This is Kowloon Part 1: M.A.E.V.E.

[Lo-Drew]

Rule number one of Kowloon; No shortcuts, no handouts. Rule number two. Keep it all clean. Rule number three. No jumping in. One person's fight is their fight. Since arriving in GCW almost a year ago, the fans have become educated on the code that the unit Kowloon lives by. Akeem the Supreme. M.A.E.V.E. and Savino. Three wrestlers from the long list of those who have come from the Bay Area wrestling scene who originally, began their wrestling journeys as individuals. Since 2019, those journeys, while still distinct and unique to them, are now intertwined with one another. Collectively, Kowloon is a melting pot of grit, struggle, style and skill. Individually, there is more for GCW fans and the wrestling world to discover.

While each of the members of Kowloon have taken full advantage of the opportunities provided to them, it was M.A.E.V.E, the lone female of the unit, that struck gold first, winning the X-Division championship from Chanel Hunter in February of this year. She's also the one member of Kowloon that presents the most questions surrounding them. The current GCW X-Division Champion is scheduled to defend her title against Jeffery Alexander on the next Shotgun and shall she emerge as the winner, on Night 3 of Resurrection, she'll defend against either Domino Foxx, Livvie Nelson or Yvonne Knight. We sat down with M.A.E.V.E in this first ever public interview.

[This interview was conducted on Tuesday, April 27th, 2021]

-So, a year ago, when fans heard the Kowloon, they were a bit perplexed and unsure what to expect.

M.A.E.V.E: .......

-One thing that's evident is how much thought you three have put into Kowloon's concept and how you three want to approach wrestling. It seems like every aspect of Kowloon was considered and measured with great care. We've seen that with the gritty and high paced offense in the ring but also outside of the ring. Your promotional videos also give that same impression but what's interesting is that you three put a lot into everything that you do; every word you guys speak, every match, there seems to be this collective meaning.

M.A.E.V.E: We're all on the same page. We have to be. If we don't, we'll be pigeonholed and put in some box. And everything that we do can get twisted and spun to the point where the message is lost and turned into something that we're not even doing.

-How so?

M.A.E.V.E: It happens all the time. You say something one way, someone interrupts it another way, says it back to you that way and then this game of telephone goes on and then the whole meaning is gone.

-You want to make sure that whenever Kowloon does something, there's no confusion as to what you're trying to convey.

M.A.E.V.E.: We stand for something. That's how we'll preserve.

-Something that is clear with you three is the bond that you guys share. Now you three started as a unit on the Bay Area scene in 2019, but it's been almost a year since you three have stepped into GCW. People can tell that you three are close.

M.A.E.V.E.: It takes a village to raise a child. That's how I've always seen it. I know all my life I've yearned for something like this and that..that feeling of camaraderie and closeness I only experienced in spurts. It always felt like it was at arm' length for me. Just...a lot of...I've been in group homes. I've gone through that experience and while there were people that I bonded with because we were going through similar experiences, it's just so unstable. One day someone's here, the next they're gone. I think Akeem and Savino are the two people that have been in my life the longest and so it's easy for me to gravitate to them.

-Those two have gone out of their way to esteem you whenever they get the chance.

M.A.E.V.E.: Yeah and that's real. I've never felt flattered by them. I know this is wrestling and there's preconceived notions about how this should be this overcompressing presence in your life, but that s**t is going to come and go. When George Floyd was murdered, Vino came over to my apartment and me and him just sat on the steps and Vino wept for two hours. It was a real moment because I could see how much that weighed on him and he didn't hide it. He didn't have to share that with me. It was a private moment but it just spoke to me how much human connection trumps all. We'll win titles and we'll wrestle the best of them, but that's not what the heartbeat of Kowloon. We do other things besides wrestling. I volunteer and sit in for meetings with those who have been sexually abused. I know Vino and Akeem run basketball games for people in the hood. I thought Vino said it best. Wrestling is what we do but human beings is who we always will be.

-Last Shotgun, he spoke about his thoughts regarding the tragic death of Daunte Wright.

M.A.E.V.E.: That was all his idea. We wanted to do something because we didn't want to be silent about it. I had a lot to say and I think we would have gotten in trouble if I got my way. Vino didn't talk me off the ledge out of fear of backlash. I don't give a f**k really. Neither does him or Akeem. But he was like "it's not just what we're saying but how we say it and the purpose of how we say it." So he's really good at verbalizing how he feels emotionally and he spoke for me and Akeem.

-I imagine that wasn't the easiest decision to make given the fear you expressed earlier regarding having your message spun.

M.A.E.V.E.: No it was easy. I saw what happened. You saw what happened. If I saw it, and you saw it, and then saw it and we say nothing, that make us complicit. No one wants to admit that they're racist but we all have racist beliefs and we all blood on our hands. I know I do. I think it's wrong to think that we don't have some preconceived notion about every ethnic group or race. I've comforted with my pre-determined biases and assumptions of what others are defined by. And I think that's good because I see how wrong that is and I am left with a choice of doing I challenge my beliefs or do I passively let s**t happen and be afraid of the backlash that could come my way? Personally, I don't care if people come for me.

-Across the board, there's this feeling of fearless that you three possess. Switching topics to the in ring, you, in particular, wrestle with this frantic, aggressive pace that can be unsettling for some. It's one of the things that makes Kowloon so dangerous. Akeem is well versed in MMA and kickboxing. Savino boast impressive strengths and a wealth of mat wrestling and submission knowledge. There's a wide range of fighting styles that exist with you guys.

M.A.E.V.E.: That's what made us being a unit make sense from an in ring standpoint. We're of the same mind but different approach. Vino watches so much wrestling and when we train, he's obsessed with all these minute details. Certain things like this spot of the ring is the best spot to launch someone with a T-Bone suplex. This is the best angle to land a forearm so I can hit this particular pressure point in the jaw. When I put on this hold, it has this success rate. Keem's the same way but he's more expressive. Sometimes we have to tell him stop f**king around but he has the most fighting experience out of all of us. So he has a different perspective because he has seen so many different fight scenarios play out and there's certain things that he knows that only comes from experience.

-Where do you fit into that?

M.A.E.V.E.: I'm a killer. I find ways to eat. That's how I would describe my fighting style. I think of every type of hunt and how committed they are to the hunt. Sharks come to mind for me. They don't worry about anything. Never worry about how they're getting the next meal. I do the same. Never worry. Sharks got to hunt and that's how I see wrestling.

-Survival of the fittest?

M.A.E.V.E.: More like "Tap, Snap, or Nap."

-The unofficial mantra of Kowloon, according to Akeem.

M.A.E.V.E.: Yeah he threw that out there one day as a joke. But I mean that s**t. 100%.

-How does that apply now that you're the X-Division champion? Normally, when one holds a title, they are the ones that are hunted.

M.A.E.V.E.: Nothing changes. It's all the same. It's why I want every singles match that I have to be for the title.

-Really?

M.A.E.V.E.: What's the point of being champion if you don't have to defend it every time? I don't believe in non-title matches. If someone beats me and it's a non title match, I don't think I should be champion. I think when they created the X-Division title, the intention in mind was that it would be the cutthroat division. You can't get away with grifting if you're going for the X title. You got to come in guns blazing just to even have a shot. So that's what I want. I want this title to be the title that every Shotgun, you know what you're going to see. It's going to be fast, gritty, hard hitting and brutal. And I want everyone to know, if you feel brave enough, you can challenge me.

-An open invitation.

M.A.E.V.E.: I want to personally feel like I'm doing someone as champion. Sometimes you see these champions and they have these long runs but they've gone about three to four months without having to defend it. I think that breeds content and entitlement. I think part of being champion is that it should be harder for you. It shouldn't be an avenue to rest, but the opposite. I don't think champions deserve to feel rest or any feeling of comfort. I think we have it backwards where the chase is harder than when you've gotten the prize. The challengers struggle more than the champions and I don't agree with that imbalance and I think it's something that's been enabled. I don't deserve to rest. As long as I'm champion, I think there should always be someone around the corner, ready for me. So I want to welcome that. Like I said, sharks got to hunt.

-You get Jeffery Alexander next week for your title. And then there's a three way where the winner faces you at Resurrection if you make it there as champion.

M.A.E.V.E.: Right. if I make it. Looking forward to next Tuesday. I love good food.