Stephanie McMahon shares advice for aspiring WWE wrestlers
Stephanie McMahon believes developing a connection with the audience is the most important thing for any aspiring WWE wrestler.
A new episode of McMahon’s “What’s Your Story?” podcast debuted today with Bayley appearing as the guest. It was recorded before Bayley held her Lodestone Women 2025 seminar at the end of last year — and Bayley asked McMahon if she had any advice to share with the indie wrestlers who would be attending the camp.
“I guess what I’ll say is: the most important thing you can do is make the audience feel,” McMahon responded. “You want to elicit an emotion. And you do that with your reactions. You do it with your face. You do it with your eyes. You do it by selling. You know, that is the purest form of it, right? My husband’s quoted this many times, but Maya Angelou said, ‘People will never remember what you said, they’ll never remember what you did, but they’ll always remember how you made them feel.’ And it’s true.”
McMahon added that fans might not remember a particular match, but they’ll always remember the emotions of how wrestling made them feel. Strong positive and negative emotions are what resonates with people most strongly.
“I would say to these girls, you need to find a way to make people feel something for you,” McMahon said. “And that’s not easy. People will give lots of different advice on how to do that. But whether it’s with your words, your face, your body, you have to make people feel.”
Storytelling is what McMahon believes WWE is based around — and she thinks selling is critically important to telling stories in the ring.
“Selling is the most important,” she said. “I mean, it just is.”
Along with this, McMahon shared that — when WWE holds tryouts at the Performance Center — her husband Paul “Triple H” Levesque is looking for people who show leadership and encourage the other attendees.
McMahon does not currently hold an executive role with WWE, but her podcast is part of the WWE & Fanatics network. McMahon is set to be inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame during WrestleMania 42 week in Las Vegas this April.
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.