8 lesser-known facts about WWE Superstar Xia Li
Xia Li is one of the newer international superstars WWE has signed over the years. After initially competing in the Mae Young Classic, she was sidelined for several months.
Throughout 2017 and 2018, Xia Li competed in non-televised matches. However, the Chinese Superstar did not give up and continued fighting. In 2020, she got her first interesting storyline in WWE NXT.
From there on, she has worked even harder to make her way to the main roster. She was drafted to WWE SmackDown in the 2021 WWE Draft and made her debut on the brand more than two months later.
Fans will likely see The Beast from the East impact the world of sports entertainment in the years to come. For now, let's take a look at the eight lesser-known facts about The Beast from the East, Xia Li.
#8. Xia Li did not know what WWE was before her tryout
Xia Li is a natural in the WWE ring. It looks like she was born to wrestle. Surprisingly, she wasn't aware of professional wrestling or WWE before her first tryout.
WWE visited China in 2016, where Triple H started searching for new talent. He eventually found the next big international star of the company.
In an interview, Triple H explained that Xia Li was completely unaware of WWE at the time. Once she was introduced to the world of professional wrestling, she fell in love with it and wanted to become a part of it.
“When we went to China, however many years ago it was and had the try-out, Xia came from a village where she didn’t know what WWE was. She was this incredible athlete involved in Mixed Martial Arts, involved in all kinds of different types of fighting skills, CrossFit, incredibly fit, her personality was huge, even though she barely spoke English. She came from a small place where she had never heard of what WWE was and I remember them saying to her, “it’s like Kung Fu Theatre.” And her, “Oh, okay.” She came in for the try-out and just watching her over the course of two or three days just fall in love with it. By the end of that week, she was in a place where I think her soul would have been crushed if we didn’t bring her to the States with us.” said Triple H
She signed with the company in 2017 and lost her first match to Mercedes Martinez in the Mae Young Classic. Since then, Xia Li has worked hard to become one of WWE's brightest stars.