TV Talk: WOW wrestling star Rachel Kelvington has roots in Western Pa.
Share this post:
On the first-year, nationally-syndicated series “WOW — Women of Wrestling,” wrestler Chantilly Chella is from Indio, Calif. In real life, the woman who plays Chella, Rachel Kelvington, is from Western Pennsylvania.
But the rest of Chella’s backstory, as revealed in a November episode (supportive mom, alcoholic dad), syncs up with Kelvington’s real personal history. So why the change in where Chella is from?
“Indio was added for the show because she’s really the queen of Coachella [music festival] and Coachella takes place in Indio, Calif.,” Kelvington explained.
Chantilly Chella competes again in this week’s “WOW” episode (11:30 p.m. Saturday, WPCW-TV). Kelvington was back-and-forth from Pittsburgh to Los Angeles to film “WOW” episodes from May to October.
“This was the craziest summer of my life,” said Kelvington, whose day job is cutting hair at Graham’s Barber Shop in Lawrenceville. “My clients would be like, ‘I’m getting married, I need a haircut!’ And I’m, like, ‘Sorry, I’m filming a TV show.’”
An Imperial native and 2007 West Allegheny High School grad, Kelvington, 34, played softball and did kickboxing in high school, but never imagined she’d get into professional wrestling.
But at age 22, she worked as a bartender at Primanti Bros. in Crafton and she took note of how some customers came in weekly to watch wrestling.
“I started watching it and I was like, this is actually entertaining,” Kelvington recalled. “It was something about the costumes and the bright lights and the fact that they traveled so much. I was like, what am I doing with my day job?”
Four months after her father passed away at age 50, Kelvington said she realized life is short. She packed up and moved to Louisville, Ky., to learn how to wrestle. She’s since traveled the world wrestling under a variety of names, including Ray Lyn, an identity she still uses for non-televised wrestling, including in an Enjoy Wrestling match Saturday at Mr. Smalls Theatre in Millvale.
While living in Los Angeles for a few years beginning in 2016, Kelvington was asked to join “WOW” in its previous incarnation on cable network AXS.
“My favorite thing about ‘WOW’ is they do a good job of giving all of our characters our own personal stories that we’re allowed to share. It’s very inspiring for women: You have women of all shapes and sizes, from all different backgrounds coming together,” said Kelvington, who is also a fan of the 2017-19 Netflix series “GLOW,” which put a spotlight on women wrestlers in the 1980s.
Kelvington insists the matches on “WOW” are not scripted with predetermined outcomes for the sake of storylines.
“We are 100% wrestling for real,” she said. “It’s very much the same as whenever I was in martial arts and kickboxing. You just train all the time. … In competition [winning] is always up for grabs, so you gotta fight your hardest every time you’re in the ring.”
How does Kelvington differentiate between Chantilly Chella and Ray Lyn? She sees Chantilly Chella as high-energy and a lot of fun, which borrows from Kelvington’s own personality.
“I’m a very bubbly person,” she said. “I’m not a downer at all. And I do love music. The funny thing is they made Chantilly a festival girl, but I haven’t actually gotten to go to many festivals because I’ve been pursuing this wrestling dream for 10 years now. But I always go to concerts all the time.”
As for Ray Lyn, she has more of an edge.
“Ray Lyn’s a little sassy,” Kelvington said. “She’s [got] that bartending personality whenever someone wasn’t being very nice.”
The toughest part of her multiple roles? Multiple social media accounts for Chantilly Chella and Ray Lyn.
“It’s exhausting,” Kelvington said with a weary laugh.
‘Average Joe’ films elsewhere
Pittsburgh-set BET+ series “Average Joe,” about a Hill District plumber (Deon Cole) who discovers his father lived a double life, is currently filming its first season in Atlanta.
The series is written and created by Robb Cullen, who was co-creator of FX’s 2003 dark comedy “Lucky,” Swissvale native Billy Gardell’s first TV series regular role. Cullen told me he originally developed the project with Gardell in mind, hence the Pittsburgh setting.
Kept/canceled
NBC renewed “Quantum Leap” for a second season.
Fox canceled country music soap “Monarch” after a single season.
HBO Max and HBO engaged in a CW-style cancellation bloodbath in recent days, axing reality competition “Legendary” after three seasons, “Love Life” after two and sci-fi drama “The Nevers” before the second half of its first season even aired. The service also canceled a second season of “Minx” after renewing the series in May and almost completing production on season two. Production company Lionsgate plans to shop “Minx” to other platforms.
Starz also canceled a recently-renewed show, reversing itself and abandoning “Dangerous Liaisons” after a single season.
Netflix canceled “Warrior Nun” after two seasons.
PBS announced the upcoming third season of the “Masterpiece” series “Sanditon” (March 19) will be its last.
Channel surfing
Paramount+ released the first trailer for season two of filmed-in-Pittsburgh “Mayor of Kingstown” (Jan. 15), which is set in Michigan, so not a lot of Pittsburgh landmarks visible in this preview. … Disney Branded Television expanded its overall deal with former Pittsburgher Tim Federle, creator of “High School Musical: The Musical: The Series” on Disney+. … Gbemisola Ikumelo, who played the scene-stealing character Clance in filmed-in-Pittsburgh Amazon Prime Video series “A League of Their Own,” was nominated for best supporting performance in a new scripted series in the 2023 Spirit Awards. … Lizzo replaces the previously announced Yeah Yeah Yeahs as musical guest on the final “Saturday Night Live” of 2022 Dec. 17 (Yeah Yeah Yeah’s guitarist Nick Zimmer has been fighting pneumonia).