Author: Kristen Ashly

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Charli Evans Has “Never Been More Ready” for PWA Gold

TEXT BY KRISTEN ASHLY / PHOTOS BY NEW PHOTOGRAPHY STUDIOS

CHARLI EVANS IS READY to face anyone for her first Pro Wrestling Australia (PWA Black Label) championship—including her soul sister.

PWA brings back its Colosseum two-day tournament event on October 12 and 13, 2024, showcasing eight of the best of Australia’s wrestling empire. The elimination-style tournament starts on Night 1 with four first-round matches. Night 2 hosts the semifinals and final of the tournament. The last grappler standing wins the honor of holding the coveted Colosseum Sword.

As if the tournament wasn’t reason enough to tune in, Night 1’s main event will turn up the volume. Charli Evans challenges her self-confessed “soul sister” Jessica Troy for the PWA heavyweight championship.

If Evans wins, this will be her first PWA heavyweight championship; and winning it from someone she considers practically family ups the stakes.

“I think it’s kind of beautiful in a way, and poetic that we started so close to each other,” Evans tells PWI. “We clicked instantly, and our paths have always mirrored each other in some way. And no matter what, we’re always brought back together … and you hit your friends a little harder.”

Jessica Troy and Charli Evans share the ring, foreshadowing their eventual title match at Coliseum 2024.

Night 1 has completely sold out at the iconic Metro Theater in Sydney. Brawling in the main event in front of a sea of passionate Australian fans would be understandably stressful, but Evans stands firm in her relationship with Troy.

“There’s a little more room for forgiveness, but this is the biggest match of my career,” Evans shares. “This is the biggest match of her career, and there’s no stress going into it, which is crazy when you think about it. We are main-eventing the show, and we are both not stressed in the slightest. And I think that’s amazing, because anyone else, I would be petrified. But I know her, she knows me, and we’re ready to literally tear the house down.”

In the Fall 2024 issue of PWI, “The Main Event: Australia’s Women Wrestlers Shine Bright” details how special Australia’s scene is for women, allowing them to be wrestlers first and foremost. The result is more eyes on Australian wrestling, and the payoff is a stronger grappling landscape.

“I think we have, collectively, a little chip on our shoulder, do you know what I mean? And we’re ready to prove a point,” says Evans. “We’re so far from the rest of the world, so it’s either go out and get noticed or be so good that they notice us. And I think we’re finally getting to the point where people are just noticing us from being here.”

Evans eliminates Ben Braxton to win the 2024 King of the Metro Rumble.

Evans continues, “And 10 years ago, you had to go to America, you had to go to England, you had to go to Japan. Not saying you shouldn’t, and not saying that that isn’t great, because I’m blessed and I have loved every second of traveling and wrestling in different countries. But to have eyes on us in our home country is just an unreal feeling.”

The excitement is boiling, but Evans is keeping her eyes on the prize. Troy has held the PWA heavyweight championship for more than a year now, defending it against some of Australia’s top competitors. The possibility of ending Troy’s historic reign as the first woman PWA heavyweight champion adds a little extra spice to the match.

“Chevs” is ready to take home the prize that has, until now, eluded her.

“I’ve put so much pressure on myself this whole year,” Evans reveals. “I don’t know, I’ve just had a resurgence of going after [what] I want, and I’ve done so much that I never would’ve even imagined. I didn’t plan to go back to England, and it just happened. And I didn’t think I’d ever get to get the Wrestling Resurgence title back, but I did. And I’ve laid out very specific things that I want, and every single one I have knocked off. This is the last one to do, and it’d be crazy of me to not do it.”

The 2024 PWA Black Label Colosseum event will offer wrestling fans a look at Australia’s finest, and it’s only fitting that two women are battling for a heavyweight title in the main event. If you’ve been paying attention, it should come as no surprise. Win or lose, as Evans tells it, she’s never been more ready than now to announce her supremacy.

If you can’t make it live, catch 2024 PWA Black Label Colosseum for free on PWA’s YouTube channel on October 12 at 5am ET/8pm AET and October 13 1am ET/4pm AET.

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Sobriety and Wrestling: A Place To Belong

Jon Moxley makes his emotional return after taking away from AEW to fight his addiction.

Sobriety and Wrestling: A Place To Belong

Jon Moxley makes his emotional return after taking away from AEW to fight his addiction.
All Elite Wrestling fans warmly welcome back Jon Moxley, celebrating his courage to grapple with addiction. (Photo by JayLee Media)

TEXT BY KRISTEN ASHLY

SIX YEARS AGO, I decided to stop drinking and using drugs.

I spent 15 years (half of my life) wasting any and all potential I had on numbing my emotions and stuffing my pain. Addiction stole everything from me: education, careers, family, friends, freedom, and my future. June 10, 2016—a little over two months after my 30th birthday—I decided I’d had enough loss for one lifetime, and started to rebuild from the bottom up by sobering up.

In the following two years, I still experienced many setbacks. I was selfish and self-centered. And focusing solely on myself created a hole so big I didn’t feel like I could ask anyone for help. The storm kept raging, but, somehow, I kept sober. In AA, they tell you as long as you have your sobriety, anything is possible.

Jon Moxley makes his emotional return after taking away from AEW to fight his addiction.
Jon Moxley addresses AEW fans in his first appearance after working to get clean and sober. (Photo by JayLee Media)

In August 2018, after spending two years of sobriety completely miserable, I decided I had to be honest with myself and everyone else—even if I didn’t think they needed the truth—and the end result was beautiful. I recouped everything I had lost, plus more. I was starting to see the sun behind the clouds. Working a 12-step program while also being miserably sober was not what I wanted out of life … I needed more.

Around the same time I was getting my act together, I started writing for various wrestling websites. I only became a wrestling fan in 2014, through my family’s insistence. And, ultimately, I only started writing about wrestling after being recruited by a friend. But, with my background in sports journalism, I felt at ease writing about the athletes who put their bodies on the line every day for our entertainment—especially the female wrestlers, who, from day one, had obviously been treated as “less than.”

As you can imagine, almost every addict has a story about “not fitting in,” and I am no different. I’ve never felt like I belonged anywhere; always on the outside looking in at what addicts call “normies”—people who have never felt the cold draft of addiction, the demon on their shoulder waiting for one false move. However, throughout the past four years or so of writing wrestling news and opinion, I have found myself more and more at home among the fans, media members, and wrestlers.

Creating lifelong friendships, a solid support system, a strong circle of friends, mentorships, and even a romantic relationship, I found a place where I felt like I could be myself and let my guard down; something I hadn’t done in years. In every social sphere, you’ll find hate and toxicity. But I found my crowd.

Still, I had trouble reconciling who I was in the past and the struggles I was facing in the present with those around me. I had told a few friends close to me about who I was back then—most of whom were not able to picture that version of Kristen—and everyone was kind and understanding. But I still felt like I was on the outside, looking in at those who had not experienced the hardships I had.

Most of these friends were either always sober, never had an addiction problem, or couldn’t understand the concept. These were friends, but they couldn’t relate. Most people can’t relate, and it’s never been a prerequisite for new friendships. Still, something was missing: representation and complete understanding.

The more I watched shows, covered news, and began to personally interact with wrestlers, the more I realized that sobriety was not a new concept in wrestling. In prior generations of wrestling, addiction was so prevalent it killed off countless bright and talented athletes. It cut short so many promising futures. And those who it didn’t kill still struggled with life-long illnesses … a reality I was always one relapse away from.

The wrestlers of today saw that pain, and many didn’t need to learn the hard way to stay clean. Those I related to most, however, were those who, like me, had to go through hell to see the light.

William Regal, a man so many in wrestling fight to call their mentor, wrote the autobiography Walking a Golden Mile, which details his own struggles with alcoholism, describing experience that so closely related to mine that it was like reading my own story.

Eddie Kingston has publicly said in interviews and during promos that he had to fight away his own demons, which threatened to take away his freedom. Man, did those revelations ring true to my own life!

Nick Gage has been to hell and back, including prison. I have my own history of jail time. Seeing how beloved Gage is, how his strength is celebrated, gave me strength.

In Jon Moxley’s autobiography, Mox, the reigning AEW World champion also detailed a family history that looked familiar. And, without even having to say it, I knew he was a kindred spirit. Last November, Moxley checked himself into rehab for alcoholism.

The public nature of that struggle, the positive reaction from fans, coworkers, and Tony Khan, and the triumphant return gave me hope. I had hope that not only was I not weird or different, but that there was hope for me to stay sober and make something of myself.

If Regal, Kingston, Gage, and Moxley could do it, couldn’t I? Couldn’t I stay sober and do great things?

And they weren’t the only ones, were they? Kylie Rae, Saraya, Dustin Rhodes, Shawn Michaels, Alicia Fox: all incredibly public with their struggles, all having the ability to inspire me to do more.

It’s hard to be this vulnerable when writing for a very historic publication. Every wound opened both inspires others and draws ire. But writing this has also opened a flood of emotion that I so clearly needed to feel. Healing starts with honesty. Those brutally honest wrestlers have taught me that.

It took a long journey of searching and scratching before I found a place I called home. Six years after getting sober, I still often struggle with fitting in and finding like-minded people outside of an AA meeting. Wrestling, though, gave me that home. Those who share their struggles and celebrate their victories have given me hope and strength that I didn’t think would ever come from a sport.

This is my thank-you letter to every person I have encountered during my career in wrestling who has been kind, understanding, and supportive. More than that, it’s a letter of sincere gratitude to every wrestler who has had the strength to tell their story. Your truths have given me a place to stay when I feel cold and alone.

I laugh as I write this last paragraph, because I know that if this was hand-written, it would be illegible from the sheer amount of tears I’ve spilled writing this. I’m so lucky to have stumbled onto wrestling. I’m so lucky to know where I belong.