BCW Pt. 13: Un Plan

*I am not affiliated with World Wrestling Entertainment. While real ring names are used in this series, a different name is used for the fed, because a different roster exists in it. I also did not know there was an independent federation called BCW when I began this series, so I am obviously unaffiliated with them as well. I do not own any of the "characters" mentioned in this story. This story, and series is fiction.*

*Despite parallels to recent storylines, this is actually among the stories I had the idea for before I set this account up back in 2016.*

*ding ding ding*

The bell rings in London's O2 Arena. On this episode of Thursday Night Smackdown, the BCW Women's Champion, Asuka, stands across the ring from the woman she beat for the title, and beat in convincing fashion, A.J. Lee.

The smaller-in-stature Puerto Rican-American had gotten the better of Asuka in their first two encounters: A.J. eliminated Asuka in the first ever Women's Royal Rumble, then beat her in the main event of Summerslam. Those wins may have been to the surprise of many, but not to A.J. She was too confident for that to be the case. She'd never be one to count herself out.

..Until, after those two wins. They met again, Asuka won. They wrestled again, for the title, in a two-out-of-three falls match, that Asuka won 2 falls to 0. The Empress of Tomorrow got A.J. to submit to win fall one, pinned her with her Running Hip Attack in Fall Two. A.J. became unsure of herself. She was so down on herself that night, she was sure she would've lost a third fall to her as well. A.J. had to admit Asuka handed it all back to her, and then some.

...Tonight felt different. It had been a few months since they last faced off. Things had changed- A.J. took some time off, and came back. She challenged Asuka immediately, and this was her first time appearing on BCW Television in almost three months. For now, she was settling for a Non-Title contest. This match wasn't for a title... nor was either competitor's body on the line, as had been the case a few times over the past year. No, A.J. and Asuka had had plenty of fun with each other, and perhaps more would take place again one night, but this match was just about a chance for A.J.- if she won this match, she'd have another match with Asuka, this time with the Championship on the line...

One thing A.J. was confident in, was that she knew she could compartmentalize- Once she and Asuka were in between the ropes, on the mat, she could wrestle a 60-Minute Ironwoman match, and not for a second be reminded by, and subsequently distracted by, the fact that she's staring at the woman with whom some of the best sex A.J. had ever had, was with.

Now, for actually winning the match, that was a bit harder, she had to admit.

"And A.J., the former champion looks a bit hesitant." Mauro Ranallo says on commentary.

"You can see that Mauro, I agree." Byron Saxton beings, "She's fiery, but she knows she can't out-aggression Asuka so what else does she do? What else can she do?"

For the first ten minutes, A.J. had to spend a lot of the match on the defensive. Asuka got a few nearfalls, but A.J. hadn't covered Asuka yet. No way was A.J. gonna get in a striking war with Asuka. That wouldn't help her. A few minutes in, Asuka charges at A.J. and connects with a hip attack. When A.J. tries to get an arm on Asuka, Asuka blocks her with her shoulder. With A.J. a bit stunned, Asuka went for one of her signature Roundhouse Kicks that had knocked other women's lights out..

A.J. ducks. Her heart beats a little fast, knowing that could've been a finishing blow if Asuka's boot connected in just the right spot. A.J. rolls under the bottom rope and out of the ring. She takes a breath and looks under the ring...

"And I don't know what A.J.'s looking for," Mauro calls, "A.J. would get disqualified if she brings a foreign object into the ring."

"Right, Mauro. Plus the fact that A.J. is not the type to resort to underhanded tactics anyway." Renee answers.

"It just doesn't look like she had much of a gameplan." Byron says. A.J. lowers the ringskirt back over the area underneath the ring. As she stood back upright, Asuka hit A.J. with a dropkick. Getting a running start, hanging on the middle rope for leverage, and 'dropping' her legs under the bottom rope, knocking A.J. down.

"OHHHH MY, What a dropkick!" Mauro calls, "The Champion is in control again!"

Asuka gets back in the ring, the ref starts to count A.J. out.. "One....two....three....four........five....six....seven.....eight!....nine!.." A.J. slowly rolled back. She's out of breath, and it looks like the next pin attempt Asuka gets on A.J. would seal it.

...Unless A.J. taps out instead.. Asuka hits the ring, charges A.J. when she returns, and sinches her Asuka-Lock submission. Asuka has it locked in, with her left arm around her chin and legs around her waist. A.J. doesn't tap out, but doesn't flail reaching for the rope either...

Instead, A.J. uses her smaller frame to her advantage, she manages to slyly slip her legs from Asuka's legs, and kicks Asuka's quad a few times, hard enough that Asuka has to release her. After A.J. kicked herself out of Asuka's grip, Asuka retaliates with her signature strikes of her own. No one could prepare for Asuka's swift swinging of each of her limbs. A.J. puts her arm up to defend herself, but is backed into the ring post. She blocks two of Asuka's strikes and their arms lock up. A.J. uses Asuka's hands for leverage and lifts herself up to the middle turnbuckle. A.J. leaps forward, gets her arm around Asuka and swings around and hits a Tornado DDT.

After planting Asuka on her head, A.J. goes for the cover. One...... and Asuka kicked out at ONE! "Oh! And Asuka, kicking out at one! Emphatically telling Miss 'Lee' she's far away from a 'three' count." Mauro calls.

A.J. gets back up, this time she backs herself back to the ringpost. She reaches back and pops herself up on the middle turnbuckle. She waves her arm upward, trying to goad Asuka into getting back up. Asuka does, and when she does, A.J. climbs up, and sits herself up on the top turnbuckle. The crowd cheers and gest more into it now that A.J.'s back in it.

"What's A.J. going for here, Mauro?" Renee asks.

"I'm not sure Renee, it looks like maybe going to the preverbal well once more?" Mauro answers. Asuka eyes A.J. up top, and has confidence in her eyes that she'll counter whatever aerial technique A.J. has this time.

"You gotta wonder if Asuka will be ready this time." Byron wonders. When Asuka approaches, A.J. fakes like she's gonna dive off the turnbuckle, but stays seated up top. The fakeout worked as she lands a kick to Asuka's head. Asuka puts her hand up to her temple, and that's when A.J. sees an opening for a second Tornado DDT...

A.J. jumps off the turnbuckle, gets the facelock around Asuka. And in one swift motion, A.J. spins both her legs to hit-...

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...For her legs to connect with referee Danilo Anfibio's head. The ref takes a bump from accidentally being kicked by A.J. and rolls out of the ring.

"OH! And an out-of-position official takes a tumble!" Mauro calls, as now the ring is just A.J. and Asuka. As she came down, A.J.'s body sort of faceplants after her flight was interrupted mid-motion. At the same time, Asuka didn't suffer much on it either, just simply falling on her back.

A.J., lying on her stomach, rolls back over and sits up, and looks back at the fallen ref. In that amount of time, Asuka is already standing. Now A.J. has the face of someone helpless, seated on the mat with Asuka on her feet, approaching her again. A.J. moves back, her back resting against the bottom turnbuckle of the right ringpost closer to the ramp, hard-cam side.

Only about half the ring separates Asuka and A.J.. The champ charges, A.J. puts her hands up to defend herself...

...Through her fingers A.J. watches Asuka fall back. Having no idea how... What she didn't see, was that before Asuka could kick or stomp the challenger, someone in black pants and a black hoodie, with a bit of black hair sticking out, slid headfirst into the ring behind Asuka, and struck the back of her knee with a led pipe.

"WHAT THE HELL?! What the..?! Who the hell is this?!?!" Mauro tries to make sense of what's going on. A hurt Asuka gets down on one knee, and manages to kick the weapon that had cut her down, out of the ring.

As Asuka's back on the mat, a second hooded figure jumps the ring. Now it's two-on-one, with A.J. looking as confused as anyone. She watches as two people- she's pretty sure they're both women, with black hoods zipped up so far, that she's shocked they can see out of them. They can clearly see the Women's Champion, as the two rain down punches and forearms on Asuka's back and head.

A.J. doesn't join in. She's still stunned. "Renee, do you have any idea who this could be?" Mauro inquires.

"No, I don't. I haven't seen anyone new backstage, but this is absolute garbage. We had a great match that's gotten completely off the rails here." Renee answers.

"COME ON!" One of the two mystery assailants yell in A.J.'s direction. Clearly it's a woman, and, clearly, they want to help A.J. to win, or just want Asuka to lose. Either way, they clearly want Asuka taken care of before the ref catches them and throws the match out.

One of the two women stops wailing on Asuka. The other one lifts Asuka's upper half up with an arm grabbing both her arms. With Asuka unable to move, one of the hooded figures blasts Asuka with a hard dropkick. When she stands back up, they turn to A.J. and yell, "NOW!" It's clear both assailants are women, both trying to snap A.J. out of whatever daze this surprise has gotten her in, and urging her to take advantage of the fact that there was no referee looking at their interference.

Neither women have shown their faces yet, their hoods still cover everything but maybe a 3-inch in diameter sliver of their face. One of the women holds Asuka's left arm back, and knees her in her back a few times. Asuka can't fight back. Now it's 3-on-1, and there's no sign of the ref getting back up, no replacement ref running in, or anyone running in to fend these two off. So, now was A.J.'s chance.

The two assailants each step to one side of Asuka, and grab one of the Champion's arms, stretching her back while sitting on her legs. Asuka's as trapped as trapped gets by two human bodies. One of the women's barks down at Asuka, "No one is coming to save you."

They've since dragged Asuka to the far side of the ring. A.J. stands up, she charges Asuka who has nowhere to go. A.J. goes for her Shining Wizard.. She hits it. There's obviously some morality in the two attackers, they let go of Asuka's arms so that when A.J.'s knee connects, Asuka doesn't suffer would would've been serious whiplash if she was still restrained.

A.J.'s knee connects, Asuka falls hard on her face. Immediately, the two women run out of the ring and try to shake Danilo to wake him to count. It takes a few seconds, but the ref slides back into the ring. A.J.'s got a beaten-down Asuka pinned with both her legs in her arms. She hopes too much time didn't pass in between her perfect strike to Asuka's chin and Danilo sliding back.

Still dazed from the bump, Danilo takes much longer to count...

One............................................................................................................................................................................................ His arm moves so, agonizingly slowly.............. Two! ..............................................................

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............................................................................ He takes a breath.....................................................................................................................................................................................The crowd counts along.......................................................................................

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THREE! The bell rings.

"The winner of this match, A... J... Lee!" Justin Roberts announces.

"What the hell did we just see?!?!" Mauro calls. "A.J. wins, but in a very roundabout way!"

"Guys, there's no way A.J. planned this, right?!" Byron says.

"No way, Byron! A.J. is as shocked as anyone. Look! Whoever they are it's just two chicks trying to make a name for themselves." Renee says.

"Well that was absolutely not how you do it!" Byron responds.

The replays are shown for the at-home audience. First the hooded women charging the ring, them attacking Asuka, A.J's big Shining Wizard, and then hooking her legs for the three count.

"Watch.." As Mauro tries to help the audience understand, "I don't know who these two are. But they jumped the ring, and were savagely attacking on Asuka, ganging up on her as if she was a Montgomery River Dock Security Guard."

The two women have backpedaled halfway up the ramp. The ref never saw them, had no idea that A.J.'s win was tainted. Danilo raises A.J.'s hand, and A.J. looks over at them, with a look that clearly reads "who are you?"

The British crowd verbalizes A.J.'s sentiment as they chant "Who are ya'? Who are ya'? Who are ya'? Who are ya?'" at the two. A.J. stares down at a defeated Asuka, barely registering that she finally pinned Asuka again. Then she steps out of the ring.

She walks towards to two women that assisted her tonight. The closer she gets, the more it looks like she's gonna fight them as well. She can see their eyes, but their faces are still well-hidden in their overly-sized hoodies.

After just winning her match, A.J. looks ready to take on two more opponents, even putting her dukes up. She gets within a few feet of both and stares at each for a few seconds. While the unknown is intimidating, A.J. just realized that she's roughly the same height as one of them.. Meanwhile, the crowd gets a little more quiet to add to the tension...

After about 15 seconds, the two women, standing shoulder to shoulder, each take two steps to the opposite side, parting a path for A.J. to walk through. As A.J. gets within reach of the woman on her left, A.J. takes a slow step forward. Perhaps A.J. is just going to continue up the ramp?

As A.J. takes a second step forward, she reaches out her right arm, and in a flash, A.J. has stepped forward, turns around...... and... has her hand on the shoulder of one of the women. Then, A.J. lifts her left arm up, and stretches it around the neck of the woman on the right. The crowd makes a few "oohhhhhh" sounds, as it becomes clear--the crowd has been swerved.

A.J. now has her arms comfortably around the two assailants. This is definitely a "we cool," arm around shoulder gesture. A.J.'s head is down, and over the next few seconds, she picks up her head, and the confusion from earlier was gone. Replaced with an intense, Kubrick-ian stare into the camera. Then, the slyest of smiles overcomes A.J.'s face... The crowd has gone silent. They can see it on the jumbo-tron, and the viewers watching at home can too, this smile was.. villainous...

They're with her... She's with them. Just like the crowd, Renee and Bryon were also among the people swerved by A.J.'s pretend shock at their arrival...... A.J. wasn't *actually* surprised that she beat Asuka.. She knew this was coming..

Much of the crowd boos this seemingly new A.J.. Finally, each woman takes their hoods off to reveal themselves.........

...

The hoods drop, to the sound of more boos. Their faces are now on both the screens in the arena and everyone's televisions at home. On A.J.'s right, and the camera's left, is a woman with fair skin, and completely dyed-red hair. On the opposite side, is a woman who's about A.J.'s height, almost the same skin tone, just a tad darker skin than A.J.'s, and with straight black hair with the dyed-red tips...

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"WHAT?!?!" Mauro exclaims.. "THAT'S... ...THAT'S IVELISSE VELEZ AND ZELINA VEGA!" Mauro announces, to both the viewers and the commentary table. "What the hell are they doing in BCW?! And why the hell are they with A.J.?!"

"Mauro, I'm shocked, and disappointed to see A.J. have to call in help to beat Asuka." Renee says, taking a tone that allowed her to let the fan in her come out reacting to A.J.'s apparent heel turn.

"A.J. had us all fooled. We all, even myself, thought there was no way. NO WAY A.J. would stoop to this level." Byron says emphatically. "She might as well have written on her face, 'I can't beat you again, Asuka.'"

The three continue stand on the ramp, backing up a little bit, but A.J. keeping her arms around Zelina's and Ivelisse's shoulders.

"If you're familiar with our developmental show, UCW, Up-and-Coming Wrestling, you know Zelina from her work with Andrade "Cien" Almas. Showing at times, that she's as good of a coach, as masterful a strategist, as Mike Krzyzewski." Mauro says.

"...Or George "Punch" Imlach..." Renee adds, for all her fellow Torontonians watching.

"But I'm more surprised by Ivelisse." Byron adds, "From what I've heard about her--and maybe Renee, you can give us a different view--Behind the scenes.. she's not... again, just from word of mouth, not the easiest to get along with. And for someone as likeable as A.J. to enlist her.. I don't get it."

"No, I haven't met her either," Renee answers, "As a journalist, I try to stay away from delving into the whole backstage rumors stuff for the sake of a story, because it's so catty. I try not to judge people I'm covering until I've spoken with them. Ivelisse hasn't made a great first impression with Asuka, that's all I can say."

"I hear you, Byron." Mauro responds, "Sources say in other companies she's been in, Ivelisse is more disliked by her locker room-mates than Kyrie Irving!"

All three pause, A.J. clearly showing that she has new... allies? Making sure she gets one last look at Asuka tonight to relish in the fact that she got her tonight.

Asuka looks up, defeated, and out of breath. "This was an Emmy-worthy performance tonight." Mauro calls as the shot of A.J. zooms in. Those confused looks earlier, were all for show.

The other two women's faces turn a bit more menacing, but A.J. is grinning maliciously enough for all three of them. Keeping her right hand around Ivelisse, A.J. waves back at Asuka, and the three turn and walk up the ramp as the segment ends.

The trio walk together back up the ramp, through the stage, and back towards the concourse. They stop in the tunnel, at a spot where no one's walking by or listening. A.J. turns around and brings both women in for a hug.

"Girls. You are, officially.. BCW superstars." A.J. says into both their ears. "I'm gonna be saying this a lot tonight, but congrats on the debut."

Both girls nod. Then A.J. lets go and says, "Now, I believe we have some explaining to do."

It was true. The fans had gotten used to the plucky underdog, A.J. Lee, being a fan favorite. From Lita happily taking her under her wing, to A.J. happily taking Bayley under hers. Now the BCW fans just watched her beat the BCW Women's Champion via shenanigans.

They keep walking, stepping out of the tunnel, A.J. a step ahead of Zelina and Ivelisse, and predictably, BCW's camera crew, and, with Cathy Kelley having recently moved over to Raw, new interviewer Kayla Braxton, is there to get a word with A.J., and/or her new pals.

"Excuse me A.J.," Kayla requests their time and the three women pause. "I think everyone wants to know who these two are, and why they help-."

Zelina snatches the mic from Kayla. In her thick, Queens, New York accent, says, "Twenty-five years after the great Savio Vega.. No relation, though I wish we were related.. led a group named Los Boricuas. In that same vein, WE are, LAS Boricuas." Ivelisse unzips her hoodie, she proudly sports a white t-shirt with a vertical Puerto Rican flag on it.