I'll Be Your Joan of Arc

 

Your Forever Ring of Honor Women's World Champion, Athena, with Minion Billie Starkz set to take on Vert Vixen in the background.

"After all, what is more powerful

than women who know all about

the blessed fires inside them that grow."

- Nikita Gill, poem "Eurynome: The Mother of All Things"

(The title of this blog comes from the song "Joan of Arc" by In This Moment. Also, this is not a traditional show review post. It is personal, it is political and it is long so you've been warned!)

When I got into wrestling, it was March 1999 and my gateway was the World Wrestling Federation. Sable was on her way out, and I only saw one match of hers before her departure. For the next year, the women I saw wrestle were who I dubbed the "Core Four" - Tori, Jacqueline, Ivory and Luna Vachon. When I discovered WCW, Daffney captivated me by her in-ring antics and her Scream Queen style. But opportunities to see the Core Four wrestle were few and far in between. Chyna was there and kicking ass in the men's division so until she was shifted to the women's division a year or so later, I didn't really see her as part of the group. But I LOVED the fact there was a woman strong and tall enough to take on the boys. To me, however, she was separate.

Fast forward to 2000 - 2001 and the women's division expanded. Trish Stratus went from valet to a solid wrestler in her own right over the years. Lita showed me girls could do the high flying stuff and also take on the guys. Jackie won the Cruiserweight title and after seeing how hard she could hit the women I had no issues believing in her strength to handle men. Molly Holly was a revelation - she showed me women could be technical wrestlers. Victoria, Gail Kim, Nidia, Jazz, Linda Miles, heck Stacy Keibler and Torrie Wilson got in the ring from time to time. This was considered the "Golden Age" of women's wrestling in the WWE and although I would dispute that, they built on the groundwork that was laid in the 80s and 90s. It gradually led into the women's division we now have in WWE today.

However, in 2007 - 2008, I was introduced to the TNA Knockouts and then to the independents. And my worldview exploded. Women of all races, ethnicities, shapes, sizes, heights, wrestling styles - all of it became more accessible as YouTube grew, independents got their names out on the Internet and my desire to see more became a hunger. Although there were women doing their best to keep wrestling alive on WWE tv, it wasn't enough for me. Now that I knew there was more, I went and found it.

SHIMMER was the true gateway drug. Mercedes Martinez, Sara Del Rey, Daizee Haze, MsChif, Cheerleader Melissa, Lacey, Rain, Allison Danger, Amazing Kong - all these names and more showed me that women were just as capable as men in the ring. For the first time, I believed it. And over the years as I've watched more and more women lace up their boots, I believe in my heart that women's professional wrestling is better than men's. That's a personal belief and I'm not here to convince anyone. I am here to discuss the re-start of an all women's wrestling company that is in my literal backyard - Girl Fight Wrestling.

Girl Fight Wrestling was originally started by Mad Man Pondo and their very first show fell the day before my birthday - May 12th, 2015. Over the years, some bigger names have come in, some women have gotten their starts there, and it traveled from Jeffersonville, Indiana to nearby states. However, despite the cards being anywhere from decent to really great, it didn't draw that much that I could see. (Take this with a grain of salt, as I didn't go to every show since some were out of range for me, but also some shows I simply didn't see any advertisement for even if they were just across the river.) Over the years they ran consistently up until COVID hit and then it was sporadic. The last documented show I could find that was run under Pondo's leadership was in March of 2023 and that was an intergender show. The last all women's show was in June of 2022.

Then it was announced in late 2025/early 2026 that Girl Fight Wrestling had been purchased from Pondo by Billie Starkz and her family. This got a lot of attention, and deservedly so - Billie was still the Girl Fight Champion, but she had had eyes on her since signing on to All Elite Wrestling/Ring of Honor and becoming the first Ring of Honor Women's World Television Champion. Those of us in the Kentuckiana area have watched Billie practically grow up before our eyes, starting her training when she was a teenager. I, myself, saw her at many small shows when she was just starting out but even then I knew that her willingness to train, work hard and dedicate herself was going to take her far. And it has.

The first show under new management would take place February 15th, 2026 and, appropriately, the name would be "Your Lost Valentine." As the lineup started to be revealed, anticipation grew because there were a plethora of high profile names such as former TNA Knockout Killer Kelly, current TNA Knockout Jada Stone, AEW's Maya World, Ring of Honor's Rachael Ellering, WWEID Women's Champion Laynie Luck, AEW's Jamie Hayter, National Wrestling Alliance's "Pretty Empowered" tag team of Kylie Alexa and Kenzie Paige. It was astonishing to see names from just about every high profile national wrestling promotion gather together in New Albany, Indiana along with up and coming names such as Emily Jaye, Lili Ruiz, and Rachel Armstrong. Add in established independent women such as Shazza McKenzie, Ashlyn Alexander and Vert Vixen and you had a debut show set to amaze.

However, a small curveball was thrown a few days before the show - due to AEW obligations, Jamie wouldn't be able to make it. A replacement was assured and it wasn't long before we had our new main event - Vert Vixen versus the reigning and defending Forever ROH Women's World Champion, ATHENA! Honestly, this was even better than Jamie vs Vert for me because it had been years since I had seen Athena in person.

The day of the show, it was packed. It looked like every chair was filled and there were a ton of people standing. It was at a brewery in New Albany, an excellent venue as there was plenty of space and the garage doors could be open for a breeze. The announcement was made before the show got under way that this was a new Girl Fight - by women, for everyone. And "by women", they meant that every role was filled by a woman. Announce team was made up of Just J and Jess Bees Knees. The ring announcer was a woman named Hope. Music was DJed by Angela. The referees were Holly and Charlene. And the media team was Bri, Zoe and Allie. Not to mention backstage helping out was the legendary Allison Danger, bringing a wealth of knowledge and experience in several areas.

Photographers, announcers, wrestlers, referees, heck even the person shooting video ringside was a woman. Women in every role. It was wonderful. It was what SHIMMER was but taken to the next level. By women, for everyone. And the pre-show announcement made it very clear - no racism, sexism, transphobia, homophobia would be tolerated. Anything along those lines would get you shown the door. Given what is going on in the larger world, knowing that this place was one of safety and inclusivity was a balm to my soul.

Billie Starkz with her Girl Fight Championship, Emily Jaye in the background.

This show is up on Independent Wrestling TV now and if you are subscribed I HIGHLY recommend it. This was one of the best shows I've ever attended, period. It started hot with Rachel Armstrong versus Maya World and only got better and better to end in one hell of a main event with Athena taking on Vert Vixen (in a non-title match but that didn't matter, they still tried to decimate each other). There were many faces I'd only seen through a television or a computer screen and it was awesome to see them in person. Maya and Rachel's chops sounded like gunshots. Rachel and Ashlyn threw bombs at each other. The four way for Billie's Girl Fight Championship between her, Emily Jaye, Lili Ruiz and Allie Allbright was fun and silly at points. Pretty Empowered and the Collab put on a great tag team match, both teams having plenty of chemistry against each other. Jada Stone showed that height doesn't always matter as she took Killer Kelly on and won. Top to bottom, every match was different and the variety of women and their talent on display was tremendous.

This is what I want to see in women's wrestling - variety. For so long, all we had on television were bombshells. Women who got enhancements of all types to fit the mold of what Vince McMahon wanted. Women who didn't look like me or anyone I knew. It was disheartening on a small level, although the ones that could wrestle made up for it. But after watching the independents, I just wasn't satisfied. This first Girl Fight show back showcased not only women on the indies but women we see on tv - Jada Stone, Maya World, Athena in particular showcased Black Excellence, carrying on in the shoes of women like Ethel Johnson, Aja Kong (yes she IS black), Jacqueline, Jazz and Alicia Fox. This was particularly amazing to see given February is Black History Month (no matter what the Mango Mussolini's administration says).

It was also a blast for a few personal reasons. One being that two of my dearest friends, Ella and Jose, flew in from New York to spend the weekend with me. I finally got to see Emily Jaye wrestle in person after being friends with her for a few years. (She's small but her forearms ain't nothing to fuck with!) It was wonderful to get to hug Billie and tell her how proud I am of her. And Athena almost made me cry when she gave me the biggest hug - she remembered me from SHIMMER and AIW before she got signed. Plus after only talking to Sean Ross Sapp via socials for an age, we finally met in person. (He is criminally tall, so the rumors are true.) There were other friends and acquaintances there that made that show extremely special to me and I am so thankful for everything - but I'm also extremely happy that the show went off with barely a hiccup it seemed. One substitution that was, to me, an upgrade in match quality (this is no shade to Jamie Hayter, I'm a fan but I've been an Athena fan since 2011!); the doors opened on time, plenty of space, a LOT of enthusiasm and all the women genuinely seemed happy and excited to be there. The energy was warm and vibrant.

It felt like what a show should be. It felt like how SHIMMER used to feel. And that meant everything.

The next show was announced for May 31st and I couldn't wait. Entitled "Spill the Tea", it went for a "Bridgerton" theme with the match and wrestler announcements  being in the colorful language of Regency-era Britain. Fans were encouraged to bring out their finest outfits and dress accordingly. The talent announcements started to roll in around the middle of April and there was a definite shift this time away from "bigger" names towards more up and coming names. Which, to me, this wasn't a bad thing. Girl Fight's comeback show was geared to draw in fans. The goal now should be to encourage the future and present of women's wrestling.

Bille Starkz prepares to battle up and coming talent Corinne Joy.

From the last show, Billie returned to defend her Girl Fight Championship against newcomer Corinne Joy, who has been making waves recently. According to what I could find, she's only 18 and made her debut in 2025. I had briefly seen her on the Ladies Night Out show in Vegas but given the constraints of that show it wasn't enough to see what she could really do. A singles match against someone like Billie would tell me more - and she very much impressed! Her gear was super cute, she had a lot of charisma and she put in one hell of an effort against the champion. There is a ton of potential with Corinne and I hope she keeps going.

The same can be said for a lot of the women on this show - Alexis Littlefoot, Mia Friday, Stori Denali, Regan Lydale, Emily Jaye, Lili Ruiz (both of which made their Girl Fight returns), Nat Castle, Gwen Neodonna, Gabby Forza have only been wrestling for five years or less (that I could research, so I could be wrong!). So out of the 17 women wrestlers, only 7 have more than five years experience. This card made sure to showcase the upcoming talent and the level of diversity and variety is beautiful.

For being less than five years in, Gabby Forza especially has made a huge impact, working for GCW, JCW, ETU, New Texas and a slew of other places. She made her Girl Fight debut against a returning Allie Katch in the main event, defending her ETU Coastal Crown Championship. I was over the moon when "Your Homie, the Gnomie" was announced. Her bubbling personality, hard hitting style, and positivity was what drew me in and made me a fan. The fact that she can adapt to the hardcore environment of Game Changer Wrestling and be just as home there as anywhere else shows her versatility. Her and Allie beat the hell out of each other in the main event which saw Gabby retain her title.

Allie Katch

Gabby Forza

Speaking of Allie Katch, this is a woman I've watched since 2016 and her growth has been amazing. Her confidence, her in ring work, her personal style and persona have expanded to make her into someone that cannot be denied. In April she became the inaugural House of Heat Women's Champion up in Lafayette, Indiana and it was the first time I had gotten to see her in years. It's truly wonderful to see someone transform into the person they were always meant to be.

Mia Friday opened the show against a returning Lili Ruiz and Mia's lucha style meshed with Lili's power very well. Nat Castle was a last minute replacement in the fourway against Katie Arquette, Killer Kelly and Gwen Neodonna, and all four had a really fun, unorthodox match that showcased their styles very well. Stori Denali and Alexis Littlefoot was also unorthodox in that Alexis bit off a bit more than she could chew given the height difference. Alexis is fun as hell to watch because she's a hard hitter BUT her personality and charisma are off the charts. She can talk, she has an attitude that makes you notice her. And as a fellow Kentuckian, I'm gonna root for her. Stori Denali and Regan Lysdale were two debuting women whose height made them stand out and given more experience they also have a lot of potential.

Ashlyn also made her return in a three way between her, Emily Jaye and a veteran by the name of Sierra. Sierra is extremely underrated but she's been wrestling for ten years and is very good at what she does. Their match was a "Chops and Shots" bout in that if you gave an opponent a chop you had to take a shot. Words cannot do it justice but we got an impromptu karaoke session from Emily while Sierra and Ashlyn tried to murder each other. This was SO much fun and an example of how women's wrestling can be serious but also light hearted when it's on their terms and not something like a "pillow fight."

This was an excellent second show overall under the new ownership. It's obvious that Billie and her family truly care about promoting women's wrestling and as she told me after the show there's a dearth of it in the Kentuckiana area. Her goal is to bring it to this area, her hometown area, and give back in a way. Going by how these first two shows have gone, she is succeeding in a big way. When this show drops on Independent Wrestling TV I highly recommend checking it out.

I see a lot of criticism of women in wrestling. I read that there are women in it using it only as a platform to/for something else. Too many women are setting up OnlyFans. Some women are too arrogant. Some women aren't good enough fast enough. Others are too fat for their gear. Some are too opinionated. Some don't deserve the spot they're in.

Isn't this just the history of women living and existing in the world in a microcosm, however? For centuries, women have been told to sit down. Shut up. Take up less space. We haven't been seen as capable, fully functional, autonomous human beings. We were seen and defined solely by our role - daughter, wife, mother, homemaker, widow. The women who dared to step outside of those roles, who dared to want to be more were punished and brutally so. Their histories were either distorted by the men who wrote the books or discarded and buried entirely.

This might be veering too much into the political but fuck that - the personal is political. We are living in a time in America where women are being actively punished for asserting their autonomy. We have come so far from where we once were, but in the last ten to twenty years there has been a steady but growing push back to roll back our rights. And don't fooled - if the patriarchy could take our votes and put us all back in the home and out of public, they would. There are officials in the United States government on video saying things along this line. There are conservative women who are on video saying they would be fine having the 19th Amendment to the Constitution revoked. They are comfortable with being submissive to the patriarchy. And it's mostly white women at that. And don't even get me started on the attacks on the LGBTQ+ community. The strides my community has made since the 1970s are being actively rolled back with the number of bills attacking us that are being proposed daily in state governments across the country. Over 500+ bills this year alone.

To bring it back to wrestling, I fully believe that any woman who chooses to lace up her boots, get properly trained and give it her all deserves a basic amount of respect. She is actively choosing to break out of the traditional gender roles society still has in place. Women of every race, ethnicity, nationality, shape, size and height are getting into the ring - and it's beautiful. And transgender women are carving out space, refusing to be ignored, forgotten or left behind. Nyla Rose, Gisele Shaw, Dark Sheik are just 3 of the names that come to mind but there are more. They deserve to be in the women's locker rooms, make no mistake about it. They are our sisters.

Women have proven for centuries that we are strong. We are determined. We have fought and died for a place at the table and we are every bit as goddamn good as the men. There's a quote by Charlotte Whitton, who was the first woman mayor of Ottawa (the first woman mayor of a major city in Canada), that goes "Whatever women do, they must do twice as well as men to be thought half as good. Luckily, this is not difficult." I daresay watching the women of Girl Fight Wrestling put on matches that are as good if not better than what I see on tv on a weekly basis shows just how correct she was. An example of a conversation I heard by some little girls sitting behind me at the last show proves why all women promotions are still important. The girls were so excited and into everything the women were doing. At one point, they told their dad they wanted to learn how to wrestle. (Don't ask me how old they were, I have always been rubbish at guessing anyone's age, but they were definitely pre-teen kids.) Their dad told them if they were serious, he would look into it.

Girls and women of all ages need women to look up to. We need to see that there are women out there fighting to carve out spaces in traditionally male-dominated areas. Wrestling is still a man's world, despite the achievements and growth in the last two decades. We must never be complacent. We must never settle for what we have. When we are told that we should smile and be grateful for what we have, that is when we smile, pull out a sword and say "No."

We will not sit down. We will not shut up. We will take our space. We will support the women who get in the ring, who choose to make that their battleground. We will advocate for them to get their opportunities and we will celebrate the milestones and the victories. We will celebrate the fact that there is a place like Girl Fight Wrestling in New Albany, Indiana that proudly proclaims "By women. For everyone."

Their next show is August 16th and is titled "Survivor: Girl Fight Edition" due to the fact Billie Starkz, after retaining her Girl Fight Championship, gave a promo stating it was time for her to take a backstage role and relinquished her belt. I would guess that the August show will see a new champion crowned. Make the trip to Our Lady of Perpetual Hops in New Albany, Indiana. Come celebrate and support women's wrestling.

Athena and Artemis' Contemporary Manifesto

(Poem by Nikita Gill)

Come, sisters, let us tell you all the secret

they do not want you to know.

Everyone woman is both match and spark,

a light for each other from the dark.

When you see them harassing your kind,

this is what you must do.

Join together and descend on them

the way wolves and vultures do.

If they ask you why you did it,

tell them the Goddesses permitted you to.

There is strength in numbers

this is how armies are made.

And to protect yourself from this world

your friendship in each other is your only aid.

We will help you pry the justice you need

from their cold, cruel fingers, one by one.

We have seen enough of you killed

at the hands of the most brutal of men and Gods

now, our will be done.