Robert Morris volleyball player Emily Devlin becomes 2nd local athlete to get extended look from WWE
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Another local college athlete is getting a shot to make it big in pro wrestling.
Robert Morris volleyball player and Seneca Valley High School graduate Emily Devlin is heading to Orlando in June for a 60-day extended tryout at the WWE performance training center. Devlin is set to graduate from RMU in May.
“The door is open. I’m graduating. I have a couple of ideas of what I may want to do but nothing is set in stone yet,” Devlin said during Tuesday’s “Breakfast with Benz” podcast. “So one of the main things I kept saying was (WWE) caught me at the perfect time.”
Devlin is the second athlete from the Pittsburgh region to have been deemed worthy of a closer look by WWE. Two weeks ago, the wrestling company staged a tryout of 52 people in Texas. It was there that Duquesne football player Roman Macek earned a three-year contract offer from the platform. In both cases, the athletes were contacted by WWE by way of direct messages from the company’s recruitment page through their Instagram accounts. Macek, a lifelong wrestling fan, followed the page and had marked a few posts. But Devlin said her contact from the group came out of nowhere.
“I had no clue,” Devlin said. “They found me. … I looked at my Instagram direct messages one day and ‘WWE Recruit’ popped up and said I could be a potential candidate. It took me by surprise at first. And I said, ‘Wait a minute?’ But I’m so thankful that they found me.”
Whereas Macek was told he’d be receiving a contract offer, Devlin will be trying to earn one as she learns some skills both in the ring and out of it.
“Essentially, they just want to see us in the ring more. Show some more personality. Work with the training team. The strength and conditioning, and work with the nutritionist to get more hands-on and develop more,” Devlin said.
Devlin said Charlotte Flair — another former college volleyball player during her time at Appalachian State — is someone who she could emulate in the ring based on some similar styles and physical traits. Devlin seems confident in her ability to handle the in-ring demands based on her volleyball background and athletic gifts.
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“So many quick things happen (in volleyball). Going up to hit a ball, and suddenly get around a block, and find open space on the court. A lot of quick thinking and being able to put your body in certain directions. And I think that’ll help transition me into wrestling … just being able to hit the floor without thinking about it. Because (in volleyball) we do that all the time,” Devlin said.
The on-camera performance is where Devlin concedes that she’ll need more polish.
“Going in there, public speaking was not my forte,” Devlin admitted. “But coming out of it, I feel extremely confident in my ability to talk in front of a crowd, in front of my peers. Just be able to showcase my personality and express myself truly. That is something I haven’t been able to do before. Even this (short) time alone has changed me in so many ways.”
One person Devlin is leaning on for some help between now and when she reports to Florida is RMU communications and organizational leadership faculty member John Locke. He actually teaches a WWE class through the school of business.
“Slow down. I give that advice to every public speaking class that I’ve taught,” Locke said. “If you are deliberate and thoughtful in what you are saying on camera, it comes through. I’m sure she was going to be nervous. Because running, jumping, lifting things, cardio, that’s second nature. Being a character in front of a camera is very new to her. Slow down. Be yourself. Find what parts of your personality you can crank the volume on to appeal to people watching.”
Even though Devlin said her mother was a bit leery of the idea at first, she said her parents are behind the venture, and she’s also got the endorsement of Colonials volleyball coach Danny Doherty.
He said that Devlin is very coachable, especially when it comes to new concepts. Doherty said that her eagerness to consume information from her trainers in Florida will highlight her physical abilities that are made for the ring.
“This kid gets up, skies, hovers, reads a couple of newspapers, and then comes down,” Doherty said of Devlin’s vertical leap. “The ability to play above the ring is always something that draws the ‘oohs and ahhs’ of the crowd. And she is going to play above the ring really well. She is going to be one of those highflier acrobat types.”
Now Devlin — who plans to perform under the name “Devy Lynn” — said she has gone from having nothing but a rudimentary knowledge of pro wrestling to suddenly making a career of it into a personal quest. And she claims to be driven by motivation from her teammates.
“They love it. They want me to chase it. Go pursue it. Get this contract. And then I just keep hearing from everybody ‘All we want to do is see you on “Monday Night Raw” one day,’” Devlin laughed. “So we are going to keep pressing toward that goal.”
In Tuesday’s “Breakfast With Benz” podcast, Robert Morris volleyball player Emily Devlin joins Tim Benz to talk about how she was discovered by WWE, and her quest to become a member of the wrestling company.
Listen: Tim Benz talks with Emily Devlin on her possible WWE future