1 00:00:09,680 --> 00:00:12,340 Daphne was a larger -than -life character. 2 00:00:12,820 --> 00:00:16,200 She was goth. She was rock and roll. 3 00:00:16,520 --> 00:00:18,700 She was unhinged. 4 00:00:19,720 --> 00:00:21,740 She was the scream queen. 5 00:00:22,660 --> 00:00:28,600 In 1999, Shannon Spruill arrived in WCW as Daphne Unger. 6 00:00:28,940 --> 00:00:31,580 and immediately left her mark on the wrestling world. 7 00:00:31,820 --> 00:00:37,640 She made it cool for people who didn't feel like they fit in to find someone 8 00:00:37,640 --> 00:00:39,020 else who didn't quite fit in. 9 00:00:39,360 --> 00:00:43,520 She was the pioneer for alternative women in wrestling. 10 00:00:43,940 --> 00:00:48,320 Whatever was going to get the story over, the character over, she was all 11 00:00:48,320 --> 00:00:50,100 it. Oh, man! 12 00:00:50,380 --> 00:00:56,200 Beloved by her fans, beloved by her peers, one of the most positive people 13 00:00:56,200 --> 00:00:57,900 ever met in my entire life. 14 00:00:58,910 --> 00:01:03,070 but sometimes the happiest people around you are the ones that are hurting the 15 00:01:03,070 --> 00:01:08,190 most. Off camera, Shannon was fighting a battle no one else could see. 16 00:01:08,450 --> 00:01:12,750 She knew how to play that character well because it also showed her suffering. 17 00:01:13,050 --> 00:01:17,630 Most of her adult life, she fought bipolar disorder. 18 00:01:17,830 --> 00:01:19,110 That is a fight. 19 00:01:19,530 --> 00:01:23,850 She was either killing it or she had no ability to do anything. 20 00:01:24,150 --> 00:01:25,970 You never know which Shannon you are going to get. 21 00:01:26,400 --> 00:01:30,620 Enduring endless obstacles in the business she loved. 22 00:01:32,500 --> 00:01:36,120 That head injury was bigger than maybe even she knew. 23 00:01:36,520 --> 00:01:39,060 They weren't taking care of her medical bills. 24 00:01:39,380 --> 00:01:41,800 She was in such pain all the time. 25 00:01:42,140 --> 00:01:44,480 There was a light that went out on her. 26 00:01:44,680 --> 00:01:46,720 I've looked in those eyes since she was born. 27 00:01:46,960 --> 00:01:49,200 There was just something that wasn't the same. 28 00:01:50,120 --> 00:01:53,240 I did not know how bad it had gotten. 29 00:01:53,660 --> 00:01:54,980 Shannon was... 30 00:01:55,340 --> 00:02:00,420 The best person. I want people to remember her for the person that she 31 00:02:00,420 --> 00:02:02,580 for the person that she ended up on that day. 32 00:02:09,979 --> 00:02:12,040 I always wanted to be an actress. 33 00:02:12,520 --> 00:02:17,160 My agent called me up and asked me if I wanted to audition for a little four 34 00:02:17,160 --> 00:02:19,860 -week reoccurring character for WCW. 35 00:02:20,540 --> 00:02:22,220 Talking David Flair. 36 00:02:24,720 --> 00:02:30,080 Hi, I'm Daphne Unger, and I'm from Peoria, Illinois, and I love all the 37 00:02:30,080 --> 00:02:31,800 superstars after WPW. 38 00:02:32,700 --> 00:02:35,540 That was it. That started the whole thing right there. 39 00:02:36,200 --> 00:02:38,520 David Flair, he was wrestling Diamond Dallas Page. 40 00:02:39,260 --> 00:02:43,540 He was getting his butt kicked, and Daphne comes running out. 41 00:02:43,940 --> 00:02:46,260 Who in the world is coming out of here? Whoa! 42 00:02:47,060 --> 00:02:52,860 People just have to kind of act crazy, and that's really all the information I 43 00:02:52,860 --> 00:02:57,970 got. It was just going to be a one -two time gig, and she really blew it out of 44 00:02:57,970 --> 00:03:01,670 the park. And next thing you know, she's on TV all the time. 45 00:03:02,510 --> 00:03:05,050 My name is Darren Spruill. Shannon is my sister. 46 00:03:05,270 --> 00:03:06,710 You may know her as Daphne. 47 00:03:07,250 --> 00:03:13,090 They liked how I performed the character, so it was really kind of up 48 00:03:14,490 --> 00:03:21,410 At that time, all of the women that you saw in mainstream wrestling had that 49 00:03:21,410 --> 00:03:22,630 Barbie doll built. 50 00:03:23,360 --> 00:03:28,120 She was something new, something totally different that stood out. 51 00:03:28,820 --> 00:03:32,060 The cool, crazy, goth girl. 52 00:03:32,820 --> 00:03:35,180 And the fans ate it up. They loved it. 53 00:03:36,680 --> 00:03:40,380 My name is Chris Ford, and wrestling fans know me as Crowbar. 54 00:03:41,040 --> 00:03:44,000 They came up with this idea that we were going to have a tag team. 55 00:03:45,160 --> 00:03:49,840 We got along great. We just automatically clicked. 56 00:03:50,600 --> 00:03:52,500 I think crazy characters are fun. 57 00:03:53,050 --> 00:03:54,050 I was crazy. 58 00:03:54,110 --> 00:03:55,110 David was crazy. 59 00:03:55,570 --> 00:03:56,570 Daphne was crazy. 60 00:03:57,730 --> 00:04:01,950 She just screamed bloody murder at the top of her lungs. 61 00:04:03,590 --> 00:04:04,690 It's ear piercing. 62 00:04:04,970 --> 00:04:08,970 Oh, my gosh. The scream, the scream. She had the scream forever. 63 00:04:09,390 --> 00:04:14,830 Sometimes she'd just come into the room and... My mom screamed, what are you 64 00:04:14,830 --> 00:04:17,510 doing, Darren? I didn't touch her. I didn't lay a hand on her, you know. 65 00:04:18,250 --> 00:04:21,649 And she wouldn't let me get in trouble real bad for it because we were each 66 00:04:21,649 --> 00:04:24,130 other's best friends. You know, we didn't know anybody else. 67 00:04:24,830 --> 00:04:29,090 We're military brats. And with the military, you're moving around a lot. 68 00:04:29,090 --> 00:04:33,950 don't know anyone but your mom and dad and your sister. So you just become 69 00:04:34,010 --> 00:04:37,190 very close, almost where you can read each other's thoughts sometimes. 70 00:04:38,050 --> 00:04:39,630 We always did things together. 71 00:04:40,170 --> 00:04:41,550 We did a lot of theater. 72 00:04:42,200 --> 00:04:46,380 She played soccer. She broke all of her fingers playing goalkeeper, diving into 73 00:04:46,380 --> 00:04:48,720 people's feet. So Sam wasn't scared of anything. 74 00:04:50,220 --> 00:04:51,700 She was quite an athlete. 75 00:04:52,300 --> 00:04:53,360 She could sing. 76 00:04:53,580 --> 00:04:55,420 She could dance. She could act. 77 00:04:56,540 --> 00:04:58,040 And she was a straight -A student. 78 00:04:58,820 --> 00:04:59,900 And she was beautiful. 79 00:05:00,180 --> 00:05:01,180 She had it all. 80 00:05:02,720 --> 00:05:06,740 My name is Quentin Sproul, and I'm proud to say I'm Shannon's father. 81 00:05:07,720 --> 00:05:10,960 She was in three major movies before she was 10. 82 00:05:15,409 --> 00:05:19,090 That was the first clue. When I saw her on the big screen, I was like, yeah, she 83 00:05:19,090 --> 00:05:20,510 may try to go on and do other things. 84 00:05:21,430 --> 00:05:26,090 Once she was bitten by the wrestling bug, that was it. She was in it. If he 85 00:05:26,090 --> 00:05:29,010 it in her head that she's doing this, she's doing it. 86 00:05:30,930 --> 00:05:37,930 I wasn't real pleased about the matter, but we went with it. 87 00:05:38,540 --> 00:05:43,100 Daphne was up for anything, and I think that's what made it work so well. She 88 00:05:43,100 --> 00:05:47,800 had a gymnastics background, which is how we got into teaching her spots. 89 00:05:49,440 --> 00:05:56,360 He showed her safe ways to do moves that look athletic, look violent, 90 00:05:56,400 --> 00:06:01,940 look cool, but are very safe if done right, which is how the Franken 91 00:06:01,940 --> 00:06:02,940 was born. 92 00:06:08,040 --> 00:06:09,980 She didn't want to look like the technical wrestler. 93 00:06:10,400 --> 00:06:13,400 She wanted to make it look like she was the crazy girl who just happened to be 94 00:06:13,400 --> 00:06:14,400 wrestling. 95 00:06:14,440 --> 00:06:18,100 I'm Lexi Fife, and I've been in professional wrestling for 30 years. 96 00:06:18,860 --> 00:06:22,540 And Shannon, a .k .a. Daphne, was my best friend. 97 00:06:23,780 --> 00:06:28,460 Shannon had that magnetism that made you want to watch her. 98 00:06:30,830 --> 00:06:33,730 And she got noticed, and so they started letting her do more and more. 99 00:06:34,030 --> 00:06:37,790 There is your new cruiserweight champion of the world. 100 00:06:38,050 --> 00:06:43,610 This is the best thing ever, because this is the mix of the two things that I 101 00:06:43,610 --> 00:06:48,050 love the most in my life. It's athleticism, and it's acting. 102 00:06:48,270 --> 00:06:52,590 Get your ex -pooter girl butt out here right now! 103 00:06:53,030 --> 00:06:57,130 It just kind of rolled for her. You know, she was the Ferris Bueller of the 104 00:06:57,130 --> 00:06:59,210 women. You know, it just always worked out for her. 105 00:06:59,840 --> 00:07:00,900 She belonged in the spotlight. 106 00:07:01,180 --> 00:07:02,980 She was drawn to be in the spotlight. 107 00:07:03,720 --> 00:07:06,380 And she was just enjoying the ride. 108 00:07:07,060 --> 00:07:13,820 But we all knew at some level that that ride could come to an end 109 00:07:13,820 --> 00:07:15,360 at any time. 110 00:07:16,980 --> 00:07:23,680 As Shannon's star rises, WCW crashes. And in 2001, the competition 111 00:07:23,680 --> 00:07:26,040 swoops in and shuts it down. 112 00:07:26,790 --> 00:07:31,910 WCW folded, and I went through this period of extreme depression. 113 00:07:32,570 --> 00:07:37,390 And of course, you think, well, it's because you don't have your job anymore. 114 00:07:38,250 --> 00:07:40,750 She knew she wanted to stay in professional wrestling. 115 00:07:40,990 --> 00:07:45,790 She was talking to WWE and trying to potentially get a contract back with 116 00:07:46,350 --> 00:07:53,130 So here's me, working my ass off, going to WWE, trying out, give me a job. 117 00:07:53,430 --> 00:07:55,630 She had a developmental deal. 118 00:07:56,060 --> 00:07:58,040 But never made it to the TV. 119 00:07:58,500 --> 00:08:01,480 My developmental with the WWE was nine months. 120 00:08:01,740 --> 00:08:02,740 And then I got let go. 121 00:08:03,400 --> 00:08:05,000 And I was just, like, wrestling. 122 00:08:05,500 --> 00:08:09,260 When she did lose her contract, she and her husband at the time were going 123 00:08:09,260 --> 00:08:10,260 through a divorce. 124 00:08:10,540 --> 00:08:11,840 She was going to have to move. 125 00:08:12,560 --> 00:08:14,860 It was a whole bunch of crap at once. 126 00:08:15,640 --> 00:08:19,360 She was trying some antidepressants, but they weren't working. 127 00:08:19,800 --> 00:08:21,580 It threw her into a spiral. 128 00:08:23,760 --> 00:08:29,800 I went over three months where I didn't sleep more than an hour a night. 129 00:08:30,380 --> 00:08:33,299 And then I developed a stutter, and I was talking really, really fast. 130 00:08:33,700 --> 00:08:38,700 I finally reached out to my daddy. He's my rock. I was like, Daddy, something's 131 00:08:38,700 --> 00:08:39,700 wrong. 132 00:08:39,720 --> 00:08:41,120 I don't know what's happening. 133 00:08:42,360 --> 00:08:46,280 Sometimes you would just think it would be a lot easier if I didn't have to put 134 00:08:46,280 --> 00:08:47,280 up with all of this. 135 00:08:48,440 --> 00:08:49,500 That's not Shannon. 136 00:08:49,840 --> 00:08:51,680 That was your first indication. 137 00:08:52,620 --> 00:08:56,720 There would be moments where everything was great, and then there was other 138 00:08:56,720 --> 00:09:00,460 moments where she just had the confidence of a mouse. 139 00:09:01,340 --> 00:09:04,220 So Shannon was diagnosed as bipolar. 140 00:09:05,560 --> 00:09:10,120 90 % of the time that I was signed by the WWE and I was in training, I was 141 00:09:10,120 --> 00:09:12,420 bipolar, and I was on no beds. 142 00:09:13,400 --> 00:09:16,580 Bipolar disorder is an instability of mood. 143 00:09:17,120 --> 00:09:20,880 You'll be really, really depressed, and then all of a sudden there'll be a 144 00:09:20,880 --> 00:09:23,120 switch in your brain, and you're manic. 145 00:09:23,760 --> 00:09:28,020 Your brain tricks you because your chemicals are so messed up, which I'm 146 00:09:28,020 --> 00:09:31,260 very familiar with. She had bipolar disorder, and I do too. 147 00:09:32,860 --> 00:09:36,860 My name is Amanda Rodriguez, and I was a best friend of Daphne. 148 00:09:38,200 --> 00:09:40,880 Mania, it can be really scary and really confusing. 149 00:09:41,940 --> 00:09:43,400 You're like in the back seat. 150 00:09:44,030 --> 00:09:47,470 And your body is the car, and someone else is driving it, and you don't 151 00:09:47,470 --> 00:09:48,470 recognize yourself. 152 00:09:49,110 --> 00:09:53,070 I just remember driving, just going, oh, my God, I'm crazy. Oh, my God, I'm 153 00:09:53,070 --> 00:09:54,590 crazy. That's terrifying. 154 00:09:55,210 --> 00:09:57,590 There are drugs that you can take. 155 00:09:57,970 --> 00:10:01,530 The problem is they have horrible, horrible side effects. 156 00:10:03,110 --> 00:10:06,830 Throwing up and headaches and all kinds of stuff like that. 157 00:10:07,770 --> 00:10:10,090 There are times when she wouldn't take it consistently. 158 00:10:10,650 --> 00:10:14,490 So she wasn't seeing the benefits of the medicines that she had. 159 00:10:14,730 --> 00:10:16,170 She didn't want to be on medicine. 160 00:10:16,390 --> 00:10:19,410 She wanted another way for it to be handled. 161 00:10:20,010 --> 00:10:23,730 If you don't take care of it with professional support or medication, it 162 00:10:23,730 --> 00:10:29,930 turn into depressive mania, where I believe the risk of suicide comes in. 163 00:10:31,650 --> 00:10:37,190 One time, she was in a very manic mood, and my dad called me on the phone and 164 00:10:37,190 --> 00:10:39,230 was like, she's got to get to the hospital, she's got to do something. 165 00:10:39,840 --> 00:10:42,980 So I said, Jan, you've got to go to the doctor because I can't take care of you. 166 00:10:43,540 --> 00:10:45,120 There's nothing I can do to help you. 167 00:10:45,360 --> 00:10:50,480 There was times on the way that she was threatening to get out of the car and 168 00:10:50,480 --> 00:10:51,480 just run. 169 00:10:51,880 --> 00:10:58,300 But we got her there safely and checked her in, and she was there for a couple 170 00:10:58,300 --> 00:10:59,300 weeks. 171 00:10:59,860 --> 00:11:03,500 That's not something you want to do with your sister. 172 00:11:04,000 --> 00:11:07,300 I hate that people in my life. You're just powerless. 173 00:11:08,340 --> 00:11:12,000 watching a person struggle with this thing, and you're just like, what do you 174 00:11:12,000 --> 00:11:17,760 do? You need to make sure that your children know that they're loved, no 175 00:11:17,760 --> 00:11:23,460 what. We prayed through and talked through so many things. 176 00:11:24,840 --> 00:11:31,760 She decided that she wanted to be in the ring and couldn't talk her out of it. 177 00:11:40,070 --> 00:11:46,390 Following her diagnosis of bipolar disorder, in 2003, Shannon sets out on 178 00:11:46,390 --> 00:11:49,530 indie circuit to rebuild her career and herself. 179 00:11:50,450 --> 00:11:54,250 If she still thought she could do something, she still wanted to do it. 180 00:11:54,250 --> 00:11:55,250 Shannon. That was it. 181 00:11:55,930 --> 00:12:00,710 We thought she was doing better. We thought she had some success and she was 182 00:12:00,710 --> 00:12:05,070 better control with the medicines and day -to -day life kind of stuff. 183 00:12:05,740 --> 00:12:09,800 It was an opportunity for her. She wasn't at home twiddling her thumbs. She 184 00:12:09,800 --> 00:12:10,820 getting to do stuff. 185 00:12:12,160 --> 00:12:17,180 Independent wrestling is a totally different lifestyle than TV wrestling. 186 00:12:17,880 --> 00:12:20,920 You're going from town to town to town, and that's when I met her. 187 00:12:21,180 --> 00:12:23,920 And she was just like, this is what I'm supposed to be doing. 188 00:12:25,040 --> 00:12:27,320 All she thought about was wrestling. 189 00:12:29,400 --> 00:12:34,760 It doesn't matter if there was five people in the audience or 50 ,000. 190 00:12:35,180 --> 00:12:38,600 She went out there and gave the same exact performance. 191 00:12:40,080 --> 00:12:45,960 That just completely encompasses who she was as a person and as a professional 192 00:12:45,960 --> 00:12:46,960 wrestler. 193 00:12:47,220 --> 00:12:53,200 My name is Chantel, but you may know me as Taylor Wilde, and Daphne is one of my 194 00:12:53,200 --> 00:12:54,560 professional wrestling sisters. 195 00:12:55,280 --> 00:12:57,860 I met Daphne at Chimmer in 2005. 196 00:12:58,670 --> 00:13:05,290 Shimmer was the first time in any real American promotion that women were 197 00:13:05,290 --> 00:13:09,230 highlighted, and it actually kind of changed the trajectory of where women's 198 00:13:09,230 --> 00:13:10,670 wrestling was headed. 199 00:13:10,950 --> 00:13:15,690 She really wanted all the girls to band together because she knew it was going 200 00:13:15,690 --> 00:13:16,689 to be big. 201 00:13:16,690 --> 00:13:21,810 Shimmer was a great place for all of us, and Daphne had a really, really good 202 00:13:21,810 --> 00:13:22,810 time there. 203 00:13:27,880 --> 00:13:30,920 We were a family there, and she felt it was a safe place. 204 00:13:34,620 --> 00:13:41,300 As wrestling has grown, there's more opportunities for women, and 205 00:13:41,300 --> 00:13:46,100 the women that are involved, they build each other up. And I really think Daphne 206 00:13:46,100 --> 00:13:48,680 had a huge part in that. 207 00:13:50,300 --> 00:13:54,800 By the time that we got together, she was full force, gung -ho. She loved 208 00:13:54,800 --> 00:13:57,180 professional wrestling more than anything else in the world. 209 00:13:58,730 --> 00:14:02,270 My name is Caleb Conley. I've been a professional wrestler for 20 years now, 210 00:14:02,270 --> 00:14:05,770 for four of those years, I dated Shannon Sproul, known to the wrestling world as 211 00:14:05,770 --> 00:14:06,770 Daphne. 212 00:14:08,710 --> 00:14:10,310 I was 20 years old. 213 00:14:10,570 --> 00:14:15,810 I was two years into the wrestling business, and she came, and she had a 214 00:14:15,810 --> 00:14:20,250 matches, and we started talking, and then just blossomed right from there. 215 00:14:21,250 --> 00:14:26,270 We worked on tons of shows together. We tagged a couple times. We wrestled each 216 00:14:26,270 --> 00:14:27,270 other. 217 00:14:27,370 --> 00:14:31,510 She opened up a lot of doors for me. She introduced me to a lot of people that I 218 00:14:31,510 --> 00:14:33,170 would have probably never met on my own otherwise. 219 00:14:34,390 --> 00:14:39,230 Even if she wasn't in professional wrestling, Shannon was so cool. She was 220 00:14:39,230 --> 00:14:40,230 amazing. 221 00:14:40,830 --> 00:14:46,330 But the bipolar thing was front and center our entire relationship. 222 00:14:47,170 --> 00:14:51,550 I could wake up in the morning and I could just feel the energy change. 223 00:14:52,160 --> 00:14:53,820 Sometimes she just couldn't get out of bed. 224 00:14:54,200 --> 00:14:58,260 And then at other points she would be doing the elliptical for two hours a 225 00:14:58,660 --> 00:15:02,220 And then all of a sudden she's like, I have to get off this medicine because 226 00:15:02,220 --> 00:15:03,440 it's making me gain weight. 227 00:15:04,040 --> 00:15:07,840 She lost the weight, but now she's also completely depressed and hates life. 228 00:15:08,660 --> 00:15:14,480 She was very quick to lose her temper in those times. But when her moods started 229 00:15:14,480 --> 00:15:18,780 to swing, I felt like she needed someone there that she could trust. 230 00:15:19,260 --> 00:15:21,300 But it's hard to stay positive. 231 00:15:21,880 --> 00:15:24,820 I was a dumb kid who thought he knew what he was doing. 232 00:15:25,240 --> 00:15:32,020 I didn't. I realized that we are just two people that had a moment in time 233 00:15:32,020 --> 00:15:37,920 together, and I loved her and she loved me, and we always had a pretty positive 234 00:15:37,920 --> 00:15:39,240 friendship after the fact. 235 00:15:39,720 --> 00:15:45,920 I think Shannon's bipolar disorder was very disruptive for her personal life. 236 00:15:46,750 --> 00:15:48,690 But it didn't affect her work. 237 00:15:48,990 --> 00:15:51,870 She could still get out there and ring and do what she needed to do. 238 00:15:53,130 --> 00:15:59,190 Shannon's grit, charisma, and screen presence earned her another shot back on 239 00:15:59,190 --> 00:16:01,730 television, this time with TNA. 240 00:16:02,370 --> 00:16:07,170 WWE wasn't taking the women seriously at this point, and TNA decided they would, 241 00:16:07,210 --> 00:16:13,050 and they had bangers. It wasn't bra and panties matches. It was real 242 00:16:13,050 --> 00:16:14,050 professional wrestling. 243 00:16:14,360 --> 00:16:17,720 Hannah didn't get brought in as a wrestler at first, and she didn't even 244 00:16:17,720 --> 00:16:19,220 brought in as Daphne at first. 245 00:16:19,500 --> 00:16:25,760 They indoctrinated Daphne back into TNA Wrestling as a parody of Sarah Palin, 246 00:16:25,800 --> 00:16:27,220 and they called her the governor. 247 00:16:27,680 --> 00:16:32,580 Our next -door neighbors are foreign countries. They're in the state that I 248 00:16:32,580 --> 00:16:38,940 the executive of. Sarah Palin was the governor of Alaska and the running mate 249 00:16:38,940 --> 00:16:42,180 for John McCain in the 2008 presidential election. 250 00:16:45,930 --> 00:16:50,610 The first time Sarah Palin was on national TV, she was like, I could do 251 00:16:54,910 --> 00:17:00,250 People didn't actually know who it was at first. I remember all the Wrestling 252 00:17:00,250 --> 00:17:01,250 Gotham website. 253 00:17:01,290 --> 00:17:03,950 They were like... But who is it? And it just took off. 254 00:17:04,349 --> 00:17:05,770 What? Is that the governor? 255 00:17:05,970 --> 00:17:10,310 It is! It's Governor Palin! People were completely committed to the storyline. 256 00:17:10,510 --> 00:17:14,369 When was she going to transform, and who was she going to transform into next? 257 00:17:15,890 --> 00:17:21,690 The story was she was actually in a mental institution, and they brought in 258 00:17:21,869 --> 00:17:25,270 Stevie to bring her back to being the Scream Queen Daphne. 259 00:17:26,290 --> 00:17:28,010 Daphne's bipolar was definitely... 260 00:17:28,430 --> 00:17:32,190 A superpower for her. She knew how to play that character well because that 261 00:17:32,190 --> 00:17:33,190 character was her. 262 00:17:33,690 --> 00:17:37,590 Everything was so calculated from her hair to her makeup to her persona. 263 00:17:37,850 --> 00:17:40,510 And I could just tell she was going to make it count this time. 264 00:17:41,670 --> 00:17:46,570 When she got to come back to TNA and she was doing really well, it was like a 265 00:17:46,570 --> 00:17:49,430 big F you to everyone who didn't believe in her. 266 00:17:50,570 --> 00:17:52,130 When I joined TNA... 267 00:17:52,410 --> 00:17:57,470 I started working with Daphne on screen because I really liked what she was 268 00:17:57,470 --> 00:17:58,470 doing. 269 00:17:58,730 --> 00:18:01,430 And I wanted her on my team. 270 00:18:02,110 --> 00:18:06,470 Everything about her, she tried to make different, unique, and she was 271 00:18:06,470 --> 00:18:11,550 successful. My name is Mick Foley. I am known as the hardcore legend. I knew 272 00:18:11,550 --> 00:18:14,270 Daphne as a colleague and also as a friend. 273 00:18:14,970 --> 00:18:16,310 Daphne was always up. 274 00:18:16,760 --> 00:18:17,539 for anything. 275 00:18:17,540 --> 00:18:23,100 She just really wanted to put on a good show. And she wanted to be whatever 276 00:18:23,100 --> 00:18:26,340 professional wrestling wanted her to be. It's her fault. 277 00:18:26,660 --> 00:18:33,560 I did not have any idea that the match that I was in would be the beginning of 278 00:18:33,560 --> 00:18:34,560 the end. 279 00:18:45,930 --> 00:18:47,370 With the Monsters Ball, man! 280 00:18:48,050 --> 00:18:50,630 Monsters Ball, basically, anything goes. 281 00:18:51,330 --> 00:18:55,630 Barbed wire bats and thumbtacks and things of that nature are encouraged. 282 00:18:56,950 --> 00:19:02,090 Daphne was part of my crew. We did want her to play a role in the big match with 283 00:19:02,090 --> 00:19:05,630 Abyss. Shannon called me that day, and she was like, they want to throw me 284 00:19:05,630 --> 00:19:08,870 through this table with thumbtacks and barbed wire. And she goes, I don't 285 00:19:08,870 --> 00:19:09,870 know if I feel comfortable. 286 00:19:10,270 --> 00:19:12,430 I do remember the move being discussed. 287 00:19:13,650 --> 00:19:19,470 And Daphne wanted to do it and felt like she could do it. It's just there's very 288 00:19:19,470 --> 00:19:22,130 little room for error. 289 00:19:22,530 --> 00:19:27,730 Looking back, we wish we had made a different call. 290 00:19:31,650 --> 00:19:37,550 Table broke and she landed on her head. 291 00:19:37,910 --> 00:19:40,210 It wasn't any of the wrestlers on the match's fault. 292 00:19:40,680 --> 00:19:45,720 It was as safe as you can make it, but it was the actual fall and then the 293 00:19:45,720 --> 00:19:46,720 concrete floor. 294 00:19:47,000 --> 00:19:53,520 I remember watching on the monitor, and I just ran straight to medical, and I 295 00:19:53,520 --> 00:19:56,340 was waiting for her to be brought backstage. 296 00:19:57,040 --> 00:20:00,960 They dragged her to another room, closed the door, and they pushed us all away. 297 00:20:01,180 --> 00:20:07,160 It was maybe 20, 30 minutes after the match when we realized how serious it 298 00:20:08,320 --> 00:20:09,780 Daphne had broken her arm. 299 00:20:10,080 --> 00:20:16,860 I just remember the whispering about concussions and that 300 00:20:16,860 --> 00:20:19,920 she hit her head really hard and that she wasn't okay. 301 00:20:20,300 --> 00:20:25,880 I believe she had no memory of where she was and what had just happened. 302 00:20:26,240 --> 00:20:32,780 It was sad to see that someone who had so much potential and was realizing that 303 00:20:32,780 --> 00:20:36,040 potential had been sidelined for this injury. 304 00:20:37,179 --> 00:20:42,800 And for it to be an injury that turned out to be so consequential, to this day, 305 00:20:42,860 --> 00:20:44,100 I feel terrible about it. 306 00:20:46,120 --> 00:20:50,860 Just months after suffering a broken arm and serious head trauma, Shannon 307 00:20:50,860 --> 00:20:55,460 returns to the TNA ring, desperate not to lose her spot on the roster. 308 00:20:56,560 --> 00:21:00,320 The doctor told her she shouldn't ever get back in the ring again at that 309 00:21:00,580 --> 00:21:03,140 And she was like, well, this is my life. I have to. 310 00:21:04,330 --> 00:21:08,430 Knowing Daphne, she wouldn't want anyone to know how injured she was. 311 00:21:08,690 --> 00:21:11,930 When it comes to wrestling, there's not a lot of room to be injured. 312 00:21:13,150 --> 00:21:18,610 There's always someone younger, hungrier, more talented, better looking, 313 00:21:18,610 --> 00:21:19,610 to take your spot. 314 00:21:21,050 --> 00:21:26,370 I think there's a difference between cleared and cleared. 315 00:21:28,230 --> 00:21:29,230 Why'd she do it? 316 00:21:29,530 --> 00:21:32,250 The same reason we would all do that. 317 00:21:32,590 --> 00:21:36,710 And that's because you want to further your career. You want to continue to 318 00:21:36,710 --> 00:21:38,730 become more valuable in the wrestling business. 319 00:21:39,190 --> 00:21:40,750 It's a shame, but we all do it. 320 00:21:41,670 --> 00:21:46,550 Months after her debilitating injuries, Shannon takes on newcomer Rosie 321 00:21:46,550 --> 00:21:49,090 Laudelove. Rosie was a larger woman. 322 00:21:49,450 --> 00:21:54,950 She has a very, very strong offense. She had Daphne in between her legs and then 323 00:21:54,950 --> 00:21:57,930 basically just hits down on her, right on her chest. Bam. 324 00:22:00,780 --> 00:22:04,840 She literally landed on her and it hurt her sternum. 325 00:22:05,260 --> 00:22:08,000 And I guess the wrestler in me, I was like, hell no. 326 00:22:09,460 --> 00:22:13,540 If I would have laid still, I wouldn't have got the second concussion. I just 327 00:22:13,540 --> 00:22:15,180 would have had a badly bruised sternum. 328 00:22:16,300 --> 00:22:19,880 I got a bad stinger, another grade two concussion. 329 00:22:21,060 --> 00:22:25,360 The wrestlers at TNA were mostly very supportive and checking in on her. 330 00:22:25,760 --> 00:22:30,340 The company as a whole at that time, there was a whole lawsuit about it. 331 00:22:30,680 --> 00:22:35,480 They weren't taking care of her medical bills, and they weren't doing follow -up 332 00:22:35,480 --> 00:22:36,479 care for her. 333 00:22:36,480 --> 00:22:43,460 I chose to file a worker's comp claim to try to prove in a court of 334 00:22:43,460 --> 00:22:49,080 law that wrestlers are not independent contractors, we're employees. 335 00:22:49,400 --> 00:22:54,140 And I just feel like at least what they can do is if you get injured in their 336 00:22:54,140 --> 00:22:56,200 ring, they should pay for it. 337 00:22:56,660 --> 00:22:59,840 She settled for money. 338 00:23:00,460 --> 00:23:06,800 I know that part of her settlement at least was they gave her like a thousand 339 00:23:06,800 --> 00:23:10,380 her action figures, which seems like such a crock of crap to me. 340 00:23:11,280 --> 00:23:16,540 This girl had a near -death experience basically for your company, and the best 341 00:23:16,540 --> 00:23:20,620 you can do is, hey, why don't you go make your own money hawking your 342 00:23:20,620 --> 00:23:22,080 merchandise at an independent show? 343 00:23:22,570 --> 00:23:23,570 So wild. 344 00:23:23,610 --> 00:23:27,370 They've got concussion protocols now that they did not have back then. So a 345 00:23:27,370 --> 00:23:31,870 of those changes were brought about by wrestlers like Daphne. She really kind 346 00:23:31,870 --> 00:23:33,210 broke a barrier there for us. 347 00:23:34,330 --> 00:23:39,950 But following two major injuries, Shannon's recovery is slower than 348 00:23:40,210 --> 00:23:42,970 and the toll on her body is starting to show. 349 00:23:43,490 --> 00:23:47,730 It wasn't an option to take the time off, but she was kind of forced into it. 350 00:23:48,130 --> 00:23:49,810 We say that we have a bump card. 351 00:23:50,669 --> 00:23:53,870 That's what we call it. There's only so many bumps you can take in your life 352 00:23:53,870 --> 00:23:55,970 before your body says, yeah, no more of this. 353 00:23:56,870 --> 00:24:01,770 I've got a long way to go. I see a light at the end of this tunnel. 354 00:24:02,170 --> 00:24:05,970 And I see hope. 355 00:24:09,350 --> 00:24:11,670 And it's really awesome. 356 00:24:12,250 --> 00:24:15,990 For a while, there's going to be some things I'm going to have to push 357 00:24:17,870 --> 00:24:23,670 I do remember her going into, like, a deep depression. I think whatever it did 358 00:24:23,670 --> 00:24:29,030 to her brain, it was not good, and she went severely negative for a while after 359 00:24:29,030 --> 00:24:30,030 that. 360 00:24:30,150 --> 00:24:34,970 Some of you may have noticed a little bit of change in my attitude. 361 00:24:35,690 --> 00:24:39,570 But a lot of people don't realize with concussions, if you have bipolar 362 00:24:39,570 --> 00:24:45,110 disorder, it's going to amplify it or trigger it, and she was struggling with 363 00:24:45,110 --> 00:24:46,970 that. There was a shift. 364 00:24:47,980 --> 00:24:49,080 In her personality. 365 00:24:50,160 --> 00:24:51,420 Trauma changes people. 366 00:24:51,800 --> 00:24:54,100 It changes your brain chemistry. 367 00:24:54,520 --> 00:24:56,200 That's just an uphill battle. 368 00:24:58,440 --> 00:25:03,460 I just don't think people really realize how bad I've been hurt. 369 00:25:03,800 --> 00:25:10,740 And as time has gone on, I don't think I'm going to be able to 370 00:25:10,740 --> 00:25:11,740 wrestle anymore. 371 00:25:21,090 --> 00:25:26,430 By 2011, injuries forced Shannon to make a decision about the future of her 372 00:25:26,430 --> 00:25:29,390 career. All these injuries took a toll on her. 373 00:25:29,790 --> 00:25:31,490 Like, I think she had headaches for months. 374 00:25:32,010 --> 00:25:35,770 That was the beginning of the end for her, as far as, like, in -ring 375 00:25:36,090 --> 00:25:40,890 We kind of put a foot down towards the end, especially after the concussions, 376 00:25:40,930 --> 00:25:45,070 that she just did not need to go into the ring, and she agreed. 377 00:25:46,050 --> 00:25:49,590 When you're a wrestler and you can't wrestle because of your paycheck, 378 00:25:50,400 --> 00:25:54,180 So she was always trying to figure out what the next hustle was going to be for 379 00:25:54,180 --> 00:25:55,180 her. Luckily, 380 00:25:57,740 --> 00:25:59,060 she had a really great fan base. 381 00:25:59,340 --> 00:26:03,020 She would be online trying to sell her 8x10s and her t -shirts. 382 00:26:04,560 --> 00:26:09,040 She was doing appearances. She would pop up here and there and do autograph 383 00:26:09,040 --> 00:26:10,240 signings at conventions. 384 00:26:10,440 --> 00:26:14,440 And she was producing for Shine down in Florida. 385 00:26:18,400 --> 00:26:19,920 Finding new purpose. 386 00:26:20,330 --> 00:26:25,090 Shannon teams up with other female wrestlers to fight the stigma of bipolar 387 00:26:25,090 --> 00:26:30,230 disorder. I think people don't really realize that for 10 years now I've had a 388 00:26:30,230 --> 00:26:31,530 chemical imbalance. 389 00:26:31,790 --> 00:26:36,530 I take medication twice a day, and it's something that every day, like, it's a 390 00:26:36,530 --> 00:26:40,870 real thing, as opposed to, you know, me acting crazy as a gimmick. 391 00:26:42,620 --> 00:26:47,980 Banded together as sisters, me, Daphne, Kimberly, and Amber Gertner, and got her 392 00:26:47,980 --> 00:26:49,660 bipolar disorder awareness tattoos. 393 00:26:50,420 --> 00:26:56,080 It's a colon, a parenthesis, and another colon. So it's like happy and sad for 394 00:26:56,080 --> 00:26:58,240 depression and mania. 395 00:26:58,760 --> 00:27:01,260 And it gives me a reason to talk about bipolar disorder. 396 00:27:01,900 --> 00:27:05,160 And that had been the theme of our sisterhood. 397 00:27:05,919 --> 00:27:09,000 She was always there to be the rock for everybody else. I think a lot of people 398 00:27:09,000 --> 00:27:12,700 find it hard to comprehend, you know, that she was suffering too. 399 00:27:13,260 --> 00:27:17,220 She would have times when she was getting ready to go to the grocery 400 00:27:17,400 --> 00:27:21,220 she'd get out in the car and can't remember where she's going. 401 00:27:21,720 --> 00:27:26,440 She would do some refereeing, and even that was giving her issues. Like, she'd 402 00:27:26,440 --> 00:27:30,180 go down to make a count, and she was getting dizzy, felt a lot of vertigo. 403 00:27:31,000 --> 00:27:33,060 Those concussions were just killing her. 404 00:27:34,000 --> 00:27:38,340 She's like, when I die, I want my brain to go to science so I can research 405 00:27:38,340 --> 00:27:42,140 what's going on with me and hopefully help people. 406 00:27:42,660 --> 00:27:47,300 She had already filled out all the paperwork with the Boston CTE hospital 407 00:27:47,300 --> 00:27:52,020 have her brain donated. She decided she needed to make a big change because I 408 00:27:52,020 --> 00:27:56,640 think being around the business, not being able to wrestle, was causing her 409 00:27:56,640 --> 00:27:57,640 depression. 410 00:27:57,720 --> 00:28:00,060 And so she opted to leave. 411 00:28:00,940 --> 00:28:05,840 For Daphne, losing wrestling was like losing the love of her life. 412 00:28:07,580 --> 00:28:09,040 I miss being in the ring. 413 00:28:11,260 --> 00:28:14,800 That's where my heart is, at least, is in this business. 414 00:28:18,360 --> 00:28:19,360 Definitely. 415 00:28:20,600 --> 00:28:26,860 Shannon, just like many professional wrestlers, when that run is over, don't 416 00:28:26,860 --> 00:28:29,760 know how to become regular people. 417 00:28:30,510 --> 00:28:32,550 How do we exist outside of that spotlight? 418 00:28:34,390 --> 00:28:36,890 All of us have some kind of struggle like that. 419 00:28:37,970 --> 00:28:41,170 She was big into self -medication for a long time. 420 00:28:41,570 --> 00:28:45,850 It's a Band -Aid that you can put on a situation for a little bit, you know. 421 00:28:46,070 --> 00:28:49,790 She has a couple drinks, she's feeling good, everything's fine, and then it all 422 00:28:49,790 --> 00:28:51,750 kind of tumbles downhill after that. 423 00:28:51,990 --> 00:28:58,310 She got in a car accident, and then she got in another car accident, and she had 424 00:28:58,310 --> 00:28:59,310 to go to rehab. 425 00:28:59,690 --> 00:29:01,170 because it was court -ordered. 426 00:29:02,350 --> 00:29:06,190 The night before she was going to go into rehab, she 427 00:29:06,190 --> 00:29:10,070 contemplated committing suicide. 428 00:29:11,550 --> 00:29:15,550 I made her promise to always call me, and so that's why she called me that 429 00:29:15,550 --> 00:29:17,870 night. And I took her to rehab the next day. 430 00:29:18,990 --> 00:29:22,870 Every day I felt like I was having to talk her off a ledge for a while there. 431 00:29:23,690 --> 00:29:28,330 Bipolar disorder, like, makes the bad stuff seem... 432 00:29:29,320 --> 00:29:30,320 So bad. 433 00:29:30,520 --> 00:29:32,840 I can't wrestle. I haven't wrestled since 2010. 434 00:29:33,240 --> 00:29:35,860 She really struggled with her self -image. 435 00:29:36,280 --> 00:29:40,420 With medication, she was gaining weight, so she was getting really depressed 436 00:29:40,420 --> 00:29:44,520 about that. That's a really big problem, I think, in entertainment for all 437 00:29:44,520 --> 00:29:49,020 women. Beauty and thinness is a currency. The fans that she was... 438 00:29:49,770 --> 00:29:53,790 So enthralled with and loved, a lot of them started writing some negative stuff 439 00:29:53,790 --> 00:29:54,790 about her. 440 00:29:54,830 --> 00:29:59,050 Someone said, I look like Ozzy Osbourne and Roseanne had a kid. 441 00:30:00,430 --> 00:30:06,070 The Internet can be cruel, and it was really causing her mental anguish. 442 00:30:06,350 --> 00:30:09,330 She was having a lot of physical issues. 443 00:30:09,670 --> 00:30:14,230 She got diagnosed with a thyroid issue, and she was having all these menopausal 444 00:30:14,230 --> 00:30:16,370 symptoms, which makes your bipolar meds not work. 445 00:30:17,740 --> 00:30:18,960 I felt guilt for too long. 446 00:30:19,400 --> 00:30:24,020 She was going through a lot of things that would kind of beat anyone down. 447 00:30:24,960 --> 00:30:27,620 But then COVID hit. Then she was even more isolated. 448 00:30:29,100 --> 00:30:34,380 She would say things like, like, I'm so alone. I don't have anybody. And I'm 449 00:30:34,380 --> 00:30:36,840 like, oh, my gosh, girl, you have so many people. 450 00:30:37,960 --> 00:30:44,080 We always had plans about what we're going to do to get her out of the 451 00:30:44,080 --> 00:30:45,120 that she is in. 452 00:30:46,440 --> 00:30:50,360 She had a new apartment, she had a new job, and she was going back to school. 453 00:30:51,080 --> 00:30:57,420 I talked to her that morning, and everything seemed to be fine. 454 00:30:58,480 --> 00:31:01,060 And that's when the Instagram moment happened. 455 00:31:08,480 --> 00:31:14,740 On the evening of September 1st, 2021, Shannon goes live on Instagram. 456 00:31:16,330 --> 00:31:19,190 I wasn't even really familiar with Instagram Live. 457 00:31:21,510 --> 00:31:25,530 But I just saw that bubble pop up, and it was that. 458 00:31:25,750 --> 00:31:26,750 And I thought, oh. 459 00:31:27,770 --> 00:31:34,750 And just basically talking her suicide note. 460 00:31:36,370 --> 00:31:39,790 She stole her former roommate's gun. 461 00:31:40,600 --> 00:31:44,160 She was saying, you guys got to take care of your brain, take care of your 462 00:31:44,160 --> 00:31:47,780 brain. And she would say, take my brain to Boston, take my brain to Boston. 463 00:31:48,020 --> 00:31:52,100 And I knew that it was a lot more serious than I had initially thought. 464 00:31:53,320 --> 00:31:58,680 I've been a firefighter for 10 years, and I deal with people that are in 465 00:31:58,680 --> 00:32:00,060 every time I go to work. 466 00:32:01,020 --> 00:32:05,120 And she was just, she was in crisis. 467 00:32:05,880 --> 00:32:06,900 She needed help. 468 00:32:07,540 --> 00:32:09,540 I thought maybe about Penn. 469 00:32:10,190 --> 00:32:16,630 20 seconds of it and got up and got dressed and was getting, calling my dad 470 00:32:16,630 --> 00:32:18,130 saying, all right, hey, we need to go to Atlanta. 471 00:32:20,310 --> 00:32:25,390 All of a sudden I started getting a ton of text messages. 472 00:32:26,790 --> 00:32:30,790 When I logged on and she saw my name, she said, I'm sorry. 473 00:32:31,090 --> 00:32:32,790 She goes, I'm going to break my promise. 474 00:32:36,370 --> 00:32:38,630 I immediately went. 475 00:32:39,310 --> 00:32:41,030 Called the police up there. 476 00:32:41,710 --> 00:32:46,550 I'm commenting, saying, Daph, I love you. And then I'm seeing all the 477 00:32:46,550 --> 00:32:49,770 I know. They're all logging in. They're all saying the same thing. You know, 478 00:32:49,790 --> 00:32:50,790 call me. 479 00:32:50,990 --> 00:32:57,970 I went to my cell phone and started calling her over and over 480 00:32:57,970 --> 00:32:59,010 and over again. 481 00:32:59,330 --> 00:33:04,070 I just kept getting the voicemail was full. The voicemail was full. I tried 482 00:33:04,070 --> 00:33:05,070 calling her. 483 00:33:05,590 --> 00:33:07,310 And I... 484 00:33:10,830 --> 00:33:12,090 Calling her and texting her. 485 00:33:13,110 --> 00:33:16,170 And I just knew that if I could get a hold of her, if I could get her to text 486 00:33:16,170 --> 00:33:18,490 back, if I could get her on the phone, then I could make sure everything was 487 00:33:18,490 --> 00:33:19,630 okay. She would listen to me. 488 00:33:20,630 --> 00:33:25,950 But she wouldn't answer her phone. 489 00:33:26,950 --> 00:33:28,170 And then it went black. 490 00:33:30,970 --> 00:33:36,350 And I was just left staring at my phone, not knowing what I had actually 491 00:33:36,350 --> 00:33:37,350 witnessed. 492 00:33:37,800 --> 00:33:42,540 knowing what I had witnessed, but my brain was not allowing me to process. 493 00:33:46,260 --> 00:33:50,440 When me and my dad got there, my mom was already there knocking on the door, and 494 00:33:50,440 --> 00:33:51,520 of course there was no answer. 495 00:33:52,020 --> 00:33:55,420 We had to call the fire department in to calm and knock down the door. 496 00:33:56,520 --> 00:33:58,880 I was on the phone with her mom when they finally broke in. 497 00:34:00,720 --> 00:34:04,680 It was her first night ever. 498 00:34:06,459 --> 00:34:08,080 I was just waiting on the news. 499 00:34:10,600 --> 00:34:13,060 And then when it arrived, it wasn't good. 500 00:34:15,159 --> 00:34:20,980 Fire department came down and said they were sorry, but she had passed, and my 501 00:34:20,980 --> 00:34:25,560 dad was on my left and my mom was on the right, and they both kind of knees 502 00:34:25,560 --> 00:34:32,320 buckled, and I grabbed them, and one of the officers helped me grab them, and it 503 00:34:32,320 --> 00:34:35,480 didn't really dawn on me that at this time she had done it. 504 00:34:36,969 --> 00:34:42,750 I talked to her that morning, and I felt like if I had a chance to talk to her 505 00:34:42,750 --> 00:34:45,469 again, we could have talked it out. 506 00:34:46,449 --> 00:34:49,969 I didn't get a chance to talk her out of it. 507 00:34:50,790 --> 00:34:53,909 I like to believe that she knew how much it hurt me. 508 00:34:55,610 --> 00:34:56,870 She wouldn't have done it. 509 00:34:58,250 --> 00:35:04,550 Even though your brain might be telling you that suicide is the only way, 510 00:35:05,800 --> 00:35:07,820 And that you don't think you're worth it. 511 00:35:09,040 --> 00:35:15,940 The hole that you leave is too much. It's too much to 512 00:35:15,940 --> 00:35:16,940 fill. 513 00:35:18,040 --> 00:35:21,160 I was mad at her because of my daughter. 514 00:35:23,180 --> 00:35:24,860 My daughter knew her as Aunt Shan. 515 00:35:25,620 --> 00:35:29,120 How dare she do this to my daughter? How dare she take Aunt Shan away? 516 00:35:30,000 --> 00:35:31,540 How dare she take my friend away? 517 00:35:33,930 --> 00:35:35,490 I'm driving down the road. 518 00:35:35,990 --> 00:35:39,030 I'm supposed to be chipper. I'm supposed to go to shows. I'm supposed to shake 519 00:35:39,030 --> 00:35:39,908 everybody's hand. 520 00:35:39,910 --> 00:35:46,570 And meanwhile, this person that meant the world to me for years is gone. 521 00:35:48,630 --> 00:35:54,910 Shannon, you were an incredible friend. I just wish you felt comfortable enough 522 00:35:54,910 --> 00:36:01,430 to reach out and talk about the things that were bothering you. And I just wish 523 00:36:01,430 --> 00:36:02,430 you were still here now. 524 00:36:03,370 --> 00:36:09,990 It could be really difficult for Daphne to know how loved she was and 525 00:36:09,990 --> 00:36:12,850 so unfortunate that she felt all alone. 526 00:36:13,230 --> 00:36:16,810 That's why I encourage people to reach out and reach out to their friends. 527 00:36:17,490 --> 00:36:18,670 That's what we're here for. 528 00:36:20,570 --> 00:36:26,430 She was in a very dark place, and it was very real to her. 529 00:36:26,990 --> 00:36:31,270 And that's what mental illness and CTE can look like. 530 00:36:31,530 --> 00:36:32,530 It's like a veil. 531 00:36:32,990 --> 00:36:37,710 She believed she had CTE and she wasn't going to let it be in vain. 532 00:36:47,230 --> 00:36:50,130 God, that is her second grade? 533 00:36:50,390 --> 00:36:52,190 Yeah, second grade or something like that. 534 00:36:52,450 --> 00:36:56,890 She lived in O 'Fallon, Illinois, and that was, I believe, her second grade 535 00:36:56,890 --> 00:36:57,890 picture. 536 00:36:58,650 --> 00:37:01,710 She made an agreement with the University of Boston. 537 00:37:02,360 --> 00:37:08,780 that she was going to donate her brain for research and made me promise 538 00:37:08,780 --> 00:37:11,920 that I would make sure that that happened. 539 00:37:12,560 --> 00:37:17,260 Shannon was going to be the first female brain in their study. 540 00:37:17,800 --> 00:37:22,940 They say that there was CTE, but they don't know how much and to what extent 541 00:37:22,940 --> 00:37:23,940 that it was. 542 00:37:25,500 --> 00:37:31,560 The biggest thing for Daphne in her death was that she wanted to bring 543 00:37:32,170 --> 00:37:38,490 into CTE and to what concussions long -term do and when you're willing to do 544 00:37:38,490 --> 00:37:45,410 anything for wrestling, what can happen to you? We really need 545 00:37:45,410 --> 00:37:48,310 to listen to her message about taking care of your brain. 546 00:37:48,550 --> 00:37:54,470 As a wrestler with bipolar disorder, my brain health comes first. 547 00:37:54,690 --> 00:37:56,630 I saw what it did to Daphne. 548 00:37:57,310 --> 00:38:00,610 The best counselor in the world can't help anybody if they don't want to get 549 00:38:00,610 --> 00:38:05,670 better. Shanna did, and she worked at it, and we fought the good fight. 550 00:38:06,170 --> 00:38:11,130 She was never shy about talking about her bipolar disorder, so I think she'd 551 00:38:11,130 --> 00:38:13,030 happy that we were being honest about it. 552 00:38:14,690 --> 00:38:18,610 While Shanna was still alive, she had started to do some charity work with a 553 00:38:18,610 --> 00:38:21,090 group called NAMI, which deals with mental illness. 554 00:38:21,520 --> 00:38:26,520 It's a great cause, and it's a cause that Shannon was already invested in. 555 00:38:26,740 --> 00:38:31,780 So I feel like giving in her honor and her name just keeps it going. 556 00:38:32,100 --> 00:38:34,620 She did a lot for basically everyone. 557 00:38:36,320 --> 00:38:37,480 It's time to repay. 558 00:38:39,380 --> 00:38:46,160 The outpour of support and love made us realize even more how 559 00:38:46,160 --> 00:38:49,380 special of a person she is and was. 560 00:38:50,320 --> 00:38:53,960 I really don't think you'll ever find anybody in the wrestling business that 561 00:38:53,960 --> 00:38:59,580 could say a bad word about Daphne, especially if you met her personally. 562 00:38:59,900 --> 00:39:06,160 There was not a more giving performer to 563 00:39:06,160 --> 00:39:10,820 her fans than Shannon Daphne. 564 00:39:11,160 --> 00:39:17,060 You look at Daphne as a great character. It was fun. It was different. 565 00:39:17,530 --> 00:39:23,030 But I think the match that epitomizes her as a human being is the match she 566 00:39:23,030 --> 00:39:24,030 with Vicki Lyons. 567 00:39:25,430 --> 00:39:30,450 I was somewhere on the road, and it was 2 a .m., 3 a .m., I couldn't sleep, and 568 00:39:30,450 --> 00:39:35,850 I'm watching Forensic Files, and it's a story about a little girl who was run 569 00:39:35,850 --> 00:39:41,170 over in a parking lot, and the terrible ordeal that this child went through. 570 00:39:41,610 --> 00:39:45,930 I don't like how people make me feel. 571 00:39:46,400 --> 00:39:51,400 It really touched my heart, and so I type in Vicki Lyons, and the first thing 572 00:39:51,400 --> 00:39:56,980 that comes up is Vicki Lyons -Daphne YouTube wrestling match, and I think, 573 00:39:57,120 --> 00:39:58,220 there's no way. 574 00:40:00,520 --> 00:40:05,580 Vicki Lyons had always wanted to be a professional wrestler, and Daphne was 575 00:40:05,580 --> 00:40:08,600 like, you know what? I'm going to teach you, and we're going to have a match. 576 00:40:10,000 --> 00:40:14,880 She obviously had limited physical capabilities, but any time anyone would 577 00:40:14,880 --> 00:40:18,220 her, no, you can't do this, she would look you dead in the eyes and be like, 578 00:40:18,320 --> 00:40:19,320 yes, I can. 579 00:40:24,040 --> 00:40:28,440 What unfolds is like one of the most beautiful things I've ever seen in our 580 00:40:28,440 --> 00:40:30,000 sport, and I've been around a long time. 581 00:40:30,640 --> 00:40:35,680 Shannon knew how to make Vicky look like a star, and she damn sure did it. 582 00:40:36,680 --> 00:40:38,560 That's suplex, Daphne. 583 00:40:39,290 --> 00:40:44,750 Gets rocked on that one. Daphne surprised Vicky by putting her over for 584 00:40:44,750 --> 00:40:48,510 victory in her one match that she trained five years for. 585 00:40:49,150 --> 00:40:55,810 In that match, I see everything that's 586 00:40:55,810 --> 00:40:57,850 good and right about professional wrestling. 587 00:40:59,090 --> 00:41:05,790 I think it was just as good for Shannon as it was for Vicky. 588 00:41:08,200 --> 00:41:12,600 It just showed you who she was as a person and what kind of a special heart 589 00:41:12,600 --> 00:41:13,600 had. 590 00:41:13,880 --> 00:41:19,700 I knew that Shannon was liked and loved, but I did not realize how many people 591 00:41:19,700 --> 00:41:21,860 she had touched. It helped a lot. 592 00:41:22,300 --> 00:41:23,460 It helped a lot. 593 00:41:25,580 --> 00:41:32,580 Daphne's legacy is that she taught female professional wrestlers how 594 00:41:32,580 --> 00:41:34,820 to be sisters, to love each other more. 595 00:41:35,290 --> 00:41:38,990 build each other up more, and to look after each other, both inside and 596 00:41:38,990 --> 00:41:39,990 the ring. 597 00:41:40,910 --> 00:41:44,690 David and I were the wrestlers of that crew. 598 00:41:45,330 --> 00:41:49,410 Without question, Daphne is the one that people remember the most. 599 00:41:50,290 --> 00:41:52,610 She oozed positivity. 600 00:41:53,390 --> 00:41:54,850 She was the greatest. 601 00:41:56,390 --> 00:41:59,070 Thank you for just leading by example. 602 00:41:59,650 --> 00:42:03,470 Thank you for being completely an original. 603 00:42:04,110 --> 00:42:09,990 I'm not a religious person at all, but man, she always, always lets me know 604 00:42:09,990 --> 00:42:11,810 she's paying attention to me. 605 00:42:13,270 --> 00:42:15,570 I miss her every day. 606 00:42:15,910 --> 00:42:22,750 I love her more and more every day. I have made it my duty to continue 607 00:42:22,750 --> 00:42:29,270 her advocacy for women in wrestling, women in entertainment, and 608 00:42:29,270 --> 00:42:31,490 for bipolar disorder patients. 609 00:42:32,140 --> 00:42:33,880 I will always talk about you, Daphne. 610 00:42:34,720 --> 00:42:36,780 Daphne is watching. She's always watching. 611 00:42:37,060 --> 00:42:43,120 She's influencing women's wrestling today and forever because that was the 612 00:42:43,120 --> 00:42:48,960 lasting effect she had. She's so missed, and I just want to say thank you, 613 00:42:48,960 --> 00:42:54,140 Daphne, and we love you, and we miss you, and I hope you're proud of us. 614 00:42:57,020 --> 00:42:59,640 Shannon loved her fans. She loved her family. 615 00:42:59,840 --> 00:43:00,840 She loved her friends. 616 00:43:01,400 --> 00:43:04,080 She would always be there for you if you needed her to. 617 00:43:06,920 --> 00:43:08,360 That's what I would want people to remember. 618 00:43:09,840 --> 00:43:11,580 I love that girl, I tell you. 619 00:43:12,680 --> 00:43:15,680 We miss her and we love her. 620 00:43:18,860 --> 00:43:23,200 I always thought we were going to be old and sitting in rocking chairs laughing 621 00:43:23,200 --> 00:43:25,900 at jokes that we didn't have to say anything because we would just look at 622 00:43:25,900 --> 00:43:27,000 other and start laughing. 623 00:43:30,160 --> 00:43:32,500 I hope I did a good job for you. 624 00:43:35,380 --> 00:43:42,240 I hope I did what you wanted. I hope I did a good job for you. And I miss you. 625 00:43:44,520 --> 00:43:45,520 I miss you. 626 00:43:46,720 --> 00:43:47,720 A lot.