30 minutes after the main event of FAWNMANIA…Kylie Sanders unstraps the icepack from her knee and lets out a sigh of relief that echoes in the now empty locker room, the other wrestlers having left for catering, the bar or the post Pay Per View media scrum. She testingly kicks her leg and moves it about, feeling nothing out of place Kylie nods and mutters to herself “Good, no pangs. Let’s get the rest of them.”
She fiddles with the icepack strapped to her other leg, one of the keys to Kylie’s success and longevity in professional wrestling is thorough aftercare post-match. The Platinum Pixie chill wraps her knees, elbows, neck and even her toes when she wrestled barefoot. It often means she’s one of the last to leave the arena but the years added to her in-ring life are worth the inconvenience.
And gives Kylie the time to mourn her loss in peace and not take it home with her. To make it to Mania is a blessing at any stage of a career, but leaving on your back with a boot on your breast bitters it considerably.
"At least I got to make up with Shea," Kylie consoles herself as removes the last icepack. "In her shoes, after everything. I don't know if I would given myself the same courtesy."
Making up with her estranged pseudo-big-sister Shea London was a great gift Kylie couldn’t have anticipated… but damn does she need a big win.
“Hello, Miss Sanders!”
Kylie jerks up in surprise and swivels her head to see her Number One fan, Cassava Onika, covered in championship gold and standing inches from where she sits holding two water bottles.
The beatific booty battler comes away from FAWN’s biggest PPV with a successful defence of her (Unofficial) Buns of Mass Destruction title and the new Television champion after her double defeats of Eva and prior champion, Crystal Hilton. Cassava offers one of her bottles to her lifelong hero, “That was a truly epic match you wrestled, had me in tears by the end.”
Kylie takes the water wondering how The Superfan got in the room without her hearing. “Thanks… I was too by the end.” She twists open the cap and takes a swig before speaking again. She liked Cassava enough but it was awkward speaking to someone who puts you on such a high pedestal… even as she sitting on your face for the winning pin. “You were amazing tonight, congratulations on the new strap.”
“Thank you!” Cassava laps up the praise from her Iowan goddess like it’s an oasis in a desert. She smiles brilliantly, “Those two couldn’t handle their Cake, now I got gold coming,” She taps her index fingers on the shining faceplate of the TV title, it’s on top of her signature belt so it’s riding high on her stomach giving her already mouthwatering bosom a boost that almost makes Kylie go cross-eyed. “And gold going,” Cassava turns away giving her hips a playful wiggle to highlight the BMD title wrestling on her thicc cheeks. Kylie suppresses a shiver remembering those destructive buns in great detail from their match against each other. Cassava whirls around pointing her thumbs at her idol and proposes earnestly, “If you ever want a title shot at either belt or both at once, you can have it any time, any place. Commissioner be damned.”
Sanders tilts her head with a grin and replies, “I’ll hold you to that.” It was a tempting offer but Sanders has had her fill of Cake for the time being, and the humiliation of losing to your biggest fan twice is a gamble you have to really consider before risking another faceful of ass.
In another section of the arena but inching closer to the Kylie Corps leaders, are The Dream Team. The legendary veteran Lisa Dream and the talented up-and-comer Heather Crofton.
LISA DREAM
HEATHER CROFTON
Lisa, The Ultimate Image of Human Perfection, did not have a match on FAWNMANIA this year. Not even on the Pre-Show! This is a great disappointment to The Dream, she really wanted to give Crofton a great moment in thanks for the support since her return. 2023 has been a rocky year for the duo but after defeating Diamond and Pearls, Lisa hoped to take sweet Heather to the big stage and get her a DUB. Unfortunately, management decided their run post that victory didn’t warrant time on the most sought-over card of the year. The Lone Star Girl thankfully took the bad news like a champ, but Lisa’s confidence as a mentor is taking some hits and she’s racking her brain for ways to boost her mentee’s career.
“This spot here," Lisa points to an adjacent room backstage hands are removing in-case-of emergency speakers from, “In ‘06, Anciline de Cyr Airplane Spun Cosette LeBlanc for two minutes”
“Oooo! Poor girl.” Heather grimaces and balls her hands in sympathy veritgo, “Why’d she do that?”
“She claims Cosette bumped her shoulder in catering, but I think she was just warming up to face Juliet Bloodwind later” Lisa shrugs and gossips to the little blonde before moving to their next destination. Seeing a bonding opportunity and a chance to restore her confidence as a locker room leader Lisa’s guiding Heather on a ‘Secrets of Mania Tour’. Showing the treasured Texan around the arena to where all the backstage incidents that happened at Mania over the years. Most of which even the filthiest of dirtsheets have never heard of!
“This dressing room here? This is where The Dunbars smothered out the Bash family in 2011 after some trash-talking got out of hand. They settled things in a six-woman mud wrestling match in Tennessee.” Heather takes a quick pic with her phone of the nondescript area like it was a statue of a founding father. “And here’s where Al Carpenter found Harriet Larken hogtied in the buff by Yoona Park, apparently she called Camille an unkind word for women…”
Crofton nibbles her lower lip and furrows her brow as they walk past, “Hmmm… not sure who root for in that one.”
An old framed poster of Chrissy and her seldom-seen sister Missy jogs Lisa’s memory of another Mania secret moment, “This hallway…” She pauses a microsecond realizing that moment was her giving Shawna Sapperstein a Bittersweet symphony for not lowering her gaze as she walked past. The Dream harshly spanked the ass of the Jewish-American Princess for the first three songs of Les Misérables before security separated them.
“...will lead us back to our locker room! Let’s pack up, we got to get ready for the road tomorrow and prep for those dark matches on the weekend. I’ll show you more spots on the way out.”
Heather nods in agreement and gives her tag partner a half hug as they trek down the hall, ”Good idea. Thanks for sharing this with me, this really made my weekend. I’m writing this all down in my wrestling journal while it’s still fresh.”
“Is that different from your everyday journal?” Lisa asked, remembering a night in a shared hotel room where she saw Heather writing something down in a notebook before bed.
Heather explains as pushes open the double doors, “It is. I keep a separate journal for wrestling thoughts and events to keep organized and to keep my thoughts from getting cluttered. Oh!”
As they enter, Heather’s surprised to see The Girl Scout and The Superfan still in the building. She figured the roster not doing press would have left by now. Lisa stays a step behind her enthusiastic teammate, Dream going quiet. It’s been a long time since she was within shouting or beating distance of Kylie Sanders. Her new outlook on life and changed ways come with no small amount of shame of how she treated the then and now-again beloved babyface.
Not a month goes by Lisa doesn’t worry Heather will confront her about the ‘Microphone Incident.’
Luckily Heather doesn’t notice Lisa’s clamming up and immediately greets the Iowans, “Didn’t think anyone else would still be here. Cassava, congratulations on the new title!”
The Lone Star Girl and The Superfan are not bosom buddies by any stretch, but they’ve been around each other enough for Heather’s offer of a celebratory hug to be taken up instantly, “You had an amazing night! A mania moment for sure, you’re so much better than the last Champ-Champ we had.”
“Damn straight!” Onika's tone is cheerful and she’s looking giddy, but there’s a cold glint in her eye Heather misses. She holds a deep grudge against the World Champion for retiring Emily West, and her revenge will be thorough and LEGENDARY. “I’ll be celebrating with my crew tonight if you two want to come. We’re gonna get black and white shirts and sneak into a secret referee bar Nick Castle co-owns with a friend.”
The junior half of the Dream Team gets a rush that only comes when the popular girls in school ask you to hang out unexpectedly,“ That sounds so cool!” Heather whips her head at Lisa for permission and she nods with a smile, still feeling too awkward to speak. “We’re in! Oh, pardon my manners.” Always polite as can be, the youngest blonde in the room turns to Kylie and offers a handshake, “Hello. We’ve never spoken before, I’m Heather Crofton. I’ve been a big fan of you for… well ever.”
Kylie takes her hand and shakes it, happy to have any excuse to avoid interacting with Lisa Dream. "Always nice to hear. You've really made a name for yourself since you've debuted. You have a bright future if you keep your wits about you."
Crofton blushes slightly, "Thanks! I plan to; I get a lot of comments from fans about I remind them of you in your early years. I would love to have even half the career you wrestled.”
“Maybe try to avoid some lower moments,” Kylie advises with a combination grimace and grin. Lisa darts her eyes side to side like someone discovered the murder weapon. “Aim for just the good stuff if you can.”
Cassava’s about to chime that Kylie’s career was epic stuff top to bottom when the veteran cuts the adulation before launch, “You and Dream have been on a bit of run lately.” She raises her chin to Lisa as she speaks to Heather, the most she’s acknowledged the the legendary former heel. “Going to make another go at the tag titles?”
“Hopefully,” Heather bumps her knuckles together and turns to raise a fist in solidarity with her partner who raises one back hoping that’s enough to keep the conversation going and inwardly sighs in relief when it is. Heather gestures to herself and Lisa with a thumb as she speaks with the double champ and the former World champion, “We’re hoping after a few wins on the dark match circuit, Bethany will give us another chance at the belts at All Hallows Eve.”
“Maybe we should face the pair of you,” Lisa chimes in for the first time, now somewhat certain Sanders wasn’t going to blow up her spot with Heather. She’d been hanging by the exit watching the interaction but now Lisa steps forward with a forced casual air and tests the waters conversationally. “Seems like management loves to put you two on the card whenever they can, especially for the big PPVs.”
“Can’t blame ‘em, they need to go where the heat is,” Kylie responds with a half smirk. There’s a way to interpret Dream’s comment as disrespect but she’s choosing to think the brunette meant nothing by it. She gives Cassava a light slap on the hip making The Superfan’s night even more special “The crowd goes nuts when they see us give stereo Pleasant Valley Drivers to whoever wants to get some shine off Iowa.”
“We have heat,” Lisa puts a friendly arm across Crofton’s shoulders, now feeling up to some light chirping, “The FAWNatics pop the roof off of the building when we hit a DreamDriver and a Texas Tornado at the same time. Plus we shine all on our own.”
“For sure,” Ky acknowledges. “But I don’t know how you can shine more than having two gold faceplates across your waist. And Cassava’s done that all on her own,” Sanders intercedes. “God knows she didn’t need me to get there.”
“Well, it’s not like Heather wasn’t going to shoot up the ladder on her own,” Dream insists.
Onika and Crofton eat up the compliments with a spoon, shoulder to shoulder, squeezing each other tight in disbelief this is happening in their lives and that these are their friends and teachers.
“And you did very well, eventually, even if you did have to become a brat to get there,” Lisa continues with a smirk.
“Well, you got a head start on the winning,” Kylie admits, “but then you were always awful.” Sanders tries not to think about the most awful moment lest it spoil the moment and Cassava deserved that moment.
As they spoke with each other Kylie and Lisa both relaxed just a little bit. They’re different people, and their lives took different paths, but they both had GREAT highs and LOW lows in their careers. And with retirement closer than ever before, the veterans earned their way back into the fans’s hearts. Friendship may be too lofty a goal, but there’s mutual respect between these two future hall of famers.
“That’s a great idea!” Heather’s voice, raised an octave from excitement, steals Lisa and Kylie’s attention, “Let’s set up a tag match at All Hallow’s Eve. Win or lose. Both teams will be one step closer to a tag title shot.”
“Ooo, we could wear costumes!” Cassava’s bouncing and jiggling and down with barely restrained energy done many a cosplay on her FAWN Finds channel, but she rarely has a good excuse to dress up in the ring. “I have so many ideas, we could have a theme so all our gear tells a story…”
Heather and Cassava’s chitter giddily at a faster and faster pace as Lisa and Kylie stare overwhelmed, they’d forgotten that the younger components of their teams were actually here and not in the abstract. Neither of the vets wanted to face each other again, at least not without gold on the line.
The Platinum Pixie’s raking her brain trying to find an out when Cassava turns to her like an eager puppy, “What do you think? This’ll be a great match and might get us in talks to face Psy Ops?”
Kylie wanted to say no…. But she was looking for a major dub and one over Lisa Dream and a rising young talent would grease some wheels. Her eyes dart over to Dream looking for any real excuse to refuse but Perfection’s drawing a blank, so she looks back to Onika with a grimace of a grin and tries to keep her voice from cracking “I can’t think of a reason why not?”
Onika suppresses a squeal and wraps her idol in too tight a hug, “This going to be so much fun!”
Heather looks up at Dream pleadingly with a hope she couldn’t bear to crush, even though she really wants to. Lisa stifles a sigh and matches Kylie’s faux smile, “Let's do it, and if we’re wearing costumes we’ll have to settle our choices with Bethany quick, or she’ll pick them for us.”
Lisa’s serious about that, if they don’t clear their costumes as soon as possible the commissioner will force them into something lascivious. She already had to talk with Bethany about the commentary team making insinuations about the Dream Team’s relationship.
Heather’s already has her phone out and scrolling Pinterest for ideas, “let's go over a few ideas as we drop off our stuff. Cassava, I’ll text you in a bit about that bar!”
“You better!” The true tag team begins to exit while the makeshift team stays; Kylie leans down to zip up her gym bag, missing the abrupt change in Onika’s expression. The Superfan’s cheerful expression falls revealing the coldest face you can see on a human. Pure, precision hate all directed at Lisa Dream’s back. When Kylie lifts her head back up Cassava’s back looks like her normally jovial self.
“Need a life back to your place?”
