Last night’s edition of AEW Dark saw the first appearance of one of independent wrestling’s brightest stars, Masha Slamovich. Despite being only 23 years old, ‘Russian Dynamite’ is a well-traveled veteran of the squared circle and one of the indies’ most well-known names. Last night’s edition of Dark was certainly proof as to why, as despite losing to Penelope Ford, Slamovich looked right at home in the confines of an AEW ring.

As part of our upcoming chat for Love Wrestling, we discussed last night’s debut among a myriad of other subjects.

“You’re everywhere right now, including on – at the time of this recording – last night’s AEW Dark,” I commented to her near the beginning of our conversation. “What was it like for you to debut for the promotion, especially [with] the rumors out there and how exciting time it is for the promotion as a whole?”

“You know, it was a really incredible experience,” Slamovich began. “I didn’t really know what was coming and it totally caught me by surprise. I had a day and a half, two days notice about it, so I didn’t know as much as the rest of y’all didn’t know! I tried to keep it real quiet, went and did it and when it happened, it blew up. It was really great. Just being there and experiencing AEW and actually going out there and wrestling was really awesome.

I certainly hope for more of that in the future.”

Penelope Ford

“It was really cool to see you square off with Penelope Ford as well because I’m a personal mark,” I laughed. “Let’s just use the wrestling term. I’m a huge fan of hers! What was it like stepping in the ring with her?”

“It was really great, because the last time we wrestled was, like, 2016, 2017,” replied Slamovich. “So, it’s been quite a few years since we shared the ring together. It was really awesome to do so on such a grand stage.

“Again, I had a great time wrestling her. I would totally do it again.”

Please credit Spencer Love/Love Wrestling with any of the above quotes. Thank you!

As one of Australia’s most well-respected professional wrestlers, Shazza McKenzie is certainly not lacking for excellent stories. Our recent conversation for Love Wrestling was chock-full of them. Whether it be chatting about the recent Jericho vs. Gage matchup, indie wrestling superlatives, and everything in-between, we were never at a lack for a laugh throughout our entire half-hour conversation.

One such story was one that she had fleetingly mentioned in a previous interview. On a podcast a few years ago, McKenzie had briefly brought up her WrestleMania experience in 2013 with Madison Eagles, Dakota Kai, and Jessica McKay, soon to be known throughout the WWE Universe as Billie Kay. I asked Shazza about the experience when we spoke a fortnight ago.

“So in 2013, we went [to WrestleMania],” she commented. “WrestleMania week [and] what it is now was not what WrestleMania week was in 2013. To my understanding from all my trying to figure this out, I think 2013 was like the first time that there [were] indie shows. So there was WrestleCon. There was just WrestleCon. There [weren’t] 50 different venues. It was just WrestleCon, but it was the first time that they did Friday, Saturday, Sunday, and then the show.

So Madison, Jess, Dakota Kai [and] myself, were over for Shimmer [who] was doing a show on the like Saturday at WrestleCon. Which, now I think back and think that’s just so insane that I got to wrestle on the first WrestleCon of this stature. Thinking of how WrestleMania weekend has now evolved into this just event that every independent wrestler has to be at and that I was one of the very few wrestlers that got to wrestle on that first WrestleMania weekend. That’s crazy.”

“I’d already been to WrestleMania in like 2008 with my mom,” McKenzie laughed. “My mom had taken me to WrestleMania. But, for a lot of them, they’d never been to WrestleMania. So we went to WrestleMania. And it was in MetLife – I think MetLife? I don’t know if that’s right. I don’t know.”

As McKenzie went on to explain, that 2013 trip only served to add to the emotion of seeing McKay, along with fellow Australian Cassie Lee, capture the WWE Women’s Tag Team Championships at WrestleMania 35.

“The point of the story is it was in the same stadium that, then, in 2019 when I was back in for WrestleMania weekend, I went to WrestleMania and I watched the person that I’d sat next to in, what, six years earlier in the crowd, sung Mark Henry’s theme song with, we were wearing these $5 Walmart coat things because none of us had prepared to be outside in the cold rain, because we’re Australian and we just didn’t think about that, and I was watching Jessie McKay now in the ring winning the tag team titles with Peyton Royce six years later.

“It’s just insane. In the same building! It couldn’t have been more perfect,” McKenzie remarked before laughing. “I lost my absolute shit. Like I was gone. I collapsed to the ground. I was crying, and my husband had to be like ‘Shazz, you’re being a bit dramatic,'” and I was like ‘I know, but they did it! They actually did it!’ He’s like ‘I know. I’m very happy for them, too. It’s very exciting. But you’re embarrassing me.’”

Dakota Time

Of course, having asked Shazza about both McKay and Eagles earlier in our conversation, I had to ask about the fourth member of their WrestleMania quartet, Dakota Kai. “Not that she hasn’t done great stuff before,” I asked, “but on Wednesday night [what was it like] seeing Dakota Kai take the boot to Raquel Gonzalez. Maybe some thoughts, some feelings, some strong words on that?

“

“I think it’s long overdue,” McKenzie mused. “I like that they’ve been clearly building to this for a while. We’ve all been kind of like waiting for it, waiting for it, waiting for them to just pull the trigger and let it happen. But, I hope it ends with the champion that we deserve. Not that we don’t deserve Raquel.

But you know, I think the women’s wrestling fans and the NXT fans that have been following the product for a long enough feel like it’s Dakota Kai’s time. They feel very ready for this moment and for her to get her flowers and to be in that main position after being a background character and like a supporting cast character for the last few years.

It’s time for her to play the main role. I hope that that’s what we get, and even if we don’t, I’ll still be happy.

Shazza laughed before concluding.

“I mean, I’ll probably be bitchy on the internet but like what the hell.

Who isn’t bitchy on the internet!”

Please credit Spencer Love with any of the above transcriptions, and link back when possible. Thank you!

While everyone is (rightfully) quick to point out Johnny Devine’s excellence inside the squared circle, my lasting impression of my conversation with the former X-Division Champion was simply his excellence in storytelling. Yes, of course, that applies to his in-ring work as well, but throughout our entire recent chat for Love Wrestling, I found myself marvelling at his ability to tell one outside the confines of the ring, too.

In fact, one of my favourite parts of our conversation was a simple-yet-outstanding story involving Eric Young and a pair of incredible impressions.

“There were times before shows and stuff like that where we had four hours of an afternoon sitting on [our] fucking thumbs,” Devine began. “So, we would end up down at the ring while people are going on with matches and stuff like that. People who aren’t doing other stuff, we’d roll around, and we’d act like fools.”

A smirk crept across the former X-Division Champions’ face.

“Eric Young and I used to sell out the front row while we did a skit of Stu Hart versus Andre the Giant.”

I had to laugh, assuming that the story wouldn’t go any further. “I promise I’ll only ask for that one when we’re done recording,” I chuckled.

Rather than shy away from the story, the former Team Canada star doubled down and immediately kicked into what’s become one of my favourite stories told to me as part of an interview.

“I’ll give you the biggest high spot!” he replied. “So, we built this feud up for months at one point. It was awesome.” Instantly, Devine began his spot-on Stu Hart impression ‘because every once in a while I would cut a promo on Andre,’ he said, before instantly shifting to an homage to Andre the Giant, saying ‘and he would cut a promo on Stu.

‘”

As I howled with glee, Devine continued.

“The office got wind of it, and one day, we decided to do like a pre-pay-per-view, pay-per-view pre-show match, strictly for the boys. Stu versus Andre. One of the best parts of that – I can’t remember, I think we were still in Florida for this one – but we did entrances, and each one of our entrances took long enough for like three or four other people to pass us and go on with a match. They’d come back and we’re still coming down the ramp.

Another match has gone on and [then] they’ve gotten to the back, and then the third match is going on when we’ve reached the stairs kind of thing. We’re in this race. It was awesome.”

“I’m just sitting here picturing Eric Young in the Andre singlet riding a motor scooter to the ring!” I laughed.

“There was some gold there,” chuckled Devine to conclude.

“There was some gold there. We had some fun with that.”

Please credit Spencer Love/Love Wrestling with any of the above quotes, and please link back when possible. Thank you!