New Recruits

Chapter 43

A couple of straightforward victories over women had established Tessa Blanchard as someone not to be fucked with in the ring, not that anyone had probably thought she was going to be a jobber. Nonetheless, her dominance had needed to be established for the audience.

Now that task had been accomplished, it was time to move on to the next stage of the plan: introducing the idea of Tessa wrestling men.

"What do you think of it?" Mandy asked Tessa, who had just told her and Sonya what the deal was going to be on that night's Smackdown episode.

"I think it's quite good. I like it. What about you guys?"

"I like it too. I think it makes sense," Sonya said. "Just ready yourself for a mixed reaction online. Some people hate intergender wrestling."

"Snowflakes. Fuck them," Tessa said dismissively. "I've had people talking me down and bitching about me ever since I started fighting professionally. It's not going to start bothering me now."

"Good to hear," Mandy said with a smile. They were sitting in catering, so she leaned forward and lowered her voice a bit before adding: "Just don't be so vocal about it around anyone higher up. They wouldn't like the fans being spoken about like that."

Tessa nodded. "Understood. I wasn't thinking of saying anything to anyone. I don't even use social media much anyway. It's toxic and it gets on my nerves. As far as WWE is concerned, I'm not going to be rocking the boat any time soon. I've just joined, and they've given me something unique and exciting. No amount of complaining is going to drag me down."

"Well said," Sonya opined, nodding approvingly. "Personally, I think it's going to be badass, seeing you stand toe to toe with the guys."

"I wonder if they'll see it that way?" Mandy speculated through a mouthful of food.

Tessa looked at her. "You think some of the guys might object to working with a woman? I have been thinking about that."

"Some might. Most of them will be fine with it, I'm sure. But there might be some who have the 'I'm not putting a woman over' attitude."

A grunt showed what Tessa thought of that. "Well, it's lucky they don't make the decisions then, isn't it?"

A shot of the Smackdown commentary team greeted the viewers when they returned from commercial for the second segment of the show. Michael Cole reminded fans of a recent injury to Shinsuke Nakamura, which had forced him to relinquish the Intercontinental Championship.

"To address this situation, we're going to take you backstage to Smackdown General Manager, Stephanie McMahon," Corey Graves said.

A shot of Stephanie appeared on the screen, greeted with the predictable boos. She was standing in a hallway, with a clipboard in her hand. She began by recounting the Nakamura injury situation again, before moving on to what was going to be done about it.

"Out of misfortune comes opportunity. Under my management, Smackdown has been about equal opportunities for all," she lied. "That's why I am announcing a tournament for the vacant Intercontinental Championship. Sixteen people will enter, with the first round matches starting tonight. The semi finals and finals will take place at Money in the Bank. Entry is open to anyone on the Smackdown roster. All they have to do is fill in their names on this form to enter." She held up the clipboard, and hung it on a hook that was sticking out of the hallway wall. "There are sixteen places. Once the sign up sheet is full, it's full. So, I advise those who are interested not to take long in putting their names down."

With that, Stephanie walked away. The camera shot panned around to show the clipboard, with the sixteen blank spaces on it. Stephanie had left a pen shoved through the fastener at the top of the board.