To celebrate a historical year for women’s wrestling, in collaboration with Pro Wrestling Illustrated, Bell To Belles interviewed over 20 women who have ranked on this year’s PWI 500 ranking, creating the “Women of the 2021 PWI 500” Interview Series. To empower women in wrestling even more, some of the interviews were conducted by the talented women who make up wrestling media.
Billie Starkz, who ranked #441 on the PWI 500, chats with guest interviewer Emily Mae from Women’s Wrestling Talk, Pro Wrestling Pets, and Mission Pro Wrestling on her family’s reaction to her ranking, wrestling for GCW, intergender wrestling at a young age, and more!
Emily highlighted all the incredible successes Billie has experienced over the past year, even while all of wrestling was struggling to cope during a worldwide pandemic. Billie was asked what her journey was like during that time.
“It’s been really crazy,” shared Billie. “So, we started last year off of the pandemic, and we all were going through all of that, and I was so lucky that I still had access to a ring and was able to train. There [were] so many people who just didn’t have wrestling at all. I was lucky I could still train. And then we started to have “no-fan” shows and limited shows. It just pushed me harder and harder, because I had a new workspace. This is something completely different, that I’ve never faced before, and it was like that for a lot of people, not just wrestling. And then it was crazy because I was doing that and online school, and working my butt off.“
Billie continued, “The funny story I like to tell, is that during Mania weekend, which was a huge weekend for me, that’s my first-ever Mania, I had six matches and I was still doing online school during that. My first match was at Generation F, Jimmy Lloyd’s show at GCW, and I was literally doing a theater class, ran out and had my match. I warned my teacher for that week, I was like ‘I’m going to be on-and-off. You’ll see me pop on-and-off. I promise I’m trying.'”
Watch the entire interview with Billie Starkz below!
Be sure to follow Billie Starkz on Twitter @BillieStarkz, and follow Emily Mae on Twitter @emilymaeheller.
Order the digital version, or pre-order the print edition, of the 2021 PWI 500 issue at pwi-online.com. Follow PWI on Twitter @OfficialPWI.
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When using this interview, please credit Emily Mae in conjunction with Bell To Belles and Pro Wrestling Illustrated. Credit Bell To Belles with the quote transcription.