Kurt Angle Reacts To WWE Changing Name Of Gold Medalist Tyra Mae Steele

Much like WWE Hall of Famer Kurt Angle, Tamyra Mensah-Stock entered the world of WWE in the wake of her gold medal performance at the 2021 Olympics. In contrast to Angle, however, Mensah-Stock was met with a name change that now sees her wrestling as Tyra Mae Steele. On a recent episode of "The Kurt Angle Show," Angle shared his reaction to the latter development.

"I don't have any idea why they want to do that," Angle said. "She has a name, she's built her name, incredible name. She has a great reputation in amateur wrestling. For them to change her name, it just didn't make any sense, other than the fact that they wanted to own the name that she was named in the WWE. They keep rights to that name. She can use her real name, you want to use your real name because it makes you more marketable."

Similar to Angle, some figures within WWE have raised questions about the decision to provide Mensah-Stock, an Olympic gold medalist in freestyle wrestling, with a new ring name. According to a recent report, some backstage officials are under the belief that the average WWE fan wouldn't recognize Mensah-Stock's real title. As such, WWE likely altered it to Tyra Mae Steele to make it more bondable.

Mensah-Stock made her WWE in-ring debut at a "WWE NXT" live event in late-March. Three months later, her televised debut took place on "NXT Level Up" in a singles match against Wren Sinclair, in which Sinclair emerged victorious.

If you use any of the quotes in this article, please credit "The Kurt Angle Show" with a h/t to Wrestling Inc. for the transcription.