Kali Armstrong Credits Rapper Wale For Directing Her Attention To A Career In Pro Wrestling

Wale reached out to Armstrong multiple times.

At week one of NXT Revenge on 4/14, the first-ever WWE EVOLVE Women’s Champion Kali Armstrong will make her official NXT TV debut as a full-time member of the brand’s roster.

Going into the bout, she stopped by Cheap Heat. While speaking about how she got into wrestling, Armstrong credited rapper Wale for directing her attention to a career in wrestling.

Armstrong said when she got a WWE tryout, Wale was steadfast about not getting involved in any way because he wanted Armstrong to earn whatever was coming her way.

“I’m good friends with rapper Wale, and at that time, he was doing WaleMania and stuff so any time I’d post for track and field or just being charismatic, he’d hit me up like, ‘Aye man, you’re beautiful, you have this charisma, you have the physique. I really think that you’d be a good WWE wrestler,’ and when you first hear it the first time, you’re like, ‘What? That’s not something you could be.’ So I just kind of brushed it off, I laughed it off.” Armstrong was asked if she was watching the product, and she said, “No. I used to watch when I was younger but, obviously, once I got older, I stopped watching so, that was just something that was totally out the blue. I wasn’t aware of any storylines or anything. So then I keep on posting and just doing what I do and he hit me up like two or three more times, and after that second or third one, I was like, ‘Okay, let me really look into this.’ So I started looking into it, I started watching wrestling. I started seeing their N.I.L. deals and things that they were doing with current athletes and I was like, ‘Wow, so they’re really big on athletes at this time.’ So I reached out to a recruiter. They got me into a tryout, and that was all she wrote.

I think it’s funny because when I was going through the tryout and stuff, I was like, ‘You know all these people. Help me a little bit’ and he’s like, ‘No. Whatever you do, whatever you get, I want it to be 100 percent you. If you get the tryout, if you get to make it to WWE, I want it to be solely because you and your talents.’ He didn’t wanna have any influence. But I’m like, ‘I’m in there now! Now you could help me.’ He’s like, ‘No.’”

Armstrong’s opponent for the 4/14 show has not been announced. She was featured as a background talent in TV segments, but the last time she competed on NXT TV was in September 2025.

If the quotes in this article are used, please credit Cheap Heat with an H/T to Fightful for the transcriptions.