Chanel Phoenix
Photo: Digital Beard
In the world of professional wrestling it's crucial that performers standout from the pack. For Melbourne's Chanel Phoenix the way to do this was to incorporate her secondary passion for martial arts into her professional wrestling style.
Chanel took time prior to the debut Renegades Of Wrestling show to chat with Pario backstage about her journey. During our conversation Chanel spoke about discovering wrestling, evolving her in-ring style/character & how she turned lockdown into a blessing rather than a curse.
Like many professional wrestlers Chanel's journey began as a young kid watching wrestling on TV with an older sibling.
"I started watching wrestling on TV with my older brother when I was about 3 years old," Chanel said. "We used to play wrestle all the time & he used to 'bash me up' because he was my big brother & I was so much smaller than him. Then like a lot of people I stopped watching in my teenage years, but got back into it when I was 18 & fell in love all over again."
Whilst Chanel fell in love with wrestling again very quickly it took some time before she would transition from fan to trainee. The reasoning behind this delay was twofold. Firstly Chanel told Pario she didn't even realise "wrestling was a thing in Australia until roughly 2012." Then secondly, after hearing horror stories about how difficult wrestling try-outs were she was "terrified" to give it a go. However, after some convincing by her friends & the highly regarded Australian wrestler Hartley Jackson she finally decided to try-out for Wrestle Rampage in Adelaide.
After successfully completing her try-out Chanel's professional wrestling career officially begun. Looking back on those early years now though she understands why it perhaps didn't take off the way she envisioned.
"When I first debuted I didn't do the style that I am now," recalled Chanel. "Back then I was trying to be that superhero, typical female wrestler... Eventually 1 of the wrestlers, Pat Graham, suggested that I should do some jiu-jitsu classes just to get some fire into my style. After doing 1 class I fell in love & now I'm obsessed."
Having discovered this second passion for martial arts, in particular jiu-jitsu & Muay Thai, Chanel eventually realised she should incorporate those skills into her wrestling style in order to differentiate herself from the other women in Australian wrestling.
"It wasn't until lockdown where I realised I could focus in on that martial arts style to differentiate myself. Now that I am doing that it all comes more naturally to me."
Although Chanel believes training in martial arts "can't hurt" she does hope that there isn't a flood of people doing it.
"I don't think it hurts doing some martial arts training because there is something really humbling about being submitted over & over & over again before you are then able to submit somebody else. However, if everyone does it then everyone is going to have a similar grappling style, which would make wrestling really boring."
In regards to the lockdown period of the past few years Chanel told Pario that while it was difficult she worked incredibly hard to turn it into a blessing.
"I viewed lockdown as an opportunity to really forge ahead of the pack... I was doing whatever I could to come out of lockdown in the best shape I could be in & I did a lot of work with Krackerjack to better define my character. I often wonder would I be where I am today had COVID never happened & I honestly don't think I would be."
Keep up with Chanel on social media at: @Chanel.Phoenix
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