When you are in a city with multiple derby leagues, having two leagues scheduling bouts on the same night is not always fun. Sometimes, it can be because of scheduling venue space. But it is understandable.
Both Arizona Derby Dames (AZDD) and Arizona Roller Derby (AZRD) have derby action scheduled for Saturday, October 11.
AZRD will start the derby love snowball with a tripleheader at the Broadway Recreation Center in Mesa. At 1PM, they will have a junior derby mash-up bout. At 3PM, the headliner bout where AZRD's home team, Skate Riot Project will take on High Altitude Roller Derby from Flagstaff.
While I am not sure exactly who from HARD is coming down, HARD had recently competed in the Deep Blue tournament, hosted by Sierra Regional Roller Derby in Reno, Nevada. HARD would defeat the Slamazons from Pikes Peak Roller Derby in a blowout win (331~22), but then the Dark Sky Starlets of HARD would come up short against Bellingham (171~142) and against the host team, Sierra Regional (162~91). AZRD's B-team, Arizona Rising also participated in Deep Blue. Like with HARD, they would win their first game, for them, against Elevated Roller Derby of Albuquerque (238~157) but then would fall slightly short to Wasatch in a game that AZRD had a good lead during most of the bout (164~158). In a rematch the next day, Wasatch would win with a much bigger margin (224~162).
AZRD will end the triple bill at 5PM with a Halloween themed mashup bout "Bones" vs. "Brujeria" (Spanish for witchcraft). We expect all three games to air on AZRD's Twitch channel but will also be available at Michi-TV on Channel 1.
Meanwhile, at the Hall of Dames, the Arizona Derby Dames warms up the banked track for their first regulation bout of the season. First, we will see the Doomsday Valkyries take on the Brutal Beauties and then the Bombshells would take on the Runaway Brides.
Just a reminder of Season 19 from last year, here were the AZDD team rankings going into the Playoffs:
- Runaway Brides (4-0)
- Doomsday Valkyries (3-1)
- Coffin Draggers (2-2)
- The Bombshells (1-3)
- Brutal Beauties (0-4) (quite the polar opposite compared to the Pinks from back in the Michi-chan classic days)
The Runaway Brides, who had the bye would take on the Coffin Draggers in the Season 19 Championship Bout and would defeat the prettiest girls in the morgue by a score of 173~128.
I will be honest, I am still trying to get myself up to speed on the Dames, but honestly, I commend AZDD for maintaining a structure of home teams, a true competitive structure for determining a season champion and for maintaining the legacy names for their home teams. Other than the Doomsday Valkyries, which was, at one time the Dames' sixth team through expansion (they are back down to five after they downscaled following the 2020 crud and they "suspended" the School Yard Scrappers), all of the other legacy team names are still around. Even more reason why I have always loved this league.
Doors open at the Hall of Dames at 4:30PM with the first bout starting at 5PM. Meanwhile at Broadway Rec, the doors open at 12 noon for AZRD. It may be possible to go to AZRD for the Juniors and SRP vs. HARD and then rush out to 27th Avenue & McDowell to still catch the Bombshells vs. Brides (if you are lucky to find parking, from what I hear). I know if I was still covering bouts out there, that would have been my agenda, just to assure that we can spread the derby love across all leagues, all rulesets and all track types.
The AZDD bouts will air live on their Twitch channel and on MichiTV Channel 2.
Also note that for the Michi, this is a triple conflict for me as we will also have the Banana Ball Championship Game where the number 2 seed Party Animals will take on the number 4 seed Firefighters (a story that is a story in itself). Banana Ball will be available at their YouTube channel as well as on MichiTV Channel 4.
Oh yea, we also have MRDA Championships also running at the same time at their YouTube channel and on MichiTV Channel 3.
Oh what a night! You can't say you have nothing to do. Whether you are in Phoenix or watching from afar, please take some time and show your favorite leagues a nice dose of classic Arizona derby love.
Until then, skate hard, skate safe, even if you no longer skate, derby love!
