BY: LUIS ANGEL PEREZ MARTINEZ
Rising Stars Women’s Wrestling presented its first meet and greet at Coney Island on Oct. 5, where many fans could meet well-known wrestlers who were also a part of the promotion.
Rising Stars Women’s Wrestling is a new women-only independent wrestling promotion based in Long Island that showcases many women’s talents to wrestling fans. They began hosting shows in the summer of 2025 at the NYWC Sports Auditorium in Deer Park, NY.
The wrestlers that were brought out for the October 5th meet and greet are Izzy Morano, who was seen on World Wrestling Entertainment Television in 2015, Janai Kai, Amity Levay, Taylor Yorke, and “Lu Lu” La Reina, who are all independent wrestlers, as well as both All Elite Wrestling stars, Serena Deeb and Mercedes Martinez.
Inside the Coney Island Amusement Park, underneath The Phoenix rollercoaster, tables were set up where fans could meet the wrestlers. Each fan could interact with the wrestler and get to know them personally. The aim was to create a positive fan experience, with some fans able to meet wrestlers for the first time.
All of the wrestlers appeared to be very excited about being in Coney Island, based on their very positive facial expressions, as well as how they interacted with the fans. Unfortunately, not many fans attended the occasion. Roughly 100 people showed up, but the wrestlers made the best of it by interacting with the fans who attended, as well as sending a message to the wrestling world about the importance of women’s wrestling.
This was the first event of its kind for Rising Stars producer Mercedes Martinez, who has been in the pro-wrestling industry for over 20 years. She has wrestled in many wrestling promotions such as WWE, Ring of Honor, All Elite Wrestling, TNA, and others.
Martinez is vocal about more opportunities for women’s wrestlers, as they may be seen as important compared to the men. Not all women have the chance to showcase their talents, as some wrestling cards may have only one or two women’s wrestling matches per show.
“It’s a company that I am helping to basically make new stars, rising stars, women’s wrestling, where everyone gets to see new and upcoming stars in the industry. It’s a place for them to have a platform,” Martinez said.
Martinez believes that in today’s women’s wrestling, you can see actual women’s wrestling as compared to the past, where women were seen as something, where it felt more exploitative of their looks, with no focus on the wrestling.
One of the stars of Rising Stars Women’s Wrestling Izzy Morano, who is 18 years old and has been wrestling since she was 16 years and grew up watching wrestling. She was seen on WWE TV as a child, where a wrestler took her headband and taunted her while wearing it, making Izzy cry in the process.
Now, after over a decade, Izzy has become a full-time wrestler, and she is pretty proud of her progress towards what she has become.
“I’m super proud of it because I’ll never forget like my first days of training, my first honestly year of training. Like I was so not confident inside the ring and I was just like, terrified of everything and now it’s just like awesome. I really don’t get those fears anymore” said Morano.
The promotion will continue to showcase their talent to great heights with Martinez saying, “We’re here to take over, you know wrestling as it’s own. So support us, that’s all we ask.”