Indie Watch: Allie Kat (VIDEOS)

Indie Watch is our regular series that looks at all of the amazing talents working the independent circuits around the world. Some are veterans revitalizing their careers, some are indie prospects hitting their peaks, while others are names to be on the watch for! This edition looks at a rising star in the Texas indie scene who has become a staple on the hardcore circuit in the one and only Allie Kat.

In early 2019, rising indie star Allie Kat declared she was taking a hiatus. Following a hard break-up with another pro wrestler, she had decided to work on herself and remove herself from the industry to work on her mental health and home situation. But just weeks later, a chance debut with Game Changer Wrestling (GCW) made her refind her love for the game and in the past year, she has broken out as a national indie star in the US with unlimited potential. Oh, and her hardcore game is on point.

Allie Kat began in the wrestling scene in 2015, when she began training in her native Texas. It was early on that she discovered her Allie Kat persona. “I trained in Austin with George De La Isla and he’s very old school,” she told Smark to Death in an interview last year. “He comes to form the 70’s, 80’s, that time. He would say ‘you guys just wanna put on kick pads and be wrestlers. Well, you gotta have a gimmick.’ So, everybody at the school at a gimmick. We had a cowboy, we had an Irish guy, things like that. So, when we had girls in the school it was like ‘oh, what are we gonna make the girls.’ And then he comes up to me and goes ‘Allie, I got an idea. Tell me what you think about this. Tell me what you think about Allie Kat.’ And he’s my trainer, I’m not gonna tell him no, I’m gonna do what my trainer tells me and literally that was it. I’m gonna make do with what George gave me. I was like, I’m gonna literally be a cat then. The next week he came up to me and then said ‘alright, maybe if you don’t like Allie Kat tell me what you think about this… Allie Kazaam.’ And I was like, ‘I think I’m gonna stick with Allie Kat, George.’” She would start out in regional indies, working at places like River City Wrestling (RCW) in San Antonio and Austin’s Total Championship Wrestling (TCW). In 2016, she won the RCW Women’s Championship.

In 2016, she made the jump into the top indies in the Texas circuit, including Anarchy Championship Wrestling (ACW), Inspire Pro, WrestleCircus, and others, working with other Texas indie stars like Thunder Rosa, Angel Blue, Jessica James, Christi Jaynes, and Laynie Luck. Allie Kat gained great versatility in the earlier days, competing in women’s divisions, tag team wrestling, and intergender match-ups.

In 2017, Allie Kat began to work beyond the Texas circuit, making debuts with companies in the Midwest like AAW Pro, RISE Wrestling, IWA Mid-South, and NOVA Pro, as well as making her GCW debut at GCW The Compound Fight Club: Chapter 1 in a match against Faye Jackson. She also worked into the Mid-Atlantic territory, with Carolina Wrestling Federation (CWF) Mid-Atlantic, Queens of Combat (QOC), and Premiere Wrestling Xperience (PWX), and in 2018 made her SHIMMER debut at SHIMMER 108 in Chicago against Allysin Kay and with Ohio’s Absolute Intense Wrestling (AIW) against veteran Joshi veteran Koharu Hinata.

In 2019, she was on the verge of breaking out, adding regular matches in CHIKARA, Freelance Wrestling, Black Label Pro, Beyond Wrestling, Limitless Wrestling, and many more, but the strains of a relationship with a rising star in the business – and its subsequent demise – took a heavy toll on Allie Kat. Moving to the Midwest, with the added burden of relocating to the relationship troubles, took its toll mentally, and in the early days of summer, she announced she was taking a hiatus from the industry.

“I was going to take a hiatus because stuff in my life went topsy-turvy,” she told Smark to Death. “It was very up in like ‘where am I going to live now, where am I going to go?’ You need to have this home base, so people know where to fly you out of, where you are coming out of, where you are driving from…And I didn’t want to continue taking bookings and not know where I’m coming or going from. I was like I need to get my life figured out, I need to settle down somewhere, I need to prioritize. I need to take some time off, get settled in, get some money.”

It was her return to GCW in 2019 that saved her career. ” I said the hiatus thing on a Tuesday and then that Thursday was GCW and that weekend I had a few more matches,” she said to Smark to Death. “And I was like, ‘yeah, what am I thinking. This is what keeps me sane and this is what makes me happy. I love all these locker rooms I am in, I love these fans that I meet. I was like, yeah there is no way I’m taking any time off…I’m not gonna lie, on Thursday I went into GCW and I said, ‘look guys, I’m ready to do dumb stuff [in the ring]. I’m not in a good place.’ So, I said yes to everything. I wasn’t going to get in my head, I’m gonna say yes to everything and we’re gonna do whatever. I had such a great match and I had so many people tell me that was their favorite match. To hear that from so many people, I was like ‘yea, this I what I need.’”

Since then, she’s become one of GCW’s most consistent and regular wrestlers, having great matches with the likes of Matthew Justice, EFFY, Chris Dickinson, Mance Warner, and even Nick Gage himself, showing she could dish out as well as she can take. Her newfound confidence has resulted in a more aggressive Allie Kat that has risen above even the potential originally seen years prior during her ascension in the ranks of the US indies, crossing into Canada with the likes of Hamilton, Ontario’s Alpha-1 Wrestling and Ottawa’s Capital City Championship Combat (C4). With a renewed sense of passion for the industry, Allie Kat continues to shine in the world of professional wrestling, and with its return to live audiences, 2020 is her year to break out even further.