Sports is the most extraordinary form of storytelling, the winners, the losers, the comeback, and the setback. As every narrative begins with a main character, the professional wrestling world has a brand new one in Madi Wrenkowski. The Texas native’s tomboyish lifestyle led her to the great world of professional wrestling as she began wrestling in late 2019.
“I used to watch it when I was younger with my brother and I got into it when I saw Team Extreme and Lita because if you are a tomboy girl you don’t see that representation and when I saw Lita and Team Extreme I saw that representation.”
Wrestling is not always about the fancy moves and high-level star-rated matches. Sometimes it is about the promo work and storylines you convey every night. For Wrenkowski, this is what led her to want to become a professional wrestler.
“I was at an NXT Texas tour and I saw Enzo and Cass. I didn’t know who they were because I was not watching the product at the time. When they started doing “My name is Enzo Amore” the whole arena erupted, mocking him. I said, “Woah, that’s power … I need that.”
Texas is a prevalent wrestling state due to its long history during the territory days, its current independent wrestling scene and the litany of Hall of Fame talents that have come from the state from The Funks, The Von Erichs and Dusty Rhodes to The Undertaker, Booker T and “The World’s Strongest Man” Mark Henry to modern stars like Sammy Guevara, Thunder Rosa and Raquel Rodriguez. And that’s just the tip of the iceberg of Lone Star State natives who have had a successful career inside the squared circle.
Currently, the Texas indie scene allows for wrestlers like Wrenkowski a ton of options to work including Mission Pro Wrestling run by Thunder Rosa and her husband Brian Cervantes, a promotion Wrenkowski is heavily involved in.
“At first it was daunting because Mission Pro was my first-ever independent match and show and they put me against Jazz [formerly of WWE, ECW, and Impact] on my debut so that was daunting but now I feel like I have gotten into a complacent spot where it’s more like a family with these people seeing them now it’s not like on edge now because they are like a family to me”.
Not many can put working and training with a former AEW Women’s champion on their wrestling resume. However, for Wrenkowski this is a great opportunity that she is grateful for every day.
“I have to keep reminding myself who Thunder Rosa is. She is not just the girl that I train with sometimes or give advice to. She is Thunder Rosa and this is Mission Pro. I have to remind myself how lucky I am to be able to be on a platform like that one of the more woman-emphasized promotions out there”. I was on Busted Open with her the other day and she was telling me that this is all about timing, you just have to keep doing you. Some opportunities aren’t personal, timing is everything and you can’t let that get to you.”
As more and more wrestling companies (both televised and non-televised) burst onto the scene it was tough to stand out in any way possible, Wrenkowski was able to stand out with her gear which has one pant leg and the rest in shorts.
“When I was growing up the sport of choice was running and I did a lot of track and cross country. There was a woman who ran track who was beyond her time. She was super fast and instead of wearing the typical track uniform she would wear one long pant leg and one short pant leg her name was Flo Jo. With that background when I came into wrestling I always knew that was something I wanted to do. Also since I was a tomboy I was not always comfortable with showing the whole world my butt cheeks.”
Wrenkowski made her debut five months before the pandemic shut the world down. Fighting to make your dream happen and it gets taken away from something you can not control can be frustrating, but that didn’t stop Wrenkowski at all.
“It was not too bad because everyone was in the same boat unlike when I was injured and I was out and everyone kept on going like no one was going. It wasn’t like I had to sit there and watch everyone surpass me because no one was going anywhere. It was weird to start that momentum and just have that halted. Especially when we were like “oh this is only going to be two weeks everything will go back to normal.”
Those two weeks turned into nearly four months before wrestling schools were back open and Wrenkowski was able to return to pro wrestling.
“It was weird to get back to training because being off that long even the wrestling schools were closed. When they opened back up we had split shifts, typically training is three hours long and these sessions were broken up into two one-and-a-half-hour shifts, half the people would come at this time the other half would come at this time and there was no contact. We were only doing rolls and cardio and stuff like that. Coming back from the pandemic almost murdered me. I believe that was the first time I threw up during a workout.”
Wrenkowski recently won gold on NWA Powerr alongside Missa Kate as the two became NWA Women’s Tag Team Champions. This is the first time she has won gold in a major wrestling company and to win it alongside Kate was something really special.
“I feel like it will hit me when we finally get to defend them. As of right now, it feels surreal because it all happened so fast, but it was cool because it felt like my own little NWA version of Money in the Bank moment because I cashed in my championship series title match and we won in 30 seconds. It was surreal to not fight too hard considering the last time I and Missa Kate fought for those titles it didn’t go our way.”
In tag team wrestling, finding the perfect tag team partner can be tricky. However, for Kate and Wrenkowski it all just clicked the moment they started teaming together.
“She keeps it interesting. We are the same, but we are also different. We are both a little tomboy centric her a little bit more than me. She is also definitely from Chicago. She is the epitome of everyone I have ever seen portrayed from Chicago. So for me being from Texas, that’s a little bit different. It’s great she is a wrestling nerd down to the core so it’s fun having someone who is just a handful of knowledge and is trying to better themself. Both of us have had success as singles wrestlers so we are going to try to come together and do the tag team thing.”
As an independent wrestler, everyone’s main goal is to get signed by a major wrestling company down the line. As Wrenkowski has had many supporters this past year it may be a matter of time before she signs that dotted line.
“That would be nice to be paid a sustainable living to do this or at least get paid to be a part of something even if it’s just a storyline. I think that has always been my biggest thing with wrestling. The things we like about wrestling aren’t the 450 splashes, it’s the storylines. Everyone and their mom is raving about The Bloodline storyline right now especially when the Rumble is happening and everyone is invested in Sami Zayn. I am sure people can tell us about the match, but it was about the emotion that it made you feel and that is why I like wrestling. The power Enzo and them had and just the moments in wrestling and seeing the way Lita made me feel, the tomboy someone that I can relate to. Having that, I would like to do that because that is what really got me invested in wrestling.”
As the wrestling world becomes bigger every day more dream matches are able to come to life. As Wrenkowski continues to move up the ranks on the independent scene there are a couple of dream matches that she sees for herself in the near future.
“I would like to make my way up to Defy [in Seatle, Washington]. Vertvixen is down here in Texas and she is defending and getting belts up at Defy, girl why did you have to leave Texas to go get belts? I am not saying they aren’t as good as us down here, but I definitely need to go up there and get belts because if she can do it that means I can.”
One of the many things that have gotten Wrenkowksi attention is her Side Character Spotlight Videos. She interviews a talent while also making remarks at them as well. These videos have definitely made her become a fan favorite.
“It initially sparked my interest because I am around KiLynn King too much. Every time she is announced as the mother f**king and I was like mother f**king what does that actually mean? I am one of those weird people when people cuss 95% of the time it does not make any sense including myself so I try to break the words down. At the base level mother, f*** means it’s a king that f*** mothers, so in my mind, I was like what does that even mean?
I also enjoy some SNL skits and the Tik Toks where they interview people just to see how they react. So I wanted to ask her what that meant and how many mothers she’s f*** because that is her moniker. After that, it just kept going. I think the way I do it, it comes very naturally. Some people’s monikers I like to pick apart because again I take things at base level and it can become funny at that point, but other times it is a little bit of research, but mainly it is just back and forth, and then if they say something that triggers my brain it just goes on”.
As Wrenkowski continues to make a name for herself on the independent circuit she continues to remind us all that we are all just the side characters in the Madi Wrenkowski story in professional wrestling.
