Nathalie Christiaens vs. Theodore 'Theo' Logan - The Devil In Blue

[BlackAkuma]

Match Type: Standard
Victory Conditions: Pinfall, submission, or knockout.

***

This was it—Theo’s first solo match.

It wasn’t quite what he’d wanted when he asked management to let her go out for a singles bout - he’d wanted a regular match, but they instead set him up for another beach brawl, not unlike the tag match he and Willy had against Artistry a few months back. Spring Break was closing in, they wanted to attract some tourism, which was a good way to bank off that. He got the business sense of it, and it wasn’t the end of the world. Just meant he had to wrestle in swim trunks for the theme and that there was a higher-than-usual chance of him getting sand in unwanted places.

Small prices to pay. His career needed this. So far in LAW, it had just been one loss after another for BlazeWave. Some of them were more humiliating than others, but it was all a streak that kept staining their reputation. It might not have been that big a deal to Willy, since they still had their music deal with LAW to fall back on, but Theo was never the type to rest on his laurels. If they were going to be in the ring, they needed to act like professional wrestlers, which meant winning matches.

He was ready. He was focused. He could do this, he knew it. But there was one little problem.

”Dude, I checked your opponent out, and she is stupid hot.”

Willy was here, too.

The two of them - Lucy was under the weather and decided to sit this one out - were hanging out in a dressing room near the beach ring, with Theo getting in a few quick stretches before they had to go down. The ‘they’ part was annoying him. He’d told Willy that he didn’t need to come down for his first solo match, but his tag partner insisted. ‘Needed to support his boy’, he said.

Sure. Had nothing to do with the chance to hang out with a bunch of Spring Breakers on the company’s dime. Right.

Theo sighed and turned to Willy, who was waving a cell phone in his face with a picture of his opponent on it. ”Yeah, I’ve heard.” He took the phone and gave it a look over, finding himself looking at a svelte, curvy, sexy…redhead? ”Dude, that’s not her.”

Willy snatched the phone back and gazed at it with a furrowed brow. ”What? How do you know?”

”Because, unlike you, I read the damn cards they give us that tell us these things.” He sighed and stretched his arms out. ”And it doesn’t matter how hot she is, man. This isn’t that kind of match.”

”Which is a damn shame, because you need to get laid.” Willy gave him a hearty slap on the back, a touch harder than Theo would’ve appreciated. ”You been in a dry spell too long, bro. Starting to make you cranky.”

Theo would’ve liked to point out that a good part of that dry spell was because Willy’s drunkenness had gotten them kicked out of a couple bars right when he was making good progress, but now wasn’t the time or place - his phone was buzzing, indicating it was time for him to come down. He just shook his head and slipped out of dressing room, with his buddy following close behind.

A couple minutes later and Theo found himself in the ring, doing stretches while he leaned against the turnbuckle and breathing in the fresh sea air. It was getting late-ish, with the sun starting to set in the distance, but there was more than enough daylight left for about thirty or so minutes of good wrestling, and he doubted it would take that long. The crowd was looking pumped up, too, as they stood behind the barricades, waiting in the sand, taking photos and enjoying a few drinks. A nice, casual day on the beach, a hot crowd. Willy was chatting up a few girls at ringside, but Theo didn’t let that distract him.

No, all he wanted to do right now was focus on his opponent, who would be showing up any moment now.