Anna Jay Reveals Former WWE Tag Team Inspired Her To Pursue Wrestling Full-Time

On a recent episode of the AEW Unrestricted podcast, The Dark Order’s Anna Jay was on, and during the interview, she revealed details about her recruitment to Dark Order. She also answered a few Twitter questions from fans, like who inspired her to get into wrestling.

“I mean, not specifically one person,” Jay said. “I do remember watching The Bella Twins and thinking, ‘they’re wrestling, [yet] they look this way. I can do this; I know I can.’ It’s not just for a certain type of people or anything like that, and then just watching my dad, and him saying, ‘this is something you could do.’ I just always knew that it was possible, so it was a combination of things.”

Jay is a trainee out of QT Marshall’s Power Factory, which is now The Nightmare Factory after Cody Rhodes and Marshall’s announcement in July. Jay revealed how she got into the school through former WCW star Glacier.

“So I wanted to be a professional wrestler my whole life, and my whole family knew that,” Jay stated. “And my aunt and uncle are good family friends with Glacier, Ray Lloyd, and I guess one day they were just talking about it, and he was like, ‘Hey, me and QT Marshall’ – who I didn’t know who he was at the time – ‘are opening a school in Atlanta. You should come check it out and see if it’s something she wants to do,’ and this was in 2017. So, I ended up going to a camp; it was a super camp at the Power Factory in December, and I just went for a day.

“I had never even stepped foot in a ring before. I literally was so scared because everyone there knew what they were doing, and I did not. So, I went to the camp – I loved it. It scared me but in a good way, and I ended up coming back a few times, I think, in February and all the months leading up to that summer, and then I ended up making the choice that I wanted to move to Atlanta full-time to train. So I moved to Atlanta in 2018, in June, to train full-time.”

Jay also gave her reaction to being part of the Brodie Lee and Cody feud where after Lee defeated Cody for the title, Jay choked out Brandi on the stage. She revealed that Arn Anderson taught her how to perform the sleeper hold.

“Oh my gosh, I just got chills when you start talking about. It’s crazy to think about,” Jay remarked. “I mean Cody and Brandi are two people I never thought I would work for, let alone work with, and to get that spot and me being so new, oh my gosh.

“It was one of those things too where once I did it, I was like, ‘Is this real?’ I remember too, whenever they told me that’s what I was going to do, Arn Anderson was there explaining to me how to do it and showing me the hold and everything, and that was another moment where I was like, ‘Oh my gosh, Arn Anderson is showing me how to do a sleeper. What is my life right now?’ So yeah, the whole thing was super cool. I’m very lucky to have that spot. It’s something I’ll always remember. Brandi is great, so it was awesome.”

Jay also talked about how much Jerry Lynn has helped her in her development. She noted that Lynn is very open and very helpful in his advice.

“So I haven’t had a lot of matches in general, and I have not had a lot of matches at AEW yet,” Jay noted. “So every time that I would have a match, he would tell me little things that I can work on, and it just really meant a lot to me because I never went to him.

“I didn’t really know who to go to other than the person who was coaching my match, and so, he would always come up to me and say, ‘Hey, you can do this next time.’ And every time, I would listen, and it really meant a lot to me and it really helped because it’s the little details that matter. So he would say, ‘You need to look scarier with your eyes,’ and I would be like, ‘Okay, how do I do that?’ And he would explain it to me, and it helped a lot. And I would do it the next time I went out.”

Jay also gave her reaction to be a women’s wrestler in a time where women’s wrestling is flourishing more so than in the past. She praised the AEW women’s division as well as Dustin Rhodes and his work in helping out the women’s division.

“I would never have imagined that I would be even where I am right now,” Jay said. “So it does mean a lot to me, and one thing that I definitely want to do too because I would not consider myself a high flyer or being able to do a lot of the crazy stuff that a lot of the girls can do, but I just want to tell stories, and I want to keep doing that. And I think all the women here are kicking butt, and we’re working hard. We’re training every week that we’re there, so yeah, it means a lot to me. It’s a really cool time to be a part of women’s wrestling.

“Dustin’s great too. He’s been another instrumental part of all the women and stuff, and he’s always there to help and always there to give us advice, which also means a lot.

If you use any quotes from this article, please credit AEW Unrestricted with a h/t to PWrestling.com for the transcription.