I'm a Rachel Summerlyn Guy

"Hey Mr. J..."
Photo Credit: Joel Loeschman

My first exposure to Rachel Summerlyn was as a sacrificial lamb to Sara del Rey on a random ROH on HDNet episode, where the company was pretending like it was going to kickstart the Women of Honor division again. As you can tell by their current holding pattern of feeding wrestlers to MsChif to no real end that's in sight, that's gone real well. I saw her again on the opening of a few SHIMMER cards, and I still really didn't get the gist of what she was all about. To be fair, no one really was talking her up around the time I was first exposed to her abilities in the ring; I hadn't met Brandon Stroud yet for him to introduce me to a company in Texas called Anarchy Championship Wrestling.

It was there that I got to see what the real story was. In a backdrop where she didn't just have to be a "female" wrestler, but a wrestler, and one with a lot of importance thrust upon her shoulders to boot, her star shone like the summer sun in the high noon sky. She pretty much did everything for ACW, and she did it well. Finally, in November of last year, she won the Anarchy Championship and sat on the top of their world as arguably the most important wrestler in Texas, let alone in her own promotion. For a company that featured as many awesome wrestlers as ACH, Jessica James, the Submission Squad, Matthew Palmer, and Athena, no one seemed to be more valuable to their company in 2012 than Summerlyn was. She had so many stories run point through her, mainly because she could handle it so adeptly.

That's why her losing the title at Guilty by Association 7 this past Sunday and the bouquet of rumors that swirled around the reasoning why stung me as a fan. Two months on top felt too short for Summerlyn, and with the scuttlebutt saying that she was leaving the company after dropping the title (I won't get into the reasons why, I'll leave that for Summerlyn herself to reveal if she wants to on the podcast next week), I was stunned. After a year where she was arguably the most valuable performer in any promotion outside of maybe WWE (and I'd argue she did more for ACW than Daniel Bryan, CM Punk, or John Cena did for the worldwide leader), she was leaving. That's a bomb, man.

Again, I don't know what the impetus for her leaving the company is at all other than things I've heard from people close to her but not her. I'll leave anything she wants to fill in on the show next week if she wants to fill it in. Obviously, it's not my place. But I will say that ACW will be an emptier place without her, especially in the backdrop of her 2012 there.

Thankfully, she's not retiring, at least thankfully from a selfish fan standpoint. If she was going to hang 'em up, no one would have the right to begrudge her. She'll still fulfill her 2CW dates in February (where she won the Girls Grand Prix tournament and wrestled Mickie James last year), and she's still doing a St. Louis Anarchy date against Dan Walsh. I've also heard rumblings that there are some East Coast promoters who are interested in luring her to the New York/Philly area to do a date or two, but that's up in the air.

It would have been just my luck to finally get to see Summerlyn unleashed in all her glory only to have stuff come up where the number of dates available on tape end up drying up. That seems like an extremely selfish thing to say, and in a way, it definitely is. I can't help how I feel though. In the last year-plus, I've seen her mix ferocity with passion, sexiness with barbarism, high stunts with brilliant psychology. I got a taste and I'm hooked. I'm a Rachel Summerlyn guy with no apologies. Therefore, of course I'm going to think it awful that she's no longer going to be on the one stage where she was allowed to spread her wings fullest and freest.

Still, the best course of action is the one that makes her happy. And wherever she goes, I support her. That's what being a Rachel Summerlyn guy is all about, right? I would hope so.