Before Franky Monet (formerly Taya Valkyrie), entered the world of wrestling, she was part of the fitness circuit.
She admired Trish Stratus and Torrie Wilson and saw fitness competitions as a gateway into wrestling. Her pursuit paid off when she caught the eye of Shad Gaspard while working at a bar.
"Right before the CBBF Nationals, which I won, I was bartending and Shad Gaspard and others were in town for Raw. They came into the bar and I was serving them all night. We had wrestling theme night and I was dressed as female John Cena. Shad was like, 'You look like you could be a wrestler.' 'Oh my god, I totally want to be a wrestler.' I was jacked. He wanted my information to pass it on. The next day, I told him I worked at a gym. [Shad], JTG, and some guys came to the gym to work out. I gave him an envelope with bad-quality 8x10 fitness photos. A few weeks later, WWE called me. There was contact and Shad was the one who did it. After the Arnold, which was six months later, they contacted me again," Franky recalled on the Mint Condition Muscle podcast.
The contact led to Franky landing a WWE tryout, which forged her path into wrestling.
"My first tryout with WWE was right after I competed in the Arnold Amateur. I had no real wrestling background, but they contacted me and invited me to a tryout. After the tryout, I found Lance [Storm]," she said.
Monet graduated from Storm Wrestling Academy and was part of Storm's reality series "World of Hurt."
She signed with WWE in 2021, making her television debut on the April 13 episode of NXT.
Fightful will have live coverage of NXT beginning at 8 p.m. ET on Tuesday.
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