Wrestling In The Land Of Independence
From Sydney to St. Louis, Shazza McKenzie left behind a good life in her native Australia in the pursuit of true happiness.
TEXT BY KEVIN McELVANEY | PHOTOGRAPHY BY SAMANTHA CRIM
IT WAS MEANT TO BE “one last hurrah.” So says Shazza McKenzie of her 2022 tour of the American indie circuit, which was chronicled in the two-part IWTV docuseries, Shazza Takes America.
The popular Aussie grappler—a former Heart of SHIMMER champion and longtime fixture of PWI’s women’s rankings—wanted to make up for lost time. After all, pandemic-era travel restrictions had kept her from wrestling abroad for the better part of three years. But that ambitious slate of bookings across the States, exhausting and exhilarating in near-equal measure, would be no farewell tour. Instead, those post-COVID shows strengthened McKenzie’s devotion to professional wrestling … and completely changed her life.
“If anything, the pandemic gave me more time,” McKenzie says. “Because all the nagging injuries that I’d had for years, that I had just been ignoring and working through, finally got some rest. Once I did a few matches and my confidence came back, I was like, Oh, no, I’ve got years left in me. Like, Age is just a number, b—es! We’re f— going!”
By the time her return flight landed in Australia, McKenzie had arrived at a profound realization. Tired of chasing a TV contract with a major promotion (and sick of basing her self-worth on that pursuit), the Sydney native also understood that her home country’s excellent grappling scene could only ever be a part-time gig. “At that time, I was 33 years old,” recalls McKenzie, now 35. “And I was like, I guess I’m 33, and it’s time to have babies, move on, and be a boring, little old lady. And then, I did the U.S. trip.”
From that point, Shazza McKenzie understood she could only be truly happy while making her living as a professional wrestler on her terms. And, to do that, she needed to move to America.
McKenzie made massive personal sacrifices, leaving behind her home, family, and even her marriage—the latter of which, she understood, couldn’t survive the gamble of being an unsigned wrestler in the States. “The goal for my entire career was always to live in America, but it was always under the understanding that we’d move to America if I got signed,” she told PWI. “Asking someone to follow you to another country because you’ve got your dream job and you’re making hundreds of thousands of dollars is very different to asking someone to give up their life and what they’ve worked on in their professional career to follow you over here so you can wrestle in front of a couple hundred people every weekend.”
Though a bold move on the surface, McKenzie’s emigration was perhaps less surprising to those closest to her. Consider her parents, who, though supportive of her wrestling aspirations, were disappointed when she dropped out of high school to pursue them. “I said, ‘Mom, Dad, I’m going be a professional wrestler. I don’t need to go to school.’ And they said, ‘I think you do!’” McKenzie recalls. “But they never tried to stop me. Whenever I do something, they’re like, ‘Well, we can’t stop you. We know you’re just going to do whatever it is that you want to do.’ Trust me, I’ve made plenty of really dumb mistakes. I’m just going to do them, though, because I need to learn my lesson for myself.”
Lest anyone get the idea that Shazza McKenzie is flighty or capricious, her passion and ambition are supported by an incredible work ethic. Taking inspiration and advice from a fellow veteran wrestler, Canada’s LuFisto, McKenzie navigated the labyrinthine, costly process that comes with pursuing a working wrestler’s visa without the support of a major promotion. “It was a process that I started in June ’22, and then I got my visa in March ’23,” said McKenzie. “And that would’ve taken longer. Luckily, I had some OnlyFans money and I paid for some expedited service. I knew if I could suffice the money, I didn’t want to wait longer than I had to.”
A savvy businesswoman, who had previously managed a gym back in Australia, McKenzie has cultivated a strong brand as a professional wrestler— particularly through X (formerly Twitter) and other social media sites, which she admits to frequenting during downtime at her previous job. Like many other women wrestlers, she has sold 8×10 photos of herself alongside t-shirts at merch tables. Websites such as OnlyFans, BrandArmy, and Patreon have helped McKenzie stay afloat financially, while also keeping her in touch with fans from all over the globe. That’s something she doesn’t take for granted.
“People can s— on OnlyFans all they want to, whatever,” said McKenzie. “It gave my fans a way of supporting me. To me, it was the equivalent of doing a GoFundMe, but I was able to give something in return.”
Less than a year after her pivotal Shazza Takes America tour, McKenzie flew 14,500 kilometers (9,000 miles) from Sydney, New South Wales, to begin a new life in St. Louis, Missouri. “It was stressful and scary,” she admitted. “It’s really scary to give up your entire life … especially in your mid-30s as a female. Because society has told us that we’re worthless once that 3-0 happens. In all aspects of life, society tries to tell us that there’s nothing for us once we’re over 30.”
Yet, as is often the case with seasoned wrestlers, McKenzie is only now reaching her peak. “I’m passionate about wrestling. You go to training, and you get really good at doing all these drills and all your fundamentals … but there’s this other part of wrestling that you can only learn from wrestling regularly in front of a crowd,” she said, during a recent Zoom call with PWI. “And I think that’s maybe why I’m so attached to wrestling in America. Because I’ve been training in wrestling for 15-16 years at this point, but the amount that I grow as a performer in three months in America would be the equivalent of about a year in Australia. You’re thrust into these situations, and you just have to figure it out. There’s no time to panic: Just figure it out.”
With more than 500 matches on her CV, Shazza McKenzie has synthesized the lessons of those months and years spent in the ring. She exudes confidence and personality because she is doing what she has always wanted.
Of course, there are still challenges. She needed to learn to drive on American roads—and, just days before this story was written, her car broke down on one in Iowa—while adjusting to the Midwestern weather, which is far less mild than what she’d grown used to in Sydney.
“The reality is that it’s a very hard country to live in,” said McKenzie. “Even if you are an American citizen, every single step of the way, every little thing that you want to do, this government makes it hard. Like, it shouldn’t cost you your entire life if you get sick. But when it comes to being the land of opportunity … it is.”
McKenzie noted that in Australia, driving from one major city to the next takes a good 10 to 12 hours. While the wrestling on offer is excellent, most promotions run shows once a month (if that). In the U.S., she finds weekly bookings from coast to coast and is continually growing her fanbase.
Though it’s not exactly the superstardom she envisioned when she first visited America in 2008, attending WrestleMania 24 with her mom and brother, McKenzie doesn’t dwell on what might’ve been. “I’m completely okay with my role in professional wrestling because I enjoy what I do,” she said. “I enjoy independent wrestling. I enjoy the freedom of it. I enjoy the creativeness of it. I even enjoy the s— travel sometimes. I enjoy the completely different people that you meet along the way.”
While she’s worked matches for WWE and AEW in the past—and isn’t opposed to inking a full-time deal somewhere— this independent contractor has made a conscious decision to focus on what is ahead of her. “I spent years trying to get signed, and I was miserable. I was starving myself, I was trying to look a certain way, it was expensive,” said McKenzie. “Being a girl’s expensive enough. Trying to be a diva is 20 times more expensive. It wasn’t fun, and it wasn’t for me. That’s not who I am as a person. And it’s not that I wouldn’t say yes to a job or whatever, I just know that I’m happy doing what I’m doing.”
Since moving to the States, McKenzie has brought her personal brand of “#HEARTBREAKcore” to quite a few of them, competing in California, Colorado, Georgia, Illinois, Iowa, Michigan, Missouri, Tennessee, Wisconsin … and the list continues to build.
It’s a busy life, between making towns, staying in ring shape, engaging with fans, and tending to her current, happily committed relationship. She misses her family and her circle of friends back in Australia—including notable wrestlers Charli Evans, Jessica Troy, and Madison Eagles. But if you ask McKenzie, she’s living the American wrestling dream. “We’re wrestling around, fake fighting in silly spandex outfits, and it is supposed to be fun,” she says. “We drive for hours, we get on 5 a.m. planes, throw our bodies into the ground … and, like, not for an obscene amount of money or anything. So, don’t do it if you’re miserable. You’re supposed to have fun, make some money. As long as everyone is safe and not hurt, it is not that serious.”
And it is this kind of attitude—coupled with an indefatigable charm, athletic ability, and unmistakable passion—that has brought Shazza McKenzie to this point. “Every day as a professional wrestler in America is completely different. Every show is different, every match is different, every crowd is different,” McKenzie says. “It changes so, so astronomically, show to show, day to day.
“It’s so much more fun if you’re just enjoying the journey. Because once I stopped worrying about the destination— other than the destination being America, so that I could wrestle regularly—it was so much more fun.” [ ]
BONUS PHOTO GALLERY [Photos shot by Samantha Crim expressly for Pro Wrestling Illustrated. Please use only with permission and proper credit.]
