On Christmas Day 2019, Chelsea Green made her long-awaited WWE debut with an appearance on Monday Night RAW against Charlotte Flair. Months later, the Victoria, BC native would once again see her working with the Queen, teaming with Flair to take on Io Shirai and Rhea Ripley.

Teaming with one of WWE’s top stars right out the gate is quite the auspicious start to a career, and as part of our upcoming conversation for Love Wrestling, she and I chatted about her debut on RAW as well as the opportunities she got to work with a woman many consider the best in the business today.

I began by admitting that I was a bit surprised by her RAW debut. Unlike so many wrestlers prior, I commented, she hadn’t received weeks of vignettes or any of the traditional fanfare that usually comes with a main roster call-up.

“It’s funny because a lot of girls told me that that day when I was going out to have that match with Charlotte,” Green responded to me. “I was really excited! I didn’t care. I’m like, ‘I don’t care if this is my debut or not, I’m going to be on friggin’ RAW, and my family is going to get to see me, and all my friends and everyone that has seen me work so hard for six years, they’re going to see me on Monday Night freaking RAW! So, I don’t care what happened, but a lot of the girls did tell me like, ‘don’t worry, you know, this might seem like your debut, but actually, they’ll probably do this and then take you off TV and then repackage you,’ and stuff like that.

“So it has happened to a lot of people,” she said. “It’s just, we forget, right? In wrestling, we like to forget those things, and then we remember what we want to remember, which is the big, grand debuts and the storylines and things like that.”

After agreeing with her, I asked her about her experiences working both with and against Women’s Grand Slam Champion Charlotte Flair.

“I was a little bit nervous!” she admitted. “I don’t really get nervous about my opponents. I think with wrestling, it’s all hype, and if you believe the hype as a wrestler, it’s a little bit cringe-worthy. So I try to just go in, and everyone is equal because guess what, some of the least-hyped wrestlers are the best and vice versa. So I went in, and I tried not to think about who it was or who that name was. But, you know, I was nervous for my debut and everything.”

“It was really cool to look back on the moment and see the pictures and see that when Charlotte and I stood next to each other in the ring, we looked equal. I don’t know what it is about our statures, but we’re basically the same size. When you put us next to each other, it was kind of like chocolate and vanilla. It was the same thing! It was two tall, pretty built women that can put on a fight. I just loved the pictures that came from that.

And then to then a couple of months down the road, be able to team with her was – it was really, really cool. It was also – it was something that will go on my resume and kind of my track record. I didn’t think about that like, ‘oh, okay, yeah, I guess I was briefly Charlotte’s tag partner!

“

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

Over the past few months, the hottest talk in wrestling has been the opening of the proverbial ‘Forbidden Door’ between promotions such as All Elite Wrestling and IMPACT. Traditionally, wrestling’s major promotions are hesitant at best to work with each other, with the WWE receiving the brunt of the criticism for their perceived lack of want to work with other wrestling organizations.

However, that hasn’t always been the case. Throughout their history, the WWE/WWF have shown they’re willing to co-promote shows and exchange talents with some of the world’s biggest promotions. One example of this was a late-90s excursion to All Japan Pro Wrestling by a number of WWF stars, including Vader, Bart Gunn, and the man now known as PCO, Pierre Ouellet.

When we recently chatted for Love Wrestling, the French Canadian Frankenstein shared some stories about his time in the Far East as part of the WWF talent exchange.

“I really enjoyed Kobashi,” PCO began when asked about his experiences in Japan. “The way he was with everybody. Like, he was one of the top Japanese guys. I mean, now it has changed a lot with, you know, talent from the US and from Canada, but back then some guys like Misawa or Kawada, the were really in their own corner and they wouldn’t mix up that much with anybody. I had matches with them where the ref was coming to me and telling me what I would have to do during my match against them. My full match at Budokan – what’s the name of the hall with 15,000 seats?”

“Korakuen Hall?” I floated to him, proven wrong seconds later.

“No, similar like that,” PCO responded before continuing the story.

“But, anyways, it’s something like that, but that’s not the name. I don’t know why I can’t give it to you. But, the main event was Vader and Kawada I think.

Anyways, I was like the third match on top of the bill. It was me and Taue and the whole match was called by a ref. So, it’s just weird.”

“Weird to say the least!” I laughed.

The former Ring of Honor Heavyweight Champion grinned before pressing on.

“Jun Akiyama was also super cool. I wrestled Jun Akiyama and Kobashi in a couple of tag matches, so they were cool. Every time that I’ve wrestled with Kobashi it was super, super nice, super cool. When he hits you with that lariat, though, every night, I’d get concussed kind of. My head was hitting the mat so hard that I’d seen stars. He was too cool, super cool. And, Akiyama was easy to work, too. I had a blast.”

“I teamed a lot with Vader. It was cool. He was super over at this time in Japan. He was one of the iconic names of Japan. So being his tag partner was like, it was cool. So I really enjoyed a month there in Japan. It was 18 days, the tour, but with some days in between. I was there my first time – no, my second time – for 30 days. That’s cool.”

“What is the relationship like with Vince McMahon nowadays?” I asked the French Canadian Frankenstein. “I’d have to assume working for a different promotion you wouldn’t talk all that often. But, you have mentioned in the past, you know, showing up at the Bell Center getting into see him. What is the relationship there now?

“I haven’t talked to him in a super long time,” PCO admitted. “The only person that I’ve talked to lately was Bruce Prichard before he got rehired because he was doing the gorilla position for MLW in 2018. So I had met him at Pro Wrestling Tees for a signing. We took some pictures together and it was cool to see each other and then after that, he became my producer for MLW.

And then, he left and went back to Vince. I haven’t heard of him since then, but there was some cool times with Bruce. When he wasn’t with WWE, he was different than when I met him when I worked for them at MLW. He was more like, cool and himself and didn’t have to play a role that much. I just had a great time around him. Other than that, all the other people that I know there, it’s because I’ve met them on the scene before I signed my contract, and then they got hired. Guys like WALTER, Riddle, some of the guys behind the scenes, but to tell people that I met them in 2019. I don’t know how Vince is like these days. You hear all kinds of stories from the boys, but to experience something myself I can’t really tell you.”

Please credit Spencer Love/Love Wrestling with any of the above quotes and transcriptions.

As one of the most well-respected and longest-tenured Canadian wrestlers on the scene today, there are few better equipped to talk about gaining recognition above the 49th parallel than PCO. Over the past five years, the French Canadian Frankenstein has experienced a career revitalization like no other, not only for his incredible in-ring work but for his innovative promotional ideas and anything-goes attitude towards getting his brand out to the world.

When we recently chatted for Love Wrestling, I asked the former ROH Heavyweight Champion his thoughts on what Canadians and fans could be doing in order to grow both their own names and the wrestling scene as a whole.

“[With] the differences for you between the Canadian professional wrestling scene when you were coming up versus now, have you found that it’s a bit more difficult for Canadians now to find exposure in professional wrestling? Or, have you maybe found that the industry has changed in the Great White North since you started to break in?”

“It’s tough. I think it’s tough for the Canadian guys to get some exposure. That’s just the way I see it,” PCO replied. “There’s plenty of great talent in Canada, all over Canada from Vancouver to the Maritimes. I don’t know why, but there is no eyes on them. No eyes at all. I mean, most of the wrestlers that have made it into ‘major leagues,’ they’ve been wrestling in the States forever.

I mean, for so many years. They’ve made a name for themselves on the indie scenes in the States. It’s hard because not everybody can have [a] work permit or things like that. It just makes it harder for a Canadian to make it, but there’s ways.”

“You just have to be creative, I guess,” he continued. “It’s just part of the ‘how bad do you want to make it.’ In a way that prepares you for different, other stuff. This ain’t the easy business, you know? So you have – like when I said that I ran like 70 kilometers, I mean, that’s part of the deal. You know, you run into so much adversity and so many bumps along the road that you have to be mentally prepared to accept everything as a good thing.

From that point on, okay, now what can I do to get to the next step? It’s how you evolve, and then that’s how eventually you have success.”

With the talent in Canada perhaps receiving a little less recognition that deserved, I asked PCO if there were any individuals from above the 49th parallel that deserved a little shine.

“Are there potentially any Canadians out there right now that have caught your eye in the last little bit any that you maybe feel are underrated, deserve more of an opportunity, whatever other buzzwords you can throw on it?”

The French-Canadian Frankenstein was quick to respond.

“There’s a team called TDT. These guys are a really good tag team. They were on many shows with either Cody or names that have wrestled against them, and I think they’d do well. I think it’s just a matter of timing for them because everybody knows them.

Jeremy Prophet, Mike Bailey. A bunch of other guys. There’s quite a few. Marko Estrada. It could go on and on. I could probably do a bunch of other names.”

Please credit Spencer Love/Love Wrestling with any of the above quotes and transcriptions.