Former Mae Young Classic competitor Nicole Matthews recently sat down with Spencer Love to talk about the current wrestling scene in the Pacific Northwest among various other topics.
In speaking with Spencer of Love Wrestling, Nicole (real name Lindsay Miller) would go on to reveal how flattered she is to be recognised as an influence on the current generation of Canadian wrestling stars. She was asked what it means to have names like KC Spinelli, Chelsea Green, and the Voros Twins naming her as an influence. Here is what she said:
It’s pretty crazy. It’s cool, like I am flattered. It makes you feel a little old sometimes. No, I’m kidding. I’m kidding. It’s really cool. Especially, you know, with Spinelli, I was really young still when she was training, so like I don’t think – I know she’s very complimentary towards me when I get brought up, but like I don’t think I really trained her. I was just kind of there when she was training full out, and same with Chelsea.
Like, Chelsea’s Chelsea. She did her own bit. The hustler to the extreme, right? She had great training with Storm, obviously. But I’m glad that she thinks that I helped her out in the beginning. That’s really nice to hear. Voros, yeah, I was there since the beginning for them, and I’m really proud of them and how good they are.
Yesterday I was just training with Voros and Travis Williams. And it was just weird because I was like, ‘what else?’ Like, I don’t know, they’re just so good at this point. I don’t know what else we can do, but they still all come to training all the time and still want to learn. Yeah, it’s pretty flattering to hear that though, for sure.
The former PWI #16 of the best female wrestlers went on to talk about the Pacific Northwest, and how it’s starting to gain attention from the wrestling world. Matthews discusses the wrestlers she came up with, including NXT’s Kyle O’Reilly, El Phantasmo and The Bollywood Boyz.
there was a group of us when I was younger where it was me, Artemis Spencer, Kyle O’Reilly, El Phantasmo, you know, the Bollywood Boyz. We all came from the same place at the same time, basically. I trained with Harv from the Bollywood Boyz and like Kyle O’Reilly and ELP, right, and all those guys.
We didn’t, like, all come up together successful at the same time. Like, it was kind of in spurts that we did it, but it was that work ethic and that you, you know, of like having a chip on your shoulder and wanting to be the best and all that.
Nicole Matthews took part in the second annual Mae Young Classic in 2018. She defeated Isla Dawn in the first round but went on to lose to Tegan Knox in round two. On September 27, 2018, Matthews was caught using a travel visa instead of a work visa to book independent shows and has been banned from working within the United States for the next 5 years.
H/T to Spencer Love for the transcription, you can watch the interview here.