Shotzi has credited The Wyatt Family with igniting her interest in wrestling.
The SmackDown Superstar initially joined WWE in October 2019, debuting on the NXT brand in a loss to Chelsea Green at an NXT Live Event two months later.
Having previously competed in Evolve and Shine Wrestling, the California native was almost part of WWE four years earlier having been selected as one of six women to take part in the sixth season of Tough Enough. Unfortunately, Shotzi was forced to withdraw after being diagnosed with an irregular heartbeat.
After almost two years in NXT, Shotzi was drafted to SmackDown in July 2021 and is currently embroiled in her most memorable feud to date with Damage CTRL. Memorably, the pair of Bayley and IYO Sky cut Shotzi’s hair during a backstage angle.
During an appearance on The RIP Tour, the former NXT Women’s Tag Team Champion revealed that her initial interest in wrestling was inspired by The Wyatt Family:
“I watched a little bit with my brother growing up, but I was never a huge fan. I just never thought that someone as small as me could be a wrestler. I always thought you had to have the biggest muscles ever to be a wrestler. I was doing musical theatre, I moved back home from going to musical theatre college and dropped that dream.
I started watching WWE again, and it was the Wyatt family that I was watching that got me into wrestling again. I thought they were so cool. Me and my sister wanted to be the female version of them. The rest is history.
We talked about that, and I immediately went online, ‘How do you get into wrestling?’ I looked up schools near me and started training a few months later.
I thank the Wyatt family for that. I was a theatre kid. I was watching wrestling and was like, ‘this is aggressive theatre and this is what I need to do.”
Shotzi Pays Tribute To Her Sister
Despite having her hair cut by Damage CTRL in an on-screen angle, it was later revealed that the real reason the star has shaved her head was in a show of solidarity with her sister who is undergoing treatment for cancer.
The star later wrote on her Instagram Stories “I love you sister! You are my inspiration!”
You can find the GoFundMe page for Shawn here.
H/T: Fightful for the above transcription