Ember Moon: A Lot Of The Time In WWE You Have To Eat A S**t Sandwich & Smile With S**t In Your Teeth

Following her return to NXT in 2020, Ember Moon (AKA Athena) formed a tag team with Shotzi Blackheart and they became a popular feature on the then-black and gold brand, holding the NXT Women's Tag Team Titles for 55 days in 2021. 

Moon and Blackheart were suddenly split up in July of last year, though, as Shotzi was called up to the main roster and paired with Tegan Nox in a new tag team, only days after Moon and Shotzi had competed in an NXT Women's Tag Team Title number one contender's match. 

Athena discussed the split with Shotzi on Insight with Chris Van Vliet and the former NXT Women's Champion admitted she "wasn't having fun" during her final four months with WWE before her release in November. 

"My last four months was just one of those moments where I wasn't having fun anymore. It started with Shotzi being gone and drafted. I remember thinking -- I was sitting at home and I got a phone call saying, 'Hey, we don't want you to be upset, but Shotzi just got moved to SmackDown and she's debuting with Tegan Nox as a tag team.' I was sitting there and I'm getting this phone call about her getting drafted, 'Oh my God, I'm so happy for her,' and then the tag team thing popped up and I was like, 'but we're the tag team and we have merch and we're doing fun things and we had just gotten into our groove with the banter.' They were like, 'Don't worry, we have something for you.' 'Okay, cool,'" Moon said. 

Moon then revealed that main roster writers didn't know she and Shotzi were a tag team before she admitted a lot of the time in WWE you just have to "eat the s**t sandwich and smile with s**t in your teeth."

"I remember going to Hunter and he was like, 'I have no clue what's happening, we'll figure it out together.' That was so much of what I needed at the time because no one knew what was happening. Bayley had gotten injured, I know Shotzi and Tegan were doing dark matches for a tryout anyway. The problem I had was, some of these new writers were coming from Raw and SmackDown, 'We had no idea you and Shotzi were a tag team.' A lot of WWE backstage is having to play the game. 'It's cool, we get it, we're down in NXT. It's not like we were front page (of the website) when we won the titles. That's fine, yes.' You're just having to eat the s**t sandwich and smile with s**t in your teeth a lot of times. It's all about not making waves," she added.

Since her WWE release, Moon has returned to the independent wrestling scene and she recently won the Warrior Wrestling Women's Title. 

H/T to Fightful