Veteran wrestler and former SHIMMER star Malia Hosaka has announced her retirement from wrestling after 25 years in the business.
Malia made the announcement on her Facebook page:
It has been a great 25 years, and I am grateful to all the fans who have supported me thru the years! but I am officially retired from the wrestling industry as of today. Thank you to all who supported/employed and believed in me thru the years!
Malia was originally trained by Killer Kowalski – a path WWF superstars such as Triple H and Chyna later took – and made her professional wrestling debut in August 1987 when she teamed with Misty Blue Simmes against Mad Dog Debbie Irons and Linda Dallas in a tag match.
After frequenting the likes of such women’s promotions as the Ladies Professional Wrestling Association (LPWA), the Ladies Major League Wrestling and Women’s Pro Wrestling for many years, Hosaka made her way to ECW. Although she debuted in October 1993 at NWA Bloodfest, she’s perhaps best known for an appearance at the ’93 November to Remember pay-per-view where she substituted for Madusa in a match against the late Sherri Martel. Malia won, by disqualification.
In 1996, she joined WCW to compete in their newly-formed women’s division. She was a part of their tournament to crown their first-ever WCW Women’s Champion, but was eliminated by Zero (aka Chigusa Nagayo). After that, she made many appearances on Monday Nitro and Saturday Night against the likes of Akira Hokuto, Leilani Kai and Madusa, and was the only American women’s wrestler as part of the tournament to crown the (short-lived) WCW Women’s Cruiserweight Championship – all of the other women in the tournament were from GAEA Japan. She also aided a young Molly Holly – then known as Starla Saxton – in getting her start with WCW.
In 1999, Hosaka signed a developmental deal with the WWF and made her debut for the company in a dark match against Brandy Alexander on March 29. It was a few months before she’d be seen on television – she appeared on the June 28 edition of Monday Night Raw as a fan who answered then-Women’s Champion Ivory‘s open challenge for her title.
As written on Malia’s official website, she was recognized from her appearances with WCW and the planned “Rocky Balboa” character for her was unfortunately scrapped. She also confirmed that she was originally supposed to be paired with the high-flying Essa Rios – and called “Aphrodisia” – but the role was later given to Lita.
After keeping Hosaka under contract for a year, the WWF released her due to lack of plans for her character.
From then, she became a staple on the independent circuit (and made several trips overseas to wrestle for the military troops), wrestling for WrestleReunion, WSU (where she was inducted into their Hall of Fame in 2009 by Alere Little Feather), Mid-Atlantic Championship Wrestling, and more. Malia made her debut for SHIMMER Women Athletes in February 2006 on Volume 3, later forming a dominant tag team with Lexie Fyfe known as “The Experience”. Although they failed to capture the SHIMMER Tag Team Championships, they left a lasting impression on the fans.
We here at Diva Dirt thank Malia for her 25 years of contributions to wrestling and we wish her the best of luck in whatever she chooses to do in the future!
Check out some classic videos of Malia below:
