Post by emmanuelle on Mar 10, 2021 23:58:36 GMT -5
Moments After Her Match on Proving Ground
“Fuck.”
There was no way that this was happening. Once, during a wild War Games match in her debut was one thing. There wasn’t much of a disgrace in that. She was one of the newest members of the roster, one of the smallest participants in the match and not much was expected. But this? This was unacceptable. TWO LOSSES? In a row? It was unheard of. It was inexcusable, despite facing a man that she was giving up a considerable size advantage to. She had overcome similar odds before and beaten plenty of men. It was unacceptable.
“GODDAMN IT!”
Emmy kicked over a chair in the locker room, sitting in her stall for a moment. She replayed the match in her mind, moment by moment, mentally whipping herself for each error, no matter how small. Sure, she had put on a good performance. But putting on a show was only part of what she was there to do. Everywhere that she had been, everywhere that she was planning to go, she presented herself with an expectation of excellence. Every time that she didn’t win, her personal brand suffered. No moral victories could fix that.
But why was this hunger starting to build in her? She really didn’t care much about wrestling in the same way so many around her did. Even her best friend Diantha didn’t understand why Emmanuelle pushed herself in the sport so hard. Was it really all about the money now? Or was there something else, a competitive void or wanderlust traveling from place to place, meeting people from all over, that was being sated by being involved in such a barbaric and sometimes corny profession? She didn’t feel too much like contemplating. All she could do at this point was grab a shower, go to her hotel room and regroup.
A couple of years ago.
Carlos Rosso’s Gym: Baton Rouge, Louisiana
It was a steaming summer night in Louisiana. Even with the sun almost completely down, temperatures were still blistering outside. Inside Carlos’s gym, the proprietor of the place loved to turn the air conditioning off some days in the summer when dealing with new trainees just to see how they would respond in the heat. Most of his wrestling trainees had already left, most doing the bare minimum of drills and exercises required on the day and leaving as quickly as they could to find a place to cool off and recover. Only one trainee remained: a much different looking Emmanuelle. Although the girl was fit, she wasn’t quite as muscular as she would become. Her hair was not in the platinum blonde that many would recognize later, instead in a light brown ponytail. Her body was dripping with sweat as she ran the ropes, doing her best to perfect even the most basic of things. Carlos was busy taking care of some of the more mundane tasks of the gym, helping with the cleaning of equipment and making sure that things were in order before they closed up shop for the day.
“Emmy….EMMY...YO! We’re about to close up here in a few. You gonna shower up and get ready to leave or are you trying to make my little gym a second home?”
The young woman nodded and stopped her running drill, leaning on the ropes and facing her trainer.
“Sorry. I just wanted to make sure that I got it right, you know? When I played ball, did water polo and stuff, all my coaches drilled basic fundamentals into my head. ‘Master this basic thing. Memorize that.’ You understand?”
“Yeah, I understand. Mine were the same. I do have a question though…”
Carlos jumped up on the ring apron, looking his younger trainee in the eyes, his face expressing a bit of confusion.
“I’m trying to figure out why you’re still here. You’ve got this stuff down pat. You’re advancing pretty well in every aspect of what I’m trying to teach you all. Why are you so intent on working yourself like this?”
“I just want to make sure that when the time comes, I don’t make any mistakes. Know what I mean?”
“Eh, we’re all going to make mistakes here and there, muscle memory or not. Sometimes we lose our grip, sometimes we trip. Sometimes shit just happens. One thing that I want you to think about though, when you MAKE a mistake, don’t beat yourself up over it. We all make em. Rookies, vets, champions, nobodies. Just learn what you need to learn to be prepared when your number gets called again.”
“Did you make a lot of mistakes when you were in the ring?”
Carlos smiled. “More than I care to count. Hell, one of the most basic things that I did wrong was this match against Aria Jaxon. She’s top shit and all that right, and I have her beat. I hit my Gotch-Style piledriver and covered her but the referee noticed something that I didn’t: part of her body was under the ropes so he wouldn’t count. Boom-boom-boom, I get pissed, I lose my shit, next thing I know she beats me. It’s little things like this that can fuck up a match. You try to prevent them, but even veterans like me misstep. You’re still learning so don’t beat yourself up too bad.”
That was the first of many counseling sessions between the two of them. She would be a sponge, soaking in the knowledge of a well-traveled former champion. He was longing for a student “of the game” like her, someone who he could pass on everything that he had learned. She was just grateful for the opportunity to listen. Young, hungry and eager to learn.
That was the best combination to make a wrestler, Carlos thought.
The shower had done Emmy some good. While still very much sore from the match, she was feeling far more relaxed and a lot less frustrated with herself. As she was getting dressed, she heard her phone going off. She didn’t pay it much mind but when the sound for another notification came up, she made sure to pick it up after she was dressed. It was from her old opponent in WrestleWorld, someone she had a lot of respect for.
“MYOJIN? Huh….Well this is going to be fun. Guess we better meet up to talk about this.”
The news was that the two of them were going to be competing in a tag match together. The flamboyant wrestling star had asked Emmy to meet with him and Emmy reluctantly agreed, suggesting a place where the two could meet up and discuss their partnership and catch up a little.
I didn’t really expect to be tag teaming in Project Honor. I mean, the main reason I came here was to make my name as a singles star. Holding Singles titles, Yada Yada Yada. While I’m not typically inclined to play nice with others in this profession, I have been able to be a good team player in the past. In high school I did the two-sports thing. Water Polo and Basketball. Now I’m not going to declare myself a mega-star at either, but we were good enough. I managed to get my name on a State title banner in Water Polo and I was a full-time starter for a couple of years. The point is that as long as my teammates aren’t completely useless, I can make it work. I think I proved that at least once at my most recent stop in the wrestling world before this one. I teamed once with a mask-wearing, spandex clad buffoon to win my debut. But wins have been hard to come by lately. I never expected to be winless still here on Proving Ground but here we are. But this latest match, this tag team match...maybe it’s a good omen? I got one of the most handsome and interesting men in the wrestling world as my partner for this one, someone that I know that I can at least trust to not be completely useless. He’s someone that I’ve gone against before so I’m already familiar with him. Myojin is an interesting one for sure. Having dinner with him definitely made me feel more at ease. A lot of wrestlers, hell people in general, they don’t understand where I come from or why I’m the way I am. He gets it, even more than he lets on. I appreciate it, especially now with the hard times I’ve stumbled onto.
Emmy was thankful for Myojin’s company, but the grind of preparing for the match was something she didn’t quite trust with him...not just yet. Their partnership may turn out to be as temporary as the one before and she could tell that even though he was eager to team up with her that a part of him was still very much thinking about the partnership he had given up with a friend that was much closer than she had been with him. She was back in her California home, watching the replay of her match with Cadillac. It wasn’t pleasant viewing and she fidgeted quite a bit while watching, glancing at it irritated with herself for losing in the first place. But she did learn from it. The closing sequence where she started to try trading strikes instead of maybe looking for something more practical was one of the most glaring errors in her assessment. Cadillac was not someone to take lightly, but beating him was something not beyond her scope. She then turned on the clips put together for her for the other half of the opposing team that she was going to be facing. Lance Williams. Another person that she didn’t know much about, Another new face on her wrestling journey. There was something much different about how Emmy prepared for this match in comparison to the others: she had started to grow a much healthier respect for the competition involved and took much more care to get to know them. She smiled as she saw the much bigger man moving like someone her size before clips of him training. The Bulldozer, she thought that was what he was called. Lance Williams. Being a bit of a gym rat herself, Emmy could appreciate his strength and look. Even so, every moment she studied him she was searching, checking for anything that could be a weakness. A buckled knee here, a taped-up arm or shoulder there.
“That’s one big son of a bitch…..”
She continued, chewing on the bottom of a pen as she kept taking notes, making note of anything she remotely deemed a deficiency in his game. There would be a game plan this time and if she had her way about things, there would be victory as well.
So, 0-2 it is. I’m sure there are a lot of you out there who are looking at me and my record and are thinking to yourselves “Is that it? Is that all she can really do? Where is the badass woman that we were promised? Where is the Platinum Standard?” Guess what, All of you very much have good reason to question things. I promised you a new level of wrestling and I haven’t delivered. That’s all on my shoulders. But, here’s the thing and I hope all of you understand me clearly when I say this:
Just because I haven’t yet doesn’t mean that I can’t.
That said, this isn’t the week where I have to worry about just myself or beat my chest about everything I’m going to do to whoever. This is a tag team match that I’m involved in. Is it something I’m particularly fond of, tag team wrestling? No. I didn’t come here to be someone’s sidekick and I’m damn sure not in the carrying a partner mood after the crap I had to deal with in another federation. I’m here just for me. However this is a pretty interesting situation that I’ve got on my hands, enough for me to really sink my teeth into. How many times do you get to have a shot at the person who beat you straight away the next time out? How many times do you get to face a new opponent, someone that you haven’t seen but have heard so much about and done some research on to figure out? Further still how many times do you get to take on this interesting new team with someone like Myojin, a guy that I’ve fought before on a couple of occasions and I know can hold himself well in a wrestling ring?
It’s a scenario that I’m welcoming. Plus, considering my singles start here, what would be wrong with sticking my toes in the tag team waters a little bitty bit, just to see if I can generate some momentum and quieten down some of the people who are willing to knock me on my record? Cadillac, I guess I can’t call you an ole jalopy or make any other bad car jokes. You won our first meeting and you won it fair and square so there’s no use for me making excuses or crying about fatigue from the road or you being bigger than I am or any other excuses that a lot of people would make these days. For a few weeks, you’re the toast of the town! People will rally to you, shower you with praise, yada yada yada. People have seen you at your best and I believe whole-heartedly that I’ve seen YOU at your best. You want to know the scary part of this match for you?
You haven’t seen my best yet.
I may not be one to cozy up and be polite with people but I do appreciate when respect is given. Even though you beat me and had the confidence that you would, you had the politeness down to a science. Maybe I didn’t take you seriously. Maybe I actually allowed myself to be flattered by your half-hearted compliments. Hey, I’m an attention-starved lady sometimes. But there is one thing for certain that I want you to understand: I don’t make the same mistakes twice. One little misstep and you were able to get the job done, just don’t expect to see the same opportunities again. You’ve gotten a taste of me at normal speed. Now you get to have a taste of me after you’ve rattled the hornet’s nest one too many times.
And then there is this BullDozer! Lance Williams. I pulled up some of those old videos of you and I have to say I’m quite impressed at what you were capable of doing in your prime. I also appreciate that you’ve adapted your style and adjusted to revitalize and restart your career. That’s some king-level shit to do and I respect you for it. However, you have the unfortunate task of standing in my way, which statistically speaking is not the best place to be if you want to walk out a winner. I’m not going to try to fill your head up with nonsense about how I have mystical powers or have some hidden clique ready to take you down. You’re a brick house. I’m a twig in comparison. Most times, women like me wouldn’t have a chance against guys like you. However, I’ve seen too many instances where big strong guys like you break down, you turn into little kittens when presented with adversity. I hope you’re not fooled by Myojin and myself because we’re skinny, damn attractive people and delude yourself into a false sense of security that we don’t hit hard and can’t cause you some problems.
Because we can and will hit you and Cadillac over there pretty fucking hard.
You’re the kind of person that even though you want to cause a little punishment that people would definitely root for. They root for people like you who have put so much effort to return to something that they love so dearly. They want people like you to beat up people like me, arrogant jackasses that are willing to antagonize not just the fans but the opposition we face. You know what that does for me though, right? It motivates me, drives me. Just to give you an idea of what I can do when motivated, I recently threw down a challenge for a handicap match elsewhere. Nobody your size but very good wrestlers nevertheless. Guess what? Two people couldn’t beat lil ol me by myself. What do you think that may mean for you and Car Boy now that I have a reliable partner standing at my side? I hope you don’t have your hopes too high.
Myojin probably wasn’t too keen on teaming with me and I’m not used to sharing the spotlight, but this one time to get myself on track and Prove myself on Proving Ground, I’m more than willing to share top billing. You, Big Bulldozer and Cadillac Kid, are bit players that we’re more than happy to have with us, along for the ride. Cadillac may be on his way to all the endorsements and women and whatever else he has his eyes set on, and you my dear Bulldozer may get your comeback off to a better start down the line, but this week? Sorry boys. You take a backseat to a Superstar in the making and the Platinum Standard. A match made in heaven that’s going to give the two of you absolute hell.
It’s nothing personal, it’s just getting back to business, back to the basics for me: winning.
“Fuck.”
There was no way that this was happening. Once, during a wild War Games match in her debut was one thing. There wasn’t much of a disgrace in that. She was one of the newest members of the roster, one of the smallest participants in the match and not much was expected. But this? This was unacceptable. TWO LOSSES? In a row? It was unheard of. It was inexcusable, despite facing a man that she was giving up a considerable size advantage to. She had overcome similar odds before and beaten plenty of men. It was unacceptable.
“GODDAMN IT!”
Emmy kicked over a chair in the locker room, sitting in her stall for a moment. She replayed the match in her mind, moment by moment, mentally whipping herself for each error, no matter how small. Sure, she had put on a good performance. But putting on a show was only part of what she was there to do. Everywhere that she had been, everywhere that she was planning to go, she presented herself with an expectation of excellence. Every time that she didn’t win, her personal brand suffered. No moral victories could fix that.
But why was this hunger starting to build in her? She really didn’t care much about wrestling in the same way so many around her did. Even her best friend Diantha didn’t understand why Emmanuelle pushed herself in the sport so hard. Was it really all about the money now? Or was there something else, a competitive void or wanderlust traveling from place to place, meeting people from all over, that was being sated by being involved in such a barbaric and sometimes corny profession? She didn’t feel too much like contemplating. All she could do at this point was grab a shower, go to her hotel room and regroup.
A couple of years ago.
Carlos Rosso’s Gym: Baton Rouge, Louisiana
It was a steaming summer night in Louisiana. Even with the sun almost completely down, temperatures were still blistering outside. Inside Carlos’s gym, the proprietor of the place loved to turn the air conditioning off some days in the summer when dealing with new trainees just to see how they would respond in the heat. Most of his wrestling trainees had already left, most doing the bare minimum of drills and exercises required on the day and leaving as quickly as they could to find a place to cool off and recover. Only one trainee remained: a much different looking Emmanuelle. Although the girl was fit, she wasn’t quite as muscular as she would become. Her hair was not in the platinum blonde that many would recognize later, instead in a light brown ponytail. Her body was dripping with sweat as she ran the ropes, doing her best to perfect even the most basic of things. Carlos was busy taking care of some of the more mundane tasks of the gym, helping with the cleaning of equipment and making sure that things were in order before they closed up shop for the day.
“Emmy….EMMY...YO! We’re about to close up here in a few. You gonna shower up and get ready to leave or are you trying to make my little gym a second home?”
The young woman nodded and stopped her running drill, leaning on the ropes and facing her trainer.
“Sorry. I just wanted to make sure that I got it right, you know? When I played ball, did water polo and stuff, all my coaches drilled basic fundamentals into my head. ‘Master this basic thing. Memorize that.’ You understand?”
“Yeah, I understand. Mine were the same. I do have a question though…”
Carlos jumped up on the ring apron, looking his younger trainee in the eyes, his face expressing a bit of confusion.
“I’m trying to figure out why you’re still here. You’ve got this stuff down pat. You’re advancing pretty well in every aspect of what I’m trying to teach you all. Why are you so intent on working yourself like this?”
“I just want to make sure that when the time comes, I don’t make any mistakes. Know what I mean?”
“Eh, we’re all going to make mistakes here and there, muscle memory or not. Sometimes we lose our grip, sometimes we trip. Sometimes shit just happens. One thing that I want you to think about though, when you MAKE a mistake, don’t beat yourself up over it. We all make em. Rookies, vets, champions, nobodies. Just learn what you need to learn to be prepared when your number gets called again.”
“Did you make a lot of mistakes when you were in the ring?”
Carlos smiled. “More than I care to count. Hell, one of the most basic things that I did wrong was this match against Aria Jaxon. She’s top shit and all that right, and I have her beat. I hit my Gotch-Style piledriver and covered her but the referee noticed something that I didn’t: part of her body was under the ropes so he wouldn’t count. Boom-boom-boom, I get pissed, I lose my shit, next thing I know she beats me. It’s little things like this that can fuck up a match. You try to prevent them, but even veterans like me misstep. You’re still learning so don’t beat yourself up too bad.”
That was the first of many counseling sessions between the two of them. She would be a sponge, soaking in the knowledge of a well-traveled former champion. He was longing for a student “of the game” like her, someone who he could pass on everything that he had learned. She was just grateful for the opportunity to listen. Young, hungry and eager to learn.
That was the best combination to make a wrestler, Carlos thought.
The shower had done Emmy some good. While still very much sore from the match, she was feeling far more relaxed and a lot less frustrated with herself. As she was getting dressed, she heard her phone going off. She didn’t pay it much mind but when the sound for another notification came up, she made sure to pick it up after she was dressed. It was from her old opponent in WrestleWorld, someone she had a lot of respect for.
“MYOJIN? Huh….Well this is going to be fun. Guess we better meet up to talk about this.”
The news was that the two of them were going to be competing in a tag match together. The flamboyant wrestling star had asked Emmy to meet with him and Emmy reluctantly agreed, suggesting a place where the two could meet up and discuss their partnership and catch up a little.
I didn’t really expect to be tag teaming in Project Honor. I mean, the main reason I came here was to make my name as a singles star. Holding Singles titles, Yada Yada Yada. While I’m not typically inclined to play nice with others in this profession, I have been able to be a good team player in the past. In high school I did the two-sports thing. Water Polo and Basketball. Now I’m not going to declare myself a mega-star at either, but we were good enough. I managed to get my name on a State title banner in Water Polo and I was a full-time starter for a couple of years. The point is that as long as my teammates aren’t completely useless, I can make it work. I think I proved that at least once at my most recent stop in the wrestling world before this one. I teamed once with a mask-wearing, spandex clad buffoon to win my debut. But wins have been hard to come by lately. I never expected to be winless still here on Proving Ground but here we are. But this latest match, this tag team match...maybe it’s a good omen? I got one of the most handsome and interesting men in the wrestling world as my partner for this one, someone that I know that I can at least trust to not be completely useless. He’s someone that I’ve gone against before so I’m already familiar with him. Myojin is an interesting one for sure. Having dinner with him definitely made me feel more at ease. A lot of wrestlers, hell people in general, they don’t understand where I come from or why I’m the way I am. He gets it, even more than he lets on. I appreciate it, especially now with the hard times I’ve stumbled onto.
Emmy was thankful for Myojin’s company, but the grind of preparing for the match was something she didn’t quite trust with him...not just yet. Their partnership may turn out to be as temporary as the one before and she could tell that even though he was eager to team up with her that a part of him was still very much thinking about the partnership he had given up with a friend that was much closer than she had been with him. She was back in her California home, watching the replay of her match with Cadillac. It wasn’t pleasant viewing and she fidgeted quite a bit while watching, glancing at it irritated with herself for losing in the first place. But she did learn from it. The closing sequence where she started to try trading strikes instead of maybe looking for something more practical was one of the most glaring errors in her assessment. Cadillac was not someone to take lightly, but beating him was something not beyond her scope. She then turned on the clips put together for her for the other half of the opposing team that she was going to be facing. Lance Williams. Another person that she didn’t know much about, Another new face on her wrestling journey. There was something much different about how Emmy prepared for this match in comparison to the others: she had started to grow a much healthier respect for the competition involved and took much more care to get to know them. She smiled as she saw the much bigger man moving like someone her size before clips of him training. The Bulldozer, she thought that was what he was called. Lance Williams. Being a bit of a gym rat herself, Emmy could appreciate his strength and look. Even so, every moment she studied him she was searching, checking for anything that could be a weakness. A buckled knee here, a taped-up arm or shoulder there.
“That’s one big son of a bitch…..”
She continued, chewing on the bottom of a pen as she kept taking notes, making note of anything she remotely deemed a deficiency in his game. There would be a game plan this time and if she had her way about things, there would be victory as well.
So, 0-2 it is. I’m sure there are a lot of you out there who are looking at me and my record and are thinking to yourselves “Is that it? Is that all she can really do? Where is the badass woman that we were promised? Where is the Platinum Standard?” Guess what, All of you very much have good reason to question things. I promised you a new level of wrestling and I haven’t delivered. That’s all on my shoulders. But, here’s the thing and I hope all of you understand me clearly when I say this:
Just because I haven’t yet doesn’t mean that I can’t.
That said, this isn’t the week where I have to worry about just myself or beat my chest about everything I’m going to do to whoever. This is a tag team match that I’m involved in. Is it something I’m particularly fond of, tag team wrestling? No. I didn’t come here to be someone’s sidekick and I’m damn sure not in the carrying a partner mood after the crap I had to deal with in another federation. I’m here just for me. However this is a pretty interesting situation that I’ve got on my hands, enough for me to really sink my teeth into. How many times do you get to have a shot at the person who beat you straight away the next time out? How many times do you get to face a new opponent, someone that you haven’t seen but have heard so much about and done some research on to figure out? Further still how many times do you get to take on this interesting new team with someone like Myojin, a guy that I’ve fought before on a couple of occasions and I know can hold himself well in a wrestling ring?
It’s a scenario that I’m welcoming. Plus, considering my singles start here, what would be wrong with sticking my toes in the tag team waters a little bitty bit, just to see if I can generate some momentum and quieten down some of the people who are willing to knock me on my record? Cadillac, I guess I can’t call you an ole jalopy or make any other bad car jokes. You won our first meeting and you won it fair and square so there’s no use for me making excuses or crying about fatigue from the road or you being bigger than I am or any other excuses that a lot of people would make these days. For a few weeks, you’re the toast of the town! People will rally to you, shower you with praise, yada yada yada. People have seen you at your best and I believe whole-heartedly that I’ve seen YOU at your best. You want to know the scary part of this match for you?
You haven’t seen my best yet.
I may not be one to cozy up and be polite with people but I do appreciate when respect is given. Even though you beat me and had the confidence that you would, you had the politeness down to a science. Maybe I didn’t take you seriously. Maybe I actually allowed myself to be flattered by your half-hearted compliments. Hey, I’m an attention-starved lady sometimes. But there is one thing for certain that I want you to understand: I don’t make the same mistakes twice. One little misstep and you were able to get the job done, just don’t expect to see the same opportunities again. You’ve gotten a taste of me at normal speed. Now you get to have a taste of me after you’ve rattled the hornet’s nest one too many times.
And then there is this BullDozer! Lance Williams. I pulled up some of those old videos of you and I have to say I’m quite impressed at what you were capable of doing in your prime. I also appreciate that you’ve adapted your style and adjusted to revitalize and restart your career. That’s some king-level shit to do and I respect you for it. However, you have the unfortunate task of standing in my way, which statistically speaking is not the best place to be if you want to walk out a winner. I’m not going to try to fill your head up with nonsense about how I have mystical powers or have some hidden clique ready to take you down. You’re a brick house. I’m a twig in comparison. Most times, women like me wouldn’t have a chance against guys like you. However, I’ve seen too many instances where big strong guys like you break down, you turn into little kittens when presented with adversity. I hope you’re not fooled by Myojin and myself because we’re skinny, damn attractive people and delude yourself into a false sense of security that we don’t hit hard and can’t cause you some problems.
Because we can and will hit you and Cadillac over there pretty fucking hard.
You’re the kind of person that even though you want to cause a little punishment that people would definitely root for. They root for people like you who have put so much effort to return to something that they love so dearly. They want people like you to beat up people like me, arrogant jackasses that are willing to antagonize not just the fans but the opposition we face. You know what that does for me though, right? It motivates me, drives me. Just to give you an idea of what I can do when motivated, I recently threw down a challenge for a handicap match elsewhere. Nobody your size but very good wrestlers nevertheless. Guess what? Two people couldn’t beat lil ol me by myself. What do you think that may mean for you and Car Boy now that I have a reliable partner standing at my side? I hope you don’t have your hopes too high.
Myojin probably wasn’t too keen on teaming with me and I’m not used to sharing the spotlight, but this one time to get myself on track and Prove myself on Proving Ground, I’m more than willing to share top billing. You, Big Bulldozer and Cadillac Kid, are bit players that we’re more than happy to have with us, along for the ride. Cadillac may be on his way to all the endorsements and women and whatever else he has his eyes set on, and you my dear Bulldozer may get your comeback off to a better start down the line, but this week? Sorry boys. You take a backseat to a Superstar in the making and the Platinum Standard. A match made in heaven that’s going to give the two of you absolute hell.
It’s nothing personal, it’s just getting back to business, back to the basics for me: winning.