(Photo Courtesy TNA Wrestling)
TNA Wrestling star Ash By Elegance with her personal concierge George Iceman.
When one door closes, you look for another one.
That's what Cleveland native Ashley Sebera did, and she found one, storming through it. Formerly Dana Brooke in WWE, she is now Ash By Elegance, starring for TNA Wrestling, which is broadcast 8 p.m. Thursdays on AXS TV.
With a new persona, something she formulated, she looks forward to this new opportunity, new challenge — a chance to raise her game, become a bigger star, a world champion — in the scripted yet physical sports discipline known as professional wrestling.
"It's really been super amazing to dive in and really find out what can I do that's different, that nobody else is doing," said Sebera, who was born and raised in Seven Hills. "You've seen me outside of the ring; you've seen me on the streets of Miami. You know I try to be as elegant as I can be, when it comes to fashion, jewelry, shoes, purses. I love fashion. I love being elegant.
"With that being said, we are in 2024, and branding is a big thing now on social media, commercials, wherever it may be. So elegance is like my brand. I feel we can branch off and do a champagne line, a make-up line, a perfume line. It's Ash By Elegance, brought to you by Elegance. So it definitely is a different side of me [in pro wrestling], and it's a lot, a lot of fun, but it's been hard to dig deep, deep inside of me to find this very arrogant, I don't care, self-centered type character, but it's been so much fun.
"I love feeding into the crowd, feeding into the negativity and people booing me. It's been a transition because I was a 'good girl' [in WWE] for so long, but it's been so much fun to tap into this new character."
Key people behind the scenes in TNA Wrestling believe in her. Tommy Dreamer and Gail Kim are two of them. Kim leads the women's division, called TNA Knockouts, and Dreamer is one of the central figures in the company's creative process.
As a pro wrestler in the 2000s, Kim helped pioneer the Knockouts Division, and she is one of the key figures in the evolution of the revolution of women's wrestling. The talent — those part of the Knockouts Division — reads like a Who's Who of women's wrestlers.
"That definitely was a selling point for me, including the creative freedom that we have," Sebera said. "I've loved working with Gail Kim and also Tommy Dreamer. When I talked with Tommy, he's like we've seen your potential for years. It's just never been capitalized on, and we want to make you a star. We really want you to stand out and really make something of you."
She noted: "When you're coming from somewhere else, and they're always telling you, 'Ok, yea, maybe the next time, or you'll have another opportunity,' it makes you kind of feel small in a sense. And then when I made that transition [from WWE to TNA Wrestling] even within that first week of vignettes, and watching myself back on those vignettes, I'm like, 'Oh my God. They made me a star.' They made me feel like a star. I'm like, 'What is this?' It felt so amazing. To watch it back and see them invest time and creativity and things into me, to make me feel super special and a star and then to be able to go out there and have matches and be like, 'Hey, let me bring my champagne out...' It's really fun."
She even has her own personal concierge — George Iceman.
Sebera added: "Then on the flipside of things. I've worked with the best women [wrestlers] in the world, I thought, and then I see this TNA Knockouts Division, and I'm like, 'Wow,' they really go to the extreme, and I love that. They lay everything out there. They have something to prove. They have something to show."
Jordynne Grace, an outstanding talent, is the TNA Knockouts Division champion.
"I've been Blessed to be able to be ringside to watch a lot of Jordynne's matches, and she's the real deal," Sebera said. "When I was coming into TNA, she had debuted [on the WWE] Royal Rumble [which is unheard of, someone from another company on a WWE show], and she was dominating that match. I'm like, 'All right. I need to step in the ring with her because she's gonna bring out this different side of me, which is going to be incredible...so that was also a huge selling point [to join TNA Wrestling]."
As Dana Brooke, this multi-talented sports entertainer spent 10 years with World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE), the biggest and most lucrative pro wrestling organization in the world.
She achieved moderate success in the ring. She was never the No.1 sports entertainer in the women's division. She did win the 24-7 title but did not win the women's championship.
Still, Brooke competed with and against all the best WWE had to offer, including Charlotte Flair, Becky Lynch, Bayley, Natayla, Asuka, Sasha Banks, Mandy Rose. She's competed on the grandest stage - WrestleMania - as well as at the Royal Rumble and Survivor Series.
Brooke grew her star power in WWE, which has three weekly TV shows - WWE Monday Night Raw (USA Network), NXT Tuesday (USA Network), WWE Friday Night SmackDown (Fox). The publicly-traded company, under the TKO Group Holdings banner (a collaboration between combat sports giant UFC and WWE), travels the world with a tremendous social media following.
Brooke's presence was felt even more through WWE's philanthropy. She enjoyed taking time to be a part of the company's Be a STAR program, Make-a-Wish, Tribute to the Troops, and Special Olympics.
Something important to her, she wants to continue giving back while in TNA Wrestling.
She said: "I had a conversation at WrestleCon with a co-worker of mine, AJ, and he did a Special Olympics event, tied in with TNA Wrestling, and I saw that video, and I asked him, 'How did you do this?' He goes. 'I do a lot of things with Special Olympics all the time.'
"Trust me, when I tell you. I will fly anywhere around the world, if you do another event like this, because I want to be a part of it. That's something that I hold so deep to my heart, being able to do community work...In the heart of Covid, I was on the streets [in South Florida], passing out food — also teaming up with local businesses to help support smaller businesses — being able to hand food out to the homeless. That's something that I really want to start up. I know different ownership came into TNA Wrestling, and I want to sit down with them and tell them, 'Look. We're missing the ball on something. Community work and service is huge,' and I want to get a team of us together..."
Sebera is a former bodybuilder, gymnast, fitness competitor, and model. She was a district champion diver for Holy Name High School and as a bodybuilder/fitness competitor competed three times in the Arnold Classic, where she met Arnold Schwarzenegger. Gymnastics, though, was her No.1, growing up, but injuries forced her to stop, ending her Olympic dreams.
Now, as a pro wrestler, she also is actively pursuing entrepreneurship in the champagne category, seeking advice from her famous brother-in-law. Champagne fits her current TNA Wrestling character portrayal — elegant, snobbish, self-centered, arrogant, classy. She even has her own personal concierge on the weekly TV show.
In my video interview with her, the Holy Name High School and Kent State University alum discusses the transition to TNA Wrestling, her new character portrayal, giving back and entrepreneurship via her brother-in-law "Mr. Worldwide" music artist and entrepreneur Pitbull.
Integral to her journey, in 2011, she earned a degree from Kent State University in fashion, merchandising and design, with a minor in business administration. She used her fashion education, mind and qualifications to open her own boutique.
Living in South Florida, Sebera met boxer, bare knuckle fighter, MMA combatant Uly "Monster" Diaz, a proud Cuban American. They started dating and are now husband and wife. Diaz is noted for recording a Guinness world record fastest KO in combat sports history. He did it in three seconds against Donelei Benedetto on Friday, Nov. 13, 2020 at BKFC 14 in Uly's hometown Miami.
"Ash By Elegance is amazing; she's about to be a world champ herself by the end of the year," Diaz said. "She's doing great. She's with TNA Wrestling. She's kicking butt. She just kicked butt on pay-per-view. She's my motivation, inspiration; she's in my corner, and it's amazing to have her by my side."
With all the male and female talent and fans and broadcasters and exces and crew and staff, does Ash By Elegance also need a bodyguard type by her side in TNA Wrestling? I think so.
"I think so, too," Diaz said with a smile. "I'll be reaching out to them soon to see what we can make happen."
TNA Wrestling is 8 p.m. Thursdays on AXS TV.
TNA Wrestling celebrates its 20th anniversary with Slammiversary on Saturday, July 20 from Montreal, Quebec, Canada at Verdun Auditorium.
Web: https://tnawrestling.com/
Jim Varsallone ([email protected]) works part-time for the Sports Department of the Miami Herald and is also a freelance feature writer/interviewer. He has covered pro wrestling, preps and MMA.
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