Catch Me if You Can
Not only boys dream of terminate their opponent by a crossbody dive from the third rope of a wrestling ring. There are also girls, big ones, some in love, some proud, some muscled, some tough, who often take pleasure in playing mean.
“The first time we went to pick up our kids from Ste Thérèse school, the other parents threw us weird looks”, says, with an amused half smile, Delphine, 35 years old, aka Bulla Punk. She has purple hair, her husband has a shaven head, piercings and tatoos, they’re not your average parents. But both are passionate about wrestling. Their love story even began on a ring. Seven years, a wedding, two kids, and a wrestling production company later, the couple has sealed their union with this sport which is getting big again in playgrounds. But Delphine almost didn’t escape her life as telemarketer in insurances. Now she smiles when she thinks about the wrestling galas every week end through the country, the admiration of her fans, the TV shows… and mostly the pleasure she has playing her character, half woman, half beast, “an outlet”. True, mom’s “not really herself” when she’s in her vynil outfit, howling and screaming on the ring. No matter, her daughter Valentine, 6 years old, loves it. Proof that wrestling isn’t only a boys sport. They’re more and more in France, practicing clothlines, elbow drops and scissor kicks against their opponents, both men and women.
Tatiana, 18 years old, three of wrestling and about twenty galas, has also a tough skin. Still in highschool, she “gives it all” and doesn’t see her future anywhere far from a ring, even though she knows that it’s nearly impossible to earn a living with wrestling in France. Sabrina, 32 years old, has “always evolved in a masculine environment”, a “tomboy”, she’s never intimidated by her male rivals. To the point that she will marry one of them. A wedding like she dreamt for a long time : on a wrestling ring, of course!
[Published in Causette #10, sept.-oct. 2010]
