Indie wrestling star Davienne recently appeared on the Shining Wizards podcast to discuss her thoughts on inter-gender wrestling, as well as what was going through her mind during her first matchup with Ring of Honor. Highlights are below.
On Inter-gender Wrestling:
“So, it was kind of difficult for me, because when I first started training, I only wrestled guys. For 6 years I was the only female student at the New England Wrestling Academy. So, if I couldn’t wrestle guys at training, I wouldn’t have been trained. It was always something I was very comfortable with, and I would have inter-gender matches sporadically and I didn’t bat an eyelash at it. I was like, “yeah, whatever, I’m just wrestling a guy that I know and that I’ve trained with.” It wasn’t anything like I was weirded out about, I guess. People just really started to enjoy me being in inter-gender matches. I’m trying to think of one of the first ones that got some steam. It kind of started at Chaotic (Wrestling). They did a show WrestleMania weekend in Rahway, NJ, and JT Dunn couldn’t make it. So they rearranged the card, and I happened to just be there trying to get a ride home to Massachusetts, and they were like, “hey, do you want to wrestle AG (Anthony Greene)?” And I was like, “sure.” It always comes back to Anthony. He’s such a staple in my career. There are really talented men in New England, and all over the world and all over the country, so I’m a really good wrestler too, so why shouldn’t I be able to wrestle them? That’s my take on it.”
On her first pro match being for ROH:
“It was horrifying. Absolutely horrifying. I was eighteen years old, and I was very, very, very, very shy. And I’m in a locker room with Rhino, and Matt Hardy, and Davey Richards. Meanwhile, my nickname is Davey, and they’re like Davey, Davey, Davey, and I’m like they are not talking about me, because they don’t know who the hell I am. There was like 4 tapings, and I was second to last in the last taping, so I was sitting there all day, panicking. Then it was like thirty seconds, and it was over. But it was great. It was so wild. Who gets to say that’s their first match?”
On Anthony Greene & JT Dunn:
“Those two never gave up on me even when I had given up on me. I’ve been pretty vocal recently around June of last year and I had decided to quit wrestling. Anthony & JT were very, very supportive, but Anthony just kept dragging me to training and I was like, “I don’t wrestle anymore, why am I going to training?” Anthony was like, “you need to go, you need to go.” Then I fell in love with wrestling again and I got out of my funk, and those two never gave up on me. They saw something in me that I didn’t. Now that I kind of realize it, I am putting out the best work that I have in 8 years and other people are starting to catch on because I believe in myself now.”