LYRA VALKYRIA

Aoife Cusack is a 27-year-old Irish professional wrestler. Cusack is currently signed to World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) where she performs on the RAW brand under the ring name, Lyra Valkyria.

Professional Wrestling Career

Cusack was a student at Fight Factory Pro Wrestling for one year before making her debut in 2015 under the ring name, Valkyrie Cain. In January 2020, Valkyrie signed with WWE and performed under the ring name, Aoife Valkyrie. She competed in her first match on NXT UK on January 17th 2020 where she defeated Amale. The following night, she wrestled and defeated Isla Dawn and then defeated Amale again the same night. On March 26th, Valkyrie defeated Nina Samuels.

In February 2020, Valkyrie began performing with WWE’s US-based NXT brand for the first time. She wrestled at two house shows in Florida. Valkyrie defeated Aliyah on February 14th in Tampa. She then defeated Jessi Kamea, MJ Jenkins, and Taynara on February 15th in a six-woman tag team match at a Fort Pierce house show. She teamed up with Mia Yim and Rita Reis for that match.

Valkyrie made her return to television on the September 17th 2020 episode of NXT UK where she defeated Isla Dawn. The following month, on October 29th, she competed against Dani Luna, again in a winning effort. Valkyrie remained undefeated April 29th, 2021, when she lost to Meiko Satomura.

Lyra Valkyrie Moves to NXT

Valkyrie remained with WWE’s NXT UK brand until it closed in fall 2022. She then moved to the USA later in the year to wrestle in NXT under the ring name, Lyra Valkyria. On December 13, Valkyria made her debut on NXT, defeating Amari Miller.

On the March 21st episode of NXT, Lyra beat Ivy Nile to qualify to the Ladder match for the NXT Women’s Championship at NXT Stand & Deliver. At the event, however, Valkyria did not win the title. On the May 9th episode of NXT, she defeated Kiana James to advance to the semi final of the tournament for the vacated NXT Women’s Championship.

On May 23rd, she also defeated Cora Jade to advance to the final, facing Tiffany Stratton in NXT Battleground, which she lost. Valkyria then went on to win her first NXT Women’s Championship at night 1 of Halloween Havoc by defeating champion, Becky Lynch. On the November 21st episode of NXT, Lyra successfully defended her title against Xia Li in her first title defense.

At NXT: New Year’s Evil, Valkyria successfully defended her NXT Women’s Championship against Blair Davenport. After their match, Lola Vice tried to cash in her Breakout Tournament contract, only to be stopped by Tatum Paxley. At NXT Vengeance Day, Valkyria successfully retained the NXT Women’s Championship against Perez and Lola Vice, who cashed in her Breakout Tournament contract while the match was in progress to make the match a triple threat match.

On the February 20th episode of NXT, Valkyria defended the NXT Women’s Championship against Shotzi. During the match, Shotzi suffered a torn ACL and Valkyria won by referee’s decision. NXT General Manager Ava announced an open challenge for the NXT Women’s Championship match, which Lash Legend answered. She successfully retained the title against Legend. At NXT: Roadblock, Valkyria and Paxley faced The Kabuki Warriors for the WWE Women’s Tag Team Championship but failed to win the title. After the match, Perez attacked Valkyria and injured her arm. She returned and attacked Perez two weeks later, and a match between Valkyria and Perez for the NXT Women’s Championship at NXT Stand & Deliver was made official. She lost the title to Perez by submission. Her reign lasted 165 days.

Paxley turned on Valkyria the following week while saying that the title does not belong to her anymore. Paxley revealed that her obsession with her was only because she had the NXT Women’s Championship. Later that night, Valkyria attacked Paxley after her match, and NXT general manager Ava announced a triple threat match for the NXT Women’s Championship involving Perez, Valkyria and Paxley at Spring Breakin’. She failed to win the title in what would be her final match for NXT.

Lyra Valkyria Drafted to RAW

At Night 2 of the 2024 WWE Draft, Valkyria was drafted to the RAW brand. On the 6 May episode of Raw, she made her on-screen debut saving the Women’s World Champion Becky Lynch from an assault by Damage CTRL’s Dakota Kai, Iyo Sky and Kairi Sane. At the same time, she made her in-ring debut against Kai in the first round match of the Queen of the Ring tournament, where she emerged victorious.

STATS

Birth name: Aoife Cusack
Born: October 23, 1996, Dublin, Ireland
Weight: 130 lb (59 kg)
Height: 5 ft 6 in (168 cm)
Ring name(s): Lady Valkyrie, Lyra Valkyria, Valkyrie Cain, Valkyrie, Aoife Valkyrie
Current Roster: WWE RAW
Finishing move(s): Diving split leg drop

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