UK’s first transgender wrestler set to partake in first wrestling matches
At 24 years of age Drew-Ashlyn Cunningham is set to become the UKs first transgender wrestler when she steps into the ring.
Ms Cunningham was diagnosed with gender dysphoria when she was a teenager and began transitioning in 2007.
In comments made to the Daily Mail she discussed her childhood and told the newspaper, saying: “When I was eight or nine years old that’s when I really got this feeling that I was trapped in the wrong body.”
As a child she says she was always obsessed with wrestling and a wrestler is what she aspired to be. Talking of her career aspirations she said: “Wrestling has always been a passion of mine and I grew up with it for many years. I’ve been inspired by Lita from WWE, she was my idol as a wrestler and it’s who I want to be like.”
She went onto say that for the past three months she has been training tirelessly so she can compete in her first matches. Talking about the world of wrestling she said: “I think it takes a strange breed of person to get into this business. You have to be a bit different to jump into a ring and say ‘I’m going to beat myself up today.”
Continuing she said she was apprehensive at first about joining the wrestling world given that she will be competing against men in her matches and how “masculine and macho” it can be but she talked of being well supported and treated with respect.
Ms Cunningham previously appeared in My Transexual Summer in 2007 when she began the transitioning process.
