Scarlett Bordeaux Talks Popularity Of Her Scott Steiner Lap Dance Video, Her Role In Impact
Wrestling Inc.'s own Nick Hausman had the opportunity to talk with Scarlett Bordeaux as part of our WINCLY Podcast last week. During the interview, Bordeaux thoroughly detailed her journey in the wrestling business so far, from her very first exposure to pro wrestling in her senior year of high school to randomly meeting Don Callis in Japan and being offered a job with Impact Wrestling. Bordeaux also revealed that Impact Wrestling had considered her for other positions before confirming that she would compete in the Knockout's division.
Bordeaux's popularity on YouTube is undeniably impressive, with one of her recent independent matches reaching 26 million views, another at 18 million, and her recent exchange on Impact TV with Scott Steiner is nearing 1 million views in just two weeks. Bordeaux says that she's actually not surprised by the attention from fans, and she believes that this recognition is long overdue.
"Yeah, 24 million [views] with certain videos, at least 15 million with some of my biggest ones," Bordeaux said. "[I'm] actually not very surprised, I almost feel like is what it should have been for years now. I think it's amazing that I finally have this platform with Impact Wrestling to showcase what I feel like I've been doing, what I've been capable of for so many years. It actually, it feels well deserved."
Bordeaux was first introduced to wrestling by some friends in 2009, her senior year of high school. Bordeaux admits that she always hungered for the spotlight, so after some time helping out with backstage setup, people like Dave Prazak of Shimmer Pro Wrestling and Danny Daniels of AAW allowed her a foot in the door. One scenario saw Bordeaux taking a piledriver as a sexy Santa.
"My very first show that I went to was 2009, so that was the end of my senior year of high school, that was my first introduction to professional wrestling at all," Bordeaux revealed. "I wasn't allowed to watch it as a little kid but I went with some friends who were some big independent wrestling fans and I saw it, I fell in love with it. Very quickly, I asked if I could help set up the ring, set up chairs, just be around it. This was AAW – AAW and Shimmer were my first two shows. And then I talked to Dave Prazak and then I helped set up the very first Shimmer show, which was October. I saw what the girls were doing, I said, 'Oh my God, I could totally do this.' That's a little cocky but I've never been an audience member type personality, I've always wanted to be center stage and in the spotlight. It's always been part of my personality since I was a little kid. Then it was December with AAW when Danny Daniels gave me a phone call, asked me if I had a sexy Santa costume, and said he's gonna give me a piledriver, which I didn't know what that was."
After that, Derek St. Holmes would guide Bordeaux's career and familiarize her with the "bumps" wrestlers perform. She accredited other experienced pro wrestlers like Steve Boz, Truth Martini, & Jimmy Jacobs for giving her the fundamental experience that led her to her time in Ring of Honor.
"After that, I guess they saw something in me," Bordeaux continued. "It was Derek St. Holmes was the very first person to say, "let me take you under my wing," and he taught me how to bump. And then I started going to Chicago to work with Steve Boz at CSW, but then it wasn't until I got closer to Jimmy Jacobs and Truth Martini, and that's when I really felt like I started to get my proper wrestling training from start to finish. Learn the fundamentals and then that is really where everything took off with Ring of Honor. That was probably my first big opportunity."
Bordeaux was in Japan with friends when she first met Don Callis and began to tell him about some of her ideas for Impact Wrestling. Callis grew fond of Bordeaux and welcomed her to come tryout for Impact Wrestling in April 2018, but they weren't sure where to place her at first.
"I accidentally met Don Callis in Japan. I was at New Japan and I was with mutual friends, and I met Don on accident and started telling him some of my ideas," Bordeaux explained. "We started talking and he basically at dinner was saying, 'Hey, we should give you a job.' Because he liked some of my ideas and I was telling them what I was doing at Stardom at the time, this was December – it had to be December of last year, actually. This was in Tokyo, Japan and then it wasn't until April when I had my very first tryout. And they didn't even know at that point what they wanted me to do. They knew it was gonna be either a wrestler, manager, maybe even backstage interviewer, so I was tried out for everything."
Impact Wrestling ultimately decided to keep Bordeaux as a competitor in the Knockouts division. With her talent search behind us and her debut imminent, Bordeaux recognizes that interest levels are at an all time high.
"They hired me as a wrestler with the intention to wrestle," Bordeaux said. "I think as a manager, I was immediately going to come out with a male wrestler. I was going to follow him but the way they hired me, they hired me as an independent female and I was going to be part of the Knockouts division. So I think everything we've done, it just has been a build to wrestle. A lot of people go, 'When's she gonna wrestle? When's she gonna wrestle?' But the build to my character has been what's given me all this talk, with everyone that's talking about me, which has been amazing. So when I finally wrestle, everyone's going to be very interested to see what happens."
You can listen to the full audio from Scarlett's exclusive WINCLY interview in the embedded podcast player below. In it she also opens up about female wrestlers who are critical of her character, working with Scott Steiner recently, her huge YouTube numbers and more. Subscribe to Wrestling Inc Audio to get all of our podcasts as soon as they are released.