By Jason Powell, ProWrestling.net Editor (@prowrestlingnet)
The Velvet Ropes interview with guest Christy Hemme
Interview conducted by SoCal Val
Available on the Wrestlingnews.co YouTube Page
On the long-standing rumor that AJ Styles ended her in-ring career: “Where did the training story come from?! Poor AJ is like, ‘Why did I have to be the one that ended your career?!’… I remember I was in a match with (Awesome) Kong. I got thrown into the turnbuckle and going numb from the neck down… And then I came out of it, and then I got thrown again in the turnbuckle, and it happened again. It was stuck a little bit longer. And I was like, ‘Oh my gosh, I and I just remember thinking, this is really serious.’… And that’s when I went and got my MRI, and I had two protrusions in my spine that were sitting on my spine. You can’t wrestle with that. Like that’s the kind of thing where if I had been thrown a little harder… it could have severed my spine, and I’d be paralyzed. So I had to stop completely.”
On going off-script during the WWE Diva Search and Stephanie McMahon’s reaction: “Well, first of all, none of it was scripted. And even the thing… I can’t even repeat what I said. But when I came backstage, I just remember Stephanie McMahon going, ‘Where… where did you hear that from?!’ Like they just didn’t expect it to come out of my mouth, right? … But honestly, like, I mean, none of it was scripted, and it was shocking. And I remember Carmella [DeCesare] was really hurt, like really hurt, because I remember we all like chose her. And it wasn’t intentional… And I really did feel really bad afterwards because it did hurt her. And I remember apologizing to her sincerely.”
On working on the TNA Wrestling Creative Team to advocate for the Knockouts: “You know, for me it was a very organic transition. There wasn’t a whole lot of thinking because I saw a gap with women in the company being represented, and it wasn’t because the men weren’t doing it or weren’t thinking about it, there just wasn’t a person advocating. And there was all this stuff we could do with the merchandise, there was all these stories that could be told…there wasn’t really this carved out person advocating for the women in that way. And so I just stepped into a spot. I really just started saying, ‘Hey, what about this? And what about this? And what about this?”
On the terrifying conversation she had to have with her 11-year-old daughter regarding her Playboy past: “I’m going to be bringing her with me to For the Love of Wrestling. And this is the first time I’m bringing one of my kids because I realized long ago that for me to bring my child would mean I would have to explain all of the parts of my career. And within the box of fun that is Christy Hemme, a talent, is Playboy. So that means I’m gonna have to explain to whoever said child is with me, that mommy did Playboy, and we would have to have a conversation around it… So, oh my gosh, Val, this conversation was hilarious. I was literally, I don’t remember the last time I’ve been nervous to have a conversation with Charlie Rose. I was sweating. I was like breathing… I finally got it out, and we had a conversation, and we talked through what it was, but it was, it was um, it was interesting. And all that to say, now she can come with me because she knows all of the things.”
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