Press Conference - Ilaria Santarossa and Tsubasa Oribe

[winner3]

Placeholder, will add promotional poster in the next few days

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"Attention: Tsubasa Oribe is now entering

One of the staff called out a notice to the media members in attendance to get their cameras and questions ready, as the presser was about to begin. It also served as a cue for Tsubasa herself, who once the media was ready, entered into the room. She raised her hand high into the air and waved with a picture perfect smile on her face as confidently strode to her seat at the table.

"Hi everybody!" Tsubasa called out to the room once she was seated and in front of the microphones. She knew from feel that her image was perfect, and a quick glance down to check confirmed it. Her slight lean, not hunch, forward positioning her eye popping chest over the top of the table to rest down on her arm to prop it up. And her drink positioned precisely with the brand logo on the label facing out towards the crowd. The logo of her first of now many sponsors actually.

Professional, picturesque performance was nothing new to Tsubasa at this point. A year ago maybe, when she was as new to being an idol as she was now to wrestling, she would have struggled. But that year of immense success for Tsubasa as an idol would never have occurred if something as simple as an entrance still threw the young woman off her game.

And with sustained success came new opportunities to in turn create more success from. And Tsubasa now stood at the very beginning of one of those new opportunities as a pro wrestler. But the bluenette had no intention of being a dime a dozen jobber idol, who wrestled as a desperate plea for relevancy. Tsubasa was going to use LAW to carry her from the peak she stood upon now to the next one, standing even higher. But to that, she had to be something in LAW. And the first step to that, was nailing anything that she could use her idol skills for.

But there was another reason Tsubasa wanted to make her debut into the wrestling world as perfect as possible. A reason more personal. LAW had disrespected her. They did see Tsubasa as another idol jobber who'd look sexy while the "real" fighters squashed them. That was shown in how her debut was booked and promoted. Her opponent, Ilrasa Santarossa, was also a rookie. Neither had debuted when the match was announced, but it was still marketed as a preview to the "Future of LAW." But while Tsubasa was treated merely as the league's next big name, Ilrasa was pushed as the newest great contender. The trailers did a poor job hiding that Tsubasa was expected to get rolled by Ilrasa.

But LAW had made one error in how they handled this match. They allowed Ilrasa to debut before the PPV, but after the match was already booked. The Italian had fought twice already, and she was 0-2. And it was an UGLY 0-2. Destroyed twice. It was clear by now that LAW had bet on the wrong horse with Ilrasa, and at this point they could only pray that Tsubasa was even worse so that their once golden goose could win and salvage some of her hype.

But Tsubasa had no intention of giving LAW what they wanted. She knew Ilrasa was weak. Weaker than herself. Tsubasa would sweep Ilrasa in three rounds, and look amazing doing it. On one of LAW's biggest stages, she would steal the Italian's shooting star for herself, leaving Ilrasa sputter for air beneath her butt. Tsubasa held no ill will for Ilrasa, far from it. The poor girl had unmeetable expectations forced upon her by the error of others. But that just wasn't Tsubasa's problem. That was fielding questions once Ilrasa made her entrance.

[ThatPolishDude]

Ilaria paced back and forth backstage, she was nervous, nobody asked her about the trailer and all the marketing around her fight, and after her first two fights, it certainly did not look like she could deliver. And of course, she would have to answer all kinds of questions now and stand before her new opponent. That was a lot and it was showing as the girl was stressing out quite a bit.

"Hey, it's all good. Fans love you, and will love you no matter how it or the fight goes." Akiko's voice snapped her out of the spiral of thought she had been trapped in, thank god LAW allowed her to bring her and Kenshin along. "But, you saw the trailers and my fights. There is no way I can do it." Ilaria replied still nervous. "You don't have to do anything, it's a problem for marketing, not for you. Fans will love it, however, it goes." Akiko reassured her, putting a hand on Ilaria's shoulder before drawing her in for a hug. "Ok, I trust you, but you will have to let me go, they can call me in any moment now" Ilaria replied and squirmed out of the hug that the other girl was not letting up, soon they were both grinding but they couldn't talk much longer as Ilaria was called for.

"Attention, Ilaria Santarosa will be entering now"

The announcer's voice sounded out before Ilaria skipped out onto the stage and jumped up waving to the press and other people gathered around "Hi!!" She beamed with excitement, in truth half of it was still anxiety but she felt better after her talk with Akiko and cameras made her pull the cheery facade even further.

She quickly made her way to the seat prepared for her and sat down, she didn't much care for passing but still with her innate gracefulness struck quite a nice pose as a series of flashes from gathered photographers were sure to inform her of. She then looked at Tsubasa and waved to her with a wide, friendly smile on her face

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Tsubasa kept her eye on Ilrasa has she made her own entrance. For someone who probably wasn't putting much conscious thought into her walk, the Italian woman still had a rather graceful air about her. Once she was seated Ilrasa gave the idol a smile and wave, which Tsubasa gladly returned to her future opponent. This smile was genuine, she didn't to call upon her acting skills to give a good smile here.

We will now open the floor for questions.

"Tsubasa, Tsubasa!" the idols eyes sharpened on the reporter who had gotten her word in first. It looked like she'd get the first question. "You're on record saying that you won't be 'just another idol jobber wrestler.' What's going to set you apart in the ring compared to other idols who have gone down this path?" An understandable question, and one that Tsubasa had the answer to. "That would be because of why I became a wrestler on top of an idol. No offense to anyone who's done this, the world of idols is cutthroat, but many idols who become wrestlers do so in an attempt to salvage a flagging career. Throwing up a prayer and hoping, as it were. But I don't need wrestling for relevancy. My idol career is fine. I'm only doing this because I know I'll be good at it. I have training and experience in fighting from my youth, and I actually enjoy it. So I expect to see more success than most other idol wrestlers."

"Speaking of your in ring performance, said another reporter, picking the perfect time to cut in. How do you expect your debut to go?" "Firstly, I expect to win," Tsubasa said rather bluntly. "Expecting to fail is the best way to do it after all. It's tough to guess on specifics though. Granted, my opponent has had her struggles so far, but I also know that she must have something in her that LAW saw for them to back her so strongly. Plus, I doubt I'll be perfect on my first try. It's first to 3 rounds, so I'll guess... 3-1. In my favor." After that, the reporters started addressing Ilrasa. Guess it was time to see how she handled the press.

[ThatPolishDude]

"Miss Santarosa, any predictions from your side as to how the match will go?" Sounded the first question, kind of obvious after asking of Tsubasa."I don't like to place bets. Of course, I would like to win but I'm sure my oponent will not make it easy for me, either way, I'm sure it will be a great show for everyone." She answered with a wide smile as she genuinely cared more for it to be fun than about an outcome.

"How does what you say stand in the light of your recent performance?" Came another question, more confrontational in nature. "I think my losses say more about the prowess of my oponents than anything else. They are both amazing fighters with far more experienced than me, not to mention their size and weight advantage. Here I think we are more evenly matched at least in size." Ilaria answered in still a very cheery tone as the reporters turned back to Tsubasa

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Tsubasa was glad that Ilrasa was able to handle her questions rather well. The idol would've taken no pleasure in the Italian women floundering under the pressure of both her situation and the press. With Ilrasa having now fielded two questions of her own, it appeared as if the flow of the interviews was ready to shift back towards Tsubasa's side of the table.

"Tsubasa, can you give us any insights into what kind of fighting style we'll see from you next week?" asked one reporter. "Hmm, sorry," said Tsubasa. "But I think I gotta keep quiet on that one. My style being a mystery still is one of my biggest advantages here after all. And anyways, would saying that just be spoiling a part of the match? You've gotta watch me if you want to know what I've got!"

"Tsubasa, how do you think your idol skills will translate to the ring?" another person asked the idol. "I think the thing that will be the most similar is my balance and grace. My real concern is how much my speed and agility will carry over once somebody is trying to stop me." Fight conferences usually didn't last too long according to Tsubasa's research. So she figured that they'd likely ask Ilrasa a couple more questions to even things out, them wrap it up with some shots of them together.

[ThatPolishDude]

"Ilaria, given you, have a few fights on your record already, what would you say could be your advantage?" Another question came quick but luckily Ilaria didn't have to wonder much about it. "Well, I have not seen Tsubasa fight so I can't quite say. What I do know is that actually getting in the ring for real is nothing like sparing and having already fought can be a boon." Ilaria replied, the answer wasn't hard to come up with, sparring after all was not about winning unlike a fight so it seemed obvious to say.

"On that topic, what did you learn from your fights so far, what improvements have you made?" Now that had Ilaria thinking she was about to speak but caught herself and giggled. "You almost had me there. I can't reveal my cards now, it would put me at a disadvantage. You will have to wait and see.

As she replied to the last question there was a slight murmur in the crowd as it seemed that the press needed a moment to prepare for the next stage of the conference.

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Well, Tsubasa certainly wasn't going to mention the fact that she had been in real fights before that while they weren't apart of anything organized, they were in fact real. Tsubasa knew more than just sparring, so Ilrasa wouldn't have the advantage that she was expecting to. But while the idol was keeping her lips sealed, the crew was starting to prep for the wrap up.

"Alright, let's get a picture of the wrestler's together," a woman who was probably the boss there said. Tsubasa and Ilrasa would be brought face to face and make fighting poses at each other. With things like UFC and boxing, these shots would usually be fists raised poses, but since this was LAW the idol would instead get into a wrestling stance. Crouching down in a way that would stick her butt out and lean forward in a way that would let her chest hang low, holding her arms out at Ilrasa as if she was going to grab her.

[ThatPolishDude]

Ilaria would match Tsubasa's stance and wait for the photographers to get some good shots of them. Then she straightened up and spread her arms out with a wide smile, beckoning Tsubasa for a hug.

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Once Tsubasa got into her position, Ilaria matched her. The Italian facing the idol as if they were about to attack each other. But that obviously was was never going to happen. The only contact that happened between the two was when Tsubasa returned Ilaria's offer of a hug. "See you at the match," said the idol. "I'll give you a stronger hug then, haha!"

Continued in match thread