In an exclusive interview with PWPonderings’ Scott Mitchell (@Scott44Mitchell), Notorious Mimi (@notorious_mimi) sits down to talk about her career. She talks about how she got into professional wrestling, training at the Monster Factory, some fun upcoming matches, the upcoming Beyond Wrestling “Shamrock Slam” premiere, her time in the WWE, what’s next for her, and so much more. Check it out below.
When and why did you first become a professional wrestling fan?
“So, I’m on the more recent side of wrestling fans for people in the business. I didn’t start watching wrestling until 2016. My sister found wrestling on YouTube, I didn’t watch TV much growing up as a farm kid and all of that, but she found it and she was like hey, Roman Reigns is hot. I was like, cool. But the concept of wrestling, seeing people going out there and throwing themselves looked like so much fun. I got into it around the women’s revolution and WrestleMania 32 when Charlotte, Sasha, and Becky had that awesome triple threat. Just seeing the women really elevate the division on that level and just kick butt on that level made me want to get into it myself.”
Was there anyone specific who stuck out to you and made you realize this was what you wanted to do?
“I always tell people I’m a Sasha Banks fan 100%. That’s always been the person I went to when I wanted to watch a match that gets me into it. More recently, her New Japan Strong one with Steph Vanquer was really fun to watch. However, all time, even though people don’t like this one because the belt was in a game of “hot potato” back and forth, Sasha and Charlotte feud and almost everything in it was very fun to watch.”
When and why did you begin to start training?
“So, I started training completely at the Monster Factory in November 2017. I was still 14 at that time, so I pursued youth clinics and training camps at a couple of other places, but a lot of the time schools were shutting down, so I was lucky enough to find the Monster Factory which took me in when I was still pretty young and let me train with everyone on the normal schedule. Just from the second, I started there it clicked. It always felt right to me, from the time I started watching it, to learning how to wrestle and wrestling on shows and stuff like that.”
Was there anyone who stuck out to you as a mentor there and helped you along the way?
“I have to shout out Danny Cage. He’s the coach of the Monster Factory and I appreciate him taking me in, even as young as I was. All the guys who were the top guys there at the time helped me with my training process. Primal Fear, who was in ROH for a while, at that point too we had Damian Priest, then Punishment Martinez who was valuable to learn from. Everyone there was extremely welcoming.”
What was it like to learn under Damian Priest (fka Punishment Martinez) and learn all of his knowledge?
“I will always say I wish I got a little bit more time with him. When he was training there, I went about once a week. I couldn’t drive myself because I wasn’t old enough. What I did pick up from him was very valuable. I don’t know if he knows this or not, but we do keep his drills around and still use them. His ideas have helped teach other people how to coach. He was just always very hands-on which was very cool too.”
What was it like when you found out Monster Factory was getting its show on Apple TV?
“It’s funny that you say when find out. There never was a time when it wasn’t supposed to happen. It got to a point where we just were like yeah sure, whatever, we’ll see if it happens. From the time I started in November 2017, it was always this thing where we were going to have a TV series. It didn’t go into production until the end of 2020 or the beginning of 2021. We didn’t have any concrete dates for the filming schedule or anything. So, that time post-COVID quarantine we started finding out that it was happening, and it was very exciting for everyone. I watched it once and I loved it. I was very excited to see the final product and I think they did a great job.”
What was it like to be a tag team champion at Monster Factory with Travis Jacobs?
“We did have a pretty decent reign. I think it came about pretty naturally. We were in a group before in like 2021. Obviously, we’re dating, we travel everywhere, and we know each other’s movesets and all that stuff. It just kind of naturally made sense to me. It was really fun because I haven’t done a ton of tag team matches. Every once in a while, I’d be in a thrown-together one sometimes, but I haven’t had a teammate go into the depths of tag match psychology. I thought it was a really fun and different experience. Once you start having a lot of tag team matches, you almost miss them. It just allows for an extra level of excitement to have two people to throw around and a teammate to bounce off of. I was very pumped to get to do that.”
Coming up next week, Monster Factory will be having its big “WrestleMania” type show, “We Been Here.” You will be going head-to-head with Shazza McKenzie in a singles match. What’s your thoughts heading into that match?
“I’m just so grateful that the Factory is getting to do something like this as a platform for them. We always have a show where the bit is like “Not Chasing Mania,” where we’ll run on Mania week. This time, we didn’t have to chase Mania because it came to us. With Mania in Philly, it’s cool to have all of these people who would normally be going wherever it is, come in and wrestle us. I love Shazza. We met once already at a show in Canada, but this will be our first time squaring off in a match. I just think she’s such a badass and I can’t wait to get to wrestle her in front of my home crowd.”
You got to wrestle on Beyond Wrestling’s biggest show in history, “Shamrock Slam” which premieres Sunday on IWTV. What was it like competing on that show in front of one of the biggest crowds in Independent Wrestling history?
“In some ways, it’s not that different. I feel like the only thing we were trying to be very thoughtful of is because it was a festival, which was cool and made for a great environment, I love drunk fans, they enjoy wrestling so much more than sober fans, but because it’s all one flat festival, people were standing like 100 or 200 feet away that are no taller than the people in front of them. So we were trying to get up on the turnbuckles, and pop people up in the air, and just tried to make sure everyone could see as much as possible. But I was amazed because a lot of times at festival shows you’ll get people who aren’t wrestling fans.
They’d just come for drinking, live music, or something else so they’d be kind of into it. But this crowd was chanting all of our names, were really behind all of the babyfaces, and booing the bad guys. Poor Shannon LeVangie, it was so funny, there were a lot of expletive chants at her, it was very entertaining. Yeah, it was just awesome to perform in front of a very large and enthusiastic crowd. It was very cool.”
On that show, you teamed up with Kennedi Hardcastle and Allie KATCH to take on Ava Everett and the BRATZ (Shannon LeVangie and Paris Van Dale). What was that match like?
“I was excited about it, especially because there all people I have worked with before. At festival shows it can get kind of chaotic, especially when you’re trying to call stuff and people are running around. So, it was very reassuring that every one of these people I worked with before. I tagged with Allie before, I tagged with Kennedi on Rampage, and I worked against all three of Ava and the BRATZ. So, you feel kind of familiar with what everyone does already. They were all fun to work with. Everyone just got along well and wanted to try to have the best possible match. Especially on a card like that where there were so many kick-ass women, but I think we were the only match that was all-women. So, we were making sure we popped off as much as we could. It was so fun.”
Switching gears a little bit, you got to take part in the Create A Pro Women’s Championship tournament. What was it like being a part of that?
“That was fun, and it meant a lot to me. For a while, I kind of had a running joke that I was the adopted Create A Pro kid, because, for a long time, they didn’t have a lot of female trainees there, so whenever their male wrestlers would get called in for extra work, a lot of the time I’d be there with them. So, it would be all the CAP kids and me. So, it was like I’m the adopted CAP kid. I just always loved the shows there. Their crowd is fantastic. They’re always excited to be there, they’re loud, and they buy merch, so shout out to them. But, it just felt very rewarding to get to be a part of the tournament after spending so many shows there, and all the jokes about being an “adopted CAP kid.”
I also felt so lucky to get to wrestle such awesome opponents. I got to wrestle Rosemary in the first round, she’s someone I never worked with and I looked forward to that match. That match was so much fun and I was very proud of it. Then, I got to be in the main event with Gabby Forza which was extra special to me. I had her first singles match about six months ago, and she has just grown so much in that time. It’s cool to watch her rise like that. It was fun to get to have another match with her knowing what she knows now. I was proud of that too, it was super cool.”
You touched upon your main event match with Gabby Forza. But what was it like when you found out you were going to be maineventing Create A Pro?
“So, that was a really fun weekend for me. I went 3-for-3 with main events that weekend. I main evented two Factory shows and that. Great weekend, so fun. For a long time in my career, I never main evented anything. I started to get to the point where I’d main event something on an all-women’s show. It was still really exciting, but it doesn’t feel like someone’s taking a risk by doing that. To get to a point where promoters feel comfortable taking that risk, putting the women in the main event, and trusting that I’ll deliver a good enough match that makes sense for me to be there, and the crowd likes me enough, is such an exhilarating feeling that always motivates me to perform beyond the best that I can.”
What’s it like to just be a part of that new and growing women’s division at Create A Pro?
“It’s beyond exciting. I’ve gotten to work with a good number of women in that division already and all of them are so cool. I’m looking forward to hopefully being able to work with the rest of them who I haven’t yet. I know there’s a lot of newer girls coming up through the training school. I love the way they train their students there. They’re all really fun to watch and easy to work with, so I’m excited to get an opportunity to work with all of them.”
On Saturday at AXW you will be working with another one of the up-and-coming Create A Pro talents in Nat Castle with the addition of Riley Krow in a triple threat match. What are your thoughts heading into this match?
“I am super excited. I’ve gotten to enjoy triple threats, almost more than singles matches, because it gives you two people to play around with and bounce off of. I haven’t gotten to work with either of them so it’s going to be cool to break that and learn how both of them work at the same time. I’ve seen Nat wrestle a lot, and I got to work on the last Combat Fight show with Riley. Both of them are so sweet and I just know we’re all going to have a fun match.”
What was it like training at the WWE Performance Center and learning under that umbrella?
“It’s amazing. I always tell people it’s the closest thing there is to a wrestling college. You’re working a 9-5 of learning how to be a good wrestler and a good entertainer. The coaches are so cool because they have people who were old-styled Brit wrestlers in the 80s, but then they also have people who were just on the indies like two-to-three years ago. So, getting all those different styles of coaching and all the different input from people who have just a widespread knowledge is so amazing. I enjoyed my time there. My only complaint is just wishing I could have been more shows and done more. But the coaching environment there was amazing and so encouraging.”
Did you have any favorite moments or mentors?
“Favorite moment would have to be being the first match in the first-ever women’s breakout tournament with Fallon Henley. It was cool for me to look around and see that I was kind of in the history books here. Whether I stick around or not. It was cool to get to be a part of that moment. As far as mentors there, it’s so hard to narrow down but my favorite person to learn from has to be Norman Smiley. He’s just so smart and has such a different wrestling brain than so many people you meet in the Indies today. Getting to go to his class every day was informative and a different way of learning.”
What was it like finding out that you were going to be in the first-ever match in the first-ever women’s breakout tournament on NXT?
“I didn’t know I was going to be in the first-ever match until maybe the night before. I may be misremembering, but it was a quick turnaround. But I don’t think I processed the “oh dang, we’re the first one” until I was in the ring. We did find out about who was in the tournament a couple of weeks out. I remember being so excited. I always loved watching the Mae Young Classic and stuff like that when I was a fan, so being able to put on a tournament kind of like that, especially on a WWE product was cool.”
Recently you got to team with Kennedi Hardcastle to take on Willow Nightingale and Kris Statlander on Rampage. What was that match like?
“Very fun. My favorite part was when I texted my mom and told her I was having her favorite wrestling match of all time. The running joke is I’m my mom’s favorite wrestler, but her two other favorites are Willow and Kris. When I found out I was having that tag match I texted her and told her she was going to love it. That was fun, then it also aired on my birthday, so that was super cool. I loved being able to say I kicked off the year doing something, so that was fun. I didn’t work on my birthday, it was filmed on Wednesday, but my birthday was on Friday when it aired.
But yeah, I was pumped that I got to just get in the ring with them, especially on one of the larger TV shows. I’ve done Dark and ROH before, but I never got to step in the ring before for either of the TV shows on a cable program. So, that was a very cool experience.”
Looking ahead, what’s next for you?
“For so long, my dream was just to get a contract. I got to do that, and it was amazing. But obviously, I don’t work there anymore. I think my goal has become a little more complex than going back and doing it again. If the opportunity presents itself, I’d love to. I had such a great time working there. But it’s more just about me as a wrestler. My goal right now is just to have the best matches that I can, expand as much as I can, and feel more confident in my work. I feel like over the past two years since I’ve been released, I’ve had less of a concrete-looking ahead goal.
I feel like that helped me get better at wrestling in the moment. I’m not worried about what match I’ll be having in two years; I’m focused on my match tomorrow. I think it takes a lot of pressure off and lets you perform better. I’d love to wrestle internationally a little more in the next year. I got to make my Canada debut not too long ago and that was cool. I’d love to go overseas. Besides that, keep having the best matches I can have, hopefully keep main eventing some shows, and meeting fans from all around the world. It’s been cool.”
Do you have any future opponents you’d like to square off with?
“I’m announced already to be squaring off with Ultra Violette on the next Belle 2 Bell show in May. She’s someone I really enjoyed sharing the ring with in multi-women matches, but never got her one-on-one before. In the broad scheme of things, my first answer is Mercedes Mone. I’m a massive fan and can’t help myself. Aside from that, I’d love to wrestle Billie Starkz. I think it’s cool what she’s accomplished at such a young age.
If I ever go back to the WWE I’d love to square off with Kiana James. We were friends, in the same training class, but somehow, we never got to lock up or go at it in the ring, and I think that would be cool. A couple of years ago I got to wrestle Red Velvet in a 3-on-3 tag and I’d love to have the chance to work with her one-on-one.”