HEAVY weight champ

“In all honesty, it has been difficult the past few months. So many plans had to drop and be cancelled. From wrestling matches, to bookings and appearances.”

Nor Diana – a.k.a. Phoenix – is growing increasingly excited as she recalls the biggest night in her wrestling career so far. “As soon as the referee called the end of the match I cried,” she says, grinning. “It changed my life forever.”

The 20-year-old Malaysian, who stands at just fivefeet tall, is currently blazing a trail through the wrestling industry as the world’s first hijab-wearing pro. The match she’s referring to is her appearance at Wrestlecon – Malaysia’s biggest wrestling championship – in the summer of 2019: a fight that had her squaring off against four male opponents to be crowned her country’s champion.

Diana remembers how, on the night, she wasn’t to win. This isn’t her being modest, or confirming that the odds were stacked against her, either. Because, as is the case with all pro wrestling, there was a script to be followed: the winner had already been predetermined as part