Sonia Fernandes is a world-reknowned wrestler. Stories about her matches have circulated for several years, as well as pictures from some of her videos, but she lives in England. Although she traveled extensively throughout Europe, she was still somewhat of an unknown quality in the U.S., despite the very favorable press notices.
Last Spring, she made her first tour of the U.S.
I had been in Email contact with her for several months, in anticipation of an upcoming U.S. tour. Since she is also on AOL, we had several on-line chats. She came across as very witty, intelligent and extremely confident. But her confidence in her ability was extremely subtle, not given to bragging but stating her case in a matter - of - fact manner.
Prior to our meeting, she asked me which lady had won the most falls from me. I told her that Raquel from Seattle had recently broken Th-resa Bostick's record, with 14 fast-paced falls in an hour. Sonia cooly said she would break that record.
Sonia stands 5' 8" and weighed 155 pounds. She had long flowing hair, and I noticed that she is very solidly built but not especially muscular. She had a very exuberant personality and knows quite a lot about the wrestling business. She had just filmed 3 Joan Wise videos that day and didn't feel particularly tired, since her opponents did not rival her skill. She has an extremely interesting accent - born in Senegal, she has also lived in France, and her clipped chirpy voice belies several accents.
Need I say that this very confident lady is every bit as outstanding as her advance billing warns. She is one of the most powerful women I've ever faced, and fairly quick in her attacks (all falls began on our knees). She won all of the falls with a variety of holds - simple headlocks were unbreakable, her body scissors had a constant and continual pressure while I was trapped and unable to escape, head scissors and reverse head scissors were equally effective, some smother pins and an armbar, and a new rocking pin where she cradled and rolled my crushed body back and forth into submission. She had already tied Raquel's record in a scant 45 minutes, and the record breaking fall came with a unique bow and arrow crosspin.
Afterwards, we chatted a bit about the business and videos, and the evening (unfortunately) had to end. Sometimes we tend not to believe the hype we hear about a wrestler, but Sonia Fernandes more than lives up to the hype. It would not be an understatment to call her "Europe's Greatest Wrestler", and she would certainly be in the top ranks of American wrestlers as well.
You can contact Sonia via email at SONIAFIGHT@aol.com
and she has an excellent web site at:
http://members.aol.com/soniafight/index.html
LTF