Insight with Chris Van Vliet - Taya Valkyrie Opens Up About Her Brief Time in WWE and What's Next

Episode Date: February 22, 2022

Taya Valkyrie (@thetayavalkyrie) is a professional wrestler known for her time in WWE, Lucha Underground, AAA and as the longest reigning Knockouts Champion in IMPACT Wrestling. She sits down with Chris Van Vliet at her house in Los Angeles to talk about getting signed by WWE and then being released less than a year later, what is next for her and her husband John Morrison, her clothing line "Loca by Taya Valkyrie", her favorite matches, growing up in Canada and much more! Check out Loca By Taya Valkyrie here: https://www.tayavalkyrie.com If you enjoyed this episode, could I ask you to please consider leaving a short review on Apple Podcast/iTunes? It takes less than a minute and makes a huge difference in helping to spread the word about the show and also to convince some hard-to-get guests. For more information about CVV and INSIGHT go to: https://podcast.chrisvanvliet.com Follow CVV on social media: Instagram: instagram.com/ChrisVanVliet Twitter: twitter.com/ChrisVanVliet Facebook: facebook.com/ChrisVanVliet YouTube: youtube.com/ChrisVanVliet TikTok: tiktok.com/@Chris.VanVliet Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

All systems are gathered. Ladies and gentlemen, Chris Van Blaine! Oh, it is so good to see you. Welcome back to another audio adventure here on Insight. I'm CVV Chris Van Fleet, and it was so great to be back inside Taya Valkyrie and John Morrison's house to do this interview. In person, of course, by the way. Although I just wish it was under different circumstances. I was so happy for Taya when she got signed at WWE.

and then less than a year later, she was released. And we get into it a lot during this conversation, but it's really clear that she didn't get a chance to really show which she was capable of in WWE. And if you've seen any of her matches in Impact Wrestling or in Lucha Underground, you know that she is capable of a lot. If you're not following her on social media,

it's the Taya Valkyrie, and you can find me at Chris Van Fleet. by the way, a huge thank you to you because my second YouTube channel that I started, CVV clips has been exploded lately. I've been posting the most interesting and memorable moments from interviews that we've done like this one. And it just hit 5 million views this month alone. Not 5 million views total. 5 million views this month alone. So if you listen to the podcast, it would be amazing if you also subscribed on YouTube to CVV clips.

fan of the week is Naeem Hussein who says awesome show love your show so many great tips keep up the great work well thank you appreciate you taking the time to leave that review i read one from apple podcast on every single episode so if you have an iPhone and if you haven't left a review yet leave a few words on there we'll give you a shout out on the show for free of course no patreon here no paypal payment required a free shout out so if you're like hey you should listen to my podcast. You can put this in your review, by the way. Hey, you can listen to my podcast or subscribe to my YouTube channel or, hey, I have this great product. Put it in your review and I'll read it. We'll shout you out on the show. It's that simple. And if you have

Spotify, Spotify now has a rating system. So go in there, leave a few stars and buy a few stars. I mean, please leave five stars. It'd be so, so helpful. All right, let's dive into this. Please welcome. Taya, Valkyrie. going to be okay buddy he hates high fives oh thank you for inviting me back to slamtown oh you're so welcome welcome back look at this guy everybody knows him yes this is uh the infamous prince presley prince at presley yeah pretzel for short he's such a good boy look how happy he is i know because there's cameras he's literally a movie dog born to be a star born to be a star look how happy he is I thought you might have something to say.

I guess not. He's a star, but he's silent, a silent star. So much has happened since the last time I saw you. My, oh my. Yes, so much has happened. Since the last time we sat right here. Yep, sat here in my kitchen. It was the fall of 2020.

Yeah. That really wasn't that long ago and like so much stuff has happened. Yeah, well, this was before you were signed with WWW. Yeah. And John had signed with WWE. Yeah, he was already there. Yeah. And like so then not long after that, you did get signed.

And here we are. And here we are again. Now you're not. Yeah. I don't know where we begin. The trials and tribulations of being tired. Well, welcome back to California. Oh, thank you.

I have missed California. I missed California so much. I don't think I realized how much of a West Coast. I mean, I'm born and raised in Victoria. Yeah. So I've always been on the West Coast. whole life, but I didn't realize how much I love California. Yeah. I'm sorry, Florida, but you were awful to me. So it's not Florida's fault. I'm just going to blame it on Florida. Okay.

Blame it on Florida. It's all Florida's fault. I don't know. Like, I lived in Florida for five years as well. I can understand what you're saying. Florida has good. Florida has bad. Every state has good and bad. Absolutely. 100%. And I think when we went to Florida, California was in a stricter lockdown, 100%. Like I remember the first few times we went out in Orlando, I kind of had like John and I were like, oh my God, like the PTSD of having gone through 2020 in Los Angeles. So it was a little bit to get used to because it was just so much more lax than the year. But yeah, it was definitely, definitely different. So let's pick it up from the last time I saw you. So John's working for WWE. Does John working for WWE help you kind of get your foot in the door?

It didn't help me get my foot in the door. I definitely think that it helped me make the decision that I made to go there because when he left Impact, I was kind of like, oh my God, because we've been working together for, you know, several years and several different promotions. So the idea of us being able to be together again was a huge influence on my decision to sign with WWE. Yeah. It was a very very, very, long process. It's a very stressful process. I don't know if people know that, but it's like a lengthy, like several months of, you know, paperwork and background checks and medical things and, you know, all this kind of stuff all while you're trying to figure out, like, am I going to get

this job or not, you know? So once everything happened, it was just like, okay, like we're doing it. And this is the, that was like a huge motivator. It was for John and I to be together. Yeah. And working for the same company. And I'm guessing that those, those things don't happen when you're signing with other companies, all the months of paperwork and medicals and all that stuff. I've never gone through that before. Nucha Underground, we had to do like a lot of medical testing for them. That's probably because of the TV network. 100% because it was run like a TV show and just like liabilities and things like that.

But yeah, that was the first time that I've gone through that level of, you know, there's a skeleton out there. They're going to find it. But I imagine, you know, every kid grows up watching. WWF, WWE, it's like, oh my God, like they want me. This is exciting. It was very exciting. And, uh, I mean, I wanted to go there forever.

I mean, that's why you start wrestling. That's you fall in love with the superstars that you see as a kid or as a teenager or whatever it is. Right. So for me, it was always like, I just want to be like Trish Stratis, Canadian icon Trish Stratus and Lita and Victoria. And like I've touched on before, like that's the whole reason I got into fitness competition was because I wanted to be like them. Yeah. at a certain point in my career, I kind of thought that I wasn't going to get signed because I wasn't, you know, I just wasn't what I thought that they liked. And that's just me being

critical of myself. I also wasn't 25 years old. Like, there's a bunch of stuff. And then as time went on, people like Oz Cover was hired, Sheena Basler, Mercedes, Mercedes, seeing Tamina and, you know, Natalia on the main roster, killing it and winning championship still. And it was like, maybe this is a possibility. Yeah. And you would made such a name for yourself too. Yeah, of course. Like, I'm a multi-time world champion in AAA, you know, a longest reigning knock-goes champion for impact wrestling. Keep going. I love it. You know, I was on three seasons of Looch Underground. I'm a main inventor on all of those platforms. Yeah. You know, put some respects on my name, folks. No, but so it was like a really cool,

like kind of like, okay, like I'm going to give this to go. Holy shit. Like, yeah, it's happening. It's happening. And like, I said in some inner, like when I first was there, I said in an interview, that I reminded me of like feeling how in Charlie in the Chocolate Factory when he gets the golden ticket. Like that's the way I thought about it. I actually bought myself the book when I got signed to remind myself of how I felt in that moment. I love that. Still have it. Yeah.

I sometimes have to look at it because it was such a like a big deal for me. Yeah. I don't come from wrestling like I said. Like it was just years like 12 years of, you know, and everyone says like blood, tears and hard work. But it seriously was. Like I was so poor. at certain times. I didn't have the support of a lot of people. I've just really had to carve my own path. And so the opportunity to go there, I was like, okay. And that's a lot of people say like,

well, you should have known better. You know what I mean? And it's like, but it wasn't about that. It was about like, do I go and do this and at least try? Or do I spend my whole life like wondering what if kind of thing? And you would also seen that John had gone there and been very successful. Of course. Like he's my husband. Like I, and I, just like any job, there's going to be good stuff, there's going to be bad stuff. Whatever, I was prepared for that. Yeah. Don't know if I was prepared to the level that I had, like, of what happened, but I was definitely like, okay, I'm at least going to, I'm going to try, you know, like, and they were super good to me when I first got there. They treated me like, like, Ty of Alcary. Like, they were very, like,

protective of me. That's why, like, I don't know if you look back on, they were doing, like, the women's tag title announcement. Yeah, yeah. I'm actually on the stage there, but I was told to not look at the camera because they wanted me to be part of it. But they didn't want me to be seen because I hadn't been like, I hadn't debuted yet. Yeah, okay. So that was part of it. You see like the back of my head like twice. Very recognizable back of the head.

Yeah, I know. But, but yeah, so they were like Sean Michaels and Triple H were like super good to me. And like I started, you know, working with Saramato and the girls in the girls class and, you know, training in the weight room with Sean Hayes. Sean Hayes. Shout out Sean Hayes. He's the bomb. He was one of like my favorite people. while I was there.

And yeah, things started, you know, going on and going on. And, like, you know, WrestleMania weekend came and Presley debuted on NXT before me. So it was, everything was, like, good. Like, I was, it was hard. It was definitely like, okay, like, this is a totally different kind of situation that I've ever had been in before. But if I survived, you know, all the drills and all the, you know, hours that I've spent in this kind of, like, environment in other places, I'm sure I can do it here.

And that's what I did. I did abs. I went to extra ring time. I was training every day. I was doing promo classes. I was, you know, pitching ideas and having creative meetings. And, like, Road Dog and I would sit down and talk about stuff for, like, hours. And I would just, like, you know, have all these, I would have color charts.

I would have movie references. I would have, like, I think about this stuff so much because I just care and I just love it so much. So things were, like, really good. And, you know, as you could see what happened as, like, as time went on. and then like 2.0 came about. And I feel like that is when a really big change. And that's when Triple H wasn't there every single day. Yes.

It was like night and day. It was a very obvious change of energy and obvious just feeling because we were hearing like all sorts of like rumors about what they were looking for compared to, you know, last week. and I was like very confused and I was like what is like what what what is going on kind of thing and it only been a few months at that point yeah like so this was like in the summer yeah so and you debuted in February it was like March March April um so yeah it was just so weird it was like and I can I guess announced in February yeah announced in February um it was just

like the most confusing experience of like my entire life and how having worked, like I said, everywhere. I was just left like, what is going on? Yeah, and then you're like, do you feel like every single day you're then walking on eggshells? 100%. I think everybody was. I mean, I can only speak for myself,

but I can also say that like the energy definitely shifted. You know, we were hearing rumors all the time about, you know, they're going to be firing people this week. And then now the whole week everyone's like, you know, scared basically. I don't know how to say it. But we're all, like, busting our asses. You know what I mean? Like, everybody is there, like, you know, I ended up training with Carino and the boys and

the tag class. And, I mean, I loved training with MSK and training with Imperium and, like, all those guys because they're pushing me and they're making me do different stuff. And, like, it's just really cool to, like, you know, grizzled young veterans and, like, just learning from different people from different walks of life and different paths. And everything was, like, good. everyone was working like really, really hard. But it's just the shift of how they wanted 2.0 to be, like literally changed from like one day to the next.

So and I feel like it just made everybody just being like, oh my, like holding your breath. And I think there's also been people saying that like if you were a triple H hire or a triple H project in 2.0, like they just didn't want to do anything with you. I mean, I don't like no one ever said that to me or confirmed any of that. I just, I don't, I don't know. Like, I just can't even like, I don't know. It's just, all I can say is it's like really confusing. And I tried to make sense of it for a really long time. Yeah.

And I was really angry, as we all know. But you can't make sense of something. It makes no sense. Yeah. I work, all I can do say is that I worked very hard. I gave everything I could just like I've done. I don't want to cry. Oh, God.

Like everywhere I've worked before. And it was very confusing. and I just didn't know, like, I felt like I did something wrong and I... Well, that's obviously not the case. Yeah, it's... Sorry. No, it's, I completely understand. Because this has happened to dozens, hundreds of people over the last year.

And it must be so difficult to not take it personally. Well, yeah. And it has nothing to do with me. I know, and I'm a sensitive person. So when everything went down, it was like really confusing and heartbreaking for me because I felt like I let everybody down. Yeah. It's not on you at all.

Yeah. And I guess it must have been so difficult because John's then still working there at the time. And John was on tour in the UK when this happened. Thank God. My friend Heather Monroe, shout out to Heather, had picked me up to go shopping when I got the call. So, thank God I was with her. Sorry. So it was really hard because it was confusing.

And I felt like I let everybody down. And I felt like I was representing the over 30 women that are still badasses and look good and do their job and are passionate and can work. And I felt like I let everybody down. And I know I'm putting that on myself and my mom has told me that. But it's been really rough. And I'm hashing all this out again. But I now like know that I did nothing wrong. Presley, what do you think?

Yeah. Presley's here for you. Yeah, are you there? Yeah. Well, thank you. I know I didn't do anything wrong. It just sucks. It just sucks.

It just sucks when you meet your heroes and you work at a place you've dreamed of working forever. And then it's something that's so out of your control. And you also think that you're going to be the exception. You've seen so many other people come there and get let go. And you're like, but it's going to be different for me. It's going to be different for me. Yeah. And I just think that I just had to like, because I know myself, if I had not gone,

there, I would have regretted it forever. So you can't regret or like I don't regret going there. I just think that it was. You just wish it that it had been handled differently. Handled differently. I wish I'd even been given a chance. Like

I don't know. So yeah. When you first went there. First of all, I'm so sorry that this and this is why I reached out to you when you first got like I was like, this just sucks. It just sucks. I don't. don't know what else to say it. It was just like really horrible and like I still made like really

cool friends and got to work with people that I probably would have never been able to work with. And you know, shout out to all the coaches that, you know, had, I had the opportunity to learn from. Yeah, yeah. And like the creative team and Road Dog and the writers and, you know, William Regal and all these people that like really did help me. Yeah. So. So my first hello from. Fresh box just arrived, and I am loving this. With Hello Fresh, you get fresh, pre-measured ingredients, and delicious seasonal recipes delivered right to your door. Hello Fresh lets you skip those trips to the grocery store and makes home cooking easy, fun, and affordable. And that's why it's America's number one meal kit. The recipes are so easy to follow. They're quick to make.

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The U.S. Soccer Podcast, presented by Henko. Follow and listen on your favorite platform. When you first went there, was there ever any talk of you being Taya Valkyri? Yeah. Well, just like any time, um, did you like me to get you a tissue by the way? Yes. One second. You just sit right there. Yeah, a fancy paper towel. There we go. Sorry, guys. Taya Valky is crying. This is real. Yeah. And I think that it's, the, W.W.E. doesn't even announce the releases anymore. It's all going through Fightful.

Like, that's so strange to me that WWE is not even acknowledging that the person that we put this time and effort into does not work here anymore. Yeah, I didn't even notice because it's a little distrainted when all this hooked up. So what were you saying?

So you went in. Tie up, yes. And that's who we will know. Yeah, so immediately, because I immediately had like creative meetings and stuff. And Rodog and me are hashing out, like, who this character is to be and like they really like loved everything that I came with. They're like, there's like little tiny like differences like they didn't want me wearing a fur coat because

the reason was that we were in Florida. And I was like, okay, whatever. I don't have to wear a fur coat. And, uh, but then I like, you know, I discovered this new seamstress out of Chicago who made me all my beautiful tool coats, uh, that I wear. And so it's just like I was kind of just wanted to, I did want to evolve, um, without going so far that people didn't recognize who us. That makes sense. So the hair got longer. The jackets got longer and bigger. But then did they go, we don't. We need to name you. Yeah. Yeah, we need to name you. So there was a, you were going to be Taya for a while? No, they, like everyone was calling me Taya at the PC because like, obviously I know everybody. So many of my friends are there. No one even calls me by my first name ever. And then they just were

like, hey, what is your, we're going to go through some names. They send you like these lists of names and you can kind of go through them and stuff and then make suggestions and things. And man, did I try to at least keep Taya? Valkyrie they didn't want me using because there's the Valkyrie that works for Inex, UK. But Taya, I, like, tried really, really hard. I'm sure somewhere in a book, there's some ridiculous names to an email. So, yeah, it just kind of started the, you know, week to week kind of thing of, like, going

back and forth with the names. And they're just saying, because we don't own this IP, you've got to have a new name. I mean, no one ever really even said that to me. My theory, though, was that I had been Taya on three different television programs and there's merchandise and things out there of me and they just wanted to have something new, which I totally understand. And from a business perspective, it actually makes sense. I think, though, then you can see the flip side of the coin. There's lots of people they've brought in who got to keep their names. Absolutely. So I think that, like, just like I said, doesn't make any sense. Doesn't make any sense. So, I tried really hard, but, um, yeah, ultimately I did not win this battle.

How did you become Frankie? Well, Frankie was a name that I picked because I've always liked kind of the androgynous names and names that are kind of like could be used for a boy or girl. Yeah. Um, and I remember watching the stigmata movie and her name was Francesca in it, but they called her Frankie and I always thought that was really cute. Yeah. I know it's like a horrible like crazy movie.

No, the love that you and John have for films is deep. Yeah, deep. I love it. So technically, I guess you could say I was Francesca, but yeah, no, Frankie comes from that. And then I didn't want it with an I-E because I thought that that was too normal. So you got to choose that. I got to choose the spelling. And then Monet was a name that I came up with because I was just trying to think of like artists.

I started like, you know, when I was growing up, my dad's from Switzerland. So we would travel to Europe all the time. And he would take me and my sister to see all the galleries everywhere, everywhere, everywhere. So that was kind of where the idea came from, was like to pick something from the art world. So that's why I picked Monet. How similar do you think Taya is to Frankie? I think they're extremely similar. I feel like they'd be best friends.

I just think Frankie had more money. And here we are. Yeah, like I just think that she was just like a je, je, a more judged version of Taya. But with that said, the new version of Taya that I am involving into now is an even juggier version of Taya into Frankie into Taya. Yes.

What's next for Taya now? Oh, my God. So many things. It's been like, I was like really kind of scared and anxious coming back to the Indies. And I have no idea why. Like, I'd been doing that for so long.

I just feel like I was because like how I expressed like how I was like, I'm like embarrassed or I felt like I let people down. I thought that people were going to be like, I don't know. Like I was putting it in my own head. You know, it's like, it's really hard mentally to go through some of this kind of stuff. So, and I'm already like an anxious person. So I'm thinking people are going to be like, oh, there's the girl. Yeah, like that's literally like I was putting things in my head that I thought that this was going to happen.

Look, Ty, everyone has been fired from. Unless you're the undertaker. I know, I know. But it was just like really, I don't know. I was just very anxious and didn't know what to expect, especially because. when I went to WWE, it was after, right after the whole 2020 of pandemics when I didn't work a single indie for a year and I was only, you know, working for doing the impact TV tapings. So it'd been two years basically since I had been around fans, spoken to fans because at

NXT, you don't really have any fan interaction at all. And you're, you know, in the CWC every day. And so it was just, it was just different. And so I didn't know, I was like, oh, my God, are they going to like, do they like me, do they hate me? And then also, I will touch on this. it's like the negative backlash that I got made me even more anxious. So when I got released, people were sympathetic and felt bad for me.

And then two weeks later, when they decided to release my husband, I was mad. Like, I was sad and then I was mad. And then I said what I said because I was upset. I mean, I'm standing up for my husband. And like, part of me was like, not like, why? Like, okay, fine, fire me. But like, don't fire John. John Morrison?

Really? Like, why? And so I was just like really. upset. So I, you know, I was threatened online. I was told to kill myself. I was, uh, every horrible thing you could think of, I was told because I stood up from my husband. That's awful. Um, so it's just like, and so I was very anxious, as you can tell, uh, you know, being around fans again. Um, but it has been nothing but a positive experience. So thank you. Those fans need to go give themselves a look in the mirror.

And like just, that's ridiculous. It's not okay. It's not okay. That's not okay to say to anybody. No. And, you know, I don't need to. We're already going through a lot of stuff. The world is like tough as it is.

The time we're living in. You know, we were released before the holidays. It was really hard and very, so many unknowns and moving back to California and like, just like a lot. There's a lot going on. Yeah. You had a life in Florida. Yeah.

And friends. and a routine and my dogs are there, you know, like all these kinds of things. So it's a very traumatizing kind of thing. Well, what people unfortunately don't see is they just see a headline or a tweet. Yeah. Like, here's the people who have been released. They don't like understand you just lost your job. Yeah.

My dream job. Your dream job. Like I don't think that they realize that like this is more than just a line or a tweet. This is your life. Yes. This is my life. It's mine and John's life. Yeah.

And when you're attacking us because. we're sad or upset about losing our jobs. Like, I wonder how you feel when you lose your job. Like, that's, you know, nobody's happy about that. So I think that people took it like, and they're the, I don't know what it's called, the internet wrestling, whatever. The IWC. Yeah, the IWC need to really take a good look at themselves because, yeah.

Yeah, and I can understand why so many wrestlers don't want to be on Twitter. Twitter's the worst. Twitter is literally the worst. I really enjoy Instagram and I feel like it's fun. And you can like really brand yourself. You can be creative. You can make, you know, post whatever you want kind of thing. And I feel like Twitter is just like, oh my God.

Yeah. Like the bottom of the barrel of like. And no matter what you say on Twitter. Yeah. You can be like pizza is amazing. It's delicious. Yeah. Like really?

So you're disgusting. Why do you like pizza? Ew, maybe you shouldn't eat so much pizza. You're fat. Like, oh my God. Like I just like pepperoni. How can you disagree with pizza? And that's basically what it is.

Yeah. Absolutely. It's like insane to me. I would think that you would have never guessed that John would be released with what with what him and Ms. had going on at the time. There was a lot of eyes on them. They had a storyline that seemed to be.

Yeah. And Ms. had just gotten off dancing with the stars. He like had done really well. Yeah. And he was supposed to be coming back like the week after. Johnny drip drip was this great thing. You know, everyone had drip stick t-shirts.

It's great. No, like, I just, like, that's the thing. And, like, I told you prior to this interview, like, people like, you had to have known. You had to have known. I'm like, no, like, five days before I was released, we put an offer on a house in Florida. You know, like this was this next step of us being more permanent there because none of, neither of us saw this coming at all. And I think that that's where, like, the emotions and things like that come from, too, is because you're, you know, you have this idea that this is your job and you're going to do your, you're, you have to plan your future. and like, what does our future look like?

Well, we have now, it's like, at the time, I was like, oh, my God, like, you know what I mean? But now I'm just excited about the future. And that's, that's good because, yeah, going back, like going back to what we were saying, like, going back onto the Indies, having these meet and greets and. Well, feeling that love from the fans. Yes. Some of you are freaking amazing. Most of you. 95% of fans.

More, more. 98? Yeah, maybe. But, yeah, no, everyone has been, like, so good. Like, my first wrestling matchback was versus Thunder Rosa at the Twitch, Zicky Dice, uh, Atlantic Paradise show. Yes.

Which was great. And I love Zickey. Oh, he's awesome. That guy is just a ball of energy. 100% all the time. Where's a lot of pink, neon. Love it. He was the front man of a pop punk band.

Love it. Yeah. Just love it. So he was like any, you know what? He was the first person like promoter wise that that like, I spoke to. So I, because I was just like overwhelmed by like everything. I didn't answer emails for like a week because I was just like, I don't even like, I don't want to deal with it kind of thing.

But he was the first one that reached out to me and he's like, can I on Twitter or whatever? And he's like, can I call you or text or whatever? I want to talk to you about something. And he called me. It was great conversation. I like, don't even remember if we didn't met in person. Like we just knew of each other kind of thing. And he wanted to bring me on for this show.

So it was the perfect energy. I needed for my first showback. With your legacy and impact wrestling, that seems like a, that seems like a place where you should be. I mean, I have nothing but love for everybody to impact the whole entire time. I was, you know, in, in WW, the knockouts, face-time me on a regular basis. We're all at my birthday party in Vegas. We're all still extremely close.

We all have been very supportive of each other through the last year and we'll continue to be. I have nothing but love for everybody over there. I think that what they've been doing has been really special. And it's really fun to like see new faces and see the new kind of matches and just like how everybody's elevated their game. Yeah. And if everybody, if anybody's a lapsed TNA fan or a lapsed impact fan, like go check out what's going on there now. Absolutely.

TjP and Josh Alexander recently. Unbelievable. Josh is like insane. And so is TjP. So I mean, look at that. Like it's just there's, and there's, there's, they're always. bringing in new faces and stuff and like ROH kind of invaded impacts recently. So there's there's lots of fun things for people to check out for sure. You've also got a lot of friends at

AEW. Yes. I think that if you went into AEW, you would make such a big splash so quickly. Thank you. Yeah. It's it's nice to know that I have these kind of communities everywhere. My chosen Lucha Libre family is like to call them. You know, like Phoenix and Pentagon were, Phoenix, I think, was probably the first person to call me when I got released. And I was just sobbing on the... He's like, I can't understand you. What's going on? But no, like, they've just always been super supportive of everything.

And, you know, I, obviously my first appearance post-WW was at their show or at their store, sorry, Republic of Lucha here in Los Angeles for their Christmas little party thing, which was really fun. And obviously there's, you know, Serena Dee was over there. Thunder Rosa is over there. there's just tons of also people that I've never wrestled before, which would be super, super fun. There's tons of people that John I know would kill having matches with. I mean, there's intergender things that need to happen here. Britt Baker, Adam Cole, I'm waiting.

Yeah. But yeah, I just think that there's plenty of people around the world and these different companies and even smaller ones and GCW is doing crazy stuff. and MLW is doing stuff. It's very... What about Matt and Chelsea? Oh, Matt and Chelsea, we have their number as well. Love you guys, but we're taking you to slam down.

There is a lot of, as you're saying this, there's a lot of couples in wrestling that I can think of off the top of my head. Yeah, totally. There's tons. You know, what if Sue Young and Rich Swan? Like, that would be a dynamic. Keith Lee and me, E.M. Who else we got?

Gia and Austin Ace Austin We got Keep going I know okay Now you're And if I'm going to forget Someone they're going to be so mad

Oh we got Renee and Rockstar Spud Oh I thought you were going to say Renee and John Moxley Well we got that too Oh god That's a lot That's like six I think we just listed there There is yeah

And I also just really really Oh there's Ms and Maurice Yep Now we're just listing like Seth and Becky. Yeah, what else we got? That one probably won't happen. Yeah, those aren't happening anytime soon. But I really, really want to wrestle John.

You have wrestled. I have wrestled once before. Where would you want to wrestle John? I don't know. Mexico? Why can't I just do it here? You can wrestle him wherever you want. Yeah, but that's also like it's one of my, on our, and we've both talked about it.

DCW? I would think that I, me and John, would do, you know, it would be awesome. PWG is still running here, right? Yes. They normally don't put women on their show, unfortunately, which should change. Hello, it's 2022. Yeah. There's a lot of possibilities.

Yeah. So I definitely know I want to wrestle John. I mean, there's just so many people that I'm excited to like, like, I still have not wrestled Chelsea Green. was in her wedding party, haven't wrestled Chelsea Green. Someone explains me how that even like... You should have started in the wedding party should have started a few.

Started the angle. Yeah. Should have like hit her with the bouquet. Yeah, no. She'd just look too pretty. Congrats to them, by the way. Best wedding ever. So fun.

I just think that when you look at people like Chelsea and Matt and what they've accomplished, it's like, man, the sky's the limit. Oh, yeah. And like, and that's the thing. Like, yes, everything that happened to me is sad and it sucked and I'm just like at a point now that I'm like moving on from that I've hacked you know hash it up to a chapter in my life a very short chapter

but still a chapter in my life and in my career I'll forever be able to have that on my resume and I'm just ready to move on and I'm ready to you know conquer new mountains I conquered that mountain I've conquered many before I when I was fine before so sure seemed like you were about to win the nxty women's championship or at least in line to do that you know what Why do you got to say something? Because I wanted you to be like, well, actually, Chris, I was about to win it. No. Unfortunately, no.

Raquel's awesome also, by the way. She's very good. She's such a sweet girl, too, very talented. Is there anything you learned from your time in NXT that you now think you'll take into the matches you have in the future? Definitely, like some of the psychology stuff, because I was so fluent in Lucha, Ray style. It was interesting for me to just have like this kind of more, um, a better understand. I mean, I always knew, you know, regular pro wrestling psychology, but I think that they are so particular about the way that they want things. And that I definitely learned some,

some stuff there of 100%. And also just taking my time, not rushing things. I feel like my selling improved a lot because, you know, just make everything bigger. Um, so of course I took stuff from there. If anything, they just did me a favor because they just polished me up for somebody else. You played to cameras before in the past, but I imagine there it's much more of like, okay, you're in headlock. Make sure to know that the camera's there. The camera's there. Well, I mean, that's kind of, that's a given with television and having done TV for so long, I felt like I was like I'm very good at. That's one thing I'm very, very good at is, you know, finding my cameras, knowing where the hard cam is, knowing how to work TV.

but there it's just more meticulous definitely and there's just like more cameras and things like that but overall like yeah there's just like they like I said I think maybe they did me a favor well clearly they just polished me up and now I'm ready to it's brought you to where you are right now yeah sitting here with you in slam town in slam town how's the business good um actually I'm glad you brought that up so I continued doing it throughout last year and I had help obviously here because we were living in an apartment in Orlando. You should have moved your LLC to Florida for tax purposes. Don't get me started.

But yeah, so we're coming up on our two-year anniversary in like May. And so I'm really going to be taking the next couple months, just preparing a launch for the two-year anniversary. And for anybody that doesn't know what we're talking about, this is Locke by Taya Valky. Locable by Taya Valkyrie at Taya Valkyrie.com. And it's your clothing line. It's my clothing line. And I've been doing it for two years almost. And so, yeah, I'm really just kind of almost like rebirth of Locke by Taya Valkyrie and like shine her up and, you know, build the website up, like, change the website and just do some things like that that I really take back my business and and really, you know, move forward with it.

I enjoy fashion and clothes and as you as you guys. Obviously. Come on. But yeah, it's just like part of my life. And I just really enjoy it. It makes me happy. So I'm just going to get more hands on in this next year. So you and I are the exact same age.

Yeah. We're 25. That's right. Yeah. And as I think about a milestone that's not too far away for both of us. 26. That's right. 26.

I think about like, oh my gosh. Like that seems like a big number. Do you think about that? You know, I never, ever, ever thought about age at all until it was brought to my attention. They actually brought it to your attention? Well, I mean, social media brought it to my attention because they, nobody ever told me like, oh, you're 38, you're old now or anything like that. No, no, it was never a conversation.

I was hired when I was like 36 turning 37. You know what I mean? So they already knew what they were getting. You look great. Oh, yeah, thank you. I know. So the age thing, and also, like I said before, all these women who had been hired

and had done all these wonderful things, you know, being accepted for their talent and not just a number on a page. Because if a man was 36 or 37 or 38, no one would say anything. Let's be honest here. Unfortunately, that is just the world that we live in. And so people started kind of picking on me again,

on Twitter about my age. And I was just like, I've never thought about my age. I don't know what 38 is supposed to feel like. I don't even know what 38's supposed to look like. I'm just me. And I am able to do my job better than, you know, a 25-year-old. I have 12 years of experience.

You know, I think it's Brett Hart that said it takes 10 years of experience to become a main inventor. That makes sense. Bitch, I'm a main inventor. But you know what I mean? I think it's Brett Hart. John gave me that quote. I like that kind of sounds like the Malcolm Gladwell 10,000 hours thing. 100%.

Exactly. So, yeah, I was never ever brought to my. It was never something I thought about because I'm just me and I just live my life. And as long as I know that I'm doing my job really great and I still have passion for my job every single day, I still love the arts and creating magic and creating moments for the fans and all these wonderful things and traveling and all the woes that come along with, you know, the professional wrestling business. I don't think about it. And everybody at the PC thought I was 28. Then you're 28. That's all the matters.

There are some girls. I'm not going to call them out, but there are some girls that would come up to me all the time and talk to me about like a song that was playing. And like, remember like five years ago? Like when in high school, this song was popular. And I was just like, yeah. Yeah. Like it never came up.

No one said anything. And then like, so when it was like all of a sudden like, you know, with the weird rumors that came out about what 2.0 was going to be and all this kind of stuff, all of a sudden my age was to the internet an issue. And I was like, you guys didn't even know how old I was. Well, perception's reality, right? Yeah, I don't know. I just don't even really think about it.

I live my life every day the same way I would if I was, you know, 25, but just with more responsibilities. And I'm the same. Yeah, like what does that even mean? Well, I think it's that the only reason I asked this is because when we were kids, I remember my parents being this age. Yeah. I remember going to my dad's surprise 40th birthday.

I remember going to my dad's 40th birthday. And there was a cake with a hill on it. And it was like, you're over the hill. And I'm like, what's that mean? Yeah. And he's trying to explain to me that like, oh, that means I'm old. I'm like, you're not old. Yeah.

I was like, eight at the time or something like that. Yeah. And I'm thinking like now as I approach that, I'm like, there's nothing I can't do at 38 that I couldn't do at 28 or 18. Yes. I actually, like, I think that if I had gotten into wrestling, like, as a 20-year-old or something, like, I don't think I was mentally prepared for that business. You know what I mean?

I think that starting later, I started when I was 26. So starting at 26 years old, I was just mentally more prepared. And, you know, it's a really hard business to be in. And I just know that I just don't think I could, would have been able. able to handle it at that age. And I feel like I am probably a better person, a better wrestler. I'm just more responsible with what I do and everything compared to having say I got signed when I was 20 years old. So I don't know. I don't think that there's anything negative with being my age. I feel like I said like I'm 25. I don't even know what 38 is supposed to look like.

I certainly don't look like a lot of 38 year olds. Neither to you. You're like a baby face over here. You and John, you know, like. John is Benjamin Button. Okay, he's aging backwards. It's unbelievable. Jeez. What is he? Like, is he, is he a vampire? I mean, maybe.

Are you? I'm an X-Men. I always say I'm an X-Men. I'm an X-Men. It's just the way that it is. Yeah. I just think that what's in front of you is way more exciting than what's behind you. Absolutely.

And, like, my, I never want to, like, forget or regret things that happened to me. And, like, my road has been very hard, but also has, like, had so many wonderful triumphs. So, I'm just looking forward to like what's next, where I want to go, what I want to do, doing more TV projects and getting back involved in TV and film and writing more movies with John and continuing to be creative with my clothing line and creating content and collaborating with all sorts of really cool individuals. I live in, I live in Los Angeles, California. Like it's a dream. And I'm just happy to be home, inner house. Yeah.

like, although me crying earlier is not a good sign of this, but I do feel like I'm mentally in like a much better place. You had to get it out. Yeah, I got it out for you guys. If you want to, if you're a creative person, there's no better place in the world to live than Los Angeles. Like, whether that's in fashion or movies or music or whatever, the best of the best are here. Absolutely. It's just magical. I don't know. Like I didn't grow up here. We're from Canada. Yeah. We're from Canada. We're from Canada. We're from Canada. We're going to. Two Canadians living in L.A. That's great.

But like as you're a kid, I just like, don't you remember being like, oh, like California, Los Angeles. That's like where the magic is. Every song is about California. Yeah, California, no doubt about it. Sure. California. California. I just wanted to go to school in the O.C.

Come on. California love. Yeah, exactly. Exactly. So, I mean, you know, living here has been probably, you know, in the back of my mind since I was five years you know, so I'm just happy to be here again, happy to move on from my experiences, learn from them, obviously, and just continue to try and, you know, create my own path and write my own legacy and all that, leave my own legacy and all that jazz.

Yeah, if someone's watching this for the first time in seeing you and haven't seen one of your best matches, what match do they need to go look up right now? I would recommend going to see me versus Ayako Hamada in, Tijuana and the Tijuana Street fight. I would look up any of my title defenses from Impact Wrestling. Some of them. All of them? All of them. All of them.

You were the champion forever. Forever. I mean, if you're bored, you've got a lot of things to watch. I actually, yeah, like, there's just, I started rewatching some of my old stuff recently, and I was like, look at her. She doesn't even know what's coming. No, but it's in all, like, very nice. There's a lot of stuff I'm so proud of. Actually, just this past weekend, I was in Baltimore at a sidelmore.

And it was so cool to me how many people came up to me with lengthy stories about Looch Underground. Like, yeah. And asking so many questions. And it's just, it's really cool to realize, like, that you leave these kind of, like, marks on people and positive experiences with through a project like that. We talked a lot about Lucha Underground in our last conversation, but it's the fact that they went out on top. Like, Lucha Underground still had so much momentum.

And it was a lot of stuff, I think, beyond the scenes with the network that caused it to not continue. We didn't get that the last season. But, I mean, think about everybody that was involved in that show and how all of us have taken that opportunity and flourished and hopefully made all the believers proud, you know. So, yeah, it's, it was definitely one of the most fun I've had doing something. And I mean, you know, it's also where I met John. So all magical things happen in the temple. I end every conversation with the same question because I love gratitude.

Yeah. I start and end every day saying out loud three things that I'm grateful for. So I end every interview the same way. What are three things in your life that you're grateful for as we sit here right now? My health, my family, and John. I love it. Yeah. Thank you so much.

Yeah. Sorry I was like, you know, Kim Kardashian ugly crying for a second. That was not an ugly crying. Why? Please. Please don't make any gifts of me. Please don't come from me on Twitter. Please, please stop all that. It's just too much.

It's too much. Nothing but love. Yeah, nothing but love. I've got nothing but love for everybody. You don't have to agree with me. I don't have to agree with you, but you don't have to be, you know, negative Nancy P-O-S. Yeah.

Treat everybody like you'd want to be treated. I think that's something that we learn in kindergarten. There you go, guys. Words of advice from La Guadalajalya. Thank you. Thank you, Chris. I appreciate you coming here. Huge thank you to Taya and John for inviting me into their home for this interview. And a big thank you to you, of course, for always being in there with us.

And I just love how open and honest she was. And I can't wait to see what's next for Taya. Take a screenshot. Let us know what stood out for you the most from this conversation. Tag us on social media. Taya is at the Taya Valkyrie. I'm at Chris Van Vleet. And I posted this on Twitter last week.

and got a ton of great responses from you, so I'll leave it here as well. That move that you're scared to make might just be the one that changes everything. Be great. Be grateful. We'll see you on the next one with Tony Chimmel, by the way, for some more insight. The Hammer Alley podcast, an 80s flashback mockumentary. Back in the 80s, there were a thousand bands trying to make it in the world of rock, But there was one band that had it all. Hammer Alley. Whatever happened to Hammer Alley?

How did they go from top of the rock? I'm looking for a music video. They're a band from 1987. Hammer Alley. Ever heard of them? To Rock Bottom. Dude, I was born in 1987. I can't believe he's doing this.

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