In 2019, we were on the retirement tour, but at the same time, there’s a lot of memories, a lot of matches that probably have meant a lot to you, Lufisto.
For instance, in Smash wrestling, I’m sure it holds a near-and-dear place in your heart. What can you say about your time here, your time in the ring, your time in Shine? Speak of that if you could.
Lufisto: There are so many things I could say. There’s definitely memorable matches. I’ve had a long feud with Mercedes Martinez.
I always believed she was, my wrestling soulmate, so she comes to mind when I think about my career. Another person would be Cheerleader Melissa.
There are the famous hardcore matches versus Joe Lider in Mexico. The last time I was there, people were still talking about it.
They still want us to fight. They’re like, “We need a Lider/Lufisto II.” And I’m “I don’t do this anymore.” And the Necro Butcher, he’s definitely one of the toughest people I’ve ever met. Man, that fight, it hurt.
It still hurts today. My time at Shine was definitely one of the best things in my career because there was a point where I was kind of a little bit not tired of wrestling, but blasé because I had been the babyface for so long, and Shine Wresling and nobody would give me the microphone.
And Shine Wrestling hit me, and they’re like, “Well, today you’re going to be heel. Here’s the mic. Say what you want. It has to go along those lines,” blah, blah, blah.
And it just brought back so much love for wrestling. It was a great opportunity first of all for, for me to be trusted with their championship, and for so long.
And the fact that they had me as a heel was like a breath of fresh air. And I, I was cutting so many promos, and I was thinking, “I’m not too bad at this,” and I’m, and I actually like it.”
And so they helped me a lot with promo and self-confidence, because nobody before that, I think, had ever given me the freedom to do all that.
And when it comes to Smash. Smash is special to me because it’s built by people that were there when I started. I think Smash is the best Canadian promotion ever.
The talent that’s here is just incredible and I will always have love, respect, and admiration for Tyson Dukes. When I started wrestling, there were no girls, so I was wrestling the guys, and it was important for me to be an equal, and it was hard back then to find guys who wanted to wrestle me.
Lufisto: The Wounded Owl – Women Wrestling’s French Canadian Pioneer
Why was that? What do you think?
Lufisto: Intergender wrestling was not a thing. It was like a girl can’t fight a man or it’s domestic violence, and I’m “No, superheroes can. If Batman and Catwoman can fight, why can’t I?”
So it’s always been my argument. And when it comes to Tyson, he’s the one that went to the promoter, which was like Hardcore Wrestling Federation back then, and he wanted a feud with me.
And even back then, he was like textbooks, textbooks, Tyson Dukes. So he was so good, and I’ve always- I will always be grateful for him to, um, accept me as a wrestler.
Not a female wrestler, like, as an equal. And man, I, I have so much love for him. It’s, it, it’s hard to describe, but he made me better, and he, he made me a better wrestler, and he gave me confidence when I had none.
Now that you leave, do you feel like you’re leaving wrestling in a better place than when you first came in?
Lufisto: For women’s wrestling. Definitely. Like I said I have to fight for everything. I have to fight to be on the card, I have to fight to be taken seriously. I even fought the government in Ontario so we could be seen as equals.
So, there was legislation that women couldn’t?
Lufisto: The legislation said a man and a woman cannot be in the ring at the same time, and it was, from 1924, something like that.
So it was really, really old. And, the athletic commission banned me from wrestling here, and the guys, and it’s “Oh, maybe if there’s a woman, you can come,” but there was none back then.
It took me four years, and I took ’em down. And, not only the legislation, the whole wrestling athl- athletic commission. Today when you look at women wrestling, it’s actually a cool thing.
You see a lot of girls joining schools. You see a lot of girls in the crowd. Back then it was mostly a male crowd. Now there’s a lot of girls, young/older, teenagers, and they all want to be wrestlers.
And it’s, uh, we talk about the revolution, but the real revolution happened on the indies with the few female wrestlers who fought so hard that one wrestler became two, and three, and four, and then a whole promotion like Shimmer, uh, came to life.
And in Quebec, uh, Femme Fatale, and Shine Wrestling, and if, if we’re thinking even bigger, um, you know, there’s Saraya Knight in England. She always took good care of the women.
And Australia with Madison Eagles. So, you have all those important people, um, all around the world, and that made women’s wrestling. It’s not a WWE thing. It’s way before that, and it’s the hardworking women of the independent circuit.
So, I know that when I was growing up, to see Fabulous Moolah or Wendy Richter, the way they moved in the ring wasn’t like what you see today.
Where do you think that paradigm, that shift is?
Lufisto: It’s fluid, they’re hard-hitting, the kicks are stiff, the moves, it’s just fluid motion, but was very boxy with the way women’s wrestling was.
Is it the training? Is it the match quality? What do you contribute or attribute?
Lufisto: I think it all starts with inspiration. The women who pushed the envelope, who made that wrestling change for women’s wrestling, were pretty much all, I can speak for myself, big fans of Japanese women’s wrestling.
Hard-hitting, very intense, big moves, impressive, all kinds of sizes. So, I think a lot of it comes from Joshi wrestling and the typical Canadian American being inspired by women like Bull Nakano, Manami Toyota, Akira Hokuto, and Aja Kong.
I don’t want to say that there are ever regrets, because you never want to live with regrets, and you’re proud of everything you achieve.
Lufisto: My perspective on something that we wish we could have seen a conclusion to is, is there anything you felt that there could have been a culmination or a match or a feud that, for whatever reason, just didn’t come to be? I was scheduled to have a big feud at Chikara with Kimberly.
I was looking forward to that. Really looking forward to that, the princess versus the wounded owl. It was almost like Disney, like where when I come in, a lot of people told me like, “You look like Maleficent.”
She’s the princess, so I was looking forward to that. And of course, with me moving back to Canada, the knee being, you know, not so good, and that didn’t happen.
I wish there had been more of Jordynne Grace and me. Because of that, the feud was so intense, and Jordynne and I have such great chemistry.
I mean, she is my baby pug, and I’m her mama pug. So, we have such great chemistry as a tag team and as opponents.
We’re both kind of the same build, hard-hitting. And Jordynne is so focused on giving quality matches that working with her is always fun and it’s challenging.
And you really feel that she loves this, so it’s a pleasure to work with her. So that would’ve been something great. One of my regrets is that I wish I had a title in Shimmer.
That never happened. I mean, titles are not important, but when you’ve been there for so long, you know, it would’ve been nice
But I had the Shine Championship. I had incredible matches at the… Beyond Wrestling always took great care of me. I mean, I wrestled AR Fox, Chris Dickinson, Jaka, Viper, and Anthony Green.
There are so many people I’ve wrestled at Beyond because Drew Cordeiro always believed in me, and, man, he’s like, “You can do anything. You can do anything.”
And he would, like, give me so much confidence. He’d like to pump me up for my matches, so I mean there’s a lot of things I would’ve liked to do. I mean- The, now, like WWE, no.
Never an interest?
Lufisto:: I had a big interest. I wish I had been in the Mae Young for a while, and now, looking back, I don’t think that would’ve been the place.
I look at All Elite and think that would be a better place for me, or even IMPACT, because of my wrestling style. I don’t have the typical look. I think I would fit a lot better there, and I think my style would bring so much more there. Back then, because WWE was the only option, I was, “Oh, I need to be there.”
But now there are so many other options that I feel I would bring a lot more there. If not as a wrestler, as a trainer and agent. I love putting matches together. I just love it. I love when kids are trying to put something together and they’re struggling, and I ask, “What are your moves?
And I piece things together. I just, I just love it. With everything that happened the past two years, they were really rough on the personal side for me with illness and moving back to Canada and all kinds of stuff. And right now, I’m at peace with so many things.
I’m in a very good place in my life. Good. I have really good people in my life now. Now that I, as the Ed Sheeran song says, “Now that I see clearly.” I think if there was one more thing to do, All Elite would be the place ‘because they take care of their wrestlers. Everybody I know who’s signed there is happy.
They’re like employees. They’re not like “Ah, you’re an independent contractor. We don’t care.” That, that means a lot. feel that it’s a promotion by wrestlers for wrestlers. So that would’ve been the thing.
It’s so interesting because, you’ve unfortunately sustained an injury, and that holds you back. Is that one of the drawbacks of being an independent contractor, not having the health and the protection-
Lufisto: Oh, definitely … of the company behind you because there are so many things that can happen when you’re in a ring. And you know, we’re all trained not to get hurt, but it happens.
We’re working with our bodies. Definitely. I mean, my knee is the way it is because when, years ago, the first injury happened, and I tore up my ACL and my meniscus. I was the only girl, so I was not, like, allowed to be hurt because people would call me, “Oh, look at the girl.
She’s hurt. She doesn’t belong,” blah, blah, blah. So when I got hurt, I just kept it really quiet and kept going. And I kept going on it, so it got bad.
And so I had a small surgery where they cleaned up my knee, but I was wrestling on a knee without any cartilage. So it was bones hitting. 20-some years, ‘because that was in 2002. We’re in 2019, and I kept going, going, going like that with that knee.
And not really coming back out. It is, it is really awful. So, is training or even a wrestling school in Quebec something you might want to do? At first, I didn’t want to. I was like, “I don’t want to take care of people,” blah, blah, blah.
I don’t want to be a mom. I was like, it’s like having children, but I’ve been giving seminars, and I’ve been enjoying it a lot of taking people under my wing where, um, you just to guide them, and it’s really fulfilling. I almost feel better when I have a good match. I’m really happy.
I had a good match with Sebastian Suave; The crowd was really into this. I feel great about it. But if I help someone and I see them having a match, that’s awesome.
I feel even better now. It’s fulfilling, I feel like I’m giving back. And when I started, nobody wanted to help me, so I’ve always felt like I needed to help others because I didn’t want them to go through the same crap.
Lufisto: Jordyne (Grace). Jordan, Tessa Blanchard. When it comes to WWE, I love Toni Storm. She’s amazing. I’ve worked her. I love Jazzy Gabert. Yeah. She’s a bada**. My God, I haven’t been watching WWE lately. These are the first names that come to mind, really.
Is there anyone you’re proud to see flourishing right now? From your perspective, who is?
Lufisto: I’m like, “You know, I’ve helped in some small way.” And it’s not necessarily taking credit, it’s more that you’re proud of them. Like any parent would watch their child ride their bike without the training wheels.
One person that comes to mind is Jessika Carr, who is not a wrestler now, but Jessika Carr. She’s a referee now. And she was my partner at Shine and C4. She’s always been humble, so nice. She’s a hard worker, always smiling. And to see her.
She’s a good person, and she seems so happy right now. That it, I’m so happy to see her there. I love what Shayna’s (Baszler) doing.
Shayna’s one of them that I, I… I love Shayna. She’s one of a kind. She’s not in that mould. She’s different. She’s a legit bad**. I love Shayna.
I wonder what she did tonight. I don’t know, she was facing IYO, so. Oh, I don’t know. It would be interesting. I wonder- I’m sure that would’ve been, I’m sure that was great. Yeah. I’m sure that was great.
Have you served on a tour of duty in Japan or competed in Japan?
Lufisto: I did it twice. I did wrestle for A to Z, which was ARSION, for Yumiko Kota and Mima Shimoda. And I also wrestled, and I had a little tour with, uh, International Grand Prix. Nothing big, but yeah.
Do you ever see international women, um, being as successful domestically in North America as we’ve seen with the Tessa’s and Toni, or is language a bit of an issue?
Lufisto: I look at it, and it seems to be an issue in WWE. Asuka went really high, and now, because she can’t. She’s struggling with English. She speaks English, but I feel you never see her as much.
But as I said, I haven’t watched for the past few weeks. In other promotions, I feel like, going back to All Elite, the work speaks for itself.
Kenny Omega and Okada didn’t have to say a word. They just had to wrestle. The work rate speaks for itself there. It’s more wrestling-oriented.
There’s definitely an opening for other people now, I think, with that option. And I just, you just look at iMPACT. Josh Alexander is finally out. He’s so good.
It was a long time coming. He should have been on TV forever. I’m so happy for him and for Ethan Page and me to see my Canadian peers making it and doing so well.
Fantastic. Super. Next match, what is scheduled? What’s to come up before the end of the year for you?
Lufisto: Next week I’m fighting, and an up-and-coming rookie named Ryan Donovan, who I think is wrestling in Smash tomorrow, actually.
He’s very passionate and hungry kid. I’ll be defending my La Lutte C’est Vrai, which means wrestling is real. I’m the main champion of the promotion, actually an all-male champion.
I’ll be defending against him. Um, then after that, I have another defence of that title against another fresh new face from Quebec called Francisco La Cruz.
He’s pretty good. He’s pretty good, too. I’m having a lot of fun with what I call the kids. But they’re, they’re, they’re, they’re hungry, they’re humble, they want to succeed.
If I can give them a little bit of my help. Uh, I’m tag teaming also with Cat Wong got, which I’m helping in every, like, wrestling aspect right now, and we are the JCW Tag Team Champions, a male championship as well right now.
So I have two titles right now, so if I can keep them till that, I don’t know. But it’s, yeah, it’s been, it’s been fun. Like, right now I’m taking bookings with people I love, with friends. I’m not driving to work. It’s a road trip now. It’s fun.
I slowed down wrestling. Right now, like, I’m trying to enjoy every single one of the little things I do. Even if I don’t go back to the bigger promotions I was at, if I lost what was wrestling to me.
It’s hard to explain, but I was so into working- Like wrestling work, that I forgot why I loved it. And right now, I’m just enjoying, and I feel I’ve gone back to the basics.
Lufisto: Sometimes there are a number of little things that kind of I just think- I love it again, right? I just think it’s all the bad stuff that happened last year.
And living in the States for me was, it was not working out. And the cancer and so many things that it’s like I needed to- I needed to go back to my family, my friends, it’s, going back to the sources and yeah, it’s…
And focusing on what’s important, not wrestling work, but why I love wrestling and being with my friends and all that stuff.
That’s good. That’s good. Do you have a last match, an ideal person that you wanna say goodbye to? I named him already. And who would that be? Tyson Dukes.
Where shall it be? Will it happen in the smash ring? Does it happen at home in Quebec? Like, where… Have you set a date?
Lufisto: No. No. It’s that one thing that’s really funny. I’ve planned to retire, um, in December, but it’s like I can’t, I can’t get the last matches I want, so I’m like, “Am I postponing this ‘because I can’t get the last one?” Yeah.
Everybody wants me to keep going. It’s just like, Kat, Kat Von Gun, my partner, she’s like, “Hey, stay with me. We tag. I take the bumps.
You just do the yapping.” ‘Because we’re heels. She’s like, “We’re good. You’ll keep going for years.” Right. “I’ll take the bumps.” Oh, God. She’s like, “Don’t quit.” It’s like… No.
You have so much to give outside of the ring. I think your passion, your heart, your smile, um, and your love will transcend the ring, and we’re better for having seen you wrestle.
Lufisto: Thank you so much.
Thank you. On behalf of Lufisto, we won’t say goodbye. We’re going to say “see you later.”
To listen to the audio version of this interview click here.
