Lyra Valkyria says WWE's 'horrible' ditching of Bayley for WrestleMania 'hurt all of us'

Yahoo

08-05-2025

Lyra Valkyria has all the makings to be WWE's next big star.
When she showed up on the main roster just one year ago, it wasn't clear what her trajectory would look like. Valkyria's arrival from NXT was a little like parachuting straight into the main roster, thrown into the mix with nothing but well wishes.
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She cemented her position with a strong showing right out of the gate in the Queen of the Ring tournament, went on to compete in the Money in the Bank ladder match, then became WWE's first Women's Intercontinental Champion, and eventually concluded her first WrestleMania match and first year on the main roster by becoming one half of the tag team champions.
As the WWE calendar resets, Valkyria says she's very much ready to take her talents from budding star to certified main-eventer. That begins on Saturday at WWE Backlash, where she defends her intercontinental championship in an all-Ireland grudge match against Becky Lynch.
'I've just shown that I'm not willing to be stood on,' Valkyria tells Uncrowned.
'I'm very much prepared now to go in and prove that Becky may have talked herself into every opportunity she's ever got, but then the bell rings and that's when I have the upper hand.'
Lyra Valkyria has had a whirlwind year since landing on the WWE roster. (Photo by Rich Frieda /WWE via Getty Images)
(WWE via Getty Images)
When she's in the ring, Valkyria says, she's in control and living in the moment. She's well aware of Lynch's many accolades — a Grand Slam Champion, first women's WrestleMania main-eventer, and arguably one of the greatest female wrestlers to ever step in the ring.
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But Valkyria has done the work. Now, she says, it's time to go. Either she has it or she doesn't.
'When you get in [the ring] with someone like Becky, all these women that are already there, they're not going to hand you the opportunity to step on them. I have been forced to step up and hold my own, and I feel like that kind of trial by fire is what really makes you a pro and makes you come out of your shell,' Valkyria says.
'So far I've had a lot of people that were very willing to help me and want me to succeed. Becky has been a little different, to say something. So to not have that help and to have to fight on my own for that kind of thing, it's been a different change.'
The moment Valkyria is currently living in is a totally different dynamic than it was just a month ago, when she was preparing to step onto WWE's biggest stage. With her family in attendance at WrestleMania 41, Valkyria felt like she couldn't have written her first year on the main roster any better.
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While the result was a dream come true, her first WrestleMania was bittersweet following the last-minute exclusion of Bayley. Her match coming at the expense of Bayley 'hurt all of us,' Valkyria says, and it put a damper on the moment.
'Horrible,' Valkyria responds when asked what it was like to see Bayley miss out on WrestleMania.
'We genuinely really did build up this good friendship outside of the ring. We really clicked outside of the ring and I think that's what made us click inside the ring. And it was a long time before I knew what was going to happen. When I did, it did leave like a bit of a — it was upsetting because they were two women that I looked up to. I really feel like the Four Horsewomen era of NXT built the wrestler that I am because they were the ones I was watching.'
The last decade has seen the Four Horsewomen — Lynch, Bayley, Charlotte Flair, and Sasha Banks — reach heights in WWE and beyond that women wrestlers hadn't experienced before. They pushed the boundaries and owned the women's revolution, consistently pushing each other toward main events and championships.
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Their work established the foundation for the likes of Valkyria and Tiffany Stratton, and eventually Giulia and Stephanie Vaquer, building a consistent thread from developing in NXT to reaching the highest of highs on the main roster.
So with more talent on the women's roster than WWE has ever had, how has Valkyria found success in consistently finding the spotlight?
'My thing has always been I can't compare myself to other people," she says. "If I look at say, Tiffany, who we were coming up at the same time, like you just look at her, she was born and bred for the stage. She's wrestling three years and she's going one-on-one with Charlotte at WrestleMania. I'm just on a very different journey. So I look at the 10 years that I've put in and I take pride in that.
'I'm on the wrestler's journey. I don't look like Tiffany. I'm not a born athlete. I got here on sheer belief and hard work. And if people think anything when they watch me, I want them to know that. I want them to see that I leave everything in the ring every chance that I get.'
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Becky, Valkyria says, has this journey in common. She's a person that proved you can just go out and love something so much and then get to the top if you want it badly enough, no matter where you come from.
The opportunities are endless for Valkyria as she continues to climb the WWE ladder. She's got dream matches in mind, ideally against the likes of Giulia, Vaquer, or Natalya Neidhart, if Evolution 2 comes to fruition.
But right now, in this moment ahead of her match against Lynch at Backlash, she's reaching levels she never imagined.
'No matter what I ever imagined the ceiling to be, like if there was one, it wouldn't have been a high enough ceiling because so much has happened that I wouldn't have thought possible,' Valkyria says.
'Even going into this Backlash, (John) Cena and (Randy) Orton are on the same show, and I always say that if your dream was basketball or whatever, like you don't get to make it to the top, go up against Michael Jordan or whatever. But I'm in here mixing it around with the people that made me want to do this, but they're in their prime and I'm reaching my just coming out, it's wild. It really is wild.'