WARNING: MAJOR spoilers ahead for Wednesday night’s episode of “The Masked Singer”
The country roads took home Axolotl and Fairy on “The Masked Singer” on Wednesday night, after a fierce competition against newcomer Macaw. And, as it turns out, Axolotl was able to sneakily get some tips about the show after she signed on from two members of NSYNC.
Following her performance, the judges’ guesses for Axolotl ranged from the Bella twins, Nikki and Brie, to gymnast Simone Biles. But, in the end, she was unmasked to be… WWE star Alexa Bliss. (So at least Ken Jeong was in the right realm for one of his guesses for once).
According to Bliss, part of the reason she agreed to being on the show was because she had friends who competed on it previously. And yes, once she found out she was going to compete, she was able to get some intel without giving away her secret.
“Joey Fatone and Chris Kirkpatrick, they’re friends with my husband, and they tour with him a lot on the Pop 2k Tour. So I remember one of the times we were in the green room, and someone had, ironically, brought up ‘Masked Singer’ to Chris,” she told TheWrap. “And he was like, ‘Oh, it was the best experience,’ all this stuff. And also, he turns to me, and he goes, ‘Oh my god, Lex, you should do it!’ And I had already known that I was doing the show. And I was like, ‘Oh, no, that’s not my thing. I don’t sing.’”
She continued, “And I was like, ‘But how was it?’ And then he like, told me about the whole process, ’cause he was one of the seasons where it was the new format of the show. So he was like, ‘It was really cool. It was a really fun experience. It was awesome working with the vocal coaches,’ and all this stuff. And he was like telling me about it, like his experience through it. So it was really cool to hear his experience, plus, sneakily get tips as to how — not really tips, but a rundown as to how it goes.”
Of course, Bliss did spill the beans to her husband, Ryan Cabrera, and got encouragement from him about being on stage as well.
“Ryan and I have, you know, connected on so many levels, obviously, we’re married,” Bliss joked. “But we’ve never had that thing that we’ve connected with, and had in common, on a creative level. Because he’s really good at artwork, I can’t draw worth anything. He’s good at singing, I don’t sing. So it was one of those things that, it was really cool to have something that we can both connect on that level. So he helped me a lot, especially when it came to the song and facing my stage fright and helping me along the way.”
Indeed, Bliss admitted she had huge stage fright, at least over singing in front of people, thanks to a traumatic karaoke situation years ago. She even admitted that she had a “little anxiety attack” while training for the show.
“He’s like, ‘Babe, you’re gonna do great. You’re gonna have so much fun, you’re not even gonna remember how nervous you are. You’re not going out there to sound like an all-star singer, you’re going out there to face your fear.’ And he goes, ‘And I’m so proud of you, you’ve already done that. This is just the fun part.’ And that’s what really helped me as well.”
“The Masked Singer” airs at 8 p.m. ET on Wednesdays on FOX.
