by T. Trolley

In the mid-80s, I was an editor for a small daily newspaper in the Midwest
and discovered a very interesting story that I had the pleasure of covering from
its inception to its somewhat surprising conclusion.

The town our newspaper covered was a small, rocky, desolate place with a
population of about 30,000. A woman named Janet had lived there. She was about
5-3, 120 lbs. and a part-time model who kept in shape by playing a lot of
racquetball. She was a very beautiful Hispanic woman in her 30s. One day, a wrestling
troupe came through and she fell in love with the sport and, since she had
the looks as well as the athletic ability to compete, she joined up with an
independent wrestling organization and actually was their champion for awhile.

This classified as a "local girl makes good" story and eventually Janet
became somewhat a hero in our town, though she very rarely was around anymore due
to her hectic schedule.

But she had a sister named Carla who had become somewhat of a celebrity
herself due to the accomplishments of her sister. Carla, 18, was a very pretty,
petite little girl and was a cheerleader for her local high school.

One day, while interviewing the boys wrestling coach at the high school, he
made mention of "something Carla was trying to put together." I asked him what
it was and he just rolled his eyes.

It turned out Carla was trying to get a girl's wrestling team together. But
not just any girl's wrestling team. It would be a pro-style girl's team -- not
the traditional olympic style, amateur-type stuff. In other words, she was
trying to get together a team that used the same professional style her sister
used -- a style most of the community was familiar with afther the success of
her older sister Janet.

Carla already had two or three girls who were willing to participate on the
team, but she ran into some obstacles from the coaches of the boys athletic
program as well as the school board. To eliminate the criticism, Carla decided to
put on a card at the local recreation center and invited the entire community
to attend in an attempted end-around the school board and other opposition
and hopefully create such positive feelings in the community that those opposed
to the idea would have to relent.

Carla, of course, was going to be in the main event. Her opponent would be
the very-popular cheerleader Michelle. Both girls were beautiful and were to
wrestle in their cheerleading outfits, so a very strong crowd showed up to see
the two girls wrestle and to cheer Carla on in her attempt to make a real
wrestling impact on the town in the wake of her sister's success.

The bell sounded for the match and Carla dominated Michelle throughout the
bout -- which was no surprise seeing that she was the sister of the locally
famous professional wrestler Janet. Carla was really amazing in the ring as she
used her entire body as a weapon against the beautiful Michelle -- also a
gorgeous Hispanic girl who was a little taller and heavier than the petite Carla but
seemed absolutely no match for her.

Carla was simply awesome, bouncing off the ropes and catching the seemingly
clueless, cement-footed, lead-footed Michelle with flying drop kicks, body
presses and head butts. Michelle could only moan in agony in response and fall
flat on her back!

Carla was like poetry in motion. She had learned her craft well and was
flowing smoothly, cutting through Michelle like a hot knife through butter with a
skill and grace that was usually only found in a wrestler well beyond Carla's
age.

Carla was also magnificent off the top rope. She was putting on a real show
for her home crowd. After leveling Michelle with a flying clothesline, she got
on the top rope and flew at Michelle who was now on all fours, driving her
right elbow into Michelle's back! Michelle screamed in pain to the delight of the
crowd and fell on her face and stomach!

Everybody thought this was the end for Michelle and expected Carla to end the
torture and pin her fellow cheerleader. Carla crawled over to Michelle and
easily rolled the injured girl over! The ref got next to Michelle's pinned
shoulder and slapped the mat twice as Carla lay across Michelle's chest! But pretty
Michelle bridged out at the last moment and kicked free, to everybody's
amazement!

Carla then went back to work on Michelle, realizing she had the match well in
hand and continued to set her up for the kill. Carla continually caught her
with excellent flips and drop kicks! Then Carla suddenly grabbed an ankle of
the tired Michelle and somersaulted, going for the rollup!

It looked like it was all over now. But then the craziest thing happened!

As Carla was rolling her up, Michelle used her cheerleading and tumbling
knowledge and backflipped, going with the flow of Carla's somersault! The move
resulted in a shocked and trapped Carla laying on her back with Michelle's legs
pinning her shoulders down, helpless as Michelle, holding Carla's legs by the
calves, went for the pin!

Carla was securely pinned -- and knew it! She didn't even try to escape as
the ref hit his hand on the mat three times next to Carla! Michelle had won the
match and pinned Carla!

Everyone in attendance was in shock! Carla was so sure she'd win and beat
Michelle handily, but instead she had been humiliated by someone with very little
wrestling background! The embarrassed Carla left the ring in tears!
Meanwhile, the fantastic ending which she planned out where the lights went off and a
spotlight was scheduled to shine on her went on as scheduled -- only Michelle
was the focus of the spotlight as she drank in the glory of her shocking win
over Carla!

What an embarrassing and humiliating thing to happen in Carla's life at such
a young age! I went in to interview Carla and she was inconsolable, sobbing,
"It's not fair! She pinned me! I had her destroyed! The fight was mine! But she
makes one lucky cheerleader tumbling maneuver and she pins me! I still can't
believe it! I worked so hard ... now it's all gone! She pinned me!"

Obviously, the girls wrestling plans went by the wayside quickly as Carla
surely didn't want to face the embarrassment of continuing to push through a
program in which she had been beaten so publicly and cleanly for that matter.