Gentleman Jervis Cottonbelly is perhaps as well-known for his outspokenness on mental health issues as he is for his daring in-ring exploits. His social media account is full of positive messages and affirmations to inspire his fans to be open in addressing their mental health situations and is a firm advocate for mental health awareness.
In many ways, his voice reminds fans that strength isn’t just measured in wins or championships, but in the courage to face life’s toughest battles outside the ring. For those struggling, knowing they’re not alone is vital—and it’s why resources like All In Solutions play such an important role. By offering compassionate care and comprehensive treatment for both mental health and addiction, they provide a safe path toward healing, proving that recovery is not only possible but worth fighting for.
In a recent interview, Jervis described his steps towards maintaining his own mental health in the pro wrestling environment, as well as some of the individuals he considers positive influences in the industry. He also discussed the changing culture of pro wrestling and his impact on it.
“I think the first step for me is to surround myself with honest people and good people who will help me stay accountable,” Jervis begins, “because a lot of the time you’re not just, you know, they say character’s how you behave when no one’s watching. A lot of the time, what inspires my character is my standing within my community.”
“Now, the professional wrestling community, it’s physical and digital,” he continues. “You know, we gather together for shows, but we also gather together on social media platforms like Reddit and Twitter. We listen to podcasts like this one here, which is so special, and we have this community and at times in my career, I have been less than – I’ve behaved in less than an exemplary fashion.
What I’ve learned is that – do my actions help the community or do they hurt them? That’s a question I have to take with me everywhere I go.
And putting that in my brain of ‘does this help our wrestling community, or does it harm our wrestling community?’ That’s helped me to show better character, you know, when no one’s watching, or in, for me, I mean, I take different counseling courses and especially now that we’re pretty much quarantined still, you know, I watched and read a lot of self-help books and things to learn about the – I have two mental disorders that kind of compound one another and I try to learn as much as I can about them because often they get the best of me and I’m not the exemplary person, I’m not a leader by example, which is what I want to be. And when I’m at my healthiest, I do believe I’m a good leader and I believe I lead by a positive example.”
Jervis gave a few examples of individuals that he feels are strong ambassadors for a positive culture in professional wrestling.
“So, what I’m trying to do now is continue to preach that message of positivity. Even if I can’t be the leader, well, then someone like Danhausen or Warhorse, they take that flag of positivity, they give it a different voice, and their own unique interpretation of community, and friendship amongst the wrestling community. They take that flag and they run with it when I can’t. And, you know, for a moment I felt like Orange Cassidy and Chuck Taylor, they said, ‘hey, Jervey, here, take this flag a bit, and I got to wave it for a while and say, ‘hey, look at how much fun we’re having!
‘ And, you know, it’s like you pass it around. A lot of times, the best times is when we all wave the flag at the same time. But as somebody who, again, it takes work to be to stay positive, I can’t say that I’m always flying the flag of positivity. But I can say that I always want to and that I’m trying my best.”
Cottonbelly agreed with the need for more positive ambassadors in professional wrestling, but explained that a change in culture is more in how wrestlers and fans directly interact.
“Well, I think more is – I think, yes, partly it’s the need for more of those, but I think more than the positivity, it’s about opening your heart and your mind. There used to be more of a one direction, one-way mind as it pertained to the audience of a professional wrestling show. There was performers here, audience there, money goes this way, energy and performance goes that way. That’s the exchange. Now, it’s much more intricate. I, personally, I don’t even ever tell people that I have fans. I don’t call them fans. Sometimes I say supporters and well-wishers. Most of the time I say friends. Now we’re not all best friends and we’re not all close friends. But, we’re more than acquaintances because we share pain and heartache and excitement and anger. You know, everything that we feel when we’re at a wrestling show together, we feel collectively. We feel that together. So, sharing those emotions, again, being a part of the community, me opening my ears and listening not just to the other wrestlers and promoters, but listening to the audience and what they want and what they connect with. That, to me is just – that’s important. That’s how we make small, little, you know, incremental change that’s sustainable.”
Please credit Spencer Love/Love Wrestling with any transcriptions.
On January 16th, the IMPACT Knockouts Tag Team Championships will make their triumphant returns to TV following a seven-year absence. While she won’t be competing for the titles at that night’s Hard to Kill PPV, Deonna Purrazzo and her partner, Kimber Lee were participants in IMPACT’s recent tag team title tournament.
Purrazzo joined us recently to discuss the revitalized Knockout Tag Team Titles as well as her thoughts on working with Kimber Lee throughout her run in IMPACT.
Bringing back the tag titles was something that wrestling fans had clamoured for for the better part of a year. With so many natural partnerships on the roster, it was something that Purrazzo saw as both inevitable and as an incredible opportunity for the women in today’s wrestling scene, whether currently working for IMPACT or not.
“Yeah! I think women’s wrestling is so strong right now, and there’s so – there’s a plethora of women who just want an opportunity,” says the Virtuosa. “I think with the creation of the Women’s Tag Team Championships, and then Impact has so many Tag Team Championships right now, I think bringing those titles back would be an amazing opportunity for us. There’s so many of us that have alliances and have partnerships with other people that it makes sense. If there was ever a time to do it, and there was ever a time to grow a tag division, now would be the time.
There’s so many women that can be brought in to just aid to any roster right now. I think capitalizing on that would be super cool for Impact, especially, but for any company.
“
Throughout her time in IMPACT, Purrazzo has been paired with her curator, Kimber Lee. Of course, as evidenced by the recent Knockout’s Tag Title Tournament, Lee is far more than simply Purrazzo’s manager, assistant, or valet, but her tag team partner as well. It’s a paring that’s more than paid off for both women thus far.
“It’s – (in) Impact the women’s division is so great because it’s all a ton of girls that kind of were right before me, but I kind of came up with,” explains the Virtuosa. “They were the leaders of my generation, so to speak. So Kim was one of those girls, I had only wrestled once on the indies, and it was one of my favorite matches ever, but we only ever got to do it once. So, to kind of be in a place now that she’s kind of – we call her my curator.”
“Every Virtuosa needs a curator to be in a tag team with her, and to kind of be feeling out this process with people who are familiar feels incredible.”
Please credit Spencer Love/Love Wrestling with any transcriptions used.
On October 21, 2020, Deonna Purrazzo finally signed a long-term deal with IMPACT Wrestling, positioning her to be one of the faces of the brand’s expansion plans moving forward. It was a move that was widely praised throughout the professional wrestling industry; however, many were surprised that it had taken so long for the Virtuosa to sign with the promotion after making her IMPACT debut nearly five months earlier.
Purrazzo and I chatted recently to discuss her signing with IMPACT and the process behind committing to the promotion long-term.
While a contract may have taken longer than many fans may have expected, it was all by design, says Purrazzo.
“Well, I think that, for me, especially like the last – even before WWE and NXT, like, I was contracted to Ring of Honor – and then I left Ring of Honor and I went right to NXT, and there was no breathing room in between that,” she explains. “Now, I just think for me, it was I’ve signed two contracts. I wasn’t ready for what came with those things. I wasn’t necessarily happy with both of those contracts and the way my time had panned out. So, let’s take a step back and let’s kind of take a breather and see what happens and, you know, see, the way that creative sees me and the roles that I’m going to be put in and kind of feel this process out a little bit more now that I have some time.”
Of course, the current state of the world certainly didn’t help matters when it came to putting pen to paper.
“More than just personally, I mean, we’re still in the midst of a global pandemic, and I think that it’s not just a hesitation on my part. It’s also a hesitation on theirs,” Purrazzo comments. “Like, ‘where’s our company stand? Where do we see this person? Are we going to invest in this person in the long term?’ I don’t know why it’s maybe taken this long, but I think if I had to surmise why, it’s just like a mutual understanding of, like, ‘let’s see and wait,’ and then the world’s crazy. So let’s see and wait (for) what 2021 brings us, you know?”
“We’ve grown this like mutual respect for each other over the last four months and really developed a great relationship that I can only hope transpires for the next couple years.”
Please credit Spencer Love/Love Wrestling with any transcriptions used.
Spencer Love is joined by the reigning IMPACT Knockouts Champion, Deonna Purrazzo to discuss her move to IMPACT, working with Kimber Lee, female wrestlers who inspired her, what keeps her motivated, whether she’s a fan of the Knockouts name and so much more!
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It’s Monday, you know what that means.
…
Actually this is still a relatively new feature article, so you probably don’t, but that’s fine. If you happened upon Sunday’s LL&L post, you’ll know that this is where I will look back on the last seven days in the world of professional wrestling and share my thoughts on some key moments that happened with the various wresting companies and let you know what I loved, what I liked and what I didn’t care for.
And so I shall do just that… Next week.
After this past week though, there is only one thing I really want to talk about. In a year that took so much from us, the last week delivered one final Seth Rollins-like Curb Stomp to our collective consciousness with the passing of Jon Huber.
Now that we’ve had time to process what has happened, I think one of the lasting impressions that will stay with me, is not just that entire community – regardless of company affiliation or loyalty – came together to mourn, but that it was a reminder of something many of us take for granted.
Wrestlers are human.
I know that seems like such a dumb, obvious statement on the surface. “Of course they are, you didn’t think they were?” might be an expected response, but what I mean though is that it’s so easy for us as fans and media to speculate on the stuff we love to talk about as it relates to wrestling. The “armchair booker” type stuff as it were. Who’s getting the big push? What talent is being wasted and “buried”? Who is happy with where they are, or unhappy with how they are being used? Who should be given a title? Who needs to be taken off our TVs?
“Where’s Brodie Lee?”
A month had passed since his outstanding Dog Collar match with Cody Rhodes back at the start of October, and there was hardly a mention of Brodie Lee on AEW programming going into November, even with Dark Order segments being a regular occurrence.
“Where’s Brodie Lee?” I asked one of the wrestling group texts I was in. “Was that whole thing just to make Cody look good? What was even the point of any of that if they’re just going to keep Brodie off TV after it?”
There had been speculation that he was nursing an injury – perhaps an ankle suffered during the match with Rhodes – but to me that didn’t compute. Surely an ankle injury wasn’t enough to keep him off of TV outright, was it? Couldn’t they tape some vignettes showing him still in command of the Dark Order? Let him have a turn at the commentary table for a night. From my armchair booking position, it felt like such a wasted opportunity to keep Lee from being a main event talent. His absence from TV made zero sense to me, or to a lot of other people.
What we didn’t know though was around that same time, Jon Huber was being admitted into Intensive Care. Outside of his immediate family, a handful of AEW officials and perhaps some close friends, no one knew. Not that it was our right to know of course, which is something some of us needed a reminder of in the hours after Huber’s death when we were all trying to make sense of what had just happened.
This past week was a bittersweet reminder that is that there is far more to wrestlers than what you see on your TV on a weekly basis.
I “knew” Luke Harper / Brodie Lee, but I didn’t really know Jon Huber, (beyond neat little personal facts, like that he was a dedicated Toronto Maple Leafs fan) and really I didn’t need to. At it’s core, wrestling is supposed to be entertainment and while we know more about it and how it works than any previous generation, it’s still cool when a little bit of kayfabe is kept alive. Like any kind of form of entertainment – be it TV, movie or sports – we’re not really supposed to think about them once the cameras are off and they go to their homes to live their lives as husband, or wife, and/or parents, and so a lot of times, we just… don’t.
Until something like this happens, when we’re reminded that wrestlers can be just as vulnerable as any of us, but also shown through the number of Easter egg tributes throughout WWE programing, and the masterful tribute show AEW produced on Wednesday, that while Luke Harper / Brodie Lee will be missed, the person behind those personas – Jon Huber – will be missed far more.
By gawd, we made it! We rang in the New Year. And, now there is more optimism than ever that that 2021 is going to be better than 2020 (although it wasn’t ALL bad). The machine that is WWE is always pushing forward, and with the new year, they have some very big decisions to make. Here is where I think they should start!
A More Fleshed Out Tag Team Division
It’s no secret that WWE has never really put a premium on tag team wrestling. By and large, tag teams are relegated to the mid-card. However, there is nothing else like it; the pace, the energy, the excitement. However, the unceremonious dissolution of Heavy Machinery and The IIconics, and injuries to The Vikings Raiders and The Usos, has left the tag team division for RAW, SmackDown, NXT, and the women’s division embarrassingly thin. In fact, the current Women’s Tag Team Champions only had their first match together at TLC on December 20th. Conversely, it seems that the mid-card and main event scene is bloated with superstars unable to get quality air time. In 2021, I’d like to see WWE try to create some legitimate and cohesive tag teams forged from their singles talent. As for who might make a nice team pairing …
Sami Zayn and KO Reconcile
Sami Zayn and Kevin Owens have been tethered together since before their time in NXT and WWE. Their relationship has most been mostly adversarial. Kevin Owens has always been the relentless and ominous heel for the Underdog from the Underground, Sami Zayn. However, in late 2017 something unique happened: Kevin Owens was able to convince Sami Zayn to side with him due to Shane McMahon’s poor treatment of the duo. Together, they were delightfully annoying heels teetering on the edge of being right in their motives, but going about it all wrong. Their storyline came to a climax when KO and Zayn lost to Daniel Bryan and Shane McMahon at WrestleMania 34.
They have spent nearly two years apart on separate brands. While Zayn has continued on as a slimy heel, KO has found more success as a babyface. Owens’ character has been blazing a path of redemption, which would seem to lead right back to Zayn. Since turning heel and siding with KO three years ago, he’s lost his love of wrestling. His move set stripped bare. His enjoyment of the crowd turned to total and utter resentment. With both men struggling to find meaning after their respective title losses last week, it would be amazing to see these frequent enemies once again team up only this time the dichotomy has shifted as KO helps his friend find his passion for wrestling. The dynamics of a heel/face tag team and the talent of both wrestlers will give the tag team division some legitimacy and interest.
The Rock vs Roman Reigns at WrestleMania 37
Roman Reigns has had arguably the best run of his career since returning to WWE at SummerSlam back in August. Since then, he has gone on to win the Universal Title by pinning Braun Strowman in a Triple-Threat match that included The Fiend at Payback. Everything he does now is for the good of his family and to solidify his legacy. With a new attitude and a new manager, Roman Reigns has taken his rightful place as the head of the table. However, a certain member of WWE’s Samoan dynasty might take issue with Reigns’ claim.
Insert The Rock. The People’s Champ. The Most Electrifying Man In Sports Entertainment. I think that it’s safe to say that a match between The Rock and Roman Reigns is undoubtedly a WrestleMania 37 main event match, and maybe the biggest one in the last five years. For WWE and, more importantly, the fans, it’s a win-win. However, there is one downside that may make The Rock and WWE hesitant to book it. Which leads me to the top things we’d like to see from WWE in 2021 …
The (Safe) Return of a Live Audience
Before I continue, I want to be clear, right now, it would be dangerous and irresponsible for any sports team to have large crowds in attendance for fear of spreading the virus. I commend WWE for doing everything possible to put on an entertaining wrestling show without a live audience. They created the WWE Thunderdome, reintroduced pyro, improved on the 3D entrance graphics, and have featured more cinematic matches all in the name of cultivating viewership in the face of the worst pandemic of my lifetime. However, personally, I think all of these improvements pale in comparison to a live crowd.However, with the development of multiple COVID-19 vaccines, it may be possible that we see fans in attendance at some point this year.
What would you like to see in 2021?
Follow me on Twitter: @JobberRobb
Every week I am going to take you through the past seven days in the world of professional wrestling, hand pick a number of moments and offer up my thoughts on them. What I loved to see, what liked from a fan standpoint, and what I loathed.
Though to be fair, “loathe” is kind of a harsh. I think “dislike” is more accurate, but alliteration is important for a catchy weekly column.
While every Monday I’ll be recapping the week that was, my first column here is as good a time as any to look back at the year of 2020.
Make sure to share your thoughts on what you loved, liked and loathed in the comments below, or at my Twitter.
Loathed: The Year 2020 Itself.
Let’s get the obvious out of the way first before moving to better stuff.
This year sucked to varying degrees on personal levels. We have all been affected by *gestures with arms flailing in the air* everything that has happened in our world this year.
This past year was a proverbial Melina versus Alicia Fox match. No one will ever look fondly back upon it – well, almost no one – and while we all got through it, we’ll never be quite sure how.
Loved: Wrestling In 2020
One of the things that stands out from this past year was the absolute havoc the pandemic brought upon the sports world. Leagues shut down and then came back with compressed schedules and fan-less ‘bubble’ experiences. Wrestling was no different, but no entertainment industry adjusted as quickly to the new realities that Covid brought like wrestling did.
It kind of makes sense when you think about the very nature of wrestling is to be scripted, but also rely heavily on “make-it-up-as-you-go” improvisation needed when something goes sideways. It shouldn’t have been surprising to see, but it was still impressive, and that’s not even accounting for the fact we saw a lot of good stuff between the ropes this year. If ever there was a time for professional wrestling to drop off in quality, it would have been understandable, but multiple companies gave us outstanding matches and moments, which I think years from now we’ll gain a greater appreciation for.
A lot of things stopped or outright changed in 2020… Wrestling had a slight hiccup and then carried on and we saw plenty of good stuff that I won’t even really get into here. NJPW pulled of an amazing Wrestle Kingdom 14 with the Double Gold Dash, and then after Covid resumed with some compelling tournaments. Even Impact Wrestling found a way to carry on and before Kenny Omega made headlines by taking his newly won AEW World title to Impact, that promotion was putting on some really good shows.
Wrestling in 2020 was good.
Liked: Cinematic Matches
One of the trends early into pandemic pro wrestling was the use of cinematic matches. The Boneyard and Firefly Funhouse matches from Wrestlemania, the Money In The Bank match, the Dream/Cole Street Fight and Gargano/Ciampa ‘One Final Beat’ matches from NXT, even AEW getting into the act with the Stadium Stampede match.
Not that the concept of cinematic matches were new to us in 2020. Of course Matt Hardy had a hand in making them far more popular in recent memory, but if you’re 25 years or older, it’s very likely the first ever cinematic match you ever saw as Roddy Piper versus Goldust at Wrestlemania 12’s Backlot Brawl, or perhaps the Halftime Heat match between Mankind and The Rock. (Some would argue those matches are cinematic, half traditional, but in my eyes they still count.)
If you were to ask me what my collective thoughts are on Cinematic matches – and I presume you are since you’re in fact reading this – it would be that it was good for this year given the hands that were dealt to WWE and AEW, and going forward seeing the odd match like this will be fine, but it shouldn’t be a regular occurrence let alone a staple of monthly events.
Knowing WWE, they’ll likely turn the concept into a theme PPV much like they have with Elimination Chamber, Hell In A Cell, Money In The Bank, etc… Although now that I think about it, if they promised to keep it all limited to just one night, I could go for an entire wrestling card of straight up cinematic matches.
Liked: WWE’s ThunderDome
Around the time of Wrestlemania, Triple H was doing a press junket worth of interviews and one thing he repeatedly mentioned was that the pandemic was giving (or forcing) WWE the chance to try new ways of presenting their product that may just influence how they put on shows well beyond 2020 and once things “return to normal”
A handful of months later, WWE debuted “ThunderDome”, a closed off, video-walled wrestling arena within an arena (or stadium) that would give shows a much closer feel to what we were used to seeing pre-Covid – at least far better than how the shows looked inside the WWE Performance Center. (Although they did a fantastic job of renovating the PC into a ‘ThunderDome-ish’ Capital Wrestling Center for NXT tapings.)
At some point in the future, wrestling fans are going to be allowed to attend events again and WWE certainly will welcome them back with open arms, but part of me hopes they don’t abandon the concept of the ThunderDome entirely. Yes shows from there have been “live” but there is obviously a little bit of Hollywood magic happening, as we saw when Randy Orton roasted The Fiend to close out TLC.
It’s giving WWE a chance to get creative without going full blown cinematic matches all the time.
It’s also allowing WWE to control the environment to a degree and allow them to tell the stories they want to tell without fans potentially hijacking segments.
I don’t know what a future WWE would look like running live shows and ThunderDome shows together, but I hope they try and pull it off. I feel like it’s helped with their overall presentation.
Liked: AEDub
Maybe it’s because back in the day I had such high hopes for TNA Wrestling to be the choice alternative to WWE, only for the company to be completely mismanaged into near oblivion, that I haven’t allowed myself to get fully attached to All Elite Wrestling.
There isn’t much about AEW that I don’t like. I don’t think there was a single show they produced where I felt like it was a grind for me to sit through the entirety of.
It is unfortunate that Jon Moxley’s run with AEW’s top belt didn’t happen in front of full arenas, but I have little doubt that he will have that championship yet again. Kenny Omega’s progression back to more of The Cleaner persona that he perfected in Japan was welcome as well, and overall the company is starting to fill out the roster depth with some really good talent.
There are areas for improvement of course. Most shows seem to end in a mish-mash of multi-man mayhem that feels a bit played out week after week. Jim Ross is a legend in the business, but it also feels like he’s past his time calling matches. The women’s division was largely neglected for the first year of the company’s existence. The promise of wins and losses mattering doesn’t actually seem to have played out when it seems they don’t really count anything that happens on their secondary YouTube show “Dark.”
But Tony Kahn, Cody Rhodes and the rest of “The Elite” deserve credit for withstanding a pandemic that could have easily brought a fledging company to its knees and getting through it as a strong alternative to the giant that is WWE.
– – – – – – – –
Honestly, I could write a multi-post look back on 2020 as I’ve only just scratched the surface here of what all happened both good and bad.
In a way that’s maybe the best thing about wrestling in 2020. If there was one thing you didn’t like, chances are you could easily find two or three that you would enjoy. If you’re the type that likes all aspects of wrestling from good story telling, to compelling action in the ring to surprise moments, then this past year had plenty for you to enjoy.
We can only hope for more of the same in 2021… With less pandemic though.
While many rightfully regard IMPACT Wrestling’s women’s division as one of, if not the, strongest division in the world, there are still those who take umbrage with the division’s moniker of Knockouts. Despite the long-term history of the name and its importance to IMPACT’s branding, there are those who believe that the name should change to be more reflective of the current times.
In a recent interview on Love Wrestling, reigning Knockouts Champion Deonna Purrazzo gave her thoughts on the Knockouts name, the history behind it, and why she feels it’s here to stay.
Purrazzo was all too enthusiastic in giving her thoughts on the name and why it should stay.
“Yeah!” she responded when asked if she was a fan of the division’s moniker. “There’s been a ton of pushback, like, right when I started with Impact of the Knockouts name and I love it. I grew up knowing them as the Knockouts.
I never felt a negative connotation towards it as a fan. I just feel like a Knockout is beautiful, is sexy, is powerful, is strong – is a Knockout, literally.”
“I like it. I think it’s different,” Purrazzo continued. “There’s other women’s divisions and everyone else is a woman, and I feel like it gets grouped in with the Diva era, but I think that the connotations and just the way that they were – I don’t know what the word I’m looking for – but the way that they were portrayed is completely different, what a Diva was and what a Knockout was, and I think Impact, and even when it was TNA, developed a really strong women’s division by branding them as Knockouts and then allowing them to be strong, powerful, sexy, top athletes in their company. I grew up watching Divas and feeling like I wanted to change that perception.”
“I’m happy to be a Knockout,” closed the Virtuosa. “I’m happy to be the Knockouts Champion, I’m happy to continue to build that brand with me now.
“
Please credit Spencer Love/Love Wrestling with any transcriptions used.
