Hailing from Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, and holding a black belt in judo and a blue belt in Brazilian jiu-jitsu, Tay Conti began her career in pro-wrestling by signing a developmental deal with WWE in 2016. Reporting to the WWE Performance Centre, Conti made her NXT debut in 2017 during a number 1 contenders battle royal for the NXT woman’s championship.
Only a few months later, Taya would go on to face Lacey Evans in a losing effort during the first round of the inaugural Mae Young classic in 2017.
After making sporadic appearances for the rest of 2017 and the beginning of 2018, Conti made her Wrestlemania debut at Wrestlemania 34 competing in the woman’s battle royal during the kick off show.
After appearing on several NXT house shows for the next 4 months, Conti would again appear in the Mae Young Classic – this time reaching the second round after defeating Jessie Elaban, before losing out to Lacey Evans for the second year running.
Between August 2018 and March 2020, Taya Conti would only make 7 more appearances on NXT television. Her final TV appearance came on the 18/12/19 edition of NXT in a losing effort to Candice LeRae. Her final WWE match took place on the 06/03/20 NXT house show when she lost out to Shotzi Blackheart.
After growing frustrated with a lack of tv time within WWE, Tay Conti began to actively ask for her WWE release. She was quietly released on April 20th 2020 as part of the WWE budget cuts due to the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic. Her no-compete clause expired on July 23rd.
Conti made her first non-WWE appearance at AEW’s Women’s tag team cup tournament, where she partnered with Anna Jay and reached the semi finals of the cup. After successfully defeating the team of Nyla Rose and Ariane Andrew in the first round, Conti and Anna Jay unfortunately lost out to Diamante and Ivelisse in the semi finals.
Tay Conti made her AEW Dynamite debut on 09/09/20, losing her first AEW singles match to Nyla Rose.
On September 19 Conti went on to appear at the Warrior Wrestling Stadium Series event, teaming with Luchasaurus and successfully defeating the team of Chris Bey and Ray Lyn.
After signing a contract on September 9th with All Elite Wrestling, Conti has so far had one match with the company. On September 23rd, Conti defeated Red Velvet on AEW Dark.
Conti’s tag team partner and friend Anna Jay has since joined the Dark Order, and on August 27th the invitation to join was extended to Conti. AEW continues to tease her joining the Brodie Lee run faction, but only time will tell whether she will accept.
In my opinion, if given the opportunity, Tay Conti has the chance to be a possible stand out in a women’s division that is still trying to find its feet in the wrestling world. Tay Conti shows talent and promise, and my prediction is that she could well go on to win the AEW Women’s Championship within the next 2 years.
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