Taylor Wilde‘s professional wrestling career looks to be starting a new chapter.
According to a new report by PWInsider.com, Wilde is officially making her return to IMPACT Wrestling. Wilde (Shantelle Taylor) is a former WWE developmental talent and multi-time TNA titleholder. She held the Knockouts title on one occasion and was also a two-time Knockouts Tag Team Champion. Wilde’s TNA run was from 2008 through 2011 before she retired shortly after that. Since then, she’s become a full-time firefighter and lives in Canada with her family.
No other details about her role were provided.
Related: Taylor Wilde Looks Back On Her TNA Debut Against Awesome Kong, Underrated Matches With Hamada
This summer, Taylor Wilde’s wrestling return came in the form of her new podcast called Wilde On. WrestleZone spoke with her in July, where she revealed that she actually did have plans to return to the ring with IMPACT Wrestling in March. There had been rumors about Wilde possibly appearing at the “TNA: There’s No Place Like Home” event originally scheduled for Tampa, but she says the only thing they had agreed on was for her to appear at the Lockdown event in Windsor, Ontario, Canada on March 28.
“Truth be told, because I have quite a history with the people who work at IMPACT, formerly TNA, it was like a tryout situation for the both of us. I know I love wrestling and I’m excited to get back in the ring but it’s been a long time. So, to make sure it’s something I really wanted,” Wilde said, “and if I was really into it it would have gone from there. Then there’s the simple fact that I’m Canadian and these are American dates, so there’s a lot of paperwork that goes into that. So Windsor, it all seemed like a good fit.”COVID-19 ultimately caused IMPACT Wrestling to cancel a number of live events, including the TNA branded event and Lockdown in Windsor. Wilde says there were a number of issues as to why she was only doing the Lockdown event, one of which was the United States and Canadian borders being shut down because of quarantine measures. She could have traveled back into the United States as an essential worker but Wilde says she didn’t want to be away from her family and community because of quarantine measures.
“When they opened, although I could travel as an essential worker, the problem being is I would still need an American work visa,” Wilde said, “and compounded with that I am a frontline worker. I’m a firefighter and dealing with a vulnerable community. If I were to travel I would then have to be quarantined for two weeks and miss two weeks of work. It was something that on all angles, did not make sense.”
