SoCal Val has had a storied career, being an instrumental figure in the most prominent days of TNA and IMPACT Wrestling. Val now resides in the UK and plays just as prominent role in the British independent scene as she works as an announcer, commentator and creative at PROGRESS Wrestling.
In the build-up to the major PROGRESS/DEFY doubleheader, happening during ALL IN weekend at the Electric Ballroom on Saturday, August 26th, PWMania.com‘s Lee Tarrier (@leeseedub) exclusively caught up with SoCal Val and spoke about the company’s ambitions going into the show (and beyond) as well as great moments from her time with TNA Wrestling (IMPACT Wrestling).
You can check out the complete interview below:
Val, how excited are you about the big ALL IN weekend where PROGRESS and DEFY have a doubleheader show?
I’m so excited. I’m so thrilled that people are getting different variations of wrestling. I have been with PROGRESS for a little over a year now and coming from the States, I’d always heard of PROGRESS being the best in the UK. I can now confirm and guarantee that that is exactly what PROGRESS Wrestling is and for lack of better term, we keep progressing into bigger and better things. This is going to be a show that it’s not only going to be a lot of fun, but it showcases so much talent. If anyone’s coming for the first time they’re really going to be in for a treat.
How did working for PROGRESS come around for you?
It was the all female show “Who Run The World.” I always love talking about it because it was all females from top to bottom. Female referees, all female talent in the ring, female ring announcer, female commentators, myself included, and I just loved that I was asked to do that first because I am such a girl’s girl and a feminist and just someone who really tries to champion women’s wrestling.
PROGRESS really put women’s wrestling in the spotlight, where it deserves to be and that show was just eye opening for me to go ‘well, they really care about women in wrestling’ in the way that they portray them so respectfully and feature them so well. So, that was my first time and then I was talking to the gang around WrestleMania and I told them I’d love to be involved and now, I mostly do commentary although I’ve done interviews for them before, ring announcing and different things.
But it’s great to be part of something that kind of reminds you why you’re a fan. I’ve been in this for, I want to say 22 years now, which is insane. I started at like, barely 16, and you do get a little jaded, you’re like ‘okay, I’ve seen a lot of current things and they get recycled.’ But this has really made me become a fan again. That’s something that I wasn’t sure would happen. But yeah, I’ve got the bug again, which is really exciting.
Do you see any parellels with PROGRESS and early TNA when it was hitting an audience with something fresh?
I do for sure. And I find it funny and ironic that when I moved to the UK, I had seen a little bit of the wrestling shows here and there. I was working with FITE TV, who I still work with, and I was going to a few shows. So I got to see some things, I got to do autograph signings and be on some independent shows. So I saw a lot of really great talent but then as I moved here, it just kept getting bigger and better and more exciting. And then with NXT coming in, we had World Of Sport wrestling, which I was in love with as well, I found that same love for wrestling with PROGRESS that I had had in the past.
I knew that they were the game in town, as one time, I was in Camden way before I worked with them and I remember seeing lines and lines of people in wrestling shirts. I thought this company is doing it like they are a big deal. And so I just thought well what an opportunity to get with the biggest company in the UK, and the best.
So I’m really grateful that they let me do that and they sort of also helped me be very creative and give ideas to the new talent. They’ve treated me with absolute respect, and always kind of, you know, make me feel very comfortable, which is really nice. So again, it’s nice to have a company that you believe in, you know, like back in the day with IMPACT. I believed in what we were doing. I believe we were the best and I feel the same now. I watch our shows and I’ll get teary eyed at some of the video productions because, by the way, video packages for PROGRESS are the best I’ve ever seen.
How much do you get involved with the creative?
I mean creatively, I’m never one to say okay, I’m going to book a show or you know, I’m going to get involved in a storyline but what I like to do is kind of what I was doing at IMPACT. I do a lot of social content so if I have ideas that just elevate what’s already there then I give some pzazz and get some splashy content to elevate everybody and motivate everybody, especially with the girls.
One thing that we’re trying to do is perhaps do more photoshoots, make it more of a brand that I was used to at IMPACT. We had a whole knockouts division that was very very polished, shall we say, and we had a lot of photoshoots. We did a lot of things that were just for the women’s division. And so for me that’s what I’m excited to explore more, is to get the girls elevated to an even better level and they’re amazing as they are but I just know that there’s so many ideas that I have, especially because I love the the photoshoot sides of things, the storyline side of things, because I’m not a physical wrestler. I would never try to get involved in that side of things. But what I’m good at, like the social content interviews, that’s where I want to lend a little bit of expertise if I can say that about myself.
How important is social media now to wrestling?
It’s everything and it’s one of those things that I find really interesting. I will meet a wrestler once in a while that’s like ‘Oh yeah, I’m not on social media.’ And I’m like ‘dude, Roman Reigns is on social media, no one’s above social media,’ you know? I remember getting jobs in Orlando as a model and I was not particularly right for the job. They didn’t even want a redhead but saw I had a huge following and I got that job because I was very active on social media.
So I think we are in an age where it’s, I mean, yes, it can be harmful, it can be bruise the ego once a while, but if you have the competence and you can let things slide off, it is hugely beneficial as you use it for personal gain and for positivity and just to promote what you’re doing.
It’ll take you so far there are wrestlers that with all due respect, perhaps they’re not the most seasoned or they’re not the most polished in the ring. But damn if they’re not entertaining and good at promoting themselves. That’s a huge part of it. And if I were ever to hire wrestlers for anything, I would definitely look at their social media and see you know, how they come across on screen, how they are with the fans. It is insanely important in any industry, but wrestling for sure is one of those industries that you need to be on top of your social media game.
With that in mind, who have you loved working with in PROGRESS?
Oh, it’s you know, it’s really hard because you don’t want to play favourites right, but I mean, there’s some that I just go ‘oh my god, I can’t wait for them to come out.’ You know, Charles Crowley’s such an eccentric, amazing character. We’re talking about him having on my GAW TV pod (@TheGAWTV) with Mickie James and Lisa Marie because he would literally read a dictionary and be entertaining.
There’s no one like Gene Munny. He has the exact right sense of humour while still being a really talented wrestler. He doesn’t take himself too seriously. He is incredibly good on social media, incredibly great on the mic.
I might ruffle some feathers here, I gotta be careful, but Spike Trivet is amazing. I know he’s a very polarising figure, but I’m a fan. When he walks out, it’s like the whole temperature in the room changes. He just has this knack for making you feel emotions, and it’s really, really terrifying, but very impressive.
Bullit is another one that I think is going to do amazing things. The 0121, Sunshine Machine, all those guys are incredible.
As far as the ladies, there’s so many amazing ones. Lana Austin is somebody who although can’t carry a tune in a bucket is special. She’s got this faction with her, LA Taylor and Skye Smitson and I’ll tell you what, they are gaining so much traction, they are really really picking up steam and the entire women’s division is really on notice when they come out.
And I will say also, that we have an amazing competitor in Rhio. We have an amazing competitor in Kanji. There are so many great girls. Gosh, there’s so many. Lizzy Evo, Session Moth, they’re all great. And you know what’s great is there’s a lot of diversity, especially in the women’s division. There’s a lot of diversity. No one is like each other. And I love to see that because, again, I love the women’s wrestling scene. You know, it’s like Baskin Robbins different flavours for every for every taste is fantastic.
Looking back at your past in the business, especially with TNA/IMPACT. What are some of your best memories?
What’s funny is someone just sent me some some old screenshots of the Sonjay Dutt and Jay Lethal days and that was the biggest storyline for me, but even just getting the chance to sign for the company was amazing.
I was just barely 18 and being there for nine years, I grew up in that company, I legit grew up in that company for nine years. And what I loved was I wanted to be a manager. I wanted to do the Miss Elizabeth stuff and I loved that. I knew that I liked the talking part. I knew I’d never would want to be like a wrestler going after a belt and being that serious. But after the Jay Lethal and Sonjay storyline, I was able to write my own scripts, do more social content that I now do with PROGRESS.
And you know, get my own interviews done start my own little shows like pillow talk and you know, get to do photo shoots and things like that. But I guess it’s where I honed my skills as a presenter. Nowadays, outside of wrestling, I do comic cons, I host celebrity panels with Monopoly Events and I would have never gotten those skills if it wasn’t for people like Jeremy Borash, Mike Weber, David Sahadi people that gave me opportunities, Jeff Jarrett being another one.
That’s where I learned skills that I could take other places as well. So after the storyline with Jay and Sonjay, which was probably my highlight, I actually then started to kind of do things behind the scenes and on camera and started to see myself as a presenter.
I moved to Orlando, Florida and some of the guys, Roderick Strong being one of those people by the way, were asked to go up to TNA you know, to go to Nashville to go do a show there. So I did an Xplosion and manage Roderick Strong. There, I met AJ and a bunch of people there and they were a lovely company. But it was a much different company.
The highlight for me was when they had the Spike TV deal. That was some of the best memories ever, getting people like Ric Flair involved and Kurt Angle and people that I have loved my whole life. Watching The Hardys, oh my gosh, Christie Hemme, Victoria, Mickie that was cool to kind of see that that evolution because it was a very different company from when I started to when I left. Not in a good or bad way. Just different. Nine years is a big chunk of your life.
I would say 2006-2009 was my favourite era. That’s when all the imports started coming in. I loved the Hogan and Bischoff era, by the way. I’ve said this on so many interviews before and I’m going to repeat myself. Fans will say that era wasn’t right but I think Hogan and Bischoff were amazing. They were helping all of the talent. They were lovely to me. They were easy to work with. They were getting our name on ESPN and in places that we never thought would listen to any thing we were doing, you know. So I love them.
And I thought they did amazing things for the company. Feuds like Bobby Roode versus Kurt Angle, I would say probably the best wrestling I’ve ever seen in my life. I remember sitting at ringside being like ‘this is like a masterclass’. We had the Main Event Mafia, the Aces and Eights storylines that were amazing with Brooke Hogan. There were so many great moments. And I was evolving, doing lots of things and that’s thanks to Jeremy Borash. I learned so much how to think on my feet. I was doing so much in the art of improv that have helped me now as I run comic con and celebrity panels and I learned it all through IMPACT wrestling.
Who did you learn most from?
I was around Mike Webber, who is the CEO of FITE TV and he gave me so many opportunities but honestly who I learned the most from and I cannot believe I was so lucky to be under his tutelage was Jeremy Borash. Jeremy Borash is brilliant. He’s probably the most underrated guy in wrestling. He is so smart and so good at improv. How his mind works for the business is amazing. So many ideas came from Jeremy Borash. And for me, I literally just got to watch him work. And, and also, he’s probably the funniest person ever. He’s hysterical. But he’s just such a smart guy to learn from and I felt really blessed that I could sit there and watch him do what he did best. And kind of you know, be his student. I’m still a student of the game, but hen you said ‘Who did I learn from the most?’ That’s immediately Jeremy Borash. WWE are very lucky to have him. They are blessed.
SoCal Val will be guest ring announcer at PROGRESS Wrestling’s show, It’s Clobbering Time on Saturday, August 26th. Tickets are available here.
