Former Knockouts Champion Chelsea Green (FKA Laurel Van Ness) is the latest guest on the Women’s Pro Wrestling Weekly podcast where she discusses her training with Lance Storm, some of her wrestling influences and whether the WWE has reached out to her to take part of this second Mae Young Classic tournament. Highlights of the interview below, courtesy of AfterBuzz TV.
On training with Lance Storm: At first, since I have been wrestling for about four years now. For the first couple of years, I would go back often, even if it was just for a day to help out another girl to help out in his class, or to brush up on a move that I wanted to learn. Now, because I am based in Orlando, Florida compared to being based out in Canada, I don’t have that opportunity as much. However, whenever I do have a chance to go back to Calgary, I go back and visit him because honestly, as many lessons as I have learned, traveling and meeting new people [to train with], Lance Storm knows everything. I swear to you, any question you can have about moves, psychology, gimmicks, the history of Pro Wrestling, he knows. Lance Storm is an encyclopedia of wrestling knowledge. He really drills the necessities into you so that when you go out there you won’t do stupid things. You just start with the basics, which is amazing.
Her Wrestling Influences: I would say, because people don’t know this about me, but I knew nothing about pro wrestling. Not a thing. I had never seen a Pro Wrestling ring until I was maybe around grade 11. Lance Storm taught me everything that I know. Then, when leaving ‘Storm’s Wrestling Academy,’ I would say that the person who taught me the most after leaving the school would be Billy Gunn because he influenced me on Tough Enough, and now I am really close with his family. He always gives me great advice. The other person would be Gail Kim because she helped me get the job from Impact Wrestling. She trusted and supported me, as well as elevated me along the way as I went.”
Lessons learned after leaving WWE’s Tough Enough: What happened was, I did Tough Enough, and when I got kicked off and didn’t get a contract, I thought, and this was naive of me, but I assumed that they would see how much that I loved this and how quickly I learned, and that no matter what even when I left I would be receiving a contract, so when I left Tough Enough and sat on my couch for about a month or two as I waited and waited and never received a call, I kind of had to think outside the box and had to think, ‘Okay, now what? I am now stuck in Canada’. I am not legally allowed to work in the United States. I really don’t know what I am doing, and for the amount of time that I spent being on Tough Enough, I really wasn’t wrestling. I had to come up with something different. I asked myself: where are people going to generate a buzz to make a name for themselves? The two places I thought of were Mexico or Japan. I worked on trying to get to Mexico, which was the first thing that I really wanted to do, but a couple of my girlfriends thought that I should learn how to wrestle before I go to Mexico, so I should try out in Japan. That is how I kind of got over there in Japan. I still didn’t really know what I was doing, but with the language barrier over in Japan, they don’t know that you don’t know what you are doing, so every crazy move that I wanted to try, they were like, okay, let’s try it. That is how my confidence and move sets grew by trying things that I wouldn’t have tried had I been here in the United States.
Whether WWE has reached out to her regarding the second MYC: I have not been contacted yet. I don’t know if you know who Britt Baker and Santana Garrett are. We stay in contact and there are no secrets with us girls. We tell each other exactly what is happening. What conversations we have had with WWE, but none of us have heard anything. I know that a lot of girls, a lot of buzz about it, where they have heard from people in the Performance Center, but I have not heard anything about it. I am keeping myself really busy at the moment, and it is really full. That way, if they don’t call, I am not worried about it, and if they do call I would be totally excited, but either way, I’m happy because I am busy. It’s hard to know what’s true and what’s not anymore. Especially when it comes to such a job that everyone wants, you never really know. You could probably guess but the top indie girls are going to be the ones that they’re contacting but that always changes when you get to the PC and they start putting matches together. They really want international talent, that’s what they are focusing on, that’s what they told me. They want different cultures, different languages, different countries represented so I hope that’s a good thing for me. I hope they remember that I’m Canadian and that’s something to my advantage but again, I am a typical five foot seven brunette white chick so that might be used against me but you never know.
On what made her want to be a wrestler: I was living in Calgary going to University at the time and I was sitting doing some homework. I didn’t necessarily watch Raw or SmackDown but it happened to come up on TV as I’m doing my homework. I remember seeing a match with Nikki Bella. I don’t know what it was but I saw girls on TV, hot girls in cute little outfits and I stopped and procrastinated my homework and I watched the match. As I’m watching I’m thinking, ‘I’ve been athletic my whole life. I feel like I could do that.’ This match was a very basic, straightforward, psychology match. No crazy gymnastic stuff and off the top rope things like that. It just got my wheels turning and it might have been because I was bored with my homework that I was thinking any of this! I’m typing into my computer, YouTube and watching all of these matches. I get sucked down the hole of watching wrestling on YouTube and I kid you not, I Googled “How to be a WWE Diva”. Then ten minutes from my house, just down the road Lance Storm’s school. I called Lance, he told me ‘If you can be ready in two days and give me four grand, I will train you. Hopefully, you are good and if you are, I’ll help as much as I possibly can. I started training three days later and fell in love with it.
Green also discusses coming up with her Laurel Van Ness character and relationship with WWE Superstar Zack Ryder. You can listen to the full interview below:
What did you think of the interview? What have been some of your favorite Chelsea Green moments? Would you like her take part in the second Mae Young Classic tournament? Let us know in the comments below!
