Tuesday, February 10, 2015

Who To Know for the TWB 100: Heidi Lovelace

Lovelace shown here giving MISSILE (!) ASSAULT (!) ANT (!) a kick he won't soon forget
Photo Credit: Scott Finkelstein
Another year is in the books, so another round of evaluating and ranking wrestlers is looming on the horizon. The TWB 100 will be happening again this year, and while the announcement will not come until the first or second week of March, it doesn't mean you don't have to worry about your ballot until then. Perhaps you feel secure in your ballot right now, but odds are, wrestlers exist who are off your radar that could use a little studying up upon. I am here to help you with your homework in that department.

Wrestler: Heidi Lovelace

Who Is She?: Lovelace is a graduate of the first class of the School of Roc training facility in Indiana. She's worked extensively along the Ohio Valley and Mid-South regions of the United States, making forays also onto the East Coast and into Japan. She trained with men, came up wrestling men nearly exclusively in her first couple of months, and still works a fair amount of intergender matches around the circuit. In 2014, she started working more dates for Chikara, including National Pro Wrestling Day and the annual Young Lions Cup tournament, which she won.

What's Her Deal?: Lovelace spent the first year or so of her career bumping her ass off and making everyone else look good, but over the last year, she's developed a key offensive identity and now is becoming a well-rounded, solid showcase worker. She still knows how to get her ass kicked; she's not afraid of any bump one might put in front of her. However, her matches have become less one-sided and more competitive with experience. She's very much a standard, super-indie style worker, but she's one that knows the value of making the other guy or gal look good.

Why You Should Consider Her For Your Ballot: Like I stated in the above paragraph, she knows the value of making her opponent look good, which helps elevate even her lower-tier matches into something a bit more dramatic. Too many times have I seen matches where the wrestlers involved only seem to want to look like they're the biggest, strongest, and most macho assholes around, but Lovelace seems to have an idea of balance. Plus, she can throw a strike with the best of them. No one can walk away from a match where Lovelace has competed and not thought she belonged in the ring, whether the opponent is another woman, a smaller man like Danny Cannon, or a larger guy like Joe Pittman. She, along with Candice LeRae and Kimber Lee, is the ultimate gender eraser candidate.

Matches to Watch:

vs. Danny Cannon, Evolution Pro St. Patrick's Beatdown, 3/13


vs. Matt Cage, AAW on MaddyG TV, Season Two, Episode One (starts at 10:32)