Mercedes Martinez stands out as a prominent figure in the contemporary landscape of women’s professional wrestling. Known for her impactful style and no-nonsense approach, this Wrestler Mercedes Martinez has carved a significant space for herself in a scene that increasingly values skill and athleticism over conventional tropes.
Since stepping into the ring six years prior to the article’s original publication, Mercedes Martinez has become a central figure in the dynamic resurgence of women’s wrestling in America. She has cultivated a reputation for her compelling charisma and formidable, hard-hitting wrestling style. This combination has rapidly garnered her recognition, highlighted by her memorable matches across wrestling hotspots like New York, Illinois, and California.
Marking her sixth wrestling anniversary, Martinez returned to where it all began: the Albanian Culture Center gymnasium in her hometown, Waterbury, Connecticut. Under familiar lights, reminiscent of her debut victory against Trinity H. Campbell six years prior, wrestler Mercedes Martinez defeated Nikki Roxx. This match, promoted by MXW Connecticut on November 12th, served as a testament to her journey. The years between her match with Campbell and Roxx were filled with consistent effort, building a robust wrestling resume. This included a WWE Heat appearance against Victoria, multiple showings with Ring of Honor, and headlining slots in some of the nation’s premier women’s wrestling events. But what motivated Mercedes Martinez, a former criminal justice major from Teikyo Post University, to trade academics for the intensity of the wrestling ring?
“I was bored,” Mercedes Martinez confessed in a phone interview en route to a Women’s Extreme Wrestling TV taping in Philadelphia. “I guess you could say I didn’t find wrestling, wrestling found me. It kind of just fell into my lap.”
Intrigued by Jason Knight’s wrestling school in Waterbury, Mercedes Martinez began training in October 2000 under the tutelage of the former ECW TV champion. Her debut followed swiftly, just a month later. Such a brief training period often suggests either a rushed learning process or exceptional natural talent. In the case of wrestler Mercedes Martinez, it seems to have been a blend of both. A natural athlete, with a background in high school basketball and softball, Martinez possesses a strong physique at 5’7″ and 147 pounds. She honed her skills within Knight’s promotion, Assault Championship Wrestling, wrestling fellow trainees. However, a pivotal opportunity arose somewhat unexpectedly.
When some of Martinez’s wrestling school peers traveled to Massachusetts for a New England Championship Wrestling (NECW) event in early 2001, she joined them, intending to observe and learn. Fortuitously, she had her wrestling gear with her. Promoter Sheldon Goldberg, facing a wrestler no-show, inquired if she would be willing to fill the vacant spot. She accepted, and despite losing her debut match against Kurt Adonis, she gained invaluable exposure.
“Sometimes in wrestling you can tell a person’s special when they walk through the curtain for the first time,” Goldberg recalled. “It was instant electricity the moment she came out.”
Impressed, Goldberg booked a rematch for the following month in Vermont. This time, wrestler Mercedes Martinez secured the victory, igniting the crowd’s enthusiasm.
This win was a catalyst. According to Goldberg, a women’s division within NECW soon emerged, initially created to provide opponents for Mercedes Martinez. Her competition quickly expanded to include international talent.
May 2002 marked the arrival of Sumie Sakai from Yoshimoto Ladies Pro in Japan for a three-month stay in the U.S. The Japanese promotion aimed for Sakai to win a championship to take back to Japan. Through connections facilitated by Weekly Gong photographer Shun Yamaguchi, they partnered with Goldberg and NECW. On May 10th, Mercedes Martinez defeated Sakai to claim the co-sanctioned North American Women’s Championship in a match that, while not considered a classic, was significant. Martinez lost the title back to Sakai a month later, enabling Sakai to return to Japan as champion. However, the matches earned wrestler Mercedes Martinez valuable photographs and recognition in Japanese wrestling publications. Since then, Martinez and Sakai have wrestled numerous times on the East Coast, their series evolving and their matches becoming increasingly refined.
“When I first fought Sumie, it was different,” Martinez emphasized. “Now when I wrestle her, it’s easy. I looked forward to wrestling her because it was very different at that time to wrestle a women’s wrestler from Japan.”
The Martinez-Sakai rivalry presented an interesting dynamic in women’s wrestling. While American women wrestlers frequently toured Japan during the height of its popularity in the 1990s, this was a rare instance of a Japanese woman coming to the U.S. to compete. The growing interest in independent women’s wrestling in recent years has spurred the creation of promotions like Goldberg’s World’s Women Wrestling and SHIMMER Women Athletes, based in Illinois. Goldberg also noted an increase in the number of women training to become professional wrestlers.
As the appreciation for authentic and competitive women’s wrestling grew among fans and independent promoters, so did recognition for Mercedes Martinez’s impactful, no-frills wrestling style. Dave Prazak, promoter of SHIMMER, likened her stiff strikes to those of Samoa Joe. Mercedes Martinez cites Bret Hart, Ricky Steamboat, and Chris Benoit as her wrestling influences. A glimpse at her MySpace page at the time revealed a tribute to Eddy Guerrero alongside fan photos and an image of her being “gored” by Rhino, showcasing her diverse interests and wrestling passions. A strong work ethic is undeniably a key factor in Mercedes Martinez’s swift rise in professional wrestling.
“I could tell from her wrestling that she really put everything into it,” observed Joanne Starer, owner of Kiryoku Pro, Chikara Pro’s now-defunct sister promotion. “She was serious about learning her craft and growing as a wrestler.”
For wrestling fans whose primary exposure to women’s wrestling is through WWE television, a Mercedes Martinez match offers a distinct contrast.
“With Mercedes, it’s not pulling hair and hip tosses and flying mares,” Goldberg explained. “She goes in there and gets down and dirty and really works hard. She works a rugged style.”
Beyond her in-ring prowess, Mercedes Martinez exhibits a natural charisma and comfort in front of crowds, a quality not always prevalent among independent women wrestlers. Prazak first watched Mercedes Martinez on a Kiryoku Pro DVD and was immediately captivated by her entrance, where she interacted and danced with fans.
“She had the crowd in the palm of her hand before she even locked up,” Prazak noted, highlighting her captivating stage presence.
Mercedes Martinez’s Kiryoku Pro appearance prompted Prazak to recommend her to Ian Rotten, the booker for IWA-Mid South. Rotten was looking to bring in female wrestlers for his trainee, Mickie Knuckles, to face. Similar to Martinez’s early days in NECW, the IWA-MS women’s division essentially originated from the desire to provide competition for their top local female wrestler, Mickie Knuckles.
Mercedes Martinez made a strong impression at the IWA-MS “Volcano Girls” event on May 30, 2004. She had a solid match against Becky Bayless, a valet-turned-wrestler still developing her in-ring skills, and then defeated Mickie Knuckles in what Prazak considered Knuckles’ best match up to that point. Later in the event, Mercedes Martinez and Daizee Haze reached the finals of a three-way tournament but were defeated by Lacey. Martinez’s ability to adapt her style to different opponents was a standout feature of the tournament.
“She went in there and wrestled wrestlers who she hadn’t really before, except for Bayless who she worked with only a little bit,” Prazak commented. “She wrestled most of these women for the first time and she was in the night’s best matches.”
Mercedes Martinez continued her streak of delivering high-quality matches with a 20-minute draw against Sara Del Ray at SHIMMER’s inaugural show in November of the previous year. This match, and subsequent rematches, received high praise from wrestling fans. Clips of her matches against MsChif and Cheerleader Melissa for Chick Fights, a California-based promotion, have accumulated close to 10,000 views on YouTube, demonstrating her growing online popularity. Looking ahead, where does wrestler Mercedes Martinez envision her wrestling future?
“In a perfect world, I’d be in the Fed,” she admitted, referring to WWE. “But right now, I prefer SHIMMER and indies because that’s where the competition is. Titan’s looking for T&A;, not that I’m knocking it, but I prefer wrestling in front of fans like SHIMMER and Ring Of Honor fans. Also, I want to wrestle in Japan.”
Perhaps the most crucial aspect is not where Mercedes Martinez, then 26, would ultimately wrestle, but rather what she represented: a shift in North American women’s wrestling towards a more physically demanding and athletic presentation. Prazak encapsulated it effectively: Mercedes Martinez’s talent challenges preconceived notions about women in wrestling.
“When you watch her wrestle, you think you’re watching a fantastic wrestler,” he stated, “not a fantastic woman wrestler.”
As long as there is an audience that appreciates intense and physical wrestling, Mercedes Martinez, this exceptional wrestler Mercedes Martinez, should have no trouble keeping boredom at bay and continuing to captivate audiences.
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John Clapp is a seventh-semester journalism major at the University of Connecticut, and a lifelong wrestling fan who secretly hopes ESPN begins showing Global Wrestling Federation reruns by mistake.
