| Lash Legend | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Birthname: | Anriel Howard[1] [2] | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Names: | Lash Legend[3] | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Height: | 6 ft 0 in[4] | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Weight: | 174 lb | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Birth Date: | 6 May 1997 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Birth Place: | Atlanta, Georgia, U.S. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Trainer: | WWE Performance Center | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Debut: | December 7, 2021 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Module: |
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Anriel Howard (born May 6, 1997) is an American professional wrestler. She is currently signed to WWE where she performs on the NXT brand under the ring name Lash Legend and is a member of The Meta-Four stable. Howard was a former college and professional basketball player who played three games for the Seattle Storm of the Women's National Basketball Association (WNBA).
Howard came out of high school as the 100th rated recruit of the 2015 Class per ESPN's HoopGurlz rankings. She was also rated the 15th best forward at her position.[5] Howard committed to play for Texas A&M. She played for them for three seasons before she transferred to Mississippi State for her senior season.[6] [7]
During her time at Texas A&M, Howard was a rebounding machine. Howard was the first player in Texas A&M history to have over 1,000 career rebounds with the school, getting 1,002 rebounds.[8] She also set an NCAA Tournament record with 27 rebounds in a 2016 NCAA tournament game.[9] She was named to the Southeastern Conference (SEC) All-Freshman team during her first year with the Aggies.[10]
Howard announced she was going to transfer following her junior season, and ultimately chose to go to Mississippi State. Howard stated, “As soon as I landed I felt like it was the place...In high school when I was recruited, I just felt like Texas A&M was the place for me on my visit. Usually when I go on a visit there’s something that I question, but I just never got that feeling and that was the first time ever."[11]
She was named to the 2019 First Team All-SEC by both the Associated Press (AP) and Coaches, 2019 SEC All-Tournament Team, and to the 2019 AP All-American Honorable Mention team during her one season with the Bulldogs.[12] [13]
|-| style="text-align:left;" | 2015–16| style="text-align:left;" | Texas A&M|32||17||16.9||.465||0.0||.558||6.5||0.4||0.7||0.3||1.1||4.6 |-| style="text-align:left;" | 2016–17| style="text-align:left;" | Texas A&M|34||34||31.1||.415||.500||.660||10.4||0.9||1.5||0.3||2.0||10.2|-| style="text-align:left;" | 2017–18| style="text-align:left;" | Texas A&M|36||36||33.6||.441||.308||.752||12.2||1.9||1.0||0.4||2.1||12.1|-| style="text-align:left;" | 2018–19| style="text-align:left;" | Mississippi State|36||36||29.1||.512||.337||.725||8.4||1.5||1.1||0.5||2.1||16.4|-| style="text-align:center;" colspan=2 | Career|138||123||27.9||.462||.331||.701||9.4||1.2||1.1||0.4||1.8||11.0|- class="sortbottom"|style="text-align:center;" colspan="14"|Statistics retrieved from Sports-Reference.[14]
In the 2019 WNBA draft, Howard was taken 24th overall by the Seattle Storm.[15] After debuting against the Minnesota Lynx on May 29, Howard played a total of three games with the Storm. She was waived from the team early in the season.[16]
|-| align="left" | 2019| align="left" | Seattle| 3 || 0 || 6.7 || .400 || .500 || .000 || 1.0 || 0.0 || 0.3 || 0.0 || 0.7 || 1.7|-| style="text-align:center;" colspan=2 | Career| 3 || 0 || 6.7 || .400 || .500 || .000 || 1.0 || 0.0 || 0.3 || 0.0 || 0.7 || 1.7
Howard signed with WWE on December 2, 2020.[17] [18] On the September 21, 2021, episode of NXT, Howard made her televised debut during a backstage segment with Franky Monet, presenting herself as Lash Legend.[17] On the September 28 episode of NXT, Legend began being regularly featured as host of a pre-taped talk show segment, Lashing Out with Lash Legend.[19] On the December 10 episode of 205 Live, Howard made her in-ring debut, defeating Amari Miller.[20]
In February 2022, Legend and Miller confirmed they would team up to compete at the Women's Dusty Rhodes Tag Team Classic;[21] however, the duo was lost in the first round to Io Shirai and Kay Lee Ray.[22] On March 1, after Legend and Miller argued, there was a rematch where Legend defeated Miller. On March 8, at NXT: Roadblock, Legend interviewed Nikkita Lyons during Lashing Out with Lash Legend, resulting in the two having a heated argument.[23] The two rival wrestlers faced each other on the April 5 and 26 episodes of NXT, where Legend lost to Lyons both times.[24] At Spring Breakin, Legend and Natalya lost to Cora Jade and Lyons in a tag team match. Shortly after, Legend entered the NXT Women's Breakout Tournament; she lost to Roxanne Perez in the semifinals.[25] After Alba Fyre defeated Tatum Paxley on the June 7 episode of NXT, Legend attacked her starting a feud between the two. Legend lost to Fyre on the June 21 episode of NXT by disqualification after she attacked Fyre with the latter's bat and on the August 2 episode of NXT.
Over the next few months, Legend would lose to the likes of Fallon Henley, Wendy Choo, Shotzi and Lyra Valkyria while also failing to win title opportunities in battle royals. Since of August 2022, through live events, Legend found an ally in Jakara Jackson.[26] They had their first televised appearance as a team on the November 11 episode of NXT Level Up, where they lost to Diamond Mine's Ivy Nile and Tatum Paxley.[27]
See also: The Meta-Four. On May 28, 2023, at NXT Battleground, during a British Rounds Rules match for the NXT Heritage Cup between the champion Noam Dar and Dragon Lee, Legend alongside Jackson interfered in favor of Dar, helping him to retain the Heritage Cup in the process.[28] Dar would introduce the group of himself, Legend, Jackson and Oro Mensah as The Meta-Four. Legend and Jackson would win their first match as a team at NXT: Gold Rush by defeating Valentina Feroz and Yulisa Leon. On the February 20, 2024, episode of NXT, Legend faced Lyra Valkyria for the NXT Women's Championship in an open challenge after Valkyria's initial opponent, Shotzi, suffered a torn ACL halfway through their title match. However, Legend failed to defeat Valkyria for the title.[29] On March 26, it was announced that The Meta-Four will be the host of NXT Stand & Deliver.[30] At NXT Battleground, she participated in a six-women ladder match to crown the first NXT Women's North American Championship, but failed to win the championship.[31] At Week 1 of NXT: The Great American Bash on July 30, Jackson and Legend failed to defeat The Unholy Union (Alba Fyre and Isla Dawn) for the WWE Women's Tag Team Championship; prior to their match, Legend and the rest of The Meta-Four turned face when stablemate Oro Mensah began feuding with Ethan Page, who attacked him and Noam Dar backstage back in May.[32]