WWE has signed MMA fighter Valerie Loureda as part of the elite athlete push
Valerie Loureda, who is an MMA fighter with Bellator, has signed with WWE as the company contributes its push to bring the elite athletes into their developmental structure.
As a part of this push, Loureda was invited to watch WrestleMania from a suite this Year in April, and she fell in love with the company. WWE NXT’s Twitter handle took to Twitter and shared about this announcement.
As first announced on @arielhelwani‘s “MMA Hour,” MMA star @valerielouredaa has officially signed with #WWENXT
WWE has through its NIL program with college athletes, and overall general strategy seeks to move away from bringing in indie wrestlers to its WWE structure. This process is overseen by executives James Kimball and Paul “Triple H”.
Laura will begin her Performance Center in Orlando in mid-July as part of a class featuring over a dozen other athletes. The main goal is for her to be on NXT TV by the end of the Year.
She was introduced to martial arts at an early age. She noted her father was an eight-time grandmaster in Taekwondo and that she began training at 3 years old. Laura also did some dancing and cheerleading.
Laura revealed that her dream is to headline WrestleMania and become the first Cuban-American woman. She also said that she wants to be a role model.
“Headlining WrestleMania is a dream, and I’m gonna conquer that one day, but my goal in WWE is I’m becoming the first Cuban-American woman, and I want to be a role model and an inspiration to young Latinas who can now see someone from their culture in WWE.
“I want to represent where I came from, my roots, and really bring a new edge into this company that’s never been seen before. This is a big win for Latinas all over the world. I was born and raised in Miami. I come from a family of immigrants. I just want to show young first-generation American kids that you can do anything as long as you apply yourself and work very hard, and your dreams can come true — like me.” (Via NY Post)
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