me vs orlandoe + phoenix travel

I have another busy week ahead of me here -- this is what's going to be happening in the very near future.

First up, I'm very pleased that Orlandoe is back from her travels down south.  This means that our ever-smoldering rivalry can again blaze bright.  We have two separate custom video challenges scheduled this week.

On Wednesday, we're going to be filming Wrestling vs. Striking II.  This will be similar to the match I did with Shauna in May but more personal and I'm sure more ruthless!  Again I'm going to be the wrestler not the striker -- I don't expect to get out of this one unbruised, but I think my chances are excellent for pulling off the win.  Orlandoe disagrees...  Then on Friday, after we've both recuperated a bit, we're going to have an All-Abs Contest -- most reps in 2.5 minutes for crunches, sit-ups, and leg raises wins!

After that, bright and extremely early on Saturday morning, I leave for a trip to Phoenix.  This is going to be an all-too-short trip, Saturday and Sunday only, but I've never been to Phoenix before, and it was time I made it out there.  Since it will be a weekend-only stop, anyone in the area who'd like a session and hasn't contacted me yet should do so right away -- time is very limited!  And anyone who knows Phoenix should send me a recommendation for the ONE best fun thing I should see or do while I'm there.

Also a bit more general information -- I'm pretty sure I'm going to be able to go back to Muay Thai class this week.  My annoying broken toe is sooooo close to healed, and while it's been great for my grappling to have time off from stand-up training, I'd rather be doing both.  It's silly, but to keep myself from trying to go back too soon, I ordered a nice speed rope by slow post and told myself I had to wait until it comes to return to class.  This does have a purpose -- all my academy's warm-up jump ropes are mis-fit sizes for me and catch my toes when I jump!  And my new rope should be coming by the end of the week...

Finally, this is also the week that I'm determined to set my itinerary for the sessions road trip I'm planning in August.  Today, I started playing with Google maps and got a little distracted pinpointing everywhere I've already visited for sessions.  Very fun to see how many places I've gone -- more than I realized! -- as well as how many I still need to visit and where I need to return.  This got me planning all kinds of things way out of proportion to reality (for now).  But reining it back in, this August, I'm PROBABLY going to be swinging through Philly, D.C., Charleston, and one or two stops in Florida.  Anyone who wants to cast votes for these cities or others along the same route, please do speak up, and speak up quickly!

More news after some of these adventures happen!

the wrestling rumor mill

I just have to comment that it's a little odd, funny, and very noticeable that people are suddenly quite interested in my record and "toughness rating" among session wrestlers.  I see it on discussion forums, and I certainly can't miss the direct emails, "VeVe, did you beat so-and-so?  Did so-and-so beat you?"

On the one hand, it's very flattering; I certainly appreciate everyone's being so interested!

On the other hand, it IS rather funny, because none of this information is secret.  I rarely give out results of my matches, and I never do if it was a match for another company, but all the matches people ask me about are publicly available.  Now I know not everyone is going to purchase the matches (though, frankly, if you're someone who cares about the results, chipping in to support the companies that bring us ladies together to do this is the decent thing to do).  But with the number of people I know have seen these matches, I tend to be a little amazed at all the misinformation out there.

Those in the know seem to mostly keep their own counsel; the rumors, guesses, and speculation certainly outweigh the facts.  It can be very interesting to read about what I've supposedly done, had done to me, or will do.  Which matches people care about is also interesting; some of my best (in my opinion) are ones I never see mentioned.  And I have to wonder -- an awful lot of people seem to want to see me beaten or beaten up.  Maybe they don't like me?  Maybe they DO like me and think I look good having a hard time.  Perhaps some of both...

Couldn't I dispel all these rumors with a single authoritative statement?  NO!  The videos will always be there when someone wants them, but talk on the internet is infinite.  I'd rather enjoy it than ever try to drown it out.

In any event, I guess I'd better stay busy.  I seem to have a lot of hype to live up to all of sudden.

very exciting matches this week!

This is may be the most exciting week for video matches I've ever had.   Three different types of competitive matches (almost four, but more about that later) all in one week.

Last things first, since I especially want to mention next Saturday's shoot with visiting wrestler Shauna Ryanne.  Shauna and I are meeting up for a competitive match while she's in town, and I'm very excited for it for a couple reasons.  Shauna and I have both been beating up on one of my favorite victims (Mark of Brutal Beauties) for years, and he keeps telling us awesome things about each other, but we've never gotten to meet before.  And second, this will be my first competitive FvF match in way too long, and I've missed my roots!

But for all that, it seems a waste to shoot only one match with such a lovely and lethal lady when we've got this chance.  So if anyone is interested in ordering customs (mixed, FvF, or solo) with Shauna while she's here, please get in touch right away!  Write to veve.wrestler@gmail.com.

Working backwards, the next match in line is a competitive bondage wrestling showdown between Hanz Vanderkill and me slated for Wednesday night.  This is another type of match I haven't done in far too long, and I can only wonder why I didn't realize sooner Hanz is a perfect opponent.  After all, we've faced each other in submission grappling, an oil wrestling match, and even a lucha-pro-style spectacle.  Of course, we must face each other in a bondage challenge!  It was inevitable.  And this time he won't be wearing a mask!

Now Hanz may think he can say anything he likes behind my back, but he was foolish enough to spill his strategy to Diablo, who fortunately gave me some advance warning.  It seems Hanz's big idea is to spend all his energy UN-tying anything I can get on him.  Now that's just punkish, and my counter-strategy is going to be to take it to him hard and fast and punish him for such an ignoble scheme.  He'll have to try to tie me just to defend himself!

[Edit 5/25 - Bondage wrestling with Hanz was phenomenal!  Excellent, tough match; dramatic finish; I am SOOO proud of it!  And just released yesterday -- HERE.]

Finally the first match of the week -- me vs. Adrian.  This took place Sunday morning bright and early, and it's actually already up in the Doom Maidens store.  I was SUPER happy with this match.  In particular, I'm proud as hell of some superb bodylock takedowns and beautiful triangle transitions I pulled off.  I was also very impressed with Adrian; he brought in size and strength, put up 100% worth of fight all the way through, and put me in some real pain.  I was definitely more than he expected though!  Only one downside to this match -- if you ask my disgruntled video editor, my bikini was TOO risque.

And a footnote -- there was ALMOST a fourth competitive match this week, but Orlandoe and I couldn't quite match our schedules for it.  This would have been a striking vs. grappling match (Orlandoe striking vs. me grappling) pitting Orlandoe's slaps, punches, kicks, and sadism against my "macho-chism" and submission skills under pressure.  It's still going to happen, but with Orlandoe about to embark on a couple different travel adventures, it's sadly pushed back to mid-June.  Looking very forward to it though!

starting strength stats, for the record

So this is the start of my six-week max strength lifting program.  Let's see where I'm at, so we can see how much I can improve in six weeks.

Monday, May 7th

Back Squat ------------------------------------------------------------- 165 lbs. for 6 reps

Incline Dumbbell Chest Press ------------------------------------- 45 lbs. for 7 reps

   (yeah, I know, the bench press was occupied...eternally)

T-Bar Row -------------------------------------------------------------- 75 lbs. for 6 reps

Overhead Barbell Shoulder Press -------------------------------- 70 lbs. for 6 reps

Dumbbell Curl --------------------------------------------------------- 25 lbs. for 8 reps

Overhead Single Dumbell Extension ---------------------------- 35 lbs. for 6 reps

Next lift on Wednesday!

chicago & news catch-up

I know I'm criminally behind in posting about the latest wrestling adventures -- I blame this (like everything) on my day job which has been loading me with tons of take-home data entry for the past couple weeks.  But that project is SO close to done now I can taste it, and I feel I can afford a celebratory blogging session.

First story to tell: my mid-April trip to Chicago.  This was such a mix of ups and downs it was wild -- definitely one of *those* trips.  To start out with I was simply blown away by the wonderful flood of interest -- thank you, Chicago, and to everyone I simply didn't have time to see, I'm sorry and I'll definitely be making a longer visit next time.

So I catch my super-early flight out of Chicago, land, and make it to my hotel with two hours to settle in and set up before my first session.  Only to find the hotel has overbooked itself due to some conference they're hosting and my reservation is one they've given away.  There's not really time to argue, so I break out the laptop, discover there are two other hotels in walking distance, call the first to find it's gone out of business, call the second to find they have rooms available, and take off down the road lugging my travel mats on my back.

This second hotel is everything you'd expect of a rent-by-the-hour dive, but it's all I can do under the  circumstances.  When I ask for a non-smoking room, the front desk hands me a can of air-freshener.  I have to hope my session guests will find that this adds a seedy, romantic excitement to the whole affair.  I clean up, set up, and breakfast on packaged shortbread Indra had been nice enough to bring me over from London.  And then the fabulous part of the trip begins.

I really had some wonderful sessions on this trip.  A big thank you to the fellow who brought me the lovely purple opera gloves.  And also to the guy who egged me on to do my nastiest humiliation session yet -- I find people *usually* want somewhat playful and safe humiliation, but that was not where this session ended up, which was quite fun and thrilling.  Also terrific to end a long day of wrestling by seeing one of my very favorite regular clients again -- made saving the heaviest, hardest match for last a real pleasure.

Saturday was its own misadventure.  I'd come out for an event in the city as well as sessions.  This day involved a nerve-wracking clown-car carpool with some other hotel guests to get downtown (very bad driver who liked picking fights with other cars -- *never* accepting such an offer again) and my event running vastly later than I could ever have guessed completely bollocksing up my night.  But I survived!  And in the morning I lugged my mats back to the airport shuttle (at the original hotel, grr!) and came home to plan a more relaxed return visit.

The major project back here lately was a custom karate video with Indra.  I've done fantasy karate videos (Karate Nylons One & Two) before, but the premise here was a technical training encounter between two black belts. This was a big deal because I really have no background in karate and had a short time to pick it up since Indra was heading back to London April 28.  (Good-bye, Indra, we'll miss you until you come back in August!)  So I spent about a week getting a crash course in both karate techniques and attitude, along with a bit of stage combat.  Lots of fun, concentration, and roundhouse kicking.  We ended up making two versions -- a more combative sparring  match which Indra wins and a self-defense back-and-forth which I win, both finished off with a choke to knock-out and a bow to the unconscious opponent.  The combo will be released soon, but there's already a trailer up on YouTube:  VeVe vs. Indra Karate Trailer.

There have been a ton of little odds and ends going on too.  Now that warm(ish) weather seems to be coming back, I've enjoyed a bit of roof gardening and spring cleaning + remodeling around my apartment -- big improvements with more to come.

Spring and summer also tend to get me fired up to step up my training...but I managed to break my toe in BJJ class last week attempting an "experimental" cartwheel guard pass.  In its extremely inconvenient way, this should actually be good for my grappling since I'm having to take a month off from Muay Thai and can put the extra time into ground work.  No trouble with the toe at all when I'm on the ground.  I'm also just shifting into a max strength training phase in my lifting program -- those are always my favorites.  I need to do a nice comprehensive test lift, actually, and post my starting numbers; then perhaps in six weeks when I've got some results to show, we'll get out a new lifting video.

Speaking more of videos, Doom Maidens has been in the market for a new camera lately.  My role has been moral support as Diablo tests and rejects various options.  We're sensing it's time to retire the old camera but finding that new models don't surpass it for picture quality and are infinitely less compatible with our software.  Frustrating.  The hunt continues, but we've got a slew of projects lined up for next week, and for now we're newly determined not to trust any of them to disappointing "upgrades."  On the horizon are mixed competitive and armpit worship vids with Orlandoe; Athena vs. me in a catfight; and hopefully the debut of a new victim facing me in competitive straight and bondage wrestling matches.  Stay tuned for more action...

the weekend - a rant

Right, so clearly all things can't go right all the time.  But seriously now, when they do go wrong, why does it have to be all at once?  I had three things scheduled for this weekend, a session and two video shoots, and every single one fell through.  Now, with both the session and the first shoot, the other person let me know as early as possible that something had come up, and we're talking to reschedule.  No issues there; I even got to make it to a very nice no-gi class I would otherwise have missed.  So that was Saturday, and it was pretty well salvaged.

But, oh damn, this bastard who stood me up Sunday.  This is the problem with making wrestling videos, I find.  Guys who will be in them, will show their faces on camera, and AREN'T FLAKY are a rare and precious breed.  On that note, I want to put a big "Thank You" out there to the awesome guys I do work with before saying anything else.  But at certain points you look over your filmography and think, "Man, I sure do beat up the same people a lot.  Maybe a new face...?"  And then you must Take A Risk.

So, Sunday.  A message to this schmuck:  First off, don't contact me saying how much you would LOVE to do this and totally blow it off when you get a chance.  This really stands to ruin things for guys who write in and are sincere.  Second, it does take some effort and coordination to set these shoots up - it involves scheduling with the studio, the videographer, and video sponsors, so being a slinky little no-show screws over at least three people besides me.  Third, yesterday was absolutely gorgeous -- which I noticed as I hurried through the park, not stopping in order to get to this shoot on time.  Fourth, as I sat there waiting for you to show your punkish face, I determined precisely the favorite restaurant and precisely the glass of wine I would need to brush away this irritation.  Then, after giving up on you and trekking across town with ALL my video and costume equipment, I found the restaurant was closed!  Your fault, I'm sure.  And fifth, Second Choice Restaurant really had inexcusably terrible sangria.  ALSO your fault.

Now, that's not to say the evening was a total waste.  My cameraman and I are resourceful and determined.  We took some new close-up foot photos for me.  I've been practicing karate-style kicks in preparation for a new custom video request, and we shot a little gimme of my kicks with me in full gi.  And we experimented with (but had to reject - for now) some POV camera angle ideas I'd been pondering.  Most importantly, we got in touch with a good and trusty video victim and rescheduled the original shoot for Tuesday.  But did it have to be like that?  No.  It COULD have been the shoot it was supposed to be.

OK, vented.  Moving on.  New week...

judo, L&C, Nashville, and more

A lot to catch up on since my last blog!

The first thing to report is the story of a VERY wild video shoot from last week.  There was one video on the schedule, and it was a very interesting and somewhat complicated custom request -- a judo contest, but with a messy wrestling twist.  The fighters would wear shiny leotards and tights and any time one lost a fall, she would be rubbed and massaged with bread dough while she recovered.  At the end of the match, whoever's shiny attire was still shiny (or at least less messy) would win.  Orlandoe and I were competing, and Indra was to be the ring girl in charge of the dough.

That was the plan.  But another request came through the night before for a lift and carry custom featuring Orlandoe, Indra, me, and a fourth girl.  I knew we had to do it the same night or wait a long time for everyone's schedules to line up again.  So an urgent call went out for a fourth girl who was free at exactly the right time that night.  Only an hour before the shoot we found her; a friend of Orlandoe's could do it.

Now, we often use a public rehearsal studio for our videos -- sometimes they're great.  They store our mats for us, and some of the rooms have lovely theatrical lighting.  BUT.  They've been driving me crazy lately -- getting busier and busier and more crowded, harder to book, and more full of bitchy anti-wrestling yoga and belly dancing personalities.  Not to mention drama-prone drama majors.

So, before the shoot, I'm mixing up the bread dough in the ladies' room.  "What's that?" someone asks.  No problem; it's a theater space.  "A prop," I say.  We film the judo video and it goes quite well (QUITE well -  lovely throwing and athleticism and a great match-up between Orlandoe and me), but it runs a bit late.  So after the shoot, we get the studio manager knocking on the door telling us the next scheduled group in waiting to come in.  What the fuck, little dancing group?  You couldn't knock on the door yourselves?  It prevents making an issue and it saves YOU time.  Like I said, it's the good with the bad at this place.

We sneak into another free room to do the lift and carry video.  This one is two teams performing shoulder rides and having a chicken fight, and the one major request the sponsor had was 10 minutes of continuous carrying -- no breaks or cuts in the tape.  I'd never tried a straight 10-minute lift before, so it was looking to be a challenge.  Turned out to be more of challenge than expected -- Orlandoe's friend hadn't listened to her very carefully about what the shoot would involve, so she'd decided it would be OK to show up a bit tipsy.

Orlandoe was the one carrying her, and I was carrying Indra, and we both had quite a job to do keeping our riders safe while the fourth girl got way too wild and ruthless with the fight -- for 10 minutes, with no break to calm her down!  But we succeeded, and I was quite proud of our strength, balance, and composure!  Then to top it off, the girl says she didn't realize the video would be released and isn't comfortable with that.  This is a terrible waste as it was an impressive feat in the end and deserves to be seen; I swear I get saint points for honoring her request.  Grrr.  But we definitely want to use this scenario again for a video that WILL be released.

Next item - my trip to Nashville.  Let me skip over most of it and hit the biggest highlight.  Saturday night I was supposed to meet up with a big group of friends for dinner and drinks, but everyone was coming from a different place, and no one had decided where we were actually meeting.  Everyone text everyone when you get near, was the dubious plan.  My ride and I show up first; we spot a likely looking sports bar and text everyone about it.  We go in, and honest-to-god the receptionist says to us "I don't recommend you come here.  Really.  Go to the nice place two blocks away."  And indeed, on the inside this place looks like a hell hole.  We text everyone again, and head to the new place.

Of course, they never arrive and quite possibly some of them ended up at the original miserable dive.  But we get a huge comfy booth just in case they manage to show and proceed to enjoy live bluegrass (it was an Earl Scruggs tribute), awesome ribs, and various superb Southern microbrews.  Ever had Bourbon Barrel Stout or Pecan Nut Brown Ale?  Don't wait - find them, try them.  So that was my mini-birthday celebration.  I'm STILL waiting to be un-busy enough for my proper birthday celebration.  This weekend's looking good.  And Orlandoe and Wrecks are hosting a party Wednesday that should make a nice second warm-up ;)

Third and fourth items, quickly - Taxes, killing me.  This was such a huge stressor to me yesterday.  I've gathered more receipts, and things are looking brighter, but this was a blow to my optimism about getting out of the office job this year.  I didn't need that...or, realistically maybe I did.  It's still going to happen but more likely next year.  Sigh.

AND this week's videos.  Yesterday I got to sit in on a match between my friend Hanz and Amazon Eve.  That was quite something to see!  Hanz isn't a small guy (6'-0" and 190 lbs.), and at 6'-8" Eve just dwarfed him.  Their match was for Hanz's site, not for Doom Maidens, so look for it there.  It was fun to compare notes with Eve afterwards -- I'm of course not too familiar with the giantess and height comparison corners of the wrestle/muscle/strength world, and Eve was very keen to learn more technical jiu-jitsu.

Tonight there's a judo and foot domination match coming up between Indra and Thrash, and I'll be joining the fun as well for a judo torture instructional clip.  Onward to more action...