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Just an amazing interview. I know wrestling and catfight fans will love this. Enjoy, and please thank Patti on her FB page.
1. So tell us a little about yourself. Favorite food? Sports team? Place to visit?
Well
I just turned 48. I've been married 27 years. I have one grown son.
I've wrestled for way over 25 years, primarily competitive freestyle
wrestling but also pro wrestling over the years. I'm 5' 8" tall, I weigh
197 lbs. I was once recruited by a professional power lifting team but I
hate how I look when I work with weights too much. I bulk up very
quickly and it's not at all feminine muscles, it's just bulky masculine
muscles, my son says I look like Sid Vicous in a swimsuit when I have my
muscles toned up from working out before fighting or using weight
training to loose weight. I'm pretty health oriented. I have literally
never smoked, not even a single puff, I've never used drugs of any sort
and I've not drank if over 30 years. I did get drunk when I was 17 and I
promptly got in a fight and got my ankle broken. I love to
eat, grilled out burgers or well prepared steak is my favorite food. I
love eating out at Italian restaurants and love Calabash style seafood. I
love the ocean and water in general so going to the beach is my
favorite place to visit. I love the lake we live near and I'd love to
visit England some time.
2. How did you get started in wrestling?
I
was an assistant librarian at a women's college. Part of my compensation
included unlimited use of the gym and pool. The school had a women's
wrestling team and the girls would be practicing when I was working out
and I started playing with them on the mats. Of course I couldn't
compete since I wasn't a student but I did begin to wrestle with both
the girls here and with other women in sort of an underground wrestling
league. It was sort of like "Fight Club" but friendlier. Thru wrestling
there I met people who got me more involved in freestyle wrestling and
eventually it led to doing so professional wrestling but freestyle is my
first love and far different from pro wrestling.
3. What companies have you worked for?
The
competitive wrestling really doesn't involve companies. It's a loose
association of women interested in competing. When there's interest we
have tournaments but other than video companies who promote and retail
videos of the matches there really is not a company per se. With regards
to pro wrestling I've worked for independent companies from Mexico to
up state New York. The groups I worked for the most would be Lady
Victoria's WOW, GLWWA (Great Lakes Women's Wrestling Association) and
CLWA (Coastal Ladies Wrestling Association). The others I wrestled for
but as a visitor. I'm actually still the GLWWA champion.
4. What's the most competitive fight you have had filmed?
I fought in the women's part of a tough man competition in West
Virginia. I'm not into boxing and this was the only time I fought in
something like this. I won my first fight but got TKO'd in the 2nd. This
was when Christy Martin was coming up and she fought in the same
tournament so if I'd won I eventually would have been KO'd by her and
after watching her fight I am certain she would have KO'd me as she did
most of her opponents until the latter part of her career when her
injuries especially being shot and stabbed by her former husband began
to take a toll on her ability to fight. In pro wrestling it's all for
fun and entertainment, in competitive wrestling I've only once lost it
and traded punches with an opponent but thankfully we regained control
of ourselves and were able to finish our match with no more violence and
I was lucky enough to win and I think I was
winning the fight when we were seperated.
5. What is your favorite wresting move to do to an opponent?
I'm
a big girl and almost always the stronger woman so I like power moves
and submission moves. I love suplexes, boston crabs, the camel clutch,
the PowerBar which is the only move named for me, moves like that.
6. How do people react when they hear you wrestle for money?
People who know me from wrestling obviously aren't suprised. I can't
really say anyone's been shocked or anything. I tried to keep it from my
family so they act funny about anything to do with wrestling. I can't
say there's been any really shocking reaction other than people who know
me personally thinking it out of character that I'd be involved in a
full contact and sometimes violent sport.
7. Have you ever been in a catfight in your everyday life like at a bar or party? The more details the better.
I
really don't know what you mean by cat fight. If you mean the sort of
thing so many women are posting online or selling then NO NEVER. If you
mean have I ever been in a real fight then yes I have. In real life it's
not like TV or movies. It often includes hospitals, getting arrested,
court, utter humiliation, guilt feelings, depression and just lots of
bad things. I've been in 6 fights where I was mad enough to want to hurt
another woman. One I already mentioned which was during a freestyle
match where the woman I was wrestling was loosing and getting madder and
madder. Eventually she started digging her nails into me and I had
little bloody spots on my arms, my throat and finally my face which made
me mad enough to fight her. She felt her conditioning would make me
easy prey for
her so she was not prepared to be beaten in a competitive wrestling
match by a woman who did pro wrestling. This was in November 2011 and I
hope will end up being the last time I end up fighting to hurt someone.
Going back to 2009 I had a coworker who decided she'd make me her bitch
at work. I put up with her mouth then one Friday after work I was
waiting for her in our parking lot. She was more mouth than fighter so
it wasn't much of a fight. I ended up sitting with her until she stopped
crying and was able to drive. I couldn't leave her alone in the parking
lot at night. I tried to keep it secret from my husband but I'd busted
my knuckles up on her head so he knew as soon as I got home that I'd
been fighting. I spent the weekend expecting the cops to show up at my
door but she didn't call the police. I did get terminated when I showed
up for work the following Monday. Myself and a neighbor got in a fist
fight because our 4 year old children weren't
playing well together. One moment we were talking then she was
screaming at me and then she'd jumped me. We showed our toddlers how
stupid adults can act. It was embarassing but thankfully I did not start
it. Before I got married my husband's former fiance baited me into
fighting her one Saturday when she was at the same public pool I was
swimming at. She wouldn't stop running her mouth and eventually I met
her behind one of the buildings at the pool but she had a friend waiting
for me and I was grabbed from behind and held in a full nelson while I
was beaten and kicked until I went down. She had a serious hatred for me
and there was no mercy so I ended up drenched in blood. I got my nose
broken, bruised ribs, both eyes were black. I needed stitches inside my
mouth, above my mouth and up towards my nose. I had to have stitches in
my chest and at the time I thought I'd been stabbed, blood was spraying
from the wound to my chest. The rescue squad had to
be called and I had to go to the ER. Both women were arrested and
eventually we had to go to court. Everyone made me out to be the villian
for calling the police but I didn't call them and I was the bad guy for
going to court against them. I was only 22 (maybe 21 I'm not sure) but I
looked like I'd been in a car wreck or something. My nose is still
crooked today, I still have scars on my chest and my face and I spent a
couple of months very very depressed after the fight. It was not a
pleasant experience. Before that I got in a fight while playing tennis
with another woman, it started over her getting hit in the face by a
ball I'd hit. I fought another woman when I was younger for no real good
reason, we just didn't get along and decided to slug it out but I can't
even remember now who won or what we were fighting over. I've only lost
it one time while wrestling that led to a fight and I've had an woman I
was wrestling loose it and want to attack me but
thankfully she didn't. Everyone else ran out of the ring including the
ref, the owner of the promotion, the camera people, everyone just
suddenly vanished. My pride will not allow me to run from a fight so I
stood there fully expecting this angry pro wrestler to jump me but she
said what she needed to say and we resumed our match. But I've never
been in a "catfight" like I see advertised. Wrestling I consider a sport
and I don't call it fighting and the times I've fought we were mad and
wanted to hurt each other, just not the rolling around tossing our hair
around trying to be entertaining. We wanted to knock each other's teeth
out and that's what we tried to do.
8. What is the wildest fight ever proposed to you?
I've
had people offer me tons of money to fight nude or topless. I've had
people send me scripts that were insane. I've had people request all
sorts of penalties or things the looser has to endure to humiliate her.
9. Have you ever done an unfilmed fight for money? Would you?
Again
when I've had to fight it had nothing to do with money so I can only
say I've done it but it was not planned and I hope, sincerely hope that
I've been in my last real fight. There simply are no real winners when
women turn to violence and I mean real violence, not wrestling and not
things women do for entertainment or to make a living.
10. Anyone you would like to do a competitive rules catfight with? Maybe someone from your everyday life?
I wrestle and I've been in fights but there's no one I want to fight
and again I am not thrilled with the term "catfight". I'll wrestle
anyone but there's no one I really want to fight with.
11. Are you nervous before a fight?
Always. It wouldn't be normal for a girl not to be scared before she's about to fight.
12. Anything else you would like to add?
Just
thanks to all the friends I've made because of wrestling. I wish
everyone could know the feeling of having people cheering for them, I
wish everyone could know what it's like having people from all over the
world wanting to meet them. I wish everyone could know the warm feeling I
get from having women who'd fight for me or help me anytime I needed
help. For the girls who may read this I wish everyone would learn how to
fight and how to defend themselves. There's a pleasant feeling when one
knows she can defend herself if she has to. To women with an interest
in wrestling I'd say be safe, be careful but have fun also. Work with
trained wrestlers, don't enter into any situation that's uncomfortable
or doesn't feel right. Rather you're going to wrestle someone or for
some reason fight her make sure you know exactly what you're getting
into. Someone
once sent me 2 Youtube clips of girls fighting. In both the fights only
last seconds, in one the looser was knocked out cold by brass knuckles.
In the other the looser was drenched in blood after only seconds. It
turned out her opponent had her car keys sticking out between her
fingers and was trying to blind the other girl by punching her in the
face with car keys jamming into her face with each punch. Clearly
neither of the girls who lost had any idea of what they were getting
into. I don't even know a woman who owns brass knuckles, let alone who
would use them against an unsuspecting opponent. So to the women I'd say
be careful and be safe. Train well and learn to wrestle and fight from
people who know both how to do both but also who are good teachers.
Rather you ever fight or wrestle I'd strongly recommend steering clear
of tobacco, drugs and alcohol. You'll one day be glad you did. FINALLY
DO NOT LET PEOPLE TALK YOU INTO ANYTHING YOU DON'T WANT TO
DO.
Thanks, Patti Powers
