samantha riedel
·5 min read
Courtesy of Gabbi Tuft
More than ten years after her last professional wrestling match, Gabbi Tuft is returning to the ring — this time as her fully-realized, villainous self.
Following open-heart surgery in 2019 and the beginning of her gender transition in 2021, the former WWE wrestler announced she was training for an in-ring return last year. After months of training videos and teasers on social media, Tuft dropped a surprise announcement on social media last weekend: her comeback will take place Tuesday, June 25 at independent wrestling promotion West Coast Pro Wrestling’s “Killing Them Softly” live show.
Tuft kept this reveal close to the vest even in an interview with the Orlando Sentinel last week, only hinting that she would return “imminently.” Tuft — whose new in-ring character will be known as “Mother,” the now-ubiquitous term that originated in ballroom culture — said she threw herself into training after being medically cleared last year, working out at industry veterans’ schools including the Rhodes Wrestling Academy and the Dungeon (recently opened by WWE long-hauler Natalya Neidhart).
“I’m 45 years old. I don’t have time to mess around. It’s now or never,” Tuft told the Sentinel. “I’m not going to mull it over for six months — if I’m going to do it, it’s 110%, right now. I did every bit of training I could get my hands on and spent every day watching current wrestling programs. I would be walking around my house and office cutting promos out loud and deciding exactly what I want to do.”
That day has now arrived, and “Mother” is on the very brink of mothering (even though her opponent hadn’t been announced as of this writing). Tuft’s last match took place in March of 2014, in an independent show that saw her team with fellow former WWE wrestler Curt Hawkins as Tyler Reks, her old WWE persona. That character may have had some amount of name recognition at the time, but as Tuft laid out last week, the persona’s time is long finished — and not just because that version of her presented as a man.
“Who Tyler Reks was, was undefined,” Tuft explained to the Sentinel. “You could have handed me to the fans on a silver platter and they still wouldn’t have known who I was. But now I know my value, what I bring to the ring, I know the identity of myself and my character, the way I can entertain.”
So who is Mother? Like Reks, she’s a heel, a villain who’s there mostly to antagonize heroic “babyfaces” and create legible, emotional conflict in their matches together. But as Tuft has slowly rolled the character out on Instagram over the past few weeks, fans have seen a much different kind of antagonist than Reks, one with an ice-cold Queen Bitch demeanor even while dispensing nutritional advice (Tuft also advertises personal coaching services). Several graphics depict Tuft shackled by her wrists, with captions promising “the chains [will] come off.” One video sees Tuft preparing for her re-debut by doing some healthy grocery shopping for strawberries; when an effeminate assistant quips that he’s “not fruity enough” for her, Mother manifests with maximum disdain. “Mickey, pride is a sin,” she admonishes. “Now let me eat my fruit.”
According to Tuft, Mother is partially based on the mixed reactions she received after coming out: overwhelming respect from her peers in the industry, but vocal hostility from anti-trans wrestling fans. “You can’t please everyone,” she told the Sentinel. “Half the world will look at this character, a trans woman, and wonder why I’m back, they’ll hate me; the other half will understand and absolutely love me. That’s OK, the whole world will be watching.”
Like most successful wrestling characters, Mother contains aspects of Tuft that have been amplified and exaggerated, even warped to feed into Tuft’s natural tendency to play the heel. “‘Mother sees you, my child.’ She recognizes every one of her ‘children,’” Tuft said. “I want my ‘family.’ I need love and human connection. I need significance.”
After Transitioning, Former WWE Star Gabbi Tuft Wants Back in the Ring
Tuft spoke to ‘TV Insider’ about her recovery from open heart surgery, her admiration for fellow trans wrestlers, and her desire to make a return.
The infusion of all those elements — each linked to LGBTQ+ people’s common search for community and belonging, combined with Mother’s arrogant toxicity — promises to be a character queer wrestling fans will want to see develop. It’s anybody’s guess whether Tuft will achieve her goal of returning to the WWE, where trans wrestlers have yet to compete openly, but her return to the independent circuit is a major step towards that end. It also places Mother in line to face other trans and nonbinary wrestlers who have established themselves as indie icons, such as Dark Sheik, Max the Impaler, and Sonny Kiss (the newly minted Enjoy Wrestling champion). Whatever the future holds, Tuft will be putting her whole being into it, for the first time in her wrestling career.
“This is my true self, me as authentic as I could be, knowing who I am, and no one can control me,” Tuft told the Sentinel. “This is 100% my creation, and I’m 100% confident that I can finish what I started.”
WCPW’s “Killing Them Softly” event will take place at the Irvine Improv on June 25 beginning at 7:30 P.M. Pacific time. The promotion did not return Them’s request for comment regarding streaming options before publication; past events have been available on WCPW’s YouTube page.
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