{"id":57260,"date":"2019-11-02T13:41:20","date_gmt":"2019-11-02T17:41:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonprowrestling.com\/?p=57260"},"modified":"2021-05-12T12:55:29","modified_gmt":"2021-05-12T16:55:29","slug":"indie-watch-heartcore-shazza-mckenzie","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/2019\/11\/02\/indie-watch-heartcore-shazza-mckenzie\/","title":{"rendered":"Indie Watch: &#8216;HEARTcore&#8217; Shazza McKenzie"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><i>Indie Watch is our regular series that looks at all of the amazing talents working the independent circuits around the world. Some are veterans revitalizing their careers, some are indie prospects hitting their peaks, while others are names to be on the watch for! In this edition, we will be taking a look at another rising face of women\u2019s independent wrestling in Australia&#8217;s Shazza McKenzie.<\/i><\/p>\n<p>Wrestling in Australia is in a boom period right now and our local stars are beginning to grow into worldwide stars. Simply look at the <b>NXT<\/b> roster with its plethora of Aussie talent or <b>New Japan Pro Wrestling<\/b> where <b>Robbie Eagles<\/b> has become a household name. Over in <b>All Elite Wrestling (AEW)<\/b> though, one lone Australian has so far been given the opportunity to fly the flag there. That person being the \u2018HEARTcore\u2019 superstar herself, <b>Shazza McKenzie<\/b>. This appearance came in the Casino Battle Royale at <b><i>All Out<\/i><\/b>, but McKenzie had been working incredibly hard prior to receiving this big opportunity.<\/p>\n<p>McKenzie first fell in love with wrestling at the age of 16, when she saw <b>Trish Stratus <\/b>on television. At that moment, McKenzie realized those female wrestlers weren\u2019t just beautiful eye candy but were also powerful and empowered. With this newfound appreciation and love for the business, McKenzie sought out a local training school in Sydney. McKenzie lists<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0<\/span><strong>George Julio<\/strong>, the legendary <strong>Madison Eagles, Ryan Eagles, Billy Flyswat<\/strong> and <strong>Jay<\/strong> Law as her trainers.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Shazza McKenzie &amp; Madison Eagles vs Storm &amp; Mighty Mel - FIRST STRIKE 2013\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/fdGQcXTEK3o?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>In 2008, McKenzie would make her in-ring debut at the age of 20 and has not looked back since. The name Shazza McKenzie was chosen as a homage to Australian comedy act Barry McKenzie. However, Shazza is no comedy act! She has established herself as a top tier talent not only in Australia but now the world. As an 11-year veteran McKenzie has wrestled almost everywhere and has crossed paths with a who\u2019s who list of talent.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Shazza McKenzie (c) vs. Jessie McKay - PWWA Championship - PWA Thin Red Line\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/Ndceibbrsn4?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>Throughout her career, Mckenzie has wrestled for <b>Pro Wrestling Australia (PWA), Melbourne City Wrestling (MCW), Shine Wrestling, SHIMMER, GCW, Beyond, WrestleCircus, Pro Wrestling EVE, AAW, CZW, Bar Wrestling, Impact Wrestling, Progress, NXT, CHIKARA<\/b>, and <b>AEW, <\/b>to name just a few of the highlights.<\/p>\n<p>https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=UuoZl8V1LTE<\/p>\n<p>Over the years has worked with\/against <b>Veda Scott, Davina Rose<\/b> (later known as <b>WWE\u2019s<\/b> <b>Bayley<\/b>), <b>Allysin Kay, Mia Yim, Santana Garrett, Evie<\/b> (later known as <b>Dakota<\/b> <b>Kai<\/b>), <b>Saraya Knight, Mercedes Martinez, Kimber Lee, Allie, Nicole Matthews, Rosemary, Candice LeRae<\/b>, <b>Toni Storm<\/b> and <b>Tessa Blanchard<\/b>.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"FULL MATCH - Tessa Blanchard vs Shazza McKenzie: International Assault 2K17\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/LODT8IBMCSg?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>Some of McKenzie\u2019s biggest highlights revolve around her time in SHIMMER. At <b><i>SHIMMER Volume 89<\/i><\/b> McKenzie would pick up perhaps the biggest win of her career at the time by defeating <b>Shayna Baszler <\/b>in a No-DQ match. This victory would later be topped at <b><i>SHIMME Volume 93<\/i><\/b> in 2017 when McKenzie would win her first championship in the company by defeating <b>Nicole Savoy<\/b> for the Heart of SHIMMER Championship.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_57282\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-57282\" style=\"width: 308px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-57282\" src=\"https:\/\/lastwordonprowrestling.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/15\/2019\/11\/dtv-ee0uqaaip8k-e1572716009199.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"308\" height=\"500\"><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-57282\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Photo: SHIMMER<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>McKenzie would successfully hold that title until <b><i>SHIMMER 104<\/i><\/b> where she would be unseated by <b>Dust<\/b>. AEW was not McKenzie\u2019s first major exposure to television wrestling audiences though. In 2015 and 2018 she appeared on episodes of NXT. Losing both times to <b>Emma<\/b> (aka <b>Tenille<\/b> <b>Dashwood<\/b>) and <b>Kairi Sane<\/b> respectively.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Shazza McKenzie vs. Thunder Rosa Women&#039;s Wrestling from RISE 5 - RISING SUN\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/FA72Aw380vU?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>Finally, back at home in Australia McKenzie has held the PWWA Championship twice. She has also been a PWA Tag Team Champion, with her <b>Choc Blockers<\/b> partner <b>Big Fudge<\/b>. Late in 2018, McKenzie made the bold move of quitting her day job to focus entirely on wrestling in 2019. In early 2019 McKenzie spent an extended period of time living and wrestling consistently in the US. A move which ultimately put her on AEW\u2019s radar and earned her the Casino Battle Royale opportunity.<\/p>\n<p>Now it is only a matter of time before Shazza McKenzie is a name on everybody\u2019s radar.<\/p>\n<h3><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonprowrestling.com\/search\/indie+watch\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Check out our full list of previous Indie Watches, showcasing emerging talent from around the world!<\/a><\/strong><\/h3>\n<p>Stay tuned to the<a href=\"http:\/\/lwosonprowrestling.ms.lastwordonsports.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">\u00a0Last Word on Pro Wrestling<\/a>\u00a0for more on this and other stories from around the world of wrestling, as they develop. You can always count on LWOPW to be on top of the major news in the wrestling world, as well as to provide you with analysis, previews, videos, interviews, and editorials on the wrestling world.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Indie Watch is our regular series that looks at all of the amazing talents working the independent circuits around the world. Some are veterans revitalizing their careers, some are indie prospects hitting their peaks, while others are names to be on the watch for! In this edition, we will be taking a look at another [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2893,"featured_media":57283,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[3317,2,13],"tags":[4130,379],"class_list":["post-57260","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-australia","category-featured","category-international","tag-indie-watch","tag-shazza-mckenzie"],"modified_by":"Marilee Gallagher, Manager","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/57260","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2893"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=57260"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/57260\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/57283"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=57260"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=57260"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=57260"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}