Jazzy Gabert Opens Up About Pro Wrestling's Women's Revolution, Crude Fan Chants In 2007
Women's wrestling is in a much different place than it was when Jazzy Gabert broke in in 2001. The Women's Evolution has helped greatly in making strides for women and giving them the same opportunites as men have.
Former NXT UK wrestler Jazzy Gabert spoke about the Women's Evolution when she joined The Wrestling Inc Daily.
"When I started wrestling 18 years ago it was so hard. My trainer didn't even want to train me because I was a girl. Then when you go to promotions they didn't even want to have us on unless we had super short shorts. But we didn't want to be in the ring because we're sexy as we wanted to be in the ring because we're athletes," recalled Gabert.
"I can remember at this one show called American Rampage Wrestling. It had Sabu, RVD and Bret Hart at it. I was booked at that show and the announcer introduced ladies wrestling and they're chanting, 'We want boobies!' I was like, 'Oh my God! What the hell?'"
Gabert said that when her and another female wrestler stood in the ring fans were chanting "You Can't Wrestle" before the two even locked up.
"These days this wouldn't happen anymore because the girls have improved so much. I can even see it in my country [Germany] because there were almost no girls who wrestled but now there's promising talent. There's so many all-female shows like Evolution so that's so freakin' cool. It shows that girls can do exactly the same as the boys and maybe even better," said Gabert.
She is towards the end of her career now, but Gabert talked about which women's wrestlers out there that she'd like to share a ring with.
"I would love to wrestle Tessa Blanchard so badly and Jordynne Grace so badly. I once had a match with Jessika Havok which I loved and I would love to do it again," Gabert said before noting that Impact has great talent at the moment.
Gabert has changed her look quite often over the years and she talked about the new look she has and what else she's also looking to change.
"I changed my look because I felt that I needed a change. I colored my hair pink and have these crazy contacts. I kinda wanna lose some size again because there's a lot of strong, badass females out there and I want to bring the femininity back and be more sexy. There's too many girls out there who wrestle like boys," Gabert stated before clarifying that they need to wrestle like boys but look and move like women.
"Kick and punch and throw like the boys but look like a woman if that makes sense. We have the power to look sexy while doing this. For example, if you switched it around and watched not-so-attractive people, then would you watch or skip the program? I think it's a visual business and we should satisfy the viewer. Even the men ? I don't wanna see men that aren't attractive, aren't sexy, aren't athletic. I wanna see a guy that I can't see on the street."
The women's wrestlers coming up now didn't have it as tough as they did during Gabert's early years in the business. She was asked if women now entering the business don't appreciate what they have.
"Yeah, many times I think about it, especially the whole locker room situation. Girls were complaining about the tiniest of things and I'm thinking wow because at one point we didn't even have a locker room," revealed Gabert. "We had to ask the boys to leave so we could get dressed or go into a toilet stall and get changed there.
"But they have no idea now because they come into this business and everything is handed to them. They think it's normal but it's not. They think it's normal to get paid like the boys but it's not. I'm going to shows and most of the time I'm the highest paid wrestler and I worked so hard for it. But [the girls] seem a little but ungrateful at times."
Follow Jazzy on Twitter @Jazzy_Gabert. Her full interview with Wrestling Inc aired as part of a recent episode of our podcast, The Wrestling Inc Daily. Subscribe to get the latest episodes as soon as it's released Monday – Friday afternoon: https://apple.co/2NQnHuC. The full interview can be heard via the embedded audio player below: