Most marketing students gain experience through internships or summer jobs; Jessika Heiser, a student at Towson University, has taken a different tack. Her best marketing experience has come through promoting her own nascent career as a pro wrestler.
If you happen to follow the Maryland Championship Wrestling scene, you’d know Heiser as Jessie Kaye, the malevolent girlfriend of Ronnie Zukko (2010’s “Most Hated Wrestler” in the MCW).
Heiser had been a fan of wrestling since she was 10, but her career really took off when she enrolled at Gillberg’s Pro Wrestling Academy in Severn, which was founded by the WWE’s Duane Gill. When she started, she was 223 pounds and out of shape; now she regularly take on male wrestlers. “I’m not a natural athlete, which means I have to keep pushing myself every day to keep getting better,” Heiser told Towson Patch.
Out of the ring, Heiser takes charge of her own booking engagements, travel plans, and marketing. She’s wrestled once with MCW and has traveled to Delaware and West Virginia for matches. In the downtime between wrestling and work-outs, she dutifully gets her homework done. “I’m making sure I finish college to ensure I have an education to fall back on,” Heiser says. “I just love what I’m doing and grateful to all that have supported me For everyone to believe in me and believe I can make it, only makes me want to excel and prove them all right. I never want to let anyone down.”
