Slammiversary XV, the first Impact pay-per-view of the Anthem era, took place last Sunday to rave reviews. The show saw several reunification battles between Impact and Global Force Wrestling championships. One of the best matches of the night saw GFW Women’s Champion Sienna take on Impact Knockouts Champion Rosemary, and in the end it was Sienna who came out victorious as the new unified champion. RealSport spoke with Sienna about her huge Slammiversary victory and much more.
A new era for Impact Wrestling
RealSport: Congratulations on the huge win at Slammiversay. How’s it feel to be the unified Knockouts Champion?
Sienna: You know, a lot of people have asked me that over the past couple of days. I always have the same answer: it feels amazing. I don’t think anyone would ever win a championship and tell you otherwise.
RS: Impact has gone through a lot of changes recently, obviously with Anthem taking over and the news breaking about Global Force and the new name. How’s it feel to be the top woman in Impact as we enter this new era for the company?
Sienna: It feels phenomenal. I don’t even know what else to say. Being a champion and winning matches and being the top of a company, it’s gonna feel great, I don’t how else to describe that.
RS: Has there been a noticeable difference since Jeff Jarrett joined earlier this year?
Sienna: Things are definitely different. Nothing’s the same, he’s a different human being, but I’m having fun, so that is what’s important to me. I’m having fun doing what I love.
RS: Impact recently announced that they’ll be doing their first house shows in quite a few years? How important is it to you that the Impact brand are gonna be returning to the road?
Sienna: That’s very important to me, especially coming from the independent scene, because those are the crowds that I basically grew up [in front of] in the wrestling world. I grew up traveling around the United States, and going back to those towns is gonna mean a lot to me.
RS: Impact spent the first part of the year not on television in Britain, but since April they’ve found a new home at Spike UK. How important is it to you that British Impact fans do have such easy access to the promotion and can watch the show every week on TV?
Sienna: Well, the UK is one of our largest audiences, so it’s very important that our company is broadcasted throughout, and it’s very important that those fans have easy access. So, I would say very important.
The career milestones of the Unified GFW Knockouts Champion
RS: What was it like representing the US in the Lucha Libre World Cup last year?
Sienna: Oh, that was a lot of fun. I had a good group of girls, Cheerleader Melissa, Santana Garrett. We did not come out victorious, but we definitely fought a hard battle and it was fun to down in Mexico. I enjoy Mexico, I am partial to Spanish-speaking countries because I speak Spanish, but it was a lot of fun to be down there and especially representing the USA.
RS: Impact have announced a lot of relationships with different promotions around the world. What’s the experience like when you’re wrestling in foreign countries? Do you feel a need to adapt to performing for different types of audiences?
Sienna: My wrestling is my wrestling. This is how I wrestle, this is who I am. In a lot of my wrestling, I have my mixed martial arts background as far as like the way I move and things like that, and I don’t think that that ever changes. I am who I am, and the audience can like it or they don’t have to, I don’t really care. But it definitely is different wrestling in front of certain audiences. They react differently. The Japanese audiences are known to be a lot more silent during matches as a sign of respect, so with things like that, sure.
RS: What are your feelings on the landscape of women’s wrestling? It really feels like it’s going through a resurgence across the globe.
Sienna: I think that there are a couple of different reasons. Obviously, because women are awesome. That’s my go-to answer. But I do think in a lot of aspects, especially across the independents right now, it’s a trend, because they see bigger companies doing it, and they’re like ‘oh we’re gonna hop on this bandwagon’ and they wanna put women in the main event. Whether or not they care about women actually, I don’t really know, but it’s good for us because we get out there, we get seen.
RS: Earlier this year, we interviewed Jeff Jarrett and asked him his thoughts on intergender wrestling. He said whilst it’s not something should necessarily happen week in and week out, it definitely has its time and its place.
Sienna: I’m not opposed to intergender wrestling, I’ve had intergender matches. I do agree that there’s a time and a place, and more importantly, I think that there’s a way to do it and a way to not do it. I think there’s a very cliche way to do it, and that’s what gets old, and I think that there’s also a stupid way to do it, which is not really believable. And then I think that there’s the right way to do it, and I’ve done it here and there, and I’d like to think that the way I did it was the right way to do it.
RS: Is it something you’d like to see more of, something which is maybe more accepted?
Sienna: It depends. It really does depend. It depends on both individuals because I think that it would be believable if I beat up a lot of these guys that were a lot smaller than me.
RS: Who were your biggest influences growing up. Who were the wrestlers that made you want to enter the ring?
Sienna: There were a lot. Whenever people ask me about who inspired this, who inspired that, it’s a difficult question for me because I take little pieces from everywhere. So it’s not like one person or two people that inspired my entire wrestling career. An easy answer would be Lita, when I was 12 she was like the hottest thing on TV. So, that would be an easy answer, but there are a lot of influences. I’d say when I first started watching wrestling I watched WCW. So I do remember being very young and liking Sting and DDP, and then my cousin got us into WWF at the time. And I remember being a fan of Lita and Stone Cold. So I guess those would be the answers.
RS: If you could face any woman in wrestling history, who would you choose?
Sienna: I would say Bull Nakano. I just think she’s awesome.
RS: Who would you say, outside of yourself, is the toughest woman in the locker room?
Sienna: I’d say the toughest woman I’ve ever seen in a locker room, in general, is probably La Rosa Negra. She’s a badass, and she’ll bite you and she’ll cut you.
RS: What would you say is the most memorable match that you’ve had over your career?
Sienna: The most memorable match of my career? I like a lot of my matches right now, and obviously, I remember those better, but when I think of matches that people might know from independents that are indie fans, they’re probably gonna think of my series that I had with Mia Yim, formerly known as Jade. That was at AIW. In our first match, she broke my nose, and then we had a “fans bring the weapons match” after that. And then we had a cage match after that. And all three of those kinda blur into one match to me, so I’d say that series.
RS: Which wrestler do you feel that is not currently in the Impact locker room would you like to see Impact add?
Sienna: Jessicka Havok.
RS: In his conference call with the media last week, Scott Steiner talked about his feelings for Waffle House. How do you feel about Waffle House?
Sienna: I haven’t been to Waffle House in so long, but I used to go all the time when I went to Ohio. Actually, Jessicka Havok and I used to always go to Waffle House, and their chicken biscuits are so good. So, I approve.
Impact airs weekly on Spike UK every Friday at 9 pm.
How do you feel about the next era of Impact Wrestling? Let us know in the comments below!
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