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mpwxpress · 2 years

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HAIL TO THE KING Results - 11/12/21

“The king is dead! Long live the king!”

When Miggy Rose threatened the career of Johnnie Robbie last week, trading her safety for a match with the King of Xtreme, Ray Rosas, with Ray's hard earned title shot on the line, one could almost hear the battle cry echoing in the recesses of Rose's mind. This week, MPW's Hail To The King was pervaded with the gravity of the main event and what it could mean for the company. With action right out of the gate, triumphant homecomings, and matches being teased for next week left and right, Hail To The King was a night rife with importance – a moment in time as heavy as the head that wears the crown.

A blood-soaked crown whose riches were up for grabs. Was Rose successful in his plot to bring low the king? Did Rosas make the former MPW champion regret his insolence?

Let's find out. Spoilers below, for both Hail To The King and for next week's event, Gladiator.

Ready? Let's get this party started.

Jordan Cruz DEFEATS Osiris Mittens

The recent attitude change from Cruz could potentially hurt him down the line. Tonight, Cruz was easily distracted very early on by the crowd's taunts and voracious support of Mittens. Mittens showed dominance at the start by turning a failed attempt at a swing in the middle of the ring into a catapult into the turnbuckle that left Cruz shaky, but sadly the advantage didn't last. Resorting to underhanded tactics, Cruz gained and held onto the upper hand for most of the match. In the end, Cruz scored a knockout and subsequently locked the ferocious feline in a fairly pointless submission. Noting the KO, referee Scarlett Donovan called for the bell, awarding Cruz the victory.

Cruz, however, wasn't done, with a post match display of bad behavior culminating with yet another confrontation with Brendan Divine at the commentary table. Cruz clearly has a problem with the man – and this brewing situation would reach a boiling point later on.

NON TITLE MATCH

MPW Champion Barbie Boi DEFEATS Olijah Friday

While the main event was one hell of a contest, this one is a serious competitor, if not the flat out winner, for match of the night. While over on commentary, Dr. Phil Goode was making himself heard by everyone within a five block radius, long absent MPW star Olijah Friday was receiving a hero's welcome from the fans as he entered the ring. A rousing 'Welcome Back' chant greeted him, and once MPW World Champion Barbie Boi joined him, he was met with a warm handshake and an equally warm welcome from the Dreamhouse Diva...who treated the crowd to a few bars of Rebecca Black's “Friday” in his honor.

The match began with a thrilling storm of pinfalls on both side, and the good vibes continued as a crowd torn between two favorites instigated a 'Both These Guys' chant. While he may not have scored the victory, Friday's return match was an amazingly strong performance as tried to wear Barbie Boi down by working on an injured leg. However, the champ prevailed with a pinfall victory, and when he offered his worthy opponent a handshake, Friday slapped his hand aside and embraced him heartily instead.

Friday ended the match with a heartfelt statement to the MPW fans, breaking briefly away from the show to show his gratitude for their support and his very genuine joy to be back in the ring. Pulled away from action to serve his country (as was noted with a callout from MPW head honcho, Logan X, in the back), Friday was ecstatic to be home at MPW, and the moving way he poured his heart out was a powerful reminder of the way that this incredible art form that is professional wrestling can bring out the best in people.

...and then Bulletproof showed up.

Clearly feeling no pain thanks to a drink in hand and a helpful bottle of “Good Medicine” courtesy of his tag team partner, Bulletproof expressed feelings of betrayal and showed disdain for Friday's earnest speech. After a brief, heated exchange, the challenge was laid out, promising us a match between Friday and Bulletproof at next week's Gladiator on November 19th.

NON TITLE MATCH

National Champion J2 w/Hydie DEFEATS Danny Divine

With brother, Brendan Divine, on commentary for this contest, Danny Divine took to the ring amidst the usual cheers and support of the crowd. That, however, was where the good times ended as the bewitched J2 proved to be too much for Divine. To his credit, Divine proved to be a rare challenge for the seemingly inhuman drone of the Dapper Banshee, but in the end J2 scored the pinfall in dominating fashion.

Post-match, Hydie ordered J2 to do some permanent harm, but Brendan Divine left commentary to come to his brother's aid. Hydie, who seems to have her sights fixed on the total destruction of the Divines, dangled a National Championship title shot in front of Brendan. Ready to step up after recovering from the injuries incurred by his title loss, Brendan was prepared to accept the challenge.

...and then Jordan Cruz showed up.

Displaying a disgusting sense of entitlement, Cruz tried to force himself into the picture and ultimately succeeded. Gleeful over the bickering and the promise of more chaos, Hydie proposed a two week tournament that included Jordan and both of the Brothers Divine to see who would contend for J2's title.

The stage was set, with the tourney beginning next week at Gladiator – and with a cheap shot at Brendan Divine, Cruz ran like hell from ringside.

NON TITLE MATCH

Tag Team Champions Full Send DEFEAT Michael Hopkins/Robin Shaw

This was an action packed bout from start to finish, featuring exciting offense and defense from both sides. Team Shaw and Hopkins seemed to take special delight in sending Bucio of Full Send off the apron with a fist here and a cheap shot there, but the champions persevered. Dustin Daniels took a lot of abuse for the bulk of the match, but salvation came when Hopkins mistakenly kicked partner Shaw, and Full Send took advantage to win the match by pinfall – both men piling on top, scoring victory as a true team in every sense of the word.

Future’s not so bright, but they still gotta wear shades - team of Robin Shaw (left) and Michael Hopkins (right).

It was an impressive win, putting Bucio on such a high that he sought out the microphone, insisted that the crowd deserved a title defense each and every week, and petitioned MPW leader Logan X, who was on commentary, to seek out approval from the MPW board of directors for an open challenge to take place next week. Battered and beaten partner, Daniels, seemed unhappy with this development given his condition, but we'll see what happens next week.

Main Event

KING OF XTREME TITLE SHOT ON THE LINE

Ray Rosas DEFEATS Miggy Rose

Bell to bell, this match was an intense experience. With Johnnie Robbie on commentary, the unwitting pawn of Miggy Rose that set this night into motion, Rosas and Rose took to the ring in a start to the match that was slow, but highly entertaining. Reluctant to face the man he wanted to begin with, Rose was in and out of the ring while Ray riled up the crowd and tried to goad the former MPW champion into an actual fight.

Once the match began, Rosas had early control, but Rose swiftly gained the upper hand and used his usual underhanded tactics to keep Rosas down. Not above tactics like using the ropes to leverage a submission hold, Rose took out the arm of his opponent and pressed the advantage for most of the match. However, his dirty dealing was his undoing when a low blow on Rosas hit the referee as well. Rose scored a pin, with no one to count, while Rosas followed by scoring a submission that no one was there to see.

By the time official, Victor Cuentas, came to, the King of Xtreme pulled out the victory with a pinfall, protecting his title shot and earning a little bit of revenge on behalf of tag team partner and protege, Johnnie Robbie.

...and then Hydie showed up.

After intervention from Barbie Boi to protect a fallen Rosas and Robbie, who left commentary to check on her partner post match, Hydie continued to stir the pot by challenging the trio to a six man match next week with comrade Artorius to join her and J2. Despite the severe misgivings of a battered Ray Rosas, Robbie accepted the challenge, securing next week's main event at Gladiator to finish off the night.

For Your Consideration

Gladiator, next week's event, has a card that's already half full.

Four man tournament to determine the number one contender for the National Championship.

Grudge match: Olijah Friday vs Bulletproof.

Main event: Barbie Boi/Ray Rosas/Johnnie Robbie vs Auntie Hydie/Artorius/J2.

Whatever else comes is gonna have to be huge to top all this.

Were you at this show? What did you think? Come fight me for match of the night. I dare you.

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cryysiswritesthings · 3 years

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The Multi-verse Theory || UFC

Series: Inuyasha, Modern AU Rating: Mature Warnings: N/A Status: On-going Pairing: KogKag Summary:

Something caught his opponent’s attention. Gold eyes flicked to the side once, twice, before lighting up with recognition. Split lips lifted in a smirk, a single fang glinting in the overhead lights. His stance shifted, newfound resolve strengthening overworked muscles.

Kouga knew that look. When it was genuine, he’d watched winning contenders get slaughtered by their opponents. But you always knew when it was faked. The loser would put on a show, try to get in a few jabs, and then lose their false confidence at the knockout. But for a guy like this…

The scent hit him then. Subtle and hard to make out through pounds of sweat-soaked bodies. Vanilla and sandalwood.

Damn it all. She’d shown up.

Find it On: AO3

Tumblr Tags: #kogkag #inuyasha #multiverse #ufc fighting

His coaches were yelling in the background, but he couldn’t hear them over the crowd’s roar and the blood rushing in his ears. The half-breed was breathing hard, spitting blood to the floor. He was a flagging; a few more hits and he’d be down for the count. Bastard put up a better fight than he’d expected, but it hadn’t been enough. Not even close.

The scent hit him then. Subtle and hard to make out through pounds of sweat-soaked bodies. Vanilla and sandalwood.

Damn it all. She’d shown up.

Kouga wiped at the sweat dripping down his head, using the motion to hide his grimace of annoyance. Somehow, her presence had a way of screwing him over every time. Just like now. A moment ago, he’d had this fight in the bag.

Looked like he was wrong.

–

Kouga sat alone, head hanging in gloved hands while the crowd cheered outside. He’d been so close. So damn fucking close. It was almost laughable.

Three combos and an uppercut. That’s all it had taken. Total knockout. And it was all her fucking fault.

Metal hinges creaked, telling him someone had come to witness his defeat. Likely one of the coaches coming to give him another ‘pep talk--’

He caught the scent of dog. He bared his teeth, the expression hidden in his gloves.

Dog, sandalwood, and vanilla.

Her heels clacked against the concrete floor, but Kouga didn’t lift his head. It was the scrape of a metal chair against the concrete that finally made him look at her, glacial eyes brimming with a mixture of amusement and rage.

Raven black hair fell against her back in waves, storm grey eyes lined with kohl. Her shirt was navy satin; her black skirt stopped above her knees, showing off creamy skin and smooth legs. In her manicured hands was a small tape recorder, its red light shining power. Glitter pink lips lifted in a smile.

Kagome Higurashi. Reporter for the Sports Radar.

He’d been a goner the second he laid eyes on her.

“Kouga, the self-proclaimed Wolf of the ring. Three-time tournament champion, tonight’s victory will send him on a one-way trip to the national semi-finals. Or at least,” Kagome’s smile shifted, becoming an amused grin. He had to fight not to return it. “It was supposed to.”

“Nice to see you too, Higurashi,” Kouga growled crossly, finally letting his hands drop..

“Tell us Kouga, after that… sudden, epic defeat, how are you feeling? It has to be tough, knowing you were so close, and then seconds later having it all ripped away from you.”

His gaze flicked between her face and the glowing light on the recorder. His coaches hated it when he fucked up interviews. Too bad he didn’t really care.

He straightened on the bench with a tired sigh. “You here supporting my opponents now? Thought I was your favorite.”

Pleased, she mimicked the motion. “I don’t come to offer my personal support. I just do interviews with contenders.” Her grin sharpened. “And write glowing reviews of the winners.”

‘Glowing reviews.’ Yeah, all that white hair had nearly blinded him at the start of the match. “And when this is over, how long is it going to take you to ask his opinion about my answers?”

She tapped her chin, thoughtful. “I suppose that depends. Sports fans always like hearing about their favorites losing to the underdog.” He wondered if she’d be able to hear her smile when she listened to the recording later. “Even if it is just to scream about the match being rigged.”

“If you’re there it may as well be,” he groused. He glowered at the recorder. “Turn that fucking thing off, unless you want those sports fans to hear something they shouldn’t.”

She laughed and rose. “Why Kouga,” with practiced ease, she flicked the switch and pocketed the recorder. Finally. “Whatever could you mean?”

Kouga growled and tugged her into his lap. “Woman…”

Kagome smiled and brushed the tip of her nose against his. “Problem, champ?”

“Ex-champ,” he said sourly, then nipped her chin sharply. “So thanks for that.”

She snickered, unashamed, and ran slim fingers through his sweat-soaked bangs. “I’d say I’m sorry, but it wouldn’t really be true.”

“Mh-hm.” He let his eyes close and savored the feeling of her nails dragging over his scalp. “How much longer are you here for?“

She shrugged, tugging at the tie in his hair until it came free. The hand not in his hair cupped the back of his neck and scratched at the soft skin. “Could be a while. Managers want me to cozy up with the new champ.”

Kouga’s lips lifted in a snarl, his peace momentarily shattered. Clawed fingers pulled her satin shirt from beneath her skirt, his large hand a brand of heat against her side. “Yeah, I know. I hate it.”

He didn’t see Kagome’s smile, but the kiss she pressed to his lips was meant to soothe. His chest rumbled; he didn’t appreciate the placation, but let her do it anyway. He liked her feisty, but she tasted that much sweeter when he played at understanding.

She brushed her cheek over his jaw, her breath warm against his ear. “You know no matter what they ask me to do,” she whispered, “you’re the one I come home to. That’s not going to change.”

He bit his tongue to cut off his immediate response. Instead, he wrapped his free hand in her hair and directed her face to his. He returned her earlier gesture, a soft brush of the tip of his nose against hers. “Yeah. Doesn’t mean I have to like it.“

Satisfied, Kagome hummed and dripped kisses over his lips and jaw. “I wouldn’t ask you too. There is one good thing about this though.” She paused. “Well, two things, if you want to think about it.”

Kouga’s snort was all the answer he needed. Rather than keep talking, he pressed kisses over her neck and nipped gently at the delicate skin. Her soft gasp encouraged him, but it didn’t erase the burn of his jealousy. The dark bruises he sucked on her neck helped.

“Kouga…”

He released her, but only to hike the edge of her skirt up to her thighs. “Problem, Kagome?”

Her whimper answered him. His smile was wicked; he kept his mouth busy at her neck to hear more of those sounds, the scent of her arousal hovering in his nose. When her skirt was high enough, she straddled his lap of her own volition. His hands covered the tops of her thighs and pulled her closer. There was just enough space between them for her to undo the first buttons of her blouse and reveal fine black lace, peppered with shining crystals, over the white silk of her bra.

Kouga growled low, and in his anger he drug his fangs over her throat. “This had better not be for him. Tell me that isn’t for him.”

Kagome gasped in surprise and shook her head. “It’s not,” she tugged his face from her neck with his hair. Blue eyes locked, firm with intent. “I didn’t wear this for him. It’s a present. I got it for you.”

His anger subsided, soothed by the admission. Kouga slid his fingers higher under her skirt. “Matching set?”

She bit her lip and nodded, sliding the fabric up to her waist. The sides were black ribbon, neat bows keeping the fabric in place. There was a column of black lace over the center of white silk, and more black ribbon sitting atop it, a double-cross lacing that stretched from one end of the lace to the other.

But the pièce de résistance of her lingerie took shape in the large tear-drop crystal at its center, a beacon to draw the eye and keep it there.

Kouga’s smirk was all predator, his rumble of pleasure vibrating in her chest. The sound set off sparks of heat everywhere in her body. One place in particular.

The scent of her arousal filled his nose, and he swelled with pride. He nibbled her ears' outer shell, making the woman in his arms shiver. “You want me.”

“Yes,” she said quietly, and bit her lip when he pulled at the ties. “Kouga, wait…”

“Why?” His jealousy flared again; he rocked his hips upwards and his erection against her slowly dripping core. “Your new friend waiting for you?”

“Yes,” she snapped back, growing tired of the game, “he is.” That had always been a part of the deal, no matter how much he disliked it. He wasn’t allowed to interfere with her work. But she didn’t want to fight, so she tried to soften her tone.

“I have to finish my interview,” she tilted her head back and rose to her knees, putting herself above him. “And we both know how you get. Once we get started, you can’t stop.”

Kouga narrowed his eyes. “I don’t ever hear you complaining.”

“I’m not complaining,” she laughed, kissing the bridge of his nose. “I would just rather not start a sex marathon in the locker room when I have to be somewhere.”

The wolf snorted. “I don’t see the problem.”

Kagome rolled her eyes. “The problem, champ,” she teased, finding her feet so she could stand, “is that you don’t like being interrupted. And I don’t want to have to worry about my responsibilities when you’re pounding into me.”

She laughed at his scowl, but the wolf didn’t mind. Not really. Instead, he watched her set her clothes to rights. “You said he’s not seeing those?” She hummed an affirmative while she fumbled with a button. Kouga stood and took over for her. “Then we compromise.”

His reporter raised a brow. “I’m listening.”

He backed her into a wall, trapping her with his body. “I let you finish your interview with… minimal complaints,” he ignored her snicker. “But I only got to see part of this new set.”

“Mm, that’s true.” She tilted her head to the side to give him access to her throat. He accepted the offer and set his teeth against his previous marks. “And I did spend so long picking it out.”

“Exactly. It should be properly appreciated.” It was hard to resist the urge to pick up her and wrap her legs around his waist, but he managed it. “So you go finish your interview, and I let the assholes yell at me for a bit. But when I get home…” he drew a claw down her side. “I want you laid out in my bed. With just my present.”

Just the idea made her quiver; heat pooled low in her belly. “I think I can manage something.”

His smile showed glinting fangs.

“I thought you’d say that.”

#kogkag #inuyasha #multiverse #ufc fighting

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harebrainedscheme · 3 years

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Soft Edges, Chapter 2

Chapter 1

Fethry in FOWL AU courtesy of Zara 2148

A03 Link

Same warning tags as in the previous chapter, but the violence and implied child abuse is a bit more detailed this time around.

He learned how to take a blow before he learned how to deal one.

In a house with fragile and brittle air, that could be shattered at any moment- by one wrong move, one wrong word,-he learned to watch the movement in a shoulder, to predict where the blow would land, learned when to steady himself in preparation and when to go limp, learned how to tell by feel and pacing when the hits were coming to their end or when they were going to start up again.

Curled up in his best hiding spot, beak clamped shut, fists balled tight, he spent hours staring at the peeling wallpaper decorated with flowers bending to a non-existent wind. In that small and dusty space between the wall and couch, he’d squeeze his eyes shut, trying to force back the hot burning tears, choking on the dust coating the floorboards, swallowing his own shaky breath because he couldn’t let himself cry out or else he’d be found and his best hiding space would be ruined. He'd pull his knees to his chest resembling a small, trembling ball, pressed into himself, trying to make himself disappear entirely.

“What are you, stupid???”

The shout that shattered the walls.

He had spilled a purple drink, adding the newest stain to the already splotched carpet.

“What are you, stupid???”

They ran out of laundry detergent, so he tried using dish soap instead. The result was a flood of soapy bubbles spilling from the washing machine.

“Worthless! Ruined! How could you be so stupid???”

His shoes had become too tight but he was too afraid to ask for a new pair so he cut a slit in the back so at least his spur- which he realized was growing longer, stronger, and sharper- wouldn’t cut into the rest of his foot.

"What are you, stupid???"

The question rang out, harsh and sharp, shattering the air, shattering the walls, sending a rain of broken bits of crystal, all down on him.

The question echoed through his skull, sending tremors up and down his body, aching like the bruises blossoming under his feathers.

Every inch of him trembled. His hands were balled into tights fists, squeezing so hard as if what he was feeling was physically manifest in the palms of his hands. As if, if he squeezed tightly enough, he could squish it out of existence, crush it, kill it.

“I’m not,” he risked a hoarse whisper, voice thick and raw, edged with everything he was trying so desperately to contain within himself.

“I’m not,” he whispered again. He felt a large hot tear slide across his beak.

He memorized the pattern of the floral wallpaper. It would permanently be tattooed to his mind..

He used to not mind school. He liked it because it wasn’t home. But then the teachers started making them read aloud. He couldn’t unhear the snickers and giggles sneaking in the corners of the classroom as he stared at a block of text that became a wall of words torn by slippery rivers of white space. No matter how hard he tried to zone in on a single word, break it into parts like the teacher said, the letters seemed to shift before his eyes, to jump from one space to another.

After that he stopped raising his hand during class. Stopped sharing his ideas and strategies on how the revolutionary soldiers should have fought the Birdish in 1776, or how he would have defeated the villain of the stories. His teachers always deemed his ideas as “very creative” or “how imaginative” through a tight, wavering smile. That was probably just code for stupid. Everyone thought he was stupid now.

He wasn’t sick this particular day he decided to stay home from school. But Rhodie Barkley hadn’t gone to school the day before. Which meant Rhodie Barkley wasn’t there to bully into doing his homework for him after school. Which meant he had no complete homework assignments to turn in this morning.

Rhodie Barkley always got gold stars on his homework assignments, Rhodie Barkley was adored by the teachers. Rhodie Barkley always brought a brand new soccer ball, to share with the other kids at recess, or a new video game, or a comic book or whatever new treasure his parents had bought him. Rhodie Barkley always got a new backpack every school year, never came to school with his books in a grocery bag or with shoes with holes in the bottom. He wasn’t a particularly big kid but Rhodie Barkely was a particularly small kid.

But yesterday Rhodie had been absent from school. So there was no point in going today.

He was thinking about stupid smart Rhodie Barkely and his stupid smart glasses and his stupid fresh, brand new backpack when he kicked the rock. A second later he heard the crash. The large jagged edges of glass lay there in the grass, glinting in the sunlight. The gaping hole in the window stared at him.

He knew he would be punished for it. Even if he hid all the broken pieces, even if he boarded up the window with cardboard , or better yet plastic wrap, it was only a matter of time- a handful of hours- before his mistake was discovered, and he’d be punished. So, instead, he ran away and never looked back.

He would find someplace better, travel the world, get rich on treasure hunting. If Scrooge McDuck could do it why not him? He just had to keep running and he’d find his palace eventually.

Instead, he found himself in the slums of St. Canard.

He wasn’t the only kid on the streets but he might have been the youngest. They weren’t a gang. Not exactly. There was no misunderstanding of loyalty or trust between the rag tag group of hoodlums. They just knew it was easier to survive in a community. Easier to pick a pocket if someone was the distraction. Easier to scavenge if the scouts could split off and report which neighborhood had the best haul for that day. Easier to evade the cops if someone was playing lookout.

It was there on the streets when he first learned how to throw a punch. Being the smallest in the group made him an easy target. But because he had spent so much time learning to prepare for them, he was good at predicting when and where the punches would be thrown. And that made him good at dodging them. He noticed when his opponent shifted their weight, when they pulled their shoulder back, took into consideration the length of their arms.

The first time he hit someone, it was another street kid, three years older and probably a good head taller than him.

He used to hide in the space between the couch and the wall, with nothing in view except for the floral wallpaper. He used to curl into a ball, staring at the flowers in the wallpaper, squeezing his fists tight, trying to hold everything in. And now, with his fists curled the same way, he let everything out.

It felt good. Really good.

Pretty soon, he became known for never shying away from a fight. Even if it was 5 to 1. Pretty soon, he became known for picking fights, even if it was 5 to 1, with the odds against him. And pretty soon, he got good at throwing punches, really good.

Brutal. Ruthless. That’s what they called him. When he eventually found his way to the fighting ring, like so many in the street gang wound up, he learned to be quick, learned to use every tool in his arsenal, including his beak and spurs. The spin kicks didn’t come naturally. For someone of his size, they took hours of training before he could perform them with the dangerous efficiency needed. But that made them all the more of a surprise advantage when he did use them in the ring.

Using his beak though, that was second nature, came as easy as breathing. It became his signature move. Left hook, right hook, and finish it off with a peck straight to the skull. The goal wasn’t to actually do damage to the skull, bone was stronger than beak after all, just to hit the other guy with enough force that the brain rammed against the skull and the opponent dropped like a fly. It was his finishing move. Instant knockout, every time.

It’s how he won the title rank. It took years of training by day and competing by night but eventually he became the reigning champ. But his signature move was also how he lost his beak.

He took the title from a badger. She was a heavy hitter but a lousy dodger. He tired the badger out with evasive movements, leaned out of reach, and struck mostly with kicks. Until he finally got her against the ropes. Then it was lights out.

A year later, the badger came back to reclaim the title. He should have known something was wrong from the start.

The badger wasn’t striking with the same ferocity, wasn’t doging like she was trying to reclaim her title. When he finally got her where he wanted her-left hook, right hook-and was rearing back in preparation for the final blow she smiled at him. He didn’t think anything of it though, he went in to deliver the finishing blow. But at the last moment, she reared up and lunged herself towards him, meeting his beak with the front of her skull.

CRACK.

Pain laced through his entire body. He stumbled backward, hand reaching up to protect his beak but the slightest touch sent waves of white hot pain flaring across his nerves.

He would later overhear the cops say that since their last fight, the badger had a titanium plate surgically implanted in her skull.

He had felt the beak split when they made contact. He knew it had to be fractured. He had to regain his footing, had to get through the blinding pain, he was able to focus his vision just in time to see the badger advancing on him, something metallic around her knuckles caught the light.

He swung at the badger, but his footing was no good. Still backpedaling from the hit, his beak still splitting with the worst pain he ever felt, he didn’t stand a chance. The badger easily blocked his swing before advancing, shoving her full weight on top of him. The badger had him pinned to the floor, an illegal move, even in the underground ring, but no one was rushing in to stop it. The badger was delivering blow after blow. Blood spewed from his beak as the brass knuckles came in contact with his already fractured beak, he felt it split further, felt it cave under the force of the badger’s fist.

His vision swam as he teetered on the edge of consciousness. He probably would have died that day, if the cops hadn’t chosen that day of all days to bust the place. They hauled him away, kicking, screaming, injured, and bleeding... but alive.

Prison, the more he thought about it, wasn’t all that different from the underground ring. Sure his freedoms were limited to one hour of outside rec time, but other than that, the concrete walls, the absence of natural lighting practically made it homey. He even had plenty of his former competitors- those who hadn’t been lucky or quick enough to fly the coop once the feds busted the place- under the same roof with him.

He stared at the gray concrete ceiling through the darkness of his cell, trying to figure out which of his former fighting rivals had set him up. Someone had to have paid off the bouncers so they didn’t intervene when the badger pinned him against the floor, an illegal move, or smuggled in the brass knuckles, another illegal item.

Maybe the badger worked alone, to get revenge for her loss of the title, or maybe any one of his prison bunkies was waiting for the right moment to send a shiv in his belly.

“Hey you’re not allowed to be in h-” a guard’s voice was cut off by what sounded like the low buzz and crackle of raw, unfiltered electricity. The sound was followed by the satisfying thud of a body hitting the floor.

“Sorry man, we’re just going to have a quick look around,” came a woman’s voice, one he didn’t recognize as belonging to any of the guards. “What exactly are we looking for Heron?”

A second voice, an older, annoyed voice responded, “The buzzards seem to think, despite my reasoning to the contrary, that F.O.W.L needs more muscle lurking around the base. If you ask me, there’s already too many pea-brained goons in proximity of my lab and research.”

“Ugh. Tell me about it,” the first voice cut in “one of those egg heads barged into my lab thinking it was the bathroom. Walked right in on my light-sensitive nano tech experiment. Cost me an entire morning’s worth of work.”

“Why they sent us to this cest-pool of imbeciles to collect I’ll never understand!” The second voice responded. “Just find a couple of meatheads willing to work on F.O.W.L.'s dollar. Shouldn’t be too hard. This place stinks of desperation.”

The clack of footsteps echoed off the concrete floor, a figure appeared outside his cell door. Beyond the bars, he could make out the silhouette of a woman with short choppy hair wearing ripped and baggy jeans. He glowered at her, even pulling back his mangled maw, what was left of it, into a fearsome snarl, he imagined that without the bandages to hide his mutilated horror, he must look pretty monstrous.

But this girl had nerves of steel. Didn’t even flinch. Instead she smirked.

“Hey Heron, I think I found your next pet project.”

“What on earth are you talking about,” came the second voice more annoyed than before.

“Just get over here and look. You can thank me later.”

The first figure stepped away only to be replaced with a second, older woman, dressed in a red dress and flashy white boots at least three decades out of style. But what captured his attention was the shiny robotic arm hanging at her side.

He shot her the same scowl he gave the first woman, if not with a few added degrees of malice. But this woman in red met his glare with a sharp and devilish grin that would have turned a lesser man’s nerves to jelly.

“Well, well, well,” her words rolled polished and sharp, “what do we have here?”

The choice she gave him wasn’t much of a choice. Join them in their plot to steal the world or be left behind in the hole.

He was a lousy poker player. He knew because sometimes when there was a delay in fights because of a sting operation the underground circuit barely caught wind of in time, fighters would pass the time by playing cards in the backroom of their secondary location.He often took too high a risk for too little reward. Sometimes he had trouble remembering which hands were the good ones.

“You don’t know when to fold kid,” a one-eyed boar had told him as he raked in a pile of chips after his pair of sevens and jack high hadn’t delivered the victory he was banking on.

Maybe the boar had been right. He had learned a long time ago to never let your opponent know when they had an advantage over you. Even if you were clueless to the situation, never admit your ignorance. Any advantage of your opponent was a weakness of yours and weakness got you killed. Play along, bluff your way to the bitter end and maybe, just maybe, you’d make it out alive.

So when this cyborg lady stood outside his cell, extending an invitation to ditch the hole for something else, he weighed the situation. As far as he could tell, she had every advantage over him. She was the one on the other side of the bars, she was the one with the robot arm. He on the other hand, was left with a gruesome, gaping, grimace in place of what used to be his livelihood. He was in no position to be bargaining.

And yet, he recognized he had one, and only one advantage. For some reason, this cyborg lady wanted him. She took one look at him, and smiled with that wicked grin. She wanted him as her “pet project” whatever that meant. So, he decided to leverage the only advantage he had. Play hardball. Make her up her ante.

He wasn’t entirely sure how he did it to be honest. He didn’t follow half the things the lady in red told him but he did understand that they were looking for some guys to play the role of muscle. He could do that sure, better than any other guy in the hole. Any one of his prison mates could play the part of a low-level stooge, but he knew he was worth more than that. So, he took the gamble. He wanted better and he was willing to bet, the punk rock and disco duo had it up their sleeve.

She threatened to leave him to rot. But he didn’t fold. It looked like she was about to storm off without so much as a glance behind, but her eyes lingered on the stump that used to be his money maker. She frowned, glared, conflict crossed her features before she finally snapped “Fine!”

Next thing he knew he was trading in his orange jumpsuit for personally tailored suits, wrist shackles for mother-of-pearl cufflinks, and a broken and bloody stub-his trophy for a lifetime of violence- for something fierce and gleaming.

They never asked for his name and he didn’t mind. Standing in front of the mirror, admiring the foreign metal object welded to the center of his face, he decided ‘Steelbeak’ was as good a name as any he previously had.

He had a name back in the house with the flowery wallpaper, but that was seldom used, not as often as ‘Stupid’ anyway. But those memories weren’t visited anymore. They were tucked away, wrapped in cellophane and hidden in the recess of his mind.

He had been a nobody. A nameless, unidentified street urchin nobody was looking for, and then a nameless, rookie in the ring. He was either “hey kid” or “hey you”. In the ring he was either the winner or the loser. When he started winning consistently he was “the returning champ.” When he started getting more attention and more bets, he was brutal, ruthless; Not a name, a description. In prison he was given a number, but more often than not the guards referred to him as “the guy with the busted face”

His entire life, summed up in one crummy phrase. He had punched and clawed his way to the title, to the top. Fighting guys as desperate as he was. But in an underground fighting ring, the summit only reaches so high and the view at the top isn’t nearly as sweet as you hoped.

It almost wasn’t a loss when the cops broke it all up. At least from behind bars, the air was cleaner. But what was his victory? Caged off from the rest of the world with only the memory of being the best of the lowest, the champion of the gutters to keep him afloat?

But the lady in red, Black Heron, had told him he was going to help them steal the world from those who didn’t deserve it.

The world. It sounded like a good start.

The name Steelbeak could mean something, could strike fear into the hearts of anyone who heard it. As an agent of F.O.W.L. he could be somebody.

But he wasn’t stupid.

He had been around long enough to know how groups like this one worked. You were either useful, or you were dead.

He had thought that Black Heron was his partner. But she had made it clear to him that wasn’t the case and he was not about to make that mistake again.

Just like the gang of street kids, just like the underground ring, just like prison. No misunderstandings of friendship or loyalty. You don’t trust anyone farther than you can throw them. If you form an alliance, it’s because each has something they can gain from the other. Lower your guard and get a knife in the back, maybe literally.

So no, he wasn’t about to let his guard down.

And then he met Fethry Duck.

After the intelli-ray incident, Steelbeak and Heron were suspended from field duty. Heron sulked and withdrew to her private lab. Steelbeak was left to wander the halls aimlessly before the glorified babysitting duty was his newest form of punishment. His job was simple. Keep the asset clueless and make sure he didn’t stick his beak anywhere it didn’t belong. It was a mission so simple, that, according to Director Buzzard, not even Steelbeak could screw it up.

He hadn’t known what to expect from this obscure McDuck nephew. He knew from all the F.O.W.L. briefings he had been forced to sit through that all members of the McDuck family were threats, dangerous in their own way, even the little ones.

And then there was Fethry.

Fethry Duck, dismissed as a non-threat and an idiot by Director Buzzard. Stupid enough to hand himself over as an oblivious hostage. Fethry Duck, the subject of Heron’s under-the-breath mutterings, something about “playing into the stereotype” and “you sure that guy is only half loon?” Fethry Duck, who bought the cock-and-bull story of lab security being present to protect pending patents and unlicensed intellectual property or whatever the buzzard had come up with.

Fethry Duck, who hummed while he worked. Fethry Duck, who bobbed his head while he hummed. Fethry, who named each specimen he brought into the lab and spoke to them in a kind, reassuring way.

Steelbeak had tried to come off as menacing at first.

He was less than pleased to be forced to sit in a lab all day when Agent G or ghost guy were out doing who knows what, causing whatever havoc to the McDuck family. Meanwhile, he was being benched, reassigned to idle work that any egghead could have done in their sleep.

He retreated to the corner of the lab, arms crossed, glaring as the little guy from his metal stool as he rambled on about whatever he was working on. Steelbeak had tried the occasional interjection, cutting in with quips, borderline insults, or vaguely aggressive remarks. But they seemed to go right over the asset’s head. His persistent sunniness kept him buoyant, like an unsinkable battleship.

That was...a first. Steelbeak knew was an intimidating guy. His intimidation tactics were usually either met with cowering or matched aggression that usually ended in a brawl. Even when Steelbeak tried kicking it up a notch, casually dropping the fact that he had once dislocated the jaw of a grizzly with a single uppercut, or that he had been in prison prior to his current employment, the McDuck nephew responded with his characteristic smile and babbled on about something to do with the formation of pearls.

After weeks of being unable to get a rise out of the hostage, Steelbeak retreated to silence from his corner across the lab. But boredom overtook him in a matter of days and he eventually ventured over to the lab table where a shallow touch tank had been set up to cover most of the table.

“So what’s this mess?”

“Oh Mr. Steelbeak!” The duck beamed up at him, surprised but welcoming of his sudden interest. “I was just cataloging my newest specimen, say hello to Mr. Steelbeak, Angeline!

In his hands, the asset held a...well he wasn’t sure what… a weird, spikey looking ball. Steelbeak wouldn’t have guessed it was alive but the needle-like spikes shifted slightly, as if waving hello.

Fethry cupped the creature gently in his hands.

“You did fantastic Angeline! Thank you for your help, you can go back to your friends now,” and with that, he lowered his hands below the surface of the water, parted his palms, and allowed the small thing to slowly sink back down to the bottom of the touch tank.

He was always like that, Steelbeak had noticed. He always spoke to his lab specimens encouragingly with a gentle voice and moved with an even gentler touch.

Black Heron didn’t use live specimens very often in her lab. But even when she did, he couldn’t remember her ever speaking to them, never moving them with any consideration beyond getting them from point A to point B. Where Heron was all sharp angles and pointed glares, Fethry was all rounded edges and soft smiles.

Fethry gestured to the table behind him where more of the spiky balls sat unmoving in the touch tank.

“Magenta, Henry, Spike, Yolanda, Franklin, Gilbert the Gallavant, Rocky, and Rostia are deep sea urchins from the the Atlantic trench,” he said as he pointed out each one. “I’m trying to understand the effects of a mutanant agent on deep sea creatures.”

Steelbeak was a good deal taller than Fethry, so the duck had to look up to meet his eyes as he spoke. But that did nothing to hinder the enthusiasm of his voice.

“You see, these guys live on the ocean floor by hydrothermal vents. Those are cracks in the sea floor where superheated fluids and toxic minerals escape through. It’s a harsh environment but species like Angeline and her friends still find a way to live there. I think that the hydrothermal vents mutated them, that’s why they’re a different color and their spines are shaped differently from their cousins.”

He said this while gesturing to a cluster of bright red urchins Steelbeak hadn’t noticed earlier.

“They’re all part of the same family, but they’re different from each other. I’m trying to understand how and why the vents made them different.”

“So you’re trying to figure out what’s wrong with them?”

For the first time, Fethry’s smile slipped.

“Well, nothing’s wrong with them. They just changed,” he said softly. “Sometimes living things have to change to survive their environment. It’s called adaptation. Sea urchins can live almost anywhere, in tidepools where they’re close to the sunshine, in coral reefs where they have lots and lots of fish neighbors, or even in the deep, deep, total, absolute, very, very, bottom zone.”

“Adaptation?” Steelbeak repeated, “Is that good or bad?”

“Well…” Fethry rubbed the back of his neck as he picked his next words, “Just because something is different doesn’t mean its bad. And just because something changes from what it used to be doesn’t make it bad, but it doesn’t always make it good either. If Angeline and her friends wanted to move back to the tidepools, they might have a hard time adjusting. Does that make sense?”

Steelbeak shrugged.

“So what about this thing over here?” Steelbeak said, leaning in to stare at the slippery looking creature in a separate tank.

“That’s Noodle!” Fethry’s voice chimed from behind Steelbeak. “Usually electric eels live in shallow and murky waters, but Noodle here is a real marvel! You should see him when he sparks up! His natural bioluminescence lights up as he generates his electricity.”

Steelbeak frowned. Fethry had to be pulling his leg. But the genuine awe in his voice made Steelbeak hesitate.

“An electric eel? Even I know that water and electricity don’t mix. How could a fish make electricity without frying itself?"

“That’s a great question!” Fethry exclaimed, guileless enthusiasm rising to the surface again. Steelbeak waited for the snarl of laughter, waited for the duck’s features to twist into annoyance followed by a harsh bark of laughter at Steelbeak’s expense. But it never came.

“Scientists have been asking that same for years! The truth is that we don’t know. Electric eels can produce electricity to help them detect what’s in the water around them and even stun their prey. But for some reason, they’re not affected. Scientists don’t know if it’s a special coat of proteins on the eel’s skin or if they’re just resistant to their own shocks. ”

Steelbeak made the mistake of looking down at Fethry. He was surprised to see the duck was gazing back at him, with a soft, light smile brightening his features.

Steelbeak was caught off guard by a sudden...something. Some kind of movement, some kind of twist in his chest like a wet cloth being wrung out to dry.

“Yeah, w-well, I got electrocuted once. No big deal. Maybe all the other fish are just a bunch of wimps, ” he said crossing his arms.

“Were you okay?”

The duck peered up at him with wide, round, eyes, brimming with a gentle, genuine concern Steelbeak could not remember ever receiving.

And he felt it again, a sharp...pain?? Bigger this time, spreading like a jagged tear ripping at his ribcage.

He averted his eyes.

“Uh, yeah, yeah. It was no big deal. You should have seen the other guy.”

‘The other guy’ being a tiny plane flown by a group of dumb rats turned smart. But Steelbeak chose to omit that detail.

“Was it your beak? Is that how the other guy hurt you?”

“What? Why would you-” Steelbeak only then realized that at some point he had lifted his hand and began lightly rubbing his beak.

He tore his hand away. “This trap!” he snapped, a pointed finger gesturing towards his face “is the best on the block! I use it to hurt people who get on my nerves, not the other way around!”

“I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to-”

But Steelbeak didn’t wait for Fethry to finish. Not wanting to deck the asset in a fit of sudden anger, Steelbeak stormed away, back to his usual corner. He slumped into his stool and let the asset continue to work in silence. At least that was his intention. But for the next few hours the asset kept glancing up in his direction while Steelbeak pretended to be staring across the room towards the door.

Steelbeak was content to ignore it, but as the hours passed and the day drew near its end, the McDuck sighed and looked up at Steelbeak.

“Mr. Steelbeak, I really am sorry. I always did have a bad habit of sticking my foot in my mouth.”

He rubbed the back of his neck as he spoke, eyes jumped from Steelbeak to the floor.

“And uh, well that just makes it all the more likely to start off on the wrong foot with someone.”

Steelbeak kept his arms crossed and his eyes forward.

“But uh- I don’t want to do that with you. I really do like having you around the lab and...I would never want to do something to upset you.

“Don’t worry about it.”

“But I do! And-and I’m going to!” The duck said with more force than Steelbeak was expecting.

He turned his head, channeling a glare like the kind he was used to receiving. The asset didn’t waiver, despite the perturbed look displayed across his face.

“What’s your deal?”

Umm...sorry, how do you mean?

Steelbeak leaned forward in his seat and locked eyes with the strange McDuck nephew.

“I mean, I tell you I get into fights, bad ones, the kind where you get electrocuted and maybe almost die. I tell you I spend time in prison, you know, where they throw away low-down criminals? I tell you that my face can be used to hurt people, and...and…”

For a moment, Steelbeak’s beak gaped for words, “and you don’t even flinch! You treat it like I just told you I pick daisies on weekends.”

To his credit, Fethry Duck didn’t seem to whither under his gaze as Steelbeak was half expecting him to do. Maybe this McDuck nephew was made of tougher stuff than he had been led to believe.

“Well, I-umm…” Fethry’s beak opened and closed as he searched for words. Open and honest in his nervousness as he was in all things. He lifted one arm to rub the sleeve of his oversized sweater.

Slowly, thoughtfully, he said, “I learned a long time ago, from someone important to me, that...that people are complicated...and its not fair to judge them before you know them.”

He chewed his lower beak before continuing. “My, um, my brother spent some time behind bars too...but well, no one is all good or all bad.”

“You have a brother?”

Steelbeak raked his mind trying to recall every member of the McDuck family tree they had been briefed on at those endless FOWL meetings. There was sailor nephew, lucky green nephew, lady nephew, the four mini-nephews.

Fethry nodded absently.

“My brother, Abner, he’s...he’s not a bad person. Everyone always said he was trouble, always glowering, kinda had a gruff way of talking to people but..”

Fethry’s voice had become softer, “He did some bad things but…”

He sighed and lifted his eyes back towards Steelbeak. As disarming as it was, Steelbeak forced himself not to look away.

“It doesn’t bother me that you were in prison, Steelbeak. I know that detail isn’t enough to make a fair assumption about someone.”

He looked up at him with such a clarity, eyes wide and clear like polished glass.

Steelbeak felt something catch in his chest. He fished his brain for something to say, but it felt like someone had taken a fork to his thoughts and whisked them like scrambled eggs. Fethry beat him to his next words anyhow.

“We’re going to be around each other a lot, and if it's alright with you, well, I hope we could start over, on the right foot.”

He was unguarded, Steelbeak realized. Not just in this moment, but all the time. That’s how he would describe him. Unguarded enthusiasm when he worked, unguarded sincerity when he spoke, unguarded softness in his smile and warmth in his eyes.

And for some reason, he didn’t want to shut that down.

“Yeah, sure,” he rasped, far lower than he had intended.

And Fethry smiled. That bright, beaming, smile that seemed to light up the rest of the underground lab.

It took an unfairly short time for Steelbeak to realize he enjoyed the company of Fethry Duck.

Weirdo, oddball, Fethry Duck.

Fethry Duck who sang to a jar of shrimp-no krill. Steelbeak remembered, Fethry had told them they were krill.

Fethry Duck, who always smiled when Steelbeak entered the lab. Fethry Duck, who always nodded and listened, really listened, whenever Steelbeak was talking, who never glared like he was waiting for Steelbeak to finish speaking, and who never, not even once, called any of his questions stupid.

Fethry even interjected with “great question!” or “I like the way you’re thinking!”

Talking to Fethry was easy, in a way Steelbeak had never experienced with anyone before. He never felt like he was in over his head when Fethry explained sciency stuff. He always did it in a way Steelbeak could follow with ease. Steelbeak never felt the need to bluff his way through the conversation, it always felt like they were on the same page and could build off the other’s train of thought.

What’s more he liked talking to Fethry. It wasn’t strategic, there was no underlying motive to try to get information out of one another.

Well other than the whole secretly-holidng-you-as-hostage-to-get-the-upper-hand-on-your-uncle thing. But Steelbeak tried to think about that as little as he could.

He liked listening to him ramble on about the social behaviors of arctic krill, he liked watching the way he would bob his head and flail his hands when he got really excited while describing strange-looking barnacle formations he’d come across.

He looked forward to seeing him in the lab every morning and at the end of the day, he replayed the conversations in his head long after they had ended. He could remember every detail of Fethry’s expression while he gave a rambling lecture on carcinisation and the way he tilted his head and softened his smile when Steelbeak spoke.

And that scared him, more than anything.

#fethsteel #tw implied child abuse #tw some violence #hare brain writes

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wrestlingwithhistory · 3 years

Text

Muhammad Ali vs Antonio Inoki

For many people, they see the birth of Ultimate Fighting in companies like Pancrase which was founded in 1993 by Masakatsu Funaki and Minoru Suzuki. They embraced the method of mixed martial arts and gave an arena for those who wanted to pit style against style. But some people also reflect back to a time, far before Pancrase, where a meeting of two worlds lit a fire behind those who later went on to created modern Mixed Martial Arts.

In 1975, Muhammad Ali boasted in a meeting with amateur Japanese Wrestling association President Ichiro Hatta “Isn’t there any oriental fighter who will challenge me? I will give him one million dollars if he wins!”. This question hit the headlines of every major newspaper and sports magazine in Japan and was eventually answered by Antonio Inoki, who was the founder of New Japan Pro Wrestling established just 3 years earlier.

Muhammed Ali was coming off the back of a fight with Richard Dunn on 24th May 1976 which he won by knockout and was coming towards the end of his boxing career at the time of the proposed fight having fought in the famous ‘The Thriller in Manila’ on October 1st, 1975. His final fight would be only 6 years later against Trevor Berbick.

Antonio Inoki was, at the time, one of the biggest names in Japanese Professional Wrestling. As well as creating NJPW in 1972, he began his professional wrestling journey as a disciple of Rikidozan at aged 17 as part of the JWA (Japanese Wrestling Alliance). Following the murder of RIkidozan by the Yakuza in 1963, Inoki went on an excursion to the United States in 1964, where he continued training under the legendary Karl Gotch. With Gotch, he learned the Catch style that is now synonymous with the Gotch name. Gotch to this very day is still held in high regard and to many fans and players of Japanese pro wrestling is known as ‘The God of Wrestling’.

Following the return from his excursion in 1966, Inoki working with Tokyo Pro Wrestling and quickly climbed the ranks to become its biggest star, before the company folded in 1967. He then returned to JWA, where he stayed for roughly 4 years, becoming a dominant tag team with his future promotional rival Giant Baba of All Japan Pro Wrestling. Inoki was then fired in 1971 due to JWA officials finding out that Inoki was planning a takeover the company. The following year, New Japan was founded and is one of the biggest wrestling promotions today.

So, in March 1976, an agreement was made between Ali and Inoki to fight at Tokyo’s Nippon Budokan, scheduled for June 26th, 1976. It is believed that the financial backers of the fight had to part with $6 million to convince Ali to take the exhibition fight and then began the press conferences to build the hype for this one-off spectacle between pugilist and grappler.

Ali, in his usual manner, would make fun of Inoki’s appearance, giving him the nickname ‘The Pelican’ due to his prominent lower jaw and chin. Inoki would then reply via an interpreter “When your fist connects with my chin, take care that your fist is not damaged”. Inoki also went as far as to present Ali with a crutch at a following conference ‘to use after he has been thrown from the ring’.

Ali’s demeanour during this time appeared jovial and not that he was not taking the fight very seriously. This angered Inoki who began to make more threatening statements to try and make Ali realise how serious the exhibition was to him and many around the world. Inoki said in one Conference “I don’t know how seriously Muhammad Ali is taking the fight, but if he doesn’t take it seriously, he could suffer damage. I’m going in there fighting. I may even break his arm”.

These statements from Inoki caused tension within Ali’s team, many of whom were concerned that going ahead with the fight was still a good thing to do. Ali however, continued with his boxing training but also worked with Pro wrestlers in the US to try and gain experience against a wrestler. He worked with The Sheik and sparred with wrestlers Kenny Jay and Buddy Wolf in televised exhibition matches, defeating both.

Due to the growing concerns within Ali’s team, they began creating a list of rules for this unique match-up. The original concept for the match was agreed to be a worked match, common in pro wrestling, but Ali never agreed to determine the winner before the fight had started. It has been speculated by Boxing Journalist Jim Murphy that the original plan for the match was for Ali to accidentally punch the referee and knock him out and while Ali tended to the referee, Inoki would hit him from behind with an enzuiguri (step up kick) or a roundhouse kick to the back of the head. The Referee would then come to and give a ten-count to the incapacitated Ali.

The result was carried out with the intention of both men looking strong, Inoki in front of his countrymen and Ali only losing as he was kicked from behind following the incident with the Referee.

After hearing that he would lose, Ali point blank refused this result and decided that they have a real one-on-one fight.

In the days building up to the fight, Ali’s team attended one of Inoki’s training sessions and were shocked to him using real kicks and grapples on sparring partners. This did little to quell the concerns of his entourage. Inoki has alleged in in interviews that after the training session, his team reported back to him and he asked Inoki “OK, so when do we do the rehearsal?” and Inoki replied “This isn’t an exhibition, it’s a real fight!”

The ever-nervous entourage then scrambled to change the rules once more. Representatives from both sides were called to negotiate the rules of the fight with less than a week before the fight. The list of rules were effectively things that Inoki was not allowed to do to Ali. He was not allowed to use throws, not allowed to grapple or tackle Ali and was not able to land any kicks unless one knee was touching the mat during the kick being performed. They also placed a stipulation that none of the rules were made public before the fight, likely to try and save Ali’s credibility.

Years after the fight, many have disputed the rules that were in place. Referee Gene LeBell denied there were any limitations on grappling or kicking, however Bret Hart, who at the time of the fight was an employee of NJPW, stated that the team working with Ali had said that ‘if Inoki laid a finger on their champ, they would kill him’. This statement was also backed up by former New Japan referee Mr. Takahashi who also said that all of the changes came from Ali’s entourage and not Ali himself.

Many professional fighters became discouraged with how credible the fight could look given all of the imposed restrictions, with notable correspondent John Roderick stating “…what is called by some the world’s first Martial Arts Championship – and others a multi-million-dollar sham”.

Ali arrived in Japan the day of the fight, swarmed by a mass of Japanese journalists all looking to get a soundbite from the Greatest of All Time. They were not disappointed as the ever-humble Ali made his way through the Airport proclaiming “There will be no Pearl harbour! Muhammad Ali has returned! There will be no Pearl Harbour!”. The fight was highly anticipated, by sports fans for the sheer spectacle of seeing 2 sports come together and for professionals and sceptics curious how the fight would be able to function with the level of suspected restrictions that were imposed.

It was estimated that the fight was viewed by 1.4 Billion people worldwide, broadcast to 34 countries. In New York, Vince McMahon Sr. Sold tickets for the fight to watch on a large screen inside Shea Stadium which drew a crowd of 32,897. The Budokan in Tokyo sold out with the most expensive seat selling for 300,000 Yen.

The Fight

Antonio Inoki was the first competitor to make his entrance. He was wearing his now signature purple robe accompanied by Karl Gotch, Olympic Judoka Seiji Sakaguchi, wrestling trainer Kotetsu Yamamoto and pro wrestler Kantaro Hoshino.

Muhammad Ali then followed to the ring, in a red and white robe, followed by his manager Herbert Muhammad, Trainers Angelo Dundee and Wali Muhammad, Cornerman Drew Bundini Brown, Dr. Ferdie Pachecho, pro wrestler ‘Classy’ Freddie Blassie, Taekwondo master Jhoon Goo Rhee and promoter Butch Lewis.

After the first bell rang, the whole arena was taken by surprise as Inoki ran and leapt across the ring towards Ali’s legs. Ali managed to sidestep this attack but Inoki stayed on his back, spending the round sweeping and kicking at Ali’s legs. This was within the confines of the rules and one of Inoki’s knees were always touching the ground at said time. Inoki did stand up momentarily to try and lure in Ali but quickly returned to the mat, throwing kick after kick towards Ali. Ali taunted the wrestler to stand up but Inoki refused taking the fight to Ali’s legs.

This continued on throughout the 2nd and 3rd rounds with Inoki furiously kicking at Ali’s legs with great volume and power. The tactic was seemingly paying off as Ali was not able to throw punches in his normal way meaning that Inoki was able to avoid many of them during the start of the contest. Ali would take to pining himself in the corner of the ring and lifting himself up out of the way of Inoki’s kicks and stamping downwards, which was deemed against the rules and quickly stopped by referee LeBell. A large wound opened up on Ali’s left knee during the third round and the crowd quickly began to boo due to the lack of action going on in the ring. Ali began to taunt Inoki shouting at him “Coward Inoki! Inoki No Fight!” and “One Punch, I want One Punch!”

By round four, Inoki had frustrated both Ali and the crowd within the arena. Ali would continue with shouting at Inoki “Inoki Girl” and “I thought Inoki could Wrestle”. At one point, Inoki got Ali trapped in the corner using his ground kicking technique and wildly hit a flurry of kicks towards Ali’s thighs, Ali trying to avoid by lifting his legs off the canvas while holding onto the ropes again.

In the fifth round, the same pattern continued by Inoki adopting the ground kick strikes to Ali, which paid off somewhat in this round as he managed to knock Ali off his feet with one of the strikes. Ali danced off the stumble in his inimitable fashion while simultaneously avoiding more kicks from Inoki. Despite the frustrations of what Inoki was doing, Ali was nothing less than himself, doing more than enough to keep the crowd entertained. During the same round Ali managed to grab Inoki’s foot after a failed kick attempt and dragged him across the ring but before Ali could do anything with this small advantage, the bell sounded and both men went off to their corners. The crowd were starting to warm up and appreciate the match for what it was, a clash of styles. They could see blood and bruising starting to appear around Ali’s legs due to the sheer amount and power of the kicks that Inoki was hitting Ali with.

During the 6th Round, Inoki continued with his game plan. One of his initial kicks of this round caught Ali in the groin. Referee Lebell stopped the fight momentarily and gave Inoki a warning about the placement of his kicks before returning to the action. He followed up with 2 more kicks before Ali adopted the same approach as the previous round. He grabbed the foot of Inoki with a view to immobilise him and launch an attack of his own, but Inoki being the proficient grappler of the two was able to grab Ali’s left shoe, wrap his right leg around Ali’s right calf and bring him to the mat. Inoki sat on Ali and attempted a leglock but Ali managed to kick his legs to the rope to force a break. Inoki was then issued with a further warning for throwing a back elbow towards Ali’s face during the rope break stoppage. He was deducted as point for this but as the fight restarted Ali was reprimanded for kicking out while holding the ropes.

To start the 7th round, Inoki became the intimidator. He tried to persuade Ali to meet him on the ground, but Ali refused. Ali threw a few missed kicks but then finally threw a long jab but Inoki was quick to knock him down with a sweeping kick which erupted the Tokyo crowd, but more so in favour of Ali. After the round ended, Ali’s doctor treated the wounds on his legs and Ali’s trainer Angelo Dundee approached Karl Gotch to make them aware that Inoki’s leather boots were damaged, and a brass eyelet was causing the cuts to Ali’s legs. The boots were taped up to try and prevent any further cuts from taking place. They also taped the ends of Inoki’s shoelaces as they were tipped with brass.

The 8th Round. Ali had braggadociosly stated that he would end Inoki in the round during the press conferences, however the pattern of the previous rounds continued. LeBell gave Inoki another low blow warning after mistakenly believing a knock down was a result of another misplaced kick by the wrestler. One of the more uneventful rounds of the fight ended in Ali shouting ��Inoki Nothing’ to his opponent.

Ali attempted to make progress during the 9th round of the contest, he tried to circle Inoki, looking for an opening to try and hit him with only his second successful punch of the fight. Inoki stuck to strategy and landed a huge kick which stumbled Ali into his corner. Ali was waning and his legs were showing the signs of the repeated damage caused by Inoki.

In the 10th round, Ali finally hit his second punch of the match, a jab which caught Inoki in the face. A good punch, but left Ali open to another leg kick. The crowd began to bellow for Inoki to fight standing and he graced them by charging at Ali who grabbed onto the ring ropes. The crowd were now Ali’s. Inoki’s tactics, although working well for him had not endeared him to his countrymen and they continued to chant Ali’s name as he spoke worryingly with his corner about the next 5 rounds.

After conferring with his cornermen, Ali adopted a different approach to save his beaten legs. It was suggested by Rhee, the Taekwondo expert, to block the leg blows using his arms to avoid further damage to his legs. This was successful but Ali was unable to capitalise on opportunities where he grabbed Inoki’s foot.

Before the 12th Round, Karl Gotch instructed Inoki to try and take down Ali and finish the match by pin or submission. A few have suggested that this was imparted due to Ali’s cornermen being obviously concerned for the Boxing champion. But after the last round, Ali came into the contest more confident after blocking many of Inoki’s blows with his arms. During this round, Inoki finally stood up and hit Ali with a low kick, although clean it was against the rules as one knee was not on the canvas. Ali’s corner tried to convince him to use this opportunity to attack the now standing Inoki, but he quickly went back to the ground. Towards the end of the round, people who were ringside had commented on how Ali’s left leg looked to be ‘double the size of the right’.

Ali took the centre of the ring in the 13th round, trying to push Inoki into the corner. Inoki would fake a takedown attempt, trying to force Ali into the ropes. Ali blocked him with his glove anticipating another kick, but Inoki charged at Ali grabbing a waist lock to attempt a suplex. Ali hurriedly grabbed the ropes, and the referee broke the hold and returned to the centre of the ring. During this clinch, Ali put all his weight onto Inoki which prompted Inoki to hit him with an illegal knee strike – which would also be Inoki’s 3rd warning for as low blow. After this instance, it looked as if Ali was going to leave the ring but was convinced by the referee to continue on. On the restart of the round, Inoki threw a kick but Ali responded by throwing 2 jabs which connected forcing Inoki back to the canvas as per the previous rounds.

By the 14th round, the crowd were expecting Inoki to follow suit with his tactics, but he came out throwing some bare-fisted jabs and faking a takedown before switching back to his ground kicks. Without any attempt of attack, Ali held onto the ropes which annoyed Inoki and both men exchanged taunts. Ali managed to land a jab before the end of this round, leading into the 15th and final round.

Both men shook hands at the start of this round which drew a huge ovation from the crowd. While many were optimistic about how the fight may end, they were seemingly disappointed that Inoki retreated to his familiar style for this matchup. Inoki managed to land a few kicks, Ali a final jab and the fight was over. The crowd were mixed at the ending of this match, knowing that it wasn’t the fight they were expecting and also being more vocal for Ali during the fight.

Both men shook hands after the fight and Ali declared himself the winner of the bout, claiming that Inoki’s ‘Cowardice’ lost him the fight. 2 judges, one a wrestler who scored in favour of Ali 74-72 and one a boxer who scored in favour of Inoki 72-68 left the decision down to referee Lebell, who given the points deducted from Inoki scored the fight 71-71 so a draw result was declared.

The fans were outraged and rioted within the Budokan, chanting ‘Money Back’. Janitorial staff for the arena took a full day to clean the areas due to the unhappy crown throwing items.

Ali’s leg was so severely swollen and bleeding that it led to two blood clots in his legs after an infection and amputation was discussed at one point though Ali himself downplayed this to the press saying it was nothing serious.

Inoki stated in the press sometime after the fight “I was handicapped by the rules that said no tackling, no karate chops, no punching on the mat. I kept my distance to stay away from Ali’s punches”

The fight grossed $20 million in closed circuit television in the US alone after 2 million or more PPV buys at $10 each, 54 million people watched in Japan as the day was declared a holiday for everyone to be able to watch the fight.

Years on from the fight, even though those involved had been divided over the fights legacy, but the impact that it has given to companies to learn from and engineer their own form of MMA has led to Pancrase, Pride, UFC becoming the giants within Mixed Martial arts during the 90’s. Only one of them now stand at present but the groundwork was laid by 2 legends in their respective sports.

Antonio Inoki went on to continue wrestling with New Japan Pro Wrestling, until he officially retired on April 4th, 1998. He did take breaks away from Wrestling to focus on Politics between 1989-1995 and 2013-2019. He successfully negotiated with Saddam Hussein the release of Japanese hostages before the start of the Gulf War in 1990. He was inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame in 2010.

Muhammad Ali continued with his boxing career having 7 more fights before his final fight with Trevor Berbick. His is still regarded as arguably the greatest boxer of all time, his influence on boxing is still evident not only in performance but also, in the press conferences building to the events. He passed away on June 3rd, 2016 aged 74.

Both men, despite their in-ring differences on that day, they became friends later in life. Inoki started using Ali’s entrance music ‘The Greatest’ and in 1998, Ali flew out to watch Inoki’s retirement match against Don Frye. After Inoki’s victory, Ali climbed into the ring and hugged Inoki. Ali asked for a message to be read out to the Japanese fans.

‘It was 1976 when I fought Antonio Inoki at the Budokan. In the ring, we were tough opponents. After that, we built love and friendship with mutual respect. So, I feel a little less lonely now that Antonio has retired. It is my honour to be standing on the ring with my good friend after 22 years. Our future is bright and has a clear vision. Antonio Inoki and I put our best efforts into making world peace through sports, to prove there is only one mankind beyond the sexual, ethnical or cultural differences. It is my pleasure to come here today.’

#wrestling #boxing #mma #goat #japan #antonio inoki #muhammad ali #new japan pro wrestling #pancrase

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markesinwheelchair · 3 years

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Scott D’amore receives a medical update on John E Bravo. D’amore informs Tommy Dreamer that he’s in critical but stable condition. Dreamer says he’s launching an investigation to solve the mystery of who shot Bravo!

CARNAGE in Knockouts Championship Rematch! | IMPACT! Highlights Nov 3, 2020Deonna Purrazzo has her sights set on reclaiming the Knockouts Championship from Su Yung, but when her dirty tricks backfire, the proceedings devolve into CARNAGE!SharePlay VideoKnockouts Champion Su Yung vs Deonna Purrazzo w/ Kimber Lee – Knockouts Championship

We kick off IMPACT! with a Bound For Glory Championship rematch as Su Yung defends the Knockouts Title against Deonna Purrazzo. The Virtuosa jumpstarts the match with a bicycle kick in the corner. Deonna targets the arm of Su as she prepares to lock in the Fujiwara Armbar. As Purrazzo is trapped in the Mandible Claw, Kimber Lee slides a steel chair into the ring. Both Knockouts play tug of war with Su gaining possession. Su uses the chair as a weapon and the referee calls for the bell!

Deonna Purrazzo w/ Kimber Lee def Knockouts Champion Su Yung by Disqualification – Knockouts Championship

After the match, Su continues the assault with the steel chair, sending Purrazzo and Lee retreating.

The Knockouts Tag Title Tournament begins in two weeks on IMPACT!

Heath Signs His IMPACT Wrestling Contract

Heath meets with Scott D’amore to sign his IMPACT Wrestling contract but it becomes apparent that Heath’s injury will prevent him from competing anytime in the immediate future. D’amore says that everything Heath requested is in this contract – but he’ll have to wait until he’s healthy to sign it.

Barrister RD Evans confronts Scott D’amore about Deonna Purrazzo’s Knockouts Title rematch ending in disqualification earlier tonight. Evans demands that D’amore makes this right. D’amore informs him that Purrazzo will indeed receive another shot at Su Yung – in the form of a No Disqualification Match at Turning Point on IMPACT Plus!

World Champion Rich Swann and Eddie Edwards prepare to face Eric Young and Sami Callihan in tag team action later tonight but first, they sing Eddie’s theme song!

X-Division FIREWORKS as Chris Bey & Trey Miguel Light It Up! | IMPACT! Highlights Nov 3, 2020The competition level in the X-Division is at an all-time high, and two of its all-stars deliver a WILD performance as Chris Bey battles Trey Miguel!SharePlay VideoChris Bey vs Trey Miguel

Who will pick up the victory in this clash of X-Division stars? Trey is in control when Bey rakes his eyes, followed by a clothesline to the back. Trey builds momentum with a reverse 619. The pace quickens when Trey hits an impressive combination, culminating with a big neckbreaker for two! Bey blocks the Cheeky Nandos Kick in the corner. Bey flies off the top with a cutter to score the victory.

Chris Bey def Trey Miguel

Madison Rayne’s Locker Room Talk w/ Jordynne Grace & Tenille Dashwood

Johnny Swinger returns to co-host Locker Room Talk as Madison welcomes in her guests, Jordynne Grace and Tenille Dashwood. Both Knockouts are looking for a partner ahead of the Knockouts Tag Title tournament which begins in two weeks. Jordynne says that despite her partnership with Alisha not working out last week, she is confident she will find someone else in time. Jordynne admits that Tenille will do whatever it takes to win and proposes that they form a team. Tenille instead asks the former two-time Knockouts Tag Team Champion Madison Rayne to team up! Madison accepts as Jordynne looks on in frustration.

Tommy Dreamer questions referee Brandon Tolle to see if he was the one who shot John E Bravo last week. Dreamer recalls when Bravo berated Tolle after a bad call in the match between Fallah Bahh and Johnny Swinger on IMPACT! Meanwhile, Swinger and Cody Deaner argue over who’s next in line to be questioned because they both have a match next – against each other!

Open Challenge SPOILED by TJP! | IMPACT! Highlights Nov 3, 2020The Deafeat Rohit Challenge is BACK, but TJP shows up to crash the X-Division Champion's party!SharePlay VideoDefeat Rohit Challenge for the X-Division Championship

Rohit Raju is in the ring awaiting his next challenger for the X-Division Championship. TJP comes out but the Defeat Rohit Challenge is only open to those who Rohit has not already defended against. Rohit claims that even though he may not have pinned TJP at Bound For Glory, he still lost in the Six-Way Scramble. TJP reflects on his incredible list of accomplishments in professional wrestling but it’s not enough to persuade Rohit to give him another shot at the title. TJP has had enough and spills his hot tea on the X-Division champion! A brawl breaks out with TJP gaining the upper-hand, sending Rohit retreating.

Backstage, Gia Miller interviews one half of the Motor City Machine Guns, Chris Sabin. Last week, XXXL made a statement when they took out his partner Alex Shelley with a blindside attack. Sabin says that every tag team in IMPACT Wrestling knows they can’t beat the Guns two-on-two and that was the reason for XXXL’s assault. Sabin challenges one member of XXXL to a fight next week!

Scott D’amore announces that Rohit Raju must defend the X-Division Title against TJP next week to determine who the better man is once and for all. This will be TJP’s last chance as long as Rohit is the reigning X-Division Champion.

Champs ON THE RUN as Good Brothers Stand Tall! | IMPACT! Highlights Nov 3, 2020Doc Gallows battles Ethan Page in a clash of heavyweights, but when matters break down, it's The Good Brothers who have the champs on the run!SharePlay VideoTag Team Champion Ethan Page w/ Josh Alexander vs Doc Gallows w/ Karl Anderson

Gallows is in total control from the opening bell as Page throws a tantrum at ringside. Alexander provides a distraction, allowing Page to gain the advantage. Page distracts the referee while Alexander gets physically involved. Page follows up with a DDT for two. Gallows fights back with a series of elbows, then quickens the pace with multiple clotheslines. Gallows sets up in the corner but Alexander hooks his leg. Anderson has seen enough and takes it to Alexander on the floor. Gallows hits a big boot for the three count!

Doc Gallows w/ Karl Anderson def Tag Team Champion Ethan Page w/ Josh Alexander

After the match, The North attack Gallows but Anderson evens the odds and hits Page with the Gun Stun.

Gia Miller interviews Swoggle, who says he feels at home in IMPACT Wrestling. His former friend Brian Myers interrupts and calls him a sideshow attraction, not a professional wrestler. Myers rips Swoggle’s autobiography out of his hands and pushes him to the ground.

Shooting Suspects GO TO WAR! | IMPACT! Highlights Nov 3, 2020Both under firm suspicion in the shooting of John E. Bravo, Johnny Swinger & Cody Deaner collide in an impromptu match to avoid being investigated!SharePlay VideoJohnny Swinger vs Cody Deaner w/ Cousin Jake

Two of the suspects in the shooting of John E Bravo compete in singles action tonight. Swinger calls for a timeout, prompting Deaner to pummel him with boots in the corner. Deaner takes a swig of beer but that gives Swinger the opening he needs as he sends him head-first into the turnbuckle. Deaner hits an inverted Atomic Drop and it’s time to Give’r! Deaner attempts the DDT but Swinger counters and retreats to the outside. Swinger grabs a steel chair but Jake stops him from using it. Instead, Swinger hits Deaner with a loaded fanny pack to steal the victory!

Johnny Swinger def Cody Deaner w/ Cousin JakeMoose Makes VIOLENT Statement! | IMPACT! Highlights Nov 3, 2020Moose feels disrespected and overlooked, and sets out to make an example of Willie Mack when "Chocolate Thunder" interrupts his speech!SharePlay Video

Self-proclaimed TNA World Heavyweight Champion Moose is in the ring. He reflects on his hard-fought victory over EC3 at Bound For Glory. Moose states that no matter what he’s been through over the last several months, people still look at Rich Swann as being the premier champion in IMPACT Wrestling. Last week, Moose sent a message to Swann when he attacked his friend Willie Mack in the parking lot. Moose warns Swann that pain is headed his way when Willie hits the ring and charges at the champ! Willie gets ahead of himself and bumps into the cameraman. This allows Moose to gain the advantage as he chokes Willie out with the camera cable.

Chris Bey congratulates Rich Swann on becoming the new World Champion at Bound For Glory. Bey tells Swann that it’s time for him to go to the management office and request a match against Bey with the title on the line. Swann tells The Ultimate Finesser that if he wants an opportunity, he needs to earn it.

Night 1 of Tommy Dreamer’s investigation into who shot John E Bravo concludes with him narrowing down the suspects to 10 individuals. They are: Johnny Swinger, Havok, Cody Deaner, Fallah Bahh, Brandon Tolle, Hernandez, Larry D, Father James Mitchell, Rosemary and Taya Valkyrie.

Moose will battle Willie Mack on November 14th at Turning Point!

Ken Shamrock ASSAULTS World Champion Rich Swann! | IMPACT! Highlights Nov 3, 2020Ken Shamrock gets involed in the STACKED tag team main event, assaulting IMPACT World Champion Rich Swann to help his partner Sami Callihan!SharePlay VideoSami Callihan & Eric Young vs World Champion Rich Swann & Eddie Edwards

Both Eddie and Swann bring the aerial offense to their opponents in the early going. Back in the ring, Callihan begins to wear Eddie down. Eddie hits Callihan with the Blue Thunder Bomb to create separation. Callihan tags in EY who immediately knocks Swann off the apron, preventing Eddie from making the tag. Eddie hits EY with a huge superplex! Eddie fights free and finally makes the tag to Swann. The champ is on the attack as he picks Callihan off the top with a Hurricanrana. Swann takes out both EY and Callihan with a double handspring cutter! Swann locks in the Sharpshooter on Callihan while Eddie locks in the half Boston Crab on EY. Callihan is about to tap but EY stops his hand from hitting the mat! Ken Shamrock comes down to ringside and sends Swann into the steel ring steps. Meanwhile, Callihan connects with a Piledriver on Eddie to win.

Sami Callihan & Eric Young def World Champion Rich Swann & Eddie Edwards

Sami Callihan, Ken Shamrock and Eric Young stand tall as IMPACT! on AXS TV goes off the air.

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sheerfreesia007 · 4 years

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Thirsty Thursday WIP List

**Halloween Themed Thirsty Thursday** (Reader in various costumes with various characters. I.E: Nurse(Whiskey), Witch(Marcus), Sugar Skull/Dia De Los Muertos(Frankie), Cop(Mitch), Inmate(Stiles), Red Riding Hood(Isaac))

Kinktober

Strip Club Request: Moonshine x Whiskey

Whiskey and reader are undercover at a strip club tailing a target. They need to tag target with a tracking device. They are sitting at a table having a drink when target starts to leave! Reader thinks fast, whips off her dress (throws it in whiskey’s face) and jumps up to stop target leaving by offering a pole/lap dance. Whiskey’s jaw drops (obv reader is in knockout lingerie) as he watches her. She gets the job done and they leave. High from the rush they get busy in whiskey’s bronco 🍆🍩🇬🇧

Tequila is in this too! It gets a little silly because of this and Whiskey has a green eyed monster. (”Wow I didn’t know she was that flexible” “Hot damn, she looks good in that.” “Don’t that hurt her back?!”)

The boys don’t know you’re on the mission too (Champ insisted since he figured the boys wouldn’t get the job done but you can.) so surprise! Whiskey swallows his tongue.

Kingsman Doesn’t Know:Song Fic - Scotty Doesn’t Know. The Kingsman guys don’t understand where there fellow agent keeps disappearing to while they’re at Statesman.

Shut up and Swallow: Inspired by this little tidbit in my inbox: “I’d swallow anything whiskey sent in my direction!!!”

Sex Club: Whiskey and reader are on a mission to put trackers on a target and end up tailing him to a sex club. Target and partner end up inviting W&Reader into their private room. They have to put on a ‘show’ to prove they are a legit couple. Mission completed when they drug and tag the mark but they get carried away with each other and finish what they started... “Go Fuck Yourself” - Two Feet inspiration.

1 and Done or Not?: Whiskey has chased after reader for a while and they finally have a night together. R assumes that it was a 1 time thing and throws herself into her work getting on with business. W invites R over for drinks to find out why she’s been avoiding him and she says she thought it was a fling. W says she means much more than that and that he wants to make a go of it.

Reader Takes Control: reader taking control. Maybe tying up Whiskey with his own lasso and making him beg a little? Could we get a few “yes Ma’am’s in there perhaps? (Is that what you meant by a dirty version of that saying)?

Soft Smut: Soft reader taking a bath and massage with character (generic, writers choice of fandom). Frankie or Marcus

Bendy Shortstack: Short reader fic - 5ft petite sexy stateswoman (secret weapon, can fit in small places unlike bigger agents, good sneak thief). Whiskey lifts her up when she can’t reach something and she gets pissy. He takes her out to apologise and they end up back at his place. He loves that she is small and flexible and that he can just lift/move her easily.

Strip Poker: Stiles x Reader, Whiskey x Reader, Mitch x Reader

#Thirsty Thursday WIP

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daleisgreat · 4 years

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Lockdown 2009

Greetings all and welcome to my fifth installment of marching through every TNA/Impact Lockdown PPV. Catch up on the previous entries right here! As I watched this PPV it reminded me of where I was with enjoying Impact in this era of April of 2009 when Lockdown emanated from Philly. Even though this was about a third of the way into infamous head booker Vince Russo’s eight year run with TNA, I think I was near the peak of my TNA/Impact fandom. They maintained a solid X-Division lineup and former X-Division stars were becoming mainstays in the World Title picture like Samoa Joe and AJ Styles. TNA was getting a lot of momentum with its Main Event Mafia faction consisting of former ‘Monday Night Wars’ stars like Nash, Sting, Booker T, Scott Steiner and Kurt Angle. TNA’s ‘Knockouts Division’ they established when Impact went two hours in 2007 put WWE’s then ‘Diva-Search era’ to shame and I feel it was the predecessor to the ‘Women’s Evolution’ era in the WWE for the past few years. This came to a halt when Eric Bishoff and Hulk Hogan arrived in TNA by the end of 2009 and within a year Impact went from must-see programming to becoming a chore and largely ignoring it by the end of 2010. There will be more on that to look forward to in future Lockdown entries. Here are some key takeaways I had from the 2009 Lockdown before I breakdown the matches…. -I think this is the final Lockdown with Don West announcing because Tazz at this time in the midst of his no-compete clause after finishing up with WWE after nine years. Don West did an entertaining short run as a heel announcer a couple months prior although he largely played it straight on this PPV. Sure enough, Tazz debuted in TNA a couple months later and West was gone from the announce desk. West was an affable and authentic voice for TNA in these early years for the promotion and while Tazz was always a solid announcer, I could not help but feel the announce desk permanently took a dip with the removal of West. -This was year two or three of TNA leaving the safety nest of the Impact-Zone Arena at Universal Studios for a bigger arena gate on the road. Lockdown was one of just a handful of PPVs that TNA took on the road per year and it paid off with a big-time atmosphere, especially with this 2009 card taking place in a city known for its passionate fan-base in Philly.

-Yearly props again go out to TNA promo-package voiceover guy, Barry Scott for delivering powerful narrations for all the storyline recaps before most matches yet again. His poignant voice makes any rivalry and PPV no matter how weak or strong at that moment seem must-see. WWE or AEW needs to hire this guy!!! -The 2009 DVD has a decent smattering of just over a half hour of extras. Aside from the pre-show match, there is a recap of the TNA Interaction fan fest, post-match interviews with Sting, Kevin Nash, Team 3D and a in-progress-of-being-stitched-up Mick Foley. Sting has some kind reflections after his match, Nash is a riot enjoying a post-match brewski, and they get so up close to the medical staff working on Foley that they have to issue a graphic content warning. A Smashing Pumpkins music video and a photo gallery I once again borrowed a few pics from for this entry round off the decent amount of extras. -TNA head honcho Dixie Carter made one of her first on-screen appearances for the company giving a quick interview to Jeremy Borash in the pre-show thanking the fans for their support. She started to make some PR appearances around this time to help promote the recently released Impact game on PS3 and 360 and I believe this was her TNA on-air programming debut. Regrettably, Dixie would go on to make more regular appearances in the years to come as an on-air authority figure much to the displeasure of viewers.

-I liked the frequent quick backstage interviews with talent before their matches and them combined with the aforementioned Barry Scott recaps served as a nice refresher on the rivalries going into this, and none overstayed their welcomes unlike a lot of modern WWE rivalry recap packages. I think Lauren was probably the fourth or fifth backstage interviewer for TNA at this point, and she did a fine good job with her reactions and adding in a quick take relative to the storyline’s after most of the interviews wrapped which added a nice ‘fan’s perspective’ view on the feuds. -Also worth noting is future TNA president and current top brass of NWA, Billy Corgan made an early TNA appearance in the music video hype package for the PPV, which is also a DVD extra, with him lending TNA Bullet with Butterfly Wings for use. Speaking of Corgan, you guys should really watch NWA Powerrr!! It and NXT are my current top two shows of the overcrowded 2019 wrestling bubble in America. -Before we begin (I know…sorry), I have to touch on the Suicide character making his Lockdown debut. He was a masked wrestler that debuted in the previously touted Impact videogame. The Impact game was ridiculously over-promoted on TV each week, eventually culminating in the videogame character becoming an actual wrestler. As of this writing, six different individuals have donned the Suicide gear for various stints for the character in TNA up until earlier this year when his most recent run ended. Worth noting is Suicide’s trademark fingers-to-the-temple pose. That same pose would coincidentally become the well-known cover art of the far better performing game, Borderlands when that game first released the following year. Naturally, having fans chant ‘Suicide’ and having him face off against opponents named ‘Homicide’ stirred controversy and TNA answered the criticism and would change his name to Manik…..before ultimately changing it back to Suicide due to presumably fan demand/creative resentment? TNA! TNA!

-Last year I noted how Lockdown 2008 had a shockingly low blade-job count with Brother D-Von being the sole wrestler who bled throughout the card. 2009 exponentially upped that number with six wrestlers donning the crimson mask with Abyss, Matt Morgan, Bully Ray, Mick Foley, Sting and Kevin Nash all doing the honors. Unlike WWE today, TNA did not change the mat canvas after a match if a wrestler bled so gradually throughout the night the mat transformed into a blood-soaked mess as you can see by the cell-phone photo I took with an overhead camera shot of the main event near the end of the PPV. -Ok, enough babbling, onto the matches of this 2009 Lockdown! The pre-show match is included as a DVD extra and has Eric Young squaring off against local Philly radio personality, Danny Bonaduce. Danny tries some slimy antagonist antics against fan favorite EY, and even sneaks in a little offense before Young surprised him with a roll-up for the win. Danny tried to avenge his loss by beating down Young afterwards, but Rhino came in for the save and gore’d the smithereens out of Bonaduce! The first official match on the PPV card was the annual X-Title, X-Scape contest. This saw champ, Suicide defending against ‘Black Machismo’ Jay Lethal, Sheik Abdul Bashir (formerly WWE’s Daivari), Kiyoshi and Consequences Creed (a pre-WWE Xavier Woods). I will give Vince Russo credit for accidentally stumbling into a legit thrilling finish for this X-Scape matc! It is probably one of my favorites of them so far. After a lot of trademark X-Division high-flying and a few pinfall eliminations, it came down to Suicide and Bashir to escape in order to win. Kiyoshi tried to climb the top of the cage to prevent Suicide from climbing over, but security intervened and pulled him down while Bashir attempted to sneak through the door during the distraction. Before Bashir could sneak out however, Suicide surveyed the surroundings and did a dive from the top onto the security and Kiyoshi outside the ring for the instant victory! It played out very convincingly and I was popping just as big for it as the crowd! -The second annual queen of the cage bout took place next between Sojourner Bolt, ODB, Daffney and then-Beautiful People intern Madison Rayne. Rayne would become a big player for the Knockouts division so it was interesting seeing her quite early in her TNA run. Unfortunately the Knockouts could not quite gel in this match and after several minutes of unremarkable action ODB hit a powerslam for the victory. The IWGP JR. Tag Titles match faired much better though with Motor City Machine Guns defending against LAX and No Limit. It was a bit on the spot-fest side of things, but a good one at that with the Guns successfully defending after hitting their Made in Detroit signature finish for the pin.

-Abyss and Matt Morgan squared off next in the uniquely titled ‘Doomsday Chamber of Blood’ that saw its stipulation being a wrestler cannot score a fall unto they make their adversary bleed. With that, we saw the use of tacks, glass shards and chairs resulting in the expected bloodbath. This Lockdown also took place while Abyss was a little ways into his ‘escaped mental facility’ version of his character and he referenced in a pre-match interview seeking therapy to stop weapon violence from one ‘Dr. Stevie.’ That Stevie turned out to be a TNA-debuting Stevie Richards fresh off his WWECW run who distracted Abyss by taking away a chair from him that caused Morgan to hit his finish for the win. This match gets the honors of being my annual induction for being a solid lock for the eventual WWE home video release of ‘Top 50 OMG Moments of TNA/Impact.’ -The Knockouts Title was on the line next in a triple threat with Awesome Kong defending against Angelina Love and Taylor Wilde. Unfortunately a freak concussion happened to Angelina Love a couple minutes in after she took a cross-body from Wilde. She looked on auto-pilot while Wilde tried to bide time with a hold, but eventually they got the call to go home and Wilde took a weak kick from a handcuffed Kong for the awkward sudden victory. Hate to see it whenever this happens, but this was still a few years before the concussion controversies gained steam in the NFL and before WWE and TNA banned head chair-shots, so part of me was surprised TNA did the right thing and quickly ended the match when they realized something was not right, so good on them for that.

-Both the TNA Tag Titles and IWGP Tag Titles were simultaneously up for grabs next between Team 3D and Beer Money. The announcers and promo package did a tremendous job hyping up this match for who would be the king of the tag teams and making this match have the vibe of a homecoming for Team 3D due to their ECW roots. All wrestlers left the cage within seconds of starting the match (they would be among many to do so throughout the night) and did a ECW-esque brawl throughout the crowd for old time’s sake! Eventually the action came back inside and saw a few good highspots that got the crowd and me rolling and finishing with Team 3D getting the feel good win after hitting Roode with a 3D through a table. -TNA’s version of War Games, Lethal Lockdown, happened next. It saw AJ Styles, Jeff Jarrett, Christopher Daniels and Samoa Joe team up against Kurt Angle, Scott Steiner, Booker T and Kevin Nash. Seeing how worn down Kurt Angle looked in his farewell match earlier this year it is remarkable how much better he looked ten years prior. He looks about 30 years younger! Highlights of this Lethal Lockdown see Steiner hitting impressive top rope suplexes and Franken-steiners to a big crowd pop and Scotty responded by doing an aggressive flurry of bird flipping motions to the Philly crowd before they could conjure up a ‘You Still Got It’ chant. After Jarrett entered last and the roof of the cage locked down with weapons on top, AJ and Angle quickly ascended on top of the cage roof with a big spot coming from AJ doing a splash through the roof of the cage onto a few Main Event Mafia members to a big reaction. The finish occurred when AJ got the pin on Booker T when Jarrett hit him with a guitar after Jarrett teased turning on AJ. TNA had another former WWE-debut immediately after the match though with Bobby Lashley having an odd motorcycle-themed tron and theme-song package as he posed to the crowd and did…..nothing else of note. This would be the first of two runs for Lashley in TNA where he eventually evolved into a pretty decent act before he went back to WWE last year.

-The main event saw Sting defend his world title against Mick Foley. I recall not being into Foley’s ‘executive shareholder’ authority figure character here where he was squabbling with Sting for calling him out for being inactive and being portrayed as losing his marbles. He continues that characterization by pounding his forehead to bust himself open at the very beginning of the match. Foley looks like he got himself in decent shape in time for this match, but he could not go like he use to by this point in 2009 as this was mostly a kick and punch affair until in a baffling booking decision, Foley attacks a cameraman for being in his way, only moments later to demand that same cameraman to hand him an out of reach barbed-wire bat from outside the ring, to which the cameraman who just got pummeled by Foley quickly acquiesces to. After beating down on Sting with the bat for a while the two engage in a anticlimactic climbing-over-the-cage affair that Foley gets the best of to become the new TNA World champion in an underwhelming headlining bout. The two put on a good effort, and I hate to slight Foley, but he and the odd booking dragged things down a couple notches to the ‘alright’ quality level. -This was a 50/50 night for the eight PPV matches. On one hand we had the off night for the women and the mediocre Doomsday and world title matches, but on the other we had two standout tag title matches, easily the best X-Scape match yet and better-than-usual Lethal Lockdown bout. Overall I would have to say the good outweighs the bad and will give 2009 Lockdown a solid thumbs-up. Join me next time as we enter the first of four Lockdowns that transpired during the not-so-highly-regarded Hogan/Bishoff run! Past Wrestling Blogs Best of WCW Clash of Champions Best of WCW Monday Nitro Volume 2 Best of WCW Monday Nitro Volume 3 Biggest Knuckleheads Bobby The Brain Heenan Daniel Bryan: Just Say Yes Yes Yes DDP: Positively Living Dusty Rhodes WWE Network Specials ECW Unreleased: Vol 1 ECW Unreleased: Vol 2 ECW Unreleased: Vol 3 Eric Bishoff: Wrestlings Most Controversial Figure Fight Owens Fight: The Kevin Owens Story For All Mankind Goldberg: The Ultimate Collection Hulk Hogans Unreleased Collectors Series Impact Wresting Presents: Best of Hulk Hogan Its Good to Be the King: The Jerry Lawler Story The Kliq Rules Ladies and Gentlemen My Name is Paul Heyman Legends of Mid South Wrestling Macho Man: The Randy Savage Story Memphis Heat NXT: From Secret to Sensation NXT Greatest Matches Vol 1 OMG Vol 2: Top 50 Incidents in WCW History OMG Vol 3: Top 50 Incidents in ECW History Owen: Hart of Gold RoH Supercard of Honor 2010-Present ScoobyDoo Wrestlemania Mystery Scott Hall: Living on a Razors Edge Sting: Into the Light Straight Outta Dudley-ville: Legacy of the Dudley Boyz Straight to the Top: Money in the Bank Anthology Superstar Collection: Zach Ryder Then Now Forever – The Evolution of WWEs Womens Division TLC 2017 TNA Lockdown 2005-2016 Top 50 Superstars of All Time Tough Enough: Million Dollar Season True Giants Ultimate Fan Pack: Roman Reigns Ultimate Warrior: Always Believe War Games: WCWs Most Notorious Matches Warrior Week on WWE Network Wrestlemania 3: Championship Edition Wrestlemania 28-Present The Wrestler (2008) Wrestling Road Diaries Too Wrestling Road Diaries Three: Funny Equals Money Wrestlings Greatest Factions WWE Network Original Specials First Half 2015 WWE Network Original Specials Second Half 2015 WWE Network Original Specials First Half 2016 WWE Network Original Specials Second Half 2016 WWE Network Original Specials First Half 2017

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orange-catsidy · 5 months

Note

chris sabin & trinity fatu teaming is like seeing two barbies collaborating to me idk why

it's like if barbie collab'd with like, monster high or something. the absolute power... sabinity for knockouts tag champs when

#asks

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fromtheringapron · 5 years

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WWE SummerSlam 2016

Date: August 21, 2016.

Location: The Barclay Center in Brooklyn, New York.

Attendance: 15,974

Commentary: Michael Cole, Byron Saxton, and Corey Graves (Raw). Mauro Renallo, John “Bradshaw” Layfield, and David Otunga (SmackDown).

Results:

Kickoff Match: The Usos (Jimmy and Jey), The Hype Bros (Mojo Rawley and Zack Ryder), and American Alpha (Chad Gable and Jason Jordan) defeated Breezango (Fandango and Tyler Breeze), The Ascension (Konnor and Viktor), and The Vaudevillains (Simon Gotch and Aiden English.

Kickoff Match: Sami Zayn and Neville defeated The Dudley Boyz (Bubba Ray and D-Von).

Kickoff Match, First in a Best of Seven Series: Sheamus defeated Cesaro.

1. Chris Jericho and Kevin Owens defeated Enzo Amore and Big Cass.

2. Raw Women’s Championship Match: Charlotte defeated Sasha Banks (champion) to win the title.

3. Intercontinental Championship Match: The Miz (champion) (with Maryse) defeated Apollo Crews.

4. AJ Styles defeated John Cena.

5. WWE Tag Team Championship Match: Luke Gallows and Karl Anderson defeated The New Day (Kofi Kingston and Xavier Woods) (champions) via disqualification.

6. WWE Championship Match: Dean Ambrose (champion) defeated Dolph Ziggler.

7. Nikki Bella, Natalya, and Alexa Bliss defeated Naomi, Carmella, and Becky Lynch.

8. WWE Universal Championship Match: Finn Balor defeated Seth Rollins to become the inaugural champion.

9. Brock Lesnar (with Paul Heyman) defeated Randy Orton via knockout.

My Review

SummerSlam 2016 is one long ass show. I’m aware that’s a bit of a redundant statement because, in the age of the WWE Network, every show is long and, more often than not, they’re also ass. However, the point still stands: this show is a whopping 4 hours and it’s not something you can digest in one sitting on a rewatch. For the record, I totally support making the SummerSlams and Survivor Series and so on seem just as big and important as WrestleMania. It’s fine by me for WWE’s Big 4 to feature absolutely stacked cards. Unfortunately, in modern WWE, this approach also results in the shows running out of gas midway through and some of the matches going on way longer than they should. The 2016 edition of the summer classic isn’t exactly the worst example of this trend, but it definitely shows similar signs of fatigue.

On top of that, it’s such a heel-dominated show. It’s only occasionally satisfying. In their crusade to make the audience finally embrace Roman Reigns, the WWE would pile on the heel victories in hopes the crowd would pop like crazy once the Big Dog got the W in the main event. It’s inherently flawed psychology to think the crowd is just going to accept a long-awaited face win from just anybody. That can really only work in a particular situation. Needless to say, it often failed because while Roman would get the W, the crowd still hated him. Worse here is that he doesn’t even wrestle on this show. So who was this booking supposed to benefit? I guess you could make the argument for Finn Balor, whose Universal title win remains a highlight of his WWE tenure. Even then, it was rendered irrelevant 24 hours later, as Balor would vacate the title due to injury.

With all that in mind, it shouldn’t be surprising that such a heel-heavy show ends on a rather depressing note. Brock Lesnar pummels Randy Orton into a bloody mess and that’s it. That’s the show. Fade to black. It would’ve been fine if placed somewhere in the middle of the card, but it’s such an awkward way to close up shop. They did have a pretty workable story going into the match, and I’m not gonna pass up the rare occasion to see Orton get beaten into oblivion, but talk about deflating. The whole thing winds up looking like a pale imitation of Lesnar’s squash of John Cena back at SummerSlam 2014. Oh, and there’s some drama with Shane McMahon at the end because, as we all know, that’s exactly what the WWE needs: more McMahon family drama!

The far more successful dream match is John Cena vs AJ Styles. Truly something special. It’s essentially the same finishing move and near-fall spam fest that plagues every major WWE main event, but I don’t mind it here. This is meant to be an epic blockbuster between two of the biggest stars in wrestling of the post-Monday Night War era. It makes perfect sense for both guys to throw all of their deadliest ammunition at each other right out of the gate. Styles was in the midst of one of the hottest stretches of his career at this point, but Cena deserves just as much credit here. It’s kind of amazing. For all the times he’s proven that he can rise to the occasion in a big match situation, there are still anti-Cena bros to this day who’ll deny it every step of the way. His record of putting people over isn’t perfect, especially at SummerSlam, but what he does for AJ here is pretty selfless. I don’t think even his haters can deny that.

Overall, SummerSlam 2016 isn’t a bad show by any means but, again, the length ensures it will inevitably start to drag. A shame, because there’s probably a pretty good show somewhere in here. It’s nice that the WWE is trying to make the biggest party of the summer feel important, but too much partying can make even the most diehard fan eventually feel pooped.

My Random Notes

I can only imagine what someone like Jon Stewart really thinks of WWE’s comedy. I mean, he’s probably had plenty of experience doing his best with bad material, but you’d have to think he had to grin and bear it here at several points.

In light of Sasha Banks’ recent spat with the company, I can really see why she’d be frustrated with her booking. Would it have killed them to have her hold the Women’s title for longer than a month? I know an injury is cited as the official reason she dropped the belt here, but it’s still the first of several instances of them yanking the rug out from under her.

Man, Enzo and Cass were so frickin’ over. They’re such laughing stocks now that it’s quickly become lost to time how much the fans were digging them. Of course, they only have themselves to blame for fucking it all up, but they really did have something special there for a bit.

Dean Ambrose in his black torn shirt gives me some serious Bobby Heenan singlet vibes.

Funny how the pre-match hype package for Dean vs. Dolph centers so much around who Dolph Ziggler is because, as I’ve stated here previously, I still have no frickin’ idea who Dolph is supposed to be. He’s some anonymous hybrid of HBK, Mr. Perfect, Billy Gunn, and an ‘80s Trapper Keeper with literally no individuality. I find it ironic that he later got into a storyline where he kept changing gimmicks only to never find anything of his own. What a summary of his entire WWE career.

Hey, Balor may have had to surrender the title 24 hours later, but at least this meant him getting another run with the belt in the future, right? Right?!?

Man, Nikki Bella was so frickin’ over. Why does it feel like I’m repeating myself? In all seriousness though, people can hate on the Bellas all they want, but in no way should it be surprising that they still get big pops. They’ve done more for WWE’s mainstream visibility than a lot of other superstars allegedly have.

Speaking of Nikki, crazy to think that she’s only one in the six-woman tag to not hold the Smackdown Women’s title.

I can’t be the only one who felt a little kick to gut when they showed fans waiting outside the now-deceased Toys R Us. I don’t need another reminder that my childhood is dead.

When did Lana drop the accent? I don’t watch Raw and Smackdown weekly anymore, but it horrifies me to know I let this travesty pass me by.

I know some people were upset they allowed The New Day to surpass Demolition’s record for the longest reign as tag champs but I’m totally okay with the decision. Sure, they occasionally get into terrible storylines like this ringpostitis shit, but they’re incredibly over, sell a ton of merchandise, and can wring out some entertainment from even the worst material. If they really wanted to insult Demolition, they should’ve given that honor to The Ascension.

#wwe summerslam #finn balor #sasha banks #roman reigns #total bellas

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fcablog · 5 years

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1st Annual FCA Year-End Awards-THE WINNERS

The 1st Annual FCA Year-End Awards voting is officially over. Thank you to all who voted. Some categories were close in voting and overs were a runaway. I was a little surprise how some categories went. Now for the part you have all been waiting for. Who won?! Well let’s not wait any further:

FCA Lucha Underground Wrestler of 2018 -- Taya Valkyrie (31.8%): This was somewhat a surprise since she was only a small centerpiece of a storyline on Season 4 of Lucha Underground, but she left a good enough impression on you guys to earn the award this year. With the future of Lucha Underground in question, she might be the one and only winnner of the Lucha Underground Wrestler of the Year Award. Marty Martinez & Pentagon Dark tied for 2nd place with 18.2% of the votes and Taya’s husband, Johnny Mundo finished 3rd with 13.6% of the votes

FCA’s Mr. ROH 2018 -- Jay Lethal (23.8%): Jay Lethal made a resurgence back to the top of the ROH throne and carried the ROH flag throughout the entire year so it only made sense that the champ would win this honor. Marty Scrull & Dalton Castle tied for 2nd place with 19% of the votes and Hangman Page finished 3rd with 14.3% of the votes

FCA Cruiserweight/Jr. Heavyweight Wrestler of 2018 -- Mustafa Ali (35.7%): Although he never quite captured the WWE Cruiserweight title, he made up for it with stellar performances throughout the year to convince the fans that he was must see. He’s officially a member of the SmackDown roster and already has shown that he can hang with the best. Will Ospreay finished 2nd with 21.4% of the votes and Buddy Murphy finished 3rd with 14.3% of the votes.

FCA Viral Wrestler of 2018 -- Becky Lynch (77.8%): Becky Lynch lived up to her moniker of The Man. Her bloody face was all over social media and she was a savage on Twitter and can’t seem to stop. We don’t want her to stop. She ran away with this category. Tama Tonga & PAC tied for 2nd with 7.4% of the votes while Sami Callahan & The Young Bucks tied for 3rd with 3.7% of the votes

FCA Best Tag Team of 2018 -- The Undisputed Era (36.7%): Probably the most over tag team in the business, the Undisputed Era had a great 2018 in NXT’s tag team division winning the Dusty Rhodes Classic and becoming 2-time NXT Tag Team Champions. It makes total sense that they win this award and that, boys & girls, is UNDISPUTED. The Young Bucks finished 2nd with 16.7% of the votes and surprisingly The Revival finished 3rd with 13.3% of the votes.

FCA Best UK-Based Male Wrestler of 2018 -- Pete Dunne (68.2%): The current reigning & defending WWE United Kingdom Champion is currently the longest reigning titleholder on WWE’s roster right now and has taken on all who have challenged his throne. He’s earned the honor of being considered the UK’s best. Tyler Bate, WALTER & Zack Gibson tied for 2nd with 9.1% of the votes and Joe Coffey finished 3rd with 4.5% of the votes.

FCA Best NXT Match of 2018 -- TWO WAY TIE (20%): So I knew this category was gonna be tight, but a 2-way tie? I was coming up with this category, I struggled to pick one. That’s how good NXT was in 2018. Johnny Gargano VS. Andrade Almas from TakeOver: Philadelphia & Johnny Gargano VS. Tommaso Ciampa in a Last Man Standing Match at TakeOver: Brooklyn 4 got the majority of the votes at 20% and both were definitely MOTY candidates. The Chicago Street Fight from TakeOver: Chicago 2 between Gargano and Ciampa finished 2nd with 16% of the votes. Tied for 3rd at 12% was Ricochet VS. Velveteen Dream from TakeOver: Chicago 2 & Aleister Black VS. Johnny Gargano from TakeOver: WarGames 2.

FCA Best NJPW Match of 2018 -- Kenny Omega VS. Chris Jericho //No DQ Match (WK12) (26.3%): When this was made official in 2017, Omega VS. Jericho was seen as a dream match and this match delivered on his hype and added on to the legend of both men. Omega’s battle with fellow Golden Lover, Kota Ibushi in the G1 Climax came in 2nd with 21.1% of the votes and coming in 3rd was the instant classic between Okada & Omega from the Dominion PPV.

FCA Best WWE Match of 2018 -- Becky Lynch VS. Charlotte Flair // Last Woman Standing (WWE Evolution) (65.5%): The Man & The Queen made history at the 1st ever all-women’s PPV in the 1st ever Last Woman Standing Match and it was an instant classic. Definitely worthy of being the best WWE Match of 2018. The Triple Threat TLC match from TLC 2018 between Asuka, Becky & Charlotte finished 2nd with 20.7% of the votes while the Triple Threat match at Wrestlemania 34 between Seth Rollins, Finn Balor & The Miz finished 3rd with 6.9% of the votes.

FCA Best UK-Based Female Wrestler of 2018 -- Rhea Ripley(45.5%): This was somewhat of a surprised to me, but in a short amount of time, Rhea Ripley made a lasting impression on fans with a great performance in the Mae Young Classic and winning a 8-woman tournament to become the 1st ever NXT UK Women’s Champion. Toni Storm finished 2nd with 40.9% of the vote and Isla Dawn, Jinny & Millie McKenzie tied for 3rd place 4.5& of the votes a piece.

FCA Best NXT Female Wrestler of 2018 -- Kairi Sane(30%): The former NXT Womens Champ had a great 2018 capturing the title for the 1st time at TakeOver: Brooklyn 4. She had an amazing rivalry with Shanya Baszler in 2018 and 2019 is looking bright for the Pirate Princess. Shayna Baszler came in 2nd with 20% of the votes and in 3rd was Nikki Cross with 16.7% of the votes.

FCA Best SD Live Female Wrestler of 2018 -- Becky Lynch(76.2%): Just like in the category for Viral Wrestler of 2018, Becky Lynch ran away with the majority of the votes which tells you the kind of 2018 Becky Lynch had. Coming 2nd with 9.2% of the votes each was Asuka & Charlotte Flair while Naomi came in 3rd with 4.8% of the votes.

FCA Best RAW Female Wrestler of 2018 -- Natayla (32.1%): This was a surprise winner here. While she didn’t have the most successful 2018 as far as achievements, she was a consistent performer in the ring and put on great matches. Ruby Riott came in 2nd with 21.4% of the votes and Sasha Banks finished in 3rd with 14.3% of the votes.

FCA Best WWE Female Wrestler of 2018 -- Becky Lynch(86.7%): Becky Lynch completes the clean sweep by winning this award capping off an amazing 2018 for The Man. Not one member of RAW was in the running for this award which shows how good SmackDown was. Charlotte & Asuka got the rest of the votes garnering 6.7% of the votes a piece.

FCA Best Impact Wrestling Female Wrestler of 2018 -- Taya Valkyrie(44.4%): Despite not competing on Impact Wrestling for a good portion of the year, you guys felt that she was the best of the Knockouts roster. Impact Knockouts Champ Tessa Blanchard came in 2nd with 33.3% of the votes and former champ Su Yung came in 3rd with 16.7% of the votes.

FCA Best NJPW Wrestler of 2018 -- Kenny Omega (16.7%): The reigning IWGP Heavyweight Champion had a great 2018 highlighted by finally defeating Kazuchika Okada for the heavyweight crown at Dominion. He also had a classic encounter with Chris Jericho at Wrestle Kingdom 12. His tag partner, Kota Ibushi came in 2nd with 13.9% of the votes and coming in 3rd place was Jay White with 11.1% of the votes.

FCA Best Impact Wrestling Wrestler of 2018 -- Pentagon Jr.(32%): CERO MIEDO! Pentagon Jr. made an impact (no pun intended) everywhere he went in 2018, but made a huge splash when he became the Impact World Heavyweight Champion back in April defeating Austin Aries and brother Fenix in an amazing triple threat match. Sami Callahan came in 2nd with 28% of the vote while Fenix & Johnny Impact finished 3rd receiving 12% of the votes each.

FCA Best RAW Male Wrestler of 2018 -- Seth Rollins(27.3%): As he stated himself, Seth Rollins carried RAW on his back throughout 2018 capturing the Intercontinental Championship and putting on the best performances just about every night. Finn Balor finished 2nd with 21.2% of the votes and Dean Ambrose finished 3rd with 15.2% of the votes.

FCA Best SD Live Male Wrestler of 2018 -- AJ Styles(31.4%): SmackDown Live was definitely the “House That AJ Styles Built” in 2018 dominating the year as WWE Champion putting on stellar performances. Daniel Bryan got 20% of the votes finishing 2nd and Andrade “Cien” Almas finished 3rd with 14.3% of the votes.

FCA Best NXT Male Wrestler of 2018 -- Tommaso Ciampa(25.6%): The self-proclaimed “Greatest Sports Entertainer of All Time” had probably the best (if not one of the best) 2018 of any wrestler in the business. He made his return from injury at NXT TakeOver: Philadelphia by attacking Johnny Gargano with a crutch which led to the best feud of 2018. Not only did he had an epic series of matches with his former DIY partner, but manage to capture the NXT Championship along the way. Former NXT Champ, Aleister Black finished 2nd with 23.1% of the votes while rising star Velveteen Dream finish 3rd with 15.4% of the votes.

FCA Best WWE Male Wrestler of 2018 -- Seth Rollins (43.9%): Not only did the majority of you feel like The Kingslayer was the best of RAW, but the best wrestler in WWE and it’s hard to argue. AJ Styles & The Miz tied for 2nd with 14.6% of the votes and coming in at 3rd with 9.8% of the votes was Dean Ambrose.

#pro wrestling #WWE #NXT #NJPW #Impact Wrestling #ROH #Lucha Underground #British wrestling #cruiserweights #junior heavyweights #1st Annual FCA Year-End Awards

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