Features
Sara's Shenanigans - Aussie Womens Wrestling
Published January 25, 2012 at 6:39 pm by Marek Indyka
Not much has been said about womens wrestling in Australia and as we all know its quite a touchy subject and it probably always will be. Australian wrestling has often suffered in their numbers of women wrestlers over the years, however it has not dented the popularity of womens wrestling within this country.
I myself have wrestled not only across Australia but also Puerto Rico & the USA. However, it was here in Australia that I first started out wrestling. It was a tough road as a young female trying to make a name for myself and prove myself as a valved athlete inside such a male dominated sport, however in comparsion to other countries, I feel that the Australian wrestling scene has been more "receptive" to female wrestling. When I first started wrestling as a teenager in Australia, there were no other female wrestlers in my state until I was about 16 year old. From that point on I would often see females come and go within the sport, but I remained faithful to my love of wrestling and wrestled my way through with any male wrestler I could when females werent available for me to wrestle. It wasnt until I was 20 years old that I began to travel across Australia to various other states and meet and wrestle other fellow female and male wrestlers who were also as passionate as I was about the sport.
Whilst wrestling on the Australian scene, I noticed that we as female wrestlers gain more recognition as true athletes and professional wrestlers. Many of the feds within the Australian wrestling scene also push and promote womens matches just as much and in some circumstances more than mens matches. We get more exposure through promotions where this is sometimes lacking on other international scenes where mens matches are often more "pushed" and womens matches often not even mentioned until the night of the show.
Although most often not the case, I have wrestled in certain federations overseas where womens matches are only allocated approximately 4-6mins on the card. This definately differs in comparison to the Australian scene where womens matches can run around the 10min mark - usually the same as the mens matches. Womens matches will often semi-main on cards and even main event the cards in some circumstances. Alot of Australian federations will even host two womens matches on the card, which really helps bring a strong diversity to the show and spectators.
Australian fans are extremly supportive of womens wrestling and on many occasions, it can be the actual womens match that will draw people to the show and put "bums on seats" so to speak. After wrestling overseas, I noticed that the fans in Puerto Rico and the USA are also very passionate about womens wrestling and often push promoters to promote, support and give womens wrestling more recognition. It is however, the Australian scene that seems to be more behind womens wrestling, giving the fans more of what they want to see.
I feel its the fans that really help bring the shows together. The Australian promoters really do listen to their fans and want to give them what they want to see. They are always so supportive of womens wrestling and truly want to see the womens scene here continue to grow and blossom. If it continues to get bigger and stronger, then theres no doubt that the Australian Womens Wrestling scene could really be one of the best in the world! So, Lets Make It Happen!!!! Until next month, Adios!!! Sara Jay.
