Shazza McKenzie Says Intergender Matches Helped Her Grow as a Wrestler

In an interview with Indied (via Fightful), Shazza McKenzie gave her thoughts on intergender wrestling and said that wrestling men has helped her grow as a performer.

She said: “I’ve been wrestling for nearly 15 years at this point. When I started, it was very much divas matches and there was maybe five girls in all of Australia and I just wrestled the same five girls over and over again, which was great because they were my best friends. The girls these days are so much better at professional wrestling because they are not limited. We trained with the guys, but there is this level of wrestling that you learn when you are out there performing, and if you’re never given the opportunity to perform with someone that is more experienced than you and can guide you and teach you in the ring, and you learn stuff working with people the same experience level as you, and you learn stuff working with people less experience than you because you learn how to lead. There is so much information. The first seven or eight years of my career because intergender wrestling was not a thing, my growth as a wrestler, from when I’ve not been pigeonholed to not wrestle like ‘these ten people or you can wrestle hundreds of people. Look at this amount of knowledge and experience you can learn from and get better from, but no, we’re going to handicap you with only being allowed to work (a limited amount of people.’ The only people against intergender wrestling — I am against the term intergender wrestler, it’s just wrestling — the people that are against it, the only people not allowing it to happen harms….the only careers it hinders are the girls, because you’re limiting their knowledge and experience and ability to grow as a performer. Not every girl is going to want to do it, and that’s fine, and no one should ever be forced to wrestle anyone they don’t want. The same rules apply for all of wrestling, you should never take a match or be with someone in the ring that you’re not comfortable being in a ring with, but gender in that situation doesn’t matter, that’s just a general, ‘you should just not,’ and people should be understanding and helpful. No one should ever be put in a position where they’re not comfortable with who they’re in the ring with. I didn’t make a conscious decison to wrestle more guys, but I am so appreciative of every time I get treated like a wrestler and not like the girls match on the card. The way that I get perceived by, not just the people in the back, but the fans, it’s all about the way you present people to the crowd. If you present women as weaker and inferior performers, they’re going to come off that way. If you present them as strong and tough like every other wrestler, there is never that issue. You get to set the tone of how people are presented, the people running the show and the people in the matches.“