Post by emmanuelle on Apr 13, 2022 22:55:52 GMT -5
Boston, Massachusetts
Right After Proving Ground
Losing sucked. Title matches, tag matches, whatever. Even watching her trainee lose on video tape after the fact had a way of pissing her off and making her insufferable. Losing was just something Emmy didn’t care much for, especially if she was the reason that her team had lost. Her crimson braids swayed a bit as she adjusted the ice pack on her head. Honestly her whole body was hurting. The last few weeks had been a whirlwind of frustration. The drama with Tara, the wild brawl over the Legacy Championship, having to team with the man who was able to best her for the Grand Championship. All of it seemed to be taking a toll. There wasn’t much that could be done on the night to soothe her bruised ego, but her thoughts were still with her friend Tara. She didn’t like the way she was endangering her well-being by wrestling in her state…
But that wasn’t her decision to make. She took some verbal low blows, but was cordial enough to be in Tara’s corner and even extend a cheating hand to help her out a bit. Not her usual style but one that she was more than happy to employ to make sure Tara was not just winning, but winning safely. At least that went well…not that it was much comfort to Emmy at the moment. With a frustrated sigh she stood up, wincing a little as she reached at her lower back. What was that pain from? The match over the Legacy title or the tag? It was all blurred into one big beating as far as the Californian was concerned. The shower wasn’t aspirin or a skilled masseuse but it was enough to get her clean and at least relaxed.
She was an odd ball when it came to travel: unless accompanied by her trainee Sena or her bodyguard Sonya, she traveled alone. It wasn’t that she wasn’t a sociable person, not by any stretch of the imagination! She simply liked to travel by herself to process things, to prepare strategies, to recharge a bit away from the fans and people in the business. After a long, thorough shower and lots of profanities muttered while replaying the match in her mind she managed to get dressed and head out of the arena. There was nothing out of the usual about her walk to her rental car. She said her goodbyes to friends on the staff, friends in the locker room and was walking out with her duffle bag to her car…when she saw a face that she never imagined she would see in person.
“April?”
Okay. This is a weird one. You’ve met my trainee, Sena. You’ve heard of my trainer Carlos and his sister Diantha. But now you all see the Killer Bee for the first time. April Song is a wrestler too, another in a line that my mentor and trainer helped mold. She’s a lot older than me, pushing forty, but she’s a double world champion at the moment. And she’s someone that I have begrudging respect for even though I find her wrestling style and references to Pokemon a little grating. She’s the real deal. Some people like me are just athletes, but she’s one that was born to hurt people. A jiu jitsu practitioner, one of the few women trained in Catch Wrestling, Air Force pilot, Combat Instructor. If it can maim or kill someone, there’s a high probability April’s either used it or trained to use it. But I knew all of that shit already. My deal was wondering exactly what the hell was she doing there standing in front of my car?
“Uh…are you lost, old lady? The nursing home is down the street.”
The older woman simply smirked a little, leaning on the car. Emmy was already very much annoyed by this unwelcome guest but she did her best to keep her composure.
“Still an annoying brat, I see. Actually wrestling hasn’t humbled you yet…or has it?”
Emmy was still annoyed, but she had enough respect for the woman who was standing in front of her. April happily accepted and got out of the car, the two women standing face to face.
“I’m a little surprised to see you here. Don’t you have two titles to be busy defending? Did Carlos send you here to pick on me?”
“No. Nobody sent me. I came because the Emmy that I’ve been watching lately isn’t the same one I encountered in Carlos’s Dojo. You remember that, don’t you?”
How could Emmy forget? The little airman beat her from pillar to post for the better part of half an hour, stretching the former water polo player’s lithe body with submission holds that Emmy didn’t even think was possible…all while telling her how she was just a pretty face and should just go back to California, that she wasn’t worth the effort of training. Emmy endured the abuse, physical and mental, and defied the skeptical April by becoming a star.
“How could I forget?”
“It seems like you have. Look, I know you and I aren’t as cozy as you and Diantha are…but I care. I care because we in a way are sisters now. Not just as wrestlers, but because of who trained us. We’ve been in the same locker room, we’ve even sparred a few times. I care about you and I respect you so please….PLEASE, listen to me for a little while, huh? I’m trying to help you here.”
Emmy gave it a lot of thought. One of the things that she had gotten better with over time was accepting criticism, accepting when people were trying to help her. In some ways it had lifted her all the way to the Grand Championship. Now, maybe it could lift her out of the doldrums and back to winning ways.
When I saw the match that was lined up for me on Proving Ground, I can’t say that I was particularly thrilled with it. I mean, there are plenty of people that you could want to face to break a little slump like I’m on right now, but Casanova English is not one of them. Now, I know that he’s mostly be feasting on some of the lesser names on the Proving Ground roster, but when he’s gotten the ball he absolutely fucking ran with it and spiked it in the End Zone. After Tara and I had our classic in the Dome and she lost it to Lil Petey, Casanova was the one to take the title beyond even what I did with it in the 100+ days I had it. Everything that this guy has done has been with murderous intent. Was it always pretty?
Nah.
He had some stumbles too, like losing to Myojin in a match for the X-Factor Championship, but there’s no shame in losing to someone like that beautiful human. He has the drive, the determination, the killer instinct necessary to advance to a level that most people in Project Honor and in particular our beloved Proving Ground can only dream of. Even the guy who managed to take the Warrior Rising Championship from around his scrawny little waist will be hard-pressed to outdo the magnificent run that we just saw from you, Casanova.
And now, you’ve made it quite clear that your intention is to ascend to even higher points. And you’ve also made it clear just by how you wrestle in general that you don’t give one single fuck if you have to go through me or someone like me to get there. It’s a trademark of mine, to study really closely what makes my opposition tick. I like to know who they are as people, their strengths and weaknesses, their behavior tics, their vices. Their allies. I’ve done a bit of research on you, Cassy-boy.
Don’t worry, I don’t have any connections to law enforcement. Considering some of my own family ties, I don’t dig up dirt that way.
I know that success isn’t just something that you want, it’s something that you have to have financially. You can’t manage to turn up like some people do, wrestle like shit, then get paid for it. No. No no no no no! You have to be at the top. You have to scratch, claw and battle your way until you’ve grasped a hold of the top of the mountain like I have. You have to battle any and everyone on offer from Billy Bennett and Havoc to Myojin and Arata Asakura. I’ve looked through your run of matches, your run of dominance. While your consistency is impressive….
The quality of your opposition is not.
Now, I hope my fellow Proving Ground roster members don’t think I’m trying to take a dump on them, but even most of them would agree: There’s a certain standard, a certain level that you have to go to and adjust to. There’s levels to this shit!
There’s a difference between wrestling Kayla or Diana and wrestling someone like me or Tara Fenix.
There’s a difference between wrestling John Blade and Johnny Levy than going after the X-Factor and Grand Champions.
Everyone in wrestling has desires to be on the top of the mountain. If you don’t, then you really shouldn’t be involved in it. Period, cut and dry. I used to believe that it didn’t matter, that I didn’t have to work hard. And guess what?....success came anyway. But sustainability, that doesn’t come from doing nothing. I had to go to the gym and get stronger. I had to start watching films a little more. I had to start preparing a little harder. I had to approach everything with the understanding and belief that people like you would be coming along behind me or would be standing in my way.
I don’t have the Grand Championship or the Warrior Rising Championship at the moment. But I do have something that you don’t have just yet, despite your best efforts: experience. Oh, I know that comes off haughty as hell to you, doesn’t it? Someone like the little blonde half-Japanese girl with a Sicilian mother who had the silver spoon in her mouth that she has the experience edge over me!? She’s only been doing this shit for two years! What possible edge of experience could she have?
I have more experience in pressure situations, bro. Yeah, you did the deathmatch thing. You were a champion in some other places. You were the best Warrior Rising Champion ever, myself included in that.
But have you wrestled in front of 100,000 plus people at the Estadio Azteca? Have you ever shown up on a company’s air for the first time and challenged for a World Championship? Have you ever turned up on a company’s FIRST SHOW and walked out with one of their titles? Have you ever been in a grueling main event match after another main event match after main event match with some of the top level talent that Project Honor has to offer?
No.
Funny that I’ve wrestled in the Azteca, because that’s the perfect analogy for the competition level that you’re about to experience from here on. That stadium, as is Mexico City itself, is well over 7500 feet above sea level. “Emmy, what’s the point of the geography lesson, eh?” As I’m sure a well educated Canadian like yourself knows, the higher that you go in terms of elevation, the thinner the air is. That means that your lungs have to do more work. Your body has to adjust. You have to learn to breathe, to acclimate.
Well consider me your Azteca.
You want to breathe the rarefied air of the main event scene, huh? You want to prove that little wannabees like me can’t cut it? Then here’s your chance to prove it. But understand that when you step into that ring and you’re standing across from me, you’re not wrestling someone that’s got their attention elsewhere. You’re not wrestling someone who looks down at you. You’re wrestling someone who knows that losing is not an option, that will employ any and all means to get the fucking job done. You’re wanting to GET to the top? I’ve already been and gotten bored of the view and climbed down to fuck a supermodel at the ski lodge on the side of the fucking thing.
Desires are irrelevant when you step in the ring. The only thing that matters is if you can back up what the fuck you say.
And with two championship runs already to my name here on Proving Ground, you already should know that I’m very fucking good at backing up what I say with action.
Your time is coming. I’ll admit that much. You’re going to get where you want to go eventually. Unfortunately for you, your getting there is not going to involve you beating me in the ring. Ever. I don’t like the idea of all these multi-person matches, these stupid tag team matches, all of that. I’m glad to go back to the basics.
One on one.
I’ve been stuck in the mud before and I’ve lifted the most coveted prize this company has to offer for my comeback after a losing streak and injury scare. It should scare anyone with a Championship what I’m possibly capable of for an encore.
And it should scare you too. But I know it doesn’t. So you know what, as someone I know used to tell me:
I can show ya better than I can tell ya.
A Few Days Later
West Point, New York
United States Military Academy
MWR Fitness Center
April was an Air Force girl through and through, but there was enough camaraderie between her and some of the West Point alumni for her to use their fitness center to help Emmy get prepped for her next match, an important one for the younger woman. Even as a champion and respected worldwide talent, April had an affinity for teaching that few others could match. She helped Emmy with so many of the little things that the (usually) blonde superstar would neglect. But perhaps one of her greatest contributions was to show Emmy a few ways to escape the dreaded triangle choke that Casanova would be more than likely to attempt to employ. With the move a staple of her own submission and grapple-based offense, the former Airman was the best teacher that Emmanuelle could have asked for.
“Okay…now that it’s locked in, it’s looking dangerous right? Here’s another way to escape. Use your hand to push out, roll your body like you’re getting into position like a bulldog…yes, like that! Roll and get your arm straightened out, just like that, but use your knee to brace on his hip and pull away so he doesn’t get you with an Omoplata! Alright…one more time……YES….VERY GOOD!”
Emmy managed to escape from some very desperate situations with the triangle choke, an obvious preparation for one of her latest opponent’s signature moves. Pleased with the results of her tutelage, April sat up on the sweaty training mat, a beaming smile on her features.
“So…..tell me….why did you come to help me?”
April didn’t hesitate, the smile never leaving her face.
“Because you needed it. And like it or not, we’re sisters in all of this.”
“Thanks, April………….hey, no bullshit. Thanks.”
“It’s alright.”
And so they rested and continued a few minutes later, April working through some more counters as well as teaching a few more of her submission holds and counters to aid her not just in this match but to get to the top. Time wasn’t on the older woman’s side anymore. Sure, she was a Champion now and on top of the world, but there was far more potential and time for Emmanuelle to get back to the top and stay there.
And April was going to help her get there in any way she could.