Priscilla Kelly on Controversy Over Her Tampon Spot, Says There’s a Double Standard Against Women in Wrestling

– WrestlingInc.com recently interviewed Priscilla Kelly for its WINCLY podcast. Below are some highlights from WrestlingInc.com.

Priscilla Kelly on the reaction to her tampon spot: “I’ve seen men do way worse things that are disgusting and very much real in the ring and on television. No one raises a single finger or uproar while a women’s menstrual cycle is something that you should be embarrassed about and ashamed of – and I’m not talking about a century ago; I’m talking about still today. People are very weird when you bring up a women’s period. It’s something that’s natural; why do we have to feel so ashamed?”

Kelly on how she didn’t do the spot for attention: “If that’s not entertainment and that’s so disgusting, then you better not be buying tickets to that new Rob Zombie film. It’s just hypocrisy because people say I’m disgusting and I don’t know how to entertain. I was doing something that was entertaining to myself and I didn’t do that to gain the attention of the internet. I didn’t know it was going to be a big deal, as I’ve said before, when you do a show like that, you don’t know that footage is gonna make it anywhere. A lot of matches are filmed that never see the light of day, so I thought it was something funny and something to entertain myself with.”

Kelly on the biggest criticisms on the act being other women: “There were a lot of men that didn’t like but I would say the more hateful comments were from women actually. Most of the bad, bad heat came from women. When you come to the business side of pro wrestling, there were a lot of men speaking out saying they liked it. They thought it was cool and different. Just to name a few, Taz and Tommy Dreamer spoke about it. But there were a lot of women who wanted to bash me. They said it was counteractive to the Women’s Revolution.”

Kelly on the women’s revolution being about getting treated as equals: “Men, in their section of entertainment, there are all different styles. You have catchpoint, guys that flip, guys that entertain with their private parts, Joey Ryan, and you’ve got everything in between. In men’s wrestling everything is accepted and you can do everything. You can spit in another man’s mouth on TV and that’s seen as edgy and cool. But if a women does something of similar disgust, it’s not even a real thought. It just gets bashed and I think people need to realize that all women’s wrestling doesn’t have to be the same. Women should stop being so afraid to push the envelope.”

Kelly on there still being a double-standard for women: “It dates back to the beginning of time with women being told that they should speak when spoken to, should cross their legs when they sit and shouldn’t speak out or have an opinion. It’s just really sad. I saw a protest a few weeks back where a woman was holding up a sign that said, ‘I can’t believe I’m still having to protest this crap’ and it’s true. People need to stop putting women in that position where we can’t speak up or be who we want to be. I’ve even had girls tell me they enjoyed my tampon spot and they wish they could have done something like that themselves, but they are too scared. And that’s what wrong with things because men aren’t scared to do anything. Men aren’t scared to push the envelope because nobody will put them down for it.”

Priscilla Kelly on working with the RISE promotion: “I think RISE is getting eyes on people and allowing new talent to come up and be seen by the world. One of the recent ones was a guy named Dave Odd who was in the six-way at the last RISE with me. I had never heard of him before RISE but he was amazing and so charismatic with every move on point. You wouldn’t have people breaking out like that if it wasn’t for RISE.”