Storytelling and nostalgia: Calgary's pro wrestlers reflect on the sport's evolution
CBC
Kat Von Heez was drawn to wrestling as a child, eagerly watching matches on television with her babysitter.
"I watched it a lot when I was really young," Von Heez said in an interview on This Is Calgary, a CBC Calgary podcast.
She missed it for years because it wasn't on TV at home, but her love for wrestling remained strong.
"There was a hiatus.… I didn't really have access to it again until I was probably around 13."
She picked up right from where she left off, renting DVDs from a movie rental shop and watching pro wrestling legends like Randy Orton, Mick Foley and Chris Jericho battle it out in the ring.
While she was intrigued by the sport, Von Heez wasn't sure where to begin and wondered whether she could realistically take up wrestling.
"I kind of got into amateur wrestling when I was in high school, which kind of changed my trajectory," she said, noting she'd been a five-pin bowler as a kid.
"So I kind of transitioned into something a little bit more aggressive."
While Von Heez has built a name for herself through the years and is now associated with Calgary-based CanAm Wrestling, she admits it hasn't always been an easy journey.
"I got to the point … it felt like it was winding down and it was losing steam," she said. "If I can't get to that next level, if I can't move, I'm, I'm kind of done."
Thankfully, her fears were unfounded. The pro wrestler continued experimenting with the sport and remains a force to be reckoned with — she does 10 matches a month, on average.
As far as Von Heez is concerned, the future for pro wrestlers looks bright.
"It's really exciting and I'm really happy," she said.
"Hopefully, we will see a lot of Canadian wrestlers get opportunities to make this a full-time career and get noticed."
While his party has made a cause célèbre out of its battle with the Speaker, Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre has periodically waxed poetic about the House of Commons — suggesting that its green upholstery is meant to symbolize the fields of the English countryside where commoners met centuries ago before the signing of the Magna Carta.