Billie Starkz Opens Up About How She Got Into Wrestling

One of the rising young stars in professional wrestling, Billie Starkz is likely a name you'll hear across the industry for years to come. At 18 years old, the Indiana-born upstart is nearly considered a veteran by many standards, having first started training at 13. On a recent episode of "The Joshi Pod," Starkz discussed how she was first drawn to the squared circle and how her parents helped her chase the dream.

"It's always what I wanted to do," Starkz explained. "I have a very stubborn mindset and personality. I watched wrestling when I was little and I got it stuck in my head that I wanted to be a professional wrestler." She stated that she did cross country and cheerleading in order to prepare for her pro wrestling aspirations, thinking, "This is the only thing I can do at my age is prepare for wrestling in normal sports." She said that her mom and stepdad have long been supportive of her dream since she first fell in love with wrestling while watching WWE.

"I grew up on the era of 'NXT' where Bayley and Finn Balor were in there and I loved that," she said, noting that she was also inspired by Kevin Owens and The Young Bucks' tenures in Ring of Honor. "It was just a really good time in wrestling."

Starkz began training at Grindhouse Pro Wrestling Academy in Jeffersonville, Indiana, as a teenager, something she said "is still crazy to my brain today." Her first match came a year later. She has already gone on to win the Girl Fight Championship and the PHW Party Monster Championship at this stage of her career and was perhaps most notably named Pro Wrestling Illustrated's No. 52 women's wrestler in the world last year. She also recently appeared in AEW for a couple of matches last month as part of the company's "Dark" tapings.