BY CLIFF SMELLEY
Telegraph Staff Writer
Taylor Gainey is like a kid at an amusement park who’s having fun and doesn’t want to leave.
Gainey, a 2019 Union County High School graduate, has been keeping busy most weekends as she pursues her dream of making a name for herself in professional wrestling.
“It’s been going great,” she said. “It’s like a never-ending roller-coaster ride, and I love roller coasters.”
That ride has taken her to two championships: one in Georgia’s Southeastern Wrestling Association and one in Florida’s Freedom Force Wrestling.
Gainey wrestles under the moniker of T-Gainz, which is a variation of the nickname T-Gain that was given to her by Coach Bryan Griffis when she was a member of the UCHS girls weightlifting team. Some also know her as Quadzilla” a reference to the quad muscles she’s developed through weight training. That was a nickname given to her by a coach during her time as a high-school weightlifter as well.
Quadzilla is also what Gainey calls her finishing move in the ring. She gets an opponent up on her shoulders and does a couple of squats — just as she would with a set of weights — before dropping them.
“I want to keep it close to my roots,” said Gainey, who won the Class 1A state championship in the 169-pound class during her senior year at UCHS.
From in front of the TV to inside the ring
Gainey, the daughter of Mitchel and Theresa Gainey, was watching wrestling on TV with a cousin of hers when she became intrigued with the idea of becoming a wrestler herself. She was 12 at the time.
Making that dream come true began by attending Flatbacks Wrestling School in Orlando.
The transition from training to become a wrestler to participating in actual matches has been easy, Gainey said. The adjustment has been stepping into a ring surrounded by 200-300 people when you’re shy and have battled insecurities in the past.
“The first time I came out, I was awkward,” Gainey said. “It’s so funny watching my start and then watch where I am now. I can see the nervousness and the awkwardness because I wasn’t used to having that attention on me.”
Anxiety is something Gainey deals with prior to every match. She said she paces in the locker room before it’s her time to wrestle, going over the match in her head and thinking about how it might play out.
Gainey said anxiety should be a part of wrestling.
“I feel like if I ever get to the point where I’m not worried, or I’m not having that nervous feeling before I go through the curtain, then I need to check something,” she said. “I feel like those nerves, those butterflies, should always be there.”
Once she steps through the curtain to enter the arena, the butterflies disappear. As a matter of fact, everything surrounding Gainey disappears in that moment. The match is the only thing she sees and the only thing she hears. She relies on her family to tell her what the atmosphere was like because she blocks it all out.
Well, almost all of it. Gainey admitted she can’t help but hear her father, who’s her “number-one fan.”
“He’s always the loudest person in the room,” Gainey said, adding, “Right when my (entrance) music hits — a millisecond in — he’s already standing up and screaming. He’s getting other people hyped up and excited.”
Properly earned title
Gainey won a Southeastern Wrestling Association championship on Jan. 15 and a Freedom Force Wrestling championship on Aug. 6. She was actually presented with the Freedom Force belt after a match before Aug. 8, but she refused to accept it because she hadn’t earned the victory.
Gainey was taking on Lexi Gomez in two-out-of-three-falls match on July 2 in Panama City. It wasn’t supposed to be a title match.
“At the last minute, they brought this belt out,” Gainey said. “They had just made it and turned the match into a championship match.”
Each wrestler had recorded a pin over the other when a third wrestler became involved. Emily Locke jumped into the ring with the championship belt and, with the ref being distracted, hit Gomez with it. Locke then took an exhausted Gainey, who was unaware of what was going on, and placed her on top of Gomez. The ref counted to three, with the result being that Gainey was credited with the pin and the championship.
Gainey said she didn’t want the belt after she came to her senses and learned of what happened.
“In the record books, it showed that I had won that night, but I knew I didn’t want to become a champion that way,” Gainey said. “Right after the match, I immediately turned around and relinquished it and left (the belt) there. I told them I wanted to have a triple-threat match with us three — that we’d have a champion that way.”
When that triple-threat match took place on Aug. 6 in Panama City, it was Gainey coming out on top, earning the belt the way she wanted to and becoming Freedom Force Wrestling’s first-ever female champion.
“It was an amazing night,” Gainey said. “We were the main event that evening. The fans were into it. Everyone loved it. The adrenaline was just pumping the entire time.”
Fan interaction
For Gainey, wrestling is more than just what happens inside the ring. After winning the Freedom Force title, she exited the ring and found the six daughters of the Rib Crib owners, who co-sponsored the event. She gave each one a hug.
Gainey enjoys being around children. In fact, when she’s not wrestling, she’s either working as a nanny or substitute teaching at Starke’s Southside Elementary School.
When she enters the arena prior to a match, Gainey said she likes to pick a corner and tell the children in attendance to all meet her there for a group hug.
“I always leave a show in tears because I love kids,” Gainey said. “I tell people every job I do revolves around them — the nannying, the subbing, the wrestling. I’ll have kids run up to me and tell me how much they love me and that they’re cheering for me. I’ll have parents tell me their kids have my pictures up on their walls.”
Gainey said she’s had girls tell her they want to follow in her footsteps and become wrestlers themselves. Some will tell her they don’t think they can do that, though, because they’re shy, for example.
“I’ll take a second and talk to them and tell them, ‘Hey, I was in the same shoes you are.’ I tell them things that helped me get over that hurdle,” Gainey said.
She likes children, but Gainey relishes the opportunities to talk with anyone of any age. The topic of conversation doesn’t always have to be about wrestling. In fact, Gainey has a podcast (QuadPod) on which she’ll talk about various experiences in her life or about her relationship with God. She’d love to have a blog, too, if she can one day fit it into her schedule.
As Gainey put it, she wants to share her heart with people.
“I just love that deep connection (with people),” Gainey said, adding, “They’re strangers, but they’re also someone of meaning to me.”
Moving up
She’s enjoying the roller-coaster ride now, but Gainey would love to be able to move up to either the AEW or WWE.
One thing that could possibly benefit her is her Quadzilla finishing move. The move shows off her leg strength, but more importantly, it something that’s unique.
“We’re always picking each other up and doing stuff to each other, but holding someone and squatting them? I was really excited to make that my thing,” Gainey said, adding, “I’m constantly thinking of what I can showcase. What does make me different?”
Gainey said it’s up to her to actively promote herself to AEW and WWE by utilizing social media. Other than that, all she has to do is keep wrestling and to do it in such a way that shows she’s serious about it.
“You’re constantly proving yourself as to why you should have the spot that you do, why you should be a champion and why you should be here,” Gainey said. “It’s showing up, being consistent and always working and grinding. Then you get rewarded for it.”
Imagining herself on the AEW or WWE stage is enough to give her butterflies, Gainey said.
As for her father, she said he’d “lose his mind.”
“I know that he’s going to be texting everybody who he knows. ‘Hey, turn on your TV at this time. You’re going to see Taylor.’ I know that he’s going to be on cloud nine,” Gainey said.
Gainey would love the opportunity if it happens, but that’d just be a bonus. She’s already doing what she set out to.
“When I was a kid, I told myself I wanted to be a wrestler,” she said. “When I stepped into the ring for the first time, I accomplished that. Now, it’s like everything else will be icing on the cake.”
Showing support
Whether you call her T-Gainz, Quadzilla or simply Taylor, you can keep up with what she’s doing by following her on Facebook (TGainz), Instagram (@t_gainz) and Twitter (@t_gainz). She also has a website: taylorgainey.wixsite.com. The website and social-media accounts contain links to her podcasts.
Of course, she’d love to have people cheering her on during her matches. She wrestles in Georgia as part of Southeastern Wrestling Association events, while Freedom Force Wrestling matches take place in the panhandle. Gainey does wrestle in other parts of the state with other promoters and has even taken part in events in Jacksonville.
Gainey now has a line of merchandise available at events.
If you attend a match, Gainey promises you’ll see her give 100-percent effort. She said she’s always been “a shy and quiet girl,” but when she enters the ring, a switch flips.
“I promise pure aggression,” Gainey said, adding, “The biggest thing I want people to see is the fight that is in me. When I come out, I’m going to give these people a reason to believe in me and to cheer for me.”
