Post by Jazmyn Rain on Jul 23, 2018 2:16:58 GMT -5
The following is an exclusive on NGW Five Lakes Champion Jazmyn Rain, the local heroine who will be chasing history right here in Charlotte this Sunday as she aims for her fourth successful championship defense.
“Life’s Good”
Date Published: July 20, 2018
She’s the current New Generation Wrestling Five Lakes Champion with a record-tying three successful defenses and with currently the third-longest reign in the title’s history.
She’s the current GCW Global Champion in her third reign and she’s the only wrestler to accomplish that as there’s no doubt that she could very well be one of the best wrestlers the Livewire brand has seen in the last three years.
In one month, she gets married to the love of her life.
Life is definitely good for Charlotte’s own Jazmyn Rain!
“I’m having a career year… at the age of 34”, she said. “Things are going great, but I never imagined when I returned to professional wrestling three years ago that things would be going this way for me.”
RETURNING TO WRESTLING
March 2015.
Jazmyn Rain just returned to professional wrestling after a two-year hiatus, largely stemming from personal and narcotic related issues. Then 30, Global Championship Wrestling was chided for signing her with the consensus being that with very limited experience for a 30-year-old, she was far too much of a risk to put on any roster. In fact, even one of GCW’s board of directors was against her signing. Fortunately for Jazmyn, majority ruled and later that day, she was drafted to the Livewire brand.
“It was a whirlwind, something that I had never anticipated, but I was glad to be back, nevertheless” said the Five Lakes Champion. “I wasn’t too rusty… at least not for someone that had been gone for so long, but it wasn’t long before I was suddenly the number one contender for the GCW International Championship.”
Jazmyn would ultimately win that title from Jenni Anderson as part of a long, drawn out war with her Ginger Nation faction. But even as International Champion, Jazmyn encountered her struggles. It was undoubtedly a successful reign for her, but Jazmyn wanted a prize that she never had before: a world championship.
“I came so close in PRW multiple times… but I just never got it done” Jazmyn said with a sigh. “It was part of why I fell into bad habits and why I went down the road that I did and when I was chasing that Global title, I was so frustrated time and time again because it was getting to a point where I felt like it was never going to happen!”
November 25, 2015.
It happened.
Jazmyn defeated Malcolm Cross and Jessica Lasiewicz to win her first world championship ever, in Denver, Colorado… which just so happens to be the city she’s getting married in one month from now.
“It was a beautiful moment when I won my first world title ever. Everything I dealt with felt like it was worth it.”
Unfortunately, the unbelievable dream she had long wanted to realize… turned into an absolute nightmare…
“It was NOTHING like I dreamed of…”
Those are the words Jazmyn Rain uses to describe her first title reign. Criticism mounted. Peers and critics in GCW felt like she was a “charity case” champion. As the months continued on, the vibe around the locker room seemed to come to a consensus that perhaps Jazmyn didn’t deserve to be champion at all.
“That entire reign… I dealt with the Apocalypse stable.” Jazmyn recalled. “It was a horrifyingly miserable experience. I was constantly defending myself, and the odds, against them. It got to a point where I was defending the championship against one of the members, and another member was the guest referee… and another was guest ring announcer… and another was guest enforcer… and another was guest timekeeper… it was so stupid! I dealt with this five on one torture for four months, but it would have been all worth it had I won at Resurrection… the match of my career… the one I had to have…”
Jazmyn defended the Global title on March 25, 2016 against Trenton Snow, a wrestler she had never beaten one on one, who had her number up to that point, and who was a member of Apocalypse.
She lost.
While it happened via interference, it was far from consolation for Jazmyn, whose full circle dream-turned-nightmare was complete.
“I was THIS close to being done”, Jazmyn said. “It was the emptiest feeling of my career and at that point, I felt like I was better off having never been a world champion at all.”
RESILIENCY
Yet, that summer, Jazmyn went on a journey that helped her learn everything she needed to know about herself. It was on this journey that she transformed into the “Guardian Angel”.
“It was a magical summer”, she recalls. “Every demon I was facing, I was not only staring at it in the face, I was overcoming it and through it all, I finally felt like I belonged in this business.”
Jazmyn survived a brush with death that August, but made a full recovery from a cardiac arrest. The Guardian Angel was finally ready to fly… and her first opponent?
Trenton Snow.
“I wanted to shut him up SO bad six months prior for all the harassment he put me through and not getting it done then was heartbreaking,” she said. “But when it finally happened… when I finally shut him up… I knew I was on my way back!”
Trenton was just the first of many critics Jazmyn would silence along the way. Glory Braddock, the board member that didn’t want her in GCW? Proven wrong. Utopia, led by Myra Lynwood, her trainer and a recurring nemesis? Broken up, and proven wrong. Enemy after enemy, critic after critic, proven wrong… but there was one last thing for Jazmyn to do… regain the Global Championship and on November 11, 2017, in an elimination chamber no less, Jazmyn did just that. But 2017 wasn’t JUST about becoming a two-time Global Champion…
REDEMPTION
“NGW… or Redemption as they were known then… was a place I felt I wanted to be for months…”
Jazmyn admitted that when New Generation Wrestling… then known as Redemption… opened in late summer of 2016 that she felt she could fit there someday. Last year, in Charlotte, she would make her in-ring debut… in a loss…
“I was so mad at myself for that…” she said.
But in the long run, it was a bump in the road.
“In all honesty, being KNOWN in NGW was harder than learning, growing and knowing how to win there” said the Five Lakes Champion. “Very little of the locker room even knew who the hell I was.”
But that didn’t stop Jazmyn, nor did it keep her in the dark for long. Before she knew it, she was front and center of the big NGW war against the Destroyers alongside Adrien Cochrane, and initially Alechs Aurelio and his then-girlfriend. Jessica Sears and Joshua Goldstein would eventually replace the latter two. Jazmyn meanwhile, had a months long conflict with Jack Tillman over the championship she holds now. Months of struggle culminated in Jazmyn defeating Tillman to become the Five Lakes Champion and even then, the struggles continued.
“I didn’t know what I wanted to be in NGW, I admit that. I lost myself for a while in my frustration and times got really hard for a while. But in the back of my mind, I had this hunch that it was all for a purpose to begin with”
Asked if she felt NGW knew who she was after her massive Trials and Tribulations victory at WrestleForce 2, Jazmyn laughed off the obviously sarcastic question.
LIFE’S GOOD
Jazmyn has had a year to remember in 2018.
April 1: defeating Jack Tillman for the Five Lakes Championship
May 25: winning her third Global Championship in GCW at their flagship Resurrection event, at last having her moment.
July 8: retaining her Five Lakes Championship in Trials and Tribulations at WrestleForce 2, NGW’s flagship event.
And now, this Sunday… she has a chance to make history! Four title defenses! Something no Five Lakes Champion has ever done. And here in her hometown at that! But don’t think Jazmyn feels like she’s accomplished everything she’s ever wanted to do in her professional career just yet…
“I’m not retiring from this business until I win the NGW Championship first… that’s the one thing left on my bucket list”
While there’s no doubt that it’s a matter of “when” and not “if” it happens in the future, Jazmyn is focused on the now?
And right now?
Life really IS good!
“Life’s Good”
Date Published: July 20, 2018
She’s the current New Generation Wrestling Five Lakes Champion with a record-tying three successful defenses and with currently the third-longest reign in the title’s history.
She’s the current GCW Global Champion in her third reign and she’s the only wrestler to accomplish that as there’s no doubt that she could very well be one of the best wrestlers the Livewire brand has seen in the last three years.
In one month, she gets married to the love of her life.
Life is definitely good for Charlotte’s own Jazmyn Rain!
“I’m having a career year… at the age of 34”, she said. “Things are going great, but I never imagined when I returned to professional wrestling three years ago that things would be going this way for me.”
RETURNING TO WRESTLING
March 2015.
Jazmyn Rain just returned to professional wrestling after a two-year hiatus, largely stemming from personal and narcotic related issues. Then 30, Global Championship Wrestling was chided for signing her with the consensus being that with very limited experience for a 30-year-old, she was far too much of a risk to put on any roster. In fact, even one of GCW’s board of directors was against her signing. Fortunately for Jazmyn, majority ruled and later that day, she was drafted to the Livewire brand.
“It was a whirlwind, something that I had never anticipated, but I was glad to be back, nevertheless” said the Five Lakes Champion. “I wasn’t too rusty… at least not for someone that had been gone for so long, but it wasn’t long before I was suddenly the number one contender for the GCW International Championship.”
Jazmyn would ultimately win that title from Jenni Anderson as part of a long, drawn out war with her Ginger Nation faction. But even as International Champion, Jazmyn encountered her struggles. It was undoubtedly a successful reign for her, but Jazmyn wanted a prize that she never had before: a world championship.
“I came so close in PRW multiple times… but I just never got it done” Jazmyn said with a sigh. “It was part of why I fell into bad habits and why I went down the road that I did and when I was chasing that Global title, I was so frustrated time and time again because it was getting to a point where I felt like it was never going to happen!”
November 25, 2015.
It happened.
Jazmyn defeated Malcolm Cross and Jessica Lasiewicz to win her first world championship ever, in Denver, Colorado… which just so happens to be the city she’s getting married in one month from now.
“It was a beautiful moment when I won my first world title ever. Everything I dealt with felt like it was worth it.”
Unfortunately, the unbelievable dream she had long wanted to realize… turned into an absolute nightmare…
“It was NOTHING like I dreamed of…”
Those are the words Jazmyn Rain uses to describe her first title reign. Criticism mounted. Peers and critics in GCW felt like she was a “charity case” champion. As the months continued on, the vibe around the locker room seemed to come to a consensus that perhaps Jazmyn didn’t deserve to be champion at all.
“That entire reign… I dealt with the Apocalypse stable.” Jazmyn recalled. “It was a horrifyingly miserable experience. I was constantly defending myself, and the odds, against them. It got to a point where I was defending the championship against one of the members, and another member was the guest referee… and another was guest ring announcer… and another was guest enforcer… and another was guest timekeeper… it was so stupid! I dealt with this five on one torture for four months, but it would have been all worth it had I won at Resurrection… the match of my career… the one I had to have…”
Jazmyn defended the Global title on March 25, 2016 against Trenton Snow, a wrestler she had never beaten one on one, who had her number up to that point, and who was a member of Apocalypse.
She lost.
While it happened via interference, it was far from consolation for Jazmyn, whose full circle dream-turned-nightmare was complete.
“I was THIS close to being done”, Jazmyn said. “It was the emptiest feeling of my career and at that point, I felt like I was better off having never been a world champion at all.”
RESILIENCY
Yet, that summer, Jazmyn went on a journey that helped her learn everything she needed to know about herself. It was on this journey that she transformed into the “Guardian Angel”.
“It was a magical summer”, she recalls. “Every demon I was facing, I was not only staring at it in the face, I was overcoming it and through it all, I finally felt like I belonged in this business.”
Jazmyn survived a brush with death that August, but made a full recovery from a cardiac arrest. The Guardian Angel was finally ready to fly… and her first opponent?
Trenton Snow.
“I wanted to shut him up SO bad six months prior for all the harassment he put me through and not getting it done then was heartbreaking,” she said. “But when it finally happened… when I finally shut him up… I knew I was on my way back!”
Trenton was just the first of many critics Jazmyn would silence along the way. Glory Braddock, the board member that didn’t want her in GCW? Proven wrong. Utopia, led by Myra Lynwood, her trainer and a recurring nemesis? Broken up, and proven wrong. Enemy after enemy, critic after critic, proven wrong… but there was one last thing for Jazmyn to do… regain the Global Championship and on November 11, 2017, in an elimination chamber no less, Jazmyn did just that. But 2017 wasn’t JUST about becoming a two-time Global Champion…
REDEMPTION
“NGW… or Redemption as they were known then… was a place I felt I wanted to be for months…”
Jazmyn admitted that when New Generation Wrestling… then known as Redemption… opened in late summer of 2016 that she felt she could fit there someday. Last year, in Charlotte, she would make her in-ring debut… in a loss…
“I was so mad at myself for that…” she said.
But in the long run, it was a bump in the road.
“In all honesty, being KNOWN in NGW was harder than learning, growing and knowing how to win there” said the Five Lakes Champion. “Very little of the locker room even knew who the hell I was.”
But that didn’t stop Jazmyn, nor did it keep her in the dark for long. Before she knew it, she was front and center of the big NGW war against the Destroyers alongside Adrien Cochrane, and initially Alechs Aurelio and his then-girlfriend. Jessica Sears and Joshua Goldstein would eventually replace the latter two. Jazmyn meanwhile, had a months long conflict with Jack Tillman over the championship she holds now. Months of struggle culminated in Jazmyn defeating Tillman to become the Five Lakes Champion and even then, the struggles continued.
“I didn’t know what I wanted to be in NGW, I admit that. I lost myself for a while in my frustration and times got really hard for a while. But in the back of my mind, I had this hunch that it was all for a purpose to begin with”
Asked if she felt NGW knew who she was after her massive Trials and Tribulations victory at WrestleForce 2, Jazmyn laughed off the obviously sarcastic question.
LIFE’S GOOD
Jazmyn has had a year to remember in 2018.
April 1: defeating Jack Tillman for the Five Lakes Championship
May 25: winning her third Global Championship in GCW at their flagship Resurrection event, at last having her moment.
July 8: retaining her Five Lakes Championship in Trials and Tribulations at WrestleForce 2, NGW’s flagship event.
And now, this Sunday… she has a chance to make history! Four title defenses! Something no Five Lakes Champion has ever done. And here in her hometown at that! But don’t think Jazmyn feels like she’s accomplished everything she’s ever wanted to do in her professional career just yet…
“I’m not retiring from this business until I win the NGW Championship first… that’s the one thing left on my bucket list”
While there’s no doubt that it’s a matter of “when” and not “if” it happens in the future, Jazmyn is focused on the now?
And right now?
Life really IS good!
