Summary: This story follows the life of Rikki Corvine (an OC character) during her time in the 2011 WWE Tough Enough competition. She will make friends and enemies throughout the story as well as meet some of the WWE Superstars (list of possible Superstars at the end of this chapter). The conversations and events that occurred may (and most likely will) be different from what happened in the actual show. Makes the story much more interesting. Below is a description of my character.
Description of Rikki Corvine:
Age: 19
Birthday: October 8th
Hair/eye color: brown/brown
Height: 5'1"
Nickname on Tough Enough: Kid size
Favorite wrestling moves: hurricanrana, spear, modified whisper in the wind ending in split.
Favorite colors: red, green, blue, silver, and black.
Favorite wrestlers: Edge, Christian, Jeff Hardy, Matt and Nick Jackson, Lita, and CM Punk.
Friends on the show: Ivelisse, Andy Levine, and later Rima.
History in wrestling: started training at 16 the day after returning from the Olympics (gymnastics. Won 6 gold medals). Competed on first large scale match at 16 in Ring of Honor and beat AJ Styles in a street fight earning her respect from the other wrestlers there. Won her first Men's Intercontinental Championship 6 months later and a year later won the Women's Championship. She actually retained the titles for 2 (WC) and 3 (IC) years before having to relinquish the titles in order to compete in WWE Tough Enough.
Am I Tough Enough?
Sometimes I wonder whether or not I'm doing the right thing. Am I really ready for something like this? Should I wait a few years? Do I even belong here? My best friends would tell me that I have officially lost my mind if they were here with me. You see, my bff's Matt and Nick Jackson don't know that I'm even here. I wanted to tell them after I relinquished my titles last night at our Ring of Honor house show, but I didn't know how they would react. I've already gotten 12 texts from them asking me why I left ROH. They know how much I love it there, but I have to at least try and make it in the WWE. If I don't try now, I don't think I ever will. But, I'm sure I'll get a phone call from them in the coming week when they find out that I actually made it onto the show. What show am I talking about you may ask? Well, I auditioned and made it onto probably one of the toughest reality TV shows on the planet; WWE Tough Enough. If I'm good enough, I'll be able to spend 10-12 weeks training with some of the best wrestlers in the business and I may end up getting a WWE contract out of it. Talk about a dream come true.
But, I'm not the only one vying for that contract. There are 13 other people on the bus with me that want this just as much as I do. From what I could see when I first got on the bus that would take us to our new home, I was impressed and also a little disappointed by what I saw. The guys all looked great (I guess), but some of the women on the bus just didn't look tough enough to me. Four out of five of them (who I later found out were named Christina, Michelle, Ariane, and Rima) looked like they could barely take a suplex from a 5 year old let alone a professional wrestler. The only other woman on the bus that actually looked like she would do really well in the ring was Ivelisse. The second my eye caught hers I knew that she was just as disappointed in the women on the bus as I was. She must've been wondering if I would be just like the other women on the bus. My small size and child-like looks can be quite deceiving.
You see, I'm only 5'1" so I'm quite a bit smaller than the other women here. And with my long curly brown hair pulled back into a ponytail in order to keep it out of my brown eyes, I look more like a kid getting ready to start middle school than a wrestler. But, if you're crazy (or stupid) enough to underestimate me in the ring, well, you'll pay for it. I'm quite aggressive in the ring to the point where many female wrestlers hesitate to get in the ring with me (some of the guys do as well). That's quite an accomplishment considering how small I am. I think the only reason I can win against other female and male wrestlers is that I'm a high flyer. Wondering what that means? It means that I can pull off the same moves that guys like Jeff Hardy, Kofi Kingston, and Shannon Moore can. Just think of me as the girl version of them and you got me about right.
I was pulled out of my musings by the bus coming to a stop. As the bus driver announced that we were here, I looked out my window to an amazing sight. The house we would all be staying in was absolutely beautiful. The house was massive. You could probably fit my house in there about 5 times it was so big. The land around it was strange to me since I had never been to California. To me it looked like it was mostly desert with a few patches of grass in-between. Ever heard of real grass?
As everyone else practically ran off the bus, I took my time grabbing my stuff. Would it really matter if I ran through the house? As I got off the bus, I saw who would be our trainers for the competition. Off to the side were Bill Demott, Booker T, and Trish Stratus. Bill looked like he wasn't pleased by what he saw in all of us (which really I couldn't blame him for that one since I kind of agreed), while Booker T and Trish had smiles on their faces. I must've been focusing on them too much since seemingly out of nowhere stood Stone Cold Steve Austin. Just like Bill, he looked like he wanted to kick all our asses.
"Welcome to WWE Tough Enough. The 14 of you have actually made it. Congratulations. Now comes the hard part. Every day we will have morning training where you will learn how to perfect your moves and improve your technique. And once a week, we will have an elimination. Depending on how you do will determine how long you stay in this competition. You don't impress us and you're gone. Understood?"
"Yes sir." Who would disagree with the rattlesnake?
"Good. Now get in the house, get changed, and be ready to show us what you got in the gym in 20 minutes." With that, Stone Cold and the other trainers left us to get situated in the house. I think all of us were pretty nervous about having to compete in front of real professional wrestlers. This kind of thing doesn't happen every day.
Since I was in the back of the group when Stone Cold was talking to us, I was the last one to enter the house and I'm kind of glad that I was. I thought the house was beautiful on the outside, but man was I wrong. Everything in the house was extravagant. I thought places only looked like this in expensive hotel rooms. I'm definitely not eating anywhere but the kitchen. The walls were a dark red color which considering it's one of my favorite colors just made me even happier. I figure I'll just look around the rest of the house after our time in the gym.
So, I started up the staircase in search of the girl's room. As I followed the sound of girly talking, I found the room. It was quite a nice room with cream colored walls, five beds, and a huge closet. I could definitely stay here. As I looked around at my roommates, I realized that I would be sharing a room with Ivelisse (which is great), but I'd also be sharing a room with Rima, Ariane, and Christina (not so great). Ivelisse looked about as happy as I was about Rima/Christina/Ariane being in our room. Oh well.
Since Rima and Christina chose the beds closest to the window, I chose the bed closest to the door since I'd be getting up earlier than everyone anyway. As I set my bags down and started to pull out my black track pants and green gym tank top, Rima started talking to me.
"So, what's your name? My name's Rima Fakih and I'm the reigning Miss USA." Oh good God.
"Hi, I'm Rikki. Umm...if you don't mind me asking, why are you here at Tough Enough if you're the reigning Miss USA?" How the hell did she get in would be a better question.
"Oh, I just love watching wrestling so I thought I'd try and wrestle myself. I think I've spend a grand total of two weeks in the ring, but it seems like a lot of fun."
"Are you sure you're ready enough for this though?"
"How hard could it be? I mean they teach you how to do everything so it can't be that hard. "
Ivelisse and I just looked at each other like she was off her rocker while she went back over next to Christina/Ariane and talked while getting dressed. Quietly as I was getting dressed, I whispered to Ivelisse "If she lasts a week I'll die of shock." We both laughed.
After everyone was dressed, we headed on over to the gym right next to our house. It was a pretty good size and had a real-sized ring right in the middle of the room with black mats surrounding it. In the ring stood our coaches for the next 3 months. I'm definitely starting to get nervous.
"Alright everyone. Today, we're going to see how good you are in the ring through some drills. When we call your name, get in the ring and run the ropes for Three Minutes of Hell. First up, Mickael."
As I watched everyone run the ropes, I realized that there are maybe 5 of us that would actually be good enough for the WWE. Those 5 are Martin, Andy, Ivelisse, Jeremiah, and myself. Poor Jeremiah ran so hard that he actually blew his false teeth out. It was funny and gross at the same time. Rima ended up making one huge mistake by trying to wear a pad on her hip while she ran. If she can't even run the ropes without a pad, how does she expect to run the ropes or compete in the ring? You can't wear one during a match. Eric could barely even last the three minutes and was probably running about a third the speed of everyone else. This guy has no stamina whatsoever. Finally, it was my turn to run. Running for three minutes is nothing to me. I run twelve miles every morning. I ran those ropes like they were the easiest thing in the world for me. Once my time was up, I could see a smile on Stone Cold's face. That is so going to make my day. Since I was the last one to run, Stone Cold had an announcement for all of us.
"Since few of you seem to have the drive and stamina to even run the ropes, we are going on a field trip. Maybe it'll motivate you. Get inside the house and change. We leave in ten minutes."
You could hear groans from some of the other contestants, but I was excited. I'd seen other reality shows like Ultimate Fighter and I couldn't wait to know where we'd be going with the coaches. I ran up the stairs and flung of my tank top and track pants and replaced it with a simple red t-shirt, dark blue jeans, and my favorite black converses. What? He didn't say get dressed up and come downstairs.
I think I must be really excited because I was the first one outside waiting on the front steps. As everyone else joined me outside, one of the producer guys came up to us told us all to get in the van again. Yeah, we're back in the van (note the sarcasm).
As we rode through Simi Valley towards San Diego, I couldn't help but wonder where we were going. I'm not exactly a patient person and sitting in a van for 3 hours wasn't really helping any. Finally, we reached our destination; a huge arena. I couldn't see the name of it since the sign was visible only to the people on the opposite side of the van. As we pulled into the secret parking lot inside the arena, I could see one of the tech guys that worked here looking anxious and a little stressed out. His light brown hair was sticking up in random directions and he looked like he was constantly mumbling to himself.
After everyone had gotten off the bus, mumbling tech guy led us through the maze-like hallways towards the arena.
"Go straight through the curtain. Head for the ring."
That's as much as the guy ever said to us because before he had even finished, he was already heading back to the hallway we just left. Talk about Mr. Personality. As we walked through the curtain, we could see Stone Cold standing in the middle of the ring. While we all stood in front of the ring, Stone Cold began to speak.
"This is a WWE ring. In here, twice a week, WWE Superstars sweat, bleed, and compete in this ring for two reasons; one: to be the best wrestler in this business and two: to please the fans. If you can't imagine yourself facing off against the best in this business, you don't belong here. If you can't hear the fans chanting your name so loud that the roof shakes, you better grab your bags and head on home. Anyone can wish to be a WWE Superstar. It takes hard work, commitment, and sacrifice to make it in this business. You better be ready. Now, I didn't bring you all here to give a speech, let you watch the show, and speak to the other wrestlers that work here. You all are going to be doing the work. Over on that table, you'll see some jumpsuits. You will all be helping the staff to clean up the arena throughout the show and afterwards. Everyone helps out around here. Get to work."
Well…I wasn't expecting to be doing cleanup duty, but I'll survive. The other contestants looked pretty pissed though; especially Luke. Must think that he's too good for this kind of work. What an ass. Since I'm slightly OCD and I want to get a head start on the work, I figure I'll walk and put on the suit at the same time. I only remembered that I'm a total klutz outside of the ring when I ran right into a wall while trying to zip up my jumpsuit. What the hell? Oh…Wait. That's not a wall.
"You alright there shortie?"
End of chapter one.
I know, I know. Really short chapter, but I'm getting tired and I really wanted to submit this new story tonight (or morning?). I hope you guys like this so far. The next chapter will be much better and will have more conversations in it. I really just wanted to get this first chapter done so I could really get into the story. If you're wondering which Superstars will appear soon (or somewhat soon) in this story, I will have CM Punk, Edge (before retirement), Christian, Kelly Kelly, Beth Phoenix, Natalya, John Cena, Undertaker, HHH, the Hardy's (will become clear why in much later chapters), and possibly Zach Ryder/Dolph Ziggler (haven't quite made up my mind about those two yet). So, if you guys are patient, you'll get to read about all of them soon enough (possibly a few of them in the next chapter). Please review!
Next Chapter: Rikki meets a few of the wrestlers and works backstage at Smackdown. Is love in the air already? Or is it more like hate? Also, someone gets eliminated and a few fights may break out. Should be interesting.
~Rikki
