Kiera Hogan Discusses Pinning Laurel Van Ness in Her Debut, Signing With Impact Wrestling, & More

Kiera Hogan recently spoke with WrestleZone’s Lovell Porter, here are some highlights…

On what made her want to become a pro wrestler: Well I started watching wrestling when I was a kid with my brother. The first women I ever watched wrestle were Mickie James and Trish Stratus. I didn’t even know there were women wrestlers. By the time I was 14, I knew I wanted to be a wrestler. James and Stratus really influenced me to become a wrestler.

On what steps she took to follow her dream: When I was 17 or 18 when I was graduating high school, I started looking up how to be a wrestler, where I should train and stuff like that. I had no idea how any of this worked. I wanted to go to the University of Florida to play soccer, but I wanted to try to wrestle on the side. I wanted to go to FCW, but it was $1800, and I had no job so that wasn’t happening. I looked at schools near me in Atlanta so that’s where I ended up going.

On how she got her start in Impact wrestling: I had been watching Impact a lot. I always wanted to be a Knockout. I thought they were so cool and so different. I was contacted in May of last year by Jeremy Borash. Borash said he wanted to send my stuff in but didn’t if I was going to be competing in the Mae Young Classic. I told him I had not been contacted by WWE. I was later contacted by Scott D’More who asked if I wanted to sign a contract. Borash said that he and Gail (Kim) saw me at Shine and that’s why he wanted to send my stuff in.

On pinning the then Knockouts Champion Laurel Van Ness in her first match on Impact TV: Going into it I was very nervous because I knew how big an opportunity it was. They were pretty much handing me the opportunity to show what I had. I was super nervous, and this was my first chance for people to see me live. I was pretty nervous, and it went pretty well. TV is always nerve-wracking. It’s totally different than just wrestling live. You have to make sure you work the TV cameras and the matches are shorter, so you have less time to squeeze everything in. After the match, I felt good about it. Chelsea (LVN) was great. I hope I get to work her again on the Indies. Of course, I felt I still had stuff to work on but I was just happy to be there. I am just one of those people who are just so happy to be here. I don’t care what I have to go through I am just happy to be here.