August 11, 2025 • 50 mins
Today on Brewsers, we talk to Katrina Creed. We talk about her journey in pro wrestling, how social media affects us all, and so much more. Follow us on instagram and twitter at Brewserspod. Like, share, review, enjoy and cheers. #brewsers #brewserspod #Enjoylife #DrinkLocal #Cheers
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:20):
Welcome to Bruisers, a podcast about beer, a coffee, booze
and bruisers. I'm your host, Rody John and today we
talked to Katrina Creed. We talked about her journey in
pro wrestling, how social media affects us all, and so
much more. Also, we are putting this out today, that's
right on Monday, because of the fact that she will
be part of the Mystery Wrestling in twenty four hour
live stream that is happening today at ten a m.
(00:43):
Eastern time. This is going to help the Canadian Cancer Society.
She talks about the end of the interview, but we
definitely want to make sure you remember it on the
top of the show as well. So, without further ado,
here is Katrina Creed. I would like to welcome the show.
(01:07):
Katrina Creed. How are you doing today?
Speaker 2 (01:09):
Hey, I'm doing so good.
Speaker 1 (01:10):
How are you doing well? For those listening, kind of
painted the word picture. Where are you at? What's going
on around you?
Speaker 2 (01:17):
Oh? Currently, let's see, I'm at my place. I'm next
to one of my cats, so that's typical for me. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (01:27):
How many cats do you have?
Speaker 2 (01:28):
I have two. They're both about the same age. Oddly enough,
they came from separate farms and they're born like about
a week apart, so they're about eight now, which is
crazy to me and something I refuse to believe. So, yeah,
one's a Caligaro and the other ones that have you
not sweet.
Speaker 1 (01:47):
Yeah, I have two dogs, so once as they get older,
I'm like, that can't be right. They still have.
Speaker 2 (01:54):
Yeah, it's like that's bullshit, there's no way. What kind
of dogs do you have?
Speaker 1 (01:59):
I have a terrier mix and she is about thirteen
years old and she still has puppy energy. And then
I have a miniature Schnauzer, which I'm sure you'll hear
at some point. He is three years old, and yes,
he definitely keeps her young and us with ringing ears
from all the barking.
Speaker 2 (02:19):
Oh yeah, I bet, I bet. I used to have
a dog. We had a family dog back in the day.
And also puppy energy up until the very end. And
him too, It's like any sort of thing that would
set him off from the outside. He was always on guard,
constant barking. So I feel you on that. But we
love him anyway, don't we.
Speaker 1 (02:36):
This is true. Yeah, I still love him even though
he's very much an annoying little boy sometimes.
Speaker 2 (02:42):
Yeah, we can't help it. We can't help it.
Speaker 1 (02:45):
No, it's true. I mean, they're animals. We're allowing animals
in our home, so you know we have to We
can't be like, oh, why are they this way? Well,
because they're animals, that's why.
Speaker 2 (02:53):
Yeah, exactly right.
Speaker 1 (02:54):
Well, the same thing with people, it's like why are
they this way? It's like, well, well, they're also animals.
Speaker 2 (02:58):
So we get to exactly right. People are as they are,
and they meet you at where they are in certain
intersections of their life, so you know, you can't ask
too much from them, you know what I mean?
Speaker 1 (03:08):
Exactly yeah, whatever stage they're at it at that time,
that's the.
Speaker 2 (03:12):
One you get exactly you know, there's no changing it,
or there is, but it's up to that person, right,
You have no control over that.
Speaker 1 (03:18):
Really, It's true. You really got to want to change
yourself otherwise you're not. You know, nothing's going to You
could tell people to change all day long, but they
don't unless they want to, it's not gonna happen.
Speaker 2 (03:27):
Well, exactly right, And some people really, I mean I
think almost everyone needs proper incentive whatever that is right
to change and even if people get that incentive. Sometimes
they whatever it is, like, maybe the benefits of what
they're doing will outweigh even changing in that sense, even
if there is more of a dire incentive there. So
humans are complex, you know, this is true.
Speaker 1 (03:49):
And I feel like as much as the social media
has brought us together, which I find that to be
the most fascinating part of the whole thing. As much
as people want to talk about the divisiveness that social
media brings, there's a lot of community and a lot
of connectivity, and it makes the world really so much
smaller when you do have all that connection, and we
find so many people like I don't have TikTok, but
I hear the people that do have TikTok. You get
(04:11):
these little algorithms about things you were like really kind
of connecting with and things that you are kind of
maybe struggling with or even going through as a human,
and you're finding out all these other people because there's
so many times that people just feel alone with whatever
problem or whatever it is there are living in or
going through, and it's like, no, you're not the only
person that's ever gone through that or a shade of that,
(04:31):
And there's way more people that have gone through it
and want to help you go through it, you know,
than you are by yourself.
Speaker 2 (04:38):
For sure. Yeah, No, absolutely, Like I'm very ambivalent about
social media in general. I think it has a lot
of positives, but I think there's a lot of cons
and I think it's really difficult. I mean, everything's very
convoluted in life, including right, and especially something that we're
kind of still at the forefront of. Right, It's something
that we can't really analyze in retrospect, something that's ongoing,
(05:01):
so that makes it complicated to fully understand. And also
it's so widespread and touch with so many people, and
as we were talking about, humans are so complex, so
that in itself is a complexity. It's something we might
not fully understand kind of the breadth of and the
depth of. But like, yeah, I find it, like I'm
ambivalent about it. It's a great, amazing tool as like
(05:23):
a pro wrestler, right, I think you're doing yourself a
disservice if you're not using it as much as possible.
Like I've been slacking the past like a few weeks,
and I definitely need to get on top of it
because it's exhausting in a way, because as a wrestler,
it's like it's an additional task on top of like
so many other tasks that we take on as a
professional wrestler, Like so fucking many, Like I've become a
(05:45):
makeup artist, I'm like video editing. I'm doing like a
I guess, a content creator if you.
Speaker 1 (05:50):
Want to call it that, if that's what you do.
Speaker 2 (05:53):
Also, some people do that, right, I mean, it's some
of what we do goes into acting. Everyone let fiction,
like it's crazy, right, So this is just like one
extra hat to put on. But I think it's so
so important and so useful at the same time, like
you're saying, right, it helps to connect people who might
by default be a bit more isolated, and especially if
(06:15):
they don't feel like people around them understand them or
are going through something comparable. So in that way, it's
a great way to connect people who may be like
minded or might be going through something that's similar to
help each other out. But at the same time, I
feel like us like it's a very addictive platform. Just
having this phone in front of us, it's super addictive,
(06:37):
and I think a lot of the times people are
just glued into that as opposed to what's going on
around them, So there is this disconnect in a way,
you know what I mean. And I talk to a
lot of people, including wrestlers, and we're always generally pretty busy,
and it's like bedrunning is like a pretty prevalent thing
that we all seem to do, right, maybe just in general,
(06:57):
and it's like, I don't know, it's connecting but not,
you know what I mean. It's weird, Like I even
see it in myself, which is why I'm really ambivalent
about social media. Like, yes, it's a great tool, but
I find myself like kind of going down this rabbit
hole and getting kind of addicted to stuff and I'm
not fully processing what's in front of me. I'm just
(07:18):
like doom scrolling. And I feel like I'm connecting with
people in that way, but like I'm not. And there's
still this sense of loneliness because wrestling, as like on
its own, is quite transient. Like you know, I have
my friends, my acquaintances, right, but you know, sometimes it's
like you go to a promotion or whatever and maybe
not all your friends are there or whatever. So it's
(07:39):
like nice people, you get along with them, but it's
very transient in nature. It's kind of isolating in that way, right,
And I'm very much I just do work in wrestling typically, right,
this year, I've been trying to take less bookings to
hang out with my friends more and it's actually been
really nice and fulfilling, and I'm like, damn, I need
to do more of this because this is really nice.
But yeah, so in that sense, it's kind of weird, right,
(08:01):
Like I don't know how I feel about it. I
think it's good in moderation, like just about anything.
Speaker 1 (08:08):
Right, Yeah. True. So, Okay, you've touched on a lot
of things I've been thinking about and be curious about
as well. So I have been. I guess I got
into the industry in twenty twenty one by you know,
happen at accidents by interviewing somebody they were running a promotion.
(08:30):
He was lucky enough to allow me to be on
the show to you know, do backstage interviews and stuff.
And then I've kind of grown from there and I'm
starting to take more bookings and I'm driving out of state,
and I am, you know, starting to miss things with
friends as well. And I've always heard about this from
listening to old stories from wrestlers about how they would
miss this, miss that. You know. It's also one of
(08:50):
those things where you have to almost figure out what
is more important do is this career what you really
really like? Is this your passion? Obviously? Is this really
where you want to be? Because if that's the case,
you're going unfortunately, you are going to have to be
missing birthdays, You're going to be have to miss reunions
or whatever it is because of the fact that, oh, well,
(09:11):
they people running the show don't care that my friend's
kids birthday is that day, Like you know, yeah, but
I got to make this booking so that you know,
hopefully it takes me to the next one, or you
never knew who's gonna be at that show or whatever.
So when it comes to that, like how are you
kind of dealing with it because you're still pretty early
on your career. You started in what twenty twenty one,
twenty twenty no, so.
Speaker 2 (09:33):
Essentially, like long story short, I started right before COVID.
I had a few matches, and then COVID happened, yeah,
and that's great, and then I only really started regularly
at the end of twenty twenty two because like in Canada, yeah,
you guys.
Speaker 1 (09:48):
Are way harder. My brother lives up there and he
was telling me about that.
Speaker 2 (09:50):
Yeah, oh yeah, No, it was rough, Like we literally
had like a year and a half where there were
no shows at all. Yeah, Like and by that it's
like I had just started and already just by bumping
and training, Like we were training intermittently during that time
when we couldn't couldn't depending on the regulations, oftentimes by ourselves,
(10:11):
like and just bumping and whatever. But like you know,
I obviously even from that, it kind of takes a
toll on your body. So I took it as a
sign from the universe and like, oh, maybe this means that,
like you know, wrestling is not for me, and maybe
I should move on and take my health into consideration
and blah blah blah. And so then it wasn't until
I went to a show where like one of my trainers,
like Matt Lee or Daddy Magic, Matt Minard from aw
(10:33):
he came back into town. He did a tag and
I watched the show and I was like, yeah, I
gotta do this. So then at the end, at the
end of twenty twenty two, I went back into it,
and I've been doing it regularly and yeah, so I'm
pretty like new. I think I'm coming on to about
three years cumulatively, but so I am early on. But like,
(10:56):
I got pretty busy pretty fast my first year. My
second was honestly fucking crazy, which is why I was like, data,
I need to like maybe slow it down a bit
and do some like regular peopleshit.
Speaker 1 (11:06):
As like, yeah, you wrestled a lot in twenty twenty four.
From what if Cage Match is accurate? You wrestled a
lot in twenty twenty four.
Speaker 2 (11:12):
That's not even so I don't know why, but like
a lot of the match not a lot, but some
of the matches that we do in Canada don't fully
get registered on Cage Match, like weird, it's not, Yeah, yeah,
it's not. I guess a huge surprise that, like we
really don't have as much exposure up here compared to
like the States, right, So it's quite insular in that sense.
So I actually wrestled ninety seven matches last year Christmas, Yeah,
(11:35):
and it says and it sucks. I would have wrestled
one hundred, which was my goal, but I had an injury,
like a shoulder injury that sidelined me for like a
few weeks, which took out the three matches, which and
I'm like, dude, I'm not trying for one hundred again.
That was it. That was the one undone and that's it.
And the year before, which was my first year, like
I did, I did about fifty, right, So it's been
(11:57):
pretty especially last year was like really fucking crazy honestly.
So plus I I like work a regular job, right,
so it was pretty nuts. And yeah, like I was saying, man,
it was very isolating. You have to make that decision
about like what's more important. I very much care about
my friends. I'm very lucky to have like like a
(12:19):
crew of solid friends that like are genuine and have
my back and so like, I very much want to
be there for them and be there for their important
things in their life. So I actually did make it
to a lot of my friends or my cousins, like
their weddings and like bachelor right parties and like baby showers.
I did it, but like on fucking no sleep, like
literally I would do. So it was like I was there,
(12:42):
but not really you know what I mean. One of
my good friends, she's so sweet, She's like, yeah, like
I really want you to be there at my baby shower,
Like what what weekend or what Saturday do you have off?
I'm like, dude, none, just take I'll fucking make it.
But like I appreciate it. I'll make it, don't worry.
I just can't be there the whole time. But like, realistically,
(13:04):
I'm usually booked a few months out right, and she
was doing it during that time. I'm like, there's none,
so just like pick one and I'll show up, which
I did, but like, yeah, it's like straight up, I'm
going to a book in I'm coming back out with
the adrenaline and shit. It's like maybe I'm falling asleep
at like four or five, depending and I'll like maybe
get three four hours of like shit, sleep in there,
go to my friends whatever it is, be there for
(13:28):
like an hour or two with my eyes barely open,
be like yo, cool, I'm here, all right, I'll see
it and then drive to the next town for a booking. Right,
So it's it's there, but it's like not very I
don't know. It's you're there, but you're not you know,
you're not really connecting like you should. And honestly, that
was for the last year or two that was pretty
(13:48):
much all of my socialization. Like I wasn't really hanging
out with my friends except for maybe once every three
four five months I'd have time and we'd actually like
kill together, you know what I mean. It was fucked up.
It's really fucked up. But you have to make that choice, right,
So I mean, yeah, it's just a tough one because again,
(14:11):
you never know what booking you're going to take that
could lead to another opportunity. Who's going to be there?
You have no idea, you know what I mean, right,
So it's really hard to balance that.
Speaker 1 (14:24):
Yeah, it's been something that's been been crossing my mind
for a while. And so like, since I am lucky
enough to have this platform to talk to people outside
of my bubble, I like to pick people's brains and
be like, how do you kind of process it all?
Or how do you kind of walk through it all?
Because it's not an easy process and a lot of
people don't understand that process. They just think, oh, yeah,
(14:44):
you show up to wrestle and then you go home.
You got to think about that travel process and also
how long are you at that venue that day? What's
the weather going to be like either going there or
coming back or whatever. This is those little things people
don't think about when it comes to, you know, being
someone who's actually booked for a show.
Speaker 2 (15:03):
So yeah, no, absolutely, I do want to touch on that.
But first off, I didn't say that. I mean, congrats
a lot having this platform and like branching out and
getting all those bookings. That's pretty awesome. It's a good one.
But yeah, no, absolutely, it's something that people don't think about. Fuck,
I didn't even know until I was in the business
(15:24):
because I don't know. I guess people don't always talk
about it, or maybe you watch interviews or the ones
that I watched, wrestlers wouldn't touch on that topic so much.
So I had no fucking clue. And I knew a
couple of people that were in the business, you know,
like I was friends with Green Phantom before I entered
the business, if you know him, And I knew and
was a friend s Lash acquaintances with Shane Hawk, who
(15:46):
ended up being my trainer at IWS before I got in,
But it wasn't really something we ever spoke about, right,
So I didn't think of it until I was in it,
and I was like, dude, it's it's pretty intense in
the sense that usually if I'm booked right, typically it's
a bit out of cow. Usually it'll be a couple
hours out, and when you factor travel time for a
(16:06):
long time, I was usually also the one driving, like
I would have the car. So of course at the
end of the night, it's like, I'm gonna drive people home, right,
I'm not gonna leave them stranded. So luckily they're all
pretty much in the same town. But that adds like
maybe an extra I don't know, fucking forty minutes to
an hour to what I'm doing, you know, But you
factor all of that in and you're pretty much there
at the beginning a couple hours before doors open to
(16:29):
like prep merch, like fucking you know, prep your match,
whatever it is, make up all that shit, and you're
staying there typically from the beginning until the end. It's
a respect thing wrestling, right, which no one really tells you.
So you're sitting there until the very end after the
main event, and then you're doing your last rounds either
with merch or talking to fans as like they're tapering
out and they're leaving, and and then you do your
(16:51):
rounds and say bye to everyone because again, it's a
respecting right. So you shake everyone's hands, say bye to everyone.
Yeah right, you know which again you're not really told
until you're in it. Yeah, I know. That's it. There's
so many and.
Speaker 1 (17:03):
You get so much shit if you don't do it.
It's like, wait a minute. I was standing here the
entire time and I saw you pass me three times and.
Speaker 2 (17:10):
Legit right, It's like this these arbitrary rules that like,
it's funny. It is very funny. It's like it's super
funny in that sense that there's these arbitrary rules that
get passed on my word of mouth, but aren't. They
are cemented but not written anywhere. But you kind of
have to figure it out and if you don't, well shit,
tough luck, you know.
Speaker 1 (17:29):
And what's funny you say that because like I was,
I just happened to be on YouTube watching like Dominic
mysterious vlog from SummerSlam, and he was going literally to
the ring. He stopped real fast to say hi to
Matt Hardy and then walk on. He was like, oh,
I just want to say high real fast, like okay,
and you shook his hand and kept going. I was like, buddy,
you gotta you gotta go wrestle the match. What are
we doing?
Speaker 2 (17:50):
Yeah, like you should probably go to that ring.
Speaker 1 (17:52):
Dude, Yeah, yeah, go to Grilla, Like that's the thing.
Speaker 2 (17:56):
Right. It's like so hard to say sometimes too, because
like it can be intimidated, especially if you're going up
to people you don't know, people who are bigger names
than you, so and you see they're kind of busy
with people. It's like, okay, like I don't want to interject,
and I don't want to invade their space because they're
doing their thing, but I don't want to come across
as rude. So like sometimes you don't know, it's like
do I say high or not. There's times where I
(18:18):
won't because like they're they you know, that's the only
time I saw them, they're engaged. I don't want to
interrupt because I find that to be rude, and they
might take that as being rude too. You know, you're
interrupting while they're planning a match, So it's like you
kind of have to like find your openings. Right. It's
kind of weird in that sense, and it can be
intense and you never know how people will take things,
(18:38):
especially in wrestling, So yeah, it can be it can
be very intense in that way. But all that to say,
you know, if I have a booking, typically that's twelve
hours out of my day, I'd say on average that
I'm gone. So you know, there was a point last
year where it's like I would have a booking a week,
but last year it was like more so at least
on average two bookings a week, I would say, and
(19:00):
sometimes three. So that's like, you know, let's say, on average,
twenty four hours of my week gone outside of like
regular work and fucking working out and going to practice
and whatever the fuck else right, and doing your regular
towards and errands. It's fucking intense, dude, it's very very intense.
Speaker 1 (19:18):
Well, so what is it when you got into the business,
what was something? I mean, especially now, like you said,
you wrestled almost one hundred last year, which again Cage
Match only logged sixty something. So what is something that
now you've been in it and you are just kind
of still either you find fascinating or that you find
(19:39):
I mean, like you said, social media can be a
little draining and exhausting because you as a superstar, you
have to be on it and you have to be
engaging with your fans, and you have to give people
a reason to either come check you out on social
media and then also come check you out wherever you're
going to be, or you know, hopefully they check you
out in person, then they want to follow you on
social media. So like, what is something that, now that
(20:02):
you're in it, that you find really interesting and then,
like you said, with social media, something that you just
kind of feel like, oh, well, I got to do
this now. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (20:11):
I mean, you know, wrestling is very I call it
usually the best thing in my life, but sometimes the worst.
And I feel like that's the thing with a lot
of people I talk to, and I find it so
fascinating in so many different ways. I love wrestling, right,
I love wrestling itself. I love I guess the emotional
(20:35):
release that I get from it, I think is like
the most. It's probably the thing that pulls me into
it the most. I love being able to connect with people.
I like, I really enjoy being able I guess to
make it like a positive impact on people and not
sometimes you don't realize that, right, But that's been one
of the most rewarding things I think for me, And
(20:58):
also kind of like weird in a way because I'm
usually a heel, right, like ninety eight percent of the
time on a heel, and I'm evil, so I'm not
thinking that what I'm doing is like impacting someone in
a positive way or is inspiring them in a positive way.
So it actually kind of threw me off when you know,
fans would reach out to me and they'd say like
(21:18):
how much what I was doing meant to them, and
how they're inspired by me, and they're inspired either in
their day to day life or to start training. I've
had a couple of people tell me they were inspired
by me enough to start training, which I thought was
crazy because I remember having that feeling myself and what
that evoked in me, and it was so special to me.
So it's it's kind of baffling to me that I
(21:38):
was able to do that for others, right, and it
means a lot. And also but just it's like I'm
doing all these evil shit in the ring, right and
and somehow people are really into it and it somehow
inspires them to do better in their own life or
it motivates them to keep going in a way, which
(21:59):
you know, means honestly a lot to me. I'm a
person that's very maybe a bit too outward focused, especially
for this industry. So I'm learning how to be born discerning,
but I very much like to take care of people,
and like it's just how I am typically with my
friends and stuff so and strangers and so it means
a lot and it really warms my heart and it's
(22:24):
so so touching. So I think it's really important when
I'm cognizant of that and I realize kind of the
impact that we're having on people by being on the
platforms that we're on, how important it is, Sorry the
sac if you hear that in the background, but how
important it is essentially to pretty much like be I
(22:47):
guess a positive example outside of the ring for people
that are latching onto us in ways we don't realize, right,
and when that comes to like fan interactions, So I
think it's just really important because you never know how
that will influence someone and how that can maybe change
their life in a way, something small like that you
don't know, right. So that's been really great, you know,
for me, and it's been really positive. There's a lot
(23:09):
of other positives that wrestling has brought to me that
I really really love. I'm so grateful, you know that
I can experience this. It's taught me a lot about
myself already as a person as I've gone in the industry,
and I'm sure it will continue, which wasn't something I
was expecting. So that's been great too, I guess. Yeah,
when it comes to the more negatives, you know, the
(23:30):
social media thing, I'm a bit ambivalent on it. It's a
great tool, but I find it really draining. It's very easy,
it's a very slippery slope and easy to get pulled
into that. I think especially too, it seems like a
lot of people in wrestling have ADHD, right, But yeah,
which made sense, right when you think about it. It's like, yeah,
I know that it seems like very much an ADHD
(23:52):
thing to do. You know, the fucking, the intensity and
the hitting, and you know, there's so many things going on,
so it makes sense that a lot of us are
onto this, but you know, undiagnosed or not. I've been diagnosed.
But yeah, I feel like it pulls a lot of
us to this. And but in that sense, we have
addictive personalities, so social media and shit is just like
(24:13):
candy for us, for people in general. But especially for
people with ADHD, so it's hard to pull away from that.
But I guess one of the dirty So this is
it's an interesting thing that you brought up because a
lot of people have been oddly enough confiding in me
about this topic, in particular in the last few weeks,
and I think it's really nice that people are able
(24:36):
to because obviously I want to be there for them too,
And I think it's something that we maybe don't talk
a lot about as wrestlers, fully or not. We don't
fully understand the depth of like what people are going
through and how it's very comparable to our situations. But
even people who are doing really well and you wouldn't
expect this out of them, but a lot of people,
including myself in wrestling, often feel like they're always behind.
(25:01):
And I think it's something it's a perspective sometimes that
can be skewed, right, because again, there's so many intangibles
in this industry and it's so subjective and variable. You know,
there's some people that you know, confided that in me
that are doing really well objectively, like super well, and
they still have that thought or that mentality that they're
(25:23):
not good enough, right or they're not doing well enough.
And there's been at least like five six seven people
in the past couple of weeks that have like opened
up to me about that recently, which is surprising because
it's something we typically keep under wraps. Right in wrestling,
especially amongst each other, we try to have this like
air of confidence, you know what I mean, right of live.
Speaker 1 (25:46):
The gimmick, even backstage kind of right.
Speaker 2 (25:48):
We don't really usually open up about that kind of
vulnerability because and I think this is very true in
a way, especially in wrestling, which is very much smokes
and mirrors, But like perspective perception is reality, right, it is,
And that's just also in general, like there is no
objective reality when you think about it. Everyone has their
own subjective reality, so whatever it is true. So I
(26:09):
think people don't really open up about that type of
vulnerability for that reason and probably others. But I think
it's just something that plagues a lot of us, and
I think it's just something that we need to be
more open about because I myself have felt the same way,
and people can objectively tell me that I've done a
lot and honestly I have, like when I think about
it and sit down, I've done a lot. A lot
(26:30):
of these people who are telling me this have also
done a lot. But I think with wrestling, it's so
fast paced and so forward focused all the time that
we're always looking at the next thing and what's coming
up and what we can do to be better. And
it's hard not to compare. That's the worst part it is.
It's very difficult, right, And I think it's a balance
(26:52):
because you do need to compare to an extent, right,
but not to the point where it ends up robbing
you of your pride and your own achievements and your
own happiness, right, which can be very easy to do.
You kind of have to find this balance, which I
feel like I'm starting to slowly find finally between acknowledging
(27:12):
what you've done and being proud of what you've done,
while also like I am genuinely for my friends and
stuff like that that are doing well, and even strangers.
I am genuinely happy when people get spots and opportunities
because it's hard, man, and it's nice that people are
getting recognized for that, especially if they're good workers. There's
going to be a part of you that wants that too.
Write like, who's gonna lie about that, but it is
(27:35):
nice to see that. So it's finding that balance between
striving for more but not enough that it takes away
from what you've done. And that's a really delicate balance
in wrestling that I feel like a lot of people
are struggling with and people might not fully be able
to reconcile, you know, ever, and I think it's something
(27:56):
I'm coming to terms with now. It's finding internal validation
in a way, but it's tough. So that's that's been
an unexpected one. I wasn't anticipating that, but it's been
very complicated in that way.
Speaker 1 (28:09):
I think that does kind of also does go back
to the social media thing, because you know, again as
much as we're seeing what's happening, you know, there's obviously
the huge companies everyone who works inside those huge companies,
and then we can follow all of them on social media.
But also, like you said, if you're working all these
different shows and you're seeing all these you know, independent
wrestlers get these bigger bookings, or face these bigger opponents,
(28:33):
or even be on the same card as a bigger
opponent or whatever, it is, Like you said, it's hard
to not be like man, why am I not booked
on that? Or why am I not facing that person?
Or why is you know this person doing that and
I'm not, And it's like you just haven't had that
opportunity yet. That's it's not you. It's literally you know,
(28:54):
they just happen to either be in the right spot
or they just you know, maybe this thing fell out
and they were actually on the back burner but they
actually got moved up, or you never know exactly what's
going to happen, because again, it's all there's it's not
like traditional sports where your numbers really show that, yeah,
you are the best at this, this and this. It's like, well, no,
(29:14):
this is all kind of subjective because it's all art
and it's all theater, and it's all all of that combined,
and who's running the show? Why do they like this
person over this person, that, this, that and the other.
So it's as much as it is difficult not to
try to compare yourself, like you said, you do have
to actually look at what you've done and be like, man,
I can't believe I did this or I've done this,
(29:35):
Like people in the crowd are looking at you wishing
that they were doing what you're doing. So at the
end of the day, like you're still winning.
Speaker 2 (29:43):
That's it, dude, like, and it is really tough in
that way, like I think you've touched on a really
like a lot of good points even in that sense
to like objectively, like when I think is what I've
done over the last two I guess closer to three
years now, I've done actually like quite a lot. You know.
There's a little guy.
Speaker 1 (30:01):
Yeah, and I just put him outside sets you oh oh.
Speaker 2 (30:04):
Fair fair getting a little excited. But yeah, no, I
mean I've objectively done like a lot, you know. And
it's not to throw my weight around, but I'm just
saying this in an objective way, like I've done a
lot of things in the two or three years that
people you know, tried to do in ten fifteen years, right,
And even with that, I'm still two forward thinking and
(30:29):
not fully content with what I've done. But I'm like,
holy shit, Like I literally when I started, I think
my main I thought this was going to be more
of a hobby, right, and so I thought, Okay, my
main objective going into this was like maybe winning the
IWS Women's Championship, right, which was my home fed and
I won that within the first year, right, and then
I was like, okay, well shit, now what right? And
(30:50):
then it just things kept happening. So it's like, when
I sit down and think about it, there's a lot
of shit that I've done, and a lot of these
people who are who were confiding in me, like I
even see right now, they're doing really great and they
have done a lot of great things, right, It's just
difficult for us to fully see that sometimes when we compare.
But like you're saying, man, it's like, sometimes it's not
so much a commentary on what you're doing or how
(31:13):
good you are. It's just there's a time and place
for everything, and there's an ebb and flow in wrestling,
you know, And that's just kind of the reality. And
sometimes people it's they happen to be in that, like
the right place the right time, or maybe look where
humans man, even and especially in something as subjective as wrestling,
connections are important, right, Maybe it's just this person happens
(31:36):
to has been talking to this person a bit more
and they get slotted on, or they just happen to
be there, you know what I mean. It's not as
objective as sports, right, which is difficult for someone like
me because I'm very much more like solutions oriented. I
like seeing actual tangible results, right, and comparing in that way.
When it's subjective, it kind of FOXSI ahead of it.
(31:58):
But that's just the reality of the business, right, It's
just what it is, and it's not like regular sports.
It's not actual stats, right, it's not. So we have
to be realistic about that. And so long as you
are happy about the work that you're putting out and
you're not compromising yourself in any way. Of course, listen
to to critiques and advice from you know, people you
(32:20):
trust to mentors, people are doing better than you if
you trust their advice. Absolutely, you have to listen to
critiques to get better. But at the end of the day,
like if you're happy with what you're putting out as art, right,
which I'm starting to become really happy with and comfortable with,
that's all you can really do at the end of
the day. Man, you're putting it out for yourself and
for other people who can resonate with it. But that's
(32:41):
what it is at the end of the day. So
so long as you have that and you're not compromising
in that way, and you're unflinching in who you are
and what you're presenting yourself to be, and you're proud
of it. That's the most important thing, and that's really
all you can tie yourself to at the end of
the day, whether you get signed or not, no matter
how far you go, that's something that you can really
(33:01):
hold on to that will be there forever, right. So
I think it's it's important to find that within yourself
and anchor yourself to that, and I think that's something
that can carry you through this industry that I'm starting.
I'm starting to realize now and I'm starting to feel it.
And just to touch on that point in any in
case anyone's listening as a as a way to make
you feel better, because this definitely made me feel better.
(33:23):
I'm pretty sure it was Leita. I read somewhere or
I heard somewhere that the only reason apparently she ended
up with the Hardy Boys was because she just showed up. Okay,
she just she was She was kind of booked with
Esa Rios like on and off, and and then she
she just was showing up right at work, which is
why it's so important to show face at differing feds.
(33:45):
It's so important you don't realize. And I knew that
at the beginning, forgot about it, and I've been doing
it more recently and I realized the importance of it.
So she she just showed up to show face at
her own job, essentially when they weren't really like any right,
and they weren't really using her at that point, and
she just happened to be there, and someone looked at
her and looked at the Hardy Boys and were like huh,
(34:07):
and then put them together, and then that started that
just because she showed up. Okay, if she hadn't showed up, right,
who knows what the fuck would have happened. And that
is such an iconic fucking pairing or trio, you know,
it's one of the main stays, one of the staples
in wrestling that inspired so many people, like they were
my people. Like as a kid, I was all about
(34:29):
the Hardy Boys and leda are you kidding me? Like
they were my fucking pupil, And they inspired so many people.
And that's just because she happened to be there. No
one was thinking about it before. So it's really not
so much a commentary on your talent or how good
you are. Sometimes it's really just being at the right
place at the right time. So I hope that helps
(34:49):
people if they're listening to this and they find themselves
kind of in that same headspace.
Speaker 1 (34:53):
I love it well. I have a second on shaw.
I call it the five counts, just five random questions. Okay,
who was your first concert? I?
Speaker 2 (35:04):
Oh, I think probably The Spice Girls.
Speaker 1 (35:08):
When I was a kid, I thought that was a
fun show.
Speaker 2 (35:11):
I was really young, and I fell asleep part way,
so I think, to be fair though, I think I
fell asleep towards the end, and I think I enjoyed it.
I really loved Sporty Spice as a kid, I was
a tomboy, so Sporty Spice was my girl. And yeah,
so that was my first one. But in terms of geez,
(35:32):
I wouldn't even say my first badass one because like,
I think that was or more grown up one, because
that was like the Beastie Boys and my chemical romance.
So let's not say that my first metal show, okay
was children to vote them? That sounds more badass. Okay. Uh.
Speaker 1 (35:49):
If you owned a liquor company, brewery, winery, or coffee shop,
which one would you own, and what would the name be?
Speaker 2 (35:54):
Hmm, yeah, geez. I don't know, because I thought it
was funny looking at your podcast because I'm like, I
don't really drink that much coffee anymore, and I don't
really party anymore. So I'm like, mmmm, well, you know,
it would have to be gimmicky. I guess. I guess
it would have to be booze. Why not seems snaky
and evil, you know, not to not to you know,
(36:19):
smash people or people or whatever who drink. I still
do periodically when I have time, but it's rare. Geez.
I don't know. Uh hm, I don't know something. You know.
My finisher was called lethal strike, so I don't know,
let's just put that in there.
Speaker 1 (36:34):
Ye strike for alcohol is great. Yeah, I like that.
Speaker 2 (36:37):
There you go.
Speaker 1 (36:38):
So was the last person you fan girled out on?
Speaker 2 (36:43):
Well, you know, I guess that kind of ties back
into what I was saying before because I was really
into the hardy boys and Leda. You know, I guess
I kind of look a bit like Lido when I
think about it, with the red hair, and I think
I have the tattoo on the same side cheated when
she was working more anyway, But I love the Hearty
Boys and Lena and Jeff Hardy was my favorite, and
so he's Actually I had met Matt Hardy before briefly,
(37:07):
just had hide to him real quick, but I never
met Jeff Hardy, who was like I got. I thought
I was gonna marry him when I was a kid,
like twenty other kids. But anyway, which is weird because
I was a kid and he was like twenty. But anyway,
but I went to show face at GCW because I
had a rare Yeah, it was great. I had a
rare weekend off because I was trying to do more
regular people shit. And of course I saw that GCW
(37:31):
was running two days and Suppolski was supposed to have
a sevener of that weekend. So I'm like, well, that's excellent.
I guess I'm gonna drive fucking six or seven hours
so New Jersey because obviously I can't stop myself, it seems.
But so I went there and geez, you know the show.
I went to like five different shows that weekend to
show face and help out. Yeah, dude, it was fucked up.
(37:53):
It was I would only sleep. I don't know why.
Most nights I could only fall asleep on five or
six in the morning, and even though I wasn't wrestling,
and uh, I'd only sleep maybe four hours each night
and uh and then show up and show face and
the really long days driving back was fucking insane. I
don't even I could get into that. We have time,
but anyway, but so I'm at this JCW show hit
(38:17):
him up on Friday, which I thought was an excellent show. Honestly,
it was great. I was ringside for a lot of
it because I was helping with like I guess security
a bit and Win Crew, and so I was like
right by the fucking ring and man, fucking the first match,
the opener was a trio's match, which included a few
(38:37):
people like Jordan Oliver, Alec Price, Gringa, Loco Jack cart Wheel,
U Cappuccino Jones, and I think it was supposed to
be Marcus Mathers who was with Alec Price and An Oliver,
but he got subbed out with Terryaki and that was
such a fucking good match. It was a banger of
a match, I guess as expected when you look at
the people who were in there, and it's one of
(38:59):
those things where it's like I think you're even good
as a wrestler, and you see a match like that
and you're like, wow, fuck me, I guess right, yeah,
straight up like one of those. But it was it
was great and and so then, uh, I knew the
Hardy Boys were gonna make an appearance, but they didn't
really specify when. And uh and then eventually, you know,
(39:19):
after their win, you know, Alec Price and Jordan Oliver
and and uh Terry Aka, they're chilling in the ring,
and then Vandal forty eight, which is a faction in GCW,
come in and just like pretty much run in and
beat them up a bit. And then who shows up
to make the same but the fucking Hardy Boys, right,
and I'm like, holy shit, So they fucking come out,
(39:40):
you know, they fucking put the booths whatever, toss them out,
and and then cut a promo like Matt and Jeff
and it was it was fucking crazy to me because
I've never been I was right like ringside, I've never
been that close. Uh again, I met Matt Hardy briefly,
but to Jeff Hardy had never been that close. And
I'm just looking up at them and they just look radiant, right,
(40:01):
and I'm like, what the fuck is shit? Like, where
am I? You know? It was great and I was
just beaming, like I couldn't stop smiling everyone around me.
We were in such great spirits. Everyone was just so engaged,
obviously because like, fuck is the Hardy boys, you know
what I mean, And they got this really nice promo.
(40:23):
So I mean, I wouldn't say I was fangirling on
him on on him recently, but again, growing up, Jeff
Hardy was my fucking guy. So seeing him for the
first time, you know that up close was like amazing. Uh.
We made eye contact a few times and he smiled
at me and I was like, holy shit, you know
(40:43):
this is crazy. So that was fucking wild, man. I
I fucking had an excellent time that weekend. It was
so fun.
Speaker 1 (40:50):
I love it. Number four. Who are what inspires you?
Speaker 2 (40:57):
Jeez? I uh, I I don't know, man, I think
everything I think love that. Yeah, I no, straight up man.
I feel like life in itself is inspiring in the
best and worst ways. If you can be inspired in
a bad way, but like there's so much complexity and
duality when it comes to life and wrestling in general.
I think I just take inspiration from everything, whether it's
(41:19):
the good things or the good experiences or connections that
I have to propel me forward, right, and if I
can just root myself more in that with the good
people around me, or even if it's like the negative experiences, right, like,
it might suck ass, and you know, maybe it's hard
to take it at first, but I almost always will
use bad experiences as fuel to bring myself forward. If
(41:42):
there's something to learn from it, if there's a way
to get better as a person or as a wrestler,
I'm going to try my best to find it and
to use that as a way to just progress. Right. So,
honestly everything I love that.
Speaker 1 (41:54):
Yeah, that's perfect. And finally, what would you tell your
seventeen year old self?
Speaker 2 (41:59):
Oh? Sorry, you kind of would I tell myself?
Speaker 1 (42:00):
What? What would you tell your seventeen year old self?
Speaker 2 (42:04):
Oh? Seven years? Oh jeez ah, man, I don't know,
Like I was, I you know, not to get I
guess too much into it, but I I had a
really like mess up childhood and a rough upbringing, and
my teenage years really fucking sucked. I feel like that
was the period that I was the most depressed and
probably just processing things and not realizing it, and so
I was really numb to everything at that point, I guess,
(42:28):
very different than I am right now, and I didn't
think and not to say that, you know, life is
easy right now. I'm generally pretty grateful. There's ups and downs,
but I'm definitely in a better headspace now than I
would have been than I was at that point, and
so I didn't really think. I didn't know if I
would make it, you know, to my age, I really
(42:49):
didn't think. So, so I didn't plan a head for
the future. I don't know if there's anything I could
have told myself, because like, honestly, I could say, hey,
you know, there's a lot of shit that you're gonna
do that's gonna be really awesome and you have no
idea and to keep going. But like maybe I had
to not know that to kind of build the strength
(43:11):
that I have now and the resilience that I have, you.
Speaker 1 (43:13):
Know what I mean, Yeah, I get that exactly.
Speaker 2 (43:16):
Yeah, you know. So it's like, I don't know. I guess, hmmm,
I guess maybe the thing that I would tell myself
is to try not to be so hard on yourself
and that you think that other people haven't figured out,
but let me tell you, they fucking don't, and you're
(43:36):
doing just fine. You're doing just fine.
Speaker 1 (43:40):
Again one of the things you can tell yourself at
any age.
Speaker 2 (43:43):
Yep. Yeah, yeah, that's something I think growing up. I
always again, because my upbringing was kind of fucked up
and whatever, I always thought that, like other people, maybe
had it better, had it more figured out, or whatever.
And now that I've kind of gotten to the point
where I feel like I'm just like generally more like
secure and stable. I'm not perfect up and down, but
I think I'm in a clearer headspace. I'm like interacting
(44:04):
with people and relating with them, and I'm like, oh, okay, right,
So that wasn't what was going on. Okay, so you
know I was doing okay, I guess better than I realized.
Speaker 1 (44:17):
But yeah, I love it. Well, if people want to
find out more about you, follow you online, see you live,
buy your merch, do all the things, how can they
do it?
Speaker 2 (44:25):
Yeah? So I am on social media, so I couldn't
get this the same username across all platforms unfortunately. So
on Twitter, I'm Katrina Creed all together, so it's Katrina
with a K Creed with a C. On Facebook, it's
same thing Katrina Creed, but a space obviously between Katrina
(44:46):
and Creed. On Instagram it's kat katwth k dot Creed
Creed with the C, and same thing for TikTok. I'm
trying to be more active on TikTok, but I do
not fucking understand TikTok. Honestly, I don't get it. I'm trying, man,
I'm trying. I put out some stuff occasionally on there.
I have a YouTube channel as well, Katrina Creed, and yeah,
(45:09):
you can pretty much find me on there. I'm trying
to put up a merch store. I'm trying to figure
that out because people do want shirts in the States
and shipping is fucking insane, so especially internationally. Yeah, dude,
it's nice. Like I'm like, I can't possibly, you know,
justify sending this to you and then charge the shirt's
twenty five Canadian. I'm not going to charge you fucking
(45:29):
fifty dollars Canadian on top of it. That's fucking insane, dude.
I'm sorry. It's just when i'm there, I'll try to,
you know, give it to you. And so that's about it.
And I don't know when this is going to come
out probably in a few days, will it so that
I can yes, yeah, okay, if it comes after out
on Monday afternoon, okay, I will be parts of which, jeez,
(45:55):
I don't know what I was thinking, but I'm going
to be part of Mystery Wrestling's attempt at breaking an
unofficial world record where we're going to wrestle. Yeah, We're
going to wrestle for twenty four hours straight.
Speaker 1 (46:07):
This is awesome.
Speaker 2 (46:09):
Yeah, it's awesome, but it's also like, what the fuck?
So I luckily it's eight versus eight and it's by elimination,
but I have a feeling I'm going to try to
be there for as long as I can because I'm
stubborn and I'm going to try to help out. Yeah.
But what's great about it is that we're also raising
money for the Canadian Counts Cancer Society. So it's a
(46:32):
stream that's going to be doing that, and it's in
conjunction with C four and their annual event called Fighting Back,
where they also raise money for cancer initiatives, specifically that
foundation in honor of Frank Money, who passed away who
is a worker around here around our area. I think
it was in twenty ten or eleven, and so C
(46:52):
four has actually raised up until up until now, like
I think five or six hundred thousand dollars for for
cancer research. So this that we're going to do is
pretty much going to be for that. So if this
is coming out on Monday and you happen to hear it,
please join us. It's going to be live stream on Twitch.
I'm going to be posting about it on Instagram, on Twitter.
(47:14):
I might do a vlog if I remember, but if not,
I'm probably going to post stories about my deterioration over
twenty four hours if you're interested in that. And yeah,
if not, you can always watch the stream after right
after it's published, and you can definitely I would very
much encourage you to to donate, you know, after the
(47:36):
factor during or even if you hear about this after
and only watch it after or find out about it after,
please you know, donate, That would be great. So that
should be interesting.
Speaker 1 (47:47):
Yeah, I love that. Yeah, I can't wait to see
what happens there.
Speaker 2 (47:50):
Yeah, me too, in a way.
Speaker 1 (47:53):
In a way, well, thank you so much. I've loved
this interview and I feel like we definitely have talked
way longer. So I look forward to having you back
on the show in the future, and I can't wait
to see what the future does hold for you.
Speaker 2 (48:04):
Absolutely, yeah, no, honestly, thank you so much for having
me on. I love I mean, I love talking about
deeper topics and philosophical and psychological one. So yeah, So,
I mean, this was great. I actually prefer that than
talking about myself and my wrestling and what I've done.
This is I find really intriguing. So it was great,
and thank you so much for having me on. I
really enjoyed this interview. It was one of my favorites.
(48:26):
So I'd love to be back on and shoot the
shit about more of this stuff, honestly, And again, congrats
on what you've been doing and I wish you the
best man. Keep going out there and getting those bookings.
Speaker 1 (48:35):
Thank you you too, Thank you, Thank you so much,
Ya Katrina for being on the show again. Make sure
to check out the Mystery Wrestling twenty four hour live
stream that is happening two days starting at ten am
(48:57):
Eastern Time nine am Central. You do the math backwards
or forwards however you can, but definitely make sure to
check that out is happening for twenty four hours and
it is helping the Canadian Cancer Society and who doesn't
want to help them? So while you do that, make
sure to follow us on social media. It is bruisers Pod.
That is b R E W S T R S
p O D on the Instagram, the threads and the Twitter.
(49:19):
If you want to send us an email, it is
Bruiserspod at gmail dot com. If you're want to follow
me directly, it is Rody John. That is R O
D I E j O N. Rody John is the
name on the Twitter and on un tapped In case
you want to find out on drinking, maybe we can
have a beer together. If you're wanna follow me on
the threads or the Instagram, it is official Rody John.
So until next time, make sure to enjoy life, drink
local and cheers
Welcome to Bruisers, a podcast about beer, a coffee, booze
and bruisers. I'm your host, Rody John and today we
talked to Katrina Creed. We talked about her journey in
pro wrestling, how social media affects us all, and so
much more. Also, we are putting this out today, that's
right on Monday, because of the fact that she will
be part of the Mystery Wrestling in twenty four hour
live stream that is happening today at ten a m.
(00:43):
Eastern time. This is going to help the Canadian Cancer Society.
She talks about the end of the interview, but we
definitely want to make sure you remember it on the
top of the show as well. So, without further ado,
here is Katrina Creed. I would like to welcome the show.
(01:07):
Katrina Creed. How are you doing today?
Speaker 2 (01:09):
Hey, I'm doing so good.
Speaker 1 (01:10):
How are you doing well? For those listening, kind of
painted the word picture. Where are you at? What's going
on around you?
Speaker 2 (01:17):
Oh? Currently, let's see, I'm at my place. I'm next
to one of my cats, so that's typical for me. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (01:27):
How many cats do you have?
Speaker 2 (01:28):
I have two. They're both about the same age. Oddly enough,
they came from separate farms and they're born like about
a week apart, so they're about eight now, which is
crazy to me and something I refuse to believe. So, yeah,
one's a Caligaro and the other ones that have you
not sweet.
Speaker 1 (01:47):
Yeah, I have two dogs, so once as they get older,
I'm like, that can't be right. They still have.
Speaker 2 (01:54):
Yeah, it's like that's bullshit, there's no way. What kind
of dogs do you have?
Speaker 1 (01:59):
I have a terrier mix and she is about thirteen
years old and she still has puppy energy. And then
I have a miniature Schnauzer, which I'm sure you'll hear
at some point. He is three years old, and yes,
he definitely keeps her young and us with ringing ears
from all the barking.
Speaker 2 (02:19):
Oh yeah, I bet, I bet. I used to have
a dog. We had a family dog back in the day.
And also puppy energy up until the very end. And
him too, It's like any sort of thing that would
set him off from the outside. He was always on guard,
constant barking. So I feel you on that. But we
love him anyway, don't we.
Speaker 1 (02:36):
This is true. Yeah, I still love him even though
he's very much an annoying little boy sometimes.
Speaker 2 (02:42):
Yeah, we can't help it. We can't help it.
Speaker 1 (02:45):
No, it's true. I mean, they're animals. We're allowing animals
in our home, so you know we have to We
can't be like, oh, why are they this way? Well,
because they're animals, that's why.
Speaker 2 (02:53):
Yeah, exactly right.
Speaker 1 (02:54):
Well, the same thing with people, it's like why are
they this way? It's like, well, well, they're also animals.
Speaker 2 (02:58):
So we get to exactly right. People are as they are,
and they meet you at where they are in certain
intersections of their life, so you know, you can't ask
too much from them, you know what I mean?
Speaker 1 (03:08):
Exactly yeah, whatever stage they're at it at that time,
that's the.
Speaker 2 (03:12):
One you get exactly you know, there's no changing it,
or there is, but it's up to that person, right,
You have no control over that.
Speaker 1 (03:18):
Really, It's true. You really got to want to change
yourself otherwise you're not. You know, nothing's going to You
could tell people to change all day long, but they
don't unless they want to, it's not gonna happen.
Speaker 2 (03:27):
Well, exactly right, And some people really, I mean I
think almost everyone needs proper incentive whatever that is right
to change and even if people get that incentive. Sometimes
they whatever it is, like, maybe the benefits of what
they're doing will outweigh even changing in that sense, even
if there is more of a dire incentive there. So
humans are complex, you know, this is true.
Speaker 1 (03:49):
And I feel like as much as the social media
has brought us together, which I find that to be
the most fascinating part of the whole thing. As much
as people want to talk about the divisiveness that social
media brings, there's a lot of community and a lot
of connectivity, and it makes the world really so much
smaller when you do have all that connection, and we
find so many people like I don't have TikTok, but
I hear the people that do have TikTok. You get
(04:11):
these little algorithms about things you were like really kind
of connecting with and things that you are kind of
maybe struggling with or even going through as a human,
and you're finding out all these other people because there's
so many times that people just feel alone with whatever
problem or whatever it is there are living in or
going through, and it's like, no, you're not the only
person that's ever gone through that or a shade of that,
(04:31):
And there's way more people that have gone through it
and want to help you go through it, you know,
than you are by yourself.
Speaker 2 (04:38):
For sure. Yeah, No, absolutely, Like I'm very ambivalent about
social media in general. I think it has a lot
of positives, but I think there's a lot of cons
and I think it's really difficult. I mean, everything's very
convoluted in life, including right, and especially something that we're
kind of still at the forefront of. Right, It's something
that we can't really analyze in retrospect, something that's ongoing,
(05:01):
so that makes it complicated to fully understand. And also
it's so widespread and touch with so many people, and
as we were talking about, humans are so complex, so
that in itself is a complexity. It's something we might
not fully understand kind of the breadth of and the
depth of. But like, yeah, I find it, like I'm
ambivalent about it. It's a great, amazing tool as like
(05:23):
a pro wrestler, right, I think you're doing yourself a
disservice if you're not using it as much as possible.
Like I've been slacking the past like a few weeks,
and I definitely need to get on top of it
because it's exhausting in a way, because as a wrestler,
it's like it's an additional task on top of like
so many other tasks that we take on as a
professional wrestler, Like so fucking many, Like I've become a
(05:45):
makeup artist, I'm like video editing. I'm doing like a
I guess, a content creator if you.
Speaker 1 (05:50):
Want to call it that, if that's what you do.
Speaker 2 (05:53):
Also, some people do that, right, I mean, it's some
of what we do goes into acting. Everyone let fiction,
like it's crazy, right, So this is just like one
extra hat to put on. But I think it's so
so important and so useful at the same time, like
you're saying, right, it helps to connect people who might
by default be a bit more isolated, and especially if
(06:15):
they don't feel like people around them understand them or
are going through something comparable. So in that way, it's
a great way to connect people who may be like
minded or might be going through something that's similar to
help each other out. But at the same time, I
feel like us like it's a very addictive platform. Just
having this phone in front of us, it's super addictive,
(06:37):
and I think a lot of the times people are
just glued into that as opposed to what's going on
around them, So there is this disconnect in a way,
you know what I mean. And I talk to a
lot of people, including wrestlers, and we're always generally pretty busy,
and it's like bedrunning is like a pretty prevalent thing
that we all seem to do, right, maybe just in general,
(06:57):
and it's like, I don't know, it's connecting but not,
you know what I mean. It's weird, Like I even
see it in myself, which is why I'm really ambivalent
about social media. Like, yes, it's a great tool, but
I find myself like kind of going down this rabbit
hole and getting kind of addicted to stuff and I'm
not fully processing what's in front of me. I'm just
(07:18):
like doom scrolling. And I feel like I'm connecting with
people in that way, but like I'm not. And there's
still this sense of loneliness because wrestling, as like on
its own, is quite transient. Like you know, I have
my friends, my acquaintances, right, but you know, sometimes it's
like you go to a promotion or whatever and maybe
not all your friends are there or whatever. So it's
(07:39):
like nice people, you get along with them, but it's
very transient in nature. It's kind of isolating in that way, right,
And I'm very much I just do work in wrestling typically, right,
this year, I've been trying to take less bookings to
hang out with my friends more and it's actually been
really nice and fulfilling, and I'm like, damn, I need
to do more of this because this is really nice.
But yeah, so in that sense, it's kind of weird, right,
(08:01):
Like I don't know how I feel about it. I
think it's good in moderation, like just about anything.
Speaker 1 (08:08):
Right, Yeah. True. So, Okay, you've touched on a lot
of things I've been thinking about and be curious about
as well. So I have been. I guess I got
into the industry in twenty twenty one by you know,
happen at accidents by interviewing somebody they were running a promotion.
(08:30):
He was lucky enough to allow me to be on
the show to you know, do backstage interviews and stuff.
And then I've kind of grown from there and I'm
starting to take more bookings and I'm driving out of state,
and I am, you know, starting to miss things with
friends as well. And I've always heard about this from
listening to old stories from wrestlers about how they would
miss this, miss that. You know. It's also one of
(08:50):
those things where you have to almost figure out what
is more important do is this career what you really
really like? Is this your passion? Obviously? Is this really
where you want to be? Because if that's the case,
you're going unfortunately, you are going to have to be
missing birthdays, You're going to be have to miss reunions
or whatever it is because of the fact that, oh, well,
(09:11):
they people running the show don't care that my friend's
kids birthday is that day, Like you know, yeah, but
I got to make this booking so that you know,
hopefully it takes me to the next one, or you
never knew who's gonna be at that show or whatever.
So when it comes to that, like how are you
kind of dealing with it because you're still pretty early
on your career. You started in what twenty twenty one,
twenty twenty no, so.
Speaker 2 (09:33):
Essentially, like long story short, I started right before COVID.
I had a few matches, and then COVID happened, yeah,
and that's great, and then I only really started regularly
at the end of twenty twenty two because like in Canada, yeah,
you guys.
Speaker 1 (09:48):
Are way harder. My brother lives up there and he
was telling me about that.
Speaker 2 (09:50):
Yeah, oh yeah, No, it was rough, Like we literally
had like a year and a half where there were
no shows at all. Yeah, Like and by that it's
like I had just started and already just by bumping
and training, Like we were training intermittently during that time
when we couldn't couldn't depending on the regulations, oftentimes by ourselves,
(10:11):
like and just bumping and whatever. But like you know,
I obviously even from that, it kind of takes a
toll on your body. So I took it as a
sign from the universe and like, oh, maybe this means that,
like you know, wrestling is not for me, and maybe
I should move on and take my health into consideration
and blah blah blah. And so then it wasn't until
I went to a show where like one of my trainers,
like Matt Lee or Daddy Magic, Matt Minard from aw
(10:33):
he came back into town. He did a tag and
I watched the show and I was like, yeah, I
gotta do this. So then at the end, at the
end of twenty twenty two, I went back into it,
and I've been doing it regularly and yeah, so I'm
pretty like new. I think I'm coming on to about
three years cumulatively, but so I am early on. But like,
(10:56):
I got pretty busy pretty fast my first year. My
second was honestly fucking crazy, which is why I was like, data,
I need to like maybe slow it down a bit
and do some like regular peopleshit.
Speaker 1 (11:06):
As like, yeah, you wrestled a lot in twenty twenty four.
From what if Cage Match is accurate? You wrestled a
lot in twenty twenty four.
Speaker 2 (11:12):
That's not even so I don't know why, but like
a lot of the match not a lot, but some
of the matches that we do in Canada don't fully
get registered on Cage Match, like weird, it's not, Yeah, yeah,
it's not. I guess a huge surprise that, like we
really don't have as much exposure up here compared to
like the States, right, So it's quite insular in that sense.
So I actually wrestled ninety seven matches last year Christmas, Yeah,
(11:35):
and it says and it sucks. I would have wrestled
one hundred, which was my goal, but I had an injury,
like a shoulder injury that sidelined me for like a
few weeks, which took out the three matches, which and
I'm like, dude, I'm not trying for one hundred again.
That was it. That was the one undone and that's it.
And the year before, which was my first year, like
I did, I did about fifty, right, So it's been
(11:57):
pretty especially last year was like really fucking crazy honestly.
So plus I I like work a regular job, right,
so it was pretty nuts. And yeah, like I was saying, man,
it was very isolating. You have to make that decision
about like what's more important. I very much care about
my friends. I'm very lucky to have like like a
(12:19):
crew of solid friends that like are genuine and have
my back and so like, I very much want to
be there for them and be there for their important
things in their life. So I actually did make it
to a lot of my friends or my cousins, like
their weddings and like bachelor right parties and like baby showers.
I did it, but like on fucking no sleep, like
literally I would do. So it was like I was there,
(12:42):
but not really you know what I mean. One of
my good friends, she's so sweet, She's like, yeah, like
I really want you to be there at my baby shower,
Like what what weekend or what Saturday do you have off?
I'm like, dude, none, just take I'll fucking make it.
But like I appreciate it. I'll make it, don't worry.
I just can't be there the whole time. But like, realistically,
(13:04):
I'm usually booked a few months out right, and she
was doing it during that time. I'm like, there's none,
so just like pick one and I'll show up, which
I did, but like, yeah, it's like straight up, I'm
going to a book in I'm coming back out with
the adrenaline and shit. It's like maybe I'm falling asleep
at like four or five, depending and I'll like maybe
get three four hours of like shit, sleep in there,
go to my friends whatever it is, be there for
(13:28):
like an hour or two with my eyes barely open,
be like yo, cool, I'm here, all right, I'll see
it and then drive to the next town for a booking. Right,
So it's it's there, but it's like not very I
don't know. It's you're there, but you're not you know,
you're not really connecting like you should. And honestly, that
was for the last year or two that was pretty
(13:48):
much all of my socialization. Like I wasn't really hanging
out with my friends except for maybe once every three
four five months I'd have time and we'd actually like
kill together, you know what I mean. It was fucked up.
It's really fucked up. But you have to make that choice, right,
So I mean, yeah, it's just a tough one because again,
(14:11):
you never know what booking you're going to take that
could lead to another opportunity. Who's going to be there?
You have no idea, you know what I mean, right,
So it's really hard to balance that.
Speaker 1 (14:24):
Yeah, it's been something that's been been crossing my mind
for a while. And so like, since I am lucky
enough to have this platform to talk to people outside
of my bubble, I like to pick people's brains and
be like, how do you kind of process it all?
Or how do you kind of walk through it all?
Because it's not an easy process and a lot of
people don't understand that process. They just think, oh, yeah,
(14:44):
you show up to wrestle and then you go home.
You got to think about that travel process and also
how long are you at that venue that day? What's
the weather going to be like either going there or
coming back or whatever. This is those little things people
don't think about when it comes to, you know, being
someone who's actually booked for a show.
Speaker 2 (15:03):
So yeah, no, absolutely, I do want to touch on that.
But first off, I didn't say that. I mean, congrats
a lot having this platform and like branching out and
getting all those bookings. That's pretty awesome. It's a good one.
But yeah, no, absolutely, it's something that people don't think about. Fuck,
I didn't even know until I was in the business
(15:24):
because I don't know. I guess people don't always talk
about it, or maybe you watch interviews or the ones
that I watched, wrestlers wouldn't touch on that topic so much.
So I had no fucking clue. And I knew a
couple of people that were in the business, you know,
like I was friends with Green Phantom before I entered
the business, if you know him, And I knew and
was a friend s Lash acquaintances with Shane Hawk, who
(15:46):
ended up being my trainer at IWS before I got in,
But it wasn't really something we ever spoke about, right,
So I didn't think of it until I was in it,
and I was like, dude, it's it's pretty intense in
the sense that usually if I'm booked right, typically it's
a bit out of cow. Usually it'll be a couple
hours out, and when you factor travel time for a
(16:06):
long time, I was usually also the one driving, like
I would have the car. So of course at the
end of the night, it's like, I'm gonna drive people home, right,
I'm not gonna leave them stranded. So luckily they're all
pretty much in the same town. But that adds like
maybe an extra I don't know, fucking forty minutes to
an hour to what I'm doing, you know, But you
factor all of that in and you're pretty much there
at the beginning a couple hours before doors open to
(16:29):
like prep merch, like fucking you know, prep your match,
whatever it is, make up all that shit, and you're
staying there typically from the beginning until the end. It's
a respect thing wrestling, right, which no one really tells you.
So you're sitting there until the very end after the
main event, and then you're doing your last rounds either
with merch or talking to fans as like they're tapering
out and they're leaving, and and then you do your
(16:51):
rounds and say bye to everyone because again, it's a
respecting right. So you shake everyone's hands, say bye to everyone.
Yeah right, you know which again you're not really told
until you're in it. Yeah, I know. That's it. There's
so many and.
Speaker 1 (17:03):
You get so much shit if you don't do it.
It's like, wait a minute. I was standing here the
entire time and I saw you pass me three times and.
Speaker 2 (17:10):
Legit right, It's like this these arbitrary rules that like,
it's funny. It is very funny. It's like it's super
funny in that sense that there's these arbitrary rules that
get passed on my word of mouth, but aren't. They
are cemented but not written anywhere. But you kind of
have to figure it out and if you don't, well shit,
tough luck, you know.
Speaker 1 (17:29):
And what's funny you say that because like I was,
I just happened to be on YouTube watching like Dominic
mysterious vlog from SummerSlam, and he was going literally to
the ring. He stopped real fast to say hi to
Matt Hardy and then walk on. He was like, oh,
I just want to say high real fast, like okay,
and you shook his hand and kept going. I was like, buddy,
you gotta you gotta go wrestle the match. What are
we doing?
Speaker 2 (17:50):
Yeah, like you should probably go to that ring.
Speaker 1 (17:52):
Dude, Yeah, yeah, go to Grilla, Like that's the thing.
Speaker 2 (17:56):
Right. It's like so hard to say sometimes too, because
like it can be intimidated, especially if you're going up
to people you don't know, people who are bigger names
than you, so and you see they're kind of busy
with people. It's like, okay, like I don't want to interject,
and I don't want to invade their space because they're
doing their thing, but I don't want to come across
as rude. So like sometimes you don't know, it's like
do I say high or not. There's times where I
(18:18):
won't because like they're they you know, that's the only
time I saw them, they're engaged. I don't want to
interrupt because I find that to be rude, and they
might take that as being rude too. You know, you're
interrupting while they're planning a match, So it's like you
kind of have to like find your openings. Right. It's
kind of weird in that sense, and it can be
intense and you never know how people will take things,
(18:38):
especially in wrestling, So yeah, it can be it can
be very intense in that way. But all that to say,
you know, if I have a booking, typically that's twelve
hours out of my day, I'd say on average that
I'm gone. So you know, there was a point last
year where it's like I would have a booking a week,
but last year it was like more so at least
on average two bookings a week, I would say, and
(19:00):
sometimes three. So that's like, you know, let's say, on average,
twenty four hours of my week gone outside of like
regular work and fucking working out and going to practice
and whatever the fuck else right, and doing your regular
towards and errands. It's fucking intense, dude, it's very very intense.
Speaker 1 (19:18):
Well, so what is it when you got into the business,
what was something? I mean, especially now, like you said,
you wrestled almost one hundred last year, which again Cage
Match only logged sixty something. So what is something that
now you've been in it and you are just kind
of still either you find fascinating or that you find
(19:39):
I mean, like you said, social media can be a
little draining and exhausting because you as a superstar, you
have to be on it and you have to be
engaging with your fans, and you have to give people
a reason to either come check you out on social
media and then also come check you out wherever you're
going to be, or you know, hopefully they check you
out in person, then they want to follow you on
social media. So like, what is something that, now that
(20:02):
you're in it, that you find really interesting and then,
like you said, with social media, something that you just
kind of feel like, oh, well, I got to do
this now. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (20:11):
I mean, you know, wrestling is very I call it
usually the best thing in my life, but sometimes the worst.
And I feel like that's the thing with a lot
of people I talk to, and I find it so
fascinating in so many different ways. I love wrestling, right,
I love wrestling itself. I love I guess the emotional
(20:35):
release that I get from it, I think is like
the most. It's probably the thing that pulls me into
it the most. I love being able to connect with people.
I like, I really enjoy being able I guess to
make it like a positive impact on people and not
sometimes you don't realize that, right, But that's been one
of the most rewarding things I think for me, And
(20:58):
also kind of like weird in a way because I'm
usually a heel, right, like ninety eight percent of the
time on a heel, and I'm evil, so I'm not
thinking that what I'm doing is like impacting someone in
a positive way or is inspiring them in a positive way.
So it actually kind of threw me off when you know,
fans would reach out to me and they'd say like
(21:18):
how much what I was doing meant to them, and
how they're inspired by me, and they're inspired either in
their day to day life or to start training. I've
had a couple of people tell me they were inspired
by me enough to start training, which I thought was
crazy because I remember having that feeling myself and what
that evoked in me, and it was so special to me.
So it's it's kind of baffling to me that I
(21:38):
was able to do that for others, right, and it
means a lot. And also but just it's like I'm
doing all these evil shit in the ring, right and
and somehow people are really into it and it somehow
inspires them to do better in their own life or
it motivates them to keep going in a way, which
(21:59):
you know, means honestly a lot to me. I'm a
person that's very maybe a bit too outward focused, especially
for this industry. So I'm learning how to be born discerning,
but I very much like to take care of people,
and like it's just how I am typically with my
friends and stuff so and strangers and so it means
a lot and it really warms my heart and it's
(22:24):
so so touching. So I think it's really important when
I'm cognizant of that and I realize kind of the
impact that we're having on people by being on the
platforms that we're on, how important it is, Sorry the
sac if you hear that in the background, but how
important it is essentially to pretty much like be I
(22:47):
guess a positive example outside of the ring for people
that are latching onto us in ways we don't realize, right,
and when that comes to like fan interactions, So I
think it's just really important because you never know how
that will influence someone and how that can maybe change
their life in a way, something small like that you
don't know, right. So that's been really great, you know,
for me, and it's been really positive. There's a lot
(23:09):
of other positives that wrestling has brought to me that
I really really love. I'm so grateful, you know that
I can experience this. It's taught me a lot about
myself already as a person as I've gone in the industry,
and I'm sure it will continue, which wasn't something I
was expecting. So that's been great too, I guess. Yeah,
when it comes to the more negatives, you know, the
(23:30):
social media thing, I'm a bit ambivalent on it. It's a
great tool, but I find it really draining. It's very easy,
it's a very slippery slope and easy to get pulled
into that. I think especially too, it seems like a
lot of people in wrestling have ADHD, right, But yeah,
which made sense, right when you think about it. It's like, yeah,
I know that it seems like very much an ADHD
(23:52):
thing to do. You know, the fucking, the intensity and
the hitting, and you know, there's so many things going on,
so it makes sense that a lot of us are
onto this, but you know, undiagnosed or not. I've been diagnosed.
But yeah, I feel like it pulls a lot of
us to this. And but in that sense, we have
addictive personalities, so social media and shit is just like
(24:13):
candy for us, for people in general. But especially for
people with ADHD, so it's hard to pull away from that.
But I guess one of the dirty So this is
it's an interesting thing that you brought up because a
lot of people have been oddly enough confiding in me
about this topic, in particular in the last few weeks,
and I think it's really nice that people are able
(24:36):
to because obviously I want to be there for them too,
And I think it's something that we maybe don't talk
a lot about as wrestlers, fully or not. We don't
fully understand the depth of like what people are going
through and how it's very comparable to our situations. But
even people who are doing really well and you wouldn't
expect this out of them, but a lot of people,
including myself in wrestling, often feel like they're always behind.
(25:01):
And I think it's something it's a perspective sometimes that
can be skewed, right, because again, there's so many intangibles
in this industry and it's so subjective and variable. You know,
there's some people that you know, confided that in me
that are doing really well objectively, like super well, and
they still have that thought or that mentality that they're
(25:23):
not good enough, right or they're not doing well enough.
And there's been at least like five six seven people
in the past couple of weeks that have like opened
up to me about that recently, which is surprising because
it's something we typically keep under wraps. Right in wrestling,
especially amongst each other, we try to have this like
air of confidence, you know what I mean, right of live.
Speaker 1 (25:46):
The gimmick, even backstage kind of right.
Speaker 2 (25:48):
We don't really usually open up about that kind of
vulnerability because and I think this is very true in
a way, especially in wrestling, which is very much smokes
and mirrors, But like perspective perception is reality, right, it is,
And that's just also in general, like there is no
objective reality when you think about it. Everyone has their
own subjective reality, so whatever it is true. So I
(26:09):
think people don't really open up about that type of
vulnerability for that reason and probably others. But I think
it's just something that plagues a lot of us, and
I think it's just something that we need to be
more open about because I myself have felt the same way,
and people can objectively tell me that I've done a
lot and honestly I have, like when I think about
it and sit down, I've done a lot. A lot
(26:30):
of these people who are telling me this have also
done a lot. But I think with wrestling, it's so
fast paced and so forward focused all the time that
we're always looking at the next thing and what's coming
up and what we can do to be better. And
it's hard not to compare. That's the worst part it is.
It's very difficult, right, And I think it's a balance
(26:52):
because you do need to compare to an extent, right,
but not to the point where it ends up robbing
you of your pride and your own achievements and your
own happiness, right, which can be very easy to do.
You kind of have to find this balance, which I
feel like I'm starting to slowly find finally between acknowledging
(27:12):
what you've done and being proud of what you've done,
while also like I am genuinely for my friends and
stuff like that that are doing well, and even strangers.
I am genuinely happy when people get spots and opportunities
because it's hard, man, and it's nice that people are
getting recognized for that, especially if they're good workers. There's
going to be a part of you that wants that too.
Write like, who's gonna lie about that, but it is
(27:35):
nice to see that. So it's finding that balance between
striving for more but not enough that it takes away
from what you've done. And that's a really delicate balance
in wrestling that I feel like a lot of people
are struggling with and people might not fully be able
to reconcile, you know, ever, and I think it's something
(27:56):
I'm coming to terms with now. It's finding internal validation
in a way, but it's tough. So that's that's been
an unexpected one. I wasn't anticipating that, but it's been
very complicated in that way.
Speaker 1 (28:09):
I think that does kind of also does go back
to the social media thing, because you know, again as
much as we're seeing what's happening, you know, there's obviously
the huge companies everyone who works inside those huge companies,
and then we can follow all of them on social media.
But also, like you said, if you're working all these
different shows and you're seeing all these you know, independent
wrestlers get these bigger bookings, or face these bigger opponents,
(28:33):
or even be on the same card as a bigger
opponent or whatever, it is, Like you said, it's hard
to not be like man, why am I not booked
on that? Or why am I not facing that person?
Or why is you know this person doing that and
I'm not, And it's like you just haven't had that
opportunity yet. That's it's not you. It's literally you know,
(28:54):
they just happen to either be in the right spot
or they just you know, maybe this thing fell out
and they were actually on the back burner but they
actually got moved up, or you never know exactly what's
going to happen, because again, it's all there's it's not
like traditional sports where your numbers really show that, yeah,
you are the best at this, this and this. It's like, well, no,
(29:14):
this is all kind of subjective because it's all art
and it's all theater, and it's all all of that combined,
and who's running the show? Why do they like this
person over this person, that, this, that and the other.
So it's as much as it is difficult not to
try to compare yourself, like you said, you do have
to actually look at what you've done and be like, man,
I can't believe I did this or I've done this,
(29:35):
Like people in the crowd are looking at you wishing
that they were doing what you're doing. So at the
end of the day, like you're still winning.
Speaker 2 (29:43):
That's it, dude, like, and it is really tough in
that way, like I think you've touched on a really
like a lot of good points even in that sense
to like objectively, like when I think is what I've
done over the last two I guess closer to three
years now, I've done actually like quite a lot. You know.
There's a little guy.
Speaker 1 (30:01):
Yeah, and I just put him outside sets you oh oh.
Speaker 2 (30:04):
Fair fair getting a little excited. But yeah, no, I
mean I've objectively done like a lot, you know. And
it's not to throw my weight around, but I'm just
saying this in an objective way, like I've done a
lot of things in the two or three years that
people you know, tried to do in ten fifteen years, right,
And even with that, I'm still two forward thinking and
(30:29):
not fully content with what I've done. But I'm like,
holy shit, Like I literally when I started, I think
my main I thought this was going to be more
of a hobby, right, and so I thought, Okay, my
main objective going into this was like maybe winning the
IWS Women's Championship, right, which was my home fed and
I won that within the first year, right, and then
I was like, okay, well shit, now what right? And
(30:50):
then it just things kept happening. So it's like, when
I sit down and think about it, there's a lot
of shit that I've done, and a lot of these
people who are who were confiding in me, like I
even see right now, they're doing really great and they
have done a lot of great things, right, It's just
difficult for us to fully see that sometimes when we compare.
But like you're saying, man, it's like, sometimes it's not
so much a commentary on what you're doing or how
(31:13):
good you are. It's just there's a time and place
for everything, and there's an ebb and flow in wrestling,
you know, And that's just kind of the reality. And
sometimes people it's they happen to be in that, like
the right place the right time, or maybe look where
humans man, even and especially in something as subjective as wrestling,
connections are important, right, Maybe it's just this person happens
(31:36):
to has been talking to this person a bit more
and they get slotted on, or they just happen to
be there, you know what I mean. It's not as
objective as sports, right, which is difficult for someone like
me because I'm very much more like solutions oriented. I
like seeing actual tangible results, right, and comparing in that way.
When it's subjective, it kind of FOXSI ahead of it.
(31:58):
But that's just the reality of the business, right, It's
just what it is, and it's not like regular sports.
It's not actual stats, right, it's not. So we have
to be realistic about that. And so long as you
are happy about the work that you're putting out and
you're not compromising yourself in any way. Of course, listen
to to critiques and advice from you know, people you
(32:20):
trust to mentors, people are doing better than you if
you trust their advice. Absolutely, you have to listen to
critiques to get better. But at the end of the day,
like if you're happy with what you're putting out as art, right,
which I'm starting to become really happy with and comfortable with,
that's all you can really do at the end of
the day. Man, you're putting it out for yourself and
for other people who can resonate with it. But that's
(32:41):
what it is at the end of the day. So
so long as you have that and you're not compromising
in that way, and you're unflinching in who you are
and what you're presenting yourself to be, and you're proud
of it. That's the most important thing, and that's really
all you can tie yourself to at the end of
the day, whether you get signed or not, no matter
how far you go, that's something that you can really
(33:01):
hold on to that will be there forever, right. So
I think it's it's important to find that within yourself
and anchor yourself to that, and I think that's something
that can carry you through this industry that I'm starting.
I'm starting to realize now and I'm starting to feel it.
And just to touch on that point in any in
case anyone's listening as a as a way to make
you feel better, because this definitely made me feel better.
(33:23):
I'm pretty sure it was Leita. I read somewhere or
I heard somewhere that the only reason apparently she ended
up with the Hardy Boys was because she just showed up. Okay,
she just she was She was kind of booked with
Esa Rios like on and off, and and then she
she just was showing up right at work, which is
why it's so important to show face at differing feds.
(33:45):
It's so important you don't realize. And I knew that
at the beginning, forgot about it, and I've been doing
it more recently and I realized the importance of it.
So she she just showed up to show face at
her own job, essentially when they weren't really like any right,
and they weren't really using her at that point, and
she just happened to be there, and someone looked at
her and looked at the Hardy Boys and were like huh,
(34:07):
and then put them together, and then that started that
just because she showed up. Okay, if she hadn't showed up, right,
who knows what the fuck would have happened. And that
is such an iconic fucking pairing or trio, you know,
it's one of the main stays, one of the staples
in wrestling that inspired so many people, like they were
my people. Like as a kid, I was all about
(34:29):
the Hardy Boys and leda are you kidding me? Like
they were my fucking pupil, And they inspired so many people.
And that's just because she happened to be there. No
one was thinking about it before. So it's really not
so much a commentary on your talent or how good
you are. Sometimes it's really just being at the right
place at the right time. So I hope that helps
(34:49):
people if they're listening to this and they find themselves
kind of in that same headspace.
Speaker 1 (34:53):
I love it well. I have a second on shaw.
I call it the five counts, just five random questions. Okay,
who was your first concert? I?
Speaker 2 (35:04):
Oh, I think probably The Spice Girls.
Speaker 1 (35:08):
When I was a kid, I thought that was a
fun show.
Speaker 2 (35:11):
I was really young, and I fell asleep part way,
so I think, to be fair though, I think I
fell asleep towards the end, and I think I enjoyed it.
I really loved Sporty Spice as a kid, I was
a tomboy, so Sporty Spice was my girl. And yeah,
so that was my first one. But in terms of geez,
(35:32):
I wouldn't even say my first badass one because like,
I think that was or more grown up one, because
that was like the Beastie Boys and my chemical romance.
So let's not say that my first metal show, okay
was children to vote them? That sounds more badass. Okay. Uh.
Speaker 1 (35:49):
If you owned a liquor company, brewery, winery, or coffee shop,
which one would you own, and what would the name be?
Speaker 2 (35:54):
Hmm, yeah, geez. I don't know, because I thought it
was funny looking at your podcast because I'm like, I
don't really drink that much coffee anymore, and I don't
really party anymore. So I'm like, mmmm, well, you know,
it would have to be gimmicky. I guess. I guess
it would have to be booze. Why not seems snaky
and evil, you know, not to not to you know,
(36:19):
smash people or people or whatever who drink. I still
do periodically when I have time, but it's rare. Geez.
I don't know. Uh hm, I don't know something. You know.
My finisher was called lethal strike, so I don't know,
let's just put that in there.
Speaker 1 (36:34):
Ye strike for alcohol is great. Yeah, I like that.
Speaker 2 (36:37):
There you go.
Speaker 1 (36:38):
So was the last person you fan girled out on?
Speaker 2 (36:43):
Well, you know, I guess that kind of ties back
into what I was saying before because I was really
into the hardy boys and Leda. You know, I guess
I kind of look a bit like Lido when I
think about it, with the red hair, and I think
I have the tattoo on the same side cheated when
she was working more anyway, But I love the Hearty
Boys and Lena and Jeff Hardy was my favorite, and
so he's Actually I had met Matt Hardy before briefly,
(37:07):
just had hide to him real quick, but I never
met Jeff Hardy, who was like I got. I thought
I was gonna marry him when I was a kid,
like twenty other kids. But anyway, which is weird because
I was a kid and he was like twenty. But anyway,
but I went to show face at GCW because I
had a rare Yeah, it was great. I had a
rare weekend off because I was trying to do more
regular people shit. And of course I saw that GCW
(37:31):
was running two days and Suppolski was supposed to have
a sevener of that weekend. So I'm like, well, that's excellent.
I guess I'm gonna drive fucking six or seven hours
so New Jersey because obviously I can't stop myself, it seems.
But so I went there and geez, you know the show.
I went to like five different shows that weekend to
show face and help out. Yeah, dude, it was fucked up.
(37:53):
It was I would only sleep. I don't know why.
Most nights I could only fall asleep on five or
six in the morning, and even though I wasn't wrestling,
and uh, I'd only sleep maybe four hours each night
and uh and then show up and show face and
the really long days driving back was fucking insane. I
don't even I could get into that. We have time,
but anyway, but so I'm at this JCW show hit
(38:17):
him up on Friday, which I thought was an excellent show. Honestly,
it was great. I was ringside for a lot of
it because I was helping with like I guess security
a bit and Win Crew, and so I was like
right by the fucking ring and man, fucking the first match,
the opener was a trio's match, which included a few
(38:37):
people like Jordan Oliver, Alec Price, Gringa, Loco Jack cart Wheel,
U Cappuccino Jones, and I think it was supposed to
be Marcus Mathers who was with Alec Price and An Oliver,
but he got subbed out with Terryaki and that was
such a fucking good match. It was a banger of
a match, I guess as expected when you look at
the people who were in there, and it's one of
(38:59):
those things where it's like I think you're even good
as a wrestler, and you see a match like that
and you're like, wow, fuck me, I guess right, yeah,
straight up like one of those. But it was it
was great and and so then, uh, I knew the
Hardy Boys were gonna make an appearance, but they didn't
really specify when. And uh and then eventually, you know,
(39:19):
after their win, you know, Alec Price and Jordan Oliver
and and uh Terry Aka, they're chilling in the ring,
and then Vandal forty eight, which is a faction in GCW,
come in and just like pretty much run in and
beat them up a bit. And then who shows up
to make the same but the fucking Hardy Boys, right,
and I'm like, holy shit, So they fucking come out,
(39:40):
you know, they fucking put the booths whatever, toss them out,
and and then cut a promo like Matt and Jeff
and it was it was fucking crazy to me because
I've never been I was right like ringside, I've never
been that close. Uh again, I met Matt Hardy briefly,
but to Jeff Hardy had never been that close. And
I'm just looking up at them and they just look radiant, right,
(40:01):
and I'm like, what the fuck is shit? Like, where
am I? You know? It was great and I was
just beaming, like I couldn't stop smiling everyone around me.
We were in such great spirits. Everyone was just so engaged,
obviously because like, fuck is the Hardy boys, you know
what I mean, And they got this really nice promo.
(40:23):
So I mean, I wouldn't say I was fangirling on
him on on him recently, but again, growing up, Jeff
Hardy was my fucking guy. So seeing him for the
first time, you know that up close was like amazing. Uh.
We made eye contact a few times and he smiled
at me and I was like, holy shit, you know
(40:43):
this is crazy. So that was fucking wild, man. I
I fucking had an excellent time that weekend. It was
so fun.
Speaker 1 (40:50):
I love it. Number four. Who are what inspires you?
Speaker 2 (40:57):
Jeez? I uh, I I don't know, man, I think
everything I think love that. Yeah, I no, straight up man.
I feel like life in itself is inspiring in the
best and worst ways. If you can be inspired in
a bad way, but like there's so much complexity and
duality when it comes to life and wrestling in general.
I think I just take inspiration from everything, whether it's
(41:19):
the good things or the good experiences or connections that
I have to propel me forward, right, and if I
can just root myself more in that with the good
people around me, or even if it's like the negative experiences, right, like,
it might suck ass, and you know, maybe it's hard
to take it at first, but I almost always will
use bad experiences as fuel to bring myself forward. If
(41:42):
there's something to learn from it, if there's a way
to get better as a person or as a wrestler,
I'm going to try my best to find it and
to use that as a way to just progress. Right. So,
honestly everything I love that.
Speaker 1 (41:54):
Yeah, that's perfect. And finally, what would you tell your
seventeen year old self?
Speaker 2 (41:59):
Oh? Sorry, you kind of would I tell myself?
Speaker 1 (42:00):
What? What would you tell your seventeen year old self?
Speaker 2 (42:04):
Oh? Seven years? Oh jeez ah, man, I don't know,
Like I was, I you know, not to get I
guess too much into it, but I I had a
really like mess up childhood and a rough upbringing, and
my teenage years really fucking sucked. I feel like that
was the period that I was the most depressed and
probably just processing things and not realizing it, and so
I was really numb to everything at that point, I guess,
(42:28):
very different than I am right now, and I didn't
think and not to say that, you know, life is
easy right now. I'm generally pretty grateful. There's ups and downs,
but I'm definitely in a better headspace now than I
would have been than I was at that point, and
so I didn't really think. I didn't know if I
would make it, you know, to my age, I really
(42:49):
didn't think. So, so I didn't plan a head for
the future. I don't know if there's anything I could
have told myself, because like, honestly, I could say, hey,
you know, there's a lot of shit that you're gonna
do that's gonna be really awesome and you have no
idea and to keep going. But like maybe I had
to not know that to kind of build the strength
(43:11):
that I have now and the resilience that I have, you.
Speaker 1 (43:13):
Know what I mean, Yeah, I get that exactly.
Speaker 2 (43:16):
Yeah, you know. So it's like, I don't know. I guess, hmmm,
I guess maybe the thing that I would tell myself
is to try not to be so hard on yourself
and that you think that other people haven't figured out,
but let me tell you, they fucking don't, and you're
(43:36):
doing just fine. You're doing just fine.
Speaker 1 (43:40):
Again one of the things you can tell yourself at
any age.
Speaker 2 (43:43):
Yep. Yeah, yeah, that's something I think growing up. I
always again, because my upbringing was kind of fucked up
and whatever, I always thought that, like other people, maybe
had it better, had it more figured out, or whatever.
And now that I've kind of gotten to the point
where I feel like I'm just like generally more like
secure and stable. I'm not perfect up and down, but
I think I'm in a clearer headspace. I'm like interacting
(44:04):
with people and relating with them, and I'm like, oh, okay, right,
So that wasn't what was going on. Okay, so you
know I was doing okay, I guess better than I realized.
Speaker 1 (44:17):
But yeah, I love it. Well, if people want to
find out more about you, follow you online, see you live,
buy your merch, do all the things, how can they
do it?
Speaker 2 (44:25):
Yeah? So I am on social media, so I couldn't
get this the same username across all platforms unfortunately. So
on Twitter, I'm Katrina Creed all together, so it's Katrina
with a K Creed with a C. On Facebook, it's
same thing Katrina Creed, but a space obviously between Katrina
(44:46):
and Creed. On Instagram it's kat katwth k dot Creed
Creed with the C, and same thing for TikTok. I'm
trying to be more active on TikTok, but I do
not fucking understand TikTok. Honestly, I don't get it. I'm trying, man,
I'm trying. I put out some stuff occasionally on there.
I have a YouTube channel as well, Katrina Creed, and yeah,
(45:09):
you can pretty much find me on there. I'm trying
to put up a merch store. I'm trying to figure
that out because people do want shirts in the States
and shipping is fucking insane, so especially internationally. Yeah, dude,
it's nice. Like I'm like, I can't possibly, you know,
justify sending this to you and then charge the shirt's
twenty five Canadian. I'm not going to charge you fucking
(45:29):
fifty dollars Canadian on top of it. That's fucking insane, dude.
I'm sorry. It's just when i'm there, I'll try to,
you know, give it to you. And so that's about it.
And I don't know when this is going to come
out probably in a few days, will it so that
I can yes, yeah, okay, if it comes after out
on Monday afternoon, okay, I will be parts of which, jeez,
(45:55):
I don't know what I was thinking, but I'm going
to be part of Mystery Wrestling's attempt at breaking an
unofficial world record where we're going to wrestle. Yeah, We're
going to wrestle for twenty four hours straight.
Speaker 1 (46:07):
This is awesome.
Speaker 2 (46:09):
Yeah, it's awesome, but it's also like, what the fuck?
So I luckily it's eight versus eight and it's by elimination,
but I have a feeling I'm going to try to
be there for as long as I can because I'm
stubborn and I'm going to try to help out. Yeah.
But what's great about it is that we're also raising
money for the Canadian Counts Cancer Society. So it's a
(46:32):
stream that's going to be doing that, and it's in
conjunction with C four and their annual event called Fighting Back,
where they also raise money for cancer initiatives, specifically that
foundation in honor of Frank Money, who passed away who
is a worker around here around our area. I think
it was in twenty ten or eleven, and so C
(46:52):
four has actually raised up until up until now, like
I think five or six hundred thousand dollars for for
cancer research. So this that we're going to do is
pretty much going to be for that. So if this
is coming out on Monday and you happen to hear it,
please join us. It's going to be live stream on Twitch.
I'm going to be posting about it on Instagram, on Twitter.
(47:14):
I might do a vlog if I remember, but if not,
I'm probably going to post stories about my deterioration over
twenty four hours if you're interested in that. And yeah,
if not, you can always watch the stream after right
after it's published, and you can definitely I would very
much encourage you to to donate, you know, after the
(47:36):
factor during or even if you hear about this after
and only watch it after or find out about it after,
please you know, donate, That would be great. So that
should be interesting.
Speaker 1 (47:47):
Yeah, I love that. Yeah, I can't wait to see
what happens there.
Speaker 2 (47:50):
Yeah, me too, in a way.
Speaker 1 (47:53):
In a way, well, thank you so much. I've loved
this interview and I feel like we definitely have talked
way longer. So I look forward to having you back
on the show in the future, and I can't wait
to see what the future does hold for you.
Speaker 2 (48:04):
Absolutely, yeah, no, honestly, thank you so much for having
me on. I love I mean, I love talking about
deeper topics and philosophical and psychological one. So yeah, So,
I mean, this was great. I actually prefer that than
talking about myself and my wrestling and what I've done.
This is I find really intriguing. So it was great,
and thank you so much for having me on. I
really enjoyed this interview. It was one of my favorites.
(48:26):
So I'd love to be back on and shoot the
shit about more of this stuff, honestly, And again, congrats
on what you've been doing and I wish you the
best man. Keep going out there and getting those bookings.
Speaker 1 (48:35):
Thank you you too, Thank you, Thank you so much,
Ya Katrina for being on the show again. Make sure
to check out the Mystery Wrestling twenty four hour live
stream that is happening two days starting at ten am
(48:57):
Eastern Time nine am Central. You do the math backwards
or forwards however you can, but definitely make sure to
check that out is happening for twenty four hours and
it is helping the Canadian Cancer Society and who doesn't
want to help them? So while you do that, make
sure to follow us on social media. It is bruisers Pod.
That is b R E W S T R S
p O D on the Instagram, the threads and the Twitter.
(49:19):
If you want to send us an email, it is
Bruiserspod at gmail dot com. If you're want to follow
me directly, it is Rody John. That is R O
D I E j O N. Rody John is the
name on the Twitter and on un tapped In case
you want to find out on drinking, maybe we can
have a beer together. If you're wanna follow me on
the threads or the Instagram, it is official Rody John.
So until next time, make sure to enjoy life, drink
local and cheers
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