Forever Roxy Ryot, By Brenton Cooper
By: Brenton Cooper
Forever Roxy Ryot
Kylah Mir was one of the most selfless and loving people you would ever meet. She was extremely shy and always nervous around new people, but if they showed the consideration to say hello, she would open up and be kind and polite. Kylah was known to the Perth wrestling world as Roxy Ryot. A woman who would take on any opponent and show no remorse on how she executed her craft. The complete opposite of who Kylah was.
She was a mother to 3 and step-mother to 2. She would often put the children’s needs (and to an extent my own needs) before herself. She loved sewing and crafting things, she was a massive horror fan and loved all the classic films such as Halloween and Friday the 13th. At home, she was in her comfort zone, she’d clean regularly as a closeted person with slight OCD, she was a giving and courageous person, something she never really grasped herself.
Her mental health issues dated back to her first relationship, then travelled on during the beginning of ours with my former relationship. It was a tumultuous time at the start of COVID. Our son, Wyatt, was born the very same day as I, It was at the beginning of COVID as well, so she was heavily stressed and worried about the little things. Kylah never fully accepted the role she played in WA wrestling. Over her 8 year career (4 of which she was actively competing) she was the villain that fans would cheer for. She was a heavier set woman in a mans world and at the time she started, women in wrestling were labelled as objects, something to look at whilst the men fought for all the adulations. She wasn’t about that at all. She often judged other women behind closed doors for putting themselves in those situations, wanting women to be seen as fighters and equal.
In the early years before her career started, her best friend introduced her to a woman known in SHWA as Sylance. She was the manager and partner of young upstart Felix Young. They became friends outside of wrestling sharing similar interests, especially the horror and craft side of things, they would regularly venture to other shows that Felix partook in, such as New Horizons Pro Wrestling. In a conversation, she was encouraged to give wrestling a crack. To give it a go and see what happens. For Kylah, this was a massive hill to overcome, getting in the ring and learning how to bump and strike. She was in very good hands though.
Felix Young and Jarrad Slate, now known collectively as The Pulse, were her first regular trainers. They gave her the courage and confidence to try and compete as a strong and vicious villain. They saw a huge upside to her. Not just because she was a woman, not just because she was a plus size girl, but because she could take the punishment given to her and give it back tenfold. She learned to become unafraid and confident in the squared circle. Outside of that though she still fought those inner demons. She still struggled to find the positives in what she was doing, no matter how many times she was told otherwise.
2 years after she debuted, I walked into a S.H.W.A Create-A-Wrestler Workshop open day. I met her and I was already intimidated by her from the video I had seen that drew me to tryout. She was looking nasty and mean as Roxy Ryot posing for photos. When I finally got the courage to speak to her, I realised how opposite she was to her character she portrayed and my nerves quickly rescinded. She was lovely and kind. Finally after a couple of months of training I asked her out for a coffee. She was a bit shocked but said why not. She had learned to try new things and encouraged by matchmaker Hannah Rose to do so. From then on, I was in love with her. For 6 years of her life, we shared everything together and did everything together.
I had convinced her recently to take a trip to Bali. Her first ever trip outside of the country. She was nervous but also excited in her own way. We had the most wonderful time, spending it there for her 36th birthday. But on the way home, that’s when her life was changed forever.
When she was 17, she had a tumour in the side of her right head, that needed to be removed as it was potentially cancerous. As a result of that surgery, she was profoundly deaf in her right ear from then on. It goes to show how well she was doing as a wrestler to be half deaf and compete the way she did. On the descent down from Bali, she was hunched over in pain. She developed an ear infection that was there before we left for Bali but didn’t cause her any issues whilst abroad.
We arrived back into Perth on May 30 in the early hours of the morning. We got home and she complained of a headache that was worsening. She took some pain relief and made it through the day until May 31st, at 2am, we went to a hospital. I won’t be going to much into what happened at the hospital but we came home with ear drops, antibiotics and codine. For the rest of the day, she didn’t move from the bed. She sat upright and hunched over holding her head. It was the worst headache she had ever experienced. June 1st is a date I will never forget. 3am I woke up to Kylah having a seizure. I immediately called an ambulance and within an hour we were at the hospital. She was put into a medically induced coma and on life support to help her breathe and stop the involuntary movements.
2 days later, her condition hadn’t changed. We were told she after extensive testing she had developed Pneumococcal Meningitis. An extremely rare and fatal disease. We were told she didn’t have a lot of time left alive. It broke me. It broke our children, it broke our friends and family. This horrible disease that I had never heard of was going to take her life. On June 6, it did just that. We had to say goodbye and turn her off life support. It has truly been the worst experience of my life and I wouldn’t wish this on my own worst enemy (not that I have any). Kylah ‘Roxy Ryot’ Mir died at the age of 36, taken way to young and left behind a fiancé and 5 children. The grief has been unbearable for me but I’ve decided to channel that grief into something positive.
On August 5th, Armadale Arena, I am organising, booking and competing in a fund-raising wrestling event dedicated to her, to raise awareness of Meningitis. Every ticket that I sell will be donated to Meningitis Centre Australia. I have organised names like Vixsin, Rochelle Rogue and Izzy Shaw to partake in the event. This event will be recorded and released on YouTube to continue to raise awareness of Meningitis, but to also forever continue her legacy that she left behind as a performer.
I made a promise to her that I would only ever go back to compete in wrestling when she was ready. We were so close too. She’d lost almost 50kgs after receiving the gastric sleeve surgery in January this year. She was getting her groove back. We were going to be known as Parabellum, which in Latin translates to ‘Prepare for War’. If you want peace, then Prepare for War. I had to break that promise to her on her deathbed to make a new one. I promised her that I will always put the children first and foremost, but I will make sure that I let her be remembered for eternity and that I will get back into the ring to do so.
The outpouring of support I have received as been unprecedented. It’s taken me aback and has really supported me through the worst time of mine and our kids lives. So, if you are in WA and you want to be there, then Eventbrite is the place you need to go to secure your ticket. If you are not, then YouTube will be utilised and donation links will be foremost through it’s presentation.
Kylah was and forever will be my soul mate. Taken way to soon and harshly. I love you Kylah, Always and Forever.
