Skye Blue continues to check off career goals in AEW

Apr. 15—Skye Blue admits she was a bit frantic as she made the phone call.

Tears were flowing. Words were battling to interject themselves between sobs and random outbursts of emotion.

So it's understandable her mother's first reaction was a low level of panic.

"Where do I need to fly to tonight?"

The question was asked with the kind of earnestness only a mother in full protection mode can produce.

And it must have snapped something in Blue's cognitive awareness. She turned the phone around and revealed the reason for her call.

For the first time, the 24-year-old professional wrestler's image was included among some of her childhood heroes on the side of an All Elite Wrestling production truck.

Now it was Blue's mother's turn to freak out.

"I flipped the phone around, and she saw the truck, and my mom — sitting at her desk — started crying and screaming," Blue recalled during a recent video conference call. "And everybody at her work was like, 'Oh, my God, what's wrong? What's wrong?'"

It wouldn't be proper to term the moment a dream come true for Blue, but it is one of the first times she felt like she's really made it in her chosen profession.

Just seven years removed from Googling wrestling matches and move sets during high school math classes, Blue is regularly wrestling the likes of Toni Storm and Saraya — women she day-dreamed about getting into the ring with during those same classes — on national television.

"I started training in high school, so I was very checked-out in class and obviously didn't care. I was just kind of like all about wrestling and watched wrestling," Blue said. "But I remember one day I made a list of all my goals for my wrestling. One was I wanted to represent a major company, and being on the side of a truck is representing AEW. So I am definitely — it's still mind blowing to me."

AEW returns to Indianapolis and the Indiana Farmers Coliseum on Wednesday night for its weekly live "Dynamite" show on TBS.

Blue is likely to make an appearance at some point alongside her on-screen stablemate Julia Hart — the TBS Champion, who will team with Brody King in an historic intergender tag match against TNT Champion Adam Copeland and Willow Nightengale.

Performing each week in front of thousands of live fans in the arena and hundreds of thousands more watching from home might seem like an odd career choice for a woman who describes herself as quiet and introverted growing up.

But she caught the pro wrestling bug at a young age watching shows with her family, and her mother once again was at the center of it all.

"My parents have been fans their whole life, so it just kind of was always on in the house," Blue said. "And then there was one Sunday we were sitting, and I'm pretty sure we were watching a hardcore match. And I was like, 'Hey, mom, I'm gonna do that one day.' And she was like, 'No, you're not.' I was like, 'Watch me.'

"And here we are. I was like, 'Mom, I had to prove you wrong.' So (it) kind of jump started me to my dream career."

On March 20, Blue main evented a special episode of "Rampage" on TBS in a tag team match with Hart against Nightengale and Kris Statlander under hardcore rules.

It's one of many times during her young career she has checked off another of the goals she wrote down in high school — proving women can do anything the men can.

She's currently stretching her creative muscles as a "heel" or villain in the House of Black stable with Hart, King, Malakai Black and Buddy Matthews.

It's the first time she's played that role, and it's challenged her to work differently in and out of the ring.

But that's just one of the reasons she's so excited about this moment in particular in AEW.

The women's division has been gaining steam recently with the high-profile additions of established stars like Mercedes Mone, Deonna Purrazzo and Mariah May — adding to the cast of veterans from whom Blue has been soaking up knowledge.

The chance to work closely with Hart, who has followed a similar career path at a young age, adds to the experience.

"We're both very passionate and determined people, and we have amazing people around us that all want to do the same thing," Blue said. "And Julia is so incredible with characters and mannerisms and facial expressions and whatnot, so I feel like as a duo we're very good together — like we can bounce off each other and balance each other out and kind of just take over the world."

The last sentence was punctuated with a self-deprecating laugh.

Blue is very much living her dream.

At times, it all seems a bit surreal.

When she made her AEW debut in her hometown of Chicago, she noticed fans with handmade signs in the stands bearing her name and image.

They read: "Skye Blue section."

She paused for a moment to take it all in, and she still has to pinch herself when she sees fans holding up signs to support her at live events.

But, as the cliché goes, Blue didn't come this far just to come this far.

She's humble and appreciative for everything professional wrestling has given her, but she has big dreams left to accomplish.

Chief among them? One day holding aloft the AEW Women's World Championship after having her arm raised in victory.

"So when I was a kid, I had on the list wanting to represent a company," Blue said. "Being on the side of a truck was one thing, but being a champ is a whole other layer of responsibility and representation of a company. I hope one day that I will be (AEW champion).

"I want to show the world that the women can do what the men can do — just as good, if not better. We're not divas. We're wrestlers and athletes, and we're professionals and we're entertainers. This is what I feel I was meant to do. I want to keep continuing to do what I love, and doing what I love and what makes me happy puts smiles on other people's faces. So I just want to do it for as long as I can."