Tatum Paxley builds cupboard shrines to Alexa Bliss and Charlotte Flair, which is all you need to know. NEXT! Alright, not really. There’s a ton about Paxley’s life before pro wrestling that people just being introduced via her SmackDown debut probably don’t know one thing about. She’s one of WWE‘s most interesting main roster newbies, and actually one of the company’s most compelling hires overall.
Let’s just say that Tatum didn’t take the most conventional route towards stardom. She knew what she didn’t want from life, but that’s only half the battle. Then, a chance conversation with a firm friend changed the course she was on forever. There was no looking back. Paxley didn’t want to. She’s all eyes forwards and keen to make a splash as part of the top crew on Friday nights.
Here, you’ll learn why she dropped out of college after one solitary year in school, who caught her eye first when she was looking up WWE matches, why management refused to budge on her backstage pitches before finally giving in, what her hopes and dreams for the future are, and…why she isn’t one for hitting the bars/clubs out on the road.
OK, so a lot of modern wrestlers keep it quiet in between shows nowadays, but few value their peace quite as much as Paxley. Maybe it’s that dedication to rest and recovery between matches/events that caught the eye of a surprise super fan who told WWE’s creative team that Tatum simply had to get called up from NXT.
Powerful allies are powerful!
…she lost interest in cheerleading, which was the main reason why she signed up for college in the first place. Yep, after one year in the place, Tatum realised that she’d fallen out of love with cheer and fancied doing something else with her life. She’d actually been doing it since she was a little girl, so maybe it was time to try some fresh direction.
That…probably wasn’t how those close to Paxley viewed her decision at the time. She’s never really gone into great details about what her family and friends thought about dropping out of college though. Hopefully, everyone was supportive, because let’s be honest: College and university comes with a ton of pressure, and young people should be able to pivot if they feel like there’s something else they’d be better off doing. Within reason, of course, but this wasn’t as flaky as it perhaps sounds.
Remarkably, Tatum’s next obsession was totally different. She went from cheerleading to powerlifting. That’s some change, but having something new to focus on helped her rediscover that spark. Paxley couldn’t possibly have known this back then when she was stumbling around post-cheer and feeling rather lost, but she was making beneficial decisions about her future, and that’d later lead to WWE.
Try explaining that to any lecturers at college! Being fair, they’d have been concerned that Tatum didn’t give things long enough, but she was about to show off a sneaky talent and strength nobody really knew she even had. That’s worth applauding/celebrating with the benefit of hindsight.
