Nevaeh Chantelle shared some stories about her start in wrestling.
Chantelle appeared on Women's Wrestling Weekly to discuss how she got into the business of pro wrestling and who she would like to face as her dream match. Fightful was sent the following highlights which can be seen below:
Nevaeh shares how she got into wrestling:
"Well I grew up as a wrestling fan, my uncle had VHS tapes for days, and like I was always a shy kid, so I would spend my time like after shool watching wrestling tapes for hours, until RAW came on."
Nevaeh shares when she decided to start wrestling:
"Well, I always wanted to be a wrestler but I was never athletic kid. So, and I always had insecurities until maybe like around 23, I didn’t like just say, 'Go for it!' Like I went to college, I went to hair school, none of those things clicked for me, and then December 2015 I joined the Monster Factory."
Nevaeh shares what her first bump felt like while training for the first time:
"Well, it was at the Monster Factory tryout Danny Cage, QT Marshall, and Damian Priest from NXT were all right there and I hit my head on the mat. Like I bumped and not tucked my chin.. But I was fine...but it was definitely a wake-up call to tuck my chin."
Nevaeh shares how she chose her wrestling school:
"Well, I was following several schools in my area and the Monster Factory was the one that I gravitated the most to. I liked how Danny Cage presented himself on social media and a lot of his ideals so that’s why I went with the Monster Factory. And when I went there, he was honest with me, you know, and he told me, 'It’s going to be hard because I wasn’t an athlete.' So I always needed that, that’s why I stuck with the Monster Factory."
Nevaeh shares how she has grown since she started training:
"I’ve grown considerably. I’ve grown as a person since I started wrestling. I was never a confident person and I never was a person who thought that I could go for something as big as this. Since starting at the Monster Factory, I’ve grown as a person and in the ring I couldn’t even roll, so you know I’ve grown as a performer, and so yeah, a lot has happened, it took me a long time though, I trained for about three years before I had my first match. So, it took patience, and I went through a lot cause I had a lot of self-doubt...I’ve seen girls that started with me... literally wrestle in bigger promotions while I was still training and not having a match, so I went through a lot."
Nevaeh shares what her first match was like:
"So, my first match was against Riley Shepard. It was at the Monster Factory, January 5, 2018 and I remember that day, I showed up that day and Danny was like, “Um, yeah, so you’re going to wrestling tonight. You versus Riley, five minutes.” And I was like, “Cool!” That was the most confident I had ever... “I was like, alright okay, let’s wrestle, let’s go, let’s do it! You’ve been waiting so long for it. It’s time to put money where your mouth is...” I went out there, Riley was such a professional out there, she’s truly, like, I know she’s right now out for injury, but she really is one of the most unappreciated women’s wrestlers out there… because she’s so good and people don’t know how athletic that girl is. sSo, we went out there, I lost, but it was definitely, the fans who had seen me at concession stands for three years, were just so happy to see me in the ring and they showed me so much love that night. It was definitely one of the best experiences of my life. It was really cool."
Nevaeh shares struggle with body image in the wrestling industry:
"Yes… like I said… I’ve always been told to lose weight, or stuff like that, and I’ve lost some weight… but my first two years of wrestling, I got to the point, I didn’t recognize myself, I saw a picture of myself at 170 pounds and I didn’t look like myself and it affected my confidence training, because I felt like I was like, you know, yeah, I lost all this weight, ad it’s cool, and I was being congratulated for it, but it’s not me... I’m a bigger woman, I have curves...so that’s always been a problem...I feel like that’s the reason why alot of times I didn’t get pushes or I didn’t get opportunities, cause I’m comfortable being... plus size…"
Nevaeh shares her dream matches:
"Tamina… I think she’s one of the most underrated women out there… and she’s somebody who.. I remember watching her and Nia Jax… and that’s the wrestler that I would like to be, because those two women exude power and Tamina is definitely my dream opponent."
You can check out the full interview in the podcast at the top of the page.
