Shotzi Blackheart won over fans at British Empire Wrestling’s ‘Empire Fights Back 5‘ with her wild, high-velocity style, which earned her a decisive victory over Zan Phoenix. Diva Dirt’s Laura Mauro sat down with the ‘Ballsy Badass’ to get her views on intergender wrestling, her upcoming match with Jinny, and just how different it is to wrestle in front of TV cameras.
Blackheart has been outspoken in the past about her support for intergender wrestling. In fact, she’s not only wrestled against Joey Ryan, but has held the HoodSlam Intergalatic Tag Team Championships with him while moonlighting as, er, his penis. And her feelings on intergender wrestling haven’t changed in the interim:
“It’s not that I don’t love wrestling women, I just want to push for intergender wrestling because a lot of people look down on it. There’s a lot of people that just hate on intergender wrestling and I feel like that’s a very sexist view. I just like equality, and I push to have intergender matches so that people watch more of it, and that it becomes a normal thing.”
“Wrestling is theatre. I am not working against my opponent, I am working with them. And when we’re in the ring together, we are partners. This is not an actual competition. We’re not actually trying to beat the shit out of each other. And if you don’t believe that a man and a woman can work together, and entertain a crowd, then I just find that sexist.”
Wrestling might be theatre, but sometimes that theatre is televised. In May, Blackheart made her Impact debut in a well-received match against Allie. And, Blackheart says, TV tapings come with a unique set of pressures:
“There’s a lot of pressure because time is huge, so you’ve got to hit your marks, and you’ve got to make sure your timing is perfect, and you’ve got to hit certain places in the ring. There’s a lot more to think about.”
“[Cameras] are something that you deal with on the independent scene too, but it’s just way more important for TV. So there’s a lot more layers to think about. Not only do you have to make sure that you’re safe, and you’re doing what you need to do in the ring, you’ve also got to make sure that you’re doing it in the right direction.”
Shortly after her Impact debut Blackheart had been lined up for a tour with Japanese all-women’s promotion Stardom, but a stroke of bad luck saw her sidelined with a broken ankle. Blackheart still has her sights set on Japan, though:
“Yeah, that was actually the weekend before. I’d just cleared my visa, I was ready to go, I think I had one more match and then I was going to Stardom.”
“Japan is definitely one of my goals and has been since I started wrestling. It should be every wrestler’s goal, Japan is huge for wrestling and everyone should want to go there at some point in their career. The girls kick ass there. I am not a light wrestler, I get in there and I lay it in, and I work like a guy would expect another guy to wrestle. So I was really stoked to go there.”
“Another place I would like to go because I’m Filipino – I’d really like to wrestle in the Philippines. There’s only two promotions in the main city, Manila, but yes, I’d really love to just go out there. My mom is always trying to get me to go to the Philippines on vacation so I really need to take her up on the offer.”
It’s no secret that Blackheart is a huge fan of horror movies, and she wears her influences on her sleeve:
“The whole reason I howl is because The Wolfman is probably my favourite horror movie, so I try and pay little tributes, like how I bill myself as from The Black Lagoon, because Creature’s my favourite monster. It definitely leaks in to everything I do.”
“The helmet is a little bit Tank Girl inspired, but the reason I started wearing the helmet was when I started training that helmet was hanging up in the gym. And throughout training there was just something that I was always attracted to about that helmet, so when I finally graduated and started wrestling I asked my trainers if I could have it, and they were like yes, take it. There’s always been some kind of energy to it and I think that was my graduation cap, kind of!”
Shotzi Blackheart will be meeting Jinny in the ring at Pro Wrestling EVE’s upcoming SHEvivor Series, where she’ll be making her EVE debut. The two had an absolutely brutal match at Shimmer in October, and Blackheart is looking forward to facing her for a second time:
“I had a lot of fun with [Jinny] the first time at Shimmer and it was just like a brawl, it felt like a real fight. And I like that, I like that it was different to any other match that I’ve had. I like the chemistry that we had, and I’m excited to see what happens this time. I really don’t know what’ll happen! I’ve been watching EVE for a while now and I’m really excited to go there, because I really love that atmosphere, and they’ve got a really good feminist vibe.”
Shotzi Blackheart and all the women of British Empire Wrestling can be seen on-demand at the promotion’s website, and at ClickWrestle.
