Tatum Paxley Opens Up On Character Shift In WWE NXT: ‘This Is Not What I’m Going To Connect With People With’

WWE

WWE NXT Women’s North American Champion Tatum Paxley has opened up on her character shift after debuting as a powerlifter in 2022.

Current Women’s North American Champion Tatum Paxley was signed to WWE back in 2021, coming from a powerlifting background.

Tatum would make her television debut in 2022, debuting as part of the Diamond Mine faction with Ivy Nile as a basic powerlifter character, before evolving into the Tatum Paxley we all know and love today.

Tatum Paxley Didn’t Want To Use Powerlifting Background For WWE Character

Speaking to Jimmy V3, Tatum opened up on her powerlifting background, and how she didn’t want to make that her character in NXT after signing.

She noted that after the change of character, she more or less dropped powerlifting as a whole.

She said:

“Once I got here, I had to make the decision of ‘do I want to be a powerlifter or do I want to be a wrestler?’ and I knew I wanted to present myself differently than how I was signed, and they signed me as a powerlifter.

“My first couple of matches when I was new, I was really presenting myself as such, a very strong girl. Then I just went, although I am, this is not my heart. This is not what I’m going to connect with people with.

“So I kind of just cut the whole thing. I still work out obviously but I don’t work out at all like I used to. The powerlifting style is very different and I think by the time I got to lock up with Jordynne Grace, my strength and my powerlifting it was well behind me. It was way far gone at that point.”

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Pairing With WWE Raw Star Lyra Valkyria Helped Tatum Paxley Find Herself

Tatum would still spend a year or more on NXT television floating around a stacked women’s division, with her rise coming over the last year and a half on NXT television.

When asked about how she finds her character, Tatum recalled learning on the job, citing her partnership with Lyra Valkyria as the moment it took off for her.

She added:

“It’s something I’m super thankful NXT has helped me with, because when they found me, I felt very like a blank sheet of paper, and once you get an opportunity like WWE it’s ‘hey show us who you are times one million’, but what if you don’t know who you are? So there’s that ‘oh gosh I’ve got to figure this out right now.

“While I’m also trying to learn the in-ring ability part of it, I’m also trying to learn what is me that I can show people, because if you pick something or do something that isn’t authentically yourself, people are gonna see right through it. So it took some time for me to be like ‘who am I? Who is Tatum Paxley?

“NXT has really allowed me to find that within myself and given me the stage to throw it out there. Dating back to when they paired me with Lyra Valkyria was ‘hey, now’s your time to show us who you are’, that’s all that was right away, lets see what this looks like. We didn’t know what the future held for us, but lets see what you can do.

“I was like ‘perfect’. I’m ready, I know it now. I was begging and begging, I know what I can do, and they said ‘fine, we’ll let you do it, but lets see how well you can do this’. They gave me the ball, and I just took it and I ran.”

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