gvb
Millennium Roster
Posts: 1,408 
|
Post by gvb on Dec 18, 2023 16:08:10 GMT -6
The Principal's Office
December 8th, 2023
3:26 PM
As we cut inside Gian's office we are met with a heavy silence. Whatever has been discussed when the cameras weren't recording had left a negative mark on the general mood, especially that of Deyanira Connolly. The young Taekwondo black belt was sitting on the chair, almost curled up in a fetal position with her knees brought up close to her chest and her arms wrapped around them. Her glance, almost fearful, shot back and forth between Gianluigi Vaccaro and the austere woman sitting on the right. The resemblance was striking, and there was no doubt that she was Deyanira's mother.
Gianluigi Vaccaro:
Mrs. Connolly, with all due respect I believe you should take into consideration what your daughter wants.
Mrs. Connolly:
You don't get too tell me how I should raise my daughter, nor you get to assume you or Deyanira know what's best for her. My husband and I have indulged in this whim of her for far too long, it's clear that she's just wasting her time here, time she should be investing in training and honing her craft in lights of the upcoming Olympic Games. If she can't see how she's throwing it all away, then it's my duty to bring her back on track.
Gian frowned at the authoritative and confrontational tone, but after meeting fleetingly the young student's eyes decided to not exacerbate the already high tension. He took a moment to ponder his next words before continuing.
Gianluigi Vaccaro:
I believe the two things are not mutually exclusive. I will gladly walk you through our facilities and show you our staff resumes just to show you that our students are being provided with the best tools and guidance to improve in every aspect of the game. Not to mention that Deyanira's Team Leader is a former Olympic Gold Medalist herself and she's more than qualified to prepare your daughter to represent the country in Paris, should that be her desire.
His eyes moved from the mother to the daughter, resting on her for a moment as if he was trying to read her. But Deyanira never locked gaze with him, keeping her glance down.
Mrs. Connolly:
Marissa Kanensson is the only reason why we decided to humor Nira in this silly endeavor. We had high hopes that she could talk some sense in her, open her eyes and make her see her destiny. My daughter is not a wrestler, she will never be one. She's a martial artist and a talented one. Age six she earned her first black belt, two years later she won her first World championship. We invested so much in her career, we moved across the country to make sure she'd get the best coaches, we are not letting her destroy everything we worked so hard for to chase a pipedream.
Deyanira seemed to finally find the courage to speak up, but a glance from her mother made her second guess it.
Mrs. Connolly:
But I guess my daughter learned the hard way that you should never meet your idols. I've been told that she has made no significative progress in these three months, that she failed to capture the Gold Title or whatever token you use to identify the best among the students and, quite honestly, that's unacceptable. She is a fighter, she is born for greatness and wasting time here is doing nothing but ruin her legacy. It's time we pull the plug on this little experiment, Nira.
Deyanira Connolly:
I'm learning... I'm getting better...
She said in a whisper, barely audible.
Gianluigi Vaccaro:
I can actually say that we are quite happy with your daughter's progress. She has been impressive in every match she has and she's ranked as one of our best students. She may have come up short in her first attempt to win the Gold Star, but she'll get more opportunities in the future if she keeps it up. Not to mention she played a big part in helping her team retain the title with a stellar performance in a tag match a couple of weeks ago.
Hearing this praise from Gian painted a big smile on Deyanira's face, the first in this tense and emotional afternoon.
Mrs. Connolly:
I wasn't told that, but I find the concept of a "team fight" dumb and pointless.
Gianluigi Vaccaro:
I can't help but notice you keep mentioning a third party. Am I to assume you haven't watched any of your daughter's matches so far?
The realization that Gian might actually be right caused Deyanira to let out a sigh.
Mrs. Connolly:
The idea of her throwing her career away is already hurtful enough without having to actually watch it.
Gianluigi Vaccaro:
Then I suggest you stay for tonight show. I feel like once you see how happy Deyanira is in that ring, once you see that the passion driving her is just the same, once you see how good she actually is, you may see that The Academy is the right place for your daughter.
Deyanira looked at her mother.
Deyanira Connolly:
Please, mom...
Mrs Connolly:
I didn't raise a quitter, you are scheduled to fight and that you will do.
The woman pushed back her chair and stood up, her stern glance now focusing on Gian.
Mrs Connolly:
And that's the only reason why I'll allow her to step in the ring tonight. Don't hold your breath on me changing my mind.
Without waiting for a reply, she turned on her heels and walked out. Deyanira would follow suit, but before leaving she mouthed a "thank you" to the Principal.
Singles Match
Deyanira Connolly VS La Huracan Famosa
- There was something different in Deyanira's eyes tonight. It's been an emotional week for her, one spent in uncertainty. She shot a glance at her mother sitting in attendance, obviously feeling the pressure of her judgey looks. La Huracán took immediately advantage and hit Connolly with a flurry of own hand and chops. She charged toward her with a full head of steam, ducking under the clothesline attempt to send her to the floor with a headscissors takedown.
- The masked woman kept a fast pace, using her lucha background to attack the opponent and, at the same time, stay away from her counterattacks. After climbing to the top of the turnbuckle, the Luchadora jumped and surprised Deyanira with a diving armdrag, blasting her with a shining wizard before she could even get up. The following cover attempt only gave her a two count.
- Finally Deyanira was able to turn the tide, catching La Huracán with a jumping knee strike to the chin. Oddly enough she didn't follow up with the usual volley of kicks, nor did she try to bring this match to the mat where her MMA background would've given her a clear advantage. Instead she draped her arm around her neck and performed a Suplex. Not quite smooth, her technique could definitely use some more practice but it was effective nonetheless.
- Deyanira seemed to have made it her mission to showcase the pro wrestling skills she had been learning rather than walking the well known path and rely exclusively on her striking skills. The unusual and unexpected gameplan seemed to be working out as the Colorado native connected some high impact moves such neckbreakers and DDTs. La Huracán Famosa, while unable to counter them, kept kicking out, frustrating those attempts.
- Connolly tried to kick it up a notch with a German suplex from the top rope, but the Luchadora once again showed off her agility and landed on her feet. On top of that, she was quick to send her opponent into the corner with a shotgun dropkick. The impact between the back of her head and the corner left her dizzy, enough for the Mexican to set her up on the top rope and fly back with a Spanish fly, picking up another big win.
WINNER: La Huracan Famosa
BY: Pinfall (Spanish Fly), 10:25 |
Team Match
4v4 Captain's Fall Match Team Strike (Aliyah Marshall, Diego Hernandez, Lucas Donaldson & Dani Morrow) VS Team Noir (Mackenzie, Hikari Sakazaki, Gardiner Eden & Dakota Kent)
- Both teams were standing in the middle of the ring as the referee ran the through the rules of the match. He then asked the two captains to take a step forward, and it was Mackenzie and Dani who did. As he reminded them and everyone that this elimination match will end if a captain gets pinned or submitted, Marshall looked slightly annoyed, not entirely too happy that she wasn't the one Lady chose to lead the team.
- She took her frustration out on Dakota, manhandling the country girl with a flurry of knife edge chops. Aliyah then took a run against the ropes and came back at full speed, but her shoulder tackle didn't move Kent by an inch. She gave it another try but it was like running into a brick wall. The third attempt ended even more poorly as Dakota turned her inside out with a big clothesline. Aliyah quickly crawled back into her corner where she tagged her captain in.
- Maybe it wasn't the best idea to just throw Dani into deep waters like that, maybe Aliyah should have tagged someone else in since a pin scored on Morrow would've mean a premature end for the match, but Team Strike's captain was now legal. Dani was looking good out here, managing to turn the tide and take control with a single knee facebreaker, but her effort wasn't enough to keep Dakota down. Actually, the Powerhouse came very close to giving her team the win with a pop-up powerbomb, but luckily for Team Strike Lucas was quick to make the save.
- Diego took it in his hands and tagged in, giving his captain a much needed break and thus protecting Team Strike from an early wipeout. On top of that, he scored the first elimination of the match when he pinned Dakota after rattling her brain with an implant DDT, with a little help from Lucas and Aliyah who blocked Team Noir's members attempt ta breaking up the pin.
- Diego and Lucas worked well together, isolating Hikari and wearing her down with double team moves. The Divine Princess did her best to resist and not leaving her team with a double disadvantage, but the two young men were slowly and sistematically tearing her apart. Donaldson's massive backbreaker though seemed to be the end for the Japanese student, but captain Mac dove in and saved the day.
- Watching Gardiner taking the center of the ring and taking on bigger opponents fearlessly and with a certain dose of swag was a lot like watching Echo during her dominant run as Junior Heavyweight champion. As odd and somewhat creepy as it was, Eden had everything down to a T. From the mannerisms and taunts to the high-impact moves, her obsession for the Australian superstar was quite effective and allowed her to even up the elimination when she dropped Lucas with her idol's The Reverb.
- Gardiner barely had time to celebrate the elimination before she was sent joining Dakota and Lucas in the back by a quick roll-up from behind by Dani Morrow. Mackenzie tried to do the same to Team Strike's captain but Dani wasn't caught off guard. The two handpicked students battled it out for a few minutes, engaging in a intense back and forth that started with them trading pin attempts and ended with the two women beating the crap out of each other with stiff kicks and eventually taking each other down when they collided in mid air following simultaneous crossbody attempts.
- "Pyro" Diego Hernandez stole the show tonight, bringing the tally of personal eliminations to two when he pinned Sakazaki with a sunset flip power bomb. He was single handedly decimating Team Noir, and even captain Mackenzie herself almost got caught in the wake of his destruction, but Eden pulled him under the rope and kept the hope alive. The two remaining members of Helena's team figured out that they had to work together if they wanted to get out of here alive and access fully managed to isolate Hernandez, finishing him with a double superkick.
- Two versus two as we approached the twenty minutes mark. Once again the two captains were squaring off, not pulling any punches and actually trying to be the one scoring that decisive pinfall. Aliyah and Gardiner didn't sit on idle hands, making sure they were ready to help their captain if they needed a hand. But it wasn't long before the two of them got tired of the other's meddling and got physical, starting a brawl outside parallel to the ongoing fight inside the ropes. Aliyah secured her team a huge advantage when she obliterated Eden with a big German suplex into the barricade, but she wasn't quite satisfied without taking the spotlight for herself. Noticing that Dani was ready for the killing blow on Mackenzie, she decided to literally steal her thunder and tagged in, leaving Morrow surprised. Dani looked at her and shook her head, disappointed that Aliyah was about to reap on her hard work and take all the glory of eliminating the opposing team's captain.
WINNER: Team Strike
BY: Pinfall (Spear) , 21:04 |
|
|
