Upon moving to the United States in March 2023, Shazza McKenzie made it a personal goal to wrestle in TNA. In May 2024, that goal materialized through a pair of matches at the TNA television tapings in Newport, Kentucky.
During a recent interview with WrestleZone’s Ella Jay , McKenzie explained how these matches came together, with the help of TNA producer and Talent Relations figure Gail Kim.
“I feel like TNA was always just the one that really eluded — not eluded me, but I want to wrestle there. But I was like, how do I even [get booked there]? There’s no email to email and say, ‘Hey, I want to wrestle here.’ And I don’t want to be the guy that like, asks people, ‘Hey, can you help me?’ It’s hard. It’s icky. I don’t like doing it,” McKenzie said. “So I was very lucky that during WrestleMania week at the TJP versus GCW show, Gail Kim came and watched that show.
“I was able to talk to her there, and then from there, I was able to keep in contact until we ended up with me doing the Kentucky tapings back in May,” she continued. “I got to wrestle twice, which was crazy. There was never any guarantee of anything, but I feel very blessed that I was able to be there and do that. Working with TNA continues to be something that I want to aim towards. Since I moved to America, that was always kind of the main goal.”
During the May TNA tapings, McKenzie had the opportunity to wrestle in both singles and tag team competition. The former came against “The Quintessential Diva” Gisele Shaw. Elsewhere tag team action, McKenzie and Jada Stone faced former TNA Knockouts Tag Team Champions Alisha Edwards and Masha Slamovich.
When asked to identify some Knockouts she’d like to work with next in the future, McKenzie immediately pointed toward her fellow Aussie Steph De Lander . Though they may originate from the same country, McKenzie noted that they’d only had a handful of singles matches, three to be exact.
“For someone that I’ve known since the day that they took their first bump, that’s crazy,” McKenzie said. “And then [as someone who] also lived in this other country with and is one of my best friends in the world, I would love to be able to. God, the idea of going to work and just seeing one of my best friends every two weeks or whatever, please, please. That sounds amazing. That sounds like the dream, right?”
In addition to De Lander, McKenzie is also interested in wrestling one of TNA’s newest and longest-tenured rosier members — Heather Reckless and Rosemary, respectively.
“I’m freaking hyped for Heather. Heather is there now. Let me wrestle Heather every day of the week as well. I’ve wrestled Heather a million times, but I’ll do it again. I’ll do it. She was my first match when I moved to America. I got off the plane, the next day I wrestled her last March at AAW, fun fact. Then I wrestled her 20 million times as well.”
“I think that the Knockouts division is going to continue to grow and continuing to get better. I’d love to wrestle Rosemary again. I haven’t wrestled her since maybe like 2016 or something, a long time.”
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