Every Industry Needs Stars, Who Are Our Rising Female Submission Wrestling Stars?
Andrea-Raffin-Shutterstock.com_Editorial use fciwomenswrestling.com femcompetititor.com grapplingstars.com,
January 3, 2023,
They do the same things that other people do, only they do it better.
Much better.
They look better.
Excite better.
The 2022 US Open was a prime example of that.
Serena Williams is a Mega Star.
Way beyond being a star.
The excitement that she brought to the 2022 Open, after announcing it would be her last, was mind blowing.
Always remember. For any industry to thrive, they need stars, who eventually become Mega Stars.
Including the fully competitive female wrestling industry.
For our industry to thrive, we need stars who wrestle competitively.
By comparison, we can learn tons for the 2022 US Open.
Our associates as Femcompetitor Magazine cover the two major hard court Grand Slams of the female professional tennis tour in the US and Australian Open.
In detail.
In terms of how important stars are to an industry, here was their analysis of the 2022 US Open.
“It has been a tale of two roads.
All roads lead to the 2022 US Open Finals but the first week of play compared to the second is incredibly different.
Why the difference? We only need to say one name.
Serena.
When the legendary Serena Williams announced that this would be her last US Open, ticket sales went through the Louis Armstrong and Arthur Ashe roof. The announcers kept saying they had never seen anything like this before.
Since Serena had not played many matches in the last year, and she only won one, the expectations for her competition in the first round was extremely low.
The crowd was just ecstatic to see her.
When she defeated Montenegro’s Danka Kovinic 6-3, 6-3, in the first round in front of an electric New York audience that cheered her every movement, we thought, what a wonderful way to go out. Especially since her next opponent was ranked number two in the world.
Then it happened again.
In the second round against Estonia’s Anett Kontaveit, before a delirious crowd, Serena had a tougher fight, but still dispatched the number two player in the world 7-6 (7-4), 2-6, 6-2.
What was equally impressive was not only did she win, it was how she played, getting 64 percent of her first serves in and winning 73 percent of them.
Now, there was really a buzz.
Even we wondered the unthinkable.
Can Serena go all the way? Can she win the elusive 24th Grand Slam title?
The way she had been playing, it was not out of the question.
The buzz and energy at the US Open was like none we, nor the announcers Patrick McEnroe and Chris Everett, have ever seen.
Last year’s 2021 US Open was spectacular and unique when two unseeded players battled it out in the finals but even that unique storyline was nothing like this.
History could be made by arguably the best female tennis player to ever play the game and we all could be witnesses to it.
Then the dream came to a crashing halt when Serena, ahead in the first set, let it slip away and lost to Australia’s Ajla Tomljanovic in three grueling sets.
At 40 years old, she absolutely needed to win that first set, but couldn’t.
Her first serve percentage dropped down to 57 percent.
And you know what?
As soon as Serena was gone, it was though the wind in the sails of the most important tournament of the year collapsed and went with her.
What was once electric, dynamic, energetic, globally talked about and historic became, well, ordinary.
Almost perfunctory. The tournament must go on, even without the magic.
You could feel it in the audience.
Even though three top seeded Americans in Coco Gauff, Danielle Collins and Jessica Pegula were still there, the electricity in the crowd absolutely wasn’t.
When those three played and eventually lost, the crowd was barely into it.
Now, you have a field of players from other countries that many seem to not really know, nor care about.
The second week in 2022, compared to 2021 or the previous Open’s where Naomi Osaka made her blistering runs, was very pedestrian.”
Point taken.
There is a school of thought, in an evolutionary world that you are either growing or dying.
Question for you. Is today’s fully competitive female submission wrestling industry growing or dying?
Good question.
Complex answer.
What is the answer?
Yes and no.
In the United States, from our research, there is a dearth of fully competitive female submission wrestling events. Unlike the women’s wrestling convention days, pre-2008, the focus now is on sessions over the wrestling.
Previously the focus was on both.
Sessions are fine but they are private and do not build stars.
This is why we write so few articles about American Female Submission Wrestlers.
The American stars are fading.
Like the 2022 US Open, once the star left the room (competitive women’s wrestling conventions), the air went out of the sails.
Yes, there may be a competitive match or two at a wrestling company but there are no rivalries or showdown buildups.
Europe is different.
Mercifully.
Because Antscha of Hungary, Wrestling Monica and Pippa’s Submission Room, both of London, have fully competitive wrestling events, there is life.
They have events.
So now, when we watch the European girls wrestling at private companies, then come to the events, now we have the building of star power.
Especially the beautiful young Czech girls vs the established Hungarian guard.
Who are the young stars on the rise today?
We would say Dolly of Hungary, Sativa of England and Bianca of Italy.
They have clearly improved in their wrestling, they are extremely good looking and have a measure of charisma.
Yes, there are other elite wrestlers in Sheena and Warrior Amazon but there is something different about Bianca, Dolly and Sativa.
So there is hope.
Once the great Femwrestle Events in Troisdorf, Germany cease to function, it was as though the air went out of our industry.
Fortunately there is some event breathing air left.
At FCI, we have our responsibility to help create stars as well.
Our challenge is getting a recruiter to help keep our costs down.
At our October 2021 female sports and entertainment event at the palatial San Francisco Airport Hyatt Regency Hotel, we contracted with an agency to get Samba Dancers, Japanese Dance, an Opera Singer, Competitive Cheer and Models.
We paid the market price.
Comfortable with that.
When it came to female submission wrestlers, we paid five times more than we should have because we didn’t have a recruiter.
Not comfortable with that.
We’re never going to do that again.
Once we get a great recruiter, we can focus on building a star. Give her spectacular media coverage for her sessions too.
We have the funding and, though not easy, we know what our task is.
Every industry needs stars. Including the fully competitive female submission wrestling industry.
Mega stars are even better.
Just ask the 2022 US Open.
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