Bakugo vs Deku - Wrestlemania

by Woody Woodstock

AU where Deku and Bakugo are WWE superstars and they have a particularly violent match at Wrestlemania several years from now.

I feel my heart racing as I watch back the promo package from Gorilla Position, the name for the backstage area where wrestlers wait to go for their matches and the producers and Mr. McMahon make the magic happen. It's about 11:30 at night on April 7th. I'm about to close out Night One WrestleMania 45 with my greatest friend and most hated rival, Izuku Midoriya AKA Deku, the current WWE World Heavyweight Champion. Deku's been a damn good champion. An upstanding role model. The kind of man everyone should aspire to be like. And tonight I, Katsuki Bakugo, plan to leave him bleeding on the mat while I stand over him triumphant. I have a terrible conflicted feeling churning inside of me over this.

On the one hand, I've worked my ass off since I was 18 to get to this moment. So has Deku. We've always dreamed about having a WrestleMania moment together. Deku was a scrawny kid when we were growing up and I picked on him because my body matured quicker. I was pretty big for a 12 year old kid and I was pretty strong for a 14 year old. Deku was more of a late bloomer it seemed. I moved away from our hometown between middle school and high school and I didn't see Deku until we both arrived at the performance center 6 years earlier, having traveled all the way from Japan to chase this dream we shared. He'd grown up to be a solid 6'1 and 210 lbs while I clocked in at 6'4 and 235 lbs, still smaller than me but still a big guy next to most people. But looking at the man carrying the most coveted prize in pro wrestling, all I could think of looking at him now and looking at him at the PC was that the last thing I ever said to him before we changed schools was telling him to jump off the roof and pray he'd be born with wings in his next life. In a coy reference to that memory, Deku wound up tattooing a pair of wings onto his shoulder blades after they recognized me. I was wondering whether or not he'd remember that.

I'm an asshole. I've never pretended I'm not, but there are certain lines you just don't cross, even when you're an 8th grader about to go on summer vacation, and I crossed it, and the minute I saw Izuku again I realized what I'd done. I wound up privately approaching him and apologizing profusely for what I said back then. I could see it in his eyes that he wanted to forgive me, but he instead just accepted my apology. No forgiveness. Not because of what I said, but because he actually did try to end it all and his mother was horrified. Izuku told me that he could forgive me for my cruelty and even still be my friend, but he could never forgive me for making his mom cry. I couldn't say anything back to him. What could you say to that?

Shawn Michaels, a WWE Hall of Famer and an all around pro wrestling legend, accidentally bore witness to our conversation and would later ask us if we wanted to make our real life connection into a story. Izuku and I both agreed. The sweet green haired nice boy with a winning smile and a body like a Greek God vs the hotheaded, ill tempered bully who never grew up after high school, it wrote itself. Our kayfabe story, that's our story within the wrestling narrative, was a well tread one in WWE. Two hotshots formed a tag team and eventually one gold together, then they lost the gold, and Hotshot A would wind up taking it out on Hotshot B after a couple of failed rematches. A tale as old as time. A song as old as rhyme. Eventually we would get called up together and our rivalry was pretty much put aside by Vince McMahon, the head of WWE's business and WWE's creative. Not a single aspect of this company didn't flow through him. But come January though, Vince decided we were going to pull the trigger on a rivalry between Deku and I. Deku had won the championship one year earlier from another heel, a bad guy in wrestling parlance, another fellow Japanese boy by the name of Tomura Shigaraki. I myself would win my first world title the next night in the opening match for Night 2 of WrestleMania 44, I personally got it in a babyface vs babyface bout with yet another Japanese boy named Tenya Iida, babyface being our parlance for hero. The next night on WWE 's flagship TV show, Raw, me, Deku, and Iida would wind up having a 6 man tag match against Shigaraki, and his buddies Kurogiri and Dabi. A damn good match that saw Tenya make the pinfall on Kurogiri, a nice way to let the audience know that just because I beat him, doesn't mean he was weak now.

This was a whole other story though. on January 30th I won the Royal Rumble match at the eponymous pay per view. The Royal Rumble match is a match where two guy start things off then once every 90 seconds another wrestler will join the fight until 30 men have entered the ring, the match will then keep going until a winner is declared. How do you win? By throwing every other poor sucker over the top rope until you're the last man standing. I would enter the match at 18 and would last a whole 67 minutes before tossing out my other friend Kirishima. The prize for winning is a guaranteed world title shot at the champion of your choosing. WWE right now had two world champions. Deku, the WWE Champion, and Jey Uso, the World Heavyweight Champion, a Samoan guy from a long dynasty of other wrestlers all throughout his family. A great talent in his own right and a well deserving champion, but not who I want to fight. So the next night on Raw, to no one's surprise, I challenged by old friend Izuku. And like the dumb hero he is, he walked out to the ring and shook my hand and said he couldn't wait to face me in our home country at the Tokyo Dome in the main event of the first Wrestlemania ever held in Asia. I thanked him for his kind words and half jokingly told him to not expect me to take it easy on him. He let out a small laugh and replied he won't. He hugs me. I hug him back. I then walk out through the ropes facing the commentary table. Deku shrugs, seemingly thinking nothing of it while Izuku knows full well whats going to happen next. He walks towards the opposite side of the ring about to step out the ropes and walk towards the entrance ramp when I call out his name. Again, like the dumb hero he is, he turns to see what it is I want and before he can even process what's going on, I flip over the top rope, holding onto it until I land inside the ring, then I make a running fall with my right arm stretched out to my side so that I hit Deku and knock him onto his back in an instant. It's a move Deku knows well because it's his finisher. The Richmond Smash.

I move back to my feet before Deku has the chance to recover, I run into the closest corner. Bakugo the wrestler's heart fills with hate as I wait for Deku to try to get up, but in reality my heart is filled with an a mix of excitement and sorrow. I'm about to star the road to my dream but I have to do it by channeling my worst self. It's part of the job and it's never bothered me before, but it's different with Izuku. He's seen my worst self. He's been my real life victim and I've been trying for a long time to earn his forgiveness.

Now's not the time to think on that though. Izuku positions himself perfectly for me to kick his damn head in. I run at him and BAM! My boot connects with his jaw and Deku recoils in pain. The crowd is in the palm of our hand. We've gone from exciting them with the idea of two old rivals having a friendly match for old time's sake to the terrifying (and incredibly exciting) realization that this would be something much different from that. I crouch down and grab my now former friend by collar with my right hand as I pick up his championship belt in my left, I then scream in his face that he's weak and pathetic and that he doesn't deserve this title and that it'll be mine soon. He immediately proves me wrong by delivering the mother of all headbutts. Fuck. It had been over two months now and I still felt a bit a small bruise on my forehead from that headbutt. True to my character as a cowardly heel now, that one blow was all it took. I roll out of the ring, leaving Deku's title belt in the ring.

"THAT'LL BE MINE SOON!" I scream out in defiance.

"Just you wait Kacchan! Just you wait!" Deku hollers back, having returned to his feet.

A week later on Raw, Deku cuts a promo on me and starts talking about our childhood, about how he and I were best friends, but over time I grew to more mean spirited and hateful until I just plain hated him. Eventually he drops the bombshell, when we were 14, I told him to jump off the school and eventually he did just that. He talked about how getting into fitness and finding a therapist and a girlfriend who he wound up marrying named Ochako and eventually learning that there was nothing wrong with him and how he one day came to forgive me for hurting him, but no matter how hard he tried he could never let go of the fact that me pushing him that far made his mother cry. Izuku is pitch perfect delivering this promo. He has the entire audience in the palm of his hand as he goes from sorrowful to being filled with a righteous passion as he screams about how I said he was weak but reminds me that he made me tap out back in NXT while he wrestled me with a broken arm (which wasn't a story, he actually had broken his arm during our match). He screams that he won his first singles championship in WWE while wrestling with a torn triceps. He laughs flippantly about winning in a Hell in a Cell match while concussed. As I hear him from backstage, a mixture of pride and concern for my real life friend runs through my mind. This guy was as a tough as they come but was also starting to sound like he might be a danger to his own health. He then saves the promo by saying that even that stuff was stupid and dangerous, no one in the world could say he showed weakness during any of it and that at WrestleMania he'll show the whole world that weakness has a name and it's Katsuki Backugo.

Fuck. He's good.

But I'm better.

The arena screen shows me backstage and I just say that I've been thinking about what Deku just said and now realize something, "I really can't wait to make your bitch wife cry too this time."

Now two months later, I hear the announcer begin to, well, announce our match.

"THE FOLLOWING CONTEST IS A DOG COLLAR MATCH IT IS FOR... THE WWE CHAMPIONSHIP!"

I hear my music hit, TNT by AC/DC. I've always said one of my favorites was the Dynamite Kid.

"Making his way to the ring now, weighing in at 235 lbs, from Musutafu, Japan, he is the 2029 Royal Rumble winner! Katsuki... BAAAAAAAAAKUGOOOOOOOOOO!"

I march out to the ring in my black and orange gear with a black mask painted over my eyes. I'm on the warpath. I must destroy my best friend. I must cement myself as the top heel in WWE. If I am to fulfill my dreams and help Izuku fullfill his, we must be enemies tonight.

And as I mull on these thoughts, Deku's music hits. An English language cover of a Japanese song called The Day performed by a guy called NateWantsToBattle, originally from a band called Porno Graffiti of all things. A song about silencing your doubters and proving your strength. In short, of course it's Deku's music.

"And his opponent, weighing in at 210 lbs, and also hailing from Musutafu, Japan, he is the WWE Champion! DEEEEEEEKUUUUUUUUUUUUU!"

Once Deku finishes his entrance, hyping up the crowd, I watch my friend's energy dissipate. He stares daggers at me as the referee, Charles Robinson, attaches the dog collars to our neck. Deku is now bound to me and I to him. Neither of us can run away from this now. This is especially big given that WWE hasn't held a match with this stipulation since 1997, and this won't be like Big Van Vader facing the British Bulldog where all they had to do was hit all four ring posts in order to win. Deku and I are going to maim each other until one of us submits to the other or can simply pin one another's shoulders to the mat or the floor or anywhere else for three seconds straight.

Charles shouts for the timekeeper to ring the bell and they comply. I start the match with an attempt at a bicycle kick, I jump into the air and rapidly raise my left leg to kick Deku in the head again. He has it scouted though and sidesteps me. When I land on my feet, he delivers a spinning back fist that connects wtih my temple and sends me onto my knees. Another one of Deku's signature moves. The Yonkers Smash. It's a really simple move but really effective. I feel disoriented and confused. My opponent is off to a hot start but he also knows he needs to finish this off early. So he decides to make my punishment karmic. He runs back into the corner just like I did on the Raw after the Rumble, he makes a running start at me, he swings his leg backward, then forward, knowing with all his heart his boot is about to connect with my jaw this time. He's wrong.

I recover my senses just in time and grab Deku's foot just before it can connect with my head. I subtly manipulate the placement of my hands on my opponent's foot and the direction of his leg until I'm standing behind Deku and forcing him onto his hands as I begin working my former friend's leg into an ankle lock. Deku is shaking his head and banging his fist against the mat. He wants the pain to stop but he knows that tapping out ends the match. He drags me to the edge of the ring to attempt a rope break. He succeeds in grabbing the bottom rope but fails in causing a rope break. In an ordinary match this would be fine, but a Dog Collar match is stipulated under no disqualifications. I hear Michael Cole and Corey Graves call that out on commentary as they wonder aloud if the champion's made an honest mistake. But Deku's a damn nerd. He knows every rule of every stipulation ever. He didn't make a mistake like Micheal thought, he instead dragged himself and me out of the ring. He moves to his feet before I do and begins to take his pound of flesh for my betrayal. He gathers up a long length of the chain connecting out collars and whips it against my bare back.

It. Fucking. Hurts.

I endure it as best I can but the pain is something terrible. I don't even need to sell the hit because Izuku really did just whip me with a steel chain. It's not gimmicked.

Deku whips the chain at me at a second time. I tried to keep the pain inside the first time but I can't do it a second time. I audibly cry out in pain. The crowd are loving this. I would too if I were watching us.

Deku tries to whip me a third time but I grab the chain from at the last second and kick him in his dick. Deku lets go of the chain and collapses to the floor. I take the chain and wrap it around my fist and punch the fallen champion in the face repeatedly. He's bleeding now. Excellent. You can feel the crowd begin to recoil in sympathy for their hero. Good. That's half the equation. Izuku and I are doing our job and now the crowd are doing theirs. Perfect harmony.

I hear a familiar voice in the crowd, I look to my left and see Ochako and Izuku's mother, Inko, in the front row. They're trying not to cry as they watch me batter their loved one. Bakugo the character feels a sadistic shiver down his spine. I walk slowly to them as I stretch the chain back. I wave it over my head like a lasso. There's an evil feeling in the air. I wind up like I'm going to swing the chain at them before Deku charges at me from out of nowhere and and begins to batter me even more. The hero defends his family from the bastard villain like he should. He picks me up over his head and drives my already sore back into his knee. This old school wrestling psychology. He's compromised a part of my body already, so now he's going to keep targeting it until he can finally pull out his victory.

Deku picks me over his head again and tosses me into the ring. The man is startlingly strong. He climbs the nearest ring post and wraps the chain around his fist and attempts to go for a Fist Drop, another signature move, the Tennessee Smash, but I roll out of the way at the last minute. I know Deku has a history of injuring his hands and arms. This is very easy to exploit when he winds up punching the mat with his chain covered fist instead of me.

While Izuku sells his hand, I move back to my feet and into the same corner he just jumped from. I scream out "YOU'RE STILL WEAK NERD!" Before running at Deku again and kicking him in his head again. Just like on Raw all those weeks ago. It's over now right? It has to be. I go for the cover, assuming Deku can't survive this.

It turns out, as my character often does, I underestimated Deku. They come much stronger than this guy who gets his shoulder up after Charles counts to 2. I grumble with frustration. Of course he kicked out. It can't be that easy. God forbid this little asshole ever just let me have anything.

Okay. What else can I do with the chain? I wonder as I dig deeper into the darkest recesses of my mind before it dawns on me. I wrap the chain around Deku's neck and press my boot against his back while I pull back with my arms. He's suffering now. The audience are convinced this could be it now but it's still too early for the finish. Deku forces his body onto the mat so that I lose my grip. His throat hurts now and his face is covered in red now, his blood mixing with his sweat causing the scarlet to cloud his vision. Even then, his spacial awareness is immaculate. Almost like he has a sixth sense for when someone wants to hurt him. He wildly whips the chain into my gut. It stings like a bitch. I keel over but I don't drop to the mat. Deku moves towards me. I'm not sure what he's planning but I feign being in more pain than I actually am. He steps into my space, pulls my head up so that we're eye to eye and then smashes me in the face with a chain covered fist of his own. Stupid.

Blood fills my mouth and mixes with my saliva. When Deku sets me up for another, I spit in his face. I then kick him in gut, turn around and grab the nerd by the back of his neck while I drop to my butt and drive his head into my shoulder. A classic stunner. Izuku sells it perfectly. His body goes limp and falls away from me. I cover him again.

One! Two! Thr- NO! The damn nerd kicks out again!

"WHAT DO I HAVE TO DO?!" I scream out in frustration. I try to regain my composure. I'm a hunter. This is my prey. The animal is dead. It just doesn't know it yet. I just need to put one last slug in it's head before I can claim my prize.

"Get up you damn nerd." I grumble as I watch Deku move back to his feet. I hook my arm under his and move his exhausted body onto my shoulders and hook the nerd's leg with my opposite arm, I toss his body off my shoulders as I fall onto the mat, but I quickly regret using this move as Deku locks his arms around my back and neck. He adjusts his position in midair so that my head is driven into the mat, guided by my opponent's body.

Fuck! He's got with a Goddamn! His fucking St. Louis Smash!

Deku makes his own cover this time. 1.2. NO!

I will not accept this defeat. Not here and not from him.

I was content to just make him suffer before but now I realize I might just have to kill him.

Deku's face is still covered in blood. As the match goes the damage I've done to him keeps wearing. Good. Good. That two count was just a fluke. I underestimated my opponent. He's a nerd but he is the WWE champion for a reason.

We both move back to our hands and knees. Deku rubs his neck briefly. I probably bruised his trachea. I'll have to apologize to Izuku about that later, but right now it's giving me an idea.

I have a finish now. I press my forehead against his head and whisper my idea to him. He nods at me before slapping me full across the face. His hand hits about as hard as the chains do.

Shit. I'm glad he's not really trying to kill me.

I drop to my knees again. Deku moves onto the ring post directly across from me. He looks like he wants to maybe do another Tennessee Smash but I shove him off the top. He's outside of the ring now. I wait for Deku to move back onto his feet, his back is to me now. Perfect. His eye line directly across from his wife and mother. I did say I was going to make them both cry this time.

I pull at the chain again. Now Deku's back is against the ring post. I wrap the chain around his neck again and pull again, my foot placed against the ring post instead of Deku's back this time. I scream at him to tap out before I murder him in front of his loved ones. Deku claws at his collar and the chain, trying desperately to break free before finally surrendering by feebly tapping at his neck repeatedly in full view of Charles Robinson. Charles waves at me to stop and yells that Deku's tapped.

"AND YOUR WINNER... AND THE NEEEEEEW WWE CHAMPION! KATSUKI... BAKUUUUUUUUUGOOOOOOOOO!"

The referee hands me Deku's- No, wait- My WWE championship belt!

I stand atop the ring post and raise the championship and my middle finger to the audience while Deku sits limply on the steps. I don't think I'll hold this belt for very long before Mr. McMahon decides to put it back on my opponent, but for just tonight, I'm the WWE Champion and I've made that happen because my best friend trusted me with that responsibility. He trusted me with his body. He's trusting me with his first big defeat.

The time is 12:13AM. April 8th. And my heart is still racing. Adrenaline is pumping through my veins as I hear Bon Scott declare that he's TNT, he's dynamite, and he'll win the fight.

On Sunday, I'll likely do a segment talking about how I won with some people saying I'm a villain and other saying I just did what I had to do (they are also villains). But tonight, I'm going to meet my best friend and his family backstage and we're going to celebrate our moment in the sun together. What a night!