Many wrestlers have told FSM that their parents were a key part in them becoming a professional grappler. Sometimes it’s by being in the business themselves. Sometimes it’s through supporting a dream. With Leann ‘Lana’ Austin, however, it was a unique legacy.
“My dad’s name is Stephen Austin. So straightaway when we saw Stone Cold Steve Austin on TV, me and my brother were all like ‘Oh, he’s got the same name as my dad’ and straightaway we were hooked!”
While it was her father who inspired her initial viewing, it was a female role model that put Austin on the path from fan to wrestler. “I remember one day seeing the Hardy Boys and Lita and I just fell in love with it even more. I started collecting posters of the Hardy Boyz and Lita, cups, skateboard, anything I could get my hands on of the Hardy Boyz and Lita. And then I just decided I wanted to be a wrestler — I wanted to be Lita.
“All the way through high school and college I was determined, I kept saying ‘I wanna be a wrestler, I wanna be a wrestler, I wanna be a wrestler.’ When I had to learn how to do CVs in college, I even wrote on there that I want to train to be a pro wrestler and I sent them out and ended up getting a job interview because they said it was different and they wanted to see what I looked like — they thought I was going to be some big beefcake.
“But I walked in and was just this tiny little girl. Because I’m only 5’1” a lot of people don’t look at me and think I could be a wrestler. So it’s nice when I can say “check this video out” and there I am flying all over the place!”
Just like the Hardys, Austin’s initial wrestling participation was in a very unofficial setting. “Me and my brothers and sister and friends used to wrestle in our back garden. We didn’t really realise that there was any such thing as wrestling schools — we didn’t have Internet access back then, so we didn’t know about schools. But then my brother ended up finding a school and he trained there for [Wigan-based] Grand Pro Wrestling for about a year and he kept mithering me to do it.”
While her brother wrestled on shows for a short while as LA Austin, Leeann — now in her mid 20s — could not immediately take up the offer as she was pregnant with her third child. “He’d say ‘after you’ve had the baby, come to training, come to training.’ I had my last child and about a year after having him I went and I fell in love with it, and then I was there every Sunday. I was the only girl there, so I trained a lot with my brother. It was harder than I thought it was going to be.”
Before making her in-ring debut, Austin picked up ringside experience in local promotions. “I started valeting for a year first and that helped a lot with interacting with people in the crowd. At first I used to almost [forget] there were people there, and now when I go out I’m much more active.”
The valeting also helped improve Austin’s instinct for the pacing and timing of a successful match. “The good thing [with valeting] is the guys help you as well: if you do miss your spot then they’re always there to help you, tell you this spot’s coming up or whatever.”
Like with many young wrestlers, it took time for Austin to grasp the psychology involved in performing. “Because of the backyard wrestling with brother and sisters I already kind of knew what moves I could do, so that made it easier to get in the ring and practice things. I love trying new things and learning new things — but it’s not about the moves. That’s one thing I always got told — it’s never about the moves.
It’s all about your character and crowd work and things like that.”
One wrestler in particular helped instil this message. “Tyson T-Bone was a big part of helping with my career in the early times. He used to make me watch my matches back over and over again and he’d pause them in places and say ‘Why did you do that, you didn’t need to do that.” It was very harsh: I used to cry because I thought ‘Oh, I did really good in this match’ and he’s like ‘Nope, let’s watch this, why did you do that?’ I’d actually be in tears but it was a good thing because it made me better. It made understand wrestling more. He helped me with my confidence a lot — he always told me that he believed in me and that I’m good.”
With the encouragement of her peers key to developing both knowledge and confidence, Austin says she found working for the Fierce Females promotion particularly beneficial. “I love First Females and being with all the girls. When you’re on a show and you’re the only girl match, you can have the guys give you feedback, but there are some differences in the way we work, so it’s nice to get the feedback from top workers like Nikki Storm and Viper.”
Austin’s greatest exposure undoubtedly came on the second series of Challenge TV’s TNA British Bootcamp in which she made an emotional appearance during the tryouts, talking about balancing being a mother with being a wrestler. She recalls that, unlike sometimes happens in such show, what aired was a fair reflection of her experience on the day.
“I don’t think they really missed a lot of my stuff out – you saw that I cried! I didn’t think I’d get that emotional but you’re standing in front of people and you’re trying your hardest to think of things to say and nothing’s coming out of your mouth and then you start panicking and thinking ‘I look rubbish’ or ‘I’m not doing this right’ and then you start getting more emotional and thinking ‘my kids are going to watch this, I want to show them that I’m confident’ but at that time all my confidence just went.
“I thought I’d going there and be really confident but as soon as you’re in there in front of three judges who you’ve watched, like Gail Kim I grew up watching her… it was very overwhelming to be in front of them. Al Snow and Joe both said just get more experience and be more confident and Gail Kim was telling me to not give up and keep trying. That’s what I’ve been working on, my confidence.”
Austin believes a different approach to her persona might be the answer to nerves if she takes part in similar tryouts again. “My face character is me, it’s a mum. At Futureshock when I won the title my son got into the ring and he hugged me, so that is my character and I am showing people that dreams come true and I’m showing children that working hard gets you places. As a heel character I’m a bit more confident because it’s different to me. Maybe next time I might go in as a big heel and tell them all to do one!”
Being a single mother and a wrestler brings logistical challenges, though so far Austin has been able to work around them. “My children go to my ex partner’s at weekends anyway so it fits in really well, but I’ve also got a massive supportive family. My mum and my sister help and it’s not like they’ll drop everything, but if I’m desperate they will drop things for me to be able to go and do what I do. It makes it easier that wrestling’s at weekends. I’d find it difficult to do [weekday shows] but then my family would support me and try and work things round to where I can go and do that.”
Juggling the calendar is one thing. Dealing with the emotions of leaving her children to be a weekend warrior is something else. “I miss them. I really do miss them a lot. During the week I do the school run, the housework, the tea, the homework, all the routine stuff. At weekends they go to their dad’s and have the fun time. I think that’s why I love my children being off during the holidays, I’m excited because they’re going to be off for six weeks and I’m going to have fun with them, we’re going to go to the parks, we’re going to play rounders and football.
“It is hard leaving them and there’s times they say they want to stay with me but because I’ve got wrestling, I’ve had to tell them “Once you get back on Monday we’ll have family night and watch a film.” My youngest cries quite a lot and that’s heartbreaking. It is upsetting and that’s why I’m glad I’m doing so well so I can come home and say “Mum did so-and-so this weekend” and see their happy faces after they’ve cried about not wanting to leave me. It kinds of levels it out a bit.”
Rather than be an obstacle to her wrestling career, Austin is certain her children have boosted her drive to succeed. “They’ve inspired me more to do the wrestling and to try and to never give up. Every time I come home with a belt, or when I came home the other day and I was in the Manchester Evening News and I showed it to them, they just get excited. When I see their faces it just makes me want to do more and more, it makes me want to accomplish more to show them that if they want to be a singer or a wrestler or whatever, all they need to do is put in the hard work and they can be whatever they want.
“After I won my first ever title at Futureshock, all the way home in the car my eldest just wouldn’t stop talking about it: ‘I’m gonna go tell my friends, I’m going to tell my teachers that my mum’s a champion.’ It just puts a massive smile on my face.”
As with all parents of wrestling devotees, Austin had to think carefully before deciding exactly what to tell her children about the inner workings of wrestling. “I don’t want to take [the fantasy] away from them but I don’t want them to go into school and start wrestling with people. I’ve had to tell them you have to go to a training school, you have to be trained before you can even do any wrestling, so they know that they can’t just go around superkicking people!”
Wrestling has also has some surprising benefits for Austin as a mother. “I’d tell all mothers, if they can, even if they just want to do it for the fitness, do wrestling training. I’ve been to the gym, I’ve done gym crosses, but I’ve never done anything like I do at wrestling training. The fitness there is just amazing. Whenever people come up to me and say ‘How are you still in shape after having three kids?’ I tell them ‘Go and do some wrestling training because the cardio helps loads.'”
Wrestling hasn’t just brought physical rewards however: there are mental benefits too. “It’s definitely helped with my confidence as a person as well. If I would have thought three years ago that I was getting in front of hundreds of people in a crowd, I never would have thought I would have been able to do that. Now I look forward to going out in front of a crowd, I look forward to going out and having a bit of banter with them, a bit of a laugh with them or them to boo me. I enjoy it. At first I was very nervous — I still get nervous now, but the nerves then were really bad. I felt like I was going to be sick back then.”
“I love working with new people because you learn something new with everyone you work with. When I worked with Nikki Storm I got more confident because I learned things with her. When I worked with Viper, I’m more confident. At the weekend I wrestled Saraya Knight and I learned a lot from her. Most of it is to do with confidence.”
It was one conversation in particular that helped Austin break through and own that confidence. “Bubblegum came to me and said I need to believe in myself more because I have got potential and I am doing good. When you have [experienced] people like that say that it makes you think: ‘Maybe I can believe in myself, maybe I can do this, maybe I am going to get better.’ It’s the support of everyone around you that makes you more confident. I like people supporting each other in the business instead of bringing each other down because if everyone brought each other up, wrestling would be a lot better.”
That pep talk is something Austin would like to one day be able to pay forward. “My aim is to be known as one of the best wrestlers in the UK. I have children so I know things like WWE and TNA are going to be hard for me because I’m 29 this year and I’ve got three children, so my biggest aim is to become one of the best in the UK and keep learning, and then maybe be able to help other people. I’m a big believer in confidence and I see a lot of other girls starting who don’t have confidence so if I can help with that, then that would be another thing I’ll be happy about.”
And it’s not just wrestlers who Austin would like to use her wrestling experiences to motivate. ” I’d always say to mums, if they want to be a dancer or a singer or anything they want to do, just because they are a mum doesn’t mean they can’t do things. Anyone can do whatever they want.”
