IMPACT hyped the appearance of Gisele Shaw beginning in January, leading to her in-ring debut in February. She has been regularly featured on IMPACT TV since her debut.
Shaw is the reigning PROGRESS Women's Champion, but speaking to Evan T. Mack, Flobo Boyce, and Jack Farmer on MackMania, Shaw confirmed that she is signed to IMPACT.
"My dream and goal was WWE, but we're so focused on that one thing, we almost forget to live in the now. I'm super happy at IMPACT. They've taken a chance on me and I can't wait to kick butt and show them that their investment is worth it. As of right now, my goal is to get signed and I got signed. I need to perform to the best of my ability," she said.
In IMPACT, Shaw has branded herself as "The Quintessential Diva." Though "diva" has a negative connotation to it due to the Divas era in WWE, Shaw looks at is as a positive.
"I know that the word 'Diva' has a really bad connotation to it. People are like, 'You want to be a diva?' They think bra and panties matches and lingerie. When I started wrestling, it was at the time they were doing bra and panties matches. I'm fairly empowering and like to celebrate your body. Why not? The sex appeal of a female wrestler, a man won't get that. Instead of looking at it like a negative thing, use it to your advantage. 'Yeah, I'm sexy, and you should buy my photo.' When I broke in, I was like, 'I'm trained, I'm good to go, I'm going to do bra and panties matches, I don't care.' To me, it is celebration for your body. What the Quintessential Diva means, it's not just a pretty face or bra and panties matches. I can do anything. I'm smart, brawn, beauty. The last thing for me, the beauty thing, as women, people do look at you and go, 'it's all about the look.' I feel that it would be better if fans looked at us and 'it's the wrestling, then brains, then the beauty.' If you can't have a connection with the people or hold a conversation that is intelligent, then it's just, 'Oh yeah, great, nice conversation.' It was important that when I came to IMPACT, I was like, 'Is it okay if I can use Quintessential Diva because, to me, it's a positive thing and I want people to understand and see it from a different perspective rather than negative connotation,'" she said.
Shaw most recently teamed with Alisha Edwards to challenge The Influence (Madison Rayne & Tenille Dashwood) for the Knockouts Tag Team Championships.
Fightful has live coverage of IMPACT Wrestling beginning at 8 p.m. ET every Thursday.
If you use any of the quotes above, please credit the original source with a h/t and link back to Fightful for the transcription.
