Zayda Steel Says ‘Real Deal’ Nickname Was Inspired By Line She Heard From Michael Cole On WWE TV

‘The Real Deal’ Zayda Steel speaks about her nickname.

There’s a virtual signing that Captain’s Corner did with AEW/ROH talent Zayda Steel. She shared that her ‘Real Deal’ nickname was inspired by a line that she heard from WWE commentator Michael Cole.

Steel remembers receiving negative feedback about the name. She added that even when she was working with MLW, they cut off the nickname from her presentation.

“I love Mercedes (Moné). When she was in WWE, her name was Sasha Banks and she’s been called ‘The Legit Boss’ and I was watching a random episode of SmackDown and randomly, I think Michael Cole — I forget who he was talking about but he was just on commentary. I wasn’t even watching. I was more so listening. All I hear is him saying, ‘The real deal!’ I was like, ‘I like how he said that. I like how that flows. I’m The Real Deal. Stealing that,’ and I remember that, like 15 years old. I was like, ‘Yup, if I ever become a wrestler, I’ll be The Real Deal,’ and when I became a wrestler at 18, I used it. Everyone thought it was stupid. Everyone was like, ‘You’re The Real Deal Zayda Steel? Okay. Yeah, no. Can we just call you just Zayda? This is stupid. Don’t say Real Deal,’ and I was like, ‘Nope. I’m gonna keep it…’” Steel was asked if she really got a lot of negative feedback for the nickname, and she replied, “Oh yeah. Yeah, absolutely. Even when — I think — I was in MLW, they just scratched off ‘Zayda Steel’ and was like, ‘You’re just Zayda.’ So I couldn’t even keep ‘The Real Deal’ in.” She continued, “If you believe in something, even if everyone says it’s stupid, just keep pushing it because WWE let me keep it, AEW lets me keep it and hey, we’re here.”

Further speaking about MLW, Steel recounted the promotion not wanting the lyrics ‘Real Deal Zayda Steel’ in her theme song.

“I don’t know. It was never explained to me. They were just like, ‘You’re just Zayda,’” she said about MLW altering her ring name and presentation. “I had a theme song that I was already using on the indies and I was like, ‘Real Deal, Zayda Steel,’ and they’re like, ‘Uh, we need you to cut that out,’ and it was just some generic music and I was like, ‘Alright, welp.’ Called my friend; I was like, ‘Can you make me a new theme song but just take ‘real deal’ out?’ His name’s Blake. He does my theme song now. He was like, ‘Okay, but why?’ I was like, ‘I don’t know why’ and it was like the most headache he had writing a song but I do like my MLW theme song. He found a way to make it work but I have no idea why.”

The 22-year-old Steel was in action at ROH Death Before Dishonor, where she competed in a four-way for the ROH Women’s World Television Championship.

If the quotes in this article are used, please credit Captain’s Corner with an H/T to Fightful for the transcriptions.