Fallon Henley’s road to WWE came with a heartbreaking family tragedy, and she just opened up about how close she came to walking away from the opportunity that changed her life.
While speaking on Cody Rhodes’ What Do You Wanna Talk About? podcast, Fallon explained that she lost her twin sisters, Heather and Heidi, and one of those losses happened right before WWE called her for extra work. That opportunity eventually led to another tryout and helped open the door for her career.
“Yeah, so it’s kind of crazy, kind of happened out of nowhere. I have twin sisters who are no longer with us. The first one passed in that year, and that was right before I got the call to do the extra work that started back up. That got me my third tryout before my enhancement match with Elektra.”
Fallon said the loss came suddenly and completely shook her family. Her sister was rushed to the hospital after her organs began shutting down, and before anyone could really process what was happening, she was gone.
“It was a really hard time. Like I said, it kind of came out of nowhere. Essentially, all of her organs shut down. She got rushed to the hospital, and before we knew it, she was gone.”
That tragedy left behind children who had already been through way too much. Fallon explained that her sister’s daughters and son had also lost their father not long before, which put the family in an incredibly painful situation at a young age.
“And she left behind her two daughters that were still living with her and her son. They had lost their dad, I want to say a year or two before then. So they’ve had a very, very hard, you know, beginning of life.”
Fallon was living in Tampa at the time, and when the family looked at where the girls could go, she stepped up. The options were Michigan with her mother, California with another sister, or staying with Fallon, so she brought them into her own apartment.
“But I was over in Tampa, and that’s where they had been living at the time. And the only options they really had were to go to Michigan to be with my mom, go to California to be with one of my other sisters, or come and stay with me.”
At only around 22 years old, Fallon suddenly had two teenagers living with her while she was still trying to chase wrestling. She said she had a two-bedroom apartment, gave the girls one room, and took the smaller one for herself as they finished school and started building their own lives.
“I had a two-bedroom apartment at the time, so I brought them in. They shared one of the rooms. I took the smaller one. I think they were like 16 and 17. So one had to still finish high school and the other one was just starting college.”
Fallon made it clear that it was a huge life change, but she also gave her nieces credit for how mature they were after everything they had already survived. She was barely into adulthood herself, but she was suddenly helping guide two teenage girls through an impossible chapter.
“So kind of a big change for what was I at the time, 22 or something, taking in these two teenage girls who, for my sake, were extremely well behaved and mature given the life that they had gone through and all the hardships that they had gone through.”
Cody asked how the girls are doing now, and Fallon said they are doing great. One of them, Tabby, recently started a full-time job, while Julia is now in nursing school, which clearly meant a lot for Fallon to share.
“They’re doing amazing. Yeah. The younger one, Tabby, she just started a full-time job, actually taking one of my sister’s full-time jobs that she had had. So she kind of stepped into her shoes for that role. And then the older one, Julia, she is now in nursing school.”
Fallon also said her nieces are proud of what she has done because they saw the grind up close. They were there while she worked indies, extra work, and every step before WWE finally became real.
“They’re head over heels for me because they watched, they were with me for a lot of my journey up until that point. So they had seen how hard I had been working, doing, you know, other extra work and the Indies and other things like that. So when I was able to finally get there, it was just we were all just happy.”
The toughest part is that Fallon nearly said no to WWE’s extra work call because she was not mentally ready after her sister’s death. Looking back, she knows that one decision could have changed everything about her career.
“So when I got that call to do the extra work, I mentally was not in a place where I thought I could do it. And I almost said no.”
She said if she had turned it down, she probably would not be on SmackDown right now or living the life she built in WWE. That makes the timing of that call feel even heavier.
“And had I said no, I wouldn’t be here right now, I wouldn’t be on SmackDown. I wouldn’t be doing any of the things that I’m doing.”
Fallon believes her sister may have been giving her a push in that moment because Heather and Heidi knew how badly she wanted wrestling. She said they were always among her biggest supporters, and a lot of what she is doing now is for them.
“And I think that was like a little piece of my sister kind of kicking me and telling me to go do it because she knew how much I wanted this.”
“And she was probably — Heather and Heidi were the twins — and they were probably my biggest supporters ever. So a lot of what I’m working for now is for them.”
Fallon said she is grateful that things worked out the way they did, because her sisters always pushed her to chase what she wanted. Even when others thought wrestling was too far out of reach, Heather and Heidi were the ones telling her to keep going.
“Me too, me too. So it’s just happy everything worked out in the way it did because, like I said, I feel like a lot of what I do now is for them because they were always my biggest cheerleaders before I even decided what I wanted to do with my life.”
“No matter what, like every time I saw them they were just pumping me up, telling me to follow my dreams and do whatever I wanted. Even if maybe my parents thought that I was silly for chasing something that seemed out of reach, they were always the ones to tell me to keep sticking with it.”
Fallon Henley’s SmackDown run already meant plenty as a career milestone, but this story makes it hit a lot harder. She was grieving, taking care of family, and still trying to answer the biggest call of her wrestling life, and somehow she pushed through it.
What do you think about Fallon Henley sharing this emotional part of her WWE journey? Leave your feedback below.
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