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Sweet Saraya

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Sweet Saraya
Saraya at an NCW Femmes Fatales show in April 2014
Born (1971-10-19) October 19, 1971 (age 52)[1]
Halifax, West Yorkshire[2]
Professional wrestling career
Ring name(s)Sweet Saraya
Saraya Knight
Billed height5 ft 7 in (1.70 m)[3]
Billed weight126 lb (57 kg; 9.0 st)[3]
Billed fromNorwich, England[3]
Trained byRicky Knight[1]
Debut1990[4]

Julia Hamer-Bevis (born October 19, 1971) is an English professional wrestler, better known by her ring names Sweet Saraya and Saraya Knight.

Professional wrestling career

In 1990 Hamer left her home in Halifax to take up employment as a chef at the Pontins holiday camp in for the summer season. One day while working in the restaurant she met Ricky Knight, a professional wrestler, part of the cabaret circuit. The two became inseparable, and Julia soon left Pontins to travel with Rick full-time. She became involved in making wrestling costumes and putting the rings up and down. A few months later, Ricky said he wanted her to be part of the show, as a manager in his corner. At Camber Sands, Julia made her debut as Saraya. When the summer season finished Julia joined the Sensational Superflys (Ricky & Jimmy Ocean) as their manager. In 1993 Ricky put it to Saraya that she may want to wrestle. She readily agreed, and was a quick learner, debuting in later that year against Nikki Best.[2]

Shimmer Women Athletes

Saraya made her debut for the all-female promotion Shimmer Women Athletes on March 26, 2011, at the tapings of Volume 37, along her daughter and tag team partner Britani Knight. Saraya and Britani were managed by the returning Rebecca Knox and made an open challenge, which was answered by Nikki Roxx and Ariel. The Knight Dynasty won the match via disqualification after Saraya tried to hit Ariel with brass knuckles and Ariel grabbed them and got caught hitting Saraya with them.[5] Later that same day, at the tapings of Volume 38, the Knight Dynasty unsuccessfully challenged the Seven Star Sisters (Hiroyo Matsumoto and Misaki Ohata) for the Shimmer Tag Team Championship.[5] During the October 1 and 2, 2011, tapings Britani entered a losing streak, which eventually caused Saraya to turn on her.[6][7][8] Saraya and Britani faced each other in a no disqualification match on Volume 44, where Britani managed to pick up the win in her final Shimmer appearance, before heading to Florida Championship Wrestling.[8] During the March 2012 tapings, Knight feuded with Cheerleader Melissa. The feud drew inspiration from a previous incident between the pair at a Real Quality Wrestling event in Colchester, England in 2007, where Knight suffered a career-threatening knee injury at the hands of Melissa. This culminated in a match on March 18 on Volume 48, where Knight defeated Melissa to win the Shimmer Championship.[9]

Knight made her first defense of the title at the SHINE 4 iPPV in Ybor City, Florida on October 19, defeating Jazz, and again at AAW in Berwyn on October 26, against MsChif. Knight successfully defended her Shimmer Championship during the October 2012 tapings, defeating Athena on Volume 49, Kellie Skater, MsChif and Hiroyo Matsumoto in a four-way elimination match on Volume 51, and in a rematch with Cheerleader Melissa on Volume 52. On April 6, 2013, at Volume 53, Knight lost the Shimmer Championship back to Cheerleader Melissa in a steel cage match.[10]

World Association of Women's Wrestling

In November 2011 Saraya revived her all female promotion WAWW, the sister promotion to her husbands World Association of Wrestling. The first show was called "The Return" and featured Shimmer star Alison Danger(USA) in the main event against Saraya for the vacant World Championship. Danger was victorious via submission using an armbar with extra leverage from her manager Tommy Lee. The company’s second show "Bellatrix" was held in March and main evented by 80's star Busty Keegan teaming with Destiny to face "The Twisted Sisters" of Sweet Saraya and EWW Women’s Champions Skarlett in a 2 out of 3 falls tag match. The Twisted Sisters defeated Keegan and Destiny 2 falls to 1. At the companies third show in June Saraya faced Liberty for the British Championship, a title Liberty won from Saraya's Daughter Britani Knight at "The Return". After an impreesive technical exchange Liberty surprised many when she defeated Saraya(who was Shimmer World Champion at this point) clean by pinfall with an Air Raid Crash. The main event was for the RQW European Championship as Queen Maya from Italy defended her title against Aurora Flame from Norway, and ended with Maya retaining the title after Jetta interfered and stated she would turn the locker room against Saraya. In September 2012 WAWW held The Queen of the Ring Tournament featuring Saraya, Skarlett, Destiny, Lady Lori (Germany), Violet O'Hara, Miss Mina (Norway), Chanel and Penelope. The final saw Destiny face Saraya with Destiny victorious after further interference from Jetta, who then brawled with Saraya causing the WAW roster to separate them. Destiny then left with Jetta siding with her against Saraya.

Personal life

Julia is married to Ricky Knight. Together they have 2 children, both professional wrestlers: Saraya-Jade (better known as Paige) and Zak Knight. Julia is also the step-mother of Roy Knight.[11]

In July 2012, Channel 4 produced a documentary about the Knights entitled The Wrestlers: Fighting with My Family.[12][13]

In wrestling

Saraya Knight hitting a rope-hung DDT on Sweet Cherrie

Championships and accomplishments

  • New Horizons Pro Wrestling
    • IndyGurlz Australia Championship (1 time)[17]
  • World Association of Wrestling
    • WAWW British Championship (1 time)[2]

References

  1. ^ a b "CageMatch profile" (in German). CageMatch.de. Retrieved 2011-04-22. [unreliable source]
  2. ^ a b c "WAW profile". Retrieved 2011-03-29.
  3. ^ a b c "EVE profile". Retrieved 2011-03-29.
  4. ^ a b c d "Knight, Saraya". Shine Wrestling. Retrieved January 11, 2013.
  5. ^ a b c Martin, Adam (2011-03-28). "Indy News #2: SHIMMER Vol. 37, 38, 39, 40 results". WrestleView. Retrieved 2011-03-28.
  6. ^ Martin, Adam (2011-10-02). "Report of the SHIMMER Volume 41, 42 tapings". WrestleView. Retrieved 2011-10-02.
  7. ^ Csonka, Larry (2011-10-02). "Shimmer DVD Taping Results (Volume 43)". 411Mania. Retrieved 2011-10-02.
  8. ^ a b Martin, Adam (2011-10-03). "Shimmer Volume 43, 44 taping results". WrestleView. Retrieved 2011-10-03.
  9. ^ a b Cooper, Chad (2012-03-19). "Results of Shimmer Vol. 47 and 48 tapings". WrestleView. Retrieved 2012-03-19.
  10. ^ Namako, Jason (2013-04-06). "4/6 Shimmer 53 iPPV Results: Secaucus, New Jersey". WrestleView. Retrieved 2013-04-06.
  11. ^ "Zak Zodiak's WAW profile".
  12. ^ Deacon, Michael (19 July 2012). "The Wrestlers: Fighting with My Family, Channel 4, review". The Telegraph. Retrieved 17 April 2014.
  13. ^ "The Wrestlers: Fighting with My Family". Channel 4. Retrieved 23 September 2012.
  14. ^ "wrestlingdata profile". Retrieved 2012-12-30. [unreliable source]
  15. ^ a b c d e "OWOW profile". Retrieved 2012-12-30.
  16. ^ "HEW Championship history" (in German). Cagematch. Retrieved 2011-04-11. [unreliable source]
  17. ^ "Knight, Saraya". New Horizons Pro Wrestling. Retrieved November 30, 2013.
  18. ^ "Pro Wrestling Illustrated (PWI) Female 50 for 2013". The Internet Wrestling Database. Retrieved 2014-02-16.

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