Former NWA women’s champion Allysin Kay was a recent guest on the ROHStrong podcast to discuss a number of different topics, including her participation in the upcoming women’s tournament this summer to crown a new WOH champion, and talks how badly the NWA was hit by the pandemic. Highlights from the interview are below.
Talks working the 2018 Mae Young Classic and how she almost missed it due to blood clots:
Oh absolutely. I don’t know what would have happened if I was with someone for the first time because yeah, I definitely had concerns coming back because I wasn’t able to warm up really. I wasn’t cleared — I was like cleared the last second basically so, I almost didn’t even wrestle for the Mae Young Classic. Like one of the alternates was gonna take my place if I couldn’t get cleared in time and it came down to the wire with I needed a doctor’s note, my doctor’s office was having such a ridiculous issue at the time with — I don’t know. They had like a power outage, they couldn’t send it to me, it was wild. I’m like, ‘You gotta be kidding me. I made it this far and then they’re gonna take me out.’ But I ended up getting it obviously because I competed but I also didn’t compete and so because I was waiting for this last doctor’s note they needed, I couldn’t get in the ring even to practice anything, before the Mae Young Classic. The two or three days that we were there, everyone else is in the ring going over stuff and warming up and practicing or lifting or whatever they wanted to do at the P.C. and I couldn’t do anything. I couldn’t get in the ring, I couldn’t touch a weight until I got this letter, so, I basically went into it cold and I feel like it was okay because of all the experience that I’ve had. All the experience has led up to that point and it was — I feel like it was for that reason, you know? If I didn’t have all that experience, I don’t think it would’ve went as well.
On how hard the NWA was affected by the pandemic, and why she asked for her release:
I was under contract up until October 2020 and we came to a mutual agreement basically that I could be let out of my contract a couple months early so I could go work the indies and whatnot, which is a whole thing in itself because we were working the indies under contract and then they [NWA] kind of changed their minds that they didn’t want us to anymore but just the pandemic affected us financially, you know? Our pay was — I think almost all of us took a pay cut during that time, and it was just a situation where I needed to go, I needed to go make money. I needed to pay my bills and so they let me out of my contract a couple months early and yeah, now I’m here.
On competing in the upcoming ROH Women’s tournament and how she looks forward to facing Trish Adora:
Oh absolutely. I love it [being in a tournament with talents I haven’t faced before]. I’ve been watching a lot of, specifically Trish Adora’s work and I’m very excited for a potential matchup with her. Well all of them really of course but I particularly, I feel like Trish has been on the rise on the indie scene and someone that’s newer to me, but I feel like is very technically sound, very exciting in the ring. I’m very [much] looking forward to the possibilities, the possibilities of this whole tournament.
(H/T and transcribed by Post Wrestling)