WWE, Alexis Gray Agree to Contract; Former NCAA Track Star to Report to NXT
WWE appears to have signed former collegiate track and field star Alexis Gray to a contract for its NXT brand.
Gray has included WWE and NXT in her Instagram bio, and she also appeared to take part in a photoshoot at the WWE Performance Center in Orlando, Florida.
The 25-year-old Gray, who hails from the Bahamas, ran track at Texas Southern University until 2019 and experienced a great deal of success during her career.
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Per TFRRS, which tracks collegiate track and field results, Gray ran second in the 100- and 200-meter dashes at the 2019 SWAC Championships.
WWE has recently placed added emphasis on the signing and development of former college athletes, and it has used the NCAA's new name, image and likeness (NIL) rules to its advantage.
The company started a new NIL program called Next In Line, which allows it to sign athletes who are still competing collegiately. It puts the athletes under the WWE umbrella and allows them to learn about the world of sports entertainment before WWE decides on whether to commit to them with an official contract.
WWE's biggest Next In Line signing to date is University of Minnesota wrestler and Olympic gold medalist Gable Steveson, who has already made a few appearances on WWE programming.
As for Gray, she already has a great example of someone to look up to in WWE in the form of Raw women's champion Bianca Belair.
Like Gray, Belair was a collegiate track athlete before signing with WWE, as she starred at the University of Tennessee, Texas A&M University and the University of South Carolina.
Belair was a natural for pro wrestling from the start, and she has gone on to become one of WWE's top stars as a one-time Raw women's champion, one-time SmackDown women's champion and one-time women's Royal Rumble winner.
If WWE can get even a fraction of that out of Gray, she could prove to be a fantastic signing for the company.
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