Jaida Parker recently explained why Norman Smiley is one of her favorite coaches at the WWE Performance Center. Parker spoke with the Under the Ring podcast for a new interview ahead of NXT No Mercy and named Smiley as someone who she connected with at the PC.
“One of my favorite producers and coaches, Norman Smiley,” Parker said (per Fightful). “When I didn’t know who he was, I saw him on my tryout and everything, and just having him as my coach when I first got here changed my whole mindset of this business in general. People always have a helping hand. They’re always so nice; they’re willing to help you if you’re willing to learn and be coachable. It’s not like, ‘Oh, I know everything.’ No, I believe that if I’m not learning something new every day, that I’m doing something wrong. He was the coach to really just, I connected with him in a way where it’s like he knows what he’s talking about because he wouldn’t be here if he wasn’t.”
She continued, “There’s a lot of other coaches in there that are legends, Steve Corino, Fit Finlay, Terry Taylor, like all of them. So I just love that atmosphere because I get to pick everybody else’s brain and just take grains of salt from what they’ve taught me and bring it into my world.”
Parker will challenge Roxanne Perez for the NXT Women’s Championship at No Mercy on Sunday.