The XCritic Interview: Ariel X

How do you interview an icon? This is something that I ask myself every time that I am lucky enough to have performers like the woman that we are featuring in this two-part interview. Needless to say, an icon always has something you can speak to her about, no matter the moment in her career. Ricky Greenwood has done something massive with Sweetheart Video. He has brought a new cinematic eye to a genre and company that is one of the industry leaders in girl/girl sex, beauty, and glamour. He is reinventing the wheel and one of his engineers is a woman that this industry will never forget, no matter how much time passes. Ariel X. She is a performer who blazed a trail with her fetish work, or as I like to refer to it, her true passion. This mixture of fights, flesh, fetish, and ferocity led to over two hundred starring roles which is what some would say elevates her to a level that few ever reach but I think it is much more massive than that. In the July 2019 Release Girls of Wrestling, Ariel shows that she has more than a few fights left in her. As the lead role, she not only shows that her passion for lust, fantasy, and female wiles is still as massive as ever, she shows that she is still always perfecting her craft as an artist, producer and actor. In what could be her a big win for Best Actress, Ariel showcased herself to a new era of adult film fans and we decided, we need to sit down with this living legend of lust to hear what she has been up to and what her production company has been creating over the last few years.

Don Juan: You know, these are the moments I live for.

Ariel X: Why is that?

Don Juan: To be able to talk to performers who have seen the top of the mountain, who have paid their dues and are still as passionate as you. That is what is special to me in this business. The fact that you have a starring role in the massively pushed film, from a massively badass production company is impressive.

Ariel X: Thank you, I have paid my dues. I have put my time in, in so many ways. I have seen many things.

Don Juan: One thing that breaks my heart with some veteran performers is that they get bitter and I think anyone does when you do something for a long time and your publicist, he told me that you still have the same kindness and heart that you always have and I can see that from second one.

Ariel X: Well Don, I would not go as far as to call it “bitter” when it comes to the business and how people deal with it. In my years in the industry, the term “jaded” is something I think that gives a better definition as to how some girls feel after they have been in the industry and it is not good for them. There are a lot of people that do take advantage of girls in the industry in one way or another. There are so many ways this business can affect a person. Emotionally, financially, physically. That is how one can become jaded and I honestly think that all of us go through fazes like that. There are moments where you stop, look at your surroundings and you get that feeling, like every action that you have taken and are planning on doing burns you out and that happens to all of us, to the best of us. Then the most important part happens in this story. You find that place or person that allows you to see that you can get through this, that you can keep going on with a rekindling of your passion. Whatever that might be. That is what allows me to come back with a smile on my face and the ability to start over.

Don Juan: To me, that is so important, to me, there are a lot of women in this business who do not know how much that is a key to not survival but sanity no matter what it is you do for a living.

Ariel X: There is so much that I have seen in my time, Don. There are moments where you meet a girl and she puts on this facade that she is making it, that she has no troubles in the world when in reality she is drowning. The world, in general, has this new type of belief that we must act like hot shit and that nothing can hurt us. That is what allows people without good intentions to succeed. I try my best to show many ladies in this business how important it is to be honest with yourself. That is why I try as much as possible to be that person for the new performers, well, any performer in general. Because there as so many moments in my career that I wish that I had someone to tell me what to expect, instead of facing everything through trial and error.

Don Juan: My goodness, I talk about this so much in my interviews but now I am seeing perhaps that is because there is so much good around every corner. This business has brought me my family, my “porn family.” A group of people who understand. Who accepted me in times when I just needed a brother and sister. Talking with you, you make me remember so much and it strikes fond memories of many people. That is the beauty of this business.

Ariel X: Yes, my husband always tells me, “what would you do? What is money were no longer something that was a worry in your life?” The answer always is that I want to help sex workers. I think that they are the sweetest people that I have ever met in my life. You have no idea how many porn stars come onto my set and tell me how much they go through daily with what we call “civilians” in the business and deal with putting money on the table and all that other stuff we do to survive in life, it makes you want to reach out in any way you can. I see so many saints walk through my door and that is exactly what they are. It is very sad that the world attaches this stigma to a sex worker because of their one-sided beliefs and views. I have learned that everyone wants to judge sex workers, porn stars but in secret, everyone is sending us messages, “Hey, I really like you.” (We both casually laugh as this is a bold truth of the business that everyone and I mean EVERYONE learns to laugh at because from media to performer, we all get this and have experienced it.)

Don, it is just like you said, these people are like family. There are so many people that I have come across that would give you the shirt off your back. Being that we are talking about work, making movies, I think that was one of the best experiences of having my website and making this film that we are going to be talking about. The Girls of Wrestling. You want to talk about a group of women that would give you the last dollar in their pocket, give you the last sip of water in their canteen. That is every single woman on that cast list. The phrase that comes to mind Don Juan is outstanding human beings.

Don Juan: OK, so I am going to try and win that part of your heart that can be charmed here. So, the way I truly began to see this as well was when I first began to date a “porn star” as the civilians would say. The way that I learned what matters in life, what matters in a relationship, what is valuable with everything that a woman is, I learned it from a “porn star.” A woman who is not supposed to be able to do such things to a person’s heart and mind by the standards of society right? Well, that is the true beauty of life, is it not? Proving how wrong society is and how beautiful things are found in the places you least suspect. The empowered women of this industry they are something special and I never saw thought as a civilian when I was getting into this business. Hell, I was a collegiate athlete, I thought I knew it all, had seen it all. Had at least love figured out. How thankful I am for porn, for making me fly straight.

Ariel X: Same here, same with me. For me, it was college as well. OK, maybe a little bit after college because college was something unique and eye-opening for me. Back then, I was still athletic, but I was not wrestling yet, nor did I have any knowledge of this amazing side of my persona that was waiting to be discovered. I do train a lot now when it comes to martial arts.  A lot of women I meet, or people in general, they want to learn the martial arts because they had something happen to themselves where they felt the need to protect themselves. There are so many people who are just tired of putting up with people’s shit or being bullied and I am here now, I think they say to themselves and that is very cool, getting yourself to learn the wonders of martial arts is something I will always endorse. Where I a going with this, is I see the same types of personalities within the industry and one of the things I am really blessed to experience is the way that my life has gone. Getting into the “athletic” part of porn, the performers that I meet are all open to doing the things that I shoot, and they are some of the strongest people on earth and I am talking their minds, their will. They are women who are sick of people’s bullshit and they are so empowered, to see what I see, it is amazing to see the ones who know how empowered they are and even more amazing to see the ones who know something that is there, they are just pulling back the layers and discovering it on their own. I love that!

That is actually where the name of my website comes from Don. You see these women who do not know what they have within them yet and you see the evolution that is about to take place. To watch the growth of a girl who did not know she had all of this strength buried deep within her, or right on the surface ready to explode, you see her evolve, you see her grow, I mean that. It is pretty damn cool! It is still the greatest of things that I have ever experienced.

Don Juan: I love it! That is the beautiful thing about this business. That is also the most beautiful thing about sexuality. It is something that connects to every aspect of life and I think that is what society has such a hard time believing and understanding. Just like with your wrestling and website, it is something that takes you to another level of living. It unlocks the true character of what and who you are as a human being. I think that is why so many outsiders only report the bad because that is all that makes headlines. It is never seen on a website or a newspaper that a woman defeats depression by her journey to. That is what we need more of in the business.

Ariel X: I am trying, that is why I will keep on doing what I am doing. I like to look at it as we are all guiding each other on a path that we are already on. I am simply going to try and be the catalyst that is able to help them with all their accumulated wisdom use it in ways that are beneficial with the least amount of stress attached as possible. I think that is what is so amazing about my website and wrestling Don, not to skew off into this tangent. See, I don’t think fans will ever get to know that the most amazing part of my company, this way of life is that getting a few wins, getting a few loses all under your belt, it is all about making things beneficial for you. Yes, losing can be valuable. One of the best things I see is when someone is struggling to beat someone, then they put more effort, more heart into their work and drive, then seeing them finally get a victory. That is the best of things to me.

Don Juan: OK, now before we get further into the website and talk some more about this amazing role in Ricky’s film, I first must start at the beginning and ask, how did an icon get her start? How did that story begin over a decade ago?

Ariel X: To tell the fans how things really began Don, we must go back to 2003. I was working in a computer store at the time. So, one day, this really beautiful woman approaches me and asks, “would you ever be willing to do nude modeling and nude photos?” I was very reluctant at first. I had just had a baby and all that was going through my mind was, “who wants to see pictures of a chick who just had a baby?” Needless to say, I was a little insecure at that time. I was in my twenties and for the most part that would not seem that old right? Well, in porn years, you are already starting to approach GILF status. I had the thought stuck in my mind that I was just too old for this. Now, this is going to sound bad but in 2003, that thought was in the business that you were eighteen when you got into the business and you were twenty when you got out. The porn star who is twenty-three, now she is pushing it, at least that was my mindset and I will be damned if that was how my thinking was. The other side of being twenty-three is that I was a narcissist as I think most of us are at that age have that mindset that no matter what, I think that I could do that. So, the gal who was recruiting mem her name was Elle Williams and she had shot a ton of Andrew Blake stuff. It was beautiful, very artsy, tasteful and I mean very sexy stuff. So, all these things they are showing me they were hot, and I mean so hot that each shot was making me wet.

So, after that. I began to try and hunt down the best of the best when it came to nude, art modeling. I found this photographer named Kelly Lindt and his work just took my breath away. He had one of the most amazing make-up artists that I will never forget. I did a ton of trade work as I was “building my portfolio” in the industry. Everything that I was experiencing, I was going as minimal as possible. I was just sticking my toe in to test the waters. It was from trying out all these different genres that I was offered to shoot girl/girl by a media company. I had always liked girls a little bit, but it was not something that I was ready to jump into headfirst. The two models I was working with I remember being so nervous to work with them. The entire time I was sweating bullets. The women were so beautiful at this shoot Don. They had on leather, they had on corsets. It was the coolest thing I had ever experienced, and it is something when you are getting paid to do everything. So, after that, I just continued to work more and more with Kelly, and he was also working on Dana DeArmond’s site and that is when I really got things started. So, we had both began building up content together and Dana tells me one day, “why don’t we both go to Fetish-Con Florida together and she introduced me to the people and Kink.com and they eventually hired me to do some stuff for them in San Francisco, then they decided to hire me for a lot of things once they saw my passion and drive. It was there that I was there for either a water bondage shoot or a hog-tie shoot, that the director told me, “hey, you are kind of fit, do you want to wrestle for me?” I kind of did not know what I was getting into. It was something I always wanted to try, and I had only been running as I had been a track star previously before my porn career had begun. I loved running Don; I had thought that it was my passion. It is was something that had led me to become a professional athlete. After this director had told me about everything, I was going to be facing going into this wrestling match, I was a little bit arrogant because of my training in track and how much I did love to run and do cardio to the extent that I could. I thought that I was going to win this wrestling match easily, a piece of cake.

So, the day of the shoot, I am going up against this tiny little Asian gal who wore a mask and she went by the name, Crimson Ninja. That girl, she put my body into holds that I did not even know that my body could do. I was getting really frustrated and that is how it was for a while as I began this new journey in my life and in my career. For all the fans who do not know, when I get frustrated, I also get aroused. When I was in school, I would be trying to figure out a mathematical equation and I could not do it and I would get so pissed off that I would just get this feeling to go and jerk off and that is exactly what I did. It has been something wonderful and unique for me. This correlation between getting frustrated and jerking off and it has always been that way for me. So, as I am battling this cute little Asian gal, I am saying to myself, I should be beating her, I should be winning this thing, this is bullshit. So, she beat me, she fucked me, and I came out from that saying, “OK, you beat me, so you are allowed to have sex with me.” (She laughs so deviantly and not in a bad way, you can tell with Ariel, this is something that she enjoys more than words can express and her change in voice and tone showed that.) This brought out so much in me Don that I did not know I had. It was like a grudge fuck; you know one of those moments where I was so mad at myself and it became a thought that turned into an obsession. I was asking myself, “how did I lose?” Then, I did a few more matches and I lost every single one of them and I was so fucking mad. You have no idea how much this was getting to me. It was from that I decided to start taking classes. That is where I began ju-jitsu, even though I wanted to wrestle. There are not very many wrestling schools in southern California. There is so much that helped me as a person when it came to getting paid for learning to evolve as an athlete and that is what this did to me. I failed a lot in the beginning and lost some matches and that drove me. It made me get better at so many things in my life as a person, not just a performer.

Don Juan: So, this was something that truly made you go above and beyond and has been with you from the beginning of your career.

Ariel X: Yes, it drove me to better in everything that I did. One thing you will always get in life is naysayers, people who say that you can not do something. I would like to think that the fans came to follow me because they saw this smaller woman who was not as big as these other girls and still found a way to win. I remember when I won my first tournament, it was me against the world and I surprised a lot of people. I use that in everything I do now and have since that period of my life and career. (She begins to really laugh, and happiness comes out in her voice.) I now have some championship belts on my mantle and that is something no one can take away and it reminds me how valuable my hard work is and the naysayers can never take that away from you. So that is truly how I got into porn and wrestling and how both changed my life forever.

Don Juan: That is so amazing. So, was this what truly led you to become a “champion” of the people as you are a performer who is known to always talk with her fans and spend time with them getting to know them.

Ariel X: Well Don Juan, as my career began to really take off, as did my passion and sexuality in wrestling and porn, I wanted to know why people loved to see and watch athletic women. I wanted to know everything I could about the fans what kind of fetish they were into. I believe going to the source is the easiest way to achieve anything when it comes to fans and the demand for what they want to see. I truly loved talking with these guys no matter if it was e-mail, or it was me doing webcam shows and the subject was brought up somehow. As funny as this is going to sound. Understanding how fans loved it, helped me to understand why I loved it. It was something very therapeutic for me. The way I see it, the fans got something out of it, I got something out of it, so it is a win, win.

Don Juan: So, do you think this was something that was able to assist you when it comes to your latest film and by the way, it is one of the best damn wrestling films I have seen the business create. Ricky Greenwood and you truly created something amazing wit your character and the story.

Ariel: Well, first off. The competitive side of wrestling is something that I love and prefer more than anything else. I have had a little experience creating the WWE style of production before in terms of creating custom videos with fans and things along that line. I realized that the people that do “wrestle” professionally as you would call it, it is so easy to get injured, I kid you not, compared to doing what I do with my website and doing what I do competitively. I give a lot of credit to those people.

Don Juan: I think that is amazing. The story in that film is so real and you all captured the essence of what goes into it. I agree it is so easy to get hurt when you are creating choreography and staging the show. Ariel, you all did an amazing job!  You know, I look at this film, I look at what you told me earlier about the girls you meet who do not work in the adult industry and do these fights with you, I think that the industry needs more people you in the business. The Film, your websites, they show something unique, beautiful and good and that is what needs to be shown in the adult industry.

Ariel X: Yes, I agree, and all of this accumulates to a viewer being entertained. I want to be entertained when I am watching porn. Performance is essential, yes, I want to be able to be turned on, that is the side we all know. I think that people forget that being entertained is what leads you to see something you never did within the performance or the sex. That is what makes being entertained essential and it always will to me. I think that is what will keep fans coming back over and over again.

With that, we end part one of this interview. Ariel, she has truly made 2019 a year to remember in her career. My review of the film Girls of Wrestling shows a starlet who is not done by a long shot. Who, with Sweetheart Video, directors like Ricky Greenwood and starlets like her co-stars in this film, are showing the world another side of beauty. This film may be the best acting role of her career and after you get to sit down and talk to Ariel, you feel that grace and drive of a true fighter. A woman who is going to go that extra mile for her fans. Since the launch of her website last year, the number of performers jumping at any chance they get to perform for her and with her is just massive and one thing is for sure, these performers are doing this not to simply get a paycheck. Stay tuned for part two of this interview, where we will go more into the history of the films that created a star and a more in-depth look at what her websites are doing to the world of “porn-culture.” Until then….

Follow Ariel X:

Twitter: @ArielXoxo

Instagram: arielxbuffy

Website: http://www.ariel-x.com/

Production Companies: @EvolvedFights and @evolvedLez

Special thanks to Ricky Greenwood, Mile High Media and Dusty with Seetheart Video and Mile High Media, I do not know what I would do without you guys. Thank you for making this all shape up into something grand for Ariel and XCritic.

Photos Courstey of Mile High Media