Impact Knockouts champion Allie recently spoke with realsport101.com, here are the highlights…
On leading The Knockouts Division: Well, I mean its pretty freaking awesome, but apart from that its really been a dream come true for me. Ive wanted to be a Knockout since the beginning of the Knockouts Division. I remember seeing it when I first started wrestling. Id been wrestling maybe a couple of years at that point, and I remember when I first saw the knockouts. Seeing these women competing, and it being taken seriously, was such a big eye opener for me, and I knew that I really wanted to be a part of that division one day. So, to be welcome into the locker room and now having the Knockouts Title, its really been a dream come true.
On Facing Su Yung on Sunday: Well, Ive been pretty lucky to have now made friends with a certain demon named Rosemary. I think my experiencing working with her- I dont know if people know about this, but [we] had a very extensive feud in Smash Wrestling. We called that The Slayer vs The Demon. That feud, and obviously working with Laurel Van Ness, has given me what I need to step in the ring with Su Yung. I mean, shes scary, but Im definitely not afraid of her.
On the Challenge of Impacts Taping Schedule: I would say that probably the biggest challenge is when we do long shoots. So, for instance, I wanna say it was last year we did a 9-day or 12-day loop, and the biggest challenge of that obviously was the toll it took on all our bodies. You know, its not like were just actors and were on set for stretches of time. Were actually getting in there and getting beat up. So physically, it is incredibly taxing to do long stretches like that. Thankfully, it seems like were going in a direction where were not going to be doing that, and so that is a nice change of pace for sure. But I think in terms of filming ahead of time, like this is not something thats totally unheard of. Lucha Underground also films in chunks ahead of time, and I believe NXT also films in chunks. I hate to say this, but I feel like theres a weird light that gets shone on Impact for that, and I really dont think its that out of the box.
On Leaving Cherry Bomb Behind & Becoming Allie: Yeah, it was challenging. It was definitely challenging. Obviously, when you have stepped into a role and youve been in that role for a long time, and you understand the ins and the outs and the inner workings of a character, it can be difficult to step out of that into something new, something fresh that you dont understand that well and you havent figured out yet. So it was definitely challenging, but I have to say, as a performer [and] as a wrestler, Ive definitely grown a whole heck of a lot leaving behind Cherry Bomb and walking into Allie. I think Ive progressed quite a bit over the last two years, not just as a wrestler but as a character as well.