Amber Nova Talks Becoming One of the Top Independent Wrestlers

Amber Nova, also known as “The American Muscle Mechanic,” is one of the hottest free agents around today. She has wrestled in Impact Wrestling, NXT, and most recently in AEW. Nova has built up quite the resume for herself and is still in the very early part of her career.

The Beginning of Amber Nova

Amber Nova got into professional wrestling because of her dad. “I watched it growing up as a kid,” says Nova.  “It’s always been something that I’ve really wanted to go after. Growing up, Nova was a big WCW fan. “I loved Goldberg, Sting, Booker T,” says Nova. “I got to meet Sting as a co-worker in AEW, and that was awesome.”

Nova was also a big fan of Shawn Michaels as well. She would watch his matches to get ideas for her matches and says that he is an inspiration to her. Nova was also a fan of Alundra Blayze, Victoria, Lita, Trish Stratus, and Luna Vachon. Vachon inspired Nova’s first set of wrestling gear.

Nova compared her size to that of AJ Lee. “Growing up, I thought I could never do something like this,” says Nova. “I saw these women around my size doing it and I realized I wasn’t too small to do something like this.”

Before becoming a professional wrestler, Amber Nova worked as an EMT. “Becoming an EMT wasn’t easy,” says Nova. She always knew she wanted to help people, which led to her becoming an EMT. “It was a very hectic job, a lot of fight or flight response situations.”

When Nova transferred to be a professional wrestler, it was something she knew could make work. “I’ve always been very aware of safety because of my basic life skills, but it wasn’t an easy transition.” Thus, the American Muscle Mechanic was born.

The American Muscle Mechanic, Amber Nova

Growing up, Amber Nova’s father got her big into cars. One of Nova’s biggest passions is American Muscle and her 1973 Chevy Nova. “My passion for classic American muscle cars came from my dad who was a mechanic,” says Nova. “He restored classic cars his whole life.”

Nova was always inspired by classic cars. The very first one she got was a four-door 73 Chevy Nova. “My dad taught me if I wanted something done, I had to do it myself, I was handed a wrench and got to work.” “My gimmick is my real-life character,” says Nova.

Amber Nova Begins Training

Amber Nova has had a ton of excellent trainers in her career. She learned from some of the best including Lince Dorado, Hector Guerrero, Matt Sydal, Ivelisse, Low-Ki, Josh Woods, Scott Hall, and Larry Zybsko. “It was a wonderful experience working with them and I learned so much from all of them,” says Nova.

“When I first started, I didn’t know much,” says Nova. “Some people were very helpful.” Nova made a big move to Florida to better pursue her dream of being a professional wrestler. This wasn’t easy for her though as she didn’t really have anyone here. “Some people weren’t very helpful, that’s just how the business is.”

The American Muscle Mechanic Makes an Impact

In April 2017, Amber Nova made her debut in Impact Wrestling. She debuted in a losing effort to another incredible women’s wrestler, Allie. This was Nova’s first television experience with them. “It was great,” says Nova. “I got to work with all these veteran women, they kept bringing me back.

Throughout her time in Impact, Amber Nova got to wrestle some of the best women’s wrestlers in the world which includes, Su Yung, Allie, Taya Valkyrie, Rosemary, and Sienna. “The women were so sweet and helpful,” says Nova.

Amber Nova really enjoyed wrestling Rosemary. “She was always so theatrical, she’s really an artist,” says Nova. Although she got beat up, Amber Nova also really enjoyed wrestling Taya Valkyrie as well. “The women were great and I’m grateful for my time there.”

Amber Nova’s Time in WWE NXT

In August of 2018, Nova appeared on an episode of NXT where she wrestled Nikki Cross. “I wasn’t ready and I was like oh god,” says Nova. “It was great though, Nikki is a sweetheart and it was a really good learning experience wrestling someone like her.”

In January of 2019, Nova made her return to NXT where she teamed up with Tanea (Rebel) and took on Io Shirai and Kairi Sane. This match was right before they announced the women’s tag titles for WWE. “I was so happy to be a stepping stone towards the Women’s Tag Titles,” says Nova.

Throughout her time in NXT, Nova’s agents were Sara Del Ray and Serena Deeb. “They were two incredible women to learn from,” says Nova. “I hope to go back soon and show them how much I’ve learned wrestling all over.”

Amber Nova Wrestles Goes All-Elite

Amber Nova has most recently been displaying her talents on All Elite Wrestling. In April of 2021, Nova made her debut in All Elite Wrestling teaming with Queen Aminata to take on Big Swole and Red Velvet. Nova came up short but would continue to be brought back to AEW to have matches.

In her time at AEW, Nova has wrestled the likes of Kris Statlander, Leyla Hirsch, Riho, Yuka Sakazaki, Jade Cargill, and Ruby Soho. In March, she last appeared on AEW when she faced Ruby Soho, coming up just short.

“I’ve had some good opportunities and matches,” says Nova. “Jade Cargill is wonderful,” Nova says that the environment in AEW was similar for unsigned talent to WWE, which isn’t a bad thing. “People are very nice and very helpful.”

“I appreciate the opportunity they give people like me, between Dark and Elevation.” Paul Wight commentated on one of her matches in AEW, where he put over her gimmick while she wrestled Yuka. This moment for Nova was best described as “amazing.”

Throughout her time in AEW, Amber had quite a few different agents. “Kenny Omega was the agent to probably my best TV matches ever, against Riho and Yuka,” says Nova. “It was also great getting to work with Ace Steele as well for the Ruby Soho match, it’s been a great experience.”

Amber Nova on Women’s Wrestling

Women’s wrestling has evolved a ton over the years, and rightfully so. Nova says she is happy with a lot of what they’ve already done and how it’s changed so much, but she hopes to see a few more things change in women’s wrestling.

“I hope to see more and more companies continue to grow and give women the opportunities to build their own characters as well,” says Nova. “Like me being a mechanic, instead of just writing me as a cheerleader type of woman, we can flip the script.”

“We are finally there with the main-eventing, match time, and ability,”  says Nova. “But, what about the storyline, the gimmick, the character, the drive? I want to see more character storyline development coming from women’s ideas and not just the writers.”

What’s Next For Amber Nova?

Right now, Amber Nova is in talks with some other TV opportunities outside of wrestling. “I’m a brand, and I’m a real-life character, not just a gimmick,” says Nova. Amber also says she is majorly about empowering women, so that’s something she will look to continue to do as well.

She also hopes to get a full-time TV contract as well, eventually. “I’m working on just building my brand and getting my story out there of who Amber Nova is.”

You can follow Amber Nova on Twitter, and Instagram.

If you’d like to check out her merch to support her, you can do so by clicking here.