"The date, I'll never forget. It was August 11, 2000. Yes, quite some time ago. I fully admit that I've been in this business a good number of years more than my two more famous opponents but you know what they say about experience. And darlings, you won't find a girl with more experience than yours truly."
"The FMPW was at the time, the modern day answer to the old territory days of the National Wrestling Alliance. It was where the sport's very best male wrestlers were brought about from everywhere between North and South America, Europe, Africa and Asia to compete the world over. It was only after a year or two of promoting across the world that there started to be a fan demand for the ladies to compete under their banner. Those in charge yielded and yours truly was one of the first signed to the FMPW's brand new womens' division. Unlike the men, the FMPW was looking toward signing only women from the indies across the globe. Not the main female stars the fans might know. I imagine their reasoning was they wanted to build their own divas to shine. Whatever."
"The date came when twelve women were booked into a single elimination tournament. Of course I forget the majority of those women. They weren't me, after all, and truth be told that was all that mattered. I just remember those were the days long before I had ever met Synn. It was before the man ever even entered the business as I recall. I was known by the ring name of Strawberry Wine (god I hated that name), and there wasn't one of the so-called experts who thought I could walk out of this with the gold."
The fans inside of the Philadelphia Arena clapped and stomped as the two surviving female stars stood on opposite sides of the ring; the masked enigma Madame X, and the underdog rookie, Strawberry Wine. Madame X was clad from head to toe in black, complete with mask, while her opponent wore a basic violet one-piece with white boots.
The introductions were made and the bell sounded, and the match to decide the first Woman's Champion of the FMPW was underway...
The match started out dead even with both females exchanging hold for hold on the mat. Madame X had full control of the match at the four minute mark where she pummeled Strawberry against the ropes with a series of forearm shots. The masked wrestler backed up across the ring and then charged but Strawberry ducked down and her opponent went sailing through the ropes and she crashed down onto the concrete floor. Strawberry mounted the top turnbuckle and waited as Madame X returned to her feet outside and then the flame haired diva soared from her perch and crashed into X with a flying body press!...
Strawberry went for an Irish whip into the far corner but Madame X reversed the maneuver and sent her opponent in instead. X then charged in but Strawberry dodged out of the way and X crashed chest first into the unforgiving turnbuckles. Strawberry then brought her down with a Hangman's neck breaker but was only able to secure a count of two. ...
Both women had taken the fight to the outside of the ring. Madame X wrapped her arms around Strawberry’s waist and the heavier woman bulled the smaller of the two back against the ring apron. Madame X then picked her up and slammed her onto the floor before rolling back inside of the ring. At the referee’s count of eight, Strawberry was pulling herself up to get back inside, and Madame X ignored the referee to reach out through the ropes and grab Strawberry by the hair. Madame X dragged her up onto the apron and went to lift her back into the ring with a scoop slam, but on the way down, Strawberry hooked her leg and rolled her into an inside cradle for the successful count of three. …
The fans applauded politely as the referee presented Strawberry Wine with the championship belt.
”Nobody thought I should have been able to walk out of Philadelphia with that win. You could tell by the fans’ lukewarm response to my win that they thought Madame X would have, or should have, won the title over me. A fluke they called it, and yet over the next six months, I fought to shut them up and prove just how wrong those microbes were about me. I put down challenges from the best the FMPW could find for me; rematches against X, matches against the likes of Raven Knyte, Arachne, Big Mama, Princess Cherokee. You name it. They booked the match, and I would win it.”
“That is until some genius decided to spice things up and bring in someone from Japan, and they chose this woman who looked like she swallowed an eighteen wheeler and had room for more! She called herself Commando Hasegawa, and the name fit. She had her face painted over (thank god) with this camouflage paint. Her clothes were military style and god help her, she had her head shaved into a Mohawk! She was a horrid sight to say the least, but she was an absolute monster in the ring.”
The Asian beast, Commando Hasegawa, trapped Strawberry Wine’s arms in a double under hook and practically threw her up into the air and drove her down with a jarring powerbomb! The fans were in awe as this behemoth went to the top turnbuckle and jumped off, crushing Strawberry beneath her dead weight and a brand new FMPW Woman’s Champion was crowned on February of 2001.
”I don’t mind telling you that I was hurt, both emotionally as well as physically. That fat cow had broken three of my ribs when she landed on me and I was forced to take three months off so that I could mend. I hated to do that because I thought if I were away that long, the fans and booking agents would pretty much forget that I ever existed! Yeah, as if that could ever happen. But I was younger, more naive then, so I had that deep rooted fear.”
“The bosses assured me, however, that as soon as the doctors cleared me, I’d get my rematch. Cut to almost four months later, and I found myself in Cairo, Egypt, facing that she-beast once again. Gods, I never thought it possible but she looked bigger! Maybe she swallowed the Sphinx before the match?”
June 2001
Strawberry had learned from their previous encounter. This time she found the need to hit and run. She would spend a large portion of the match striking fast and making her escape from the champion, before she could get the challenger in her grasp. …
Strawberry tried to fire her off into the ropes but Commando reversed the effort, and as Strawberry came off, the champion went for a clothesline but Strawberry ducked under and connected with a float over DDT, plating Hasegawa’s head into the mat! Strawberry covered her but it was still too soon to secure a win and Hasegawa got her shoulder up. …
Hasegawa rolled the challenger back inside of the ring and climbed up onto the apron. She slowly stepped through the ropes when Strawberry, back on her feet, performed a low dropkick right into Commando’s leg, buckling her weight and bringing her down to the mat! The champion’s knee suffered from the blow and Strawberry went right to work on it, dropping repeated elbows into the joint. …
Commando threw her into the corner of the ring and Strawberry sprung onto the middle turnbuckle and sailed back for a body press but the larger woman caught her easily and planted her with a front slam! Commando then wasted precious moments, taunting the jeering crowd, before she scraped the challenger up off of the canvas. She set her in position for a powerbomb, but the move’s momentum allowed Strawberry to roll through, and she slid down Hasegawa’s back and the champion fell off balance into a reverse cradle and Strawberry Wine was a two-time champion!
”I can remember having such a sense of self satisfaction after that match. There wasn’t anyone who was going to look me in the face and tell me that I did not deserve to hold that championship!”
“It was right around then that I started to understand that working so hard for cheers that don’t even really help you win matches was pointless. You get the same basic results in the ring whether the people outside of it decide that they love you or they hate you. So I continued doing what I was doing, I just didn’t go overboard trying to please everyone around me.”
“So after I had that little epiphany, what did I opt to do? The answer would be rather simple. I decided to defend that belt anywhere and everywhere that the promoters would be willing to book me, and I did every single thing in my power to make damn sure I kept it! I tried to fight clean the vast majority of the time, but I decided if the bitch who wanted to take my property was going to cheat to do it, then she’d get a taste of her own medicine and I was going to cheat to keep it! I had absolutely no qualms at all at pulling hair or gouging eyes. I’ve even used a chair or two in my time. The one thing I never had to rely on, however, was outside interference. I didn’t need nor did I want another female in my business and I certainly didn’t want anyone to think I had to have a man settle my problems for me. If I was ganged up on, then that was a different story. Otherwise, I insisted on fighting on my own, win or lose. I was not going to allow the division I represented to become little more than a Cheesecake Factory.”
“The FMPW remained active for the next two years, and during that time the woman’s belt remained around my waist. Yes, you heard me right. A two-year span as the champion and I never lost that belt. Actually it remains to this day in my trophy case at home. I defended it both inside of the FMPW, and their ‘sister promotion’, the FLPW, even called on me to defend my championship from time to time. I couldn’t really blame them. The vast majority of their roster was compromised of over the hill hags and debutantes that had no real business competing in major arenas, but we get that every week now when we watch WWE, don’t we?”
“Well after the FMPW finally closed its doors, I was happy to walk away as an unbeaten champion. It simple proved that I was the absolute best, bar none. I made enough money that I didn’t really need to go on further in the business so I retired from the business for a couple of years. That didn’t last very long. I always was a bit of a show off so I signed on with Generation Xtreme Wrestling (that’s GXW for you simple minded troglodytes) and decided to continue with my winning ways there. Now there were some name brand women who could test me to my full abilities! Dana Venom, Brandi Costantino, Vivian St. Claire, Mistress Payne, and even our dear friends, Kittie and Misty.”
“That was the exact time I met everyone’s favorite ‘dark priest’ in Synn, and it was he who convinced me to finally drop that ridiculous ring moniker I’d been saddled with and embrace my inner emotions. He christened me Fantasia, and many do not know this, but I was the first member of his Seven Deadly Sins stable. He was hurriedly trying to decide which Sin I was best suited for, when in walked his other protégé, Shane Boswell (that’s Sxxxy Shane to you). I had never before seen such a finely sculpted piece of as—art, and we hit it off … in more ways than one.”
“That, boys and girls, is my story in how I became this ravishing vixen that deems fit to entertain you.”
“Now Misty and Kittie are perhaps wondering why I chose to tell my tale, and they’re maybe even thinking it a bit pointless when I could be running my mouth about our little scheduled threesome. Trust me dears, there’s always a method behind the madness which is Sin.”
“The reasoning is simple; this is my town. It is my time. Do I admit that I’m perhaps older than either Kittie or Fantasia? Mmm, I suppose so, but when you still look this good, why deny it? Am I more experienced in the ring? That I am dears, and experience is usually the key to obtaining ultimate victory. Ask our dear magician Gabriel. Staggering beauty aside, I'm no air head when it comes to the nuances of this business, whether it be inside of the ring or the business side itself.”
“I want both of you to understand that I am not that same cheesey little girl that entered the FMPW, all starry eyed and wanting to please whoever was paying for a ticket. I am not simply a piece of eye candy fashioned onto the arm of Shane Boswell. No no no. I am the woman who walked away with gold around her waist, a feat you never really obtained Kittie, but I admit Misty did twice. And like myself, Misty never did lose her title. I’d dare say that puts her about dead even with my own remarkable level … but not quite. I may not have been actively competing these past few years, but ring rust is simply not an option. Trust me when I tell you that Shane has been giving me quite the workout, and if I can handle what he throws at me, then I’ll certainly be prepared for Las Vegas has coming my way. Hardcore rules be damned.”
“Because in case you missed it, Las Vegas is the City of Sin, and the one sin that is most hardcore, just happens to be Lust.”
