Interview: WWE’s Lyra Valkyria on her journey from promoting WWE video games to showing in them

Lyra Valkyria is among the WWE’s fastest-rising stars.

The Dublin-born grappler made her debut within the firm’s NXT UK division in 2020, and moved to its most important NXT roster two years later, shortly earlier than beating common WWE famous person Becky Lynch to turn out to be the NXT Girls’s Champion.

She’s now a mainstay of WWE’s flagship TV program, Monday Evening Uncooked, and has established herself in a packed roster.

For each new member of the WWE roster seeking to legitimise themselves, inclusion in WWE’s annual video video games is a giant step in direction of that legitimacy. This was a milestone Valkyria reached final week.

The World Superstars DLC pack, which is on the market now, accommodates Valkyria together with six different superstars – Nia Jax, Jade Cargill, Kairi Sane, Michelle McCool, Carlito and Dragon Lee.

Earlier than the DLC’s launch, we spoke to Valkyria about becoming a member of the roster, and the way she went from stacking cabinets in a online game store to debuting in a single herself.

“It’s superb,” Valkyria advised us from backstage at Monday Evening Uncooked. “Particularly seeing the character, that was enormous.

“I truly used to work in a online game store and the 2K video games had been all the time there, and I’d spend hours labeling them, so to really be in a single now could be insane.”

Probably the most essential elements of knowledgeable wrestler is their presentation, and by no means is that this extra evident than of their entrance. A great entrance could make or break a wrestler, and that’s one thing that the WWE video games have all the time regarded to copy.

Movies of wrestlers’ entrances are sometimes the primary issues that followers seek for when a brand new sport is launched, with each minute element of the actual wrestler’s entrance in comparison with their digital counterpart.

We requested Valkyria what it was prefer to see her entrance within the sport, and what the fan response has been like.

“The woo chants with the group and every little thing, it’s simply pure pleasure and pleasure,” she advised us. “It’s so cool, the joy that I’ve seen from the reveal was superb.”

As for the longer term, Valkyria would like to see a premium stay occasion come to Eire.

For many years the overwhelming majority of those occasions have been unique to the US, however lately WWE has began bringing them abroad, akin to 2024’s Conflict on the Citadel, which befell in Glasgow, Scotland and noticed hometown favourite Drew McIntyre fall sufferer to rival CM Punk’s antics.

I’d completely like to see a PLE in Eire,” Valkyria advised us. “Wherever in Dublin, although the three Area is all the time going to imply a lot to me since that’s the place I went to see WWE after I was youthful.”

Earlier than our transient chat ended, we requested about her reminiscences of WWE video video games, and whether or not she’s nonetheless a fan. She defined that she was most curious about one mode particularly.

“I’ve extra reminiscences of watching my brother play them,” she defined. “I used to only need to go onto the Create a Wrestler part.”

She added: “My household and pals who may not perceive WWE, they perceive being within the sport, which is admittedly cool.”

By way of her different gaming pursuits, Valkyria advised us she’s “a giant fan of The Witcher 3“, including: “I attempted Skyrim and The Witcher, however for me, Skyrim didn’t even come shut.”

The World Superstars pack is the fourth of 5 deliberate DLC packs for the sport. The primary, the ECW Punk Pack, was launched in Could and included CM Punk, Bubba Ray Dudley, D-Von Dudley, Sandman and Terry Funk.

This was adopted by Publish Malone & Pals Pack, which included Publish Malone, Headbanger Mosh, Headbanger Thrasher, Honky Tonk Man and Sensational Sherri, in addition to Jimmy Hart as a supervisor.

The ultimate pack, the WCW Pack, can be launched on November 13 and consists of Diamond Dallas Web page, Lex Luger, Mr Excellent, the Nice Muta and the Iron Sheik.