Lizzy
So the one main thing that came up was that you were nominated for PWI is rookie of the year! So can you kind of go on and talk about how you found out?
Jody
I found out about it through Twitter. I made a group chat with some of my friends and they tagged me in it. Molly McCoy tagged me in it because they were also nominated and I thought it was, like, I thought it was a joke, because like four of our friends in the same group chat were on the list but like “oh that’s a good Photoshop dude!” And then I started getting a lot of tweets about it like, oh this is this is real life. It’s like, my initial reaction was like I thought it was really really funny. I don’t think anyone at PWI has actually seen one of my matches.
Lizzy
I mean I guess they have since you were nominated.
Jody
I just think they like my Twitter, you know? Like, genuinely
Lizzy
Yeah, I mean social media is important for wrestling these days! Apart from wrestling, though, I saw that you’re running for mayor? So what’re your political stances and how will you improve the city?
Jody
OK so there is a person running for, I think senator, out in Nevada his name is Dan Rodimer and he’s just a huge piece of shit. He used to be in WWE and he’s, like, he’s pro life he’s like anti-women’s rights and all together pretty much he’s a huge Trumpie. He’s just the worst possible dude I could think of and the funniest part— like scary funny— but like there was one part that made me laugh; he has a commercial running against him, it’s his wife’s domestic abuse calls. And a bunch of local wrestlers here did a fundraiser show for him, and it’s not on the wrestlers, they didn’t really know what they got into and then they found out afterward. But yeah wrestlers’ footage is being used on this commercial while audio of this domestic abuse call plays. It was playing during the NBA championship, like people saw it, and it’s an abused woman crying on the phone over the wrestling. It’s horrible, so somebody tweeted about him running for Senate or whatever he’s doing, and I was like you know what fuck it I’m gonna run because I’m not a piece of shit and I’m better wrestler than he ever was.
Lizzy
Oh hell yeah.
Jody
Yeah so I’m running. I’m just taking all of Bernie Sanders policies and making them my campaign.
Lizzy
And then you’ll have the Bernie Sanders t shirt for your rookie of the year campaign.
Jody
Oh absolutely.
Lizzy
Speaking of t shirts. I saw the $250 Family Guy Jody shirt on your website? Can you explain—
Jody
So my friend Brandon, he does a lot of my designs, he jokingly drew a Family Guy design for me and he sent it into a group chat that I’m in and everybody was like “I want that shirt I need to buy that shirt” and me and Brandon were just laughing really hard because it was made as a joke. So I was like sure, I put on my website tonight at $250. I had to include in the notes like, yes that’s not a typo. Not $25. The payoff for the joke is that one day like during Black Friday I’m gonna drop it like 20 bucks.
Lizzy
That’s like, what a 90% discount?
Jody
Yeah, it’s gonna be a great deal
Lizzy
What if you had a match and you saw someone wearing the shirt?
Jody
Oh if anyone bought the shirt I would lose my mind and give them the money back straight up. Nobody needs to pay $250 for that shirt.
Lizzy
I feel like PWT might try to sell $250 shirts
Jody
Oh yeah no if they did like, a one of one with anyone from the elite people would pay way more than 250 bucks for it.
Lizzy
Yeah, that’s really true. Also, I saw you might start a Twitch channel, but only stream Putt Putt Saves the Zoo?
Jody
That’s true, so yeah I was last night I was just hanging out in one of my friends live streams and he was asking for games suggestions and I just kept saying Putt Putt Saves the Zoo and he wouldn’t do it so I called him out I was like I’ll do it out I’ll let you know I’ll become a twitch streamer. it’s up in the air if I really do it because I don’t— like you saw my struggle getting into the zoom call, I’m not technically inclined, but if I figure out how to do it with streaming I think I’m gonna do the whole series. I do for Pajama Sam, I’ll do like Freddi Fish. I won’t do anything else, no Fortnite, no Call of Duty.
Lizzy
Oh hell yeah. Also, I saw on Twitter you shared three opponents you’d like to face, those being Suge D, Alex Shelley and AJ Gray. Can you kind of explain why you chose those three in particular?
Jody
Totally. So I think Suge is one of the most underrated independent wrestlers of all time. He’s been killing it for as long as I’ve been watching wrestling. He has always been one of the best, and people are kind of starting to wake up to it now. Like, finally people recognize that he’s very good now, but for so long like I’ve been a fan of him. Even back to whenever he was doing like the full on like Sugar Dunkerton basketball gimmick, like I’ve always thought he was so good and so underrated and now that he’s like coming into his own I would really like to compete with him.
Alex Shelley I think is the best wrestler in the world. I think independent wrestling how it is today does not exist without Alex Shelly, like a lot of those guys from that era shape what we do today, but I think Alex Shelley is the most influential and he doesn’t get the credit of guys like the Bryan Danielsons, and the Young Bucks, but I think he’s just as good if not better than all of them so I that one’s just really like a lot of matches for me or is wanting to wrestle the best to see if I could hang. I want to prove myself that I have it in me to be a top-tier wrestler.
AJ Gray is… that’s a whole ‘nother story, because me and AJ Gray are pretty good friends. We randomly met because he had a layover in Las Vegas for a GCW LA show, and he landed in Vegas at like 11 PM and we hung out until like 9 AM. And like, he was already kind of getting a following at that point like he was already getting pretty big, but now he’s blowing up, like he’s up for PWI independent wrestler of the year. Everyone considers him one of the best in the world now, like one of the best unsigned in the world at least, and I consider him one of the best in the world just in general. Like, put him up against anyone in WWE or AEW and he’ll go. He’s also, I think, the hardest hitting person in wrestling. It’s been suggested a lot more than I’ve asked for it actually like a accompanist for a party hard wrestling they put up a poll like who would you like like what would you like to see the main event of party mania be which is their big show in the most responded answer was AJ gray versus Jody, so it’s like, people want to see it and I think they want to see it because they want to see me die, but for me it’s proving that I would survive against the toughest motherfucker in the entire world.
Lizzy
Maybe if you could bring the sword–
Jody
Right, yeah if I bring the sword I might get a slight advantage, but I don’t know. I feel like he could even handle a sword.
I deleted the tweet this morning because I like I think those tweets are corny and the last thing I wanna be is corny. I woke up thought it was pretty nerdy so I deleted it but I said it in the tweet last night that honestly I’m probably not gonna win but I’ll survive
Lizzy
That’s the real victory sometimes, proving that you can survive.
Jody
Everybody knows that he’s gonna beat my ass, but if I take it and give it back and keep taking it… and then if I win that would be the most insane underdog story of all time.
Lizzy
Yes!! Also, do you want to plug your merch or anything?
Jody
Oh yeah go to Jodythewrestler.com. I have like beanies and booty shorts and T-shirts that’s like secondary though. It’s all cool stuff like booty shorts and hats. Oh yeah I’m working on socks, and then you could literally have a whole Jody outfit.
Lizzy
And then you can get the $250 shirt too.
Jody
If anybody buys the $250 shirt because of this interview you get half the funds.
Lizzy
But then we also have to give the money back.
Jody
I’ll go out of pocket I’ll give them half their money back and you get the other half.
Lizzy
Oh nice. Also, thank you for doing the interview I know it got pushed back a lot.
Jody
I thought I was dying! I thought I had Covid, like I got sick and then I found out that somebody that I work with all like tested positive for Covid. And I was like,I’m dying. But I’ve tested three times and I’ve been negative all three times thankfully.I just had a flu or something. But yeah I thought I was done for.
Lizzy
… I shouldn’t be laughing at this—
Jody
Oh no it’s so funny. I like after I tested negative the first time I just saw dying of laughter.
Lizzy
Well on that note! Thanks a lot for talking to me!
Jody
You too! Thank you so much.