WWE Superfan Izzy Hit With a Chokeslam at Florida Independent Show

If you’re on the internet at all today, you’ll probably run across a clip of pre-teen WWE superfan Izzy getting hit with a chokeslam at a Florida independent show. It’s the kind of thing that makes you question why you’re a wrestling fan.

I mention this in my Raw reviews from time to time, but for those of you who don’t know, I spend the majority of my time working as a music teacher. It’s fun and all, but as we come down the stretch of the dog days of summer, I try to milk as much time out of my summer routine as I can. And that routine has me waking up and checking for the latest and greatest of highlights from both WWE and the greater wrestling world.

So imagine my surprise today when I woke up, fired up r/SquaredCircle, and saw a thread titled, “Apparently Bayley’s 12 year old super fan, Izzy, took a chokeslam today at an indie show…”

And there it was: Full Sail University front row resident Izzy, decked out in her Bayley-inspired “ring gear,” attempting to hit Effy with the It Kicks made famous by The Miz, only to be caught by the throat, lifted up, and slammed down on the mat.

Depending on the source, Izzy is either 11 or 12 — but let’s not split hairs here. This is abjectly stupid. There’s a reason most reputable training schools in America require prospective students to be at very least a teenager before getting into the ring. Usually you need to be at least 16, or 18 and a legal adult, to subject yourself to the punishment associated with professional wrestling.

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Watching the videos of Izzy acting out her wildest dreams may initially seem heartwarming. She got to deliver a tilt-a-whirl DDT to Effy, as well as a Stunner (complete with a crotch chop before, because that’s not wildly inappropriate or anything). Oh, and spoiler alert: This was an officially sanctioned match for the Punk Pro Wrestling Internet Championship. I’ll give you three guesses who won.

But the chokeslam video is all anyone is going to pay attention to, because it’s the most egregious foul in the whole situation. I’m a 35 year old man who has dabbled in pro wrestling training, and I’ve been hit with my fair share of chokeslams. It’s not without risks, and the way Izzy’s head bounced off the mat isn’t good for a still-developing body.

I know what you’re thinking: What about Kenny Omega having a match with a nine-year-old in Japan? Well, first of all, her name is Harkua. Second of all, if you watch that match again, there’s nothing close to a whiplash bump caused by a chokeslam. Haruka twice went head first into the turnbuckle padding — basically a big pillow, and what kid hasn’t been in a pillow fight — and caught one enzuigiri from Omega.

Let’s not also forget that Haruka, though only nine, had been training for years in martial arts, and had been working with Stardom and DDT Pro for roughly two years prior to this match. Yes, it’s irresponsible to put a child in that situation. But the match — a three minute time limit draw — was also much safer than Izzy vs. Effy.

Say what you want about WWE, but at least they realized that having a child being one half of the Raw Tag Team Champions would only work if the kid didn’t actually do anything dangerous. And how many of those “Please don’t try this at home” ads did WWE run in the past? It’s for a reason — if you’re not trained, or if you’re too young, this is incredibly dangerous.

I don’t want to come off like a Jim Cornette, hootin’ and hollerin’ like Yosemite Sam on a caffeine rush about how this is killing the business. It’s wrestling — we fans are in on it these days. It’s entertainment — we want to see things that are more than the mundane of our everyday lives.

For his part, Effy is playing it up like this is going to ruin his career, but it won’t. I don’t know much about him, but a cursory glance through his Twitter profile indicates he’s one of the more progressive personalities in wrestling. Making the business more accessible for everyone is great, and should be applauded. But going about it this way is not the way to do it.

As a teacher, as someone who deals with middle school aged children on a daily basis between September and June, I won’t lie and say that I’ve never had those fleeting moments where I’d imagine myself chokeslamming a particularly difficult student. But to see it done, even in a controlled environment with a safe worker, it just seems plain wrong.