Before, when I first started, I thought I was invincible
and untouchable, and I could never get hurt.
And I knew this was probably like one of the hardest things
my family had to go through.
But I'll be damned if they have to bury me.
Domestic violence and pro wrestling
are not one and the same.
You know, my situation, I didn't talk about it for 20 years.
Nobody knew.
I didn't tell anyone.
My husband was the only person that knew.
Women's wrestling is experiencing a revolution,
and independent promotions everywhere are rising to the
occasion by showcasing female talent from around the world.
We're gonna visit two very different places
to show how women are quickly evolving their sport
beyond stereotypes and misogyny.
The rise of the Fighting Cholitas in Bolivia marks
a distinct and important point in their cultural resurgence.
And in America, Shimmer Women Athletes has created a league
that focuses on the best technical wrestling
from across the globe.
For the last 13 years, they've fought to place female athletes
like Mia Yim at the forefront of the independent scene.
In both countries, many of the women involved have overcome
violence in their own lives to fight to create an atmosphere
that promotes female empowerment.
Every ring and stage, women wrestlers are fighting hard,
developing and perfecting their craft and telling stories
that transcend mere match.
And the fans are noticing.
So why don't we do that for the shine,
where like you give me a head scissors,
I'll sell into the corner.
Charge after me, I'll move, I'll charge after you.
You could do the thing.
If you wanna do a victory earlier so we don't have to
blow it up, we could do that victory, maybe roll up,
one, two, spear, boom, one, two, aah.
That probably wasn't English at all to you,
but that totally made sense to us.
You know what, I don't need to know.
All I need to know is that you get it,
and then it's gonna be awesome when I get to see it.
That's all I need to know about that exchange.
Mia Yim is one of the most accomplished women
on the indie circuit.
She trained in Japan, was on television with both
Total Nonstop Action Wrestling and Ring of Honor,
and has worked for many of the top indies,
including CZW, Shine, and Shimmer.
Wrestling is a form of dance.
So one person will do, say, a move to another person,
but they're both taking care of each other.
Although it is violent, in wrestling everything is consent,
and there's proper training behind it.
So if I'm in a ring with somebody,
I'll put them in the headlock, but I'm not
purposefully hurting them.
One, two, three!
There's a lot of people that think oh,
well she got muscle, she wrestles guys,
she can handle her own.
But just because I'm a wrestler,
don't mean it's okay for me to get beat up at home.
At a time in her career when everything was going right
and Mia was solidifying her place on the big stage,
it was a very different story at home.
Mia began experiencing domestic abuse at
the hands of her boyfriend, also a working wrestler.
I was completely blinded by it, and I didn't realize the flags,
but looking back on it, it was all there.
The jealousy, the control.
He was overprotective, which I thought at that time
was flattering because oh, he cares so much.
He's scared somebody's gonna take me away.
But then it became restricting.
We had an argument, and I mentioned my ex,
which he always had a problem with as far as I couldn't be on
the same show as him, we couldn't be friends.
And then during the argument, he put me in a headlock.
Me and my ex, we had matches together,
so to me it was...
okay, I've been in this move my whole wrestling career.
The only difference is why is this hurting
and why can't I breathe?
And that's just because I've never been in a proper headlock.
And then the next day, it was just like nothing ever happened.
Then it would become more and more regular,
where every argument, he would choke me just because,
you know, I'm not...
he doesn't want me walking around with a black eye.
There's no marks on me, so he would choke me
whether it's in the headlock again
or with his bare hands, with a towel.
It was a million thoughts going on at once.
It was confusion.
The guy that tells me he loves me every day and he wants to
marry me, why is he pitting me through this pain?
Why does he keep hurting me and telling me it's never gonna
happen again, but then two weeks later it happens again?
What did I do?
What am I doing wrong?
It's a lot easier said than done to just...
"Why didn't you leave?" or, "Why did you stay?"
"Why didn't you fight back?"
Like of course I fought back, but he's a man.
Like I can't-- I can't knock him out with one punch.
Like he can easily just overpower me.
I decided to come public with it when,
after talking to several of my other female wrestling friends,
I was... pretty much just needed a shoulder to cry on,
so I talked to them.
And a lot of them said, "This is what you need to do.
This is what happened with me,
and this is how I got out of it."
And it was like... wait a minute.
So we have been sharing the same locker room for X amount of
years, you went through the same challenges I went through
as a female wrestler, and you're telling me
that you've been through this as well?
And it wasn't just one other woman,
it was multiple wrestling women that has told me.
And it was like this has got to stop.
Like this is exactly why domestic violence is happening,
because nobody's talking about it.
I couldn't-- I couldn't stay quiet.
- That's Maria's belt? - Si, si.
I guess like any proud parent
displaying their children's trophies, a proud luchadore
with display their Fighting Cholita's belt.
How did it make you feel the first time you saw your...
your babies, your children in the ring?
El Alto, Bolivia sits 13,000 feet above sea level,
overlooking the capital city of La Paz.
It's home to over a million residents,
most of whom are of the Indigenous Aymara or Quechua.
For decades, Bolivia has had a style of wrestling
highly derivative of Mexican Lucha Libre,
but around 15 years ago in a rapidly changing
political climate, the Fighting Cholitas came into being.
I'm meeting with my local guide and Bolivian historian Valeria
to show me around and to find out who these women are,
and how they came to be wrestlers.
Most of the people in Bolivia, it's a mix between Indigenous
and all our roots from Spanish,
but we have like 75% of our population right now Indigenous.
But all of the Cholitas and all of the Indigenous people
were not identifying themselves as Bolivians,
because even just 15 years ago, Cholitas would not be able to go
on an airplane dressed as Cholitas.
They would be asked to dress differently
in order to board a flight.
Where is this discrimination coming from?
What goes inside.
Oh, like an underskirt?
Ohhh.
At the time that she's wrestling is what you'll see the most.
That's true, you want it to look beautiful.
Ah!
What were people's like to seeing you?
'Cause you're the first women luchadores.
It's amazing looking at the rise of the Fighting Cholitas
and Bolivia as a country, and just how much it's changed
during that period.
Because when you started, it was a really tense time politically.
It was a civil war.
The Bolivian Gas War took place in 2003
with the government's plan to sell off the country's
newly discovered gas reserves.
Fuelled by a deep history of colonial exploitation
of natural resources such as silver and gold, along with
a weakened economy and impoverished living conditions,
Bolivians took to the streets to strike in protest...
...but were met with a violent response.
60 people, mostly from El Alto, were killed,
and many more were wounded.
Domestic abuse is prevalent in Bolivia,
with 53% of Bolivian women having experienced physical
or sexual violence at the hands of a partner,
one of the highest rates of any country in South America.
Helen, how did you first find out about this space?
One, two. Good, find the two.
Two three two.
Good, good work, shake it out.
You know, when we talk about domestic violence,
there's always this idea of the perfect victim.
Somebody who is a model citizen, someone who doesn't curse,
someone who doesn't initiate violence,
someone who doesn't partake in violence, right?
Wrestling's a violent sport.
When you think of the perfect victims,
those are the kind of labels we put on people that
if they can subscribe to all of those things,
right, if they can just be perfect,
then they're deserving of support.
And so you look at someone like Mia,
who's a professional wrestler,
and the element of victim blaming comes in, right?
"She could've fought back," or, "Maybe if she didn't date
a wrestler, she wouldn't find herself in this situation."
So what about connecting with her though?
You kind of, I guess at some point though,
crossed that line, right?
- From fan to friend. - To friend.
I mean, I think the world of Mia, she's great.
You know, I think that's the power of social media.
I'm someone who has had friends and family who've been impacted
by domestic violence.
But then I saw that she was retweeting a bunch of different
domestic violence campaigns.
The Put The Nail In It campaign is a campaign that aims to end
the silence around domestic violence.
You know, the idea was that if you painted your left ring
fingernail purple, hopefully somebody would spot it
and ask you a question like, "What's that about?"
And so being a wrestling fan, I saw Mia,
and I saw that she had the painted nail.
And so I said hmm, you know, let me just reach out to Mia
and see if she'd feel comfortable speaking.
He would cry, he would apologize,
he was a changed man, he learned his lesson.
A week later, we'd get into an argument,
he just scoops me up, tossed me in the closet.
And that was my first time I fought back,
'cause I broke down the door, and then I came out swinging
'cause he just stood there like he couldn't believe
I got through the door.
So...
It's okay.
I thought about my family, and how...
I will be damned if my parents have to bury me.
So I broke down the closet, first time I fought back.
Um...
And of course, he just easily just... scooped me up,
put me down, he mounted me and started choking me.
I want to be an advocate, I want to help others
that's been in my situation.
I just don't know how.
And so for Mia, I wanted to let her know that I was interested
in exploring the story with her, and getting it out there,
and that she also had final approval on the piece that
we did submit for The Huffington Post.
And I was a little scared.
Would she be met with that same hyper-masculinity victim blaming
that's so common when women come forward?
But I was surprised.
Annabelle is the youngest of
the Fighting Cholitas in El Alto.
Still in high school, she represents
a new generation of wrestlers.
Oh!
It seems to me the part that's missing is educating men,
'cause the men are the perpetrators of this violence.
What kind of changes are happening there?
Is there any efforts being made to kinda adjust society?
I'm to understand that you've gone out and actually formed
your own federation, a women's federation now, right?
The Fighting Cholita's league is still in its infancy,
and has to rely on male promoters for access
to both a ring and a venue.
If they're able to become fully independent,
it will mark an important point in history
for women's wrestling.
Outside of Japan and a few short-lived promotions in
the UK, the Cholitas would be the first promotion to be fully
owned and controlled by the female wrestlers themselves.
Pen!
Thanks for that, Howard.
Shimmer is the WrestleMania of women's independent wrestling.
It is women from all over the world that are known for
their work, rather than just being sexy or whatnot.
This is pro wrestling with female athletes.
We're giving them more of an opportunity.
We're allowing them to showcase their athleticism.
We're not here for a bunch of goofy stories.
We're not here for showing you the goods.
We're not gonna give that to you.
We're not the side dish, we're the main dish.
We are the meat and potatoes of women's wrestling.
You're gonna see brawling, you're gonna see technical
wrestling, you're gonna see high flying, and you're gonna
see women in a capacity you might not normally see.
Mia! Mia! Mia! Mia! Mia! Mia! Mia! Mia!
Shimmer is the only league of its kind in America.
While there are other women-centric promotions,
they don't have the same mandate
to specifically highlight female athleticism.
Within the American wrestling system, there's been
a lot of talk recently about a women's revolution.
The buzz has grown so popular that even the large corporate
wrestling companies have had to take notice and change
the presentation of women's wrestling.
A great deal of responsibility for this changing tide is owed
to the organizers of Shimmer, and the women they feature.
Without them, the world of pro wrestling would still be
living in the past.
I think out of all the wrestling shows I've been to lately -
and I've been to a lot lately - this is one of the most
respectful audiences, certainly in America or Canada,
that I've ever seen.
Is that something that was like that from the very beginning,
or is that something you've had to cultivate here?
Back when we first started this in 2005,
women were facing the problem, particularly on the indies.
When we would hit the ring at any kind of "regular" show
I would say, like a mostly male show,
fans would openly get up and go to the bar,
get something to drink, get a snack.
I've done shows where the fans pick their chairs up,
turned them around, and sat like this with their backs to us
to make us know that we weren't welcome, that we were
taking away from male matches that they wanted to watch.
Where do you think that animosity
towards women's wrestling comes from?
It's just straight up misogyny.
And it goes back to the old school mentality of
men are the leaders.
Men do the heavy lifting.
Women just stay in the background and do this.
And I think deep down, it's engrained in
a lot of fans' heads that this isn't what women do.
And a lot of fans just didn't like it.
They felt we were encroaching on
the territory of something they loved.
We've had women's wrestling over the years,
and then we had GLOW which openly acknowledged
most of those people were actresses playing a part.
So they're used to seeing these amazing athletics from the men,
and then the women are trying to catch up
and given that opportunity.
And the women who could wrestle were held back
for not being pretty enough.
Back then, women's wrestling in my experience,
from what I've been through, it was just sexualized.
Bra and panty matches, mud matches, specialty matches,
and I'm sure it was a lot worse before I started.
So when we started Shimmer and Prazak pitched the idea,
we really wanted to find that niche and find the people who
believed in women's wrestling, and believed in the athletes
that we have and that we present.
And we started getting away from the cat fights,
and the evening gown matches.
And no matter who told us it was wrong,
we knew here and here it was right,
and so we just kept going.
We're like alright, they don't like it,
let's move to the next person.
Mia! Mia!
We weren't gonna be able to change everybody's minds,
but if we worked really hard, we would be able to educate
some people on what we do, and change minds that way.
Everywhere you go that I've been so far around,
you see signs of Evo Morales.
Can you explain a little bit about his presidency
and how he became elected?
He was a natural leader.
He was president of all of the unions in our central area
that we call Chapare, where they produce the coca leaves.
And then he started getting involved in politics,
and he decided to found his own party
that is a movement towards socialism.
So not only was Evo a very progressive force
when it comes to labour and things like that,
but he was also the first Indigenous president, right?
Yes, actually.
How did that affect the psychology of people here?
It created a new identity,
because we have like 75% of our population right now Indigenous.
So during the '70s, people who have Indigenous last names
would not be able to go to university,
but now they are free to do whatever they want.
What Evo Morales has done is that he has created
a new identity of a country.
And part of that identity is the Cholitas as an icon of the city
and of our country.
Watching you two work together, it's amazing,
the trust that you must have and the faith you put in each other.
Is that something that transcends the ring?
- Absolutely! - Yeah.
Half of the stuff we do,
whether we're fighting against each other
or teaming up together, it's all just us being us.
So we don't call any of it, we don't plan any of it.
A majority of it is legit just us.
It's just us being like...
When we got close...
I moved to Florida for my ex.
So then we had our own clique, and that's how we got to bond
and get to know each other.
So not only is she my wrestling friend,
she's my real friend.
So when I finally left, she was there when
all of our mutual friends thought I was exaggerating
or lying or just making it up.
She was there to tell me you do what you gotta do to be safe,
and I'll be there for you.
When Mia first was able to come forward about the abuse
she experienced, there was people around her that went to
the abuser and just protected him, and tried to protect him.
Sometimes I think people protect the abuser because they can't
fathom that the abuser would've actually done that.
"Oh, you're just being hysterical."
"Oh, calm down, that couldn't have really happened."
And they almost gaslight you in a way of
they make you second guess.
Was it really that bad?
And so that's extremely frustrating.
I couldn't stay quiet and let it keep happening because
the abusers think that oh, well they-- if they talk,
then we're gonna beat them up some more.
It wasn't until when I came out with my story that I realized
how many people were supportive.
It was just crazy that not only is it just like my friends
at Shimmer, or my friends at Impact,
it was everybody, like people I've never even met before.
And it was... it was refreshing to know I'm not crazy.
Some people wanna... wanna criticize it,
that it was a glory grab, it was an attention grab.
I think it was something so unselfish,
because she put strangers ahead of herself,
because she doesn't want anyone else to ever be
in that situation.
And she made us in the locker room feel safe
to start talking about our own situations.
My situation, I didn't talk about it for 20 years.
I didn't tell anyone.
My husband was the only person that knew.
Now I feel better talking about it because
she put herself out there for everybody.
Like a lot of people don't realize what she put on the line
to do that.
That essentially could've ruined her career,
and she did it.
She did it anyway.
That glass ceiling, we're shattering it.
You know, granted, still to this day we're not getting paid
as much as men, and we still have some obstacles,
but we'll take the little victories.
I think with the platform that I am given,
I don't want to be selfish and just focus on me.
It's not about me, it's about the issues
that's going on right now.
When I'm done wrestling, I want people to say,
"She's the one that opened up about domestic violence.
Now look at what's happened with that story."
That's really kind of the other thing that I found interesting
when talking to people, is how much what you do in the ring has
affected the world outside of the ring,
and how much of an important role you've played in sort of
this... I don't know, this amazing period of growth
that's happened in this country.
That's why I think the Fighting Cholitas are so important and
so awesome for all of wrestling, is because it's not just amazing
wrestling, there's also like fighting against discrimination,
fighting against oppression,
and fighting against unfair labour practices.
And that's... you know, and it's just so much more
than just fighting in the ring.
It's fighting outside of the ring that you do
that's so inspiring.