Mickie Knuckles, who has made a name for herself as a deathmatch wrestler in several promotions, recently appeared on VOC Nation’s In The Room podcast. In the interview, she reflected on her career, deathmatches, and the #SpeakingOut movement. Here are some highlights, transcription credit of VOC Nation:
On why she chose deathmatch wrestling as her niche:
Knuckles: “I trained for a year and a half…one thing that that Hero, Bull, and Tracey Smothers and all of them were kind of preaching to me was (to make) myself a commodity – making me something that would add to a wrestling show. If you look at me I’ve always been a stout girl, so I knew I wasn’t going to be the bells and whistles/the pretty one on the card. So I’m like ‘ok so what do I have?’ Well I have an incredibly high pain tolerance, I always have. I’m pretty stubborn; when I get my mind set on something I’m going to do it, so I was like ok…what can I do to make myself that people are going to want to see? To make myself an oddity in a world full of circus freaks? Deathmatch wrestling just seems like it would be a natural fit.”
On psychology in the deathmatch genre:
Knuckles: “I was lucky enough to have some of the best deathmatch wrestlers around me to get the feel of the psychology. Believe it or not, deathmatch wrestling is supposed to have psychology in it just like every other wrestling. Nowadays it’s (who) can do the craziest bumps and there’s no psychology to it…so I kinda got to pick the brains of some really amazing people. I remember getting to sit down to talk to Terry Funk one time at ‘The Gathering’ a little bit about deathmatch wrestling, and he basically told me that I was a dumbass if I did it.”
The full episode is available here:
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