What went wrong with Tyra Mae Steele?
WWE: Legends and Future Greats season 1 winner wasn't seen on WWE's TV product in 7 months before her release.
It isn’t hard to get a Kurt Angle1 comparison if you are an Olympic level athlete in professional wrestling. Or if you wear a singlet or if you’re doing the whole “red, white and blue” American pie gimmick. So when Tyra Mae Steele (real name Tamyra Mensah-Stock) burst onto season one of WWE: Legends and Future Greats in 2025 with her gold medal in freestyle wrestling from the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, I thought “well she’s got a perfectly packaged gimmick.”
Apparently, I was wrong because despite being signed with the company in 2023, winning the first season of WWE: LFG in 2025 and gaining an NXT contract: as of April 24, 2026, Steele was released from the company. She only wrestled 15 televised matches.
So, what went wrong here?
To be honest I wasn’t fully sold yet when she or Jasper Troy won their contracts at the end of LFG. Although on LFG my partner and I felt she was a bit of a try hard, the gimmick built itself. With a little time and the right acting classes (and turning her into a cocky heel) she would fit a perfect hole in any brands women’s roster.
I could already picture her soloing Fatal Influence and picking up the Women’s NXT Championship from Jacy Jayne (at the time) or in a feud with Blake Monroe. If I had my way, she’d be on SmackDown mixing it up with Gulia, Chelsea Green and Tiffany Stratton for the U.S Championship. A month-long open challenge for the title could build momentum for a real storyline.
What could have been…but I’m getting ahead of myself. If I just said she was rough around the edges on LFG and that I wasn’t even sold when she won, why do we even care that she was released? After looking a bit more into it, what WWE failed to mention in her “push” was this: she’s got all the makings of a star.
Who is Tyra Mae Steele?
Tamyra Mensah-Stock2 was born October 11, 1992, in Chicago, Illinois (woot woot!) and raised in the suburbs of Houston, Texas. She started wrestling in high school where she won Texas High School Girls Champion in 2010 and 2011. She also became U.S. Junior National runner up in 2010. By the time she graduated from Wayland Baptist University with her Bachelor’s Degree in Exercise and Sports Science, she had won Women's Collegiate Wrestling Association nationals Champion twice in 2014 and 2017, respectively.
In 2018 and 2019, she grabbed a bronze medal and the gold medal, respectively, at the World Wrestling Championships. Then to continue the winning streak in January 2021, the gold medals at the Grand Prix de France Henri Deglane and Matteo Pellicone Ranking Series 2021 in Rome.
In August of 2021, at the Tokyo Olympics, she became the first African American and the first Black women's wrestler to win Olympic gold, and only the second female American to ever win gold in freestyle wrestling. Two months later, she took home bronze at the 2021 World Wrestling Championships.
So…this is a wrestler that prior to WWE has won 12 medals, consistently ranking top three in international competitions and obviously has the skills that would back up any talk she could talk.
Isn’t this the prototype for the wrestler to take the mantle of Kurt Angle?
Isn’t this the technical singlet-wearing star WWE has yearned for?
I mean, it’s not like WWE wasn’t looking for this exact type of wrestler. Only a few years prior, in 2021, they were ready to go all in on Gable Stevenson3, another freestyle wrestling gold medalist from the 2020 Tokyo Olympics.
The Gable Stevenson of it all.
Stevenson is a 25-year-old born in Portage, Indiana and raised in Apple Valley, Minnesota. He’s the younger brother to NXT’s Damon Kemp (real name Robert Steveson Jr.) and the brothers began wrestling in the middle school. Steveson racked up four state titles throughout high school and had a 171-match win-streak, with his last two state tournament championship matches lasting a combined 28 seconds. He still holds the highest winning percentage in Minnesota high school wrestling history, at 98.59% (210–3).
Steveson claimed multiple age-group World Championships, winning gold medals at the 2015 and 2016 Cadet World Championships and the 2017 Junior World Championships.
In 2019, during his freshman year attending the University of Minnesota, he got All-American status at the NCAA Division I National Championships, where he finished third. But he also was suspended from team activities when he and a teammate were arrested on suspicion of sexual assault. Although no charges were filed and the case was dropped due to lack of evidence, I’m going to break for a second to let you know where I clearly stand on Stevenson because of this:
I truly, fully and deeply stand with the victim. Do not come here with the “women lie” or “false accusations ruin lives” bullshit. Stevenson got off because according to Hennepin County Attorney’s Office, Minnesota’s laws at the time on intoxication and a victim’s ability to give consent, “would be restricted in how it could bring charges in the case.”4 Given the culture and institutions that does not protect victims of sexual assault nearly enough, especially against college athletes with “bright futures,” Stevenson will NEVER have my respect or benefit of the doubt. Talent be damned.
Stevenson won nine medals representing the Minnesota Golden Gophers throughout college and four more representing the United States before the Tokyo Olympics. With his win in Tokyo, he became the first American super-heavyweight to win freestyle Olympic gold since Bruce Baumgartner in 1992. He also became the youngest freestyle wrestler to win Olympic gold at super heavyweight (125 kg) at 21 years old.
As he prepared for graduation he was highly sought after by multiple sports organizations including UFC, the NFL and the WWE.
Both won gold, one is controversial, who gets signed?
Both of these Olympians, Stevenson and Mensah-Stock, made their first appearances in the crowd at SummerSlam in August 2021. Stevenson would be signed to the WWE under an NIL (Next In Line) deal5 within two months of that appearance, although he would still be competing as a college wrestler. Steveson was only the second Olympic gold medalist to be signed by the company after Kurt Angle. Then, by October, during the 2021 WWE Draft he was fast tracked to the RAW brand.
I’d like you to take a moment to think about that: within four months, having never wrestled a match in the company, he was signed to the main roster. For comparison, Wendy Choo, who just became the Evolve Women’s Champion in April 2026, has been signed since 2019. She’s been signed 21 times longer than Stevenson and has never been seen on the main roster.
He made his first in ring appearance in April 2022 at WrestleMania 38 Night 1, being introduced by Stephanie McMahon and, during the second night of the event, he confronted and performed a suplex on Chad Gable (who is another unfortunate missed Kurt Angle legacy gimmick). In December, he appeared on SmackDown for Kurt Angle's birthday celebration.
Mensah-Stock wouldn’t be signed with the company until two years later in 2023, becoming the third Olympic wrestling gold medalist and the first female Olympic wrestling gold medalist to sign with the promotion.
By that time, the Gable Stevenson experiment had already failed: he never appeared on an episode of Raw, was quietly moved down to NXT, had a match against Baron Corbin at NXT: Great American Bash where the crowd turned against him and was already on hiatus. Senior Vice President of Talent Development Creative Shawn Michaels said Steveson would be back when it worked for both parties. By the time he (and his brother) was released in 2024, he’d wrestled 17 matches.6
Meanwhile, Mensah-Stock was quietly sent to NXT in January 2024, making an appearance as a student of Chase University, a mid-card stable. Just another face in the many Chase U students that are placed in the crowd. She’d make her TV debut as Tyra Mae Steele on the now defunct NXT Level Up in July of that year in a losing effort to Wren Sinclair. She’d spend the rest of the year on Level Up and doing house shows earing her a 1-9 record by the close of the year. But just as 2025 rolled in, it seemed WWE may be ready to push her, finally.
WWE: LFG
That brings us to season one of WWE: Legends and Future Greats. I was in the ICU when this show premiered on A&E, so this was pretty much all I tuned into while I waited for my lungs to open back up after a pretty severe asthma attack.
The show is another attempt at WWE’s reality competition format: think back to the Black and Gold gameshow era of NXT or Tough Enough. The developmental talents are competing for a contract in WWE's NXT division while being mentored by current, veteran, and Hall of Fame talent. Season one featured coaches The Undertaker, Bubba Ray Dudley, Booker T and Mickey James.
Steele was cast against eight other up-and-coming women’s wrestlers. By this point, Steele is 32 years old, older than many of the other contestants on the show and has a lot less time to be playing around on the undercard.
On her first episode of the show, she came off as a smiling white meat babyface who just wanted to “inspire the world” after her success. The judges first critique: they needed to know more about her character, beyond the gold medal, beyond herself. She came off a bit more Ted Talk and less main eventer, but everyone’s first appearance was giving a little “first theatre class monologue.”
Professional wrestling is all about theatrics; looking back at The Undertaker’s era in the ring, most of the character work was done at their entrances alone. The camera work, the pyrotechnics and the time on the microphone weighed heavily against their in-ring work.
Her entrance in a match against Dani Sekelsky7 was confusing, hype but not smarmy or aggressive enough to capture a clear view of her character. I assumed she was playing the heel.
The announcers for this match quickly ask the question I’ve pondered while writing this: “Is there more pressure on her because of that distinction with someone like Kurt Angle who came before her?” Her mannerisms and moves in the ring were grimy, what you’d expect from someone who knows they’re the best in the world. But the judges seemed confused, “Is the Olympian turning heel?” Which surprised me, of course she’s a heel. Why wouldn’t she be?
She wins with a suplex to Sekelsky in the middle of the ring and the judges overwhelmingly loved Tyra. She chooses The Undertaker as her mentor.
The rest of the season is much of the same, the judges try to bring out the fire, the emotion and the range required to really build a character around. She’s got the moves in ring without a doubt but pinning a character down on her seems impossible.
But it’s puzzling because, like Angle in 1999, all you need her to do is debut as a piece of shit heel who feels like they’re too good to wrestle with a bunch of children who “play wrestles.” Have her spend a few days with the ring general Gunther. If you’re hell bent on making her a face: have her, take over the mantle on the Alpha Academy while Chad Gable plays luchador in Triple AAA.
To keep it short, she becomes the inaugural winner of LFG alongside Jasper Troy on May 18, 2025.
Since then, Tyra’s run had been less than stellar…
Steele made her NXT debut against Ariana Grace in a squash match on June 3, 2025. Once again, she was a babyface who was just happy to be there. It was strong showing to start but after a short push including a match teaming with Tavion Heights against Chelsea Green and Ethan Page at Heatwave in August, she found herself off NXT TV and on Evolve, the pre-developmental show on Tubi, instead.
She’s pushed down to Evolve almost immediately after her debut, making her time on NXT inconsistent and sporadic. She also takes some time to wrestle in Booker T’s promotion Reality of Wrestling but not much comes from those appearances.
So, here’s how her career timeline breaks down:
She wins LFG on May 18,
Debuts on NXT on June 3,
Is already doing matches on Evolve by June 20,
Returns to NXT on Aug. 12,
Loses to Chelsea Green and Ethan Page in her PLE debut at Heatwave on Aug. 24,
She’s then fed Alba Fyre, who was also released last week, on NXT on Aug. 26,
Reemerges for a losing effort against Kelani Jordan on Nov. 11,
And then is not seen on NXT for seven months before being released on April 24. She was never featured on the main roster. Seems short? That’s because it was. So short and pointless, in fact, her release had fans questioning what the point of LFG even was.
This type of treatment isn’t unheard of, looking at Tough Enough contestants (especially winners) there have been duds among the bunch. Not everyone can be The Miz or John Morrison. It did seem like WWE could have done something with her, it’s almost like they wanted to. However, like most of the signees, callups or mid-card talents from 2025: they changed their mind.
What went wrong?
Maybe…just maybe the real cause of all this was her comeuppance for posting that stupid dream on Twitter about being released back in March. And maybe she jinxed herself by claiming she’s, “not going anywhere for a long time.”
But seriously, what is the point of LFG if there is no future in winning? Tyra Mae Steele isn’t the only female winner of LFG whose been MIA post win.
Steele hasn’t commented on her release8, but LFG judge Bubba Ray said he wasn’t surprised when speaking on SiriusXM Busted Open, “Nothing but the highest of praise for Tyra Mae Steele and what she was able to do for our country, representing it well, and becoming a gold medalist … However, this is the world of professional wrestling, and I don’t think she quite was grasping it, or was moving forward the way she wanted to.”
Ray also mentioned that judges on LFG may have not convinced by Tyra’s performance and her win came because of runner-up Zena Sterling’s injury, “I didn’t see it in her, the other coaches didn’t see it in her,” he said. “They gave [Steele] the contract and since the end of season one until this weekend, they did not see enough of Tyra Mae Steele or she did not impress enough to continue her career at WWE.”
Tyra, when in the ring, had the ability to be a beast. She had the freestyle wrestling fundamentals that lent itself well to training. She had the credibility to build a character off of, but it seems she never had the company buy in that someone like Gable Stevenson or Kurt Angle had.
She was rough around the edges and needed a clearer character that could engage wrestling fans, making them cheer or boo her. Maybe, if they thought she needed acting classes: give her a manager to talk for her. If they thought she was too old to continue to develop, don’t have her waste time on developmental and put her on the main roster (like they did Jade Cargill, even though she wasn’t ready). If she just wasn’t good enough, don’t sign her.
Time and investment on the company’s end were what went wrong here. She put in more time, more effort and more consistency than Stevenson ever did for the company, with just as much credibility. They won gold the same year!
I personally would have loved to see her as a heel on SmackDown cutting the exact promo, she did in her confessional on LFG (you know the one about how proud she was to be an American) against an opponent while holding the U.S. Championship. Imagine her as President Chelsea Green’s “All-American” enforcer (she would have fit great as part of the Secret Her-vice!)
If you really want to push the limits: let’s lean on the good ol’ babyface American national gimmick against an opponent from a far-off place. Invoke that Sergeant Slaughter, All-American, patriotic American Hero style storyline today.
Come on WWE, don’t you want that nostalgia? Don’t you want a “Real American” on your show? Don’t you want to play on nationalism and foreign enemies? Isn’t that why you’re in bed with Trump9? Isn’t that what you wanted when you made Chad Gable mock luchadores? Why can’t she be the Sister Sage to your Homelander? Is it too on the nose for you?
It’s thoroughly disappointing that WWE didn’t give Tyra Mae Steele the time or attention to help her hone her character and shine. They trusted her enough to make her the winner of LFG, so I really wish the outcome had been different for her. Especially when the male winner of the season, Jasper Troy (who looks like a MyCreation wrestler at his core), has carved out a nice spot in the NXT mid-card.
I could see her in another company, maybe TNA or on the indies, but I’m not sure she’ll go this route. She’s extremely talented and with the right writer and booker (tbh me) she could very well be the top of a division and gleam some of the Kurt Angle legacy for herself—and even better, blaze her own.
Kurt Angle is WWE Hall of Famer. He’s a four-time WWE World Champion, one-time Intercontinental Champion, one-time European Champion. Angle gained national attention in 1996 when he won a gold medal in the 220-pound freestyle wrestling competition at the Olympic Games in Atlanta with a broken neck. He’s also held the TNA World Heavyweight Championship and the IGPW Heavyweight Championship.
WWE Next in Line (WWE NIL) program, which exclusively supports American-based college athletes who decide to train as wrestlers. The program was launched as an extension of NCAA-approved name, image, and likeness policies.
He was then signed with the NFL team Buffalo Bills in 2024 but was released in the preseason. He had never played football before. As of April 2026, he’s been signed to the UFC for the UFC237 card.
This was Sekelsky’s fourth match ever.
She might have but since she’s most active on Twitter/X and I refuse to make an account just to see, we’re sticking with no.
ALSO, I couldn’t fit this in the story naturally since it was only found during editing but instead of being featured on TV in April, Steele spent her time being transphobic and battling gender wars stuff on Twitter. Steele is a Christian, and is very open about her dumbass opinion. To each their own…I guess. But at the same time like…maybe SYBAU?
President Trump has used Steele’s past patriotic remarks to criticize those who do not share her "100 percent" commitment to the flag. Her love for America has given her a bit of a conservative base, those Newsmax and Fox News appearances I found in my research suddenly made a lot more sense.