As a longtime professional wrestler who was born into the business, Santana Garrett has gotten to live out a lot of her dreams.
But the Belleview native’s latest dream has nothing to do with the ring: She and her family just moved into a new Central Florida home, where they plan to raise chickens.
“It’s been on my bucket list my entire life and next year, we’re going to get chickens,” Garrett told the Sentinel earlier this week, the delight evident on her face. “It’s perfect. Everything has turned out pretty darn perfectly.”
Make no mistake, the former NXT and TNA superstar’s wrestling career is still going strong after 16 years. She’s had a long stint with Women Of Wrestling (WOW), which airs weekends on WRDQ and recently premiered its fourth streaming season on Pluto. Her work there, which included TV tapings just last week in Las Vegas, has been a homecoming of sorts — she spent six years with WOW from 2013-19, winning its world championship.
“It’s been really cool to see the growth of WOW, the evolution of the women who have come and gone and, like myself, who have come back,” Garrett said. “It’s very special. WOW was my first home, the first major opportunity that I had at the beginning of my wrestling career. It’ll forever have a special place in my heart.”
The WOW locker room is full of wrestlers just getting started in the business, Garrett said, and she has been a veteran presence in the locker room. But as the daughter of an independent wrestler (“TNT” Kenny G), she’s always had a mind for wrestling — and a passion for passing on her knowledge. She used to teach classes and seminars at wrestling schools in Central Florida.
“First grade is when I knew I wanted to be a professional wrestler, but if I wasn’t that, I was going to be a teacher, either an elementary art teacher or a kindergarten teacher,” Garrett said. “Even though I didn’t pursue that path, I still have found a way to do that with the wrestling. We all have our purpose, and I feel like that’s my purpose.”
TNA wrestler Leon Slater is enjoying high-profile week (and his time in Orlando)
Garrett said she has scaled back on travel in recent years, though she has wrestled in Australia and Chile in 2025. When she flies, she said she loves the peace and quiet above the clouds, but she’s learned to appreciate the home life more and more.
“One of my favorite things to do is to stroll through downtown Winter Park,” Garrett said. “It’s a great little spot, whether it’s a Sunday fun day, hopping around to shops or hopping around to little restaurants.”
She also has more time to appreciate her husband, 13-year-old son (“So sweet, so kind and so smart … sometimes too smart,” Garrett said) and their new house. And soon, chickens. But why?
Jacob Fatu brings another generation into WWE bloodline
“Some of my favorite shows are survivalist shows, and I love to watch, like, farming and canning,” Garrett said. “I don’t know why. I did grow up like a country girl, so in my former life that’s what I did. But I am so into ‘Alone,’ ‘Naked and Afraid,’ all the survival. So when the world is ending, I will have chickens and eggs. There are people who say, ‘Don’t so it, it’s disgusting,’ but I have to find that out for myself. I might just love it.”
jreddick@orlandosentinel.com
Santana Garrett has spent 17 years in professional wrestling, including two stints in WOW. (Courtesy WOW)
