The come down from the incredible adrenaline rush during a fight had always been one of the toughest parts of the job for Tessa Blanchard. Sitting in her locker room less than ten minutes after arriving back there, she felt totally drained. It was something that a lot of people wouldn't understand, she knew, but those people had never fought professionally. They didn't know about the months of training it took to get into absolutely peak condition for the big night. Nineteen second knockout victories were not won in nineteen seconds. The time in the cage was merely the final part of the process.
And now it was over. Tessa had announced weeks earlier that the fight against Juliana Trevino would be her last, regardless of the outcome. The outcome had been a win, meaning that she was retiring undefeated, and would be receiving nearly four million dollars for the fight. For someone from a totally ordinary background and family, it was a ludicrous amount of money.
The money had never been a motivation for her. Being the best fighter she could be had been her original ambition. When she had started to realise how good she actually was, the ambition had changed to becoming the best in the world. Once that mission had been accomplished, it had become about staying on top of the mountain. Now she had bowed out, without anyone being able to knock her down from that position.
It was time for a new challenge. It was time to make the jump to the other form of physical competition she had loved for most of her life: professional wrestling. She refused to mentally refer to it as sports entertainment, despite that being the chosen description propagated by WWE.
"Are you okay? You've gone quiet."
Tessa snapped back into the moment. The question had come from Sarah, the member of her team who was working on removing her face paint. The Terminator was going to be offline for a while now.
"I'm okay, just on the come down. It'll pass in a few minutes. Also, I think I need some ice for my hand." Raising her right hand, she showed off a couple of knuckles that were damaged despite the MMA gloves she had worn for the fight. It was by no means the first time she had hurt a hand during a fight. When you threw punches as hard as she did, it was almost inevitable.
"That's good, because Sonya Deville and Mandy Rose will be coming in soon," Jonathan, Tessa's trainer, reminded her.
Tessa had actually forgotten that her soon-to-be teammates were coming backstage to meet her. Understandably, her mind had been on other things.
Another member of the team came over with an ice pack wrap for Tessa's hand and wrist, helping her to put it on.
"I'm looking forward to meeting them," she said. It was actually true, even though she had forgotten they were coming. Sonya and Mandy, known as the Golden Gloves, had been seriously impressive in recent months on NXT, in her opinion. They had differing styles, but were both accomplished in the ring. Sonya had a hard-hitting MMA feel to her work, which Tessa particularly appreciated.
There was also the fact that Sonya and Mandy were the first ever lesbian couple in WWE. It was likely that they didn't want to be defined in that way, Tessa realised, so she made a note not to refer to it when they arrived. Nonetheless, as a bisexual herself, she appreciated the representation of the LGBTQ community.
About ten minutes later, there was a knock on the dressing room door. Jonathan went over to open it. Tessa could see a member of the event's security team standing there. He was an enormous man, built like the side of a house. "I have the two VIPs to see Ms Blanchard," he announced.
"Thank you," Jonathan said. He then spoke to Sonya and Mandy, who Tessa couldn't see as yet. "Please, come in."
"Thanks," she heard a voice that she recognised as Sonya's say. The man mountain moved aside, and the two guests entered the room. Tessa saw something approaching star struck expressions on their faces. It was something she felt like she would never get used to. Fighting had never been about wanting to be famous for her. She had never wanted to be somebody who could rarely even go into a supermarket or stop for gas without someone recognising her. Having people who were public personas themselves acting like fans at a meet and greet was even stranger. Thankfully, Tessa considered herself to be a good people person. She always liked to give a little time to people who asked for pictures or autographs if she possibly could, and she always tried her best to remain down to earth when talking to people. After all, what made her special just because she was good at punching other women's faces in?
Sarah had pretty much finished the first stage of removing the face paint, so she moved away, allowing Tessa to get up and greet her visitors.
"Sonya, Mandy, it's great to meet you," she smiled warmly. With the ice wrap on her right hand, she had to offer an awkward left handed hand shake. "It will have to be the left hand, I'm afraid."
"That one has done enough work for one night," Sonya smiled, looking at the wrapped up right hand as she grasped the left. "Hope you haven't hurt it too bad?"
"Swollen knuckles, nothing major," Tessa said. Next, she smiled at Mandy, who was stunningly beautiful in her opinion. She looked sexier than most models, let alone wrestlers. "Mandy, great to meet you."
"Awesome to meet you," Mandy said excitably, repeating the odd shake of Tessa's left hand. "Girl, that was badass out there. You ran over her like a freight train. It was savage."
"Thanks. I'm glad you enjoyed it," Tessa said humbly. "She decided to come and try to box me, probably not the best strategy."
Sonya laughed, a bit louder than the comment merited. Nerves, Tessa realised. "I'll say. A nineteen second knock out, and she only landed one jab. Thanks so much for hooking us up with the tickets by the way. It was a great night."
"Yeah, it was," Mandy agreed. "Thanks a lot. We both really enjoyed it. It was very kind of you to do this for us."
"You're most welcome," Tessa smiled. "I figured it was the least I could do since you're about to spend a few months helping me learn to wrestle."
"The first thing we'll concentrate on is worked punches. I don't want to catch one of those things you throw in my face," Mandy said, and the three women laughed.
"Okay, sounds like we've agreed on what day one's lesson is going to be," Tessa said.
"I hope you're okay with us training with you?" Sonya asked. "We were both surprised when Triple H said we would be the ones working with you."
"You're kidding me, right?" Tessa said. "You guys are killing it. I'm really excited to be on a team with you."
The Golden Gloves looked delighted with that. That kind of reaction was something Tessa wanted to get past as soon as possible. These two ladies were going to be her teammates, and therefore likely her friends, in time. The last thing she wanted was constant 'Can you believe what Tessa Blanchard said to me?' reactions.
"Thank you. That means so much to me," Mandy said.
"Me too," Sonya added.
Originally, Tessa had only wanted to meet Sonya and Mandy to introduce herself, but now that she had a concern over how they were reacting to her, she decided that it would be best to properly break the ice as soon as possible. To that end, an idea had just come to her. "We're having a celebration back at the hotel later. I don't know if you can make it, but it would be good if you could come."
Sonya and Mandy looked at each other, then back at Tessa. "We'd love to come," they said simultaneously.
"Tell me you don't do that often?" Tessa laughed. "Because that shit would get annoying fast."
"Oh god, we sounded like Billie and Peyton," Sonya said, drawing laughter from all three of them. "But yes, we'd love to come. Thank you for the invite."
A couple of hours later, Tessa was happy that her plan had worked out as intended. Sonya and Mandy had showed up to the private party in one of the hotel's bars, and despite not knowing anyone who was there, they had seemed to be having a good time. When Tessa had made it over to speak to them, their earlier star struck demeanour had pretty much gone. A couple of glasses of wine each had probably helped with their nerves. After five minutes or so of chatting, they had gotten to the point where they were talking like people enjoying a night out together, rather than a couple of fans meeting one of their idols. It was mission accomplished for Tessa.
"Have you been told anything about what your character is going to be once you debut on Smackdown?" Sonya asked. "We were only told about our call-up, you signing with WWE, and the fact that we're going to be training with you."
"I'm hoping we stay as the Golden Gloves," Mandy said.
"You are. At least, that's what I was told. You're going to find, acquire, build, I don't know which, a Terminator. Needless to say, that'll be me."
Mandy looked intrigued. "You said 'a Terminator.' Are you saying your character is going to be a machine?"
"That's what I'm saying. Actually, that's what Lucy Thorne said to me. The way she pitched it was that it'll be kind of like Finn Balor and Demon Balor. The Terminator will look and act human on most shows, going by the name Tessa Blanchard. But on special occasions, I'll get the face paint on, and some unlucky bitch is going to be standing across the ring from a pure killing machine."
Sonya took a long hit from a bottle of beer. "Dude, that's sick. We've never had a unique character like that in the women's division before. The men have Undertaker, Balor, and The Fiend, now we have ourselves a Terminator."
"No one is going to want to, or be able to mess with the Golden Gloves with you around," Mandy said, obviously looking forward to it.
"We're going to be an awesome team. I'll drink to that," Tessa said, raising her beer bottle for a toast.
Sonya and Mandy clinked their bottles against it, and they all drank.
A/N: Thank you to everyone who left a review last time!
In the next chapter, the time for Tessa to start training in Orlando is approaching, but things might not go exactly to plan.