Zena Sterling was the women’s runner-up on the first edition of WWE LFG, but she she believes not winning may have been the best thing for her. On Busted Open Radio, Sterling was asked whether losing the competition felt like a failure and made clear her answer of “Absolutely not.”
“I’m happy that I didn’t win Season One. I know that sounds so silly, but I feel like in a sense, if I did win, it would have been a little bit too easy, you know, because I feel like now I have that much more of a challenge. And I love struggle.”
Sterling emphasized her belief that genuine growth comes through adversity, not by winning a reality show formatted show to earn a WWE NXT contract. While some may pleased to be handed opportunities, Sterling shared that if something comes that easy to her, “then it’s not worth anything to me.”
“It took me a lot to get to finals—like a lot to get there—but me not winning it, that just means I can put in that much more. Season Two and, you know, the road ahead to get that contract and get on NXT TV.”
Instead of Sterling, it was Tyra Mae Steele who walked out of Madison Square Garden with the win and the NXT contract and has already appeared on the silver brand. As for Zena Sterling, the loss isn’t a setback—it’s motivation for everything she plans to do next.