LuFisto Recalls Her Battle With The Ontario Athletic Commission For The Right To Wrestle Men

Intergender wrestling is commonplace in the United States, but LuFisto had to fight for her right to wrestle men in Ontario. 

Before LuFisto stepped in the ring against men in Ontario, she had to battle the Ontario Athletic Commission to help the wrestling community. 

Speaking to Spencer Love, LuFisto recalled her battle against the Ontario Athletic Commission. 

“I think if I were to be doing that, today, people would see it as maybe a good thing. But I feel back then – I was told often that ‘oh, you have balls,’ because nobody else had, yeah, the balls to actually take on them. They were charging money for licenses, and they were not providing a doctor and it was not giving the promotion or wrestlers anything really useful. It’s not like – when I was living in Pennsylvania, there was a commission, but there was a doctor on the premises if something would happen, and they would make sure you get to the hospital. The commission was actually useful. It was way to protect the wrestlers, and you have to pay for the doctor and the license for the show. But wrestlers themselves in Pennsylvania don’t need like a paper that – it was $75 a year in Ontario, but let’s say you would get your paper in October. It was good till January, and then you have to pay again for the whole year. So I feel a lot of people, a lot of guys were happy that I did the work. But I think in a way it gave me the reputation that I was like, ‘oh, she’s going to create (a) problem,’ when my goal was to actually help the wrestling community as a whole because women wrestlers could wrestle the guys in training but could not in the show. But, in Toronto, they’re filming movies like Catwoman where a stunt woman is fighting with a stuntman? I’m like, ‘okay, that doesn’t work,” she said. 

Speaking on intergender wrestling, LuFisto stated, “I’m trained to do this. It’s not domestic violence. I want to be here. Too many people -and it still happens once in a while today – they will say ‘oh, intergender wrestling promotes domestic violence.’ No. Somebody who’s a victim of domestic violence doesn’t want to be this and choose to be. It’s something that should not be happening. But if somebody trains and gets in the gym and gets in the ring and you want to fight the best opponents you have (and) the best opponent is a man it is your choice to go against and go toe to toe. You’re trained to do that. It’s a personal choice, and as a woman you should be able to choose. That was the main thing. I could not wrestle who I wanted because of my gender. I lost tons of bookings, because there was no women back then. So yeah, it took me three years and a half, almost four years to – actually, my main thing was to remove the law that stated that men and women cannot be in the ring. But, when the whole – I don’t know, the committee or the court, whatever -started to look into it, they’re like, ‘nah,’ and everything, wrestling as a whole was removed from the commission.”

You can listen to the entire interview with LuFisto and Spencer Love in the video above. 

In July 2020, LuFisto announced she was working on a book that would be out in 2022. You can find more information on the upcoming book by clicking here.