”Yeah, we’re gonna kick your asses! Because we’re awesome! Got it?”
Name: Mai Shinoda
Age: 18
Hair: Brown
Eyes: Brown
Height: 5'6
Weight: 135 lbs.
Hometown: Tokyo, Japan
Alignment: Face
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Appearance:
Ring Gear
Casual
Swimwear
Messing around at work
’You can at least get my good side!’
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History: When Mai was very young, her parents divorced when her father was unable to accommodate her mother’s worsening gambling addiction. As such, she grew up raised by a single dad, and although he didn’t have a lot at his disposal, he cared the world for his daughter and wanted to do what was right for her. He was also a big fan of sports, and when Mai was growing up in that environment, it was only natural that she would become dedicated to athletics at a young age.
As a child, Mai was always “one of the boys,” hanging out with and playing with the boys in her class. She shared most of their interests and related to them more than many of the girls, so she never thought twice about it. Because her father had to work long hours to support himself and his daughter, she spent most of her time around her peers, which only shaped her desires more. She quickly determined that she wanted to be the best athlete she could be, throwing herself into such pursuits even if it was at the expense of her studies. That didn’t matter to her - training herself to the peak of her physical potential felt satisfying, putting forth a good effort made her feel strong and capable, and she just found it fun. Seeing this as proof she was on the right path, Mai decided to stick with it.
Along the way, though, Mai met a particular classmate who would become a close friend of hers - Saya Matou. Although the two barely seemed to have anything in common, they were both popular, Mai for her athletic achievements and Saya for her looks, which meant they tended to hang around the same circles. Mai would soon find out that Saya and her siblings were dealing with the aftershocks of their parents getting a divorce after their mother found out her husband had been cheating on her with another woman. As a fellow child of a single parent, Mai could relate to Saya, and she provided her friend with emotional support in what was a trying time for her family.
Mai developed a reputation for flitting in between clubs, looking to try out new experiences, only to change her mind soon after when she wanted something different. She performed well in track and field and swimming, but it seemed like something finally clicked for her when she joined the school’s keijo team. It wasn’t the most popular of pursuits, since many of the girls found the thought embarrassing, but Mai had no such qualms. For her, keijo was just another competition - and the fact she was proud of her butt didn’t hurt. When she found out that Saya’s mother Yuna had been a star player on her school’s keijo team in her youth, Mai would encourage her to follow suit (the fact that her butt was big enough to offer a strategic advantage, didn’t hurt). As it turned out, Mai and Saya had natural chemistry and worked well as a team. They became top competitors in extramural tournaments, and that success would allow Mai to claim the position of team captain.
However, Mai wouldn’t be content with stopping there. In the meantime, Yuna had become a professional wrestler and cemented herself as one of LAW’s most talked-about stars, and Saya’s older sister Shizuka would later join the Young Lioness Program. If the Matou family was that gifted in wrestling, Mai saw that as Saya’s destiny - and as another field that she herself could conquer the competition in. She and Saya, and their other teammate Naomi, would start training in wrestling and join LAW as the tag team Zero Team X (a name Mai came up with purely because it sounded cool). Now, they were going to prove they’d dominate any competition they would step up to!
Personality: Mai is a very spirited girl who never seems to run out of energy. In fact, few but her closest friends can tolerate her for very long, considering she never shuts up. She has a determined spirit and always strives for success - which is complicated by her over-inflated ego, as she likes to think of herself as the strongest, coolest, and sexiest woman in the room, even when she’s next to people more experienced and accomplished than she is. In particular, she’s somewhat vain about her appearance, but not enough to get petty about it; she’s more the type to build herself up than tearing others down. However, she’s also pretty scatterbrained and rarely thinks things through, expecting herself to just be good enough to handle things on the fly. As a team captain, she’s fiercely devoted to her friends, who she sees more as sisters than anything else, and will do anything to stand up for them. Lastly, she’s a joker who can find just about anything hilarious and enjoys poking fun at people, even to the point of playing pranks on them.
Trivia:
- Mai has terrible luck with relationships. She’s a bit boy-crazy (though not opposed to dating other girls), but for whatever reason her relationships tend to fall apart within a couple of months no matter how hard she tries. She never gets used to rejection, no matter how many times it’s happened.
- She likes spicy food, especially curry. It upsets her stomach, but she thinks it’s worth it.
- Mai’s father is very proud of her and often shows up to her events to cheer her on.
- Has a kitten named ‘Zebulon, Lord of the Underworld.’
- She’s prone to making really stupid bets, and can turn pretty much everything into a competition. Usually this involves some sort of humiliating punishment for the loser.
- Mai works as a waitress in her spare time.
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Fighting Style: While wrestling is something new to Mai, she’s pretty well-rounded in the basics. She has a lot of endurance, owing to her background in sports and her own inherent energy, which means that she can take plenty of damage and keep on going. On the flip side, she can also dish out a lot of offense before she gets tired, and leverages this into her tactics, swarming her opponents with a flurry of quick strikes. She’s primarily a striker, and, owing to her background in keijo, isn’t afraid to use every part of her body to drive her momentum forward. But she isn’t much of a tactician and usually has to improvise, which doesn’t always work out well for her.
Favored Match Types: Mai isn’t too picky about what kinds of matches she competes in - she just wants to carve out a niche for herself in the competition, and she wants to expand her horizons. That being said, she is new to the wrestling world and the thought of hardcore wrestling intimidates her, not that she would ever admit that. Still, she’s willing to try anything. Owing to her habit of making bets, she has an interest in Queens’ Matches and other stipulations involving some sort of punishment for the loser. She’s willing to compete either alone or in any combination with Saya and Naomi.
Signature Moves:
Running Hip Attack
Tactical Sexy Maneuver
A “move” where Mai tries to distract her opponent by posing seductively, either to catch them off guard or to set up a move from one of her teammates.
Scissors Kick
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Friends:
- Saya Matou is Mai’s ”bestest friend ever forever!”, in her own words. They work closely together both as teammates and as friends, and they’re always out to support one another.
- Naomi Nakatani is Mai’s other teammate. She considers her a close friend, even if she can be abrasive at times, and respects her just as much as she respects Saya. Even if Naomi has little tolerance for Mai’s antics, she can’t deny that she’s her friend, and a capable athlete for all her flaws, at the end of the day.