Murphy's home in Prince George contains many memories of her wrestling days.
Dawn Murphy, a.k.a. Princess Delta Dawn, fought in the pro-wrestling circuit in Canada, going on to compete in Japan. Murphy says she was able to reconnect with her Carrier First Nations culture, thanks to wrestling.A B.C. woman who became a pro wrestling star in Japan when she was a teenager says fighting in the ring inspired her to connect with her Carrier culture.
Murphy has happy memories of her early years, living in a trailer home under a bridge in Prince George's close-knit Island Cache community, where many First Nations and Métis families lived. Despite these challenges, Murphy's parents encouraged her to compete in figure skating and speed skating."I was really fearful . . . because I still resemble more of a First Nations person than I do my Dad's side. My family weren't rich . . . so my equipment wasn't as fancy as everyone else. My mum sewed my speed skating outfit. I'm thinking in my head, 'Oh, I'll never win.
Soon after, she signed on with All Star Wrestling, a B.C.-based wrestling circuit, and donned her headdress.Murphy travelled the small-town circuit in a van reserved for the "good guy" characters. The villain wrestlers, known as "heels," rode in a second van, and a truck carried the parts to build the wrestling ring in each town and village. Murphy often slept on benches in the arenas where she fought.
Despite her popularity with audiences in Canada, Murphy's dream was to compete in Japan, where wrestling was hugely popular, and women's wrestling more established. On the All Japan Women's Pro-Wrestling circuit in Tokyo, Prince George, B.C. born Princess Delta Dawn often wrestled with one of her two pythons, Destiny and Precious. "Some fans would bring weapons. I'd be hit so many times as I went by. They'd roll up the wrestling program and swat at me," she said.
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