by Jake Brown
According to a recounting of the incident at Wikipedia.com, ‘owner Rob Black purchased six front row tickets for the show. The tickets were given to a cadre of XPW talent, and their mission was to make it clear that ECW was on enemy turf. This was not a storyline. At the beginning of the main event, the XPW contingent donned shirts emblazoned with the XPW logo, gaining the attention of security and ECW wrestler Tommy Dreamer. Security ejected the XPW group from the building and later, a brawl broke out in the parking lot between members of the XPW ring crew and the ECW locker room. The XPW wrestlers were not involved in the fracas, during which the ECW wrestlers brutalized the XPW ring crew with several of the ring crew members left in pools of their own blood. Initial reports claimed that XPW valet Kristi Myst had somehow touched ECW valet Francine Fournier and that this is what prompted the incident. Fournier herself has since gone on record as saying that she was never grabbed or in any way touched by any of the XPW crew, and other eye witnesses support the story that Fournier never had a hand laid on her. XPW were never mentioned by ECW announcer Joey Styles during the pay per view telecast. The XPW contingent who had sat a ringside consisted of wrestlers The Messiah, Kid Kaos, Supreme, Kristi Myst, Homeless Jimmy and XPW announcer Kris Kloss.’
Jasmin: There was no working relationship between XPW and ECW, they were rival companies, and the fact that Rob was that jealous was just pathetic. It was even sadder that Rob wasn’t man enough to show up himself, and instead dispatched these minions to do his dirty work. Paul Heyman showed a lot of class I thought by not showing the disruption Rob had caused during the show, because even though it would have held great entertainment value, it would have also given Rob exactly the attention he’d been seeking when he sent them in to begin with. It was talked about for about a month afterward in the wrestling, and as the summer ended, things really couldn’t have looked more up for me.
At the first big ECW show that September at the Hammerstein Ballroom in New York City, I ran into another ECW wrestler, Elektra, who was a manager at a strip club, a ‘House Mom’ as they called it, when she wasn’t wrestling. We were friends, and she also consulted on casting for The Sopranos at their strip club,The Ba’Da Bing. She was really cool and I loved working with her. Anyway, she told me that the casting directors for the Sopranos had a role they were looking to cast that ended up being the stripper that Ralph gets pregnant and then beats to death in Season 3. I turned it down because she didn’t tell me any of those specifics, and if I’d gotten it, I would have been on the show for five episodes! All she’d told me was that it was a generic stripper at the Bing. The Pay-Per-View at the Hammerstein was great, and the day before that we had a televised show that went over really well.
I continued with my usual routine of attending indie shows/signings in between my ECW matches, and though rumors had begun to swirl about financial troubles within the company — largely due to TNN’s decision to cancel ‘ECW on TNN’ that month. Even still, everyone was so loyal and morale was still so high that the whole family kept momentum flowing into October. For instance, without naming any names, many of ECW’s wrestlers were continuing to work the shows even though their pay had been cut, including myself. I had never been more committed to anything in my professional life. Still, being a businesswoman, I did decide to take a light look around and in talking to WCW, found out they were also having financial difficulties.
Anyway, I stayed working with Paul because he was the first to give me my chance — NOT ROB BLACK, or anyone else — PAUL HEYMAN and ECW were the ones who had put me on that map, and brought me back after I’d left Rob’s shitty little joke of an operation. Rob wasn’t anywhere near Paul’s level either, because rumor had it that Vince McMahon, the kingpin of professional wrestling, was one of Paul’s backers. Rob Black could never have commanded an audience with Vince, let alone a monetary investment. Vince’s position was what it was, he was a living legend by that time, but the fact that he had enough respect for Paul’s share of the wrestling marketplace to recognize it as legitimate is something he NEVER would have done with XPW. It was just two different levels. A lot of ECW wrestlers went up to Vince’s major leagues. Others from WWF went to work for Paul — Vince and Paul always had a respectful working relationship, Rob Black never could have gotten in the same room as Vince, unless maybe he sent a spy in like he had at ECW. We did a Pay-Per-View that month in Minnesota at the Mall of America, which was a lot of fun.
Things briefly took a darker turn later in the month when the Blue Meanie and I got into a fistfight. He sent me to the hospital with 18 stitches. It was a week before a signing at the Allentown Convention Center, and we’d had an argument that was the culmination of his bitching continually 24-hours-a-day, 7-days-a week about his family taking money from him more so than he could afford. Anyway, he ended up head-butting me and pushing me down on the ground, with his mother watching, who of course did nothing. It was ugly, my forehead got cracked open, blood was shooting everywhere, which caused Brian to react by crying like a little bitch once he’d realized what he’d done. He didn’t realize his own size, because he’s like a big fucking monster, he looks like SHREK! I got up, gave him the finger, left and rushed off walking to the emergency room. Fortunately, when I arrived, the doctor who treated me recognized me as a wrestling fan from my work with ECW and stitched me up, and I was a wreck. I was crying, looked like Frankenstein, and had to go do my signing that weekend with everyone asking me what happened? Naturally, I made up a lie to cover his abuse — as I had with Dick in the past — and said I’d had an accident while Brian and I practiced some wrestling moves and hit my head. After that, things changed between us, we kept working together professionally, but personally he was a big, fat piece of shit to me. Eventually I forgave him for the sake of our professional partnership, but things weren’t the same between us again personally in the aftermath.
I spent the holidays of that year with my mom in New York, and returned to L.A. in-between Thanksgiving and Christmas, and spent a lot of my time that month tending to my flourishing eBay business, where I sold everything from (photos to videos to worn outfits.) This meant I was able to do less dance engagements, and spend more time doing indie shows/signings, and training locally in L.A. when I wasn’t in the ring. I was very appreciative for the fans that had come out to see me dance. Honestly, it was a tired routine. I’d go to these clubs where I’d spend all this time getting ready to hit the stage, and by the time I walked out of there at the end of the night, my clothes and hair smelled like smoke.The traveling was grueling; my sleep schedule would get fucked up from all the flying, so being able to tone down that part of my life was a nice change. I didn’t necessarily have a problem with feature dancing, as I’d been doing it before porn even, and considered it an entirely different profession. I would still schedule a gig if we had a signing to attend, but I found myself more and more able to market to that fan base online without so much travel necessary, and loved the fact that the money was as good. I even made a New Year’s resolution to stop feature dancing completely in 2001.
I was relieved to have the extra source of income with eBay, because the rumors about ECW’s financial hardships had swirled into a whirlwind around the community of wrestlers and employees of the company. At that point, the cat was more or less out of the bag as their weekly TV show, ‘ECW Hard Core TV,’would also aired its last episode on December 30th of that month. That was a great show, I stole most of Francine’s thunder by taking a big fucking pile driver off the second rope from Rhino, which was pretty scary, but exhilarating at the same time. I knew I’d found my calling, and wasn’t planning on going anywhere. Unfortunately, the same couldn’t be said for ECW. Paul wasn’t telling anyone too much, but we all knew the writing was on the wall, and while it was a sad time on one level, I was inspired on another out of my sheer love for the sport and desire to truly make my own mark on the business. I wanted to do something no one had ever achieved before in the male-dominated world of wrestling: Become its f
irst legitimate female promoter. My official move in that direction wouldn’t come until later in 2001, but the seed had been planted in my mind. I ended my year a long way from where I’d begun it, and knew that I was exactly where I wanted to be in my life, and I wasn’t planning to leave anytime soon.
Part XV
Still Going Strong
In early January, I appeared on what we later found out would be ECW’s final Pay-Per-View, ‘Guilty As Charged,’ which aired on January 7th, 2001 at the Hammerstein Ballroom in New York City. According to Wikipedia’s accounts of the PPV’s highlight matches; Bilvis Wesley defeated Mike Bell, Cyrus and Jerry Lynn defeated Christian York and Joey Matthews. Before the match, Da Baldies attacked Christian York and Joey Matthews; Danny Doring and Amish Road Kill defeated Hot Commodity ( Julio Dinero and EZ Money) (w/Chris Hamrick, and Elektra) to retain the ECW Tag Team Championship. Nova defeated Chris Hamrick (w/Elektra); Tommy Dreamer defeated C.W. Anderson in an ‘I Quit’ match; The Unholy Alliance (Yoshihiro Tajiri and Mikey Whipwreck) (w/Sinister Minister) defeated Kid Kash and Super Crazy and The F.B.I. (Little Guido and Tony Mamaluke) (w/Sal E. Graziano) in a ThreeWay Dance. Whipwreck and Tajiri pinned Guido with a Double Tiger Suplex to become #1 contenders to the ECW Tag Team Championship. Simon Diamond and Swinger (w/Dawn Marie,The Blue Boy, and Jasmin St. Claire) fought Balls Mahoney and Chilly Willy to a no-contest. The match ended after Rhino came out and attacked all four wrestlers. The Sandman defeated Steve Corino (w/Jack Victory) (c) and Justin Credible (w/Francine) in a Three-Way Tables, Ladders, Chairs and Canes match to win the ECW World Heavyweight Championship. Sandman grabbed the title to win the match. Rob Van Dam defeated Jerry Lynn (w/Cyrus); Van Dam pinned Lynn after a Van Terminator with Joel Gertner holding the steel chair; and Rhino defeated The Sandman to win the ECW World Heavyweight Championship.’
I knew the lights were going down on Broadway at that point because Francine had made a point of telling me at the final pay-per-view that
221 there wasn’t a need for me to come to any of ECW’s house shows. She even went as far as to call me and Elektra up in January, trying to tell us not to come to the road show in Pinebrook, Arkansas, even though we’d been advertised for the show. Clearly, she knew attendance was going down and didn’t want any other female star threatening what little spotlight she had left because she was a jealous bitch. Naturally, I showed up anyway. I had a big signing that weekend as well but I knew the writing was on the wall for my future with ECW. Thankfully, the Blue Meanie and I did among the wrestling community, and as a team, we continued our routine of independent wrestling shows and signings, which we built enough momentum from the previous year to continue without a hiccup. Brian had become a good friend to me at this point, even if we weren’t romantically linked. We trusted each other, and shared the same love for wrestling, which was the most important thing in making our partnership work.
Regardless of whatever happened with ECW, Paul Heyman had created arguably the biggest independent wrestling company in the history of the sport, and Rob Black could NEVER even dream of coming close to hitting that mark. They were desperate to get any kind of affiliated press they could, even if it centered on pointing out the latter contrast between the levels the 2 camps were on. I know this because Rob Black’s camp had continued to talk shit about ECW after we’d so publicly and completely humiliated them by kicking their asses out of the ECW Arena the previous fall. XPW’s claims kept getting wilder and wilder than the craziest story line I could ever think up for one of my matches. I even heard that Rob’s girlfriend Janet was talking shit about me, claiming she had to hold my hand when I did my in-the-ring scenes, and that I couldn’t do anything for myself. I beg to differ, it was quite the opposite: I was probably one of the most independent women working in that business, and I didn’t require anyone to help me with anything. She’s just a dumb cunt trying to run her nasty lips, and what she didn’t understand was: A) NO ONE in the wrestling or related media took Rob seriously, and B) All her shit talking did was gain me more press, which meant I was doing something right.The day they stop talking shit about me is the worst day ever. People have always loved to hate me, and that’s good. I used it to my advantage in the ring because the fans LOVED it! They ate up the notoriety and the controversy, and Francine couldn’t STAND it that I got so much love from that crowd, and Rob definitely had to HATE it! The bottom line was XPW had no street credibility. Just to underscore that point further, in February, Paul Heyman sold ECW to the WWF, something Rob could NEVER have pulled off, given how much smaller his little joke of a company was.
I was getting indie wrestling and dance bookings left and right, and amazingly, Francine and I kept working together at a lot of the signings, because promoters would book us together. I knew it was business, and went along with it, and I consistently outdrew her, which was an added bonus. She was really fucking snotty to fans at signings, and I told her she needed to stop or she wouldn’t get the kind of signings we were, and I made sure that it didn’t reflect on me by being as cool to fans as I’d always been. I had a lot more practice at that than Francine did, both because of the considerably larger size of my fan base due to my followings in both porn and wrestling, and she just never understood that fans are the reason she had any fame at all. I know that seems obvious, but not every celebrity sees it when they’re living in their own little bubble, as Francine was. She didn’t seem to realize that bubble was already leaking air and was about to burst.
At that same time, I was getting a lot of offers from other independent wrestling federations to come wrestle for them, but I felt guilty about talking to any of them seriously because none were interested in the Blue Meanie. One of those who’d called had been the XWF, which sounded like a legitimate operation and like something too good to pass up on.The event they wanted me to appear on wasn’t until later in the summer, and I agreed to do it contingent on their also taking Brian along, which they agreed to. I felt like he and I were a team — both professionally in the ring, and personally in that we clicked so well as best friends, even though we weren’t involved romantically, in spite of press reports at that time. It’s how we spun it because it sounded better, and made Brian, a.k.a. the Blue Meanie and I appear more like a package deal to promoters, some of whom never would have been interested in booking Brian without me. The same extended to a lot of the signings we did and truthfully, many of our indie bookings as well. I was paid for each indie booking, plus I got to keep all the photo money I made from the wrestling fan signings, so I was absolutely the main bread winner in our dynamic. I felt bad for him as well because wrestling was all he knew, he had no experience earning money outside of that niche, so I did everything I could to help his profile stay afloat. In between gigs, I even paid him to roadie for me at dance gigs until the next indie booking came along. We’d get flown in for some shows, but for a lot of them, we’d get our hotel and gas money paid for. As happy as I was living my dream, Brian would get so depressed at times I felt like I had no choice. At times, when we were out on our endless road trips to and from gigs over the course of March and April, there were times when I would even wonder the inevitable question: did I do the right thing by giving up porn for wrestling? It’s always 20/20 with hindsight, but I felt that I had done the right thing, so much so that another accomplishment for me that spring was shutting down my porn site completely, I didn’t want a thing to do with it anymore. Unfortunately, the asshole who was hosting it for me didn’t want to go along with it, so I had to battle this domain company to get it taken down offline. Eventually, they took the domain name away and gave it back to me since I’m the trademark owner of my professional name, Jasmin St. Claire.
I even tried out for the WWF that spring, but there were so many politics to that place, and because of my porn past, they were worried about how it would go over with mainstream wrestling fans. I thought that was bullshit, because I don’t believe one’s past should dictate their future, but apparently Vince McMahon did becaus
e I was passed up for a spot in their federation. Paul Heyman did everything he could to get me in the door. Everyone was really nice to me at my audition, all the female talent was really cool — a nice change of pace from Francine — even Vince was nice to my face, because he had to be. As nice as everyone was to me, as usual, Brian was treated like shit, they even kicked him out of the arena’s backstage locker room, and I felt really bad for him, because the morale he had about his own self was lower than ever at that point. Thankfully, Jimmy Hart, who ran XWF — another wrestling league — had been in touch with me throughout the spring about coming to work for his company, whose first shows were scheduled for later that year. Brian and I continued our road shows throughout May, and my dance gigs and indie bookings carried us through the uncertainty wrestling was going through as a business as Vince McMahon continued to consolidate his chokehold on the industry. One thing I definitely took note of was the opening in the market for new indie blood in the way of Wrestling Federations, and quietly ideas were beginning to brew about starting my own company. Part of what first gave that idea was the fact that ex-ECW wrestlers who Vince hadn’t picked up were even going over to Rob Black’s company XPW to get work.
Heading into the summer of 2001, things between Brian and I were at a low personally because he’d thrown a public tantrum before an indie show in Indiana, which pissed me off. That’s not how you behave, and I wasn’t having it, even though the show itself went well. He was lucky that the wrestling community- especially on the indie circuit- is like one big extended family. For everyone to be like a family in porn would be incest, but in wrestling, because of the love I got, the promoters were willing to deal with Brian. It wasn’t all his fault — the WWE was horrible to him, they’d made him lose all that weight, and then hadn’t hired him back. I thought he was a talent, which is a large part of why I stuck with him, and without me, he absolutely would have been dead weight, professionally-speaking. Thankfully, things brightened that July when XWF sent me my contract to review, which was a big relief. I was eager to be hooked up again with a mainstay operation, and they had a television syndication deal in the works, so I happily signed on the dotted line. There was every reason in the world to feel confident too: they had a lot of money behind them, a wrestling legend in Jimmy Hart at the helm of the ship, and a great slogan: ‘No more prima donnas, no more politics, in your face!’ The company was owned and operated by wrestlers, with partners including Brian Knob, Greg Valentine, Hulk Hogan, Rowdy Roddy Piper, Jerry Lawler, and a host of other wrestling legends I’d grown up on, so I was elated to be in their professional company.
