The stage is set, the air heavy with cheers and flying beer bottles, thousands screaming her name, the spotlight shining down on the ring and her face.
And then, just like that, it’s over. There is no one asking for her autograph, only someone asking if she can bring the check.
These are Tallara George’s two worlds. By day she is a waitress but by night she is Avary, taking down opponents with moves like the codebreaker and coward’s punch.
Tallara, along with Kelly Salter and Emma Douglas, are three Australian women who are trying to make a name for themselves in the wrestling world.
Tallara George, Kelly Salter, and Emma Douglas are three Australian women who are trying to make a name for themselves in the wrestling world (pictured is Kelly)
Tallara, 19, (pictured) is a waitress by night and a wrestler by night, competing in matches every weekend for years
Tallara (pictured) fell in love with wrestling when she was 14 years old, after catching a WWE fight between Wade Barrett and Kofi Kingston
They all fell in love with the sport at a young age, catching a match on television or in a video game.
Tallara, 19, still remembers the very first match she watched, a WWE fight between Wade Barrett and Kofi Kingston that would completely change her life.
‘I just looked at it and thought “I need to do this”‘, she told Daily Mail Australia.
She was only 14 years old at the time, but Tallara confidently declared to her mum that she was going to become a professional wrestler.
Her mum was so supportive that she drove Tallara to the closest training center, more than three hours away from their home in Mannerim, Victoria.
The young teen was immediately hooked, eventually convincing her mum to let her take the train alone so that she could train two to three times a week.
Kelly’s mum was equally supportive of her young daughter’s passion, which began when she played WWE SmackDown! on PlayStation when she was nine years old.
Kelly (pictured), now 24, also began training when she was 14 years old, after discovering a poster for a local wrestling show in Melbourne
Emma, 21, (pictured) also began watching wrestling when she was really young, and started training for matches in high school
The women love creating their characters for the ring. Emma (left) Aboriginal DreamtimeVoodoo – a witch who finds enjoyment out of violence – while Kelly (right) becomes Kellyanne, a woman she describes as being ‘everything I want to be’
She was completely taken by famous WWE characters like The Rock, Lita, and Raven, and began renting Pay-Per-View matches to watch from Blockbuster as well.
Kelly, now 24, likewise began training when she was 14 years old, after discovering a poster for a local wrestling show in Melbourne.
‘I ripped it down and ran home to show mum,’ she recalled. ‘We attended the show and I then found out I could start training. The rest is history.’
Tallara left school at 16 years old, promising her mum she would also get a part-time job, so that she could focus more on training.
Just three months later, she nabbed a debut match. Although she lost, Tallara knew she didn’t want to do anything else.
‘The bookers loved me, the bouncer went really wild, everything went perfectly,’ she said. ‘It’s an experience you can’t prepare for, but the adrenaline keeps you going.’
Tallara left school at 16 years old, promising her mum she would also get a part-time job, so that she could focus more on training
After her debut match, Tallara started getting booked for matches almost every weekend, and soaked up the thrill of hearing thousands of people chant her name
When Kelly goes into the ring, she makes it her mission to help the audience forget about their problems for three hours and become completely invested in her world
Tallara started getting booked for matches almost every weekend, and soaked up the thrill of hearing thousands of people chant her name.
But in the day she still returns to her waitressing gig, which Tallara – who is also studying to be a veterinarian nurse – admitted was a stark dose of reality.
‘You’re out there having this big extravagant match and people want autographs and photos and there’s this feeling of being famous, this whole whirlwind,’ she said.
‘And then you go to your daytime job and it’s such a huge drop, it’s almost a bit depressing. I was famous and now I’m back and nobody knows who I am.’
But, along with athletic skill and talent, wrestling is a performance that helps both those inside and outside of the ring escape from the world – at least for a few hours.
The characters these women create add to the fantasy, sometimes making them fantastical and often times creating exaggerated versions of themselves.
It’s an escape from reality that the wrestlers also relish. Tallara has always found it strange returning to her waitressing job after a weekend of matches
All the women have full or part-time jobs to support their dream. Emma (pictured) works full-time as a body piercer on top of training and competing
Emma, 21, falls in the first category. She created Aboriginal DreamtimeVoodoo, a witch who finds enjoyment out of violence.
‘The thing I love most about wrestling is characters,’ she said. ‘Seeing over-the-top, crazy, out of the normal characters is what I love.’
‘Wrestling is an art form, it’s theater, acting, sports, costumes, and characters. I have no words to describe it – you just need to experience it.’
Kelly’s character Kellyanne is ‘everything I want to be’, she revealed.
‘It wasn’t something I sat and thought about, it has been built over the past 10 years and is a persona that has a lot of layers to it.’
‘Your persona in the ring should not be easy to replicate or imitate, and the best way to protect it is to make it as authentic as possible.’
Tallara decided to personify a shy girl in the beginning of her career, thinking it meshed well with her ‘babyface’ and personality.
At the beginning of her career Tallara would play the shy girl, which she thought meshed well with her ‘babyface’ and personality
But now Tallara has transformed into Avary, a bad girl who always appears with two footy blokes in tow – ready to chug beers and play dirty
But when Tallara signed with a company, they took one look at her and said she was destined to play a ‘bad guy’ in the ring.
So she transformed into Avary, a bad girl who always appears in the ring with two footy blokes in tow – ready to chug beers and play dirty.
‘I’m a definite bogan at heart and I amplify every bogan trait I can find and just let it rip,’ she said.
‘I had a debut match and it went so well, I’ve never had that kind of reaction in wrestling before and it was just a whole new level to be on.’
‘They hated me and I loved it. I’ll have people throwing beer bottles at me and then after the show coming up and saying “That was so entertaining!”‘
With their butt-kicking personas, Emma, Tallara, and Kelly are part of a growing movement of wrestlers who are changing what it means to be a women in the ring.
‘They hated me and I loved it. I’ll have people throwing beer bottles at me and then after the show coming up and saying “That was so entertaining!”‘ Tallara said of her persona switch
All three women credit the sport with giving them the chance to see the world and learn from other wrestling cultures
Tallara recalls watching women wrestling matches when she was a teen and noticing that they were just their for their ‘aesthetic look’.
‘Since I’ve started watching they’ve progressed to these incredible women who are absolutely taking over the industry,’ she said.
‘They’re absolute bombshells, and they’re throwing better matches than half the males.’
‘The industry kind of realised that…people aren’t just sitting there to watch them because they’re gorgeous, but because they’re doing these incredible things. That’s what people want to see.’
‘There have been men who look down on female wrestling and don’t take it seriously, but the best is proving them wrong,’ Emma added.
‘In the past 12 months women’s wrestling has blown up globally and we are taken seriously. We have changed the stigma on women’s wrestling and it’s amazing.’
And these women also hope to challenge the age-old notion that wrestling is fake.
And all three are part of a growing movement of female wrestlers who are changing what it means to be a women in the ring
‘It’s hard to think how people think wrestling is fake when you’re sitting there getting punched in the face,’ Tallara said with a laugh.
‘I’ve come to work with a broken nose, I’ve had concussions. You cannot hit someone without actually touching them.’
‘It’s definitely very contact, but it’s contact in a way where you’re not just trying to beat the living crap out of them, but are working together to put on this big performance.’
At the end of the day, it’s about making the audience become so engrossed in the show in front of them that they completely abandon reality.
‘It is up to us to make them forget about their problems for three hours, and to become invested in our world and our problems,’ Kelly said.
‘Wrestling should be an escape for everyone from the mundane part of life.’