Olympic gold medalist talks decision to make leap to WWE: ‘My calling from God’

Tyra Mae Steele is poised to become a rising star on the WWE NXT roster as soon as she steps into the ring on the brand following her “WWE Legends and Future Greats” (“WWE LFG”) victory.

For Steele, pro wrestling was not always in the cards.

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Anyone who watched the Tokyo Olympics in 2021 may know Steele as Tamyra Mensah-Stock. She won the gold medal in the women’s 68-kilogram freestyle competition, becoming the first female African American and first Black female wrestler to win Olympic gold. 

She became a viral sensation during the Summer Olympics.

However, she told Fox News Digital in a recent interview that the drive to stay on the wrestling mountain top began to wither away and that freestyle wrestling was becoming more of a chore.

“I’m a natural athlete. God gave me a natural ability to just crush people and I love doing it and I enjoy doing it. When I won the Olympics, I had a lot of pleasure in it, but it was during COVID when nobody was around, and it was very, very unfortunate that there wasn’t anybody in the crowd,” she said. “I wrestled for another two years and I didn’t have much love for it.

“Every time I would wrestle somebody, it was easy overseas. And what I love is putting in hard work and having somebody combat me and just having that fight. That what brings me joy and pleasure – I don’t know why, I’m sadistic, but whatever you want to call it, it’s the fighter in me.”

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Steele said she got “bored” with Olympic training, and when WWE knocked on her door, she answered. She entered WWE in 2023 with hopes of eventually getting to the main roster.

“When I found out that WWE wanted to take me on, I’m thinking, ‘This is going to be a new venture and this is going to be exciting, it’s going to be something that’s fresh for me,’” she said. “And I feel like for me, it was my calling from God. It’s been an absolute blessing with me being here. I have found, I swear, joy in life all over again.”

Putting weight cutting behind her and the ability to showcase her personality more was something that appealed to Steele as well. She embraced the new challenge in a new sport.

“So, why am I here? I’m here because I feel like I’m called to be here,” she told Fox News Digital. “I’m here because I enjoy the fight. I’m here because I get a fresh start to be a new person and to get my face and my energy into new eyes. And, I can also bring my fans that are like, ‘No, wait, do another Olympics.’ No, no, no. See me in the WWE. It’s gonna be epic.”

Steele won the “WWE LFG” competition on the women’s side and now gets a chance to really feature her skills in NXT.

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She will join an exciting division that features female wrestlers who could be poised to make the leap to either “Raw” or “SmackDown” at a moment’s notice.

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