“You’re going to have to help Claira on her gameplan.” Kai Scott said to Diane Parker.

It was late Saturday afternoon, visiting hours at Sinai Hospital in Baltimore, and Kai Scott was in a wheelchair.

“Do you really think I can?” She asked him back.

“Like I told Claira…” Kai said slowly, “there comes a limit to what I can do as a manager, and Christian Light just might be it.  When I was at my very best in the ring, had Light and I ended up across the ring from each other, he would still have been the odds-on favorite.  Multiple world titles versus a regional heavyweight title and a World tag title that I only held for five minutes?  Light’s just a plain higher tier name than I ever was, and probably for good reason.”

“So…”

“And I never said I don’t think Claira can win” he interrupted Diane’s question.  “I’m just trying to present the magnitude of the match from my own perspective.  At any rate, I can’t get to my footage stockpiles, and while there’s some stuff on youtube, a lot of what I want isn’t – and the internet here is behind a firewall, I can’t utilize the alternate methods of obtaining wrestling.”

“I see.  But I’m just a manager in training.”

“You’re a very good female wrestler who’s a power wrestler but not a bodybuilder.  Your style just doesn’t work well against heavyweights.  We’re making progress on that, but that’s why I put you as my second-in-command and a manager in training in the first place.  You need to learn to watch a match and break down someone’s game, moreso than even Claira.  And you’re going to take your first shot at it this week.”

“Do you really think I can?” She asked for the second time.

“Yes.  Now listen.  If Claira loses to Christian Light, she’s in good company.  He’s beaten almost everybody who’s anybody.  The boss himself ducked Light while defending his six World Titles.  If she can’t get it done in the ring, life goes on.  I want you to make sure everything outside the ring goes right so that nothing bothers Claira while she’s trying to get it done.”

Diane thought it over.

Being the fourth wheel of the Truly Untouchables sucked for her sometimes.  A lot of what she contributed to the T-UTs was entirely behind the scenes, and half the time the promoters forgot she was even part of the stable.

It’s enough to make you bitter.

A nurse walked in and informed them that visiting hours ended in 15 minutes.

“One last question then boss.”

“Shoot.”

“Do you want us to keep playing good guy?  Or if I think it can get Claira the win, should we go back to the… old ways?”

His answer was the worst thing she could have imagined it being

“I leave that up to you.  I trust your judgment.”

**********

“The problem is that Light’s biggest moves use his arms, but even if you take one of them out, you’re still too light, he can move you around pretty well with one, and then he’d go into War Games with an injury and hurt HERI.”

The third side to the proverbial coin that the match was. 

Two weeks afterwards, Claira and Christian Light would have to work together to beat EVO.

“He’s too big and too tough to count on beating him by submission.  Light’s one of those guys who’d almost rather die than submit.  Even if he’d tap out more readily because of the stakes and because it’s not a grudge match… well, you still can’t count on it.  And you’re not really a pinfall kind of wrestler.  The best way to beat Christian Light would be to knock him out.”

“That’s what I was thinking.”

Kai Scott had given Diane the keys to his apartment, and in turn access to his stockpile of video footage.  Now she and Claira were sitting on the couch, watching Christian Light matches – every match she could find of Light against a smaller wrestler.

Light had wrestled a guy named TJ Killingbeck on the OLW Farewell card.  Killingbeck had weighed 190, and still won.  He’d wrestled a guy named Elvis Sunday in Wrestlecoast Cascadia.  Elvis hadn’t done very well against him.  But Elvis was a high flyer, whereas Killingbeck was a ring veteran and all-arounder.  He’d managed to improvise something like a banzai piledriver, jumping off the middle rope to catch Light with the piledriver on the way down.

“If Light’s out, his strength won’t help him.  If he passes out face down, you can do like you did against JGX and use a choke sleeper instead of trying to roll him over.”

“Defensively, the best thing you can do is work on counters.  If all else fails, grab his head and hang onto it.  A guillotine choke won’t hurt him much, but if you can get him off balance, you can DDT him.  And if he goes for a press slam, don’t panic from being so far up in the air, and go after the elbow of the arm he’s holding your front end up with.”

Claira didn’t answer.  She watched the television intently, pausing it as Light lifted Roger Stevens overhead in preparation for a Realizing the Dream.

“I could turn that into an omo-plata.” She said.

“He probably knows the counter, and…”  and suddenly, Diane flashed back to her high school days, when she’d joined the school wrestling team mainly to stay in shape between field hockey and soccer season.

“Claira, I have a move I want to teach you.”

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