50 THE QUEENS COURIER • BUZZ • APRIL 25, 2019 FOR BREAKING NEWS VISIT WWW.QNS.COM
Ozone Park candymaker dives into the big business of pro wrestling
BY MAX PARROTT
mparrott@qns.com
@QNS
When most people think back on ’80s
wrestling, they conjure images of Macho
Man Randy Savage in a day glow cowboy
hat or Hulk Hogan manically tearing
through a T-shirt.
Candymaker and wrestling superfan
Kay Menashe, on the other hand, thinks
chocolates. To prepare for an ’80s wrestling
convention on April 27 in New Jersey,
Menashe created chocolate pops with vintage
images of the spandex-clad Barry
Horowitz and the G.L.O.W. (Gorgeous
Ladies of Wrestling) Girls.
Menashe, who originally started making
candy because of her wrestling fandom,
has been able to piggyback off the success
of independent wrestling to transform her
hobby into a small business.
As Menashe continues to network and
rack up testimonials from wrestlers across
the country, she has begun to expand her
mom-and-pop candy business from her
kitchen into the world of wrestling merchandise.
And these days wrestling means big
business. WrestleMania 35, which took
place in Queens on April 7, was the highest
grossing entertainment event in the
history of MetLife Stadium at $16.9 million.
While the rise of the World Wrestling
Entertainment (WWE) in 2018 was meteoric,
the indie leagues of wrestling like All
Elite Wrestling and Ring of Honor have
steadily been growing as well.
Th e morning of April 16, Kay was on
her way to the post offi ce to send a batch
of custom candies to Matt and Nick Jakson
aka Th e Young Bucks, two brothers who
serve as vice presidents and the premiere
in-ring personalities of Th e Elite, the wrestling
stable for All Elite Wrestling, a new
promotion founded in January of 2019.
“Th e indie shows are really where it’s at,”
said Menashe. In addition to working on
custom designs for the Th e Young Bucks’
newly minted wrestling league, Menashe
said that she hopes to get a merch table
at their upcoming live event Jacksonville
in July, the promotion’s second-ever wrestling
exhibition.
Menashe said that her wrestling business
grew very organically from her and
her daughter’s wrestling fandom. She
started making custom candies for her
daughter’s favorite wrestlers to give them
as gift s.
“My daughter wanted to go to meetand
greets with the wrestlers. And so we
would just bring them candy, like just as
presents. And they just loved it.”
Th e professional wrestlers loved her
candy so much they began to give her
shoutouts on social media, in the booming
style of wrestling dialect.
“Hello everyone, I’m-m-m-m Matt
Taven the real Ring of Honor World
Champion. I just want to shout out my
good friends at Kay’s Candy. Family
approved. Highly recommended. Oft en
imitated, but never duplicated,” said
Taven, the reigning champion of what is
arguably the second-largest wrestling promotion
aft er the WWE.
Th e testimonials were important to
helping Menashe build her profi le. Right
now she fi nds her clients through strictly
social media, business cards and word
of mouth. She operates her business completely
out of her kitchen. To create her
custom sweets, Menashe uses a scanner
and an edible printer to stamp the candy
with digital imagery.
But she’s had opportunities outside of
Photo: Max Parrott/QNS
world too. “It’s not just wrestling. It’s birthdays;
it’s weddings; it’s everything,” said
Menashe. She recently had a commission
with New York Magazine to create
1,000 lollipops bearing their logo for a
Restaurant Week party.
Asked about the future, Menashe says
she wants to keep on expanding. Th e next
step is to get a website going. Th en she
would like to try and get some contracts
with companies.
Menashe is in the process of auditioning
for a gig with Pro Wrestling Tees, a company
that sells offi cial merchandise for
over 1,000 pro wrestlers. She says whatever
opportunity comes next, she defi nitely
wants it to be wrestling-related.
“Th ere are just a lot of fans,” she said.
link
/WWW.QNS.COM
link
