Wrestling Fans and Rookies

Do wrestling fans today expect too much out of rookies? Do we demand instant improvement in their skills and dismiss them out of hand without giving them enough time to grow and develop? Some, including myself, would say yes. In this day and age, where we can have instant anything, if a newcomer isn't progressing as quickly as we would like, there is a tendency to write them off without a second glance. Along similar lines, if a rookie has a lot of "buzz" around them, and they fail to live up to our expectations, we are likely to ignore them even if they do start to come into their own. Wrestling fans can be brutally harsh, and yes I am including myself in this statement. I can be as harsh as the next person, but I try to give those starting out in the sport a fair chance to reach their potential. (Obviously, this doesn't apply to those who have been wrestling for, say, over seven years and are still at the same level they have been for awhile now.)

Mia Yim (Credit to Bliz Photography)

Mia Yim had a lot of backlash in her rookie years, due to some people in the business hyping her. I can remember several times on message boards fans saying they didn't "get her" and thought she was being talked up too much. Yet, some of those same people are now some of her biggest supporters. Mia traveled across America and to Japan, she took full advantage of the opportunities she was given, and as a result she has grown into a tremendous athlete with still a lot of potential to improve even more. Veda Scott is in the same boat - her first match was against trainer Daizee Haze on May 15th, 2011. She was another who had a lot of hype around her, which led to many fans dismissing her out of hand. Since that first match, she has gone on to wrestle in SHIMMER, SHINE, WSU, ACW; when Angelus Layne had a knee injury, she was invited to debut in Canada at Femmes Fatales IX in 2012. Also in 2012 she had a short stint in Japan where she gained invaluable experience; and in AIW she rounded out the year by winning the tag team championships alongside her legal client Gregory Iron. All this, and Veda is still learning, still technically a rookie. Her hard work and dedication to wrestling has won over fans and promoters alike. Yet, there are still people out there who refuse to give her a second chance.

I can understand that not every wrestler will appeal to every fan. We all have our likes and dislikes, it's part of being a fan. However, it is a bit unfair to simply ignore someone who is just starting out and not give them a proper chance. Similarly, it is also unfair to brutally bury someone in public for having a bad match, especially when bad matches can happen to rookies and veterans alike. One specific case about a week ago caught my eye, when Absolute Intense Wrestling asked a question on Twitter: "What was the WORST match in AIW history?" A few fans answered with a match from Girls Night Out 7, Trash Cassidy versus Thunderkitty. Some went on to have a dig at Trash, specifically.

From Girls Night Out 7. Credit: Myself

I spoke up to defend both women and the match itself. I had been at GNO 7 and witnessed the match for myself. Here is what I wrote:

Thunderkitty took on Trash Cassidy in TK's debut match. This was only Trash's second appearance for AIW, and given that I was unfamiliar with both, I went into this one completely blind. Thunderkitty's gimmick is that she is an "old time" wrestler and she is playing it to the hilt. The one piece outfit, her language, her personal ring announcer, coming out to no music - it all works brilliantly and makes her stand out. Trash...I'm still not too clear on her gimmick, other than she wears a lot of different colouring clothing to go along with her multi-coloured hair. Although she did throw out a great line: "I didn't know I was wrestling Mildred Burke!" The match was decent, but Trash got a "please don't come back" chant afterwards. Ouch.

I've seen bad matches before, and although no one (including the participants) would mistake it for a five star match, it wasn't absolute rubbish in my opinon. There was a fun spot where they criss-crossed in the ropes, and the aforementioned line that Trash yelled had me laughing. I've seen far, far worse that's made it onto television after all. Of course, I didn't know anything about TK or TC going into the event, but after the fact I learned that Thunderkitty has been wrestling since 2008 (from the sparse information I found online) and recently moved out east, presumably to have more opportunities to wrestle. Meanwhile I couldn't find much of anything about Trash - however, I had recently begun to chat with her via Twitter. After meeting her at a Destination 1 Wrestling show, we became friends (I am telling this in the interests of full disclosure).

Not long after AIW posed the aforementioned question, I asked her how long she had been wrestling. Trash responded, "About a year and a half if you account for time out with injuries and just not wrestling too much. Two years if you do include managing." When I asked her about the aforementioned match, she said that she had been sick with a high fever that day and still made it to the show to wrestle.

At this point, I was shaking my head. Here was a woman that, by all rights, should have been in bed and only had a year and a half experience, being pilloried thanks to not just this match, but a previous one against Mary Dobson at AIW. These two matches were, conceivably, her highest profile to date. Dobson is also a rookie, so you're not likely to have the best match between two rookies. However, Thunderkitty had more experience, so technically she should have led the match. Again, though, when you're sick it throws your body off, so I could see how things would have been off again that night.

A few days later, after the conversation, I and another tweeter received a message from Thunderkitty. She asked if we had seen her other work. To which, I replied that yes I had (at Insanity Pro Wrestling and SPARKLE). Thunderkitty then tweeted to us, "I got put against a lazy, clumsy opponent..I didn't exactly get a fair shake...but it happens." This took me by surprise. It was rather harsh to me. I said that from what I understood, Trash was seriously under the weather that night so it was just an off night. TK replied, "I don't recall her being under the weather. I DO recall her not being in ring shape though."

Wow. My further responses to her, stating that Trash hadn't been wrestling for very long and some wrestlers don't mix in the ring went unreplied to by her. She also tweeted the Ringbelles twitter, Thomas Holzerman's twitter and the AIW account that "someday, somewhere, I'm going to give people my exact thoughts on this match." Now, I fully admit that being friends with Trash makes me biased. However, even if I was not friends with her, I would never expect someone with as little time as she has in the ring to be good. Especially since she had been injured recently (or, I assumed as much since she mentioned being injured). Plus, being sick takes you off your game and that goes for athletes and non-athletes.

Personally, I felt it was unprofessional of Thunderkitty to publicly tear down someone with considerably less experience than herself. Even more-so after I went searching for information on her and found this blog that she wrote back in 2010 about how women in wrestling needed to get along since there were so few opportunities for them. http://www.santinobros.net/newsdesk_info.php?newsdesk_id=869 To her credit, Trash hasn't addressed any of the comments publicly, choosing discretion as the better part of valor in this case. The fact that TK said this publicly is a side point, but it's another example of private matters in wrestling being discussed publicly for fans to see. It's an unpleasant trend to say the least.

Back on point though, it's really saddening to see how quickly wrestling fans are to condemn inexperienced wrestlers. Above, I mentioned how people who dismissed Mia and Veda are now fans - this isn't a bad thing. It's great that they allowed themselves to be won over by their growth and improvement. At the same time, however, how are people going to improve if they aren't allowed opportunities to work with veterans and gain experience? I fear that due to the backlash she has suffered, Trash may not be offered the chance to work with other promotions and learn from their workers. Her, and others like her, are the next generation of potential stars. Wrestling fans often complain about the tendency of promotions to rely on past stars instead of cultivating new ones. How can new flowers grow and bloom without being watered and carefully nurtured?

There is also the fact that not everyone is a natural athlete. Some have to work hard to develop their skills. If you're thinking that these people should just give up, I have one name that should make you think twice. The Queen of Wrestling, Sara Del Rey, has said many times in interviews that wrestling did not come naturally to her. She had to work and work hard at it. Given that she became one of the world's best, should she have just given up since she didn't take to wrestling naturally?

Prime example of giving a newcomer the chance to amaze you.

If we fans don't start being less harsh and unforgiving, then we shouldn't be surprised when we don't see new faces coming in. Once the veterans retire, then that's it. Game over. Is that what we want? Of course not. We love wrestling and don't want to see it die out. Therefore, we must be more lenient when it comes to the newcomers. After all, speaking personally, if I had dimissed Leva Bates after her match against Malia Hosaka at SHIMMER, I wouldn't have had the privilege to see her grow as a wrestler and as a performer. You never know who will become truly great, therefore it's worth giving rookies the chances necessary to grow and fulfill their potential. I may have used Trash Cassidy as the main example for this blog, but that goes for any man or woman who takes the awesome and terrifying decision to step into the ring and dedicate their bodies as well as their lives to professional wrestling. Those people that make this decision and take it seriously deserve a certain amount of respect as it is.

It's akin to a garden. Plant the seeds, water them, nourish them, and see what grows. The results may surprise you. 

AIW's Girls Night Out 7 and My Weekend with Sassy

Shenanigans! Courtney Rush v Veda Scott

This isn't going to be your 'traditional' review. Since this was only my fourth independent wrestling show, I'm going to write about my trip as well as the show itself. The whole thing was very fascinating, since I'd been invited to stay with a friend who was competing on the show: one Sassy Stephanie. She offered to let me stay at her house which was incredibly generous of her and as a result, I got a glimpse into the life of a professional wrestler. This is solely the view of a fan who is also a friend of some of the women, and by no means am I claiming to "be in the know" about the business or claiming to be part of the business. I have no "insider knowledge." I'm just a fan who now has a better appreciation of the life independent wrestlers live.

Thanks to something that came up right before I left, my departure was delayed and I didn't actually leave Louisville until 5 p.m. So I didn't get to Sassy's house until about 10 or 11p.m. Once I got there, she made pancakes for us (which was the first time I'd ever had home made pancakes instead of frozen - they were delicious!) and we watched some of the shows she had recorded during the week. Before I went to sleep she made me watch "A Christmas Story", a movie I had actually avoided for years. I couldn't tell you why. But since we were going to the Christmas Story house Saturday before the show, she forced me to watch it. No, seriously, I was tied to the couch with those little eye pincher things that kept my eyes open. It was torture! Kidding, I actually liked it. She also showed me her luggage that she had already packed for the weekend - since she had a show on Saturday and Sunday, she was prepared with one huge suitcase, a backpack for her gimmicks, plus video equipment. All in all it was a huge amount of stuff she needed for the shows. This wasn't unusual, Steph informed me. She had to be prepared with her outfits, makeup, regular clothing, plus merchandise like shirts, programs, photos, etc. She couldn't afford to forget anything.

Saturday she got me up at 10 so I could shower before we had to leave. "The Wrestling Goddess" Athena was flying in and Steph was picking her up from the airport. Before we left the house, Diana (Steph's best friend) came over as she would be going to the shows and helping with merchandise as well. All three of us piled into my mini-SUV and we got to the airport just as Athena arrived. I thought this was really cool and a true pleasure - I'd donated to the fundraiser to get Athena to Girls Night Out 7 and here I was getting to hang out with her.

Athena is not only a fantastic wrestler and a great personality but the woman behind the character is utterly hilarious. She had me in stitches the whole day! Even though she hadn't seen "A Christmas Story" either she knew enough about it to know about the items in the house that were interactive. When we got to the house, all of us took part in the various things, such as dressing up in the pink bunny suits, pleading for Ralphie's life whilst under the sink, posing with the Ryder BB gun and the leg lamp, and trying on the various hats that were worn in the movie. It was a lot of fun!

Sassy took us to Melt's, which had great food. During the whole time, I tried never to be a pest or ask too many questions - I remembered that I was Steph's friend but also a fan that was outside the business. Plus, I wagered Athena and her didn't get to hang out very much so I wanted to keep to the background as much as I could. From Melt's we went to the venue, and I got to see what happens during an independent show before it actually starts. I helped Steph set up her table and I helped her out with something else she wanted done during her match with Athena. (Right before we went into the house, she got a notification that Leah Von Dutch and Cherry Bomb weren't going to be at the show, so she would be wrestling Athena.) I talked to Veda and Mia before the show started but mostly kept to the side watching everyone set up and the women go through their paces in the ring.

Eventually the show got under way and I was treated to my first Absolute Intense Wrestling experience. The first match was Athena v Sassy Stephie, which, I thought, should have been higher on the card because of the caliber of the athletes. Nonetheless, the two had a great match, Sassy throwing in some great lines during it. When Athena hit her finisher, the "O Face", the crowd popped huge. She got a "please come back" chant afterwards, which was most deserved. Despite thinking they should've been higher on the card, it was a fantastic way to kick the show off.

Thunderkitty (left) v Trash Cassidy (right)

Thunderkitty took on Trash Cassidy in TK's debut match. This was only Trash's second appearance for AIW, and given that I was unfamiliar with both, I went into this one completely blind. Thunderkitty's gimmick is that she is an "old time" wrestler and she is playing it to the hilt. The one piece outfit, her language, her personal ring announcer, coming out to no music - it all works brilliantly and makes her stand out. Trash...I'm still not too clear on her gimmick, other than she wears a lot of different colouring clothing to go along with her multi-coloured hair. Although she did throw out a great line: "I didn't know I was wrestling Mildred Burke!" The match was decent, but Trash got a "please don't come back" chant afterwards. Ouch.

AIW's first female tag team match was next, and it was due to the lobbying of Annie Social's manager Sammy Geodollno that made this match happen in the first place. She recruited Nikki St. John (also making her AIW debut) to team with Annie and they faced off against Heidi Lovelace and the returning Angel Dust. Right off the bat, something was screwy as Heidi kept looking at her phone before the match, and the two times Angel tagged her in, Heidi would hit a move and tag back out, the last time being after Angel had taken a beating from Social and Nikki. The match was good, both teams worked well together. The reason for Heidi's actions became clear afterwards when she hit Angel with a sweet enziguri and joined up with the three. The new all-female stable is known as "The Social Network" and Sammy looks to be their mouth piece from now on.

The manager with the Philly Swagger is looking to make a statement with her group. Sammy may be new to the managing scene but she looks to be someone to watch out for in the future. I had seen Angel on a previous GNO show DVD and thought she was a good worker. Although I don't care for Annie Social, I do admit her character is better than her wrestling. She's still just passable in the ring. Nikki I had seen in a SPARKLE match in March and had thought she was good; here, she worked well with Social as a partner and the other two women as opponents. Heidi looked good as well - overall, I look forward to seeing more out of all of them, especially the new stable, in the future.

Melanie Cruise v Kimber Lee looked like it was going to be a one-sided affair but Kimber actually got in some good looking offense and won with a roll up after Melanie missed a top rope leg drop. I've seen Cruise at SHIMMER and she's good for her size. This was my first time seeing Kimber, and after hearing so much about her, I can see why people are talking. She's one to watch going forward. (I realize I keep saying this was my first time seeing a lot of these girls, knowing most of them were booked on previous AIW shows. In my defense, I've only seen GNO 4 and didn't have time to watch the others before Saturday!)

Under Pondo Rules (which meant no DQ, no count outs, falls count anywhere) "Crazy" Mary Dobson fought Lil' Naughty, another woman making her AIW debut. I hadn't ever heard of 'Lil Naughty, but Dobson I'd seen a lot of hype for, mostly in conjunction with the hardcore style of wrestling. Which is the type of match that happened here. There must have been hundreds of thumb tacks that were spread out in the ring, some of which went into Dobson's own mouth as well as her head and other body parts. She got the pin after spreading some of the tacks onto Naughty's stomach, then doing a senton onto her. Dobson was bleeding heavily from the forehead after this match.

I'm going to be completely honest: I did not care for this match at all. I don't mind hardcore style matches as long as they have a purpose and a storyline behind them - for instance, WSU's feuds usually build up and climax with a match that has uncensored rules (i.e. no rules). This was two people with no prior history that I was aware of (which, if I'm wrong, I hope someone corrects me) put into a match that had no back story, hence no actual reason for a "Pondo Rules" stipulation. If you're into random hardcore matches, this would've been great for you, but I'm not. Dobson has competed in REINA in Japan, and it's no easy task to be invited to train and compete anywhere in Japan. I would have liked to see more of what she learned over there as far as in-ring skill goes. Apparently she is scheduled to go back to REINA soon, hopefully this will expand her repertoire and she can start easing out of the hardcore-style matches. It's an easy way to make a name for yourself, but given that she is only 18 years old, doing that type of match can take a toil on your body later in life. Just ask LuFisto. Plus, is it really wise to have thumb tacks shoved in your mouth? Some of them were bent, granted, but some were not.

On a side note, at some point, Mary flung a few tacks into the audience where I was sitting. That was rather unnecessary. I found one embedded in my shoe Monday before I went to work - definitely the most unique souvenir I've ever gotten from a wrestling show.

Veda setting up for the kill.

After this, however, was one of the matches that sold me on coming to GNO7 - Veda Scott, with her client in AIW Gregory Iron, versus the "Suplex Machine" Courtney Rush. I expected shenanigans in this match and I got them in spades. Not to mention damn good wrestling. Rush presented Veda with a note that she supposedly signed, stating that Veda would agree to not sue Rush if she suffered any injuries after being suplexed. When Veda examined the paper up close (as she wasn't wearing her glasses), Rush smacked her through the paper. It was on after that. I knew Scott was a heel everywhere except SHIMMER and SHINE, but this was the first time I'd seen her as a heel in person. She was devious, sneaky and absolutely aggressive. Her aggression and Courtney's high energy made for a fabulous mix and it confirmed what I knew as soon as the match was announced - they worked incredibly well together and made for a great bout. Veda pulled out the win thanks to Gregory Iron's repeated interference but Rush got a "please come back!" chant from the crowd. All in all, one of the best matches on the card.

Sara applies the Royal Butterfly on Hailey.

The match following was the other that sold me on attending, considering the news that has been making the rounds. In a return match (a sequel to the one they had on a previous GNO show), Hailey Hatred took on Sara Del Rey. I'm a huge fan of both ladies, and considering the news about Del Rey, this would likely be one of the last times I could see her in person. I knew these two would put on a doosy and they did just that. It was twenty minutes of hard hitting awesomeness. If this is truly Sara's "farewell tour" then it was altogether fitting that she faced Hatred at AIW. They did not disappoint me at all. It was a privilege to see them in person.

Between this match and the main event, there was an intermission where the women came out to sell their merchandise, take pictures and have a chat with the fans. During this time, I moved away from where I'd been sitting (behind the table where Steph had set up shop) and took the time to buy a Kings of Wrestling shirt from Del Rey (her line was massive!) and tell her how appreciative I was of her work and thank her for helping make female wrestling respectable again. She seemed really pleased by the compliment, and I meant it - she's one of the women I consider the originators of the revolution in female wrestling, who helped make it respectable and showed that women are every bit as good as men.

"My fave little volcano" - that's me!

I also chatted with Courtney and congratulated her on her match. Plus I got a signed picture of her with one of the best inscriptions: "To Jenn, my fave little volcano!" Mostly however I hung back to observe everyone interacting and to watch the cage being put together. It was coloured a light pink, which was a nice touch I thought, and really high. I'd never seen a cage match live, so I had no way of knowing if it was a higher cage than most, but it looked like it. One thing I noticed, all the women were polite and great with their fans, but they also doubled as their own saleswomen. Which, they have to in order to supplement the pay they get from the promoter for working the show. Sometimes that extra money can make all the difference in the world. The women can't rely on others to always be there to help promote them, they have to be their own best promoter and spokeswomen. At the same time, they never came off as needy or pushy, they struck the right balance with the fans.

Mia kicked the shit outta Allysin.

As a thank you for me buying their lunch, Athena let me pick from the DVDs she had for sale and offered a discount on her "Team Athena" shirt which I thought was generous of her. I picked up the "Best of Athena Volume 2" seeing as I had Volume 1 already. Then it was time for the cage match and let me say that any cage matches I see in the future will have to try their very best to measure up to this one. Mia Yim and Allysin Kay's rivalry had grown since GNO5, after Yim broke Kay's nose, and Kay wanted to beat Mia without any interference from Flexor Industries, so what better way to keep things one on one than by putting them into a cage?

This match was utterly amazing. It kept fans on the edge of their seat by utilizing the cage just enough to make the spots mean something without overdoing it. Both wrestled extremely well, took risks and gave fans something special. The end came when both were at the top of the cage and Kay had Mia locked in a reverse jujigatame while dangling over the side. It was an incredible finish which had me praying for both women's safety. They earned a standing ovation from the crowd, one they fully deserved.

Scariest. Woman. Alive.

A few words about both women, this was the second time I'd seen Allysin Kay live, the first time being at SPARKLE. I thought she did well then, and given that in WSU there's more of a focus on her as a destructive force than on her wrestling skills, I was looking forward to seeing what she would do here. I'm convinced now that there is a lot of depth to Kay - not only does she have the character, the attitude and the charisma down pat, but she has a range in her that I've seen with Stephanie as well. Both can do the brawling, beat down style that we've seen in WSU, but both are also great when it comes to technical wrestling. It's tremendous to see another woman that is capable of having all types of skills.

Choke out on the top of the cage!

Mia Yim is a woman whose career I've followed since her SPARKLE debut in September 2010. She was still a rookie at that time but her progress since then has been simply amazing. She has several stints in Japan under her belt, which helped sharpen and broaden her skills, and has made an impact in several promotions such as Combat Zone Wrestling (taking part in the first intergender TLC match against Greg Excellent which she won), SHIMMER, Anarchy Championship Wrestling, Ring of Honor (granted, more as Prince Nana's valet than a wrestler but still, it's big considering ROH has a television show), and AIW. It is remarkable how much she has grown as a character and a wrestler, yet she remains the sweet, down to earth, unpretentious woman I met two years ago. Every time I see her, she gets better and better and I always make it a point to tell her how proud I am of her. Plus, she just recently graduated from college, like Steph, and being a student as well as a wrestler is no easy task. The sky is the limit for Mia.

Me, Courtney Rush and Sara Del Rey. Thank you.

After the show, I watched as the wrestlers (male and female) helped take apart the cage, the ring, the guard rails and everything else related to the show. Some fans stuck around to chat with a few of the wrestlers, but most cleared out allowing the women time to breathe and talk with each other. For most, they would be on the road again in hours, going on little sleep to get to the next destination for a show (such as Steph and Athena, who had an early flight back to Texas for an ACW show on Sunday). Yet they still took the time to talk to catch up. I talked with Veda and complimented her on the match with Courtney, and then was fortunate enough to get a photo with both Del Rey and Rush - a picture I will treasure.

Last notes on the show itself: overall, I thoroughly enjoyed my first AIW show. The majority of the matches were great, everyone worked hard to put on a great show, everyone from the wrestlers to the behind the scenes people were friendly, and the atmosphere was good. The audio was clear for the ring announcer and other in-house announcements, the building was a good, open space and there was enough room it felt like.

The only drawbacks I saw were how quiet the crowd was. A lot of women got no reaction at times, despite them doing their best to engage the crowd. They popped at times and the last three matches got good to great reactions, but on the whole it was quieter than I expected. One thing that was both a plus and a minus was the fact that some of the male talent were in the audience trying to make noise and get the crowd going. I was impressed by this, as it showed that the guys wanted to help the women succeed and make the show even better. However, with any audience, there is always that "one guy" who has to make inappropriate remarks. This time, it was someone who sat in front of me. I thought from the way he interacted with others that he was part of the AIW roster, but the owner informed me that only two male workers were at the show and both were sitting by the front door. My apologies for the false information!

Overall, I highly recommend buying Girls Night Out 7 and attending an AIW show at one point. You won't be disappointed.

After the show we drove through the rain to a nearby Dennys, where we were joined by some of the crew and wrestlers. I stayed quiet mostly, laughing at the stories being shared and watching the shared camaraderie. Despite being tired, everyone looked like they were in good spirits - well, everyone except for the hostess who had to accomodate a large number of people at a late hour.

We drove Athena to the nearby hotel and dropped her off. She reached around the seat to give me a hug and a thank you for driving her, which was no trouble at all. If anything, it was awesome to spend the day with her. It's cool for me to know that the wrestlers I'm fans of are also genuinely nice people, and I believe Athena is just that. After that, we headed back to Steph's house and along the way, two frogs tried to kill themselves by hopping into the middle of the road. I'm swerving (in the rain) to try and avoid them and Steph says, "Just hit them! If they want to die then so be it!" I'm like, no! I don't want to be a frog killer! She says, "Just think of it like a live edition of Frogger." I laughed so hard I had to stop at a stop sign and wait until I could breathe before we could go on!

By the time we got back to the house and settled in, it was 2 a.m. We had to be up early again to head out, as Steph had another show to do in Marietta, Ohio. When she invited me to stay with her, she said I could go with her to Remix Pro which I accepted. She was set to wrestle Sara Del Rey for her Remix Pro women's title, and I wasn't going to pass up that match since I had liked the one they had had at Girls Night Out 4. We were out the door early again Sunday to drive over to a friend's house who was also going to pick them up. Due to traffic issues, we got there in time for the show but too late for Steph to set up shop at her table. Fortunately Diana took care of that so she could sell her stuff at intermission.

The crowd was very different for Remix than AIW. For instance, there were a lot of children which helped generate a lot of crowd noise, plus there were several mentally handicapped people. Everyone was into the show and it was fun to see how seriously fans still take it. Steph played a heel to Del Rey's face and when she won the title, it got a mixed reaction. However, once they shook hands, most people started cheering for Sassy. So you can imagine the surprise on people's faces when Hailey appeared to challenge for the belt. The match was set for later in the show (the bout before the main event in fact), so Steph was able to come out as champion for intermission.

Steph looks good in gold.

It was during intermission that I observed how it can take a toil on wrestlers when interacting with fans. It helps if you're good with people, like Sassy is, and I asked her if she was naturally good with people or if it was something that came over time. She had worked in a doctor's office previously, where she had learned to interact and handle people with all sorts of disabilities. It made me smile several times seeing how great she was with the kids and the people with handicaps. She never shied away from a hug or from talking to anyone who came up to her. So many of them congratulated her on the title win and hoped that she would retain against Hailey.


Despite being a heel, when Hailey won the belt, a lot of the crowd was disappointed. I studied the audience and saw that, while Hatred got a large reaction when she pinned Steph, quite a few people looked sad and surprised. I could identify - I was one of them. It made no sense to take a local belt and put it on a lady who was heading back to Japan in a few days. Most Remix fans would most likely not see any of the title defenses (if it was defended over there at all), and how would it make the belt anymore prestigious than it would having a champion that lives in Ohio? It makes no sense to me as a fan. While I don't blame Hailey like a lot of people do, I felt (and still feel) Sass deserved better. This mistake is on Remix. I've read that some fans felt Hailey should have refused to do it. Perhaps, but if you follow that logic, it leads to asking why Steph didn't refuse to do the show period. I didn't ask her this, as it's not my place - instead I admire her willingness to go through with it. It shows her professionalism in the face of a foolish decision by the promotion. Nonetheless, it was a taste of the politics I had heard so much about in wrestling.

I didn't like it.

Hailey and I, sweet woman.

After the show, before Steph came out (I swear, I think she's one of the last people to leave any show she is at!), I chatted with Hailey who was glad to see me. I finally got my picture with her and was able to wish her safe travels when she went back to Japan. I saw Del Rey, but seeing as how before the show started, fans got a chance to have a picture with her and the Remix Pro Champion Facade, and I had partaken (she smiled when she saw me and said, "Long time no see!"), I wasn't going to bother her further. Instead I waited with Diana until Steph came out. She managed to sell a few more pictures, and thanked the fans who expressed their disappointment with her loss.

Finally it was time to leave and it was here we had to separate. Her, Diana and her friends were going back to their town and I was heading home. It was about 8pm-ish and the sun was on it's way down. I hugged Diana and Sassy, and thanked her again for her hospitality and the whole experience.

Somehow...my GPS thought the best way to get me home was take me from Marietta down into West Virginia and hang a right at Charlestown. This included driving through buckets of rain which, combined with night time, wasn't a great mix at all. Fortunately I was a lot more awake than I had been earlier (poor Diana who rode with me on the way to get the limo was subjected to me almost falling asleep at points and swerving the car) but good God it was a long drive! Didn't get home until 1 a.m. I fell in my bed like I'd been away for five years.

On the way home, however, I got to thinking. I reflected on what I had seen and experienced over the weekend. I thought about the long travel the men and women in independent wrestling do in addition to being college students and/or having jobs outside of wrestling. I thought about how they had to make sure they packed everything they would need, including plenty of merch. I thought about how they had to put on their best faces for the fans, even when they were tired or hungry. I thought about how they had to put up with the political bullshit and try to remain a professional so as to not disappoint the fans who had paid money to see them. I thought about the pay they got which was not nearly as much as they deserved. I thought about how critical it was to sell as much merchandise as possible at every show.

I realised that I had had no clue how hard this life really is. The travel alone had worn me out, and I'd not even done half as much as other women do. Combine that with the pressures and the stress of the other factors I mentioned above and it's a wonder that anyone gets into wrestling. Some do it to get to WWE, but others are content with remaining outside the mainstream. It makes me appreciate the ones that are in there, giving it all they have, putting up with all the baggage that comes with the job. They must truly have a passion for wrestling - otherwise, why would anyone remain in it at the independent level? There's little money and no fame beyond a small group of fans. Love for the sport is what drive the women and men here.

As a fan, all I can say is with all my heart thank you. Thank you for not giving up in the face of all you have to go through. Thank you for putting your heart and soul into what you do. Thank you very much - I appreciate it more than words could ever say.

A special thank you to Sassy Stephanie, for allowing me to write this, as well as for her hospitality and her trust. It means more than you'll ever know. If at least one person has a greater appreciation for the life of an independent wrestler after reading this, then I have accomplished something.

Support the promotions that respect female wrestling and give them a platform to perform on as athletes. Support the women that bust their asses for us. They deserve it.