Evangelista

WRESTLER INFO

Real Name: Leanne Mirasol Fontanilla Evangelista.

Ring Name: Evangelista.

Nickname: The Prodigal Daughter; The Lilac Thorn.

Height: 5'1" / 1.54m.

Weight: 136lbs / 62kg.

Billed From: St Helens, England.

Originally From: Liverpool, England.

Current Residence: Manchester, England.

Gender: Female.

Date of Birth: 11/02/1990.

Physical Description: Broad, athletic build. Several piercings including nose stud, tongue stud and small ear gauges. Heavily tattooed, most notably the dark green tribal-ish thorns with abstract crimson roses which cover her chest, upper arms and shoulderblades and, on her left side, stretch right down her torso and thigh, and the stylised 'A' symbol of The Asylum on her right forearm. Warm brown eyes. Long dark brown hair which hangs in waves to her collarbone then falls in curls past that. She is 3/4 Philippine, 1/4 white British/Irish.

Picture Base: Mutya Buena.

Ring Attire: Knee-length boots with kickpads, and long tights over knee pads. Either a gypsy-neck crop top with short frilly sleeves, and elbow pads with armbands which stretch from beneath the pads down to her wrists, or a cross-neck sleeveless halter with elbow pads over full wrist-to-shoulder armbands. All of these are in gloss or satin finish, in either plain block colours or subtle fade effects, with abstracted designs on them in a different colour. These designs most commonly include smoke swirls, patterns of triangles, and roses with thorned stems modelled after her tattoos. Her usual colour selections are drawn from lilac, lavender, indigo, royal blue, silver, grey, and pinkish-red. She does have others though. Lipstick and eyeshadow in either a similar colour to her attire, or one which subtly contrasts it.

Entrance Attire: A sleeveless battle jacket in lilac denim with leopardprint details and chart pop music patches.

Regular Attire: Evangelista tends to dress understatedly, typically in dark or muted colours. She's still a chav at heart, so when she's just dressing for comfort, she favours sportswear. Otherwise pretty plain things. Even when dressed up fancy, she prefers not to attract too much attention. Of note, she never, ever wears neckwear save for maybe a long pendant. But she's definitely that type of woman who couldn't even imagine going to the corner shop without a full face of makeup.

Manager: Savannah Lyons.

Character's Twitter: @leanne_mirasol

BIOGRAPHY

Personality: Once upon a time, Evangelista was as ambitious as a young wrestler could be, and she presented a stoic, ruthless, ice queen persona in the ring. But over the years, she's revealed more and more that that image was an act to mask her stage fright, chronic depression, and massive self-doubt. Her part in the collapse of GEW in particular did a real number on her self-esteem, and now she's riddled with insecurities about every professional decision she makes. Although she's happy for her friends' success, it eats away at her that so many of her friends and rivals have become singles world champions and she hasn't yet, even ones far less interested in gold than herself (cf. Hardy, Laurel Anne). Her bitterness means she can hold a real grudge, hanging onto negativity a lot more than is healthy.

Personal History: Leanne had an almost archetypally bland working class childhood - save for the fact that after moving from Liverpool to St Helens, she, her younger sister Lily and their cousin Rose were the only Asian kids on their block, and as such were subject to constant casual racism. She did averagely at school, and with neither the money nor marks to go into further education or pursue a 'proper' career, she settled into a job at Tesco, resigning herself at a young age to an unfulfilling life.
All of that changed when, through her tattooist Ciaran, she befriended rock star, MMA fighter and pro wrestler Mark Chapman - and through Mark, the likes of Kameron Chase, Baby Dogg, Amy Ngoudje and Damien Synn. Leanne was entranced by the international lifestyles and insane anecdotes of her new famous friends, and resolved to get a piece of that for herself. Thus she began to train as a fighter... and it turned out she was really good at it. While in training she befriended another young woman, a homeless girl who'd moved from Wales, named Laurel Yunokawa. Although they didn't have much in common superficially, they understood each other well on a deeper level and quickly became close enough for Laurel to wind up sleeping on Leanne's parents' sofa for a few months. During this time, Leanne helped Laurel learn how to function as a citizen within society, while Laurel in turn helped the shy, depressive Leanne come out of her shell.
After graduating from The Superstar Factory in Manchester, the girls moved to Ottawa to study further at Shane Tallin's Battlegrounds Academy thanks to a referral from Mark. They remained in Canada after debuting professionally, until after the fall of GEW (in which they played a significant part). During this time, Leanne also wrestled in CWF Ignition where she came under the wing of Jay Pride, who encouraged her vicious, ruthless side. But after a collective year out to deal with mounting injuries and some emotional fallout from the rigours of the business and their own mistakes, Leanne, Laurel, Jay and Jay's business partner Jackie Boy Warner moved back to Manchester to take over The Superstar Factory, rebranding it Caledonian - the name of the gym Jay and Jackie Boy had owned in New York State. The new Caledonian was much more successful, and in time would become the nexus of a thriving wrestling community.
Leanne's career quickly got back on track, in both singles and tag competition, including the reformation of The Asylum as protectors rather than destroyers. Unfortunately that bled into her personal life, as Alexander StarrZoë of the rival faction AbominationZ broke into their house and kidnapped Lily, leaving both sisters traumatised, while another of their associates - James Ronie - assaulted Laurel's younger brother Matty. This in turn fed into a massive falling out between Leanne and Laurel, and they only reconciled following a bloody deathmatch. In the wake of all that, Leanne began to grow weary of global travel and sought to scale back some of her international commitments, in time coming to focus on competing in Britain. Unfortunately her career began to decline as, with her ever-mounting psychological issues, she struggled to remain competitive enough to break into the main event pictures. This fed her depression, creating a vicious circle, with Leanne's professional and personal demons reinforcing one another.
On the plus side, during this period she began dating fellow British star Kickass Smurf. In late 2018, after a few years together, she announced that they were expecting their first child. They got married the following spring, and in September 2019, Leanne gave birth to a son.

Career History: Inspired to take up wrestling by her friend Mark Chapman, Leanne graduated from The Superstar Factory in Manchester as one of her class's standout students, alongside Laurel Yunokawa, who remains her best friend to this day. With the backing of Mark and other pros of their acquaintance, Leanne and Laurel landed tryouts with Global Extreme Wrestling, and were referred to the Battlegrounds Academy in Ontario, run by former GEW World Champion Shane Tallin and his wife Nikki Song. Many of the group around Battlegrounds at that time would become the stable known as The Asylum, and Laurel and Leanne (along with Matt Kail) made their TV debut in summer 2010 as entrants in GEW's trios gauntlet. The stable waged war on GEW, declaring that the company had become soft and decadent, and that The Asylum would save it from itself by destroying it and rebuilding it in the old image. This, naturally, meant turning against the friends who'd helped them into GEW in the first place - some of whom Laurel and Leanne have since mended bridges with, some of whom they have not. The Asylum succeeded in its goal of breaking down GEW but not in its goal of rebuilding it, and GEW closed its doors in summer 2011. Concurrently, Leanne was appearing with CWF Ignition, where she fell in with the relative veteran Jay Pride, who recognised her ambition and figured he could use it to his advantage. Jay and Leanne became one of CWF's most ruthless and dangerous units, though after they fell afoul of the even worse team of CrossBones, they found the fans slightly warming to them as the lesser evil. They also started making inroads back into Britain together, with Pro Wrestling FRONTIER.
Leanne, Laurel and Jay all took 2012 out to deal with mounting injuries. During this time, the three grew remorseful for their villainous actions and agreed to start trying to do things the right way. Together with Jackie Boy Warner they returned to the UK to take over The Superstar Factory, renaming it Caledonian. All three re-debuted with FRONTIER once more, where they quickly ascended to the upper echelons of the card. Now competing as The UK Dragons, Leanne and Laurel answered an open challenge by The CarnEvil Connection, which brought them to the USA's WARPED and thence into conflict with The Carnies' stable AbominationZ, which was trying to destroy WARPED. This resulted in the reformation of The Asylum, now contrite over GEW's demise and vowing to protect wrestling companies from villainous stables trying to make the same mistake they themselves had made. The Asylum's return was capped off by Laurel branding AbombinationZ member Alexander StarrZoë live on air. In retribution, Starr kidnapped Leanne's sister Lily. A brutal, bloody war ensued between the two camps. The Asylum were a presence in various other threatened companies during this period too, such as Frontier Grappling Arts and FRONTIER. However Leanne, pushed beyond breaking point by Laurel's habit of getting them into feuds with wrestling's biggest monsters, snapped and turned on her longtime best friend. Each feeling betrayed by the other, the two women aired each other's demons in vicious promos before meeting in a hardcore match at FRONTIER's 50th show. The match was 45-minute bloodbath as they exorcised the frustrations that had been building for many months, and it ended in a draw when they finally reconciled and left the arena together in floods of tears. A couple of months later it was named FRONTIER's match of the year, something Leanne and Laurel still have mixed feelings about. Despite their relationship being rocked the pair renamed themselves Dragons Unleashed and decided to continue teaming together, but found themselves having mixed results with both major successes and major losses, and split to focus on their singles careers before 2015 was out.
Leanne proved a strong solo contender in FRONTIER, FGA and Fight Club UK, even posting wins over former world champions, but never quite managed to break through to win a world title herself. Frustration over this, plus lingering trauma connected to the events of recent years, saw Leanne grow to hate the regular international travel involved in competing for US-based promotions like FGA and EXODUS. After Johnny Cannon broke her neck, she opted to dial back on her overseas commitments, replacing them by signing with Newcastle's Shooting Star Wrestling Association once she returned to competition. She rapidly established herself as a leading figure in SSWA's pure rules division, but once again, had difficulty breaking through to the world title picture despite victories over main event talent. Whether the winner or loser in feuds with the likes of Jason Protivnik and his stable Project Continuum 2.0, Seren Beyer, Izzy Anders and Kenzie Rowe, the glass ceiling seemed to only get ever further away. Similarly, in Fight Club UK, despite having one of the strongest win/loss records and being the inaugural champion of not one but two midcard titles, she never managed to capture the British Openweight Championship. By the time she announced in autumn 2018 that she was pregnant, it seemed her career had well and truly stalled to the point that she was questioning whether she even ought to continue. Around a year after giving birth, she returned to the ring, and she's seen some success in both the UK and Japan but seems cautious of committing too much of herself emotionally to her career again.

Associates:
* Her extensive household, colloquially known as The 4077, which includes her husband, Kickass Smurf, and their son; her best friend, Laurel Anne Hardy; plus Matty Graves, Mia Scott, Roz Davies, Ai Han, Christina King as well as others not connected to wrestling. Jay Pride and Emi Yamamoto are also former residents of the household and remain close friends with them.
* Her fellow staff and their trainees at Caledonian, as well as the circle of other wrestlers who train there.
* The rest of The Asylum.
* Her manager, Savannah Lyons, and by extension The Natural Ones.
* Her cousin, Ligaya Fontaine.

Title History:
* 1 x GEW Phoenix Champion
* GEW Phoenix Championship tournament (2023)
* Fight Club UK Young Lion Shield 2015
* Fight Club UK Elements Cup 2018
* Fight Club UK Admiral-Lord's Series 2018
* WCS Bragging Rights Cup 2017 (with Danielle Vasquez, Emily Carter, Lani San Diego & Misha LeCavalier)
* Love Power POWER TEAM Cup (with Laurel Anne Hardy)
* GFC Open House II
* CWF Americana Battle Royale 2011
* FGA Gold Rush Iron Woman 2015
* 1 x wUc Young Lion Champion
* 2 x wUc Admiral's Rules Champion
* 2 x SSWA Pure Champion
* 1 x GFC Commonwealth Champion
* 2 x GFC World Tag Team Champion (with Laurel Anne Hardy)
* 1 x WARPED Tag Team Champion (with Laurel Anne Hardy)
* 1 x EXODUS Pro Tag Team Champion (with Laurel Anne Hardy)
* 1 x CWF Countdown Champion
* 1 x CWF Tag Team Champion (with Jay Pride)
* 1 x World Crown Tag Team Champion (with Kickass Smurf)
* 1 x G/P Most Adept Champion

MATCH-WRITING INFO

Entrance Theme: Girls Aloud - "No Good Advice"

Entrance Description: The crowd cheers as multicoloured spotlights swirl around the entranceway and the short intro to Girls Aloud's "No Good Advice" comes across the PA. As the song proper comes in Evangelista walks through the curtain and places her hands on her hips, surveying the auditorium with a small smile. As she begins the walk to the ring, she's focused on the task ahead, though she absently tags a few outstretched hands. She picks up speed as she gets closer, sliding under the bottom rope and jogging straight to one of the opposite turnbuckles where she poses for a moment. Then she turns and hops back down, crosses herself, and removes her battle jacket before warming up with some stretches and shadow fighting as she awaits the bell.

Fighting Style & Mindset: Evangelista's a gifted fighter, but doesn't always know what to do with that gift. At the core of her style, she's a British/Canadian hybrid technical grappler. Her default strategy is to chain together joint locks and transitional leverage holds into stretches or takedowns to weaken the opponent's body, targeting weakened body parts if possible. She also has a pretty good striking game, and is a capable high flier. She's a great athlete in general and her height/weight ratio makes her pretty strong, so she favours grapples against most women as well as lighter men. Against heavyweights, she switches to more of a hit-n-run flying strategy, but she's not as good at that as she is at grappling.
Evangelista is a truly prodigal technician, with great ring awareness and an almost superhuman knack for reading the flow of combat and anticipating the opponent's next move. Despite her myriad insecurities she's got focus and determination, and can dig deep when she has to. Unfortunately, while she has plenty of ambition, Evangelista lacks confidence. Although she's not stupid she's not particularly intelligent, and she's certainly not above falling for mind games and distractions. Second guessing herself can be a real problem, especially in high stakes matches - or in hardcore matches, which she doesn't much care for (though she no longer freaks out at the sight of her own blood, so hey, that's something!). She has a thing about her neck and occasionally freaks out when people touch it - a problem exacerbated when Johnny Cannon broke it in autumn 2015. She also has a reputation (whether justified or not) of being, as the smarks say, "injury prone".

Primary Finishers:
01. "Headbreaker" - Similar start to uranage/half-nelson backbreakers, but instead of slamming the opponent's spine against her inside knee, she slams the back of their head/neck against her outside knee. Easily countered but devastating if it connects. Primary finisher against cruiser opponents and below.
02. "Lime Street Loop" - Double grapevine grounded dragon sleeper (Mercedes Martinez' Brass City Sleeper). Primary finisher against heavyweights and above, as the longer the opponent's spine is, the more compression the hold puts on it.

Alternative Finisher:
01. Wrist-clutch exploder suplex.

Signature Moves / Spots:
01. "Battlegrounds Uppercut" - European uppercut, pushing the opponent's head down with her other hand.
02. "Fazakerlater" - Hammerlock with falling overhead kick to shoulder, transitioned into a cross armbar.
03. "Pinay Legsweep" - Tornado into side Russian legsweep, without touching the ground.
06. Ankle lock, sometimes with kicks or stomps to the opponent if she's standing over them.
07. Bridging hammerlock suplex.
08. Floatover stalling knee drop, typically after sending an opponent to the ground.
09. Inverted facelock with repeated forearm strikes to the chest.
10. Moonsault - top rope moonsault as her big dive, springboard as her counter to being whipped into the ropes or corner, or the occasional Asai moonsault when needs must.
11. Palm strike to solar plexus - a favoured way to buy an opening.
12. Repeated shoot kicks to a sitting or kneeling opponent.

Common Moves:
01. Whatever stretches or locks she can find, even if they're not traditional moves.
02. Assorted roll-ups and cradles, particularly out of grapple exchanges.
07. Baseball slide, often to head of grounded opponent.
08. Bodyscissors, often comboed with some kind or armlock and/or choke.
09. Boston Crab.
10. Bow and arrow stretch.
11. Bridging Indian deathlock.
13. Chop block.
14. Diving crossbody.
15. Double pumphandle evasion, flipping the opponent off their feet.
16. Dragon screw.
17. Front chancery.
18. Gamengiri.
19. Grapevine knee stomp.
20. Grounded headscissors.
21. Hammerlock space tornado.
22. Leg drop, standing or from the middle rope.
23. Missile dropkick, including springboard version.
24. Roundhouse low legsweep.
25. Running high knee lift.
26. Running knee shot to the spine, from behind.
27. Somersault senton.
28. Short armbar.
31. Suicide dive.
32. Texas cloverleaf.
33. Triangle enzuigiri to opponent sitting on top turnbuckle.
36. Falling neckbreaker, as a counter to being lifted up to the opponent's shoulders.
37. Guillotine choke, especially as a counter to powerbomb lifts.
38. Sitout powerbomb, sa a counter to relevant moves, particularly headscissor attempts.
39. Victory roll, especially as a counter to being lifted up to the opponent's shoulders.
40. Rising knee to the ribs, kidney or spine, after rolling past an opponent's strike attempt. Sometimes immediately followed with the Pharoah Special.

Weapon of Choice: None. She dislikes hardcore wrestling.

Match of Choice: Leanne excels in pure rules contests, so she favours things like submission matches or World of Sport rules with rounds. She also has an apparent knack for battle royales.