Off the Top Rope

"You're not meant to be fully stripped this early in the fight." Bara replied, her composure unshaken by Valentina's improv.

"It'll make it more suspenseful." Valentina explained.

"Alright." Bara sighed, standing up again and pulling at Valentina's bra until it popped open and released her breasts. Valentina screamed in embarrassment as Bara moved down to her knickers and pulled them down her legs.

As Bara No Toge bragged to the crowd, brandishing Valentina's underwear, Valentina stood up, and all of a sudden was faced with thousands of people staring at her naked body. This was not like the background roar of the first time she got naked, this time she could take in every pair of eyes and smirking face beholding her in her nudity. She remembered the sight she would see in the mirror and now imagined that body presented for a crowd to cheer for.

After a moment to allow everyone to take it in, Valentina dramatically screamed and dived out of the ring, sliding underneath it to hide from staring eyes.

"Does that mean I win?" Bara No Toge asked the referee loud enough for the crowd to hear.

"You still need to pin her." The referee informed. Bara rolled her eyes and jumped out of the ring to finish the hunt for her prey. She lifted up the skirt on the side of the ring and was immediately hit by a kendo stick, one of the many weapons kept under the ring for hardcore matches. She staggered for a moment then Valentina hit her again, taking her off her feet to the floor.

As Bara lay dazed, Valentina pulled off her long pink boots and had begun to tug at her crossover top when Bara began to fight back. They went blow for blow for a bit before Valentina was knocked back against the ring, where she was able to get her hand on a bin lid and slam it across Bara's head.

Bara stayed on her feet so Valentina could pick up the bin and place it over her, plunging Bara into darkness before sweeping her legs so she fell backwards.

Valentina climbed up the corner of the ring, getting to the top rope and feeling a sudden rush of just how high up she was. She gave herself a moment to take in the feeling of standing so high, so exposed to the ever present crowd but at the same time powerful. She wanted to stay there forever, but the referee was impatiently waiting for Valentina's signal she was about to jump so she could surreptitiously squeeze Bara's leg to tell her to brace for impact.

The feeling of flying through mid air, totally untethered to the world, not even constricting or flapping clothes to bother you, was one of the most exhilarating feelings of Valentina's life. For the moment she was held aloft only by the ecstatic cheers of the crowd, before she came crashing down on Bara No Toge.

Valentina pulled the dented bin off Bara, then got to work stripping the dazed wrestler. First she pulled off her top, the audience cheering at her small perky breasts bouncing out, then she grabbed her wrestling shorts and pulled them down and off, leaving her and her opponent both naked. She hooked the leg, offering a great view to Max, Jax, and anyone stood behind them in the crowd, before pressing her body against Bara's for the pin. To Valentina's feigned dismay, her opponent kicked out after a 2 count.

"I could have sworn Dr. Vasquez was about to pull off a shock victory." Max acknowledged.

"I could have sworn my pants were looser at the start of this match." Jax quipped in response.

Valentina and Bara No Toge both knew what was meant to happen next, they were meant to fight their way back up the ramp and backstage where a table of medical equipment had been set up for the finale, but thinking back over the layout of the building, Valentina had a better idea.

"You want to fight through the crowd to get backstage?" Valentina asked Bara No Toge, collapsed next to her.

"Let me throw you over the barricade to show you why that's a bad idea." Bara replied. Valentina stood up and pulled Bara to her feet. She whipped her opponent towards the barricade and with practised familiarity felt the whip reversed so she could fling herself into the crowd.

Valentina immediately knew why Bara didn't want to go through the crowd. Valentina thought it would be fun to give some people a closer view of the action. She didn't realise that now clear of the barrier people were free to touch her and they certainly took the opportunity. Hands swarmed over her body, caressing and grabbing her, some even probing, trying to get inside of her. She stood up and the crowd almost didn't let her go as she climbed over the barricade and felt a few goodbye swats on her bottom.

"Still want to go through the crowd?" Bara joked as she speared Valentina to the floor. Bara looked into Valentina's eyes and saw a mania that suggested she shouldn't wait for a response. "Well I don't, so let's go up the ramp."

It was a surreal experience going blow for blow up the ramp while their naked doppelgangers on the big screen dominated their peripheral vision. Valentina hadn't realised how much her breasts distractingly bounced with every hit and sell outside a sports bra. Soon they were backstage and zeroed in on the prop table that had been set up for the finale.

Bara knocked Valentina back against the table, then charged at her. Valentina ducked down and flipped Bara over her head, bringing her crashing down through the table. Bara writhed and screamed as Valentina snuck a prop scalpel onto her bottom when the camera was distracted.

"Shit, you have a scalpel in your ass. You need to get it removed." Valentina panicked. Bara No Toge turned around and started screaming at her apparent shanking.

"The match is still going." The referee reminded.

"Fuck's sake, I forfeit, whatever, just get this scalpel out of me." Bara No Toge yelled, tapping out on the hard backstage floor..

The bell back in the ring dinged, and as Valentina tried to minister to her patient, Dr. Michaels emerged from the office to insist on taking over so Maribelle could force Valentina back towards the ring.

Valentina found herself once again facing the crowd completely naked, only this time being handed a championship belt and told to wave for the baying crowd.

"Ladies and gentlemen, your winner, and the new TWW Paranoia Champion. Dr. Vasquez!" Beamed the announcer. Valentina held her new title aloft and drank in the crowd's adulation before heading back up the ramp to clear the way for the next match.

As she passed the threshold out of the crowd view, she saw Geoff and for the first time since this whole debacle started, she saw the guilt on his face.

"Babyc... Valentina, I'm so sorry. Seeing everyone up in your business like that... That's not cool." He stuttered.

"Oh, turns out it's a flare up of jealousy that you need to realise the shit you landed me in." Valentina spat, "Well get used to it, babycakes, my body belongs to the crowd until I've finished paying off your debt."

Valentina actually felt a pang of sadistic pride that Geoff was finally feeling remorse for his actions, she walked on with her head held high and a little extra wiggle on her bottom.

...

Maribelle was flowing with praise as the wrestlers met back in the locker room after Love Bomb, a thoroughly successful Pay-Per-View in her eyes. Her will was not even shaken by being stripped naked and strapped to a St. Andrews Cross moments earlier, the show ending with the cross rising and rotating so everyone could get a good look at the TWW owner's humiliation.

"So we need to keep this momentum going and start planning for our next Per-Per-View, which is Naked Ambition in a month and a half. There's only so long we can stretch my beef with Faye now she's humiliated me, so we're going to move on to Megzilla as the new primary heel, feeling she deserves to be champion after her victory over Grimhammer. We're going to develop Ravensbane and Betty Bombastic into a tag team. After her loss we'll keep Ravensbane's makeup and pale skin, but have her in a variety matching bikinis with Betty for the next month as they work their way up to challenge the Agents of Chaos for the tag title. Sister Judith is going to convert Vicky V to fundamentalist christianity and drive apart the North Shore Brawlers for a bit before a dramatic return. Deb will beef with Pearl for the newcomers title while El Águila will be going all in on a rivalry with Louise." Maribelle explained, conspicuously leaving out Valentina's fate.

Once the ins and outs were sorted, Maribelle took Valentina to one side.

"Bara No Toge tells me it was your idea to be stripped that early." She quietly stated. "And you wanted to go through the crowd, is everything OK?"

"It's fine, I've found a way to cope and that is to commit." Valentina stated certainly.

"Alright, I'm here if you need me." Maribelle replied.

"Actually," Valentina interjected as Maribelle started to walk away. "I've had some ideas of how my character could grow. I think you'll like them."

"After the party," Valentina sighed. "Thinking about the future of your character makes me want to drink."

...

Valentina was pleasantly surprised by the aftershow party Maribelle put on for her wrestlers. Once the arena had been closed down and all the fans had left, the VIP bar was opened up for the stars, with buffet tables full of an indulgent selection of food. Ms. Maxwell was actually a very skilled bartender, whipping up some exotic cocktails for each of the girls. She even made some impressive mocktails for Betty and Ravensbane who didn't drink, one due to a history of addiction and the other in support of her partner, both tight-lipped about which was which.

Valentina once again circulated with her new colleagues, eager to build some strong working relationships if she wanted her time at TWW to be smooth. Bara No Toge was already telling everyone that Valentina was a bit crazier than average, but in a positive way.

As parties do, the excitement fizzled and the already fatigued and in pain wrestlers found themselves heading home for some well earned rest. Valentina hung back until it was just her and Maribelle to have a serious discussion while both drunker than was pragmatic.

"Alright honey, pour us a night cap and let me give you some context on your position with TWW before you tell me your ideas." Maribelle began, sitting at the bar as Valentina poured out a couple of glasses of scotch. "So this all goes back to the founding and ownership of TWW. I was the woman with the plan. The company I was wrestling with at the time called their female wrestlers divas, the special move of the women's champion was the bitch slap. We had to work hard just for them to appreciate our athleticism and choreography and even then they didn't allow us to do the hardcore and extreme stuff the men were doing week in week out. We felt like second class citizens, so I had always dreamed of opening up my own more extreme and gritty female wrestling company."

Maribelle drained her glass at the memory of her past idealism.

"I got two investors on board, we negotiated that I would own 40% of the company, they would own 30% each. I didn't care that they were a bit crooked, nobody legit was willing to put in the money. I didn't care that they wanted more casual nudity, I figured torn up clothes could be a side effect of the more rigorously violent encounters. But I didn't realise just how much those two would work together to fuck up my life. We secured this location, a smattering of stars willing to give us a shot, and suddenly my silent partners become a whole fucking lot less silent."

"Suddenly I'm being outvoted by two guys who turned my dream into a den of organised crime and pornography. Taking bets was their idea, as was choosing fight results almost entirely based on what would be the most profitable at the bookies. The talent were already pissed off with the constant dressing room visits, drug peddling, and sexual harassment, but after one of our founding members almost OD'd in the ring with the shit they had her on, I managed to corral some big stars and broker an agreement that all talent liaison went through me. Now at the moment, with just ticket prices and subscriptions, we aren't profitable, so they didn't mind me taking care of the day to day operations. But they still pull the strings on the outcomes of fights in exchange for the flow of investment coming from the betting. However they didn't like me strong arming them, so they decided to get some payback. You were their revenge on me."

"I remember it so clearly, they had your husband beaten up, then called me in. I walked in to see him as the centrepiece of my arena just like you did. Their bloody business desecrating the very ring I wanted to build my dreams from. Then they acted all smug about how they were about to recruit you but remembered they couldn't engage with the talent directly. They told me I either had to be the one blackmailing you to join this world, or I had to rip up the agreement I made with them to keep all my wrestlers safe. I am so sorry that I bought everyone's safety with yours. A sociopath would make that call every day of the week and not blink an eye, but I stay up most nights wondering when I became so compromised."

Maribelle stared into her empty glass, Valentina didn't know what to say except to pour her another one.

"This is an ongoing arrangement, they know you're the one to get to me through, any ideas you have that are pleasant probably won't last long." Maribelle explained as she once again drowned her scotch.

"Then you're actually going to like what I have to say." Valentina countered. "I can't pretend to be amateur forever, at some point I have to settle into a persona."

"True, they want to keep you as Paranoia Champion for a while." Maribelle agreed. "They were thinking of subjecting you to a lot of stuff and have your character gradually have a mental breakdown."

"You know the audience will find that depressing."

"Not the sadists, which is who we mainly cater for these days." Maribelle sniffed.

"But if we want mass appeal, then why not have me turn into a heel? Let me start having a combination of narcissism and paranoia. I walked into wrestling with no experience and now I think I'm just naturally talented at everything I do. Then every time something goes wrong I can blame whatever conspiracy or scapegoat I can and gradually get more and more unhinged." Valentina explained.

"You'd be OK with that?" Maribelle replied.

"Yeah, I've basically been a working mother for a manchild for the past decade. I'm sick of being the sensible caring type at every turn. I have never felt the way I did soaring naked from the top rope in front of thousands of people. The way I see it I have one year to experiment with my personality and exhilaratingly unique experiences before I can return to my old life, so I might as well take the most extreme path." Valentina explained.

"Easy to tell me while in a drunken stupor. Much harder to follow through on in the cold light of day. Plus what makes you think they'll let you go after a year?" Maribelle asked.

"I've got a plan for that too. But for now, I want to see how far I can push myself. Hell this is great news for you as I can pretend you are strong-arming me into all these situations and you can look like you're playing ball with these dickhead partners of yours. I'd love to do my part to keep my colleagues safe." Valentina explained.

"In which case, you should probably know who my not so silent partners are so you don't look too happy around them. It's Max and Jax, the commentators." Maribelle revealed.

...

The next day Maribelle needed some gentle reminders that she didn't dream the conversation she had previously had with Valentina.

"This is actually the nicest hangover I've ever had, last night I got a restful sleep for the first time in I don't know how long." Maribelle gushed to Valentina in the corner of a sparsely populated gym while most of the wrestlers were still at home recovering.

"So what does the 60% have planned for me?" Valentina asked.

"Well, they want to film a series of spots where different wrestlers attack you while you live day to day. They figure they can release them gradually over the month and it will be a good way to keep you churning out content even if you run or get injured. So we were going to have Megzilla attack you in the showers, Agents of Chaos both attack you in the street so you only get away because they argue about who gets to pin you once they've stripped you down, couple other ones that are convoluted enough to keep things fun, the main pattern being stripping you in embarrassing places."

Valentina thought back to the look on Geoff's face after Love Bomb and had one last idea for a spot recording to be used for her character.

...

"Listen Maribelle, you gotta let it go, we don't think any less of you just because you've never won a title." Ms. Walters pattered as the Agents of Chaos loomed over Maribelle.

"You're the owner, nobody cares that you can't win a title bout." Ms. Maxwell added.

"Yeah, what would you even gain from a title belt?" Ms. Walters continued to pile on.

"Respect, fear, a formidable reputation as someone not to fuck with, those things aren't..." Ms. Maxwell began before being interrupted by Maribelle angrily storming out with the camera in hot pursuit.

"You seen Dr. Vasquez?" She yelled at Jax in passing.

"Last I saw she was discussing her new entrance routine with Enrique so he could time his announcements accordingly." Jax informed.

"Where?" Maribelle's demanded.

"They were heading towards the VIP lounge." Jax replied, rerouting Maribelle down the familiar hallways.

"That amateur, I'm going to strip her down, pound her into the ground, and finally get a title belt like I deserve." Maribelle expositioned as she strode through the corridor before barging down the door to the VIP lounge.

Maribelle froze in shock, giving the camera enough time to turn the corner and get a clear view of Valentina, naked, straddling the announcer, and bouncing up and down while moaning in ecstasy. The camera stayed focussed on her blissful lovemaking, Valentina feigning that she was so into the deep fucking she was getting that she didn't notice the camera crew busting in.

"Guess that makes my job easier." Maribelle quipped before grabbing Valentina by her hair and dragging her off the announcer. She threw Valentina onto the floor and they thrashed around for a bit as Maribelle tried to get in some hits. They tossed and turned until Valentina got the upper hand.

Then, in something that looked like clumsy wild flailing but was actually carefully choreographed messy fighting, Valentina climbed on top of Maribelle, her pussy inches from Maribelle's face.

"Ew, gross, get off, I give up just stop it, it smells like Enrique." Maribelle screamed in a panic. Valentina rolled off Maribelle and fled out of the door leaving Maribelle and Enrique awkwardly alone together.

"So... how's your husband?" Maribelle eventually asked.

...

The moment the cameraman yelled cut Valentina returned wearing a dressing gown, laughing her head off at what they had just shot.

"Just when I think Geoff couldn't have been less deserving of you, I see how well you fake orgasms." Maribelle quipped. "Thanks for agreeing to help with this, Enrique. You are the only man in this entire company I can trust."

"Just make sure my husband knows it's not real." The announcer replied.

"My husband doesn't need to know that." Valentina added, "In fact, make sure he's watching when we screen it."

...

Valentina felt more nervous about today's performance than any before it. Over the last fortnight she had shown a couple of the spots they had filmed out and about, and made sure to make it look like she was under constant attack. But today Valentina had a speech planned that would establish her as a heel, the bad guy that the audience was meant to root against.