WWE Network Reviews: Heaven
Narrated by WWE Hall of Famer Beth Phoenix, the documentary begins with Heaven Fitch preparing to bake. Described as a shy and quiet girl, Heaven was born in 2003, living in North Carolina with her parents and three elder brothers. Having three boys, her father spoke about always wanting a girl. With her brothers playing sports and her paternal grandparents being Olympic athletes, Heaven played baseball and soccer as well. She talked about wrestling on TV and playing wrestling with her brothers, even giving herself the wrestling name “Twinker Bell”.
Watching her brothers compete in amateur wrestling tournaments, she asked her parents to after wanting to be like them. Her father was against the idea because it was an all-male sport and seeing all of the injuries he witnessed from the sport. However, her parents let her wrestle, believing it would be a short stint. Much to her parents’ surprise, Heaven would find success in it. However, as she got older, the competition was getting better, which meant she took a lot of losses since her opponents did not want to lose to her. To her make her better, Heaven would frequently spare with her brother. Her brother explained that he did not go easy on her because he did not think it would be right and it would not help her.
Que Tucker, the North Carolina High School Athletic Association’s Commissioner, clarified the current rule in which if a school did not have a girl’s wrestling team, they would have to try out for the boys. Heaven spoke about hearing mothers saying she should not wrestle because she is a girl. That mindset confused Fitch as she did not understand why it was an issue for her to wrestle with the way society has changed.
In the eighth grade, Heaven would go undefeated, pinning every opponent she faced. In 2018, as a freshman, she wrestled on the varsity team in the lightest weight class (106 lbs) while weighing in at 95 lbs. During that year she went 34-4, missing the tournament by one match. Yet she bounced back in her sophomore year, going 55-8 to make it to the state tournament. Taking fourth, Heaven became the first girl in the history of North Carolina to ever place in a state tournament. She would continue wrestling in tournaments across the country such as Georgia and Oklahoma. As her junior year began, Heaven was ranked seventh nationally. It was a historical year for her as she won 58 matches.
Then in 2020, at the Greensboro Coliseum, Heaven would participate in the state tournament as the number one seed in her weight class. After two matches, Heaven would make it to the finals. With all eyes of her, Heaven would go on to win the state tournament becoming the first female to win a high school state wrestling title in North Carolina. Because of historical victory, Heaven spoke about getting messages from people, especially parents who thanked her for being an inspiration to their daughters. For her, it is a big moment in sports in general because showed that women can achieve the same accomplishments as men. Going into her senior year, this April, Heaven will attempt to become the first girl to win two titles.
Aneil’s Take: With March 8th being International Women’s Day, I found Heaven’s story to be a great representation of this day. I enjoyed this documentary, which was a story about a female wrestler named Heaven who rose through the ranks to become the first female to win a state wrestling champion in the male division. From the documentary, there were a lot of people who doubted her abilities, believing she was soft and could not compete with the males. But she proved that with the right mindset and drive, anything is possible.
I think a lot of young kids (boys and girls) can find inspiration in Heaven’s story especially with her making a great point that society is changing. I hope Heaven continues to find success in her wrestling career and beyond! If you have about twenty minutes, I would recommend you to check out the full documentary in the video below.
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