It takes guts to do what 26-year-old Anriel Howard is doing in the WWE, and even more strength to do what she recently did when picking up someone twice her size.
The former WNBA player left fans in awe after she seamlessly made the transition from WNBA player to WWE star, going by the moniker “Lash Legend”.
She left fans with their jaws on the floor after she took her wrestling star status even further and lifted up Raw wrestler Otis at a WWE NXT event.
Howard, who is 6 feet tall, and weighs 174 pounds, lifted a man who is 5 feet 10 and 330 pounds, and frankly anybody, man or woman, who can lift another person double their weight is impressive.
But just like many other wrestlers, Howard of course, had a background in athletics, and was a professional basketball player before she became a WWE star.
Howard recently spoke about her journey to professional wrestling in an interview with WWE’s What’s NeXT.
“My fiancée and I were watching highlights on the phone, and we were watching Macho Man [Randy Savage] and all of the above like Stone Cold [Steve Austin] and everybody and their highlights and how they were just larger than life,” she said.
“We were just cracking up and saying little sayings and he was like ‘you know what, I think you’d be really good at this.’ I said ‘really? You think I’d be good at this’ and he said ‘I do. I think you’d be amazing.’ So, honestly I just started looking stuff up and got connections and got a try out and that’s literally how it worked.”
Lash Legend Was A College Basketball Star At Texas A&M
Howard played basketball for Texas A&M after high school and became the first player in the school’s history to record over 1,000 rebounds. In her last year at Texas A&M Howard averaged 12 points and an astounding career-high 12 rebounds per game.
That should give you an idea of her physicality, especially considering the fact that she’s only 6 feet.
After shining at Texas A&M, she would transfer to Mississippi State, and Howard stood out in her only season there. She averaged a career-high 16.4 points per game, along with 8.4 rebounds per game.
After a successful senior year, Howard was selected in the second round with the 12th pick (24th overall) of the 2019 WNBA draft by the Seattle Storm.
Her WNBA career, however, wasn’t as storied and eventful as her collegiate career. Howard only appeared in three games with the Seattle Storm, appearing in three games and averaging 1.7 points per game before being waived.
Anriel Howard Joins WWE
From there, she made her quantum leap to the WWE, leaving the WNBA for good. Now she has appeared in plenty of NXT matches and looks to continue training and boosting her status as a wrestler.
She hasn’t publicly stated why she made the transition to wrestling, or if she plans to make a return to basketball, but considering the impressive feat of lifting a 330-pound man into the air as a wrestler, it’s clear that Howard has a very bright future ahead of her in the WWE.