Opportunity

[Sarah Jade Wilson]

Sarah Jade Does Life

[e-mail]

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28th July 2016

A Confession

So here we are, IWF Lineage.

A week of firsts for myself, my first major pay-per-view appearance, my first appearance in the final of a tournaments and my first opportunity to become something more than a mere footnote in company history.

So, in a week of firsts, I am forced to admit that, perhaps, I was wrong about Sara Garcia, something which we have all been guilty of. We have, routinely, cast her as a support actress in the grander schemes of her sister. Yet, I submit to you, it is Sara, not Paige, who has advanced to the finals of this grand pageant, she has staked her claim to be the most dominant twin, truly stepping out of the imposing shadow her sister casts with every successful defence of her position as IWF Shieldmaiden.

Several weeks ago, I made the same mistake of underestimating her.

I do not plan to make a similar mistake this week.

Reducing her to merely a trope was, erroneous on my part. Whilst I still maintain that her image she projects to the world in service of this company remains that of the “Mean Girl”, I must confess that there is far greater depth to her depravities than I could ever possibly have imagined. Not only does she embody the very essence of the “Mean Girl”, but she more worryingly possesses far more destructive traits.

Traits which, if she were to succeed this week, threaten to represent women everywhere in a wholly negative light.

Sara is ruthless, stepping on anybody who stands in her way, that we already know, but it is only when I stepped in the ring, when I got up close and personal to her that I saw the lengths to which she was willing to inflict pain on another human being simply to crown herself the winner of a match which, in the grand scheme of things, was inconsequential such was her form in this “competition”. The things she did to me that night went above and beyond the mere necessities of finishing a wrestling match.

To you, perhaps it was not apparent, but you did not feel her blows. You did not listen to the “sweet whispers” she chose to drip in my ear as she inflicted pain upon me. You did not endure being torn from the canvas when you were already spent, simply to make an example of you.

She saw a woman who wasn’t afraid to expose who she was, a woman who embraced the freedom of her speech and she systematically went about silencing that voice.

By any means necessary.

I wager that, regardless of whether she is willing to admit it or not, Sara was quite sure that her message had been sent that week and that I would simply shrink back into my shell and retreat to the periphery of this tournament and slip away without so much as uttering a further word in defiance.

Yet, she, like I, was wrong.

I told you all last week about the day that I refused to be a victim, that I refused to have my voice drowned out by others and that was not a mere coincidence. Sara unleashed a side of herself that was toxic in nature, all as a means of squashing our collective voice for her own benefit, so that she may reign supreme as the next anointed Queen of Diamonds. A reign which will only go down in infamy.

A division ruled by Sara Garcia is not one which bears thinking about, forget the rampant abuse of the basic rules of sportswomanship that she and her sister routinely indulge in, they’re merely dressing for much darker vices. No, a division where Sara is on top is one where women will be defined by self-serving greed, by brutality in the name of staying on top and by unrelenting arrogance and self-satisfied superiority.

A division where we are no better than men.

Is that truly the future that we want for our “Diamond’s Division”? A division which, for all its flaws, for all this company’s flaws, has stood as a beacon for the advancement of women in professional wrestling to the status of equals of our male counterparts. For every problem this division faces, and I certainly do not stray from my commitment to highlight them, it too has advanced our cause, perhaps inadvertently and for its own ends, but advanced them it has nonetheless.

Do we want a woman who is so relentless in her pursuit of her own personal glory, at the expense of all others, to represent us all?

There are those out there who will chuckle and laugh at my assertion, for what is professional wrestling if not the pursuit of our own glory at all costs? Yet, that is an assumption against which I am fighting, for the champion symbolises more than merely the triumph of their own endeavours, they embody the person who the fans should view, in some form or another, as a role model. They define the pinnacle of their genders and that is a position which carries with it the weight of a tremendous force for change.

A force that cannot be placed in the irresponsible hands of a woman whose only interests are how to advance her own position at the cost of all her sisters. A woman who cares little about representing them in a positive and progressive light and only in how far she can go to attain all the power she craves.

No, this is an opportunity which cannot be passed up.

This weekend I must stand face to face with a woman who saw fit to try and silence me once before, a woman who will not think twice about repressing our voice even further for the sake of own success. I must admit, there is a part of me which has trepidation about stepping foot back in that ring, but, that is the burden which I must carry. Our oppressors may only hold us down, may only hold us down if we fear the results of airing our opinions and demanding change.

I will not allow Sara Garcia to extinguish that voice again, I will not allow her to unleash her violent potential for carnage to silence me for a second time.

I promise you all that I will defeat her, not for myself, but for the great potential this opportunity provides. This is a chance for us to create a progressive message and for me to assume the position as a role model who embodies all of our core values, an opportunity to truly change this company, one which has come far sooner than I possibly envisioned.

This week, I will not defeat Sara Garcia for myself, like she will certainly be aiming to do, I will defeat for each and every one of you.

To those who societies marginalises, to those who systems of oppression continue to bind in chains and to those who continue to have no voice despites your cries being the greatest of all. This victory is a step towards righting those wrongs in your favour, to stepping closer towards representing you all and fighting for your rights.

A mission I will never surrender.

July 28, 2016 ❤ 19245
#SecondTimesACharm

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29th July 2016

Sara Jade Talks Life #2

Here we are, a week removed from my victory over Crystal Millar, who I hope is now consigned to history where she belongs, and Kate Steele who…. Regrettably, proved to have been too far gone to save as she sunk into a diatribe which honestly came as quite the surprise.

Thankfully I was able to snatch a victory from this colossal disappointment to ensure that I advanced to the final of the Heiress to the Throne, although I must confess I still harbour grave misgivings over many elements of the tournament.

I must also admit to being incredibly flattered by the interest you have all shown in my humble columns, I am aware that you have of course helped crowdfund many of my previous campaigns against a variety of problems which ae sadly still endemic in our culture, but I never dreamed that you would all begin to follow my journey here.

You continue to amaze me every day and remind me why I am doing this, why I must continue to stand up and proudly declare that I will never be a victim again.

And so, I suppose with that in mind, it is time to answer the burning question which I have in my inbox, the one thing above all others you are all so curious to understand

Why professional wrestling?

After all, there are so many more industries out there which are deserving of our analysis, so much more rife with inequities and problematic depictions of women and minorities. Video games, although recently the subject of much needed reflection, are perhaps one and there are countless others, so why did I, personally, choose professional wrestling?

I knew, as a result of my amateur background wrestling as a child, that I had acquired some skills which may have been of use. Yet, I must confess no great affinity for wrestling as a sport. There were, therefore, many sports into which I could have devoted my efforts, yet there are none else on this planet that possess the one thing that professional wrestling does in droves.

The spectacle.

Pro-wrestling, if nothing else, is a performative art form, one through which messages can be subtly deployed to its legions of dedicated followers. All sports have devotees, but none of them compare to professional wrestling’s devout consumers of pageantry, pantomime and showmanship in a relationship built around deceit which allows itself to sell enough of its “reality” to its smarter fans so as to make them feel a unique bond to the product.

To some of you, that may come across as an admission of some sort of pre-determination, but that is not the case at all, you will get no such admission for myself. I am not here to pierce through some iron curtain with a stick that is used to beat it by its opponents, but rather to capitalise on the potential which wrestling’s grandiose storytelling platform to spread a more positive message.

Stories are the mode through which we project our morals and our values, and pro wrestling is no different.

The characters and stories which it tells through exaggerated showmanship are a reflection of the Imperial Wrestling Federations values and, in its position of biggest company in the world, that is a platform which carries tremendous weight across the entire country. IWF doesn’t just represent an opportunity to create a more progressive voice in America, it represents a chance to export these values abroad as well.

Unlike many other industries, pro-wrestling is more easily digestible and accessible, it also requires little translation to get its message across. It presents an opportunity to sell a positive message to more people than perhaps any other platform, an invaluable chance to make a real difference.

This is why I chose pro-wrestling as the vessel through which to pursue our dreams of the furthering of our cause.

This is why I am a member of the Imperial Wrestling Federation.

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30th July 2016

A Confession

Once again, I am forced to address not one, but two opponents this week, in what can only be described as a much higher stakes repeat of my triumphant victory a week ago. It is not simply Sara Garcia whom I must vanquish this week, for if I surpass her and become the Heiress to the Throne, I must face down my second and some may say arguably biggest challenge, the reigning, defending, IWF Diamond’s Champion. Eternity.

Yet, ironically, in a weekend of double duty there are also two sides to Eternity.

On the one hand, she is the poster child for those who suffer from mental health difficulties across the world, symbolising that it is not a blockade to their ability to succeed. On the other, IWF is quite keen to exploit her erratic mental state to their full advantage, milking her “crazy” persona to sell tacky merchandise and to push the envelope with their programming to capitalise on niche audience

The Imperial Wrestling Federation is both Eternity’s support network and her enabler.

Whilst promoting her as their champion has done much for the cause of the broader understanding of mental health problems and the trauma of grief and loss, to which they must, begrudgingly, be commended for this blog is naught but objective, there is a darker side to this structure of understanding. The corporate structure of IWF, whilst keen to promote it’s open-mindedness, it is equally read to allow her to continue to descend into further madness by enabling her erratic behaviour for their own gains.

We’ve all seen it.

The vignettes, the highly stylised stage production for her elaborate mind games and the grand entrances, these are all spectacular demonstrations of the company’s willingness to utilise her inability to cope healthily with her grief and to channel her energy into healthier coping mechanisms. They have essentially turned her mental battles into a performance, which they gleefully indulge week after week as they showcase Eternity to the world, unhinged, unhindered and unleashed.

That, right there, is her appeal, the opium to the masses.

She is sold as a woman who is unstable, yet in control of her faculties enough to deliver performative speeches which offer numerous answers veiled in riddles. She is not bound by convention, nor is she a slave to society’s rules and procedures, she has broken free of the bounds of servitude that we, the working class, are shackled with and therein lies her appeal. Her descent into madness, her unfettered and untreated inability to cope with the loss of her loved ones is a liberating and inspiring lifestyle which her legions of admirers, from all walks of life, only dream they could emulate.

The ability to live as they please, to embrace their inner child and to walk a path free of the chains of inhibition.

To many, this will not be a problem, for IWF is allowing her to be herself, to be who she wants to be, supporting her decisions and allowing her creative freedom with which she has been able to create a legacy which allows her to truly be remembered as a unique member of the Diamond’s Division. Yet, I can see through this to the rotten core beneath, for Eternity is a woman who, regardless of her comic timing and colourful whimsy, is still suffering and struggling to cope with the demons that have plagued her since her childhood.

She is a woman who is crying out to be healed, acting out to the world in a desperate attempt to cry for help and all the while her cries are falling on deaf ears which are too occupied with her performance and the illusion of controlled instability to truly care for the women beneath the act.

IWF packages her, the fans consume her and all the while Eternity continues to be failed.

I cannot profess to be Eternity’s saviour, for that is a role in which I would never dare to cast myself with such limited clinical psychiatric experience and far too grandiose for a mere social justice activist. I can, however, declare myself as a liberator, somebody who can free Eternity from the spotlight which enables her continued descent and cast her back into the darkness where she can confront her demons.

Where she can finally heal.

As long as Eternity is the IWF Diamond’s Champion she will be, alongside the Imperial Champion, at the front and centre of this company’s promotional machine, she will continue to be both celebrated and exploited until she finally snaps and breaks, and we all know what professional wrestling does to those who are broken. Once they have been milked of all their marketability, it chews them up and spits them out.

Often they are left, shattered and at the mercy of their cacophony of person demons. Many of them succumb to them, leaving behind broken relationships and troubled families, other simply continue to live on their past accomplishments for the paltry sums the independent circuit is willing to offer before their bodies finally, and in undignified fashion, give out. Their only means of income betraying them leaving them destitute and reliant on whatever system the state has in place to offer as a life support.

Many men have fallen to this fate, with the rising popularity of the Diamond’s Division and women’s wrestling as a whole, their ability to sell their bodies and remain in this profession further only grows.

That is the fate which I may help prevent from befalling Eternity.

By dethroning her I can force her to confront her problems now, before they consign her to a bitter sweet ending which resigns her to the inevitably legacy of tragic anti-heroine. Sara Garcia cares little for what happens to her, this we already know, he focus is only her own personal glory and many will tell you that mine is merely the platform upon which I may ascend this Sunday to continue my work.

But that is not a victory if it coincides with the destruction of a woman who is in need of my… no your help. Society has failed Eternity, this company has failed Eternity and in feeding the machine which continues to break her for its own gains, the fans have failed her.

This weekend, I promise that should the opportunity come, as I plan it to, I will not fail her.

I will release her from her burden, so she can finally confront the horrors from which she continues to run to this very day so that she may finally, mercifully be what she is always sold to be.

Free.

July 30, 2016 ❤ 21247
#SecondTimesACharm

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