It struck Sonya that she had never felt such a sense of nervous excitement in her life. Mandy had just parked their car in the area designated for talent and staff at the arena where they would be working their first NXT show in just a matter of hours. After more than two months of busting their asses six days a week in training, they were actually about to become wrestlers.
"This is it, Son," Mandy said affectionately, turning to look at her after killing the engine. "I'm so proud and happy to share this moment with you. I love you."
Sonya was taken aback for a moment. It was the first time those three words had been spoken between them. Although they had both known it for some time, it was something else to take the step of saying it, and it melted Sonya's heart. "I love you too, Mandy," she said leaning in for a kiss.
They sat there passionately smooching for a good couple of minutes. Luckily, since they hadn't checked, no one was in a position to see them.
"I'm living the best period of my life right now, and a massive part of that is because I'm with you," Sonya said when they eventually stopped kissing. "Thank you for being there for me, and for being a part of this journey. There's no one I would rather have by my side."
"I feel the same way," Mandy said, squeezing Sonya's hand. "This is going to be one hell of a ride, but we're on it together, the whole way."
"The whole way," Sonya promised solemnly.
Mandy pecked her on the lips. "We'd better get in there. We can come back to the kissing tonight."
"I'll hold you to that," Sonya said, her second promise in under a minute.
With that, they got out of the car and retrieved their travel cases from the trunk. Walking across the lot towards the entrance for talent, Sonya found herself thinking that tonight the show was going to be put on in front of a few hundred people, maybe a thousand at a stretch. In WWE terms, it was a humble beginning. One day, she could be performing in front of one hundred times that many people at Wrestlemania.
But that was a long way, likely years, in the future. Tonight, she simply had to hope she was booked to have a match. All ten members of the group Sonya was a part of, now referred to as trainees rather than recruits, had been instructed to be at all three shows over the Friday to Sunday period. They had been told that none of them would wrestle on all three shows, but everyone would get a match on at least one of them.
Walking into the building, Sonya and Mandy headed for the women's locker room. Before they got there, they came across a format for that night's show. Printed on a single sheet of paper with the NXT logo at the top, it listed all of the matches along with the time they were allotted. The name of each winner was underlined. There was no sign of Mandy's name on the list, but Sonya saw hers. She was booked in the third match of the night.
"Son, you're on the card!" Mandy squealed in delight. "And you've got Becky. Holy shit, that's incredible."
Sonya felt as delighted as her girlfriend. So much so that it took her a moment to process it. This really was the night. She was going to have her debut match, and with someone who was the closest thing NXT had to a seasoned veteran. Becky had been there at least a couple of years, and had wrestled all of her adult life before then, too. There was no better opponent Sonya could have chosen if the decision had been her own.
"You don't seem excited," Mandy commented, looking at her in surprise.
"No, I am. I'm just… a bit overwhelmed," Sonya said slowly, feeling herself tearing up.
"Oh, bless," Mandy said, embracing her and holding her tightly. "This is what you deserve, Son."
"Thank you," Sonya said softly into her ear. "But you deserve it just as much as me. I hope you're on the show tomorrow night."
"I'll get my time. This is your night. Let's enjoy it together."
Not for the first time, Sonya told herself how lucky she was to have found someone like Mandy. A truly loving, selfless partner was all anyone could ask for, and she was blessed to have one.
They released the embrace and walked the short distance to the locker room. As they entered, Sonya saw that most of the women were there before her and Mandy, even though they were early themselves.
One of the people in the room, already changed into her ring attire, was Becky Lynch. Seeing Sonya and Mandy enter, she made a point of walking over to greet them. "Hi, how are you?" she said to both of them.
"Good, thanks," Mandy said with a smile.
"I'm great," Sonya relied. "But a bit nervous, if I'm honest."
"I get that, we've all been there," Becky said kindly. "Why don't you get your stuff sorted out, then we can go find somewhere quiet and talk about our match?"
"Thank you, I'd like that," Sonya said appreciatively, realising that Lynch wanted to do whatever she could to make the big, daunting night easier for her. It was a level of professionalism that Sonya greatly appreciated.
Sonya led Mandy over to their lockers and set about taking her ring attire out of her case.
Glancing over at Becky, Mandy saw that she had struck up a conversation with Bayley. "That was so nice of her," she said quietly to Sonya. "She didn't have to come over like that."
"No, she didn't," Sonya smiled. "I'll make sure to thank her when I speak to her. I need to make sure I seem like I have a clue what I'm doing as well."
"Well, think about what you'd like to do in the match," Mandy said in a calm voice, doing her best to help. "You're booked to lose because you're the heel, and babyfaces always win at live events. That doesn't mean it has to be a squash. Hopefully Becky will be okay with you getting some offense in."
"I'd like to get a spear in," Sonya said while starting to get undressed. "Coach Purrazzo thinks I should use it as my signature move. And if possible, I'd like to get The Devil's Grip, even if Becky reverses it. I want as much match experience using it as I can get. Paige kept drilling it into me that I have to make it look like I'm really choking the life out of my opponent with it if it's going to be my finish."
As Sonya got dressed into her ring attire, Mandy chatted with her, being as supportive as she could. It helped a lot, and by the time she was changed, Sonya felt like her nerves had receded somewhat. She expected them to come back by the time she entered the arena for the match, but for now she had the confidence to go over to Becky.
"Have fun," Mandy said, giving her shoulder a squeeze.
Sonya nodded. "I'll do my best. Thank you for keeping me calm, Mandy. I'd be freaking out right now if you hadn't been here."
Mandy smiled. "No you wouldn't. You're stronger than you give yourself credit for. But if I helped, I'm glad."
"You definitely did," Sonya assured her.
Taking a deep breath, Sonya walked over to Becky, who was still chatting away to Bayley. "Hey, Becky. Could we maybe have that chat? How are you, Bayley?"
"I'm good!" Bayley said in her usual enthusiastic manner. "I'm so excited for you, too! You're going to love it tonight. Your first match stays with you for life."
"Then let's hope I can put on a good one," Sonya said, managing to find some humour despite the occasion.
"You'll be fine," Becky assured. "Come on, let's go and work out some details."
Together, Sonya and Becky walked out of the locker room and found a quiet part of the hallway to stand in while they talked.
"Before we start, I have to thank you for the way you came up to me when I arrived," Sonya said. "I was feeling a bit overwhelmed when I saw my name on the format, and you helped to put me at ease. I really do appreciate it."
Becky gave a relaxed smile. "There's nothing to thank me for. Like I said before, we've all been there. It's daunting to get started as a wrestler, but you're about to start the best job in the world. You'll have the time of your life once you get going. We're going to work matches together over the coming weeks, so I'll do whatever I can to help you get your first few matches under your belt. From there, you'll be gold."
"I can't tell you what that means to me," Sonya said. "I don't want this to come out sounding patronising, but I feel so lucky that they've put me with you."
"Shush, you'll make me blush," Becky grinned.
"So, you said we're working together over the coming weeks?"
Becky nodded. "That's right. We've got a couple of tours coming up. One around the Pittsburgh area and another one over in Texas. We're working together on them. Hunter likes to put the rookies, no offense, with the most experienced people. You've got me, Mandy has Bayley, Dakota has Sasha, and so on."
Poor Dakota, Sonya thought, doubting that this kind of conversation would be happening between those two. "What do we do, put the same match on each night?" she asked.
"We have to vary it up a bit," Becky explained. "But as we go, we'll build chemistry in the ring. I'll learn what you're good at, you'll learn what I'm good at, and we'll master taking each other's signatures moves. So, what is it that you do? I've not had the chance to see you work a match at the Performance Centre."
"I have based my character on an MMA fighter," Sonya said, now feeling comfortable talking to her new opponent. "My style is based largely on punches and kicks, lots of striking attacks with a few basic suplexes and slams mixed in. That's all I know so far," she added, wanting to cover herself.
"We can work with that," Becky said easily. "We only have five minutes for our match. It'll likely be the same every time we face each other on this run. It's not much time, and as you know, as the babyface I'll be going over every time."
Sonya nodded, knowing better than to be concerned about losing. This wasn't MMA.
"Even so, I'd like us both to look good," Becky went on, drawing yet more appreciation from Sonya. "Do you have any signatures yet? Have you worked on a finish?"
Smiling, Sonya was proud to say, "Yes, I have a finish and a signature. My signature is a spear, and my finish is a Kata-Ha-Jime."
"A what now?" Becky asked, with a broad smile that contained infectious humour and made Sonya laugh.
"A Kata-Ha-Jime. It's a chokehold. Paige called it a..." Sonya clicked her fingers a few times, willing her memory to play ball. Finally, it did. "A Tazzmission."
"Ah, okay, got it," Becky said immediately. "Never knew that other name for it. Well, I don't have a problem with you getting me in that. I'm sure you'd like to practice it?"
"I would, thank you," Sonya said, wondering if she sounded like an idiot saying it so much.
"Obviously I can't tap to it, so I'll have to reverse it somehow."
"Why don't we have it that in the process of struggling against me, you end up getting me on the mat and my shoulders are down," Sonya suggested. "I kick out at two, but I have to let you go as I do it."
Becky nodded. "That works for me. Then as we both get up I can transition into the armbar and you'll tap to it."
"Sounds like a plan," Sonya said. "Now I just need to be able to pull it all off in the ring."
"You'll be fine," Becky said, giving her a friendly slap on the shoulder as they began to walk back to the locker room. "And before you say it, you don't have to thank me again. All I ask is you remember this night when you've been in NXT for a year or two and you get to work with someone in their first match."
"I'll be there for them like you've been for me," Sonya vowed sincerely. She meant it, too. She had learned a lot about how to conduct herself as a wrestler on this night, and she would always owe Becky a lot for that.
Going back into the locker room, Sonya found Mandy chatting to Lacey Evans, who she was starting to form a friendship with.
"Oh, hey!" Mandy said, seeing her girlfriend walking over to her. "You know how I wasn't on the card tonight?"
"Yeah," Sonya said slowly, wondering where this was going.
"Well, it turns out I still have something to do. I was just told that I'm ring announcing! I'm so excited! I'll be out there for your match, and announcing will be so much fun."
"I was terrible at it when I had to do it," Lacey confessed. "I kept forgetting the towns I was supposed to introduce everyone as being from."
Mandy and Sonya laughed, then Sonya said, "I'm sure it'll be fun to ring announce."
"You'll find out tomorrow night, because all of us trainees are going to take a turn doing it, and tomorrow night it's you," Mandy informed her.
Wrestling tonight, ring announcing tomorrow, Sonya thought. She expected to enjoy the announcing, but for right now she had something much more important to focus on. The show would be soon be starting, and third on the card was the first ever Sonya Deville match.
A/N: Thank you to everyone who left a review last time!
As I'm sure you've figured out, we'll see Sonya have her first match in the next chapter. I thought it would be in this chapter, but it went longer than I expected and I had to put a cut in. So, how do you think Sonya will go in her debut? Leave your thoughts in a review!