Mickie Knuckles: Love and death matches

Earning the title of “Queen of the Death Match” is no easy task, but something that Mickie Knuckles has achieved.

She is not a self-proclaimed queen either; Knuckles was given the moniker by “King of the Hardcore Wrestlers” Mad Man Pondo. “Wanna know what makes Mickey so tough? Being bat shit crazy brave is the one thing that helps out a lot,” he said.

Knuckles began her wrestling career just over 20 years ago in 2003, with her very first match being during the Independent Wrestling Association (IWA) Mid-South’s King of the Death Match tournament.

In conversation with SlamWrestling.net, Knuckles recalled that IWA Mid-South was known for “violence for the sake of violence, bloodshed for the sake of bloodshed.”

Knuckles knew when she started training that death matches were something that she could thrive in. “I knew that when I started wrestling that I needed to make myself a commodity… I knew that there were not a lot of female workers in the world that did death matches. I also knew there were maybe a handful of women in the U.S. that did those types of matches as well. I thought to myself, ‘Hey, I have a high pain tolerance and I have the ability to do it, I think this could be my niche.'”

Achieved.

Being a fan of Japanese wrestling, where many death matches were popularized by Atsushi Onita, Knuckles had a plenty of homework. Her trainer at IWA Mid-South, Chris Hero, would also give her tapes of shows from Frontier Martial Arts (FMA) and Wrestling International New Generations (W*ING) to study so she could hone her craft and get ideas for future death matches.

Gory and overly violent affairs, death matches are no different than “normal” matches to Knuckles, who packs a real punch with her 5-foot, 191-pound body.

“A good wrestler/worker will say that there is no difference. Each match has the same goal… to win,” she explained. “The psychology is much like a great roller coaster ride where the buildup leads to the ultimate thrill. In death matches, this thrill includes the utilization of the stipulated item (a bat, barbed wire, etc.) and the end result is still very much the same… one winner, one loser, and a crowd who shows no signs of indifference to the spectacle they witnessed.”

As someone who has been wrestling for 20 years, Knuckles (Mickie Turner) has had the opportunity to wrestle and win titles at a plethora of promotions; she has won 16 different championship belts and three tournaments. There was the brief mainstream stop in TNA in 2008, where she was Moose Knuckles (don’t think too hard on it), that ended with a broken leg and a contract that wasn’t renewed; that was also the year she was ranked #25 in the Pro Wrestling Illustrated top Women’s 50.

For all the stops, Juggalo Championship Wrestling, a promotion run by the Insane Clown Posse, is near and dear to her heart.

“ICP brought a new element and atmosphere along with their love of wrestling. They brought new fans. Shaggy and Violent J always appreciated all forms of wrestling and were mesmerized by not only the violence, but the art form, the storytelling, and the technical aspect,” Knuckles raved; with ICP, she also had a creative role. “The Gathering just gave them an opportunity to showcase all that they love… freedom to be themselves, freedom for their fans, music that they believe inspire and wrestling to entertain.”

There has been a price to pay. She has suffered a broken femur, broken fingers, sprained ankles, wrists and knees, and has shed blood “too many times to count.” Perhaps her greatest strength is her tremendous capacity for pain: “If I can still walk, and lift my arms, I’m okay.”

She stopped, briefly, as each of her children came along. That family has kept Knuckles from limping away from the action.

“Honestly, a few years ago I was content in stopping. I felt like I had lost my ‘smile,’ so to speak. But then my little girl, who knows I wrestle but does not come to many shows, questioned me one day shortly after I decided to stop wrestling. She said, ‘Mommy, when do you wrestle next?’ I told her I didn’t know and that I was done with wrestling. She got sad. When I asked her why, she said, ‘Because I like it when you wrestle. You’re like a superhero… like my superhero.'”

Currently divorced, Knuckles enjoys spending time with her three children, calling them “the love of my life. I want them to be happy. If this means becoming wrestlers down the road and that’s what makes them happy, then they have my full support.”

She thinks of those early days in IWA Mid-South warmly. “The legacy of IWA Mid-South Wrestling was that it was a different product formed for the fans with a family atmosphere. When I say ‘family’ I am not meaning a show for the whole family, but that fans and wrestlers alike felt like part of a family. It was carnage that seemed to resonate freedom throughout every individual in the building. It was an amazing atmosphere.”

Defunct since 2022, Knuckles is not expecting the promotion to returning, comparing its success to Icarus flying too close to the sun and burning his wings off.

“Somewhere, somehow along the way it became a distorted and twisted reflection of what it once was with no hopes of returning to its former glory,” she said. “It was not for lack of talent, but for lack of leadership and perversion of the power that holds the reigns. Now its legacy is that it once was something special and unique.

There are still plenty of other promotions to wrestle for, though it isn’t death matches every night.

On February 17, Pondo and Knuckles, kindred spirits, are teaming on a HorrorSlam show suburban Detroit, a death match dream pairing. They are facing the sister duo of The Goons, Lizzy and Payton Blair. Like his partner, Pondo can’t let it go. “Once this wrestling life gets into your system, or should I say blood, its in there for life,” he concluded. “Mickey is one of the best to do this shit we call pro wrestling. She will be remembered for a long, long time.”

Death matches are a great equalizer, said Knuckles, who has faced plenty of men through the years. The bouts mean “true equality across the board no matter what race, sex, or creed.”

Everyone bleeds, in other words.

— with files from Greg Oliver

TOP PHOTO: Mickie Knuckles breaks glass over JJ Escobar during a match on January 5, 2024. Photo by Brad McFarlin

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