Original subtitles

♪

Daffney was this larger than life character.

[screaming]

She was goth.

She was rock and roll. She was unhinged.

[screaming]

-Agh! -Oh, man.

She was the Scream Queen.

[Narrator] In 1999,

Shannon Spruill arrived in WCW as Daffney Unger

and immediately left her mark

on the wrestling world.

She made it cool for people who didn't feel like

they fit in to find someone else

who didn't quite fit in.

She was the pioneer for

alternative women in wrestling.

Whatever was gonna get the story over,

the character over, she was all for it.

Oh, man!

Beloved by her fans. Beloved by her peers.

One of the most positive people

I've ever met in my entire life.

But sometimes the happiest people around you

are the ones that are hurting the most.

Off camera, Shannon was fighting a battle

no one else could see.

She knew how to play that character well

because it also showed her suffering.

Most of her adult life, she...

fought bipolar disorder.

That is a fight.

She was either killing it...

or she had no ability to do anything.

You never know which Shannon you were gonna get.

Enduring endless obstacles...

Oh, my god, no, no!

And the business she loved.

Oh!

That head injury was bigger than maybe even she knew.

They weren't taking care of her medical bills.

She was in such pain all the time.

There was a light that went out in her.

I've looked in those eyes since she was born.

There was just something that wasn't the same.

I did not know how bad it had gotten.

Shannon was the best person.

I want people to remember her for the person that she was,

not for the person that she ended up on that day.

♪

♪

I always wanted to be an actress.

My agent called me up and asked if I want to audition

for a little four-week

reoccurring character for WCW.

Stalking David Flair.

♪

Hi, I'm Daffney Unger,

and I'm from Peoria, Illinois,

and I love all the superstars of the WCW.

That was it.

That started the whole thing right there.

David Flair, he wrestling Diamond Dallas Page.

He was getting his butt kicked, and...

Daffney comes running out.

Who in the world? Who has come out here?

Whoa!

They're like, "Okay, you just have to kind of act crazy."

And that's really all the information I got.

It was just gonna be a one, two-time gig,

and she really blew it out of the park.

And, next thing you know, she's on TV all the time.

My name's Darren Spruill.

Shannon is my sister.

You may know her as Daffney.

They liked how I performed the character,

so it was really kind of up to me.

This girl's nuts.

Look at her, she's loving this.

At that time, all of the women that you saw in

mainstream wrestling had that Barbie doll build.

She was something new,

something totally different that stood out.

Oh!

The cool, crazy goth girl.

Oh!

And the fans ate it up, they loved it.

My name is Chris Ford and wrestling fans know me...

as Crowbar.

They came up with this idea

that we were gonna have a tag team.

Double team now by Flair and Crowbar.

We got along great. We just automatically clicked.

I think crazy characters are fun.

I was crazy, David was crazy.

Daffney was crazy.

[screaming]

She just screamed bloody murder

at the top of her lungs.

[screaming]

It's ear piercing!

Oh, my gosh, the scream, the scream.

She had the scream forever.

Sometimes she'd just come into the room and- Bah!

[screaming]

My mom screamed, "What were you doing,

Darren?" "I didn't touch her!

I didn't lay a hand on her," you know.

And she wouldn't let me get in trouble real bad for it

because we were each other's best friends, you know?

We didn't know anybody else.

We were military brats, and...

with the military, you're moving around a lot.

You don't know anyone but your mom and dad

and your sister so,

you just become very, very close.

Almost where you can

read each other's thoughts sometimes.

We always did things together.

We did a lot of theatre.

And she played soccer.

She broke all of her fingers playing goalkeeper,

diving into people's feet so,

Shan wasn't scared of anything.

She was quite an athlete.

She could sing, she could dance.

She could act.

And she was a straight-A student.

And she was beautiful. She had it all.

My name is Quentin Spruill, and I'm proud to say

I'm Shannon's father.

She was in three major movies before she was ten.

My parents gave me a doll where she says

whole sentences on a cassette.

That was the first clue.

When I saw on the big screen, I was like,

hm, yeah, she may try to go on to do other things.

Once she was bitten by the wrestling bug,

that was it. She was in it.

If she had it in her head that she's doing this...

she's doing it.

-What was that for? -Whoa!

I saw you on Monday night with that hoochie.

[laughing] I wasn't real pleased about the matter,

but we went with it.

Daffney was up for anything, and I think

that's what made it work so well.

She had a gymnastics background,

which is how we got into...

teaching her spots.

Whoa! DDT from Daffney.

We showed her safe ways to do moves that...

look athletic, look violent, look cool, but are...

very safe if done right.

Which is how the Frankenscreamer was born.

Here we go! Daffney!

That's her Frankenscreamer off the top!

She didn't want to look like the technical wrestler.

She wanted to make it look like she was the crazy girl

who just happened to be wrestling.

I'm Lexie Fyfe, and I've been in

professional wrestling for 30 years.

And Shannon, aka Daffney, was my best friend.

Shannon had that magnetism

that made you want to watch her.

Oh! Frankenscreamer!

And she got noticed, and so they started

letting her do more and more.

There is your new cruiser weight

champion of the world!

Get your ex-Hooter girl butt

out here right now!

It just kind of rolled for her, you know,

she was the Ferris Bueller of women.

You know, it just always worked out for her.

She belonged in the spotlight.

She was drawn to be in the spotlight.

And...

she was just enjoying the ride.

But we all knew, at some level,

that that ride could come to an end

at any time.

As Shannon's star rises, WCW crashes.

And in 2001,

the competition swoops in and shuts it down.

She knew she wanted to stay in professional wrestling.

She was talking to WWE and trying to, you know,

potentially get a contract back with them.

She had a developmental deal,

but never made it to the TV.

When she did lose her contract,

she and her husband at the time

were going through a divorce.

She was gonna have to move.

It was a whole bunch of crap at once.

She was trying some antidepressants,

but they weren't working.

It threw her into a spiral.

Sometimes she would just think it would be lots easier

if I didn't have to put up with all of this.

That's not Shannon.

That was your first indication.

There will be moments where everything was great.

And then, there was other moments where...

she just had the confidence of a mouse.

So Shannon was diagnosed as bipolar.

Bipolar disorder is an instability of moods.

You'll be really, really depressed...

and then, all of a sudden, there'll be a switch

in your brain and you're manic.

Your brain tricks you 'cause your chemicals are so

messed up, which I'm also very familiar with.

She had bipolar disorder, and I do too.

♪

My name is Amanda Rodriguez,

and I was a best friend of Daffney.

Mania, it can be really scary and really confusing.

You're, like, in the backseat and your body is the car,

and someone else is driving it.

You don't recognize yourself.

It's terrifying.

There are drugs that you can take.

The problem is they have

horrible, horrible side effects.

Throwing up, and headaches,

and all kinds of stuff like that.

There were times when she wouldn't take it

consistently, so she wasn't seeing the benefits of...

the medicines that she had.

She didn't want to be on medicine.

She wanted another way for it to be handled.

If you don't take care of it with professional support or

medication, it could turn into

depressive mania, where...

I believe, the risk of suicide comes in.

♪

One time she was in a very manic mood,

and my dad called me on the phone, was like,

"She's got to get to the hospital,

she's gonna do something." And so I said,

"Shan, you got to go to the doctor

because I can't take care of you.

There's nothing I can do to help you."

There was times on the way

that she was threatening to get out of the car

and just run...

but we got her there safely and...

checked her in, and she was there for a couple weeks.

That's not something you want to...

do with your sister.

You need to make sure that your children

know that they're loved...

no matter what.

We prayed through and talked through

so many things.

She decided that she wanted to be in the ring,

and couldn't talk her out of it.

Following her diagnosis with bipolar disorder,

in 2003, Shannon sets out on

the indie circuit to rebuild her career

and herself.

If she still thought she could do something,

she still wanted to do it. You know,

that was Shannon, so that was it.

We thought she was doing better.

We thought she had some success, and, and

she was in better control with the medicines,

and day-to-day life kind of stuff.

It was an opportunity for her.

She wasn't at home twiddling her thumbs.

She was, she was getting to do stuff.

Independent wrestling is a totally different...

lifestyle than TV wrestling.

You're going from town to town to town,

and that's when I met her.

And she was just like,

"This is what I'm supposed to be doing."

[cheering]

All she thought about was wrestling.

[screaming] Woo!

It doesn't matter if there was five people

in the audience or 50,000.

She went out there and gave

the same exact performance.

And Daffney with the Sunset Flip out of the corner!

That just completely encompasses who she was,

as a person and as a professional wrestler.

My name is Shantelle,

but you may know me as Taylor Wilde,

and Daffney is one of

my professional wrestling sisters.

I met Daffney at Shimmer in 2005.

Shimmer was the first time

in any real American promotion

that women were solely highlighted,

and it actually kind of changed the trajectory of

where women's wrestling was headed.

She really wanted all the girls to band together

because she knew it was going to be big.

Shimmer was a great place for all of us,

and Daffney had a really, really good time there.

The Scream Queen, Daffney!

[cheering]

We were a family there and she felt it was a safe place.

[indistinct shouting]

[laughing] In control and

very pleased with yourself, Daffney.

As wrestling has grown, there's more opportunities

for women, and the women that are involved,

they build each other up.

And I really think Daffney had a huge part in that.

[indistinct chanting]

By the time that we got together,

she was full force, gung ho.

She loved professional wrestling more than

anything else in the world.

My name is Caleb Konley.

I've been a professional wrestler for 20 years now,

and for four of those years, I dated Shannon Spruill,

known to the wrestling world as Daffney.

♪

So, I was 20 years old.

I was two years into the wrestling business.

And she came, and...

she had a couple of matches and...

we started talking, and then

it just blossomed right from there.

We worked on tons of shows together.

We tagged a couple times, we wrestled each other.

She opened up a lot of doors for me.

She introduced me to a lot of people that I would have

probably never met on my own otherwise.

Even if she wasn't in professional wrestling,

Shannon was so cool.

She was just amazing.

But, the bipolar thing was...

front and centre our entire relationship.

I could wake up in the morning,

and I could just feel the energy change.

Sometimes she just couldn't get out of bed.

And then at other points, she would be doing

the elliptical for two hours a day.

And then all of a sudden she's like,

I have to get off this medicine because

it's making me gain weight.

She lost the weight, but now she's also

completely depressed and hates life.

And she was very quick to lose her temper in

those times, but when her moods started to swing,

I felt like she needed someone there

that she could trust.

But it's hard to stay positive.

I was a dumb kid who thought

he knew what he was doing.

I didn't.

I realize that we are just two people

that had a moment in time together,

and I loved her and she loved me.

And we always had

a pretty positive friendship after the fact.

I think Shannon's...

bipolar disorder was very disruptive

for her personal life.

But it didn't affect her work.

Whoa!

She could still get out there in the ring

and do what she needed to do.

Shannon's grit, charisma, and screen presence...

earn her another shot back on television,

this time with TNA.

WWE wasn't taking the women seriously at this point.

And, TNA decided they would.

And they had bangers.

Oh, my god!

It wasn't bra and panties matches. It was...

real professional wrestling.

Shannon didn't get brought in as a wrestler at first,

and she didn't even get brought in

as Daffney at first.

They indoctrinated Daffney back into TNA wrestling

as a parody of Sarah Palin,

and they called her "The Governor."

Our next-door neighbours are foreign countries.

They're in the state that I am the executive of.

Sarah Palin was the governor of Alaska

and the running mate for John McCain

in the 2008 presidential election.

You betcha!

Drill, baby, drill and mine, baby, mine.

The first time Sarah Palin was on like national TV,

she was like... "I could do that."

Ladies...

You are true Americans.

Yeah? You betcha?

People didn't actually know who it was at first.

I remember all the wrestling gossip websites.

They were like, "But who is it?"

And it just took off.

What? Is that the governor?

It is. It's Governor Palin!

People were completely committed to the storyline.

When was she gonna transform?

And who was she gonna transform into next?

The story was she was actually in

a mental institution, and they brought in

Doctor Stevie to bring her back to being

the Scream Queen, Daffney.

Daffney's bipolar was definitely

a super power for her.

She knew how to play that character well because

that character was her.

Everything was so calculated,

from her hair, to her makeup,

to her persona, and I could just tell

she was gonna make it count this time.

When she got to come back to TNA,

and she was doing really well,

it was like a big "F-U" to everyone

who didn't believe in her.

When I joined TNA, I started working with Daffney

on screen because I really liked what she was doing.

Do not try this at home.

And, I wanted her on my team.

Everything about her she tried to make

different and unique.

And she was successful.

My name is Mick Foley.

I'm known as the Hardcore Legend.

I knew Daffney as a colleague,

and also as a friend.

Daffney was always up for anything.

She just really wanted to put on a good show,

and she wanted to be...

whatever professional wrestling wanted her to be.

To a fault.

I did not have any idea that the match

that I was in would be...

the beginning of the end.

Oh my God, no, no! Oh!

Bound for Glory continues

with the Monster's Ball Match!

Monster's Ball, basically anything goes.

Barbed wire bats and thumbtacks,

and things of that nature are encouraged.

Daffney was part of my crew.

We did want her to play a role in the,

the big match with Abyss.

Shannon called me that day, and she was like,

"They want to throw me through this table with

thumbtacks and barbed wire." And she goes,

"I don't really know if I feel comfortable."

I do remember the move being discussed...

and Daffney wanted to do it,

and felt like she could do it.

It's just there's very little room for error.

That's Daffney!

Looking back, we wish we had...

made a different call.

[cheering]

Oh! Oh my God!

No, no! Oh!

Daffney gets choke slammed!

The table broke and she landed on her head.

It wasn't any of the wrestlers in the matches fault.

It was as safe as you can make it,

but it was the actual fall.

And then the concrete floor.

I remember watching on the monitor...

and I just ran straight to medical,

and I was waiting for her to be brought backstage.

They dragged her to another room,

closed the door, and they pushed us all away.

It was maybe 20, 30 minutes after the match

when we realized how serious it was.

Daffney had broken her arm as well.

[groaning]

I just remember the whispering

about concussions...

and that she hit her head really hard,

and that she wasn't okay.

She, I believe she had no memory of where

she was and what had just happened.

It was sad to see that someone who had

so much potential, and was realizing that potential,

had been sidelined for this injury.

And for it to be an injury

that turned out to be so consequential,

to this day, I feel terrible about it.

♪

Just months after suffering a broken arm and

serious head trauma,

Shannon returns to the TNA ring,

desperate not to lose her spot on the roster.

The doctor told her she shouldn't ever get

back in the ring again at that point.

And she was like, "Well, this is my life.

I have to."

Knowing Daffney, she wouldn't want anyone

to know how injured she was.

When it comes to wrestling,

like there's not a lot of room to be injured.

There's always someone younger, hungrier,

more talented, better looking,

waiting to take your spot.

I think there's a difference between...

"cleared"...

and cleared.

Why'd she do it?

The same reason we would all do that,

and that's because you want to further your career.

You want to continue to become more valuable

in the wrestling business.

It's a shame, but we all do it.

Months after her debilitating injuries,

Shannon takes on newcomer, Rosie Lottalove.

Rosie was a larger woman.

She has a very, very strong offense.

She had Daffney in between her legs,

and then basically just sits down on her,

right on her chest, bam.

♪

She literally landed on her,

and it hurt her sternum.

The wrestlers at TNA were mostly very supportive

and checking in on her.

The company as a whole at that time...

there was a whole lawsuit about it.

They weren't...

taking care of her medical bills,

and they weren't doing follow up care for her.

I chose to file a worker's comp claim...

to try to prove in a court of law

that wrestlers are not independent contractors,

we're employees.

And I just feel like at least what they can do is

if you get injured in their ring,

they should pay for it.

She settled...

for money.

I know that part of her settlement, at least, was...

they gave her like a thousand of her action figures,

which is seems like such a crock of crap to me.

This girl had a near-death experience, basically,

for your company, and the best you can do is,

"Hey, why don't you go make your own money hawking

your merchandise at an independent show."

So wild.

They've got concussion protocols now that

they did not have back then.

So a lot of those changes were brought about

by wrestlers like Daffney.

She really kind of broke a barrier there for us.

But following two major injuries,

Shannon's recovery is slower than expected,

and the toll on her body is starting to show.

It wasn't an option to take the time off.

But she was kind of forced into it.

We say that we have a bump card.

That's what we call it.

There's only so many bumps you can take in your life

before your body says, "Yeah, no more of this."

I've got a long way to go. Right?

I see a light at the end of the tunnel and...

I see...

I'm gonna cry.

I just, I see hope.

And, um, it's really awesome.

I think for a while there's gonna be some things

I'm gonna have to push through.

I do remember her going into, like, a deep depression.

I think whatever it did to her brain, it was not good,

and she went severely negative

for a while after that.

Some of you may have noticed

a little bit of a change in my attitude...

No!

But a lot of people don't realize, with concussions,

if you have bipolar disorder, it's going to amplify it or

trigger it, and she was struggling with that.

There was a shift...

in her personality.

Trauma changes people.

It changes your brain chemistry.

That's just an uphill battle.

And Daffney hard into the steel barricade!

[cheering]

By 2011, injuries force Shannon to make

a decision about the future of her career.

All these injuries took a toll on her.

Like, I think she had headaches for months.

That was the beginning of the end for her,

as far as, like, in-ring performer.

We kind of put a foot down towards the end,

that especially after the concussions,

that she just did not need to go into the ring.

And she agreed.

When you're a wrestler and you can't wrestle...

there goes your paycheck.

So, she was always trying to figure out

what the next hustle was going to be for her.

You're also going to be getting a match or two.

Luckily, she had a really great fan base.

She would be online trying to sell her 8x10s

and her t-shirts.

W-C-dub.

She was doing appearances.

She would pop up here and there,

and do autograph signings at conventions,

and she was producing for Shine, down in Florida.

The Iron Maiden!

Finding new purpose,

Shannon teams up with other female

wrestlers to fight the stigma of bipolar disorder.

I think people don't really realize that for

ten years now, I've had a chemical imbalance.

I take medication twice a day and it's something that,

every day, like it's a real thing, as opposed to,

you know, it's just me acting crazy as a gimmick.

We banded together as sisters-

me, Daffney, Kimberly, and Amber Gardner

and got our bipolar disorder awareness tattoos.

It's a colon, a parenthesis, and another colon,

so it's like happy and sad.

So, for depression and mania.

And, it gives me a reason to talk about bipolar disorder.

And that had been the theme of our sisterhood.

She was always there to be the rock for everybody else,

And I think a lot of people find it hard to comprehend,

you know, that she was suffering, too.

She would have times when she was getting ready to go to

the grocery store, she'd get out in the car...

and can't remember where she's going.

She would do some refereeing,

and even that was giving her issues,

like she'd go down to make a count and

she was getting dizzy spells, a lot of vertigo.

Those concussions were just killing her.

She's like, "When I die, I want my brain to go to

science so they can research...

what's going on with me and hopefully help people."

She had already filled out all the paperwork with

a Boston CTE hospital to have her brain donated.

She decided she needed to make a big change because

I think being around the business,

not being able to wrestle, was causing her depression.

And, so she opted to leave.

For Daffney, losing wrestling was like losing the,

the love of her life.

[chanting] Daffney! Daffney!

I miss being in the ring.

[chanting] Daffney! Daffney!

This is where my heart is, at least...

is in this business.

Definitely.

Shannon, just like many professional wrestlers,

when that run is over,

don't know how to become regular people.

How do we exist outside of that spotlight?

All of us have some kind of struggle like that.

She was big into self-medication

for a long time.

It's a Band-Aid that...

you can put on a situation for a little bit, you know.

She has a couple drinks, she's feeling good,

everything's fine, and then it all kind of

tumbles downhill after that.

She got in a car accident.

And then she got in another car accident.

And...

she had to go to rehab...

because it was court ordered.

The night before she was gonna go into rehab, ah...

she....

contemplated committing suicide.

I made her promise to always call me.

And so that's why she called me that night.

And I took her to rehab the next day.

Every day I was, I felt like I was having to

talk her off a ledge for a while there.

Bipolar disorder, like, makes...

the bad stuff seem...

SO bad.

I can't wrestle.

I haven't wrestled since 2010.

She really struggled with her self-image.

With medication, she was gaining weight,

so she was getting really depressed about that.

That's a really big problem,

I think in entertainment for all women.

Beauty and thinness is a currency.

The fans that she was...

so enthralled with and loved,

a lot of them started writing

some negative stuff about her.

Someone said I look like Ozzy Osborne

and Roseanne had a, had a kid.

Ha!

The internet can be cruel,

and it was really causing her mental anguish.

She was having a lot of physical issues.

She got diagnosed with a thyroid issue,

and she was having all these menopausal symptoms,

which makes your bipolar meds not work.

I felt guilt for too long!

She was going through a lot of things

that would kind of beat anyone down.

So then Covid hit.

Then she was even more isolated.

She would say things like, like...

Like, "I'm so alone, I don't have anybody." And I'm like,

"Oh my gosh, girl, you have so many people."

We always had plans...

about what we're gonna do...

to get her out of the situation that she was in.

She had a new apartment, she had a new job,

and she was going back to school.

I talked to her that morning.

And...

everything seemed to be fine.

And then, that's when the Instagram moment happened.

On the evening of September 1st, 2021,

Shannon goes live on Instagram.

[phone vibrating]

I wasn't even really familiar with Instagram Live.

♪

But I just saw that bubble pop up

and it was Daff, and I thought, oh!

And...

just...

basically talking her suicide note.

She stole her former roommate's gun.

She was saying,

"You guys gotta take care of your brain,

take care of your brain." And she would say,

"Take my brain to Boston, take my brain to Boston."

And I knew that it was a lot more serious...

than I had initially thought.

I've been a firefighter for ten years, and...

I deal with people that are in crisis

every time I go to work.

And, um...

She was just, ah, she was in crisis.

She needed help.

I saw maybe about 10, 20 seconds of, of it and...

got up, and got dressed, and was- getting-

calling my dad, saying,

"Alright, hey, we need to go to Atlanta."

♪

All of a sudden, I started getting...

a ton of text messages.

[phone vibrating]

When I logged on and she saw my name...

She said, "I'm sorry."

She goes, "I'm gonna break my promise."

[phone ringing]

I immediately went and called the police up there.

I'm commenting, saying, "Daff, I love you."

And then I'm seeing all the wrestlers I know.

They're all logging in, they're all saying

the same thing, you know, "Call me."

I went to my cell phone and...

started calling her...

over and over and over again.

I just kept getting, the voicemail was full.

The voicemail was full.

I tried calling her.

And...I, I...

[Exhaling sharply] Hoo!

[voice cracking] Calling her and texting her.

And I just knew that if I could get a hold of her,

if I can get her to text me back,

if I could get her on the phone,

then I could make sure everything's okay,

she would listen to me.

I- [sighing] ----.

[sniffling]

But she wouldn't answer her phone.

And then it went black.

And, I was just left staring at my phone,

not knowing what I had actually witnessed.

Knowing what I had witnessed,

but my brain was not allowing me...

to process. Um...

♪

When me and my dad got there,

my mom was already there,

knocking on the door, and of course,

there's no answer.

We had to call the fire department in

to come and knock down the door.

I was on the phone with her mom

when they finally broke in.

♪

It was, it was...

it was the worst night ever.

I was just waiting on the news.

♪

And then when it arrived, it wasn't, it wasn't good.

Fire department came down and...

said they were sorry, but that she had passed, and...

my dad was on my left, and my mom was

on the right, and they both kind of...

knees buckled and...

I grabbed them, and then one of the officers

helped me grab 'em, and...

it didn't really dawn on me that this time she had,

she had done it.

I talked to her that morning.

And I felt like if I had a chance to talk to her again...

we could have talked it out.

I didn't get a chance...

to talk her out of it.

I like to believe if she knew how much it hurt me...

she wouldn't have done it.

Even though your brain might be telling you that...

suicide is the only way...

and that you don't think you're worth it...

the hole that you leave...

is, it's, it's too much.

It's too much to fill.

I was mad at her...

because of my daughter.

My daughter knew her as Aunt Shannon.

How dare she do this to my daughter.

How dare she take Aunt Shannon away.

How dare she take my friend away.

♪

I'm driving down the road....

I'm supposed to be chipper.

I'm supposed to go to shows.

I'm supposed to shake everybody's hand and,

meanwhile, this person that meant the world to me

for, for years...

is gone.

Shannon, you were an incredible friend.

I just wish...

you felt comfortable enough to...

reach out and talk about the things that were

bothering you, and I just wish you were still here now.

Could be really difficult...

for Daffney to know how loved she was.

And so unfortunate that she felt all alone.

That's why I encourage people to reach out

and reach out to their friends.

That's what we're here for.

She was in a very dark place,

and it was very real to her.

And that's what mental illness and CTE can look like.

It's like a veil.

She believed she had CTE,

and she wasn't going to let it be in vain.

God, that is her second grade?

Yeah, something like that.

Fountain, Illinois.

And, that was, I believe, her second grade picture.

She made an agreement with the University of Boston

that she was gonna donate her brain

for research...

and made me promise...

that I would make sure that that happened.

Shannon was going to be

the first female brain in their study.

They say that there was CTE, but they don't know

how much and to what extent that it was.

The biggest thing for Daffney, in her death,

was that she wanted to bring

focus into CTE and to...

what concussions long term do.

And when you're willing to do anything for wrestling...

♪

...what can happen to you.

We really need to listen to her message

about taking care of your brain.

As a wrestler with bipolar disorder...

my brain health comes first.

I saw what it did to Daffney.

The best counselor in the world can't help anybody

if they don't want to get better.

Shannon did.

And she worked at it.

And we fought the good fight.

She was never shy about talking about

her bipolar disorder, so I think she'd be happy

that we were being honest about it.

While Shannon was still alive,

she had started to do some charity work with

a group called NAMI,

which deals with mental illness.

It's a great cause, and it's a cause that,

that Shannon was already invested in.

So, I feel like giving in her honour and

in her name just keeps it going.

She did a lot for basically everyone.

[sniffling & sighing] It's time to repay.

The outpouring of support and love

made us realize even more

how special of a of a person she is and was.

I really don't think you'll ever find anybody in the

wrestling business that could

say a bad word about Daffney,

especially if you met her personally.

There was not a more giving performer...

to her fans than Shannon.

Daffney.

You look at Daffney as a great character.

It was fun, it was different.

But I think the match that epitomizes her as a

human being is

the match she had with Vickie Lyons.

♪

I was somewhere on the road,

and it was 2 AM, 3 AM.

I couldn't sleep, and I'm watching Forensic Files,

and it's a story about a little girl who was run over

in a parking lot, and the terrible ordeal

that this child went through.

I don't like how people make me feel.

So it really touched my heart,

and so I type in Vickie Lyons.

And the first thing that comes up is "Vickie Lyons

Daffney YouTube wrestling match."

And I think no, there's, there's no way.

♪

Vickie Lyons had always wanted to be

a professional wrestler.

And Daffney was like, you know what?

I'm gonna teach you and we're gonna have a match.

She obviously had limited physical capabilities,

but any time anyone would tell her,

no, you can't do this, she would look you

dead in the eyes and be like, yes, I can.

This is Vickie Lyons!

[cheering]

What unfolds is like one of the most beautiful things

I've ever seen in, in our sport,

and I've been around a long time.

Shannon knew how to make Vickie

look like a star, and...

she damn sure did it.

That suplex, Daffney...

gets rocked on that one.

Daffney surprised Vickie

by putting her over for a victory

in her one match that she trained five years for.

Trying to get the tights! Got 'em!

[indistinct commentary]

[cheering]

In that match, I see everything that's good

and right about professional wrestling.

Vickie Lyons!

[cheering]

I think it was just as good for Shannon

as it was for Vickie.

It just showed you who, who she was as a person

and what kind of a special heart she had.

I knew that Shannon was liked and loved,

but I did not realize how many people she had touched.

That helped a lot. That helped a lot.

Daffney's legacy is that...

she taught female professional wrestlers

how to be sisters, to love each other more,

build each other up more, and to look after each other

both inside and outside the ring.

And David and I were the wrestlers of that crew.

Without question, Daffney is the one

that people remember the most.

She oozed positivity.

She was the ----ing greatest.

♪

Thank you for just leading by example.

Thank you for being completely...

an original.

I'm not a religious person at all,

but man, she always...

always lets me know she's

paying attention to me.

I miss her every day.

I love her more and more every day.

I have made it my duty to...

continue her advocacy

for women in wrestling,

women in entertainment,

and for bipolar disorder patients.

I will always talk about you, Daffney.

Daffney is watching. She's always watching.

She's influencing women's wrestling today and forever

because that was the lasting effect she had.

She's so missed.

And I just want to say, thank you, Daffney.

And we love you. And we miss you.

And I hope you're proud of all of us.

♪

Shannon loved her fans. She loved her family.

She loved her friends.

She would always be there for you,

if you needed her to.

♪

And that's what I would want people to remember.

I love that girl, I tell ya.

We miss her.

And we love her.

♪

I always thought we were gonna be old and...

sitting in rocking chairs, laughing at jokes

that we didn't have to say anything 'cause

we'd just look at each other and start laughing.

And...

I hope, I hope I did a good job for you.

♪

I hope, I hope I did what you wanted.

I hope I did a good job for you, and...

and I miss you. [chuckling]

I miss you.

A lot.