Exhibition Match
The next morning, every wrestler filmed a thirty-second self-introduction video first thing.
Everyone was so tense knowing their futures hung in the balance that NGs piled up endlessly as a bonus.
Once filming wrapped, the general manager gathered the wrestlers himself.
"Today, for the four-on-four match between Heritage Stable and Michael Stable, some guests are coming over from Smash Down.
The same guys who got wrecked that day. Both teams, stomp them flat together."
"Ohhh!"
"Are we setting up tables like last time?"
"With just four of us?"
The mention of a run-in sent the wrestlers' energy soaring.
"No. The five who got hit last time, plus three more are coming, I hear.
They'll be carrying steel chairs, so when they show up later, go practice your timing with them beforehand.
And Dorothy, get ready to run out too."
"Can't more of us go out?"
"I want to go out too."
The general manager clapped his hands to settle the wrestlers down.
"And seven men and seven women each will head to Law on Monday two weeks from now.
That's when every brand gathers for a twenty-eight-person battle royal."
"A battle royal?"
The Noble Rumble starts with two people and has one enter every ninety seconds, but a battle royal starts with everyone already in the ring.
It's the traditional style—the original, really.
"A twenty-eight-person battle royal? Blood's gonna fly."
"Who do they have winning that?"
"I've never even seen one. How do you work a battle royal?"
"Don't even think about going one-on-one. There'll be a scenario anyway, right?"
"But how are they picking those seven?"
As the wrestlers exchanged opinions, the general manager continued.
"Obviously, we'll decide the battle royal based on today's matches and next week's.
Anyone who doesn't make Law's battle royal doesn't need to feel left out. Everyone will get a fair shot.
And Charina. You're exempt. You know why, right?"
Probably because I hogged too much of the Spotlight.
"Yes. But can't I at least go watch? I'll just sit quietly in the audience."
The general manager didn't give an immediate answer.
The merger had happened even if it hadn't been announced yet, so he probably had no real authority left.
"Hmm. I'll check on that and let you know.
Alright! As you all know, the scenarios are coming out in a rush right now. We never know when or what kind of scenario will drop.
So for the time being, no drinking, and take thorough care of your bodies."
"Yes, sir!"
The wrestlers answered in a thunderous chorus.
Whoa! Everyone was completely fired up.
But I really wanted to watch that battle royal live. Was there any way?
My only schedule for the day was a pre-show stage greeting.
It was the so-called hype-man role—warming up the crowd before the show started.
I stood on the ropes, posing so the fans could get good photos, exchanged a few simple hellos, and headed back.
Selma had been hanging around with Olivia and Taina lately, so I was holding down the locker room alone when someone knocked on the door.
Knock knock.
"Come in."
The person who opened the door and walked in was someone I never would have imagined even in my dreams.
"Hah! Wh-what... how are you here?"
"Finally get to see your face, Charina."
"Ah... h-hello."
A living legend of WWO had come looking for me without any warning.
"Mind if I come in?"
"Y-yes. Of course."
Charlotte Flair had stumbled across a TPA match purely by chance while flipping channels.
TPA had been the subject of so many "train wreck" rumors lately that she hadn't expected much, yet the unheard-of rookies' in-ring work wasn't half bad.
"And now, at last, the highly rumored wrestler's debut match!"
"Yes. The Inquisitors and Selma who debuted last week were impressive, but they say Charina is a cut above them. So expectations are huge."
"Have these people lost their minds? Why are they pushing a debut wrestler this hard?"
The first wrestler to appear was Olivia—someone Charlotte knew of even if they'd never locked up.
"Olivia looks like she's put on even more weight. Tsk. Hope her knees and ankles are holding up."
Then the debuting rookie made her entrance.
"From Orlando, Florida—one hundred sixty-six centimeters, fifty kilograms—Cha~~ri~~na!"
"Fifty kilograms?"
Charina rolled into frame on a skateboard.
She was genuinely beautiful.
Even as another woman, Charlotte found herself staring for a long moment, struck by how pretty she was.
"Mismatch. Her debut's probably ending in a loss... Hmm. If she's lucky, maybe she steals it with a counter?"
The match that followed unfolded exactly as Charlotte had predicted.
Against more than double her body weight, Charina was tossed around like a rag doll.
Then came her father's famous move.
She hit a Flair Flip over the corner and was hurled outside the ring.
"Oho! A rookie can do that? Look at you—not bad."
Olivia followed her out and crushed her with a splash.
"Ah! That's just too much."
"It's over. Even seasoned veterans can't take that from Olivia."
"She looks so fragile I'm worried about injury."
But contrary to the commentators' expectations, Charina's comeback began.
She stomped down on the throat of a late-returning Olivia and seized the momentum.
Then she hoisted Olivia straight up.
"Cha... Charina just lifted Olivia. Charina's suplex."
"How is that even possible with that frame? Insane strength.
Amazing. Straight-up amazing."
"Wh... what? She actually lifted her?"
As she went over backward, Charina carefully cradled the back of Olivia's head with her hands for safety.
A rookie doing that in her debut match was supposed to be impossible.
Even Charlotte herself, who had endured her father's brutal training, had needed years to reach that level.
Watching the sequence, Charlotte rose from the sofa and stepped closer to the TV.
Then came a corkscrew stunner. An Eclipse.
"Is that girl really a rookie?"
Power moves that body should never have been able to deliver kept coming.
A Samoan Drop, then another suplex.
Yet she still hit a Lion's Salt that traced a gorgeous arc, and even a spinning crossbody—something only renowned veteran luchadores usually pulled off.
Then she hoisted Olivia high and planted a sit-down powerbomb.
"I can't believe it. Olivia's over a hundred ten kilograms."
"Ha! Even in my prime I probably could've barely lifted that weight."
Then came a Shooting Star Press that, even to Charlotte's eye, drew one of the most beautiful arcs she had ever seen—all-time level.
"Charina. What even is she? Her in-ring work is no joke."
"The range of moves is wide and the execution is polished. A truly massive talent just debuted. All-time. All-time!"
Ding ding ding.
Charina had gone straight-up, no shortcuts, and taken her debut victory clean.
How much fun would it be to lock up with a kid like that in the ring?
Just imagining it sent a thrill through her.
"Found her!"
The next day she called Paul and even threatened him to bring the girl over, but Paul barely reacted.
"Ugh. I want to work with her once. Is there no way?"
"Charlotte. What's not working? Who do you want to lock up with?"
It was Alicia Blitz.
"A TPA wrestler."
"TPA? TPA's doing the exchange shows with NEXT."
"That's right. How did I get this stupid?"
She hounded Paul again.
"Just wait."
"Wait for what? Are you going to handle it yourself?"
"Just wait, Charlotte."
Not long after, word of the TPA and NEXT invasion broke.
Whatever anyone else thought, Charlotte caught on immediately.
This isn't just a storyline. WWO must have acquired TPA.
She called Stacey McMahon—easier to lean on than Paul—and pressed her until Stacey spilled it.
"You're right. We acquired them. You absolutely cannot tell anyone."
"Do I look like the kind of person who would?"
"I know you're not. But almost no one knows the full picture. That's why I'm saying it."
"Anyway, now I can finally lock up with Charina once."
"Charina?"
"Have you seen her match too, Sis?"
"Of course I have. I've already watched her live."
"I knew it! That's my sister. You're sending her to Smash Down, right?"
"We don't know yet. The scenarios are coming out at roughly script-page level right now.
Only John and Jane Kim, who are handling the scenarios, know the details.
Even my husband only knows the broad strokes, not the fine print."
Then John Michaels announced that Smash Down and TPA would collide in October.
"I hear Charina sells so well."
"Yeah? Where'd you hear that?"
"The rumor already ran through the whole Law side.
Plus she's sharp—great at improvising on the fly."
"Hmm. How good does she have to be for that kind of talk?"
"No idea. You only know once you work with her. Anyway, I want a match with her."
"There's the Halloween Battle. Someone should be able to get her then, right?"
Walking down the hallway, the women's conversation snagged in her ear.
If she just sat around waiting, some other predator was going to snatch her prey.
So in the end she stormed into TPA in Orlando without a single call ahead.
She hadn't given notice, but the moment she pulled off her hat the security guard recognized her face at once.
"Ah! Charlotte Flair. You arrived later than the rest of the Smash Down group."
"Things just worked out that way."
The guard here assumed she was one of the wrestlers coming for the invasion.
"Please head right in. Turn right inside and you'll reach the women's locker room."
"Thank you. Appreciate the hard work."
"Yes. Looking forward to a great match tonight."
Thanks to the guard's misunderstanding she walked in far too easily, and with her hat pulled low no one recognized her.
Wrestlers and staff alike were too frantic over the scheduled Smash Down invasion and the coming war to notice.
Then she found the locker room.
In a corner of the hallway she spotted the placard that read "Selma & Charina."
The moment Charina saw her face, her expression went pure shock.
"Mind if I come in?"
"Y-yes. Of course."
Heh. Watching a pretty kid get flustered only makes her prettier.
"Want something to drink? You don't seem like a soda person. Water? Juice?"
Charina flailed, completely at a loss.
This was the same girl who had looked like a destroyer on the skateboard, beating people down in the ring—surprising, if anything.
"I'm fine. Looks like you don't have a match today. Got any promos or anything?"
"No. I just finished the greeting a little while ago and came back."
"Really? So no more schedule?"
"No, nothing."
"Then how about we loosen up a bit? Better than talking, right?"
"Huh? You mean book a match?"
"No way... Let's head to the practice room. That okay?"
"Ah. Yes. Of course."
"Grab all your protective gear too."
"Yes. Understood."
Charina took the lead with her bag, and Charlotte hummed a little tune as she trailed after her.