Tyra Mae Steele Reflects On Transition From Freestyle Wrestling To WWE

Tyra Mae Steele is one of the first winners of WWE LFG, and she recently talked about her transition from freestyle wrestling to professional wrestling. Steele won the gold medal in women’s 68-kilogram freestyle at the 2021 Tokyo Olympics before coming to WWE, and she spoke about moving from amateur wrestling to pro wrestling in an interview with Fox News Digital. You can see some highlights below:

On her motivation to stay atop freestyle wrestling fading : “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.”

On transitioning to WWE: “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.’ 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.”

On feeling revitalized with professional wrestling: “So, why am I here? I’m here because I feel like I’m called to be here. 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.”