AQ Maverick

AQ Maverick
Born	Aiesha-Joylne Holly Maverick August 8th, 1966 (Age:56) Birthplace: Newark, New Jersey United States
Nationality	American
Other names	AJ Maverick
Citizenship	American * Japanese
Alma mater	Kyoto University
Occupation	Professional Wrestler Radio Personality
Years active	Professional Wrestler (1984-2007, 2021) Radio Personality (2007-Present)
Employer	World Wrestling Entertainment
Home town	Orlando, Florida
Spouse(s)	Derick Reeves (1994-1996)
Children	Zante Maverick
Parent(s)	Cody Maverick (Father) Margaret Maverick (Mother)
Family	Somaje Maverick (Brother) Akame Yamamoto (Daughter-in-law) Kenji Yamamoto (Brother-in-law) Aimi Yamamoto (Sister-in-law) Sean Maverick (Nephew) DJ Maverick (Nephew) Luna Maverick (Niece) Ebony Maverick (Niece)
Professional wrestling career
Ring name(s)	AQ Maverick AJ Maverick
Billed height	5'9"
Billed weight	179lbs
Billed from	Newark, New Jersey New York City, New York
Trained by	All Japan Women's Pro Wrestling
Debut	March 12th, 1984
Retired	July 24th, 2007

Aiesha-Joylne Holly Maverick (Born August 8th, 1966), better known for her ring names, AQ Maverick and AJ Maverick, is a retired African-American Professional Wrestler. She is best known for her time in the Joshi Wrestling Boom Period of the 1980's, her time in WCW and WWE as her latter persona, being the wife of late Caribbean Professional Wrestler Derick Reeves, and being the mother of current WWE superstar, Zante Maverick and Mother-In-Law of current WWE superstar, Akame Yamamoto.

Maverick would make her professional wrestling debut in 1984 for AJW, as the graduating class of that year's rookie classes, where she would be involved with many memorable matches of AJW with Lioness Asuka, Aja Kong, Kazue Nagahori, Nanami Toyota, Akira Hotuko, Dump Matsumoto, and Bull Nanako. She also competed in JWP Joshi Puroresu and briefly at JD Star as a freelance competitor near the end of the 1980's. She would take her talents back to her native country during the early and mid 1990's for WCW and the WWF, where she would win both promotions Women's Championships, and would spend her final active years working for up and coming promotions like CZW, Shimmer, NWA-TNA, and DDT, where in DDT, she would be apart of her son's first match in his pro-wrestling career.

She currently runs a Podcast that she's been doing since 2007, dubbed "The Maverick's Collision" where she interviews Wrestlers, Managers, Tag Teams, Backstage Personal, and Promotion owners from all around the world. The podcast has racked up thousands to millions of views from it's 16 year existence with most of it's most famous interviews being with Nanami Toyota, Aja Kong, John Cena, Triple H, Stephanie McMahon, her brother, Somaje Maverick, Mercedes Mone, Ric Flair, Bad Bunny, Seth Rollins, Roman Reigns, her daughter-in-law, Akame Yamamoto, and of course her own son, Zante Maverick.

Early Life

Aiesha was born alongside her twin brother, Somaje Joseph Maverick on August 8th, 1966 to Cody Maverick and Margaret Maverick in Newark, New Jersey. Cody was a WW2 Veteran and Margaret was a Police Officer and former Mixed Martial Artist. When she was 10, her family moved to Tokyo, Japan where she was exposed to many different forms of entertainment, the one she watched the most was, of course, Professional Wrestling. After a few years graduating High School and quit learning Tae-Kwon-Do, A.J and Somaje would start training to become professional wrestlers.

Professional Wrestling Career

Retirement and Sporadic Appearances (2007-Present)

Retirement

Many pushed back injuries from the 1990's, her age catching up to her, and raising a up and coming wrestler on her own were some of the main reasons on why AJ decided on July 24th, 2007, that she was fully retiring from Professional Wrestling. Her retirement announcement came as a inevitable outcome as many knew her time coming up as many fellow wrestlers who practiced her in-ring style end up retiring early from suffering many injuries during their matches. And in Maverick's case, it was obvious due to her injuries being well-documented.

Aftermath and The Origins of the "Maverick's Collision" (September 2007-Present)

Despite her wanting to wrestle all the way to the early to mid 2010's, Maverick has stated that her body was slowing down and not the way it used to be when she was in her prime. She would become her son's and his friends, Victor Walker's and Casey Wayne's personal trainer. She would move to New Orleans, Louisiana in 2009 in order to help her brother train some of the new recruits in Somaje's revival of Derick Reeve's promotion, New Orleans Pro Wrestling. With some of the recruits being her nieces Luna Maverick and Ebony Maverick, and her nephews, Sean Maverick and DJ Maverick. She would leave New Orleans to move back up north to live in New York City from 2012 to 2016.

Sporadic Matches (2018-2021)

Maverick would make her first appearance as a professional wrestler for the first time since retiring in 2007 at the 2018 Women's Royal Rumble where she would appear as #19. She would be eliminated by Trish Stratus, who would be the runner-up of the match. Her appearance surprised many, as she kept the appearance hidden to almost everyone outside of her son and Vince Mcmahon. She made appearances in matches in WWE and NOPW mostly against up and coming wrestlers including one where she would face Luna Maverick.

Other Media

Video Games

Maverick would make her video game debut in WWE 2K18 as DLC and would make appearances in WWE 2K19, WWE 2K20, WWE 2KBattlegrounds, WWE 2K22, and WWE 2K23.

Podcasts

Following her retirement in 2007, Maverick would start her Podcast career after watching a episode of WWE RAW and a recording of NWA/TNA. Upset and disgusted how the female performers would treated and how they weren't given enough screen-time to actually wrestle, Maverick's Debut episode would rip into both companies, mostly WWE and how both companies need to respect and treat their women's wrestlers with the same level of care and attention as the men. The podcast would be recorded onto Youtube for more exposure soon after by one of the listeners. The debut of Maverick's podcast became controversial within the Professional Wrestling community with some people agreeing with Aiesha, believing that North American Pro Wrestling in general, should treat their female talent with respect and gratitude as the the men, while others disagreed. But in the end, the message itself was successful as WWE and TNA would actually try and even begin to fix their women's divisions, and treat them far better than what they used to beforehand. Following this, Aiesha would continue to do Podcasts, with her trademarking and naming the podcast "The Maverick's Collision".

Over the years, the Podcast has grown in popularity and viewership, as Aiesha's charisma and hot takes on Pop Culture and Pro-Wrestling made her a likable and credible host. She has had many guests within the Pro-Wrestling industry (like Triple H, John Cena, Jushin Thunder Liger, Awesome Kong, Roman Reigns, Zante Maverick, Casey Wayne, and Victor Walker) and and celebrities outside of it (including Snoop Dogg, Jackie Chan, Lebron James. KSI, Logan Paul, Bad Bunny, and Chris Tucker). As of April, 2023, the podcast has surpass over 4 million views across Youtube, Apple Music, Spotify, and it's current run on the Peacock app.

Personal Life

During her 1st run in WCW in 1990, AJ would attend a New Orleans Pro Wrestling event where Samaj at this time, would meet the promoter and recently released WCW wrestler, Derick Reeves. The two would meet after the event where the two would ultimately hit it off. The two would end up dating for the rest of 1990 and would end up being a couple the very next year. The two would be together for 3 years where eventually, Derick would propose to AJ on June 12th,1993 where they would get married on March 22nd, 1994. While taking some time off from performing following a shoulder injury in 1995, AJ would become pregnant with her first child. On January 6th, 1996, she would give birth to her son, Zante Maverick in Newark, New Jersey. Following Derick's murder in June of that same year, AJ would never remarry. Claiming Derick as her one true love, ultimately getting a tattoo of his birthday on her wrist.

During her appearance on the Smoking Skull Podcast in 2018, shortly after her appearance at the 2018 Royal Rumble, AJ would talk about her past relationships before and after her marriage with Derick, revealing that she has had flings and relationships with both men and women with the only person knowing was Derick. The reason why she kept it a secret for so long was the fear of being ridiculed or degraded for her sexuality, and to avoid facing prejudice and homophobia from International and Home state crowds and Promotions. AJ revealing her Bisexuality shocked many in the wrestling business, but many wrestlers and personal came out of their way to support her coming out to the public.

AJ was diagnosed with stage 1 Breast Cancer on February 1st, 2020. In order to combat the cancer, she was forced to be put on leave. She fortunately beat the cancer around June of that same year. On October 21st, 2021, AJ would announce that she send over $2,000,000 to many cancer treatment centers around New York, New Jersey, and Philadelphia.

She has open her own pro wrestling school in Orlando, Florida where she currently resides.

In Wrestling

Finishers

• Melenated Driver (Electric Chair Driver)
• Kiss by a Thorn (Gory Special Neckbreaker)
• Stone Cold Stunner (Stunner) (Adopted from Stone Cold Steve Austin)
• The Maverick's Collision (Spear) (Would latter on become a signature move of hers)
• (Exploding Killa) (Imploding Swanton Bomb)
• Guillotine Choke
• Rear Naked Choke
• Swinging Rear Naked Choke

Signature Moves:

• Cocoa Butter Bomb (Sit-Out Powerbomb)
• Avalanche Cocoa Butter Bomb (Avalanche Sit-Out Powerbomb)
• Shoulder Tackle
• Jumping Knee Strike
• Military Press Drop
• Military Press Powerslam
• Military Press Cutter
• Gut-Buster
• Tilt-a-Whirl Backbreaker
• Spinebuster
• Sliding Lariat
• Corner Spear + Belly to Belly Suplex
• Overhead Belly to Belly Suplex
• German Suplex
• Front Suplex
• Snap DDT
• Arm Trapped Crossface
• Hammerlock Back Suplex
• Running Neckbreaker
• Torture Rack
• Judo Throw
• Chop Block
• Dragon Suplex
• Straight Jacket DDT
• Arm Breaker
• Leg Snap
• Boston Crab
• Single-Leg Boston Crab
• Northern Lights Suplex
• Standing Powerbomb
• Avalanche Hurricanrana
• Running Bulldog
• Ankle Lock
• Stunner
• Diving Elbow Drop
• Diving Leg Drop
• Middle Rope Knee Drop
• Middle Knee Leg Drop
• Rolling Elbow
• Forearm Smash
• European Uppercut
• Slap
• URAKEN (Adopted by Aja Kong)
• Diving Double Axe Handle
• Diving Crossbody
• Avalanche Belly to Belly Suplex
• Tope Suicida
• Tope Con Hilo
• Suicide Dive
• Baseball Slide
• Running Clothesline
• Headbutt
• Bearhug
• Vertabreaker
• Running Hip Attack
• Lariat

Championships and Accomplishments

All Japan Women's Pro Wrestling

• All Pacific Championship (2 times)

• WWWA World Singles Championship (2 times)

Gaea Japan

• AAAW Single Championship (1 time)

JWP Joshi Puroresu

• JWP Openweight Championship (1 time)

World Championship Wrestling

• WCW Women's World Championship (1 time)

World Wrestling Federation

• WWF Women's Championship (3 times)