Summary
- Wrestlers documentary series on Netflix focuses on Ohio Valley Wrestling (OVW) and the behind-the-scenes struggles faced by CEO Al Snow and his team.
- OVW hopes that the show will bring attention and turn their fortunes around, and the response so far has been overwhelmingly positive from both wrestling and non-wrestling fans.
- Leila Grey, a member of AEW and OVW, discusses her experience on the show, working with AEW superstar Jade Cargill, and her goals in AEW as a standalone character.
Leila Grey is a member of the All Elite Wrestling roster, but she's also part of Ohio Valley Wrestling, which is the focus of the new Netflix documentary series, Wrestlers.
In Wrestlers, CEO and head of creative Al Snow copes with the pressures of booking his local Kentucky pro wrestling promotion, OVW, which has a live weekly television show. Along with a rowdy locker room of wrestlers including OVW Champion Mahabali Shera, HollyHood Haley J, Ca$h Flo, Mr. PEC-tacular, and Freya the Slaya, Snow also answers to OVW's co-owner, Matt Jones.
Screen Rant had the pressure of chatting with 3-time OVW Women's Champion and AEW superstar Leila Grey about OVW's hopes that Netflix can turn their fortunes around, her run as one of Jade Cargill's Baddies in AEW, and working with pop superstar Bad Bunny.
Leila Grey Discusses Netflix's Wrestlers, OVW & All Elite Wrestling
Screen Rant: There's a big moment in an episode of Wrestlers during SummerSlam weekend in Nashville when Certified Luke Kurtis gets in the ring and proposes to you. I was watching, and I was like, "Wait, was that real?"
Leila Grey: It's real. Ring's still on my finger. Yeah, so many people ed me: "Is this for wrestling, or is this for real?" Guys, it's real!
Just don't get married in the ring on TV. Because that never works well.
Leila Grey: No, I will not get married in the ring. An engagement was enough.
As a wrestling fan, I knew about OVW because of John Cena, Brock Lesnar, Batista, Randy Orton. They all came out of there. Wrestlers was really eye-opening because I didn't know what happened to OVW after NXT was formed. Wrestlers goes really deep in the backstage of OVW. What has the been like for you?
Leila Grey: We have been getting an amazing response for Wrestlers. I keep looking at the #WrestlersNetflix hashtag on Twitter. And I have not read any bad reviews. Everybody absolutely loves the show. Everybody's saying they binged the show, and they want more. And that's so great to hear. And the best part is that this show is reaching a larger audience past wrestling. And that's what makes it so special. I read so many comments saying, "I'm not even a wrestling fan and I can't get enough of this show." Or "I haven't watched wrestling in 20 years and this show brought me back and reminded me why I used to love wrestling." So that's such a beautiful thing to hear, and I'm just so glad that we've been able to give that to the people. I hope that it pulls them in to start watching what we're doing and start just watching wrestling in general today.
Are you still part of OVW or are you just AEW now?
Leila Grey: I am still part of both. The amazing thing about AEW, even though I am signed full time to them, is we can work independents. They still allow me to work with OVW. I really consider that more of my developmental. We have weekly live television. You practice working with time cues. You cut promos, live promos, backstage promos. So we do everything exactly how it is in television, and it just better prepares me for when I have to be out there at AEW.
When you watched Wrestlers, was there anything you were like, "I can't believe they're showing this."
Leila Grey: I would say episode 3 when Matt Jones has a seizure. Oh my god, that was traumatizing. I didn't know that he had epilepsy when we shot this show that summer. So I ed hearing about Matt Jones having a seizure. But I didn't know that it was captured on camera. I just heard he had a seizure in one of their meetings. That's all I knew. And, you know, he's told us that he has a mild case of epilepsy. But then to actually see it... I've only seen a person have a seizure one time in my life besides Matt Jones, and that scarred me for life. And then watching it again. Oh, my God. Oh my god. That actually made me feel for him. It just made me feel for him.
Wrestlers, like you said, was shot last year, and in the end, you signed with AEW. How has OVW been faring since filming ended? It's been a year.
Leila Grey: Since filming ended, we've kind of been doing somewhat the same. But now that the show is out there, we're seeing like growth in our online engagement and followers, and in ticket sales. Tonight, actually, it's an OVW show, and we are actually expecting a packed house. So let's see. Let's see. But I hope that more of that continues to happen. We've opened up our Shop OVW page, so everybody is selling out their merch. And we're all just trying to capitalize off of this and just keep growing the name of OVW and ourselves, of course.
That's great. Because there was that scene when Al Snow said the pay-per-view OVW held needed 500 buys to break even. And then when the numbers came in, it was 74. And I was like, "Oh, no!"
Leila Grey: Yeah. I feel like the summer tours helped us. On the show, you see we did the summer tour, and that kind of helped us a lot for the year. And it kind of happened again. Even though we didn't film this summer, we did go on another summer tour. And they were able to rack up some money to continue on. And I mean, I think at OVW, we're just hoping and praying for this Netflix thing to you know, help us save our gym.
You're also now signed to AEW. You got a big break when you got to Jade Cargill and become a Baddie. In fact, you were the last Baddie.
Leila Grey: The last Baddie standing! The ultimate Baddie.
I was a Double or Nothing in Vegas this year when you carried the TBS Championship to the ring for Jade's entrance. That was so cool. I met and interviewed Jade at Comic-Con last year, and she was great. She really carries herself like a superstar. What was it like working with Jade?
Leila Grey: I loved working with Jade because Jade is like what I aspire to be. I want to be strong and muscular. And I consider myself also a superstar. So me and Jade, we actually got along pretty well. And I feel like we can understand each other, so I have a lot of respect for her and I loved working with her. You know, working with her allowed me to have TV time every week. So we were out there doing our thing, killing it. We got to bond. It was a great time and I feel like I've learned a lot working with her. And me starting off as a Baddie, I feel like that was a perfect way to bring me on board and introduce me to AEW television. Because before that I was just doing a lot of stuff on AEW Dark, but now I was actually on Dynamite and Rampage weekly. So they really introduced me to the masses. So I owe a lot to Jade and thank her for allowing me to be in the Baddies with her. And I think we had a fantastic run.
It really was a great run. Rumor is that Jade is going to the other company. [Jade Cargill is rumored to have signed with WWE.] How do you think she'll do there?
Leila Grey: I mean, Jade is a superstar. She's a megastar. So she's gonna do great wherever she goes. She's still not confirming anything, but I told her no matter what, I know you're gonna kill it. If rumors are true or not. I know you're gonna kill it because you are freaking superstar.
Now I read one of your dream opponents is Mercedes Moné. How excited were you when she showed up at AEW All In London?
Leila Grey: Well, I was very excited. Unfortunately, I wasn't there. But I was very excited to see her because I'm like, okay, maybe we're a little closer to having Mercedes come to AEW. Because she's my dream match and, I would say, my biggest current inspiration. She's just somebody that I relate to so much, and I always hear and read a lot of people online saying that I kind of look like her, or I'm, you know, Sasha Banks wannabe and all that. Listen, I'm not trying to copy. I can't help that I look the way that I look. This is my face. But she is somebody that I look up to, and I feel like me and her would have a kick-ass match together.
The AEW women's locker room is stacked with talent. Along with you, obviously, there's Dr. Britt Baker, Kris Statlander, Toni Storm, Saraya. The list goes on. What are your goals in AEW?
Leila Grey: Now that there are changes being made, and the Baddies are basically done, my goal is to just become more of a standalone character. Obviously, working alongside Jade was great and being part of the Baddies. But my main goal is to show AEW, AEW fans, and Tony Khan, that I can be a standalone character, and I can hold my own weight. I'm charismatic. I have the looks, I can go. So I know I have what it takes, and I could bring stuff to the table. So I'm just hoping to just get myself and my name more out there and be more of a prominent player in AEW.
I think should go after Kris Statlander and the TBS Title.
Leila Grey: I'll do it for the Baddies. I'll do it for Jade. I'm getting that TBS Title.
Before you became a wrestler, you worked with Bad Bunny. Tell me about that experience.
Leila Grey: Before I started wrestling, when I was living in Miami, I was working as a model. And a lot of the modeling jobs that I had were being in music videos. So the biggest and my most favorite one is being in the Drake and Bad Bunny "Mia" video. And it's funny because I saw a Facebook memory yesterday. It said that we shot that five years ago yesterday. So five years ago, in 2018. I worked with Bad Bunny and Drake. They were super cool, especially bad bunny. He was so down to earth. I really didn't expect that from someone of his caliber, like he's a megastar, you know? So he was really down to earth and really fun to work with. Definitely one of my favorite music videos. I've done a lot, but that one is at the top of my list.
Did you know he was such a wrestling fan when you worked with him? Did you know back then what an incredible wrestler he'd become?
Leila Grey: Oh, I had no idea that he was a wrestling fan. But I mean, when I found out I guess it didn't really surprise me because I know that wrestling is very popular in Puerto Rico. One of my favorites is La Rosa Negra. She's one of my favorite Puerto Rican wrestlers. I look up to her and she's fantastic. And I love watching her wrestle. I know wrestling is really big in PR, and I can see [Bad Bunny being a super fan]. And then when I saw him do his thing, he's actually a lot better than I think everybody expected. I'm like, okay, he's probably like one of those crazy kids that were just jumping off of everything when they were young. But that's super awesome. I want more mainstream celebrities to be vocal about their love for wrestling. I feel like a lot of people try to hide the fact that they like wrestling. Maybe they think they'll get judged. But hey, wrestling is cool.
Oh, absolutely. Wrestling is cool. And the business right now is so hot with so many incredible companies like AEW doing incredible business, selling out massive stadiums. And I think the mainstream really is coming out again. Like it was in the 90s, in the Attitude Era, when people were proud of being wrestling fans.
Leila Grey: I'm glad that AEW, this past year, brought in some artists like Rick Ross. Rick Ross was great. They need to sign him full-time to be somebody's manager because he's fantastic. Rick Ross, please be my manager. And we brought in Trina. We brought in a lot of celebs this year. So I would definitely like to see more of that intertwining between pro wrestling and mainstream entertainment.
About Netflix's Wrestlers
At Ohio Valley Wrestling (OVW), a storied professional wrestling organization led by wrestling legend Al Snow, new owners and rising stars strive to make an impact beyond the ring. Wrestlers is a 7-episode documentary series streaming on Netflix.