The FFW logo appears on the screen before “Focus” by Ariana Grande begins to play. Then we see the studio being set up, the glass table sat in the center being cleaned, two cups sat on opposite sides of the table. Next we see Zack Hudson tying his shoes and checking himself in the mirror before he heads out to the set as a producer puts a microphone on his shirt before sitting down. When he looks across, we next see the various men and women who make up FFW and Future Shock flash by in images from their careers until it finally stops on Vivi Traeger.
Then we go inside the studio and find her on the other side of the glass table from Zack, along with the FFW Championship set up on the table. Zack takes a seat and reaches across to shake VIvi’s hand before he addresses the camera.
Zack: Welcome to the latest edition of Focus, where we get to know the women and some of the men who make up FFW and Future Shock. I’m Zack Hudson, and I have the new FFW Champion with me today. Vivi, welcome to Focus!
He said before turning his attention back to her, and took a second to admire the FFW Championship.
Vivi gives him a dazzling smile and leans back comfortably in her chair.
Vivi: Thank you so much for having me, Zack! I’m glad to be here. Ask your toughest questions, I promise I’m ready.
Zack: I’ll try not to make it too grueling, I promise. Before we get going though, let me add my congratulations on your achievement at Unstoppable 15. It was an incredible match, and I was honored to call it. When did it finally sink in that you did it? I hear some say it takes a few days, others say it’s instantly.
Vivi: For me, it was when they were taking Kelly’s plates off the title and putting mine on backstage. My husband was holding our son and standing behind me, and when they showed me how it looked? That was when it really sank in that I’d done what seemed to be impossible - I’d beaten Kelly Kincaid, and become the new FFW Champion.
Zack: I know you’ve watched these shows, so you know how they go. So let’s start from the beginning. Tell me about the Robichaud clan when you were little Vivienne. Parents and any siblings, please.
The FFW Champion nodded, clearly at ease while talking about herself.
Vivi: I come from a big extended family. My father, Antoine, he spent his whole life in New Orleans. My grandmother Jeanne was one of six siblings, my father has two brothers and two sisters, and it goes back like that for generations. We can trace our lineage in the city back to before the Civil War. My mother, Nayeli, she escaped Castro’s Cuba when she was a teenager and came here to the United States as a refugee. Then I have an older sister Vida, who works in our family’s store in the French Quarter, and a younger brother Valentin, who is a musician, plus more cousins than I can count.
Zack: One thing I’ve learned from talking with people from big families is not just the love, but sometimes it’s the competition for their parents’ time and attention. Did you have that growing up or did they manage it well between you and your siblings? Never felt like they had a favorite?
Vivi: If they had a favorite, it was definitely not me.
She laughs, shaking her head.
Vivi: This may not be surprising to anyone that’s followed my career from the beginning, but I was a little rebel and troublemaker from an early age. My parents love me, don’t get me wrong, but Vida and Vale were both far better behaved than I ever was.
Zack: That being the case, it sounds like you might have gotten the lion’s share of the attention anyway because they were busy trying to keep you in line. Is that fair? And which of your parents did you find you took after more? Had more common interests?
Vivi: I am nothing if not the main character in the story, Zack. I take after my father more, I would say, but when it comes to who I have the most in common with? That would be my grandmother, Jeanne. She was very involved with us growing up - still is, in fact. She and my great-great-uncle Vervain were the ones who taught me everything I know about voodoo.
Zack: We’ll definitely circle around to that. When you said you were often in trouble though, it made me wonder what exactly it was that you were most in trouble for doing. I mean when you think about the kinds of things kids do, a few ideas come to mind. But I mean I can’t see you being a bully to others or anything like that. So enlighten me, what was it that kept you in trouble with your parents?
He asked before taking a sip from his coffee cup.
Vivi: Usually it was something I said. The attitude you see today in me was there from an early age, and I’ve never been shy about expressing my thoughts and opinions. I did also get into trouble at school for fighting with other kids when one of them did something to piss me off. In fact, that was the reason I ended up getting expelled from high school during my junior year, because of a massive fight that broke out after homecoming. I got knocked into a tiki torch they had lit outside the gym, and well… turns out, when the doors are open and the wind hits just right, that torch might end up setting fire to half the building.
Zack: Okay, that’s definitely on the far end of the troubles I’ve heard kids getting into growing up. So let’s circle back to what you mentioned before that. At what age were you introduced to the aspects of voodoo that you ultimately became so known for in this business? Was it your parents who did it or your grandparents you mentioned?
Vivi: I was born and raised in it like people are born and raised in the Christian or Jewish faiths. Legend has it that my eleven-time great-grandmother, a slave from West Africa, is the one who taught Marie Laveau everything she knew about voodoo. So it’s been part of my life for as long as I can remember. My whole family practices, but when I decided to become a priestess, that extra learning came from my grandmother and my uncle.
Zack: You’ll have to forgive my ignorance on this. I’ve been to New Orleans several times doing my job in FFW and Future Shock. But how prevalent is voodoo in the city? I guess what I’m asking is if this was something you experienced with more people than just your relatives or if your family was one of the few who delved into it?
Vivi: The true believers, the ones who aren’t just doing it to scam tourists? It’s a fairly small but thriving community. Then you have people who don’t necessarily follow the faith, but maybe their parents or grandparents did. And of course, those who practice in secret and who don’t want it known that they worship the loa. It’s less prevalent than the ghost tours would have you believe, but it’s very much there.
Zack nodded as he listened to that.
Zack: That sounds reasonable enough to me. So let’s move the clock forward, and tell me about teenage Vivi. You mentioned how you tended to find yourself in trouble as a kid. Did that continue and get worse as a teenager? Or had you matured a bit more since they say girls tend to mature faster than guys.
Vivi: Zack honey, I still don’t know if I’ve fully matured. I got expelled from high school when I was sixteen, so I got a GED. After that, I went to work in my family’s store and spent time as a carer for my uncle, Vervain. He was over a hundred when he died but sharp as a tack until the very end.
Zack: That’s impressive. So let’s bring it forward a touch more. For those who don’t know it, you were trained for this sport by Justin Brooks. Tell me how you found wrestling, much less came to meet Justin and decided “Yeah, this is what I want to do with my life.”
Vivi: So, after my uncle died and I had more free time, I started doing jello wrestling in bars. Absolutely not serious, the winner got like a twenty dollar bar tab or something like that. No skill whatsoever, just a willingness to show up in a tank top and bikini bottoms and throw yourself into a pool of jello. But I got noticed by a man named Daisuke Iwakuma, who thought I had potential as a professional wrestler. So he got me into the training dojo attached to EXODUS Pro Wrestling. And when it felt like I wasn’t having the success that I wanted? I took Justin and another wrestler, Adrien Cochrane, up on their offers to work with me. Both of them had years of experience to share, and I’m grateful to both of them. Justin is the one who allowed me to open my own Lion’s Den in New Orleans, where I now train up and coming athletes.
Zack: Let’s start with EXODUS then. FFW has had more than one woman come here from that promotion. There’s obviously you and your upcoming opponent at Sabotage: Savannah Star nee Taylor then. And I’ve not talked to anyone that speaks of it in a praising tone. So tell me about your experience in your first promotion as a wrestler.
Vivi: I will say that the dojo and developmental company, (R)Evolution Pro, was far better managed than the main roster was. I did not like the man who ran the company, Jonathan Collins, and the feeling was mutual. He was more interested in his own personal dramas than in what was best for the company as a whole, which is what ended up killing the place. However, my experience there wasn’t all bad. I met my mentors, of course. I learned how to look out for my own interests as a wrestler. And had I not gone to San Diego, I never would have met my dear Simon. So while it may not have ended on a good note, there were good aspects to it.
Zack: Your next stop in your career path found you in SVW after that. Tell me about that experience and how it differed, if it did at all, from your experience in EXODUS.
Vivi: Better management, most of the time - although for a long time I didn’t care what was happening at the top as long as I was getting paid. My immediate goal upon arriving in SVW was to make an impact and I think I did that very well - even won the award for Rising Star, which turned out to be a bit of a monkey’s paw in the end.
Zack: You managed to shake it off though. You were a two time Adrenaline Champion and pretty close to the top of the heap towards its ending days. I still remember the match you had with Wilma Iris Napier, for some reason.
Vivi: Once I got through 2017, yes I did. Was that Wilma match the one where I ended up doing a Baron’s Cross through the table? Because I had a few with her during my run as Adrenaline Champion - which I’m very happy to see in Future Shock these days.
Zack nodded as soon as she asked about the table spot.
Zack: That’s the one. I’ve watched it a few times in the years since. While you were in SVW, you found your way over to a little show called Future Shock. Tell us what got you to Future Shock and what I presume is in front of Adam when he was still the Director of it.
A shadow crosses over Vivi’s face as she thinks back to her debut in Future Shock.
Vivi: When I came to Future Shock, it was… not the best time for me. I was grieving the loss of someone I loved, but before he died, Simon and I had a conversation. He felt that it was time for me to be more open and vulnerable with the fans, to show them who Vivi Robichaud truly was. The Mistress Vivi persona was my protection, in a way. And after I lost him, I needed somewhere safe. Future Shock and its focus on developing talent was the perfect place for me to heal and to learn how to move forward with my life and career in wrestling.
Zack: What was your impression of it before you joined and did it change once you had joined the roster? I know in chats I’ve had with him that weren’t necessarily on TV, Adam has only spoken highly of you and ranks you among the top four or five best he’s signed.
Vivi: Adam is a dear friend with an eye for talent. I’d had my eye on Future Shock and FFW for some time, given the amount of crossover between those rosters and SVW. So I had a very good opinion of it going in, and that didn’t change once I was officially on the roster. Adam understood that I wanted a fresh start, somewhere that I’d never competed before, and he gave that to me. And I think I made the most of those opportunities.
Zack: One look at your achievements from that roster, I think, proves that. No question about it. I’ve talked to many who made that transition from one roster to the next and a couple who have no interest in it, like take your pick of either of the Shaolin Belles. What was the time you knew it was time to move to the FFW roster? Did you feel like you climbed all the mountains there were for you in Future Shock?
Vivi: Well, after losing the Future Shock Championship to Mara Werth, I found out that I was pregnant with my son, so I was gone from wrestling for over a year. I’d already ascended to the top of the mountain, so when it was time for my comeback? I decided to take on some new challenges by joining the main roster after SVW closed.
Zack: You are one of the very few people who have joined FFW in its 15 plus year history to come aboard and your first title on this roster be the FFW Championship. You can count that number on one hand, pretty much. It’s been mentioned many times. You opened the show at Unstoppable 13, main evented 14 and then 15 to become FFW Champion. That’s a remarkable record, and…I happen to have another accolade you probably don’t know about yet, if you’ll indulge me.
Vivi gestures for him to go ahead.
Vivi: Please, by all means. I love having new things I can brag about.
Zack looks off camera before he’s handed something.
Zack: When this airs, we’ll be in San Francisco the next day. And on that show, they are going to reveal who all will be in the FFW Hall of Fame this year.
He then showed the camera a plaque signifying one of them was Vivi Traeger, which he then handed it to her.
Zack: Congratulations, you’re going to be in that class.
Vivi’s eyes go wide with shock and she covers her mouth with one hand, reaching for the plaque with the other.
Vivi: Mon Dieu… this is… I wasn’t expecting this so soon, Zack. I’m honored to be included in this year’s class. To have my name alongside other FFW legends, and to know that my skills and accomplishments are being recognized? That means everything to me.
Zack: That’s not just for FFW, but for what has been an incredible career so far. I’m thrilled I got to be the one who told you right here in person on Focus. 2024 is going to be a banner year for you, first FFW Champion and now this. Congratulations again, and you more than deserve it. I tend to ask this of most of my guests, and I’m very curious to hear what you will say. Looking back at who you are then versus who you are now, what would you go back and tell yourself if you could? Something you wish you knew then versus knowing it now?
Vivi: I would tell my younger self to trust her heart, and to not be so afraid to let people in. I wouldn’t want to tell her anything that would change the outcome, because the sum total of everything I’ve experienced - both good and bad - has made me the woman and the champion I am today. My life as it is right now is full of joy and I couldn’t be more grateful for it.
Zack: I want to thank you for joining me for Focus. This is a chat that I’ve wanted to have for some time, been on my wish list from the first time this show was greenlit. Congratulations on becoming FFW Champion…on joining the Hall of Fame this year…and what I’m sure will continue to be a very successful career.
He leans across to shake her hand before addressing the camera.
Zack: Thank you all for watching Focus, and I’ll see you right back here for the next Focus when my guest will be Vivi’s contemporary over in Future Shock. Missy will be here next time. See you then.
He turns back to chat with Vivi further as Focus fades to black.
