The wrestling business has a long history of scripted romantic relationships, but every now and then two performers legitimately fall head over heels for one another.
Such is the case for Nick Cvjetkovich and Stacy Carter, formerly known as Kizarny and The Kat, respectively.
The two ex-WWE stars met in March at Orlando’s MegaCon comic book convention. Both were there to sign autographs and when Cvjetkovich approached Carter, sparks immediately began to fly for the past diva.
“I was at the table doing the signing and he walked up in full Sinn Bodhi gear, with his painted face and his contacts and his hair up in a ponytail, ripped up shirt and stuff, and little hearts started dancing around in my head,” said Carter. “For both of us, immediately, we were just drawn to each other. In getting to know each other, we’re pretty much the same person. We’re different on the outside, but we’re pretty much the same on the inside.”
“It’s that classic beauty and the beast kind of deal,” added Cvjetkovich. “We just gelled on so many different levels, in life and career, and so forth. We’re out of the same sort of business, so we can kind of understand each other and we’re in that same age bracket where we have the same tastes, we’re both very easy going and playful. We constantly laugh, our sense of humour is pretty in sync. It was just one of those magical, love-at-first-sight moments that hit me like a ton of bricks.”
Despite the fact the two have both been in the wrestling industry for well over a decade, this was the first time they had actually met, bringing into question whether their meeting was an act of fate.
“I’d like to think that we make our own choices, but some stuff is halfway between written in the stars and we make our own choices,” said Cvjetkovich. “Things in the universe kind of click as they need to click. I think we were both not expecting to find the person of our dreams that day. I think the moment that you’re not looking is when it just jumps right into your lap.”
Cvjetkovich, who has largely toured with a travelling freak show since his WWE release in March 2009, popped the big question to Carter at one of his performances. In fact, it’s the one and only time Carter has seen Cvjetkovich’s act live.
“He told me about them and what he did in them,” said Carter. “He told me about lighting his tongue on fire and having someone drop a bowling ball on his stomach with a glass plate on it. I could see the scars on his stomach and chest from doing it in the past, but I had never seen the show.
“So, I’m there at this freak show, filming him, and he’s doing all this stuff and he just keeps looking at me, while he’s doing it. I start thinking that something is going on and it never, ever dawned on me about him proposing, I just thought he was nervous because I’d never seen his freak show before.
“He told me he brings people up from the audience, and he’d already done that in his show, when he called me up on stage, so I was like, ‘Wait, maybe he’s just keeping something from me, or he’s just not telling me what he does in his show, but what is this boy going to do to me?’ So, he pulled me up and he said that he was going to do a one-time only stunt and he was never going to do this stunt again, a death-defying stunt.
“He needed the help of his girlfriend and he called me up. He did this twirly thing and a somersault, he flips around and then gets down on one knee and asks me to marry him and I was in total shock. Looking back at the video, it looks like I’m not even comprehending what he’s saying. I look like a deer in the headlights. That was my first experience at his freak show. It was cool.”
After getting over the surprise of the proposal and her other surroundings, which included fellow freak show performers who were recovering from cinder block and bowling ball stunts, Carter accepted the marriage offer.
“Of course I was going to say yes,” said Carter. “I would have said yes the minute I met him. Any hesitation on my part was just being in shock with what was going on, not that I was hesitant in saying yes to him.”
Cvjetkovich decided to propose at his show because when the two first met, he was in full character and the performer, who describes himself as a cross between Rob Zombie and Doink the Clown, thought he should be in gimmick for the next step in their relationship, as well.
“I thought that would be sort of funny and it’s not like I’m going to be in the war paint and what have you in a restaurant or whatever. It was too funny, because people were like, ‘Was that real?’ They weren’t sure if that was part of the show or if that was 100 per cent real and then they were like, ‘Man, I wish all shows would close like that! That was awesome!’
“The freak shows are usually done at death metal concerts, so you have all these devil worshiping psychos jumping around and head banging to this and that and the next thing you know, they go right into that Bambi moment where they’re like, ‘Aw!’ So, that was pretty funny to me.”
The couple will wed this coming weekend in Sand Key, Florida in front of family and close friends. Some members of the wrestling fraternity that will attend include Edge (who grew up with Cvjetkovich in Orangeville, Ontario), Jake Roberts, Jimmy Hart and Cvjetkovich’s former TNA tag partner Helvis. Following the wedding, they will hold their reception at former wrestler Joe Gomez’s restaurant, which he has kindly offered up as a wedding present.
The night before, the couple will be the guests of honour at a party hosted at the Nasty Boys gym is St. Petersburg, Florida, where wrestling matches will be the backdrop on their engagement/bachelor/bachelorette party.
The day following the couple’s nuptials, Cvjetkovich will return to the ring to team with his brother, who wrestles in Canada as Kobra Kai. They will be accompanied by Carter, serving as the team’s valet and their father, playing the role of manager.
Also on the in-ring front, rumours have surfaced lately that Cvjetkovich and Carter could wind up in TNA. Cvjetkovich recently showed his stuff to Hulk Hogan at the Nastyville Pro Wrestling School and said things went well and it was a wait and see kind of deal.
“If I went to TNA, that would be great,” said Cvjetkovich. “I hear lots of things myself, but with how the wrestling business is, I’m not pessimistic, I’m very positive about it, but until you’re surrounded by ropes and turnbuckles, it’s kind of anybody’s guess. I’m just addicted to wrestling. So, whether it’s TNA or WWE or Japan or Mexico or ROH or wherever, as long as I’m keeping busy in the ring and entertaining, that’s what I do, that’s how I pay the rent, that’s how I put food on the table.”
Cvjetkovich will return to Canada with Carter on Aug. 26 and Aug. 28 for Stranglehold Wrestling, marking the newly-married couple’s first visit north of the border together — and a chance for Carter to meet much of Cvjetkovich’s family.
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