It’s a tale nearly as old as pro wrestling itself. The heel breaks through the curtain, showered by the boos of the assembled fans who hate his guts. Ignoring the jeers, the heel strolls to the ring, pausing only briefly to look back in disgust — and wait.
Enter the damsel, the beautiful, down-trodden lady fair who, for some God-forsaken reason feels some sort of attraction to this arrogant pile of crap. The weak willow of a woman follows after the heel. She climbs the steps to the apron and dutifully holds the ropes open for a man who deserves no such grace.
Meanwhile the fans shake their heads in disbelief. How in the world did she end up with him? Will she ever be free of his insidious grip?
Freya the Slaya knows the angle well. She knows it works, getting heat from the crowd by walking all over the weak and innocent. Standing 6’1” with a powerful, athletic physique, it would take a monster like Kane, The Undertaker, or Big Show to make her look small and weak.
That’s why The Queen of the North went to Al Snow at Ohio Valley Wrestling with an idea.
“I told Al, what if we did an angle where I bullied some poor guy who was smaller and weaker than me?” she recalled to SlamWrestling.net.
Snow ruminated on the idea for some time before he gave it the green light. He also gave Freya the perfect victim: OVW official Aaron Grider.
If you’ve only seen OVW through the lens of the Netflix documentary, Wrestlers, you just caught the beginning of an angle that lasted 15 months. Aaron Grider became Miss Elizabeth to Freya’s Macho Man. He bowed and scraped before her. He held her bags. He held her dog. He made a lot of fans very anxious during one live TV broadcast when he carried two armloads of shopping bags and Freya’s real life dog Wilco out to the ring.
“Don’t drop the dog!” the fans shouted.
Like the angle that put her and Grider over the top at OVW, there’s much about Freya that defies convention. Born Sarah States in the state of Alaska, Freya is Native American (Blackfoot and Tuscarora) but not Native Alaskan. “My parents were in the service, and they met when they were stationed in Alaska,” said Freya. “They homesteaded up there, and my family still owns a large farm in North Pole, Alaska.”
Freya watched a little pro wrestling with her brother, but her first love was the sport of basketball. She moved to Grand Rapids, Michigan, after high school to play for Division III Calvin University, but her basketball career ended abruptly when she broke her foot.
“I was devastated,” she recalled. “Basketball was my whole life growing up. It was a pretty serious break. I couldn’t play basketball for nine years.”
Freya got a degree in graphic design and art at Calvin U, then a master’s degree in Education from the University of Alaska Fairbanks in 2012, specializing in reading intervention with older students. She taught eighth grade at a charter school for Indigenous students in Alaska, where she also coached girls basketball for middle and high school. “I would load up all the girls in the van, and we’d drive all over Alaska. Sometimes we had to take a ferry boat to get to the next game.”
While she was teaching and coaching, pro wrestling caught Freya’s eye. She saw in wrestling an opportunity to gain back some of what she lost when basketball was taken away from her. Pro wrestling offered a chance to compete, to be physical, to use her size and athleticism and maybe make a little money.
It’s difficult enough to break into pro wrestling in the lower 48 states, but it was even more challenging in Alaska. “There were no wrestling schools and maybe 10 indie wrestlers in the entire state, most of them six hours away from me. I did a lot of driving to shows and seminars in the very beginning.”
For the first two years, most of her training and wrestling partners were men. She started paying to fly other woman up to Alaska for shows. She flew herself to The Monster Factory, Create A Pro, and The World Wide Wrestling Dojo. She also bought a ring so she could train at home.
Still, she knew it wasn’t enough. “I knew if I didn’t give wrestling a real chance, I would regret it. So I quit my teaching job, loaded my things and my dog up in the car, and drove to Las Vegas.”
Freya began her wrestling training anew at FSW. She trained primarily with Sinn Bodhi but also learned from an incredible veteran group that included Kenny King, Chris Bey, Cheerleader Melissa, and Allison Danger.
It was Sinn Bodhi who recommended Freya give OVW a shot. “Sinn and Al Snow are good friends, and Sinn told me, ‘It’s the only independent promotion that’s doing a weekly, live TV show.’” Thus, Freya made the decision to pack up everything again and drive from Las Vegas to Louisville, Kentucky.
“I drove for two days straight across the country. The longest drive of my life. The first day I got here, Maria James called me. ‘I had a girl cancel. Can you drive another three hours for a show?’ I thought, Sure. What’s another three hours in the car? I wrestled Hollywood Haley J that night, and it was a lot of fun.”
Freya found a home at OVW, and the city of Louisville. She became one of the foundational members of a women’s division that now includes Haley J, Leila Grey, Tiffany Nieves, Dream Girl Ellie, Sophia Rose, and Shaloncé Royal. She also found a new mentor with a different mindset in Al Snow.
“Most of the training I had before OVW focused on doing the moves right,” said Freya. “Al’s thing is, who cares about the moves? Go get over. Go be a star. That was a totally new mindset for me to learn.”
In addition to learning how to work life TV, Freya took part in the OVW summer tour of 2022 as seen in the the Netflix documentary. “I have never been to the fair so much in my entire life. I got to tour the whole state of Kentucky, and I learned so much. At one of the fairs, I discovered Noodling. They put two people in this tank of muddy water, and they compete to see who can catch a catfish with their bare hands. It was a whole tournament at one of the fairs.”
Part of the fun when OVW is on the road comes from being freed from the strict timing and planning of the live TV events. “When we’re doing house shows, Al wants us to enjoy ourselves and have fun. I remember one of the fair shows, I worked a six-person tag with two guys against Haley J and Dark Kloudz. I lifted Haley over my shoulders, and I saw Al give me the signal to spin her. I spun her ’til she was super dizzy. Al was laughing so hard, but then the joke was on me because Erik Darkstorm pick me up and did the exact same thing.”
Freya won the OVW Women’s Championship for the first time in December of 2022. To everyone’s chagrin, the match gained notoriety online when it appeared on Botchamania. “It was a title on a pole match, and the title belt kept falling off the pole,” explained Freya. “The referee ended up holding the title belt in the air.”
The love story with Aaron Grider was well underway when Freya became champion. Snow saw the angle as an opportunity to help Freya get over as a heel, and he knew just who to tap as Freya’s love interest.
“Obviously, I make a pretty good sap,” admitted former OVW official Aaron Grider.
Freya’s goal in seducing Aaron was to have an official in her pocket. Under Freya’s charms, Aaron refused to make a three count for Freya’s opponents while doing a fast count for his lady fair. Fans hatred for Freya grew exponentially.
“It was only supposed to last a few weeks,” said Grider of the angle. “We did the scene in the restaurant that appears in Wrestlers, and I think we had a bowling date. Then I was supposed to turn on her, help Leila win the title, and that would be that.”
No one expected the fans to latch on to the story, but they did. The fans hated Freya, which was the whole point, but they fell in love with Aaron. It helped that many of the fans knew Aaron from his work at other promotions in the area, but he played the lovable loser so perfectly, he got over.
“Then I made a mistake,” joked Grider. “I said to Al, ‘Well, we could just do a wedding.’ As soon as Al paused, I knew I was screwed.”
The Freya-Aaron love story stretched on for over a year. Aaron smartened up and turned on Freya when he realized she was just using him. They were on again and off again for months. They filmed backstage segments where Snow kept finding the couple canoodling in back rooms and even in his office.
“Most of what we did on camera was improv,” said Grider. “Al would give us a general idea, and we just ad libbed our scenes. People got to see how talented Freya is. She is funny, and she has great timing. She played off my goofiness so well. People asked me, ‘How did you play that character so well?’ I was just being me.”
“There was one night on live TV where Aaron said something outrageous and I spit coffee in his face,” said Freya. “That was supposed to be a pre-tape. We actually filmed it twice, but for some reason, Al said we had to go out and do it live. So that poor man, I spat coffee in his face three times that day.”
In the summer of 2023, Freya got down on one knee and proposed to Aaron, who giddily responded with a resounding, “Yes!” The wedding became part of The Big One, OVW’s big end of summer pay-per-view, and fans watched along as Aaron and Freya prepared for their big day.
“Credit to Freya,” said Grider, “She created a wedding registry for us. We had some fans send us gift cards and tickets to Kentucky Kingdom. People believed in the story so much.”
Aaron’s real life mother came to the show and at her suggestion, she walked her son down the aisle. Leila Grey, Tiffany Nieves, Jada Stone, and Sophia Rose were the bridesmaids while Dancing Stevie J, Will Austin, Manny Domingo and the masked Star Rider were the groomsmen.
The real genius of Al Snow came out during the ceremony. While Freya had been the villain throughout most of the story, and most of her time at OVW, it was Grider who turned out to be the heel that evening. Two women came forward during the ceremony claiming that he was already married to them. Some of the bridesmaids then spoke up, saying Grider had been hitting on them. Betrayed and heartbroken, Freya grabbed Aaron by the neck, picked him up, and choke slammed him through the wedding cake.
“That might have been the last thing I ever do at OVW,” confessed Grider, who has since taken a step back from the wrestling business. “If it is, I am proud of what we accomplished, and I can’t thank Freya enough.”
Freya has enjoyed being a fan favorite for much of the last year, and like many OVW roster members, she is basking in the company’s growth, including the first national tour in company history. Unlike years past, when OVW stayed within the borders of Kentucky, they’ve put more hours on the road, performing shows in Ohio, Illinois, and Wisconsin. “It’s been great meeting new fans who discovered us on Netflix or who have only seen us on TV.”
She’s also been able to check off a number of goals, thanks to the documentary. “When I was still in Alaska, I made a list of goals I wanted to accomplish in wrestling. At this point in my life, I’ve had to remake my list twice because I checked all the boxes off.”
She recently checked off a long time dream wrestling for Pro Wrestling: Eve in the United Kingdom. “They had all these huge names like Aja Kong and Jazzy Gabert, and I wanted to be good enough to work there one day. I finally made that happen in April.”
Freya’s primary goal for the future is to find a path to make wrestling her full-time vocation. She knows at OVW, she has the opportunity to learn different parts of the business, and she’s open to exploring all options.
She’s also interested in new opportunities that might keep her in front of the camera. “I had never really done much acting before Aaron and I did all those segments for OVW TV, but I really enjoyed it. I also got to work on the Mildred Burke biopic Queen of the Ring when they filmed in Louisville last summer. There seems to be more and more TV and movies being filmed in Louisville, and I’d love to try more acting or even stunt work.”
Whatever path she takes, she’s got a host of references ready to go to bat for her, starting with the man who oversees much of the women’s programs at OVW, AEW star Truth Magnum. “Freya is one of the hardest working people in the locker room and a pleasure to work with,” said Magnum. “She’s always thinking about how she can make things better.”
Wrestler turned agent Jebediah Blackhawk agrees. “Freya is absolutely the Queen of the North. She combines her size and power with an arrogant ring style that is very entertaining. She has a willingness to try new and different things in the ring as she continues to search for perfection in her craft. It has been a pleasure to watch her grow and I only expect great things for her future.”
“Freya has a bravery few possess,” added OVW announcer Bryan Kennison. “She committed and moved here from Alaska to chase her dream and I respect the hell out of that. She’s what you look for when you’re adding to your roster. Need a media appearance? Send Freya. Need a strong feud? Book Freya. Need someone who is going to show up and get s**t done? Call Freya.”
“She doesn’t look like anybody else, to her credit,” said Grider. “She doesn’t wrestle like everybody else, to her credit. She is OVW’s Chyna.”
Whatever the future may hold, Freya is focused on OVW right now. She’s excited for the reopening of the Hotpoint Davis Arena on August 29 as well as OVW’s live pay-per-view on August 31. “We already have 1,000 preorders for the pay-per-view,” she revealed. “I’m not sure yet what I’ll be doing, but Leila has my title, and she has some paybacks coming.”
RELATED LINKS
- Freya the Slaya on Instagram
- Freya on X/Twitter
- SlamWrestling.net’s Indigenous Peoples story archives
TOP PHOTO: Freya the Slaya. Photo by Robert Starks-Bellamy.
