The birth of Shakedown / The drive to Indiana
Jan 16, 2016 0:00:42 GMT -5
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Charles "Dead Eye" James II likes this
Post by NoOnE on Jan 16, 2016 0:00:42 GMT -5
OOC: This is how I introduced Shakedown when they debuted in another company. I wanted to include it so that anyone working with them could understand how it all began and maybe to get some insight into the three of them. (Ingrid "Io" Europa is their manager, but in this company she was a wrestler, and I still stand by letting Io wrestle if a 6-man tag is called for)
I have also kept "The drive to Indiana" because THAT particular CD promo explains their move from NSFW in California to IPW, so both are relevant. Enjoy!
NOTE: Championship Pro Wrestling (CPW) is an indy-level fed with a weekly TV show on Spike TV that only exists within my storylines.
“I told you, Kem, it’s going to be great!”
“…AWESOME! I can’t wait to see you again!” As Ingrid pressed the end button on her phone, she could hardly contain her excitement. She had known Kem ever since she was adopted and got dropped into her kindergarten class. Ingrid never really felt like she fit in anywhere, but she always felt at ease when Kem was around. She had never had a friend like her, and, when Kem dropped out of high school to pursue a wrestling career, Ingrid had been devastated. High school is a tough place, especially when you don’t belong, and when the person whom you loved…to be around…leaves suddenly, it can make things really tough for you.
So tough, in fact, that you might just want to punch somebody.
Ingrid was smart, which saved her when she was facing expulsion from school for putting a teacher in the hospital. Her parents, praying that she was just going through a phase after her childhood friend left, instead chose to “voluntarily” homeschool her so she could at least earn a diploma. Ingrid graduated quickly, and was sent off to San Diego State University under the assumption that everything was normal.
But everything was not in fact normal. Ingrid still hurt, in a way that she couldn’t really explain to herself, nor could she resolve. College classes were a total struggle, and she was barely getting good enough grades to avoid her parents being notified, but she knew something was wrong and that she was spiraling downward. If only she could somehow figure it out…
…then she saw Kem again.
Flipping through channels, she ended up on an airing of Championship Pro Wrestling’s Wednesday night TV show. Bored and trying to drown out the noise in her soul, Ingrid watched as the announce team gushed about the mysterious person who had just won a 32-man tournament and last Sunday’s pay-per-view to become Seth Anderson’s #1 contender for the CPW World Title. Wrestling as “Darkside” this ninja-like character ran roughshod over the tournament, winning the final over a man billed at 6’11” and 360 pounds. The show then aired a clip from that show from right after Darkside won the final. He took off his ninja mask…and it wasn’t a he after all…
…it was Kem! She smiled and grabbed a mic and shot a promo about being a woman but proving that she was everything these men could be…because she was the daughter of Kid Dynamo!
Ouch, Ingrid thought. That’s gonna piss off her dad.
Nevertheless, Ingrid didn’t even notice until much later how weightless she felt just from seeing Kem’s face again, even from across a television screen. With a newfound zeal, Ingrid began following her old friend on CPW, blowing off study groups to watch their weekly show, and cancelling a weekend visit to her parents’ house to watch the Resolution pay-per-view where Kem defeated her adoptive father, Seth, to win the CPW World Title.
But that was just the beginning. The only problem with Ingrid’s new obsession with CPW was the lack of 24-hour content, so she still found herself flipping channels to find ways to entertain herself. (She knew most people in college got friends and/or sex partners, but from what she could tell, Ingrid was too awkward for either) She came across the Blockbuster Network and it held her attention. Honestly, she couldn’t remember the show she watched, but she remembered the commercial…
“Coming soon to Blockbuster Network…NSFW presents ‘Making the Tag’, a reality show where experienced independent wrestlers will try to do the impossible…build a cohesive tag team with someone who has NO PRIOR EXPERIENCE! Which duos will be able to jell and earn two $100,000 NSFW contracts? Tune in to find out! Applications still being accepted at NSFWWrestling.com/MakingTheTag!”
Ingrid’s eyes widened, and out of her elation and excitement, a noise shot out of her that she could not remember ever hearing before.
Turns out, it was a squeal, a squeal of joy at the idea of being reunited with her only real friend.
“I just…Dad, I can’t keep wrestling in my father’s company and expect to ever be taken seriously…”
You would think that an eighteen-year-old wouldn’t know how much it sucks to be an adult in the unforgiving reality of the American job market, but Kem had already been disappointed and let down more times than some people in their entire adult lives. Her biological father was a pro wrestler, her ADOPTIVE father was a pro wrestler, her adoptive mother even dabbled in the wrestling arts once upon a time! Kem was absolutely destined to be the biggest female wrestling superstar that anyone had ever seen.
Except that was kinda the problem: no one had really seen her.
She tried working for her adoptive father. He even handed her the keys to the company, practically throwing the CPW World Title at her like a hot potato and taking advantage of the female champion to turn her into a face of the franchise. But working an indy that had a low-level TV deal wasn’t really what Kem had had in mind, and one thing that she knew about Seth Anderson was that he was not an ambitious person. He was perfectly fine making $60,000 a year for a company that had stability but no upward mobility.
Kem was more like her biological father, Kid Dynamo, in THAT regard. Dynamo, an off-and-on wrestler for one of the most highly-rated companies on TV, offered her a job as a training dummy, basically a sparring partner for hire that had to adapt her style to match the client’s next opponent. In a way, it was the opportunity of a lifetime to get to be in the ring with wrestlers she had been a fan of since she started watching them on TV. But, the flipside of the coin was that she was a faceless cog in a machine that is very forgetful of those who fail to stand out. She gave up almost 2 years of her life to that, but had ended up no further than when she started, despite two wrestling dads offering up everything they could to get her a leg up in the business.
That’s when she realized that maybe it was time for her to be her own person. Still a “Dynamo”, but simply getting out from under the umbrella of her fathers may be enough for her to make the next step in her journey to the top of the industry. However, she had no idea where to start from there. Honestly, any place where she didn’t personally know members of the roster all felt the same to her. What was really the difference between 4CW, SCW, Boardwalk or Carnage? Something inside her told her that, if she was going to stand out, she needed to be more than just a girl trying to make it in a man’s world. She needed an angle.
As if on cue, Kem received a phone call from a number she didn’t recognize. Curious, she sent the call through.
“Hello?...”
“…Oh my gosh! Ingrid! It’s been like forever! What’s going on?”
“…Wow. College is that bad, huh? I’m sure it…”
Ingrid cut Kem off and began to explain the reality show to her friend. Kem was a little apprehensive, but the idea of not only getting back on television as a wrestler but to possibly be recognized as a wrestling talent show winner as well as a mentor to a green rookie was a tempting concoction, indeed. Something inside Kem told her that this was exactly what she needed to stand out.
“…Yeah, I think you’re right. You know what? Let’s do this.”
“…You bet. I’ll be there tomorrow!”
“…Me either! Talk to you later!”
Kem hung up the phone, and the excitement in her heart was quickly replaced by anxiety. She was going to have to tell her father. Her bio-dad was easy enough since she’d already quit her job as a training dummy. Seth, on the other hand, was over the moon that Kem had said she was thinking about coming back to CPW. She had been very clear that she was not making any promises to stay, but she knew he was already picturing the two of them working side by side until the promotion closed because the other wrestlers got tired of being role players in the Anderson sandbox. It would break his heart if she backed out now, especially to go compete at a different wrestling company.
So…she left that part out.
“Hey, Dad. I just…”
“…I’ve been thinking a lot about my future, and…”
“…yeah, I know, but, it’s just that I know wrestling will always be there, but it won’t be there forever, you know?”
“…I was thinking about maybe looking into college…”
“…I’ve done SOME homework, Dad, and it turns out that there’s a junior college up here that will accept students late for the spring semester…”
“…It’s called Haven College or something like that. Trust me, Dad. I looked it up and it looks nice and it’s a good start. I can go there and afford it and then move on from there.”
“…Oh my God, Dad! It’ll be fine! Stop worrying!”
“…I DON’T CARE if it’s your job to worry! It’s MY job to tell you to back off and let me do this!”
“…Yeah, I’m sorry, too, I’m just, you know, looking for support on this…”
Kem smiled. It had never been that difficult to work her adoptive father. It wasn’t long before he was just as excited to imagine her graduating from college as he did imagining her CPW World Champion. Everything was going to be great, Kem thought as she packed her wrestling gear and gym clothes into a suitcase.
Everything will be great…as long as Dad never googles “Haven College”.
“Send all these other bitches home. TRUST me.”
The NCAA sucked. It sucked ass like an amateur porn star, and the whole damn thing needed to die in a fire.
Okay, maybe not THAT extreme, but still, they SUCK.
These were the thoughts that ran through Jennifer Ganymede’s head when her waiver request came back denied. The NCAA would not let her join the University of Nevada-Las Vegas wrestling team, or any other team for that matter. She was too heavy to compete on the women’s circuit, almost a hundred pounds over the highest allowed weight for women. She was barely small enough to maintain a Heavyweight class for men, and the high school boys never had a problem grinding through a wrestling match with her. Then again, every high school boy wants nothing more than for a dominant and experienced woman to grind with them on the floor and make them submit, so maybe it was that. Nevertheless, according to the organization that dictatorially oversaw collegiate athletics, she was too fat to be a female wrestler, and too female to be with the men.
Apparently two Nevada State championships didn’t mean anything. Again, the NCAA SUCKS!
With a sigh, she got up off the couch and threw the rejection letter in the trash can. Screw those guys, she thought, but at the same time, she knew that she was screwed herself. She’d invested all her adolescent energy into amateur wrestling and teenage boys, and now both of those wells had dried up. Jennifer started to feel down, so she did what she always did whenever she wanted to feel better.
Another day, another AWESOME selfie Jennifer thought to herself. She manipulated her phone and, within a few seconds, “Venus of Henderson”, Jennifer’s super-popular Instagram account, had its newest picture. Satisfied, and genuinely feeling better after taking a moment to remind herself that she was amazing and anyone who disagreed was pond scum, she scrolled through her social media accounts like any other nineteen-year-old would do. What caught her eye was a Facebook share with the comment attached, “Hey, didn’t you use to wrestle, like really well?”.
It was a picture of a flyer. Some women named Kem Dynamo and Io Europa were forming a Trio for the new pro wrestling company, NSFW, and they were hosting an open audition for their third member. Jennifer had kinda thumbed her nose at pro wrestling during the height of her amateur dominance, but she admitted that she had given it some thought after she graduated high school. The drudgery of practice had reared its ugly head, but she had convinced herself that college wrestling would be different. Well, since THAT was clearly not gonna happen, Jennifer grabbed her laptop and went to Hulu to find whatever wrestling shows she could find.
Maybe it was just the fact that she was looking at it fresh. Maybe it was because she was mad at the NCAA still. Maybe it was because she had spent her senior year basking in the glory of her success by showing willing boys OTHER types of wrestling she was great at. But something about the spectacle of professional wrestling struck her in a way that it simply hadn’t before. In a word, it was AWESOME, and Jennifer was certain that “Venus of Henderson” needed to take part.
There wasn’t a big bone in her body that was worried about her…”unique” figure. She knew that she had dispelled any myths attributed to her long ago. I mean, yes, she was fat. She IS fat and, given her thorough enjoyment of nearly every cuisine, she knew she’d probably BE fat forever. But she was also strong as an ox, a really hot ox with amazing girl parts, but an ox nonetheless. As a sophomore getting her first chance to compete with the boys, she reveled in their looks of wonder and shock when she effortlessly suplexed them all over the mat. As a junior, those looks had turned from “I can’t believe you can do that” to “You can’t do that to ME!”, but the outcome was still the same. Like a left tackle in the NFL, she was stout as all get-out and the curves that she was proud to show off worked like a weight vest that was always on, making her body even stronger as a result.
She looked back at the flyer picture for all the details, and she packed all her clothes, which was a substantial amount of luggage, and tossed them into the back of her purple Nissan NVP. Like her, it was a massive attention getter that everyone noticed and generally liked. It also had a lot of stories to tell about Jennifer’s senior year. She packed everything as an emphatic showing of self-confidence. She was sure that, once she showed up, she would be the one who got the spot.
She wasn’t surprised, however, that, when she told Kem and Io, two girls she’d never met that, frankly, hadn’t bothered to research the recent history of Nevada high school wrestling, they were skeptical. They didn’t even really respond, instead looking at each other then handing Jennifer a number.
”…I see. And what’s your name?”
”Venus.”
”Last name?
”Last names are for ordinary people.” Jennifer shot them a look, not of anger or negativity, but one of confidence in her implicit declaration that she was too extraordinary to need to bother with a surname.
“Look, like I said, these other girls can go home. The three of us need to start getting to know one another…”
”Okay, hold up, ‘Venus’! You aren’t the only one who strutted in her thinking that she was a woman amongst girls!”
Venus turned around dramatically. ”Who else? Who here thinks they’re OBVIOUSLY the best woman out here? WHO?!?” The scene she was making surprised Kem and Ingrid, as well as the forty-plus woman that had come out for the chance to be a part of NSFW’s newest trio.
Most of the women just gave a look of disgust and turned back to what they were doing, but one woman stood up and started walking over to them. ”I DID!” She was taller than Jennifer, almost six feet to her 5’5”, and her body was packed full of muscle like hers but without the squishy outer layer. ”We’re ALL here for a shot, and we don’t need someone coming in and being ALL TALK and wasting everyone’s time!”
Venus turned back around to the two leading the audition. ”Me. Her. NOW!”
A few minutes later, Jennifer and the Hothead entered the ring to fight. As soon as a bell sounded, the Hothead charged Jennifer, who effortlessly caught her in her tracks, grabbed her forward leg, and threw her across the ring behind her with an exploder suplex. The crowd looked surprised, but none as much as Hothead, who got angry and charged again with a spear attempt. Jennifer easily dodged it and rammed Hothead into the corner post. Hothead turned her back to the corner and leaned in to try and get a rest, but all she ended up getting was Jennifer running like a bullet into the corner then leaping high enough in the air to deliver a crushing Stinger Splash to Hothead. The impact dropped Hothead to her butt in the corner where a moment later Jennifer rushed in with a senton splash, a combo move she liked to call “T ‘n’ A”. The crowd was enamored as she charismatically dissected the Hothead, ending with a picture-perfect Shooting Star Press that no one would have imagined she could pull off. She covered Hothead and slapped her hand on the mat three times to indicate that she had obviously won, then stood up and looked over at Kem and Ingrid.
”Okay, you win.”
”You’re hired.”
And like that, Shakedown was born.
"Wildest Dreams" started up in the speakers.
Kem reached for the controls, but Jennifer Ganymede aka Venus slapped her hand away. "MY ride. MY radio!" Kem sighed as Ingrid chimed in from the second row "Seriously? Taylor Swift?"
Jennifer defensively responded, "What the Hell is wrong with Taylor, Io? I let you play that awful Kittie album while we were on the Ferry. Flyleaf and Evanescence are coming, but this song rocks so BACK OFF!" She realized that she'd missed the entire first verse arguing so she tapped a button that restarted the song, smiling as Ingrid groaned behind her. Kem laughed to herself. Clearly, male vocalists weren't gonna cut it on this trip.
She observed the scenery outside her window, fearful that they were trading the beauty and luxury of Anastasia Lovelace's private island for its exact opposite in Indianapolis. But when her biological father found out that she had quit CPW, now effectively discarding BOTH of her fathers' connections so she could make it on her own, he told her to think bigger, to chase the biggest fish she could find, and to do so in a way that would make her be remembered.
Don't worry, Kem thought. They will remember me. THAT'S the easy part.
I have also kept "The drive to Indiana" because THAT particular CD promo explains their move from NSFW in California to IPW, so both are relevant. Enjoy!
NOTE: Championship Pro Wrestling (CPW) is an indy-level fed with a weekly TV show on Spike TV that only exists within my storylines.
----------------
Part 1: The Birth of Shakedown
Part 1: The Birth of Shakedown
“I told you, Kem, it’s going to be great!”
Io
“…AWESOME! I can’t wait to see you again!” As Ingrid pressed the end button on her phone, she could hardly contain her excitement. She had known Kem ever since she was adopted and got dropped into her kindergarten class. Ingrid never really felt like she fit in anywhere, but she always felt at ease when Kem was around. She had never had a friend like her, and, when Kem dropped out of high school to pursue a wrestling career, Ingrid had been devastated. High school is a tough place, especially when you don’t belong, and when the person whom you loved…to be around…leaves suddenly, it can make things really tough for you.
So tough, in fact, that you might just want to punch somebody.
Ingrid was smart, which saved her when she was facing expulsion from school for putting a teacher in the hospital. Her parents, praying that she was just going through a phase after her childhood friend left, instead chose to “voluntarily” homeschool her so she could at least earn a diploma. Ingrid graduated quickly, and was sent off to San Diego State University under the assumption that everything was normal.
But everything was not in fact normal. Ingrid still hurt, in a way that she couldn’t really explain to herself, nor could she resolve. College classes were a total struggle, and she was barely getting good enough grades to avoid her parents being notified, but she knew something was wrong and that she was spiraling downward. If only she could somehow figure it out…
…then she saw Kem again.
Flipping through channels, she ended up on an airing of Championship Pro Wrestling’s Wednesday night TV show. Bored and trying to drown out the noise in her soul, Ingrid watched as the announce team gushed about the mysterious person who had just won a 32-man tournament and last Sunday’s pay-per-view to become Seth Anderson’s #1 contender for the CPW World Title. Wrestling as “Darkside” this ninja-like character ran roughshod over the tournament, winning the final over a man billed at 6’11” and 360 pounds. The show then aired a clip from that show from right after Darkside won the final. He took off his ninja mask…and it wasn’t a he after all…
…it was Kem! She smiled and grabbed a mic and shot a promo about being a woman but proving that she was everything these men could be…because she was the daughter of Kid Dynamo!
Ouch, Ingrid thought. That’s gonna piss off her dad.
Nevertheless, Ingrid didn’t even notice until much later how weightless she felt just from seeing Kem’s face again, even from across a television screen. With a newfound zeal, Ingrid began following her old friend on CPW, blowing off study groups to watch their weekly show, and cancelling a weekend visit to her parents’ house to watch the Resolution pay-per-view where Kem defeated her adoptive father, Seth, to win the CPW World Title.
But that was just the beginning. The only problem with Ingrid’s new obsession with CPW was the lack of 24-hour content, so she still found herself flipping channels to find ways to entertain herself. (She knew most people in college got friends and/or sex partners, but from what she could tell, Ingrid was too awkward for either) She came across the Blockbuster Network and it held her attention. Honestly, she couldn’t remember the show she watched, but she remembered the commercial…
“Coming soon to Blockbuster Network…NSFW presents ‘Making the Tag’, a reality show where experienced independent wrestlers will try to do the impossible…build a cohesive tag team with someone who has NO PRIOR EXPERIENCE! Which duos will be able to jell and earn two $100,000 NSFW contracts? Tune in to find out! Applications still being accepted at NSFWWrestling.com/MakingTheTag!”
Ingrid’s eyes widened, and out of her elation and excitement, a noise shot out of her that she could not remember ever hearing before.
Turns out, it was a squeal, a squeal of joy at the idea of being reunited with her only real friend.
--------------------------------
“I just…Dad, I can’t keep wrestling in my father’s company and expect to ever be taken seriously…”
Kem
You would think that an eighteen-year-old wouldn’t know how much it sucks to be an adult in the unforgiving reality of the American job market, but Kem had already been disappointed and let down more times than some people in their entire adult lives. Her biological father was a pro wrestler, her ADOPTIVE father was a pro wrestler, her adoptive mother even dabbled in the wrestling arts once upon a time! Kem was absolutely destined to be the biggest female wrestling superstar that anyone had ever seen.
Except that was kinda the problem: no one had really seen her.
She tried working for her adoptive father. He even handed her the keys to the company, practically throwing the CPW World Title at her like a hot potato and taking advantage of the female champion to turn her into a face of the franchise. But working an indy that had a low-level TV deal wasn’t really what Kem had had in mind, and one thing that she knew about Seth Anderson was that he was not an ambitious person. He was perfectly fine making $60,000 a year for a company that had stability but no upward mobility.
Kem was more like her biological father, Kid Dynamo, in THAT regard. Dynamo, an off-and-on wrestler for one of the most highly-rated companies on TV, offered her a job as a training dummy, basically a sparring partner for hire that had to adapt her style to match the client’s next opponent. In a way, it was the opportunity of a lifetime to get to be in the ring with wrestlers she had been a fan of since she started watching them on TV. But, the flipside of the coin was that she was a faceless cog in a machine that is very forgetful of those who fail to stand out. She gave up almost 2 years of her life to that, but had ended up no further than when she started, despite two wrestling dads offering up everything they could to get her a leg up in the business.
That’s when she realized that maybe it was time for her to be her own person. Still a “Dynamo”, but simply getting out from under the umbrella of her fathers may be enough for her to make the next step in her journey to the top of the industry. However, she had no idea where to start from there. Honestly, any place where she didn’t personally know members of the roster all felt the same to her. What was really the difference between 4CW, SCW, Boardwalk or Carnage? Something inside her told her that, if she was going to stand out, she needed to be more than just a girl trying to make it in a man’s world. She needed an angle.
As if on cue, Kem received a phone call from a number she didn’t recognize. Curious, she sent the call through.
“Hello?...”
“…Oh my gosh! Ingrid! It’s been like forever! What’s going on?”
“…Wow. College is that bad, huh? I’m sure it…”
Ingrid cut Kem off and began to explain the reality show to her friend. Kem was a little apprehensive, but the idea of not only getting back on television as a wrestler but to possibly be recognized as a wrestling talent show winner as well as a mentor to a green rookie was a tempting concoction, indeed. Something inside Kem told her that this was exactly what she needed to stand out.
“…Yeah, I think you’re right. You know what? Let’s do this.”
“…You bet. I’ll be there tomorrow!”
“…Me either! Talk to you later!”
Kem hung up the phone, and the excitement in her heart was quickly replaced by anxiety. She was going to have to tell her father. Her bio-dad was easy enough since she’d already quit her job as a training dummy. Seth, on the other hand, was over the moon that Kem had said she was thinking about coming back to CPW. She had been very clear that she was not making any promises to stay, but she knew he was already picturing the two of them working side by side until the promotion closed because the other wrestlers got tired of being role players in the Anderson sandbox. It would break his heart if she backed out now, especially to go compete at a different wrestling company.
So…she left that part out.
“Hey, Dad. I just…”
“…I’ve been thinking a lot about my future, and…”
“…yeah, I know, but, it’s just that I know wrestling will always be there, but it won’t be there forever, you know?”
“…I was thinking about maybe looking into college…”
“…I’ve done SOME homework, Dad, and it turns out that there’s a junior college up here that will accept students late for the spring semester…”
“…It’s called Haven College or something like that. Trust me, Dad. I looked it up and it looks nice and it’s a good start. I can go there and afford it and then move on from there.”
“…Oh my God, Dad! It’ll be fine! Stop worrying!”
“…I DON’T CARE if it’s your job to worry! It’s MY job to tell you to back off and let me do this!”
“…Yeah, I’m sorry, too, I’m just, you know, looking for support on this…”
Kem smiled. It had never been that difficult to work her adoptive father. It wasn’t long before he was just as excited to imagine her graduating from college as he did imagining her CPW World Champion. Everything was going to be great, Kem thought as she packed her wrestling gear and gym clothes into a suitcase.
Everything will be great…as long as Dad never googles “Haven College”.
--------------------
“Send all these other bitches home. TRUST me.”
Venus
The NCAA sucked. It sucked ass like an amateur porn star, and the whole damn thing needed to die in a fire.
Okay, maybe not THAT extreme, but still, they SUCK.
These were the thoughts that ran through Jennifer Ganymede’s head when her waiver request came back denied. The NCAA would not let her join the University of Nevada-Las Vegas wrestling team, or any other team for that matter. She was too heavy to compete on the women’s circuit, almost a hundred pounds over the highest allowed weight for women. She was barely small enough to maintain a Heavyweight class for men, and the high school boys never had a problem grinding through a wrestling match with her. Then again, every high school boy wants nothing more than for a dominant and experienced woman to grind with them on the floor and make them submit, so maybe it was that. Nevertheless, according to the organization that dictatorially oversaw collegiate athletics, she was too fat to be a female wrestler, and too female to be with the men.
Apparently two Nevada State championships didn’t mean anything. Again, the NCAA SUCKS!
With a sigh, she got up off the couch and threw the rejection letter in the trash can. Screw those guys, she thought, but at the same time, she knew that she was screwed herself. She’d invested all her adolescent energy into amateur wrestling and teenage boys, and now both of those wells had dried up. Jennifer started to feel down, so she did what she always did whenever she wanted to feel better.
Another day, another AWESOME selfie Jennifer thought to herself. She manipulated her phone and, within a few seconds, “Venus of Henderson”, Jennifer’s super-popular Instagram account, had its newest picture. Satisfied, and genuinely feeling better after taking a moment to remind herself that she was amazing and anyone who disagreed was pond scum, she scrolled through her social media accounts like any other nineteen-year-old would do. What caught her eye was a Facebook share with the comment attached, “Hey, didn’t you use to wrestle, like really well?”.
It was a picture of a flyer. Some women named Kem Dynamo and Io Europa were forming a Trio for the new pro wrestling company, NSFW, and they were hosting an open audition for their third member. Jennifer had kinda thumbed her nose at pro wrestling during the height of her amateur dominance, but she admitted that she had given it some thought after she graduated high school. The drudgery of practice had reared its ugly head, but she had convinced herself that college wrestling would be different. Well, since THAT was clearly not gonna happen, Jennifer grabbed her laptop and went to Hulu to find whatever wrestling shows she could find.
Maybe it was just the fact that she was looking at it fresh. Maybe it was because she was mad at the NCAA still. Maybe it was because she had spent her senior year basking in the glory of her success by showing willing boys OTHER types of wrestling she was great at. But something about the spectacle of professional wrestling struck her in a way that it simply hadn’t before. In a word, it was AWESOME, and Jennifer was certain that “Venus of Henderson” needed to take part.
There wasn’t a big bone in her body that was worried about her…”unique” figure. She knew that she had dispelled any myths attributed to her long ago. I mean, yes, she was fat. She IS fat and, given her thorough enjoyment of nearly every cuisine, she knew she’d probably BE fat forever. But she was also strong as an ox, a really hot ox with amazing girl parts, but an ox nonetheless. As a sophomore getting her first chance to compete with the boys, she reveled in their looks of wonder and shock when she effortlessly suplexed them all over the mat. As a junior, those looks had turned from “I can’t believe you can do that” to “You can’t do that to ME!”, but the outcome was still the same. Like a left tackle in the NFL, she was stout as all get-out and the curves that she was proud to show off worked like a weight vest that was always on, making her body even stronger as a result.
She looked back at the flyer picture for all the details, and she packed all her clothes, which was a substantial amount of luggage, and tossed them into the back of her purple Nissan NVP. Like her, it was a massive attention getter that everyone noticed and generally liked. It also had a lot of stories to tell about Jennifer’s senior year. She packed everything as an emphatic showing of self-confidence. She was sure that, once she showed up, she would be the one who got the spot.
She wasn’t surprised, however, that, when she told Kem and Io, two girls she’d never met that, frankly, hadn’t bothered to research the recent history of Nevada high school wrestling, they were skeptical. They didn’t even really respond, instead looking at each other then handing Jennifer a number.
”…I see. And what’s your name?”
”Venus.”
”Last name?
”Last names are for ordinary people.” Jennifer shot them a look, not of anger or negativity, but one of confidence in her implicit declaration that she was too extraordinary to need to bother with a surname.
“Look, like I said, these other girls can go home. The three of us need to start getting to know one another…”
”Okay, hold up, ‘Venus’! You aren’t the only one who strutted in her thinking that she was a woman amongst girls!”
Venus turned around dramatically. ”Who else? Who here thinks they’re OBVIOUSLY the best woman out here? WHO?!?” The scene she was making surprised Kem and Ingrid, as well as the forty-plus woman that had come out for the chance to be a part of NSFW’s newest trio.
Most of the women just gave a look of disgust and turned back to what they were doing, but one woman stood up and started walking over to them. ”I DID!” She was taller than Jennifer, almost six feet to her 5’5”, and her body was packed full of muscle like hers but without the squishy outer layer. ”We’re ALL here for a shot, and we don’t need someone coming in and being ALL TALK and wasting everyone’s time!”
Venus turned back around to the two leading the audition. ”Me. Her. NOW!”
A few minutes later, Jennifer and the Hothead entered the ring to fight. As soon as a bell sounded, the Hothead charged Jennifer, who effortlessly caught her in her tracks, grabbed her forward leg, and threw her across the ring behind her with an exploder suplex. The crowd looked surprised, but none as much as Hothead, who got angry and charged again with a spear attempt. Jennifer easily dodged it and rammed Hothead into the corner post. Hothead turned her back to the corner and leaned in to try and get a rest, but all she ended up getting was Jennifer running like a bullet into the corner then leaping high enough in the air to deliver a crushing Stinger Splash to Hothead. The impact dropped Hothead to her butt in the corner where a moment later Jennifer rushed in with a senton splash, a combo move she liked to call “T ‘n’ A”. The crowd was enamored as she charismatically dissected the Hothead, ending with a picture-perfect Shooting Star Press that no one would have imagined she could pull off. She covered Hothead and slapped her hand on the mat three times to indicate that she had obviously won, then stood up and looked over at Kem and Ingrid.
”Okay, you win.”
”You’re hired.”
And like that, Shakedown was born.
Part 2: The Drive to Indiana
"Wildest Dreams" started up in the speakers.
"...let's get out of this town..."
Kem reached for the controls, but Jennifer Ganymede aka Venus slapped her hand away. "MY ride. MY radio!" Kem sighed as Ingrid chimed in from the second row "Seriously? Taylor Swift?"
Jennifer defensively responded, "What the Hell is wrong with Taylor, Io? I let you play that awful Kittie album while we were on the Ferry. Flyleaf and Evanescence are coming, but this song rocks so BACK OFF!" She realized that she'd missed the entire first verse arguing so she tapped a button that restarted the song, smiling as Ingrid groaned behind her. Kem laughed to herself. Clearly, male vocalists weren't gonna cut it on this trip.
She observed the scenery outside her window, fearful that they were trading the beauty and luxury of Anastasia Lovelace's private island for its exact opposite in Indianapolis. But when her biological father found out that she had quit CPW, now effectively discarding BOTH of her fathers' connections so she could make it on her own, he told her to think bigger, to chase the biggest fish she could find, and to do so in a way that would make her be remembered.
Say you'll remember me...
Don't worry, Kem thought. They will remember me. THAT'S the easy part.
---------------
The cause of "Shakedown" getting together is irrelevant. The EFFECT, however, is anything but. We walked into NSFW and the coronation was immediate. When we chose to leave Haven Island, NGW was happy to make an offer, especially with a tag division that needs fresh, marketable faces that the crowd would love.
But we said no. We said we'll start at the bottom. The IPW was formed to introduce new stars to the NGW community and to show off who's REALLY ready for prime time.
So Venus and I are here to take on people like Drew Stevenson and show them who REALLY deserves to have gold around their waist. Sorry, hon. I don't mean to single you out, but if you're half as pompous here as you were when you thought you were the anointed one of NSFW, then you need someone to come knock you down a peg. "They can't touch me! They're just TAG wrestlers! I'm almost 40 so that means I'm a LEGEND!"
Go ahead, Drew, try to stop us from leapfrogging you to where you THINK you should be on the IPW hierarchy! Feel free to be the first one who thinks we're just tag wrestlers and ends up wondering how one of us just KICKED YOUR ASS!
Besides, there may not be tag titles but there IS a Heavyweight belt for me and a Spotlight Title for Venus, who LOVES being in the spotlight!
Any of you other IPW wrestlers wanna stop Shakedown from taking over? You'd better bring your A-game and PRAY we don't bring ours. And if you're with us, then get ready to tear the house down every single Conflict, and...
RISE UP!!!
The cause of "Shakedown" getting together is irrelevant. The EFFECT, however, is anything but. We walked into NSFW and the coronation was immediate. When we chose to leave Haven Island, NGW was happy to make an offer, especially with a tag division that needs fresh, marketable faces that the crowd would love.
But we said no. We said we'll start at the bottom. The IPW was formed to introduce new stars to the NGW community and to show off who's REALLY ready for prime time.
So Venus and I are here to take on people like Drew Stevenson and show them who REALLY deserves to have gold around their waist. Sorry, hon. I don't mean to single you out, but if you're half as pompous here as you were when you thought you were the anointed one of NSFW, then you need someone to come knock you down a peg. "They can't touch me! They're just TAG wrestlers! I'm almost 40 so that means I'm a LEGEND!"
Go ahead, Drew, try to stop us from leapfrogging you to where you THINK you should be on the IPW hierarchy! Feel free to be the first one who thinks we're just tag wrestlers and ends up wondering how one of us just KICKED YOUR ASS!
Besides, there may not be tag titles but there IS a Heavyweight belt for me and a Spotlight Title for Venus, who LOVES being in the spotlight!
Any of you other IPW wrestlers wanna stop Shakedown from taking over? You'd better bring your A-game and PRAY we don't bring ours. And if you're with us, then get ready to tear the house down every single Conflict, and...
RISE UP!!!