USA TODAY International Edition
Will ‘Mighty Kacy’ be a heel for the WWE?
The ‘Ninja Warrior’ star explains her latest career move
Back when Kacy Catanzaro became the first woman to complete a city finals course on American Ninja Warrior, fellow ninjas would tell her she did a good job, “for a girl.”
“That statement is not acceptable for me,” says the 27-year-old athlete, known by fans as “Mighty Kacy.” Fortunately, this year the backhanded compliment “is not a thing anymore,” she says. And that’s a legacy she can be proud of.
Catanzaro is retiring from Ninja after she competes in the show’s Las Vegas finals Sept. 11. (The season finale airs Sept. 18.) But she has another career move in mind, and it also involves performing under bright lights and hearing chants of “Kacy! Kacy!”
She’s joining World Wrestling Entertainment.
“I’m ready to take on a new challenge,” Catanzaro, who watched wrestling as a kid, told USA TODAY in an exclusive interview, after she finally accepted her umpteenth offer to become a WWE superstar. “For a once-ina-lifetime opportunity to be brought to me a handful of times — I knew that it was rare, and I was getting older. I want to be somewhere where I can make the biggest impact I can.”
A few years ago, that place most certainly was ANW. It was on the obstacle-course competition, adapted from a Japanese format, that Catanzaro inspired what producers refer to as the “Kacy Effect” — an influx of female athletes interested in the sport.
“(Women’s) overall submissions jumped tenfold overall after Kacy’s Season 6,” says executive producer Arthur Smith. “As the first woman to conquer the Warped Wall, she proved that anything was possible, while paving the way for the dominance we see from our female ninjas today.”
That dominance also brought female eyeballs: Ninja viewership
“I’m ready to take on a new challenge . ... I want to be somewhere where I can make the biggest impact I can.”
Future WWE superstar Kacy Catanzaro
went from mostly male in 2012 to 55% female, its highest percentage of women viewers.
“I feel like I’ve made my history, I’ve made my friends, (and) I’ve helped the next generation of girls be ready to take over, and they’re passing me!” she says, citing competitors including Barclay Stockett (a good friend who was inspired by Catanzaro’s 2014 video to become a ninja), Jessie Graff (the first woman to complete a Stage 2 course) and Allyssa Beird.
Beird says she might have been inspired to try out for the show by Catanzaro. “Subconsciously, I thought, ‘She was a gymnast, I was a gymnast, she’s doing these cool things, (and) I want to do that.’ ”
Meanwhile, the woman known for being the first to defeat the 14foot Wall didn’t make it up this season’s taller version (“I was devastated … it sucked,” Catanzaro recalls), but she’s ready to move on.
Come January, she’s relocating from San Antonio to the WWE training facility in Orlando to learn locks, drops, knee strikes and other stage-combat techniques.
That brings up the question: Will the energetic, bright-eyed, all-American Catanzaro, who’s usually seen smiling, become a fierce heel in the ring?
“I’m not gonna be a bad guy,” she assures. “I’m definitely gonna be a babyface (and) keep the same (positive) brand that I am in
Ninja, which is honestly who I am in general,” she says.
And no, the 4-foot-11 Catanzaro doesn’t see her height as a disadvantage.
If anything, being short “makes her an underdog,” says WWE’s executive VP of talent Paul Levesque, better known as 14-time WWE heavyweight champion Triple H. Much like WWE’s Alexa “5 Feet of Fury” Bliss, Catanzaro’s frame will make her “relatable” to female viewers, he says.
As for when that audience will see her perform, that could take anywhere from a couple of months to a few years because Catanzaro needs to learn safety measures, practice with partners and develop her on-camera persona.
Already, she has a jump-start on the physical stuff: On the second day of auditions, Levesque saw Catanzaro land 10 “moonsaults,” otherwise known as backward flips off the top rope.
It’s an impressive feat, “even just from a fearlessness standpoint,” he says. “I see her becoming an aerial specialist.”
Something else Levesque predicts for Catanzaro: Despite her initial protests, she could turn bad.
“I like to think of myself as a nice guy, (but) I made 90% of my career being the worst guy in the business,” he says. As for Catanzaro, “she might end up being the bad guy that thinks she’s better than everybody else because she was the hero on American Ninja Warrior.
“She has a little twinkle in her eye,” he says. “She might be the kind of person that embraces the evil side.”