Losing your independent identity when you sign with a wrestling company is nothing new, but one Impact Wrestler admits she had a tough time adjusting. While another said he was more than ready for it.
I recently spoke to Allie & Braxton Sutter, a married couple currently on the Impact Wrestling roster. After years of going by the names of Cherry Bomb & Pepper Parks respectively, they were given new personas upon signing with the company.
"I will be honest," said Allie. "It was difficult. It was a challenge. There were parts of the character Cherry Bomb that I identified with. I've been wrestling almost 14 years and Cherry Bomb has been my name since I was 18. To have that identity for such a long time and to walk into a company and have that identity sort of taken away and given something else. It was difficult. I learned very quickly this was an opportunity to explore myself as a performer and a talent. It's not every day you're handed a new plate and have to perform a different way and have a story and a payoff. Initially it was really hard to let go of Cherry Bomb. She's still in my heart."
For Sutter, he said that the switch wasn't that bad for him, and Allie reinforced it, saying that he embraced the move from Pepper Parks to Braxton Sutter.
"We always joke in wrestling that you have three names -- your real name, your independent name and your TV name," Sutter said. "Sometimes they're four because people have a nickname, too. For me, it wasn't as bad. It wasn't as much of a gimmick change. It's not like I went from a gimmick of being a postman to now I was in a tag team and we work construction or something. It wasn't that big of a change."
As far as Allie goes, now that she's wrestling more on Impact, she could see herself integrating more of the Cherry Bomb character into the one we presently see on TV.
"For anybody that followed me when I was Cherry Bomb, I was a little more aggressive and nastier," said Allie. "It's been fun to add that aggression into my matches that you saw before. The character of Cherry Bomb was a lot more confident than Allie, so it's been fun to play with Allie developing into having more confidence and having that Cherry Bomb streak in her."
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