I'm an ad exec...and a pro wrestler

I guess I’ve always been what you’d call a gym rat: I love to work out and I’ve been interested in health and fitness for as long as I can remember. I worked long hours at a prominent ad firm, so when I wasn’t in the office, you could be sure to find me on the treadmill. One day, while I was lifting weights, I was approached by a trainer who was a competitive bodybuilder. He told me that I had the “perfect body” for fitness and figure competitions, where women show off their muscle tone to the judges while wearing a bikini and high heels. I started fitness modeling around the country every few months, taking personal days off from work. I never told anybody at the office what I was up to. Sure, ad firms are laid-back and creative, but I worked on the business side and my clients wouldn’t be accepting.

I would get up at 4am every day to go to the gym and train before heading to my office. Through that, I became good friends with a pro wrestler for All Japan who encouraged me to pursue wrestling. Long story short, I started training at the World of Unpredictable Wrestling in Brooklyn, where I became the undefeated women’s champion and started competing on the circuit under the name Tina Marina. I used my mother’s first name even though she would die if she knew her daughter had become a pro wrestler. She raised me to be a lady and, well, ladies don’t roundhouse-kick other women while wearing spandex. But I love having this alter ego no one knows about. If I have a hard day, I can leave my life behind and pretend to be someone else for a few hours while doing something that I enjoy.

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My secret life 09 >>
Look around you. New Yorkers are just not who you think they are.