2020 has been a tough year for many, but former NXT UK Superstar Jazzy Gabert announced her new wrestling promotion earlier this year – SIRIUS Sports Entertainment! While the promotion wasn’t quite able to take off as Jazzy Gabert planned, the former WWE Superstar remains optimistic. Inside The Ropes‘ Lead Writer Gary Cassidy caught up with the Alpha Female to find out how it’s going, and ask about life as a wrestler – and wrestling fan – in Germany, and Jazzy Gabert’s time with WWE.
Hi, Jazzy, first things first, let me ask about the current situation we find ourselves in. With the world essentially being shut down for the last half a year, how have you kept yourself occupied during the past few months?
Being busy is never an issue for me, I always have so much to do. I have a creative mind that never sleeps and I always have something to do – whether it be TV work, some private stuff that need to be done or new creative projects – just like the pain punches I did recently.
I know, when you left NXT UK, you started your own promotion – SIRIUS Sports Entertainment. I can’t imagine the timing could have been much worse for you! How is that all going, and why did you decide start SIRIUS in the first place?
Seems I always choose a bad timing! [Jazzy laughs] But I must have patience, like everyone else, as it’s not my fault that we can’t start. I started my own promotion because I always wanted to make my dreams and my idea, of how a show should be, come true.
I’ve never saw anything like that, like what I want to create, so I needed to take things into my own hands. I hate it if I have a passion on something and cannot fulfill it. Only time will tell if people love my ideas, but if I never try, I won’t find out. That’s why I went all in with SIRIUS.
As a professional wrestler who is very proudly from Germany, I need to ask – we haven’t historically saw many people from your country in mainstream professional wrestling. How did you get into wrestling? What was the inspiration there?
I watched wrestling, like so many of us, on TV and I fell in love with this sport. As a teenager, I went to a wrestling school and tried it out. I liked it, so I stayed!
Even now, people may only be familiar with people like yourself, Marcel Barthel and Alexander Wolfe. Of course, there are promotions like wXw – and of course WALTER is based out of Germany, despite being Austrian. What should people know about the German wrestling scene?
People should know that we have so many amazing talents here in Germany. Some hard-working boys and girls and we should not be overlooked. In Germany, you’ll find two of the best promotions in Europe. The GWF and wXw deliver on a monthly basis with high quality products.
You’ve wrestled in many places – notably in the Mae Young Classic and NXT UK, and IMPACT, and of course you’ve worked in Japan. What’s been the highlight of your career thus far?
It’s impossible to choose one highlight. I personally love to say that my whole career is a highlight clip. When I started, I never thought of the highs and lows I would experience in wrestling.
You, of course, gained a lot of eyes on you when you signed with WWE, although that in itself came after an injury prevented you signing initially. You wrestled in the Mae Young Classic, and in NXT UK. Do you have any regrets looking back at your time there?
I don’t like the word “regret” but if you want to call it that, I should have never re-signed with WWE and I should have never agreed to go to NXT UK. It just pains me to think about the time, the wasted opportunities and the behavior of some people there.
Before signing with WWE, of course, you were part of the Mae Young Classic. You’ve worked with a lot of people. Who’s been your favourite talent to work with?
Again, there are so many to name. One girl I will never forget was April Hunter. I’m so thankful for that as she taught me a lot. I’m also very happy that I was able to live, train, party and work with Sarah Stock in Japan. I’m grateful that Abbey Laith [Kimber Lee] and I worked so well together at the Mae Young Classic and she understood that this only works out if two talents works together.
My all-time favorite in and outside of the ring has to be Kairi Sane. I love her so much.
I thank every single girl who stepped in the ring with me.
I know you’ve also experienced life as an MMA fighter. Was there any hesitance there between juggling MMA and professional wrestling? Like, is there ever the worry that being part of one might affect the other?
It was so difficult to transition into MMA. I’m a showgirl and I love to entertain the people. In MMA, you only focus on your opponent and you try to finish the fight as fast as possible.
That sometimes mean that people travel hours to see you, they really look forward to watching you and then the fight is over in 30 seconds. I don’t like that. Also the training for MMA must be 100%. Often three times a day. Me being on the road on weekends, and being tired and sore on Monday was not fitting into my MMA schedule. My trainer was always mad at me and I had to make a decision. I love wrestling so it was not a hard decision.
Now, as someone who’s heavily tattooed myself, I LOVE seeing wrestlers who have a load of body modifications like yourself. I know you have at least one wrestling-related tattoo – so could you tell us a wrestling-related story about any of your tattoos?
My left arm is covered with tattoos from every country that I’ve fought in – Spain, Italy, UK, Japan, France and so on. I also have the Stardom red belts tattooed, because it was and still is a very special championship that I earned.
And finally, what’s next for Alpha Female/Jazzy Gabert?
I wish I could answer this question…
With the on-going pandemic ,it’s really hard to say. Do I have dreams? Yes. Do I have goals? Yes. Is it in my hands right now? Not entirely.
At the moment, I’m just trying to stay healthy and be optimistic that everything will be alright.
Thanks for chatting with us, Jazzy, and best of luck for the future!
Thank you for having me. Stay healthy.