Just an amazing interview. I know wrestling and catfight fans will love this. Enjoy, and please thank Patti on her FB page.

https://www.facebook.com/pattij276?hc_location=timeline

1. So tell us a little about yourself. Favorite food? Sports team? Place to visit?  

Well I just turned 48. I've been married 27 years. I have one grown son. I've wrestled for way over 25 years, primarily competitive freestyle wrestling but also pro wrestling over the years. I'm 5' 8" tall, I weigh 197 lbs. I was once recruited by a professional power lifting team but I hate how I look when I work with weights too much. I bulk up very quickly and it's not at all feminine muscles, it's just bulky masculine muscles, my son says I look like Sid Vicous in a swimsuit when I have my muscles toned up from working out before fighting or using weight training to loose weight. I'm pretty health oriented. I have literally never smoked, not even a single puff, I've never used drugs of any sort and I've not drank if over 30 years. I did get drunk when I was 17 and I promptly got in a fight and got my ankle broken. I love to eat, grilled out burgers or well prepared steak is my favorite food. I love eating out at Italian restaurants and love Calabash style seafood. I love the ocean and water in general so going to the beach is my favorite place to visit. I love the lake we live near and I'd love to visit England some time.

2. How did you get started in wrestling?

 I was an assistant librarian at a women's college. Part of my compensation included unlimited use of the gym and pool. The school had a women's wrestling team and the girls would be practicing when I was working out and I started playing with them on the mats. Of course I couldn't compete since I wasn't a student but I did begin to wrestle with both the girls here and with other women in sort of an underground wrestling league. It was sort of like "Fight Club" but friendlier. Thru wrestling there I met people who got me more involved in freestyle wrestling and eventually it led to doing so professional wrestling but freestyle is my first love and far different from pro wrestling.

3. What companies have you worked for?

 The competitive wrestling really doesn't involve companies. It's a loose association of women interested in competing. When there's interest we have tournaments but other than video companies who promote and retail videos of the matches there really is not a company per se. With regards to pro wrestling I've worked for independent companies from Mexico to up state New York. The groups I worked for the most would be Lady Victoria's WOW, GLWWA (Great Lakes Women's Wrestling Association) and CLWA (Coastal Ladies Wrestling Association). The others I wrestled for but as a visitor. I'm actually still the GLWWA champion.

4. What's the most competitive fight you have had filmed?

 I fought in the women's part of a tough man competition in West Virginia. I'm not into boxing and this was the only time I fought in something like this. I won my first fight but got TKO'd in the 2nd. This was when Christy Martin was coming up and she fought in the same tournament so if I'd won I eventually would have been KO'd by her and after watching her fight I am certain she would have KO'd me as she did most of her opponents until the latter part of her career when her injuries especially being shot and stabbed by her former husband began to take a toll on her ability to fight. In pro wrestling it's all for fun and entertainment, in competitive wrestling I've only once lost it and traded punches with an opponent but thankfully we regained control of ourselves and were able to finish our match with no more violence and I was lucky enough to win and I think I was winning the fight when we were seperated.

5. What is your favorite wresting move to do to an opponent?

 I'm a big girl and almost always the stronger woman so I like power moves and submission moves. I love suplexes, boston crabs, the camel clutch, the PowerBar which is the only move named for me, moves like that. 

6. How do people react when they hear you wrestle for money?

 People who know me from wrestling obviously aren't suprised. I can't really say anyone's been shocked or anything. I tried to keep it from my family so they act funny about anything to do with wrestling. I can't say there's been any really shocking reaction other than people who know me personally thinking it out of character that I'd be involved in a full contact and sometimes violent sport.

7. Have you ever been in a catfight in your everyday life like at a bar or party? The more details the better. 

I really don't know what you mean by cat fight. If you mean the sort of thing so many women are posting online or selling then NO NEVER. If you mean have I ever been in a real fight then yes I have. In real life it's not like TV or movies. It often includes hospitals, getting arrested, court, utter humiliation, guilt feelings, depression and just lots of bad things. I've been in 6 fights where I was mad enough to want to hurt another woman. One I already mentioned which was during a freestyle match where the woman I was wrestling was loosing and getting madder and madder. Eventually she started digging her nails into me and I had little bloody spots on my arms, my throat and finally my face which made me mad enough to fight her. She felt her conditioning would make me easy prey for her so she was not prepared to be beaten in a competitive wrestling match by a woman who did pro wrestling. This was in November 2011 and I hope will end up being the last time I end up fighting to hurt someone. Going back to 2009 I had a coworker who decided she'd make me her bitch at work. I put up with her mouth then one Friday after work I was waiting for her in our parking lot. She was more mouth than fighter so it wasn't much of a fight. I ended up sitting with her until she stopped crying and was able to drive. I couldn't leave her alone in the parking lot at night. I tried to keep it secret from my husband but I'd busted my knuckles up on her head so he knew as soon as I got home that I'd been fighting. I spent the weekend expecting the cops to show up at my door but she didn't call the police. I did get terminated when I showed up for work the following Monday. Myself and a neighbor got in a fist fight because our 4 year old children weren't playing well together. One moment we were talking then she was screaming at me and then she'd jumped me. We showed our toddlers how stupid adults can act. It was embarassing but thankfully I did not start it. Before I got married my husband's former fiance baited me into fighting her one Saturday when she was at the same public pool I was swimming at. She wouldn't stop running her mouth and eventually I met her behind one of the buildings at the pool but she had a friend waiting for me and I was grabbed from behind and held in a full nelson while I was beaten and kicked until I went down. She had a serious hatred for me and there was no mercy so I ended up drenched in blood. I got my nose broken, bruised ribs, both eyes were black. I needed stitches inside my mouth, above my mouth and up towards my nose. I had to have stitches in my chest and at the time I thought I'd been stabbed, blood was spraying from the wound to my chest. The rescue squad had to be called and I had to go to the ER. Both women were arrested and eventually we had to go to court. Everyone made me out to be the villian for calling the police but I didn't call them and I was the bad guy for going to court against them. I was only 22 (maybe 21 I'm not sure) but I looked like I'd been in a car wreck or something. My nose is still crooked today, I still have scars on my chest and my face and I spent a couple of months very very depressed after the fight. It was not a pleasant experience. Before that I got in a fight while playing tennis with another woman, it started over her getting hit in the face by a ball I'd hit. I fought another woman when I was younger for no real good reason, we just didn't get along and decided to slug it out but I can't even remember now who won or what we were fighting over. I've only lost it one time while wrestling that led to a fight and I've had an woman I was wrestling loose it and want to attack me but thankfully she didn't. Everyone else ran out of the ring including the ref, the owner of the promotion, the camera people, everyone just suddenly vanished. My pride will not allow me to run from a fight so I stood there fully expecting this angry pro wrestler to jump me but she said what she needed to say and we resumed our match. But I've never been in a "catfight" like I see advertised. Wrestling I consider a sport and I don't call it fighting and the times I've fought we were mad and wanted to hurt each other, just not the rolling around tossing our hair around trying to be entertaining. We wanted to knock each other's teeth out and that's what we tried to do.

8. What is the wildest fight ever proposed to you? 

I've had people offer me tons of money to fight nude or topless. I've had people send me scripts that were insane. I've had people request all sorts of penalties or things the looser has to endure to humiliate her. 

9. Have you ever done an unfilmed fight for money? Would you? 

Again when I've had to fight it had nothing to do with money so I can only say I've done it but it was not planned and I hope, sincerely hope that I've been in my last real fight. There simply are no real winners when women turn to violence and I mean real violence, not wrestling and not things women do for entertainment or to make a living.

10. Anyone you would like to do a competitive rules catfight with? Maybe someone from your everyday life? 

 I wrestle and I've been in fights but there's no one I want to fight and again I am not thrilled with the term "catfight". I'll wrestle anyone but there's no one I really want to fight with.

11. Are you nervous before a fight?

 Always. It wouldn't be normal for a girl not to be scared before she's about to fight.

12. Anything else you would like to add? 

Just thanks to all the friends I've made because of wrestling. I wish everyone could know the feeling of having people cheering for them, I wish everyone could know what it's like having people from all over the world wanting to meet them. I wish everyone could know the warm feeling I get from having women who'd fight for me or help me anytime I needed help. For the girls who may read this I wish everyone would learn how to fight and how to defend themselves. There's a pleasant feeling when one knows she can defend herself if she has to. To women with an interest in wrestling I'd say be safe, be careful but have fun also. Work with trained wrestlers, don't enter into any situation that's uncomfortable or doesn't feel right. Rather you're going to wrestle someone or for some reason fight her make sure you know exactly what you're getting into. Someone once sent me 2 Youtube clips of girls fighting. In both the fights only last seconds, in one the looser was knocked out cold by brass knuckles. In the other the looser was drenched in blood after only seconds. It turned out her opponent had her car keys sticking out between her fingers and was trying to blind the other girl by punching her in the face with car keys jamming into her face with each punch. Clearly neither of the girls who lost had any idea of what they were getting into. I don't even know a woman who owns brass knuckles, let alone who would use them against an unsuspecting opponent. So to the women I'd say be careful and be safe. Train well and learn to wrestle and fight from people who know both how to do both but also who are good teachers. Rather you ever fight or wrestle I'd strongly recommend steering clear of tobacco, drugs and alcohol. You'll one day be glad you did. FINALLY DO NOT LET PEOPLE TALK YOU INTO ANYTHING YOU DON'T WANT TO DO. 

Thanks, Patti Powers