Tyra Mae Steele, Jasper Troy win 'WWE LFG' competition; duo puts NXT roster on notice
Pro wrestlers Tyra Mae Steele and Jasper Troy won the "WWE Legends and Future Greats" (LFG) competition on Sunday night to earn WWE NXT contracts.
Steele got her spot over Zena Sterling, and Troy earned his over Shiloh Hill to move up to the next level of competition. Both competitors will join the NXT brand and become the next duo to make an impact on the developmental brand.
"I'm super excited," Steele told Fox News Digital in a recent interview. "I'm more patient. I just know in due time, everything is going to take place and when it rains it pours. So, I am excited to just see what the future holds and how the WWE Universe is gonna take my energy and all that I have to offer."
Troy expressed that he was more anxious to get into the ring and mix it up.
"I'm just more ready to see how the story unfolds. To me, it's like expecting a movie to come out," he explained. "I'm just waiting to play my role in that film and see myself on the screen. But the funnest part for me has just been the work that we've been putting in since winning. Being more behind the scenes again, and I think it was just fun and go back to a feeling of trying to make it out of the bottom again.
"Because, you know, after the winning the show, I was on this big high. I felt like, 'Wow, everything's about to start changing rapidly. But everything just slowed down for a couple of months. I was just like, this is another test, this is another trial that I have to get through. The moment I come out it's like a new debut and new beginning. The next chapter is very exciting to me."
Steele, whose real name is Tamyra Mensah-Stock, comes in with an audience a bit more familiar with her.
She is a world champion freestyle wrestler who won a gold medal at the Tokyo Olympics in 2021. She also won two gold medals at the World Championships, one gold medal at the Pan American Games, three gold medals at the Pan American Championships and three gold medals at the Golden Grand Prix Ivan Yaryigin.
She put the NXT locker room on notice as her debut looms.
"My hard work is different than dang-near everybody. I am an Olympic gold medalist, not a lot of people can say that," she said. "That is a standard that not a lot of people can accomplish. It is an Olympic standard. To everyone that is going to be seeing me coming into the roster, they need to know, they need to understand that Tyra Mae Steele is going to be coming to this roster with an Olympic standard.
"And I am going to be flattening everyone who will be standing in my way. This is a standard that not a lot of people can live up to. And I see some people slacking – that just makes me hungry."
Steele said she keeps hearing that the NXT women's division is "the hottest roster that there is" and vowed to make sure it stays that way.
"When I step into the building, when I step into the ring with anybody, they're going to go, 'Oh, my gosh, she wasn't kidding about that Olympic standard,'" she said. "They're gonna feel it, and they're gonna love it and they're gonna appreciate it. And if they don't appreciate it, they're dang sure going to respect it."
Troy, whose real name is Antoine Frazer, joined WWE as a recruit nearly three years ago. He played college football at Northern Iowa, Kansas and Rhode Island.
He praised the talent on the men's roster for when he first entered the company.
"When I came in, the locker room wasn't that much different, but there was a noticeable amount of talent," he told Fox News Digital. "And when I looked up, I was like, 'Oh my gosh, like, where do I fit in?' When Bron Breakker was here regularly, Carmelo Hayes, Ilja Dragunov, that locker room was tough. Even Grayson Waller, I mean … they were the ones leading the charge.
"They would out-perform each other. It was almost like they were competing to see who's gonna have the best performance of the night. Every coconut (show type) I went to I saw at least five or six main-event matches that could have been promoted."
He added that he is bringing the "same mentality."
"I'm ready to compete," Troy said. "I'm ready to move. I'm ready to shuffle the deck of players myself. I'm not coming in to participate or just tribute. I'm coming in to contribute. I'm coming in to be a factor in this. They gotta handle whatever they gotta handle."
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