looking forward to tax day. what?!

The party is cancelled this month.

Ha, ha -- gotcha! April Fool's!!!

Actually, the April party is coming up fast -- just exactly as fast as the dreaded Tax Day deadline. That's right, we're reviving our venerable Tax Day Wrestling theme and holding the party on April 15th this month to give everyone a positive reason to look forward to the day. And the chance to sweat out any frustrations you may still be feeling after tallying that last column of digits and suffering those endless post office lines. After that, who wouldn't be ready for a fight?

To add to the post-taxes festivities, there will be grappling in a huge pile of (Monopoly) money -- a nod to those welcome returns hovering on the horizon.

I mention this now because, like I said, the day is fast approaching, and it's never too early for a reminder to finish those taxes or to start revving up for a night of underground wrestling. And also because I'm mad tickled to be making the playlist for this party, and will happily accept any suggestions for songs about money, riches, or dollars you can throw my way between now and then!

february super blog! Wrestling, amazons, southern belles, travel, Ziggy, and more!

February has been one busy month, exactly as I knew it would. And I've got two more weekends of travel coming up back-to-back starting with my flight to Atlanta this Friday. So from the eye of the storm, here's a report on what's been going on.

The month started off with a quick weekend in Providence, a few days of business as usual in NYC, and then a looong trek down to Florida. Amazon Annie's gotten very revved up to do more traveling lately, so she joined me on both trips. Providence was nice, but Florida was quite the epic.

To start with, we drove. Non-stop. Through a blizzard. And when I said Florida, I meant south Florida -- five extra hours after you first cross that Sunshine State border. And to cap it off, we had planned to have four drivers on this trip -- me, Annie, our videographer, and another friend -- but our videographer stayed home sick, so the rest of us took longer shifts. But then we arrived!

It was a good trip for sessions, but it was a great trip for videos! I got to have a match with Ziggy, something I was very excited about since I've heard so many fans speak so highly of her ever since I started wrestling. It was definitely a pleasure to meet and fight her.

We were stuck using the hotel room as a studio, but with (quite a lot of) remodeling, we turned it into a pretty decent wrestling space. And Annie got to discover her filming talents. It was a terrific, very even match, and I'm especially proud of the third round where we amped up the intensity despite the fatigue! And best of all the video is coming out on the Doom Maidens site TODAY!

Then on a stop in Sarasota, I went in for a shoot with Grappling Girls. That one was really neat because my opponent brought his wife along, and she even participated in the video (heckling him from the sidelines, poor guy!) Very fun, and since I meet so many men who tell me their wives or girlfriends aren't into or don't understand wrestling, it always gives me warm fuzzies to meet a couple that enjoys it together. And, appropriately, this shoot was on Valentine's Day!

There was a little free time before we headed back north to meet up with some friends for a picnic at the beach. It was little chilly, but nothing could stop Annie from diving straight into the water. The rest of us (all grapplers) hung about for a bit discussing how sand is a horrible! surface for wrestling, until someone showed up with a volleyball, and we got sporty that way. Managed to get a little sunburned, and it says something about how starved for summer I am that I was happy about it!

Then the drive north. From headquarters back in the city, our videographer had managed to connect with Southern Belles Wrestling in NC and arrange a video stop for Annie and me along the way. Great way break up the trip and stretch not just the legs but everything! Annie and I did a match together, and then we each did a match with one of Southern Belles' regulars Tyler. Tyler was great to fight and to see in action. She's a very accomplished, athletic pro-style wrestler, very pretty, and has a totally savvy, with-it personality that made her great to work with.

It was quite interesting to see and feel how everyone's different styles interacted in this set of matches. Annie and I paired up to give a classic submission grappling perfomance -- of course! I felt like my match with Tyler was a sub grappling meets pro-style concoction, and Tyler and Annie got fully into pro-style with A LOT of lifts and scissors. And then back on the road.

I spent most of this past week resting up after the big adventure but took a definite break from resting for the Rumble in the Jungle party on Thursday. Annie masterminded and hosted this party in true Amazonian style -- she even hooked me up with a Poison Ivy costume of her design. I'm told there are some pretty terrific photos floating around that I must see. The party's going with a scheme where regular guests are going to present their own theme parties this spring. In March, Hanz Vanderkill and Clobberella present: Das Wrestlefest! I'm psyched and also incredibly amused.

And like I mentioned, looking forward it's going to be Atlanta this weekend. Then Columbus for the Arnolds Expo the next. Looking forward to a bit of a wrestling reunion at the Arnolds with the crew from Madison, and also very excited to finally be competing again!

More to report soon!

figure contest photos

If you haven't seem them already, you can find my figure contest photos upload to my MySpace page. From my very first contest, October 2009:

VeVe Lane's MySpace profile

NYC Wrestling Showcase DVDs now available!

Greetings Doom Maidens Fans!

I am please do announce that ALL of the matches from this past weekend's NYC Wrestling Showcase are now available on DVD through our DoomMaidens.com video store.

The store page is here: http://www.doommaidens.com/store/showcase1

This is the multi-DVD compilation of the 6 Super Fight matches that took place at the first NYC Wrestling Showcase on January 23, 2010, as well as 3 bonus mixed matches that were not part of the original Showcase schedule.

Matches are all three 5-minute rounds (except VeVe vs Brooklyn Surfer, which is two 5-minute rounds).

Here's the match break down by disc:

Disc 1

1. Kim of Italy vs The Bulk (competitive mixed)
2. Veronica Vicious vs Lex (competitive mixed)

3. VeVe Lane vs Jenny Sjodin (competitive female)

Disc 2

4. Amazon Annie vs Brooklyn Surfer (mixed scissor wrestling)

5. Miss Juliette vs Veronica Vicious (competitive female)

6. Jenny Sjodin vs Kim of Italy (competitive female)

Disc 3

7. VeVe Lane vs Brooklyn Surfer (competitive mixed)

8. Kim vs Jay (competitive mixed)

9. VeVe vs Ben (competitive mixed)

Downloads for all of these matches are coming soon, but they will be released slowly as we prepare the materials. However, the DVDs are all ready to go now. So, for those of you who prefer DVDs to downloads, here you go: http://www.doommaidens.com/store/showcase1

By the way, you can purchase the 3 DVDs together, or any one individually, or any combination of 2. We're flexible.

If you have any questions about any of the matches on the DVDs, feel free to ask me. I just won't tell you who wins what!

wrestling showcase report!

So it has been an awesomely full and wonderful weekend. The first ever NYC Wrestling Showcase went better than I could ever have hoped.

The turnout was incredible -- we had about 60 people in the room at one point, which with 150 sq. ft. of mat laid down was pretty much capacity. Thirteen guys came as part of a bachelor party and threw the groom-to-be on the mat with Amazon Annie. One fellow brought an entire gang of his women friends, who got very invested in the battles of the ladies on the mat.

The audience energy really helped rev up the fighters; it was great to hear the cheering, applause, and the coaching in -- though some of the "coaches'" advice was a little crazy ;) The action in the fights was excellent. There was A LOT of competitive grappling, and with the expection of Veronica and Juliette's grudge match the fights were all very sporting, fun, and good-spirited. But no less intense for that!

The whole thing ran very smoothly and to schedule -- despite Veronica Vicious's breezing in just 10 minutes before her first match, executing a very suspensefully and fashionably late entrance. But that's just classic Vicious. A great experience and total inspiration to do more showcases like this in the future (though next month back to the regular Grapple Den party format.)

So Saturday I had two matches of my own -- my rematch against Jenny Sjodin and a shortie against Brian, an excellently skilled freestyle wrestler friend of mine. Jenny is just as good as I remember her being from London -- it was fantastic to see her again, and to fight her, of course! The two of us are a dead even match up in skill. And in the match with Brian -- he gave me some serious trouble, but I was thrilled to get a knee bar submission on him. I never get those!

Probably my favorite match to watch was Annie and Brian's scissors wrestling fight. Brian's a smaller guy, but strong and a bit of a takedown artist, so it was something to see him lift Annie (4" taller and 50 lbs. heavier) and take her to the ground. But on the ground her size mattered, and she was able to smother and grapevine him into submission. Quite a lot of non-scissors action for a scissors match, actually.

And today we were back at it, shooting four more (extremely competitive) videos back-to-back: Jenny vs. Kim II, a wrestling-booted commission match for Southern Belles Wrestling, which had to be decided in overtime; Me vs. Ben, a bout wherin I braved the onslaught of a rampaging freestyler who actually slammed me; Kim vs. Jay, a match-up between two of my best former opponents featuring some intense flexibility on Kim's part; and Me vs. Jenny III, an epic, 40-minute battle half in gi and half in no-gi also featuring my record-setting smallest thong ever.

We wrapped up both days of wrestling with relaxation and fine dining at a couple of excellent restaurants. And that's really been a highlight of this weekend -- the chance to see and hangout with Jenny and Kim while they're visiting from Europe, to bring together so many great people from the New York scene, to introduce and connect everyone to everyone, to trade stories and make plans for future travel, events, and training, and to realize just what awesome people I tend to know and work with.

And now there is SO much video editing to do, but my videographer is a beast of efficiency and the compilation DVD of Saturday's fights will be available at the Doom Maidens Video Store in no time with downloadable versions of the individual matches to be released sequentially soon after...

Thoughts on January 23 Showcase

I've been observing all of this video trash talking battle between Veronica and Juliette, and so, I thought I'd talk a bit about my match with Jenny coming up at the NYC Wrestling Showcase, January 23, 2010.

VeVe at the NYC Female and Mixed Wrestling Showcase! January 23, 2010.