October 23, 2025 • 39 mins
Today on Brewsers, we talk to Nova. We talk about her journey into pro wrestling, being a first responder, and so much more. Follow us on instagram and twitter at Brewserspod. Like, share, review, enjoy and cheers. #brewsers #brewserspod #Enjoylife #DrinkLocal #Cheers
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:20):
Welcome to Bruisers, a podcast up. You're a coffee booze
and Bruisers. I am your host, Rody John and today
we talked to Nova. We talked about her journey into
pro wrestling, being a first responder, and so much more.
This is such a fun conversation. Nova is doing fantastic
things up in Canada and her story is even better.
And you don't want to hear it from me, You
want to hear from her. So without further ado, here
(00:40):
is Nova. I would like to welcome the show.
Speaker 2 (00:58):
Nova.
Speaker 1 (00:58):
How are you doing today? Man?
Speaker 3 (01:00):
Great, how are you doing?
Speaker 1 (01:01):
I'm doing well.
Speaker 3 (01:03):
Thank you for having me.
Speaker 1 (01:04):
Hey, thanks for coming on. I know you're a very
busy lady, so thank you for carving out some time
for me.
Speaker 4 (01:09):
Absolutely, it's all about organization and scheduling, right.
Speaker 3 (01:12):
You can make anything work, It's true.
Speaker 1 (01:14):
Yeah, it's a nice little balance you have to find
and see what does and doesn't work, especially something like
yourself traveling so much and doing as much as you are.
Speaker 4 (01:22):
Absolutely, I feel like the older I get, the less
time there is in the day, which is insane. So
it's a priority for me where I have to really
be you know, a little OCD with my personal schedule.
And I'm a little old school as well. I carry
a schedule book instead of you know, people add times
(01:44):
and events and their calendar on their phones. I'm still
using a tangible, physical schedule book.
Speaker 1 (01:51):
Do you freak out if you lose it?
Speaker 3 (01:54):
I haven't lost it yet.
Speaker 4 (01:57):
But that's the whole point is that I see some
people online that will make some comments about how they've
lost everything in their calendar and everything got wiped. How
do I get it back? And I just don't want
to be one of those people. I think the only
time I'm ever really going to lose my schedule book
is if I, god forbid ever have to endure some
(02:17):
type of house fire or something.
Speaker 3 (02:19):
But yeah, so that's like my fear. One of my
biggest fears is the house fire.
Speaker 4 (02:22):
I saw it from flying, But I think that would
be the only time I would actually lose my schedule book.
Speaker 1 (02:28):
Do you also digitally do it in your phone as well,
so that way you have it written down and then
you also you're like.
Speaker 4 (02:34):
No, nope, no, no. I try and bring my schedule
book wherever I go as well, so it's always on me. Yeah,
in my belongings and yeah, so that's just how I
personally do it, old school.
Speaker 1 (02:47):
So I know people are being fascinated right now with
scheduling and so much, but I have talked to other
people in the past where they will literally schedule it
every fifteen to thirty minutes of their day. Do you
just do events of the day or how do you
like to schedule out your day? And then also how
far out do you like to schedule because you know,
(03:08):
as much as we love planning in the future, sometimes
it can get you know, bogged down with other stuff.
So how far out do you like to try to plan?
Speaker 4 (03:16):
So the first and foremost, my shoot job takes priority
over everything else. That is my full time employment. That's
what pays my bills, that's what you know, puts a
roof over my head and food in my fridge, so
that I'm a first responder by trades.
Speaker 3 (03:31):
So that's those are twelve hour shifts. Yeah, so that.
Speaker 4 (03:34):
Comes first, But I obviously have time off in between,
like I can I can do podcasts and I can
wrestle after my shift if I need to, or on
my days off. I work four shifts on, four shifts off, right,
so and my schedule goes all the way up to the.
Speaker 3 (03:52):
End of twenty twenty six at least.
Speaker 4 (03:54):
So I have a twenty twenty six schedule on me
right now, and I've already been, you know, taking some
bookings and stuff that so I can really remain organized
that way.
Speaker 1 (04:03):
That makes sense, okay, I was always curious. Well, thank
you also for being a first responder. I know y'all
don't get as much respect and as much admiration as
firefighters are cops, but you y'all do far more than
I'm not saying you guys do far more than they do.
You guys just on a different level, and you guys
have to respond so fast and act so fast that
you know, a lot of times you guys don't get
(04:23):
the respect I think y'all should deserve.
Speaker 3 (04:26):
Thank you very much.
Speaker 1 (04:27):
You're welcome. Yeah, I've always been curious about people when
they do scheduling because everyone does it so differently, and
like you said, you do it still the old school way,
which actually I think might be better because of the
fact that it's more in your brain as opposed to
just typing it out and then boom, it's just in
your phone. But how often are you really checking your calendar?
Speaker 3 (04:46):
Anyway exactly.
Speaker 1 (04:48):
Yeah, Well, let's go all the way back in time.
What is your earliest memory of pro wrestling?
Speaker 4 (04:54):
My earliest memory of pro wrestling would be just in
my childhood plan WCW Revenge on my N sixty.
Speaker 1 (05:01):
Four, which I think is the best, one of the
best video games out there.
Speaker 4 (05:04):
Yes, absolutely, and I actually still own that N sixty four.
I still own that game, so it's very sacred to
me that I keep that forever.
Speaker 1 (05:14):
Who is your person to play?
Speaker 4 (05:17):
My person to play, I would say back in those
days on that game was probably Kevin Nash Okay.
Speaker 3 (05:27):
But my all time favorite wrestler is Jeff.
Speaker 1 (05:30):
Hardy ah Okay. Yeah. Besides I guess the charisma aspect
of it all, what was what was something that really
drew you to him?
Speaker 4 (05:41):
I think it was just the athletics and the acrobatics.
Speaker 3 (05:44):
When I was growing up, I did a little bit
of gymnastics, not much.
Speaker 4 (05:49):
My main focus was dance, right, but you know, during
that time, we're being flippy, we're being you know, cartwheels
and round offs and all this stuff, and you know,
I always thought, you know, Jeff was just so cool
being a do it off the top turn buckle that
one day I want to do it myself. So here
I am thirty seven years old, and I'm right now
as we speak, I'm self teaching myself swanton bomb. I've
(06:11):
already I've been doing the I call it the supernova,
but it's the five star frog splash that RBT does nice.
So yeah, it's just you know what, no time like
the present, right, I'm not getting any younger, Let's just
do it.
Speaker 1 (06:23):
Yeah. Time is always going to win and you don't
get it back, so yeah, might as well do it?
Why you can?
Speaker 3 (06:28):
Absolutely?
Speaker 1 (06:30):
Well, when did you realize that you that's what you
really wanted to do, was actually try well? Hold on,
did first responding come first? Or did yes?
Speaker 4 (06:38):
So I became a first responder actually on April twentieth,
two thousand and nine.
Speaker 3 (06:44):
So I'm about sixteen and a half.
Speaker 4 (06:46):
Years of service in right now, gradually, and I only
commenced my career as a pro wrestler in March of
twenty nineteen. Okay, so about ten years after I became
a police officer.
Speaker 1 (07:04):
What was it about that that you were like, you
know what, I think I could try this out, you
know what?
Speaker 4 (07:11):
I still vividly remember there was just one night in
the wintertime, I was at my police station.
Speaker 3 (07:18):
I was working out in the gym there.
Speaker 4 (07:20):
I was the only one in the gym I so
I had full range of the entire gym. So I
put Raw on on the TV and I was done
my workout. I was stretching, and I literally just and
am I love.
Speaker 1 (07:31):
To square here with doubt? Go for it?
Speaker 4 (07:33):
So I just had this crazy epiphany and it's just
like a fuck it moment. I was like, you know what, like,
you know what, fuck it? Like, I'm not getting any younger. Literally,
I could literally be dead tomorrow with my career or
anything else that happens in life.
Speaker 3 (07:46):
You know what am I waiting for?
Speaker 4 (07:48):
So I was on the ground stretching in that moment,
watching Raw, and I was like, I'm just going to
start doing a Google search on any you know, indie
wrestling promotion that's in my area, just somewhere where I
can get started.
Speaker 3 (08:00):
And there wasn't much out there. But I ended up.
Speaker 4 (08:04):
Because just where I'm from, I'm from a very rural,
rural town in northern Ontario, Canada.
Speaker 3 (08:11):
So I ended up meeting up.
Speaker 4 (08:12):
With the owner of Rock Solid Pro Wrestling, Mark Bartolucci,
he's also known as Tornado and he still works some
indie wrestling shows now.
Speaker 3 (08:22):
And we had to sit down.
Speaker 4 (08:23):
We met there and it was just essentially he just
had a heart to heart with me, Like, listen, there's
a huge turnover rate in indie wrestling when it comes
to women. A lot of women don't stick around. There's
a lot of injuries, there's a lot of pain. A
lot of women, you know, the first time they get,
you know, a true shot to the face, they just
(08:43):
quit and they don't want to stick around because it
is a very physical craft. Yeah, so it was like,
let's do it. So he slowly introduced me into it,
and fast forward a couple months later, after chain wrestling
in his basement at his family home and learning chain
but also learning a basic suplex like literally sueplexing him
(09:07):
on a bedroom mattress in his living room, you know,
centimeters away from a television, He's like, Okay, you need
to learn how to bump down.
Speaker 3 (09:16):
You need to learn the universal.
Speaker 4 (09:17):
So I ended up training at two different training academies,
one being Cross Body Wrestling Academy and the other one
is the Tyson Duke's Wrestling Factory.
Speaker 3 (09:26):
Nice both of those places.
Speaker 4 (09:28):
I'm literally driving five to six and a half hours
one way, training for two hours and driving.
Speaker 3 (09:36):
Five to six and a half six and a half.
Speaker 4 (09:38):
Hours home because there is no there was no ring
out where I resided. Wow, So I had to make
a really big commute, and I was doing it. I
was doing it every couple of weekends here and there
in between my full time job.
Speaker 3 (09:53):
So it was it was busy. It was busy.
Speaker 1 (09:57):
I mean, that's true dedication and clear that you do
in a this if you're driving five and a half
hours one way just to train and again you have
to drive back, so that's insanity.
Speaker 4 (10:07):
Yeah, but you know what, like you're literally going to
go into a ring and you've been watching this on
TV since you were young, and this is happening right now.
Speaker 3 (10:16):
Like it wasn't. It didn't feel like a chore at
all from me. It was very very exciting.
Speaker 1 (10:20):
I bet that going Yeah, that adrenaline going home, I
imagine was Yeah.
Speaker 4 (10:24):
So that's how I kind of initially started up in
the wrestling scene. Is it literally started for me being
stretching on the ground in the in the stretching on
the floor of the gym and the police station, watching
raw just one night having a fucking moment, and then
next thing you know, I'm in the ring of training
now and I'm one of Tyson Dukes's full time students.
Speaker 1 (10:46):
So I love that. That's a great story.
Speaker 3 (10:49):
Thank you well.
Speaker 1 (10:50):
So throughout that entire time of you thinking about doing
it and before you had that true fucking moment, did
you did you always kind of have a character in
your head or like, what did you if you were
a pro wrestler, what would this kind of look like?
Speaker 4 (11:03):
I never actually so you know what, like even when
I was going to train for wrestling and traveling all
those kilometers in all those hours, I never actually thought
that I would be successfully implemented in a pro wrestling match.
I just wanted, like, again, it was a fucking moment
(11:24):
I was. I was killing off a whole bunch of
bucket lists that year, because again it's just like why
not I'm not getting any younger. So at this point
I just wanted to train and just be in the
ring and just say that I am wrestling in a ring.
I never saw myself as a professional wrestler working shows,
but Tyson Duke's really saw something in me.
Speaker 3 (11:46):
That I guess I didn't see in myself, and I.
Speaker 4 (11:49):
Was put into pro matches pretty quickly after about a
couple months of training. I do have the natural athletic
from like growing up my entire life, I played every sport.
I'm very coordinated, I'm very athletic, I'm very powerful. So
I think he saw that in me, and as soon
(12:10):
as he put me in my first match, it's okay,
what's your name, and what's your look, what's your character
and every So I never I never pre planned any
of this, so everything was kind of rushed, but it
really worked out because the easiest thing to do with
the easiest character to be is just be yourself. So
(12:32):
and they say in wrestling your characters or self times
a thousand or whatever. So I was just me, which
is I'm an athlete and I'm an elite athlete. So
you know, in every sport growing up, I played on
every team, I was captain or you know, athlete of
the year, athlete of the month, I got all these awards.
So it's why not just be comfortable in the attire.
(12:54):
I'm gonna be winging for wrestling, be something you know, sporty.
Speaker 3 (12:58):
So and that's what I did.
Speaker 4 (12:59):
I just I became just sporty Andrea, and here we
are today.
Speaker 1 (13:07):
What did you What was when you started putting the
move set together and you realize what moves you do
like and don't like and obviously, like you said, you're
trying to sent on now and all these other things
from the top rope? How did you start realizing what
moves you really wanted to incorporate in your matches and
the ones you maybe tried and you're like, never mind,
I'm not going to try to do that again.
Speaker 4 (13:29):
I see myself as not so much a technical wrestler.
Speaker 3 (13:34):
I want to work on that a lot more.
Speaker 4 (13:36):
But I am in comparison to the other woman in
the ring when I'm standing toe to toe with them,
I'm very large compared to the other women. I'm five
foot eight, I'm one hundred and seventy five pounds of muscle.
Speaker 3 (13:51):
And a lot. I didn't realize a lot of the
women were smaller.
Speaker 4 (13:54):
Right, So again, my athleticism is kind of my forte.
So I love anything flippy, I love anything explosiveness, strength.
I like my vertical jumping and doing a whole bunch
of stuff like that, essentially.
Speaker 1 (14:14):
Right, have you seen or have you kind of changed
the way you work out now just because you were
working out obviously for your job, but now you're also
working out to be in ring. So have you kind
of what have you kind of changed when it comes
to your workouts.
Speaker 3 (14:30):
Yes, both both jobs. Because they are both jobs.
Speaker 4 (14:35):
I still I work, you know, a job as a
professional wrestler as well. They're both very important and I
have to work out very differently for both.
Speaker 3 (14:46):
You know, with the career as a.
Speaker 4 (14:49):
First responder, I need to be able to come home
right and there are times where I am toe to
toe with a guy who larger than me, so I
need to work my strength. I need to work my
skills in that sense where I need to be as
strong as him. I know that it'll never happen, but
(15:10):
I need to be able to face the fact that there.
Speaker 3 (15:13):
Might be a day where you know, we are on
the ground rolling around and I have to win.
Speaker 4 (15:19):
So that's my mindset when it comes to working out
in the gym for law enforcement and then for professional wrestling.
Speaker 3 (15:28):
You know, it's a lot of theatrics as well, so
cardio is very very.
Speaker 4 (15:33):
Important aside from again the explosiveness and you know, the
strength and all this stuff where you know, I'm running,
I'm jumping, I'm yelling, I'm crying, I'm speaking at the
same time. So interval sprints are very important to me
on the treadmill n So you're going from.
Speaker 3 (15:53):
A slower paced walk or job.
Speaker 4 (15:56):
To a fast sprint, and I find that helps me
a lot in the ring.
Speaker 3 (16:03):
Anything CrossFit related hits.
Speaker 4 (16:06):
So high interval high intense, the interval training and work
out of a day's anything where you're going for I
don't know, ten to twelve minutes, but you're going hard,
and you know it's burpees, it's push press with with ways,
and then you know there's rowing, and it's just incorporate.
Speaker 3 (16:23):
Everything's incorporated.
Speaker 4 (16:24):
So I think just anything CrossFit like really really helps
me in the ring.
Speaker 1 (16:30):
Interesting, Okay, That's why I said the Rollins is so good?
Speaker 2 (16:33):
Is the way he is.
Speaker 3 (16:35):
Yeah, possibly CrossFit Jesus.
Speaker 1 (16:38):
Yeah, as they call him. I mean he looks it
and he's still obviously Yeah, although I think he's got
a shoulder injury right now. So I always think some
of the forms when it comes to cross fit, I
understand it's for time. I'm always like, that's not that's
not I know, you know, like the pull ups. I'm
not really not.
Speaker 4 (16:55):
A fan of their poles intense and it's it's excessive,
and it's to me, it's not something that I could
do every single day long term. Yeah, So again, there
might be one day in the gym where I'm just
gonna calm down and focus on bodybuilding for at thoughtics purposes.
There'll be another day where I want to do a
(17:17):
hit workout. Then maybe after that I'll do a day
of leg day where I want strength and I want
squats and I want to pretend like I need to
be strong enough to have a girl or a guy
on my shoulders in the ring. Right, So I'm always
thinking wrestling in the back of my mind everything I do.
Speaker 1 (17:33):
Right, No, that's I mean, that's great that you've actually
changed the way you've thought about all this ahead of time.
Speaker 4 (17:39):
You can't be comfortable. It sucks, but you have to
always keep your body guessing. And you know, even in
the gym, think of what you're doing in the ring
and train that way. Right, So you got a girl
on your shoulders or you're doing a drop down and
a leaf frog, Well, work on your burpies and work
on your vertical do some box jumps, you know what
I mean?
Speaker 1 (18:00):
Yeah, now that makes sense a lot. Yeah, well so,
I mean obviously, as much as it is physical, it
is very much of a mental thing where it be
you know, remembering what you've got to do in the ring,
or remember a promo, or even like hyping yourself up
before or even trying to bring yourself down mentally, you know,
with all the adrenaline afterwards. How do you kind of
work with all that because you might already have some
(18:22):
of that when it came to your job as it was,
because there's there are times that are probably really slow,
and then there's times where you know your adrenaline is
on eleven and then you got to bring it back down.
So how do you kind of control all of that?
Speaker 5 (18:35):
Yes, the memory and the mental it's all very very
challenging to me, and I would say it is almost
more challenging to me than the athletics when it comes
to pro wrestling.
Speaker 3 (18:51):
You know, it's it's mine over matter.
Speaker 4 (18:53):
It's trying to not hype yourself up too much because
the more you're worked up, the more you.
Speaker 3 (19:00):
Will not think clearly true.
Speaker 1 (19:02):
Yeah, but you have to.
Speaker 3 (19:03):
Really train your mind in remaining calm at all times.
Speaker 1 (19:07):
Yeah. I heard that's how Flair would always kind of
keep his heart rate around a moderate level because again
he's he'd be working hour a long Broadways and so
how are you to remember all of that? Plus you
know you've got to you can't be gassed out by
the time you're trying to get all the way to
sixty minutes and you get twenty minutes in, you're like,
oh crap, I'd forgot everything. And also like, yeah, I
(19:28):
don't know you know where my breath is.
Speaker 4 (19:31):
Yeah, So if you're breathing, you know, to the max,
and you have a lot going on around you and
you have things to remember, it's very important. Just you
have to be able to train yourself to mentally just
try and slow it down.
Speaker 1 (19:46):
Yeah, that's what they always say, slow it down. Yeah, now,
who are some veterans It kind of helped you along
the way and so that you will maybe call up
to this day.
Speaker 4 (20:00):
Some people that assist me. Josh Alexander was someone who
trained me for a very short while when I ended
up relocating myself closer to the big city of Toronto
to be closer to poor wrestling, So my drives were
a lot easier. I trained with him for a couple
(20:22):
of months at his training facility. He had one Canadian
Strong Style Wrestling academy and unfortunately Covid hit and everything
kind of just shut down at that point and it
never reopened. Yeah, so he he really helped me, helped
me along the way. Tyson Duke's was a huge help
(20:46):
along the way. So it was Tornado. Nowadays, someone who
has been really helping me.
Speaker 3 (20:53):
Is El Fuego.
Speaker 4 (20:56):
And he was Tristratus's coach and trainer. And when she
comes to Canada and she comes home because she lives
a couple hours away from me right now, sometimes if
she needs some touch ups done or she needs to,
you know, get back in the ring here in Canada,
she'll go still see him. So and he assists me
(21:22):
every week. Now get I get booked on a lot
of the shows that he's on, and it's been really assistive.
Speaker 1 (21:30):
That's really awesome, Thank you. So I don't want to
get political, but the whole and I'm not going to,
but Covid is I have a brother that lives in Branford,
so he would tell us about how bad the lockdowns
weren't and obviously he we're overthinking what we were doing
(21:50):
down here in Texas, because Texas is almost like COVID
never happened. But how was it for y'all? Because I
know that the lockdowns, we're pretty hard up there, and
there was a lot of things, like you said that
we're just closed and you guys couldn't really do anything.
So you started training in March of twenty nineteen, and
then literally a year later COVID happens. So how what
(22:13):
was it like for y'all? And obviously, you know, considering
how much you were starting to train and actually wrestle yourself,
what was that like for you?
Speaker 4 (22:21):
When I got greenlit and I became sorry and I
began working matches, I was literally working two to three
times a week. I was working like literally Friday Saturday Sunday,
Friday Saturday Sunday.
Speaker 3 (22:33):
I was wearing my ass.
Speaker 4 (22:34):
Off, and I was you know, I was a new wrestler,
but I was also getting my reps in. And you
know that's how you know, with any job, any employment
that is hands on or any craft, MMA, whatever, the
way that you stay sharp is continuously being hands on
and repetition, repetition, repetition, Right, you got to train your mind.
(22:57):
So when I went from being that busy, you know,
in the in the almost in the highlight of my career,
like beginning as a green.
Speaker 3 (23:06):
Wrestler, to absolutely nothing and everything shutting down, it hit
me hard.
Speaker 5 (23:11):
For sure.
Speaker 4 (23:12):
There was nothing I can do at that point. I
didn't know of any wrestling schools that were open. All
the gyms were shut down, So all I can really
do is self train and rely on myself to remain
fit during this time for when wrestling recommences and everything reopens, right,
(23:35):
So that just it had a lot a lot of
things that I did was a lot of hit workouts
in my basement, and a lot of running outside and
going to football fields and going to soccer fields and
you know, doing dry land training there, you know, bringing
my kettlebells, bringing my dumb bells, sprinting the field, and
(23:55):
then you know, doing some workouts in between stuff like that.
So you need to be ready to go when thing's
reopen for sure.
Speaker 1 (24:04):
Yeah. Yeah, I always thought that was dumb. Wh people
would just be like, Okay, I'm just gonna hang out
at my house and not do anything. I was like,
mm hmm, that's not how that works, you know.
Speaker 4 (24:11):
What and to each their own right, to their own.
But you know what, you can't be comfortable because every
hour that you're sitting on your ass doing nothing, there's
an athlete out there who is busting theirs too, outshine you.
Speaker 1 (24:31):
Yeah. Yeah, it's funny when people are like, oh, I
don't have time for this. I'm like, okay, go on
your phone. What is your screen time for this week?
Tell me you don't have time, because you do.
Speaker 3 (24:40):
Absolutely.
Speaker 1 (24:41):
Yeah. So I always ask the I this question came
up randomly, and now I ask all the wrestlers this,
Do you have a double stick tape? Story?
Speaker 3 (24:54):
A double what?
Speaker 1 (24:55):
Double stick tape tape work taking on both sides? Some
people use it for the wardrobe just to keep things
in or.
Speaker 3 (25:03):
Oh double stick tape, yes, yes, I do.
Speaker 4 (25:07):
Well, I this is for my outfit right right, So
for the longest time, and like this literally just change now.
So from twenty nineteen until now, I was using it's
it's almost like a fabric to body glue.
Speaker 3 (25:27):
Oh no, fabric body adhesive.
Speaker 1 (25:31):
Okay.
Speaker 3 (25:31):
So because I have these.
Speaker 4 (25:33):
Like really high leggings that stick to my legs and
I got to keep them on the entire match. So
you would just it's like a roll on clear adhesive
and you put on your skin and then gets sticky.
Speaker 3 (25:45):
Then you can just like I've never heard of that,
pick your.
Speaker 4 (25:48):
Clothing to it, but lately I've been wearing a lot
more leggings and stockings and stuff like that where sorry
like nylons, like nylons underneath my leggings, so I need
the leggings to stick to the nylons. So I've been
using this double sided it's like a it's not a tape,
(26:11):
it's a fabric. Oh really, So you can you peel
off one side and it's sticky.
Speaker 3 (26:20):
There's an adhesive there.
Speaker 4 (26:21):
The other side is almost like a belcrow. So I
think it's for people who want to use it to
stick something to their couches or maybe stick their couch
together that maybe tore in the corner or something. Right,
But so that I guess that's what I'm using right now.
It comes in a big roll and I just cut
off a piece and that's what I'm using.
Speaker 1 (26:43):
So I did not know about that adhesive where you
just put it on your skin. I feel like that
would just I guess depending on your skin and depending
on your reactions to things. It would just leave a
rash or some sort. But that's I haven't heard that.
Speaker 3 (26:55):
Yeah, no rashes for me.
Speaker 4 (26:57):
And it comes off by way of water or sweat,
so sometimes it wasn't perfect. So sometimes if I'm sweating
a lot during a match, then yeah, my legging may
come off a little bit.
Speaker 3 (27:08):
But interesting, it comes off very easily.
Speaker 1 (27:10):
So okay, I hadn't heard that. That's good. Show days
are long days, and as you're used to long shifts,
what do you what is the standard in your bag
for show day?
Speaker 3 (27:24):
Standard in my bag for show day? So I have
an entire.
Speaker 4 (27:30):
Makeup kit in there, aside from the personal one that
I use a home, because this is just the one
I travel with. You know. I've got my deorder in there.
I've got some body spray. I always make sure to
have a sweat towel.
Speaker 1 (27:44):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (27:45):
I always make sure to have one or two back
up protein bars in there.
Speaker 3 (27:51):
And I also have like a mammoth mug or like
a big like a big jug that I.
Speaker 4 (27:55):
Fill up with like BCA because I need to stay
hydrated the entire time.
Speaker 3 (28:00):
And I find that there's a lot.
Speaker 4 (28:01):
Of locations I travel to and work at, and sometimes
they don't provide water or anything like that. Yeah, So
I and like, I always bring my lunch bag with
me separately as well, So I always packed my own lunches.
I never want to rely on a location to feed
me and provide me beverages. I always have to make
sure that I've got that down myself. So yeah, aside
(28:25):
from my gear, I would say, like, my one of
my most important things is my fuel, which is my
food in my hydration.
Speaker 1 (28:33):
Yeah. I've worked many of shows as well where there's
no food or water and I'm alway, Yeah, I always
tell people, I'm like, like you said, don't provide. Don't
think that they're going to provide you with this stuff
you have.
Speaker 4 (28:44):
Yeah, Like even this past summer, I you know, I
was at a show and it was.
Speaker 3 (28:48):
An outdoor show. It was super hot outside.
Speaker 4 (28:51):
I was maybe twenty eight celsius and it was just
sunny and sunny, no clouds, and everyone was just dying.
You know.
Speaker 3 (29:00):
I had one or.
Speaker 4 (29:01):
Two workers have to like rely on me and ask
me to have you know, a drink of my of
my jug because they didn't bring their own.
Speaker 3 (29:10):
But it's like, I don't know.
Speaker 4 (29:12):
My saying has always failed to fail to prepare, prepare
to fail? Right, Like, why why would you want to
be dehydrated and feel that way when you're working a
match outside?
Speaker 3 (29:22):
That's insane.
Speaker 1 (29:23):
Yeah, I'm just a ring ann answer. And we worked
a show in August in no Ac, very hot. I
was wearing a suit, sweated all the way through it.
But again I always had the water because yeah, anatowel
in between.
Speaker 3 (29:36):
Towel is very important for sure.
Speaker 1 (29:38):
Yes. Now, if people have never seen you wrestle before,
what three matches did they go out of the way
to watch?
Speaker 3 (29:46):
Great question, Great question.
Speaker 4 (29:48):
I guess the first one would be me versus abadon
Ring of Honor. The second one I would probably say,
I'm gonna have to pause that answer second because I'm
(30:12):
drawing a blank. There is a match that was in
twenty nineteen or twenty eight, twenty nineteen, twenty twenty called
it was a show called Revolution with Rebel that was
there and Keasey Spinelli is a woman's tag team match.
I really liked that one. I tagged with violently there.
(30:34):
And what would my third one be? I really liked
my match versus Alison Kay at Big League Pro.
Speaker 3 (30:47):
Last year, and I think we were in we were
somewhere in Pennsylvania. So yeah, that was a good one.
Speaker 4 (30:53):
Nice and that's all just for the elite athlete Nova
and I do have a alter ego, which is the
black widow nurse Nova Kaneya. So that's a whole different ballgame.
If you want to see something a little bit darker,
that's with Daman Luca only I only work as Nurse Snova,
King of damand Luca and I those are very challenging
(31:19):
to my character. I get to work on a little
bit more character work there. And one really fun match
you could watch is a tag team match versus It
was myself and doctors Soakoff versus Space Monkey and Microman.
(31:39):
Microman came straight from Mexico and it was a very
very fun match to watch.
Speaker 1 (31:46):
I've tried to have him on the show, but he
speaks no English. What was it like communicating with him?
Was there an interpreter between you?
Speaker 4 (31:53):
So Rob Fuego El Fuego was there and he does
speak Spanish, gotcha. So he was the middleman in between
the communication between myself and Microman to assist us with
that match playing gotcha.
Speaker 1 (32:08):
Okay. I love everything he's doing, and obviously that spot
with him, and almost was that they broke the internet,
which it was after a show I worked, and so
I was watching everything on Twitter and I was like,
this is the greatest thing I've ever seen. He's so tiny,
he's so huge, and those guys together were fantastic.
Speaker 3 (32:26):
Absolutely.
Speaker 4 (32:27):
Yeah, he was a lot of fun to work with
and I would absolutely welcome him back anytime. I think
he's actually he's coming to Demand Luca this month, but
I can't make that show unfortunately, but I would absolutely
love to work with him.
Speaker 1 (32:39):
Account I love that. Well. I have a segment on
a show I call it the five count, which is
five random questions.
Speaker 3 (32:45):
Okay, I'm ready.
Speaker 1 (32:46):
A favorite band when you were a kid versus now.
Speaker 3 (32:52):
Lincoln Park?
Speaker 1 (32:53):
Okay, nice?
Speaker 4 (32:56):
And now.
Speaker 3 (33:01):
There's so many out there. System of a down I'm
still into them.
Speaker 1 (33:07):
Uh, those first two happens, they're fantastic. Yeah. If you
owned a liquor company, brewery, winery, coffee shop, or dispensary,
which one would you own? And what would the name be?
Speaker 4 (33:18):
That's easy, Well, not the name. I didn't think of
the name yet. But I am a bit of a crafty,
so you'd be a craft brewery.
Speaker 1 (33:25):
Yeah, I love it.
Speaker 4 (33:28):
And I'm I can't think of anything. I'm trying to
think of something like Nova but crafty. I'll just say
nov Nation come on down and Novination no nomination craft
brewery where we only sell I pash.
Speaker 3 (33:47):
I mean that's my thing.
Speaker 1 (33:49):
Considering how cold it gets, I think you might want
to have some stouts or some other ones up there.
Speaker 3 (33:54):
I know I need to keep it universal.
Speaker 1 (33:58):
Number three. Have you seen or felt a ghost?
Speaker 3 (34:02):
Seen or felt a ghost? No? But growing up absolutely
loved witchcraft? Oh yeah, loved it?
Speaker 1 (34:12):
Number four? Who are what inspires you?
Speaker 4 (34:18):
I would have to say Jeff Hardy inspired me, The
Rock inspired me, Stonefold inspired me, kurd Angle inspired me,
a lot of the Attitude era wrestlers inspired me.
Speaker 3 (34:29):
Lida one hundred percent Lida.
Speaker 1 (34:32):
And what about in life? Pardon me? What about in
life too?
Speaker 4 (34:37):
In life, I would say my biggest inspiration is my grandmother.
She is turning in ninety next month, and it's going
to be actually following a match that I have at
Project Ex Wrestling, So I'm going to be going home
to my hometown for that, which is amazing.
Speaker 3 (34:56):
And no matter what I do, no matter who who.
Speaker 4 (35:00):
I'm talking to or you know, even working on the
road and first as a first responder, any person I'm
interacting with, I always want to treat everybody as though
my grandma is watching. I love that, and that's how
I go about dealing with people.
Speaker 1 (35:17):
That's fantastic.
Speaker 3 (35:18):
Yeah, so you know, she helps me.
Speaker 4 (35:20):
She helps me become a better person and be a
better person and just treat everybody with respect and care.
Speaker 3 (35:28):
She's amazing.
Speaker 1 (35:30):
Yeah. My nana just turned ninety last month. Yeah, last month,
and so yeah, she's still getting around great, and it's fantastic.
Speaker 4 (35:37):
I think we are both very very blessed you and
you and me to be able to be the age
that we are and still have our grandmothers around because
a lot of people don't.
Speaker 1 (35:48):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (35:49):
I consider myself very lucky.
Speaker 1 (35:51):
Yeah. I never grew up with grandfathers, but my mom's
mom passed when just after I was done with high school.
My brother I think was graduating at the time. So yeah,
but yeah, yeah, like you said, we're very lucky. Yes,
And then number five, what would you tell your seventeen
year old self?
Speaker 3 (36:11):
That's a great question.
Speaker 4 (36:13):
I would tell my seventeen year old self to not
be so focused on fitting in and trying to be
your look a certain way to impress that group of girls,
because a decade from now, they're probably not going to
(36:35):
be around anyways, and the only person you're really going
to have to be successful is yourself. So just listen
to yourself and be yourself and it'll all work out.
Speaker 1 (36:48):
I love that. Yeah, girls deafinitely need to hear that
nowadays too.
Speaker 3 (36:52):
Thank you.
Speaker 1 (36:53):
Yeah. Now people want to find out more about you,
follow you online, go to your website, which you have
lots of merch on there, see you, you know, live
all the things. How can they do it?
Speaker 4 (37:03):
I have social media on pretty much every platform, so
you know, Instagram, Facebook, Twitter.
Speaker 3 (37:11):
Or sorry x TikTok. I'm working on that a little
bit more.
Speaker 4 (37:17):
I have pro pro wrestling teas and my own website,
so everything aside from my own website which is Nova
wrestler dot com, but my handle is Nova wrestler on
essentially everything. I've made it very very simple.
Speaker 1 (37:30):
That it's smart, and I'm glad you were able to
do it before somebody else had grabbed it.
Speaker 3 (37:33):
Absolutely.
Speaker 1 (37:34):
Yeah, well, thank you so much for all this. I think,
I mean, I didn't even get into your acting or
anything else that you're doing. So I feel like I.
Speaker 3 (37:42):
Will we'll have a part two sometime.
Speaker 1 (37:44):
I would love that I'll be up in Canada in
April actually so or first weekend in May, so maybe
we can get together sometimes.
Speaker 2 (37:52):
Awesome, Thank you so much to note.
Speaker 1 (38:06):
For being on the show again. You've got to support
our local wrestlers. We've got to support our first responders.
It is definitely a job that neither one of us
are doing, so we've got to pay respect to the
people that are doing those So Nova is doing fantastic
things up in Canada and then obviously, as you mentioned,
sometimes here in America. So definitely make sure to follow
her on social media and see what she's doing, and
(38:27):
also make sure to follow us on social media. It
is Brewiserspod. That is b R E W S C
R S p O D on the Instagram, the threads,
and the Twitter. If you want to send us an email,
it is Bruiserspod at gmail dot com. If you want
to follow me directly, it is Roady John. That is
our d E j O N. Roady John is the
name on the Twitter and an untapped case you find
out when you're drinking, maybe we can have a beer
(38:47):
together if you want to follow me on the threads
or the Instagram. It is a fisher Ordy John, So
until next time, make sure to enjoy life, drink local
and cheers
Speaker 4 (39:07):
Three two FO
Welcome to Bruisers, a podcast up. You're a coffee booze
and Bruisers. I am your host, Rody John and today
we talked to Nova. We talked about her journey into
pro wrestling, being a first responder, and so much more.
This is such a fun conversation. Nova is doing fantastic
things up in Canada and her story is even better.
And you don't want to hear it from me, You
want to hear from her. So without further ado, here
(00:40):
is Nova. I would like to welcome the show.
Speaker 2 (00:58):
Nova.
Speaker 1 (00:58):
How are you doing today? Man?
Speaker 3 (01:00):
Great, how are you doing?
Speaker 1 (01:01):
I'm doing well.
Speaker 3 (01:03):
Thank you for having me.
Speaker 1 (01:04):
Hey, thanks for coming on. I know you're a very
busy lady, so thank you for carving out some time
for me.
Speaker 4 (01:09):
Absolutely, it's all about organization and scheduling, right.
Speaker 3 (01:12):
You can make anything work, It's true.
Speaker 1 (01:14):
Yeah, it's a nice little balance you have to find
and see what does and doesn't work, especially something like
yourself traveling so much and doing as much as you are.
Speaker 4 (01:22):
Absolutely, I feel like the older I get, the less
time there is in the day, which is insane. So
it's a priority for me where I have to really
be you know, a little OCD with my personal schedule.
And I'm a little old school as well. I carry
a schedule book instead of you know, people add times
(01:44):
and events and their calendar on their phones. I'm still
using a tangible, physical schedule book.
Speaker 1 (01:51):
Do you freak out if you lose it?
Speaker 3 (01:54):
I haven't lost it yet.
Speaker 4 (01:57):
But that's the whole point is that I see some
people online that will make some comments about how they've
lost everything in their calendar and everything got wiped. How
do I get it back? And I just don't want
to be one of those people. I think the only
time I'm ever really going to lose my schedule book
is if I, god forbid ever have to endure some
(02:17):
type of house fire or something.
Speaker 3 (02:19):
But yeah, so that's like my fear. One of my
biggest fears is the house fire.
Speaker 4 (02:22):
I saw it from flying, But I think that would
be the only time I would actually lose my schedule book.
Speaker 1 (02:28):
Do you also digitally do it in your phone as well,
so that way you have it written down and then
you also you're like.
Speaker 4 (02:34):
No, nope, no, no. I try and bring my schedule
book wherever I go as well, so it's always on me. Yeah,
in my belongings and yeah, so that's just how I
personally do it, old school.
Speaker 1 (02:47):
So I know people are being fascinated right now with
scheduling and so much, but I have talked to other
people in the past where they will literally schedule it
every fifteen to thirty minutes of their day. Do you
just do events of the day or how do you
like to schedule out your day? And then also how
far out do you like to schedule because you know,
(03:08):
as much as we love planning in the future, sometimes
it can get you know, bogged down with other stuff.
So how far out do you like to try to plan?
Speaker 4 (03:16):
So the first and foremost, my shoot job takes priority
over everything else. That is my full time employment. That's
what pays my bills, that's what you know, puts a
roof over my head and food in my fridge, so
that I'm a first responder by trades.
Speaker 3 (03:31):
So that's those are twelve hour shifts. Yeah, so that.
Speaker 4 (03:34):
Comes first, But I obviously have time off in between,
like I can I can do podcasts and I can
wrestle after my shift if I need to, or on
my days off. I work four shifts on, four shifts off, right,
so and my schedule goes all the way up to the.
Speaker 3 (03:52):
End of twenty twenty six at least.
Speaker 4 (03:54):
So I have a twenty twenty six schedule on me
right now, and I've already been, you know, taking some
bookings and stuff that so I can really remain organized
that way.
Speaker 1 (04:03):
That makes sense, okay, I was always curious. Well, thank
you also for being a first responder. I know y'all
don't get as much respect and as much admiration as
firefighters are cops, but you y'all do far more than
I'm not saying you guys do far more than they do.
You guys just on a different level, and you guys
have to respond so fast and act so fast that
you know, a lot of times you guys don't get
(04:23):
the respect I think y'all should deserve.
Speaker 3 (04:26):
Thank you very much.
Speaker 1 (04:27):
You're welcome. Yeah, I've always been curious about people when
they do scheduling because everyone does it so differently, and
like you said, you do it still the old school way,
which actually I think might be better because of the
fact that it's more in your brain as opposed to
just typing it out and then boom, it's just in
your phone. But how often are you really checking your calendar?
Speaker 3 (04:46):
Anyway exactly.
Speaker 1 (04:48):
Yeah, Well, let's go all the way back in time.
What is your earliest memory of pro wrestling?
Speaker 4 (04:54):
My earliest memory of pro wrestling would be just in
my childhood plan WCW Revenge on my N sixty.
Speaker 1 (05:01):
Four, which I think is the best, one of the
best video games out there.
Speaker 4 (05:04):
Yes, absolutely, and I actually still own that N sixty four.
I still own that game, so it's very sacred to
me that I keep that forever.
Speaker 1 (05:14):
Who is your person to play?
Speaker 4 (05:17):
My person to play, I would say back in those
days on that game was probably Kevin Nash Okay.
Speaker 3 (05:27):
But my all time favorite wrestler is Jeff.
Speaker 1 (05:30):
Hardy ah Okay. Yeah. Besides I guess the charisma aspect
of it all, what was what was something that really
drew you to him?
Speaker 4 (05:41):
I think it was just the athletics and the acrobatics.
Speaker 3 (05:44):
When I was growing up, I did a little bit
of gymnastics, not much.
Speaker 4 (05:49):
My main focus was dance, right, but you know, during
that time, we're being flippy, we're being you know, cartwheels
and round offs and all this stuff, and you know,
I always thought, you know, Jeff was just so cool
being a do it off the top turn buckle that
one day I want to do it myself. So here
I am thirty seven years old, and I'm right now
as we speak, I'm self teaching myself swanton bomb. I've
(06:11):
already I've been doing the I call it the supernova,
but it's the five star frog splash that RBT does nice.
So yeah, it's just you know what, no time like
the present, right, I'm not getting any younger, Let's just
do it.
Speaker 1 (06:23):
Yeah. Time is always going to win and you don't
get it back, so yeah, might as well do it?
Why you can?
Speaker 3 (06:28):
Absolutely?
Speaker 1 (06:30):
Well, when did you realize that you that's what you
really wanted to do, was actually try well? Hold on,
did first responding come first? Or did yes?
Speaker 4 (06:38):
So I became a first responder actually on April twentieth,
two thousand and nine.
Speaker 3 (06:44):
So I'm about sixteen and a half.
Speaker 4 (06:46):
Years of service in right now, gradually, and I only
commenced my career as a pro wrestler in March of
twenty nineteen. Okay, so about ten years after I became
a police officer.
Speaker 1 (07:04):
What was it about that that you were like, you
know what, I think I could try this out, you
know what?
Speaker 4 (07:11):
I still vividly remember there was just one night in
the wintertime, I was at my police station.
Speaker 3 (07:18):
I was working out in the gym there.
Speaker 4 (07:20):
I was the only one in the gym I so
I had full range of the entire gym. So I
put Raw on on the TV and I was done
my workout. I was stretching, and I literally just and
am I love.
Speaker 1 (07:31):
To square here with doubt? Go for it?
Speaker 4 (07:33):
So I just had this crazy epiphany and it's just
like a fuck it moment. I was like, you know what, like,
you know what, fuck it? Like, I'm not getting any younger. Literally,
I could literally be dead tomorrow with my career or
anything else that happens in life.
Speaker 3 (07:46):
You know what am I waiting for?
Speaker 4 (07:48):
So I was on the ground stretching in that moment,
watching Raw, and I was like, I'm just going to
start doing a Google search on any you know, indie
wrestling promotion that's in my area, just somewhere where I
can get started.
Speaker 3 (08:00):
And there wasn't much out there. But I ended up.
Speaker 4 (08:04):
Because just where I'm from, I'm from a very rural,
rural town in northern Ontario, Canada.
Speaker 3 (08:11):
So I ended up meeting up.
Speaker 4 (08:12):
With the owner of Rock Solid Pro Wrestling, Mark Bartolucci,
he's also known as Tornado and he still works some
indie wrestling shows now.
Speaker 3 (08:22):
And we had to sit down.
Speaker 4 (08:23):
We met there and it was just essentially he just
had a heart to heart with me, Like, listen, there's
a huge turnover rate in indie wrestling when it comes
to women. A lot of women don't stick around. There's
a lot of injuries, there's a lot of pain. A
lot of women, you know, the first time they get,
you know, a true shot to the face, they just
(08:43):
quit and they don't want to stick around because it
is a very physical craft. Yeah, so it was like,
let's do it. So he slowly introduced me into it,
and fast forward a couple months later, after chain wrestling
in his basement at his family home and learning chain
but also learning a basic suplex like literally sueplexing him
(09:07):
on a bedroom mattress in his living room, you know,
centimeters away from a television, He's like, Okay, you need
to learn how to bump down.
Speaker 3 (09:16):
You need to learn the universal.
Speaker 4 (09:17):
So I ended up training at two different training academies,
one being Cross Body Wrestling Academy and the other one
is the Tyson Duke's Wrestling Factory.
Speaker 3 (09:26):
Nice both of those places.
Speaker 4 (09:28):
I'm literally driving five to six and a half hours
one way, training for two hours and driving.
Speaker 3 (09:36):
Five to six and a half six and a half.
Speaker 4 (09:38):
Hours home because there is no there was no ring
out where I resided. Wow, So I had to make
a really big commute, and I was doing it. I
was doing it every couple of weekends here and there
in between my full time job.
Speaker 3 (09:53):
So it was it was busy. It was busy.
Speaker 1 (09:57):
I mean, that's true dedication and clear that you do
in a this if you're driving five and a half
hours one way just to train and again you have
to drive back, so that's insanity.
Speaker 4 (10:07):
Yeah, but you know what, like you're literally going to
go into a ring and you've been watching this on
TV since you were young, and this is happening right now.
Speaker 3 (10:16):
Like it wasn't. It didn't feel like a chore at
all from me. It was very very exciting.
Speaker 1 (10:20):
I bet that going Yeah, that adrenaline going home, I
imagine was Yeah.
Speaker 4 (10:24):
So that's how I kind of initially started up in
the wrestling scene. Is it literally started for me being
stretching on the ground in the in the stretching on
the floor of the gym and the police station, watching
raw just one night having a fucking moment, and then
next thing you know, I'm in the ring of training
now and I'm one of Tyson Dukes's full time students.
Speaker 1 (10:46):
So I love that. That's a great story.
Speaker 3 (10:49):
Thank you well.
Speaker 1 (10:50):
So throughout that entire time of you thinking about doing
it and before you had that true fucking moment, did
you did you always kind of have a character in
your head or like, what did you if you were
a pro wrestler, what would this kind of look like?
Speaker 4 (11:03):
I never actually so you know what, like even when
I was going to train for wrestling and traveling all
those kilometers in all those hours, I never actually thought
that I would be successfully implemented in a pro wrestling match.
I just wanted, like, again, it was a fucking moment
(11:24):
I was. I was killing off a whole bunch of
bucket lists that year, because again it's just like why
not I'm not getting any younger. So at this point
I just wanted to train and just be in the
ring and just say that I am wrestling in a ring.
I never saw myself as a professional wrestler working shows,
but Tyson Duke's really saw something in me.
Speaker 3 (11:46):
That I guess I didn't see in myself, and I.
Speaker 4 (11:49):
Was put into pro matches pretty quickly after about a
couple months of training. I do have the natural athletic
from like growing up my entire life, I played every sport.
I'm very coordinated, I'm very athletic, I'm very powerful. So
I think he saw that in me, and as soon
(12:10):
as he put me in my first match, it's okay,
what's your name, and what's your look, what's your character
and every So I never I never pre planned any
of this, so everything was kind of rushed, but it
really worked out because the easiest thing to do with
the easiest character to be is just be yourself. So
(12:32):
and they say in wrestling your characters or self times
a thousand or whatever. So I was just me, which
is I'm an athlete and I'm an elite athlete. So
you know, in every sport growing up, I played on
every team, I was captain or you know, athlete of
the year, athlete of the month, I got all these awards.
So it's why not just be comfortable in the attire.
(12:54):
I'm gonna be winging for wrestling, be something you know, sporty.
Speaker 3 (12:58):
So and that's what I did.
Speaker 4 (12:59):
I just I became just sporty Andrea, and here we
are today.
Speaker 1 (13:07):
What did you What was when you started putting the
move set together and you realize what moves you do
like and don't like and obviously, like you said, you're
trying to sent on now and all these other things
from the top rope? How did you start realizing what
moves you really wanted to incorporate in your matches and
the ones you maybe tried and you're like, never mind,
I'm not going to try to do that again.
Speaker 4 (13:29):
I see myself as not so much a technical wrestler.
Speaker 3 (13:34):
I want to work on that a lot more.
Speaker 4 (13:36):
But I am in comparison to the other woman in
the ring when I'm standing toe to toe with them,
I'm very large compared to the other women. I'm five
foot eight, I'm one hundred and seventy five pounds of muscle.
Speaker 3 (13:51):
And a lot. I didn't realize a lot of the
women were smaller.
Speaker 4 (13:54):
Right, So again, my athleticism is kind of my forte.
So I love anything flippy, I love anything explosiveness, strength.
I like my vertical jumping and doing a whole bunch
of stuff like that, essentially.
Speaker 1 (14:14):
Right, have you seen or have you kind of changed
the way you work out now just because you were
working out obviously for your job, but now you're also
working out to be in ring. So have you kind
of what have you kind of changed when it comes
to your workouts.
Speaker 3 (14:30):
Yes, both both jobs. Because they are both jobs.
Speaker 4 (14:35):
I still I work, you know, a job as a
professional wrestler as well. They're both very important and I
have to work out very differently for both.
Speaker 3 (14:46):
You know, with the career as a.
Speaker 4 (14:49):
First responder, I need to be able to come home
right and there are times where I am toe to
toe with a guy who larger than me, so I
need to work my strength. I need to work my
skills in that sense where I need to be as
strong as him. I know that it'll never happen, but
(15:10):
I need to be able to face the fact that there.
Speaker 3 (15:13):
Might be a day where you know, we are on
the ground rolling around and I have to win.
Speaker 4 (15:19):
So that's my mindset when it comes to working out
in the gym for law enforcement and then for professional wrestling.
Speaker 3 (15:28):
You know, it's a lot of theatrics as well, so
cardio is very very.
Speaker 4 (15:33):
Important aside from again the explosiveness and you know, the
strength and all this stuff where you know, I'm running,
I'm jumping, I'm yelling, I'm crying, I'm speaking at the
same time. So interval sprints are very important to me
on the treadmill n So you're going from.
Speaker 3 (15:53):
A slower paced walk or job.
Speaker 4 (15:56):
To a fast sprint, and I find that helps me
a lot in the ring.
Speaker 3 (16:03):
Anything CrossFit related hits.
Speaker 4 (16:06):
So high interval high intense, the interval training and work
out of a day's anything where you're going for I
don't know, ten to twelve minutes, but you're going hard,
and you know it's burpees, it's push press with with ways,
and then you know there's rowing, and it's just incorporate.
Speaker 3 (16:23):
Everything's incorporated.
Speaker 4 (16:24):
So I think just anything CrossFit like really really helps
me in the ring.
Speaker 1 (16:30):
Interesting, Okay, That's why I said the Rollins is so good?
Speaker 2 (16:33):
Is the way he is.
Speaker 3 (16:35):
Yeah, possibly CrossFit Jesus.
Speaker 1 (16:38):
Yeah, as they call him. I mean he looks it
and he's still obviously Yeah, although I think he's got
a shoulder injury right now. So I always think some
of the forms when it comes to cross fit, I
understand it's for time. I'm always like, that's not that's
not I know, you know, like the pull ups. I'm
not really not.
Speaker 4 (16:55):
A fan of their poles intense and it's it's excessive,
and it's to me, it's not something that I could
do every single day long term. Yeah, So again, there
might be one day in the gym where I'm just
gonna calm down and focus on bodybuilding for at thoughtics purposes.
There'll be another day where I want to do a
(17:17):
hit workout. Then maybe after that I'll do a day
of leg day where I want strength and I want
squats and I want to pretend like I need to
be strong enough to have a girl or a guy
on my shoulders in the ring. Right, So I'm always
thinking wrestling in the back of my mind everything I do.
Speaker 1 (17:33):
Right, No, that's I mean, that's great that you've actually
changed the way you've thought about all this ahead of time.
Speaker 4 (17:39):
You can't be comfortable. It sucks, but you have to
always keep your body guessing. And you know, even in
the gym, think of what you're doing in the ring
and train that way. Right, So you got a girl
on your shoulders or you're doing a drop down and
a leaf frog, Well, work on your burpies and work
on your vertical do some box jumps, you know what
I mean?
Speaker 1 (18:00):
Yeah, now that makes sense a lot. Yeah, well so,
I mean obviously, as much as it is physical, it
is very much of a mental thing where it be
you know, remembering what you've got to do in the ring,
or remember a promo, or even like hyping yourself up
before or even trying to bring yourself down mentally, you know,
with all the adrenaline afterwards. How do you kind of
work with all that because you might already have some
(18:22):
of that when it came to your job as it was,
because there's there are times that are probably really slow,
and then there's times where you know your adrenaline is
on eleven and then you got to bring it back down.
So how do you kind of control all of that?
Speaker 5 (18:35):
Yes, the memory and the mental it's all very very
challenging to me, and I would say it is almost
more challenging to me than the athletics when it comes
to pro wrestling.
Speaker 3 (18:51):
You know, it's it's mine over matter.
Speaker 4 (18:53):
It's trying to not hype yourself up too much because
the more you're worked up, the more you.
Speaker 3 (19:00):
Will not think clearly true.
Speaker 1 (19:02):
Yeah, but you have to.
Speaker 3 (19:03):
Really train your mind in remaining calm at all times.
Speaker 1 (19:07):
Yeah. I heard that's how Flair would always kind of
keep his heart rate around a moderate level because again
he's he'd be working hour a long Broadways and so
how are you to remember all of that? Plus you
know you've got to you can't be gassed out by
the time you're trying to get all the way to
sixty minutes and you get twenty minutes in, you're like,
oh crap, I'd forgot everything. And also like, yeah, I
(19:28):
don't know you know where my breath is.
Speaker 4 (19:31):
Yeah, So if you're breathing, you know, to the max,
and you have a lot going on around you and
you have things to remember, it's very important. Just you
have to be able to train yourself to mentally just
try and slow it down.
Speaker 1 (19:46):
Yeah, that's what they always say, slow it down. Yeah, now,
who are some veterans It kind of helped you along
the way and so that you will maybe call up
to this day.
Speaker 4 (20:00):
Some people that assist me. Josh Alexander was someone who
trained me for a very short while when I ended
up relocating myself closer to the big city of Toronto
to be closer to poor wrestling, So my drives were
a lot easier. I trained with him for a couple
(20:22):
of months at his training facility. He had one Canadian
Strong Style Wrestling academy and unfortunately Covid hit and everything
kind of just shut down at that point and it
never reopened. Yeah, so he he really helped me, helped
me along the way. Tyson Duke's was a huge help
(20:46):
along the way. So it was Tornado. Nowadays, someone who
has been really helping me.
Speaker 3 (20:53):
Is El Fuego.
Speaker 4 (20:56):
And he was Tristratus's coach and trainer. And when she
comes to Canada and she comes home because she lives
a couple hours away from me right now, sometimes if
she needs some touch ups done or she needs to,
you know, get back in the ring here in Canada,
she'll go still see him. So and he assists me
(21:22):
every week. Now get I get booked on a lot
of the shows that he's on, and it's been really assistive.
Speaker 1 (21:30):
That's really awesome, Thank you. So I don't want to
get political, but the whole and I'm not going to,
but Covid is I have a brother that lives in Branford,
so he would tell us about how bad the lockdowns
weren't and obviously he we're overthinking what we were doing
(21:50):
down here in Texas, because Texas is almost like COVID
never happened. But how was it for y'all? Because I
know that the lockdowns, we're pretty hard up there, and
there was a lot of things, like you said that
we're just closed and you guys couldn't really do anything.
So you started training in March of twenty nineteen, and
then literally a year later COVID happens. So how what
(22:13):
was it like for y'all? And obviously, you know, considering
how much you were starting to train and actually wrestle yourself,
what was that like for you?
Speaker 4 (22:21):
When I got greenlit and I became sorry and I
began working matches, I was literally working two to three
times a week. I was working like literally Friday Saturday Sunday,
Friday Saturday Sunday.
Speaker 3 (22:33):
I was wearing my ass.
Speaker 4 (22:34):
Off, and I was you know, I was a new wrestler,
but I was also getting my reps in. And you
know that's how you know, with any job, any employment
that is hands on or any craft, MMA, whatever, the
way that you stay sharp is continuously being hands on
and repetition, repetition, repetition, Right, you got to train your mind.
(22:57):
So when I went from being that busy, you know,
in the in the almost in the highlight of my career,
like beginning as a green.
Speaker 3 (23:06):
Wrestler, to absolutely nothing and everything shutting down, it hit
me hard.
Speaker 5 (23:11):
For sure.
Speaker 4 (23:12):
There was nothing I can do at that point. I
didn't know of any wrestling schools that were open. All
the gyms were shut down, So all I can really
do is self train and rely on myself to remain
fit during this time for when wrestling recommences and everything reopens, right,
(23:35):
So that just it had a lot a lot of
things that I did was a lot of hit workouts
in my basement, and a lot of running outside and
going to football fields and going to soccer fields and
you know, doing dry land training there, you know, bringing
my kettlebells, bringing my dumb bells, sprinting the field, and
(23:55):
then you know, doing some workouts in between stuff like that.
So you need to be ready to go when thing's
reopen for sure.
Speaker 1 (24:04):
Yeah. Yeah, I always thought that was dumb. Wh people
would just be like, Okay, I'm just gonna hang out
at my house and not do anything. I was like,
mm hmm, that's not how that works, you know.
Speaker 4 (24:11):
What and to each their own right, to their own.
But you know what, you can't be comfortable because every
hour that you're sitting on your ass doing nothing, there's
an athlete out there who is busting theirs too, outshine you.
Speaker 1 (24:31):
Yeah. Yeah, it's funny when people are like, oh, I
don't have time for this. I'm like, okay, go on
your phone. What is your screen time for this week?
Tell me you don't have time, because you do.
Speaker 3 (24:40):
Absolutely.
Speaker 1 (24:41):
Yeah. So I always ask the I this question came
up randomly, and now I ask all the wrestlers this,
Do you have a double stick tape? Story?
Speaker 3 (24:54):
A double what?
Speaker 1 (24:55):
Double stick tape tape work taking on both sides? Some
people use it for the wardrobe just to keep things
in or.
Speaker 3 (25:03):
Oh double stick tape, yes, yes, I do.
Speaker 4 (25:07):
Well, I this is for my outfit right right, So
for the longest time, and like this literally just change now.
So from twenty nineteen until now, I was using it's
it's almost like a fabric to body glue.
Speaker 3 (25:27):
Oh no, fabric body adhesive.
Speaker 1 (25:31):
Okay.
Speaker 3 (25:31):
So because I have these.
Speaker 4 (25:33):
Like really high leggings that stick to my legs and
I got to keep them on the entire match. So
you would just it's like a roll on clear adhesive
and you put on your skin and then gets sticky.
Speaker 3 (25:45):
Then you can just like I've never heard of that,
pick your.
Speaker 4 (25:48):
Clothing to it, but lately I've been wearing a lot
more leggings and stockings and stuff like that where sorry
like nylons, like nylons underneath my leggings, so I need
the leggings to stick to the nylons. So I've been
using this double sided it's like a it's not a tape,
(26:11):
it's a fabric. Oh really, So you can you peel
off one side and it's sticky.
Speaker 3 (26:20):
There's an adhesive there.
Speaker 4 (26:21):
The other side is almost like a belcrow. So I
think it's for people who want to use it to
stick something to their couches or maybe stick their couch
together that maybe tore in the corner or something. Right,
But so that I guess that's what I'm using right now.
It comes in a big roll and I just cut
off a piece and that's what I'm using.
Speaker 1 (26:43):
So I did not know about that adhesive where you
just put it on your skin. I feel like that
would just I guess depending on your skin and depending
on your reactions to things. It would just leave a
rash or some sort. But that's I haven't heard that.
Speaker 3 (26:55):
Yeah, no rashes for me.
Speaker 4 (26:57):
And it comes off by way of water or sweat,
so sometimes it wasn't perfect. So sometimes if I'm sweating
a lot during a match, then yeah, my legging may
come off a little bit.
Speaker 3 (27:08):
But interesting, it comes off very easily.
Speaker 1 (27:10):
So okay, I hadn't heard that. That's good. Show days
are long days, and as you're used to long shifts,
what do you what is the standard in your bag
for show day?
Speaker 3 (27:24):
Standard in my bag for show day? So I have
an entire.
Speaker 4 (27:30):
Makeup kit in there, aside from the personal one that
I use a home, because this is just the one
I travel with. You know. I've got my deorder in there.
I've got some body spray. I always make sure to
have a sweat towel.
Speaker 1 (27:44):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (27:45):
I always make sure to have one or two back
up protein bars in there.
Speaker 3 (27:51):
And I also have like a mammoth mug or like
a big like a big jug that I.
Speaker 4 (27:55):
Fill up with like BCA because I need to stay
hydrated the entire time.
Speaker 3 (28:00):
And I find that there's a lot.
Speaker 4 (28:01):
Of locations I travel to and work at, and sometimes
they don't provide water or anything like that. Yeah, So
I and like, I always bring my lunch bag with
me separately as well, So I always packed my own lunches.
I never want to rely on a location to feed
me and provide me beverages. I always have to make
sure that I've got that down myself. So yeah, aside
(28:25):
from my gear, I would say, like, my one of
my most important things is my fuel, which is my
food in my hydration.
Speaker 1 (28:33):
Yeah. I've worked many of shows as well where there's
no food or water and I'm alway, Yeah, I always
tell people, I'm like, like you said, don't provide. Don't
think that they're going to provide you with this stuff
you have.
Speaker 4 (28:44):
Yeah, Like even this past summer, I you know, I
was at a show and it was.
Speaker 3 (28:48):
An outdoor show. It was super hot outside.
Speaker 4 (28:51):
I was maybe twenty eight celsius and it was just
sunny and sunny, no clouds, and everyone was just dying.
You know.
Speaker 3 (29:00):
I had one or.
Speaker 4 (29:01):
Two workers have to like rely on me and ask
me to have you know, a drink of my of
my jug because they didn't bring their own.
Speaker 3 (29:10):
But it's like, I don't know.
Speaker 4 (29:12):
My saying has always failed to fail to prepare, prepare
to fail? Right, Like, why why would you want to
be dehydrated and feel that way when you're working a
match outside?
Speaker 3 (29:22):
That's insane.
Speaker 1 (29:23):
Yeah, I'm just a ring ann answer. And we worked
a show in August in no Ac, very hot. I
was wearing a suit, sweated all the way through it.
But again I always had the water because yeah, anatowel
in between.
Speaker 3 (29:36):
Towel is very important for sure.
Speaker 1 (29:38):
Yes. Now, if people have never seen you wrestle before,
what three matches did they go out of the way
to watch?
Speaker 3 (29:46):
Great question, Great question.
Speaker 4 (29:48):
I guess the first one would be me versus abadon
Ring of Honor. The second one I would probably say,
I'm gonna have to pause that answer second because I'm
(30:12):
drawing a blank. There is a match that was in
twenty nineteen or twenty eight, twenty nineteen, twenty twenty called
it was a show called Revolution with Rebel that was
there and Keasey Spinelli is a woman's tag team match.
I really liked that one. I tagged with violently there.
(30:34):
And what would my third one be? I really liked
my match versus Alison Kay at Big League Pro.
Speaker 3 (30:47):
Last year, and I think we were in we were
somewhere in Pennsylvania. So yeah, that was a good one.
Speaker 4 (30:53):
Nice and that's all just for the elite athlete Nova
and I do have a alter ego, which is the
black widow nurse Nova Kaneya. So that's a whole different ballgame.
If you want to see something a little bit darker,
that's with Daman Luca only I only work as Nurse Snova,
King of damand Luca and I those are very challenging
(31:19):
to my character. I get to work on a little
bit more character work there. And one really fun match
you could watch is a tag team match versus It
was myself and doctors Soakoff versus Space Monkey and Microman.
(31:39):
Microman came straight from Mexico and it was a very
very fun match to watch.
Speaker 1 (31:46):
I've tried to have him on the show, but he
speaks no English. What was it like communicating with him?
Was there an interpreter between you?
Speaker 4 (31:53):
So Rob Fuego El Fuego was there and he does
speak Spanish, gotcha. So he was the middleman in between
the communication between myself and Microman to assist us with
that match playing gotcha.
Speaker 1 (32:08):
Okay. I love everything he's doing, and obviously that spot
with him, and almost was that they broke the internet,
which it was after a show I worked, and so
I was watching everything on Twitter and I was like,
this is the greatest thing I've ever seen. He's so tiny,
he's so huge, and those guys together were fantastic.
Speaker 3 (32:26):
Absolutely.
Speaker 4 (32:27):
Yeah, he was a lot of fun to work with
and I would absolutely welcome him back anytime. I think
he's actually he's coming to Demand Luca this month, but
I can't make that show unfortunately, but I would absolutely
love to work with him.
Speaker 1 (32:39):
Account I love that. Well. I have a segment on
a show I call it the five count, which is
five random questions.
Speaker 3 (32:45):
Okay, I'm ready.
Speaker 1 (32:46):
A favorite band when you were a kid versus now.
Speaker 3 (32:52):
Lincoln Park?
Speaker 1 (32:53):
Okay, nice?
Speaker 4 (32:56):
And now.
Speaker 3 (33:01):
There's so many out there. System of a down I'm
still into them.
Speaker 1 (33:07):
Uh, those first two happens, they're fantastic. Yeah. If you
owned a liquor company, brewery, winery, coffee shop, or dispensary,
which one would you own? And what would the name be?
Speaker 4 (33:18):
That's easy, Well, not the name. I didn't think of
the name yet. But I am a bit of a crafty,
so you'd be a craft brewery.
Speaker 1 (33:25):
Yeah, I love it.
Speaker 4 (33:28):
And I'm I can't think of anything. I'm trying to
think of something like Nova but crafty. I'll just say
nov Nation come on down and Novination no nomination craft
brewery where we only sell I pash.
Speaker 3 (33:47):
I mean that's my thing.
Speaker 1 (33:49):
Considering how cold it gets, I think you might want
to have some stouts or some other ones up there.
Speaker 3 (33:54):
I know I need to keep it universal.
Speaker 1 (33:58):
Number three. Have you seen or felt a ghost?
Speaker 3 (34:02):
Seen or felt a ghost? No? But growing up absolutely
loved witchcraft? Oh yeah, loved it?
Speaker 1 (34:12):
Number four? Who are what inspires you?
Speaker 4 (34:18):
I would have to say Jeff Hardy inspired me, The
Rock inspired me, Stonefold inspired me, kurd Angle inspired me,
a lot of the Attitude era wrestlers inspired me.
Speaker 3 (34:29):
Lida one hundred percent Lida.
Speaker 1 (34:32):
And what about in life? Pardon me? What about in
life too?
Speaker 4 (34:37):
In life, I would say my biggest inspiration is my grandmother.
She is turning in ninety next month, and it's going
to be actually following a match that I have at
Project Ex Wrestling, So I'm going to be going home
to my hometown for that, which is amazing.
Speaker 3 (34:56):
And no matter what I do, no matter who who.
Speaker 4 (35:00):
I'm talking to or you know, even working on the
road and first as a first responder, any person I'm
interacting with, I always want to treat everybody as though
my grandma is watching. I love that, and that's how
I go about dealing with people.
Speaker 1 (35:17):
That's fantastic.
Speaker 3 (35:18):
Yeah, so you know, she helps me.
Speaker 4 (35:20):
She helps me become a better person and be a
better person and just treat everybody with respect and care.
Speaker 3 (35:28):
She's amazing.
Speaker 1 (35:30):
Yeah. My nana just turned ninety last month. Yeah, last month,
and so yeah, she's still getting around great, and it's fantastic.
Speaker 4 (35:37):
I think we are both very very blessed you and
you and me to be able to be the age
that we are and still have our grandmothers around because
a lot of people don't.
Speaker 1 (35:48):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (35:49):
I consider myself very lucky.
Speaker 1 (35:51):
Yeah. I never grew up with grandfathers, but my mom's
mom passed when just after I was done with high school.
My brother I think was graduating at the time. So yeah,
but yeah, yeah, like you said, we're very lucky. Yes,
And then number five, what would you tell your seventeen
year old self?
Speaker 3 (36:11):
That's a great question.
Speaker 4 (36:13):
I would tell my seventeen year old self to not
be so focused on fitting in and trying to be
your look a certain way to impress that group of girls,
because a decade from now, they're probably not going to
(36:35):
be around anyways, and the only person you're really going
to have to be successful is yourself. So just listen
to yourself and be yourself and it'll all work out.
Speaker 1 (36:48):
I love that. Yeah, girls deafinitely need to hear that
nowadays too.
Speaker 3 (36:52):
Thank you.
Speaker 1 (36:53):
Yeah. Now people want to find out more about you,
follow you online, go to your website, which you have
lots of merch on there, see you, you know, live
all the things. How can they do it?
Speaker 4 (37:03):
I have social media on pretty much every platform, so
you know, Instagram, Facebook, Twitter.
Speaker 3 (37:11):
Or sorry x TikTok. I'm working on that a little
bit more.
Speaker 4 (37:17):
I have pro pro wrestling teas and my own website,
so everything aside from my own website which is Nova
wrestler dot com, but my handle is Nova wrestler on
essentially everything. I've made it very very simple.
Speaker 1 (37:30):
That it's smart, and I'm glad you were able to
do it before somebody else had grabbed it.
Speaker 3 (37:33):
Absolutely.
Speaker 1 (37:34):
Yeah, well, thank you so much for all this. I think,
I mean, I didn't even get into your acting or
anything else that you're doing. So I feel like I.
Speaker 3 (37:42):
Will we'll have a part two sometime.
Speaker 1 (37:44):
I would love that I'll be up in Canada in
April actually so or first weekend in May, so maybe
we can get together sometimes.
Speaker 2 (37:52):
Awesome, Thank you so much to note.
Speaker 1 (38:06):
For being on the show again. You've got to support
our local wrestlers. We've got to support our first responders.
It is definitely a job that neither one of us
are doing, so we've got to pay respect to the
people that are doing those So Nova is doing fantastic
things up in Canada and then obviously, as you mentioned,
sometimes here in America. So definitely make sure to follow
her on social media and see what she's doing, and
(38:27):
also make sure to follow us on social media. It
is Brewiserspod. That is b R E W S C
R S p O D on the Instagram, the threads,
and the Twitter. If you want to send us an email,
it is Bruiserspod at gmail dot com. If you want
to follow me directly, it is Roady John. That is
our d E j O N. Roady John is the
name on the Twitter and an untapped case you find
out when you're drinking, maybe we can have a beer
(38:47):
together if you want to follow me on the threads
or the Instagram. It is a fisher Ordy John, So
until next time, make sure to enjoy life, drink local
and cheers
Speaker 4 (39:07):
Three two FO
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Crime Junkie
Does hearing about a true crime case always leave you scouring the internet for the truth behind the story? Dive into your next mystery with Crime Junkie. Every Monday, join your host Ashley Flowers as she unravels all the details of infamous and underreported true crime cases with her best friend Brit Prawat. From cold cases to missing persons and heroes in our community who seek justice, Crime Junkie is your destination for theories and stories you won’t hear anywhere else. Whether you're a seasoned true crime enthusiast or new to the genre, you'll find yourself on the edge of your seat awaiting a new episode every Monday. If you can never get enough true crime... Congratulations, you’ve found your people. Follow to join a community of Crime Junkies! Crime Junkie is presented by Audiochuck Media Company.
The Brothers Ortiz
The Brothers Ortiz is the story of two brothers–both successful, but in very different ways. Gabe Ortiz becomes a third-highest ranking officer in all of Texas while his younger brother Larry climbs the ranks in Puro Tango Blast, a notorious Texas Prison gang. Gabe doesn’t know all the details of his brother’s nefarious dealings, and he’s made a point not to ask, to protect their relationship. But when Larry is murdered during a home invasion in a rented beach house, Gabe has no choice but to look into what happened that night. To solve Larry’s murder, Gabe, and the whole Ortiz family, must ask each other tough questions.