The other day I was having a conversation with a coworker in regards to Chiller Theatre, a horror convention that took place over the weekend. Chiller Theatre always has a variety of male and female professional wrestlers meeting fans and signing autographs. My co-worker remarked, “Horror films and wrestling seem to go hand in hand for some reason because they both cross traditional borders.”
The statement made sense to me, and quickly I remembered one professional wrestler who embodies the sentiment: Katarina Leigh Waters. She is absolutely the definition of beauty, inner and outer strength, and a dually talented woman. Ms. Waters was born in November of 1977 in Germany. Eventually she moved to England where her love for wrestling really started to grow. After receiving substantial training, she finally debuted in TransAtlantic Wrestling in 2000 before joining the roster of Frontier Wrestling Alliance from 2002-2003.
Katarina was scouted by the WWE and sent to their training division, Ohio Valley Wrestling, in 2006. Throughout her two year stint in WWE’s development territory, Katarina held the OVW Women’s Championship two times. This was just the start of her noteworthy, highly publicized career with WWE. In 2008 she debuted on the main roster as Katie Lea Burchill and stayed with the company, narrowly missing out on a championship belt, before being released in 2010.
Following her release from WWE, Ms. Waters finished her no-participation clause and signed onto another huge promotion, TNA. She debuted in 2010 under the ring name Winter and quickly gained momentum within the company. During her two successful years with TNA, Winter became the Knockout Champion two times and held the Knockout Tag Team Championship belt as well. She was released in 2012.
Katarina started her passion for acting in horror films in 2011 when she played a supporting role in The Sickness. She followed this new jumpstart with a cameo in scifi’s Amanda & The Guardian and another supporting role in 2013’s Bad Pixels. In between films, she horror hosted “Katarina’s Nightmare Theater” for two seasons which were released by Scorpion from 2011-2012. This was just the start of many exciting horror/scifi roles to come. Her career was about to explode!
So, where is Katarina Leigh Waters now?
As with all dedicated wrestlers, Katarina never strayed far from independent promotions. She currently participated on the cards for Family Wrestling Entertainment – of which she is a former Women’s Champion -, House of Hardcore, and British Women’s Wrestling – where she is the current Women’s Champion.
Currently, Ms. Water’s has four films in various stages of development. They include Zombies In The Basement, Satanicus, John Constantine: Hellblazer, and the horror-comedy Naked Alien Massacre – all of which are due sometime in 2014! She is even a featured director in the Anxiety Overload anthology that is nearing production.
2015 will see the release of Katarina’s other movie in development, In The Woods: A Red Riding Tale. In the feature film from Michael A. Isaacs, she will play the role of Claudine. And I’m sure this will be one of many roles she will book in the following year.
