Louisville high school student becomes pro wrestling sensation

LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) -- When Lillian Bridget started showing up to class at Atherton High School her freshman year with bumps and bruises, she said a caring teacher pulled her into the hall to ask questions about her parents and home life.

Bridget laughs remembering the story now, the same way she did four years ago as she told that teacher about her alter ego Billie Starkz.

"I love tossing people around and getting tossed around," Bridget said in a recent interview with WDRB News. "Being in a ring feels like home."

At age 18, Bridget, aka Starkz, is one of the fastest rising female stars in professional wrestling.

She started training in Jeffersonville, Indiana, at the young age of 13 and has now wrestled in 23 states and Japan. In fact, the teen completed her second wrestling tour in east Asia just last week.

"I kind of just fell in love watching it with my dad and I stayed with the mindset since I was five years old, I want to be a professional wrestler," she said.

Most Fridays for the high school senior with 26,000 Twitter followers include a mad dash from class to hit the road for weekend wrestling events somewhere else in the country. She appears often on national television with Major League Wrestling's "Underground" show on the REELZ network and with some of the biggest wrestling companies in the country, including All Elite Wrestling.

All before graduating high school and while still maintaining a 4.0 GPA and some honors classes.

"She's a really great kid, super fun and super creative," Atherton High School theatre teacher Shelby Stege said. "One of the hardest working kids I've ever worked with."

Bridget maximized her time at Atherton focused on the end goal of wrestling full time. She took theatre all four years to help with her skills on the mic in the ring and finance to launch her own company, selling Billie Starkz brand merchandise. She even studied Japanese long before she laced up her boots to main event in the famous Korakuen Hall.

"I think it's just drive and then also wanting to make everybody proud," Bridget said when talking about her motivation. "Like my fans, my friends and my family ... I just want everybody to be like she's doing it and we're all happy for her."

Derby City Wrestling

This weekend, Bridget's parents, classmates from Atherton and fans will be able to see her closer to home as she steps in the ring one the new "Derby City Wrestling" television series.

The wrestling events will take place monthly at the Norton Healthcare Sports and Learning Center in Louisville's west end. The matches filmed will then be post produced into the weekly Derby City Wrestling TV series which will air Saturday at noon on MY58 in the Louisville/Southern Indiana television market. Los Angeles based David Marquez Productions, an expert in staging and syndicating combat sport events is producing the series.

Tickets to the premier TV taping on Sunday, March 26, are available on derbycitywrestling.tv.

"I think I'm just most excited about what it's going to do for the community and seeing little kids and stuff who have probably never been around wrestling before get this new experience," said Bridget.