Jetta fondly reflects back on some other pro wrestling royalty.
Jetta, a member of wrestling royalty, has officially stepped down from her throne. Before she took off her proverbial crown, Jetta spoke with WrestleZone’s Ella Jay to look back on a pair of highlight moments from her legendary wrestling career.
Known as “The Princess Diana of Pro Wrestling,” Jetta spent the majority of her in-ring career in the United Kingdom. In assessing her resume, though, it is clear that Jetta is no stranger to facing figures from outside of the UK. In fact, two of her notable adversaries remain international icons, and two of her personal heroes — Manami Toyota and Jazz.
“Manami Toyota is hands down the best wrestler, regardless of gender ever,” Jetta said of the former AJW Champion. “She is just on another level. To me, her and Shawn Michaels, they’re up here and everyone else is [lower]. Doesn’t matter how good you are, they are just like the pinnacle. And to get to be on a show with her and meet her was amazing, but to get to wrestle her, I never in my wildest dreams [would have thought it’d actually happen].”
Manami Toyota Was ‘Inspirational’ For 14-Year-Old Jetta
Growing up in the Attitude Era of WWE, Jetta’s viewing experience mainly cast women in Bra and Panties matches or non-wrestling roles, such as valets and managers. Shortly after she began her in-ring training, however, Jetta was introduced to a new style of wrestling — one that deeply captivated her.
“I remember going to training, and one of the trainers gave me this tape. It was of Manami Toyota. I remember watching it and just being like, ‘What the hell? Who is this?’ From then I was just like, she is inspirational,” Jetta recalled. “Even though that I never wrestled that type of style, that is what I, as a 14-year-old girl, needed to see, because what was on my TV was bra and panties and the women were just managers. Nothing against them, they worked with what they had. And I would find it frustrating because I would sometimes watch matches and I’d be like, ‘I know that they can do all this cool stuff. Why are they not given enough time?”
“Then obviously the more then you learn about wrestling, you hear they had their matches cut, they weren’t allowed to do this, or they were told, ‘Don’t hit too hard, it’s not ladylike,’ or blah, blah, blah. Things like that. But at that age, I needed somebody like that for me to see and be like, okay, I can be a woman in wrestling, and I can wrestle and I can try these things and do these things. It’s not just this one type of wrestling, so to [wrestler her] was amazing.”
As Jetta alluded to, she and Rhia O’Reilly squared off with Manami Toyota and Emi Sakura at
XWA’s 2016 Winter Wonderslam event. Despite losing the affair, Jetta remains forever grateful for the opportunity to not only wrestle one of her inspirations, but to also tell Toyota her backstory (thanks to the translation services of Sakura).
Full-Circle Moment At EVE
In 2019, Jetta shared a similar full-circle moment with former WWE Women’s Champion Jazz. The two clashed in Pro-Wrestling EVE‘s SHE-1 round-robin tournament. The battle between Jazz and Jetta came on November 9, 2019, and as Jetta recalls, her familiarity with Jazz also came to the forefront.
“I remember in the match, she uses the punches and the jabs. And she’s doing the jabs, I’m like, ‘Okay, I know what this is.’ She’s like one, two, and on the third one, I took a bump. She was like, ‘Oh, thanks for taking the bump on that.’ I was like, ‘I know your I know your move set. It’s not because I’m good, it’s because I know your moveset. And I know that that’s what you would wanted me to do.'”
The following day, Jetta faced off with fellow EVE regular Rhia O’Reilly in another tournament matchup. As Jetta recalls, this particular performance earned a massive pop from both the crowd and her previous opponent, Jazz.
“We had a match on the fourth show and it was like big epic [quest to see], am I going to get two points? It was like right at the end. I got the pin, and there was this massive reaction. We came backstage, and Jazz was giving us all these compliments. She turned away, and [Rhia and I] just looked at each other and we were like [freaking out]. Then she turned back, and we [played it cool]. That was cool.”
Watch our full interview with Jetta:
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