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Camp Leapfrog showrunner and host of Wrestle Tea Sam Leterna recently joined Spencer Love to chat about IWTV, what makes her promotion unique, training with Lance Storm, Clara Mortenson, indie wrestling superlatives, and more. Highlights from the conversation can be found below.
Camp Leapfrog:
Spencer Love: “Well, it's easy to give a good intro! Like I said, I don't want to give too much away because there's so much to talk about on the Camp Leapfrog end. You guys have a show coming up in a week. Killian Villain. I'm very excited for it. Just give me a little bit about Camp Leapfrog. I know that you're one of the creative directors, one of the showrunners. Like I said, you've got a lot of roles. You're wearing a lot of different hats. So, just give me a little bit behind it, and how you came to find yourself in the role."
Sam Leterna: “Yeah, so I had been working at CHIKARA, doing my first official broadcasting gig with CHIKARA as their segment host, and Kris Levin got to knowing that I co-wrote some of the segments with Mike Quackenbush. He invited me to come on to Leapfrog because the person that he was supposed to be doing it with actually got signed."
Spencer Love: “Good problem for them to have!"
Sam Leterna: “Not a bad problem right? So I came on with Kris, who is the brainchild behind this. Ultimately, I just come up with creative ideas. Leapfrog is supposed to be really fun [and] creative. It really caters to the cinematic aspect of pro wrestling that's been so popular over the last year. I think that I just got really, really engulfed in Leapfrog. I wasn't expecting to start
running a wrestling promotion. But, Kris has taught me a lot and I love it.” Her decision to train with Lance Storm (12:40)
Spencer Love: “I was gonna say, any interview you've ever done, you've talked about how fundamental that's not only been for you but should be for anybody trying to get into professional wrestling, right? I'd have to assume, but correct me if I'm wrong, that might be one of the biggest reasons you'd want to go and train with Lance Storm after you trained with Johnny Rodz, right?"
Sam Leterna: “Yeah, definitely. I think that the person you train with is very important, because especially now, there are good schools and bad schools with good coaches and bad coaches. Lance was one of the good ones, and I'm not even just saying good wrestling-wise and what he brings to training, he's a good person. To make that sacrifice, because it was a big sacrifice for me, I saved for four to six months about eight to ten thousand just to go to Canada for three months, so I could live the lifestyle of training and doing yoga every day and working out five days a week, and training five hours a day, five days a week with Lance and my peers. I think you have to invest in yourself, whether you're a broadcaster, or someone looking to get into wrestling. Particularly with wrestlers, it's pretty sink-or-swim. You should definitely do Lance's virtual sessions! But yeah, just go with someone who fits who you are, and move if you have to, don't be afraid to move I'd say, too.”
Clara Mortenson and the origins of Leterna:
Spencer Love: “Well, not only do I think you'd be an asset to any of the promotions up here, but damn it'd just be nice to have you up period. You also picked something else up in Calgary, but I'll let you tell the story. What is named Claire Mortenson mean to you?"
Sam Leterna: “Ah, okay, okay. You did your research. Okay. I had been in transition with a wrestling name at that time. Lance was kind of telling us about different reasons to pick different names from different perspectives, like a business perspective, what honors you and who you are, but also allows that to be marketed and I am Hispanic, so I wanted a name that kind of mimicked that, but I also had been reading - I forget exactly what it's called, because I have a horrible memory, but it's that book about the history of female wrestling with Sasha Banks and Natty on the cover, and Claire Mortenson came up. She called herself The Eternal One. I thought that was just so cool. The goal in that was to be "The Eternal One" Sam Leterna, a wrestler at that time. Now, it doesn't really matter that much because as a broadcaster, we have our role, and I totally understand that, but the name has stuck and I love it. I think it gives me a little bit of sauce, a little bit of that Hispanic flair that I like to showcase when I can. So yeah, Sam L'eterna, or Leterna.”
Masha Slamovich:
Spencer Love: “Like I said, I know you'd answered the question before, but it's just a cool story. I really like [that] again, it ties back to your love of the history of professional wrestling, not just female professional wrestling, so I'm always prone to enjoying hearing a good story once or twice or 30 times if I have to. One other person that I did specifically want to ask you about, a little bit more current is Masha Slamovich. Just tell me a little bit about her, because I know you guys are good friends, obviously, from your guys's social media's. But, she's been a huge influence on you from again, your own social media. So again, put somebody over, let's take some time to talk about good people."
Sam Leterna: “I will put Masha Slamovich over any day. She's like, my best girlfriend in the industry. We began training together, actually, at Johnny Rodz in Brooklyn, New York. She trained maybe six months before or nine months before me. But I came in, she was like the first girl I locked up with. She was really young at that time. She's grown up a lot since then. I'm a couple of years older than Masha. But yeah, we kind of lost touch for a couple of years. But then,
through a work opportunity that popped up, we wound up working together. I got her a job at a restaurant I was working at, and we got really close through that and started working out. Then, she really helped me through the period where I wasn't wrestling and I didn't know what I was going to do with my life at all, because I wasn't involved with wrestling at that point at all. She
kind of pushed me to continue on and see the value in what I do now and what I am good at and how I can apply that to wrestling. I'm really grateful to her for that. Since then, it's been a crazy year. She's returned from Japan, she's doing amazing. She is the hardest working woman in wrestling, honestly. On the indies for sure. She trains every day, two times a day. She does Brazilian jujitsu, or MMA, whatever the case not entirely sure, and she killed my legs yesterday at the gym. That lady goes in and - fear Masha Slamovich because she's a force to be reckoned with. But yeah, that's my put-over of Masha, and we always have good times when we go to Texas together.”
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