Maxxine Dupri Recalls Vince McMahon’s Heels Request Despite Injury

Maxxine Dupri has shared new details about the chaos surrounding her WWE main roster debut in July 2022, revealing that Vince McMahon wanted her in a black dress and heels even though she was still nursing a fractured ankle.

Dupri broke the ankle during a suplex while training at the WWE Performance Center, but she was called up to SmackDown anyway, debuting as Max Dupri’s on-screen sister and the talent director for Maximum Male Models. Speaking on The Nikki & Brie Show, she explained just how unprepared she was for the specific wardrobe request that came down before her first appearance.

“And my first day, I landed, and they said, ‘Hey, Vince wants you in a black dress and heels.’ Well, I packed 100 outfits. I did not pack a black dress, and I don’t even think I packed heels because I couldn’t wear a heel,” Dupri said. She scrambled to a mall to buy the outfit, only to discover her ankle wouldn’t let her walk in the shoes at all, especially with a live in-ring promo originally planned. “I can’t even step in them because my ankle won’t go like this… if the ring shakes, I’m going to fall over. And they’re like, ‘We’ll just bring you out in the dark. Like, it’ll be fine.’”

The segment ultimately got moved backstage due to unrelated production changes, which Dupri believes may have saved her debut. “I had never done an in-ring promo. It was supposed to be a five-minute in-ring promo… I don’t know if I would be here today if that happened,” she said, adding she hadn’t even practiced one in promo class before that point.

Dupri credited former Maximum Male Models cohorts Brennan Williams and Mace with helping her drill the in-ring promo at the Performance Center that same week, believing the segment would still happen. She looks back on the day as a survival story more than anything else, saying she was simply “trying to stay employed” as the plans shifted around her in real time.