Lyra Valkyria Explains Her Rapid WWE Rise

Lyra Valkyria, one of several Irish talents featured on the WWE RAW roster alongside compatriots Sheamus, Finn Balor, Becky Lynch, and JD McDonagh, recently offered her perspective on the reasons contributing to their collective success within WWE.

Speaking on Insight With Chris Van Vliet, Valkyria detailed the distinct attributes she believes are characteristic of the Irish performers. “I feel like it’s just our approach to this, and how we see what happens between the ropes. We have this certain grit about us, we train on the mats. When I started, we didn’t have a ring, we were learning to bump on mats, that kind of thing. I don’t know, there’s just a very kind of, how bad do you want it? Don’t let anyone beside you do more push-ups than you. If you are going to get on the show, you have to earn your spot. You have to bring something to the table that no one else is. You have to be the best. We were very competitive, but also supportive. I feel like there’s two types of competitor. You can be nasty with your competition, or you can [be supportive]. I want you to do great so I can do better. When it’s supportive, you want to help each other, and it’s like, we all get better together by pushing each other and by trying to outdo each other, but it’s in a nice way. And I love that about wrestling.”

During the interview, Valkyria also shared that her personal journey into wrestling was ignited by witnessing Becky Lynch’s NXT debut. “That was Becky. She was the first. When I saw NXT, the very first thing I saw was her Irish dancing debut… That was what made me go down the Wikipedia rabbit hole of where is there to train in Ireland,” she recounted.