Earlier in the week I posted a caption contest honoring the kick-off of the 2009 WFTDA Roller Derby season. And the winner is…

““Player #15 performs a reverse cup-check”

Your winner and the recipient of this impressive cache of No Fear memora...errr, things – you know him, you love him – Isaac, maker and creator of the blog The World of Isaac.

In lieu of a victory speech, he submits this video…

Class. I can’t wait to ship this guy a case of something called Bloodshot Energy Drink.

Sometime between now and the next five years, Roller Derby is going to make its big splash on the sports landscape. It may be short lived ( remember Major League Roller Hockey? ) it may be sustained (see: the goddam X-Games, which refuse to relent). It also may happen sooner rather than later. Defending National Women’s Flat Track Derby Champs Gotham Girls Roller Derby kicked off their 2009 campaign with a throttling, a throuncing, a veritable beating down of the Boston Massacre All-Stars on Saturday, with a 188-44 victory in front of sizable crowd at LIU Brooklyn campus on Saturday (check out the full house here).

This is only the latest instance in the interest in Hell on Wheels heating up. ESPN aired a feature last year on the Roller Derby revival, and many media outlets have followed suit (Check out Metromix’s feature on the Gotham Girls). Not to mention, the movie that Drew Barrymore and Juno are making ( Whip It! set for release sometime in 2009).

In honor of Roller Derby’s return for what might be the sport’s break-out year, let’s do a comment contest…

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Last week’s contest poll for The Best Name in Roller Derby attracted voting like I’ve never seen on Steady Burn before, with over 800 votes being cast over the weekend!

It was Shenita Stretcher of the Philly Roller Girls emerging to earn the honor, garnering 25% of the vote (219) and just narrowly edging Gotham City’s Beyonslay (203 votes). The Carolina Roller Girls’ Trudy Struction took third.

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I’ll admit, I didn’t love it when I initially learned that all roller girls competed under the guise of nicknames. It breaks a cardinal rule of sports integrity: don’t unnecessarily associate yourself with pro wrestling.

That was before I read any of them however. I believe it was Spinal Tap who said it best when they said, “there’s such a fine line between stupid and clever.” These are clever, in the 80′s porn star and metal groupy (two professions that survive – if not, thrive – today) sense. It’d be an appropriate time to mention that this poll is co-presented by Rafer Alston (formerly Skip 2 My Lu, from And1 Mix-Tape) and Brock Lesner.

I’ve nominated eight fierce, cleverly monikered, Hell on Wheels competitors below for you vote on, one from each of the teams that competed at last week’s WFTDA Roller Derby National Championship. Feel free to write-in other votes in the comments below – whether you’re a roller derby girl, or have a flair for low-brow creativity.

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The Gotham Girls of NYC are your 2008 WFTDA Women’s National Roller Derby Champions. Gotham went into the tournament (held in Portland, OR) the #1 overall seed and overwhelming favorite, and lived up to expectation as they took home the trophy – known as The Hydra.

Gotham absolutely tattooed the second seeded Windy City Roller Girls, from Chicago, in the Championship Match, with a final score of 134-56. You can check out a live-chat blog that took place during the Finals Sunday on DerbyNewsNetwork.com.

The finals was a rematch of the Eastern Regional Championship, where Gotham narrowly edged Windy City by 40 points. In Sunday’s confrontation, GGRD went down 0-4 in the first period – their first deficit of the tournament – before they steamrolled their adversaries from Chicago.

Windy City’s lead jammer Kola Loka was the fan favorite for tourney MVP, getting 38% of the vote online.

The Philly Roller Girls took third place at Nationals, defeating Western Region Champion Texas in the third place grudge match.

If anyone has photo or video content from the Championship, please send my way. Meanwhile, check out some stuff below from your 2008 supreme derby champs from NYC….

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The Roller Derby Revival gets cooler everyday. And if you don’t agree with me, I assure you I’m correct.

Just last weekend, a team from New York City called the Gotham Girls All-Stars competed in the Eastern Regional Championships at the Derby in Dairyland, in Madison, WI. Not only have they embraced Batman’s nom de guerre for NYC, but they won the tournament, so apparently they’re dirty.

This weekend, the 2008 WFTDA season stampedes into the capital city of the derby revival – Austin, TX – for the TXRD Lonestar Rollergirls Calvello Cup Championship.

Giving it its due recognition, COEDMagazine.com pieced together a photo album that shows the softer side of hell on wheels. Here are some of the goodies…

…and, Yikes!

Check out more here.

Links:
Coed Magazine – Ridiculously Rad Rollergirls
MySpace – Gotham Girls Roller Derby
TXRD Lonestar Rollergirls