In an interview with ESPR, WWE NXT Women's Champion Tatum Paxley, a member of The Culling, discussed various topics, including her transition from powerlifting to WWE.
This is what Tatum Paxley said, “Life works in such funny ways. Because powerlifting really like — powerlifting’s purpose in my life was to get me to WWE. And the best way I can describe how this all connects — because I love powerlifting. But at that time in my life, I just felt like I was missing something. I had no direction, I didn’t know what I wanted to do. But me — being a powerlifter, actually got me a sponsorship through a sports supplement company called Dymatize. And there was an athlete at Dymatize who was a pro wrestler. And I remember, I was talking with her and I started to get kind of interested in it. Because I did not grow up with wrestling. I watched Total Divas with my mom, but I didn’t really watch wrestling beyond that.”
On how she ended up signing with the company:
“After some time, about two years before I got signed with WWE, I started to get an interest in pro wrestling… I was like, ‘I think I can do this.’ But no way was I thinking on the level of WWE. Because I just didn’t think that was possible. I was messaging local schools in my area, I was in Texas at the time. And nobody got back to me. I was going to join the indie scene… I had messaged that girl that I met through Dymatize. And was like, ‘Where in Texas should I go?’ And she just kind of through word of mouth put my name over to a recruiter for WWE. And the rest was history. They got a hold of me, and they’re like, ‘Hey, in two weeks, there’s a trout in Vegas. Do you want to go?’ I was like, whoa, okay!’ And this is where I am now.”
You can check out the complete podcast below.
(H/T to 411Mania.com for transcribing the above quotes)
