Like her namesake gemstone, Nadia Sapphire is tough, tantalizing and multi-faceted. She’s
overcome injuriesthat would drive lesser women from the sport forever, but she’s come back,
better than ever!
LadySports is very pleased to introduce her to fans worldwide.
THE STATS:
Height: Five feet, four inches
Weight: Twelve stone
Hair: Brown/caramel
Hometown: Cardiff, South Wales
LADYSPORTS: Welcome, Nadia. When did you first get into the sport?
NADIA SAPPHIRE: When I was about 13 or 14 years old I started training. I had been dreaming about
doing it since I was 8 years old.
LS: Who trained you?
NS: David Sharp from 4FW.
LS: What was your biggest influence to become a wrestler?
NS: watching Lita, the Rock, Hardy Boyz, Kurt Angle, Trish Stratus... I loved the characters,
the storylines, the physicality.
LS: What other sports do you have an interest in?
NS: Wrestling is my main interest. When I was younger I used to like playing netball, also.
LS: How would you describe yourself in terms of attitude, personality, likes, dislikes,
and strengths?
NS: I'm very laid back, down to earth, eager to learn. I'm pretty childish at times, but
who isn't? I love tanning, fake eye lashes, hair extensions, and I'm a bit of a girly girl to be fair, so it’s
mad that I'm so obsessed with wrestling. Only thing I dislike really are people with bad attitudes.
LS: what is your most marked characteristic as a wrestler?
NS: My character is a more over the top version of me... she's very flamboyant, very vain,
has a lot of tantrums, likes things her own way, but also very hard-hitting.
LS: Describe a typical day of training for you. What is most important in your workout?
NS: Well, I do all kinds of training. For example, in the gym with my personal trainer,
we do a lot of strength training, a lot of barbell squats, dead lifts, plyometrics... anything that will
help me improve as an athlete. As for wrestling training, we do a lot of conditioning, tumbling, lots of
stretching, various neck exercises, drills, takedowns, shoot fighting...!
Wrestling training can be pretty intense at times.
LS: How would you best describe your ring style?
NS: Hard-hitting, technical, suplex machine.
LS: What moves are you best known for?
NS: My finisher, which is a German Suplex pin. Also my forearms, which are pretty solid too!
LS: Have you ever been injured in the ring?
NS: Yes. I have torn my acl, lateral minisci and medial meniscus, where I was out for three
years and had to have reconstructive knee surgery. I've also torn the ligaments in my ankle, broke my nose,
pulled my facet joint in my back, had bruised ribs, black eyes... but hey, its wrestling, you gotta love it.
LS: Who have been your toughest opponents?
NS: I have wrestled so many different people that I wouldn't really pick anyone.
They’re all a challenge.
LS: What has been your most memorable win?
NS: All my wins have been memorable.
LS: Who is the one wrestler you would most like to face in the ring, but haven't yet?
NS: Nikki Storm.
LS: What type of match do you enjoy the most?
NS: I love technical matches.
LS: What sort of reactions do you get from people when they learn you are a wrestler?
NS: I get, ‘Oh, mud wrestling’, or a guy will say, ‘I'll wrestle you any day’. You get a
lot of questions when people find out. It’s not like saying I play football or do kickboxing... it’s like
OMG, YOU’RE A WRESTLER?!? As if the only wrestlers they know are the ones on WWE.
LS: What is so special about this sport to you?
NS: The fact that there is so much you can do with it. You have the physicality, the
storylines, the drama, the characters... to me it is such a magical sport, it’s a sport where you never
stop learning and only keep progressing, where you have so many different styles and looks, no one is the
same in wrestling.
It’s not like other sports where you have certain rules or you’ve got to be built a certain way;
wrestling is so creative and there's so much to cover and so much to perfect. There is no feeling like it,
it’s so hard to even explain it , it’s as if wrestling in a ring gives you this pleasure, this buzz, which
you can't get anywhere else.
LS: What are your fans like?
NS: Should I even comment on this? Let's just say you get all different types of fans.
Wrestling does attract a lot of individuals and odd people, but without them there wouldn't be an audience.
I am grateful for them and it’s always nice when they give me their feedback or send me lovely tweets.
LS: If you had the power, what one thing would you do to improve the sport?
NS: I'd get rid of all the people who 'play wrestling'. There are people out there who
have never trained before, but decided to open up their own promotion, put themselves as the main event,
get themselves over just for their two minutes of fame in front of fifty-odd people.
There's other people who train, get on a show, develop an ego and never train again.
There are the people who don't condition, but expect us to put our bodies in their hands.
There's people out there who don't get the sport, have no clue, and just run down local areas and make
wrestling look rotten.
These people need to get there asses into gear and bloody train! At the end of the day, if it’s their
passion, surely they'd want to give wrestling a good name and not put on shit shows?
LS: Where have you wrestled, and what titles have you held?
NS: I've wrestled all over the UK and have held the CPW Women’s Championship and
UCW Women’s Tag Championship. I'd love to go 'round Europe, Ireland and America eventually.
LS: What are your thoughts on women participating in the sport?
NS: I'm all for it, why shouldn't they? If you have a dream, chase it.
LS: What was your most unforgettable moment in the sport?
NS: Getting injured. The emotional pain I felt at the time was torture; being
so used to training five times a week and doing shows on weekends, then not being able to walk,
having to wait three months for an MRI, then another nine months for surgery, then another year
to heal was horrible. Just hope it never happens again.
LS: Any regrets?
NS: No, because if I had done things differently my life would have been
different... maybe for the better or maybe for the worse.
LS: What would you do if you couldn't be in wrestling?
NS: Party my ass off to take away the pain, which is what I did when
I was injured.
LS: What is your personal motto?
NS: If you’re going through hell, keep going!
LS: What would make you most happy in life?
NS: To get signed and make my family and friends proud.
LS: Anything else you'd like to add?
NS: Yeah, thank you everyone for reading this... hope you enjoyed it,
and you can keep updated on my wrestling career by
following me on Twitter @nadia_ageli (nadia sapphire).
