I've been waning in my fandom of professional wrestling, but one of the people who's helped reinforce it from time to time is 11 year-old Izzy Silyagi of central Florida.
WWE fans might recall her as the Bayley Superfan, who was made part of the canon surrounding Bayley's reign as NXT Champion and up to and including Bayley's "promotion" (your mileage may vary, as she has quite struggled on Raw) to the main roster.
After that promotion, Izzy got the wild idea to actually dream to become a professional wrestler!!
And her parents openly support her, so they got in touch with local wrestling schools and, very carefully, started treading the water.
Soon, Izzy began popping up as a mascot/manager/heel interference little shit in the matches of a wrestler named "Psycho Stan" in Mid-Florida Wrestling.
What would strike almost anybody who's followed the situation (especially those of us frustrated with the apparent spinning wheels all over pro wrestling these days!) is Izzy's abilities to talk on the microphone. They seem to come very naturally, and seem to blend (when she's a heel) a bit of Jim Cornette with a bit of Bobby Heenan.
Well, after Sunday, she will never be allowed to meet the former. He's too pissed off with her and her family.
Why?
Because, on Sunday in Central Florida, Izzy (booked as "Izzymania") had her first actual professional wrestling match.
At eleven years old.
Izzy, for a portion of this last several months, was taking gym sessions at the local UFC Gym, as well as weekly professional wrestling training courses with independent wrestling stars Santana Garrett and Tessa Blanchard (Tully's daughter) at Pro Wrestling 2.0.
It is why that gym is called "Pro Wrestling 2.0" that is one of the major concerns surrounding Sunday's event.
I mentioned this in June surrounding the Kenny Omega situation -- there was actually at least an open house (no one is saying how many more, but the family vehemently denies any further contact) with known child molester/wrestling school head Chasyn Rance.
There is, in fact, a purported Tweet out there claiming Rance attempted to contact Izzy's father Cody to train her privately, with a mention of the spot that's getting most of the rest of the attention with respect to this event.
(I'll let you hold for the Squick Factor on that one.)
The original iteration of the school at which Izzy was training was run by Rance, but, apparently motivated by learning of Rance's conviction for underage sex, a number of the trainers broke from Rance and created Pro Wrestling 2.0, where Izzy trained.
In fact, I would openly suggest that you get a download of the IndyKast podcast where Izzy and her parents Cody and Jenny are interviewed. Rance is brought up, and no punches are pulled: She apparently attended ONE seminar at the school Rance owns -- Rance then revealed his criminal record to Cody, and got the quite predictable response.
Had it been left at that, no harm nor foul. But apparently Rance had a few choice words on several different subjects as it relates to Cody, Izzy, etc. -- and Cody is, justifiably, not pleased.
You can download the IndyKast podcast of hers here (of course, iTunes, etc. are options). The discussion on Rance begins at about 22:45, if you want to skip to that part of it.
Well, anyway, apparently behind PW 2.0's back, the substantial promo skills of Izzy caught the attention of EFFY, an LGBTQ (EFFY thinks pansexual is the closest) independent wrestler of some repute in the area.
The two got together and started a pretty good Twitter feud, and they decided to pay it off in the form of an actual match, held last Sunday at Punk Pro Wrestling's "Can't Be Saved" supercard.
In the interests of protecting Izzy a bit, the two decided to add former "Blue Pants" Leva Bates to the match as a technical tag team partner for the 11 year-old girl, although the match was for EFFY's Internet Championship.
Well, during the match, this is the spot which got the most attention:
And I'll be the first to admit, even as a wrestling fan of 40+ years -- and even knowing this was a protected environment (not unlike 80-something Mae Young getting powerbombed (more like "along for the ride", as Bubba/Bully Ray took extreme care) off the stage on a Monday Night Raw), my reaction was "DEAR JESUS GOD!!!"
Izzy has had scoliosis. All of the concerns about the "bump card" every wrestler has, and how many punches you get on it, are valid. But she and her family are quick to point out EFFY's taking out most of the shock of the chokeslam, but not enough to lose the visual and audio.
The pro wrestling world, up to and including trainers like Lance Storm (and others), is condemning everyone involved. Jim Cornette, who has made the last several years of ranting against new PWI 500 #1 Kenny Omega for his match with a nine year old girl in the comedy DDT promotion in Japan, gave five minutes of similar rant on one of his podcasts. Zack Ryder has condemned the situation, as has Bayley's fiance, independent wrestler Aaron Solow. (And, though Solow has said he understands Izzy's position, he believes the adults involved wanted, simply, the viral moment.)
It has also materially cost Izzy her spot at Pro Wrestling 2.0. PW 2.0 trainer Chelsea Green joined the argument against the chokeslam on Twitter, and chose not to confront Izzy about it personally, drawing the ire of mother Jenny. This led to the cryptic tweet: "All good things come to an end!"
On the IndyKast podcast, the family revealed that she no longer affiliates with PW 2.0 -- and I can see that argument. That, basically, "if you're going to pull that shit, you can do it elsewhere!". The family has noted she has a couple offers.
But the family also is noting that the wrong viral moment came out of that match. Obviously (to anyone with knowledge of pro wrestling), Izzy won and is the Internet Champion. So, Izzy is 11 and female, EFFY is LGBTQ/pansexual.
So Izzy took to the mic and cut a promo, which I will close this post with, saying #WrestlingIsForEveryone. (Her father is one of the early fans in WWE/NXT of Finn Balor, who has latched onto a fundraising campaign for his rainbow gear for GLAAD.)
It was more than my first match....It was more than winning a title....it was more than a wrestling a match! It was a statement that #WrestlingIsForEveryone pic.twitter.com/kxHocsudrw— Izzy (@ItsIzzyMania) August 26, 2018
And this isn't the FIRST time Effy tried to go viral. The First time involved an incident where low rent Joey Ryan impersonator White Mike ate whipped cream out of his ass during a wrestling match. And... I'm not making that up.
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