I recently became a member of the femalewrestlingchannel website and have already watched a lot of the videos they have produced so far. My favourite wrestler there is Scarlet Squeeze. She is in Indiana and I am based in Wales and femalewrestlingchannel do not offer mixed wrestling sessions. Therefore, I've no plans to go and visit femalewrestlingchannel but am still a big fan of what they do with the story line background to their wrestling videos. I decided to book a Skype call with Scarlett Squeeze and we managed to set a time that suited us both on Monday evening while I was in London on business. I checked into my hotel and showered after the journey down from Cardiff. We have been in touch by facebook message so Scarlett knew when I had arrived and checked in and messages me back to say she would call in 25 mins. I made a cup of tea and sat down ready for the call. When the call came and I pressed the video view button, the first thing I noticed was that she was also having a big cup of coffee. We chatted for an hour about a lot of things, not just wrestling but other interests we have and things we do. It was great being to chat to someone like Scarlett who shares similar interests to myself. My main interest is in session wrestling which she was fascinated to hear about as well as my character "The Amazing Spider-Mouth" and the role I play as this character within the wrestling scene. She is into competitive female matches and I asked her about how she prepared for matches and how she found them, what she liked about them and how she competed under the femalewrestlingchannel rules. We are different in that we have different perspectives on the wider scene and she participates in the scene professionally while I am a customer within the scene. However, as well as are different roles within the scene, we also have similarities which we discussed. For example, we both use wrestling names and essentially live double lives, keeping this aspect of our lives from others we know in our normal lives. It was interesting to hear about each other's different reasons for this. We had an interesting discussion about some of her matches. I had watched them on video and had analysed tactical decision making and considered alternative options she may have taken in different situations. Scarlett was able to tell me about what it was like being in those matches from the inside, what she was trying to do, how she prioritised attacking and defending. She asked me about the trash talking and comedy routine I use in my filmed matches when I am in full costume and if there was anything she could try. I told her that if she ever gets an opponent on their back, ask her if she enjoys her view of the ceiling. Scarlett was a bit dubious about this because she felt it could make an opponent more determined to fight their way to an escape for the pin. She might be right about this. I made the case for trash talking in that it could be a distraction to an opponent and make them make bad decisions. In wrestling you sometimes need to be calm and controlled to be alert to opportunities and make good decisions. It can be like a chess match except you don't have the time chess players have to think about their moves. You may have to think more rapidly under pressure about the moves you will make. So any distraction to your opponent by gamesmanship or trash talking could be just enough to make them miss an opportunity or better still make a mistake that hands you an opportunity. I'm a bit of an amateur with Skype but did manage to show Scarlett the nice hotel room I was being put up in. We talked about loads but there is still so much more I want to talk with her about. I'm looking forward to doing another Skype session with her soon. A lovely person as well as a great wrestler who I am a big fan of.
