Ten Count

 

THUD!

“Ooh, ladies and gentlemen, Lady X has executed a perfect piledriver on Love Child!  Lady X goes for the cover.  I think this match is over!”

HE thinks this match is over! Trust me. It’s over. I should know. I’m Jennifer Marshall, better known as Love Child.  I’m the pretty blonde in the center of the ring.  There is a masked woman, about 50 pounds heavier than me, with a handful of my hair and a knee on my windpipe if that makes it easier.

“ONE!”

It’s about time the referee started counting.  Why the hell did he wait so long?

Then again, why the hell did I accept this match?  Oh yeah, I remember.  My genius manager told me that a match against the champion would enhance my career, win or lose.  “If you fight the best, the fans will think you’re the best,” he said.  “They’ll cheer you on against overwhelming odds,” he said.  It’s funny, though.  I can’t hear any cheers over the yells of “Stupid slut!” and “That’s what you get for wasting the champion’s time.”

“TWO!”

Come on, ref.  Count a little faster, please.  It’s hard to breathe around this knee that’s crushing my throat.

Where was I?  My manager gets me a match, rookie versus champion.  At the appointed hour, I dance down to the ring in my pink, Lycra two-piece covered with little red hearts and matching boots.  I get a lot of whistles and cheers.  I am pleasing to the male eye.

Then, my opponent enters.  I’ve never seen her in person, and I wonder if I want to see her this close.  She’s receiving a lot of boos and catcalls, but there are a few disconcerting cries of “Kill the rookie!” that worry me.  Considering that Lady X is about 4 inches taller and a lot heavier than I am, I have plenty to worry about without the help from the fans.  Not to mention, she’s standing in her corner giving me the worst “evil-eye” that I’ve ever gotten.

“THREE!”

Move it along, ref!

At the bell, I compounded my first mistake of taking bad advice by taking more advice from my manager.  “Move fast and get in the first shot!  Make her respect you early!”

I charged and Lady X respected a boot into my stomach.  Then, she grabbed a handful of hair and respected my face into the turnbuckle about ten or twelve times.  Then, with the utmost respect, she pulled my back against her chest, grabbed around my waist, and dumped me on my head with a German suplex.

“FOUR!”

Let’s see.  The suplex was done with enough force that my legs and butt flew over my head, and I ended up face down on the canvas.  At this point, Lady X grabs my hair with both hands and beats my forehead into the mat.  I lost count of how many times after 22.  Then, she started the knee-drops on the back of my head.  I didn’t bother to count those, but it was probably in the same neighborhood as the forehead smashes.

“Five!”

That’s it!  We’re halfway to freedom, ref!

After all of the knee-drops, I couldn’t see what she was doing very clearly.  From the repeated sensations of flying, spinning, and hard impact, I would guess that Lady X was trying to crush my ribcage with a series of power-slams.  They ended with a longer “flying” period followed by a much harder impact.

“SIX!”

I had a few moments of respite while the champion worked the crowd from the ring.  Oh yeah, when my brain cleared a little, I noticed that I was lying on the cold, hard, concrete floor outside the ring.  I was also paralyzed, or the next best thing to it.  I realized that when Lady X came out of the ring after me, and I couldn’t find my legs to run away.

“SEVEN!”

She had to drag me to my feet.  Unfortunately, she was able to find them.  She also made them move along with her so that she could drive my head into the ring posts.  Yes, I said “posts.”  Lady X threw me headfirst into all four of them.  You know, it sounded almost musical when my head made the steel poles ring, with the exception of the last one.  It didn’t ring.  It made more of a “splat” sound because of the blood pouring down my face.

“EIGHT!”

Then, it was back into the ring to be hung upside down in one of the corners.  Lady X hooked my feet to hold me in place.  Then, her boots hammered my torso into jelly.  Do you remember the forehead smashes and knee-drops?  If you add them together and multiply by 3, you’d be close to the number of kicks that destroyed my belly, ribs, breasts, kidneys, etc.

“NINE!”

Thank Heaven!  It’s almost over!

After that, I come to the beginning of this story.  Lady X picked me up off the turnbuckle that held me and paraded me once around the ring.  Then, a piledriver was executed to force my skull between my shoulder blades and bend my spine into a corkscrew.  Then, with a lazy knee and handful of blood-soaked hair, she pinned me.

“TEN!”

The bell rings.

“That’s the end of this match, folks.  Love Child showed a lot of courage just to get in the ring tonight, but her skills weren’t up to the challenge.  The winner of the most brutal, one-sided match that we’ve seen in some time, LADY X!”

I didn’t win?  What a surprise, you turkey!  Would somebody please make the announcer shut up so I can wait for the stretcher in peace?

Wait a minute!  Why the hell is Lady X picking me up?  She’s got me pressed above her head!  Oh shit, she’s throwing me out of the ring towards the timekeeper’s table.  Is that the bell?

DING!