Jessica had lost a lot weight since graduating from her drama program months ago in the summer. She'd had dismal luck with the auditions she'd been out to, and her agent had so far only managed to score her extra roles in public service message commercials that needed pretty but vulnerable-looking girls to play victims of sexual abuse. She'd auditioned for plays and musicals, and had trained for singing, dancing, and acting. No dice, even with the dramatic weight loss. She'd gone from five ten and 140 to down to 125, and she was certainly not hard to look at--great skin, pretty, edgy look with pierced nose and tongue, and long beautiful black hair and a good bust. Her long, muscled legs were perhaps an even stronger feature.
The pro-wrestling studio was right in the heart of downtown Toronto, just a little ways into the west end on College and Bathurst, converted from an old bingo hall, so there were plenty of room for seating audience and assembling a large wrestling ring. Even for setting up change rooms in the back.
She had to remind herself to drop her shoulders and let her back muscles relax as she approached the door to the renovated bingo hall. A pretty blonde woman in great shape and already wearing her wrestling gear was sitting at a desk and she smiled at Jessica as she approached the table. On the table was a notepad and a Moneris debit/credit card machine and a simple white board behind the desk she was sitting at. Drawn in a bold, feminine-looking hand were three dates, each with a name next to them: Jan 4th, Battle Royal All-in; Feb 9th, Blood Feud; and March 11th, Girls versus Boys.
"Hi!" said the woman, standing up to her impressive height: five foot ten or so. Jessica's height, but she had lots more muscle, and no love handles as part of the bargain. "Are you Jessica, by any chance?"
Jessica joined the woman's open palm in a firm, sincere embrace. "I'm Steph. My ring name is Athena--kind of a warrior-woman schtick." Steph went over the basic fees for membership in the promotion, which included participation in any event she could make, a small percent share of the door money for events, and ongoing training, mostly on weekends and Monday and Wednesday evenings. The model was half wrestling promotion, half wrestling training school, in practice, Steph explained. Jessica felt herself relaxing already as she listened to Steph break down the offer of membership in this community.
"Listen, in case you don't know, women's wrestling is in its highest point in popularity and relevance yet--not just women-versus-women matches, but intergender matches. And with the right training, you can totally sell a woman beating down a guy. It's a really good time for the girls, which is why it's great you're here. Tell me, why pro wrestling instead of MMA or kickboxing?"
Jessica hadn't prepared for an entrance interview.
"Well, with MMA and non-staged events, you don't get the theatricality and storytelling that pro-wrestling matches always have. I can remember watching this great match with Wendi Richter against Peggy Lee Leather. Peggy had Wendy on her back near the ropes and grabbed the ropes for support and balance and actually stood on Wendy's face. It was like nothing you'd see in MMA, because there aren't the acted-out periods of incapacitation that you get with pro wrestling. You don't get a chance to see one brutal wrestler just slowly stalking her beaten-down opponent deciding what sort of humiliating move to use on them next. You know what I mean?
"Yes. That's the sort of reasons we look for in admits to our wrestling program. We have one wrestler who's bringing a fresh style of her own to the mat. She's goes by Cheerleader Shannon, but her name's Sarah. She loves to use her bare feet on her opponents in really humiliating and brutal ways. The way she does it has actually drawn a fetish audience to our events and we've decided to embrace it rather than turn it down as being not family oriented. "
"That sounds amazing. I have a major foot fetish and want to use my feet as much as I can in the ring."
"That can eventually work, but you'll have to work to create a style that doesn't imitate hers or it's not fair to the creative effort she's put in. You'll need to come up with your own foot-oriented moves."
"I'm sure I can do that!"
"We'll see."
Steph took Jessica by the arm and walked her through two doors into what had been the main bingo hall area, now only with mats surrounding a wrestling ring around which sat about thirty people, half of which wore proper wrestling gear, half wearing outfits that made them look ready for a yoga session or a workout, in the case of the men. There were about seven women and ten men in casual wear, with the rest in good-looking wrestling tights, boots, and singlets, a few with some cool accoutrements like spiked vests, or wrestling boots that looked like cowboy boots.
"Everyone! Jessica! Jessica, everyone! You're going to know most people's names by the end of tonight because you'll be working with everyone at least once."
"Experienced wrestlers, pick your newbies. We're going to start with a few basics and by the end of it go through a sequence of moves. Sequences of moves are the building blocks of matches, or stories that the two wrestlers tell of the battle that happens in the ring. Squash is a match you grew up with one wrestler totally bullying another around the ring; duels are back and forth matches that often figure a lot of technical wrestling (holds that look like Greco-Roman moves rather than pro moves like stomping on someone's head...)"
The first element of the story was the lockup--where the two wrestlers began in neutral positions and took hold of each other to determine who would achieve the dominant position. It involved grabbing each other's opposite elbows and taking their shoulder in your other hand and pressing hard into each other, like two rams locking horns and driving into each other. From here there were several ways the first unit of the story could develop, depending on who was calling the match. One of the two wrestlers would use a word or phrase to dictate the next sequence, and do so again at the completion of that sequence.
"Here we go," said a well-muscled young man in his thirties with a full beard. He put his hands wide apart, making an exaggerated show of the lockup formation, and Jessica grasped his elbow and his upper shoulder, leaning into him, and he did the same, pushing her back five or six feet.
"Remember, you don't have to go one hundred percent against your opponent to make a good display of giving your all..." Steph said loudly.
"Now, the first sequence is usually short, only a few moves or so. Newbies, let your veteran demonstrate a short sequence for you."
Jessica locked up with Scott, his name was, and he took her arm by the wrist and spun his whole body, spinning Jessica lightly but firmly like a top until she rolled over him and landed on the mat, just a little winded. "That's an arm drag," Scott told her. Then he proceeded to take hold of her arm in a way that braced it against its natural bend--an arm bar.
"Now you try the same thing," Scott said.
She locked up with him, then tried the turning spin and Scott helped her by rolling himself over onto his back. "Don't worry--you're not doing it right if it's taking all your muscle to throw me--we're partners on almost every move, remember!"
"So, now I'm on the ground, go for the arm bar like I showed you."
"How's this instead?" Jessica said, and kept hold of Scott's muscled arm and instead stepped down on his forehead with the ball of her left foot, playing with how much weight she put down on it by bringing her hips nearer and farther from directly over his head.
