Few Canadian professional wrestlers of the past decade have reached the heights of Victoria’s Chelsea Green. The Storm Wrestling Academy graduate and former ECCW/All-Star Wrestling standout has worked her way through a number of the world’s top promotions on her way to the WWE and now occupies a premier spot on one of the top televised wrestling programs in the world, NXT.

Green recently joined me to chat about the Canadian wrestling scene and some of her favourite Canadian pro wrestlers.

The Canadian pro wrestling scene:

“Isn’t it amazing? There’s so many people that haven’t been seen. Even Nicole Matthews’ boyfriend (Artemis Spencer) – well husband actually, now – he is so freakin’ good, and he still hasn’t been kind of spotted yet. The past couple years, El Phantasmo has been blowing up, which I can’t believe didn’t happen six years ago. There’s so many freakin’ people that are so good! I love it. I just feel like Canadians know that it’s kind of hard to succeed at anything at life in Canada because we’re in such a bubble. You really have to be the best, or the biggest, or the most outrageous, and I truly think that Canadians just work so hard to prove themselves and to show the world ‘I deserve this chance’ or ‘I deserve the rest of the world to look at me.’”

Why Canadian wrestling is underrated:

“It’s always bugged me, and every time I do an interview now – which is very rare in Canada – but every time I do an interview, I always say ‘guys, open your eyes. We’re not just hockey and lacrosse.’ We have so much more, and it’s unfortunate that I am recognized way more walking down the streets of Florida than I am in my own hometown, or in Vancouver, or in Calgary.

It really, really bugs me, and it’s something that has bugged me since Tough Enough. I got on to this massive reality show, and there was not one Canadian publication that said anything about it. I had zero backing from Canada, and if I had have had that support from my Canadians, who knows what would have happened?

Who knows if those votes coming in from Canada would have made the difference for me staying there. It’s so unfortunate, and I wish that – I understand the rest of the world not caring about Canada because I think the rest of the world is so focussed on America because America has just built themselves up to be this greater-than-everything-else country.

But, it’s like – Canadians! Come on! You have to be supporting your fellow Canadians!”

Which Canadians are under-appreciated:

“I definitely think Artemis (Spencer) deserves a spotlight that he every now and then gets, but he’s so good. He deserves to be in WWE on 205 Live. That’s someone that I truly, truly believe, and there’s a couple of girls on the East Coast that I think are amazing. All-in-all, I think that the girls that come to Shimmer and things like that, those are all girls that deserve all the success in the world. Nicole Matthews deserves the success.”

Please credit Spencer Love/Love Wrestling with any transcriptions used. 

Since beginning her professional wrestling career, Chelsea Green has been dead set on her goal of wrestling for the WWE. In 2018, that goal was achieved when she signed with the promotion and wrestled her first match under the NXT banner. Since then, Green and her now-business associate Robert Stone have become a focal point of NXT’s weekly programming, which has now escaped the confines of the WWE Network to air live on Wednesday nights on the USA Network in the United States.

Green recently joined me to discuss her time in NXT, including working with Robert Stone, wrestling her first match for the brand against her friend Deonna Purrazzo, and becoming a TV wrestler again sooner than expected.

Working with Robert Stone:

“I love it! A lot of people don’t know that Rob and I go quite a ways back. I worked with him at Impact, and we actually had our NXT tryout together. We never thought we would be put together. We never explored that option. We got paired together very, very last minute, and we both have the same work ethic.

We want to go the extra mile, we’re both characters. The minute that we get out there, we put on this whole different front. I love, love, love working with him. I think both of us just want to succeed so bad. We probably text, I would say we text every single day about work, about ‘what can we do to build on this character? What can we do for storylines? What can we do outside of work to make people believe in this group?’ That’s why I love working with him.”

Having her first NXT match against Deonna Purrazzo:

“I was just trying to think – all my other first matches have kind of been forgettable in every other company. I haven’t really been like ‘oh my god, this is it, this is my moment,’ because I think, no matter what firsts I had, I always was waiting to have that first match with WWE. It was huge for me. I will never forget that. It was in Largo. I remember the crowd, I remember the entire match, and obviously, having it with my best friend, there’s nothing better.”

Always wanting to sign WWE:

“I guess with me, I set my sights on what I think is the top. Whether it’s the top or not, I set my sights on the top, and then I don’t waver, and I’ve always been like that. I always pick a goal, and I can not get off of that track for that goal.

So, although I was so excited to get Impact – and, honestly, I got Impact before I even deserved Impact, and same with Lucha Underground.

They gave me an opportunity on Lucha Underground that I was not prepared for and didn’t deserve, but I was so thankful for it. But, I just threw out all of that. I knew my end goal. Although now, looking back on it, those were so much more amazing than I even though they were at the time because I was so on a one-track frame of mind.”

Becoming a TV wrestler again earlier than expected:

“I feel like everything in my career I’ve got before I was ready, except the stuff I’ve been given at WWE. I’ve been ready for that. There’s no better feeling than performing. This is just exactly what I wanted to do, is perform on TV in front of fans, and I’m doing it. It’s crazy.”

Please credit Spencer Love/Love Wrestling with any transcriptions used. 

In 2001, a short-lived promotion called Matrats was founded in Calgary, Alberta. The promotion, which featured the likes of Randy Myers, Davey Boy Smith Jr, TJ Wilson, Natalya, and more may not have lasted long but was a great indication of the talent coming out of the Albertan professional wrestling scene at the time.

Myers recently joined me to discuss the Matrats promotion itself, Eric Bischoff’s involvement with the promotion, and why it ultimately failed.

A brief background on the short-lived Matrats promotion:

“Basically what Matrats was, was it was a promotion for people under the age of 25. The idea was it was going to be a kids’ wrestling promotion. Basically, more athletic, kind of more the style you’re seeing in PWG today or any of the independents, even DEFY in the States or across the world. Kind of like a higher-impact, faster style, more athleticism, (and a) heavy emphasis on creativity within the moveset. There was just these incredible talents, so there was like TJ Wilson, Teddy Hart, Jack Evans was there, Rene Dupree was there at the time. Even like there (were) two boys by the name of Nick Nogg and Pete Wilson who were incredible (at) inventing moves, like three or four moves a day that you see now popping up and people are like ‘oh my god, I can’t believe that happened,’ and I’ve seen them forever ago. I was there the day the 630 was invented. Here we were, just like a bunch of rag-tag kids that Teddy had put together.”

“There was a person named Graham Owens who had invested, because he had seen Teddy Hart at Stampede Wrestling, and was a cameraman I believe. He saw that the kids’ matches were just this different level and different style that could maybe really be harnessed and sold. So, he propositioned this show, and it was called Matrats. It was short-lived, but it was very almost like Wrestling Society X ended up being on MTV. It was like that youth, high-energy, MTV-kind-of-audience-style wrestling show.

It was really fun.”

Eric Bischoff’s involvement with Matrats:

“Eric Bischoff was involved. He was at the Palace show, which was my first live wrestling match, and he was also at another show that was actually the first time I ever took a bump on a show. So, yeah, Eric Bischoff was involved, and Jason Hervey, who was the brother Wayne on the Wonder Years, was there as well. At the Palace show, we had Don Callis (and) Mauro as the commentators, so it was phenomenal.

Joey Styles was there. It was crazy.”

Why the promotion fell through:

“I think the idea of selling a children’s wrestling program, especially when you think of wrestling, especially at that time in the early 2000s, it was kind of a dark spot within entertainment. There was a lot of deaths and there was a lot of negativity around it, so the idea of having children involved in that, I think, was kind of a harder sell than you would think.

Especially with injuries and stuff like that, the idea of seeing grown adults hitting each other and stuff like that, consenting adults hitting each other, that’s okay, but the idea of children, it’s kind of blurry. I’m not exactly sure, but that would be my guess as to why things fell through.”

Please credit Spencer Love/Love Wrestling with any transcriptions used. 

Since signing with Major League Wrestling in early 2019, Alexander Hammerstone has become one of the most talked-about professional wrestlers in the world. Not only is the MLW National Openweight Champion in the midst of a record-setting championship reign, but has turned heads for both his brutal offence and impressive athleticism inside the squared circle.

Recently, Hammerstone joined me to discuss his signing with MLW, as well as if he still believes he made the right decision just over a year after signing.

Why he chose to sign with Major League Wrestling:

“Realistically, there were some options on the table. (With) MLW, we kind of have the image where I don’t think anything’s tarnished the companies image. I think we’ve been on a steady climb, and people see us as that alternative that’s continuing to grow. So, from one aspect, we have a good look. There’s nothing bad tarnishing the company. There’s no this, that or the other.

There’s no black eyes. But, besides that, when they approached me it was much less ‘hey, here’s a number, I think maybe we want to sign you. You seem like a guy we might be able to do something with.’ It was a ‘hey, we want to sign you, we want to start you on this date, do you want to do it? Because we have some plans for you.’”

“That’s what I wanted to hear. I’m the type of guy who wants to dig my teeth into something. Especially (with) where I was at with pro wrestling, I’d been doing it for so long, and I’d kind of gotten to a point where I was feeling stuck and I was feeling like ‘oh my gosh, give me something. Give me a ball and let me run with it, and if I fall, then fine,’ but I’d rather do that than just pick up bread crumbs and be collecting a paycheck. I wanted to do something, and I think it’s paid off huge. The last year, the difference in name-value that I have is incredible, and it’s a huge part thanks to MLW.

”

If signing with MLW was the right decision:

“Oh yeah. One hundred percent. It really comes down to where I think we have a company where they’re looking for who’s going to step up (and) who’s going to kill it. If they could put you in a situation where you’re wrestling great matches with the talent on the roster, then they send you to Japan and you wrestle great matches in Japan, you wrestle great matches with luchadors. I’m not trying to toot my own horn and say I always have great matches, but I think I’ve stepped up to the plate in that regard.”

“Not only that but from a behind-the-scenes standpoint, people who are going to be on time for their pre-tapes, who are not going to miss flights, who are going to do media, who are going to do all the things that some of the fans don’t always see. It really is a company where I feel like you have the chance to grab the brass ring, and it’s very, very obvious that there’s no one holding you down, there’s no politics in the locker room. It’s really come and take it and you’re going to get it.

”

Please credit Spencer Love/Love Wrestling with any transcriptions used.