Izzy Moreno discusses how she has utlilized Brazilian Jiu Jitsu in professional wrestling.
Izzy made her professional wrestling debut back in August of this year at the age of sixteen years old. She has since wrestled twice more, and has big plans for her future professional wrestling career. Despite not yet securing her first victory in the squared circle, the Orlando native still shows the infectious positivity that fans remember from her time as Bayley's number one fan in WWE NXT.
Brazilian Jiu Jitsu is one of the most well known martial arts in the world, and has been shown to be an effective base for professional wrestlers, with the likes of Shayna Baszler and Matt Riddle both holding black belts in the martial art.
In an interview with Fightful, Izzy would discuss the art of Brazilian Jiu Jitsu and how it has helped her develop her finisher, which is an armbar.
"It’s helped me so much and I don’t think people understand how much Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu can help you inside the ring. A lot of people are like,‘Well, Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu, you’re actually meant to hurt somebody,’ and then in pro wrestling—I’m not gonna say the F word, but y’all know what I mean. I think it helped with me being so fluid inside the ring and I think, what’s so awesome, is I’m able to take what I do on the mat and do it inside the ring. So for those who don’t know, my finisher is an armbar and the armbar is a move I’ve done for such a long time in Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu. I think it’s really awesome that even though people said, ‘Oh, you shouldn’t be in pro wrestling, we don’t want you here,’ I was like, ‘Alright, I’m gonna make my own little box, it’s Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu, and guess what? I’m back in pro wrestling doing Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu."
Izzy then went on to discuss how she asked her Jiu-Jitsu coach to teach her how to do a "bad armbar" so she wouldn't hurt her opponents.
"That’s what I’m always so scared about. When I was practicing my armbar, I was figuring out what I wanted my finisher to be. For those that don’t know, it’s a backstabber and then I transition into an armbar, which I was practicing on my dad for the longest time. When I was doing the armbar, I was always scared I would actually hurt somebody. So I straight up asked my Jiu-Jitsu coach, I was like, ‘Hey, do you know how to do a bad armbar?’ My coach is a black belt, obviously —shout out to coach Ricky—he was like, ‘I haven’t done that in like ten years, since when I first started.’ So I just kind of had to figure it out. It’s hard sometimes when I actually go to Jiu-Jitsu training, I have to do the right armbar and then in pro wrestling, I gotta do the bad armbar. But it still works ‘cause people be tapping out."
Izz also competed at Ladies Night Out, where she lost in a challenge for the MPW Title to Tiffany Nieves.
