While the rest of the derby world was watching Texas overtake Carolina and Gotham steamroll over Duke City, a crowd of about 300 Phoenix area derby fans came to witness history in the making as for the first time, two Phoenix area leagues competed against each other.  

The Arizona Renegade Rollergirls took on an all-star line-up from the Arizona Derby Dames.  The bout was played at the Renegades' venue and in the Renegade no-rules format.  

The bout would open up with the Renegades' T-Wrexx jamming against Runaway Brides' star jammer Stilhetto Wheels.   Stilhetto manages to break but double-team defense by Renegade rookies Lusty Crush and Aurora Glory Alice at the whistle kept the Dames from their first three points.  (In the Renegade format, the team scores 3 points each time the jammer laps the pack.)  In a later jam, it was mayhem vs. mayhem when Dames' rookie jammer Ellie Mayhem and Mayhemily kept going after each other for the duration of the jam.   Ellie being blocked by Mayhemily would grab her and push her into the frontstretch infield.  By turn-2, Mayhemily would try to take down Ellie,  Mayhemily would give a cheap shot to the head on the outer backstretch support column.  But that was not it.  Ellie would then take a whip off of a teammate and pull down Mayhemily from behind, but Mayhemily was ready for it.  A little grabbing took place right against the turn 1/2 crowd as Mayhemily wanted more while Ellie was trying to pull away to score.  Only the whistle to signify the end of the jam stopped this little war of mayhem.  In a later jam, Coffin Dragger Ginger Mortis would take out Hellbent Heather in turn 2.  Mayhemily would join into the dogpile. (See picture in article)  Somewhere in all of the mayhem, one of the Dames jammers was able to score 3 points (Renegades do not use stars for their jammers) and the period ends 3-0.

Second period would open up with T-Wrexx going to the line against Ellie Mayhem.  Ellie would push T-Wrexx out of the way.  T-Wrexx would get winded by the backstretch outside support column.  Nacho Girlfriend would come up to jam for the Dames and no matter what, she could not get by that strong Renegade defense (cutting the track by the blockers is allowed in Renegades).  Like in the last period, someone picked up 3 points, 6-0 Dames at the end of the second period.  After the period, an off-track dispute would take place between Mayhemily and an unidentified non-skating Dame to the point that Mayhemily took her skates off.  From the reports we had received, the confrontation appeared to have been due to some alleged heckling from the sidelines by the Dames' skater towards Mayhemily.

The third period would begin with Red Rocker trying to attempt to hump Mayhemily.  Mayhemily would kick away and eventually ref interaction kept the hump from happening.  A few jams later, KC Karrnage wanted a shot at Rocker.  In the next jam, Renegade Mad-as-Sin, returning from a long absense from the track has a short scuffle with Lora Stabbs.  As derby fans, if we learned anything from the Renegade Rollergirls tonight, is that when you are sitting in the front row, do not put your purse in front of you.  A fan learned that when Magnum took a spill in the crowd in turn-3.  Her skate would catch on to a fan's handbag and she would try to skate away with the bag attached.  The jam was called right at that time.  In the next jam, T-Wrexx and Nacho Girlfriend would collide in turn 2.  Nacho would remain on the ground while on-site EMTs tend to her injury.  The game would end on a called jam about 10 seconds in (Renegades do have lead jammers) as the celebration at the Dames bench begins.  Somewhere in all of the scuffle, the Dames manage to score 9 more points for a final score of 15-0, Dames over the Renegades.  

This was a very highly publicized bout which included a full page ad in the New Times.  In my opnion, the Arizona Derby Dames gave the Arizona Renegades their first loss of the year but also gave them a taste of their fan base.  I surely hope that many of the Dames fans who came tonight as well as those who saw the ad in the New Times and were at a bout for the very first time, stay.  For those rollervirgins who have never seen derby before, it can't get more extreme than this and still be REAL Derby.   REAL Derby thanks the Renegades for inviting us into their house for this monumental event.  

MICHI-CHAN'S REAL DERBY
Arizona's Derby Report
http://www.michichan.com