Jody Threat debuted with IMPACT Wrestling on the April 6th edition of IMPACTonAXSTV. Threat wrestled and defeated rising star Tara Rising.
Jody recently gave some background on herself and how she landed in IMPACT Wrestling when she was a guest on the Wrestling Perspective Podcast.
Jody spoke about the backyard wrestling matches she was involved in during the beginning of COVID. She said because of COVID, Canada was locked down more than other places. Jody said the idea came from Vaughn Vertigo, Jody said Vaughn needed a creative outlet, and many of them [wrestlers] were suffering. So, Vaughn set it up and was the mastermind behind it.
Jody said she got into wrestling about seven years ago, and it was by accident. She said her sister had a bad break-up. So Jody wanted to take her out and have a fun time. Jody and her sister came across a sign that said live wrestling, and she said after a few drinks, they went downstairs. She said it was a place she associated music with, but a wrestling ring was in the middle of the floor. Jody said music went off, and two guys got in the ring, and it was love at first sight. Jody said a pillar beside her had a sign saying, “Do you want to be a professional wrestler? Then sign up here.”
Jody said she started training before she even watched wrestling. It was also mainly Indy wrestling that she started studying. Dennis Farrell asked Jody if it was a benefit for her not to have watched wrestling in the past. Jody said, “In hindsight, it was an awesome thing, but in training, it was hard because of the jargon and references she was clueless about.” Jody said she studied Pro Wrestling like it was a class in school.
Dennis also mentioned that she would do many things that men won’t do, and Jody says that a lot comes from her athletic background. She played Rugby for ten years and was also a skateboarder too.
On creating her Jody Threat persona, Jody says that she likes to collaborate with those she works with because it allows them to create something different, and that’s why you see a variety in her work.
Jody says she is still learning the camera work at IMPACT, but everyone has been very supportive. She mentioned that she would get advice from Josh Alexander and Lance Storm. Jody also said getting feedback from Storm.
She says the locker room at IMPACT is good. Jody says she’s excited to learn. When asked what she watches of wrestling, Jody says she “watches everything. She consumes it all.”
The topic of the AEW Dark match from Toronto came up. Jody said she wasn’t aware of it because she is not on Social Media. However, she realized it was a bigger deal when she got friends’ text messages. She thought it was cool because it got her around 1,000 more followers in just a few days. Jody laughed and said, “go buy my merch or book me.”
Jody said that IMPACT was interested in her because Scott D’Amore sent her a message on Facebook. Jody said she did a seminar for him a few years ago. He asked her if she had an interest in working in IMPACT. Jody mentioned that at first thought that maybe someone hacked into his Facebook account, but then the rest was history.
Jody said she thinks IMPACT does not want to sign too many people. Instead, they want to use the talent they have. So they take their time and choose who they want to bring in. She believed she was on their radar for a “hot minute.”
She said regarding her original gimmick, she was a skater girl, and it was something that she did not want to do. So she tried to keep her skating life outside of wrestling because it was one of her passions, along with wrestling, and she did not want them to bleed in together.
“So my original gimmick, if you will, was more of like a skater girl, which I did not want to do. I wanted to keep my skating life out of wrestling because they were two separate passions, and I didn’t want them to bleed so much into each other.” Jody said.
Jody would tell Lars and Dennis, whose idea was to do the gimmick.
“My first trainer before I got to Josh [Alexander] was very adamant about me trying it out as a gimmick just because it was so much a part of me, and I could do some cute little spots on the outside with my board. So, I used to hit a head scissors off my board, like a lariat spear, and set it up for really cool cutoffs.
Jody would explain her excitement when the time came when she could stop the skateboarder gimmick and was excited because now she could keep it separate and out of the ring.
“I didn’t want to exploit that part of me. So, it always felt awkward. I spent so long trying to shake that board [gimmick]. But, again, I really didn’t want to bring that into this world because wrestling, for me, I have to keep it separate from real life, Jody. So, what happened was one of the girls from NXT who was on the Indies, who I did wrestle, stole the skateboarded gimmick, and I was like, Oh, hell, yeah. Now, I can drop it, and then I just went straight into truly 16; 17-year-old Jody hopped up on Reign Energy Drinks.” Jody said.
She said she wants to connect her character to women not represented well in wrestling. She doesn’t believe her character is very sexualized but did mention that she found out there is a picture of her feet on wikifeet. She said that shook her a little bit.
When asked about her character development and if it was her main focus as of now. Jody would tell The Wrestling Perspective what her primary focus is now.
“My main focus was to be the best wrestler that I could be in the ring. That has been my primary focus always. Then I think maybe, the whole character thing I’m still working on, and you’re always evolving. I sometimes wish I did spend a bit more time on that, but I guess it kind of works that I am a little more authentic because I don’t really have to try too hard to put over the character.” Jody said
She feels fortunate that she got to wrestle in Shimmer. She has aspirations to be a champion because it will open more doors.
H/T Rob Wilkins from Fightful full article here
Full interview:
So far in IMPACT, Jody is undefeated at 5-0, having taken on and defeated opponents such as Alisha Edwards, Subculture’s Dani Luna, Seleziya Sparx, Sierra, and Tara Rising. This is a great confidence boost for Jody as she gets used to the camera work as mentioned above.
Many fans are eager to see what the future holds for Jody, but there is defintely no shortage of competition in what is highly acclaimed as possibly THE best Knockouts roster of all companies in terms of utilization and primary focus.
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