By Nigel Maxwell

Playmate turned wrestler not afraid to exchange punches with the boys

Aug 3, 2014 | 3:30 PM

April Hunter is like no woman you've ever met.

The former model turned wrestler will be a big part of Monday night's High Impact Wrestling show at Parkland Community Hall.

Hunter's journey into the wild and somewhat wacky world of professional wrestling began in 1999, after posing for Playboy magazine.

“The issue I was in featured one of the guys’ wives, Kimberly Page, and Diamond Dallas Page was a wrestler with WCW (World Championship Wrestling). That issue kind of got passed around and from that I was recruited with WCW,” said Hunter.

Hunter's first foray into wrestling called on her to escort the male wrestlers to the ring. After WCW was sold to WWE in 2001, Hunter went back to wrestling school. Her coach would be a man by the name of Killer Kowalski, who is highly regarded within the wrestling industry for his own career as well as for training many wrestlers who would become big stars (HHH, Kofi Kingston, Damien Sandow to name a few).

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Hunter looks back on her training with fondness. She said Kowalski was very tough on his only female student.

“He would scream at you if you didn't get your foot position right,” said Hunter. “If you could not get it right over and over again, he would just stand up and start swearing at you, and then explain how to do it the right way.”

During her first few years wrestling, there were no other women for Hunter to work with, so that meant working with the men. Hunter said the men from her area who knew her were always very respectful, but when she travelled to places like Philadelphia, New York or New Jersey it could be hit or miss.

“I had one guy not want to work with me at all because I was female,” she said.

She recalls one particular tag team she had trouble working with.

“They were not happy about losing their titles to a female, and we had a series of matches with them. Every time I came out I had a black eye. One time he hit me so hard in the eye, my contact popped out and the ref held it in his pocket the rest of the match.”

Hunter said she was trained to give it back even harder, and when you are done you don't talk about it in the locker room. She would just say, “thanks for the match I really appreciate it.”

As a veteran, Hunter said she gets asked for advice from the younger female wrestlers looking to make their big breaks. She always tries to be as supportive as possible but tells them that moving up to the next level can be very competitive, she said.

“You could literally go off to Hollywood and get a job probably 65 times easier than you could get a spot in WWE. A lot of people don't realize that getting in, but if somebody really wants to do it I try not to discourage them,” she said.

Monday night's show at Parkland Community Hall will be Hunter's first time in Northern Saskatchewan. High Impact Wrestling also has a show Tuesday night in La Ronge.

Doors open Monday night at 6:30 p.m. The show will start around 7:30p.m. Tickets can be bought at the door for $20.

nmaxwell@panow.com

Twitter: @nigelmaxwell