CHAPTER 1: A Different Perspective.
Of course 2020 sucked for everyone, but as a club owner it really almost ended me. Being closed for months then more time of only limited crowds, it was getting to the point where I might have to close down and sell.
Having owned the Crow Bar since getting out of the military and not really having any other skills, I guess I have to hope for my luck to change. I’m not sure what happened was a change of luck, but it did save my bar and well, put the club on the map far and wide.
Heading into the club early one Saturday, I can get some book work done before we open later that afternoon. Pulling into the parking lot, it's not a huge surprise to see the two cars in the lot. I recognize one as my manager Tara’s Mustang, maybe she’s doing some extra work too.
The other car I don’t know, but maybe someone left their car here after having too much to drink last night. Parking, I cross the lot and reach the door, Um…It’s locked.
Maybe Tara is just parked here, I pull my keys out and open the door.
The lights on the dance floor are on, I know we turned those off last night. Then I see Tara, wearing only a black pair of panties, and she throws a punch at another woman, naked except for a red pair of panties. They clinch slapping at each other, hooking punches into ribs, shocked I stand there for a moment.
Tara and the other woman break apart and Tara turns around and she sees me, “BOSS!”
Her attention pulled from the fight, Tara, a tall brunette gets clipped with a shot to the jaw dropping her to the floor. I start forward, but Tara yells, “NO! Stay back please!”
The blonde, about the same size as Tara, looks at me and then drops down on top of Tara. There is a short scuffle, then my manager huffs, “I Give”
The blonde looks surprised, “Really?”
“Yeah, can I have a moment before we finish?” Tara asks the blonde.
The blonde looks over her shoulder at me and shrugs, “Yeah, sure.”
Tara gets up and comes over grabbing my arm pulling me away, “I’ll explain everything, but I need you to go to the office and wait for me.”
Seeing two beautiful half naked women fighting has me so confused and excited I allow Tara to push me towards the office and I just slowly walk unsure what I just saw. I look back over my shoulder, did I really see that? Tara standing hands on hips waves a hand, “GO!”
Tara stands there, her breast with pinkish nipples sticking out, sweat covering her body, and hair a mess. She doesn’t appear to be bothered by her lack of clothing, for that matter neither does the blonde, who stands behind Tara hands on hips, her slightly larger breasts with pink nipples sticking out winks at me. Neither try to cover themselves or even turn to hide anything. Tara gives me a look pleading that I obey her wish, so I turn and walk to my office.
Looking back as I walk away, Tara hands on hips, I never thought I would see her like this. She’s a beautiful woman, I’ve known that, and she is strong and talented as a manager running my bar, but this is something different. The lights shine off her skin, the brunette looks sexy, she turns back to the blonde as I walk to the office.
It’s ten or fifteen minutes before Tara comes into the office, now dressed in a black t-shirt and jeans. She takes a seat across from me, and starts, “Sorry, I didn’t think you would be in this early.”
Tara looks more like herself now, but the sexy fighter is still showing through now. I push those thoughts aside and kick my brain in gear again, “What the hell was that?”
Tara is sweaty, so she wipes her forehead with her hand and leans back. I now notice Tara is not wearing a bra, I try not to stare as she jokes, “Would you believe it was a dream? You were just hallucinating.”
“Tara! I mean I don’t want to get in your private life, but what if the blonde tries suing for some injury. I could lose the bar.” I blurt out a little more angry than I wanted it to sound.
Tara grins, “She won’t, She’s probably on the site bragging about her BIG win already.”
I get the first part, but the second part makes no sense to me, “WHAT?”
My manager looks at me, “Oh, where to start. I’m guessing you haven’t seen two women fighting before?”
I think, “I’ve seen a couple of fights in highschool. Here there is usually a pushing match each weekend the bouncers break up, but nothing like that.”
Tara smiles, “Yeah, not like those. I mean two women meeting to test themselves against each other.”
“Really, that’s a thing now?” I ask.
Tara looks at me like I just said the dumbest thing ever, “It’s not a new thing, it’s been happening for years. My mom did it, my grandmother told me about having fights in the 60’s. Now there is a website called Catpin, it tracks all the fights, keeps records, has all your stats, videos of the fights, and what I’ve been wanting to talk to you about. The Club could be a great place women can go to have fights, and it could be really beneficial to you.”
I get a little overwhelmed there, “They have a website for women to arrange fights? What are you talking about?”
Again Tara gives me a look, “They have sites for people that just want to get together and fuck, yes they have a website. The second question, it's easier to show you. ”
Getting to her feet Tara walks around the desk and points to the computer, “Let me in there.”
I get up and step back letting my club manager take over. Quickly she types in an IP address into the address bar. I’m not a computer expert, but that’s not normal. In big bold letters at the top is ‘CATPIN’ and a login box below. I don’t mean to, but I see her username is TaraTerror, I do look away while she types in her password. Then her phone meows, she does something on her phone and now the page has Tara name, height, weight, age, some preferences, record, “17-4 that’s not bad.” I say
Tara glares at me, “17 and 5 now, thanks to you showing up to ruin my afternoon. I have to put in that I lost and upload the video, I checked already, luckily you didn’t cross in front of either camera.”
Pretty much since I walked in the door today, I’ve been confused, lost, or a step behind. Maybe all three of them, so I say, “I don’t get any of this.”
Tara sighs a bit, “Listen, this is going on all over the country, all over the world maybe. Here, look at this.” She hits the drop down menu and goes to a selection, ‘Clubs’
Up pops a page filled with bars and other places, Names like The Cat’s Den, Big Time Cats, Bourbon Street Brawls, The Cat Coop. Tara scrolls through some, “All over these clubs are popping up and hosting Catpin fights. They draw big crowds, they make a shit ton of money, and they get money from the app for the videos they post. We could make a killing. I’ve checked there isn’t another club for over 150 miles in any direction. You have to go to Philly, Pittsburgh, or D.C. to get the next closest club.”
I wonder if maybe the shot to the jaw Tara took gave her a concussion, is she really suggesting that we turn my club into some underground women’s fight club? Tara made her way up to manager quickly, she started as a waitress, then bartender, and then manager, she’s only 27. I shake my head, “No, it’s too dangerous.”
Tara points back at the screen, “No it’s not, these places are raking in money. It’s completely legal, the website even has tips on how to run things, and print out waivers for the women to sign saying they accept the risks.”
Shaking my head, “I don’t mean that, its too dangerous for the women. What if something goes wrong and someone gets hurt bad.”
Tara is now the one shaking her head, “I’ve been in some real knock down drag out fights, and the worst that happens are a few bumps and bruises, nothing, a long hot bath, some aspirin and a day in bed won’t fix.”
Tara pulls out her phone, “Look at this, I ran all the numbers. I talked to a few women in different places on the chat-boards. We talked about what they get paid at the clubs, usually they get one amount for the fight and a bonus if they win. We charge a cover for everyone, but the fighters. A woman in Phoenix told me they only have room for about 200 people, and they are banking. We can hold 500 at least, and set up the TV’s so they run the feeds from the camera’s. All we need is a promoter’s license.”
Looking in the young woman’s big brown eyes, she has clearly done her homework on this and is passionate about her idea. At this point what do I have to lose? I shake my head, “We don’t need a promoter’s license, we have one. You need it to book bigger name bands.”
Tara begins to grin, “So, we’re doing this?”
I nod, “Ok, just once. Then we’ll see how that goes.”
Tara spins back to the computer, “I need to create a profile on here, I have the perfect name too, THE CAT BAR.”
Over the next few weeks I warm to the idea of having a night of women fighting in the club. Tara points out most will be willing to go topless during the fight, or will end up topless anyways. Also that three other members of my staff have the same hobby as Tara. Wendy and Cass the waitresses, and Gwen the bartender.
Tara had a couple of the guys that work construction that regularly come in, build the 15 foot by 15 foot “Cage” the floor was covered in an actual wrestling mat she had gotten at a nearby high school. The mesh wiring was small enough that it didn’t block the fans view. All four of my employees tested it out with each other, tossing each other into the cage and shoving each other down to the mat.
Tara came up with everything, cover charge cost, what we would pay the fighters, which turned out to be $100 for getting in the cage, $200 if they won. At $400 a match at first I agreed to only five matches, but then Tara showed me the pre-sales for those coming, and we settled on ten matches. Tara had over sixty women contact her to fight the first night, some coming from a few hundred miles away. In the end she picked her 20 fighters and posted the card on the website.
Betting was done through the website, it was actually covered by the website too, but we would get a cut. We would also get a cut into the video sales for each match since we would be streaming, the ladies did get the bulk of that money. Then the website took a cut and finally we got some, but Tara promised it would be worth our while.
When I arrive Saturday two hours before the doors open, I'm greeted by about 40 women outside the club arguing with Tara. My club manager is apologizing, “I’m sorry the card is full, we can’t put any more fights on tonight.”
I work my way through the crowd of semi-angry women, to Tara, “Everything okay?”
Tara shrugs, “They all came to get on the card tonight, but you know we set the card already.”
Women are yelling insults at Tara, challenging her to a fight right now, others arguing we neglected body types or other attributes on our card. Earlier Tara had emailed me what we were getting from the site, before the doors opened, we were in the black. Pulling Tara aside I say, “Let them know this will be a weekly event, and we’ll get all of them on a show sooner rather than later.”
After that the crowd settles down as women line up to give their information to Tara for future spots. Tara throws in a special half price entrance for the women with Catpins.
The place is packed, the bouncers have to start turning people away. We have reached our max before the show starts. Instead of turning people away, Tara being the good manager, she sets up TV’s outside and gets tables out of storage setting them up and sends out waitresses to start taking orders and even sets up a small outside bar to keep the people happy. This gives us about another 100 people added to the crowd.
The first match is two bigger women, they put on a really good fight, getting the fans pulled into the night’s entertainment. The crowd gets into the action quickly and after about twenty minutes we have our first winner. She poses over the loser and takes her top as her prize.
The next few matches seem to go over just as well, I see our waitress Wendy, a busty blonde with a pixie cut head into the cage. The other woman is a few inches taller, maybe ten pounds heavier, so I worry at the start. The fight turns out to be one of the shorter ones of the night, and to my surprise it’s Wendy that took her bigger opponent apart. Wendy pulls both the woman’s top and bottoms off and stands over her with both raised in her clenched fists.
There is a short break built into the night now, giving people time to order food and drinks. Music plays, our DJ is playing songs that fit the theme of tonight. Pat Benatar, Hit Me with Your Best Shot, and other songs that hint at fights or women's competition.
I’m walking back towards the kitchen when I see the young woman with a baby in one of those detachable car seat things. My first thought is, “Why is there a baby in my bar?”
Tara walks up to the young women with Wendy and another waitress and they take the baby and head to the back area. The young mother starts to pull off her clothes, luckily she has a bikini on underneath. Tara stops her and leads her to the changing rooms we’ve set up for the fighters tonight.
When Tara comes back out I pull her aside, “Why is there a baby in my bar?”
Tara looks shocked for a second, then grins, “Sarah is a good fighter, and she needs the money.”
I get a bit frustrated, “I’m assuming Sarah is the mother.”
Tara is now getting a bit angry, she does when I question her decisions, “Yes, Sarah’s parents threw her out when she got pregnant. She’s been on her own trying to survive for a year. She works two other jobs, she can really use the money for tonight. Sarah is young, but she’s had several fights already.”
Having a girl that’s barely old enough to be in the bar, bringing her baby here so she can fight another woman, is not what I had in mind.
Sarah comes out from the back, she’s in a purple bikini with a matching lipstick on. She’s 5’5” 123 pounds, she just turned 21 recently. She has pale skin, her brown hair is tied in a ponytail, Sarah grins as she waits for her opponent looking like she doesn’t belong in a cage about to have a catfight.
Marisha the red head comes out in a blue bikini with silver hoop connectors on the hips and between her breasts. Marisha is about an inch taller, somewhere between 5 and 10 pounds heavier.
This is the first fight I’ve watched and I notice the referee tonight is Tara’s Mom, a woman in her early 50’s that still fills out the black booty shorts and black and white bikini top well.
To tell the truth, I’m not even sure what the rules of the fight are, as I watch Tara’s Mom go over them with Sarah and Marisha. I do know Tara said they would be the safest they could make them and still follow the catpin rules. Which means it will be a fight for the most part. Grabbing Cass, a waitress that fights, “Cass, what are the rules?”
The brunette smiles, probably guessing I’m becoming more interested, answers, “Tonight we’re all using the same, no eye gouges, no biting, no digit holds. The fights go until submission, 5 count pin, or Knock out.”
I turn to ask another question, but Cass headed off to do her job. The fight starts with both young women going for a handful of hair while slapping and punching with the other hand. Both are pale skinned and the marks quickly appear on their bare flesh. After a few minutes of this, the red head seems frustrated she can’t use her size to bully Sarah and it’s Sarah that trips Marisha to the ground and they roll about the cage. Several times they trade the top spot, first Sarah’s top is torn off, then moments later Marisha’s is gone. I also notice each of them give and take low blows with hands or knees, that give one of them short advantages.
It’s hard for me to determine which woman is in the lead, the crowd is loud and appears to be cheering for each woman. Marisha gets on top of Sarah, the young mother looks to be in trouble getting slapped and punched as she tries to return attacks when she’s not protecting herself. Then Sarah gets a foot up on Marisha's stomach and shoves her away. Both fighters scrambled to their feet and square off, but take a moment to catch their breath.
Sarah and Marisha have been going hard for about ten minutes, after a few seconds they close in again. Hands in hair they yank each other round the cage, Sarah gets a knee up into Marisha’s stomach. When the red head doubles over Sarah wraps her in a side headlock, balling a fist she slams her fist into Marisha’s head at the hairline. After about ten rapid fire punches, Marisha falls to her backside sitting stunned hands in her lap. Sarah shakes her hand, and looks at it for a moment before she turns and kicks Marisha across the chest knocking her flat.
Sarah mounts the redhead pinning her arms and scoots forward until her crotch is pressed against Marisha's chin. The young mom demands the redhead give up, but Marisha tries throwing her legs, the brunette barely avoiding being dismounted. Sarah balls her fist and hammers a few more punches into Marisha’s forehead. The last one brings a cry from Sarah, she clutches her hand.
The redhead is motionless as Sarah covers her and the referee makes the 5 count. The brunette rolls off her defeated opponent, instead of celebrating the victory as others have Sarah in tears sits on the mat holding her right hand. Marisha is actually up first and leaves the cage first, while a woman in street clothes enters the cage. I'm not sure who she is, but she seems to have some medical training as she examines Sarah’s hand and wrist.
It’s a few minutes but then the woman and Tara’s mom help Sarah to her feet, leading her towards the back. The woman holds Sarah’s arm steady as they make their way through the crowd.
I think about calling it a night here, having someone injured was not something I was happy about. Tara comes over seeing I’m not happy, “Sarah will be okay. Steph is a nurse, she thinks Sarah broke her hand, but her wrist might only be sprained.”
Tara heads back to check on things as the next fight has started now, it’s two bigger women again, the crowd is back into the show. They really start cheering as one of the women gets trapped on the cage wall and the other starts working her over. I head to the back, the woman that is Steph the nurse that helped Sarah comes from the changing area, getting ice from the machine loading up a bag and then heading back into the changing area.
I stay outside of the “Locker Room” set up for the women, but I can hear the whimpering cries and curses as Sarah moans about not being able to work. To make it worse I can hear Sarah’s baby crying as well, luckily the crowd noise means no one else can hear Mom and baby crying together.
I send Lisa, one of the waitresses that isn’t a fighter out to get Brett, one of my bouncers. While waiting for the bouncer to show up Tara comes out again saying, “We need to take her to the hospital, she needs more than Steph can do here.”
I nod, “I figured, Brett is on his way, we’ll get her there.”
Tara looks grim, which makes me feel worse than I already do. Putting a hand on her shoulder, “It’s going to be good, We’ll take care of her.”
My manager just nods, a few seconds later the big bouncer shows up. I give Brett a run down and tell him to get the keys to the truck the bar owns, and let him know he will be taking Sarah to the hospital.
Sarah comes out with Steph and Wendy helping her, and carrying her bag and the baby carrier with Sarah’s daughter now sleeping despite the noise from the club. Steph tells me that Sarah will need x-rays, but she’s sure this will take the young girl a while to recover from. Tara puts an envelope into Sarah’s bag, “Here are your winnings, we’ll get you the money from the live feeds and betting later. Sarah leans down kissing her baby’s forehead, “Hear that lil-bit, Momma won.”
Sarah continues whispering to her baby, I can’t hear what she says. When she’s done I make the introduction, “This is Brett, he’s going to take you to the hospital and then home after,” I explain.
Sarah looks at me blankly saying, “My Car.”
I try to assure her, “Brett will stay with you and then take you home, and tomorrow we’ll get you a ride back to pick up your car.”
Sarah now just sniffling as Steph holds her arms steady, “Thanks.”
They head out a back door and Brett carries everything now as Steph helps Sarah out the door. I rub a hand across my face, the crowd still roaring in excitement for the current battle going on in the cage.
Tara throws herself into her work, both running the club and managing the fights. I move around helping when needed and wishing the night would end. The last three fights take almost two hours, but finally Gwen, my bartender, stands in the cage with her foot planted on a busty redhead’s boobs holding the other woman’s bikini in a hand raised high.
Even then people stick around until 2am when we have to usher them out. It’s after 3am before all the work needed is complete and as everyone else heads out Tara and I sit at the bar. Tara pushes the ledger over to me, my bad mood becomes mixed as I see the numbers for tonight. Between what we made in cover charges, sales, and from the Catpin Website for hosting the event, we made enough to keep the bar going for a month.
“Did you take out the money for the fighters from the site?” I ask Tara.
“Yep, that’s after we pay them, most of them doubled their pay from the Live Feed and betting money. All of them have been paid, except Sarah” Tara pushes an envelope towards me with Sarah written on the outside. I look in and there is nearly a thousand dollars inside. Tara leans back in the chair looking at me with a bit of a mix of anger and dejection before continuing, “So, you going to make us stop?”
I’m going over the numbers again, I’m torn, a fight night a week would save the club. However, seeing one of the women, the youngest one at that, get hurt really puts a damper on the money. Tara waits, but then decides to make a case for keeping the fights going, “We could add no punches to the head or face, many women on the site have that rule.”
My phone rings, it’s Brett, I answer, “Hello.”
The voice is clearly not Brett, “Hi it’s Sarah, I just wanted to let you know the cast comes off in 6 weeks. I want to make sure I’m booked for my next fight then.”
I’m speechless for a second, “Ok, just worry about getting healed up and taking care of your baby.”
Sarah replies, “I will, but make sure I’m on the card in 6 weeks.”
Not knowing what to say really, I just say, “Sure. Tell Brett to text me when he drops you off.”
Sarah says, “Ok, Thanks, Bye!”
Tara looks at me, she smiles, “Tough girl, she ok?”
I nod, “She wants to be on the card once she’s healed up.”
We sit quietly for a minute, I reach over to the bank bag with tonight’s take. Pulling out $500 dollars I slide it into Sarah’s envelope. Tara nods, “By the way, in the future I want to push fight nights as CATTERDAYS”
Tara can’t stop thinking about marketing the bar and the new entertainment. I say, “I still haven’t decided to keep going.”
Tara looks disappointed, but doesn’t say anything.
My cell phone dings, the text message is from Brett,
Dropped off Sarah at home. I’m going to take the truck home and pick her up tomorrow afternoon to bring her back to her car.
I show Tara the message, I don’t need to make the decision now, but I do, “Add the rule about punching the head, and we’ll have another show next week. I like the Catterday idea.”
I get up thinking the night is over, but Tara says, “Great!” She seems happy with the choice.
Starting to walk to the door, Tara still at the bar, says, “Hey, One more thing.”
I look back, my manager never had an issue giving me orders too, “I need you to take over managing the fights.” My look must give her pause, but she quickly adds, “I can’t fight if I’m the one running the fights, it’s a rule of the site. I want to fight, so you have to take over managing the fights on the site and here.”
“You’re pushing it now.” I’m not sure how much I want to be pulled into this, “We’ll talk later.”
Tara nods as we both head out, I lock the door and walk Tara to her car. After she heads out of the parking lot, I walk towards my truck. I have to admit it was a very exciting night, if Sarah had not gotten hurt I would be more willing to take over from Tara and continue the shows, but I don’t like the idea of making money off someone else being hurt.
