back from down south! and upcoming...

Yesterday I was strolling along in 80-degree weather, actually thinking it was *close* to getting too hot, and today I'm getting nothing but chilly rain and more rain.  But that's OK, I might have hoped I could bring New Orleans's weather home with me, but really I knew it would never fit in my carry-on.

So the trip this past weekend was very nice.  The first stop in Mobile to shoot with Brutal Beauties was quite productive, and it was great to visit with Mark too.  He was one of my first-ever victims when I was still a bit new to wrestling, and the video we did together then was his very first too.  Good to see that he's doing well now with his own company, getting his own studio set up, and planning a lot for more to come.

This time around we did a custom judo video where I first walk in wearing a full gi but also high-heeled sandals.  After I throw Mark around a bit, he gets mad and take a swing at me.  In vengeance for the foul play, I kick off the heels, force him to suck on my toes, and strip off the gi to finish the rest of the match in lingerie to keep him completely distracted and helpless.  I *really* liked my outfit for this video - red lace bra and thong with black back-seam fishnets thigh-highs.  Definitely going to have to come back and edit this post with a photo when I've got one pulled from the video.

I'm even more excited about the other video we shot for Doom Maidens.  This one combined bondage wrestling with a beatdown scene.  Well, really that is to say, Mark's not a hot wrestler, so it was mostly bondage + beatdown.  The premise:  Mark's ex hired me to take him down and subject him to a torture scene.  Not for the faint of heart; he's pretty bruised and marked up by the end, especially around the midsection where I focused on unleashing some hellacious belly punching.  I had a great time toying with him -- untying and retying him in different positions and letting the slaps, kicks, and punches rain down.  AND the video itself looked great -- great light, liked my outfit again :)  Really excited for when we release this one!

So *almost*enough about work, despite that actually being a really fun part of the trip.  Got in some very good sessions also.  One of my biggest, roughest, and favorite clients was nice enough to drive three hours to see me in Mobile.  Gave me a very tough match that really made me earn my vacationing afterwards -- and also gave me a bit of a black eye for the rest of the trip.  Ai!

Headed over to New Orleans when we wrapped up with shooting.  It tried to rain on me Monday morning, but it was over that by Monday night when I headed out for free, it was steamy, hot and summery by Tuesday.  One thing that was fun was seeing all the Mardi Gras decorations still up.  The trees were all festooned with beads; giant masks were hanging on the buildings; and I got the feeling there was *zero* rush to get them down :)  A little disturbing though that the bakeries were all still trying to unload the leftover king cake -- really, it was a bit late for that.

Anyway, hit up Jax Brewery and conveniently there was some huge group of what seemed to be college theater students on an early spring break.  They were only a little annoying, but the waitress was so sorry about them that she volunteered drinks discounts, and I ended up getting some pretty fancy martinis on the cheap.  Not to mention the terrific catfish.  Yay!

Flew back to NYC yesterday.  I'd really thought that during my travel time I would get a lot of reading done for my personal training certification.  I tried getting certified once before, and I hated the ACSM course so much that I had to abandon it.  Now, I'm trying again with NASM, and I'm amazed at the difference.  The information is so much more relevant, interesting, and better presented, it makes me excited to finish the course.  I'm about two-thirds of the way through the textbook, but though I hauled it everywhere with me, I ended up negotiating a lot of scheduling for projects this coming weekend via Blackberry instead.

I'm running out of time for details, but basically my next adventure is this:  an artist-photographer friend of mine asked me to be an extra in a music video she's working on in exchange for a photo shoot for me.  And we're doing both shoots this Saturday!  First, video shoot of dancing in battle armor, followed immediately by a pro-style wrestling in pantyhose photo shoot.  Should be interesting!

question: so what's been going on?

Answer: SO MUCH. This is just a little whirlwind overview in a nutshell (and you thought it was hard to get a tempest in a teapot)...

Basically, I made the decision a month or so ago that after years of juggling my office job and my wrestling career, I am certain I want to go full time with the wrestling. Now, everything isn't in place for me to make this switch yet. As far as I'm concerned, the day can't come too soon, but I do also want to be fully prepared. So I'm trying to really step up video production, session travel, and training in preparation.

That's going pretty well for the most part. We just had a terrific video shoot last night where we doubled up shooting to create two wildly different videos. I'm pretty happy with both of them.

One was a double-team match where I took on Jason and Thrash at the same time. That one had a really fun, wacky tone, which I attribute quite a bit to Jason's being naturally fun and wacky to shoot with. Neither of these guys can wrestle worth a damn, so the idea was really to see if two non-wrestlers can equal one well-trained wrestler. And well, they couldn't. At all. They could put me in some tight spots, but ultimately, I got to have a blast handing them their asses and keeping up some heavy teasing and taunting the whole time.

The next video was a bondage match with Diablo -- because it was just about time he and I went at it again with rope. This one was a much more serious match: about 10 minutes of intense struggle as he tried to tie me but tried even more to avoid getting tied, and then once I had him bound and immobilized I got to switch into my tormentress mode. I'd worn my full black bodysuit & tights ensemble for this one, so I figured some high-evil femme fatale action was called for.

Now tomorrow I head off for a four-day session and filming trip way down south. First stopping in Mobile to shoot with Mark of Brutal Beauties at his new studio there -- I'm looking forward to some very sadistic bondage wrestling and more judo domination coming out of that shoot. Then off to New Orleans for sessions and, well, New Orleans! Yay, pretty excited for this one.

So, clearly, good success on the video and travel fronts. The one difficulty is training, and it's just a matter of finding time. Here's the issue -- I've been getting such awesome roleplay requests lately, I figured I'd take an acting class to step it up even more in that department. (And the crazy dreamer part of me said, "And if I get discovered, so much the better!") I went for Scene Study, which sounded like the most "classic" acting experience I could get. Now, at the same time this venture is competing for time with my grappling, Muay Thai, and weight lifting, I'm realizing an Improv class would have been more the thing to do.

Not that I'm not enjoying it, but unless I see Improv or some other perfect fit offered at the perfect on next semester's schedule, I'm out of the studio and back to the gym. That would be a bit of a relief, but I do HATE giving up on things or admitting at can't do it all. We shall see how that goes...

There's definitely more to say, but it will follow in other posts!

Spandex Mixed Wrestling with VeVe, Orlandoe, Hanz, and Jason!

Lucha Spandex Smackdown
Competitive Mixed Wrestling
Double Team Bondage Wrestling, Girls vs Boys Wrestling Tag Team,
& Couples Bondage Wrestling Tag-Team

http://www.doommaidens.com/store/luchaspandex/

This series of competitive mixed wrestling matches are fought in spandex, tights, and mexican wrestling masks!

VeVe Lane, Orlandoe, Hanz, and Jason get kitted out in their respective colors for 3 separate types of matches:

Match 1: VeVe & Orlandoe (Team Blue) double team Jason (Green) in a bondage wrestling match. The girls are skilled in rope-tie wrestling, so Mr. Green stands no chance against them.

Match 2: VeVe & Orlandoe (Team Blue) enter a tag team mixed wrestling match against Jason (Green) and Hanz (Red). They start out fighting 1-on-1 with tag-ins, but eventually both ladies jump in at the same time, so the guys follow. And we have two matches at once on camera!

Match 3: VeVe (Yellow) teams up with Jason (Green) in a couples bondage match against Orlandoe (Blue) and Hanz (Red). Each couple breaks so that the opposing boy fights the opposing girl, resulting in two simultaneous mixed bondage matches.

Each match is 10 minutes long (30 minutes total).
All 3 matches end in with victory poses by the winning wrestlers!

Available as a download or on DVD: http://www.doommaidens.com/store/luchaspandex/

The Challenge Match with Julie Squeeze!

September had this to say....

VeVe Lane vs Julie Squeeze
Competitive Female Wrestling

http://www.doommaidens.com/store/vevejulie/

In this exciting competitive match-up, VeVe has her work cut out for her as she faces off against Julie Squeeze's powerful thighs, crushing scissors, and great athleticism.

This video match has special conditions: The ladies start off with an arm wrestling match, followed by a push-up contest. Then, in the 20 minute wrestling portion, all submissions are legal EXCEPT straight arm bars and rear naked chokes - two of VeVe's favorite and most common submission techniques!

VeVe Lane: 5'4" and 120 lbs
Julie Squeeze: 5'7" and 140 lbs

This video includes the arm wrestling warm up, push-up contest, and two 10-minutes rounds (20 minutes) of competitive wrestling.
Most submissions wins.

VeVe Lane vs Julie Squeeze at DoomMaidens.com

london wrestling trip 2010

So here I am, up bright and early on the morning after I returned from London. I'm headed into work in a moment (shoot me now!), but I wanted to get this blog up and posted first thing. I wrote most of this in London -- I had brought my laptop with the best of intentions of getting all caught up with all kinds of blog, website, and photo gallery work, only to find I had no wireless at the studio and was far too busy wrestling to search out an internet cafe. Wrestling's more interesting anyway, and now I can tell you about it...

I left New York Friday night and arrived in London Saturday morning. I’d only gotten such sleep as you tend to get on an airplane, but I had about four hours to get to Monica’s to wash up and rest a little before the tournament began. It took all four hours just to get there! First immigration was slooooow; then all the subway lines from the airport were closed due to a very specific and inconvenient labor strike; THEN after I got into central London two of the three lines across town (the two I tried first) were also closed for construction! I ended up arriving with most of the other wrestlers and guests, and it was pretty entertaining to see a swarm of wrestling-bound folks pour off the train at an otherwise totally quiet stop and all parade off through the streets together.

So I did arrive, and, thank god, I did manage the quickest shower I could before festivities officially began. And I didn't wrestle right away, so I had time to get pumped up and impatient, which did a lot to cancel out the travel fatigue. I had two matches, one against Zana, who gave me a very tough, exciting match. One of the gentlemen told me it was his favorite of the day, and I think it was pretty big hit generally. Zana told me afterwards that she’s a purple belt, so I was even more pleased to have done so well against her.

My second opponent was Victoria, and she surprised me. I’d seen her do light, sensual matches before and I knew she wasn’t a BJJ practicioner so I didn’t expect the very hard-fought, all-out fight we had. Monica told me later that Victoria had been nervous for our match and really turned up the intensity for it – and when she goes full force, she’s quick and very strong! I had to fight the whole match from the bottom since between the headlocks, guillotines, and scissors, Victoria hardly let go of my head for a second the entire time. But this gave me the chance to pull off some pretty stunning escapes and sneaky, strategic attacks. Definitely an excellent, excellent fight.

Some of the other highlights of the day were the matches between Adrianna and Nikita (two fairly new fly-weight wrestlers, who were quite a novelty as they made *me* look big) and all of Zara’s matches (she fought three to everyone else’s two, and I am beyond impressed with her for giving 110% every time against very tough opponents).

After the event, Zara, Monica, Richard, a few of the spectators, and I went out for delicious and much-needed Vietnamese food, and then I retired back to the studio for even more needed sleep.

We spent Sunday filming additional matches for another company; then went back to shooting for Monica in the evening when I did a competitive mixed match against Paul – a tri-athlete who also claimed to be undefeated in mixed wrestling.

Monday was filled with sessions and filming gi matches. I discovered that I’d remembered to bring my gi, but forgotton my belt, so I also got in my only sight-seeing that day when I went out shopping for one. I saw a lot of parks, packs of school children marching along in their uniforms, an old castle that had been converted into a rock climbing centre, and more kebab shops in five blocks than I’d thought there could be in the whole city. And I found my blue belt.

The gi matches were enormously fun to film; we did them as technical matches but with the added rule that you had to try to use your feet as much as possible, and the combination of traditional technique and creative foot tactics made for really inventive, entertaining fights.

Finally at the end of day, we fit in a bikini bout between Antscha and me. This one was a great, really active match, and it was especially fun because Antscha, who’s normally very serious, gets so happy when she wrestles that she grins and giggles even while she’s fighting extremely hard. She’s also got a perfect beautiful athletic look, so I think the match looked great in that respect too.

Tuesday I finally had a quiet morning and then headed off on a blessedly uneventful trip back to the airport. The flight back was a little more eventful -- I got to watch a couple meet and strike up an airline romance in the row in front of me, and I was seated right up against the stewardess lounge area and so was constantly surrounded by bubbly, sassy Southern stewardesses. (Don't know why all the London-to-New York stewardesses were from Atlanta, but they were.) Not as restful a flight as I anticipated! Back home now, and it was a very good trip :)

showcase report

So it's a new week and a new summer season, and Doom Maidens' second NYC Wrestling Showcase is in the books. I've had the chance to catch up on sleep (a little!); Damien has been working furiously to process all the excellent new video footage; Clobberetta vs. the Bulk was released Monday; and my match with Dominique came out just last night!

So in light of all that; I think now's the time for me to take a breath, look back, and offer up my report on the weekend.

First of all, I've got to say that putting on this event wasn't easy. I want to say a HUGE thank you to Rachel Sinclair, who spent 16 hours at the airport on Friday while the airline *tried to find her plane,* and Dominique Danger, who got a big scare when her hotel was almost unable to honor her reservation, for both showing up Saturday in game face and ready to fight. Thank you too to Lady Jaye Diesel for taking two tough matches on short notice when Allana was sidelined with an injury. And thanks to our generous sponsor who helped make this happen.

Now, best of all: the matches! We opened up with Rachel vs. Joe Jitsu, in which Rachel demonstrated her scissoring skill much to Joe's dismay.

My match with Dominique followed, and I was *very* happy with how this one went. This was a big challenge for me as I'm just coming back from a broken foot, and Dominique would count as one of the toughest opponents I've faced on any day! Not only did my foot hold up, but we both worked super hard and had a very fun, exciting, awfully sweaty match.

Jaye Diesel vs. Jay was next. The Showcase was my first time meeting Lady Jaye, and I have to say I did envy her shoulders. The match was a neck-and-neck close battle between two quite skilled grapplers. Jaye's matches sadly can't be released on video, but we respect her need for discretion, and it did create a special treat for our live event attendees.

Doom Maidens' own Amazon Annie next took on visitor Sherry Stunns, and I do believe Annie was surprised by Sherry's undaunted tenacity and fierceness when faced with Annie's superior size and technique. Excellent job, Sherry! And Annie too, of course. A close fight.

Next came the grudge match of the event: Clobberetta vs. the Bulk. These two had been trash talking each other for the last month, and I know they'd both been backing up the smack with dedicated training. So I'm very proud of both of them for their hard work, the big gains they've made in their grappling games, and the great show they put on Saturday. However, one of these two giants did get cut down to size...

Sherry vs. Rachel was our penultimate fight, and this one was a match like no other we've seen at Doom Maidens. I've never before witnessed two ladies who could be quite so playful and friendly while also trying to squeeze each other's heads off. Also, props to Rachel for the cutest sport shorts I've ever seen.

Aaaaand finally, our main event! Dominique and Jaye Diesel took to the mats, each bringing significant muscle and BJJ tournament experience. Jaye learned the disadvantage of wrestling in fishnets when every bit of slipperiness counts, but friction didn't hold her back *too* much. The match was so close it had to be decided in overtime.

After the show, wrestlers and guests hung around to chat and a few casual matches and impromptu extra videos took place. Rachel issued a challenge to the newest Doom Maiden Orlandoe -- or maybe it was the other way around; I don't know how these ladies started fighting -- and I tussled with Joe Jitsu.

After a much needed sushi feast with Amazon Annie and Hanz Vanderkil, Clobs, Damien, Joe Jitsu, his wife Mischa, and I headed out to the Stimulate dance party for a late night of celebrating. So much fun and so exhausting! I slept in on Sunday and really had to hustle to get to our second day of shooting.

Unfortunately on Saturday, Sherry had mysteriously fractured her elbow. She's not sure how it happened and it didn't even bother her until later that night, but she and I had to put off our planned match together. Really too bad! Rachel and I got to roll, though, and that was a fun match. Dominique also gave the Bulk a "birthday bashing." Way to go, Bulk! Over 50 and you've still got it -- the ability to get physically demolished by ladies, that is! And after everything was all over, Clobberetta and I had a quick, for-fun roll just to let off all the event-managing steam.

She and I headed over to the Folsom Street East Leather Fair afterwards to work late volunteer shifts and totally exhaust ourselves. It's too bad Joe and Mischa, who're the organizers of KGB (Kinky Grappling Boston), had to head home early Sunday or we would most certainly have hauled them along. Hot, hot evening sun, and the smells of leather and sunscreen really make for a perfect summer experience. Made *more* perfect by the following long walk through the West Village to the best gelato place in New York. That was *the* way to top off the weekend and treat myself after a job well done.

Now most of our guests have already left, and the rest will be headed out soon. So in conclusion, I'll say safe travels to everyone left with a journey to make, and THANKS AGAIN to all of you who made our Showcase weekend possible.

the big day is nearly here...

It's less than a week until the NYC Wrestling Showcase, so you might think that all my energy would be focused on preparing for the big event, but that would just be too easy! Things have been fiendishly busy in my wrestling world of late, in all kinds of ways.

It was quite excellent to have Jenny Sjodin visit NYC over tha past week. We shot a competitive mixed video, Jenny vs. Jay, between her and one of my own favorite grappling rivals, and she and Amazon Annie got to mix it up pro-style in a match for Southern Belles, to be released at a later date. Right in the middle of her visit, Clobberetta and I left on our whirlwind session trip to Virginia Beach. So sadly, Jenny and the Doom Maidens didn't get a chance to train together, but we did manage to get together for delicious drinks and a lovely night out on Sunday after Clobs's and my return.

We've also been working here to get the newest Doom Maidens up and running with their wrestling careers. Just tonight we shot a debut video match between Orlandoe and Ivy -- very intense and *exhausting* action! It will available no later than tomorrow. [ETA: It's available now!] The ever-quarrelsome Clobberetta was also in attendance and also planning to fight tonight, but she was denied! Since her original plan to challenge Annie was foiled by some unfortunate illness on Annie's part, she intended to take on the smaller Orlandoe and Ivy both together after their match. But time ran out, and the 8 o'clock studio renters started knocking on our door. Clobs may need to take her frustration out on *everyone* at training tomorrow.

And of course in the midst of all this, I *have* been preparing for the Showcase. This is going to be such an awesome event with such a fabulous crew of wrestlers. I just drew up the full list and schedule of fights for the weekend a day ago, and *damn.* We've got Clobberetta, Annie, Sherry Stunns, Rachel Sinclair, Dominique Danger, Allana, and myself all fighting. My personal picks that I'm really excited to see are: Annie vs. Sherry -- because I know Annie is out for blood, looking for a "decisive win" in this one, and I wish Sherry all the luck in the world fending her off! Clobberetta vs. the Bulk in their super heavyweight grudge match. And Dominique vs. Allana in their clash of the bodybuilders.

Despite the excellence of the Showcase fights, with so much talent in town we couldn't stop at just seven matches, so we'll be shooting on Sunday too -- a very full weekend! Dominique and Clobberetta will be rumbling, and Mark, my best-ever video victim, will be returning to suffer torment from Sherry and a special, MMA-style beating from me! Among still other matches...

I myself have been having to train very smartly to be ready for my fights next weekend, and I'll have to redouble that this week. I'll be coming off an injury, and I'll be ready to fight and thrilled to get back in action, but this is definitely the most challenging situation I've faced since I've been wrestling.

I'll be going against Allana, Sherry, and Rachel at various points in the weekend, and at the Showcase itself I'll be facing Dominique Danger. I'm excited to get a chance to grapple with all these new ladies but definitely most worried about the Dominique match. This is a 200-lb, seriously strong bodybuilder, who can *move* and trains legitimately in BJJ. I've seen her in action before, and power is the word for it. Holy shit. This isn't any kind of warm up match. I'm going to have to be at my absolute best, and I plan to be.

Enough talk! Sleep, and early morning academy training tomorrow!