Wrestling
Shazza McKenzie: Thriving, Surviving, And Vibing; A Feature On Virality, Matches With Legends, And More
Shazza McKenzie is surviving and vibing.
She’s survibing.
McKenzie has been making waves on the independent scene for years at this point, but her career trajectory began to change in 2023, as she made the move to the United States.
Since then, McKenzie has expanded her fanbase, competing in promotions like Glory Pro, Freelance Wrestling, Black Label Pro, Game Changer Wrestling, and All American Wrestling. Some of her opponents include names like Tony Deppen, ROH star Trish Adora, TNA star Maggie Lee, and AEW stars Toni Storm and Deonna Purrazzo.
Fightful spoke with McKenzie for an interview at this year’s Squared Circle Expo. McKenzie, one of the most booked and busy independent wrestlers in the world, her matches have viewed tens of millions of times, giving us an opportunity to ask about her match with Allie Kat from 2019 that has 4M+ views on YouTube.
“Yeah, ‘cause I remember watching it on when I had that Twitch stream. I remember being like, ‘Why is this match—?’ and then I looked at the thumbnail and then I looked at the comments and I went, ‘Oh, it’s the two girls doin’ some ‘rasslin.’ Yeah, the thumbnail is always something.” McKenzie told Fightful.
McKenzie has faced Allie Kat in plenty of matches over the years, even describing the viral match as a “throwaway” bout.
“I remember being like, ‘Why is this match—?’ Not that it was a throwaway match, but like it
was just a match. I’ve wrestled Allie a billion times. It wasn’t like that time was the one
that everyone needed to see.”
was just a match. I’ve wrestled Allie a billion times. It wasn’t like that time was the one
that everyone needed to see.”
Shazza actually wrestled Fightful’s own Sean Ross Sapp in his return match at Black Label Pro in December 2023, where the two helped raise over $10,000 in direct charitable donations for the National Alliance on Mental Illness.
At the same event, McKenzie got to share the ring with unpredictable WWE Hall of Famer Tony Atlas earlier this year, teaming with Frank To Clown to face him in a handicap match. Since this interview with conducted before that match, McKenzie gave us a bit of insight into her strategy — or lack thereof.
“I don’t know what’s going to happen. I’ve genuinely not talked to him. I’ve not talked to the promoter. I don’t know what’s expected of me at all. So whatever’s gonna happen. My plan of attack is going to be, ‘Lie down for me, man!.’ Lay the f down. Exactly. I’m here to win a match. The specifics of how I win the match? That doesn’t matter. If I get his shoulders on the ground, and I happen to have my foot on top of him and therefore make it a three count, whose fault is that really? Is that my fault?”
Spoiler alert — McKenzie lost the match despite having a two-on-one advantage… when another WWE Hall of Famer Mick Foley got involved.
Fightful also got to speak to the multi-time champion about her current feelings towards living in the United States, and the running joke that anything bad that can happen to her, will.
You know, like car troubles, missing flights, falling down the stairs. She takes it in stride
“It’s so chill. I’m having the best time being in America right now. I’m chilling, I’m vibing for now. It’s fine. Everything’s gonna be fine. I’m a lucky girl and everything works out. I’m a lucky girl and everything works out. Nothing bad has happened to me the last six months of my life except for every horrific thing that could. So it’s fine. I just keep vibing and thriving, survivin’.” We coined a new term over Mania Week. ‘Cause we were like, ‘Thriving and vibing,’ and then we’re like, ‘Surviving and vibing.’ No, the new term is surviving. Survibing. We’re vibing and we’re surviving at the same time.”
Aren’t we all just surviving and vibing at this point?
While Shazza jokes about her luck with travel outside of the ring, inside of the ring, she’s one of the busiest wrestlers in the world. Last year, she neared 100 matches. As a person who handles all of her own bookings, she’s kept a schedule of 75+ matches each of the last three years. Barring one of those unlucky scenarios, she’ll breeze past that again in 2025, which puts her in rare company.
Based in St. Louis, Shazza made the trek from Australia to pursue her dream more seriously than ever before in 2023. A planned trip to the United States was heavily derailed in 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic, just months after she made an appearance on AEW’s All Out PPV event. However, since making the States her home, she’s appeared on Ring of Honor and TNA television. She was also brought over to Japan to wrestle for one of the top all-women’s companies on the planet, TJPW.
Booked and busy, survibin’.
For Shazza, she jokes on social media about meticulously planning, but considering the nature of the line of work she’s in, she has to be able to do everything on the fly. Including a match with a 71-year old Hall of Famer.
“I said, ‘Who am I wrestling Friday?,” they said Tony, and I said ‘Okay but really who?” Shazza said.
As preparation for the match actually unfolded, Tony Atlas was nowhere to be found. Then when he got to the venue, everything that was planned for the match quickly changed. Then the things that changed changed again. Then WWE Hall of Famer Mick Foley got involved without the promoter knowing. It capped off.
The interview and match was in the middle of a stretch that saw Shazza go from St. Louis to a number of bookings near Chicago (and back and forth), Memphis, Las Vegas, Indianapolis, Nebraska, Iowa, Minnesota, and back and forth between Missouri and Chicago.
“We coined a new term over Mania Week. ‘Cause we were like, ‘Thriving and vibing,’ and then we’re like, ‘Surviving and vibing.’ No, the new term is surviving. Survibing. We’re vibing and we’re surviving at the same time. It was pretty chill. It was pretty good. I mean, it was still busy, but I was really adamant not to wrestle 10 matches and ruin my life again,” McKenzie said.
That was her idea of downtime.
Survibin’
Check out Fightful’s full interview with Shazza McKenzie in the video linked at the top of this article. In addition to that, check out more of our interviews over on your YouTube channel.
