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WWE star Alexa Bliss has no problem dominating in the ring but had massive concerns when it came to singing in front of a crowd like on The Masked Singer.

Thankfully, Bliss had a secret weapon in her back pocket – her husband Ryan Cabrera. Bliss, who was revealed as Axolotl, took not only Cabrera’s advice but also turned to famed boy bander Chris Kirkpatrick from NSYNC, who eased her mind about performing on stage.

Alexa Bliss said Ryan Cabrera was surprised she planned to be on ‘The Masked Singer’

Bliss said Cabrera was pretty surprised when she told him she planned to do The Masked Singer. “So what was crazy was when I told him, I was like, ‘Hey Ryan, I was like, so I’m gonna do Masked Singer.’ And his face was, he was like, what?” she said on the Behind the Velvet Rope with David Yontef podcast.

Alexa Bliss and Ryan Cabrera pose at a red carpet event
Alexa Bliss and Ryan Cabrera | Tommaso Boddi/Getty Images for The Recording Academy

“Because he had never heard me sing, no one’s heard me sing really like a couple things on Instagram,” she continued. “But that’s like in the comfort of my own home, on my own phone kind of a thing.”

How did Ryan Cabrera help Alexa Bliss prepare for ‘The Masked Singer’?

Determined to set his wife up for success, Cabrera contacted vocal coach, Eric Vito. Apparently, Vito had his work cut out for him.

“My first Zoom lesson with him, I was so embarrassed, I put on sunglasses and I turned away from the camera,” she admitted. “He was I can help you, I just need to hear what you can do. And I literally freaked out, put on sunglasses, turned around and sang a little bit. And then he started helping me become comfortable with my voice and learning my breathing.”

But once Bliss got down to business, she really leaned into the role of being a singer. “I started actually rehearsing for Masked Singer,” she recalled. “It was really funny too because Amy Chapman, who’s one of the vocal coaches there, she’s incredible. She was telling me, I’m like right here … you have your little vibrato and all this stuff. And I look at Ryan because I don’t know what that means. And he’s like, it’s when your voice shakes.”

Ryan told Alexa Bliss to just ‘have fun’

Having Cabrera by her side every step of the way was important to Bliss. “It was nice to have him kind of guide me through this world of music,” she said. “Once I started to get comfortable with finding my voice and singing a little bit, anytime I would be like, ‘Hey babe, should we practice something?’ He’d immediately take a guitar off the wall. And he goes, all right, what do you wanna do?”

“So he was very helpful, very patient with me, very, very helpful throughout the whole thing,” she recalled. “I even got nervous and almost like I started crying a little bit before the show. Because I was so nervous and my anxiety started to hit.”

“He was like, ‘Hey, you’ve faced your fear, you sang in front of me, you’ve sang in front of the vocal coaches here, you sing in front of people, that’s your fear. You faced it.’ And he’s like, you know, this is the fun part. This is the time for you to just go out and have fun. He’s like, you’re not a singer. No one expects you to go out there and sound like Mariah Carey, so just go have fun. So I was like, you know what? You’re right. That’s what I’m gonna do. Just go have fun, bust it out a few kicks if you dance moves, and had the best time.”

What did Chris Kirkpatrick tell Alexa?

Bliss also talked to Kirkpatrick about his experience doing The Masked Singer. “I was so nervous about doing the show until Chris Kirkpatrick was talking to me about how he did the show,” she revealed.

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“He didn’t know I was doing it yet and he was talking about how great of an experience it was and how fun,” she continued. “He turns to me and he goes, you should totally do the show. And I was like, that’s not my thing.”

“But I knew that I was gonna be on it,” she shared. “I would just be like, talk about how great of an experience it was and how fun it was. And I know Ryan would have the best time doing it because he just loves performing in general and he’s crazy in his own like performance ways and doesn’t care and just is so himself and it’s so fun. But yeah, I would tell anyone that is thinking about doing it, at least audition for it. Like, it’s so cool. It’s so fun.”