WWE LFG Winners Tyra Mae Steele And Jasper Troy React To Historic Wins

Tyra Mae Steele (Team Undertaker) and Jasper Troy (Team Booker T) won the first season of WWE LFG (Legends and Future Greats), outlasting seven women and seven men, respectfully, for the elusive title of the first-ever LFG winners. Both Troy and Steele are currently signed with WWE, with each making their in-ring debuts around the summer of 2024 in the now-defunct NXT Level Up. Steele’s reputation precedes her as the first Black woman to win a gold medal in Olympic wrestling.

WWE LFG, WWE’s inaugural competition reality series airing Sundays on the A&E Network, showcased 16 WWE hopefuls looking to navigate their way through WWE’s now crowded developmental ranks. Between LFG, Evolve and NXT, WWE has no shortage of hungry, young talent ready to make their mark on the main roster. The show will be back for a second season, with former WWE women’s champion Michelle McCool replacing Mickie James as one of the four Hall of Fame head coaches.

Given the notoriously political backstage minefields throughout the wrestling business, WWE developmental is no different. WWE LFG offered a peak behind the curtain of all the physical, mental and emotional obstacles that aspiring WWE Superstars need to overcome just to make it out of the PC.

WWE Hall Of Famers Booker T, The Undertaker, Bubba Ray Dudley and Mickie James led four teams of rookies throughout their complex WWE journey.

I sat down for an exclusive interview with Steele and Troy to discuss their time on the show and what’s next in their promising WWE careers.

Alfred Konuwa:

Watching the show, both of you emerged as favorites to me. On a scale of one to 10, how surprised are each of you that you’ve now won the whole thing outright? With 10 being the most surprised.

Tyra Mae Steele:

Two. I’m not really that surprised. I had a feeling that I was going to be winning, but there was just the percent where I went, “Wait, maybe I won’t win. No, no, no, no. I got this, I got this, I got this.”

Jasper Troy:

I don’t want to be disrespectful, but I mean, I knew I was going to win this show from the moment I interviewed for the show. I told my wife, I was like: “I’m going to be selected to be on the show, and then I’m going to win.”

That’s no disrespect to anyone else that was competing with me. It’s just I waited too long for this opportunity, and I wasn’t going to let anyone jump ahead of me. Nobody was taking this from me. I wanted it, like I had to have it.

AK:

So whom would you consider your biggest competition throughout the show?

JT:

I wasn’t expecting Shiloh [Hill] to lead the charge the way, honestly, because now I’m seeing everything that’s going on throughout the show. So when it comes out now I’m seeing it, seeing the [CM Punk] episode, I didn’t know he even had that moment.

Shiloh’s not very talkative. He’s very to himself a lot of times. So I had no idea how his journey on the show was going up until MSG. I just thought “Oh, he’s winning a lot of points. Our team’s winning a lot of points.” As the show was going on, I was like, “Oh, I see him. He’s winning. He’s winning.”

I was talking to Anthony [Luke] and I said, “It’s either going to be me and him or you and him, but it’s going to be one of us three.” That’s all we wanted as a group because these guys are competitive. So that’s what we do is we compete.

TMS:

For me, I honestly didn’t think that anybody was going to be my competition.

And I don’t know how anyone’s going to take this. I felt like they were intentionally and deliberately trying to piss me off with Zena [Sterling]. Every time she would get the point, I’d be like, “Mother-what? Are you kidding me?” And it would just piss me off more and more and more and more, to where I’m like, “Whether she’s my competition or not, she’s not going to get out ahead of me. I don’t think so. She’s not taking this away from me.”

I had Undertaker having the utmost confidence in me, but he wasn’t in my ear going like, “Ooh, do this. Ooh, do that.” But, with Zena, he did. So I feel like it was two against one the whole time for me. And so I felt like she was my biggest competition in that aspect.

AK:

So Tyra, you’ve got this great bubbly personality that some would say, especially in the wrestling business, doesn’t match your Olympic pedigree. I felt like they were trying to force you into being this killer. They constantly encouraged you to be more serious.

How much of that advice, moving forward, do you feel like you need to take? Do you feel like that you should be more serious moving on to be more successful? Or do you think just leaning into who you really are is going to help you more along your journey?

TMS:

So for those people that are questioning who I am, I have a question for them. Have they won an Olympic gold medal in anything? A moment to reflect. What gives them the right to tell me how I should act? The way I am has gotten me to where I have been.

So them telling me, “This is how you should be,” I’m sorry, did you win a gold medal? No. So what gives you the right to tell me how I should act? I don’t come into your life, into your world, into your job saying, “This is how you should do it. This is how you should act.”

No. I’m trying to break stereotypes. I’m trying to break barriers. There is a glass ceiling above me that these people have put on me, and I am shattering it. There is no kind of standard that I don’t have joy in breaking and tearing apart. I love breaking standards and breaking stereotypes.

You think that I’m going to be a loud, angry Black woman? I mean, step on my toes. Yeah, sure, I’ll do that. But I’ll come into a building and I will be happy-go-lucky, and I will still be able to rip your head off. And you won’t even see it coming because you underestimated me. So if anything, that’s a unique character that no one has ever seen.

AK:

It’s easy to get in your head when you’re performing a character. But it’s good to lean into who you are.

And with you, Jasper, I know both of you have comps just by looking at you. You called yourself “The Reaper” at some points, so maybe there was the Undertaker comp. But what comparisons to other wrestlers or what influences have you had that would maybe surprise people?

JT:
Honestly? Jeff Hardy.

I mean the Hardy Boyz, like that devil-may-care attitude, especially not dying. Matt Hardy Will Not Die 2.0, a lot of Matt Hardy, a lot of Jeff. John Cena.

I mean, there was a time when I was walking around this earth like I was Randy Orton, and I tell you that. I won’t get into details. Any great that you could think of, I felt like there was a part of their game, and I was like, I need to take the best parts. I don’t want to be just a remake of the Undertaker or Kane. These can be the spearheads, but how can I develop something that they weren’t allowed to be? For me, you see me hit a kip up in the ring, and that’s when I started out. I was just sitting up, like they were, but I was like, “nah, I got a chance, I’m going to hit this kip up. So that’s my thing.”

I was so lucky to be able to watch someone like Shawn Michaels work weekly and see a match with him. I get to watch Matt, Jeff Hardy vs. Shawn Michaels on a Monday night. It’s like these are the kind of matches that kids today, not saying that our locker room on the main roster isn’t, but this is one of the best of all time performing week to week.

That’s why when John Cena is on this retirement tour, for me it’s like, bro, I’m not missing a match. I’m glued in. These are the guys that I love watching because they were, without a doubt, the greats. And for me, it’s like I need to pull what’s great about John Cena and his ability to bring that crowd into a match, and I need to emulate that.

A lot of things that I pull from these legends is their mannerisms and the thought processes for matches. It’s not the moves. For me, it’s always about how can I interact with the crowd? How can I affect the crowd? How can I make someone believe in me?

AK:

You said you didn’t want to get into too much detail about this, but can you give me just a little more detail about how you were Randy Orton for a point in your life? I’m very intrigued by that. Did you kick elderly people in the head? What happened?

JT:

Okay, okay, okay, okay. I may have punted a few objects in life that were animated. That’s all I’m going to say, all right? I’m not going to sit here and incriminate myself, or remind someone that knew me of memories that are gone. But yeah, I was pretty deadly with a punt.

And I mean that, hey, if you were there, you know. We saw it every week. I mean, this man was obliterating the entire locker room. Everyone. RVD. Jeff Hardy.

The thing I love about WWE is I get to relive moments that I saw as a child and embrace that. When we’re in school and the coaches throw on a old match from back in the day and I’m like, “I remember the first time I watched this match.” We just watched Razor Ramon vs. Shawn Michaels.

I remember going on YouTube because we didn’t have cable, but we had internet. And I’d go on YouTube, and I’d watch Razor vs. Shawn on YouTube. Or I’d watch the buildup between Taker and DDP, and I’d just sit there for hours and just find old tapes. Whatever I could on YouTube back in the day of wrestling, I would just re-watch shows.

TMS:

So I didn’t grow up watching like Jasper did. I was focused on Olympic-style wrestling.

AK:

Sure.

TMS:

But as I have been in this business, I have been studying like my life depends on it, and it is absolutely enthralling. Like what Jasper was saying with John Cena, when he beat Cody, I was like, “Destroy them all!” I freaking loved it.

And like Jasper, I’m not missing anything. I’m not missing a promo. I’m not missing a match. Because it is that enthralling, and it is so real, and it is so relatable.

And even with Becky Lynch, I’m going, “Oh, Becky, yes. Tell them. We’re not in the wrong.” I’m not going to lie. So something that people don’t know, I think I relate more with the heels.

AK:

Yes, I can see that.

TMS:

Oh, right?

AK:

Yes.

TMS:

I don’t know why. I had anger problems when I was a kid and like Jasper, I’m not going to incriminate myself, but I just will say that people that were in my way, they got hurt. And I’m so grateful that I found wrestling as an outlet to…

JT:

I think you just told yourself. You just told on yourself.

TMS:

What?

JT:

You just told on yourself. (laughs)

TMS:

They know who they are, but no one else does. I didn’t say names.

But yeah, I love people like Solo Sikoa. Oh, I love Nia Jax. She’s such an inspiration to me. Just a dream match, one day. She can sit on me. I don’t know if I can kick out or whatever, but I relate so much to the heels.

When Kevin Owens was just going on a spiel, I’m like, “Dude, I feel that. I feel that. You’re not in the wrong. Shame on them for thinking that you’re in the wrong.”

And I don’t know why. I don’t know why I relate to heels more than I relate to the baby faces. But I do, and I justify every single thing that they do. Yeah.

AK:

Heels have more fun. It’s always more fun to watch heels. A lot of wrestlers, their careers take off once they turn heel, and it’s easier to relate to them because there’s less boundaries.

TMS:

Yes! Like Naomi? Proceed with caution?!

AK:

Oh, absolutely. I think Naomi’s been the best in the business since she’s turned heel.

JT:

I love that statement, heels do have more fun.

AK:

Yes, absolutely. What was some of the feedback that you took most personally? What was something that you heard from one of the trainers or the coaches, that really stung?

TMS:

Oh, that I smile too much, like that was so insulting. Like he doesn’t know my life. There’s a reason why I smile.

I came into this world smiling, and there had been so many circumstances, so many unfathomable things that I had to overcome. And yet I continue to smile because I know that if I wallow in that sorrow, I’m not going to be anything great. I’m not going to be able to enhance my experience in life, and I’m just going to wither away and die into what? Into sorrow?

No. I have to rise to the occasion, and I have to tell other people, “Hey, joy is so much better. Joy comes with so many more opportunities.” So yeah, that… Oh, boy.

AK:

And who gave you this advice, or who said this to you?

TMS:

Bubba Ray.

AK:

Right.

TMS:

Bubba Ray said that I smile too much, okay? Okay? And yeah, I was super-duper offended. That was like the only thing that offended me in the entire show. Like we had Taker would joke and everything. I’m like, “Man, Taker cool. Taker real cool.”

Even Mickie saying in the second-to-last episode when she had said, “I don’t think that you’re ready to be a champion,” she said that and I was like, “Ouch. That’s why you wouldn’t choose me to be the winner, Mickie?” That didn’t hurt me.

But when someone attacked who I am and who I’ve been my entire life, yeah. Yeah, Bubba got me. Bubba got me good.

JT:

I’m going to tread lightly, but after my first match where Shawn Michaels said that star power trumps hard work, I took that so personally because, and I told him this, I said this to him in Madison Square Garden. I said, “You are my hero. And when you said that I didn’t have enough star power, to me, it was almost just like Batman telling Robin, ‘you’re not ready.'”

I took it personally, and the one thing I didn’t do was pout. I wasn’t like, “F this. He don’t know what he talking about.” I was like, “No, this is Shawn Michaels, okay?”

I went home that night. I went straight to the gym, and it was like one of those times where my wife got up, and she was like, “What are you doing? It’s 8:00 PM,” and I went straight to the gym. And then every time after that, and every time I wouldn’t get a point, I’d go straight to the gym. I was like, “Bro, this ain’t making no sense.” And I’d get in the gym and I’d get to lift in and then I get around my guys, and they’d be like, “Bro, chill.” And I’m like, “No, I’m livid right now.”

So the scene where me and Anthony just got out of the ring and Bubba’s like, “Why do you look so ticked off?” It’s like because I genuinely do not like being that close to the fire. I do not like the fact that my career is up in the air. Because I put in too much work for it not to be undisputed, for it not to be this is the guy. This is someone that should be here for 10, 15 years plus. That is my mentality.

I was not competing with the guys on that show. My mentality was like, I am trying to prove that if it was Monday Night Raw Netflix and I was in the middle of that ring, no matter who walks through that curtain, you’re going to believe Jasper Troy is a threat. Whether it was Gunther, where it could be Jey Uso, it could be anybody.

I’m not here to be on NXT and I’m not competing with the guys that are on NXT right now because that’s not who they’re competing with. Just like them, they’re competing with the main roster. That’s who we’re here in NXT battling it out for is to show that when we go to the main roster and we step in front of that crowd, we’re a threat. We’re a legitimate threat. And I took it personally. I wanted to show Shawn Michaels like, “Hey, I’m a star and I want this bad. I love this business.”

I think for me, the whole show is just about showing how much I love this business. This isn’t just wrestling to me. This isn’t just WWE. A lot of guys come in here with different mentalities. And for me it’s like, how can I show these OGs, these legends that the love for this business is alive and well. And when you see me, that’s what I want you to know is that, bro, just how bad you talked about loving this business at my age, I feel the same way. The things that you want out of wrestling are the same that I want.

And I feel like that’s just why for me, I was able to connect with my legends just a little bit more than other guys is because I genuinely just wanted to elevate the business the same way that they do. And if I can contribute in any way, I’ll be happy with that.

AK:

So there’s another old saying in pro wrestling where they say “Personal issues draw money.” Which, in other words, if there’s somebody in the wrestling business who you legitimately don’t get along with, chances are you’re going to have a good program with them because the fans are sense that.

You and Anthony Luke almost came to blows during a recent episode. So how excited are you at the prospect of potentially working with Anthony Luke down the road in a feud?

JT:

From day one, me and him were here (punches his fist together), day one. When I would see him and before class, he’s running the ropes, I’m like, “Bro, relax. We’re going to get to that. Trust me. You doing cardio before class? No, we’re going to get it in. Trust me. If I was you, I just stretch.”

But he brushed me off. He was like, and when he did that, I was like, hold on. So okay, stuff like that turns me up. When I see you match my energy, when he brushed me off like I was nothing, I was like, okay, I can work with that. That’s just something that I’m like, all right. So we talk about it all the time. It’s just like when me and him step into that ring, we’re going to compete. I think that’s something that I’m really trying to ignite in the PC, and I want to do my part with that. I feel like that’s what the coaches want. I feel like that’s what Shawn wants.

So it’s so many guys that I connect with in that way. For me, I’m not short for enemies or rivalries.

TMS:

Oh, I’d love to eat [Tatyana Dumas] alive and destroy her. She wouldn’t know what to do. She, literally, would not know what to do.

But just like Jasper, I’m not short of enemies, either. When I’m in practice, every single female that I’m working with, I feel them go a little snug and I go, oh, “Interesting.” So you want to hit a little hard? Oh, because it’s a safe spot? Well, guess what? I ain’t no punk. And so I give them a receipt immediately back and that just raises the competition.

So I don’t care whoever it is. If it’s Tatyana Dumas, if it’s Zena Sterling, who the F cares? The people are going to be invested and they’re going to think, “Whoa, I thought this was scripted. I thought this was like a hoax. This feels a little real. It feels like she actually has some animosity towards these girls.”

Well, it’s because I do. Like Bubba said, “I knew it. She hates everybody just a little bit.” This is wrestling and wrestlers aren’t punks, and a lot of these females are coming in here thinking that this is debutant debut season, and it is not. We are fighters, period.

All quotes were received firsthand.