The most recent installment of The Curtain Call is here, and this time it is with the jill of all trades, April Hunter. She does it all. Wrestling, acting, modeling, cosplay, you name it, she has done it. Beyond wrestling, Hunter is known from her time as a Playboy model as well as being a Met-Rx spokesperson.
She first speaks with Gerry Strauss about recently graduating with her focus on creative writing for entertainment. Her aim is to write for television.
As a recent graduate, she discusses how she is currently feeling lost with where she will go next as most graduates do. Strauss asks Hunter, who graduated from Full Sail University, if going to school there had people buzzing to work for WWE. Full Sail being, of course, the home of NXT. She responds with a resounding yes and had the following to say.
“The minute I graduated, the very first job offer that came across my inbox was my career advisor sending me one from WWE as a creative writer to work for NXT. She was like, ‘you really need to apply for this,’ and I was like, I really don’t.”
Following this, she was asked if she is officially retired from in-ring competition and wrestling. She stated that she would continue to do wrestling-related events such as for photoshoots. The reason being for her retirement from wrestling was as a result of a car accident.
“I was in a car accident a year and a half ago and I got banged up really really good. My neck and tailbone, I have six bulging and herniated discs in my neck and three in my tail bone and one of them is torn. I have been going through extensive physical therapy for that. It was a minor accident, I don’t know why I got butchered so well in that. Everything wrestling, if I gotten banged up wrestling, it has been on my right side because I have leaned right with all my bumping and everything. This got me completely on my left side because that is how everything hit with the car. So that was that, right then and there. I mean I was done wrestling before that, but I didn’t take anything else after that, even take a chance.”
Hunter spends some time discussing her training with Killer Kowalski and how she was the only female in the class. From this, she quickly toured the indie scene and went overseas. She explains to Strauss how difficult training was for her at Kowalski’s. She prefaced this by explaining that she has been in a bad relationship, has suffered from bipolar disorder since she was at least 12 years old, and has done a lot of hard stuff in her life including just graduating school as an adult.
“Killer Kowalski’s was the hardest thing I have ever done. I mean to this day,” says Hunter.
She continues the conversation by bringing up a recent conversation she had with a prior tag team partner Lorelei Lee. They were having a conversation about getting new jobs, moving on from wrestling, and handling life.
“We feel so lucky to have had wrestling to prepare us for the rest of life and the rest of the world because nothing could be that hard. I mean you walk into a room and you shake everyone’s hand. You go to a country by yourself where no one speaks the language and you can’t even order food and you are okay to do that. You can adjust to anything. You are being thrown around in a ring where it is the equivalent of being in a car accident and the worst workout from CrossFit in your life together, at the same time.”
April had one match with TNA in 2009 which was a tag team match with Lorelei Lee where they faced Sarita and Taylor Wilde. Strauss asked her based on a reader’s question if she would have continued with TNA for a more permanent basis if the opportunity presented itself. She explains that she was given that chance and turned it down.
“They did offer me a contract. Actually right after that show and the pay was really bad. Like, really bad. There were no benefits and they only paid you if they used you. They would also restrict anything else you were doing. If you were doing anything with the indies they would take a percentage. You couldn’t have anything else going on. Basically, they wanted you to put all your eggs in their basket for $300 a show. No insurance. You sign your life away. You had to sign a waiver that if you got hurt in the ring they weren’t responsible.”
She continued to discuss how Nikki Roxx had shattered her ankle at the show that April did. For as much as Roxx worked hard, and multiple matches and she stated that TNA wasn’t there for her. She stated that she and the other girls took her to the airport and made sure she made her flight. Nobody else was there for her. This left a bad impression for her. Afterward, she was offered a contract and she had a conversation with her then-husband who was also a wrestler about the opportunity.
“They offered me a contract and here are the terms. He was like, Are you fucking kidding me? You’re going to risk the injuries and everything else for that? You are going put everything else you have going on and throw it away and take a chance that maybe they’ll use you? If they like you? If someone has a crush on you? If they’re not using the girls they already have? Where do you fit into that mix? You got a point. So that was a no for me.”
Strauss discusses many more topics and asks several more question with April Hunter. You may click below to listen to the interview in its entirety.
Diva Dirt thanks April Hunter for taking the time to speak to Gerry Strauss on The Curtain Call for this exclusive interview.
The Curtain Call with Gerry Strauss is an interview series that gets you up close and personal with Pro Wrestling’s HOTTEST stars. To experience these conversations with VIDEO included, subscribe, rent or purchase them on demand at “The Curtain Call with Gerry Strauss” by clicking here.
