As Gabbi Tuft begins venturing back into professional wrestling, she looks back on the figures who helped her during her initial run in the business.
After making her professional wrestling debut in 2007, Gabbi Tuft quickly earned herself a WWE contract the following year. Upon her arrival, Tuft reported to WWE’s developmental territory of Florida Championship Wrestling.
After a brief run as Taj Milano, Gabbi settled on the ring name of Tyler Reks. Amidst her journey in WWE, Tuft received guidance from many of her peers as well as the company’s backstage producers. During a recent interview with WrestleZone Managing Editor Bill Pritchard, Tuft spoke about some of the names she leaned on (and still does, in some cases).
“I was in development with guys like Tyson Kidd, Nattie Neidhart, Fandango, Brian Cage, Lance Hoyt, and Bray Wyatt; we were all really good friends,” Tuft said. “And when we got up to the upper levels on TV, guys like Goldust took me under their wing. Chavo was a huge help to me, and Chavo and I still talk all the time, and Vickie [Guerrero] as well. We chat from time to time, but Chavo and I stay in touch a lot.”
“I did a lot of house shows with Chavo when I was turning heel, when I was learning how to be a heel. When I was an FCW, it was like the surfer gimmick thing with the ‘hey hang-loose’ [verbiage] and all that. So I had never once been a heel until I got to TV, and they yanked me off because they’re like ‘This ain’t working.’ So Chavo was like, ‘Okay, come here, kid. Let me show you everything.’ So he had a huge hand. We did a couple of tours together, a lot of house shows, and he just showed me everything I worked with Christian on a couple of house shows. Everybody I worked with, I just learned so much from each person.”
Working With WWE Producers
In addition to learning from her fellow on-screen talents, Tuft also went out of her way to seek knowledge from the producers and coaches behind the scenes — all of whom were seasoned veterans in the business.
“Arn [Anderson] was a huge help. Fit [Finlay] was another huge help,” Tuft said. The call time would be at like noon for RAW. I think it was like two o’clock for SmackDown. But I’d be there at call time, I’d run in the locker room, change real quick, and be out of the ring practicing, and Fit or Arn would be there. sometimes [Jamie] Noble was there a lot too, and I’d just be the one on the ring like busting my butt trying to learn as much as possible. And if you asked anybody back then, it was always me in the ring. Like me and Fit, me and Arn, me and Noble trying to learn.”
Teaming With Curt Hawkins
During the latter portion of her WWE run, Tuft began teaming with Curt Hawkins. In analyzing their run, Tuft praised Hawkins for his extensive knowledge and creativity. Tuft also believes teaming with him may have been the best move of her wrestling career.
“Teaming with Hawkins was probably the best move that ever happened to me because that guy’s so damn experienced. There was nothing I could do wrong, and trust me, I did some stuff wrong, but he set everything up. He’s like the creative genius behind everything that we ever did. Not that we ever made it to the top, but as we were starting to slowly climb the ladder. Every match was like his little bits of input that just made massive differences. Him and I still talk all the time. And actually, he responded, I think it was on Instagram, or maybe it was Tiktok when I was kind of teasing like I might be interested in coming back, he just goes, ‘Hey, are we tagging?”
Tuft eventually departed from WWE in August 2012. After an independent tag team match with Curt Hawkins in 2014, Tuft retired from in-ring competition. However, in recent weeks, Tuft has revisited the squared circle through training at the Rhodes Wrestling Academy.
Watch our full interview with Gabbi Tuft here:
