Ringbelles Retro: The blueprint for World Women’s Wrestling

Believe it or not, there was a time when Mercedes Martinez was new. She’s been such a solid fixture of wrestling in the US for more than a decade, and has the memories – and autobiographical tattoos – to prove it.

The Retro for today is from May of 2002, about 18 months after her debut, and was an early women’s match in New England Championship Wrestling. Martinez had been wrestling against the likes of Della Morte, though it was this contest which NECW asserts in this video was one of the reasons why it decided to go ahead with creating the World Women’s Wrestling brand in 2005 – with Martinez being its first champion, crowned on June 5 of that year.

Her opponent in this match is Sumie Sakai, who at this point had been wrestling for around 5 years. This is the first match of what would be many Martinez v Sakai contests throughout a range of promotions, but as you’ll see in this contest, the first one wasn’t all plain sailing…