Off the Top Rope

"That fucking prick." Valentina sighed under her breath as she approached the building indicated on her Google maps. "That stupid, idiotic, dumbass, fucking... cunt."

Valentina clutched her phone and the note as hard as she could without breaking them. It was lunchtime, she had to hastily get a friend to cover her shift at the hospital and drive to some run down back end of Jacksonville, all because of a note.

'Come to the following address, your husband has gotten himself in a world of trouble and will need you to bail him out.'

There was still a little bit of blood on the paper where it had once been wrapped around a tooth, knocked from its owner to show the notetaker meant business.

But Valentina wasn't mad at whoever had posted this note through her letterbox, she was mad at her husband Geoff and the endless ways he found to fuck up, and she was mad at herself and the endless ways she protected and enabled him.

She arrived at a big building in a run down industrial area, she knew she was at the right place because it was the only derelict building that had 2 security guards on the door. As she approached the huge men held their fingers to their ears, receiving instructions from an unseen watcher.

They didn't say a word, they just opened the door, letting Valentina see a long corridor leading past a ticket booth and down some stairs. There were no other ways to go so she proceeded down the path she had been bidden.

Valentina descended into the bowels of the building, the corridor zigging and zagging as it descended, before opening up into a huge underground sports arena. All around her were stands and chairs, enough capacity to hold a couple thousand people. And in the centre, a ring with a single chair, the bloodied husk of Geoff tied in place with arena lights on him for dramatic effect.

"Geoff!" Valentina screamed, rushing to the ring to untie him. Geoff looked up and tried to gurgle some words of warning but it was too late as some powerful people lept out from the shadows to hold her back. Then, on the stage, emerged a tall blonde woman with A-line cut hair, parted on the side in a way Valentina didn't think anyone did any more for fear of being labelled a Karen.

"Aww, honey. I'm sorry we had to shock you like this, but we have to have a little chat and we needed a bit of drama to keep you mindful of the stakes." The woman announced in a maliciously friendly southern drawl as she hopped out of the ring and took Valentina aside. With the help of her strong shadowy accomplices she led Valentina through a door marked 'staff only' and into an office squirrelled away backstage.

"What do you want?" Valentina asked dejectedly.

"Honey please, let's be civil about this and have introductions first. My name is Maribelle Sawyer, president, CEO, and all round girl in charge of TWW, that's the establishment you are currently situated in and the organisation your husband currently owes so much money to." Maribelle explained. While she had said she was making introductions, no space was given to Valentina to reply as the monologue continued.

"You see Mrs. Peck, I assume Y'all share a last name, your husband is quite the fan and we do appreciate his patronage. What we don't appreciate is him losing bets on matches with dough he don't have. Now he's in the hole to us for, and I'm rounding here because that's a perk of owning the betting shops, about $50k."

Valentina clasped her head in her hands, everyone told her Geoff was a fuck-up, she should have left him when he was fired for stealing sacks of oregano from his job at Olive Garden to sell to teens who couldn't tell it wasn't weed. Maybe the wake-up call should have been when he took her inheritance from her grandmother and invested it in a mobile hot tub business that immediately went bankrupt after the driver drowned on the I-95. But she had always stuck by him and now she was being asked to settle a gambling debt that was more than she earned in a year.

"He lost fifty grand betting on underground boxing?" Valentina exclaimed in shock.

"Oh dear, sorry, I forget a lot of outsiders haven't heard of TWW. TWW stands for Total Women's Wrestling. We're an underground pro-wrestling organisation." Maribelle corrected.

"Pro-wrestling? Is that the one that's fake?"

"We prefer scripted." Maribelle corrected.

"My husband lost fifty grand betting on an athletic soap opera? Betting in shops owned by the people who write the script?" Valentina processed.

"That's the long and short of it. I'm afraid your husband ain't exactly got a bright filament burning in that bulb of his." Maribelle joked while Valentina only felt more panic rising up in her. "Now we ain't monsters, in fact I reckon we're doing you a favour taking him off your hands and keeping him out of trouble until his debt is paid off, but if he can't pay off his bets, well... let's just say he has a lot of friends at the betting shop who know he's in a lot of debt and I don't want them thinking we're forgiving types."

"We have a rainy day fund but it's only a grand." Valentina replied.

"You wanna bet it?" Maribelle cheekily suggested, chuckling to herself. "Just joking. No, we think we could make something good out of this arrangement. Now Geoff knows how lucky he is to have you as Mrs. Peck. He told us all so much about you in his betting days, how you tried to make a go of acting before becoming a nurse, how you went to the state finals in gymnastics at high school. Then we saw some pictures of you on his phone, pictures he didn't share willingly but really should have password protected, and wowee you still have a hell of a body on you. How would you like to be a star?"

"What?" Valentina reacted in confusion.

"It's a pretty sweet deal for you. You start working for us, you're not going to get nasty debt collectors or aggressive demands, just a second job where you can perform and hang out with your husband, who will also be working for us, for... let's say a year to repay his debts." Maribelle offered.

Valentina began to panic, images of her husband tied to a seat in the ring flashed through her mind. Maribelle may have been acting friendly, but this was an order not a negotiation.

"So, do I..." Valentina began.

"Yeah, we got a boot camp for you to go through, starts in 20 minutes at our exclusive specialised gym down the road. Only three other girls taking part, ouch right? No wonder we have to get so icky to recruit. But your presence is expected. Sorry we haven't given you a lot of time to process but we figured you wouldn't want to waste time helping your husband out." Maribelle informed as she dragged Valentina out of the door.

Maribelle showed Valentina to her car, a jaguar with a custom bright pink paint job, that revved to life with perky pop music in the background.

"Now then honey, I'm going to drop you off with your new classmates. They're all good people who chose to do this, so I don't think you need to burden them with the circumstances of your recruitment." Maribelle resolved on Valentina's behalf.

"OK, I won't." Valentina agreed.

"You're a shy thing aren't you. I ain't got more than three or four words at a time out of you since we met. Don't worry, nothing helps find your voice more than simulated violence." Maribelle promised as they arrived at another dilapidated building down the road from the arena that had met in.

...

"Hey, babycakes. How's tricks?" Geoff asked, his wounds still fresh but healed enough that they were no longer sticky.

"You don't get to call me babycakes you degenerate fuck. You don't even get to call me Mrs. Peck any more. In fact when this is done you're changing your name to Mr. Ibarra." Valentina spat as she sat down next to Geoff backstage, the roar of the crowd filtering into the arena filling their ears. "Remember how I complained that my shifts left me with no free time? Well now I'm expected to train in wrestling moves and techniques for hours a day, so I can just say goodbye to any moment of peace I used to have. My new routine is spending my days hoping patients don't notice the bruises, the limping, or me napping in the observation rooms as that's now the only sleep I get."

"Well at least you made time for us." Geoff suggested.

"Wrong again, the motto of your life, I'm here tonight to watch the event so I can see and prepare for the bullshit I'm signed up for next week. I hope they have you cleaning the toilets or something worse." Valentina sneered.

"Janitorial stuff. Mostly cleaning up drunk puke." Geoff informed her.

"Well at least you're learning a trade. The only reason I'm sticking with you is that I'm hoping this is finally the wake-up call for you to stop being such a fuck-up. Because believe me, you are never going to hear the end of me paying off your stupidity." Valentina threatened before storming off.

To get a first hand view of the event itself, Valentina and her fellow wrestling students had been given black blazers with 'security' written on the back. If a fan jumped the barricade they had to grab them, and if the referee gave a secret signal they were to dramatically hold back a wrestler, otherwise they were to sit at ringside watching the matches.

TWW was early in its establishment, a regular weekly event like this only consisted of two singles matches, a tag team match, then a main event. Maribelle had said there were a couple wrestlers off with injuries and a couple more in the pipeline from other companies and in the training camp. She hoped that would eventually allow the ranks of TWW to swell enough to allow for bigger events and more than two titles (the tag team title and the world title).

Soon the house lights dimmed and the promos started. Valentina was shocked to see Maribelle featured in the clips from previous weeks, featuring as the big bad guy of the organisation (which Valentina had learned were called heels). She still had her southern charm and pink persona, but she amped up her tyranny over the organisation. A fan favourite (known as a face) called Five Star Faye was out injured this week after Valentina had a couple of wrestlers assault her with chairs while the referee's back was turned. But that wasn't the most shocking part of the promo.

"...but if I had to choose the highlight of the night." Maribelle dramatically announced at the camera backstage. "It's taking the TWW world champion and leaving her beaten, broken, and stripped naked for all to see."

The titantron flashed different highlights of the match for each of her vitriolic words, finally ending on a longer shot of an impressively toned woman lying naked and unconscious in the ring. There was no blurring or cover, the star of the show had been left stripped naked and uncensored as part of the act. The promo video then cut to her awkwardly getting up then embarrassingly running backstage out of the eyes of the crowd.

"So next month at TWW's Love Bomb Pay-Per-View, I think we should finally get that belt around the waist of someone who deserves it. The main event will be a strip and strap match, me and you, loser gets humiliated while the winner takes home the title." Maribelle announced, ending the promo to cheers from the audience. There was a moment of quiet followed by dark brooding music as the first wrestler made her way to the ring.

"Now entering the ring!" A smooth announcer began, startling Valentina as she had been so taken by the promo she had missed his appearance in the ring. "From Brasov Romania, weighing in at 130lbs, Ravensbane!"

A woman with black hair, pale skin, and draped in baggy black clothing slunk to the ring and took her place in the far corner, waving to the crowd who were booing her as a well established heel. Valentina had a moment to wonder if she would get cast as a heel or the more palatable face before Ravensbane's gothic music cut out. Next some exciting thumping music filled the arena as a new figure entered the ring.

"And her opponent, from Long Beach California, weighing in at 160lbs, Betty Bombastic!" The crowd went wild as a tall bleach blonde woman strutted to the wing waving. Valentina sat agog at the outfit she had chosen to wrestle in, a bright red, high waisted swimsuit with plunging straps to give extra cleavage. It looked like something someone would wear in the porn parody of Baywatch. Betty luxuriously slid into the ring and did a quick strut and pose for the fans before the bell rang and the commentators' voices erupted from the speakers.

The commentators were a pair of knowledgeable and excitable perverts called Max and Jax, who were apparently a moderately successful tag team at a much bigger wrestling company before they took the job with TWW. They were able to reach back months into the storylines of the respective wrestlers while also drawing appropriate attention to Betty's thighs as she lifted Ravensbane up for a powerbomb.

"Ravensbane and Betty Bombastic have been paired up tonight to warm up the crowd." Max commentated.

"Betty can warm me up any time." Jax added.

Valentina spent the fight watching the movements of the performers with newfound respect for the talent it took to pull off a professional looking match. As far she could tell Ravensbane was actually very agile, pulling off impressive acrobatics while her loose clothing made her movements more flowing and mysterious. Meanwhile, Betty Bombastic was stronger than she looked, working a lot of the catches and presses that allowed her to slow down the action so the crowd could cheer her holding poses.

After a match Valentina learned a lot from, it became clear they were heading for a conclusion. Betty raised Ravensbane up for her signature move, a modified electric chair drop known as a Betty Bomb. As Ravensbane was on her shoulders she reached down and pulled apart the straps on Betty's swimsuit, freeing her breasts for the whole crowd to see. Once Betty had a moment to sell her embarrassment, Ravensbane reached down, grabbed both of her nipples, and theatrically twisted them.

"Ravensbane has countered with the titty twister!" Max excitedly yelled as Betty dropped Ravensbane. She went to tuck herself breasts back in but Ravensbane quickly gave her a kick to the midsection and a DDT. Betty was left lying in the ring, with her tits out, as Ravensbane climbed to the top rope and did a senton bomb with a half twist that Jax excitedly announced was called a Death Knell Drop, Ravensbane's signature move. She covered Betty Bombastic for the three count then arose to the boos of the crowd as she celebrated her victory.

Once Ravensbane and Betty Bombastic had left the ring, a new promo was run on the screens, this time focussing on TWW's only two tag teams and the inevitable feud between them. Agents of Chaos were two large enforcers, Valentina recognised them as the two who had assaulted Five Star Faye in the previous promo. They were clearly the heels and often hid behind Maribelle's authority to get their way. The ongoing storyline being that Maribelle wanted them to win the tag team championship off the current champions, a pair of scrappy wrestlers with an urban aesthetic called North Shore Brawlers. The promo ended with Maribelle calling them out and threatening them with a special opponent tonight, before some high bass R&B music played, heralding their arrival.

"Now entering the ring, from Jacksonville Florida, weighing in at 135lbs, she is one half of the TWW tag team champions, the North Shore Brawlers. Rosa Lopez!" The announcer introduced as a woman with attitude to spare walked down the ramp, holding her hands out to high five the fans. She took off her championship belt which was almost totally obscuring her denim short shorts, and placed it to one side, adjusting the neon bra underneath her loose mesh shirt. Her music died out and some drawn out country music began playing.

"Oh I hope this isn't who I think it is." Jax cryptically asked as the announcer warmed up his vocal chords again.

"And her opponent, from Dallas Texas, weighing in at 240lbs, Megzilla!" Coming down the ramp was a woman Valentina couldn't help but feel a little sorry for. All her framing in the narrative was to hype up how big she was, but the woman entering the ring was more curvaceous than fat, most of her weight coming from her towering height. Nonetheless she played up to her role, wearing a black, single shoulder leotard like the largest of the wrestlers, she heaved herself over the top rope and into the ring.

The bell rang and once again the match got underway, with Rosa moving quickly to stay out of Megzillas grasp, focussing on landing quick hits rather than going for grapples. Rosa managed to duck under Megzilla's arms after a whip, jump off the middle rope and full body press the behemoth off her feet. She went for a pin and the referee got to a two count before she was surprisingly pulled out of the ring by Maribelle, who had appeared out of nowhere.

Maribelle argued with the referee at ringside, distracting the official so Agents of Chaos could sneak into the ring behind Rosa's back and slam a steel chair into the distracted wrestler. The moment Rosa hit the canvas, the two large besuited heels began tearing at her clothes, ripping off each and every piece she was wearing, waving them mockingly as the walked back up the ramp as Maribelle let the ref go back to the match.

The ref acted confused at Rosa's nudity, but didn't take any action while Max and Jax agreed, clothes or not, Rosa was still in a match and would have to continue. Once she had finished yelling at the Agents of Chaos, Rosa turned face first into the looming figure of Megzilla who grabbed the exposed wrestler and landed a powerful looking choke slam.

Megzilla let out a battle cry to the crowd, holding out her outstretched hand.

"And if the naked humiliation isn't bad enough, it looks like Megzilla's gearing up 5 of the Best." Max observed.

Megzilla picked up the limp Rosa and bent her over the knee. Valentina quickly learned that this was Megzilla's signature move, a public spanking that was extra painful and humiliating when done on a naked bottom. She raised her hand, then brought it down with a slap that reverberated around the arena.

Megzilla dramatically raised her hand again while Rosa ineffectively thrashed around. Another smack echoed over the audience's jeers as Rosa's bottom began to redden.

Valentina took a note of how well Megzilla was timing each spank, raising her hand up then holding it aloft just long enough for the dramatic tension to build to boiling point. As she raised her hand a final time for her fifth spank, Maribelle climbed up to the outside of the ring to gloat. The referee turned around to tell Maribelle to leave, and while she was distracted, Rosa's tag team partner, Vicky V, stormed down the ramp, delivering a drop kick to Megzilla and interrupting her final spank.

Megzilla fell back and the North Shore Brawlers pulled off their special move, the North Shore Slams, an incredibly well timed pair of flips off the top rope, demonstrating spectacular athleticism as Rosa's naked body flew through the air. She then laid on top of Megzilla while Vicky V dived out of the ring to take out Maribelle and direct the referees attention back to the ring for the three count.

The two teammates retreated back from the ring leaving Maribelle the scream after them until the house lights dimmed and an announcement played over the speakers that TTW would be back after an intermission.

Valentina took a deep breath, and then began walking round the venue with a singular angry purpose. She sniffed the air and honed in on the smell of cleaning products. Eventually she spotted Geoff mopping a spot of floor just outside the men's toilets where someone hadn't quite made it through the door before their beer had made an early bid for freedom. She didn't even break her stride as she grabbed him by the hair and dragged him into the women's toilets, as empty as she expected considering the makeup of the crowd and the content they were watching.