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LuFisto On Her Experience & Issues With AEW, Dustin Rhodes Responds

Jai Michel August 4, 2023 AEW/Indie Leave a comment

Independent star LuFisto recently had an interview with Fightful, where she spoke about her issues with AEW and also explained a tweet that she posted last week where she implied that someone was keeping her out of the company.

On April 6, 2022 she worked an episode of AEW Dark in Boston teaming up with The Bunny & Emi Sakura against Ruby Soho, Skye Blue, & Anna Jay. You can check out the highlights below as well as Dustin’s respond to LuFisto:

LuFisto on her experience with AEW:

“I don’t know where to start, but it’s really something that has been bothering me for a while. It’s been over a year that I had that Dark match at AEW. There are so many things that happened that night. Things that I heard from other women that are working there that had tryouts there, that were extras, as well as men who are currently employed. Of course, I know people want names and everything, but I’m willing to give the names of people involved in my story, but of course, if anybody did confide in me in something, I can share the story, but out of respect, I’m not going to share the name of someone who doesn’t want to lose the job or is looking for a job. They’ve trusted me enough to say, ‘You can tell it, but not the name,’ I’m not going to do it.”

LuFisto on an incident with Ruby Soho and Dustin Rhodes:

“I go to the restroom. As I open the door, I hear, ‘She something something.’ I open the door and on the table, Ruby Soho is sitting with Dustin [Rhodes] and they just shut (up) and they look at me. ‘Okay, they were talking about me, that’s for sure.’ [Ruby is] like, ‘I have to go.’ I go to Dustin and he goes, ‘So, all French Canadian people are fucking assholes eh?’ I’m like, ‘Excuse me, what?’ He was nice to me five minutes ago. He’s like, ‘Yeah, apparently that’s the way it goes.’ I have a very bad relationship with Jacques Rougeau. I can say he was even abusive to me, calling me to tell me I was fat and to lose weight. I’m like, ‘maybe he had a bad experience with Jacques too?’ He’s looking at me differently and the funny thing is, [Evil Uno] walks by and he’s like, ‘Hey, Uno, that’s true French Canadians are fucking assholes, right?’ Uno is like, ‘I’m French Canadian.’ ‘Oh, okay.’ They talk a little bit. I’m there, but I just leave. I’m like, ‘what the fuck just happened?’ I love Dustin. I even wrote him messages, thanking him for the Keep Stepping thing, because it was very inspiring. I’m like, ‘What the fuck just happened?’”

LuFisto on what happened after her Dark match:

“I have to get ready for my match now and I have to wrestle her. One thing I notice is, Skye Blue is not saying a word. They tell her what to do. Anna Jay says, ‘I can do this.’ ‘It will be your turn there.’ I don’t want to talk too much to put my input because I realize I’m the only one not signed in the match. Why am I there? At this point, I don’t know. They told me I’m going to start with Skye Blue. ‘What do you want to do? What are your moves?’ It’s like…either she’s bland as a person or she’s not allowed to talk. I don’t know if she didn’t understand why I was asking her for her stuff. I was weird. We do this, Ruby sets up the whole thing with Bunny, Emi is just following. I do a clothesline, ‘I should probably go for a pin there.’ ‘No, don’t do a pin. Just tag Emi.’ Okay, cool. [Ruby says], ‘The finish will be, we do something, Anna Jay is going to biff you guys on the apron, I’ll come get you for the finish, 1, 2, 3.’ ‘Okay, that’s fine. Do I go down, do I stay up?’ ‘Just stay there. The finish is coming.’ We go do the match. It is what it is. It’s not like a five star match, but for the four minutes we had, it is what it is. When we get to the finish, Anna Jay hits all of us. I stay there and wait, and nothing is happening. They keep going, they do something else on the other corner. I’m waiting. Go back in, finish, 1, 2, 3. We go backstage and they all keep going. Dustin is right there and is like, ‘What did you do?’ ‘What do you mean?’ ‘You made all those girls that are signed when you’re not look really bad. It was terrible.’ ‘Okay, details?’ ‘You should have bumped on everything they did.’ I’m like, ‘everything they planned was for me to sell to the next for the other to sell to the tag for me to give a clothesline, tag out, and only tag back in.’ I have 40 seconds in there. ‘Sir, can you please give me details on what I should have done better so I don’t repeat it?’ ‘When Anna Jay biffed you on the apron, you should have fallen outside.’ Now I’m like, ‘Thank you, sir. I see.’ Of course, everyone else left. No one is there when he’s giving me this criticism. Billy Gunn is nearby. I look around and am like, ‘can someone else tell me that I suck this bad? I need another opinion.’ He was looking at me like I was disgusting. Now I’m like, ‘they told me to stay on the fucking apron.’ The thing that I was thinking about was, there were a few girls that told me they had matches with Britt Baker where they would go in the ring and they would change the match completely or, if the girl forgot something, she would go, ‘where are we?’ Silence. Of course, the match would look bad, they would never be called again and they got stiffed as well. They didn’t want to stiff me, but they made sure, to at least an agent, I looked like a fucking idiot. I went around and asked some guys, ‘did you watch the match?’ One of them told me, ‘I did not, but I will.’”

LuFisto on wanting to meet Tony Khan:

“I change, I’m waiting. There is still Tony. ‘The match, forgot about it, you’re here for coaching.’ I go to a wrestler I’ve known for a few years and he’s like, ‘so, how was it?’ ‘It was short.’ ‘Yeah, they don’t really watch our matches here. I’ve been doing Chris Benoit moves for the past month and no one even knows. They don’t care.’ ‘Where is the structure?’ ‘Eh, pretty much do what we want. I’m not saying that in a good way.’ I sit down, watch the show, and I wait. I see Sammy Guevara with his girlfriend. They were going out to the car before, coming back in, it’s chaotic and there is literally people sitting at one point and they talk shit to each other. ‘I’m with fucking children.’ Somebody is talking shit on one side, the other guy is talking shit, but they don’t talk shit to each other. They talk about each other. At this point, with everything that had happened, do I really want to be here? I would be good as a coach, I know I’m good at that. Of course, I don’t meet Tony. I don’t see my opponents, they completely vanished.”

LuFisto on the women’s division:

“I’m telling my story and my experience for people to understand that the reason why this division doesn’t work is the gatekeeping of it. It’s not going to get any better as long as somebody doesn’t stand up. Everybody is afraid to talk. Everybody doesn’t want to say what I’m saying right now. I’m even struggling right now, but someone has to say it. Unfortunately, it’s the 43-year-old that’s doing it because everybody is so afraid to lose their freaking jobs that they don’t say anything and they accept things that should not be. Somebody has a tryout and you make sure they look bad? I’m not even talking about myself because I didn’t look that bad. I was told following discussions, some girls are asking for guidance and ‘make sure they look bad so they don’t come back because there is genuine interest in them.’ The girls fighting with each other. I hear it all the time. My ship has sailed, I’m aware of that. One thing though, I love wrestling with all my heart, so if somebody wants to say I’m bitter, I say, ‘Fuck you.’ I go out there every weekend, I love what I do, I’ve been to court to defend women’s wrestling. The thing that I do not accept, and it’s what’s going on at AEW right now, women are shitting on women when we should be helping each other and lifting each other up. If you’re not good enough to be out there and prove you can go and you have to go through politics and people you’re with, you don’t belong in the sport. Right now, it’s filled with people who use wrestling to have that fame. The ones that really fought hard for women to be seen as athletes, that we work together. One of the problems, men are in charge of the women’s division. I’ll be honest, they don’t care. They will put their friends in spots before the women. If you stay up there because you’re in your comfort zone, it’s not going to change. You need to stand up, you need to speak your mind. Do it politely, but you can’t have people running the whole thing with their friends, with their clique, and expect women’s wrestling to change and people give it time so it matters. It’s not going to change if you don’t have people who are passionate about what women’s wrestling should be when it’s just the people who are out there who want to be there and have a certain power and it doesn’t go with what is the best product you can put up. When you look at the talent they have, in and out of the ring.”

LuFisto on if she’d be open to talking with Dustin Rhodes about it:

“So many times, I’ve wanted to reach out to him. He would write things, ‘Be kind to people, you don’t know what they’re going through.’ You don’t know how many times I’ve wanted to reply, ‘I really wish you would have showed me the same kindness. Everything you’re saying, I believe too. I’m not perfect. I did things wrong in my past and I will do again, we all make mistakes.’ I know when this goes out, ‘LuFisto, you did this.’ I know, I’m human, whatever. I don’t think I deserve to be called a French Canadian Asshole. We’re nice people. Jacques Rougeau is an asshole.”

Dustin Rhodes responded to LuFisto through Twitter by saying:

“Hey @LuFisto, read your story and sometimes as a coach I have to be very honest and won’t ever tell you a lie about how good or bad it was. Sometimes hard love comes out and wouldn’t have it any other way.

I hope you find what you’re looking for. #KeepSteppin”

https://twitter.com/dustinrhodes/status/1687156482469478404?s=20