Shazza McKenzie's NXT debut was a surprise, mostly to her.
Speaking with Fightful's Sean Ross Sapp (full interview included above), McKenzie detailed the events leading up to her match with Emma at an NXT taping in 2015. She explained that she was staying with Lexie Fyfe in Florida during one of her SHIMMER trips and that The Iiconics had just been signed. Her group of friends had always planned on going to that TV taping because they wanted to see Peyton Royce and Billie Kay wrestle live in NXT for the first time.
As the story goes, the day before the taping she was informed by Fyfe that she, Evie (Dakota Kai), and Kay Lee Ray were requested to be at Full Sail by 1 PM before filming started. Not having anything to wear, being on holiday, the panic and excitement started to set in.
Shazza stayed out until 3 AM at Halloween Horror Nights, before going tanning in the early hours of the morning. The entire car ride to Orlando she wondered if this was all just a prank.
Then I got there, saying hi to everyone, blah, blah, blah. Luckily at this time, there was a lot of independent girls there and also a lot of Australians ‘cause the Iiconics were there and Tenille was there, obviously. So, I actually had my best friends there. So, I was much more at ease once I was there ‘cause I was like "Oh, just this cast. Good."
Then I spoke to Tenille and she was like, ‘Yeah, I think it’s you and me tonight.’ I was like, ‘What?’ ‘Yeah, they said that you guys were coming and I asked if I could wrestle you ‘cause you were my last match before I came here and I thought that’d be a really cool story.’ I was like, ‘Okay. What?’ Then it just all happened. Like, just happened really fast. All of it. Then it was over and I was like, ‘I don’t know what just happened.’
The second time McKenzie appeared on NXT was no less adventurous, as the Australian star explains that she was terribly ill leading up to the taping, even having to miss out on attending WrestleMania 2018 because she couldn't physically leave the house.
"The second time was a bit more… ‘Cause I turned into ‘I think I can do this,’ I turned into hustle mode Shaz and I was like, ‘Hey, Mr. Canyon Ceman. Here is all my tapes.’ Every single three months. ‘Hey, when’s this tryout?’ ‘Oh, I’m in town, can I do this?’ ‘Hey, do you want to have a chat?’ I was very, ‘G’day, mate. I’m here. Let’s have some chats. I’ll show you what I can do.’ So, it was a bit more organized with that. The second time I did was after 2018 WrestleMania weekend, New Orleans, and I got horrifically sick. I’m pretty sure a lot of people got horrifically sick at WrestleMania weekend. I’ve never been that sick in my life. Like, I missed WrestleMania because I had tickets to WrestleMania and I could not physically leave the house.
Then I was literally in bed for like three days from that. So, that was Saturday night and then I was sick all Sunday I was in bed, and then on Monday we drove to Florida. So, I was in the car sick. Then I made everyone else sick. Because I’m travelling in a group of Australians, we all just got horrifically sick. But, they were all sick for SHIMMER weekend, which was the next weekend. I got better by SHIMMER weekend. But, I was horrifically sick. So, on Saturday, Sunday, Monday and then Tuesday I was out of bed, okay, and then Wednesday I was at the tapings. I remember I was like, I haven’t eaten. But, I was really skinny because I hadn’t eaten, so that was good. I was like, ‘I haven’t eaten for three days, alright!"
McKenzie would be featured on the April 11, 2018 episode of NXT, losing to Kairi Sane.
McKenzie has also appeared on AEW programming a couple of times, last competing on an episode of Dark, teaming with Shalandra Royal to face Leva Bates and Nyla Rose. McKenzie, who has wrestled for GCW, SHIMMER and RevPro, also competed at the 2019 edition of All Out, wrestling in the Casino Battle Royal which was won by Rose.
If you use any of the quotes above please credit Fightful for the story and transcription.
