Debut Match, Part 2

The day after the house show, Karl walked into the main conference room.

Until recently the atmosphere in that room had been stifling—gloomy, even—but today it felt completely different. Most of the people present had the corners of their mouths turned up, and the air itself seemed lighter.

"Good morning."

"Yes, sir. Good morning, General Manager."

Karl exchanged brief greetings with the attendees and took his seat at the head of the table.

"Looks like everyone's already seen the posts on the board. Am I right?"

Reactions poured out at once.

"Hahaha. We saw them. Better than we expected."

"The place was on fire."

"The reactions to the last three matches last night were outstanding. Olivia, Tyna, Thunder Storms—everyone was full of praise. Lorenzo and Vanessa, though… that's getting serious. Their ring work keeps getting worse."

"Come on, same academy, only six months apart…"

"We should've cracked the whip on those Dudley boys a long time ago. Lorenzo and Vanessa called them trash, so they didn't send one—they sent four."

Karl found himself nodding hard at that last remark from Producer Ben Hercules. If it had only been Charina, you could write it off as one freak talent. But four of them. When the Dudley Boys decided to teach, apparently this was the level they could produce.

"I'll pay the academy a visit myself and have a talk."

He gave his secretary a quick look.

"Just in case anyone hasn't seen it yet, let's start by checking the board atmosphere, then open the meeting."

The lights dimmed and the projector threw the screen up on the wall.

Praise and concern mixed together. One Natasha superfan had snuck a post in the middle, but overall the mood was excellent.

"All right. Let's talk about the kids' upcoming schedule. Ideally I'd like to debut all of them next week."

Scenario ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠Team Leader Neville spoke up.

"We already set the Inquisitors' debut opponents as Team Heritage, didn't we? With tag teams, that might be a little tight."

More opinions followed.

"Team Leader Brosnan's right. They're still short on experience. Matching the chemistry they showed ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠with Thunder Storms in just one week is going to be tough."

While Karl was weighing whether to change the tag match opponents, Producer Hercules dropped something important.

"I think we should leave it as is."

"Ben, why?"

"And we absolutely cannot debut all four of them together."

Ben had just contradicted every conversation they'd had so far. Every eye in the room locked onto him.

"Explain."

"Just look at the board. Eighty, ninety percent of it is nothing but Charina talk. If we debut all four at once in this climate, Selma and the Inquisitors get completely buried."

That made sense. Heads nodded around the table.

"So what do you want to do?"

"Next week, leave the opponents alone and only debut Selma and the Inquisitors. Keep the matches the same, just shuffle the sequence of spots a little so even the people who saw the house show will feel like they're watching something different. Give the Inquisitors the extra week to work with Team Heritage and put them on in week two."

Veterans might be different, but compared to singles, tag teams needed a lot more time to lock in chemistry.

"What if we debut Charina first and bring the others ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠out a week later? Would it still be a problem?"

Karl's question drew negative answers from the other writers and team leaders.

"Probably still would."

"The impact just isn't the same. Looks are one thing, but she hit a powerbomb on Olivia."

"Exactly. It won't cool off in a week. And on the other kids' debut night she'd still make a quick appearance, right? It might get even louder than her own debut night. So delaying Lina's debut is the right call."

Karl could already picture it.

"But we don't have time. Time… If we push Lina's debut back one week, we've only got three weeks until Emergency. A title match against the champion in three weeks? That's ridiculous too. What are the fans going to say?"

The General Manager had a point as well. Pushing everything to the September PPV wasn't an option either.

"We need to pay NEXT back for the humiliation we took at the last Hot Slam as soon as possible—even one day sooner."

"Switch the win-loss with Olivia."

Jane Kim, who had been listening quietly until now, finally spoke.

"What?"

"General Manager. Switch the win-loss with Olivia. Then have Lina win the week after that too. Dorothy would be a good opponent. If she beats Olivia and then beats Dorothy—who was champion three months ago—doesn't that create a decent amount of legitimacy?"

Jane laid it out like she already had the whole blueprint in her head. Attention snapped to her.

"Jane, will Olivia and Dorothy job to a brand-new rookie?"

"Olivia's gotten pretty close with Lina, so I think she will. After Emergency we can just book another match and give her the win. As for Dorothy, after Emergency Anne can drop the title to her. By then Anne will have held it over four months, so she shouldn't mind handing it over."

If Dorothy got a guaranteed title run, she'd probably look at it positively. And if Olivia really had gotten that close with Lina, she'd job. It was a solid scenario.

"Then who does she face in week three?"

"Hmm. We could draw up a number-one contender match."

The room either nodded or stayed silent. They seemed to like it.

"Team Leader Brosnan, Ben—what do you think?"

"Doesn't look bad. If the matches look good, the fans will buy it. And it's not like she's beating Anne for the title. A raw rookie can at least challenge."

"Good. Then that's the plan. Also, during that extra week Charina gets, let's have her work with Dorothy and with Anne. Coach Vanini—doable?"

"As long as Dorothy agrees, easy."

That settled the rookies' debut problem for the moment. One more point of contention remained.

"What do we do with the house show footage? I was planning to ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠keep it private, but people are making a lot of noise."

Normally house show video stayed locked down. Only when the script called for a major element or incident would they cut a piece for the official broadcast.

"We should stick to the usual method. We delayed Charina's debut—if we release the footage, what's the point of delaying? Keep the mystique going."

"Producer, I don't think so. We need to leak a little and build the issue so the fans are dying for the live show."

To Karl both sides made sense. With the competition against NEXT right ahead of them, even a small choice could create variables he couldn't easily predict.

"Does mystique even work in this day and age? The communities are already losing their minds. Even if we blocked photo uploads on the board, pictures have probably been shared one way or another."

Someone spoke and a counter came right back.

"The only people who got clean shots at the house show were the ones invited to the dark match. Everyone else was too busy staring with their mouths open. And the dark match invitees? Those aren't the type to spray photos around. High loyalty, high understanding of the business."

Karl had listened to the endless back-and-forth long enough. He made the call. He let out a long, heavy sigh and spoke.

"Haaah. We put up only a tiny slice of Selma and the Inquisitors' footage. For Charina—nothing that shows her face. Maybe the powerbomb where her face is covered, or the rear view of a suplex. Just the image of that slender girl lifting Olivia will be enough. People will argue whether it's CG or not. It'll make noise."

Both camps looked a little dissatisfied, but the final decision rested with Karl. With that, the major agenda items were essentially finished.

Afterward they briefly discussed Selma's entrance. The proud walk was good, but it lacked bounce, so they ordered a lighter step. Then they circled back to win-loss again.

"General Manager. Should we go with a loss for Selma? Long-term, Selma needs to become Lina's rival."

"Mm. That's fair. I'll talk to Tyna myself."

Last came the problem child of delivery and acting—Alf.

"For Alf, let's keep that robot acting for now. We'll say his social skills and IQ are a little low."

"Then the stiff way he talks suddenly makes sense."

"It's been a while since other promotions had a pure idiot gimmick. It should still play. And hot-blooded guys are supposed to be dumb anyway, right?"

The producer's last line sent the whole room into laughter. Just like that, Alf received an added idiot gimmick.

When he heard the news, Alf's face went tragic. Selma whooped and bounced around the room. In the end it fell to Lina to break up the scuffle.

"Haaah! When are you two going to grow up? You doing this outside—do your parents know?"

"Hey! That's a low blow!"

"Oh yeah? Want me to show you what a real low blow looks like? Huh?"

Debut was right around the corner, but the three of them never had a quiet day.