Amira on pro wrestling: ‘You’re nothing without the fans’

Alan Tyson: This is Alan Tyson. Amira Lukens is an independent wrestler working with POW and other organizations in the Pacific Northwestern area. With a background in theater and fitness, she pulls on these past experiences to produce a performance in the ring that is truly powerful.

And you went to wrestling school, you’ve been training for two years, right?

[00:00:18] Amira Lukens: Yeah, yeah, I am going to the Oregon Pro Wrestling School up in Hillsboro.

[00:00:22] Alan Tyson: How’s that experience for you?

[00:00:23] Amira Lukens: It is amazing. I was one of the first two students in the door. (Oh, wow.) Yeah, I was one of the first two students, I’m also the first female graduate that they had. (That’s awesome.) Yeah, it’s definitely like a family, it’s a home. Yeah. It’s an amazing experience getting to train there and then like, I train three to four times a week. So I’m going to advanced classes and the beginners classes too.

[00:00:46] So I’m going to see a lot of new people start from day one, and being there for their day one and knowing what it was like on my day one and being able to help with that. So it’s been nice.

[00:00:56] Alan Tyson: I watched some of your matches at POW and the one that really stuck out to me was the three-way match you had with Murphy Madsen—

[00:01:06] Amira Lukens: Kikyo.

[00:01:06] Alan Tyson: Yeah. That match was so cool.

[00:01:09] Brian Zane: Welcome to POW Pro Wrestling. Brian Zane here with the debuting Murphy Madsen.

[00:01:14] Murphy Madsen: I’m definitely here to bring the party. I’m here to have a good time, but most importantly, I’m here to kick ass. I’m really excited for this opportunity. I’ve wrestled in Washington state. I’ve wrestled in Oregon, but I’ve never wrestled in Eugene, so this is a great opportunity for me to show the 90’s style.

[00:01:29] Brian Zane: Now you’ve got a big test here in your debut, you have a triple threat match with Amira and Kikyo. How are you going to hold up there, what’s your strategy going into this one?

[00:01:36] Murphy Madsen: So what you guys might not know is, I’ve actually faced both of these women before. They’re super strong, they’re pretty athletic, but I have speed, and I’m going to bring that old-school style to them so fast that they won’t know what hit them. They’re going to have to come ‘Back to the Future.’

[00:01:51] Alan Tyson: Amira, how did it feel to perform at a match that was debuting another wrestler?

[00:01:59] Amira Lukens: I think it was a lot of fun. (Yeah.) Murphy Madsen, she’s The Original ‘90s Kid (Yeah), she’s got a lot of energy and she brings a lot to the crowd. And I think trying to help her showcase that was probably my favorite part of the match. I’m kind of trying to, you know, give her the spotlight for the fans of POW.

[00:02:20] I do like those styles of matches, especially Tower of Power. I like to show that I can overpower the bigger guys and gals, and that I’m very capable of doing that and outsmarting them, kind of either catching them off-guard with power or catching them off-guard with just speed.

[00:02:38] So I do like those stories and I do like to kind of play with that because it’s something that the crowd really likes to see as well.

[00:02:44] Brian Zane: Impressive show of the power, it’s Kikyo! (Oh my gosh.) Oh my God in heaven. Big double senton could put both women away. No, not quite. (My goodness.)

[00:02:59] Amira Lukens: Part of the reason I like pro wrestling, because I feel like to be good in pro wrestling, you’ve got to understand it’s bigger than you. You’re nothing without the fans. (Right.) You’re nothing without the crowd. You can do anything you want in the ring, but if the crowd’s not reacting to it, then it’s kind of pointless.

[00:03:20] But I love interacting with the fans, especially with the little kids, especially all the little girls that will come up to me at the merch tables after the matches and stuff. Being that kind of role model for them is kind of one of my favorite things.

[00:03:34] Alan Tyson: That traditional style of like, hard-hitting, not stiff, but looks stiff, style of wrestling, do you find that that’s something that attracted you to POW Wrestling, is it something you appreciate about it, do you like that style of wrestling?

[00:03:51] Amira Lukens: I definitely like that style of wrestling, as you might be able to see from some of my matches, I’m definitely, a little bit of a hard hitter. So I definitely like that kind of style, ‘cause I feel like it’s a struggle, it’s a fight and it’s a throwback to a classic time and I think you can’t go wrong with the classics.

[00:04:15] Alan Tyson: Where all do you wrestle in the area? Are you just wrestling exclusively with POW or are you working with other organizations?

[00:04:21] Amira Lukens: Yeah, I kind of wrestle all over the place. I’ve been wrestling almost every single weekend since I debuted. (Oh, wow.) But yeah, I work for POW, DOA up in Portland, I’ve done 5CC, which is in Bellingham, Washington, Defy, Prestige, WrestleCore, which is up in Vancouver, B.C., (Okay) and Boom! Pro Wrestling, which is also up there. It’s funny, I work for Boom! and I work for POW. Yeah.

[00:04:52] Alan Tyson: I’ve been skateboarding since I was 10 and I found that there’s something very nice about having something that is, you can do with other people, but it’s also personal. You feel like wrestling is kind of like that for you, where…?

[00:05:07] Amira Lukens: Oh yeah, absolutely. A little bit about like my background is that I’ve been in fitness for seven years. I’ve been working in fitness for seven years. Right now I manage a gym and I also do group classes, so like Zumba, body pump, stuff like that.

[00:05:26] And personal trainer. So yeah, group classes and personal training, and fitness was that for a long time for me, especially, I got into Zumba first and I grew up doing like musical theater most of my life. So dancing, singing, acting, this is all kind of coming together, right? It’s making sense why I’m in pro wrestling.

And with pro wrestling, it’s kind of the same thing. It’s a very, it means something very personal to me. But it’s something that, I get to train with some really good friends of mine. I get to go and entertain people. I get to be on shows and I get to interact with fans and get to share with them something that makes me happy, and hopefully makes them happy as well.

[00:06:09] Good pro wrestling training is tough. It’s hard, very hard. We’re doing like, I think there was a training, we did 600 squats to warm up. If you’re not taking care of yourself and being in good shape, you’re going to end up hurting yourself. And I think my background in fitness definitely helped me withstand some of those harder training days for sure.

[00:06:29] Brian Zane: Amira now trying to capitalize some big forearms. Throwing all of her weight behind that attack. Now wants to maybe go for a bulldog, perhaps. (Can’t waste time.) Corner, wait a minute, Madsen! Picking Madsen up. Oh no, going down a bad way! The buru driver! And that’s all she wrote! What an emphatic win for the Fallen Flower!

Ring announcer: The Fallen Flower, Kikyo!

[00:07:04] Alan Tyson: For KEPW News, this is Alan Tyson.

POW Pro Wrestling presents Pick Your Poison July 22, 2023 at Whirled Pies, 199 W. 8th Ave., Eugene. VIP doors open 6 p.m, general doors open 6:30 p.m., bell 7 p.m.