LadySports ::: YOUNG LIONESSES OF 2007...

by Shiai Mata

Another year come and gone. Twelve months ago, as in years previous, LadySports Online cast its gaze to a handful of women who, should they live up to their promise, looked to be heading toward great things in 2006. We'll let history decide if those young ladies... Josie, Jennidee, Skye, Rebecca Knox, Miss Kara Slice, and Scarlett Rose... made good on their promising skills last year, but we're fairly confident that the verdict is already favorable.

But this is not the time to look back, but rather to turn our attention to the future, and a fresh new crop of exciting young wrestlers!

We begin with a woman who seeks to embody both our times and the future itself in her ring name... the 21st Century Fox. Hailing from Montreal, this beauty's fame has spread far beyond Quebec, as a growing number of wrestling fans learn of her superb technical skills, coupled with her fiery determination to be the very best that she can be in each and every match. Her goal, not surprisingly, is to make wrestling her full-time career. She's a woman who wants it all, and she wants to earn it the hard way... through painstaking work, with all of the accompanying blood, sweat and tears.

Remaining in the Great White North, we venture to Vancouver to visit with Veronika Vice. This battling blond launched her pro career in late 2005, but in quick order she rose up the ranks in the highly competitive British Columbia mat wars, and has fared well against such "imported" talent as Rebecca Knox and Lisa Moretti. Her hard work has earned her gold, won her the lasting loyalty of countless fans, as well as the bitter enmity of the next woman on our list...

Nikki Matthews probably won't care much for being named a 'Young Lioness'... mostly because she has to share the designation with others. In her mind, there's her at the top, and then there's everyone below her. It's no surprise she's crashed head-on into a feud with Veronika, given their radically different viewpoints. But if she were just another arrogant rulebreaker, Nikki wouldn't be here. No, this is a rulebreaker who, perhaps most tragically of all, doesn't have to break the rules to win. She's remarkably talented, and very determined to prove the naysayers wrong. She seems to cheat simply because she likes being bad, but that shouldn't obscure the fact that she's genuinely skilled.

Heading South into the United States, we visit first with Valentina "Tina" Marina on the East Coast. The native Sicilian never does anything half-way, and that includes wrestling, which she pursues with a tenacious determination that in itself is amazing to behold. But more than merely being determined, she has undeniable abilities in the ring that make her a formidable opponent for anyone who steps between the ropes to face her. It's not surprising that her personal motto is, "Tell me I can't, and I will show you I can!"

The Midwest is home to a woman who is very nearly a force of nature unto herself: Mickie Knuckles. But while she's ever-ready for a Pier 9 scrap, what elevates this brawler to Lioness status is her phenomenal grappling skills. This is a woman who can go from a solid right cross to a Butterfly Indian Deathlock, and make it look seamless! Put her in a ring surrounded by barbed wire, or in a cage, or up against a man who's twice her size, and she doesn't flinch. The play's the thing with this performer, and her performance in the squared circle is often nothing short of awesome!

Crossing the Atlantic, we find ourselves in the Germany to meet that Teutonic Terror, the Baroness Simone. Having participated in many other competitive sports, she brings unparalleled raw power to the ring. But strength alone is not enough for her, as she has also pursued both amateur grappling and pro wrestling (under the nefarious guidance of Pippa L'Vinn) to give herself a vast arsenal of tactics to employ in her matches. If she has an Achilles' Heel at this point, it is her relative inexperience. But given time, she will become a seasoned veteran, and it will be inevitable that she will be a dominant force in Europe and perhaps even beyond. She is one of the most eager wrestlers the PGWA has ever met that wants to be the best she can be....

Crossing the English Channel to the United Kingdom, we meet another young woman who also melds impressive strength with a championship amateur grappling background... Lucy Claydon. This battling blond has a hard-hitting style which relentlessly pressures her opponents, wearing them down. It's a remarkably complex strategy for a newcomer to employ, but it only underscores that Lucy is not like most other rookies; she's got a tactician's mind and the body of an Amazon warrior, and that's as potent a combination as one can ever hope to find.

And lastly, no discussion of women of promise would be complete without the winner of the recent "Most Promising Wrestler" poll... none other than Roxi! This bundle of dynamite has proven time and again that in spite of her diminutive size, she's more than able to take on the biggest and the baddest. What she lacks in size and power, she very capably makes up for with her agility, her swiftness, and her almost encyclopedic knowledge of technical holds. It's not an uncommon sight at all to watch Roxi drive a larger opponent into submission and defeat. And it's the PGWA's hope that this sight, so familiar to fans in Europe, will be witnessed in person by the people of America in the not-too-distant future!

Several common threads run through each of these impressive young ladies. Most obviously, of course, is that they are all very talented wrestlers... that's a given. But in addition, each of them has made it her mission to "educate" fans, and to show them that, while there's always room for beauty and sexiness in pro wrestling, Talent and Ability should be the ONLY "T&A" found in the ring. We applaud each of these women for this, as well as their accomplishments, and we celebrate the promise of future glory they each embody.

These are the Young Lionesses of 2007.