Bea Priestley has opened up about the creative restrictions she faced during her time with WWE, revealing how personal style choices—such as hair color and tattoos—were often discouraged or tightly controlled.
The wrestler, who performed under the name Blair Davenport, was released from her WWE contract earlier this year after appearances in both NXT and SmackDown. In her first interview since leaving the company, Priestley spoke to Cultaholic about how even her appearance was subject to company approval.
“I think I just did a lot of things that I wasn’t able to do while under contract,” she said. “For example, I got a forearm tattoo recently. Back when I was in NXT, I asked for permission to get one. They gave me this whole spiel about how it would affect promotional photos, video game scans, and digital assets. I could’ve pushed harder, but it didn’t seem worth it, so I let it go.”
Priestley also discussed how her long-standing blonde hair became a fixed part of her WWE image, even though she was known for changing her hair frequently during her time with Japan’s STARDOM promotion.
“I stayed blonde for so long because they kind of locked that in as my look,” she explained. “I actually liked it, but there were times I wanted to switch things up. Still, I felt like I couldn’t because so much of the promotion and branding was tied to how I looked.”
She added that WWE often uses visual changes to reflect character shifts, referencing Sasha Banks’ hair transformation during a storyline heel turn. But Priestley said she didn’t feel she had the same creative space to make such bold changes herself.
“It was a strong, recognizable look,” she said. “But if I changed it, I’d have to reinvent myself. And I didn’t feel like I had the momentum to do that in WWE.”
Priestley’s comments highlight the level of image control that WWE maintains over its talent, and how that can affect not only character development but personal expression.
