Former Pro Wrestling: EVE Champion Charlie Morgan has retired from pro wrestling due to injury at the age of 27. Having had a banner few years in the lead up to this moment, an injury on a Shimmer show brought forward a disappointing end to her career. As a wrestler, she was a workhorse and a risk taker that embodied the EVE spirit. Having taken time off to recharge her batteries from a career that was stalling she came back to wrestling in 2016 and took the world by storm. 

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RRsJwIOjO38]

I first ran into her while profiling the company for Fighting Spirit Magazine. I found her charming, polite and professional and I could understand why Dann and Emily Read were so big on her. Plus she was just so good at what she was doing. The crowd in Bethnal Green’s Res Gal were at her beck and call. However, it wasn’t always that way.

She began training under the Knight family in Norfolk, she would become a regular for Bellatrix not long after. She was however miscast as Penelope, a posh Cambridge girl, while she is indeed from Cambridge it was a character that didn’t define her.

When I profiled her for Total Wrestling’s Female Focus in 2017, I said, “When it came to this Female Focus for this month I needed to know the story behind this seven-year, overnight success.“ I meant every word. She had jumped onto the radar of every women’s wrestling journalist in the world with a win over Meiko Satomura and Kay Lee Ray in the She-1 Final and been made the “Ace of EVE”.

While her run as Penelope had been productive and if you watch those matches, which I highly recommend you do, she was a pro’s pro. Her attention to detail led on her a path of International development, she would be booked as the person who could get your local star over all over Europe and it gave her depth of knowledge in learning experience the same way it had done for many British wrestlers who were outside the mainstream. Men like Bert Asseratti and Joe Cornelius had set the principle back in the fifties, women like Yasmin Lander (Charlie/Penelope’s real name) exploited it for all the could as a growing experience but deep down she knew it wasn’t what she wanted.

Instead, she moved onto EVE and developed Charlie Morgan, the long tights baseball-shirted badass with taped wrists and a win at all costs attitude. With all the tools she had in her bag, she became an instant hit. The She-1 win meant a lot to her, her professionalism, finding a company that believed in her and showcasing what Charlie Morgan could be, and it meant a headlining slot in the main event of the first Wrestle Queendom at The York Hall, I was blessed to be there to see her complete her journey. I stood with my heart in my mouth as she took a dive from the balcony onto the then-Champ Sammi Jayne, and I fought back tears when she won the title. Watching the women of EVE celebrate with her mid-ring was a memory I shall treasure because at 43, as I was at the time, and a long time fan and journalist, I didn’t think wrestling could move me the way it did that night. It was perfect.

In the following months, she built on that success, tryouts with WWE led to shows on NXT UK, which meant more exposure and more success. However, in the end, an injury would derail her dream. I am truly sad for someone who genuinely deserved all the success she had coming to her, and I hope her talent and knowledge are not lost to the wrestling industry. If she chooses to, her creative mind and talent have a place for her, should she decide to take it up.

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OGG7w7cKi5Q]

All videos and pics courtesy of Pro Wrestling: EVE