Anna Jay is one of AEW’s most promising performers. Jay is a future megastar, and AEW knows it and presents her as such. At 23 years old and still in the infancy of her wrestling career, she exudes confidence and wrestling ability way beyond her years.
Jay signed for AEW with just five matches on her record and made an impressive impact in her debut match against Hikaru Shida. Shortly after joining the promotion Jay became a member of the Dark Order and her wrestling career flourished.
Anna Jay is the Queen Slayer, a member of the Dark Order and one of the youngest members of the AEW roster, but here are five things you don’t know about Anna Jay.
5. Anna Jay is in a relationship with fellow AEW star Jungle Boy
Two of AEW’s brightest stars Anna Jay and Jungle Boy are in a relationship. The two revealed their relationship in social media post on June 2021 after Jungle Boy failed to capture the AEW World Championship from Kenny Omega on Dynamite.
Speaking on Oral Sessions with Renee Paquette, Jungle Boy revealed how they got together.
“We actually took that on the night of Double or Nothing after I won the Battle Royal. After I wrestled Kenny, I felt like I just had one of the best matches of my life. He is one of the best wrestlers in the world, and right now, might as well.”
“It was a weird year. It was very strange. I think she came in at a time when I was at home for a couple months. They weren’t bringing people in from California. She lived in Georgia, so she got in the fold somehow. When I came back she was there. I met her, actually thanks to Joey Janela playing Beer Pong at a company BBQ. Joey asked me to be his partner. I think we played against her and Alan Angels. I could kind of see some googly eyes there a little bit.
“I remember later that night, Sonny Kiss came up to me grinning, saying ‘I need to tell you something.’ I said, ‘I already know.’ We started hanging out. It was strange because I would see her every two weeks because that was the taping schedule. It was a weird way to get to know someone because we’re also at work, there’s a lot going on, but it was cool. We got to know each other and all that. You know how these things go. One thing turns to another, and somehow, here we are.”
— Jungleboy (@boy_myth_legend) June 28, 2021
4. Anna Jay was trained by QT Marshall and Glacier
Anna Jay got into wrestling from an early age through her father. The two would watch wrestling together and Jay fell in love with the action on the screen and cites the Bella Twins as a huge influence on her decision to become a professional wrestler.
In 2017, Jay started training with the help of family friend and former WCW star Glacier. He ran a summer camp at One Fall Power Factory, now known as the Nightmare Factory, which Jay attended. The camp further ignited her passion for wrestling and the following year she moved to Atlanta to train full time with Glacier and QT Marshall.
Speaking on an episode of Talk is Jericho, QT Marshall spoke about Jay and revealed that she has “it”.
“All of my students turned into The Dark Order (laughs). Preston Vance, Alan Angels, Anna Jay, those are the three and then Lee Johnson was the other one that during the pandemic all got jobs. [Anna] is actually Glacier’s best friend’s niece.
“He said, ‘I have this girl. I don’t know how serious she is going to take it because she is beautiful.’ I said, ‘OK, let me see.’ She came to the school, and I’ve dealt with girls like this at The Monster Factory. She’s not going to last. Right away, she got hurt and needed shoulder surgery and she stuck through it.
During that show at the school, she had done a match with Penelope (Ford) that was OK. It was only like her sixth match. And then we were at Cody’s house and he’s like, ‘What if we do Anna Jay vs Shida?’ because we didn’t have any talent. I said, ‘Dude, I’m not going to lie, I don’t know about putting her on live TV.’ This is her seventh match. But she did great. She had such a great response from the audience.
They came up to me and said they want to sign her. I said, ‘OK, but if she doesn’t do well, she is not my trainee (laughs).’ Of course, I don’t ever want to take away a job from anybody, but at the same time, just know what you’re buying too. She’s had seven matches. Because she was a performer before doing recitals and whatever it was she was doing, she’s got “it.”. I used to say “it” was just an excuse for hiring bodybuilders who didn’t know how to wrestle….. Anna Jay has “it.”
3. Anna Jay can tap dance
Anna Jay is a trained dancer and therefore no stranger to performing. Jay began dancing from the young age of 2 years old and continued to do so until she was 18.
Her original gimmick when she signed with AEW was the Star of the Show, an ode to her dancing background.
Speaking on the AEW Unrestricted podcast, Jay told Tony Schiavone and Aubrey Edwards about her Broadway musical inspired gimmick and her dancing background.
“I actually got the inspiration from myself. I used to dance when I was younger and I did a lot of Broadway dances and I always wore a lot of top hats and then the wrist, the cuffs were actually the ones I used on Dynamite were from a costume I wore when I was eight years old.”
“I danced from the age 2 to 18 so I think my first stage was like when I was 2, like at a recital or something. So my whole life pretty much.”
“I remember very distinctively there was one, it was my senior year of high school and we’d do ballets every year. I was Elsa from Frozen, so yeah people don’t this about me but its funny I used to have blonde hair, like really blonde had a long blue dress on and was in my ballet shoes.”
Fun fact. I can tap dance. pic.twitter.com/Tw8RW3XN9e
— Anna Jay (@annajay___) July 28, 2020
2. Anna Jay competed in a Hair vs Hair match before joining AEW
Anna Jay made her professional wrestling debut in September of 2019. The Georgia Premier Wrestling event took place at a charity event held by her trainer and family friend, Glacier called The Battle of Altama. One of her biggest matches on the scene was a Hari vs Hair match against Thunder Blonde.
The match took place at GPW’s Edge of Darkness event on January 17 2020. It was only her third ever match and first ever stipulation bout. Jay performed well as the heel and emerged from the clash with the win and her hair in tact. After scoring the win, Jay berated the fans as she cut and shaved off her opponent’s locks in the middle of the ring.
The match would be Jay’s last for the promotion as she then appeared for the Empower Wrestling a month later. Jay faced Sarah the Rebel and Amber Nova in two separate matches before getting signed to AEW.
1. Anna Jay has a nickname inspired by Wayne Gretzky
Anna Jay was not in AEW long before coming the first female member of the Dark Order. The faction came the aid of Jay after she suffered a quick loss to AEW’s resident zombie Abadon. After the match, the order led by Brodie Lee assisted her out of the ring and backstage. Over the following few weeks Jay accompanied the Dark Order whenever they appeared on the show.
Upon joining the group, Jay was given the nicknames on Queenslayer and 99 by the Exalted One Brodie Lee. Speaking Talk is Jericho, Jay revealed that Lee gave her the 99 nickname as an ode to Ice Hokey legend Wayne Gretzky.
“I didn’t even know he was going to call me the Queenslayer until we were live and he did it in the ring. It just kind of caught on. I didn’t even know about [number ’99’ ] until his Unrestricted interview came out. He literally said, “It only matters to me.” It is a reference to number 99, Wayne Gretzky, the hockey player, ‘The Great One.’”