“2021 is going to be my year” is something that I’m certain everyone’s heard beaten to death over the course of the past three months. However, it’s the one cliche to be found that can be applied to current Zelo Pro Women’s Champion Laynie Luck. As one of the most unique and technically-skilled women in indie wrestling today, Luck is poised to follow in the footsteps of former champs Britt Baker and Kylie Rae as Zelo stars to break out on the international level and, by this writer’s money, sooner rather than later.
It’s not as though she hasn’t been noticed by the proverbial major leagues before, however. In 2019, Luck defended her women’s title in IMPACT Wrestling against two of independent wrestling’s top stars of the time in the aforementioned Rae and current NXT Superstar Shotzi Blackheart. As part of our upcoming chat for Love Wrestling, I had to ask her about the opportunity to appear for a major promotion and, selfishly, what it was like stepping into the ring with two of my other personal favourite wrestlers.
“So, the match came about because IMPACT was doing these little partnerships with the Chicago area promotions,” Luck began. “So, they all got to choose ‘X’ amount of matches to represent their company. I had just won [the title]. I had just pinned Shotzi in a multi-man match for that belt. So it was basically like our rematch there. Kylie had previously held the belt as well. Kylie and I were actually the very first women’s match for that title. So we competed in the very first match for that title.”
“It was kind of like this both things coming kind of full circle in this one match, so we were all super, super excited to do it, and all of us worked so well together. We were just very excited to be able to have each other there for such a big stage. Like, I wouldn’t want to do that match with anyone else.”
As mentioned earlier, carrying the Zelo Pro Women’s Championship is no small feat considering the belt’s lineage. Some of wrestling’s top stars have carried the title, which is something Luck’s now honoured to do.
“It means a lot to me,” Luck said with a smile. “Zelo was – I want to say they were the first company that brought me up to Chicago. They’re the reason that I came here. I worked for them, and I think I worked for a smaller company in the same weekend, but just experiencing the Chicago crowd, I was like, ‘wow, this is cool.’ I wanted to come up North anyway, but I wasn’t completely solidified in where I was going. I was like, ‘alright, I’m gonna go to Chicago.’ Then I came up here and I was on every Zelo show and I was trying to do the most with every opportunity they gave me.”
“The fact that I got to be on the first show, I got to be in the first title match, and now I get to hold the title after these other names have held it prestigiously? It means a lot to me that I get to now be the face of that company.”
Please credit Spencer Love/Love Wrestling with any of the above quotations used.
