A couple of straightforward victories over women had established Tessa Blanchard as someone not to be fucked with in the ring, not that anyone had probably thought she was going to be a jobber. Nonetheless, her dominance had needed to be established for the audience.

Now that task had been accomplished, it was time to move on to the next stage of the plan: introducing the idea of Tessa wrestling men.

"What do you think of it?" Mandy asked Tessa, who had just told her and Sonya what the deal was going to be on that night's Smackdown episode.

"I think it's quite good. I like it. What about you guys?"

"I like it too. I think it makes sense," Sonya said. "Just ready yourself for a mixed reaction online. Some people hate intergender wrestling."

"Snowflakes. Fuck them," Tessa said dismissively. "I've had people talking me down and bitching about me ever since I started fighting professionally. It's not going to start bothering me now."

"Good to hear," Mandy said with a smile. They were sitting in catering, so she leaned forward and lowered her voice a bit before adding: "Just don't be so vocal about it around anyone higher up. They wouldn't like the fans being spoken about like that."

Tessa nodded. "Understood. I wasn't thinking of saying anything to anyone. I don't even use social media much anyway. It's toxic and it gets on my nerves. As far as WWE is concerned, I'm not going to be rocking the boat any time soon. I've just joined, and they've given me something unique and exciting. No amount of complaining is going to drag me down."

"Well said," Sonya opined, nodding approvingly. "Personally, I think it's going to be badass, seeing you stand toe to toe with the guys."

"I wonder if they'll see it that way?" Mandy speculated through a mouthful of food.

Tessa looked at her. "You think some of the guys might object to working with a woman? I have been thinking about that."

"Some might. Most of them will be fine with it, I'm sure. But there might be some who have the 'I'm not putting a woman over' attitude."

A grunt showed what Tessa thought of that. "Well, it's lucky they don't make the decisions then, isn't it?"

A shot of the Smackdown commentary team greeted the viewers when they returned from commercial for the second segment of the show. Michael Cole reminded fans of a recent injury to Shinsuke Nakamura, which had forced him to relinquish the Intercontinental Championship.

"To address this situation, we're going to take you backstage to Smackdown General Manager, Stephanie McMahon," Corey Graves said.

A shot of Stephanie appeared on the screen, greeted with the predictable boos. She was standing in a hallway, with a clipboard in her hand. She began by recounting the Nakamura injury situation again, before moving on to what was going to be done about it.

"Out of misfortune comes opportunity. Under my management, Smackdown has been about equal opportunities for all," she lied. "That's why I am announcing a tournament for the vacant Intercontinental Championship. Sixteen people will enter, with the first round matches starting tonight. The semi finals and finals will take place at Money in the Bank. Entry is open to anyone on the Smackdown roster. All they have to do is fill in their names on this form to enter." She held up the clipboard, and hung it on a hook that was sticking out of the hallway wall. "There are sixteen places. Once the sign up sheet is full, it's full. So, I advise those who are interested not to take long in putting their names down."

With that, Stephanie walked away. The camera shot panned around to show the clipboard, with the sixteen blank spaces on it. Stephanie had left a pen shoved through the fastener at the top of the board.

After the next match, the hallway was shown again. Mustafa Ali was at the clipboard, entering his name into the tournament. The list looked to be about half full.

Following the next segment, the hallway was shown once again. This time it was The Miz who was at the clipboard, filling in his name. His body obscured the list from the camera until he finished writing and stepped back slightly. "Only one spot left," he said to himself. He was about to put the pen back, but then he noticed someone who was off to the side of the shot, and his eyes widened.

The shot panned around, revealing Tessa standing there wearing her leather jacket and t-shirt combo, a steely look on her face. There was a fairly loud pop from the fans.

Miz had the kind of look on his face that said he was surprised, but in a good way. Tessa said nothing, simply looking at him. Slowly, he held out the pen.

The crowd popped again when Tessa took the pen from him. She stepped past The Miz, over to the clipboard, writing her name into the final space.

"You should probably take that back to Stephanie, now that it's filled out," Miz said.

Tessa shot him a glance, wondering who he was telling to do things. Nonetheless, she took the clipboard and walked off down the hallway as the show went to commercial.

After the break, Tessa was shown approaching a door with a plaque bearing Stephanie's name fixed to it. Tessa barged through the door without bothering to knock, finding Stephanie standing there talking to someone on her phone.

"There you go, McMahon, your list is filled in," Tessa said, slamming the clipboard into her chest.

If looks could kill, Stephanie's would have dropped Tessa on the spot. "I'll call you back," she said to the person on the phone. She ended the call, then looked at the list. "No, no, no, no, no," she said, shaking her head. "Tessa, you can't put your name on here. This is a tournament for the Intercontinental Championship."

"I know what it is. Why are you saying I can't put my name down? Are you going to stand there and say I can't wrestle in the tournament because I'm a woman? I'd love to see you do that."

Stephanie looked daggers at Tessa again, realising that she had been swiftly and effectively backed into a corner. "Fine," she snarled. "You're in the tournament. You'd better go and get ready, because you're going to compete tonight, against The Miz. Now get out!"

Deciding not to bother needling Stephanie further, Tessa turned and walked out of the shot, leaving Stephanie to glare after her.

Earlier that night

Tessa had been summoned to an office ahead of the Smackdown episode, having been told to go and see TJ Wilson, who was going to be the agent she worked with for her matches.

When she walked into the office, TJ wasn't the only person she found waiting for her. The Miz was also sitting at the small table. This was to be the first test of whether the guys were going to be awkward about working with her, she realised.

"Hi. Tessa Blanchard," she said pleasantly, approaching the table and offering her hand to Miz. Politeness was the best way to start, she figured. It would be up to him where he took the meeting.

Miz rose from his chair before taking her hand, showing good manners. He also smiled. "Tessa. Call me Miz, everyone else does."

"Tessa," TJ said, nodding a greeting. "Have a seat."

"Hi, TJ," she said as she sat down. Her first two matches had been produced by him, so the awkwardness of introductions was in the past.

"Alright, Miz, as I'm sure you already know, Tessa is going to be competing in intergender matches. You're going to be her opponent in the first round of the tournament, and your match is going to happen tonight. Tessa is going over, and will go on to be eliminated by Seth in the next round."

"Right," Miz said thoughtfully, looking at Tessa. "It's going to be your first match against a guy, so we've got to make you look good. You've got to show that you can give out as an ass kicking as well as being able to take one."

"That makes sense," Tessa nodded, listening studiously to the experienced hand. It was great to have him treat her like any other opponent, without a word of objection at doing a job for a woman.

"What are you thinking for a finish?" TJ asked Miz.

"She needs to beat me with the Magnum. Having her roll me up might get a nice pop, but it doesn't put her over. Like I said, she needs to show she can beat a guy, not get lucky against one."

"Thanks," Tessa said, totally agreeing with him.

"You don't have to thank me," he smiled. "I like intergender wrestling, when it's done right and it looks legit. I don't have any doubts that you'll make it look legit. It's a shame we're both babyfaces. I'd have liked to work an angle with you."

"Hopefully down the road, we will," she smiled back.

During the match with The Miz, Tessa had detected no hostility from the fans towards her wrestling in the Intercontinental Championship division. They seemed to enjoy watching a woman giving it as much as she got against a man.

Miz had pitched the idea of Tessa surviving his finishing move by getting her foot on the bottom rope during the resulting pin attempt. She had rejected it, saying it would make her look a bit too strong in her first intergender. Instead, they had done the same spot with an impressive-looking DDT.

The crowd cheered when Tessa got her foot on the rope, stopping the count at two.

Frustrated, Miz looked at the foot on the rope, then at the referee, who confirmed that it had been a two count.

With Tessa still down, Miz decided to press his advantage by going to the top rope. Starting to climb, facing the ring, he made it to the tope rope as Tessa suddenly got up and rushed him. She kicked his left leg, causing him to slump down onto the second turnbuckle.

The reaction when she hit Magnum was music to Tessa's ears. A lot of the fans actually believed it was over. They were right.

"One!"

"Two!"

"Three!"

Another cheer went up. Tessa got up to celebrate the huge win, imagining the commentary team putting it over big time. Lucy Thorne would be on the case to make sure that happened. After all, this was her big idea.

Selling a sore neck, Tessa allowed the referee to raise her hand, facing the hard camera. She then went over to a corner and climbed to the second rope, spreading her arms. Fans were applauding, some of them standing. It was an excellent reaction.

When Tessa got down off the ropes, she found Miz standing in the middle of the ring. He looked annoyed to have lost, and the fans may have suspected a fight was going to kick off. But then he extended his hand. The gesture was immediately applauded, making her glad that they had decided to add it as a finishing touch. They were, after all, both babyfaces.

Tessa didn't bother with a theatrical delay, accepting the handshake almost immediately.

With that, Miz left the ring. Tessa faced the hard camera once more, not needing to fake the smile on her face at all. So far, she was having a blast on Smackdown.

A/N: Happy new year everyone, and thank you to those who left a review on the previous chapter.

Will Tessa's good run continue on the next episode, when Seth Rollins is her opponent?