RAQUEL
In the 1990s and Today
March 1998
I was fortunate to have a recent wrestling session with Raquel
(Seattle). I knew Raquel back in the 90's and consider her one of
the greatest wrestlers I have ever met and one classy lady as well. I
wrote a longer testimonial than you would normally do, but was hoping
that you could provide a link called 2010 Match. Having Raquel
come back out of retirement is a very special occasion and worthy of an
extended review. Thanks for your consideration. The
following in my account with Raquel.
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It is my honor and pleasure to be one of the first people to wrestle
Raquel upon her return from retirement and to welcome her back. For
those of us that have been around this game for a long time, Raquel was
one of the elite wrestlers of the 90's. Many considered her the best
wrestler on the planet. She was truly one of the real superstars of
this sport. Not only was Raquel an incredible athlete, she had a
engaging energetic personality that could light up a room AND she was
knock out gorgeous. She was a well known personality that helped get
the whole concept of WB270 going in the early days and then she just
kinda fell off the planet. She has a huge fan base out there. Just
check out the grainy video of her sparring with Fuschia. It has
generated over 200,000 hits on YouTube and when you read through the
comments (at least the serious ones) you can see the interest and
passion for her that still exist ten years later.
I wrestled Raquel back in the late 90's. At the time I was about
200 lbs, decent shape, and had previous successful wrestling experience
in high school and a little bit of college . I went to the state
tournament twice and won about 90% of my matches. I also seek out
the best female wrestlers I can find - Kasie Cavenaugh, Myra, and Helen
Von Mott to name just a few.
One of the things I like about Raquel is she will do any type of
wrestling. Not being a submission wrestler, I asked if she would
wrestle collegiate style and she was happy to oblige. We started
on our feet. At the time I had at least a 70 lb weight advantage
on her. I was able to take her down in a fire man's carry type hold as
I was shooting for a single leg and actually got her under control to
her back. Like a good wrestler she quickly rolled out and built a
nice strong base before immediately going for a stand up. Before I knew
what was happening she spun on me and was behind me. All of this
took place in the first 10 seconds or so of the match. I was
really impressed with her speed and how hard she hit the move.
For the next fifteen minutes I spent all of my energy trying to stay
off of my back. She was never able to turn me to my back. I
consider myself a good wrestler and was able to counter her moves, but
let me tell you I could do literally nothing. It took all my energy to
keep from being pinned. With the exception of one other male wrestler,
I have never had anyone put that type of pressure on me and remember I
had a 70 pound weight difference, The amount of pure physical
strength she can exert seems impossible. Raquel had perfect
balance. I like to use resistance and the other persons momentum to
gain control, but Raquel never gave you anything to work with. She was
solid as a rock.
We agreed to do a half collegiate and half submission match. I did even
worse in the submission match. I can't remember how many different
submissions she got on me - it was several, but I do remember she used
a lot of different moves. Many of the female submission wrestlers
have one or two moves - usually a head lock, but Raquel had quite an
impressive array of moves. She is equally good with her upper body or
the use of her legs. I was astounded by how easily she could lift me up
and throw me around and completely, physically control me.
So how good was Raquel? I will answer by saying that like all
great wrestlers she creates a sense of desperation in you during the
match. If you are not absolutely on your "A" game she will drive you
into the ground. Her relentless pressure keeps you on the defense
as you are trying to figure out how to counter her holds and relieve
the pressure. If you are able to counter one hold she quickly has you
in another. You feel like you are on borrowed time when you are
wrestling her - like she is always a step or two ahead of you.
She seems to have an answer for anything you can throw at her. If you
are a competitive wrestler and love the sport you would really want to
wrestle her. You could go all out and feel the greatness of
intense competition.. If you were not a competitive wrestler,
Raquel would wrestle down to your level and still give you the thrill
of a life time. She was the E ticket ride if you wanted to feel the
power, strength, and speed of an elite athlete.
She was really a special wrestler back in the 90's. She wrestled In the
C & B videos where they truly tried to match her up against larger
experienced male wrestlers in a competitive match. In one of the videos
I watched she was matched up against a marine who was in very good
shape and an experienced, excellent wrestler. He had about a 40
to 50 pound weight advantage. He did quite well for the early
part of the match, but his early success did not last long as Raquel's
relentless pressure wore him down until she was able to physically
dominant him. For the better part of the match she was practicing holds
on him. Watching this video made my fully realize how good she is
really is. Many of the videos out there matching up males and females
are staged, but not this one. This was a legitimate match. It was
interesting to see this marine go from CONFIDENT (maybe even over
confident) to NERVOUS (as he realized she was for real) to FRUSTRATED
(as he realized he could not do what he wanted to do) to BEWILDERED (I
can't believe she did that to me again) to WORN DOWN (from relentless
pressure) to WHIPPED. I consider her by far, better than any male
wrestler I have ever wrestled over my seven years of wrestling, but
also the most fun.
I have also watched her video with Myra whom I consider an elite
wrestler as well. She mauls Myra despite giving up 50 pounds. I
have wrestled Myra and know how incredibly strong she is, so to see
Raquel completely physically dominant her is quite amazing. She took
Myra straight on, right at her strengths and beat her at her own game -
easliy.
There are a lot of small female wrestlers on WB270 that advertise they
are good for their size. In Raquel's case she is excellent for ANY
size. You will feel like you are taking on someone if not your
size, someone even bigger than you. When I wrestled her she felt
like a 200 pound wrestler.
So how is Raquel now? She is better than ever. This was my third
session with Raquel and I had more fun and excitement than I've ever
had in a session - and I have done a bunch. First of all, Raquel
looks absolutely gorgeous. She brings a spirit of high energy and fun
into the room. Raquel does not have a big ego and her fantastic
personality makes you feel completely at ease. I have told her many
times that people looking at her would never believe what she is
capable of doing. She says that, they have to experience me. It's
true.
Although she retired from WB270, she has not stopped wrestling.
She has spent the last ten years working with a three time world
Olympic free style champion (I believe she would have made the team,
but could not meet the time requirements for practicing) and is
currently perfecting her Jujistu wrestling technique. She is a
real student of the sport and is equally adept in any style.
Since she was in great shape, I asked her to do some lift and carry
sessions to wear her down a little. She lifted me in every type
of position you can imagine - squatted me, spun me, threw me etc. and
with seemly little effort. I weigh about 225 pounds and felt like
a feather in her grasp. We also arm wrestled and she won each
match even though I made her give me increasingly more advantage. The
last match I had her arm just barely off the table and she still took
me down! After all of that she told me that she does not
think her physical strength is as good as it was in the 90's when she
was power lifting. In fact she thinks she can get a lot stronger, so
she is planning on doing more weight training. Wow, All I can say
it watch out.
The big difference between now and ten years ago is Raquel picked up a
lot of technique. The one weakness I thought she had ten years ago was
she depended a lot on her strength and athleticism to win her matches.
Occasionally Raquel would make technical mistakes (not that you could
take advantage of them). Now her technique is superior. We
started on our feet and right away she got me behind the head, pulled
me down hard and pressed her head into my temple, just to let me know
who was in charge. Like all great wrestlers she is constantly making
you burn up energy. You spend so much of your time trying to
defend yourself that there is little energy and thought about mounting
an attack. I was still able to get a couple of take downs and
her, but like before once we were down on the mat, I was not able
to maintain control and found myself in a defensive position.
Unfortunately we wrestled in a Hotel room. Wrestling on the
mattress made it difficult for her to move and control me the way she
wanted and was probably the only thing keeping me from getting pinned -
which is something she still is determined to do. We went hard for the
better part of an hour with a few rest and it was as intense and
exhilarating as I could have ever imagined in a session. As tough as
she made it on me, I also made it tough on her. It was a well
fought match with no knock out punch, but anyone scoring would have
made her the clear winner.
Usually, we do some submission wrestling and she did get a couple
of submissions on me. As before she can crush you with her
scissors or her upper body. But this time, she seemed less
interested in getting these types of submissions on me. She was
very detemined to pin me collegiate style. Not just beat me, she wanted
the pin bad and that is why we are going to get together again, soon.
This is as good as it gets and I can't wait to see her again - but next
time on the Mats.
Raquel is the perfect match and sets the standard for excellence.
She is the reason I go to WB270. Where else could you go and
compete against real world class athletes. If you have passion for this
sport, do not turn down this opportunity. Just make sure you go
into the session with the right attitude and a respect for the sport,
Raquel, and safety. Other wise someone will get hurt and
unfortunately that would be you. Raquel is a gift to all of us that
enjoy this sport. Welcome back, Raquel.