AEW Star Thekla Talks Mick Foley, Her Rapid Rise, & What's Next | Inside The Ring

Would OnlyFans be a thing you would consider? All right, I guess I want to know how this ends. Yeah, Branson, not creepy at all. No, it's not. What would I show? Oh, well, that's what I mean. What would I do? This is TMZ's Inside the Ring. Welcome to TMZ's Inside the Ring. I'm Branson Quinn. I'm Roger Corral. Coming off of a nice week of, you know, we were in the headlines a little bit. We were, we were. We're tendered out. We've had a bunch of attendees. We had a bunch of stuff going on. So we went to a chicken tender fest, yeah, over the weekend. You talked to a couple people. I did. Kathy Kelly was there. Kathy Kelly was there. I got water dumped on me. I stepped the lander. Oh, are you okay? Yeah, I'm good. I called the police. We had her arrested. Okay. Well, we're really excited today because we have someone who came back for the third time. So that beats the record coming on the show. Third time. Beat Matt Riddle on the record. In the record. Oh, is that so? Inside the ring. Can I just say every time she's been here afterwards, she's won her match. Yeah. So I just want to note that. Yeah. I'm going to keep that in mind. Today's guest, she's been here twice. And both times she went on again to have big victories after appearing on our show. And she's got a big show this weekend in the Windy City in Chicago at all out for number one contender for the Women's World Championship against Mercedes Monet. Tecla, welcome to TMZ again. What's up, bitches? Also, when was I on your show twice? I remember the last time. You don't remember being on our show? Well. No, I remember. I remember one, but I remember the second time. She doesn't remember the first one. That might be a me problem, honestly. No, I mean, I get it. There's a lot of shows you do. I get it. And you came on the first one. I wasn't there for that one. It was just me. Yeah, yeah. And I asked you where the inspiration behind Tecla came from. And you're like, I was born with that name. She was born this way. Yeah. Wow. Yeah, that was like my. Oh, yeah. She's like, oh, yeah. It was it was it was just it was just with you. That's why that's why it wasn't like it wasn't the studio, though. No, it was in the studio. We're always here. It was. But it's OK. I saw I saw the whiskey behind you. It's fine. She's on the Capri Suns now. Pretty hard. I did. Yeah, I'm sure it's not just Capri Sun. All right. Anyways, anyways, what we're here to talk about with you, you've got a you got a match this weekend in the Windy City going into that. What's your mindset right now? How are you preparing for this different than any other Tecla match that you had? Because this is a big one. I'm not preparing any different than ever. I'm I'm always ready. I stay ready. It's Willow Nightingale. We're one one now. So I think I have pretty fair chances of winning this. What else? She's got a broken hand. She's got another hand that can be broken. So Willow Nightingale, this is my plan. I might I might be digging my own grave here, but my plan is to break her other hand. Dude, she's not stressed at all. Wait, like as a fan of Willow, you know, it's like that's so unfair and unethical, right? So like, are you going to like, think about maybe keeping it fair, at least for most the match? Because you can't just go after the hand right away. Oh, no, no. 100%. A smart, smart bitch would go for the other hand immediately. Like if I if I don't get my hands on her before Chicago, then that's what I will definitely 100% go for first. OK. I don't know why you always try to tame her. I know. I'm just like, why are you trying to get the wind out of my out of my windy sails? Windy city sails. That's true. You had a good question, Roger. I have a lot of questions. You had a really good question. Yeah, I know what you're about to ask. I don't know what it is. But, OK, I want to know, you know, you did a promo against Willow Nightingale and you said maybe Willow's not for the kids, maybe Tekla's for the kids. I want to know, how are you with kids? Like, can we can we start selling some Tekla kid merch? I just saw one of the promos you did from the crowd. You kept calling everyone dumb bitches. And a lot of the kids look pretty bummed out. They look pretty, like, sad that they were like, whoa, what's this? This lady's cussing a lot. Like, how do you how do you respond to that? No, so first of all, Tekla is totally for the kids. There is already Tekla kids merch out there, if you didn't know. I've already seen kids with Tekla kids merch on. It looks amazing on them. It says toxic toddler. Sells itself, honestly. Also, I've seen those videos of the kids. They just don't know the word bitch yet. They're more like they're looking at the parents like, Daddy, what is my hero talking about? So it's more it's more like they're not. They're not bummed. They're confused. And it's OK. You know, I'm not saying that kids should go around calling, you know, other kids dumb bitch. I think that's something you start at least, you know, got to be 12 at least and not kids under 12 should not be calling other kids dumb bitch. But other than that, yeah, you know, once you're older and you get it, you're everybody's going to be a Tekla fan. So once you're 12, it's OK to call someone a dumb. I think 12. I don't know. I will. I will have to talk to a management and see if that's something I can. We should be standing behind. I think 12 is OK. I don't know, man, like there's some crazy movies out that you can watch when you're like, oh, yeah, that's fair. That's fair, right? So yeah, and yeah, and like they do and say worse stuff than, you know, calling people were you allowed to say these words when you were a little because I feel like now that you're older, you're just making sure that you say it every time. Um, yeah, I will. I was I'm a European man. We were drinking wine again, you know, like that's normal. Oh, wow. You get a glass, you go, you have you have a nice dinner, you know, you get a sip of white wine with that because that's how you are supposed to enjoy good food. You know, it's just a culture thing, you know, and a sip of wine. Call somebody a dumb bitch. You know, it's culture. Perfect. Underage drinking, swearing, supervise, supervise, supervise, of course, tasting, not drinking, tasting, right? Like kids. Hey, if you want to go smoke a cigarette, just make sure someone over 18 is next to you, right? Yeah, I'm kidding. We don't promote any of that stuff. That's bad, bad, bad, bad, bad, bad, bad. Hey, Mercedes Monet, she called you a five foot dumb blonde. We want to know, are you a natural blonde? Well, first of all, first of all, I don't think she was actually talking at me. And I think everybody knows that. So I didn't even if you if you see me and I'm not even taking that personally. So you can think whatever you want. Roger just wrote something on my paper. So we're going to move on from that question. Yeah, OK. OK, good to know. Wow. Well, not only did she call you blonde, but she called you dumb. Like, do you consider yourself a smart woman? How do you how do you judge these people backstage that you work with? Well, first, I'm 100 percent a bitch. OK, so that was not that was not a question. But I'm I'm I'm a smart bitch. I do a lot of dumb things, though. But that's not, you know, I mean, that's it's just my catchphrase. You know, nobody else take that. She was saying that for like like I'm gone for four weeks. And she just kept on saying it to other people. It's like, yeah, what is happening? You know, it doesn't roll off your tongue as well. It has to come from dumb bitch. You know, only I say it that way. It does come off natural. It's good. Good question. It's good. I do want to know, you know, you did lose your title to Willow. And I would say it was a clean win. So what would make this any different? I know she has a messed up hand, but again, she has a victory over you. Yeah, I've got a victory over her. And that was even cleaner and not a roll up. So so I do have I do tend to lose to roll ups. That is kind of my my weak point. But I don't know, man. I think she if I've been seeing her backstage, she's kind of at a low point, honestly, with a broken hand, being the worst A.W. women's world champion that we've ever seen so far, messing it up completely with Mercedes. And I don't know. I think I think she's just defeated on a physical as well as an emotional basis. So I'll just take full advantage of that and have a great time. Wow. Well, another thing you've been again, you mentioned that you feel like Willow is not for the kids. Do you have a problem with Willow being happy all the time? Like, is that a thing? Does that bother you? Yeah, it bothers me because I don't think it's truth. So it's not really it's not I don't really **** with that. I don't I think there's other sadness in a fake smile. Yeah, I'd rather I'd rather show an emotion that is like, yeah, I'm feeling average today rather than forcing out forcing at that smile. You know, it's just like it's just sad, man. You know, it's OK to be to be up down in between. But don't don't don't try to sell people something that is so not a smile anyway, just implies complete defeat. And I mean, I get it, but it's not it's not how I do it. You know, it's not real and authentic. I love to ask this question because you're a fan favorite, obviously. And people magnet mag. How do you say it? Magnet gravity. There you go. They gravitate towards you. I've seen it. I've been to, you know, the cons and everything. And I see how popular you are. Does because some people say this, does does the fans ever give you anxiety, like having a ton of fans around you or do you kind of thrive off of it? Like, do you love meeting fans or you more of an introvert when it comes to that kind of thing? Honestly, I like it at conventions. I'm not an introvert at all. I think it's super funny, especially when I'm in a good mood. And usually, you know, I get into it. And then and people just come up and I like, can you call me a dumb bitch? And I'm like, yeah, you get it. Does that really happen? Oh, my gosh. Yeah, that happens. That happens all the time. It happens. I did. I was I was about to do the thing with Willow and Mick Foley. And I just look behind me and there are some fans wearing my T-shirt and they just lean in. Call me a dumb bitch. I was like, dumb bitch. And they're like, yeah, it's just like made their day, you know, like fans coming up to me and wanting to write them, you know, to from Tecla to Dumbest Bitch Alive. ****, yeah, I got the best fans in the world. I don't know if I've asked you this. Something something. Wait, I want to I want to say one thing, something I don't love. And I will say this and I can be really harsh sometimes, actually, when I get stopped at the airport. It's just not I'm not I'm not in my I'm not in my zone. I got I got a thousand things on my mind. You know, it's like it's it's I'm a civilian, you know, and I can and I'm sometimes I'm kind of waiting. Yeah, come up to me. I'm going to **** you up, you know, it's just like I don't I don't like I don't like the ones. One time I remember I was like I was like walking and I was obviously like really walking fast, you know, and I could see from the back of my eye. I had already like kind of given somebody not like not now. Not now, bitch. And he kept on walking and I stopped, froze, looked him in the eye. I was like, not ******* now. OK, and he was just like, oh, man, so yeah, so so so don't don't **** with them. If I give you the no nod, don't **** with me. Yeah, yeah. And did he did he stop? Did he really go away? He's like, do it again. Yeah, actually, I can't actually I kind of felt really bad because he felt he looked he looked mortified. I'm not he might he might not ever talk to anybody ever again. Actually, that may have been one of the worst human interactions of his life. Oh, man. But that's like that's the unique thing about you is that you can do that. Other people can't do that. I know that's true. So like, you know, and I'm not going to name other names outside of A.W., but like there's a lot of people that could not turn around and say not to like that and get away with it. It's funny because in an airport, when I sit down at the gate, I got nothing to do except sit there. So I've got nothing left to do. I'm like, hey, if anybody wants to walk up to one of the. Oh, you would take pictures with people. Sure. Oh, right. OK, I would have no issue. I mean, that's I don't mind it. Yeah. Yeah. But you're you're you don't have ---- to do because, you know, you're not famous. You're not you're not you're not planning your time accordingly. You know, like I get to the place, get in, get out, you know, security. Bam, bam, bam. Then I got to get to the lounge, you know, five minutes there, steal all the pretzels, get the **** out of there. You know, there's no I don't have time for interaction now. I'm more of a PM guy myself. Yeah, emails. Anyways, moving on. Oh, my God. I know you've thought about it. You ever you ever thought about doing stand up comedy? Yeah, but I don't think I'm funny. That's what most funny people say that. Yeah, that means you're funny. That means you're funny because you are. You are funny. I feel like you don't even need to write anything. Just go. Yeah, just do it. Just do it. No, it's somebody. No, it's it's not. I'm not I'm not. I don't think I'm I'm surrounded by a lot of very funny people. And I think I think I'm the bottom 10 percent. So but that's because I think humor is one of. I remember when I was, I think, like six or seven years old and I saw like like nine year olds or 10 year olds, like kids older than me, they were walking to school and they were laughing so hard at each other's ----. And I was like, oh, that is the coolest thing ever. And from that moment on, I held like comedy and humor as probably like the highest. It's the highest virtue of all intelligence and humor. But I don't I I'm definitely too humble to say I'm funny. I don't know. I don't think I've I've asked you this. But I want to know, is there anybody that you look up to when you got into wrestling? Like people that maybe you've run into have given you compliments that you remember? Like if it came to mind right now and you're like, wow, that meant a lot to me in your career so far, because we all have those people. Yeah, I have no one. Yes, you have Harvey. Recently, I had a very good conversation with Mick Foley. That was really cool. Also with Chris Jericho, because he's got that rock star kind of type of mentality. So that was really cool. Girls are girls are just we're mostly bitches to each other. So we don't like to say like, you're so good, you know, you're so good. No, you're really good. So that's we keep it at that usually. And no, there's a bunch of people, but I don't I don't like to have these conversations. I don't I don't know how to how to handle a compliment like that. I'm just I'm just out of here having having fun. So I have sometimes most of the time I have no ******* idea why I got here. This far. So it's just like, oh, God, those are those are people who have defined pro wrestling. And they're they're telling me I'm good at talking smack. So I'm like, that's really that's really cool. But I can't really I can't really I don't really know how to deal with it. What was that conversation like with Mick Foley? I was giving you advice. Just you guys were you guys just chitchatting or like, how'd that go? Um, he he was I was going over some ---- and he was must have seen me from afar. And I could I'm super short sighted, but I could tell he was like he was like, he wanted to say hi. And I was it was my first time seeing him ever. So I stopped what I was doing and came over and he just said some some very, very nice things. And like along the lines of in the in the 30 years of of my career or more that I've been doing this, I've it becomes more rare with time passing that you see something that's new and refreshing. And that's once he stumbled over my stuff. He was it was really he thought it was very cool. So that was that was just really that was very that was very nice for for being a first interaction because he was he was getting emotional. And I was just like trying to, you know, I mean, Nick Foley is one of our big legends. So and a lot of I felt a lot of like, you know, that underdog mentality that he had. He must have had, you know, growing up in the business and trying to do things completely differently. You know, I really vibe with that because I think I think I'm a little bit like that, too. So, yeah. I bet you he ends every conversation with have a nice day. Why? That's his signature. You know what? Yeah. All right. I didn't I didn't know that. Hey, you know, you know, who's been really good on commentary lately? Big show. I mean, sorry, I can't say that. Restart that. Jesus Christ. Hey, you know, who's been really good on commentary lately? Paul White. And there's been a lot of praise, you know, during those matches. And I'm sure you've heard his commentary a little bit over the matches. Do you agree? Like, he adds a really he does. He's great to these to the matches. Like, do you agree? Me? Yeah, I haven't. I haven't listened to so much commentary lately. Who's your favorite commentator? Sorry, my favorite comment. Yeah. Can you answer that? I don't know. I like Tony because he's he's he's I saw I saw his stand up comedy a couple of months ago, and I was I was utterly surprised at all the all the crazy ---- he was spitting. Wait, Tony does stand up? Yes. And it's wild. It's insane. I can't get it dirty. It's it's it's it's nasty, dirty. Just how we like it. And I like I like Tony. I like, you know, when I did commentary that one time, I have no idea how they let me actually do commentary. But that was that was really funny because they none of them gave me anything to work with. Good Lord. Like, they were all very it was very awkward. And I felt very I felt very awkward. And but it's being a commentator is a very hard job because you have to obviously, you know, react to what's going on right in front of you. But you also have to be you know, you have to say some funny ----. That's true. Speak and be a character. Speaking of the commentator's table, your your your move that you did on the commentator's table at all in. I didn't expect that you came out with those big heels and then you stretched back. And I was like, oh, she better not fall. It's kind of crazy. Can you run me through that? Like, was that a spur of the moment thing? What happened? Yeah, of course. Everything's a spur of the moment thing. Dumb bitch. But yeah, my favorite thing about that was Jeff Jarrett coming up to me after that and being like, you're a crazy bitch. As nice as things anyone has said to me today. And then then I did talk to Big Show, too. I think that's the first time I caught his attention, you know, but I think he was more freaked out, like, all right, she's got like a drink in her. And is she going to spill it all over us or what the ****'s going to happen? I know. I don't know where that was going. So that was impressive. That was good. Yeah, no, no. And I'm a professional. I know. And it's hard to believe sometimes, but I know what the **** I'm doing out there. All right, Tequila. Well, we do. We're out of time. I do have one question for you. I think that I can ask you this without you stomping on me. Oh, good Lord. I just want to know, you know, like it's the dumb bitch questions again. No, no. We're going to call this a dumb bitch question. I don't want to sound creepy asking this question. I will. I don't want to be creepy. I just want to know, you know, a lot of wrestlers are getting into this space. Yeah. Down the road, I would only fans be a thing you would consider like. All right. This is I guess I want to know how this ends. All right. Yeah. Branson, not creepy at all. No, it's not. What what would I show? Oh, well, that's what I mean. What would I do? Only fans is a is a universal, you know, business. It's not one thing or another. You know, you could show whatever you want. You could like, I don't know. OK, some people do feet. Yeah. OK, what are you into feet? Not at all. Is that what you want me to do? No, you wanted to show us. Yeah. Can you show us your feet? No, not at all. Not at all. I'm just I'm just I'm just I'm just wondering. I'm just wondering. All right. Well, sorry. I'm about to go. Well, yeah. Yes, of course. I will. I will look into that. I'll look. I'll I'll come with maybe I can come up with a very strange, awkward. European subgenre of only fans. No, I'm probably not going to do it. OK. That's a great quote. That is. All right. Yes, I sure. And then now. And that. Yeah, you got to get out of here. Thank you. Tackle. I sorry. We're totally out of time now, but really appreciate it again this weekend. All out. Her match against Willow is going to be airing what time this weekend? Are you asking me? Yeah. This is a two to tango type here. You know, we play off each other. Oh, I made it on this phone call because I still don't understand the American time zones. I was like, oh, my God, I was like 1 p.m. MST and then at 12 they call me and I'm still like, wait, I'm I'm in my morning robe. I mean, this is my morning. This is my this is my which, by the way, my noon robe looks cool as hell. You're always fashionable. Tecla, don't worry. We'll figure out the time. Yeah, you figure. Yeah, this weekend. All out from Chicago. Don't miss out this match. It's going to be epic. Tecla, thank you for your time. Really appreciate you. Thanks. I'll see you soon. Bye.