April Hunter

April Hunter (born September 24, 1976) is an American professional wrestler, professional wrestling valet, boxer, actress, writer and fitness and glamour model. She has appeared in publications including MuscleMag International and Playboy and has her own comic book series titled Code Red.

April Hunter
Hunter in 2010
Born (1976-09-24) September 24, 1976
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States[1]
ResidenceTampa, Florida, United States[1]
Professional wrestling career
Ring name(s)April Hunter[2]
April Kincaid[2]
The Prize[3][1]
Big Red[1]
Beautiful Soldier[3]
Billed height5 ft 9 in (1.75 m)[1]
Billed weight150 lb (68 kg; 11 st)[1]
Billed fromPhiladelphia, Pennsylvania
Trained byKiller Kowalski[1]
Debut1999[1]

Professional wrestling career

World Championship Wrestling (1999–2000)

In 1999, after Hunter appeared in Playboy, she was hired by World Championship Wrestling (WCW).[1][4] Along with four other models (Tylene Buck, Kim Kanner (Shakira), Midajah, and Pamela Paulshock), she accompanied members of the New World Order (nWo) to ringside for their matches.

Independent circuit (2001–2007)

Hunter trained to become a professional wrestler with Killer Kowalski in Boston.[1] She was the only woman in the class and soon began working on the independent circuit and overseas. Hunter formed a tag team with fellow Kowalski graduate Nikki Roxx in World Xtreme Wrestling, and the pair were known as The Killer Babes.[5] She then worked as the manager for Slyck Wagner Brown. Together they held both Pro-Pain Pro Wrestling's 3PW Tag Team Championship and Jersey All Pro Wrestling's JAPW Tag Team Championship. April was the first woman in pro wrestling history to hold the (male) tag team title.

Hunter traveled to Canada for the first time in December 2005, working for Action Wrestling Entertainment and wrestling against Sarah Stock.[6] In February 2006, Hunter worked for Carmen Electra's Naked Women's Wrestling League (NWWL).[7] While in the NWWL, Hunter broke her nose, which limited the moves she could perform while working for the promotion.[7]

In Women's Extreme Wrestling (WEW) in April 2006, Hunter formed a tag team known as T & A with Talia Madison.[2] On April 6, they defeated Team Blondage (Amber O'Neal and Lollipop) for the WEW Tag Team Championship.[2] A month later, Hunter and J.D. Maverick debuted together for TNT Pro Wrestling.[8] In September, Hunter challenged Madison for her TNT Women's Championship.[8] She defeated her for the title on September 23.[2] During her time in TNT, Hunter appeared in the Glamour, Glitz & Divas—The Untold Story of American Women's Wrestling DVD, alongside Madison and Michaels.[9]

Hunter won Queens of Chaos's World Queens of Chaos Championship in November 2006 by defeating Sweet Saraya in the final round of a championship tournament.[2] She vacated the title on In May 2012. She also won Great Canadian Wrestling's GCW W.I.L.D. Championship from Miss Danyah on April 13, 2007.[10] She held the title for one day before losing it to Cherry Bomb in a four-way match.[10] Because of wrestling-related injuries, Hunter retired from professional wrestling later in the year.[1]

Hunter (right) with Lorelei on TNA Impact!

Total Nonstop Action Wrestling (2002, 2009)

On August 28, 2002, Hunter appeared for Total Nonstop Action Wrestling (TNA). She was introduced (and defeated) by then-Miss TNA Bruce as part of his Miss TNA Challenge.[2] She returned for several other appearances in TNA, including matches against Desire, Eric Watts and John Walters.[2] Hunter turned heel in her return to TNA on the December 31, 2009 edition of Impact!, teaming with the evil Lorelei Lee in a losing effort against TNA Knockouts Tag Team Champions Sarita and Taylor Wilde.[11] On June 15, 2010, Hunter claimed that she had turned down a contract offer from TNA the previous month.[12]

Return to independent circuit (2009–present)

In late 2009, Hunter returned to the ring from retirement. Her mother was diagnosed with stage four cancer and her return to the ring was to help out financially.[13] Hunter toured Europe with American Rampage Wrestling between November and December 2009 with Rob Van Dam, Sid Vicious and Sabu.

Hunter was part of the AWR (American Wrestling Rampage) European Tour in November 2010 in France with Booker T, Sandman, Scott Steiner and Kai.

On September 21, 2012, Hunter debuted for Shine Wrestling's SHINE 3 event as the villainous manager of Made In Sin (Allysin Kay and Taylor Made). All three women would align with Rain and Ivelisse to form the Valkyrie faction at SHINE 6 on January 11, 2013. At SHINE 7 on February 22, Hunter made her in-ring debut for the promotion, teaming with Made In Sin in a victorious outing against Mia Yim, Su Yung and Tracy Taylor.[14]

April Hunter debuted for High Impact Wrestling Canada in August 2014 as part of the "Tour De Rumble" that featured events throughout Central Canada. She appeared at eight events during the tour.

Other media
Hunter posing in a fitness competition

Hunter competed in Muscle and Fitness competitions in 2009 and placed third in her first NPC-sanctioned figure competition November 14, 2009.[15] She then competed in Figure on June 18, 2010 at the Junior Nationals in Chicago.[16]

Hunter has appeared in the films Â! Ikkenya puroresu (2004) and Just Another Romantic Wrestling Comedy (2007).[17] In the United Kingdom, she has appeared on the James Whale Show, and in Japan, she appeared in a Toyota Fun Cargo TV commercial. In the United States, she appeared in a MSNBC documentary entitled Body of Work, on The Howard Stern Show, and in the video for The Outhere Brothers' "Boom Boom Boom"/"Don't Stop (Wiggle Wiggle)." She appeared in a W-FIVE documentary in Canada, TruTV's "Most Daring Wild Women", and several independent films, including Ultimate Death Match II and Hell House in 2009/2010.[18]

In 2012, Hunter appeared in horror film The Meat Puppet playing the role of "Jade" [19] For her performance she was nominated for Best Supporting Actress, Feature Drama in the Downbeach Film Festival.[20]

In 2013 Hunter appeared in the film Gravedigger, playing the role of Marie Spiegel.[21]

Hunter is featured in a line of comic books with the titles Code Red, Code Red II, Stripper Viking, and Stripper Viking II. She is also featured in various trading cards and art, comics, and books by Jay E. Fife, Scott Blair, Monte Moore, Julie Strain, and Boris Vallejo. In 2013 Hunter was one of several models chosen to work with artist George Pérez on his new comic, Sirens. She served as the model for the character "Agony".[22][23]

In 2013, Hunter started a blog she titled "Putting The Clothes On, Taking The Gloves Off".

Starting in 2013 she started making appearances at horror, science fiction, and comic book conventions cosplaying as various characters. Her cosplay costumes have featured Phoenix, Black Widow, a female version of The Punisher, Poison Ivy, Wonder Woman, and Red Sonja.

Personal life

Hunter is of German, Scottish and Italian descent. She was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, but moved to Enterprise, Alabama, with her father when her parents divorced.[4] Before entering the world of professional wrestling, Hunter worked as a fitness model.[7] She placed in Ms. Fitness Philadelphia and Ironwoman Tri-Fitness in Tampa, Florida. She also worked as a Playboy model[24] and Met-Rx spokesperson.[25]

On August 30, 2006, Hunter married Canadian wrestler Jordan Danyluk (known as J.D. Maverick) in Las Vegas, Nevada.[8] They first met at a wrestling show in December 2005 and were engaged after Valentine's Day in 2006.[8] The two have since divorced.

She studied photography at the New England School of Photography.[1]

Hunter applying the Hunter's Hangman

Championships and accomplishments
Hunter at an anime convention in 2008
Hunter as the NWA Cyberspace Women's Champion

References
  1. "April Hunter's profile". GLORY Wrestling. Archived from the original on January 31, 2010. Retrieved September 27, 2009.
  2. "April Hunter's profile". Online World of Wrestling. Retrieved September 29, 2009.
  3. "Lethalwow profile". Lethalwow. Archived from the original on December 23, 2009. Retrieved December 22, 2009.
  4. "April Hunter Interview". extremenutrition.co.uk. Archived from the original on June 25, 2007. Retrieved July 30, 2007.
  5. Official site
  6. Oliver, Greg (January 18, 2006). "The Harsh Reality: AWE PPV tonight". SLAM! Wrestling. Retrieved September 28, 2009.
  7. Oliver, Greg (February 2, 2006). "The recent rough road of April Hunter". SLAM! Wrestling. Retrieved September 28, 2009.
  8. Kamchen, Richard (August 30, 2006). "Wedding day for J.D. Michaels & April Hunter". SLAM! Wrestling. Retrieved September 27, 2009.
  9. Mackinder, Matt (April 23, 2009). "Big Vision DVD potpourri outstanding". SLAM! Wrestling. Retrieved September 28, 2009.
  10. "GCW W.I.L.D. Championship". Great Canadian Wrestling. Retrieved September 29, 2009.
  11. Parks, Greg (December 31, 2009). "PARKS' TNA New Year's Knockout Eve Report 12/31: Ongoing "virtual time" coverage of the special, including TNA Knockouts Tournament". PWTorch. Archived from the original on January 3, 2010. Retrieved January 1, 2010.
  12. Gerweck, Steve (June 15, 2010). "Potential knockout turns down TNA". WrestleView. Archived from the original on April 28, 2012. Retrieved June 15, 2010.
  13. Gerweck, Steve (December 19, 2009). "April Hunter explains her ring return". WrestleView. Archived from the original on January 23, 2010. Retrieved December 22, 2009.
  14. Adrian (February 24, 2013). "SHINE 7 in Review: Kong Grounded as Valkyrie Ascend | Diva Dirt". diva-dirt.com. Retrieved July 10, 2015.
  15. "April Hunter's bio and NPC competition results". BodyBuilding.com. Retrieved December 29, 2009.
  16. "Pictures". musculardevelopment.com.
  17. Â! Ikkenya puroresu (2004) - IMDb
  18. April Hunter - IMDb
  19. The Meat Puppet
  20. Downbeach Film Festival - Best Supporting Actress, Feature Drama
  21. Gravedigger
  22. Pérez, George (September 7, 2013). "She-Devils is the new George Pérez series for BOOM! Studios - George Pérez". sites.google.com. Retrieved June 21, 2014.
  23. Dietsch, TJ (June 3, 2014). "Despite Eye Surgery, George Peréz Keeps His Focus on 'Sirens'". comicbookresources.com. Retrieved June 21, 2014. Agony, the battle-loving brute, is a model/wrestler named April Hunter.
  24. Kitching, Chris (December 5, 2005). "April Hunter perfect mix of beauty, brawn". slam.canoe.com. Retrieved July 10, 2015.
  25. Steven, Andy (November 9, 2006). "April Hunter Speaks On Playboy, Wrestling Nude, WCW & More". wrestlinginc.com. Retrieved July 10, 2015.
  26. "German Stampede Wrestling". Online World of Wrestling. Archived from the original on July 20, 2008. Retrieved July 8, 2008.
  27. Sokol, Chris (November 3, 2005). "A Slyck upcoming star". SLAM! Wrestling. Retrieved September 28, 2009.
  28. "3PW 5 Star 4 Way". onlineworldofwrestling.com. Archived from the original on June 21, 2008. Retrieved July 6, 2008.
  29. "The PWI Female 50 Rankings: Who Is The Top Women's Wrestler In The World?". PWPix.net. September 18, 2008. Archived from the original on September 19, 2008. Retrieved September 19, 2008.
  30. "Queens of Chaos". Online World of Wrestling. Archived from the original on June 22, 2008. Retrieved July 7, 2008.
  31. "Independent Wrestling Results – November 2003". Online World of Wrestling. Retrieved July 5, 2008.
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