LuFisto On Her Dispute With CZW Over Repackaged PPVs With ‘Softcore’ Names, How She Found Out, Their Response To Her

LuFisto spoke with Warren Hayes for a new interview and discussed her issues with CZW and Stonecutter Media over PPVs being repackaged with sexual, “softcore” titles. CZW is dealing with a hefty amount of backlash for taking matches from Women Superstars Uncensored being titled with sexually provocative names like “CZW Girlz: Hot and Sweaty,” “CZW Girlz: All Assets Revealed,” and “CZW Girlz: Top Heavy & Tough.” A number of talent who are appearing on the shows have spoken out and LuFisto was one of them.

CZW has said that they entered into a licensing agreement to license CZW and WSU footage to Stonecutter, which they say “gives the company the right to utilize the footage without limitation,” an argument that hasn’t appeased many (if any) of the complaints. LuFisto discussed how she became aware of the situation and her issue with it; you can check out the highlights and full video below:

On when she first heard of the repackaged PPVs: “End of March. Because a fan tweeted, ‘I can’t believe they’re calling Mercedes Martinez and LuFisto a catfight.’ And I’m like, ‘Excuse me? Uh, link me?’ He sends the the link, and then I see the press releases. They’re yeah, they’re putting it on all the websites and that’s when I see it: ‘Sweaty girls in dirty fights, and Catfights,’ like ‘Baring all out!’ And then, it’s me and Mercedes and I know that this show is from — what we signed up for was called like, ‘Breaking Barriers.’ So, it’s night and day.”

On her reaction to the ad: “I just tweeted like, ‘Really, CZW? Are you going to go that way to get views or something?’ And like, a few minutes after they reached out [saying] ‘We’re sorry. I mean, we understand that you’re upset and we do apologize. We tried to do something, but the third party we sold the footage wants to brand you guys this way. And you know, we respect you.’ I’m like, ‘No, you don’t.’ Like, ‘This is not what I signed up for and this is not what my colleagues signed up for.’ We already wear sexy, you know, gear as it is. And so are the guys, you know, they’re wearing trunks. I mean, it is what it is, it’s professional wrestling, we wear spandex.

“But I was telling them, like, ‘How can you change the names like this?’ It was a very short discussion. But when I saw that, they were not — like, ‘Oh, we can’t do anything, we’re sorry,’ like, ‘Don’t care.'”

On giving them time to rectify the situation: “So I just stopped talking to them and I’ve waited. It’s like, ‘I’m gonna wait. I’m gonna give them like a month or two, or something? Hopefully, they will change their mind, they’ll figure out that this is wrong, that we did not say yes to this. That they promised us that this was going to be like professional wrestling.’ And nope, they kept going. I saw another one and then another one. And I’m like, ‘Okay, that’s enough. They obviously do not care.'”

On her issue with the whole situation: “We understand when we go to a wrestling show that we do give the rights through our image has independent wrestling. That’s how you survive. You sell the footage, which is fine. But you never imagine that they’re going to change the name of it, capture, like, images of your crotch, of your ass, of your tits, and make them full-blown and try to solve the footage like that. You think, ‘It’s going to end up on high spots, going to end up on IndependentWrestling[.tv], they’re gonna sell DVD and we’re all good with that. It’s not a problem. They have to survive, and that’s how they pay the shows, and how they pay the website fees and whatever, it’s all good.

“But when you change completely what was the product about? And I always mention the fan that reached out, it was like, ‘I discovered you through this, because I thought I was buying something else. I was like, ‘Oh, I’m sorry for you,’ because that’s false publicity. The guy’s into sweaty girls and catfights, and then buys this and gets professional wrestling! And like, ‘I’m sorry for you. Because you’ve been screwed. That’s not what we’re doing, I’m sorry.’ But he was very kind [laughs], and very nice.”

On her appreciation to wrestling fans for bringing it to her attention: “But it’s little things like that, how you discover stuff. Because they will email you. Fans do, and they tweet and a lot of them are really — the greatest thing I think, about women wrestling fans is, they know evolution. They know the struggle, they know the story behind it. So when they see something wrong, they’re like, ‘Hey.’ And they’re were really vocal about it. And that’s how — because CZW never tried to contact any of us to say, ‘Hey, is this all right? Hey, we sold the footage, so if you see this, it’s out there.’ Nothing. They were just like, ‘Hey, you said yes to being on our show. Go to hell, we don’t give a damn and we’re gonna make money out of it, and that’s it.'”

If you use any of the quotes in this article, please credit Warren Hayes with a h/t to 411mania.com for the transcription.