Lyra Valkyria is a former NXT Women’s Champion, former WWE Women’s Tag Team Champion, and current Women’s Intercontinental Champion. According to some fans, she’s “Bird Lady.”
According to Valkyria, though, there is a much deeper meaning behind her raven-inspired entrance and ring gear. In fact, it can be traced back to Irish mythology.
“So on the independents, I wrestled as Valkyrie. That’s not Marvel character-based, not bird-based. It’s actually from my favorite book, which is written by an Irish author. I discovered it when I was 12 years old. The main character was 12, living in Dublin, starts this whole new secret life, she has to take on a name to start this new life, and she calls herself Valkyrie,” Valkyria told Insight With Chris Van Vliet. “So I started that, and until I went to WWE, I never used the kind of imagery that’s associated with the Valkyrie at all.”
Upon joining the WWE NXT brand and altering her ring name, Valkyria noted that she reached out to the Irish author of her favorite book, Derek Landy. Landy then pointed her to a new character to look at, the Morrigan.
“It’s like the Irish Valkyrie from Irish mythology,” Valkyria said. “Finn Balor and his demon character also drew from Irish mythology and stuff. The Morrigan basically transforms into a raven or crow and hovers over the battlefield and decides who’s going to win a battle. So I was like, that’s really cool. I went down that rabbit hole. It’s just a very cool female warrior character who transforms into a raven. I just thought that was very cool. It was related to the Valkyrie, so it’s still tied to my book and my favorite stuff.”
What Does Valkyria Think Of ‘Bird Lady’?
When asked about fans referring to her as “bird lady,” Valkyria indicated that she’s taken it with good humor, so much so that she’s included it in her social media bios.
“All this deep meaning behind it and everyone’s just like ‘Ah, bird’ [laughs]. If people like it, they can call me Bird Lady. It’s fine, I think. It’s cool, I think,” she said. “Bird ladies are cool, right? I see on Twitter people, there’s like a gif of this pigeon that flies straight at the camera. I get that a lot, but now that I’m the champion, people have put a little title on the pigeon. That pigeon looks great. It just changes the whole gif. The pigeon looks so excited with the title and I’m like ‘Oh, it’s meant to be.’
