The PCW Ultra Women’s division has a new UltraWomen champion, and with spears that will break you in half and choke bombs to put you out, “The Little Killer” Zamaya has taken the division by storm and has no plans of slowing down anytime soon.
Zamaya defeated the former champion Viva Van and Jazmin Allure for the title in a triple threat match to win the title on January 12, 2024. It has all moved fast for her, she only started training to wrestle at the end of 2021.
She is still on a high from the title win. “It feels incredible. It was a goal that I set, as soon as I started wrestling, I’ve been wrestling for a little over a year. And the very first time I walked into PCW, Ultra, I watched it was Ruby Reyes versus Viva. And I was like, ‘I need that title.’ I was like, ‘I’m gonna have that title.’ So to be able to actually accomplish that in a little over a year, it’s very rewarding. And I’m just very glad that I was trusted in this position, and I’m ready to take the title to new heights and lengths and see what we can do with it.”
The origins of Zamaya are based in legitimacy, as she wrestled amateur in high school and college. The wrestling entertainment world beckoned, and she decided to shoot for the stars and throw herself fully into training for it once COVID regulations begun lifting in 2021.
An Instagram post directed her to the Arizona Professional Wrestling Training Center (APWTC), and soon she was taking bumps.
The “Little Killer” moniker has its origins in height and style. She is billed at 5-foot-5 — 5-foot-10 if you include her hair – so doesn’t tower over many opponents. The second comes from her in-ring attitude, vicious and non-stop, which she attributed to her coaches. Zamaya describes them (her coaches) with words like vicious and aggressive.
Zamaya hitting an opponent with a vicious spear
Though too young to have seen Bull Nakano in her prime, Zamaya admires the Japanese legend big time. “Bull Nakano, she’s my biggest inspiration. When she comes out her presence is just so large. And when she walked down to the ring, everyone just eyes glued in awe, you know, and… you could feel it through the screen.”
Following Nakano’s lead, Zamaya aims to stand out. “Everyone looks the same. And everyone acts the same, everyone comes off the same and I came in wanting to look different, act different. My wrestling style is much different.” Some other wrestlers she draws inspiration from include Edge, Rhyno, Seth Rollins and Triple H.
PCW Ultra promoter Joseph Cabibbo believes in her. “She is very young and brand new but she will definitely be a big star in this business.”
Zamaya as the UltraWoman champion in January 2024.
What sets Zamaya apart from other woman wrestlers across the globe is her wrestling style. One thing she does differently is that she “wrestles with purpose” and is constantly training to get better. “And that’s why I think that I’m getting the opportunities that I have gotten is because I’m training to be the best and it’s slowly starting to show and I’m slowly starting to make people’s heads turn. So I know that that’s something I bring to the table is just being different with wrestling.”
Zamaya credits her coaches Devin Reno and Dom Vitalli and others working at the APWTC, saying they make her train viciously and train with the guys, encouraging her to hit harder and take tougher bumps.
And for as much praise as Zamaya gives to her coaches, they give her praise right back. After her PCW win, Vitalli posted on Instagram: “Countless hours in the gym, day in and day out. Never NOT there. Fighting through pain and frustration, but never a single complaint. Toughness that some men only dream of having. Someone for everyone to look up to, not just women. When opportunity knocked, she kicked down the door. It’s Z’s world now, and rightfully so. Congratulations to the new PCW ULTRAWOMAN Champion, Zamaya.”
Zamaya holding the PCW Ultra UltraWomens Championship belt alongside trainer Dom Vitalli (via @domvitalli on Instagram)
The aggression and feisty nature of Zamaya is in her moveset as well. She has a wicked spear and a nasty chokebomb, but neither takes the place of her favorite move, with that going to her clothesline. It isn’t just any clothesline, though. First she grabs her opponent’s hair and screams in their faces.
“It’s just like a simple gut punch. I grab the hair. I’ve hugged them back and I get to scream in their face whatever I want. And I come down with a big line. I just really like screaming in people’s faces.”
Zamaya screaming at the crowd as she gets ready to deliver a hard clothesline
In terms of how she decided on a spear and a chokebomb to be her signature moves, her spear was ‘discovered’ by accident. “But I actually started doing that move on accident, like coming out of collegiate wrestling. There’s something called a blast level. And you kind of just wrap your head into the person and like, grab both the legs. So they just fall backwards. And it was when I first started wrestling small little matches at practice, my trainer Gabriel Gallo was like, just do something, and I just blast leveled him. And he goes, that hurts so bad. And he was on the floor rolling around. And they were like, Okay, we’re gonna teach you how to do it. But now you need to put the head to the side, and you’re just gonna spear people.”
Just as finding her spear came out of the blue, the actual name Zamaya also seemingly fell right into her lap as well. She knew she wanted to have just one name and liked the letter Z but seemingly couldn’t come up with one, until one day she was talking to a friend who suggested the name Zamaya and the rest is history.
Zamaya has had a meteoric rise in PCW but that road has not always necessarily been easy. A lack of belief in herself was something that she had to deal with from the jump. “I struggled a lot with just self doubt with wrestling. When I first started, I still do, but I train all week, Monday through Thursday. I’m always there. And there was a point before, I think it was right after my first match where I like actually hit the hurdle of what am I doing? Like, I just had my first match. I don’t know who I want to be.” To get past this, Zamaya said her trainer Dom had told her he wished she could see herself through his eyes to see the progress that she had made. Once she changed her mindset, Zamaya noticed the progress. Now she is a champion.
RELATED LINKS
- Zamaya social media: Instagram * X
- PCW website
