Fantasy Squash Match (Fiction):ROOKIE CHAMP vs. EAGER HEEL CHALLENGERThe Diamond Kid (“DK&

Fantasy Squash Match (Fiction):

ROOKIE CHAMP vs. EAGER HEEL CHALLENGER

The Diamond Kid (“DK” - right) recently took the title in a huge upset during a 3-way match that mostly featured him getting pounded by two bigger, established stars, until they turned on each other and he was able to steal the win. Now, every established wrestler in the company wants a shot at the small, gold-clad rookie, but none moreso than the Masked Mauler, a former champ known to be a vicious heel, especially to rookies. Standing 6'3" and bulging with muscles, MM regularly got to provide rookie boys’ first intro to just how rough pro wrestling could be, and he loved how powerful he felt throwing the little guys around.

As they stood across the ring, and then began to circle when the bell rang, MM towered over the lean rookie. The Mauler feinted at DK, who was startled back into the ropes, eliciting mocking laughter from the powerhouse and a murmur from the crowd. The heel motioned for the Kid to “bring it,” and he obliged, charging forward and deftly ducking under an attempted clothesline. However, when DK rebounded off the opposite ropes and ran back at his big foe, he was met with a size-14 boot to the chest, which followed him to the mat, stomping the boy’s torso into the canvas. Grinning big, MM leaned hard on the lightweight and flexed his arms for the crowd. The ref slid in to count the sudden pin, but DK kicked out before 3.

Mauler taunted his little opponent, “alright, kid, if you really want more of that…” as the Kid lay on his side, catching his breath. The massive kick and subsequent hard landing already had the teen wincing as he got to his feet. MM motioned as if to lock up, but it was another fake-out: as the rookie moved in to do so, Mauler kicked him in the gut. The lightweight grunted and doubled over. Then the Mauler stepped over the kid’s head, grabbed him around the waist, and executed a brutal powerbomb, dropping to his knees as he drove poor DK’s back to the canvas once again. The big guy did not go for a pin. Still, not even a minute into the match, the poor rookie champion looked like he was barely able to go on as he lay spread-eagled on the mat.

Displaying his dominance for the crowd, Mauler pressed a foot down on the teen’s throat, ignoring the ref until just before DQ, while striking poses over the unmoving body of the Diamond Kid. The heel then used a foot to spread his small opponent’s legs wide and, standing between them, pressed a foot down on his groin, again paying the ref no mind as DK began to wail and flail. When the ref’s count got to five, Mauler let up, lifting his foot from the poor lightweight’s crotch – then pounded it back down full-force! DK screamed and balled up, rolling on the mat as agony overtook his groin. Smiling as he stood over the kid, Mauler struck a pose for the crowd, then slammed an elbow down across the side of his head and flattened him out for a pin.

Mauler again pressed a foot down on the champ’s thin chest, squeezing him to the mat for the pin, but the Kid kicked out after 2, rolling to his side and trying to push himself up off the mat. As the teen was getting to his knees, the big man hit the ropes and rebounded with a vicious stomp to the head, which sent DK sprawling under the ropes and almost clear out of the ring! Mauler tried to follow up, but the ref called a rope-break, so the heavy slid outside the ring behind his back and walked around to where DK lay dazed on the apron. Mauler manhandled the kid’s body so that just his head and shoulders hung a bit over the apron’s edge, then began pounding his chest with massive forearm blows. When it seemed like the champ was about to fall off the apron to the floor, Mauler re-situated him under the ropes, then slid into the ring.

Grabbing the jobber’s legs, MM tucked his feet under his arms and fell back, springboarding poor DK’s throat up hard into the bottom rope. And for a moment, he held him there! The kid was gagging and coughing as the ref began counting toward DQ, his body arched across Mauler’s knees as he struggled against the cord. Finally, Mauler let up and kicked the gasping lightweight to the arena floor, where he rolled into the legs of the first row. Mauler followed and yanked DK up to his knees with a single-handed vice grip on one of his upper arms. With his free hand, the big man grabbed the kid’s hair and made him turn toward the audience, then began slapping his face with his free hand. The poor teen’s face was slack and he just stumbled along as Mauler belittled him, dragging him around ringside and taunting the audience, “THIS is your champion?”

Not everyone in the crowd was a fan of the slim teen, either, and several got involved in the rookie champ’s humiliation as MM dragged him by them. As he staggered along, the job boy was slapped, pinched, punched and even spat on by the time the dragging stopped … with Mauler bulldogging his face to the thin mats covering the cement floor! The big man sprung to his feet and crowed, striking a pose as he stood over the motionless champ. The ref called out “9” in his on-going count-out, and Mauler quickly dove under the bottom rope. As the count began anew for just DK, Mauler made a show of counting along and taunting the boy to get up and get back in the ring. As the count passed 6, the kid pushed up to his knees and elbows and began dragging himself into the ring.

Mauler just waited, taunting the young champ the whole way. Then, as the count passed nine and DK began to step through the ropes, the big man stepped forward and kicked the middle rope, snapping it up into the kid’s crotch. DK grunted and fell back to the apron, then rolled right back to the floor below. Now the crowd was divided. Half seemed to be laughing at the teen or at least amused by his troubles, while the other half shouted at Mauler and the ref about the gratuitous unfairness. A few yelled for him to “go for the pin!” or “finish him already!” But the big man was having way too much fun utterly dominating the underdog champ. Ignoring the ref’s warning, he rolled out to the floor again and made his way around to the Kid.

Grabbing the boy by the hair, Mauler dragged him to his feet and pounded his face on the canvas several times. Then he straightened him back up and ran him into the nearest ring pole, shocking the audience with the loud “bong” that reverberated around the space as the jobber staggered back to the floor, face down and unmoving… The ref jumped from the ring to check on the small champ and discovered to his amazement that the rookie was still conscious. Reluctantly, he backed away, weakly telling the Mauler to, “take it back in the ring.” But the buff heel had other ideas. He pulled poor DK up off the floor and scooped him up into a cross-body hold, then ran back into the steel support pole, slamming the teen’s back across it three times before maneuvering him overhead into a gorilla press and tossing him with ease over the top rope and back into the ring.

MM followed, climbing to the apron and stepping over the top rope into the ring. The lightweight lay near ring center where he had rolled to a stop, face down, one knee pulled up to his chest as his body shook from the pain in his back. The powerhouse squatted over his small victim and wrapped him into a sleeper/camel clutch combo, squeezing the teen’s head in his thick arms and bending his body backward by the hold. DK already looked practically unconscious in the sleeper, and struggled for breath as the buff heavy’s arms squeezed around him. The heel carefully calibrated the camel, however, stretching the boy just enough to keep him too uncomfortable to pass out, while not bending him so hard he’d have to submit. As the jobber breathed heavily, doing his best to support himself and not pass out, Mauler settled into both holds, muscles bulging as he squeezed and bent the battered young champ.

The Kid felt helpless – he had no way of escaping as the discomfort just grew and grew, pain spreading through his back yet never sharpening enough to demand he give up. And he was still determined to try keeping his belt, so DK just muddled through, enduring the stretching, squeezing torture for nearly two full minutes. Then the big guy changed it up, suddenly leaning back much harder and flushing the kid’s battered back with new agony. DK was limber but could only bend so far, and began thinking about giving up. Mauler still wasn’t done however, and released the advanced hold after a minute, though he remained sitting across the jobber’s back. After a few humiliating slaps across the back of the teen’s head, the musclestud got up and used the back of DK’s trunks to yank him off the mat, briefly exposing the boy’s pale cheeks before taking a knee and dumping his small opponent gut-first onto his other knee.

DK rolled to the mat, coughing and sputtering, and Mauler finally went for a three count, hooking a leg and folding the Kid nearly in two as he pressed his crotch down across the lad’s face for a humiliating pin. However, the underdog would not give in, and bucked his whole body to disrupt the pin by dislodging MM just before 3. “Oh really, you still want more?” he quipped, then unabashedly slapped an open hand between the kid’s legs, pounding the champ’s crotch once again. The Kid rolled to his side, cupping his groin and emitting a low groan as he struggled to drag himself away from the Mauler. But the big man was right on him, flattening the teen back out and beginning to choke him on the mat, leaning hard on DK’s throat as he gasped and flailed and the ref began to count a DQ. The heel let up before 5, but then wrapped his big hand around the small jobber’s throat again, tightly enough to hoist him off the mat by his neck and then lift him high overhead for a choke slam.

The match appeared all over as the lean Kid’s battered body hung limply from the Masked Mauler’s chokehold. The crowd was quiet with anticipation of a brutal end to the jobber’s reign as champion. Yet when Mauler began the rookie’s swift descent toward the mat, DK suddenly went for a reversal, wrapping his legs around Mauler’s thick arm and riding the slam, rolling with it, and pulling the big man along onto the canvas! Before Mauler knew what was going on, the champ had his arm hyper-extended in a tight MMA-style armlock and took the extra step of grabbing two of the big man’s fingers and bending them back hard. The big man tried to yank away or get up or throw a shot at DK, but the leg lock was effective and he could not get leverage for anything before the sudden pains in his shoulder and hand became too sharp and too much. To everyone’s astonishment, the big, burly Masked Mauler slapped the mat in submission as he bellowed in pain and the crowd cheered the underdog’s first successful title defense. The jobber would remain champion.

DK dutifully released the hold and relaxed, adrenaline and endorphins momentarily dulling the pain and soreness throughout his body. As the Diamond Kid lay on the mat, getting his breath and savoring the audience’s cheers, the referee lifted his arm in victory, then helped the aching teen to his feet. He lifted the winner’s arms again, then left the ring to retrieve DK’s belt. The young champ raised his arms weakly, until he felt a tap on his shoulder. Noticing too late that the crowd’s cheers had changed to warnings, the jobber champion turned around to find a livid Mauler towering over him. A huge open-palm slap across the face sent the boy sprawling, holding the side of his face the powerhouse had struck. Then the heavyweight grabbed the Kid again by the throat, hefted him overhead and – with no hesitation this time – choke slammed him viciously hard. DK’s head and shoulders pounded the mat and he rolled face-down. The ref, dropping the belt, slid into the ring to try preventing further abuse of the rookie, but Mauler dropped him with a super-kick to the face and then kicked him off the apron to the floor below.

Mauler grabbed a handful of the Kid’s hair and yanked him to his feet, then threw him into a corner, following him closely and knocking him silly with a massive uppercut elbow shot as he slammed into his small body. Grabbing the boy’s hair again, the enraged bodybuilder held his head in place for a series of sickening head butts, pounding his metal-masked forehead into the jobber’s over and over again as poor DK sagged helplessly in the corner. With his lean victim barely conscious, Mauler hung him in the ropes, arms behind the top and legs wide open as he hung from his knees on the middle rope. Then the big heel walked across the ring and ran back in, driving a wicked dropkick into the lightweight champ’s groin. DK fell to the mat, groaning and holding his crotch. But Mauler still wasn’t done. He grabbed the jobber by the throat once more and again hefted him high overhead.

After the second choke slam, the teen lay sprawled at Mauler’s feet, groaning and trying to pull himself away… After the third choke slam, DK landed with a grunt but then splayed silently at the heel’s feet, practically unconscious… After the fourth choke slam, DK rolled to his side, unmoving and barely aware of his surroundings, just hoping the punishment would end soon. The Mauler looked ready to reach down and yank the poor boy up for a fifth, but then another wrestler entered the arena, running to the ring brandishing a chair, and chased the heel from the ring before he could abuse the jobber further.

Almost as tall as the Mauler but not as muscular, the bulky heel known only as Elvin was a monster of a different sort; stocky, extremely hairy and quite unkempt, he used his size and wildness to intimidate and dominate. And he was not much known for being a defender of the weak, so the crowd was somewhat astonished that he’d come to DK’s rescue. Everything made sense, however, when – moments after helping the young champ to his feet – he nearly took the boy’s head off with a lariat from behind. Then he hit the ropes and leaped into a crushing splash across the lightweight’s shoulders and head. When Elvin got up, DK was thoroughly out of it. Yet the big man wasn’t done. He grabbed the chair he’d used to chase Mauler away and began smacking it down across the wrecked rookie’s back. DK screamed and rolled away, and Elvin just kept slamming the steel down on him over and over until he’d rolled clear from the ring.

Then the hirsute sadist took a mic and issued a challenge to the rookie, demanding to be the next to get a title shot and promising to make his next beating even more memorable than what he’d just received from the Masked Mauler. As he got up from the arena floor (with help), DK began to wonder whether being champ so soon wasn’t really more of a curse than a coup. In pain and dreading his next match, the kid hobbled from the arena, still holding his belt and doing his best to hold his head high…