‘What’s for you is always going to be for you’: Sonny Kiss talks breaking barriers in pro wrestling
When The Concrete Rose steps into the squared circle, Sonny Kiss knows how to captivate an audience. Kiss is still not completely comfortable identifying as a "pioneer," but the 28-year-old genderfluid transfeminine wrestler is leading the charge and breaking down barriers when it comes to queer representation in professional wrestling.
In 2019, Kiss became part of All Elite Wrestling’s original roster, debuting at the up-and-coming wrestling promotion’s first major pay-per-view. While Kiss remains on the AEW roster, she has been used sparingly in recent months—she hasn’t appeared on either of the promotion’s television shows since October 2021—despite being featured in a June Pride month TV ad "highlighting" AEW’s LGBTQ representation.
But that hasn’t stopped her from making history on the independent scene. Last month, Kiss emerged victorious in her first-ever match in Halifax at the inaugural Glory Hold Wrestling event, an all-queer roster show that fused pro wrestling and drag performances.
"You can be whatever you want to be and still be successful in this business," Kiss said in an interview with The Blueprint before the bell, noting that she believes her role is to keep the authenticity of who she is alive when it comes to her in-ring persona.
How video games and Trish Stratus paved the way for Sonny Kiss
Kiss wasn’t introduced to professional wrestling on television like most kids—she grew to love it by playing wrestling video games.
"I didn’t know who anyone was," she laughed. "I was playing a video game called WCW/nWo Revenge," a 1998 release for the Nintendo 64 that went on to become the best-selling wrestling game for the popular console.
A few years later, Kiss found herself watching an episode of WCW Monday Nitro on TNT—the same network Kiss would wrestle on as an adult. Throughout her high school years, Kiss dreamed of becoming a professional dancer and cheerleader. But it wasn’t until some of her friends began suggesting Kiss should become a pro-wrestler that her journey in the ring began.
"I trained on and off for like two years and then just never looked back," Kiss said.
Reflecting on her inspirations in wrestling, Kiss pointed to names like the Hardy Boys, Jacqueline, Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson, and Steve Austin. But there was one WWE Hall of Famer who Kiss considered her biggest influence in the ring: Trish Stratus.
"She had this unique set of skills and she had a charisma that you can’t deny," she said. "She was just fit and beautiful, athletic and strong. She was tough, but she was still very feminine and girly, and I totally relate to that."
While Kiss has been thriving in the industry, it hasn’t been easy to make a name for herself as a genderfluid and transfeminine Black pro wrestler. But breaking down those barriers taught Kiss an important lesson: you can’t do it alone.
"You play your part and then other LGBTQ people play their part," she said. "As wrestlers and as athletes, they keep chipping away at the wall until it finally breaks."
From playing a wrestler to becoming The Concrete Rose
Recently, Kiss was a special guest at a Gay Straight Alliance session at a middle school in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, an experience that she found both inspiring and reassuring.
"There were 10-, 11-, and 12-year-olds saying that they're non-binary and transfeminine and transmasculine," she said. "This is so cool, because when I was a kid, I had no idea what that was and those terms did not exist."
"So it's a beautiful thing to be able to see and hear these people confidently say that in front of all the other 13-year-olds—who are probably very judgmental and don't know anything about it—it's a beautiful thing."
While the life of a professional wrestler is often taxing in the ring, the time commitment required for the career—training, performing, and, biggest of all, touring—can be even more cumbersome. But Kiss still finds time for dancing and writing poetry. She’s also working on a singing project.
It’s hard to make meaningful change when a lot of what is presented as progress is really just performative, but Kiss is trusting the process and betting on herself that her time will come.
"It has been difficult, but I still have to be strong at the end of the day for those people who are looking at me as a source of inspiration," she said. "What's for you is always going to be for you, so I'm not worried."
Kiss is now living the life of the characters she played in video games as a kid, but that hasn’t stopped her from playing Call of Duty, Dead by Daylight, or Friday the 13th... but mostly a lot of Sims 4.