Mercedes Vargas
From the eWrestling Encyclopedia.
Mercedes Vargas (born Janessa Richardson, June 25, 1980) is a Argentine professional wrestler currently performing for Divas Unleashed.
| Mercedes Vargas | |
|---|---|
| |
| Statistics | |
| Real name | {{{realname}}} |
| Ring Names | {{{names}}} |
| Height | 5'8" |
| Weight | 148lbs |
| Date of birth | June 25, 1980 |
| Place of birth | Buenos Aires, Argentina |
| Date of death | {{{death_date}}} |
| Place of death | {{{death_place}}} |
| Resides | Queens, New York |
| Billed from | Buenos Aires, Argentina |
| Trainer | {{{trainer}}} |
| Current federation(s) | Divas Unleashed |
| Previous federation(s) | {{{previous_efeds}}} |
| Handled by | {{{handler}}} |
| Win/Loss Record | {{{winloss_record}}} |
| Debut | January 9th, 2009 |
| Retired | {{{retired}}} |
Contents |
[edit] History
Remember the time someone asked you what you wanted to be when you grew up? For Mercedes Vargas, a professional wrestler was her flippant response to anyone who would dare ask her such a question. Born in Buenos Aires, Argentina, Mercedes began her career as a model and singer, never realizing that her retort would actually become something she had a knack for. Still teasing with the idea, she moved to the United States and applied to one of the top wrestling schools in the nation. It was only after several officials realized she had potential, that Mercedes started taking wrestling seriously. Joining the independent circuit, she continued trying to get her name recognized, while still modeling and singing. After her brief stint with other small-time promotions, she felt it was now time to showcase her talent to Divas Unleashed and to meet some worthy competition.
[edit] Wrestling Career
[edit] Divas Unleashed
One of the newest talents to grace its stage, Mercedes debuted for Divas Unleashed on the January 9th episode of Friday Night Exile in Charlotte, North Carolina, its first show of the new year. That night, she squared off against another newcomer, White Lightning, in a debutantes singles match, which Mercedes won, although it was a hard fought victory.
On the January 23rd edition of Exile in Washington, D.C., Mercedes faced off against yet another newcomer, Luna. In this battle, Mercedes would face a stern test as her opponent had a slight size advantage standing just over six feet. Mostly playing possum in the early going of the match, Mercedes marveled at the strength Luna possessed, finding herelf being lifted off her feet with little effort. Although she did hold her own throughout the match, Luna proved too much for her. After failing to win a test of strength against her, Luna executed her "Eclipse" powerbomb and pinned her for Mercedes first loss.
At Control of the Knife in Miami, Florida, Mercedes opened the February 8th PPV in a singles match against an injured Totally Radd, whose face was under bandages after being attacked by Linda Ragnal on the Exile prior to the event. In what was to be her first debut PPV and her third match overall since joining the promotion, Mercedes again came out on the losing end. After the match, however, she made an embarrassment of Radd, ripping off her bandages and revealing her two bruised eyes.
On February 20th, Divas Unleashed began its first tour of Asia in five years as Exile opened in Nagasaki, Japan. On this night, Mercedes was involved in an 8-Woman Tag Team Match, joining forces with Henshin Belleza and the team of Autumn Leigh & Cassidy Marcello (Lipstick Mafia) against Luna, Trish Newborn and the team of Kitty Cummings and Tori Marie (Teen Spirit). In what was a thrilling match from start to finish, Mercedes team won, despite the fact that Lipstick Mafia left the ring after she accidentally kicked Cassidy, thinking that she was a member of the opposing team. Unaware of this, she soon was staring into the face of Luna who was about to set her up for the "Eclipse" but Mercedes managed to reverse the move to pull off her "From Buenos Aires with Love" finisher, pinning her for the win and getting revenge for her loss to Luna a month ago.
Exile continued its tour of Asia with its next stop in Singapore, where Mercedes was involved in her second tag match in as many days, teaming up with Henshin Belleza against Luna and reigning Rockford State Champion, Katie Kooper. In what was shades of last week's confrontation, the battle was a hard fought one, and Mercedes found herself about to be pinned by Katie when Makaze ran into the ring and started beating up on Katie causing Mercedes and Henshin to lose via disqualification. Henshin had already left and Luna came to Katie's aid, grabbing Makaze by the back of her neck and lifting her up into the air, only to receive the "Coup de Grâce" from Mercedes to the back of Luna's head taking her down to the mat. Katie's brother, Travis, tried his best to stop Makaze from starting on Katie again, but Makaze took him out as well, grabbing his genitals and squeezing them hard enough to send him to the mat writhing in pain.
Mercedes continued to give repeated kicks to Luna's head, and then left the ring but not before staring back at Makaze for ruining her chances of getting another victory over her hated rival.
The next Exile came from Hong Kong as Mercedes was involved in her third consecutive tag team match, this time in a six-person match which saw her team up once more with Henshin Belleza and Makaze as they took on Luna, Travis Kooper and Veronica Valiant, who has recently become Mercedes rival as of late. As exciting as this match was, Mercedes and her team came out on the losing end, with the turning point of the match coming when Katie Kooper tried to interfere when she witnessed Makaze executing Katie's "KatScratchFever" finisher on her brother, Travis. Makaze's manager, Kenji Kozakura rushed over to Katie, while Veronica's manager, Jun Takada, slipped into the ring with a rag in hand and held it over Henshin’s face. After Henshin struggled for a few moments, she fell limp inside and Takada put Veronica on top of Henshin. Takada slid out of the ring just at the same time as Kenji pulled Katie off the apron, but he's nailed with the kendo stick she carried to the side of the head. Makaze shoved the ref down and attempted a suicide dive, but Katie simply moved out of the way as Makaze's face bounced off the barricade. It was only after Takada alerted the ref over to Henshin and Veronica that the match reached its final outcome. This match also was Mercedes's second consecutive loss in the three tag matches she's had with Luna on opposing sides. Including Luna's defeat of her in singles action, she leads the overall series against her 3-1.
The next to last show of Divas Unleashed's tour of Asia was in the Phillipines, as Manila got the honor of a free show which saw Meggie Skyfyre compete in a "Thrilla in Manilla" match involving Meggie going up against the entire Divas Unleashed roster in a royal rumble elimination match, courtesy of Crystal Deymonaz and her latest "hazing" scheme of DU's Unleashed Champion. Mercedes was the fifth entrant in the rumble and overwhelmed great odds, elimnating two divas--Colleen Roades and Makaze--before she herself was the last five competitors to be eliminated, eliminated by Icenique, who eventually won the rumble.
The Asian tour concluded in Tokyo, Japan for Divas Unleashed's second pay-per-view, Terror in Tokyo. Mercedes squared off against Luna as one of the preliminary matches on the card and the Grudge Match between the two bitter rivals were anything but. The turning point of the match came when Luna was about to perform a moonsault, but Mercedes got up quickly to hit the "Coup de Grace" across the back of her head and waiting for her opponent to fall in her waiting arms as she performed the "Black Rose Overdrive" to win the match. At the conclusion of the match however, Mercedes revealed secretive information on her opponent Luna and revealing to the audience that her opponent actually was a man. The stunned crowd and even the ring announcer were in silence as "Luna's" sobs were the only sound throughout the arena. Mercedes exits up the ramp staring back at the crowd amd a smile on her face.
Now back in the United States, Exile has made a few changes. For the first time ever, Exile will be broadcast on Sundays. And with that, Divas Unleashed begins a West Coast Tour that will see Exile visit four cities in five months. Seattle, Washington was the first stop on Exile's West Coast Tour as Mercedes was among four other women competing in a "Number One Contender's Match" to determine who will face Katie Kooper, who defeated Makaze at Terror in Tokyo to retain her Rockford State Championship. In a match that also featured Darla Daniels, Didgitz and Totally Radd, Mercedes came out on top, executing the Black Rose Overdrive on Darla to win the match and now will be Katie's next opponent to challenge her for her title.
The next Exile headed to Portland, Oregon where Mercedes was among sixteen competitors to challenge for the vacant Unleashed Title in the "Tara Lee Invitational". Consisting of four fatal four-way matches, she squared off against Carley Monroe, KibbyD and Veronica Valiant in a highly contested affair for all involved. Veronica Valiant, however, won the contest, pinning KibbyD, to advance to the next round.
Exile's West Coast tour continued on through Sacramento, California as Mercedes was in tag-team action with a very familiar partner in Makaze (who also failed to advanced in her fatal four-way match last week) as they teamed up to face Totally Radd and Felicity, two of Tara Lee's "Executive Enforcers". Apparently, Mercedes found herself alone for this contest as Makaze failed to show up, now branding this as a two-on-one handicap match. Although in this type of situation the odds were stacked against her, Mercedes easily won, surprising Felicity as she countered her finishing move with an inside cradle to steal one from Tara's bodyguards.
Los Angeles, California was the final stop in Exile's West Coast Tour before Divacide. Mercedes agreed to an alliance with Askai Champion Veronica Valiant (who advanced in the tournament finals of the Tara Lee Invitational) putting their differences aside for personal gains. They later teamed up against Felicity and Totally Radd in the main event. In another show of effort, Mercedes defeated Radd and Felicty for the second straight week, building momentum for her showdown with Katie Kooper for her Rockford State Championship at Divacide.
At the Divacide pay-per-view, Mercedes battled Katie Kooper in a "San Francsico Treasure Hunt" for the Rockford State title in a last minute decison by Tara Lee. This decision had the pair all over city in search for clues as to where the title could be. Their final confrontation took place at the California Academy of the Sciences, where the match intensified. Inside the museam, Katie and Mercedes amassed a host of damages within the facility, including ruining a fireant exhibit (the ants covered Mercedes face, in which many of them caused her face to become swollen). disrupting a presentation taking place at the Morrison Planetarium and destroying a bed of exotic flowers atop the rainforest canopy within the Kimball Natural History Museum, in addition to disturbing an iguana habitat and aquatic wildlife. The finale of the match saw Mercedes and Katie both plummet four storeys from the top of the rainforest exhibition into a pool below. The first episode happened when Katie, within reach of the Rockford title, was hit by Mercedes's shoe, causing her to topple over and fall the four feet into the Steinhart Aquarium down below. The two would meet in one last struggle as Mercedes was able to grab the title to win the match, after which Katie punched her in the face. Mercedes found herself being helped out of the pool by Luna, who then left, leaving the new champion stunned.
[edit] Finishing & Signature Moves
[edit] Finishing Moves
Black Rose Overdrive
This is the Burning Hammer (also known as an inverted Death Valley Driver) which Mercedes executes from an Argentine backbreaker rack (also known as the Torture rack) position. Mercedes then falls sideways, driving her opponent’s head to the mat.
From Buenos Aires with Love (Feint Samurai Driver (aka flip over DDT) transitioned into a tilt-a-whirl, spinning or Déjà vu headscissors into a wheelbarrow DDT, elevated neckbreaker or bulldog)
This complicated finishing move is used as a counter to a powerbomb attempt. The move starts off with Mercedes being lifted into a powerbomb position before jumping up while pushing away from the opponent's thighs to flip up and sit on the shoulders of the opponent, but she doesn't complete the move, dropping off the opponent's shoulders to her feet. She then catches her opponent in either a tilt-a-whirl, spinning or Déjà vu headscissors and transitions that into one of three variations: wheelbarrow DDT, elevated neckbreaker or bulldog.
[edit] Signature Moves
- Paid in Full (Release powerbomb)
- Divine Mercy (Inverted STF/Muta lock)
- Evenflow (Argentine cutter)
- Coup de Grâce (Spinning roundhouse kick)
- Be Still My Heart (Savate kick [a superkick, but without the sidestep] or jumping sidekick/superkick)
[edit] Regular Moves
- Alley Cat Strike (Thesz press followed by several punches)
- Springboard leg drop
- Hair-pull curb stomp
- Stomp
- 2 to Tango (Arm twist followed by a hook kick to the face of an opponent)
- Backhand chop
- Body scissors
- Tornado DDT (sometimes using a handspring version when thrown against the ropes)
- Chokehold STO
- Spinning facebuster
- Corner foot choke
- Oklahoma roll pin
- Argentine neckbreaker
- Short-arm clothesline
- Handspring Tilt-a-Whirl DDT
- Matrix evasion
- Spinning sole kick to the midsection, followed by a front kick to the face and chest and finished with a reverse roundhouse kick to the head
[edit] Theme Music
"Face to Face" by Siouxsie and the Banshees
