Between Rounds - LWS 2017 Interview: Elena Vandersteen/Katherine Hart

[winner3]

Location: 7th Heaven - Local Bar

It had been a long evening for Katherine Hart. Earlier in the day, she finished her first round in the LAW's Last Woman Standing 2017 Tournament. But despite having come away with a win, despite advancing to make it to the next round, she looked distraught and sad. The heavyweight blonde avoided all eye contact with officials and staff after making her way to the back of the arena. So many thoughts were swirling through her head. The veteran had been wrestling for years, but nothing like this had ever happened before. Susanna Kin....her first round opponent...was the first woman she had ever unintentionally injured in the ring.

Kat was indeed thankful that she was able to put a stop of the wounded warrior. Sue was headstrong. The woman continued to fight despite the threat of broken ribs possibly becoming something much worse. But the risk that carried, the fact that Kin was willing to risk her very health and livelihood to fight to the bitter end, was something that bore very heavily on Hart's mind. As she packed up her things in the locker room and began to change, she checked her phone to see that she received a direct message on social media. Up and coming LAW interviewer Elena Vandersteen had personally contacted Katherine for an interview just moments after the end of her match. Thinking back on it later in retrospect, it might have been during the match when Elena had sent the message.

"Seventh...Heaven...interview..." Kat mumbled to herself. Truthfully, she didn't even read the entire direct message. She lazily put away her phone and continued putting her on her form-fitting blue jeans and yellow hoodie, uncharacteristically failing to form a smile on her face. Kat would leave the arena and begin walking to try and clear her mind. After wondering the streets of Japan for about an hour, she finally began to talk herself into seeing such an interview through.

"Maybe....maybe talking to someone about it..airing it out will help. I could apologize to Sue...surely she'll catch wind of it with a journalist..." She whispered thoughts of this to herself for a moment before finally hailing a cab and deciding to head towards the bar. She blonde was getting strange looks whilst doing so, and it wasn't until a child pointed to her that she realized she was still wearing her mask. Out of habit, Katherine had kept it on. She touched her face and the fabric of the mask upon making her realization.

"Ah, this isn't like me, haha!" She said to herself before finally finding within herself the ability to smile. A few minutes and a reasonably priced cab fare later, the woman entered 7th heaven. It was a quaint bar, though Hart didn't pay much mind to the interior design or surrounds. She merely grabbed a chair and hung her coat on the back of it, checking her phone to see that she was exactly 5 minutes early before messaging Elena back: "I'm here."

[anime_hentaifighter]

When Tiffany saw the masked blond walk into her bar she would worry for a few seconds that this could mean trouble as the German woman so fair had bin unlucky with the wrestlers of LAW.As so far either her bar ends up being destroyed or she would take a beating each time one of these wrestlers walked into her establishment.However she would relax as it seems this one was hurt pretty bad , and figured she was hopefully just her for a drink or something when she spotted someone else walking in.

This second person had redhead , and was wearing something she thought should belong in the trash as this woman was wearing an yellow jumpsuit.Now the German woman may not have bin the best person to comment about fashion , but this was just ugly as she would first walk towards the blond who walked into her bar. Once at her table she would say ''hello their , and welcome to the 7th heaven bar.Can I offer you something to drink , and would you like to see our menu?''in an calm tone as she looked towards the entrance for a few seconds to see what the other woman was up to.

After the blond woman had replied the Black haired owner made her way to the bar as Elena walked towards the table as she looked at the blond. Taking a moment to collect her thoughts the Belgium then asked ''sorry for asking this , but I suspect your Katherine Hart as I doubt your some fan who wears her mask during the day'' as she really hoped she was not making a fool of herself.

Elena and Tiffany

Elena


Tiffany
[img]http://orig05.deviantart.net/e90a/f/201 ... 42w97a.jpg[/url]

[winner3]

Moments after beginning to settle in at the establishment, the bar tender greeted the masked woman and offered her a menu. Katherine wasn't yet aware of any of the recent events at 7th heaven. All things considered, it was a nice little bar. She couldn't imagine people fighting there or causing a ruckus frequently or at all. It was the last thing that crossed her mind, especially in her current state.

"Oh! Yes, please. Thank you!" The masked woman replied, accepting the offer to see a menu. She would then begin to take her seat at a table, not noticing Tiffany look past her to notice Elena, who was making her way inside. She waited to receive a menu, but before the bar owner could bring one, Elena had arrived. The reporter wasted no time waiting before approaching the luchadora. Katherine was just beginning to settle into her seat when Elena had confronted her at the table and made eye contact with her.

Katherine looked up at Elena expectantly, taking in the fact she was meeting the woman for the firs time. Vandersteen was LAW's premiere interviewer, after all. There was no mistaking who the red head was. It's not like there were many people at the bar, anyways.

"Yeah." Katherine nodded, remembering that the woman came to do her job and discuss matters that Hart may or may not be entirely comfortable discussing. "It's me - in the flesh. the masked woman nodded to confirm. "I hope I don't look too bad right now. I did just fight my way through a pretty intense match a couple hours ago. You're Elena, right? How are you?" She asked, trying to start up some small talk before the two grabbed a drink and got down to business.

[anime_hentaifighter]

Elena was relieved that the person she had addressed was indeed Katherine Hart as she just smiled , and replied back ''well I doubt I would look much better if it were me. Then again I bet that unlike you I would never have bin able to make my way here if it was me who had just endured that match as it was quite brutal if I recall it well''. After saying that she would grasp the chair , and pull it backwards so she could sit at the same time as the person she would be interviewing today.

Meanwhile Tiffany would be watching all this from the bar as she was going through the wrestlers she knew to predict if either the blond or redhead would cause any problems. Still while she was able to figure out who the blond was easily by her mask the redhead was more difficult until she heard one of the costumers mention that the redhead seems to resemble some reporter from LAW.This caused her to relax a bit as she walked over to the table , and gave both woman their a menu as she said ''so what would you like to drink miss?

[winner3]

As the two women settled in at their table, they began to open up with some small talk.

"It was...and it was only round 1..." The masked woman would comment while looking away, trying not to make eye contact with the interviewer. She'd find herself falling into a somber mood again while thinking about what just transpired in the match. But amidst her sadness, a voice spoke out to her. Tina had prompted her, asking what she'd like to drink. Katherine would perk up and turn towards the barkeep before answering.

"Oh! Ummm. something that's not terribly strong, please. Could you start me off with a Moscato? And my red headed friend here will be having a...?" She'd look to Elena, hoping that Miss Vandersteen would know offhand what it was that she'd like to drink. After the two ordered their drinks, Katherine would let out a short sigh before trying to power through her sadness and make conversation. Talking things out and venting usually did help her feel better.

"So, uh, what do you usually do with the interviews? Do you like, post them to a blog? Write articles about them? Source them out to other news sources for them to use in papers or stuff?" Kat would say while gesturing and making a circular motion with her two index fingers. The luchadora was curious. After all it made sense to be made aware of how this interview might be used or where it might come up later.

[anime_hentaifighter]

Before Elena could ask her first question they were interrupted by one of the waitress as they were asked what they wanted to drink.While she wondered what a moscato was she knew she could not drink anything with alcohol , and suspected that was the case with this drink as she replied '' I take a Cola please''.

Meanwhile Tiffany would be writing down both female's orders as she would bow , and then just smile as she replied ''Alright I be here shortly with your drinks then''as she walked to the bar.Once their she would get a cola , and make a Moscato as she would turn around and place the drinks on the table before going on her way.

When their drinks were brought to them Elena would just smile as she reply ''well I usually post them on the LAW website or magazine.Still are you ready for us to get started as will go with an easy question. Why did an luchadore of your skill decide to come to alw Miss Hart?''

[winner3]

The two women didn't have to wait long to get their drinks. Tifa's hospitality was appreciated. Kat would nod to the brunette as the placed the cola and wine on the table and nod to her before she took off.

"Thanks."

With that out of the way, Elena wasted little time. She started Hart off with an easy question about why it is she ended up coming to the League of Anime Wrestling.

"Oh! That's an easy enough question. I think many of my fans that followed my career closely could clue you in. Feel free to record this on note paper or with a recorder on your phone." The masked blonde started off before taking a second to clear her throat a bit. "I had wrestled in Mexico and southern states in the US for a few years before deciding to test my skills in Japan. Getting into pro wrestling wasn't easy, but it's not supposed to be. I stayed the course and saw some success in those regions.
After winning a few championships and getting a bit of a following, I decided to come test my skills in Japan. Lots of folks kinda view the women's wrestling scene here as 'the big leagues'." She finished her sentence with an air quotes gesture.

"I originally came to Japan after getting a contract offer from AFW. I wrestled there for a while and put on some memorable matches, but I hit a bit of a snag. Management didn't like me very much. They cost me two of my matches. One cause of a dirty ref and the other, heheh." The woman shook her head and chuckled for a second. Looking back on this event was slightly funny in retrospect.

"In one of my last afw matches, the general manager herself showed up to personally rule my match as a draw. Even though, by all accounts, I had already won. My opponent, Navi Florges was ko'd in an I Quit match. Out cold. I've seen and been in similar situations in other wrestling promotions and the ko'd woman usually lost because she couldn't continue...." Kat let out a soft sigh before finishing up.

"Buuuut I digress. To answer your question, I chose to leave that company when it became clear to me that management didn't want me to succeed, there. But I didn't want to give up on the Japanese wrestling scene. So I jumped at my next possible chance to wrestle at a Japanese company. And that led me to LAW." She said with a smile.

"And how did you get into interviewing wrestlers?"

[anime_hentaifighter]

After answering Katherine's question , and asking her own she wondered how the wrestler wold reply. As she expected the blond woman to reply slowly so she had time to grab some note paper , and write it down as she doubted she would need to record it.However she was soon proven wrong as she could not keep up with what the other woman was saying as s she had just finished writing down the part of her wrestling in Mexico , and the southern states before she would go to Japan. The reason behind going here was the fact that Japan's woman wrestling scene was considered the big leagues , and from what she knew about this herself she would have to agree with the wrestler.

From their she would write down about her time in AFW , and that she had some memorable matches before the other organisation's management was brought up. Now this was not going to be included in the interview since it would most likely get LAW in trouble , but she still wrote it down as she would include it some how. Still she could write about any wrestler who like Katherine who had wrestled in AFW , and was now working for LAw as the part of Navi would defiantly be included in her article.

Still she got some good quotes she could use as she would just smile as she replied ''well to be honest it kind of embarrassing.Used to work for a big newspaper in Belgium , but after working for a story while under their employment I kind of got embarrest , and they ended up firing me. The outlast behind what happened made me damaged good so when this offer came up I took it.At least in Japan nobody would know about what happened back home'' as she took a sip of her drink.

After she did that she would just smile back as she asked ''so do you got any goals you want to accomplish while you wrestling in LAW''?

[winner3]

The interview was going well. Though it seemed to be going more the route of a conversation than anything, which was actually preferable for the masked wrestler. The blonde was pleased to learn a little bit about Elena.

"Ohhh, Belgium! I'll have to give you a call to come with me if I ever travel, there." Kat exclaimed. She'd calmly reach for the interviewer's hand and try to comfort her regarding her past. "I'm sorry about what happened with that paper. I'm sure you'll find success in the reporting and journalism field here in Japan." She'd finish with a smile before taking a sip of her wine. Kat would go on to try and answer the red head's question.

"To answer your question, my goals at LAW are the same as they've been at every wrestling company I've worked at or with. I want to inspire fans and wrestler's, alike. When I was a kid, I looked up to wrestlers like they were superheroes - same as a lot of other kids, you know. My favorite wrestler of all time: Manami Toyota. I think what I want is to be a lot like her. Everyone knows and respects her. She's regarded as one of the best of all time, amongst male and female wrestlers.I think what I want is to be like her. I want to build a legacy. And I want that legacy to drive home the fact that hard work and dedication can yield success and motivate the masses. And I'd like to think that I've done a good job of doing that pretty much everywhere I've gone.

"That's my goal with my career. To sum it up, I wanna be like Manami. But if you're asking about my tangible goals at LAW, which you are..." Kat would clear her throat for a second before gesturing and continuing.

"I'm looking to be the best, here. Just like a lot of other women. And I guess for me, that starts with taking on the biggest challenges I can come across. And I think I've doe a pretty good job. So far, I've thrown down with the likes of Alaina Sanders, Tina Armstrong, Natasha Rostovik, Valentia Vladinova, I just found out that after the ko tournament, I've got a big ppv match coming up later down the line against Lea. And I'm excited for that. For the most part, I think I've done pretty well at LAW. I've yet to suffer my first loss. And I'm doing my best to keep it that way. After We Are LAW is over....I'm gonna try my hand getting the LAW Heavyweight championship. And hopefully, eventually, the World Championship title."

[anime_hentaifighter]

Elena would smile when she heard the other woman mention she would give her a call when she would ever travel to her home country as she suddenly felt the blond hold her hand. Then hearing the wrestler say she was sorry to hear about what happened , and wish her luck in trying to get success as a reporter in Japan. It was this kindness that made the reporter think that this must be why Kat was a fan favorite as her heart must be as big as her skills as an wrestler.

Then she would rite down as Kat would explain what her plans were in law as for now it seemed the blond was interesting in continuing her undefeated streak. Which meant she would need to win her match at LAW's first ever pvv , and then try and go over the heavy weight championship. Now while most would consider that a good enough goal. It was not for the blond who also wanted to continue , and attempt to win the world championship. This caused Elena to smile as it was clear Kat was woman who knew what she wanted as she wrote everything down.

So it was by accident that her next question came to mind as she saw that one of the greatest wrestlers with the biggest undefeated streaks in the world was going to be inducted into the hall of fame. Realizing this the Belgium woman would just smile as she replied ''well those are amazing goal but you just mention you were undefeated.If you had to choose would you rather become a champion or have a undefeated streak that is longer then the legendary streak of one Bill Goldberg''?