06-16-2024, 02:18 PM
The fans and the folks in the locker room know her as Eavan Maloney. Today, we get to see the day in the life of Olive Zdunich. The woman behind Sykobitty.
The scene opens up at The Krigarakademin, the Warrior Academy, co-founded by Olive Zdunich in 2022 in a quiet town in New Jersey. At the end of May, a few of the girls at the Academy had their graduation ceremony of different degrees. Three girls finished their 30-day sobriety challenge, one their 60-day, and another their 90-day. Two girls received their GED as well. Unfortunately for Olive, with the constant road schedule she has competing in three separate companies, bringing ‘Eavan Maloney’ to the masses, she had not been able to attend but had recorded a video message congratulating all of them by name. However, on this day, Olive knew she had to be there in person, as the next session was beginning. Unlike standard schools, there is no summer break at the Krigarakedemin as there are always more girls and women needing a new and better direction in life.
At the beginning of each session, there is a presentation in the auditorium. A presentation that, despite recounting the story numerous times, has never gotten easier for Olive. As the students and staff filed into the auditorium, she paced backstage, setting up her headset, fussing with her clothes; today is a white button-down shirt with a loose black tie, black slacks and Doc Martens boots. Her black and white hair, once tied up this morning, was now hanging loose over her shoulders. She pulled out her phone and opened up her Photos app, and opened the same folder as she always did on days like today. Flipping through pictures of her late father Randall “Black Wolf” Kash with his wife Gianna “Madre” Palerma. Her parents Ellen and Ryan Maloney. Her own family of wives Katra Adriana Zdunich, and their daughters Emileigh, Violet and Iris. She stayed on each photo for a few seconds, steeling herself for what she had to do when she walked out on that stage. Finally, she kissed her phone screen and closed her eyes, and took a big sigh…
“Please welcome the Dean of The Krigarakademin, Olive Zdunich.”
As Olive stepped through the curtain, the urge to become Sykobitty rose within her, and quickly subsided as this was not the time for “Her”. This wasn’t the wrestling business, this is her passion project. Her future beyond the sport. Olive smiled and bowed to the audience and the sounds of applause and the energy washed over her. On the stage was a single leather armchair, which she always sat on the arm of instead of in the chair itself.
“Good afternoon everyone, and welcome to Orientation Day. I know some of you have sat in those seats through a few of these already, and I congratulate all of you on the progress you are making. I know it can be frustrating seeing people who you become peers with either graduate before you, or have to start over. The thing you have to understand is that nobody recovers at the same pace. Sometimes there are relapses; that feeling of falling behind or feeling like you’re going backwards, and that’s okay as long as you remember all it takes is that first step forward. Accepting responsibility for the relapse. Being accountable for those moments of weakness that are just that… they’re moments. They pass… if you want them to. It’s real easy to get back into that mindset of feeling useless or unworthy or unloveable but you’re not any of those things. You are all warriors in your own way. And we as staff are all here to help you find that strength to fight again.
You know, I’m always happy to see new faces. While the circumstances for seeing them may be dire, I’d rather see you here than out there left to the devices you’re used to, and worse, seeing so much potential lost in the obituaries. I know what it feels like to lose people I care about. I’m sure everyone in this room can think of one person in your lives that you wish you still had with you today…”
Olive stops as she sees a few girls in the crowd start to cry. Olive instinctively grabs a tissue box and goes into the crowd to hand tissues out and hug them. Olive wipes her own eyes as she walks back to the stage.
“I hit a few nerves, and I won’t apologize for that. In fact, that’s one message I push here. Grieve the loss, and remind yourself that you are here to become better so you don’t become a reason for someone else to grieve over you. We will make you the warriors you are. We will help you overcome whatever you need to. Trust us, we’ve seen it all. We’ve probably lived it all collectively. And truthfully, we as staff are constantly learning just as you are because we don’t know everything. This world is so chaotic and moving so fast, so we try to keep up. I guarantee every member of staff has learned something new from you, the students. And we thrive on that because it shows that we’re listening. We all strive to be as accountable to you as we expect you to be to us. My goal was to make this place a home. A safe space to allow you girls the best opportunities you can have. A place to teach you how to use your voice.”
Olive sits on the edge of the stage, looking at some of the new faces in the crowd. Some look like they’d rather be anywhere else. Some appear eager, at the end of their rope. Some look lost and scared. However, Olive smiles at each of them warmly and nods her understanding.
“I’ve learned the best way to help you on your journey is to share my own. A lot of people in this room tonight have heard this story because I tell it every Orientation Day and the reason I do is because as much as I’m Mom in this house, I’ve been in your shoes. There have been times when I didn’t even have shoes because I sold them for drugs. Now, I see some of you looking at me like I don’t know what I’m talking about. You think I haven’t been in your place. Hell, some of you probably even think I’m full of shit.”
The word ‘shit’ seemed to catch some peoples’ attention, and Olive chuckles.
“You new girls don’t know me yet, but you will. Some of you are going to hate my guts because you’ve never been treated the way you will be treated here. If you mess up, there WILL be consequences. You can tell us to go to hell and we’ll give it right back to you. This ain’t a normal school, this Academy is more than that. Fully accredited, but we don’t adhere to the State’s standards as they wish to describe them. In this house, we do things a lot different. You’ll earn our respect just as much as we’ll work to earn yours. We’ve been on those streets, we’ve heard those promises that turned out to be either empty or nefarious so why would we make those same ones to you here? This is a house of empowerment. We will make you stronger, smarter, and better than you came in here. THAT promise is one I have yet to break.
So do I have your fucking attention now?”
At that moment, all eyes were on Olive as she sat down in the chair.
“Throwing the unexpected curse word always works. Now, allow me to tell you a story. In the spring of 2017, I broke into the world of professional wrestling and from the onset, I was really good. Racking up championships, gaining fans, I was the hottest thing going for a while. Met a Swedish girl who spoke broken English named Katra. Fell in love instantly, got married quick, regretted nothing. I had the whole world in my hands… until I threw it all away. My father had died suddenly and I couldn’t cope. I stayed on the road because at least in an arena, surrounded by twenty thousand fans, and in that ring, I could block out my real life. I also discovered cocaine. I went home, and tried to hide it at first, until I stopped caring. Cut my beautiful wife down verbally and walked away…”
Olive brings her knees up to her chin as she feels herself wanting to cry.
“I became a full-blown slut. Fucked anything that moved. Sold my body to feed my habits. Most wrestling companies I worked for straight up fired my ass. I became bitter, I was ashamed of who I became. I’d see a mirror and I’d shove my fist through it, I didn’t want to see the monster I was. Even remarried at one point, I thought since I had fucked up so badly with Katra, it was either move on or kill myself, and I was trying to do both simultaneously. Eventually, I ended up living in an abandoned building in Los Angeles that was called The Church. Valentine’s Day 2018, I had a gun in my mouth ready to pull the trigger when the first opportunity for help fell in my lap figuratively. In my altered state, I almost destroyed two peoples’ lives and that sent me back down another dark road again. I started feeling like I was every bit the cancer that people in the wrestling business said I was. And then the strangest thing happened to me.”
Olive sits up again, feeling stronger than she was a few moments earlier.
“This part of the story, I’ve never told a soul but I feel it’s time I share it. Some people here know that I dabble in music. My father taught me guitar at a young age and I let it go as I grew older, only to end up marrying a guitar goddess. Back at The Church, I found a beat-up acoustic that I tinkered with, got it back to playable condition, used it to panhandle for money for drugs. One of the songs I used to play started as a form of solace and ended up a form of punishment. I would sing the song Hurt by Johnny Cash. To this day, every time I say that, I hear Katra in my head remind me it started as a Nine Inch Nails song, but I played the Cash version. And there’s a line in the chorus that goes ‘What have I become, my sweetest friend’ which is a heavy lyric in its own right. It forces reflection on where you’re at in life. One day, I was sitting on The Strip in LA, panhandling and singing, and I start singing Hurt and I ended up singing ‘What have I become, my Swedish friend’ and holy shit, the water works started. That evening, I also discovered that The Church had a working telephone because the damn thing rang, and the call was for me.
So, Katra has two older sisters. Seleana and Zenna. They are all amazing people, but Zenna and her partner Linnea had been down the roads I had and were in recovery themselves. During all of this time, they would always find a way to make sure I was okay and I can’t tell you how many times I lied to them and said I was. And yet, despite me being as bad as I was, they never showed me anything but love. No judging. No anger. Love. And I felt smaller and smaller because to me it was like - how the fuck could someone else love me if I couldn’t love myself? That phone call started my road back. This place didn’t exist then so recovery, for me, was worse than being on the drugs themselves. I had to re-learn who I was, find that warrior within again. And it was SO hard. I relapsed often, I damned near quit a few times. I raged and yelled and cried and… survived it. I started training again, wrestling again. I was so afraid to commit to someone else because the only person I wanted back in my life was Katra… who remarried. With my blessing. I even went to her wedding, trashed as fuck and held it together with thread and duct tape.
I’m happy to say that October 29th 2024 will mark five years I’ve been clean. And I made it back home. That’s why this place is called The Krigarakademin. It’s Swedish for Warrior Academy because of the nickname Krigare that Katra would call me back in the day, and to this day. So this place is for them. And my way of paying it forward. I know what recovery’s like and I would have killed for a place like this when I was going through it. You might even see me at some of the meetings here because I still have moments today.
So I look at you and I see a little bit of me in each of you. And if I had the strength to fight my way back, I know each and every one of you does as well. So, to conclude, I have two final words for you. Välkommen hem. Welcome home.”
As the crowd in the auditorium rise to their feet to applaud Olive, Olive puts her hands together and bows to the crowd. She puts her hand over her heart and bows again before walking backstage. As she steps through the curtain, Olive collapses in a heap of emotion. Tears flow hard as she hyperventilates before Olive manages to crawl into a dark corner to compose herself. She pulls out her phone again and sends a text to her family group chat.
Told my story tonight. Still hurts. Thank you for loving me. Be home soon.
The scene opens up at The Krigarakademin, the Warrior Academy, co-founded by Olive Zdunich in 2022 in a quiet town in New Jersey. At the end of May, a few of the girls at the Academy had their graduation ceremony of different degrees. Three girls finished their 30-day sobriety challenge, one their 60-day, and another their 90-day. Two girls received their GED as well. Unfortunately for Olive, with the constant road schedule she has competing in three separate companies, bringing ‘Eavan Maloney’ to the masses, she had not been able to attend but had recorded a video message congratulating all of them by name. However, on this day, Olive knew she had to be there in person, as the next session was beginning. Unlike standard schools, there is no summer break at the Krigarakedemin as there are always more girls and women needing a new and better direction in life.
At the beginning of each session, there is a presentation in the auditorium. A presentation that, despite recounting the story numerous times, has never gotten easier for Olive. As the students and staff filed into the auditorium, she paced backstage, setting up her headset, fussing with her clothes; today is a white button-down shirt with a loose black tie, black slacks and Doc Martens boots. Her black and white hair, once tied up this morning, was now hanging loose over her shoulders. She pulled out her phone and opened up her Photos app, and opened the same folder as she always did on days like today. Flipping through pictures of her late father Randall “Black Wolf” Kash with his wife Gianna “Madre” Palerma. Her parents Ellen and Ryan Maloney. Her own family of wives Katra Adriana Zdunich, and their daughters Emileigh, Violet and Iris. She stayed on each photo for a few seconds, steeling herself for what she had to do when she walked out on that stage. Finally, she kissed her phone screen and closed her eyes, and took a big sigh…
“Please welcome the Dean of The Krigarakademin, Olive Zdunich.”
As Olive stepped through the curtain, the urge to become Sykobitty rose within her, and quickly subsided as this was not the time for “Her”. This wasn’t the wrestling business, this is her passion project. Her future beyond the sport. Olive smiled and bowed to the audience and the sounds of applause and the energy washed over her. On the stage was a single leather armchair, which she always sat on the arm of instead of in the chair itself.
“Good afternoon everyone, and welcome to Orientation Day. I know some of you have sat in those seats through a few of these already, and I congratulate all of you on the progress you are making. I know it can be frustrating seeing people who you become peers with either graduate before you, or have to start over. The thing you have to understand is that nobody recovers at the same pace. Sometimes there are relapses; that feeling of falling behind or feeling like you’re going backwards, and that’s okay as long as you remember all it takes is that first step forward. Accepting responsibility for the relapse. Being accountable for those moments of weakness that are just that… they’re moments. They pass… if you want them to. It’s real easy to get back into that mindset of feeling useless or unworthy or unloveable but you’re not any of those things. You are all warriors in your own way. And we as staff are all here to help you find that strength to fight again.
You know, I’m always happy to see new faces. While the circumstances for seeing them may be dire, I’d rather see you here than out there left to the devices you’re used to, and worse, seeing so much potential lost in the obituaries. I know what it feels like to lose people I care about. I’m sure everyone in this room can think of one person in your lives that you wish you still had with you today…”
Olive stops as she sees a few girls in the crowd start to cry. Olive instinctively grabs a tissue box and goes into the crowd to hand tissues out and hug them. Olive wipes her own eyes as she walks back to the stage.
“I hit a few nerves, and I won’t apologize for that. In fact, that’s one message I push here. Grieve the loss, and remind yourself that you are here to become better so you don’t become a reason for someone else to grieve over you. We will make you the warriors you are. We will help you overcome whatever you need to. Trust us, we’ve seen it all. We’ve probably lived it all collectively. And truthfully, we as staff are constantly learning just as you are because we don’t know everything. This world is so chaotic and moving so fast, so we try to keep up. I guarantee every member of staff has learned something new from you, the students. And we thrive on that because it shows that we’re listening. We all strive to be as accountable to you as we expect you to be to us. My goal was to make this place a home. A safe space to allow you girls the best opportunities you can have. A place to teach you how to use your voice.”
Olive sits on the edge of the stage, looking at some of the new faces in the crowd. Some look like they’d rather be anywhere else. Some appear eager, at the end of their rope. Some look lost and scared. However, Olive smiles at each of them warmly and nods her understanding.
“I’ve learned the best way to help you on your journey is to share my own. A lot of people in this room tonight have heard this story because I tell it every Orientation Day and the reason I do is because as much as I’m Mom in this house, I’ve been in your shoes. There have been times when I didn’t even have shoes because I sold them for drugs. Now, I see some of you looking at me like I don’t know what I’m talking about. You think I haven’t been in your place. Hell, some of you probably even think I’m full of shit.”
The word ‘shit’ seemed to catch some peoples’ attention, and Olive chuckles.
“You new girls don’t know me yet, but you will. Some of you are going to hate my guts because you’ve never been treated the way you will be treated here. If you mess up, there WILL be consequences. You can tell us to go to hell and we’ll give it right back to you. This ain’t a normal school, this Academy is more than that. Fully accredited, but we don’t adhere to the State’s standards as they wish to describe them. In this house, we do things a lot different. You’ll earn our respect just as much as we’ll work to earn yours. We’ve been on those streets, we’ve heard those promises that turned out to be either empty or nefarious so why would we make those same ones to you here? This is a house of empowerment. We will make you stronger, smarter, and better than you came in here. THAT promise is one I have yet to break.
So do I have your fucking attention now?”
At that moment, all eyes were on Olive as she sat down in the chair.
“Throwing the unexpected curse word always works. Now, allow me to tell you a story. In the spring of 2017, I broke into the world of professional wrestling and from the onset, I was really good. Racking up championships, gaining fans, I was the hottest thing going for a while. Met a Swedish girl who spoke broken English named Katra. Fell in love instantly, got married quick, regretted nothing. I had the whole world in my hands… until I threw it all away. My father had died suddenly and I couldn’t cope. I stayed on the road because at least in an arena, surrounded by twenty thousand fans, and in that ring, I could block out my real life. I also discovered cocaine. I went home, and tried to hide it at first, until I stopped caring. Cut my beautiful wife down verbally and walked away…”
Olive brings her knees up to her chin as she feels herself wanting to cry.
“I became a full-blown slut. Fucked anything that moved. Sold my body to feed my habits. Most wrestling companies I worked for straight up fired my ass. I became bitter, I was ashamed of who I became. I’d see a mirror and I’d shove my fist through it, I didn’t want to see the monster I was. Even remarried at one point, I thought since I had fucked up so badly with Katra, it was either move on or kill myself, and I was trying to do both simultaneously. Eventually, I ended up living in an abandoned building in Los Angeles that was called The Church. Valentine’s Day 2018, I had a gun in my mouth ready to pull the trigger when the first opportunity for help fell in my lap figuratively. In my altered state, I almost destroyed two peoples’ lives and that sent me back down another dark road again. I started feeling like I was every bit the cancer that people in the wrestling business said I was. And then the strangest thing happened to me.”
Olive sits up again, feeling stronger than she was a few moments earlier.
“This part of the story, I’ve never told a soul but I feel it’s time I share it. Some people here know that I dabble in music. My father taught me guitar at a young age and I let it go as I grew older, only to end up marrying a guitar goddess. Back at The Church, I found a beat-up acoustic that I tinkered with, got it back to playable condition, used it to panhandle for money for drugs. One of the songs I used to play started as a form of solace and ended up a form of punishment. I would sing the song Hurt by Johnny Cash. To this day, every time I say that, I hear Katra in my head remind me it started as a Nine Inch Nails song, but I played the Cash version. And there’s a line in the chorus that goes ‘What have I become, my sweetest friend’ which is a heavy lyric in its own right. It forces reflection on where you’re at in life. One day, I was sitting on The Strip in LA, panhandling and singing, and I start singing Hurt and I ended up singing ‘What have I become, my Swedish friend’ and holy shit, the water works started. That evening, I also discovered that The Church had a working telephone because the damn thing rang, and the call was for me.
So, Katra has two older sisters. Seleana and Zenna. They are all amazing people, but Zenna and her partner Linnea had been down the roads I had and were in recovery themselves. During all of this time, they would always find a way to make sure I was okay and I can’t tell you how many times I lied to them and said I was. And yet, despite me being as bad as I was, they never showed me anything but love. No judging. No anger. Love. And I felt smaller and smaller because to me it was like - how the fuck could someone else love me if I couldn’t love myself? That phone call started my road back. This place didn’t exist then so recovery, for me, was worse than being on the drugs themselves. I had to re-learn who I was, find that warrior within again. And it was SO hard. I relapsed often, I damned near quit a few times. I raged and yelled and cried and… survived it. I started training again, wrestling again. I was so afraid to commit to someone else because the only person I wanted back in my life was Katra… who remarried. With my blessing. I even went to her wedding, trashed as fuck and held it together with thread and duct tape.
I’m happy to say that October 29th 2024 will mark five years I’ve been clean. And I made it back home. That’s why this place is called The Krigarakademin. It’s Swedish for Warrior Academy because of the nickname Krigare that Katra would call me back in the day, and to this day. So this place is for them. And my way of paying it forward. I know what recovery’s like and I would have killed for a place like this when I was going through it. You might even see me at some of the meetings here because I still have moments today.
So I look at you and I see a little bit of me in each of you. And if I had the strength to fight my way back, I know each and every one of you does as well. So, to conclude, I have two final words for you. Välkommen hem. Welcome home.”
As the crowd in the auditorium rise to their feet to applaud Olive, Olive puts her hands together and bows to the crowd. She puts her hand over her heart and bows again before walking backstage. As she steps through the curtain, Olive collapses in a heap of emotion. Tears flow hard as she hyperventilates before Olive manages to crawl into a dark corner to compose herself. She pulls out her phone again and sends a text to her family group chat.
Told my story tonight. Still hurts. Thank you for loving me. Be home soon.
![[Image: 8VZ4n4D.png]](https://i.imgur.com/8VZ4n4D.png)