Look who came crawling back- Valentina Cousins vs Renee Steinhauser

Valentina waited, eyes closed, in front of the entrance doors. Her heart was beating harder and faster than he remembered it ever beating before. Frankly, after her timeout following her initial loss run and the backlash she had gathered, he has came back to the offices half expecting them to politely tell her that her chance had passed. She hadn´t caught on, it happens, live with it and do undercards or job if you wanna do this.

Surprisingly, though, none of that had happened. They had been ready enough to take her back and even ad a little extra to her re-induction match. Nothing too fancy, of course- Tina didn´t have the pull to get a complete comeback treatment with story, segments and all the hoopla, but still... the fact that someone had agree to the little surprise about to play on the speakers showed that somewhere, someone had more faith in her than she herself had right this moment.

Best not to disappoint them, then.

For something to do, she checked again her clothes.  Green baggy military shorts, black tank top and white hoodie, only for the walk to the ring. She had decided to ditch the swimsuit attire for this one- she wanted to see the reaction of the public to something a bit more adult and less cutesy. And hey, a cute girl in tank top sure would be something the public won´t object too much to having, especially if things got sweaty. No sense pretending you didn't know what people came here for aside from wrestling. She tensed up when the loudspeakers cracked into life with the "special" recording.

Ladies and Gentlemen. Today, in this starter event, we are please to offer you the return to the rings of one of our former talents. Let´s give a warm... hey! What do you think you are doing?
Sorry, pops. Tl, dr. Helloooooooooo party people. You thought you'd seen the last of Valentina Cousins? Didja miss me? No? Well. HARD LUCK, BIIIIIIITCHES!

Just as the words faded, the intro to "Mie-Chan" starting blaring, full blast on the speakers.


"Game on"

Tina came flinging open the doors, arms raised, and started walking slowly down the aisle, a grin pasted in her face as she turned around. For a second, she was worried no one would actually engage. That there would be only an embarrassed silence as she made the way to the ring and that despite all the vitriol she had gathered in her day, everyone will have moved on to the next thing.

Luckily, she was wrong again. Almost the same instant the initial chords of the song started playing, the booing had started. A moderate one, sure. Not the chorus of disapproval she could have mustered in her day. But the way it only kept increasing as she walked randomly locking eyes gave her something to hold onto. Stopping, she made an exaggerated show of fanning her face, as though she was basking on the disapproval of the public. The booing increased.

Well, not all is lost. If anything, it seems I still got the touch for annoying the hell out of a crowd.

She would need much more than that, eventually. But hey. A start is a start.

increasing her pace, Tina kept "fanning" with an expression of contentment. Back in the day she would probably had done something way more crass, but that had probably been one of her mistakes. Sometimes, especially when you hadn't made a name for yourself, less is more. She came into the ring rolling under the bottom rope and stood back up, arms raised and again giving a spin for all the public to take her from all angles, before getting off her hoodie and making a point of throwing it towards one of the employees, who made an adequate show of awkwardly peeling it off his face.

Damn. Feels good to work with pros.

All said and done, Tina retired to a corner and leaned against the turnbuckle, half sitting, the way a boxer might in the ring, waiting for her rival. From what she had gathered, she was a trooper like her. Done the rounds on the local divisions, had done her run in the AFW. Win some, lose some, putting in the elbow grease. She liked that. Having been- being- there herself, she respected her for the grit.

Not that it would stop her from unleashing every dirty trick on the book, obviously, but hey. No one said you couldn't do that respectfully .

Renegade would be in her locker room, putting on her mask. She was hyping herself up a bit as she was wanting to win this match against a returning AFW star. Renee hasn’t heard of her but that didn’t matter since she was assuming her opponent was rusty. That was where her cocky mind was. She then stood up and made her way towards the hallway and to the show curtain.

As she watched her opponent make her entrance, there was a few second delay for Renee to come out due to her opponent not getting ready yet. Once she saw her ready, she was given the green light and she would walk through the show curtain.

Blood Water by grandson began playing and by the beat drop, Renee would appear to a cheering crowd. She would pose a bit before walking down the ramp and climbing up the steel steps. She posed a bit more before entering in between the top two ropes and would look at her opponent. She scoffed at what her opponent was wearing and would walk to her corner, waiting for the bell to ring to begin the match.

Tina seized her opponent up from her corner, trying to appear relaxed and at ease. Tight bod. Compact and hard-looking. About as tall as her, and probably stronger. Without reach advantage, that was going to be a problem. Good thing she'd spent the last couple years trying other forms of grappling, this would prove useful in this type of match.

Her entrance was measured, no-frills, straight to the chase. From the look it gave her when she saw her attire and intro she could tell that she wasn't going to get inside her head, and that she didn't think mucho of her.

First was bad news, since she was the gimmicky type. Second were good enough news. It'd give her more chances to prove how unwise that was. Valentina bounced a bit and stood up, giving a couple hops in place to get the blood flowing.

Strong and silent type, eh? Dig ya. I'm more of the strong and loud type, myself. Or... strong and violent, I guess? Speaking of which, shall we cut to the part where there is less talking and more beating the ever loving shit out of each other? I have catching up to do, you see.

She then bolted forwards without waiting for an answer, aiming a cross chop to her rival's chest. It was a ballsy move, going for a wide swing this early in the match when the opponent was still full strength and had more reflexes and energy to parry or catch her with a counter, but she figured if she didn't think that much of her, maybe she'd be expecting her to take the defensive. If that happened and she caught her off guard, maybe a good, solid chop leading to a solid right hook to the face would have her reeling and open for something more damaging.

If not... well, there will be pain. But there was always pain in here. It was part of the charm.

Renegade would hear the bell ring and watched her opponent rush at her. She smirked before dropping down and rolling out of the ring, letting her opponent crash into the corner or holding onto the top ropes to stop herself. Renegade then taunted her by doing the suck it movement before the referee told her to get back into the ring, pushing Valentina away to allow Renegade to roll back into the ring.

Once Renegade was back into the ring, she would hold out her hand and offered a test of strength to Valentina. She continued taunting her as Renegade wanted Valentina to accept the test of strength.

“Alright you jumpy bastard. How about you slow the pace down and take on a test of strength. I want to take it easy if you don’t want me to take you out in record time. Or do you like being dominated.”

Her rival, it seemed, wasn't even than keen on starting to get physical just yet. She rolled out of the way, letting Tina land chest first into the top rope, from where she would quickly bounce back into a standing position, with nothing except her pride intact. Thank God for small things. If she had weapons-grade honkers like some of the -unsurprisingly- popular girls there, that might have stung a bit.

As it was, she just circled round behind the ref as he protectively put himself between her and Renee as she re-entered the ring and held a hand up. Tina scoffed at the idea and the tone. Let her think she had her beat from the get go, if she wanted. Pride precedes the fall, or so they said.

She wasn´t really big on the idea of a contest of strength. She knew herself well enough to assume she´d be on the losing side. But refusing her would make her look bad, after her botched attack, and the public hated when the matches started dragging on at the beggining. So she leaned in and locked hands with her and put her weight behind as she began to push. She would play her game and seehow she rolled.

But she didn´t have any intention of tiring out fruitlessly. The moment she sensed commitment, she planned to yield suddenly and try to use her own momentum. Maybe a sacfrifice throw or an arm drag throw.

That, of course, provided she really had a strength contest in mind, and not something else.

Renee smirked at Valentina accepting her test of strength. She would grab the right hand of her opponent with her left and slowly raised it up in the air. As she was looking to grab Valentina’s left hand, however, she would use her dominant hand to not grab it but instead smack the shit out of Valentina.

Renee backed up and let Valentina take in that hit. She also laughed and taunted Valentina for falling for Renee’s iconic trick. If Valentina did her research on her opponent, she would have known that Renee would pull this trick off nearly every single match.

“Hey maybe next time you don’t be fucking stupid and let me do that to ya. But hey, got you all fired up from the start huh. Now let’s restart and give this crowd something good to watch you fucking flat chested jobber.”

Well. Things had gotten rolling. In a way. Sorta. THe public had seen blows, which is wht counted. And she had gotten a read on her rival. Her grip confirmed that she indeed was stronger than her, and the way the blow ringed inside her skull when it connected told Valentina that she knew, and planned to make good use of it. If she played to her usual strength of eating up punishment, she'd have to keep tabs on those hooks.

Restart? Oh, sorry, were we fighting? With that love pat of yours, I wasn't sure if we were on the job or you just found me so cute you just had to pet me. Imagine my disappointment right now. If that is what passes for a gimmick these days do me a favour, roll over on your belly and let's get you counted. Save us both the embarassment. she replied, arms raised to a grappling guard and waiting.

To be truth, it might not be very wise to start provoking a rival while she was at full force, but there was something on the way this girl this had a stick up her ass that just made her want to mouth her off. Well. More than her usual share, at least.

Come on. Show me something interesting for a change.

Renegade smirked at the challenge from Valentina. She has definitely intrigued the renegade as she locked up with Valentina.

Renee then placed Valentina in a headlock and would try to bring her down to the mat. If she were successful, she would try to put Valentina in a LeBell Lock. Once it was in, Renee would actually choke Valentina in the hold and hoped the referee wasn’t watching the blatant choke.

And there she was again on her. She seemed to be taking the lead in aggression, which suited her just fine for the time being. She just had to make sure she wasn't taking too much punishment- a mistake that had often costed her in training.

Tina complied to the headlock. Tucked her chin in to avoid getting looped around the neck and shifted her feet and hips to give her additional purchase if she needed to struggle or push in case she wanted to do something that required forward momentum, like a running bulldog or similar. This also made her put her ass up in the air in a not very dignified manner, but at the moment, safety over dignity was a good trade-off.

Renee pushed donw. Eventually, Tina realised there was no fighting going to the ground, so she wriggled and tilted her body, coming down on her side, her arms hugging her rival's wasit to keeep a measure of control. And then, she felt Renee shifting her weight, trying do drag Tina so she´d be flat on the grounf, instead of the side.

Precisely what she had taken this position to avoid.

Sorry. No can do.

Tina hugged Renee´s hips tighter, then bridged and rolled away from her. The motion put a considerable strain on her neck for a second, as it was forced to support not only Tina, but her rival as well before she tipped over and went on the ground, with tina beside her, arms still wrapped tight around her waist.

I'm nowhere near tired or beaten enough to let you just choke on me the ground and spend huge amounts of energy getting out.

From here, Tina would try to pass a leg over Renee´s body and use that momentum to get her into a back mount. If she could get a good hold of her and control her hips, she´ll have options to move in for a lock. Or who knows, if she could get a good grip and plan her feet firmly, the impulse could launch her in a belly to back suplex. It was a big if, her not being a power wrestler, but if she could pull it, the public would certainly feel it. And so would Renee.

Renee would be on all fours after she failed to take Tina down for the LeBell Lock. She also still had her arms wrapped around her waist. This was a terrible position she was in and that was when she felt the shift from her opponent.

Renee would be lifted up onto her feet as her opponent prepared for a big belly to back suplex. It took a bit of a while for her opponent but once she managed to lift the Renegade and land the move, a huge pop came from the crowd. Renegade also rolled out of the ring to get a quick and short breather.