Kacy Catanzaro Says WWE Asked Her To Do Tough Enough Initially, Recalls First Visit To Performance Center

Kacy Catanzaro recently looked back at the start of her time in WWE, noting that she was initially asked to be on Tough Enough. Catanzaro had a successful run in WWE that followed her time on American Ninja Warrior. Competing first under her real name and then as Katana Chance, Catanzaro teamed with Kayden Carter and had runs with both the NXT Women’s Tag Team Championships and the WWE Women’s Tag Team Championships.

Catanzaro was among a number of releases in May of last year. She recently appeared on You Know I’m Right and spoke about her start with pro wrestling, including WWE wanting her for Tough Enough initially. You can see the highlights below:

On WWE Wanting Her To Do Tough Enough:

“My initial reaction was like, ‘Me, really? Really?’ They wanted me to be on Tough Enough, actually. So yes, they had called me to be on Tough Enough and I was like, ‘Oh, what is it?’ You know, and the winner gets a contract. So at the time Ninja Warrior is technically a reality show, so I wouldn’t have been able to do Tough Enough as well. So they said ‘Okay.’ I was like, ‘I’m not ready to leave.’ I was still doing Ninja. They came back the next year and they were like, ‘Hey, has anything changed? Are you ready to do–‘ I was still in the contract with Ninja, and they were like, ‘Well you don’t have to do the reality show. Do you want to just come to the Performance Center and see what it’s like?’

“They were doing the Mae Young Classic. So they were kind of like, ‘We see what you’re doing for women in your sport and we’re kind of doing something similar. We’d like for you to check it out. We think you could be cool for [it].’ So I went and visited, saw the first Mae Young Classic, was able to watch it. And then was in the second one a year later.”

On First Visiting The PC:

“I had watched wrestling growing up, but you just really never know until you’re in it. And nobody knows the behind the scenes, you know? So I remember getting there. And people knew I had come from Ninja and gymnastics. So like when you’re there, they’re like, ‘Oh, cool. You could do a moonsault easy. You could do this easy. Let’s go play around in this.’

“Which is cool and all, but like to be able to see the deep down wrestling of it all was so new to me. So I remmber it was tough. Like, taking bumps, hitting the ropes, doing all that. And being like, ‘Man this is tough!’ But I was kind of in a transition at that point with Ninja Warrior where I had done it for five seasons. I kind of felt like I had done all that I could really maybe there. And I was like, ‘Man, do I need a new challenge now?’ Same how I had felt from gymnastics to Ninja, I was kind of like, ‘Oh, do I need a new challenge now?’ And they kind of were able to swoop me up with that.”

If you use any of the quotes in this article, please credit You Know I’m Right with a h/t to 411mania.com for the transcription.