Gerard made her professional wrestling debut in Reality of Wrestling at ROW Summer Of Champions on July 26, 2017 under her real first name of "Hyaneyoung", where she competed in a battle royal for the vacant ROW Diamonds Championship from which she came unsuccessfully. During her time in the promotion, she successfully won the Diamonds title on three separate occasions.[5] Between 2014 and 2022, she competed as a developmental talent of ROW.
She made several appearances in Impact Wrestling. At Impact Wrestling/ROW Deep Impact, a cross-over event from July 6, 2019, she competed in a four-way match won by Tessa Blanchard and also involving A. Q. A. and Su Yung.[6] At Impact Wrestling #948, Hyan fell short to Mickie James in a bout dubbed as one of the latter's "Last Rodeo" matches which were going under the stipulation of loser retires.[7]
Gerard shared a four-year tenure with Shimmer Women Athletes. She made her debut at Volume 98 on November 12, 2017, where she teamed up with Jewells Malone to defeat Cherry Layne and Trixie Tash.[11] During her time in the promotion, she chased for several of the titles promoted by it. As for the Heart of Shimmer Championship, she first became an interim champion for an injured Samantha Heights at Volume 116 on November 3, 2019, where she defeated Kris Statlander and Rhia O'Reilly in a three-way elimination match.[12] Gerard then defeated Thunderkitty at The Collective on October 10, 2021 to become lineal champion.[13] She dropped the title to Nevaeh at Volume 119 on October 31, 2021, one day prior to the closure of the promotion.[14]
Japanese excursion (2019)
Due to competing as a developmental talent for Shimmer, Gerard made an overseas excursion to the Japanese independent circuit between May and June 2019. She started with Marvelous That's Women Pro Wrestling in which she made her first appearance at a house show from May 12, 2019, where she teamed up with Dash Chisako to defeat Hiroe Nagahama and Mei Hoshizuki.[15] At WAVE Sendai WAVE Keep Smile 10, an event promoted by Pro Wrestling Wave on May 19, 2019, she fell short to Yumi Ohka in singles competition.[16] Gerard ended her excursion in Japan by competing for Sendai Girls' Pro Wrestling. At Sendai Girls Joshi Puroresu Big Show 2019 In Niigata, she teamed up with Hikaru Shida and Mei Suruga to defeat Alex Lee, Heidi Katrina and Kaoru.[17]
Gerard started watching professional wrestling at age seven and started attending various shows ever since. She cited Trish Stratus, Eddie Guerrero and Rey Mysterio as her biggest inspiration due to growing up as a lucha-type fan. After one of her shows she attended, she approached Booker T and asked him about how she could become a wrestler. She signed up to Booker's promotion Reality of Wrestling several months later.[22]
