Kris Hernandez (born August 12, 1984) is an American retired

professional wrestler Professional wrestling, often shortened to either pro wrestling or wrestling,The term "wrestling" is most often widely used to specifically refer to modern scripted professional wrestling, though it is also used to refer to real-life wrest ...

, best known by the

ring name A ring name is a type of stage name or nickname used by an athlete such as a professional wrestler, mixed martial artist, or boxer whose real name is considered unattractive, dull, difficult to pronounce or spell, amusing for the wrong reasons ...

Kris Wolf. She wrestled for

World Wonder Ring Stardom , is a Japanese ''joshi puroresu'' or women's professional wrestling professional wrestling promotion, promotion based in Nakano, Tokyo, Japan. Stardom was founded in September 2010 by former All Japan Women's Pro-Wrestling (AJW) co-producer Ross ...

Japan Japan is an island country in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean off the northeast coast of the Asia, Asian mainland, it is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan and extends from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea ...

, where she is a former High Speed Champion, as well as a founding member of the Oedo Tai stable. She has also wrestled for

Ring of Honor Ring of Honor (ROH) is an American professional wrestling promotion based in Jacksonville, Florida. The promotion was founded by Rob Feinstein on February 23, 2002, and was operated by Cary Silkin from 2004 until 2011; the promotion was subs ...

, Alternative Wrestling Show (AWS),

Westside Xtreme Wrestling Westside Xtreme Wrestling, commonly shortened to wXw, is a German professional wrestling promotion based in Gelsenkirchen, North Rhine-Westphalia. wXw has been one of the leading professional wrestling promotions in Germany, and most of its event ...

(wXw) and Pro Wrestling: EVE. On February 6, 2019, Hernandez announced on her YouTube channel that she would be performing her final tour with Stardom in the upcoming weeks, and retiring due to concussion issues throughout her career. Originally working as a freelance photographer in

San Francisco San Francisco, officially the City and County of San Francisco, is a commercial, Financial District, San Francisco, financial, and Culture of San Francisco, cultural center of Northern California. With a population of 827,526 residents as of ...

, California, Hernandez wanted to become a wrestler after living a year and a half in Japan and seeing a Stardom match on

YouTube YouTube is an American social media and online video sharing platform owned by Google. YouTube was founded on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim who were three former employees of PayPal. Headquartered in ...

. She was trained by Fuka Kakimoto,

Io Shirai is a Japanese professional wrestler. She is signed to WWE, where she performs on the Raw (WWE brand), Raw WWE brand extension, brand under the ring name (stylized in all caps) and is the current Women's World Championship (WWE), Women’s Wo ...

and

Nanae Takahashi (born December 23, 1978) is a retired Japanese professional wrestler and the founder of Seadlinnng, as well as a co-founder of World Wonder Ring Stardom. She was signed to Dream Star Fighting Marigold, where she held her final match at Marigo ...

, and debuted August 10, 2014, in a three-way match with Reo Hazuki and Koguma.

Professional wrestling career

World Wonder Ring Stardom (2014–2018)

On August 10, 2014, Wolf had her debut match for

in a losing effort against Koguma and Reo Hazuki in a

three-way match Many types of wrestling matches, sometimes called "gimmick matches" in the jargon of the business, are performed in professional wrestling. Some gimmick matches are more common than others and are often used to advance or conclude a storyline. ...

. At Mask Fiesta 2014 on October 26, Wolf, performing under the name Shadow, teamed up with Mystique in a loss to Shinba and Star Fire. At Mask Fiesta 2015 on October 25, 2015, Wolf, under the

Crazy Wolf, teamed up with Datura in a loss to Lucky Blanca and Santana Wonder. She won her first title, the

High Speed Championship The is a women's professional wrestling Championship (professional wrestling), championship owned by the World Wonder Ring Stardom professional wrestling promotion, promotion. The title was originally created on May 5, 2009, in the NEO Japan Lad ...

, by defeating

Mayu Iwatani (born February 19, 1993) is a Japanese professional wrestler, currently signed to Dream Star Fighting Marigold, where she is the current Marigold Super Fly Champion in her first reign. She is best known for her tenure with World Wonder Ring Sta ...

and

Kagetsu (born on June 24, 1992), better known by his ring name , is a Japanese retired professional wrestler. He is best known for his time in Stardom, JWP, Sendai Girls and various independent promotions. Professional wrestling career Independe ...

in a three-way match on February 23, 2017. She lost the title to Shanna on July 16. On December 2, Wolf won the Alternative Wrestling Show (AWS) Women's World Championship, defeating Nicole Savoy. Wolf left World Wonder Ring Stardom on March 25, 2018.

Independent circuit (2018–2019)

After leaving Stardom, Wolf competed regularly for independent promotions in the U.K., Ireland, mainland Europe and North America. On February 6, 2019, she announced her retirement from wrestling due to severe concussion issues throughout her career, and announced she would do a final tour in the upcoming future. She had her final match on April 26, 2019.

Other media

Hernandez has a YouTube account, where she uploads infrequently. She also streams infrequently on Twitch. Hernandez appeared in the documentary series "The Wrestlers", which was originally broadcast on

Viceland Viceland (stylized in all caps; also known as Vice TV in the United States) is a brand used for television channels owned and programmed by Vice Media. The brand launched on February 29, 2016, with two cable channels in North America. The Vice ...

in 2019.

Personal life

Hernandez is originally from

Chicago Chicago is the List of municipalities in Illinois, most populous city in the U.S. state of Illinois and in the Midwestern United States. With a population of 2,746,388, as of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, it is the List of Unite ...

, Illinois, and is of Filipino descent. She spent most of her childhood and teenage years in New Jersey, where she and her sister were raised by her mother. After moving out at the age of 18, she eventually settled in San Francisco, California. She relocated to

Tokyo Tokyo, officially the Tokyo Metropolis, is the capital of Japan, capital and List of cities in Japan, most populous city in Japan. With a population of over 14 million in the city proper in 2023, it is List of largest cities, one of the most ...

, Japan, where she lived for six years, after the breakup of a long term relationship; she originally visited Japan just as a retreat and fell in love with the country after spending twenty days cycling through the Japanese countryside. She worked as an English teacher in Tokyo for a year and a half, until somebody suggested that she should consider doing ''joshi puroresu'' after she was having second thoughts about her career; this led her to finding a Stardom match on YouTube and signing up to train at the promotion. On August 1, 2018, Hernandez announced that she had created a Patreon account. She uploads new content to her Patreon account on a regular basis. In January 2019, Hernandez, in-character as Kris Wolf, announced her marriage to her partner. Hernandez currently lives with her partner in

Oslo Oslo ( or ; ) is the capital and most populous city of Norway. It constitutes both a county and a municipality. The municipality of Oslo had a population of in 2022, while the city's greater urban area had a population of 1,064,235 in 2022 ...

, Norway.

Championships and accomplishments

*Alternative Wrestling Show **AWS Women's World Championship (1 time) * ''

Pro Wrestling Illustrated ''Pro Wrestling Illustrated'' (''PWI'') is an American professional wrestling magazine that was founded in 1979 by publisher Stanley Weston. ''PWI'' is headquartered in Blue Bell, Pennsylvania, and published by Kappa Publishing Group. The maga ...

'' **Ranked No. 28 of the top 100 female wrestlers in the '' PWI Female 100'' in 2018 *

( 1 time)

References

External links