Sometimes, in pro wrestling, something just hits audiences differently, resonating before explanation fully enters the mind. Even when the reasoning as to why it consumed you does materialize, the feeling it gives you still feels nearly overwhelming. More importantly, it gets people talking.
Out pro wrestling newcomer Sazzy Boatright had one of those moments this year, putting her name on the lips of many independent wrestling fans before she even had her debut match.
All it took was threatening to, in her words, “fuck your mom.”
“It’s kind of funny because I think of myself as a shy, fearful person,” Boatright said on the Outsports podcast LGBT In The Ring. “Sazzy is the kind of person I’ve always wanted to be. She’s my hero. Sarah Boatright is all well and good, but Sazzy is this person that is unapologetic … that shell is gone in the wrestling community and that’s really refreshing.”
Discovering and embracing the Sazzy within herself thrust one of the few belovedly crass and unflinching examples of lesbian representation seen in pro wrestling straight into the arms and eyes of an audience that was ready for it. With a single statement during promo class at Brooklyn’s T2T Academy, “The Real Motherfucker” Sazzy Boatright was born.
“I started cutting this promo about like, ‘You’re gonna remember me, even though I’ve been told I can’t do this for a long time.’ And then I just said, ‘Listen, man, I’m gonna murder you,’ and everybody popped because who the fuck says that during a promo,” Boatright said. “And then I said, ‘And I’m gonna steal your girl,’ everybody popped again, and then I said, ‘And I already fucked your mom.’ The footage that I have of this, like, the camera falls down, people are running around. [Pro wrestler] Brother Greatness rips his shirt off, twirling it around and throwing it at people. It was the most insane thing ever.”
Much like LGBTQ presentations in pro wrestling as a whole, increasing lesbian representation in the field has created spaces for myriad expressions of that innate queerness, and Boatright’s is one that puts that aspect of her identity barrelling toward the forefront in heartwarming chaos. Whether she’s bursting through the curtain as punk band Sorry Mom’s perfect ode to her moniker blares or passionately kissing her girlfriend after winning her debut match, that aspect of her identity is forcefully present and demands that you know it.
Experiencing that makes it all the more surprising that Boatright, a self-described “baby gay,” only came out during the Covid-19 pandemic.
“I think that the universe was trying to give me the gentle message for many years before I actually just was like, ‘You know, it’s just time to come out.’ It’s time to stop playing around,” Boatright said. “A big incentive also was meeting my girlfriend, who is amazing, and I don’t know that I would have so readily come out if it weren’t for her. But at the same time, I’ve never felt less resistance from the universe as when I came out.”
While that freedom certainly carried over to her young wrestling career, of higher importance is that she found the power to embrace herself. And Boatright is geared up to keep showing what taking those inhibitors off can represent to so many others that watch her submit fools in the ring. Just watch out for your mom.
Check out the full interview with Sazzy Boatright on the Outsports podcast LGBT In The Ring. New episodes drop every Thursday on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts and all other podcast services.
