WWE Alum Gabbi Tuft Opens up About Transitioning
Gabbi Tuft made her transgender announcement in 2021.
Former WWE Superstar Gabbi Tuft is opening up about her transition. The 44-year-old, who formerly went by the ring name Tyler Reks, wrote an article for Insider and talked about the challenges of transitioning to female.
"I chose to transition in my early 40s and grappled with doing so later in life. My body had been flooded with testosterone for many years," Tuft wrote. "Coupled with my active, fitness-focused lifestyle and position as a WWE professional wrestler, I had built a large amount of muscle onto my frame. At 6-foot-2, I weighed in at 280 pounds and hovered at 6% to 8% body fat year-round. At my peak, I looked like a cross between Ragnar Lothbrok from Vikings and The Mountain from Game of Thrones. This created quite a hurdle for me as I transitioned to female."
Tuft went on to detail the major weight loss while changing her body. "I've lost 190 pounds of weight and muscle mass, but my transition didn't happen overnight. I sometimes felt discouraged, especially when what was staring back at me in the mirror didn't align with the image I had of myself in my head," Tuft said. "It's an evolutionary process, one that is not only physical and nutritional but also mental and emotional. I specialize in helping women break free of cyclical behaviors, and it's exactly what I needed to do when seeking to shed the muscle that defined my pretransition life.
Tuft came out as transgerder in 2021. "This is the side of me that has hidden in the shadows, afraid and fearful of what the world would think; afraid of what my family, friends, and followers would say or do," Tuft wrote on Instagram at the time. "I am no longer afraid and I am no longer fearful. I can now say with confidence, that I love myself for WHO I am."
Tuft signed a developmental contract with WWE in 2008 and made her main roster debut in 2009 on ECW. From there, Tuft appeared on WWE SmackDown and NXT before leaving the company in 2012. While in WWE, Tuft was part of the team that won the Bragging Rights Trophy in 2010. That team featured Alberto Del Rio, Big Show, Edge, Jack Swagger, Kofi Kington and Rey Mysterio.