Maxxine Dupri explains her in-ring improvement, WWE goals
Maxxine Dupri’s focus on getting more reps in the ring has driven her to become one of 2025’s most improved wrestlers.
Throughout this year, Dupri has received praise from fans for how hard she’s worked to improve her in-ring ability. She spoke about that growth on a new episode of Insight with Chris Van Vliet, crediting it to “the little things” like getting more experience in training and at live events. She’s trained at the WWE Performance Center, the Dungeon with Natalya and TJ Wilson (Tyson Kidd), and the Flatbacks school that Shawn Spears and Tyler Breeze own.
“I really do feel like it shifted when I expanded my training,” Dupri said about her improvement. “Everyone on [the] main roster, a lot of them have wrestled on the indies or they’ve all trained at different places. So everyone does things differently. So I think getting to learn from different people and, like, taking it all in allows you to be well-rounded.
“So I think that’s what I needed. I needed to learn from different people, different coaches, be in the Dungeon, be at Flatbacks, be at the Performance Center, do NXT live events with girls I’ve never worked with before, that I’ve never locked up with. And really just start, like, figuring out all those in-betweens.
“Because I think it’s the little things that helped me level up more than just like — I know watching from the outside, it seems like, ‘Oh wow, okay, a new move. She’s leveled up.’ But I think for the actual performance, it’s all those little in-betweens that I really am still fine tuning, but really needed to work on.”
Dupri recently had a well-received series of matches against Women’s Intercontinental Champion Becky Lynch. Winning a title is a goal for Dupri, but her main focus is just to continue growing more comfortable and confident in the ring.
“I would love to win a title. Like, that would be a really cool accomplishment,” Dupri said. “But the reason I want to win a title is because I want to have put in all that work.
“For me, it’s like that moment of like, ‘Oh, yes, I’ve done enough work that I’m capable of doing this. I’m capable of winning this title.’ So it’s more for me, like, throughout the end of this year, I want to keep wrestling as often as I can. I want to stay on NXT live events. I want to be booked and busy. I want to wrestle dark matches. I want to wrestle on Main Event. I want to have rep after rep after rep. So that way, when those opportunities come, I can step into the ring with full confidence.”
Dupri named Raquel Rodriguez, Roxanne Perez, Nikki Bella, and Chelsea Green as some of the people she would like to work with. She noted that Perez is her travel buddy on the road.
Along with that, Dupri would like to team with her fiance Anthony Luke (who has been featured on the show WWE LFG) in a mixed tag team match against Maryse & The Miz.
Last night, Dupri attended a training session at the Dungeon that John Cena was present for.
Joseph Currier is the lead editor of F4WOnline.com, directing daily news coverage and writing articles on professional wrestling. He is a graduate of the University of Massachusetts, obtaining a journalism degree in 2016. Joseph joined F4W during his time at UMass and has now been writing about the industry for nearly a decade.
In addition to his work with F4W, Joseph has previously contributed to Sports Illustrated's wrestling coverage. He lives in Massachusetts and is a diehard fan of the Boston sports teams and Liverpool Football Club.