Thea Hail discusses her decision to join WWE, and the AEW star that helped her get there.

Hail will be challenging Roxanne Perez for the NXT Women’s Championship at this evening’s Great American Bash television special. Ahead of the match, she spoke with the Pittsburgh City Paper, explaining how she quit gymnastics and cheerleading to pursue the life of a professional wrestler.

I quit gymnastics, I quit cheer. I had no clue what I wanted to do with my life, and I was just scrolling through Instagram, and I always follow(ed) WWE. I always thought it was amazing, but I never really thought it was a thing you could do. I saw this video of Rey Mysterio, and I just put my phone down, and went, ‘I’m doing that.’

Hail later states that she landed a non-televised AEW dark match against Thunder Rosa after her dad found her training at a wrestling school. Rosa later put her in touch with a WWE scout, and was signed to the NXT brand in 2022.

He found me a training school in Pittsburgh called the Stronghold Training Center, and then that was combined with the Iron City Wrestling Academy, and I trained at both of those schools. I ended up landing a dark (non-televised) match for AEW after having a seminar with QT Marshall, and I wrestled Thunder Rosa, and she got me in contact with a recruiter from WWE.

Do you believe Hail can knock off Perez and become the new NXT women’s champion? Give your thoughts in the comments below.