WWE NXT’s Lacey Evans: From Marine to Lady of NXT

WWE NXT’s latest addition to the Women’s Division, Lacey Evans, has taken an incredible path to the squared circle

Lacey Evans most likely isn’t someone that WWE fans are overly familiar with. She’s been seen a few times on NXT, most notably in the recent Women’s Championship No. 1 Contender’s battle royal. However, she’s not been given a real spotlight — or at least not yet. When she does get afforded that opportunity, though, she’s got one hell of a story to tell.

In an interview and profile on WWE.com, Evans opened up about her journey to NXT and her experience at the WWE Performance Center over the past year-plus. The woman who refers to herself on Twitter with the hashtag #LadyofNXT took a route unique from most others signed by WWE.

Evans served five years in the United States Marine Corps prior to signing with NXT, and most of that time prior to even beginning to pursue a career in professional wrestling. If you’re thinking that WWE is exploiting that for someone who just sat behind a desk, though, you’d be wrong. Evans earned honors throughout her training for her shooting acumen and leadership, eventually working with Military Police.

Eventually, Evans worked her way up to the position of assistant breacher in the Marine Corps’ Special Reactions Team, referred to in the profile as Military SWAT. And she was hardly sitting behind a desk during that time. She describes what she did in that position in the interview:

"My duties during this time were responding to active shooter and hostage situations, barricaded suspects, terrorist threats, suspicious packages and felony stops, to name a few."

However, Evans’ journey to the squared circle wasn’t just from the armed forces to NXT. As one of seven siblings who all experienced a rough childhood with a drug-addicted father, many of her siblings struggled with their own mental health. Thus, Evans left the military to be home to help take care of her family, with the help of her husband.

As for the wrestling, that too is related to her military career. A staff sergeant that she knew in the Marines was an independent wrestler and, after attending one of his shows, she asked to begin training with him, which she did. After a brief run on the independent circuit, she attended a tryout in September 2015 and has been training at the Performance Center since.

Once again, we haven’t seen much from Evans on NXT programming. The top-of-the-card performers such as Asuka, Nikki Cross, Peyton Royce, Ember Moon and Ruby Rose have been in the forefront recently. Evans, not so much. However, Asuka’s future in NXT seems like it has an expiration date that’s rapidly approaching. Subsequently, there will be spots that need to be filled.

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From the success that she’s had in the military, to the obstacles she’s overcome, to the work that she put in to get to this point in professional wrestling, it’s hard to imagine that Evans won’t be vying for that chance at the spotlight. And once she gets that chance, the Lady of NXT has an exceptional story to tell.