Fashion model looks, street fighter skills
Height: 5-foot-5
Weight: 120 pounds
Hometown: New York City, New York
In 2008, Marti Belle was scanning an Internet site catering to models when she saw an advertisement for a wrestling promotion seeking valets to accompany male grapplers to the ring.
"I had been an avid wrestling fan as a kid," she recalls. "In fact, it was the only thing I could understand, even when I couldn't speak English. This sounded really exciting."
Paired with Tristan Spade, she accompanied him to the ring for a show in Brooklyn, New York and found herself in love with the entire experience: the excitement of the crowd, the buzz of electricity, the lights and the glitz and the glamour.
"After my first time stepping through the ropes, I just felt the spark," she explains. "I started training the next year."
Working with the highly respected Johnny Rodz at the world famous Gleason's Gym in Brooklyn, Belle threw herself into the training regimen, putting in the long, grueling hours necessary to transform a passion for wrestling into a talent for wrestling. Her strenuous efforts to learn and improve impressed even the most jaded observers and she quickly earned the respect of other wrestlers.
"They decided I was there to work hard and didn't expect anything but hard work to earn a spot on the roster," Belle says.
A former high school varsity athlete who also attended acting school, she made her debut in November 2009 in a "triple count out" match with Sweet Pea and Tina San Antonio, another talented wrestler who has been both an ally as one-half of the tag-team The Belle Saints and as an opponent.
Since then, she has gone up against some of the best known competitors in the squared circle and has twice been a tag team champion in the acclaimed all-female federation WSU: once with San Antonio and once with Jazz.
A self-described "flirty and mischievous girl," Belle knows the path through the ranks of Magnificent Ladies Wrestling competitors will be a rough one, but she isn't likely to back off. It's not in her nature.
"I'm tough, I'm strong and I'm smart, too," she says. "I want to make my mark and make sure all those girls know are aware that I'm a force to be reckoned with."
Credit: Jeff Borden
