Rain?? Goddamnit!!

2007-01-27T18:36:00.000-08:00

With a morning shoot scheduled today, I checked the weather report last night at around 1am and sure enough, the forecast called for clouds and a 30% chance of rain.

They obviously missed a '0' - by 6am, it was pouring and everything was soaked. Since I'd been up until 3am (don't ask), it didn't occur to me to call everyone right away in order to cancel. Instead, I fell back asleep until about 8. Oops.

It wasn't raining and the sun had begun to peek out a little bit, and I knew that people were already on their way to the park, so I did a little scrambling and secured a conference room for us at the local hotel. I then phoned everyone to inform them of the change. Only one problem - there were 2 new girls whose number I did not yet have. Jessica reached the park at around 9:30 and called me to get the scoop. After mustering up just before 10, I met Jessica and Ryan. Amanda, as always, was early and all ready to rock. I had to go pick up our other set of mats, so Pete went over to the park to look for our other newbie. I returned about 15 minutes later and met Elizabeth for the first time. Phoenix was out with an injury, but Julie was there. Margarita and Hollywood had phoned to let me know they were a little behind schedule, so after getting the paperwork taken care of, we began.

With the dual-mat setup and over 2-1/2 hours of shoot time at our disposal, we were certain to get a ton of material today and that's exactly what we did.

The lineup: Rachel, Amanda, Julie, Margarita, Jessica, Elizabeth, Hollywood, Ryan.

Julie was the dominant force once again today. Once she locks those crushers around your midsection, it's really up to her to decide when the match will end. BUT, with each fall, the newer girls are becoming more and more adept at avoiding and sometimes even escaping her lethal thigh trap.

Rachel is the most muscular wrestler in our talent pool. She's a fitness instructor and says that she does about 2 hours of cardio a day to remain so lean. You could sharpen an ax blade on those abs of hers. If you're into lean, ripped feminine muscle, then you'll definitely want to check out all her matches.

Amanda is fierce and strong and I'm always amazed at how far she's come since our first shoot a year ago. Any opponent who estimates her because of her size or good looks is making a serious mistake. She scored a victory by pin over Ryan today. That was hot.

Margarita is not only sexy and athletic, but she's got incredible stamina and a high pain tolerance. Although not nearly as experienced as Julie or Rachel, she pushed both women to the limit. She and her girlfriend, Hollywood, were a great matchup, and I can't wait to see how her match against Amanda turned out. I want to try get her a lot more falls in 2007, because I think she's got the potential to become one of our top lightweights.

Jessica was such a cutie. She'd first replied to one of our ads back in the fall, but because of scheduling, we weren't able to get her until today. She had always wrestled with her brothers when she was younger, but had been looking for girls or guys to roll with for the longest time.

Enter SheWrestles.

When we were going over some of the basic moves with her, she said, "Oh, I'm really good at scissors, because my mother always told me those were the best thing to use on boys". Oh yeah, this is gonna be good.

Elizabeth is a former college soccer player. She had no idea what to expect when she walked in today, but she's got so much core strength (and wait until you see her LEGS!) and natural athleticism that I know she's going to be a winner. The instructors and I couldn't help but note how closely she studied the techniques involved. I'm hoping that she can get more practice in between now and the next time we shoot.

Hollywood is drop-dead gorgeous. There, that had to be said. Tall and lean, this model is a *lot* stronger than she looks. She was a referral from Margarita and the two of them could not have been more perfectly matched. Margarita pretty much has the green light from me on bringing more of her hot friends along in the future.

Ryan wasn't our first choice, but he turned out to be an absolute gem. The girls LOVED him...I mean, how could they not? He's in a band! lol When I told him we'd actually selected another guy, he asked what his name was and as fate would have it, the other guy was his roomie! (The other guy had flown back to Florida to assist with a family emergency, so that's why we hadn't gotten confirmation from him, but I think it worked out even better.) He's moving back to Florida this week, but plans to work in both FL and CA, so we'll make an effort to get him back in the future.

Ok, that was a long intro, so I'll close for now and then start reviewing the footage tonite. Be on the lookout for some sample pics later today.

Birthday Beatdown

2007-01-20T15:59:00.000-08:00

Any week involving a Vegas trip is always a bad week to try to get a shoot set up, but the guys and I were determined to make it happen this weekend. Unfortunately, because of problems with the models' schedules and securing a studio, we ended up having to bag the proposed 6-girl shoot. That really sucked, because we were especially excited about getting Margarita back onto the mats and we also had a couple of new girls coming in.

All was not lost, however.

Julie doesn't really do email all that much, but sent me a text message Thursday night asking whether everything was confirmed for Saturday. Oops. The thing is, I hadn't called her and told her there might be complications, because I had no concrete info at the time. The girls on email were all aware that there was a lot of back-and-forth regarding locations, dates, and times.

It had been cold around here most of the week, but the midday warmth on Friday provided me with the best possible solution - an outdoor shoot here in Ventura County. It would mean more travel for the girls - and for Pete - but we'd get all the space we needed and best of all, it wouldn't cost us a thing. One of the new girls had a scheduling conflict, however, and Margarita's car is in the shop, so that still meant putting that shoot on the shelf for the time being. Julie and her girlfriend were still onboard, though.

So, I told Julie to meet us at the park (where we did the Lia LaBowe shoot back in November) at 10am and told her we'd work until about noon.

When she arrived this morning and introduced me to her friend, I was amazed at how strong Phoenix's handshake was. Find me a girl with a great grip and we can do some things. She was a very athletic-looking 5-8, 140 lbs and told us she was there to kick some ass. She informed us that she had 7 years of martial arts training under her belt and I knew we had a winner.

Pete arrived a few minutes later and once the mats were set up, the cameras started rolling.

Phoenix quickly proved to be an absolute natural on the mats. Not only does she have quickness and great moves, but she's also strong as hell, something I discovered later as I was being choked out.

Julie's got a lot more experience at this type of wrestling, but by the end of the day, it was clear that Phoenix could more than hold her own. After a several extremely tiring and painful falls, the girls got to have a little fun during some 2-on-1 action vs Pete and then Darnell. Maybe it wasn't so fun for the boys. haha At the end, I took on Phoenix just to see what she was made of and boy, did she show me. I don't think we've had anyone else with that combination of strength, wrestling savvy, and SPEED...it literally took her only seconds to gain control and to begin the submission process.

Once they were done kicking our asses, the girls took our money, then headed back to L.A. to celebrate Julie's birthday. Well, she's gotta work first, but then she intends to party all night. Happy birthday, Julie - we enjoyed it!

SheWrestles Roundup

Rain?? Goddamnit!!

Birthday Beatdown