Taya Valkyrie recently spoke with Ring Rust Radio; you can read a few highlights, as well as listen to the interview below:
Taya Valkyrie comments on the decision to sign with Global Force Wrestling:
I’m constantly trying to expand where I am wrestling and who I am wrestling and looking for the best female wrestlers everywhere, you know what I mean? Karen and Jeff had known me for about five years and they would come down to Mexico and work with AAA all the time. Karen and I would laugh about me coming to work with her and do her projects with her and stuff, but I just couldn’t. It was really an exciting thing to be asked to be a part of it. I am really happy and excited to see what happens. It’s a different opportunity, it’s a different demographic than the lucha libre crowd and I get to wrestle some girls that I’ve never worked with before. It’s a new challenge for me so I’m very excited.
Taya Valkyrie on if there’s a preference of working with real life fianceé Johnny Impact (John Hennigan) or working in a stable:
Throughout my entire career, I’ve always been part of factions. In Lucha Underground, I’m part of the Worldwide Underground. With this opportunity at GFW, I get to stand on my own. It’s exciting and it’s something I haven’t done before. You never know what the future will hold, and I’m so happy the way Johnny Impact is doing what he’s doing on his end in GFW. I’m excited to see and show that I can be on my own and hold my own by myself. So, it’s different and challenging. You never know what the future will hold as far as John and I working together or in a group, but for now I’m really excited for Taya Valkyrie and proving that I can do it about myself.
Taya Valkyrie on setting up her debut entrance in GFW:
Taya as a character I just find her to be another side of myself and it’s really cool to now have Taya Valkyrie in GFW be so different than Taya in Lucha Underground every week. I was the longest reigning Reina de Reinas champion and that’s where the Queen stuff comes from because Reina de Reinas means Queen of Queens. I’m of Norwegian background and the Taya Valkyrie you are seeing now is this dominant force, goddess, queen, bitch if you want put it any other words. This Taya is coming to dominate. Creatively, I always come with my own ideas and everyone is super open to my ideas and everything I have come up with so far so hopefully it keeps going that way.
Taya Valkyrie on her goals for the Knockouts division:
Obviously, my ultimate goal is to be the Knockouts champion, who doesn’t want that, you know what I mean? Right now, I’m just going to pick them off one by one and prove why I am there. I am going to prove my worth, demonstrate and show to everybody in the American public and the world stage which is the stage of GFW Impact, that I deserve to be there and why I am the longest reigning Queen of Queens champion. I am going to show them why I was given all these opportunities and show the knowledge that I’ve gained through the wrestling career that I’ve had.
Taya Valkyrie on her opinion of the Mae Young Classic:
I was actually at the final last night here in Las Vegas. Anything that promotes women’s wrestling to me is a positive thing and I know so many girls and women that were in the tournament who are friends of mine. I follow their careers and for me I’m just so proud of being part of a movement that’s happening right now. I’m coming from a different side of it with the lucha libre world and stuff, but I’m just really excited to see what happens. Women, we main event now, we are not the arm candy. We are the ones breaking down barriers, breaking the rules, and I think the Mae Young Classic is just another part of that. I’m just happy that more eyeballs and people are seeing what women’s wrestling is and taking it seriously and not viewing it as a joke.
Taya Valkyrie on women being promoted by mainstream wrestling promotions, what other talents can do to stand out:
I just think we need to just keep doing what we’re doing and chipping away at it. I think we’re doing the right thing right now and we are proving it in the ring every single time. You’re seeing it at different indie shows and Lucha Underground and Impact and WWE. Given the opportunities that women have on these different rosters, we take it and we go with it. I just think we need to keep doing what we’re doing: working, training hard and making people that aren’t believers into believers. Slowly but surely we are proving it and that’s the most important thing to me.
Taya Valkyrie on the Sexy Star / Rosemary incident in AAA:
I don’t want to go too much into it because honestly, I don’t want to give more attention to something or someone that doesn’t need it. Rosemary is the nicest, most professional woman, and a fellow Canadian. Obviously, I had the privilege and continued privilege to work with her. I was so embarrassed and disappointed watching that match on a whole, not just the finish but the whole thing. I consider myself as an international woman and a face of what women’s wrestling is in AAA, and I just feel so embarrassed and I think basically that’s all I can say about it. It was so ridiculous to me, uncalled for and unprofessional. I was so disappointed and I continue to be disappointed by it. I just feel like it happened but it’ll never happen again. I hope to God it never happens again. I experienced similar situations in my five years being in AAA with different female wrestlers there in the Indies throughout Mexico because I am Canadian, I look different, it’s crazy to me, but it still exists. There are still people that are just out for themselves. It is what it is, but I’m so happy that Rosemary is doing better because I can’t wait to kick her ass.
Taya Valkyrie on Lucha Underground’s future:
Lucha Underground changed my life. As I mentioned in Jericho’s podcast, that is where I finally branched out to wrestling in the states, I met my fiancé there and it really changed my life. So, for me obviously I want to see a Season 4. We have so much fun when we are filming and the creative team, the entire roster we just create magic during those tapings. I just want to do it again, who doesn’t? So hopefully the fans keep watching it and supporting it and let’s hope to the Lucha Gods we get to do a Season 4. So far, we don’t really know what’s going on exactly but I’m really, really positive that with something as special as Lucha Underground we will be able to do it again. I am very confident, but I honestly don’t know. I still don’t know, but I just have faith. I always try to look at the shiny side of the whole situation and find something good in it. Yeah, we haven’t filmed in like 15 months or something, but I love creating that product. It’s so different from GFW and WWE. It something new and exciting and I get to be two characters. I am still under the name Taya obviously, but I truly believe that Lucha Underground and GFW are so different and I get to be a part of both. So, we will see what happens moving forward and hopefully Season 4 happens sooner rather than later.
