*I am not affiliated with World Wrestling Entertainment. While real ring names are used in this series, a different name is used for the fed, because a different roster exists in it. I also did not know there was an independent federation called BCW when I began this series, so I am obviously unaffiliated with them as well. I do not own any of the "characters" mentioned in this story. This story, and series is fiction.*
*Despite parallels to recent storylines, this is actually among the stories I had the idea for before I set this account up back in 2016.*
*ding ding ding*
The bell rings in London's O2 Arena. On this episode of Thursday Night Smackdown, the BCW Women's Champion, Asuka, stands across the ring from the woman she beat for the title, and beat in convincing fashion, A.J. Lee.
The smaller-in-stature Puerto Rican-American had gotten the better of Asuka in their first two encounters: A.J. eliminated Asuka in the first ever Women's Royal Rumble, then beat her in the main event of Summerslam. Those wins may have been to the surprise of many, but not to A.J. She was too confident for that to be the case. She'd never be one to count herself out.
..Until, after those two wins. They met again, Asuka won. They wrestled again, for the title, in a two-out-of-three falls match, that Asuka won 2 falls to 0. The Empress of Tomorrow got A.J. to submit to win fall one, pinned her with her Running Hip Attack in Fall Two. A.J. became unsure of herself. She was so down on herself that night, she was sure she would've lost a third fall to her as well. A.J. had to admit Asuka handed it all back to her, and then some.
...Tonight felt different. It had been a few months since they last faced off. Things had changed- A.J. took some time off, and came back. She challenged Asuka immediately, and this was her first time appearing on BCW Television in almost three months. For now, she was settling for a Non-Title contest. This match wasn't for a title... nor was either competitor's body on the line, as had been the case a few times over the past year. No, A.J. and Asuka had had plenty of fun with each other, and perhaps more would take place again one night, but this match was just about a chance for A.J.- if she won this match, she'd have another match with Asuka, this time with the Championship on the line...
One thing A.J. was confident in, was that she knew she could compartmentalize- Once she and Asuka were in between the ropes, on the mat, she could wrestle a 60-Minute Ironwoman match, and not for a second be reminded by, and subsequently distracted by, the fact that she's staring at the woman with whom some of the best sex A.J. had ever had, was with.
Now, for actually winning the match, that was a bit harder, she had to admit.
"And A.J., the former champion looks a bit hesitant." Mauro Ranallo says on commentary.
"You can see that Mauro, I agree." Byron Saxton beings, "She's fiery, but she knows she can't out-aggression Asuka so what else does she do? What else can she do?"
For the first ten minutes, A.J. had to spend a lot of the match on the defensive. Asuka got a few nearfalls, but A.J. hadn't covered Asuka yet. No way was A.J. gonna get in a striking war with Asuka. That wouldn't help her. A few minutes in, Asuka charges at A.J. and connects with a hip attack. When A.J. tries to get an arm on Asuka, Asuka blocks her with her shoulder. With A.J. a bit stunned, Asuka went for one of her signature Roundhouse Kicks that had knocked other women's lights out..
A.J. ducks. Her heart beats a little fast, knowing that could've been a finishing blow if Asuka's boot connected in just the right spot. A.J. rolls under the bottom rope and out of the ring. She takes a breath and looks under the ring...
"And I don't know what A.J.'s looking for," Mauro calls, "A.J. would get disqualified if she brings a foreign object into the ring."
"Right, Mauro. Plus the fact that A.J. is not the type to resort to underhanded tactics anyway." Renee answers.
"It just doesn't look like she had much of a gameplan." Byron says. A.J. lowers the ringskirt back over the area underneath the ring. As she stood back upright, Asuka hit A.J. with a dropkick. Getting a running start, hanging on the middle rope for leverage, and 'dropping' her legs under the bottom rope, knocking A.J. down.
"OHHHH MY, What a dropkick!" Mauro calls, "The Champion is in control again!"
Asuka gets back in the ring, the ref starts to count A.J. out.. "One....two....three....four........five....six....seven.....eight!....nine!.." A.J. slowly rolled back. She's out of breath, and it looks like the next pin attempt Asuka gets on A.J. would seal it.
...Unless A.J. taps out instead.. Asuka hits the ring, charges A.J. when she returns, and sinches her Asuka-Lock submission. Asuka has it locked in, with her left arm around her chin and legs around her waist. A.J. doesn't tap out, but doesn't flail reaching for the rope either...
Instead, A.J. uses her smaller frame to her advantage, she manages to slyly slip her legs from Asuka's legs, and kicks Asuka's quad a few times, hard enough that Asuka has to release her. After A.J. kicked herself out of Asuka's grip, Asuka retaliates with her signature strikes of her own. No one could prepare for Asuka's swift swinging of each of her limbs. A.J. puts her arm up to defend herself, but is backed into the ring post. She blocks two of Asuka's strikes and their arms lock up. A.J. uses Asuka's hands for leverage and lifts herself up to the middle turnbuckle. A.J. leaps forward, gets her arm around Asuka and swings around and hits a Tornado DDT.
After planting Asuka on her head, A.J. goes for the cover. One...... and Asuka kicked out at ONE! "Oh! And Asuka, kicking out at one! Emphatically telling Miss 'Lee' she's far away from a 'three' count." Mauro calls.
A.J. gets back up, this time she backs herself back to the ringpost. She reaches back and pops herself up on the middle turnbuckle. She waves her arm upward, trying to goad Asuka into getting back up. Asuka does, and when she does, A.J. climbs up, and sits herself up on the top turnbuckle. The crowd cheers and gest more into it now that A.J.'s back in it.
"What's A.J. going for here, Mauro?" Renee asks.
"I'm not sure Renee, it looks like maybe going to the preverbal well once more?" Mauro answers. Asuka eyes A.J. up top, and has confidence in her eyes that she'll counter whatever aerial technique A.J. has this time.
"You gotta wonder if Asuka will be ready this time." Byron wonders. When Asuka approaches, A.J. fakes like she's gonna dive off the turnbuckle, but stays seated up top. The fakeout worked as she lands a kick to Asuka's head. Asuka puts her hand up to her temple, and that's when A.J. sees an opening for a second Tornado DDT...
A.J. jumps off the turnbuckle, gets the facelock around Asuka. And in one swift motion, A.J. spins both her legs to hit-...
...
...
...
.
.
.
...For her legs to connect with referee Danilo Anfibio's head. The ref takes a bump from accidentally being kicked by A.J. and rolls out of the ring.
"OH! And an out-of-position official takes a tumble!" Mauro calls, as now the ring is just A.J. and Asuka. As she came down, A.J.'s body sort of faceplants after her flight was interrupted mid-motion. At the same time, Asuka didn't suffer much on it either, just simply falling on her back.
A.J., lying on her stomach, rolls back over and sits up, and looks back at the fallen ref. In that amount of time, Asuka is already standing. Now A.J. has the face of someone helpless, seated on the mat with Asuka on her feet, approaching her again. A.J. moves back, her back resting against the bottom turnbuckle of the right ringpost closer to the ramp, hard-cam side.
Only about half the ring separates Asuka and A.J.. The champ charges, A.J. puts her hands up to defend herself...
...Through her fingers A.J. watches Asuka fall back. Having no idea how... What she didn't see, was that before Asuka could kick or stomp the challenger, someone in black pants and a black hoodie, with a bit of black hair sticking out, slid headfirst into the ring behind Asuka, and struck the back of her knee with a led pipe.
"WHAT THE HELL?! What the..?! Who the hell is this?!?!" Mauro tries to make sense of what's going on. A hurt Asuka gets down on one knee, and manages to kick the weapon that had cut her down, out of the ring.
As Asuka's back on the mat, a second hooded figure jumps the ring. Now it's two-on-one, with A.J. looking as confused as anyone. She watches as two people- she's pretty sure they're both women, with black hoods zipped up so far, that she's shocked they can see out of them. They can clearly see the Women's Champion, as the two rain down punches and forearms on Asuka's back and head.
A.J. doesn't join in. She's still stunned. "Renee, do you have any idea who this could be?" Mauro inquires.
"No, I don't. I haven't seen anyone new backstage, but this is absolute garbage. We had a great match that's gotten completely off the rails here." Renee answers.
"COME ON!" One of the two mystery assailants yell in A.J.'s direction. Clearly it's a woman, and, clearly, they want to help A.J. to win, or just want Asuka to lose. Either way, they clearly want Asuka taken care of before the ref catches them and throws the match out.
One of the two women stops wailing on Asuka. The other one lifts Asuka's upper half up with an arm grabbing both her arms. With Asuka unable to move, one of the hooded figures blasts Asuka with a hard dropkick. When she stands back up, they turn to A.J. and yell, "NOW!" It's clear both assailants are women, both trying to snap A.J. out of whatever daze this surprise has gotten her in, and urging her to take advantage of the fact that there was no referee looking at their interference.
Neither women have shown their faces yet, their hoods still cover everything but maybe a 3-inch in diameter sliver of their face. One of the women holds Asuka's left arm back, and knees her in her back a few times. Asuka can't fight back. Now it's 3-on-1, and there's no sign of the ref getting back up, no replacement ref running in, or anyone running in to fend these two off. So, now was A.J.'s chance.
The two assailants each step to one side of Asuka, and grab one of the Champion's arms, stretching her back while sitting on her legs. Asuka's as trapped as trapped gets by two human bodies. One of the women's barks down at Asuka, "No one is coming to save you."
They've since dragged Asuka to the far side of the ring. A.J. stands up, she charges Asuka who has nowhere to go. A.J. goes for her Shining Wizard.. She hits it. There's obviously some morality in the two attackers, they let go of Asuka's arms so that when A.J.'s knee connects, Asuka doesn't suffer would would've been serious whiplash if she was still restrained.
A.J.'s knee connects, Asuka falls hard on her face. Immediately, the two women run out of the ring and try to shake Danilo to wake him to count. It takes a few seconds, but the ref slides back into the ring. A.J.'s got a beaten-down Asuka pinned with both her legs in her arms. She hopes too much time didn't pass in between her perfect strike to Asuka's chin and Danilo sliding back.
