by Power Drop
photos by Jim Duong

The inaugural bout at the "House of Bruise" (The Mid-South Fairground's Youth Building) and its concrete killing floor provided Memphis Roller Derby a new flavor of funkiness. The March 1st bout-the last bout of the regular season-was an enormous, booming success.

The new sound system's stadium-like reverb made our roller derby feel like a big time sporting event. The fans loved the new "projected" scoreboard that gave the digital time remaining in the period, a jam countdown "dial" clock, the current score, and a "star" by the team with the current lead jammer.

H-Bomb, MRD fan and benefactor, liked the feel of the venue and had this to say, "Memphis Roller Derby is gushing with potential and could be the mid-America roller derby mecca!"

The Z-girls have had no shortage of challenges this season and Saturday's bout would be no different. The first apparent adjustment was Kel Diabla-the House of Bruise's first victim-playing pivot rather than jammer, due to a broken tailbone. However, this adjustment seemed rather fortuitous as Kel excelled in her new position, racking up the most advantageous blocks for the Z-Girls with nine.

The question was, "Who would jam for the Z-Girls?" Veterans Rolls Royce and Robin 'n Stealin' along with relative newbies Instant Karmen and Rockalottapus all jammed their butts off, but the Women of Mass Destruction were on a mission to destroy. The first half was Kill! Kill! Kill! and ended with the WMDs at 79 and the Z-Girls at 16.

The Z-girls showed some spunk in the second bracket and doubled their production. Rockalottapus really stepped it up and by the end was the scoring leader for the Z-girls with 21. Not too shabby considering this was only her second bout. It was no surprise the skater voted "Hardest to Knock Down" in the 2007 MRD Awards, Byte Me, had the most jammer take outs with five. Even though the final outcome was inevitable, the crowd cheered wildly when the Z-Girls won lead jammer (all 11 times). Memphians love the underdog!

Your Mom, jammer for the Women of Mass Destruction, put up the most impressive mark of the evening with 65 points and had the highest scoring jam of the evening with ten points. Bloody Elle, always prowling the back of the pack, gave the Z-girls fits with her six advantageous blocks and ten jammer take outs.

Despite the Z-Girls' refusal to give up and their willingness to match the WMDs block for block, the night ended with the WMDs winning 143 to 51, securing a second place finish for the season at 2-1. The Z-Girls, who finished the first season in second place, ended this season 0-3.

The Uni-bobber, head coach of the Women of Mass Destruction, saw this match as a tune- up for the playoffs and did not hold back when he exclaimed, "Tonight shows the difference between last season and this one!"

On Saturday, April 5th, the Women of Mass Destruction play the PrissKilla Prezleys and the Z-Girls face off against the Angels of Death in the playoffs. Then the two winning teams will fight for the championship title on Saturday, April 26th.