Tag: Valerie Loureda

Valerie Loureda making WWE NXT Level Up debut this Friday

Posted on by Joseph Currier

Former Bellator MMA fighter Valerie Loureda’s first televised pro wrestling match will air this Friday night.

Loureda, who is going by the name Lola Vice in WWE/NXT, will make her NXT Level Up debut on this week’s episode. She’s facing Dani Palmer in a singles match on the show.

“Vice, an accomplished MMA fighter and NXT’s first Cuban-American Superstar, is set for a tough test in her first match when she battles Palmer,” WWE.com wrote. “A relative newcomer herself, Palmer is searching for her first career victory, despite impressive showings against the likes of Sol Ruca and Thea Hail.”

The 24-year-old Loureda is from Miami and had a 4-1 record during her Bellator career. She revealed last June that she’s signed a multi-year contract with WWE. In November, Loureda announced that Lola Vice would be her in-ring name.

Loureda made her in-ring debut at an NXT house show this past October.

NXT Level Up airs on Peacock/WWE Network at 10 p.m. Eastern time on Fridays. This week’s episode will also feature the debut of Kale Dixon (real name Caleb Balgaard), a former college baseball player for South Alabama who joined the WWE Performance Center last August.

Here’s the full lineup for this week’s Level Up: 

  • Oro Mensah vs. Scrypts
  • Dante Chen vs. Kale Dixon
  • Lola Vice vs. Dani Palmer

Former Bellator fighter Valerie Loureda gets new WWE name

Posted on by Joseph Currier

Former Bellator MMA fighter Valerie Loureda has received her WWE in-ring name.

On her social media accounts on Tuesday, Loureda announced that she’ll be going by the name “Lola Vice” in WWE. Loureda has also changed her Twitter handle to “lolavicewwe.”

Loureda tweeted: “Lola Vice the first Cuban American woman in @WWE history #WWE #NXT #MIAMIVICE”

After attending WrestleMania and later visiting the WWE Performance Center, Loureda revealed this June that she’s signed a multi-year contract with WWE. She officially joined the WWE Performance Center as part of its group of recruits that were introduced in August.

WWE wrote:

Valerie Loureda is an acclaimed mixed martial artist who previously fought in Bellator, where she compiled a 4-1 record. The 24-year-old Miami, Fla., native has a black belt in Taekwondo and has already made waves in the MMA world for her social media presence. Loureda is also the first Cuban-American to be signed by WWE.

Loureda made her in-ring debut as part of a Halloween battle royal at an NXT house show in October, where she dressed up as Lola Bunny. Loureda then had her first non-battle royal match at a November house show.

Valerie Loureda on her first month training to be a WWE wrestler

Posted on by Denise Salcedo

Following her tryout during WrestleMania week in Dallas, female Bellator MMA fighter Valerie Loureda announced in late-June on Ariel Helwani’s MMA Hour that she had signed a multi-year WWE contract and was leaving fighting.

The prospect was in attendance at last week’s WWE WrestleMania 39 launch party in Inglewood, CA, at SoFi Stadium, and spoke to me about her experience with the company thus far, why she decided to pursue this career. and how her training at the Performance Center has gone just one month in.

Pro fighting vs. pro wrestling

“I feel like fighting is easier because when you go into a cage, you have one goal and that’s to win or hurt that person. And in WWE, there are so many things going on and you do have to be a true entertainer. For me, the difference is striking but not striking to hurt someone. There are little things like that, but truly I love it. I am truly in love with it. I feel like a white belt again. I am just embracing the process and just getting better every day.” 

Loureda wraps up her MMA career with a 4-1 record after last fighting in November 2021. 

Being the first Cuban-American woman to sign with WWE 

During her announcement, Loureda said she was the first Cuban-American woman to become a WWE superstar. Since she had already amassed a following in MMA, I asked her why she decided to switch gears and head to pro wrestling. 

“I became the first Cuban American woman in history to become a WWE superstar and, for me, that’s an honor. I come from a family of immigrants and being able to represent my culture and show the martial artist that I am and the entertainer that I am at the same time is a dream come true.” 

Loureda says she plans to bring a touch of her “Latina glamour” that she was known for in MMA. 

“I am trying to bring into the wrestling ring real fighting…MMA fighting with a touch of my Latina glamour that people knew of me in the MMA cage but really just adding my touch to this, making it mine but also showing that I am a true professional wrestler. I am going to be a great WWE superstar.” 

So far, she has only been training at the WWE Performance Center for the past four weeks. Although she’s been “training very hard,” she notes that she is still “very green” at this stage in her training. 

“I’ve been training very hard. I have just been learning from watching other girls and learning from them and developing in my career. I am still very green in my stage but soon I’ll know what ]I am doing and I’ll be out there in NXT.” 

Bellator MMA fighter Valerie Loureda signs multi-year WWE contract

Posted on by Josh Nason

Female Bellator MMA prospect Valerie Loureda is now a former Bellator MMA fighter as she announced Wednesday that she has signed a multi-year WWE contract.

The soon-to-be 24-year-old revealed the news on Ariel Helwani’s MMA Hour. According to her, she is now the first Cuban-American woman to sign with the company.

She said the deal initially came together when her agent Abe Kawa was working with WWE on AJ Ferrari’s NIL deal last year. Her name came into the mix and she was invited to WrestleMania — her first WWE event.

She wanted the opportunity and realized WWE is where she wanted to go, cutting weight and doing light training for her May tryout following her appearance at April’s tryout during WrestleMania week in Dallas. She said she has been in Orlando just once, but when she took her first bump, she knew this career is what we she wanted to shift to.

She signed her deal Monday and according to ESPN, she will begin on July 19th. She didn’t know if she will able to keep her name, but would like to keep Loureda or some semblance of her Cuban heritage in her ring name if it changes.

This will be a full-time endeavor as she said she is now done with WWE. However, Bellator MMA’s Scott Coker said she will remain under contract.

“She will remain an active and under contract fighter with Bellator, and we look forward to welcoming her back into the cage in the near future. We take great pride in allowing our athletes to test themselves in additional arenas such as boxing and pro wrestling,” Coker said to ESPN.

If this is the end of her MMA career, Loureda wraps up with a 4-1 record. She last fought in November 2021. Despite just five fights, she has a major social media following with 908,000 followers on Instagram 

She hopes she’s a babyface as that’s who she is at heart. Her goal is to make it to NXT TV by the end of the year and to the main roster within a year.

Loureda said she’s a big fan of Charlotte Flair and Ronda Rousey and that Flair DM’d her to say congrats.

She said she had talked with Paige VanZant about her wrestling training and that she is doing great. When asked if she had talked with AEW, she said she hadn’t and had no interest in doing so, pointing to WWE’s ability to put on massive events and their global presence.