Overcoming An Old Name
by Minerva Appleton
(Please note that this interview and article was written after the elimination chamber and does not reflect recent events such as the departure of Drake Hemingway and Allison Mayberry joining Prodigal Inc.)
She had done it.
The 5BW World Champion just broke the record for most title defenses for the title she holds. Luciana Verdoza had to survive an elimination chamber to do it, but she did it. It's a heck of an accomplishment even if she was coy about it and downplayed it.
"I don't chase records anymore..." she explained. "Not like I once did."
Luciana's 7th world championship reign has eclipsed her 4th, which prior to this title reign was generally considered by fans to be her best title reign to that point. It featured her having 10 successful defenses including two times in one night. It consisted of successful defenses against the likes of Victoria Salinas and Myra Rivers, her two closest contemporaries as far as accolades accrued among her generation. She never lost that world title in the ring, with PRW's closure happening while she was still world champion (though she more or less DID lose it a couple of Mayhem in the Midwests ago in that triple threat with the aforementioned two women).
Yet, it came with controversy while she was wrestling under a different name... one that still haunts her to the point where she still doesn't say it out loud.
"I started using that name when I was running away from Jayson Schneider, being pregnant with his child and then having a secret birth and that whole insanity that was revealed with my lost daughter and everything that came out about that late season 3. It stuck with me and I figured that name was my way in, which it was."
Luciana attained great success on the mainstream from 2007 to 2013 under that old name. But with that name came constant controversy:
Backstage bullying and hazing in her first company in 2007 when the chairman of said company would produce and air degrading commercials about her.
Her initial entry in PRW being stymied by 'power players' who wanted the spotlight for themselves
Constant inability to get along with other wrestlers, especially in other places she wrestled in.
Being used as a puppet by PRW's chairman without her knowledge... (PRW owner Ryan Jackson had his 'favorites', of which he considered Luciana to be his golden girl. He would often promote them at the expense of the rest of the roster. No evidence emerged that Luciana was involved in holding down other wrestlers and investigations uncovered nothing. It was found that Ryan acted alone)
The above resulting in her name being trashed so much that she was shuttled to the Indies for a year and a half because no company wanted to touch her, believing she was involved in the Ryan Jackson scandal...
"There was one company that even hired a jobber, stuck that old name on that jobber and then said it was me..." Luciana remembers with an eye roll. "I was considered poison for the actions of someone else."
Luciana wasn't the only one caught in the web. Four others were as well. But as world champion at the time PRW closed and the company's biggest star, she took the worst heat.
"Even back then, our business was cancel happy. I would watch other companies where some people I used to work with in PRW that were held down so to speak to the unfortunate benefit of I and the other four and six months after the scandal broke out, they were still trashing us. These people would often blame us for not getting to where they wanted to be. It was tragic but the truth came out eventually...
Luciana struggled in her Indy exile. She worked for three companies... none a fit. She described them all as 'too old school' with one of the three engaging in constant sexualisation and sexual harassment toward her. But in late 2014, she was back on the mainstream signing with IWC. It was a surprising comeback for someone that MANY wrote off after "the Great Scandal".
"A year and a half later (after the scandal happened) things had died down so much. What spurred me was seeing Victoria go to GCW a month prior. Those from PRW that were taking shots at me and claiming they went nowhere because of me and the other cour were gone from the business..."
"Was this THE turning point?" I asked Luciana.
"It was..." she confirmed. "Because now the fans and the industry realized that it wasn't just Ryan's actions behind the scenes. Their careers were WORSE after PRW. The five of us could no longer be wrongly blamed for careers that just didn't make it. So, I felt comfortable enough to push for it again and I returned to the mainstream."
Calvin, her husband, did advise her of one thing.
"Drop that fucking name..." Calvin confirmed he said when IWC started calling. "That name is cursed and tainted. I just thought if she went just as Luciana, it would be a good thing for her because there were still people at the time that remembered the Great Scandal and someone in an affiliate of IWC even tried to block her from signing there."
"I trudged ahead. I wanted to redeem that name..." Luciana admitted.
2015 turned out to be a boon for her, winning IWC's women's championship then rising up the card very quickly, much to the chagrin of the 'elitists' in the company.
"As I rose up the ladder, these insecure bitches started to trash me. I was constantly blindsided in attacks on screen and behind my back, people thought IWC was overpushing me. I was constantly maimed, beaten, bloodied, in the hospital, my lower back was falling apart, all because of the price of fame."
"They didn't want Luciana to succeed..." Calvin added. "They thought that she was only being successful because IWC 'wanted to make her the next golden girl.' But she kept trucking, kept rising up the ranks and then she had her big moment.
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March 2016
Luciana had just gone through hell to win IWC's rumble match. She knows she's going to the main event to challenge for the world title.
Until IWC suddenly shut down.
"Devastating..." Luciana remembered. "I never wanted to wrestle again."
"That was more or less a sign that the name was cursed..." Calvin added.
"Did you think that, Luciana?" I asked.
"That was the final nail in the coffin for that name. I had a formal goodbye to it in August of 2016, got pregnant, came back from pregnancy, wrestled Myra once in GCW in July of 2017, my lower back damage from IWC cropped up at the worst time, and the doctors told me I'd never wrestle again. I was actually kind of relieved because I knew deep down I could finally let go of that name. I was just happy being anonymous, living somewhere else, because everyone just assumed that name was also my real name so when people saw "Luciana Verdoza", it was anonymous. I was glad I could be 'Luciana' again and not the other name"
"Is it really true that you had Allison putting out a press release stating that you died in the Alps due to hypothermia?"
"Yes."
"Why did you do that?"
"I didn't want wrestling fans, or anyone else, trying to find me. With my actual name being the name that only my immediate family and VERY trustworthy people knew, I just wanted to be done with that identity. That press release wasn't entirely made up. I did legitimately, go to the Alps and performed a ritual with a shaman to remove the blight and the curse from me that name caused burning artifact after artifact, including everything from 2007-2013 that wasn't a championship replica or a trophy. I have those in storage. But pictures? Magazine shoots? All of that stuff? I burned all of it in the Alps one winter day."
Even then, wrestling fans can be sleuths. Eventually, she was found out.
"I was about to be outed by Arthur Mendoza when he recognized me by chance. I cut a deal to admit the truth off the record in exchange for taking Tamara under my wing. To Arthur's credit, he hooked me up with a contact if I ever wanted to get back into it. I called them and they told me they were working for CKP and they said I'd have a home there if I wanted it. I wasn't into it, so I stayed away. Eventually, I decided to get back into it after all. I called the contact and I was informed CKP was dead but they had ANOTHER number for someone working with a different company."
5BW.
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"Dora didn't want me..."
"Why not?"
"Baggage from the old name. It took convincing of others in the higher ups, though I don't know who exactly, before she relented and took me in."
Luciana admits that her relationship with Dora Richardson, original 5BW owner, was "frosty". The first season was 'the most miserable title reign' of her entire career before she reinvented herself with the Damned Ones in season 2.
"That's where the comeback started and I finally started to overcome that cursed name..."
Part 2 to be published closer to Vendetta...
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