Lyra Valkyria On Making WWE History, Complicated Becky Lynch Relationship, WrestleMania, Bayley

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Lyra Valkyria (@Real_Valkyria) is a professional wrestler currently signed to WWE and the reigning Women's Intercontinental Champion. She sits down with Chris Van Vliet at St. Louis, MO to discuss growing up in Ireland and making it to WWE, being inspired by Becky Lynch and getting to wrestle The Man, becoming the first-ever Women's Intercontinental Champion, tagging with Bayley, briefly being a double champion, the inspiration behind her entrance and more!

Quote I'm thinking about: "The difference between a successful person and others is not a lack of strength, not a lack of knowledge, but rather in a lack of will." - Vince Lombardi

On career setbacks:

"There's been a lot of points in my career where it felt very out of the frying pan and into the fire. I feel like so far, I've never let myself down on that. But I suppose a point where I was on the cusp of something and then it all fell flat was when I tore my ACL in NXT UK. I was on the road to coming back to another match with Meiko Satomura, who was the NXT UK Women's Champion at the time, and my whole world was who's going to be the one to beat Meiko? The talk of the locker room, the talk of everything, she was the ultimate champion, the ultimate person you wanted to be in the ring with. That was everything, the NXT UK Women's Championship. So then we were just coming back from COVID and wrestling in front of nobody. Actually, I heard Bayley tore her ACL, and this was right as the crowds were coming back. I was like that's awful timing, how awful. I did it one week later, and there's so much when I think about it. I did it from doing a sunset bomb from the corner, and I was at the show in Dublin where Seth Rollins did the same thing, where he tore his knee. So yeah, I saw his last match as the WWE Champion. If you told me back then that I was going to do the exact same thing, it's pretty wild. But I feel like I was on the road there to possibly, maybe becoming the NXT UK Women's Champion, or having that match with Meiko, that rematch that I never got, that I really wanted. But that's the one thing in my career where I'm like, I wonder what if?"

Did you know it was torn?

"No, I didn't even know what that meant. I'd never had any bad injuries. I know now you hear about a torn knee or something, it's big. I didn't know that. I'll never forget it. I was on my way into town to meet my now fiancé. I remember I finished the match, and I remember they wanted to put me on crutches going into the airport, and I was like, No, I'm fine. I thought it was one of those things where I'd be fine in two weeks. It'll be okay."

Were you in pain?

"No, like, in the moment, it was really bad. But then after that, I really did just think, oh yeah, this will be fine. The surgery messed me up so much more than the injury, it was the surgery that killed me, that set me back. But the actual injury, I was like, 'Do I even need surgery?' So they were like, 'You need a scan.' I didn't think I did. So I was like, Okay, we'll do this, and I felt so confident that it was going to be fine. The fact that the referee did the X and we had to pause the match. I remember actually thinking when we did the scan, I hope there's something there, just so I don't look like it was nothing. But I had no idea how bad it was going to be. So I was in town about to meet my fiancé, and I get a phone call and they tell me that I have a torn ACL and I'm like, 'Okay, what does that mean?' They were like, 'Oh, it's going to be surgery.' I'm like 'Surgery?' They were like, 'Yeah, you're going to be out for like nine months to a year.' I couldn't believe it. I remember I was standing in the corner shop, and I was just so shocked. There was tears rolling down my face, and I was like, I can't be out for a year. Then I remember I was meeting my fiancé there, and I remember seeing him and like grabbing him by the shoulder as he was walking by, and he just sees me on the phone crying, and he turns around he doesn't know what's happened. It was so rough. But I'd say that was a big down point. But now I kind of just look at it and be like no, it was a great struggle. When you're out, there's nothing more you want than to get back. So it forces you to think about why you do this, what you want from this, and when you're forced to be on the sidelines, it makes you appreciate everything so much more. It kind of just refreshes your work ethic and your drive." 

On possibly coming back from injury and facing Meiko Satomura:

"There was a big part of me that was hoping, maybe they'll wait for me, maybe I'll still come back and be the one to beat Meiko. Now I'm kind of wise enough to know that this does not wait for anyone. But yeah, I had a lot of ups and downs in waiting, but I wouldn't change it for anything. I feel like that injury really helped me, kind of iron sharpens iron. I don't know, it just made me tougher."

On her inspiration:

"That was Becky. She was the first. When I saw NXT, the very first thing I saw was her Irish dancing debut. That was it. I was already a fan, but that was what set the ball rolling of she must have started somewhere, she didn't just spawn over there. If she's from Ireland, is there somewhere to do this here? That was what made me go down the Wikipedia rabbit hole of where is there to train in Ireland."

On being one of the few from Ireland to make it in WWE:

"It's crazy. But also, you look at how small Ireland is, and how many of us are on Raw right now. It's crazy, I feel like we're really good at producing the best."

On why the Irish wrestlers are so successful:

"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." 

On being inspired by Becky Lynch:

"Honestly, I don't think I went, I can go do that. It was one of those things where I was watching Raw super late, because it starts at 1 am and I was again, down the rabbit hole. Where can I go to do this? I was looking at who's in the club? I was not very outgoing. I was very, very shy. So if I started something, I needed a friend to go with me and that kind of thing. I was never the one. I was the quiet friend, I think. I was always a bit awkward, but this was the one thing that I was like, if I go, I'll just do it. I even considered giving a fake name so that if it goes really badly, no one has to know about it, and my friends would never find out anything like that. It must have been 3 am, and I was on my phone looking it up, I kind of just went, I'm just going to do this. It was actually a Saturday night, and I was up watching wrestling, and I went I'm just going to go tomorrow. Because if I put down my phone right now, go to sleep, and I say, maybe I'll do this next week. I won't. It was just one of those freak things that I was like, just get up and go, and it turned my whole life around. That one little decision to just try something really did change my life. Because it sounds like it's just something to say, but it really did. I decided that day that good or bad, that's what I'm gonna do. So yeah, that one decision to try something changed everything." 

You remember that first day?

"I don't remember the session very well. I remember the pain the next day, and I remember running around in a circle with the few guys that were outside. I met my fiancé that very first day as well. He was the first person I ever met. Shook my hand outside the gym."

On now working with Becky Lynch in WWE:

"It's just crazy, she's the one that broke all the glass ceilings, the one that did it all. But she didn't just do it and succeed; she went and did things that no one ever thought possible. So I have a crazy level of respect for that. Because once someone does something, there's all these studies about the 4-minute mile, the human capability, how much they can go, right? But then once one person broke that. And then one person broke it, and then when that one person broke it, it was broken by the next person and the next person and the next person. It's almost like you just need that one person to show you that it's possible. Then suddenly, it just opens up the floodgates and suddenly there's no limit. So to have a woman from my tiny country of Ireland to have gone that far, I really feel like if she can, then why not me?"

On winning the Women’s Intercontinental Championship:

"[It’s brought me] A lot of confidence, it's a big responsibility, and there's a lot of pressure that comes with it. But I think I'm kind of in control once I get in the ring, that's where I'm like, no matter what outside noise there is, I'm completely in control of what I do here. So that's kind of where my power is. No one can take that away."

On when she first heard about winning the title:

"I never was a part of that conversation. I just find out on Mondays what I'm doing. I found out the day of. I was never a part of the decision or the conversation. I just showed up to work."

How did it feel when you were told that?

"Amazing. I couldn't believe it. I really couldn't believe it. But things don't hit me when I think they're going to. I always say that it never hits me in the moment. It hit me when I was driving home and taking my bags out of the car on the Tuesday. The title is just sitting in my bag, the zip opens, and I'm like, Oh yeah, that's the Intercontinental Championship. I won that. I brought that home. That's when it hits me." 

On becoming a double champion:

"I was tag team champions with Becky. It's funny, when you look at JD McDonough, he always says his dream was to be tag champions with Balor. They did that. And, yeah, however short-lived it was, I was a double champion."

On the meaning behind her entrance:

"So on the Independents I wrestled as Valkyrie. That's not Marvel character-based, not bird-based. It's actually from my favorite book, which is written by an Irish author. I discovered it when I was 12 years old. The main character was 12, living in Dublin, starts this whole new secret life, she has to take on a name to start this new life, and she calls herself Valkyrie. So I started that, and until I went to WWE, I never used the kind of imagery that's associated with the Valkyrie at all. So then I was like okay, well I should probably use that. So I got the kind of Valkyrie-looking gear for NXT UK, and then when I was moving across, I had to change my name, and I actually contacted the author of that book. So his name's Derek Landy, and he's Irish, and he suggested this character called the Morrigan. I was actually a little bit familiar with it. It's like the Irish Valkyrie from Irish mythology. Finn Balor and his demon character also drew from Irish mythology and stuff. The Morrigan basically transforms into a raven or crow and hovers over the battlefield and decides who's going to win a battle. So I was like, that's really cool. I went down that rabbit hole, and it's just a very cool female warrior character who transforms into a raven. I just thought that was very cool. It was related to the Valkyrie, so it's still tied to my book and my favorite stuff, and I love mythologies. So yeah, that's where it all comes from."

On Becky Lynch replacing Bayley at WrestleMania:

"It came at the expense of Bayley, which is a bit sad because we clicked so well as a tag team. So it was genuinely hard to have my Mania moment come at an expense. Becky is a big part of the reason I started wrestling. But it was the era of the four horsewomen in NXT. It wasn't just Becky; Bayley was a massive influence as well. So it did kind of taint how great it was knowing it was coming at her expense."

On the moment being bittersweet:

"It's hard to talk about or to because there's so much good, but there's so much, I don't know, it's just tough. [There's a lot of history with Bayley]. Quick history. We only tagged for a couple of weeks, but we hit it off so well outside of the ring. She's very easy to chat to and get along with, and she's just so personable. You meet Bayley and you feel like you've known her your whole life. I introduced her to my fiancé, and he was like, I haven't met her before, have I? And I was like, No. And he was like, I feel like I have just from talking to her there."

On the Nia Jax spot in the Queen of the Ring Tournament:

"[Laughs] She exploded my ribs." 

Did you really break your ribs? 

"No, that was fine. I was okay. It was tough. The Samoan drops were tougher, yeah, honestly, but rough match. She’s a beast."

On where things go from here:

"Well, I feel like it just keeps going up, because that's the only way it's gone so far. I feel like for me to say where it goes next and what my next possibility is, it almost feels like I'm creating my own ceiling, because so much has happened that I didn't even think was possible. So I'm just gonna keep rolling with the punches and seeing what happens. Because this [Women’s Intercontinental Championship] didn't exist a year ago. When Becky came down to NXT, I didn't think that was ever possible. No, she's on Raw. There was a time when it was unusual for people on Raw or SmackDown to come down to NXT, or it didn't happen. So I just didn't think that was a possibility. I never in my life thought that I would beat Becky Lynch for the NXT Women's Championship. Just didn't even cross my mind as a possibility." 

What is Lyra Valkyria grateful for?

"My fiancé, the opportunities and all the friends I made."

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