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Two great loves: Sand Springs couple uses passion for wrestling to benefit local youth program

Posted: Dec 30th 2020 By: Shawn Hein - TulsaWorld.com

Nathan and Audra Estrada have two great passions, their love of professional wrestling and faith.

The Sand Springs couple is combining those elements to help benefit the youth of one Sand Springs church.

The Estrada’s have organized the Core Professional Wrestling, which will hold its first event Saturday evening at HillSpring Church. Doors are scheduled to open at 5:30 p.m. with the five-match wrestling card to begin at 6.

Proceeds from the event will go toward HillSpring youth ministries.

“If one wrestling show can send one kid to church camp over the summer, then it was worth all that time to put on the show,” Audra said.

Saturday’s event is the culmination of a journey that began nearly a year ago for the Estrada’s who are both long-time wrestling fans and competitors in the ring.

At the beginning of 2020, Nathan was reading through the Daniel fast devotional, a popular 21-day faith-based reading plan, when he came across a couple of unsettling inquiries.

“There were questions about what are your passions and how can you put that back into the church?,” recalled Audra, who is also a teacher and head volleyball coach at Tulsa Memorial. “He said ‘how will that apply to me since my passion is pro wrestling?’ He thought it was stupid, at first. Then it was just something that all fell together.”

The Estrada’s had been training with Compound Pro Wrestling Academy in Tulsa since 2014 until the place went out of business last year. The couple bought the ring from CPWA last summer, the same ring where they first met back in 2014, had two had their first kiss and where Nathan, a 2012 Charles Page High School graduate and personal banker, proposed to Audra.

“It’s got some significance to us,” Audra said with a laugh. “To be able to get a ring was a big deal. You can’t just go to the store and buy one.”

With the ring in tow, the couple needed a setting to put on a wrestling event. That’s when they spoke to HillSpring Associate Pastor Matt Barnett, a wrestling fan himself, who was on board with the church hosting.

“We say the best ideas at our church don’t come from the staff, they come from the people,” Barnett said. “They wanted to find their passion and pair it with the gospel.”

Along with promoting the event, both Nathan and Audra will compete on Saturday’s card as well.

Under her wrestling name of Skylar Slice, Audra and her sister, Killista, will wrestle in a women’s tag-team match. Nathan, who wrestles under his real name, will be part of the battle royal, a multi-man match where the last two men in the ring will be crowned the first-ever tag team champions.

Bringing pro wrestling to Sand Springs has been an arduous task, which required licensing from the Oklahoma Athletic Commission, the proper insurance and blood tests for the safety of the wrestlers.

But it’s all worth the trouble to see the first event come to Sand Springs for someone who grew up a fan of the sport.

“It’s a childhood dream we decided to make a reality,” she said.

Core Professional Wrestling
When: Saturday, Jan. 2. Doors open at 5:30 p.m. Matches begin at 6 p.m.

Where: HillSpring Church, 8801 W. 41st St. South

Admission: $15 for front row seats, $10 for general admission.

Wrestling card

Four-way match: Drake Gallows vs. Derek James vs. Rob Cabella vs. Dexter Hardaway

Women’s tag team match: Skylar Slice and Killista vs Erica Torres and Nova Phoenix

Battle royal: Over the top rope, multi-man match. Last two men in the ring will be crowned tag team champions.

Heavyweight championship qualifying match No. 1: Mr. Nasty vs. Double D

Heavyweight championship qualifying match No. 2: Tommy Dean vs. Colt Killbane

*Two heavyweight qualifying winners will wrestle for championship at next event.