Real-life queer wrestling couple on how their love blossomed through battles in the ring
Jetta and Charlie Morgan. (James Musselwhite Photography)
PROGRESS Wrestling stars and real-life couple Jetta and Charlie Morgan are breaking barriers both inside and outside the ring as they make their debut as a history-making queer tag team.
The couple have long been fan-favourites in the British wrestling world for their lively presence inside the ring, and they are teaming up for the first time as part of their new tag team The Royal Aces.
Their ring debut is scheduled for 22 March as part of PROGRESS Wrestling’s “Who Run The World?” London show – hosting a variety of top female talent within the wrestling organisation.
Charlie “Fearless” Morgan came out publicly in the ring back in 2017 and her relationship with “The English Rose” Jetta was announced nearly a year later.
While both have juggled active wrestling careers, they have also taken the time to look after their romantic life, and they announced their engagement in 2020 through a beautiful post on social media.
The queer wrestling couple sat down with PinkNews to discuss their careers, coming out in the limelight and what the future looks like for The Royal Aces.
PinkNews: What was it like meeting in the ring but also fighting against and alongside each other? Those are unique dynamics for your relationship.
Jetta: With wrestling, the biggest thing is trust. You have to trust your opponent.
I don’t think I’m revealing any big secrets here, but the way I always would describe wrestling is that it’s like a theatrical stunt show. You’re trusting your opponent to take care of your, and your opponent needs to trust you to take care of them.
It hurts when you land and certain moves do hurt. Your body becomes accustomed to it, but you need to be able to trust that person to do those safely.
When it comes to being opponents, it does make it easier because we know that we’ve got each other’s back. We trust each other, but then also because we train together, we know how each person moves in the ring.
Charlie Morgan: [You] almost know what one another’s thinking or what they’re going to do before they do it, if that makes sense.
I think I prefer working with you rather than being your opponent.
Jetta and Charlie Morgan will team together at PROGRESS Wrestling’s London show. (James Musselwhite Photography)
What were your first thoughts when you two first met? Did you expect that you would be in a long-term relationship at first, or was it a more organic relationship that grew from working together?
Charlie Morgan: Funny story, I first met Jetta when I first started training in early 2011. Jetta had stopped wrestling temporarily but was doing seminars, training and stuff like that.
She was quite well-known on the UK circuit. So I did like one or maybe two training sessions and seminars as a young rookie.
Then Jetta made a return in 2016, and we were booked on a show together that year. I think that was the first time we’d seen each other in years.
Jetta: We were acquaintances then.
Charlie: So we would always see each other on shows now and then. In early to mid-2017, I started to be booked for a promotion called Eve, and Jetta would be on that show also.
That was when our friendship started to form. When you’re doing shows, you spend the whole day together, go to dinner in groups and we would sometimes go get food together.
I was already out as gay. I always thought Jetta was attractive. As time went on, I started to question if there was more of a connection there.
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Jetta: It was sort of overtime we got closer, the friendship grew and then in mid to late 2018 I think we both realised, “Oh, there’s something more there.”
We didn’t tell a lot of people about it because we were trying to see for ourselves what this was before we let everyone else in the situation. We were also concerned about whether it would ruin our friendship because it was a bit like we crossed a line.
When we realised we were quite serious, we let people know, and it kind of crept into social media and things like that.
We got such a positive reaction from fans that we were kind of surprised. A lot of people will come up to us at shows and say it’s amazing to see both of us being represented and given a platform.
Charlie has a lot of people come up to her and say, “I had the strength to come out to my parents because of you” or “I’ve talked to my friends” –
Charlie: Literally crying. [It] takes you back… I always knew that my dreams were to be a professional wrestler, but the icing on the cake and something that actually means so much more to me than the actual wrestling is the fact that… you’re impacting, inspiring and touching people’s person life.
I’ve had people come up to me and say beautiful things. I never thought I would be able to have that influence on anyone, and that’s more special to me than some of the really big wrestling things I’ve done in my career.
What has it been like to see the evolution of LGBT+ representation within the professional wrestling world? In the past, organisations like WWE presented queer storylines like Mickie James’ stalker plot with Trish Stratus or fake gay couple Billy and Chuck.
Jetta: To be fair to WWE, I think it’s very much a product of its time, and that was kind of the culture then. WWE now has quite a lot of representation and they celebrate that. I think that’s a big step change, but I think that’s society as a whole.
Charlie: Took a long time. As the world changes and develops, different industries do their own thing.
Jetta: I think there’s still a lot of political stuff that’s going on [in the USA], which is crazy. That’s something I do think about if we’re going on holiday somewhere. I look up how they are with LGBT+ stuff and if I can hold your hand in the street.
Charlie: We were somewhere recently and you said to me, “Oh, maybe I shouldn’t hold your hand,” and I was like, “If you want to hold my hand, hold my hand.”
Jetta: That’s where the Fearless [Charlie’s wresting nickname] comes in.
Charlie: I’ve been quite strong, especially since coming out. I’ve always been quite like: If you want to live your life a certain way, don’t let anybody else tell you any different.
I feel so passionately strong about that because for such a long time I was in the closet. I’d like to think that as things do evolve there will be no closet, there will be no coming out.
It’ll just be like, “Oh I’m in a relationship. I’m with a girl,” or whatever it is.
When I did come out, it was like this massive weight [was gone], and I could just be free – like a complete 180.
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I didn’t expect half the positive reaction [when I came out]. The positive massively outweighed the negative. I think I phoned [Jetta] about two or three days later really upset because people had been bad mouthing it on social media.
They said I just used it for a story or to get myself recognised when it couldn’t be father from the truth.
Jetta: There’s a lot of trans wrestlers that are on big platforms and that’s fantastic. Wrestling is like anything really, you need to have representation from every part of society.
What is the hope for the future? This is a new tag team together, but we imagine you could be hoping to win all kinds of medals and sponsorships. Or is it something a bit more humble like just being excited to be booked together all the time?
Charlie Morgan: Being able to just do things and travel the world together. It’s also being able to do what we love to do together and be happy about doing it.
What more could you want from life? Going out there and wrestling with your fiancée, doing the thing you love the most is the best, most amazing experience.
The fact we get to do that together regularly is something I hold close to my heart.
Then sure, tag belts. Wrestle all over the UK and get recognised for what we can do because we both have different but unique dynamics.
Jetta: Yeah, I think bringing them together is something that people aren’t used to. Getting the opportunity to do this on a platform with PROGRESS Wrestling on their women’s show is massive.
I want us to dominate the PROGRESS Wrestling women’s division. When people think about the women’s tag team division in PROGRESS Wrestling, I want them to think about us first.
