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Ingrid Isley - The Interview

Ring Name: Ingrid Isley
Date Of Birth: August 15th
Height: 5'7"
Weight: 135lbs
Birth Place: Bemidji, Minnesota
Resides: Metro Detroit, Michigan
Billed From: Minneapolis, Minnesota
Wrestling Debut: 2012
Trained by: Scott D'Amore, Tyson Dux & John E. Bravo
Finishers/Signature Moves: Perfect Plex, Spinebuster, Crossface, (Mr.Perfect's) rolling neck snap.
Tag Partners: Abraham Action Jackson, John E. Bravo
Managed/Valet: John E. Bravo

Website: http://ingridisley.webs.com/

 

 

 

Bernd: Thank you for your time Ingrid Isley for this interview and i hope you are healthy?

Ingrid: No problem. I am very well thank you for asking.

Bernd: How did you get into the business and who trained you?

Ingrid: I got into the business through Scott D’Amore’s Can-Am Wrestling School out of Windsor, Ontario, Canada. I am trained by Tyson Dux, John E. Bravo and Scott D’Amore.


Bernd: What is your family thinking of your passion for the sport, are they worried about your health? 

Ingrid: My father has always been a big wrestling fan, so I know he loves that I’m doing it. My mother is just happy that I’m following my dream and something I’ve always wanted to do. Both my parents have a medical background, so thankfully when I get dinged up or a little worse for wear they can both give me advice on how to treat it. I don’t think they worry for my health as much anymore as they did when I first started. I have really great trainers that teach you how to be safe and keep others safe. It’s one of the major reasons it’s important to be trained because they help make sure you stay healthy so you can do this.

Bernd: Ingrid, your name sounds a little bit Scandinavian, is there a story behind?

Ingrid: You’d be right; I am from a family heritage of Swedish and Norwegian background. My parents named my brothers and me all very Scandinavian names, but my name was a friend of theirs from school that they knew. I grew up around a lot of Scandinavian history in Minnesota from my grandparents and great grandparents, mostly through traditional food at the holidays.

Bernd: Ingrid do you remember your first Pro Wrestling match and what was it like to wrestle in front of an live crowd for the first time?

Ingrid: Boy do I remember it. It was one of the scariest and intense things I had ever done. I was tearing up with happiness and excitement that I had finally made it to my first match. I think Tyson Dux was trying to not laugh at me. So I was crying before I had even gone out there, ha.  I wrestled a fellow can-am student for the show, it was extremely surreal. When you tell yourself for years you want to be a wrestler and when you finally get there its very eye opening. I remember going through the curtain in front of the live audience all my nerves disappeared but up until then I was a nervous wreck. Wrestling in front of a live crowd is very odd because you hear everything they think and they aren’t afraid of telling you what they think. I appreciate the first match more as I keep getting more matches knowing that was a starting point and you just have to strive to get better and the audience will always tell you if you do or don’t impress them.

Bernd: Who had the greatest influence/impact on your life as pro wrestler?

Ingrid: When I first decided I wanted to be a wrestler, it would have had to been because of Stone Cold Steve Austin and Lita. Stone Cold, mostly because he was basically what I grew up wanting to see what he did next.

But when I saw Lita with the Hardys and how she was doing all the same things the boys were doing, It made me be like “wow, I could do that too”. Lita had that cool look, style and attitude that wasn’t like Sable, Trish Stratus, etc. She stood out. I remember dying my hair red because of her, dressing like her (you know age acceptable). I just wanted to be part of that. As I got older, I started appreciating women like Sensational Sherri, Luna Vachon and Fabulous Moolah for what they had done for the women’s industry and that they were why women like Lita existed.

Bernd: One of the biggest questions I get on this site is about becoming a pro wrestler. What advice would you give to someone that was thinking about becoming a wrestler?

Ingrid:Get trained by a legitimate company. There are a lot of companies out there that will try to claim they can get you here and there but don’t really know.

Research everything before you start, go visit the school, get in contact. I think I emailed and contacted Scott D’Amore for two years before going to visit the school and started a few months later after moving closer to the school. I went to college first and got a degree and then went to Can-Am Wrestling school. You have to be prepared to love what you are doing, there are a lot of hard days but if you love it, it makes those hard days easier. Dedication is such a requirement for it. If you want it, you have to really want it. It’s not easy.

Bernd: You work in different Indy Companys,do you have a Favorite one?

Ingrid: Border City Wrestling. Scott D’Amore runs and owns it. It is at a whole another level that other independent companies. There is television production, lighting, pyro. I got the pleasure of helping with set up and work crew with BCW for a few of their shows.  It is so professional that you can learn so much from the way the shows are run. It’s a great place to learn from everyone there. I got the opportunity to have two matches there on one of their smaller shows, but one of the goals is to get on one of their bigger shows. The difference between one of the smaller shows and the bigger shows is a couple hundred people rather than a couple thousand.

Bernd: Ingrid ,when you could create your Dreammatch,who will be your Opponent in which company and why?

Ingrid: I’ve actually kind of got to have one of my dream matches against someone I’ve wanted to wrestle. My second ever match was a mixed tag match against Angelina Love. I’d love to wrestle her again in the future when I have more experience under my belt. She was great to pull knowledge from and learn from. I gained a lot from just listening to her and working with her. So it’d be really cool to have a singles match against her sometime in the future. But I guess my ultimate dream match would be against Lita. I’m so blessed to be doing this as a career I wouldn’t even care where we wrestled ha. I love learning and bettering myself from each and every opponent I work with.


Bernd: Do you have a funny roadstory you like to share with us?

Ingrid: I’m more of the sheep wrangler kind of person. Ha, I like to make sure all of us get where we need to get. Sometimes you gotta keep these boys in check on the time and take away all their fun. Kidding! I don’t really have many “funny” stories, but I guess my terrible driving cracks me up a bit. I was road tripping with Phil Atlas, and we were running extremely late. So I wasn’t exactly driving “safely” through rural roads of Canada to get us to this show in Ontario.

There was an extremely slow truck in front of us and I have the patience of a child when it comes to driving. But it was a one lane passing road, so you had to wait for the oncoming traffic to pass in order to drive around. I was pulling to the other side and an oncoming car was coming so Phil is basically telling me “nope nope nope” to not go yet. I pull back behind super slow truck and go a couple of miles more behind him and try again. Another truck was coming but it was a long ways away so I started speeding up and Phil is freaking out saying no no no, that we aren’t going to make it and we just barely make it back into our line. I think Phil nearly died in my car that day that or thinks I’m a crazy.

Bernd:Which country you would love to visit next and wrestle?

Ingrid: I’ve mostly just wrestled in Michigan and Canada. So I’d love to wrestle more throughout the states. But I’d love to go over to Europe in general. I’d love to wrestle anywhere there. Just the opportunity would make my day. I have met some great fans from England over the years just through wrestling that I know the fan base there is great.  I’d love to visit England again, France, Germany, Norway. So many places over there I’d love to go. And to do it through wrestling and to be wrestling there would be amazing.

Bernd: When a german Company calls,will you come over?

Ingrid: Of course. That kind of opportunity is not something that comes easily so if someone wanted me to work there I’d love to have it.

Bernd: When a booker or company will book you where can they contact you?

Ingrid: They can contact me through my promotional/booking email ingridxisley@gmail.com. I also have an Ingrid Isley Facebook they can contact me through. But I prefer email.

Bernd: Is there anything else you would like to let my readers know? 

Ingrid: I have a Ingrid Isley Facebook/Instagram/Twitter. So If you’d want to follow me and my career on any of those feel free.

Facebook – Ingrid Isley (page and a like page)
Twitter – canam_ingrid
instagram - ingridisley


Bernd:Thank you very much for your time and all the best for the future!

Ingrid:Thank you so much for interviewing me! 

 

 

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