Match Type: Standard Tag
Victory Conditions: Victory by pinfall, submission, or knockout.
Victory Conditions: Victory by pinfall, submission, or knockout.
When Troy signed up with LAW, he made a few requests of management. Nothing too demanding, he felt. Reasonable requests.
Chief among them was that they wouldn’t involve Betsy and himself in anything too controversial. They were running with PATRIOT as their team name and going with an All-American theme, and he was cool with that, but he knew that his home country’s reputation throughout the world could change with the wind. He didn’t want this to be a political thing. Wrestling and politics didn’t mix well, in his experience. It was best when things were all about fun and competition. Keep it light.
And how did management respond to his request? ”Russians. We’re wrestling a pair of Russians.”
He delivered the news to Betsy has he made his way to the warm-up spot in the gorilla position, interrupting her while she was in the middle of some shadow boxing. He’d only just learned about it himself - management had wanted to keep their debut opponents a secret until the last second, but they couldn't keep the stagehands from talking. He’d overheard the names of their opponents, and it wasn’t hard to suss out their theme with a name like Imperial Russian Empire. Troy would say that was a bit on the nose, but it was hard to throw stones when your tag team was every American politician’s favorite word.
Betsy was about as bothered by the news as she was by anything - not much at all. She let it go with a shrug and went back to her shadow boxing, hopping from heel to heel and firing off a quick one-two. “Aaaaaaand what’s the problem with that?” One-two, one-two, one-two. She was nice and sharp today, good. ”It’s neat. Cold War stuff, Iron Curtain, Boris and Natasha.” She perked up when she saw Troy looking them up on his phone. ”Hey, what’re their names?”
”Natasha and-”
”Boris?”
Valentina.”
Betsy groaned and threw her hands up. ”Guh! Wasted opportunity. Wasted.” There was some strange, legit disappointment there that Troy didn’t get, and she seemed to pick up on it from his quizzical, raised eyebrow. ”What? Boris and Natasha.” She leaned forward and blinked. “”You know. From Rocky and Bullwinkle.”
”Never saw that cartoon.”
From the way Betsy jerked back and the shocked look on her face, you’d have thought he insulted her mother. She shook it off after a moment and straight up, hands up on hips. ”Well, I know what we’re doing tonight. No sex until we watch the whole Rocky and Bullwinkle movie.”
Troy had some strong objections to that and he was about to raise them when one of the stagehands came over and gave them the single. Their match was about to start up and he could already hear their theme music beginning to boom. ”Just…just put a pin in that.” He stuffed his phone away and rubbed his temples. ”Focus. Focus.”
'
PATRIOT
I’m Afraid Of Americans
Johnny’s In America, no tricks at the wheel
No one needs anyone, they don’t even just pretend…”
By the time he and Betsy had made it halfway down the ramp, he’d done a decent job of blanking it from his memory, letting himself fixate on the crowd cheering around them. The LAW crowd was lively, one of the bigger and more diverse ones he’d performed in front of, and they were eager to see newcomers. Either that or they just really like the way his wife looked in that outfit. Could’ve been both, but he liked to think it was more of the former.
Betsy was giving them quite a show, too, bouncing down the ramp and throwing her arms about in time to the music, getting into it with her usual flair. He followed along behind with slow steps, just letting her do her thing. Silly as it was, it was how she got hyped up for a match, and the best thing he could do was let her be herself.
I’m afraid of Americans!
Yeah, I’m afraid of the world
I’m afraid I can’t help it!
Yeah, I’m afraid I can’t, I’m afraid I can’t…”
She slid in under the bottom rope while he walked up the steps proper, coming up on the apron and yanking himself over the top with a powerful leap. Arms folded, he made his way to the middle of the ring and stood proud while she threw her fists up in front of him, egging the crowd on and letting out some of her infectious energy.
Troy was trying to keep a straight face, wanting to milk the stoicism and stay imposing, but even he couldn't help but smirk. Judging by the crowd’s reaction, they’d made a strong first impression, so that was one check off the list. Now, they just had to follow through.
