Vince McMahon’s Idea Of Eva Marie & Doudrop, APA Style Team Nixed

At first, Vince McMahon did not like the pairing of Eva Marie and Doudrop, but opinions change. Also, Heavy Machinery’s Tucker proposed the team be repackaged with an APA style twist.

Vince McMahon’s Idea Of Eva Marie & Doudrop

After being released by WWE in 2017, Eva Marie returned last month. Despite being back, Eva did rejoin the company alone.

By her side was Doudrop, who is best known as Piper Niven in NXT UK. They have only been on TV for about two weeks, but their direction is a bit confusing.

In Eva’s first match back, Doudrop took her spot and defeated Naomi. Then, the following week, they won a tag team match against Naomi & Asuka, despite Eva leaving Doudrop hanging. 

According to Mike Johnson on PW Insider Elite audio, Vince McMahon was not into the duo at first. Now, he has changed his mind after watching the two interact.

“The story I was told to me was, ‘[Vince] wasn’t sold on the idea, but let’s do it,’” said Johnson. “Then after that first week, where Piper stood up to her, he loved it.” 

“He loved the facial expressions. Obviously, I’m paraphrasing stories I heard from multiple people. There’s going to be a lot more storyline development with these characters in the weeks ahead.”

With another RAW tonight, we will have to see what is next for both superstars. As of now, neither are confirmed to wrestle, although that can change.

As for the pairing, fans do not like it. They are big fans of Doudrop, but the same cannot be said for the name.

For Eva, not much has changed from her first WWE run. The fans do not like her and they wish the recently released female superstars were kept over Eva.

APA Style Team Nixed

A big story of 2020 and 2021 will be the major WWE layoffs. Therefore, it resulted in couples being separated and tag teams ending.

For Heavy Machinery, they quickly fell apart after being drafted to separate brands in 2020. Basically, Tucker turned heel and cost Otis his Money in the Bank briefcase at Hell in a Cell.

They never got a chance to feud, with Tucker being released and Otis turning heel with a totally new look. At one point, Tucker told The OTR Show how he pitched a new version of The APA with a twist.

Instead of drinking beer, smoking cigars and playing cards, they wound host a BBQ the entire show.

Tucker Already Had Ideas For The Proposed Change

“I had aprons made up for us,” said Tucker. “Otis was going to wear a bikini apron and I had this straight up Heavy Machinery apron that I was like ‘we can sell this.’” 

“I was thinking, this is how I pitched it anyway, APA style. Just like, if we’re never on the show, we’ll just stand in the back and we’ll just barbeque.” 

“Just come interact with us. You’re not going to tell me you’re not going to get good stuff.”

They spoke to Vince McMahon about the new gimmick and seemed interested. Although, Tucker is not sure what happened and he accounted it to timing. 

At the moment, WWE was moving to FOX. Certainly, the company had bigger issues to handle as they switched to a main network.

“For whatever reason we could never get it going. That was disappointing. I think there was a lot of other things going on and it kind of fell by the wayside.”