Lights. Camera. Bikini. Uh, No.
* Stacy Jones RP for C02.
I arrive at the building a little before noon. Tuesday, Cyberstrike would be my second show since my return to the ring, a return that sees my first time wrestling in years. So much of this process has been a pain in the ass it seems. Moving to Texas, getting a place, I found a little wrestling company to join just to have it all taken away a little over a month into the process. Damn bankruptcy, I never even signed my contract and now less than a month later, starting it all over again, and having to introduce myself to a new roster and audience
Because of this, I’m here today at the New Era HQ to conduct a web-interview for the New Era website, and a photo shoot to coincide with the interview. I change into my gear when a man from New Era marketing walks up to me with a folded up t-shirt.
"Here, put this on." he tells me tossing it.
"What is it?" I ask as I unfold the piece of fabric.
"A t-shirt…duh." he says.
"I get that, what kind of t-shirt?" I ask.
"Your t-shirt…the one we’re going to be selling starting tomorrow at the show and on the website." he responds.
I raise my eyebrow, and look at it. The t-shirt is black, as most wrestling t-shirts are, with a blue barcode pattern. Beneath it reads "180985SJONES". "What’s with the barcode?"
"We figured we’d go with a sorta, ‘Born to Fight’ kinda thing with your character." the marketing guy says, "Hence the barcode. Like you’re some wrestling super soldier made for the task."
I laugh, "That’s so cliché." I tell him.
He shrugs, "Higher ups came up with it. I just have to make sure you wear it."
I look at the t-shirt again. As cliché as the whole barcode thing can be, I like the idea of having a t-shirt of my own. So without much thought, I pull the shirt over my head, and wear it over my gear…
---
…Inside the photo studio is a ring….well, half a ring…and not even so much half a ring as a couple of turnbuckles and a mat. I walk into the room, and look at the photographer, and his assistants, all setting up lights and cameras. I see that most of them have a strange look on their face when they see me walk into the room, and one goes over to the marketing guy who had given me the t-shirt earlier in the dressing room. The two discuss something out of earshot when one of the assistants walks over to me.
"Stacy Jones?" he asks.
"Yea, that’s me." I tell him.
"Oh…ok…I guess since we’re here we can get started soon?" he says a little unsure.
"I guess, don’t ask me, I just go where I’m told at the moment." I tell him.
After some discussing between the marketing guy and the photographer, they finally walk over towards where I am, "Stacy, this is Gene, our photographer," the marketing guy starts, "He handles most of the photo shoots New Era has done."
"O…K…" I say as I look at him and Gene. Gene reminds me of what I’d picture a typical photographer for a porno mag would look like, beer gut, bald except for a horseshoe going around his head. If you’ve ever seen Aqua Teen Hunger Force, think about what Carl looks like…but instead of a white tank top, and sweatpants, a Hawaiian shirt and jeans.
"So…uh…" Gene starts to say, "What…what were we going for here?"
I shrug my shoulders, "I guess I’d just pose around the ring…maybe lean against the ropes for a few shots…sit on the turnbuckles…" I answer.
"Well I guess we can do that…then you can change and we’ll do some more." Gene responds.
"Change?" I ask. I see the marketing guy cough and turn away from me, "Change into what?"
"Well, you know. Bikini, or bra and panties, the normal stuff." Gene responds.
I immediately shoot a glare at the marketing guy, who is still turned away from me, and then I look back at Gene, "No, I don’t think we’re going to be doing that today. You seem to have me mistaken with a model or something. I’m a wrestler. This is my wrestling gear. This is a wrestling photoshoot." I tell him.
"Honey, I’m not the one who came up with this. I just shoot, they make those calls." Gene tells me.
"How often do you take pictures of wrestlers?" I ask Gene.
"Excuse me?" he responds.
"How often do you do photo shoots of wrestlers? You do work for a wrestling company don’t you?" I ask.
"Never…I just do photo shoots of the div..." Gene starts.
"Stop right there," I say cutting him off, "I’m not a ‘Diva’. I’m a wrestler, like my grandmother. This is a wrestler photo shoot, not bikini modeling."
"OK, OK, calm down lady." Gene starts to tell me, "Talk to him. I just point the camera."
At this point the marketing guy is on the other side of the room. "Let’s just get this photo shoot done…I still have to do the interview."
-----
After about an hour and a half of an awkward photo session where both Gene and I felt out of place, it’s finally over. I walk out of the photo studio. I make a beeline for the changing room. As soon as I get there the marketing guy follows me, "So I guess it was out of the question?" he says.
I look up at him, "You should’ve said something, it wouldn’t have been so awkward in there, and I would’ve told you to get an actual photographer." I tell him as I sit down and taking off my wrestling shoes and kick pads.
"Well, now we just have the interview portion of this thing to do." he tells me.
"They’re not going to be asking a bunch of dumb questions about some diva crap that has nothing to do with wrestling are they?" I ask him.
"No, the good news is that I’ve arranged for one of our best interviewers for this." he tells me.
"We’ll find out won’t we?" I say, as I take off my knee pads, and then my elbow pads and armbands, "Now if you don’t mind, I don’t think I need to be wearing my singlet for the interview."
------
I change into my street clothes, and walk out of the changing room. I’m lead down the hallway to a room where I see a young man with a lap top sitting. He’s wearing a New Era Wrestling polo.
"You must be Stacy?" the guy ask extending his hand, "I’m Nathan."
"Hi Nathan." I say shaking his hand, "I take it you’re the person interviewing me?"
"Yea, I do a few interviews, this is the first one I’m going to do that’s pretty much going straight to NewEra.com." Nathan says.
"Say that again?" I ask.
"Well this is going to be a webcast interview." Nathan tells me.
"Oh, I figured this would be an edited type interview." I say.
"Nah, I think it’ll be more fun to do it this way." Nathan responds.
"Well. I guess. When is it going to go on the site?" I ask.
"Oh, it’s live. We’re on right now…that’s why I have my laptop with me." he smiles, and points to a webcam on the table and then at the screen, showing the two of us.
"Oh, OK…well then I guess…you’ll ask some questions?"
"Yea, I’ve got a few questions written down…but I might shoot some from the hip…first, something I’m sure you’re asked all the time, what is with the fake blonde hair?" Nathan begins.
"The hair? Well no real reason. I always wanted to be blonde and I love big up do's, so I just wanted something that’d sorta...be my thing I guess. I’ve done it since I started wrestling." I respond.
"How long have you been wrestling?"
"Actually, I’ve been actually doing it in the ring for about 7 years now, but I started training a year or two before that. Both my grandparents were wrestlers with a different company." I tell him.
"Yea, your grandfather still runs the Global Wrestling Alliance right?" he asks.
"Yea…but my relationship with him isn’t exactly the best. I don’t think I’m going to be working for that company anytime soon."
"So why are you with New Era?"
"Because I was with HAW, which closed at the end of last year unexpectedly. When that happened, I was given the option to come to New Era. I also have some unfinished business in the industry. That helped make my decision easier."
"What kind of business?"
"A television title reign is great but hardly the pinnacle of one's career, but that’s something to be discussed at a different time." I respond.
"Well how about your match against Adrian Willard? The now second inter gender match of 2011."
"Well, for me, the fact that it’s ‘inter gender’ means nothing. I’ve only ever had a ‘same gender’ match a handful of times in my career. So it doesn’t mean anything. Fact of the matter is, it doesn’t mean a damn thing.”
"Well, some people might say, that was another company, so what relevance does it have with New Era?" Nathan asks.
"Well I see a few familiar faces in the locker room, I can still feel the aches of my match with The First and Roslov last week" I respond.
"What do you hope to accomplish while a part of New Era?" Nathan asks.
"I don’t know. To be perfectly honest, but there is something that bothered me when I first got here. When I returned to wrestling, here in particular, I noticed that there were no female competitors. I don’t know why, and I hope that changes but it’s something I’ve been thinking about ever since. The fact that this match has been labelled by you and others as ‘inter gender’ just goes to show that the guys here haven’t seen someone like me in a loooong time. I kinda like that. It’ll let me know what it was like for my Grandma when she was wrestling."
"Would you say your Grandmother is the person who inspired you to become a wrestler?" Nathan asks.
I smile, "Yea, I guess you could say that. My grandmother has been my inspiration, and my hero. When I was growing up, I’d watch her in the ring, taking on the boys, and I knew that’s what I wanted to do. It’s basically what I was born to do. Wrestling isn't a job or a lifestyle for me. It’s in my genetic code, a double helix of ring ropes and turnbuckles."
"Wow you really love this business don’t you?" Nathan ask.
"It’s all I’ve ever known. And thursday night, I plan to let New Era and the rest of the business know that I’ve truly arrived."
