Recently I had a chance to speak with Delilah Doom, who is quickly becoming one of the rising stars in women’s wrestling. In this interview we discuss what made her want to get into wrestling, her WWE appearances, Sabotage, Eli Everfly, her goals in wrestling, and more.
Steve: I’m here with Delilah Doom after AWS’ Summer Heat #7. First, thank you for doing an interview with us.
Delilah Doom: Thanks for having me.
Steve: Let’s start at the beginning. How did you get into wrestling or more importantly what made you want to get into wrestling?
Delilah Doom: When I was about 10 years old, I was introduced to what was WWF at the time, and seeing Chyna, who was the first woman wrestler I ever saw, step into the ring with the men, that just made me go, “Holy Cannolis. What a bad chick. I want to be one.” I’ve always been into athletics and theater. Combining those two into one package, it just was like a dream come true, so that’s what sparked my interest.
Steve: How did you learn about or find a wrestling school?
Delilah Doom: I told myself for a long time I was going to be a wrestler, but it was not until I moved to Texas, in my first week living in Austin, that I actually went to an ACW show, which was an all-female show. It had been a while since I thought about being a wrestler, but it was still in the back of my mind, like something I still wanted to do. After watching that show I was like, “I still want to do this. The passion is still there.” I talked to a few of the people that were on the show, “I’m living in Austin. Where can I start training?” And they directed me to the first place I started training which was AAPW, America’s Academy Pro Wrestling.
Steve: How long did you train before you had your first match?
Delilah Doom: Not very long. Let’s see, only seven months.
Steve: That doesn’t seem like too short a time?
Delilah Doom: I don’t know. I mean, I was not ready but it did my best. If I had my choice I would have trained way longer.
Steve: You debuted in 2014?
Delilah Doom: Yes, for ACW. That was my first match and then I switched my, I trained there for a while in Austin and then I started training with Funaki who I’m still training with now.
Steve: Sho Funaki?
Delilah Doom: Yup, number one announcer.
Steve: I’m not really familiar with the Texas indy wrestling scene. Everything I really know about is what I’ve read on Heel/Face Wrestling, so shout out to them…
Delilah Doom: Heel/Face is the bomb dot com.
Steve: I’ll check them out sometimes to see what’s going on in Texas and… I know here in Southern California there’s not a “ton” of women’s wrestlers. I mean there’s enough for there to be a match every show, but it seems like in Texas, there’s a lot more. Is that your impression?
Delilah Doom: There’s definitely a lot of females. When I first started there were a lot more, but a lot of them got signed which is awesome. There are a lot of promotions and a lot of wrestling schools in Texas, and I’m actually still learning about a lot of the female workers that I had never heard of before, they pop up and I’m like, “Oh, I’ve never heard of her, that’s awesome,” but there’s a good chunk of us.
Steve: What was your first match outside of Texas?
Delilah Doom: Does Louisiana count?
Steve: Not really. [Laughs]
Delilah Doom: No? [Laughs] I wrestled in Louisiana a few times and then I did the first Sabotage show and also RISE. That’s California and Chicago kind of around the same time, so those are my first real non-Texas shows.
Steve: Then you were on the RISE show out here too…
Delilah Doom: Yes.
Steve: Now, getting into Sabotage a little bit. I think that was the first time I saw you and I remember being pretty impressed. It seemed like you had a pretty good following even out here too. I mean a lot of people seemed to be pretty excited to see you even though at that point you really hadn’t been outside of the Texas area. What do you attribute that to?
Delilah Doom: I don’t know. People are just like, “Hey! Like, Oh my God!” It’s kind of amazing. I’m on social media a lot, I made an appearance on Raw. I think that really helped. People are like, “Who are you? Like who is this girl on Raw?” That actually helped get me a lot. I mean, I don’t know people are just like, “Hey I know who you are.” I’m like, “Hey. Thank you. That’s great.”
Steve: You’ve been on[WWE] twice right?
Delilah Doom: Yes, I did Raw and I did Smackdown.
Steve: Nia Jax and…?
Delilah Doom: And Carmella.
Steve: How was your experience there?
Delilah Doom: No words can really explain it. Being in front… No, being in a WWE ring, being in front of the audience was amazing. I had to actually do in ring live on TV promo which was probably the scariest thing ever. I was nervous to wrestle Nia but doing that film I was really nerve-wracking. Just getting a little taste of being in that ring and being in front of the audience only motivated me more to work harder, train harder, and get to where I want to be.
Steve: Now, they didn’t really let you do like your character on the show. Do you find that harder to be kind of yourself, or?
Delilah Doom: I mean, no.
Steve: Not that this isn’t yourself but?
Delilah Doom: You’re given a part and you just do the best you can with the part that they want you to play.
Steve: Did you get a lot of good feedback from them on that?
Delilah Doom: Yeah. I don’t want to let out too much but yes I had great feedback. It was a really positive experience.
Steve: In regards to WWE’s Mae Young Classic. I don’t know if this is a sore subject but was there some disappointed that you weren’t in it or…?
Delilah Doom: Obviously, all those women there deserve to be there and it’s really, for women wrestling it’s a great time and I have a lot of friends that were in the Classic and I’m so proud. Amazing 32 ladies and I’m actually really excited to watch the tournament in August.
Steve: I’m looking forward to seeing as well. There a few SoCal associated wrestlers like AWS champ Nicole Savoy.
Delilah Doom: Yeah, it’s very cool.
Steve: Not enough, but…
Delilah Doom: it’s a good start!
Steve: Yeah, missing some key people but … Going back to Sabotage, how did you first meet up with the Sabotage brass, I guess Thunder Rosa and Brian [Cervantes]?
Delilah Doom: Funny story. Actually, I wrestled in California like my first year in, but it was in Eureka like the smallest town. I met Thunder Rosa because she was helping out with the ring there. I met her, we talked, she followed me on I think it was Instagram or some social media and we’ve only met that one time up until Sabotage happened. Though, we’ve always kept in touch via social media. She hits me up out of the blue about their first Sabotage show. It’s a cool thing about wrestling, like you meet so many people.
You could meet somebody once, and like years down the line, reconnect with them and it’s amazing. That’s what happened with us. “Well hey! Do you want to be a part of Sabotage?” “Heck, yes!” So that was really cool.
Steve: Now on that first Sabotage show there was the Stardom contingent there, is Stardom a place you’d like to wrestle?
Delilah Doom: Going to Japan is one of my dreams. Japan and Europe so, I’m hoping some time down the line it’ll come true. I have a lot of tattoos though.
Steve: You think that would cause a problem?
Delilah Doom: Just like my thoughts, random thoughts. I don’t know but hopefully one day I’ll get to Japan. It’s something I would like to do.
Steve: Now, coming here back to Sabotage a little bit, and with the show coming up on Friday. You’ll be facing Eli Everfly. Have you seen a lot of Eli Everfly matches? How familiar are you with him?
Delilah Doom: I’ve been studying a lot, and I actually just met him tonight so…
Steve: Did you guys have a stare down?
Delilah Doom: Yeah, I was like excited to meet him and then I was like, “Wow you’re tiny!” I have a lot of things going on in my brain right now.
Steve: Have you watched his match with Jeff Cobb?
Delilah Doom: Oh, no, I thank you. I have watched a lot of his stuff but I’ve not seen that one. I guess I got some research to do for that.
Steve: Also, Raze is the number one contender for your Sabotage title.
Delilah Doom: I’ve been watching my back.
Steve: Any idea when you’re facing her?
Delilah Doom: I don’t know.
Steve: I heard that she thinks you’re ducking her.
Delilah Doom: I’m ready whenever she is. Make it happen. I beat her once I can do it again.
Steve: Did you see her match tonight with Taya?
Delilah Doom: Yeah. Her versus Taya, I had to look away at times. Those two ladies definitely put on amazing match.
Steve: I know Sabotage is going back to Texas for another show soon. It kind of already has its feet in two areas. You’re the champion of Sabotage, one of the faces for the promotion. Where do you see Sabotage going as far as a promotion?
Delilah Doom: I mean, they’ve stuck it out in Cali. They have a good fan base in Cali. This is their second time in Texas. Honestly, I think they could probably do well in the North East, maybe the Chicago area too. I think it’d be great for them to go to the East Coast. I heard the East Coast wrestling right now is top-notch.
Steve: Thoughts on Shimmer, which is the number one promotion in the United States as far aws women’s wrestling goes?
Delilah Doom: I made my debut for them in July, the beginning of July. I did RISE on the Friday before and then I made my Shimmer debut on Saturday. Me and Leva Bates became a tag team.
Steve: That’s a good tag team pairing.
Delilah Doom: Yeah, so it was a lot of fun. Shimmer was on my, it’s been on my bucket list since I started wrestling, so I’m really excited to be there.
Steve: I know you said you’d like to wrestle in Europe and Japan. What’s your ultimate goal as far as wrestling goes?
Delilah Doom: Honestly, I would love to get to WWE. If that doesn’t happen, then just being able to wrestle every weekend and making that my career, and just putting on good shows for people.
Steve: I know it’s after midnight and you probably want to get going, so before I let you go, do you have any like final thoughts or anything you want to put out there?
Delilah Doom: Just thank you to everyone for all of your support over the years, you know without you I wouldn’t be anywhere. Check me out on Instagram and Twitter just look for Delilah Doom. I’ll pop up. If you want to buy merch and you can’t see me at a show check out my ProWrestlingTees store or my What a Maneuver! store. And Doomies Never Say Die.
Steve: Thank you for the interview.
Delilah Doom: Thank you so much. It was a pleasure.
