Reality of Wrestling star AQA talks training with Booker T and more!
ROW Diamonds Division Champion AQA spoke to us recently about training with Booker T at Reality of Wrestling, how she became a wrestling fan, and much more.
Booker T’s Reality of Wrestling has helped produce several top tier talents in the industry, including WWE superstar Ember Moon and AEW competitor Kylie Rae. Today, the top woman in Reality of Wrestling is 22-year-old ROW Diamonds Division Champion AQA.
Despite her age, and less than two years of in-ring experience, AQA has improved and evolved with every opportunity she’s earned in Reality of Wrestling. On top of leading the charge in ROW, AQA has also found herself with opportunities in RISE and Shimmer.
We recently got the chance to speak exclusively to ROW Diamonds Division Champion AQA about how she became a wrestling fan, her experiences training at Booker T’s Reality of Wrestling, working with Saraya Knight, and so much more.
Patches Chance: What first made you a wrestling fan?
AQA: It started with my grandfather. He’s a huge wrestling fan, and he would always watch it, but I don’t think I ever paid attention to it. And one day I was in the living room—I was about ten years old. I was just playing around with my toys or whatever, and I heard this loud thud.
And I looked up instantly, and I can’t remember for the life of me what match it was, but I knew I was hooked from that day forward. And the next day, I went outside on the trampoline and started teaching myself everything that I saw. And that’s how I became a fan.
PC: When did you decide you wanted to become a wrestler?
AQA: It was that moment, but it wasn’t until I left my senior year of college that I think my family took it seriously. My mom always took it seriously, but everyone else was like, ‘okay, once you get through school,’ or whatever.
Or I think they thought it was a phase? And it wasn’t until I made the initiative to move out to Houston to come to Booker T’s Reality of Wrestling that everyone was like, ‘oh my gosh, she was serious about this.’ And then they all hopped on board.
PC: How helpful has it been to have family nearby that can support you as you train at ROW and work your way up the ranks?
AQA: It’s amazing. Because it’s like—there are some days when I come home from training and I just don’t feel like I did a good job, or it just wasn’t a good day for me. It’s good to have those people that you know, and people that you know that love and support you, to lift you up and say, ‘okay, you’re gonna have a bad day. It’s gonna be like this sometimes, but it’s okay. You gotta keep going forward.’
It’s good to have someone see something from a different perspective. My family, they can see things all the time that I don’t see yet, and they’ll tell me. And it’s good to have that because a lot of people don’t have that type of support. Because you look at wrestling, a lot of people don’t take wrestling seriously. They’ll think, ‘oh, that’s not a real job.’
And you know, a lot of people, their family and their friends aren’t behind them. But to have everyone be behind me, especially my immediate family be behind me, it’s just been a great thing. It’s a home away from home. I don’t get homesickness from not being in Alabama because I have immediate family here. So, wherever I go, I just feel loved, and it’s been a great help.
PC: When did you start training to be a wrestler?
AQA: I started training June 5, 2017, after a fantasy camp that Booker had on June 3rd. So, my idea was, I’m gonna go to the camp and see if I like it. If I like it, then I’m staying. If I don’t like it, then I’ll go back to college. And, well, I loved it. And here we are.