LuFisto continues to speak out against the recent rebranding of CZW events by a third party.
LuFisto recently spoke out on Twitter after CZW’s women's events were re-released and rebranded with provocative names such as "CZW Girlz: All Assets Revealed."
CZW was called out on social media for the names and issued the following statement in response:
Two years ago, CZW entered into a licensing agreement with a national media distributory to license CZW and WSU footage. That company has the right to utilize the footage without limitation. They have repackaged and renamed shows as it is their right to do so. Our athletes, regardless of gender, are just that, athletes, whom we are proud of an appreciate. We stand behind the ring action in all our footage.
Combat Zone Wrestling's Official Statement on PPV Titles. pic.twitter.com/ikY9FLbjBm
— CZW Combat Zone Wrestling (@combatzone) May 19, 2020
Speaking with Warren Hayes, LuFisto spoke more about her initial reaction to The Branding and how she tried to give CZW some leeway when it came to rectifying the rebranding.
“It's [the] end of March because a fan tweeted, 'I can't believe they're calling Mercedes Martinez and LuFisto a catfight,'” LuFisto began. “I'm like, 'excuse me? Links to this?' And then I see the press releases. They're putting it on all the websites and that's where I see it, 'sweaty girls in dirty fights and catfights' like baring all out. Then it's me and Mercedes. I know that this show is from what we signed up for was called, [something] like Breaking Barriers? So, it's night and day and I just tweeted like, really CZW. Are you going to go that way to get views or something? Like a few minutes after they reached out, 'we're sorry. I mean, we understand that you're upset and we do apologize. We tried to do something, but the third party we sold the footage wants to brand you guys this way. You know, we respect you.' I'm like, 'no, you don't. Like, this is not what I signed up for and this is not what my colleagues signed up for.' We already wear sexy, you know, gear as it is.”
She continued, “It was a very short discussion. But when I saw that, they were like, 'oh, we can't do anything.' We're sorry. Like, 'I don't care.' So I just stopped talking to them and I've waited. It's like, I'm gonna wait. I'm gonna give them like. Like a month or two or something. Hopefully, they will change their mind, they'll figure out that this is wrong. That we did not say yes to this, that they promised us that this was going to be like professional wrestling. Nope, they kept going. I saw another one and then another one. I'm like, 'okay, that's enough. They obviously do not care…'
“Breaking a promise or like we understand when we go to a wrestling show that we do give the rights through image has independent wrestling. That's how you survive. You saw the footage, which is fine, but you never imagined that they're going to change the name of it. Capture like images of your crotch, of your ass, of your tits and make them like full-blown and try to solve the footage like that. Like you think it's going to end up on high spots, going to end up on independent wrestling [and on] DVD and we're all good with that. It's not a problem. They have to survive.”
LuFisto would go on to applaud women's wrestling fans for being so knowledgeable and for standing up to the talent.
“The greatest thing, I think, about women wrestling fans is they know evolution. They know the struggle. They know the story behind it. So when they see something wrong, they're like, 'hey.' They were really vocal about it. CZW. Never tried to contact any of us to say, 'hey, is this all right?'"
You can see more wrestlers calling out CZW at this link.
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