How do you keep a character like Martina fresh, particularly when returning to venues?
When I was starting as Martina, I was only in Ireland. Nowhere else had really heard of me so I had to focus on breaking out in the first place and I think the fact that I was a female doing comedy was the first thing that got me noticed aside: nobody had really done it with such a strong character. So in the beginning I focused very much on my character and a lot of it was just being the session moth, being the party girl. For the first year people used to say to me “You could just go out there and do the entrance and not do anything else and you’d still get really over.” I was doing a lot of promo videos to try to push my character rather than my wrestling, just because it was so fresh and different and that’s what I used to try to get over in England.
In Ireland, where I am every month for OTT, they see the character more than anywhere else, so as I went along I had to be given different storylines. But again at the base of it all I was just doing the character: I tried to focus on doing moves that not everybody would do because my appeal was that I was different. I’d always try to mix it up and have new stuff every time: I use a lot of beer in my matches so it was inventing different ways of doing the beer mist. Or once I did Tajiri’s tarantula, but I drank a can during it while I was upside down and that got a huge reaction.
I remember one time after a few months in OTT I did a big suplex and I got one of the biggest reactions of the show because they hadn’t seen me do anything like that before, even though I’d been wrestling seven years.
But this year I was in America with Fight Club and I got to do Beyond and Joey Janela’s Sping Break. I was there with Jordan Devlin and the other guys and I said “Oh, I’m really nervous about tonight. It’s my USA debut, what can I do?” And they just said “Do vintage Martina, do what got you over in the first place.” This was a brand new audience and most of these people hadn’t heard of me. So it was almost like I was reverting back and it really worked.
So every time I’m at a new promotion, I kind of start again, while at OTT now, this year has been very wrestling based for me and that’s really winning the crowd over because for the last three years I’ve almost put this gimmick out of “She doesn’t know how to wrestle” so I’m shocking people by doing wrestling moves, which I think is really good for longevity. I’ve lasted three years and this is the first time I’m doing really bigger wrestling matches so to them it’s new and fresh.
Do you have to tailor the character for shows with a family audience?
When I go somewhere I always ask [the promoter] and I’m very aware that they know what they’re booking. I’m aware too, so if it’s an all-age show, one thing I won’t do is have any sexual jokes. I’ll still always dance with the audience and flirt with the referee, but if it’s an over-18 show I’ll take it that little bit further: not to be sleazy or anything, but just that little step further where adults will understand. With all-age shows they’re usually fine with the beer: when it comes down to it, Stone Cold Steve Austin used to drink beer and kids watched that all the time.
You worked a tournament for Pro Wrestling Chaos where you had three matches in one night. How did that affect the way you presented yourself?
I didn’t know about that until the day, so I was like “Oh wow, OK, this is going to be different.” So the way I mapped it that day for myself was the first match I was going to be introducing Martina, so it’s mainly character based. I think the second match I still kept it very comedy because my opponent could do that: I carried on the comedy aspect but I think I still did a totally different match. There’s certain things I’ll always do that I’m known for, like the bronco buster, but I’ll always change it up. I try to think of clever spots and stuff that will enhance my character rather than the same moves.
[For example], one thing I did in Japan that worked was pretending that I didn’t know how to reverse a wristlock, playing on the idea that I’m not really a wrestler, I don’t know how to do a wristlock or a nip-up and people find it funny that I can’t. Then I get the ref to help me nip up and it gets a huge reaction.
Then for the final, I went in against Jinny and it was a title match, so it was that next level plus she’s such an opposite character to mine, yin and yang, complete opposites, so we naturally would hate each other. She thinks I’m a joke and she annoys me and when she gets at me you see the angrier side of the Session Moth. It’s like “what happens when you upset a session moth, when you piss her off, when it’s not fun any more?” She’s stopped my fun, so I turn it a little bit more serious, do a bit more wrestling. There’s that switch.
How did you overcome the language barrier when taking the Martina character to Stardom in Japan?
I was very nervous about it to be honest, I was very scared that I wasn’t going to translate. Obviously the promotion knew what they were getting, they contacted me and they wanted me there. And I knew what I was getting there: they put me with Oedo Tai, which is a comedy faction and said “You’re going to work really well with these.” It took me a while to get my head around it but by the end I got it all figured out. It was shocking at the start and it was a real test, but the more you were around it, I got to grips. Rather than saying jokes like I do a lot in the ring, it would all be mimed. A lot of my comedy would be the wristlock stuff or being too drunk… they really liked the drunk comedy, they found it hilarious so I really just played up that aspect: I’d fall asleep on the apron and that kind of thing and they really, really went for it.
Were there any differences in the responses between the spot shows in smaller towns and the big city venues?
Most Stardom shows actually go the same. They hit the same [venues] quite a lot, so a lot of the fans that go know the girls pretty well. With the gaijins that join, they wait and see and if they like it, they like it. I was very surprised because the rumour about going into Japan is that they aren’t loud crowds, they just clap and are very respectful, so I wasn’t sure what kind of reaction I would get. But the first time wrestling there I’d do something funny and people would burst out laughing and clap with it. It’s an amazing feeling to have them laugh at something you’re doing.
Have you had any opponents that have required extra thought about how you’d mesh your character with theirs?
I usually try to find a way to adapt to most situations. One thing I did a lot last year was having fun playing with my character. I invented ‘Session Goth’ when I was trying to get Jimmy Havoc’s attention. The idea is Jimmy Havoc’s such a serious wrestler, so feared among the fans, that I liked the idea of me being a little groupy for him: I just want to impress him and tag with him. I was being the Session Goth to try to impress him but being a goth really badly because I thought goth music was Avril Lavigne! The same with stuff I’ve done with Pete Dunne: I’ve ripped him off, being the Boozerweight, or I was teaming with Trent Seven and I was being Tyler Bate so I wore a moustache and called myself the N-E-X-T champion. My whole thing was that I was getting everything wrong but didn’t realise it.
That’s a way you can tie yourself in with the more serious people or the higher-up people that you may find yourself in the ring with. And they are usually fine with playing with the comedy and having the opportunity to change it up for a match; they don’t have to do their serious match as much if I’m there. Same with Jordan Devlin: we had a very good tag match because our whole internet gimmick is that he can’t stand me and I’m his little best friend, following him around. In the match [we pretended] he had to walk me through how to wrestle the match, so it was a lot of fun. Even Jordan would say he was so used to having match-of-the-year style matches every time, so it was great for him to show a bit of personality as well.
Do you feel any pressure to ramp up the character work on all-female shows such as EVE where you don’t stand out simply by being ‘the womens bout’ on the show?
I just did a show in Belfast with OTT and I did a lot of wrestling in this match, high-paced stuff. I’ve evolved to that in OTT past just the character. This guy came up to me at the merch stand and was like “Wow, I’ve never seen you like that before, I’ve only seen you at EVE. I was shocked.” At EVE, there’s so many great women there and the matches are always so stellar that it’s not my place to do a serious, big dramatic match: it’s not why I’m there. I really like that I always have a place at EVE because I can do a different kind of match, I can be the fun part of the show. I think it’s important to have a bit of comedy on the show, to change the styles, to not have every match be the same, and especially on an all womens show. I’m not relying on my moves to make me popular here: I’m going to do something different. I might have a match where I’m telling a little story that I’m too drunk to walk. And whoever I’m in with there, they have a lot of fun with it.
Is there a difference between having a gimmick and having a character?
I’ve got Martina quite down at this point, I know who Martina is. Every time I’m in the ring I try to do something a little bit different but I just react as Martina: I know who the character is. I’ve made up a back story for the character. It’s not down on paper like “Oh, I’m Session Moth Martina”, but I have tried like the way an actor or an actress does. They want to get to know the character. That’s why I always do the joke of “I’ve got [so many] kids” and the number changes all the time. I like the idea that people might think Martina has this mad back story to her life: what would happen if she was to go here? It could almost be like you could write a movie or a sitcom around the character, so it’s a different thing every time.
Obviously me as a real life person, I’m not like that at all! It’s a way for me to vent creativity I guess. I think it’s why I’ve lasted this long because a lot of people used to say to me in my first year when Martina was getting popular that “Oh this is great, but it has a shelf life. People have seen the entrance, they know she’s a session moth, she drinks cans, oh cool….”
I think I’ve put pressure on myself to constantly keep trying to change it because the last thing I want is to be breaking out and then people get bored, like “Oh, we’ve seen that act already.” Say I’ve been in PROGRESS three different times, I want each time I’m there to bring something different. It’s almost like a story where you can never predict what Martina’s going to do. She could shock you and do a serious match, or she could do this complete crazy story that you don’t see coming.
Have you given much thought to how a heel Martina would work?
I turned heel at ICW but I didn’t get an opportunity to really run with it and see where the character could actually go. I’ve only had two matches there and I really enjoyed them but I didn’t get enough chance to really explore the character side.
I have been thinking about it, if it was to come up somewhere: I think it would have to be the right time and the right place. I don’t see myself turning heel for a long time because I think I have a lot in there to keep [fresh], but I’ve definitely thought about how much would I have to change? I definitely wouldn’t want to just turn around and be a generic heel, just telling the crowd to shut up or “I’m not listening to you.”
What has got me this far is that I’m a completely different babyface, so if I’m turning heel I’d still want to have the thing of being unique, so I’d want to be a unique heel. So I definitely have put some thought into figuring out how that would play out. It’s all about mileage and maybe one day I will turn because that could give me another five years for all I know.
Could you work with the adjustments you might have to make to Martina if you started working for a promotion with a mainstream TV slot?
I’ve thought about that as well. I think it would be quite easy: it would just be a case of “At the end of the day, I’m still a wrestler” and that’s something I’m showing more and more these days, that if you were to put me in a ring with someone I can have a match with them and tell a story. If needs be, I can leave [parts of] Martina behind. I would look at it the way I would if I was on a show with kids as in I would still be true to myself as much as I can without crossing any boundaries. I’d maybe have to tone it down to just a party girl where I come out dancing, I don’t come out with beer.
I wouldn’t like that as much because I have a lot of fun and part of the reason I love doing independent wrestling so much is because I have so much creative freedom and the fact that I’ve got to do these things like Session Goth or Boozerweight or El Motho. But at the end of the day I’m still a wrestler and I can still bring Martina and adapt Martina to any situation and that’s something I’m very confident with.
