I have an ongoing CL ad that I run in the talent gig section to attract new wrestling talent. The wording varies slightly from time to time but in general it goes something like this:
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Athletic Female
Looking for attractive and fit woman 18-30 to demo wrestling holds on me 1 - 2 times/month. Learn as you earn. Easy work, not sexual. Email pic and contact info including tel# if interested. Prefer over 5'5".
Pay:$50/hr
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So that's it. The thing about CL ads is that you never really know what kind of person will respond to the ad. This unpredictability contrasts somewhat with posting ads in audition sites such as casting360.com or saccasting.com. Usually, the women who register with those sites tend to be looking for modeling or acting work and have experience. This isn't to say that those women who respond from those audition sites are not flaky but the percentage is lower.
Regardless of who responds, I try my hardest to give them as much information as possible prior to them ever meeting me. I do that because I know full well that this type of gig is not the kind that one usually comes across. Most of the ads in the talent gig section recruit women for adult type work, whether it is nude modeling, working for an escort agency, making a porn movie or satisfying the cravings of a sex starved male looking for a friends with benefits arrangement. The women who respond to those ads are not confused about what they are getting into so there is really no need to elaborate too much in the ad. On the other hand, putting a guy in wrestling holds fall into a murky, gray area that seems to confound and puzzle people and in turn raise suspicion. To set people straight, I do two things. First, I send them to my new talent page on my website:
www.mixedwrestlingmatches.com/new-talent
Anyone who reads that page will have a thorough understanding of what this is all about. There would be no question in someone's mind about what they would be getting into.
But that's not enough as far as I am concerned. So I send them to my YouTube channel which has actual videos I have done with other wrestlers:
www.youtube.com/c/mixedwrestlingmatchesvideos
Armed with this information, no one could have any illusions about what I am doing here and so I make it a point to give out this information to all respondents. And so I did the same with one recent applicant by the name of Kimberly:
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| Kimberly |
12/4/2017
(916) 473-3596
I am responding to your Craigslist ad for an athletic female.
I am 5'9'', 160 lbs, and interested in the job
My name is Kimberly
Well, that's a pretty good start. Straight and to the point. No questions about the gig, though. Doesn't matter to me as I provide the information regardless:
Hi Kimberly. Thanks for responding.
I am going to give you a couple links to check out.
The video shoots are optional. If you are only interested in just learning that holds, that's fine as well.
This is my new talent page on my website:
http://www.mixedwrestlingmatches.com/new-talent
This is my YouTube channel:
http://www.youtube.com/c/mixedwrestlingmatchesvideos
So just text back "still interested" or "no longer interested" after reviewing the links. Thanks. - David
I figure I would just give her a choice since I really have no interest in chasing people down to find out if they are still interested or not. Surprisingly, a few minutes later I got my answer:
Still interested
That was a pretty quick response and to be honest, looking back I should have been suspicious of her intentions at that point. This was going way too smoothly and some of that suspicion found its way to my response:
That's great! Tbh, quite a few people get scared off so you are already part of an exclusive club, lol. Ok, so I know this is short notice but I am training someone else this Thursday @ 9 AM. If you are available at that time, that would be a great opportunity to learn together with someone like yourself and you can get a little x-mas money early. I am heading down to L.A. this weekend but the following Sunday the 17th I have some time. Lmk what works best for you.
I figured the remaining issue was the date and time but it turns out she was stuck on the pay. Not that I wasn't paying her enough but that I was paying her at all.
Sounds good to me.
Just to be clear, you are paying me $50 for the lesson correct?
At this point, I figured that was all that she was hung up on, so I was ready to set a date with google calendar and voice my preferences for payment options:
Yes, that is correct. I like to pay electronically with Paypal or Google Wallet but if you don't have that set up, I can just give you cash.
I need your email address so I can send you over a google invite that has all my address info, etc.
As it turns out, she never provided her email which is not a big deal since some people hardly use email anymore. I was ok with texting. A couple days later I was ready to offer her a date and time:
12/6/2017
Hi, I was planning to go to L.A. this weekend but most of L.A. is on fire right now so my trip is cancelled. I can make Sunday @10 AM available for you if you like.
This seemed acceptable to her and she responded positively. We hadn't actually spoke so I think she also wanted me to assure me that she was real:
Sounds good
Can you text me the address please?
You can call and voice verify if you would like
I don't recall anyone ever offering this type of reassurance but the fact that she did seemed reassuring in and of itself and washed away any previous flags that were nagging me.
Sure. Here it is: (my address here)
I will call you sometime on Saturday to voice verify.
No jewelry or anything that can poke or hurt and gym clothes are fine.
She seemed genuinely excited or at least interested in doing this and meeting me:
Ok. I am excited and looking forward to your phone call
On Saturday the 9th of December I called her sometime in the late afternoon. She answered and we had a pleasant conversation. She asked if it was going to be video taped and I told her no, it wasn't. And then once again she asked me about the pay, wanting to know if I was paying her, not her paying me, claiming things sometimes get lost in the translation in the ads. Hmm, that seemed kind of strange. Perhaps she thought she was going to pay me to teach her? Whatever, in any case I assured her that I was paying her. Then she said something that no one else has ever said to me: "I'm very punctual, David." "Sounds good." I responded, wondering where that statement came from. I hung up and confirmed via text that the date and time would be Sunday @ 10 AM.
Sunday at 10 AM rolls around and everything was all set. House cleaned, mats set up, cash in envelope all ready. 10:05 AM and no sign of her. I have a system I setup for people who either show up late or don't show up at all. I wait until 10 minutes have passed and send out a text. It must be 10 minutes, not one minute sooner or later:
Hi, are you on your way?
Kimberly: Hello?
Me: Hi, Kimberly this is David. What happened? We made a date for 10 AM.
No response. The phone was still connected. She hadn't hung on me but hadn't responded either. It was just dead silence. I waited for an answer but still nothing but dead silence. Finally, I decided to call out to her.
Me: Hello? Hello? Are you there? Anyone there?
Still nothing. This was futile so I hung up. Had she actually overslept and completely forgotten? This pissed me off even though it really shouldn't have since it is really her loss, not mine. But nevertheless, I am having the last word so I sent her one last text a few hours later:
I am not sure what happened with you today but you could have at least texted me to lmk you weren't coming.
The moral of this story is to always be a little skeptical of responses from CL ads. Not sure what else I could have done to prevent this from happening. Sometimes there are just things that happen that are beyond my control. Best I can do is laugh at this kind of behavior and move on.
