All Elite Wrestling (AEW) wrestler Tay Conti has admitted to having not known anything about wrestling prior to her tryout with WWE in 2016.

The Brazilian spoke on Renee Paquette's Oral Sessions podcast about having a very limited knowledge of what wrestling actually was before trying out with the company five years ago. 

Conti told revealed that she'd "never watched" wrestling prior to her tryout with WWE, stating that wrestling is simply "not a big thing in Brazil".  

The former WWE star explained that she struggles to answer questions about her favourite wrestlers growing up as she didn't watch the product until she moved to America and signed with WWE, saying:

“Wrestling is not a big thing in Brazil. I never watched it, I never knew about it before. That was not a thing at all for me. It’s hard, because normally everybody that asks like, ‘Oh, who was your favorite wrestler growing up?’ I’m like ‘ I don’t have it, because I never watched it till I came here.’ But the WWE contacted me and they asked me to do a tryout, and I said ‘no’ because I was like, ‘I don’t know what it is.’ And in my mind I was like, ‘I’m not getting out of my country to go to a different country to do something that I don’t even know what it is!’ I’m not going to lie, I thought it was some type of like, prostitution or something. [laughs] ’cause I’m like, ‘I’m not getting out of my country!’ I didn’t know, I had no idea what it was. But then, I knew Adrian [Arturo Ruas] and he was in WWE. I asked him, and then I was like ‘Yeah, let’s do it. It’s a good opportunity.’ So that’s how pro wrestling became a thing in my life.”

Tay Conti has admitted to knowing nothing about WWE prior to her 2016 tryout

Tay Conti joined WWE in 2016 as a recruit at the Performance Center, making her debut on NXT house shows the following year, appearing sporadically on NXT TV after that.

Conti stayed with WWE for four years, being released by the company during the COVID-19 pandemic last year. She quickly moved on to AEW, where she is now a key fixture in the women's division on Dynamite.

Thanks to NoDQ.com for the transcription.