Laurel Van Ness Talks About The Origin Of Her Character, Her Look, and Winning Knockouts Title
Impact Wrestling Knockouts champion Laurel Van Ness was recently interviewed on the “McMahonsplaining With Spandex Podcast”. Here are some highlights from her interview via uproxx.
Laurel Van Ness on the origin of her Impact Wrestling Character: “Well, everyone asks me that. It started out basically where, yes, when I was left at the altar, everything that happened after I was left at the altar, so me dropping down to my knees and being the most dramatic human in the world, that was me. Then when I got to the back, everyone was leaving, that was the last day of tapings, and Dutch [Mantel] came up and said, “I just want you to cut a quick promo. We don’t know if we’re gonna use it. You’re gonna sit, and you’re gonna cry.” So as I was doing this promo, drinking champagne, which was real champagne, it was like my second bottle of champagne.
Oh yeah. I’m drinking the champagne, and he’s kind of shouting ideas at me, like, “Oh, sing. Sing “The Sun Will Come Out Tomorrow.” Do you know that song?” And I’m like, “Oh, sure.” He’s like, “Act crazier. One more take, but do it even crazier.” When that aired, it kind of took off in this weird way I never thought it would. So then when I came back for the next set of tapings they were like, “Okay, we’re gonna roll with this crazy bride. I think we’ll keep you in the dress.” I was like, “Oh, that’s cool.”
From there on it was them saying to me, “Do whatever you want and be as crazy as you want, and hopefully we have to tell you to dial it down.” So every time I went out there I did something crazier. You know, more outlandish than the last time I went out there. But I can’t just say it was only me, because what I loved about Laurel, and I still love about Laurel is that every time I was kind of going through a match someone random in the locker room, it could have been Dutch, it could have been Abyss, it could have been EC3 or Spud. Random people have always had ideas. One idea, Pat Kenney was like, “Oh, you should do an airplane around Kong.” I was like, “Sure. Done.” He said that as I walking out, and then that became Laurel’s thing.
Someone else was like, “Hey, I saw this funny spot where you take the girl down, and then you pin her like Cameron from WWE. Pin her on her stomach, and you think that that’s real.” So then I’m like, “Easy. I’ll do that,” as I’m going out there again. And the next time it’s like, “Oh, you should get tangled up in the ropes, that’s funny. And then you should get hit with this move,” and I’m like, “Okay. Sure.” So it’s kind of like this weird character where it doesn’t matter what you tell me to do, I can go out and do it because I am the most unexpected kind of random character. Nothing that I do you question and be like, “Wait. Why?” You know what I mean? Because it’s fun like that.”
Laurel Van Ness on her smudged makeup look: “Oh my gosh. It’s my favorite thing ever. It’s so funny, because I go in in the morning and I get my makeup done. I’m looking good, I take selfies. Then they’re like, “Okay, Chelsea. You’re on in three matches,” and I’m just like [smearing] makeup all over my face. My lipstick’s going everywhere, and smudging my makeup.”
Laurel Van Ness on winning the IMPACT Wrestling Knockouts title: “It’s crazy, isn’t it? It’s so crazy. Bound for Glory week was such a whirlwind. With it being filmed in Canada, it was really exciting for me. Although it was on the East Coast and I’m from the West Coast, still felt like I was kind of in my hometown, I don’t know. It felt like this wrestling world had come full circle, and for it to come full circle and then for them to be putting the title on me was also really overwhelming. I wrestle Rosemary for the title, which you’ll have seen by now I guess. She could tell you the same thing, and Gail would say the same thing. They told me three times that I was winning that match. I didn’t realize that that match was the finals at the tournament for the title.”
