Amanda Storm, also known as "Blakwidow", is a professional wrestler who gained recognition in the wrestling world through her career and later through her book, "Blakwidow: My First Year as a Professional Wrestler." Her journey in wrestling began in the Century Wrestling Alliance (CWA), formerly known as NWA Cold Front and NWA New England, an independent wrestling promotion based in New England.
It’s clichéd to say it, but “Blakwidow” Amanda Storm used her sticky web site to initially snare interest in her burgeoning career. What she didn’t expect was to capture the interest of a book publisher as well.
“The web site was almost a working diary for the first year. When I first started, like most people, I wasn’t getting on shows every week like I am now. I was getting on two shows a month. So I had the freedom to literally write about every show I was in,” explained Storm, who now works one to four shows a week.
“With the web, you can get exposure that used to take 10 years to get.”Storm, who is in reality Alexandra Whitney, had a notebook from her first year in wrestling, and relied on her memory to relive the rough first year as a pro wrestler.
She was given a certain amount of text to shoot for, and delivered pretty close to the required amount. The book weighs in at 240 pages.
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“I kicked around how much I wanted to talk about my life, and, well, I really didn’t want to talk about it that much because it wasn’t really that kind of a biography,” she said. Instead, Storm keeps the book focused on her first year in wrestling, and doesn’t talk too much about her past growing up.
It was important to Storm to try to keep thing positive. “For the most part, I tried to keep it an upbeat, positive book and not really talk too much about the seemy side of professional wrestling, except in a couple of cases.”
Century Wrestling Alliance (CWA)
The Century Wrestling Alliance, founded by Tony Rumble in 1989, played a significant role in the early careers of many wrestlers. As the IWCCW declined during the early 1990s, Rumble was able build up the CWA and eventually succeeded the former as the dominant independent promotion in the Greater Boston area. The promotion was mostly dominated by ex-IWCCW stars, and on occasion former WCW and WWF veterans, during its early years.
Among the wrestlers who followed Rumble to the CWA included The Pink Assassin, "Surfer" Ray Odyssey, Vic Steamboat and "Mr. USA" Tony Atlas. As with IWCCW, several future stars of Extreme Championship Wrestling spent their early careers in the promotion including Tommy Dreamer, The Tazmaniac and The Public Enemy (Rocco Rock and Johnny Grunge) as well as established Northeastern independent wrestlers such as Amanda Storm, April Hunter, LuFisto, Alex Arion, Juggernaut, Metal Maniac, Al Snow, Tom Brandi, Handsome Johnny, Dan Quirk, Rick Fuller, Wagner Brown, The Extremists (Ace Darling & Devon Storm) and The Brotherhood (Erich Sbraccia and Knuckles Nelson).
On 17 January 1998, Erich Sbraccia defeated Vic Steamboat to win the NWA New England Heavyweight title in Southbridge, Massachusetts. Violet Flame defeated Amanda Storm for the women's title in Bridgeport, Connecticut on 15 October 1999, and Mike Johnson defeated Trooper Gilmore for the brass knuckles title in Somerville, Massachusetts on 22 June 2000.
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The promotion was mostly dominated by ex-IWCCW stars, and on occasion former WCW and WWF veterans, during its early years.
One of these segments, "Tony Rumble's Mike Lano Chronicles", featured a continuing series of matches and skits of a wrestler impersonating wrestling "dirt sheet" writer Dr. Mike Lano.
He was a self-claimed NWA World Heavyweight Champion but that his belt "was upstairs in the penthouse getting buffed by the Lano-ettes". The skits followed Lano as he attempted to convince Jim Cornette to become his manager.
When Lano finally tracks down Cornette, who is seen stealing crackers from a hotel kitchen, he is challenged to a wrestling trivia duel.
Between 1993 and 1995, the CWA Heavyweight Championship was traded between The Iron Sheik, Vic Steamboat, Tony Atlas and Kevin Sullivan.
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Rumble, having seen them perform in IWCCW, had also used future Extreme Championship Wrestling stars The Tazmaniac and Tommy Dreamer.
In fact, Dreamer became the promotion's first heavyweight champion when he defeated Tony Atlas in a tournament final in Wallingford, Connecticut on 5 November 1992.
On 3 January 1993, The Tazmaniac became the first CWA Light Heavyweight Champion defeating Flexx Wheeler in a tournament final in Windsor Locks, Connecticut and, three years later, The Public Enemy (Rocco Rock & Johnny Grunge) won the CWA Tag Team Championship.
It was around this time that Rumble began working with then ECW promoter Paul Heyman and Sheldon Goldberg, then editor of the Mat Marketplace newsletter, collaborated on a working agreement with Michinoku Pro Wrestling to bring its stars to perform in the United States.
She is not too worried about how some of her contemporaries reaction to what’s written about them in the book. “I think probably for the most part, I was complimentary. I didn’t make it a revenge book or anything like that. A couple of times that I said things that probably weren’t complimentary, I changed the name of the person.”
Now that she’s a published author (though when interviewed SLAM! had a copy of the book, and she had yet to see one), Storm plans to keep training with Wladek “Killer” Kowalski at his wrestling school and hitting the promotional trail. Storm has talk shows, book reviews, internet promotion and book signings in mind. She recently appeared on TVO, Ontario’s public broadcasting station.
Amanda Storm's book is a true look at wrestling. It's nice to hear someone on the inside admit that, although the physical aspects are real, the winners are determined before the match begins. It's also a wake-up call to those looking to get into wrestling. The sacrifices that need to be made when you're just starting out are tremendous. Great job Amanda!
Amanda Storm's book captures the essence fo what it's like to break into professional wrestling from a woman's point of view. It has a lot of more grit and character than many of the "superstar bios" that have been published of late. This is a unique view of professional wrestling that entertaining and very well-written.
This is a great book. Guys like the Rock or Mankind can write a book but this is a really interesting look behind the scenes of pro wrestling that produces guys like the Rock or Mankind.
“One of the associate editors [at ECW Press] saw my web site,” explained Storm to SLAM! Wrestling. “I used to write match narratives of all of my matches. She liked my writing style and suggested to me that I do a book. It took me about a month to realize she wasn’t somebody trying to pull my leg or somebody trying to scam me. Once I figured it out, they gave me an advance and I started working.”
Her web site has served her well over her career, and came in handy when she began to work on her book, entitled Blakwidow: My First Year as a Professional Wrestler.
NWA New England was present at the NWA 50th Anniversary Show, held at the Cherry Hill Hilton's "Crystal Ballroom" in Cherry Hill, New Jersey, on 24 October 1998. The first match was a three-way dance between Tre, Ray Odyssey and The Inferno Kid for the NWA New England Junior Heavyweight Championship which lasted a little over 12 minutes and ended by count-out, allowing Tre to retain the title.
The event was won by CWA alumni Bull Montana by eliminating The Outpatient. During 2004 and early 2005, NWA New England became affiliated with another local promotion, New World Wrestling, and had together co-promoted the tribute show.
