Let’s get one thing straight—LuFisto didn’t just break barriers in pro wrestling. She dropkicked them in the teeth, gave them a Death Valley Driver on the sidewalk, and then lit a cigarette as she watched them smolder. Born Genevieve Goulet in the frosty French-Canadian town of Sorel-Tracy, Quebec, she didn’t wait for anyone’s permission. At 17, when most teenagers are still struggling with algebra and acne, LuFisto was already suplexing her way into the professional wrestling scene under the sinister moniker “Lucifer.”
From the jump, she was trouble for the establishment. And by “trouble,” I mean she was a woman in a business that was more interested in T&A than T-bone suplexes. But LuFisto didn’t show up to be eye candy. She showed up with a chain, a steel chair, and a bad attitude—and she used all three.
The Human Rights Hurricane
In 2002, LuFisto found herself scheduled to main-event a show in Ontario against Bloody Bill Skullion. But the Ontario Athletics Commission, in their infinite wisdom, decided to enforce a rule prohibiting intergender wrestling. The kind of rule that smells like it was written by a guy who still lives in his mom’s basement and thinks women shouldn’t vote.
Instead of backing down, LuFisto did what most wrestlers wouldn’t dare—she took her fight to the Ontario Human Rights Commission. She didn’t just win the case; she shattered the system. The OAC folded faster than a cheap lawn chair, and suddenly, the floodgates were open. Indie wrestling in Ontario went from being stuck in a rotary phone era to 4G overnight. That’s right—LuFisto didn’t just change the game; she rewrote the damn rulebook.
Hardcore Queen of the North
While most wrestlers try to avoid getting hit with fluorescent light tubes, LuFisto embraced them like long-lost lovers. Combat Zone Wrestling, the Mad Max Thunderdome of the wrestling world, crowned her their Iron Man Champion in 2006. Yes, you read that right—Iron Man. And she didn’t win it from a YouTube backyarder in basketball shorts. She pinned Kevin Steen—later known to the WWE universe as Kevin Owens.
Then came the Stranglehold Deathmatch Tournament, which sounds less like a wrestling event and more like something you’d get arrested for hosting. In a final showdown that probably violated at least three international treaties, she beat Necro Butcher to win the whole bloody thing. The kind of match that makes a normal person reach for the remote—and a sicko like Jim Cornette reach for popcorn.
And if that wasn’t enough, LuFisto invited herself into CZW’s legendary Cage of Death match. No one asked her. No one thought she’d do it. She just walked in and said, “This is mine now.” By the time she walked out—bloody, battered, but still breathing—everyone in Philly knew her name. Some even learned how to pronounce it correctly.
The Comebacks, the Strokes, and the Middle Fingers
You think wrestling is tough? Try doing it after having a stroke. In 2010, after a match for NCW, LuFisto suffered a stroke. That would’ve ended the career of 99% of wrestlers—hell, it would’ve ended the grocery run for most people. But LuFisto isn’t most people. Less than three months later, she was back in the ring, taking on Sara Del Rey and winning.
Her opponents could throw chairs, fists, even fire—but nothing hit harder than reality. And every time it swung, LuFisto no-sold it like a boss.
Queen of the Indies
If you’ve ever stepped foot in an indie wrestling show in the last 20 years, chances are you’ve seen LuFisto’s fingerprints all over it—either literally (via blood) or metaphorically (via influence). She was the first woman in Quebec to win a men’s title. She was headlining shows in Montreal while other women were still being relegated to bikini contests in Stamford.
In SHIMMER, she gave Mercedes Martinez and Cheerleader Melissa the kind of matches that made the front row question their life choices. In Shine, she took on everyone from Leva Bates to Allysin Kay. And in WSU, she beat Athena (now AEW’s Athena) for the title after making Mercedes Martinez regret every bad decision she ever made.
Let’s also not forget “Team PAWG”—her dangerously entertaining pairing with Jordynne Grace that gave the internet exactly what it didn’t know it needed. The team name alone was enough to make Cornette spit coffee and Heenan raise an eyebrow from the afterlife.
Deathmatch Diplomat, Hardcore Historian
LuFisto wasn’t just a performer—she was a pioneer. A walking contradiction. The goth girl with a 4.0 GPA. The deathmatch wrestler with a heart of gold. The feminist firebrand with a collection of blood-stained barbed wire trophies. At one point, she was running her own school, the Torture Chamber, alongside Dru Onyx. Training the next generation while still actively kicking the crap out of the current one.
She even ventured into Mexico and Japan, winning the Lucha POP Women’s Championship and making it to the finals of AAA’s Reina de Reinas tournament. Internationally, she didn’t just hang—she hammered her way into relevancy.
Champion of the People (and Herself)
She held titles everywhere: CZW Iron Man, Shine Champion, WSU Champion, Femmes Fatales Champion (twice). And unlike some who lucked into a push, LuFisto earned every strap the hard way—through tables, tacks, and torn ligaments.
In 2018, she vacated the Shine Championship due to health issues. That wasn’t a retirement speech—it was a pit stop. Because if there’s one thing LuFisto has proven time and again, it’s that you can’t keep a good woman down. Not the athletic commission. Not a stroke. Not a busted back or broken rules. And sure as hell not some guy in a neckbeard trying to tell her to “stick to valeting.”
Final Bell?
Maybe she’ll hang up the boots soon. Maybe she won’t. But LuFisto doesn’t need a WWE run to cement her legacy. She is women’s wrestling. Not the glamorized TV version, but the real, bloody, bruised, broken-knuckle story told in Legion halls, bingo barns, and busted gyms from Berwyn to Baja.
She came, she saw, she bled all over the canvas—and left the world a little better for it.
And if you ever want to tell her she can’t do something, bring a chair. You’re gonna need it.