"Call to me, call to me..."
Danielle Louise Moinet (born 28 November 1983) is an American professional wrestler. She is best known for her time in WWE, where she performed on the main roster, and in its developmental territory NXT, under the ring name Summer Rae. She is a former football player in the Lingerie Bowl League. As of 2014 she was added to season 2 of the reality show Total Divas, but left the show in the third season.She was released from her contact on October 27th, 2017, and currently works on the independent circuit.
Tropes associated with Summer Rae:
- Alpha Bitch: On NXT. Her nickname — The First Lady of NXT — is essentially the trope name rephrased.
- Arch-Enemy:
- Either Paige or Emma on NXT.
- Summer's big rival on the main roster was her Total Divas co-star Natalya, clashing in their time on the show together and that transferring onto WWE programs. Though they never wrestled each other, Summer is none too fond of Fandango anymore, either.
- Ascended Extra: She served as the NXT ring announcer until she attacked Paige from behind.
- Big Eater: Per The JBL and Cole Show and Backstage Fallout.
- Blatant Lies: Claimed she ran out of one of her matches because she had left her curling iron on.
- Catfight: With Natalya, and later with Layla.
- Chickification: On NXT, she was one of the top heel wrestlers in the women's division; on Raw, she was relegated to being Fandango's dance partner. Averted with Hell in a Cell 2013. She's since them started wrestling more. Still, Summer's entire promotion to the main roster is this trope. On NXT she was a legit threat who rarely lost. On the main roster, she's presented as a bimbo who frequently loses and can only get fluke wins.
- Cleavage Window: Also part of her current ring gear.
- Clingy Jealous Girl: Certainly when Fandango got any sort of attention.
- Color-Coded for Your Convenience: Summer tends to wear a lot of gold or some form of it on her ring gear. With a name like Summer Rae, they're probabling going for some kind of sunshine theme.
- Composite Character: Has been described as Kelly Kelly meets Maryse, with a bit of Michelle McCool thrown in there, too. The last one becomes
Hilarious in Hindsight when Summer feuded and then teamed with McCool's old tag partner, Layla El. - Corrupt the Cutie: Did so to Sasha Banks.
- Costume Copycat: She started dressing up like Lana during the Rusev/Summer/Ziggler and Ziggler/Lana/Rusev storyline.
- Denser and Wackier: While somewhat prissy on NXT, she was a lot more ruthless; prone to sneak attacks, trying to break her opponents' limbs by submission and able to corrupt innocent babyfaces. On the main roster, she became ditzier, prone to spontaneous fits of dancing in matches and was more of a joke.
- The Dog Bites Back: After getting dicked over by Fandango repeatedly, Summer and Layla turned on him and teamed up.
- Enemy Mine: Averted. After fighting over Fandango, Summer and Layla decided to team up and generally ruin his day, but first they resolved their issues with each other and became friends, so they weren't enemies when they teamed up.
- Eye Scream: Threw bubble solution in Emma's eyes once.
- Fake-Hair Drama: A catalyst in her break-up with the BFFs was mocking Charlotte Flair for her hair being fake "and mine's real!"
- Fun with Acronyms: She, Sasha Banks, and Charlotte were BFFs — Beautiful Fierce Females — their stable in NXT.
- Girly Bruiser: Danielle is a former player in the Lingerie Bowl League. As in, she played full contact football while wearing lingerie.
- Hair Flip: As part of her entrance, she reclines on the top rope and flips her hair.
- Heel: Seems to be her most common role.
- Heel–Face Revolving Door: In 2015, she would sometimes appear as a face on the B-shows while working as a heel on the main roster. Previously, she and Layla had been on the face side of a 6-Diva tag match - and the very next night appeared as heels on Main Event.
- Hollywood Old: This played a factor in her release. WWE wanted to push her entirely as a Ms. Fanservice but felt at 33 she was too old for such a role.
- Important Haircut: After getting released from WWE, she dyed her hair red.
- Informed Ability: Let's just say it's fairly obvious that she has no dancing experience.
- Jobber: For much of her time on the main roster.
- Kick Chick: Many of her finishers and signature moves involve Summer doing kicks, leg drops, foot chokes, holds involving use of her legs, etc.
- Kicking Ass in All Her Finery: During her time as Fandango's valet on the main roster, she had ballroom dance-themed wrestling gear.
- Not Distracted by the Sexy: Chris Jericho seemingly flirted with her... only to face-palm her and walk away.
- Odd Friendship: When in the middle of the latest of a series of fights, Summer and Layla seem to come to the simultaneous realization that Fandango is a spotlight-hogging jerkass who has wronged them both. After they team up to attack him, Summer wordlessly invites Layla to come dance with her in the ring, and they become fast friends, even forming a Tag Team.
- Perky Female Minion: Was this to Fandango and Rusev.
- Power Trio: The longest-lasting and best-known incarnation of the BFFs, Summer's stable in NXT, which included Summer (obviously), Sasha Banks, and Charlotte.
- Red Baroness: "The First Lady of NXT."
- Rogues Gallery: Two of her greatest rivals and certainly her most memorable foes on NXT were Paige and Emma, with Summer's antagonism with the latter clearly carrying over to the main roster, particularly when Emma first debuted. Summer feuded with Layla for awhile because she was heartbroken by Fandango, who took Layla up as his new dance partner and manager while also making her his girlfriend, but the two Divas ultimately patched things up and became friends and tag partners. Summer's latest enemy is Natalya (and due to the Slayers' matches against Nattie and then-tag partner Rosa Mendes, Mendes might also count), with their problems with each other stemming from serious tension on Total Divas.
- Screaming Woman / Battle Cry: Once stole Paige's signature scream during her match to mock her. When they were on a team together at Survivor Series 2014, Summer mimicked her again — attacking her opponent, Natalya, with a number of knees to Natalya's gut while they were on the apron, and once again doing Paige's scream — but it backfired when Natalya attacked Summer while she was caught up in the act.
- Sickeningly Sweethearts: Invoked whenever she talked about Fandango being her "baby boopies".
- Spiritual Successor: Despite what fans say (see Composite Character) she's more likely one to Melina. She does the splits as a valet for a Camp Straight, is known for screaming a lot, and has even adopted a few of Melina's notable moves, like the Lotus submission hold and the Sunset Split.
- Statuesque Stunner: 5'10"
- Stripperiffic: It's to be expected since she has a ballroom dancer gimmick. An episode of Total Divas shows her really trying to push the limits of how far she can go with this trope.
- Tag Team:
- With Sasha Banks as the BFFs in NXT, before Charlotte joined them to turn it into a Power Trio.
- With Layla as the SLayers on the main roster.
- The Ex's New Jerkass: Played this role to Lana during their rivalry over Rusev after Summer replaced her as his assistant.
- Took a Level in Badass: Goes from ring announcer and General Manager to legitimate wrestler.
- Tsundere: Summer is a violent and aggressive screamer who will pound the crap out of her opponents, but also smiled sweetly whenever she was with Fandango and referred to him as "my baby boopies"; then her sweetness comes through her friendship with Layla (until her retirement from the ring). Summer then shared her sweetness with Rusev, only to kick him to the curb after word got out about his engagement to Lana.
- Unwitting Instigator of Doom: In turning Sasha Banks heel, Summer created a bigger, more successful Alpha Bitch than she herself ever was.
- Wild Card: Ever since she returned from filming The Marine 4 — she teamed with both heels and faces, and although her and Layla tormenting Fandango is a little petty, they're helping faces beat him in matches. She (and Layla) cemented a heel turn through a feud with Rosa Mendes and especially Natalya.
- Woman Scorned:
- Fandango dumped her in a really nasty way (by a fucking text). Summer didn't take it well. Eventually this happened to Layla, too, so both of them formed an alliance whose first order of business was to constantly screw him over by appearing and distracting him in his matches. Eventually they turned heel and started fighting other Divas, before splitting up in 2015 when Layla retired.
- When Rusev and Lana (who'd broken up shortly after WrestleMania 31 with Lana going to Dolph Ziggler and Rusev getting Summer) got back together off-screen and got engaged later in 2015, Summer wasted no time helping Dolph screw Rusev over and moving to use Dolph against Rusev like Lana did before her. However, this time Zigs smartened up and said no way.
- Wounded Gazelle Gambit: A variation. She seemingly injured her ankle on Raw but while Chris Jericho was checking if she was alright, Fandango attacked him from behind and Summer revealed it had all been a ruse.
- Villain Decay:
- As noted under Chickification there was a time when Summer had an undefeated streak on NXT. Presumably WWE noted that she had a much better affinity for being a ditz than a badass - hence her character switch to a bimbo that only got fluke wins.
- The Beautiful Fierce Females suffered from this as well. While they got a good amount of momentum when they formed, Charlotte had to be taken off TV to get a boob job, Paige and Emma's feud took centre stage, Bayley rose in popularity and Summer's main roster career took off - meaning that the BFFs never got much of a chance to dominate as top heels.
- Violently Protective Girlfriend: Once referred to Fandango as "my baby boopies," implying that they were in a romantic relationship. This trope really comes out in Summer in mixed tag matches.
- Yandere: To Fandango and Rusev.
