Sep 28, 2026 · 56 min · 14 segments
Taylor Wilde has lived more than one life. The former TNA Knockouts World Champion joins Deonna Purrazzo and Steve Maclin to reflect on starting wrestling as a teenager, signing with WWE, becoming…
Taylor WildeGuest
Deonna PurrazzoHost
Steve MaclinHost
Cause again, similar story though is I was on the Indies for about a year and a half when I got signed to WWE.
And then here I am just fresh out of the Marine Corps after two combat tours, transitioned right into pro wrestling.
And then I'm going right to WWE within a year and a half into this new world and a delusional mindset of like, Oh, I'm going to do this.
And then the business actually just smacks you in the face because that's the wrestling business and it doesn't just happen overnight.
And, there was a lot of good things in the PC that I learned and that's where I got my education in pro wrestling.
But it was also like that pecking order of like, here you are working to be the best, the best, but then that doesn't really matter anymore.
And I think, you know, the fans can hear this, but they really don't know what it is to feel it.
Like You know, you got into the Marine Corps and you got there from grit and blood, sweat, and tears.
With professional wrestling, it genuinely doesn't matter how hard you work on your character, on your body, on your wrestling.
And that is... demolishing and can be incredibly devastating when you're not where you want to be in the business or you're not getting the same opportunities as somebody else sitting right beside you who is maybe not worked as hard.
And I think it's a really like I don't want to say toxic, but it's really hard for the templates we have as a Western society to think hard work gets you where you want to get.
I've been in no I've been in meetings like with Bruce Pritchard and like creative a bunch when I was in my time in WWE and like myself and my old tag partner Blake we would sit there and be like all right so what do you guys do for fun we're like this is it and we were in a building at the PC six days a week and on the road for house shows like wrestling is it they're like oh we'll tell us a little bit about you I was like I'm military I like guns I like to drink I like sports and it's just like what do you do for fun it's like I don't have time off to have fun
yeah I always thought it was interesting like Well, and because I have a different perspective than that because I started wrestling in 18 and I didn't get signed to NXT until I was 24.
Cause again, similar story though is I was on the Indies for about a year and a half when I got signed to WWE.
And then here I am just fresh out of the Marine Corps after two combat tours, transitioned right into pro wrestling.
And then I'm going right to WWE within a year and a half into this new world and a delusional mindset of like, Oh, I'm going to do this.
And then the business actually just smacks you in the face because that's the wrestling business and it doesn't just happen overnight.
And, there was a lot of good things in the PC that I learned and that's where I got my education in pro wrestling.
But it was also like that pecking order of like, here you are working to be the best, the best, but then that doesn't really matter anymore.
And I think, you know, the fans can hear this, but they really don't know what it is to feel it.
Like You know, you got into the Marine Corps and you got there from grit and blood, sweat, and tears.
With professional wrestling, it genuinely doesn't matter how hard you work on your character, on your body, on your wrestling.
And that is... demolishing and can be incredibly devastating when you're not where you want to be in the business or you're not getting the same opportunities as somebody else sitting right beside you who is maybe not worked as hard.
And I think it's a really like I don't want to say toxic, but it's really hard for the templates we have as a Western society to think hard work gets you where you want to get.
I've been in no I've been in meetings like with Bruce Pritchard and like creative a bunch when I was in my time in WWE and like myself and my old tag partner Blake we would sit there and be like all right so what do you guys do for fun we're like this is it and we were in a building at the PC six days a week and on the road for house shows like wrestling is it they're like oh we'll tell us a little bit about you I was like I'm military I like guns I like to drink I like sports and it's just like what do you do for fun it's like I don't have time off to have fun
yeah I always thought it was interesting like Well, and because I have a different perspective than that because I started wrestling in 18 and I didn't get signed to NXT until I was 24.
The rest of this transcript — segmented and speaker-labeled, so you land on the exact moment something was said
Search every transcript — by keyword, by phrase, or by meaning, across every show Radar indexes
Trends — what is surging across podcasts, measured against its own baseline
Alerts — when a name you follow appears in a newly indexed episode
No account is needed to search Radar.