Section:OBS 2N PaGe:35 Edition Date:190804 Edition:01 Zone: Sent at 3/8/2019 18:14 cYanmaGentaYellowbla
- The Observer
04.08.19 35
ences – any move that has a sexual
connotation is banned in our shows.
Any kind of harassment or bigotry
or bullying gets you thrown out.”
Julia Hamer, better known as
Sweet Saraya , has been a profes-
sional wrestler for 30 years and runs
Bellatrix, another all-female wres-
tling company in Norfolk. She wel-
comes female-friendly companies ,
saying: “I think Eve are amazing, I
really respect them. Our style is dif-
ferent. It’s not a problem to me if
the audience fancies you – they buy
more merchandise if they do. Plus,
we’re wearing Lycra and you can see
everything. I don’t encourage weir-
dos but you have to be a bit real .”
Ha mer is the matriarch of a wres-
tling family that has been the sub-
ject of TV documentaries and a 2019
feature fi lm directed by Stephen
Merchant. For her, it’s obvious why
more women want to wrestle now.
“It’s a pure way of building confi -
dence. I’ve seen a lot of quiet women
use wrestling to build themselves
mentally, not just physically. They
come in timid and they’re tearing
the roof off a year later. It defi nitely
helps women who have anxiety.”P
rofessor Kerry Howley
of the University of
Iowa says the rise of
women’s wrestling
might be a backlash
to cultural and social
norms. “For many women there
is an attraction to a way of life not
bound to the dictates of ‘wellness’,
of preserving life years, of carefully
guarding every cell from the inevita-
ble onslaught of entropy,” she says.
Howley spent three years shad-
owing wrestlers for her 2014 book
Thrown, which was hailed by The
New York Times. “There is a thrill in
running into destruction when cul-
ture has instructed you to do the
opposite , and a thrill in watching it. ”
Ha mer agrees, and believes a
wrestler’s mentality can be unique.
“We’re all oddballs,” she laughs. “It’s
an emotional and physical release.
Every wrestler has a story to tell,
and for women who have often been
subject to abuse and been scared
in some way , wrestling is a way to
build yourself up from that.”RIGHT
The third series
of the Netfl ix hit
Glow, which is
based on real-life
female wrestlers,
premieres on
Friday.ABOVE
Nightshade,
top, takes on the
US’s Mercedes
Martinez earlier
this year.
Photograph by
Guy Corbishley/
AlamyRIGHT
Mercede z Blaze
takes reporter
Nosheen Iqbal
under her wing
in Bethnal Green.
Photograph by
Antonio Olmos/
the ObserverLEFT
Emily Read
co-founded Eve
to create a safe
space for female
wrestlers. It now
hosts training
sessions and
sell-out shows.“sexy” cat-fi ghts. Being leered at and
objectifi ed was par for the course.
“But things have changed mas-
sively, otherwise I wouldn’t be here,”
says Kinney. “This isn’t about sexi-
ness or the male gaze, we’re putting
on a performance of strength and
power as good as any male wrestler- I was doing six sessions a week in
the gym and nine in the ring.”
Kinney has a T-shirt that reads
Psycho Dyke. You wouldn’t mess
with her. But she also explains why
the world of professional wrestling
has been shaken up fi ghters like her.
Stella Cheeks and Erin Cline,
hosts of feminist wrestling podcast
Not Your Demographic , say wres-
tling’s growing appeal is down to
the fact that voices like theirs are
getting heard.
“The trend toward more inclusive
wrestling came from the fans,” says
Cheeks. “Frankly, I think a show
like Glow was able to get greenlit
because there was a clear fanbase
in women that would eat it up and
share it with friends.”
The Netfl ix series starring A lison
Brie and Marc Maron is loosely
based on the real-life 1980s crew,
the Gorgeous Ladies of Wrestling,
and is often credited with boost-
ing the current interest in women’s
wrestling. The fi rst series, described
as smart, refreshing and “10 epi-
sodes of pure Silly String joy” by the
New Yorker, was largely welcomed by
the wrestling community. Audience
appetite seem s not to have dimmed;
the third series premieres on Friday.
“I love wrestling because it’s
everything I love about theatre,”
explains Cline. “It’s character, sto-
rytelling, stage combat, catharsis.
I love watching wrestlers fall into
their characters. Sure, the ending is
predetermined, but so is a play. It
doesn’t make me enjoy it any less.”
Both Blaze and Kinney (whose
real names are Gifty Boateng and
Cydoni Trusste) agree there is a
fairy tale element to what they do.
“It’s like a dream,” says Blaze.
Kinney adds: “You can go out with
a planned match, but there are all
these unexpected ways it can get
there .” Both are a key part of Eve
Academy ’s roster. Run by hus-
band -and -wife team Dann and
Emily Read, Eve pitches itself as
the world’s fi rst feminist wres-
tling school and runs weekly train-
ing sessions – open to all women- and puts on dozens of s ellout
wrestling shows a year. The cou-
ple founded Eve a decade ago, after
Emily stopped wrestling but knew
she wanted to make it a better, fairer
space. She says: “I had some bad
experiences and wanted to make
an all -women’s company that was
a safe place, where women would
never have to worry about being
groped by men in the ring or cor-
nered in the locker room with guys.”
At Eve’s base in Bethnal Green,
east London, Dann talks me through
their history – the Riot Grrrl wres-
tling matches, the punk wrestling
shows and the importance of Eve’s
political conscience to their success.
He has the unfortunate habit of talk-
ing over the women, but is keen to
promote their talent , saying: “For
too long I was seeing girls working
10 times as hard as the boys and not
being given the credit or opportu-
nities they deserved. We’ve changed
that. We’re the wrestling show the
wrestling business doesn’t want.”
“We teach women to be strong
and loud and stand big. When they
walk into the room, people pay
attention,” says Emily. “We get a lot
of standups and hen parties coming
to our shows and we love it. They
see thicker-set women who would
be booed in other wrestling shows,
or be cast as baddies, and they love
them. We’ve re-educated our audi-‘We teach women to be strong
and loud and stand big. When
they walk in, you pay attention’
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