International Incident

Barbie Mayfield was involved in an altercation that precipitated a brawl in Japan last month and has returned to the United States. Mayfield was part of an ACW contingent attending a Female Fighting exposition in Kobe, Japan. Mayfield was attending as a representative and was giving a demonstration along with Japanese star Kristi Tajiran for a gathering of young Japanese girls. Mayfield did not take well to some of Tajiran’s action, which included a number of stiff kicks as well as a choke-hold.

Tajiran, noted for her stiff work in competition apologized and claimed that she did not intend any harm to Mayfield, but Barbie was clearly angered, believing that Tajiran knew exactly what she was doing. “I’m sick of these girls trying to make a name for themselves at our expense. Everywhere we go, some chick steps up and starts taking shots at us. I mean, look at what happened. We’re in front of a bunch of excited young girls and she starts kicking me in my ribs. Now it’s all over the news and her manager is playing it up to the press. I’m not going to be involved in this kind of crap.”

When informed of Mayfield’s comments, Taijiran reacted with uncharacteristic anger. “I’m insulted by her statements. If I wanted to harm her, she would be in a hospital and not on a plane running back to the United States. I’m the biggest star in Japan right now, so if anyone would be looking to make a name for herself, it would be her. Perhaps ACW will let her travel back for a match against me. I would welcome it.”

This marks the fourth incident in the last six months where ACW competitors complained about problems with girls from other promotions. In November 2001, Daniella Cartier, recovering from injuries suffered in an automobile accident was making a promotional appearance in Sydney, Australia. During her appearance, she was continually goaded by Michelle Gibson, a young Australian apartment wrestler just getting into the business. Gibson followed Cartier to several other venues, taunting her relentlessly before being removed by event officials.

ACW star Dixie Monroe was attacked by a little known Thai wrestler during an autograph signing in Bangkok. Monroe was able to subdue the girl, breaking the attackers nose in the process. A shaken Monroe continued on but expressed the sentiments of many ACW performers saying that the recent problems have made her wary of traveling on behalf of the promotion. “These girls figure they have nothing to lose,” said Monroe. “They figure they can blindside one of us and get a couple shots in and then brag that they beat up a major league apartment wrestlers. Who knows how far one of these idiots will go?”

Tanako X, CEO of ACW considers the problem a major concern for the promotion. “There are so many things that we have to anticipate as our promotion grows and expands. One thing that we had not fully planned for is having to go to great lengths to provide for protection of our performers. With added exposure and publicity I guess these things go hand in hand but we really have to develop a practical system for the girls. Their safety is our highest priority but we have to be able to justify the expense. X, it should be noted was the victim of a similar attack twenty years ago while competing in a martial arts tournament in Rio De Janeiro, Brazil. Although he fought off the three attackers, he sustained severe injuries and was hospitalized for three months. The extent of the injuries in unclear but it was after this incident that X began wearing his trademark mask. Many speculate that X incurred severe facial lacerations, prompting him to hide his face behind the mask but no one has seen him without a mask for twenty years. “That’s just fantasy on someone’s part and really isn’t important. I’m concerned about our promotion and its performers. We are discussing a number of possibilities, including scaling back our international expansion and inter-promotional exchanges. It really becomes incumbent upon our international partners to provide adequate protection and implement proper safeguards. If they can not do so, we don’t need to take on such risks.”