By Jason Powell, ProWrestling.net Editor (@prowrestlingnet)
PWMania interview with guest Alex Gracia
Host: TJ Stephens
Interview available at PWMania.com
On her WWE tryout: “My first tryout, when I got that invitation, I was tearing up like calling my mom like “We did this, we made it like, we’re here.” I celebrated that invitation as if I just got hired. It’s just a surreal thing, because you’re working towards something and then to finally get recognized. So then when you finally get the recognition, you think, they know who I am. This is awesome.
“I went there and was still really early in my career, it was a little after just wrestling for a year. So like, just had the advice, just build the bigger name on the Indies, everything I was doing was great so far, and I had just moved to Houston. I haven’t even really gotten a lot of that consistent training under Booker yet. So they liked that I was gonna go be there and just keep expanding.
“Then right after I got back from Mexico, is when I went for my second tryout, but we got sent home because it was the day after the NBA got canceled that season because of COVID, of course. I was ready, I was training, but I was like, ‘Oh, if the NBA shut down, we’re definitely getting sent home.’ They were using the PC to do the shows. That was kind of how that one ended until later on, like a year later. I went back again for the actual official second tryout.”
Working at Impact Wrestling: “Yes. I did Impact, mostly it was my first match…I think I had two matches for Impact in 2019. While I was there, we did a joint Impact show with Reality of Wrestling, and I wrestled there. Then when they had the pay-per-view in Dallas, Texas, I went and did a dark match there. But for most of 2020, the beginning I spent in CMLL. And then, later on, you have the summer and then that’s when I ended up doing stuff with AEW towards the end of that year.”
Her time in AEW: “I mean, I’m beyond thankful I was able to work there during COVID where you couldn’t work anywhere else. So I was going every other week and just being able to wrestle while so many people were stuck and not having that opportunity. It was great. I was there and I had a lot of good, great things happen to me there I got to do Dynamite and faced [Hikaru] Shida who was the champion at the time, and I had matches consistently. I felt like I was always getting to wrestle someone new, which is what I love to do and what I love about working for wrestling companies, I love that there’s a roster. So you have those group of girls that you know, you’re gonna wrestle and it’s like every match you’ll have, it’s just gonna get better and better, because you have that first time you wrestle someone, but then it’s like, okay, I know you can bring it, let’s go again. I think that’s what’s really exciting about it.
“Around six months went by and WWE had reached out again, Ring of Honor reached out and NWA reached out. And that’s where… I had to make the decision because I wasn’t signed to AEW. I thought I need to go explore other things if I’m not going to get offered something right now. That’s what made me go take other opportunities. Like you can’t, you can’t sit and wait for things to happen, you’ve got to go make things happen. I wanted to stay there and be there for my personal and professional self, I felt like that would have been a great place. Plus, I really got along with a lot of the girls there because we were all there in the little COVID group. We were always seeing each other every single week. However when the time came and I saw that I wasn’t gonna get offered anything and I was like, okay, I need to get out of my comfort zone, which has been here, and go explore other options, or at least that or maybe it just means I need to go keep growing as a wrestler. That’s when I ended up stepping away.”
Other topics include working with NWA and Ring of Honor, training at Reality of Wrestling, her degree, beauty line, and shared advice to young girls following her story.
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