“2021 is going to be my year” is something that I’m certain everyone’s heard beaten to death over the course of the past three months. However, it’s the one cliche to be found that can be applied to current Zelo Pro Women’s Champion Laynie Luck. As one of the most unique and technically-skilled women in indie wrestling today, Luck is poised to follow in the footsteps of former champs Britt Baker and Kylie Rae as Zelo stars to break out on the international level and, by this writer’s money, sooner rather than later.

It’s not as though she hasn’t been noticed by the proverbial major leagues before, however. In 2019, Luck defended her women’s title in IMPACT Wrestling against two of independent wrestling’s top stars of the time in the aforementioned Rae and current NXT Superstar Shotzi Blackheart. As part of our upcoming chat for Love Wrestling, I had to ask her about the opportunity to appear for a major promotion and, selfishly, what it was like stepping into the ring with two of my other personal favourite wrestlers.

“So, the match came about because IMPACT was doing these little partnerships with the Chicago area promotions,” Luck began. “So, they all got to choose ‘X’ amount of matches to represent their company. I had just won [the title]. I had just pinned Shotzi in a multi-man match for that belt. So it was basically like our rematch there. Kylie had previously held the belt as well. Kylie and I were actually the very first women’s match for that title. So we competed in the very first match for that title.”

“It was kind of like this both things coming kind of full circle in this one match, so we were all super, super excited to do it, and all of us worked so well together. We were just very excited to be able to have each other there for such a big stage. Like, I wouldn’t want to do that match with anyone else.”

As mentioned earlier, carrying the Zelo Pro Women’s Championship is no small feat considering the belt’s lineage. Some of wrestling’s top stars have carried the title, which is something Luck’s now honoured to do.

“It means a lot to me,” Luck said with a smile. “Zelo was – I want to say they were the first company that brought me up to Chicago. They’re the reason that I came here.

I worked for them, and I think I worked for a smaller company in the same weekend, but just experiencing the Chicago crowd, I was like, ‘wow, this is cool.’ I wanted to come up North anyway, but I wasn’t completely solidified in where I was going. I was like, ‘alright, I’m gonna go to Chicago.

‘ Then I came up here and I was on every Zelo show and I was trying to do the most with every opportunity they gave me.”

“The fact that I got to be on the first show, I got to be in the first title match, and now I get to hold the title after these other names have held it prestigiously? It means a lot to me that I get to now be the face of that company.

”

Please credit Spencer Love/Love Wrestling with any of the above quotations used.

Matt Taven’s vast collection of championships more than speak to his skill as a professional wrestler. As the 2nd-ever ROH Grand Slam Champion and the 2nd individual to carry titles in NJPW, ROH and CMLL, there’s little reason to doubt his ability inside the ring.

However, especially throughout his run as Ring of Honor’s top heel, it was rare to see Taven in a truly comedic role in the pro wrestling sphere. While certainly entertaining on-screen and inarguably a great guy outside of the confines of television, his comedic side wasn’t showcased all that often while leading the Kingdom.

Fortunately for wrestling fans and saxophone enthusiasts alike, Taven’s skills as a sheer entertainer have presented themselves on more than one occasion in the form of Sexual Taven, who I am unable to describe any better than Taven does himself below.

As we began to wind down our recent chat, I had to ask about his rarely-used but always-hilarious character.

“They’re not as much stories as some that may draw a groan or a laugh, hopefully,” I laughed as we got to the quick-fire portion of our upcoming interview for Love Wrestling.

“Please tell me about Sexual Taven!”

The former World Champion audibly laughed.

“Sexual Taven came from a mix of a couple of things,” he began. “When my hair was longer and I let it really free flow, I would have a Kenny G-ish look, which I heard a lot. Which, you know, kind of went up my ass sideways sometimes.

But then, you know, I started to get in the groove of it and I would start doing a like little saxophone kind of pantomime to just make people laugh because they would say I look like Kenny G. But the Sexual Taven story comes from – I don’t even know if I’ve ever told this story. This is a hilarious story. I was at Eddie Edwards’ wedding. I know his family, yadda yadda, and his brother was just kind of like asking me like ‘oh, who are you talking to,’ or what I was doing or something, and I was like, ‘oh, no one. Someone just asked me like a question.’ He’s like, ‘I don’t know. Just everything you do just comes off so…sexual.’ I was like ‘what?!’ For the rest of the weekend, the joke was Sexual Taven.”

We both laughed before he continued.

“So, I don’t know what made me do it for the first time – I think it was at Beyond Wrestling. I started doing the saxophone thing, and it just felt like the name of that should be Sexual Taven. And, also, I’m pretty sure Eddie’s brother was there at that time probably screaming it, so that probably helped the rest of the crowd pick up on what I was doing. But man, when I got hurt and had knee surgery, thank goodness I could just go out and be Sexual Taven while I couldn’t wrestle! I’m pretty sure there’s a segment for Beyond Wrestling called In the Sack with Sexual Taven and that has over a million views on YouTube. So you know, it’s probably one of the funnier things I’ve ever done. Probably not my – you know, I won’t go back and have that as my film reel of my ‘here’s my depth as a character.

‘ I think that’s a very good shallow baseline one, but always a good laugh for everyone in the crowd!”

“That one’s not playing at the Hall of Fame speech?” I asked half-jokingly.

“Yeah, you know, and the funny thing will be is that someone will scream out for it,” Taven retorted. “It’ll be like, come on, not now! Not now!”

Please credit Spencer Love/Love Wrestling with any of the above quotations used.