Originally published to FOX5 Vegas on Dec. 12, 2025.

WWE superstar Maxxine Dupri takes being the reigning women’s Intercontinental Champion seriously. Case in point: an intense vignette that aired on the Dec. 2 edition of WWE Raw on Netflix. Dupri was shown training with Natalya, a member of the famed Hart family and a pioneer in women’s professional wrestling.

Dupri said the short glimpse into the Dungeon, a training system based on the original, legendary wrestling school that helped produce wrestling legends like the British Bulldog, Chris Jericho, Edge and Christian, among other notable names, showed the sweat and tears that go into making a professional wrestler.

“It’s so cool to give people an inside look into what we’ve been doing,” Dupri said of the vignette. Indeed, winning the Intercontinental Championship from “The Man” Becky Lynch was only the beginning for the superstar, who already has challengers nipping at her heels. Superstar Ivy Nile is waiting in the wings for her shot at the title.

The sweat-drenched training session depicted on Raw harkens back to Dupri’s 2021 WWE audition in Las Vegas. That event centered around the 34th annual SummerSlam premium live event at Allegiant Stadium. Dupri remembered having just two weeks to get ready for the tryout.

“It was the most challenging 72 hours of my life,” Dupri recalled. “That next morning, my back was so bruised — but I just told myself you can do anything … I’m not going to die. We can do this.”

Unknowingly, Dupri, who was brought into WWE during the SummerSlam tryout process, and Becky Lynch, who returned from a long hiatus at that same Las Vegas show, were placed on a collision course that would eventually see Dupri beat “The Man” for the Intercontinental championship on the Nov. 17 episode of Raw.

In 2026, Dupri’s professional career finds its path again through Las Vegas, this time as WrestleMania 42 nears. The Intercontinental champion said she aims to enjoy the sports and entertainment capital of the world in 2026, something she did not have a chance to do in 2025.

“Las Vegas is the place for entertainment, right? So it’s like we’re bringing peak entertainment to the city that never sleeps,” Dupri said, adding that she aims to defend her Intercontinental championship at the show of shows in around five months.

“I will be in that dungeon training so hard,” she said. “Let’s cross our fingers and our toes that I still have her by WrestleMania.”

Individual tickets to WrestleMania 42 at Allegiant Stadium in Las Vegas are available on Ticketmaster, with surrounding events for the weeklong professional wrestling spectacular taking over Las Vegas in April to be announced soon.