Click here to see her as Courtney Rush
Holly Letkeman (born November 29, 1983) is a Canadian professional wrestler and occasional actress currently signed to Impact Wrestling (formerly TNA) under the ring name Rosemary. She formerly was known as Casey Maguire and PJ Tyler in the independent scene, but is better known by the ring name of Courtney Rush in SHIMMER where she is a one-time Tag Team Champion with Sara Del Rey.
Trained by Scott D'Amore at his wrestling school alongside Johnny Devine and Tyson Dux, she started out as a straightforward "suplex master". PJ Tyler's first title belt was won in Great Canadian Wrestling and as Rush she won another two years later in Magnificent Championship Wrestling. It was not until Courtney Rush discovered a love for Michael Jackson and dancing, slowly becoming a goofy wrestling "therapist" trying to share this love with opponents, that her career really started to take off. She would ride a wave of success from the international attention this attitude brought her in SHIMMER, not only winning title belts in Tri-City, Acclaim, Pure Wrestling Association and nCw Femme Fatales of her native Canada but also taking the Bellatrix World title in the UK.
All looked right for Rush, until a fateful event at SMASH Wrestling's CANUSA Classic in 2015 with fellow Canadian wrestler Cherry Bomb, led to Rush being humiliated, beaten down and her hair cut off while unconscious in front of the audience. Tormented by the experience, she implied that she began to share her soul with a demon, speaking about herself in plurals and taking to wearing demonic facepaint.
In early 2016, she arrived in TNA as the manager for Crazzy Steve and Abyss as part of a new stable known as Decay. Serving only as Decay's manager for most of 2016, she helped the team to attain the tag titles, which they held for several months. She began actively competing near the end of 2016, becoming the Knockouts Champion and having several hard-fought matches to retain the title.
"These tropes will decay... Decay... DECAY!":
- Aborted Arc: Seemed to have a history with Jimmy Havoc in TNA but this was dropped, as he was only part of the company for a short time. Her "feud" with Hania had a similar left field feel for how brief and one sided it ended up being.
- Adaptational Jerkass: Played for laughs in Portia Perez's Shoot Job, where Rush is antagonistic towards Perez who is a patient consummate professional just trying to get her work done and go home.
- Ambiguous Innocence: So did Courtney Rush con Sara Del Rey into being her partner in a bid to win SHIMMER's tag team titles, or had Del Rey simply put her foot in her mouth?
- Animal Eyes: At times her eyes have looked similar to a reptile's slit-like pupils.
- Arch-Enemy: Cherry Bomb (and Kimber Lee to an extent) in SMASH Wrestling. Jade, Taya Valkyrie, and Su Yung in TNA.
- Ascended Extra: PJ Tyler initially only appeared in the "Sparkle" dark matches before she appeared on SHIMMER proper as Courtney Rush.
- Ax-Crazy: Has had her fair shares of hardcore moments including thumbtacks, tables, barbed wire boards and even attempted murder in the ring.
- Badasses Wear Bandanas: Especially during her "suplex master" phase.
- Batman Gambit: Her experience with television shows and music videos usually doesn't translate(dancing for the monster won't stop it from kicking your face) but sometimes...
- She had to know Sara Del Rey would say yes to a stick of gum without thinking things through. Whether or not she knew Del Rey would be indignant enough to follow Rush in protest all the way to the match makers and that a win over Regeneration X would get them a title shot, has been debated.
- During her CANUSA Classic 2015 main event match against Jessicka Havok with all the ladies of SHINE at ringside, rather than diving after her opponent she turned away from Havok and did a flying cross body toward the heel women on the outside. When Havok tried to upstage her by taking her out along with them via twisting suicide dive, she got out of the way with a maniacal look on her face and then attacked Havok on the outside, showing that she planned that sequence out all along.
- The Wolves once tried to attack Decay with chairs, but Rosemary successfully exploited the fact that the Wolves Wouldn't Hit a Girl by placing herself as a human shield in front of her teammates.
- Black Eyes of Evil: In her early TNA career, her eyes were pure black, making her somewhat like an undead creature.
- Body Paint: Ever since she became a "demon", Courtney Rush began applying some face paint. As Rosemary fully took over, the face paint began resembling a zombie.
- Butt-Monkey: In Decay's feud with the Broken Hardys, she would often be outsmarted and humiliated — having her own poison mist absorbed by Matt and spat back in her own face at Delete or Decay; often on the receiving end of a beatdown against Reby Hardy over several weeks; and finally during the Great War, having a pumpkin placed on her head by Jeff, and even having the drone Vanguard 1 spraying its own version of poison mist in her face (in revenge for her having damaged it similarly in an encounter during Delete or Decay) referring to her misting as a 'Money Shot' and leaving her with her face coloured a deep shade of pink for the rest of the match.
- Canon Discontinuity: Crazzy Steve has known her almost since the beginning of her career, even teaming with her back when she was PJ Tyler, but TNA seems to have ignored this. Steve and Rosemary, on the other hand, have acknowledged their longtime friendship in online interviews where they acted in character, specifically to dispel the notion that Rosemary was some witch holding a spell on Decay to have them serve her against their will.
- Card-Carrying Villain: Has served as this as part of Decay. Even after their face turn, she still shows herself to be truly villainous, such as spitefully attacking Gail Kim after winning a Monster's Ball match.
- Catchphrase: She will often end her promos by repeating "Decay" three times, often growling out the final word.
- Cloudcuckoolander: Made her debut in TNA by quoting Alice in Wonderland, while often speaking in strange riddles with an odd tone of voice.
- Continuity Nod: Because of her attempt at kidnapping King Maxel Hardy, she was uninvited to the Hardy themed Impact dubbed Apocalypto.
- Cool Mask: Taken to wearing a lower face mask in civilian attire.
- The Corrupter: Rosemary set her sights on Angel Dust and Melanie Cruise, aiming to remove the "Angel" from the former and turn Dust into a ruthless Blood Knight, while turning the already brutish Cruise into an obedient single minded engine of destruction, Raven's Ash.
- Cute and Psycho: Particularly in her early manager period in Decay, in which she often would wear dresses, style her hair in pigtails and giggle her way to the ring, while also using her mist to distract opponents and even bring out weapons for the team to use.
- Dark Action Girl: Her being a wrestler and the "Demon Assassin" gimmick make those go without saying, but it becomes more noticeable in TNA, where she started out with a valet role but actively fought alongside her teammates as opposed to just accompanying them. Eventually she began fighting on her own as well, becoming TNA Knockouts Champion in late 2016 and taking part in many extreme match types, including a Monster's Ball match.
- Dark Is Evil: Rosemary always wears black with various accompanying shades of red, orange, blue or yellow, and is very evil, a fact she is proud of.
- Demonic Possession: After Cherry Bomb cut her hair, she started calling herself "the Demon Assassin" and referring to herself as 'us' and 'we'. At SHIMMER 81, Madison Eagles took advantage of this by pouring a line of salt on the ring apron, thus blocking her from entering, and unsuccessfully tried to exorcise her. Cherry Bomb has also repeatedly tried to stake her with a stake made from a cross. In TNA, Rosemary is the same tormented character with a stable and a different name yet has an alternate origin story which would've left her mentally scarred long before the CANUSA incident — thus it can be implied that Rosemary is Rush's demon given a name. By 2017, Rosemary has outright replaced Courtney Rush as her ring name everywhere she works except in Canada's Acclaim Pro Wrestling, where she teams with KC Spinelli as Danger Zone, and she's stated that "Courtney Rush is dead" in at least one other promotion, so it's less "implied" and more "heavily suggested" at this point.
- In later interviews, Rosemary would refer to Rush as her original "meatsuit" and Rush giving her side of the story in Multiverse, stated that Rosemary took over after the match vs. KC Spinelli that saw Cherry Bomb go over the edge.
- Was somehow removed from Rush in 2023, as her former meatsuit was sent back from the Undead Realm to aid JesSICKa against the Coven.
- Determinator: Has been put through thumbtacks, tables, and even been tangled in a barbed wire board, yet has come out the victor often in these matches.
- Dimensional Traveler: Rosemary has claimed to be this as a way to explain the various incarnations of of her character which includes the original Smashverse incarnation that was formerly Courtney Rush who feuded with Alpha Bitch Cherry Bomb/Allie, the Impactverse Rosemary who debuted as part of Decay and befrie-aligned a Plucky Girl Allie and the Riseverse Rosemary who manages the villainous tag team Paradise Lost. The Masters of the Multiverse webseries is where Impact!Rosemary's more homicidal traits are Played for Laughs and later on shows original Rosemary's origins from Courtney Rush herself. Also a way to explain how Rosemary appears in the webseries with a knee brace soon after her Impact version's presumed demise.
- Establishing Character Moment: Debuting to Marilyn Manson in TNA while walking like and physically resembling a zombie, quoting Alice in Wonderland before giving a Death Glare to the debuting Decay's opponents — with no explanation given whatsoever.
- Evil Redhead: Has recently had red streaks in her hair and red is one of the primary colors in her ring attires, hence why her recent war with Jade is themed as Red vs. Blue.
- Face–Heel Turn: Against Xandra Bale in SHIMMER. While Del Rey was an apathetic partner, Rush was of the belief Bale was simply incompetent, and that deserved punishment...
- Fangirl: Of Sara Del Rey. Courtney Rush's "worst day ever" was the one she finally realized Del Rey was an aloof asshole she had no hope of changing, but Rush respects her as a wrestler nonetheless.
- Friendly Enemy: Courtney Rush likes most of her opponents on some level, even trying to befriend the proudly friendless Sassy Stephie, arch rival Cat Power and Ax-Crazy Sweet Saraya. Portia Perez is a particularly one sided example, as Perez is always Easily Forgiven by Rush at the earliest opportunity. Mutual examples include Jennifer Blake, LuFisto, Xandra Bale, KC Spinelli, Allysin Kay and Vanessa Kraven. Rush's turn to Rosemary came after the realization Rush didn't have nearly as many "friends" as she thought she did.
- Foreshadowing: Courtney Rush's sudden transformation into a slasher villain caught everyone off guard. But once she started talking about a demon and displayed pronoun trouble, piecing things together was easy. Rush had regularly worn fiery trunks with red horned heads on them for at least three years by then, and once disguised herself as a "demon tiger". Since she was a well meaning "therapist", it was simply chalked up to her tastes in music, or believed to be done in tribute to lucha libre legends like Blue Demon and Tiger Mask. In hindsight, where else should we have expected Rush to turn when she believed she had no friends?
- Giggling Villain: Tends to do this quite often.
- Happy Dance: Courtney Rush's favorite past time, even more when Jody D'Milo's around to dance with her. London and Kendrick approved but Portia Perez found Rush's dances offensive.
- Heel–Face Turn: Was basically working as a face by default against Sienna at Slammiversary, but after the Sexy Star incident gave her real life sympathy, she turned for real.
- Hell-Bent for Leather: Has recently taken to wearing primarily leather attires.
- I Have Many Names: PJ Tyler was the first ring name she chose, but Casey Maguire was the first ring name she wrestled under while, Tyler initially being used in a passive role in a different promotion. Then she switched to Courtney Rush, excepting when she was disguised in SMASH as El Tigre Diablo. Then Rush was overtaken by Rosemary. Back to Rush in 2023.
- Jobber: Despite her prominence, when PJ Tyler entered the women's division of PWX/CCW, she lost every single match she had for two straight years, giving one the impression they were just trying to cash in on the attention she got elsewhere. However Courtney Rush was eventually able to defeat wrestles with much better win-loss records like Allysin Kay and Cherry Bomb's protege Leah Von Dutch, making her eternal title contender status more justified.
- Lovable Nerd: In her pre-Demon gimmick, particularly in her interactions with Sara Del Rey. Even since then, it occasionally comes into play on the indies, such as in the tag team Danger Zone, in which she and KC Spinelli reference their both being Archer fangirls.
- Morality Chain: On the indies, KC Spinelli is seemingly the only person who can drag Courtney Rush back out and reel Rosemary back in — and even then, the moment Cherry Bomb shows up, that's over. It's to the point where teaming with Spinelli at APW is the only time she's still even called Courtney anymore.
- Odd Friendship: With Allie named Demon x Bunny. Adding their SMASH feud under their Courtney Rush and Cherry Bomb incarnations turns this into Defeat Means Friendship on Allie's end.
- Our Zombies Are Different: In her first few weeks in TNA, her facepaint resembled that of a corpse, and since adopting the 'Demon Assassin' moniker, she often walks to the ring with a zombie-like gait. Despite this, she can still speak intelligently and can be very fast and dangerous in the ring. In her matches, if she has been knocked onto her back, she also has a tendency to rise into a kneeling position like a corpse returning to life.
- Out-of-Character Moment: Let out a Flat "What" upon witnessing Broken Matt Hardy absorbing her poison mist after she spat it at him.
- Power Stable: PJ Tyler was part of The Global Empire with Jake O'Reilly, Mark Gjoka, Brad Martin and Shawn Spears in Border City Wrestling
- Power Trio
- Decay with Crazzy Steve and Abyss in the first incarnation. Black Taurus takes Abyss' place due to the latter's retirement in the second incarnation. Once Havok joined, it became a Power Stable.
- Paradise Lost with Dust and Raven's Ash.
- Death Dollz with Taya Valkyrie and JesSICKa (which may or may not be Havok).
- Pronoun Trouble: Refers to herself as "us" and "we". She also refers to her fanbase to "the Hive" and "Hivelings", indicating that she seems to think of herself as a Mind Hive.
- Red Baron: The Demon Assassin. As part of Decay, the group is sometimes referred to as the Death-Dealers or the Suicide Squad.
- The Rival
- Her first as a wrestler was Cat Power Hailey Rogers. The early stages of their feud caught the attention of Slam Sports in Canada, especially after Tyler broke Rogers's nose. Said feud went on to last three years until they found common enemies when The Midwest Militia invaded nCw Femme Fatales. And even then it took ten months before Cat joined up with Rush and Xandra Bale.
- PJ Tyler and Jennifer Blake started as allies against Hailey Rogers. Tyler was also Blake's choice to replace her as commissioner to PWX before Derek Wylde's hostile takeover, after which she followed Blake into the women's division in an unsuccessful bid to take her title belt. They proceeded to alternate between being opponents and tag team partners for nine years.
- Courtney Rush began tagging with Xandra Bale on the basis they both respected each other as opponents and both disapproved of the same teams, none more than then SHIMMER tag champions The Kimber Bombs. But after failing to beat The Kimber Bombs when the belts were on the line and then being knocked out of title contention by Team Slap Happy, Rush came to the conclusion Bale wasn't as good as she thought, which lead to many fights. Bale eventually regained Rush's respect, but not enough of it for the two to be able to tag on a regular basis again.
- Of the four Midwest Militia members, Allysin Kay is the one Rush fights the most, but is also the one she gets along with the most. Their rivalry continued on Impact Wrestling as Rosemary and Sienna.
- Scatting: Europe's The Final Countdown when Del Rey happened to be entering rooms Rush was already in.
- Seven Deadly Sins: The demon's soul is split into seven, each themed after a different sin who can be identified by their makeup. A handy guide can be found here.
- Ship Tease: She and Crazzy Steve were all over each other before and after matches and in photos. Abyss was often included, but not quite to the same extent. If you asked her and Steve, they were not into being labeled either way.
- Shout-Out:
- She once tried to steal Matt Hardy's child Maxel as her own. Rosemary's Baby, get it?
- After having kidnapped her, she explained the definition of insanity to Gail Kim.
- She referred to her feud with Jade as Red vs. Blue.
- In her feud with Cherry Bomb and as part of Decay, she would often call her enemy "The Slayer."
- She gave Decay the Red Baron nickname of "the Suicide Squad."
- She calls her finisher, a fireman's carry facebuster, the Red Wedding.
- Her submission using the ropes is the Upside Down.
- Stalker with a Crush:
- She briefly had one in Jimmy Havoc, her ex-boyfriend, who wanted her back despite Rosemary clearly not reciprocating his advances. It didn't end well for him.
- She also had an unusual relationship with Bram for sometime that involved her demanding Decay attack him for denying her affections, and eventually resulting in them seemingly murdering him, though he got better.
- Super Spit: Her Signature Move is to spit various colors of poison mist in the faces of her opponents. Has sometimes came back to bite her in unusual ways such as in an unusual encounter against Broken Matt Hardy.
- Tag Team
- The Moon Walk Thrillers with Jodi D'Milo
- Death Rush/The Queens Of Winning with Sara Del Rey, who didn't care what the team was called and just wanted Rush to leave her alone.
- Ontario's Top Team with Xandra Bale
- The Danger Zone with KC Spinelli
- Death Dollz with JesSICKa, after Taya's disappearance. As both Rosemary and Courtney Rush.
- That Man Is Dead: Told fans at the RISE 2 tapings that Courtney Rush is dead.
- The Thing That Would Not Leave: What Courtney Rush was to Sara Del Rey. Courtney knew most of Sara's likes and aversions, but had a hard time realizing Rush was Del Rey's biggest aversion at the time.
- True Companions:
- Crazzy Steve and Abyss for Rosemary, and KC Spinelli for Rush, seem to be her only friends since she became a Mind Hive. Steve in particular has been a close friend of hers for about a decade, and contrary to the "Rosemary is a manipulative witch" angle TNA commentators run with, the Decay gimmick is a lot closer to Steve's usual work on the indies than the Menagerie clown mime gig was.
- In an odd twist of fate, with the end of Decay she started protecting Allie because "the shadow told her to", and the two slowly bonded, even making amends in SMASH Wrestling before becoming best friends in Impact.
- And in an even odder twist of fate, Knockouts Championship rival Taya Valkyrie started going to Rosemary for help against common enemies Jessicka Havok and Su Yung...and then Taya took Rosemary to a party.
- Two Girls and a Guy: With Taya Valkyrie and John E. Bravo.
- Two Guys and a Girl: With Crazzy Steve and Abyss as Decay.
