CHAPTER NINE: CLASH OF THE TITANETTES



Linda McMahon met with Eve and Lita in her office two days later.

"We came to you because we want a straight-up singles match," Lita said.

"Yeah," Eve threw in. "We don't want to get stuck in some bra-and-panties match, mud wrestling, or any other weird crap Vince is likely to pull. I'm pretty sure he's still sore at me for beating Trish my first night here...and the second and third time."

"We know we're both great wrestlers - better than most of the other women here and even some of the men." Lita took back the conversation. "We want the chance to see how we'll do against each other in the ring."

Linda had sat listening to their request and, after a brief silence, replied, "I see nothing wrong with scheduling a match for you two soon." Another pause as the young women expressed their thanks. "I'd like to add a stipulation to the match, if neither of you have any objections. It should make things a bit more interesting." Eve and Lita waited to hear Linda's suggestion. "Neither of you can use submission holds for this match."

Lita rarely used submission holds, so it was quite easy for her to agree. Eve took a little bit longer. Her snakesplitter was proving to be a powerful move even here and she'd finished almost every match she'd had her so far with it. Did she really want to agree to a match where she couldn't use it? But then, the whole point of trying to get this match with Lita was to really show off her skills. She wouldn't get that if she tried to go for an early submission. Eve's answer, when it came, was yes, too.

All that was left was to pick a date for the match. Summer Slam was still two months away and a ladies' match hadn't been scheduled for it yet, but Eve and Lita didn't really want to wait that long. Depending on how things went in the next few weeks, perhaps Eve and Lita could tag team on two women from the Alliance? The next two best choices were Raw and Smackdown. They got better ratings than Metal, Excess, Jakked, Livewire, and Heat (the weekend shows).

They agreed to a slot for Smackdown next week.


When the night for Eve and Lita's fight finally came, Eve went out first. She wasn't expecting to see both Matt and Jeff accompanying Lita to ringside. The three of them got into the ring and did their thing, then Matt and Jeff went to Lita's corner.

"What are they both doing here?" Eve whisper-asked Lita.

"Matt's here for me, Jeff's here for you, and together they'll stop each other from interfering," Lita whisper-replied.

*That was nice of Jeff,* Eve thought. Even though he wasn't there physically, Jeff wanted her to know he was in her corner.

DING! DING! DING!

The match began. At first, Eve and Lita went through their paces, trading kicks and punches, countering moves like suplexes and piledrivers, simple things like that. Then about two minutes into the match, when the women had a double headlock on each other with Eve on top (if you could really call it that), Eve said to Lita, "Ready for me to show you those moves I was telling you about?"

"Yeah," Lita replied with a punch to Eve's stomach.

The women separated and Lita caught Eve with a clothesline, sending her crashing to the mat. Lita tried to get in a moonsault but failed. Eve - yes, Eve - did the twist of fate and quickly followed up with a five star frog splash. From there on Eve had the upper hand, executing moonsaults, swantons, and other patented Hardy moves - even a one person version of poetry in motion, which had Eve doing a jump and half front forward flip (actually, it looked more like a hand-stand rebound off the ropes, except Eve's hands didn't touch the ground until after the back of her upside-down body had connected with Lita's front).

Matt and Jeff's jaws collectively dropped. Of all the things they'd been expecting, this hadn't been one of them. Eve's secret moves were that she could do moves as well as Team Xtreme!

Eve had one final surprise in store, a modified swanton bomb. It was more of a cross between a swanton and a five star. Eve started out crouched on the top turnbuckle, then she leapt as high into the air as she could. Her legs and arms tucked up close to her body as she did a full frontward flip in mid-air, then she spread her arms and legs out as she came crashing down on top of Lita. Eve pulled Lita's leg up and got the three count.

DING! DING! DING!

Eve rolled off Lita and both women lay there, gasping and panting for breath. Jeff and Matt came into the ring, looking to help Lita.

Jeff stood while Matt kneeled next to Lita and checked her over. She was fine, just a bit stunned. She motioned for Jeff to go over to Eve and help her.

*Good,* Eve thought. *They're making it look like this is nothing more than good sportsmanship.*

Jeff leaned down and extended a hand to Eve. She made a show of looking from his hand to his face and back to his hand. A few more seconds and she reached up to grasp his hand with her own.

Matt, in the meantime, had gotten Lita to her feet. The two women limped to each other and shook hands, then, with the help of the two men, got out of the ring and went limping backstage.