ChickFight

The First Step Towards ChickFight…..

Posted on 20. Jan, 2008 by Emily Jane in Fighters

Ever wondered what it is like for a female starting out in the male dominated world of Professional Wrestling? Well thanks to 21 year old Rebecca James – the first female trainee and graduate of the Lance Storm “Storm Academy” we get a little closer in finding out!

Rebecca James pictured with Lance Storm, Chris Jericho & her all-male classmates!

Rebecca James is a 21 year old girl from Cardiff, Wales who for as long as she can remember has always possessed a passionate interest in the world of professional wrestling. In 2007 Rebecca decided to take the first step in making her passion her career by traveling to Canada and becoming the first female student under the guidance and tutelage of former WWE, WCW and ECW star Lance Storm at his “Storm Academy” training school! Here exclusive to www.ChickFight.tv Rebecca recounts her time in Canada, the obstacles that she had to overcome and the dream that got her through it so that one day she can become a star in the world of female professional wrestling and ChickFight.

When I was little my father would pull our big brown leather sofa over close to the T.V with me on it like a ride. That was when I knew the wrestling was coming on. I would sit there with my brother and father every week wanting to know what happened next. Literally one of my first memories in life is a blurry vision of Bret Hart coming down the ramp and giving his sunglasses to a small blonde boy, and how much I wanted to be that boy. Little did I know I’d end up years later wanting to be the one on the opposite side of the barrier.

I have never been an academic person. Sure I was capable of it, but I never found any of it compelling. Once I had finished my A levels, I had to pick a University course like everyone else and start heading down a career path. I searched hard for a course I would want to do, trying to figure out what would I wanted to do with my life… but nothing felt… right. One weekend my brother asked whether I wanted to go to a local wrestling company’s show that had just opened up so I went along. While watching the show it all just fell into place inside my heart. I knew finally what I had been searching for, and it had been right in my face all along.

For me it wasn’t a difficult decision when it came to where I wanted to train to wrestle. I had always admired Lance. The way he wrestled was what was fascinating about him throughout his career. His movements are fluid and he wrestles from the heart with precision in a way that caught my attention immediately. I hope one day I can achieve being at that level of ability and so he was easily my choice. It came to my attention very quickly I was the only girl to ever go through with coming to Storm Academy even though there had been enquiries in the past, as well as the fact that I would be training with an entirely male class. Then when I added on the fact I would be totally alone with no one to hold my hand whatsoever, especially if I got seriously injured, it was a very daunting prospect. It was one of those moments where you have to sit down and really see how much you want it. I wanted it enough.

Considering I didn’t live there to know the area well enough to find a decent place to stay, Lance organized a place for myself and another student, who dropped out within the first week, to live for the three months. Every weekday morning I was up at six, out by seven, walking in up to -26 degrees (It’s actually the -8 degree wind-chill hitting your face that kills you) to walk block after block and wait for a bus to travel for two hours to get to the Academy and then do it again backwards. Worst of all was that the place I was staying didn’t even have a kettle. I try to think that Lance was just testing me so I won’t ever kill him for making a British person go through not being able to have a cup of tea as soon as she got back from training like she should have. He also promised me a kettle so I’d stop whining. He lied.

I’m going to be totally honest. I had never been so nervous or felt so vulnerable in my whole life as I did when I went to the Academy. It helped a hell of a lot that Lance is probably one of the kindest guys you’re ever going to meet in the Industry, but I was a bag of nerves. You know that feeling when you want something so bad that you’re desperate to get it right and it almost puts you off? Yeah, that was me. It was extremely intense emotionally, mentally and physically. I was working with guys three to five times my size and weight, fighting against my limitations every step of the way. I seriously underestimated how difficult it truly would be. I got sick, injured and I struggled with myself the whole time. Some days I would almost fall asleep on the bus because I was so drained and I got many strange looks when I had bruises all over my body and a busted lip. The trick was to just not think about it and keep going. I kept pushing as it all pushed back and gradually it wasn’t such a battle anymore.

As it is now well known, before Chris Jericho made his big WWE return, the other students and I had the pleasure of meeting him and having him train with us for a few day. He was also there to witness us do our first promos and was a great help to us all. He gave brilliant advice and when making suggestions to people about things he’d switch from a calm, passionate guy to this electric character. It was a fascinating thing to see. It really made me think about what kind of energy it takes and his advice that you have to ‘commit to the moment’ has really stuck with me. We all commented to each other we were sad to see him go, as he felt like part of the class by the end of his time with us.

On the very last week of training, I was facing another trainee in a training match that was being taped to watch back and critique as was all our matches. We reached the finish and I went up onto his shoulders for a hurricanrana off the top rope. Admittedly looking back I shouldn’t have tried to do it. We were both too inexperienced. As I went backwards, the other trainee lost his footing, slipped and I went through the ropes into the cement wall forehead first. As I turned over to sit up I had absolutely no comprehension of how badly I was hurt. I in fact almost went to get up thinking ‘Oh god, I ruined the ending somehow, I need to get in and finish’ and would have tried to if Lance hadn’t have appeared over me. When the pain came through, I touched my head and saw my hand covered in blood. I stayed calm and joked about it as Lance quickly stuffed tissues on my head to stop the bleeding and he immediately took the trainee, Jorge (his assistant for the class as Lance’s knees are pretty bad at the moment) and myself to the hospital. We waited for five solid hours, all of which Lance kept us entertained with stories.

Finally I couldn’t take it anymore. I went and took a look in the bathroom. It was then I realized the full extent of the injury and why the nurse continuously apologized for making me wait so long and checked up on me. I could actually see my own skull. It wasn’t a little split – it was a hole right to the bone. When I was seen, the nurse and the doctor said by all rights I should have been concussed and unconscious when I was brought into them. The only thing they had seen like it is if I had been skimmed by a bullet and lost some flesh. It took five injections to numb the area (I have a phobia on needles so that wasn’t exactly pleasant) because they had to give me three stitches inside my head, and then pull the skin over so they could give me four stitches on the outside. Once it was all over Lance got me a hot chocolate, a doughnut and took me home.

I collapsed into bed. I was in severe pain, but I was smiling. Before I came to the Academy, I knew everything up to death was a possibility. I wondered if something like this did happen, would I be able to cope? Would it put me off? Did I want it enough that having a permanent and very blatant scar on my head was worth it? Absolutely! Through my whole experience and especially that one, I grew in ways I wondered if I ever would. It was the hardest thing I have ever had to do, but I did it and became the first female graduate of StormAcademy, as well as holding the record for the worst injury in the Academy’s history. It made me love wrestling and appreciate wrestling and the wrestlers involved in it on a whole new level, especially women wrestlers.

It is a scientific fact that women are simply not as capable of activities such as wrestling as men due to different muscle groupings in the body, etc. Not that you would think that when watching a product like ChickFight. It makes me proud that women across the world say, ‘You know what? That’s okay with me. I’m still going to fight to get up every rung on that ladder to my dream twice as hard. I’m going to show grace, I’m going to show strength on different level that men can’t with style, I’m going to evolve the way people think of women’s wrestling and I am going to set an example for the future’. I believe women’s wrestling has been making tremendous strides with amazing, unique and dynamic women that I truly look forward to working with and wrestling against in the future. It is my goal to become a part of the ChickFight roster in the future. To be a part of this would to be a part of the elite – and I intend to do my very best at becoming the very best and wrestling against the top female wrestlers of ChickFight.

I’d like to finish this article by quoting something similar to what I wrote on Lance’s present at the end of my training, as I feel it applies about how I feel about my experience and how I feel about wrestling now:

When you step out of the light of what you do know, and step into the darkness of what you don’t, faith is knowing that one of two things will happen; You will be given solid ground to stand on, or you will be taught to fly. We stand on solid ground and we fight, AND we are taught to fly, and I know every wrestler who reads this and every person who loves wrestling, as well as myself, will always be grateful for that.