A cute coincidence for me was that Ecstasy of Gold went live on May 22nd, a date which marked 22 years since Daffney defeated Crowbar on WCW Monday Nitro to become the Undisputed WCW World Cruiserweight Champion (est. 1996).
The uncaring arbiters of American wrestling history World Wrestling Entertainment rightly recognise Daffney’s reign as beginning a week prior. On May 15th’s Nitro she teamed with Crowbar in a mixed tag team match to take on Chris Candido & Tammy with Candido’s Cruiserweight title on the line. Daffney scored the pin on Tammy in that match and she and Crowbar consequently spent a week at one another’s throats as co-champions.
The singles bout that crowned Daffney as the Undisputed Champion was neither the most decisive or least sexist match you could hope to see. In the fashion that was typical of Vince Russo and his preferences, it was a short match in which Daffney inadvertently pinned Crowbar following interference from Candido and Tammy. Said outside interference included upskirt shots, a leggy distraction from Miss Hancock and a sit-out tombstone piledriver onto a steel chair which the referee didn’t think merited a disqualification.
Messy conclusion or not, Daffney continued her reign solo from there. Wearing a black wedding dress she retained in a Three Way match against Candido and The Artist on the May 26th broadcast of WCW Thunder (credit where it’s due, neither The Franchise or Jeff Jarrett could do the same that night) before her Cinderella story came to an end two weeks later at the hands of Lt. Loco who was victorious over Daff and the Best Bout Machine Disco Inferno in a triple threat match.
The win put her on a short list with intergender wrestling pioneers Madusa and Jacqueline as one of only three women to hold the title.
Despite creating great moments and lasting iconic images, all three women were booked in a variety of insulting ways during their brief title reigns (with the Madusa Vs. Ed Ferrara/Oklahoma feud being the absolute worst of it). Daffney in particular wasn’t presented in these matches as a powerhouse intergender star like Chyna (who had a near identical storyline with Chris Jericho over the WWF Intercontinental Championship just four months prior) but this angle helped establish her as one of WCW’s tremendously fun characters. Storylines like this allowed her to gain a cult following and helped make Daffney as influential as she would become.
Despite her short tenure with the ailing promotion and only a handful of matches (with no prior wrestling experience, her title win was actually only her fourth in-ring outing), the bizarre Daffney character still made a big enough impression to get into a WCW video game. Admittedly Backstage Assault was not a very good one, but Hi Digital Daffney!
These three weeks as Cruiserweight Champion were not the last time wrestling fans could enjoy her holding a championship intended for male competitors. In Irondale, AL on June 2nd 2006, Daff defeated El Mexicano for the NWA Wrestle Birmingham Junior Heavyweight Championship (est. 2006). She would defend it successfully on a few occasions until “Action” Mike Jackson bested her on July 5th 2007. This lengthy reign wasn’t her only accomplishment in the state of Alabama: She was also a holder of the GCW Women’s Championship in Phenix City’s Great Championship Wrestling, which she would eventually lose to the late Melissa “Super Genie” Coates on May 29th 2007. More than a decade later, she was inducted into the Alabama Pro Wrestling Hall Of Fame with the class of 2018.
Her final title victory occurred in Anarchy Championship Wrestling where she won and lost the ACW American Joshi Championship (est. 2009) in Live Oak, TX as a part of ACW’s Queen of Queens one night tournament. Daffney defeated champion Rachel Summerlyn in the first round but fell to Jessica James in the tournament’s Semi Finals later that same evening.
It was in Total Nonstop Action where I really fell in love with her and her work. I absolutely adored this beautiful creepy goth who would fight anyone and cut the most hysterical and terrifying promos.
Though she had made a couple of appearances in the fledgling promotion’s NWA: TNA days, she began her full time run there in 2008 as The Governor. She offered an unsettlingly spot-on portrayal of Sarah Palin (!) while briefly mentoring The Beautiful People (and based on some of Velvet Sky‘s tweets, the conservative Governor made an impact).
But like many others, I was hooked by her return to the Daffney character. Her performances with Dr. Stevie, Raven, Mick Foley and Abyss were perfect and she became one of the most captivating wrestling characters on television within this bizarre crisscross of psychotherapy, Calvinism, Hot Topic and hardcore wrestling.
This period saw her running wild with a taser, going after the gargantuan legend Kevin Nash and competing in contests with names like Monster’s Ball, Queen of the Cage and the Match of 10,000 Tacks. This underrated partnership with Dr. Stevie was even immortalised with her first and only action figure.
After her violence became too much for even Dr. Stevie to contain, she went on a chaotic singles run and was regularly in title contention on television and Pay Per View. I waited for Daffney’s TNA championship wins but they never came.
Though TNA championship gold was unattainable, Daffney was recognised by Pro Wrestling Illustrated as #18 in the 2009 PWI Female 50. Given her win/loss record, this high ranking was a testament to how tremendous her work and presence truly had been that year.
She was forced to retire from in-ring competition in 2011 but continued serving in manager roles and as the host for SHINE Wrestling. She would make lasting contributions to the people and the business she loved becoming a friend and mentor to many and a beloved wrestling mom.
https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.jsi love you MOM! 🖤🖤🖤 https://t.co/B5L3zCCxmB
— 𝔧𝔞𝔪𝔦𝔢 𝔩𝔶𝔫𝔫 𝔰𝔢𝔫𝔢𝔤𝔞𝔩 (@thejamiesenegal) October 10, 2021
Going by the names Daffney Unger, Lucy Furr, The Governor, Shark Girl and briefly Draculetta, the late Shannon Claire Spruill was one of my favourite wrestling characters to watch and my ultimate wrestling crush ever. In her career she was able to fill many roles: a goof, a goth, a champion, a young Charlotte Flair‘s nightmare, a politician, a hardcore icon and a Second City Saint.
She was famously a sweetheart and a trans ally (which for my own non-binary reasons makes me bawl). She was outspoken on concussions, wrestling injuries, mental health and her bipolar disorder. She is so loved and so missed by so many. She showed so much strength, love and kindness in her life.
But for the sake of our entertainment, Daffney became a monster to fight the monsters of the world. And nobody did it better.
“Without Daffney in TNA, there is no Rosemary in IMPACT Wrestling, to be perfectly flat out. Without Daffney and without Roxxi Laveaux, without characters that set the precedent and paved the way for dark characters to be accepted, for the Su Yungs and the Rosemarys and the Havoks of IMPACT Wrestling now, we had to have them before. She was absolutely a game-changer and a pioneer.”
– former World Champion Rosemary @ Inside the Ropes
Rest well Shannon.
The Ecstasy of Gold Wrestling website 