Diva Dirt’s own Gerry Strauss is back with The Curtain Call and this time we have Ray Lyn!
Ray Lyn opened up to many topics including her family dynamic growing up, her early days in Ohio Valley Wrestling (OVW), and her employment outside of professional wrestler.
Prior to becoming a pro wrestler, Lyn worked two jobs as a barber and a bartender. She was working at a sports bar at this time and the other people at the bar would always be watching RAW.
She would watch wrestling while growing up. Having eight boy cousins and a brother was a huge factor. Although she didn’t follow wrestling since being a kid she gravitated towards it from this encounter working at the bar. While still being a barber on the side to this day, she eventually would let go of her bartending days putting them behind her.
What led her to become a professional wrestler can be considered an awakening after a trying time in her life.
From this she explained what influenced her into becoming a professional wrestlers:
“I had an unfortunate event, my father passed away, untimely. He is only 50 years old and I was like, man, life is really short and I really just didn’t feel like I was reaching my full potential behind the chair (as a barber) or behind the bar,” she said. “I just wasn’t reaching my potential. I wanted to get out, I wanted to travel more, and I thought what better thing to do then to become a pro wrestler.”
Continuing, she added the following, “So I always tell people when I lost my dad one door closed in my life and another door I just blew open.”
Prior to opening up on what pushed her to become a wrestler, she mentions her childhood. She was the only girl in the family.
As mentioned earlier, she was surrounded by eight boy cousins and a brother. From this, she always considered herself a tomboy and wanted to be like one of the boys and break any gender stereotype.
“My grandpa would always be like, you’re a young lady you shouldn’t be fighting (when referring to wrestling) and that made me so mad,” she said. Well the boys are always fighting and they can do this and that and that always frustrated me. So I always felt a really strong pull to do things to break gender rules for sure.”
Ray Lyn also took the time to answer many fan questions. These questions include who her favorite is in Hocus Pocus and her favorite movies. She also answers which wrestlers she liked to watch while growing up, and her hobbies.
During this question and answer portion, she answered the tough question of who has been her favorite opponent thus far in her career. It was a hard question for her to answer since she has wrestled many wonderful women and men. After thinking for a moment she decided on Mickie James.
“I got to wrestle Mickie James once and that was really cool! That was really cool because I have always looked up to her. So we will go with Mickie James. I was so new and she was very patient with me, which speaks to her character. She is an awesome person all around and she is incredible in and out of the ring.”
Strauss adds to the conversation about how he feels that Mickie may always be underrated as she should be considered one of the best of her era.
Lyn follows up, “She is kind to everyone and she could literally wrestle a broomstick and make it look good. She is underrated. She is amazing.”
Ray Lyn can be seen featured on WOW-Women of Wrestling as Chantilly Chella. You can check out her purple haired character on her Twitter page by clicking here.
You can listen to the full interview by clicking the play button below:
What did you think of this interview with Ray Lyn? What moments did you take away from it? Let us know your thoughts in the comment section below!!
