Lyra Valkyria: It Feels Great Working With My Inspirations Like Becky Lynch And Bayley
Lyra Valkyria speaks about getting to wrestle women who inspired her, like Becky Lynch and Bayley.
Lyra Valkyria has become one of the top women’s wrestlers in WWE in 2025. She was the inaugural WWE Women’s Intercontinental Champion and has feuded with the likes of Becky Lynch and Bayley over the gold. Before winning that title, she had already defeated Becky Lynch to win the WWE NXT Women’s Championship.
Now, ahead of what may be her last match with Becky Lynch for a while at WWE SummerSlam 2025, she’s reflecting on the opportunities she’s been afforded. Speaking to Fightful’s Kate Elizabeth during the SummerSlam press junket, Lyra said it’s been great developing a frenemy relationship with Bayley and making a long-term rival out of Becky Lynch.
“It feels great. I had a friendship, I suppose, not a rivalry, with Bayley, but now I’m not sure. The lines are kind of blurred. I have a long-term rival and a long-term frenemy,” she said. “It’s crazy. I’ve had such different matches against both of them now. Two out of three falls against Bayley just the day after Evolution. I think the last woman’s two-out-of-three falls was in 2017. That was a massive opportunity there. That match coming straight after Evolution, that’s the proudest weekend of my whole career.
“If I could show younger me anything, 2016 me in training, I’d go back and show myself the match graphic of me vs. Bayley vs. Becky, two women that were such big inspirations and reasons I wanted to do this and I would ultimately end up facing them, not only separately but in a match on a women’s show for WWE. Incredible.”
Lyra Valkyria will challenge Becky Lynch for the WWE Women’s Intercontinental Championship on Sunday, August 3, during the second night of WWE SummerSlam. The match will have a No DQ stipulation attached. However, should Lynch retain the gold, Valkyria will no longer be able to challenge for this Championship while Becky is holding it.
Check out the full interview embedded above.
