By Hardcore wrestling veteran Mickie Knuckles has opened up about the two moments across her two-decade career that nearly made her quit the business — including a shocking claim that someone “tried to kill” her after she left IWA Mid-South, and that she was blackballed when she tried to speak out. She shared the revelations on Jasmin St. Claire’s Off the Rails podcast.
Knuckles is one of women’s wrestling’s toughest figures, but she admitted that even she reached breaking point — twice.
Mickie Knuckles (Credits: Ringside News)
“Hell Month”: The Hazing That Nearly Broke Her
The first moment that pushed Knuckles close to walking away came during her training under IWA’s old-school system, which included something the promotion called “hell month.” According to Knuckles, nearly everyone around her was instructed to make her life miserable for an entire month — with only Tracy Smothers and Necro Butcher refusing to take part.
“I was trained the way I was trained — nowadays people would be cancelled left and right,” she said. The hazing was relentless: finding trash or fish oil in her bag, her shoes super-glued to the ceiling, her car moved without her knowledge.
What made it devastating was that she had no idea it was an organized test. Knuckles said she was homeless at the time, working two jobs while trying to train — and genuinely believed everyone around her hated her. “Maybe I just don’t belong here if they hate me this bad,” she remembered thinking, before enduring the even more brutal “chop class” that followed.
Blackballed After Saying Someone “Tried To Kill” Her
The second moment was far darker. Knuckles claimed that after her departure from IWA Mid-South, someone “tried to kill” her — without naming the individual or explaining the specific circumstances of the allegation.
When she tried to tell people what had happened, she says she was shut down. “I got blackballed because I tried to tell people what had happened, and I was told very quickly to shut my mouth because they were bigger and more important in wrestling than I was, and it didn’t matter,” she said. “And so I just shut my mouth.”
Knuckles’ claims shine an uncomfortable light on wrestling’s culture of silence — one where speaking up against powerful figures can cost a performer their livelihood. Her decision to finally talk about it publicly, two decades into her career, is a stark reminder of how much of the industry’s history remains untold.
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Source: Ringside News — read the full story there.
