Source: Press Release
Los Angeles, CA, January 20th, 2014 – (blackhollywoodlive.com) Pro-wrestler, actress, and model Thea Trinidad is a rare woman. Don’t let her petite stature fool you, at 4’10 ¾”, she packs a mean punch and eats, sleeps, and breathes wrestling. “It’s something I’m almost addicted to…wrestling, it’s weird, but it’s always been that. Everybody looks at me like, ‘Oh my god, you’re so small, why would you want to mess up your face, what are you doing?’ But I’m in love with it.”
During her appearance on “Next”, an interview series on Maria Menounos’ Black Hollywood Live network that delivers long-form, in-depth interviews with various up and coming talent in Hollywood, Trinidad explained how her love for wrestling came from her father, an amateur wrestler, who passed away in the 9/11 attacks, when she was just 10 years old. “I went through a period where it was just denial. I didn’t believe that what I was seeing was real to the point where, because my dad would pick me up every weekend..for a few months, I would still get ready as if he was going to come.”
Trinidad talks to the “Next” hosts about her wrestling idol, before starting a career in the ring. She said, “Rey Mysterio was my inspiration when it came to that. He was someone that I looked at… He’s so small, but he can do so much… I want to be the female Rey Mysterio. Whether it’s with a mask or not, I want to be him.”
With wrestling being such a physical sport, Trinidad has had her fair share of injuries. However, she never let her wounds stop her from finishing a match. Trinidad recalls one of her scariest moments in the ring. “Recently in November at Tommy Dreamer’s House of Hardcore show, it was me and Carlita vs. Victoria and Stevie Richards. I’m about to run at [Victoria] and tackle her, I think she had a ring on or something, maybe she forgot to take it off. [Victoria’s] fist hit my eye… I was half blinded throughout the whole match, and that was at the very beginning of the match…but I just had to push through especially because that show meant a lot to me.”
As females become more prominent in the wrestling industry, Trinidad hopes to break the mold of the quintessential wrestling image. “I have a double whammy, I’m a woman and I’m small. I have both working against me in a way, so for people to say ‘I like her because she’s like me’ or ‘that’s cool that somebody so little can do that’, I’m hoping to break that mold and give women’s wrestling a nice little different look besides the big boob blonde hair chicks” said Trinidad.
Men are known for dominating the wrestling industry, but women have earned their spot over the years. Trinidad commented “With wrestling, you don’t have that great of a window if you’re a woman. So for me, I’d say around 30 to 35 is where I’d be like “OK, I’m good”. But if I haven’t accomplished everything I’ve wanted to and still have a chance to, then I’m going to keep doing it.”
She still has dreams of becoming the Women’s Champion, join WWE, participate in WrestleMania, and perform at Madison Square Garden, a place she frequently visited with her father.
Although Trinidad has found success in wrestling, she has also began to explore a career in acting, recently landing one of her biggest roles yet, in the worldwide release of “Army of the Damned.” Trinidad credits Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson as her personal wrestler-turned-actor inspiration, but she also acknowledges the opportunity to use her own career to inspire others.
“I’ve been wrestling since I was 17, but even now after TNA, I still can’t believe all these people know about me…When I hear people’s story’s of how I’ve inspired them and how my story has about my dad, its crazy to hear and that’s all I ever wanted. Just to show I had everything working against me: I’m small, my memory isn’t all there, but I was a hard worker and I wanted people to realize, you may have weight problems working against you, height problems, whatever, but you can still conquer it and go for your dreams.”
