Raymi the Hogtown Wrestling Ring Girl
‘Ring Girl’ is the common name for a model who enters the ring between rounds of a combat sport event such as boxing, kickboxing, or mixed martial arts carrying a sign that displays the number of the upcoming round.
I was the official Ring Girl for a live wrestling event in Toronto, Hogtown Wrestling ‘s Oct show, or something they called Socktoberfest. This is a new wrestling league that has just formed from the remains of Victory Commonwealth Wrestling, and the wrestlers and fans and announcers and other characters are like one big happy family who have a lot of fun at their monthly shows. You can watch Hogtown Wrestling on Rogers TV / cable access.
In professional wrestling, the Ring Girls are glorified attendants who remove and keep safe all performers’ entrance gear. This could be their robes, towels, headpieces or other props. In championship bouts, a Ring Girl would take the heavy wrestling belt from the Titleholder just before or after the Champ steps into the ring.
Throughout the 1980s, World Wrestling Entertainment employed ring girls known as the Federettes. I grew up watching these ladies and that’s where I learned a lot of the signature poses and struts.
The event went smooth as silk because I have lots of experience as cheerleader, podium girl, promotional model, race queen, and crowd amplifier.
I also work collecting data on smokers but that’s another story. This is the referee praising my good sense to stay out of the melee that broke out in the third match. He said I was the best Ring Girl he’s ever seen work a Hogtown Wrestling event.
Here’s Frankie from Amico’s Pizza Toronto who was one of the sponsors of Socktoberfest. Generally speaking, Ring Girls MUST pose with sponsors – its part of their contract.
The way us Ring Girls are portrayed and utilized in proceedings varies from show to show, but having worked and been in attendance at half a dozen live shows, I’ve noticed some very specific qualities in the Ring Girls that have either made the shows great, or in some cases, detracted from the overall sports entertainment.
Raymi on What Makes a Great ‘Ring Girl’?
Love the Sport: A good Ring Girl should be able to carry on a conversation with the media about what’s transpiring in the ring. Nobody wants to talk to someone about a fight and hear a response, “I don’t know, I just hold the cards.”
Know Your Place: As much as I joke about being the only ‘female star’, I know the Ring Girl has a very minor role to play, and I don’t crave the spotlight or insist the announcers use my ‘Minx’ name etc. I play it cool. I Figure I have no risk of being injured here, and so I have respect for those that do put their bodies on the line.
The Ring Girl is a Role-Model: Whether they like it or not, ring girls are role models to other women and children watching the show. They should never curse or even show too much cleavage. People are paying to watch fights, not to have a Hooters experience.
Look and Act the Part: A ring girl should look healthy and be comfortable in her costume and be proud and confident in the ring. She should strut lively and not appear bored or confused. We are there to get the crowd on their feet, and not to look cute, or be photographed as sex-objects, or, worst case scenario, be viewed as a reward for the winning wrestlers. To that end, the Ring Girl should resist any urge to kiss or hug the winner, or even to console the loser of the match. She must remain aloof, indifferent of the results and be more concerned about the crowd.
So basically, although there’s no specific rules for being a ring girl, it’s a discipline within the broader art and science of modeling that must be taken seriously in its own right. Some ladies I know have tried and failed to be good ring girls, because it requires behaviour that is so foreign to their notion of modeling they can’t comprehend how the crowd perceives them. It believe it takes a ‘tough chick’ to be great in this arena, and add excitement to the show without detracting of diminishing in any way the star power of the performers.
And the event paid off in other ways too – i met a lot of really interesting new people!
Here is what the alley behind the wrestling match looked like.
Being a Hogtown Wrestling Ring Girl is a lot of fun!
you rock Raymi