Disclaimer: don't own anything except Shadow and Amanda who are creatively based on people in real life. The rest are owned by Vince Mcmahon and the WWE

"Did Raven say where we were going to meet?" asked Shadow as they walked through the corridors

"Nope but I'm guessing in the ring" Amanda answered with a shrug "get any sleep last night?"

"What time did we get in?" replied Shadow

"Geez, sometime early this morning" Amanda said "we slept in late though which is why we did some late afternoon shopping instead of morning shopping as we'd planned before we came here"

"Oh yeah, well I got enough sleep, I don't have bags under my eyes anyway, you?"

"A little, not much" said Amanda "I reckon he'll be in the ring, right?"

"Probably"

As they neared the curtain to the ring, someone was about to rush past them but Shadow grabbed their arm. The person stopped in their tracks

"Trish, how are you doing?" Shadow asked, smiling "I haven't seen you for a while, how you been?"

"Good, good you know" Trish answered, tucking some hair behind an ear

"I miss training with you, you gonna be free sometime to join us?"

"Sorry, kinda fully booked since getting back with Vince, he's a busy man" said Trish regretfully

"Yeah, what are you doing back with him? This isn't all part of your plan is it?"

"Maybe" a smile appeared on Trish's face "You'll find out soon ok? I'll call you sometime, I've gotta grab some coffee for the Mcmahons"

She turned and quickly walked away without a backward glance. Shadow sighed, Amanda had wisely stayed silent

"Hope her being a Mcmahon errand girl is worth it" Shadow said softly

"Cheer up, she can handle herself" said Amanda, attempting to lift her friend's mood

"Like she did last time?" pointed out Shadow "forget about it, lets get to the ring"

They walked through the curtain and down to the ring. The crew were setting up pyros and shifting great metallic structures about, yelling to each other occasionally. Some of the talent sat in the seats, talking to each other quietly, reading or just chilling out before the show. A Smackdown taping was always more relaxed then a live Raw. Raven sat on a top turnbuckle straight-backed. When the girls stepped between the ropes and stood before him, he nodded at them

"Nearly late but not quite" he said

"What are we working on in the ring?" asked Shadow eagerly

"Whatever you think needs working on" replied Raven "you want to expand your repertoires? Well tell me what you've done and what needs working on and I'll do what I can"

Amanda and Shadow looked at each other; that gave them a lot of freedom in their training. But they had a feeling that Raven would be relentless in making sure they got something right. Raven looked at them silently waiting for them to speak.

"How about suplexes?" suggested Shadow "We did pretty basic stuff but I'm not strong on them"

"Can you bridge?" asked Raven

"Not too well" Shadow admitted

"The first step is admitting you have faults," said Raven as he jumped from the turnbuckle and landed lightly in front of them "the second is putting them right"

He motioned Shadow forward so that she stood eye to eye with him; it was an intimidating experience. He didn't blink, just stared, two solid circles of colour never moving. Finally he spoke

"I'm gonna lock up with you and see how you wrestle on canvas, I want you to treat this as a real match, I want to see what you can do"

Almost as soon as he'd said it, his arms were wrapped around her in the lock up position. Amanda quickly climbed onto the top turnbuckle where she could safely watch. Shadow moved her own arms into a lock up, using all her strength to try to out power him. It was impossible and soon enough, Raven had her in a headlock. He held her tight before releasing her, pushing her into the ropes. She bounced off and ducked a clothesline, turning and jumping into a flying clothesline, taking him down. She bounced off the ropes and dropped an elbow on him a little awkwardly. He grunted and shoved her off, stopping her pinning him. He grabbed her and scoop slammed her down, dropping to his knees to punch her hard. She kicked her feet up at him, to try and stop him. He stopped out of breath and held a hand up to stop her.

"Good, you can begin to work a match, that saves me a lot of time, you do need to learn to counter more but that will come with time, now suplexes, I'm going to suplex you, just an overhead one and I then I want you to do the same to me"

Shadow nodded and let him hook her leg, both them gripping a handful of the other's pants for support. He lifted her high into the air, it was a move she'd taken before many times. Waiting to slam down always made her nervous. She hit the canvas with a hard smack, knocking the wind out of her. She accepted the hand Raven offered her and got to her feet. She hooked his leg and lifted him, not holding him in the air for as long as he had her, before slamming him down. He sat up, shaking his hair out of his face.

"You can deliver a decent suplex, you know when to use them?"

"When the opponent is dazed and unable to stop you"

"Good, hit them with the ones harder to lock on when they can't do anything about it" he affirmed "ok, we'll move to Germans now then the Northernlight and Fisherman, same thing, I'll suplex first then you copy"

He put a waistlock on her and lifted her cleanly over his head, bridging when she landed. He let her go and stood with his back to her. A little nervously, she put a waist lock on him and tried to lift him, he was heavier than the girls she was used to lifting but lifting someone heavier was good, it tested her. With a burst of strength, she lifted him over her head and tried bridging, she failed miserably.

"You've got to be careful, you're gonna hurt someone's neck a lot if you do it that way" Raven reprimanded her as he got to his feet "try again"

She did and again she couldn't bridge, automatically letting him go when he landed. He made her keep trying until all her energy dripped away.

"I can't do anymore! I suck at this" she said, exasperated

"It'll come eventually, we'll do this every session until you can bridge after a German, then we'll move onto the others" he turned to Amanda "your turn, what do you want to do?"

"We began doing some more high flying stuff when we left, I was just learning the hurricanranna, I'd like to try that" she said, getting off the turnbuckle

"Ok, we'll lock up like I did with Shadow and then we'll go through it," said Raven

Amanda went through a similar sort of mini match as Shadow, managing to duck the clothesline and hit him with a kick followed by a clothesline. She threw him into the ropes and ducked to send him over but he kicked her in the stomach and hit a DDT. He got up, leaving her to recover.

"Good, same as Shadow, get on the second turnbuckle and hit me with hurricanranna"

Amanda did so, managing to pull off a decent one where she didn't hurt herself. Raven got up, nodding his approval.

"You've gotta really throw yourself into it, all your weight will help you nail the move, try from the top now, you done it from there before?"

She nodded and climbed, waiting until he was in the right position before leaping into the air. For a split second, being in the arena, even though it was empty and there were no lights flashing, she felt like she knew how Lita felt when she did the same thing in a full arena. As soon as she nailed the move, she was on her feet, fists poised.

"That was better, the higher up you are, the more momentum you have, I want you to try to reverse some moves into a hurricanranna now" Raven instructed

As he said it, he grabbed her arm and threw her into the ropes. He lifted her into a slam, she twisted her legs desperately to try to pull him down but was too late, he slammed her to the mat.

"Use your own momentum to push yourself into that move, just focus on getting it" he said, throwing her into the ropes again

Amanda tried, but she couldn't a good enough grip with her legs to swing him down. They kept going through it again but no luck. Then just as she was getting frustrated with herself, she managed to just pull him down. Shadow applauded from the turnbuckle where she was perched.

"Good, now you've gotta get more confidence so you can do that move without worrying and it's all instinctive" Raven said

"Like Lita?" asked Amanda

"Like Lita" Raven confirmed "Lets head backstage for the next part of the lesson"

They followed him out of the ring and walked behind him respectfully through the corridors. Shadow squeezed Amanda's arm, smiling broadly at her friend. Amanda grinned ruefully and gestured to under arms

"Rope burn" she said quietly

"Oh how I missed that feeling" said Shadow sarcastically.

Raven stopped in front of them, he had reached where he wanted to teach them. He turned back to them.

"Did your homework?"

"Of course" said Amanda, producing the lid

"Show me then" Raven sat down on a case, arms folded

Shadow stood near the wall ready, nodding. Amanda hit her over the head with the lid not too hard, then smacked it into her gut. Shadow doubled over in pain. As Amanda held the lid in front of her, getting ready to hit her again, Shadow kicked it up into her face and caught in her own hands. Amanda covered her face with her hands, shouting in pain. Shadow kicked her in the back on the knees forcing her forward and face first into the lid again. She followed it up by smashing Amanda over the head with it, forcing her to her knees. Amanda suddenly speared her to the ground then grabbed her and threw her into the wall. Shadow groaned slightly and turned around, getting to her feet. Amanda helped her up and turned back to Raven expectantly

"Not bad at all, it's not going to be that pretty when you fight for real backstage, you're gonna have to learn how to hit and hit again before running"

He smiled suddenly, it changed his face completely.

"Good work though, I can tell you guys are fans, I want one of you to face me now with that lid"

Shadow looked at Amanda; Amanda shook her head hard

"Hey I was the one who got threw into the wall" protested Shadow

"Fine" sighed Amanda

In the end, they both ended up brawling with Raven. It was much harder work than in the ring, there they knew what they were doing mostly but here, it was all-new, starting from step one again. At the end of the hour, they were both dripping with sweat from the work out and more than a little sore from the brawling.

"Next week, we're gonna go for 2x4s" he said, "eventually after using each piece you'll be able to string it all together, later"

He walked off without another word. Shadow pulled her top up, her belly was shaking a little, her head felt like it was exploding. Yet she knew she would be back on Monday for more, she could see the same feeling in Amanda's eyes. They both laughed and shook their heads.

"Man are we nuts!" laughed Amanda "lets go get ready for the handicap match, Regal'll want us out there, he's probably got some work for us to do anyway"

*

The crowd was hot that night, yelling for Jericho with all their might. Shadow pounded on the mat with all her might. Amanda yelled at Regal.

"C'mon get him, flatten him!"

Jericho had the annoying habit of smirking at them whenever he started winning. It was enough to make them both angry. Angle lay in a corner, exhausted after receiving a pounding and a Jericho bulldog. Regal was on the end of some hard right hands then was backdropped to the mat. When Jericho bounced off the ropes, Shadow and Amanda grabbed both his feet, bringing him slamming to the mat. The referee was immediately yelling at them over the ropes

"One more from you too and you're out of here!" he yelled furiously

"Don't know what you mean" replied Shadow innocently

It was enough of a distraction for Angle and Regal to get some serious double-teaming in on Jericho, completely destroying him. It ended with a Regal drop and a three count. Shadow and Amanda laughed, raising their arms in the air in triumphant, nodding to each other. Angle wasn't done; he began stomping on the fallen Jericho, ignoring the referee's yells. Suddenly, Benoit ran down the ramp, his valet Angel Torres following closely behind. Benoit slid into the ring and threw Angle off Jericho, locking him into the Crippler Crossface. Angel stood on the apron, leaning almost lazily over the ropes watching, completely unconcerned, she was evidently used to seeing Benoit destroy people. Regal was stood about to order Benoit off when Jericho slammed into him from behind and put him into the Walls of Jericho

"Lets go kick some ass" said Amanda

"Right with you" Shadow said, sliding into the ring after her

Angel whooped loudly from the apron, waving in the air as they hit Jericho in the head from behind and began beating him on the mat. They threw him into the ropes and ran at him. Suddenly, he scooped Shadow off her feet, depositing her on the outside of the ring. She lay stunned, her aches and pains amplifying. Amanda was even angrier now; she had to do something. She ran at Jericho, jumping up onto his shoulders to go for a hurricanranna. He'd seen it coming, he dropped her into a sitdown powerbomb. Apart from the excruciating pain that exploded all over her back, Amanda was aware of Jericho's satisfied smirk. That was what got to her the most, he'd beaten them.

Read, enjoy, review! Cheers for the great people who review me, I love reading them (shout outs - Harmonized: u r Americanised aren't u? lol, totally! Glad u liked the Hardyz bit, there'll be more to come!!, Liz: so much u need to know! Who knows who'll the girls will get with only me, lol , Zoe: good ideas, who knows? Thanks for the suggestions and BizGirlCharlie: glad u loved the last chapter, I think it's my fave of the ones I've written for this story, the training session bit was great fun to write, maybe there will be some romance, lol) Keep reading and reviewing