was my thing. And apparently before my time, there was a wrestler who will not be named that used to manage this specific Hooters. So anytime they came around in town they would go to Hooters. Me being the big WWE fan that I was I saw this wrestler coming to Hooters and I knew who they were exactly and I introduced myself. My manager was like, Hey, we have this girl. She just like loves wrestling and because you’re a wrestler, like maybe, you know, talk to her. So I talked to this wrestler for a while, and I was like I want to wrestle and they’re kind of just like, Haha, yeah. I kind of just spent all my wrestling knowledge to them.

So they introduced me to this man, Joe DeFranco, he is like a world-renowned strength and conditioning coach, he only trains professional athletes, and he actually trains Triple H on a weekly basis. And so I went to his gym and he threw me right in with his NFL guys. I’d never worked out a day in my life before that. I didn’t even know what workout gear was, I think I wore sweatpants and a sports bra. And he’s like, Go, and I was like, Okay. So in my mind, this is my WWE tryout. So I’m giving it my all and I worked out with him for a couple of days. And I guess he just was impressed by my resilience, I don’t know, because I’m struggling through everything, but I wouldn’t quit. And so he reached out to WWE for me, it was like the nicest thing anyone has ever done for me so shout out to Joe DeFranco. He reached out to WWE for me and was like, Hey, we have this girl, I just think she’s worth a look. And I actually just missed the try-out camp and they were like, we have another one in six months. So keep training with her, then we’ll fly her in. And so I trained with Joe DeFranco every single day for hours a day, I train with him in the morning, and then go to my Hooters shifts. Then my trial finally came and I was very well prepared. Not in wrestling, of course, because I had no wrestling training. But as far as strength and conditioning I absolutely killed those cardio drills. And I got signed and it was just the craziest blessing in my whole entire life. It was bizarre.” (quote courtesy of ChrisVanVliet.com)