In an exclusive interview with PWMania.com’s Scott Mitchell (@ScottsScoop44), Hyan spoke about her career up to this point, working with WWE, AEW, IMPACT, future goals, and a whole lot more.
The Beginning of Hyan
When she was about six or seven years old, Hyan found out about a sport that she would come to fall in love with. “My family is really big into pro wrestling,” says Hyan. “My grandpa used to go to watch the Lucha Libre shows in Mexico.”
After coming to the United States, Hyan’s family continued to go see professional wrestling shows in Houston. “It was a weekly show, and just something cheap for everyone to go to and enjoy,” Hyan tells PW Mania. “That’s how it all started. When my family began having kids, it was just the thing we did and all watched together.”
Growing up, Hyan was a massive Trish Stratus fan. “As I continued to watch, Eddie Guerrero and Rey Mysterio became a couple of my favorites as well,” says Hyan. Hyan was drawn to their “Mexican influence” which helped her become a fan of theirs rather quickly. However, her ultimate favorite as a kid was John Cena.
“It was always something I wanted to do,” says Hyan when asked about why she got into professional wrestling training. “When I was studying at the University of Houston, I got some tickets to the TLC show that year. I haven’t seen wrestling for a few years before that year, but I was super excited to go.”
Hyan wanted to make a big wrestling weekend out of it and began looking up more shows in that area. “I didn’t know much about independent wrestling, but I began searching for shows and I found Booker T’s Reality of Wrestling show,” states Hyan. “It was their Christmas Chaos show. I wasn’t expecting much, but it was a lot of fun. I remember seeing Mysterious Q wrestle, and now they’re like my best friend.”
Hyan approached Booker T and Stevie Ray after the show and asked how she could become a wrestler. “Booker T told me about his school, and I signed up a few months later,” says Hyan. Hyan trained with Booker at his school and got to learn from one of the best mentors around today, Booker T.
“He was a big influence on me,” states Hyan. “Erik Lockhart as well, who is now based out of Florida. He took me under his wing when I first started and just taught me so much. He’s an amazing wrestler. He’s so underrated, and more people should know about him. He was a big part of my early training.”
As her training got more advanced, Gino Medina and JJ Blake played a big role in Hyan’s training. “They both took me under their wing and showed me the ropes,” states Hyan. “They helped me to become a more advanced wrestler.”
Hyan would go on to have quite the career so far at Reality of Wrestling, winning the Diamond’s Championship multiple times. “The first time I won it, it was emotional,” says Hyan. “Kylie (Rae) and I were in the main event of the show, and women hadn’t been main eventing shows, especially in Texas at that time, so it was a very big deal.”
“Booker was always really hard on me when I first started training,” states Hyan. “I challenged for that belt like a million times prior, but I had never won it. When they decided to put the championship on me, it meant a lot. It’s really hard to get a green light from Booker, but when I got it from him it meant a lot and gave me a lot of the confidence that I needed.”
“It was great working with that group of girls there,” says Hyan. “The great thing about ROW is that they hold the women to the same standard that they hold the men to. We have a lot of talented women who come out of that school. We all want to get better. We are all very open to feedback. Even if we wrestle each other a couple of times, the matches get better because of all the feedback and critiques we take to become the best we could be.”
Hyan Continues Her Rise to Stardom
Hyan continued to make a name for herself as she wrestled all over the independent wrestling scene. One of the companies she wrestled at multiple times is RISE. She has gotten to work with multiple names there, including Shazza McKenzie.
“I loved working with Shazza,” states Hyan. “I had a match with her and it was right before the Shimmer weekend. Shazza helped me with a lot of the psychology stuff in that match. I feel like we did so well because the following weekend I got a spot on Shimmer. I got to challenge her for the Heart of Shimmer title, which I would later go on to win there.”
Hyan developed quite the resume throughout her time at Shimmer. “I love Shimmer and miss them dearly,” says Hyan. “What we were doing over there was amazing. Those weekends were so long and tiring. It was two shows per day, so four shows over two days. We were getting there early, staying late, and wrestling multiple times. Being in that pressure cooker situation made me grow a lot.”
Throughout her time in Shimmer, Hyan worked with many people, including Kay Lee Ray, and Saraya Knight. “They were so much more experience than I was at the time,” states Hyan. “It was so much fun to work with them, and I learned so much from them. Every time I wrestled there I always left with something new.”
Hyan Talks on Traveling to Japan
A couple of years back, Hyan got the opportunity to travel to Japan an experience that she will remember for the rest of her life. “It was so cool,” says Hyan. “I went there for Marvelous, but I got to do so much more there.”
“It was a very different experience from maybe other girls who had gone there because I was living in the dojo and training there every day,” says Hyan. “We would do two training sessions a day. The morning was a lot of strength and conditioning, and then we would have lunch. After lunch, we did all the in-ring stuff.”
Getting to learn the Japanese style of wrestling was amazing for Hyan and something she described as a “very unique experience.” While she was in Japan, she didn’t just get to wrestle for Marvelous, she had quite a few more shows.
“I also got to wrestle for Sendai girls,” says Hyan. “I got to wrestle Meiko Satomura, tag with Aja Kong, and I also got to go to Pro Wrestling Wave as well.” For Hyan, it was very cool to work with everyone there and incredibly awesome to work with Meiko Satomura.
“I remember she told me she would call our match in the ring,” says Hyan. “She took care of me. Same with Hikaru Shida in a tag match for Sendai Girls. She pulled me aside and made sure I was fully understanding everything and just checked in with me a lot to make sure I was okay.”
“There’s a lot of companies outside of Stardom or Tokyo Joshi Pro,” says Hyan. “It was cool to go to different companies and see their style of wrestling.”
Working for Ring of Honor
Working for Ring of Honor was a very interesting experience for Hyan. “We were doing tapings and it was still during the Pandemic, so there were no fans,” says Hyan. “I had done a few no-fan shows so I was fairly used to that.”
However, this time things were a bit different in front of no fans. “It was different because the venue where we taped the shows was so large,” states Hyan. “It was strange to do a no-fan show in that big of a venue, but it was a very fun experience.”
Working with Nia Jax on Monday Night Raw
Early on in her career, Hyan was presented with an opportunity to work on Monday Night Raw in a match. “It was cool,” states Hyan. “It was so long ago and I was still really new. It was cool because it was in Houston at the Toyota Center, and it was Monday Night Raw.”
Hyan went into this situation and just tried to soak up as much as she possibly could. “Who knows when the next time I’ll be able to do this will be,” says Hyan. “Nia was incredibly nice. Everyone was so nice to me backstage. I remember everyone blowing up my phone too. That was a lot of fun. I thought I’d be more nervous, but there wasn’t much for me to be nervous about.”
Hyan makes an IMPACT
Not too long ago, Hyan was able to compete for IMPACT Wrestling where she squared off against Mickie James, and Gisele Shaw. “I love Mickie James, and I was such a big fan of hers,” says Hyan. “Getting to meet her was cool. I got starstruck so I had to try and keep it all inside and just act normal.”
“She is just incredibly kind and so knowledgeable,” states Hyan. “One day I would love to have another match with her. I can’t say enough good things about her. She’s a total sweetheart, and I loved working with her.”
Working with Gisele was equally great for Hyan too. “I worked with her a lot in the UK, which is where we met,” says Hyan. “We just had instant chemistry. When I got to wrestle her in IMPACT, I just immediately thought it would be perfect because I knew I would be able to go with her in the ring. She wanted me to have a great showing too, which I appreciated a lot.”
Being Recognized by PWI
In a recent edition of PWI, Hyan was recognized to have had one of 2022’s Top Feuds with Raychell Rose. “Raychell Rose and I both came through ROW,” states Hyan. “We know each other very well and just have that natural chemistry.”
The level of trust is also there between the two women. “She knows I’ll always have her best interest in the match, and I know that about her too,” states Hyan. “We are friends outside of the ring. It made for a great feud that we got to build on. It was super huge for that to get noticed on a larger scale.”
Hyan Goes All Elite
Recently, Hyan got to work with Mercedes Martinez in a Ring of Honor Women’s World Championship match live on AEW Dynamite. “Working with Mercedes was so much fun,” says Hyan. “It was in Houston, and at the building where I graduated from at the University of Houston.”
“I just have such a high respect for her,” says Hyan. “Whenever I was still learning and coming up, I would fly myself out and pay to go to her seminars. She’s someone I’ve always looked up to and loved her style of wrestling. She’s someone who does wrestling the best, and that’s my opinion.”
Regardless of whether it’s a five-minute match, for a title or not, getting to wrestle Mercedes Martinez is a highlight of Hyan’s career. “Every time I’m around her I learn something,” says Hyan. “I’m just so grateful I got to have that experience with her. I didn’t know it was going to be for the title.”
When she arrived at AEW that day, she went to catering and didn’t even know she was going to be in a match. “I just remember Mercedes coming up behind me and telling me that it was her and I for the title so we got to have a match,” states Hyan. “I was like hell yeah, that was cool and it was unexpected, but a great experience.”
What’s Next for Hyan?
One of Hyan’s biggest goals right now is to just return to Japan. “When I was there the first time, it was about three months,” says Hyan. “I had the pleasure of being fully immersed in the country, culture, and just seeing wrestling from the Japanese perspective.”
Arguably, the biggest goal for Hyan right now is to wrestle for New Japan. “New Japan is the style of wrestling that I love” states Hyan. “I never thought it would be a possibility because for so long they only booked men. The door of being a woman and wrestling for New Japan hadn’t been opened until about six months or so ago. They’re starting to use women on New Japan Strong in America. That is my ultimate goal right now.”
You can find Hyan on Twitter and Instagram, and support her by buying merch at her ProWrestlingTees store.
