#I know nxt is on Tuesday nights but I'm not about to start watching nxt I'm not making a new tag for it so

[kay-is-dying]

Okay so I finally got to actually watch the whole Rhea vs Roxanne match from the beginning and here's my thoughts on it (mostly focused on the intricacies of the beginning of the match and unfortunately with nothing to add from the picture in picture segment. Be warned that this post is just me rambling for a long as time I'm sorry I'm longwinded. This is all kayfabe compliant btw):

That shit would have been OVER much faster if Rhea was taking it seriously from the top, but she wasn't and it's obvious from the beginning.

Once Roxanne Perez's done making her entrance, she starts stretching in the corner before the bell. It's a nervous tick more than anything else, but it's still smart, she's trying to stay lose, limber up before they get started. What's Rhea doin?

Posted up in the corner. She's not stretching she's just standing there—SITTING there really, almost lounging but just barely not quite that relaxed. Rhea's sitting there in the corner a little curled in on herself, but it's not out of fear, she's not cowering. She's coiled up like a snake before it strikes, bunched herself up like a lion before it leaps. The animal part of Roxanne's brain is gonna take all that human fear and anxiety that comes with basic knowledge of what she KNOWS Rhea's capable of along with the fear that comes from all the unknown that comes from never facing her and use it to see her as what she is, a predator ready to pounce.

And Rhea knows that. Is preying on it.

Then the bell rings. Me and Novel (@timeandspacenovelist) have broke down the sequence that comes next before the lock up pretty extensively here, but the summary is that Rhea pops up out her corner a little fast LIKE she's finally pouncing (basically to perform the same function of jumping at Roxanne to try to make her flinch), but then starts circling Roxanne in a slow, lazy prowl to psyche out her opponent even more. Perez is scared and anxious already but Rhea starts the match slow and steady both to show off how little she's concerned about it, how she's in control here and she decides when they start, AND to let Roxanne stew in it—to give her adrenaline time to make her heart beat just a little bit faster and make her hands a little bit shakier and give her already panic-struck brain more time to overthink about what Ripley COULD and MIGHT do to her. Then Rhea stops and spreads her arms and takes in the crowd for a second—

—again showing how she's not taking this match anywhere near seriously, if she thought Roxanne was a threat she wouldn't stop and leave herself open for an attack; now unfortunately Perez proves her right tho, and doesn't do the smart thing and try to take a shot at Ripley while she's busy showboating. Whether this is inexperience on her part or just fear (or maybe even smarts if she's considering whether or not Rhea's baiting her into taking the obvious shot just to put her on her ass when she tries), I don't know, but Rhea stops and turns to Perez with a smile right after, and briefly squats and sticks out one hand to coax her towards like one might call a child or dog towards them, beckoning her closer now that she's decided she's ready to begin the match.

They lock up, and Rhea doesn't even humor Roxanne for a full five seconds before bodily tossing her right out of the ring. She smiles and waves at her, beckons her to come back within the ropes again. Ripley's having a moment of pure cockiness—literally doing a little shimmy (the fucking stanky leg lmao) before she engages Perez again! a cat lashing its tail and wiggling back and forth during a hunt

—and when they lock up again Roxanne delivers the first punishment for her over-confidence, though it starts as a mild one that Rhea learns nothing from as Roxanne manages to slip behind her and get her arms around her, locking the hold in by locking her hands together, so Rhea can't just break free. This is of no consequence to The Eradicator however, and her solution is to grip Roxanne by one of her arms and just throw her across the ring again. The problem is, this is not Rhea getting her head seriously in the game. She's smarter than this, than just letting Perez get even a bit of distance. This throw is not a desperate move to free herself however she can. If she really wanted to Rhea could have used a little more effort and time and muscled her way out of that hold, reversed it, moved into serious offense against Roxanne, but she throws her instead. Ripley's just showing off and punishing Roxanne for daring to try something—but Roxanne shows her some consequences for that cockiness again, and thus the REAL back and forth of this match begins as Rhea and Roxanne start fucking around and finding out.

Perez gets her in a wristlock of sorts, it's not perfect control, she's not even really dragging Rhea around the ring like that, mostly just fighting to stay close and keep her IN the wristlock. Call it a bold statement, but Rhea just LETS her do this for a short while before proving she really could have got out of this probably at ANY point.

See, at first she and Roxanne just circle in the center of the ring intertwined like that while Rhea figures out how to get out of this while making Perez look weak, making herself look strong, and decides to go for some kind of suplex or another throw. She picks Roxanne up, but Roxanne twists out of her grasp and gets back on stable ground on her own two feet, then gets Ripley into that lock again, applying pressure and kicking at her legs until Rhea snaps. Rhea's pained and annoyed expression drops, and she makes a face that clearly reads as fed up and basically says "fuck it"; she regains control of the match by gripping Roxanne by the hair and forcing her to come closer to take the tension off her arm and then just slings her into the ropes, easy as breathing, and it seems like she could have done that whenever and just chose not to.

Roxanne recovers from that bounce off the ropes enough to duck under Rhea's arm when she takes a wild swing—and she tries to get back on the offensive but Rhea goes from simple control of the match to steer her way to victory to punishing her and showboating again, stopping her in the middle of a move and swinging her around by her legs before just dropping her, and when Perez tries to go for a roll up Rhea doesn't just resist the motion and stand her ground, she pauses to show off that Roxanne can't move her, and then picks her up off the ground by her neck like she's a toy. What happens? Roxanne gets to chop the shit out of her before Ripley does anything to her.

That's simple karma for Rhea dicking around during the match. Roxanne scores a second chop as well but Rhea halts her momentum before she gets a third with a string of brutal offense that puts Roxanne on her ass for a long moment that Rhea takes to just stand there while the crowd's cheers for her burst of violence taper off, before she starts bullying Roxanne around the ring to chants from the crowd that she both smiles at and brushes off, saying "oh I don't need your chants" in the middle of a pause from beating Roxanne's ass. Can you guess what happens next?

Roxanne gets one over on her again.

That's the rhythm of the whole match, Rhea fucks around, Roxanne punishes her for it, Rhea works to regain control of the match and gets it, but instead of ending it she starts showing off and sadistically beating Roxanne's ass for getting a lick in, Roxanne again gets some karma, Rhea has to fight to get control back, gets it and starts fucking around being a dick, Roxanne again lets her ass find out what stupid prizes u win when you're playing stupid games, Rhea lets her ass find out what happens when you fuck around and try your luck against Rhea Bloody Ripley, Rhea starts showboating, Roxanne gets a little momentum, Rhea gets her lick back, Rhea gets mean, Roxanne fights back, etc etc on and on they do this dance. One of the biggest instances being after the break, when Rhea pins Perez down and takes her sweet time degrading her and then goes to stomp her head in—Roxanne dodges that shit and the follow up kick though, and outside of a couple tag backs, successfully lays into Ripley for a full minute or two after that until she climbs to the top rope.

At this point Rhea's still fucking around though, so after clocking Roxanne to daze her when she's up there and stop whatever avalanche move she was about to hit (and therefore getting control back of the match), Rhea chops her in the chest, and it's mean and sickening on a couple different layers; one, its a chop, it doesn't damage your opponent much it just fucking hurts them so this is just her being a sadist, two, there's the characteristic sharp slap sound when she hits her but there's a specific awful meaty impact noise u can hear it you listen hard enough that lets you know she didn't just chop her in a way that'll sting her skin, that shit just sent a shockwave through her sternum to her entire torso, she hit her hard enough to vibrate her skeleton, and three, Rhea's got this slight dismissiveness in her delivery as well, the swing is almost lazy, she doesn't follow through the full motion of the swing and barely puts her body behind it. Just all around incredibly disrespectful in so many way, and she pays for that too. That chop hurts a lot but it's still a chop, it's not actually lowering Roxanne's hp very much. That brief reprieve from a REAL blow to the body or the head gives her just enough time to recover to be able to weather Rhea's follow up strikes when she goes to set up for the superplex, and then bounce her head off the turnbuckle and get back on the offensive, delivering a devastating hurricanrana off the top rope that leaves Rhea hurt BAD, to the point she doesn't recover for a while and is getting her ass for a moment there until Perez tries to follow up a drop kick (one of Rhea's signature moves mind you, which I think offended her pride enough to shake her out of her daze) that sent Rhea into the corner with a body slam and Rhea wakes up enough to counter that by catching her and putting her down with a facebuster sent from hell.

(side note: holy fuck, OW)

This marks the turning point of the match, marked by Rhea quickly going in for the cover and shouting for the ref to start counting as soon as she's on top of Roxanne, she's ACTUALLY trying to end this and secure the victory already. When Roxanne somehow through the grace of god kicks out, Rhea doesn't shout or scream or throw a real tantrum, she kinda just briefly runs her hands through her hair and huffs. She's still fairly calm and collected despite her visible frustration with herself—after all this is an opponent she should be able to beat easily, right?

Well actually, yeah. Right.

You see at the end of the day as good Roxanne is, Rhea's better than her. She is. And she knows that. She's just so incapable of respecting other people right now, she almost refused to believe she'd have to put in any actual work to beat her, as evidenced by her telling Cora she'd 'put down' Roxanne for her, not beat her. Rhea didn't see this as an easy match she saw this as an execution and almost paid for it—she doesn't really shake that mindset until Roxanne bounces her brain around her skull and knocks the wind out of her and then kicks out of a big move. Now Rhea's present of mind enough to begrudgingly acknowledge that this is a fight actually, and it shows. She's not worried about losing at all, but she's done acting like she can get the W without actually trying. After she confirms with the ref that she only got a two count, she gets to her feet, and she's making that face again. She's fed up, enough playing around, it's time to get her shit together and just put this kid to bed.

Rhea hauls Roxanne up and attempts her finisher (for the first time this match as far as I can tell), and Roxanne manages to twist herself around and fall out of her arms again, and kicks Rhea in the stomach to set up for her own finisher, but at the end of the day this is still Rhea Ripley the powerhouse, and she's still just tiny little Roxanne who hasn't worn Ripley down enough to make her stumble at Roxanne's meager weight of a buck and spare change, she's still just Roxanne who doesn't have the experience to have developed the speed to hit it fast enough to get around that, so Rhea just stands up out of the Pop Rox, dumping Perez off her back easy as ever. Dominik panics at the possibility of Rhea losing and distracts Roxanne for two seconds so she hesitates before jumping back into the fray, Rhea hits Roxanne with a headbutt that knocks her out dead on her feet (which I find really interesting actually, and helps my case more. Rhea headbutts Roxanne often during this match, at many moments where I would have expected a big boot. Rhea has never been shy about using headbutts when needed but this is so interesting because she's using them at times where she has enough space to go for a superkick if she wanted. A headbutt is dangerous, it can and on some levels DOES hurt you back, without hurting your opponent any more than a kick would-probably hurting them less. She's getting more self destructive. And she's always been one of the strongest on the lot but she's even stronger now and she knows it, to the point she feels like she doesn't need to utilize all that power she can put behind a kick.) and then before Roxanne actually falls to the ground from the blow Rhea yanks her close and hoists her up in the pumphandle position and then slams her through the mat in a gorgeous Riptide, and she finishes up in her iconic 🤌 missionary pin—

—knowing it'll get a reaction out of the fans and showcasing that yeah, she's back, and as dominant as ever. (after all her biggest opponents/matches were ended with that pin, and when that wasn't the case then she would use that pin just to show said dominance i.e pinning Sarah Logan like that while making direct eye contact with Charlotte that one time.) Thing is though, if Rhea actually tried that match could have been a near-burial. Roxanne isn't a real threat to Rhea as a wrestler rn, if Rhea would have wrestled her she would have won quick. But Roxanne can be dangerous as a plaything cause she's not a plaything, and that's what Rhea was treating her like, instead of the wrestler that she actually is. Roxanne's the mouse in the game with the cat here, and while mice mostly just want to get away from a threat and live to see another day, if they're cornered they'll start fighting to survive like any animal would, and Rhea spent a lot of this match getting her fingers nipped at. That hurricanrana was the little bite that drew blood

I called Rhea a cruel butcher on novel's post, and Roxanne the lamb. Roxanne was never going to kill the butcher and escape the slaughter, but congrats to her that through all the abuse she managed to kick hard enough to hurt and make Rhea put her out of her misery.

And of course, congrats to our Papi Rhea for proving her cleavers are still sharp.

As if there was any doubt.

#rhea ripley #roxanne perez #nxt 2.0 #wwe NXT #AGAIN THIS IS ALL KAYFABE COMPLIANT SO DON'T GET OFFENDED ON ROXANNE'S BEHALF WHEN I SAY SHE ISN'T AS GOOD A WRESTLER AS RHEA IS #I'M NOT SAYING SHE'S NOT A GOOD PERFORMER I MEAN THAT IN KAYFABE SHE'S GETTING HER ASS BEAT—AND DID!!! DID GET HER ASS BEAT! #This match was so fun god I wish I would have caught all the picture in picture stuff too #I know nxt is on Tuesday nights but I'm not about to start watching nxt I'm not making a new tag for it so #monday night raw #raw tagging this for organization and also because hey Rhea's a raw superstar anyways so

[robinofgothamcity]

"now we're stopping the world, stopped it in its tracks. nothing's too broken to find our way back so before it's over, before you run...didn't we have fun?"

♡ pairing: ilja dragunov x fem! reader

♡ note: not checked for grammar or spelling mistakes / i'm so happy ilja won tonight but that doesn't mean that i'm not heartbroken over walter finally losing. anyway, here's a small blurb for all you ilja stans.

"your ex has his big match tonight, you excited to probably see him lose again?" Indi asked jokingly. you rolled your eyes, not wanting to joke about a match you were nervous to watch. "I know tonight for him is a big deal so I don't really want to jinx him or for that matter, Walter," you replied, taking a sip of water.

Indi sighed sensing the excuses rolling off your tongue. you were tapping away nervously on your laptop and you filled out last minute paperwork for the pay-per-view event. she noticed every time you had your nose deep into your laptop it was for one of two reasons. you actually had to get work done or you were so nervous about something that you consumed your life with work until whatever it was that was making you nervous passed.

"what has you so glued to your laptop? I thought all NXT work was finished yesterday?" you shook your head, not responding as you continued to, "Regal wanted me to respond to a few emails for the taping on Tuesday. where's Dexter? I'm surprised the engaged couple isn't together right now," you poked, making Indi smack you on the back of the head.

the entire building was buzzing from excitement. you heard makeup and costume screaming at each other about finishing their clients so the other could get started. wrestlers walked back and forth through catering, chugging back water and standing by the curtains to eat while they watched whatever match was going on.

"look, Walter's over there," Indi whispered. you looked behind you, seeing Walter along with his two henchmen walking to an empty table. you could sense Walter's energy the minute he walked through the door. it was like the biggest unkept secret that Walter carried this energy that just scared anyone who dared to provoke him. "man, Ilja's going to get it rough, regardless if he wins tonight or not," you whispered to Indi as she agreed.

you and Indi remained talking to each other as you watched Dakota's match against Raquel. you were on the writing team for their storyline so you kind of had to pay attention to the match to see where it went after it ended. you managed to be so engrossed into it that you hadn't heard Indi calling your name for a good minute until she finally shook you.

"they want you in makeup and costume, something about Regal wanting you," Indi said. you nodded, closing your laptop and shoving everything int your bag, "I'll be back," you murmured. Indi laughed knowing you weren't exactly coming back anytime soon.

you walked as quickly as possible, not realizing that Regal had no business in makeup and costume but since your mind was so plagued with the thoughts of Ilja's match, you hadn't put two and two together.

once you arrived to makeup and costume, you saw Ilja sitting on one of the chairs as one of the makeup artist apologized profusely to you, "this was all Indi's idea. I swear she was the one who put me to this," she confessed as she walked out of the makeup stall, leaving you with Ilja, the air becoming thick.

"I know this isn't all of Indi's doing so what do you want?"

+

Ilja and you stared at each other, minds racing as the two of you heaved in anger, "I'm not staying on the UK brand, Lacey and I got offered a better deal as a tag team on the main NXT roster and I'm not just letting that go," you repeated to Ilja as he tried to grab your hand again. you quickly shook it off knowing that all he was going to do was try and convince you to stay again.

"why are you so against me going?" you asked again. this time, Ilja stood up, looking into your eye with so much intensity, "if you leave, I won't ever see you again. I won't leave the UK brand and you look like you're dead set on leaving it," you huffed knowing what Ilja was saying was true.

the offer NXT had for you in Florida seemed hell of a lot better than what the UK brand was offering you at the moment and teaming as a tag with Lacey didn't sound as bad as what you were currently doing. you grabbed Ilja's hand and rubbed it softly, "this might be the end for us but it's not all bad. you have a chance at the belt here while I try to go do the same thing just in Florida. maybe this isn't the end, just a see you later?" you asked knowing Ilja was trying to hold in his tears.

you knew Ilja was the kind of man who didn't hold back his emotions. he cried when he felt the tears coming but today he tried as hard as he could to hold it together, "we'll be together again, I promise," you whispered to him.

you felt your leg pulsing as you tried to calm your thoughts down. you had taken a nasty fall down during a match and you knew it was your ankle that had taken the hit or your achilles. a part of you was begging that it was your ankle but in the back of your mind, you knew it was your achilles and an achilles injury usually meant a prolonged healing process.

the medics tried to find the source of your injury but there wasn't much you could do while in the area. it didn't take long for them to wheel you into an ambulance and rush you over to the hospital to actually check out what was wrong. the entire time throughout the ride and waiting on your results, you kept getting a multitude of texts from everyone wondering what happened.

you heard a knock on the door and whispered a 'come in'. the doctor walked in with a pile of paperwork and wary smile. "what's the damage?" you asked, quickly cutting to the chase. he handed you the paperwork and while you could understand somethings, a lot of it was confusing.

"your achilles, it took most of the damage and it's an injury that you won't be coming back from."

your heart stopped hearing the news. you knew an achilles injury was pretty nasty but you never thought it would be the reason why your career ended. the doctor could see your face drop in complete sadness as you tried to hold back sobs. he knew it was best to not continue as you hid your face into your hands. no one thought that a random Tuesday night match would be your last.

Ilja sat on his bed, scrolling through his feed on Twitter when he heard the tweet from your account.

it was a photo of you holding the NXT UK Women's belt close to your heart. his heart sunk as he read the caption.

"didn't we have fun? don't say it was all a waste."

he quickly scrolled through your account to quickly come across the official WWE account. they had made an announcement that you were no longer available to wrestle due to your injury and Ilja knew more than anyone how hurt you must've been. you had moved your entire wrestling career to Florida in order to pursue the women's belt there and now, all of that was gone.

a part of him wanted to text you to make sure you were okay but he knew better than to do that. the two of you hadn't spoken since the breakup and texting you could bring back memories he was sure you didn't want back. a lot of your career was defined as a inter-gender tag team with him and that was how the two of you got signed together.

Ilja bit his tongue back and decided against texting you.

+

you watched the match from the monitors in the back. Ilja had said nothing to you when you asked what he wanted but he brought you in for a searing kiss. you were promptly taken back by his action but you let it happen, missing the way his arms hugged you and the way his intense eyes stared down at you.

Indi stood next to you as she saw you tapping against the table nervously. she knew you'd probably kill her later for making you reunite with Ilja but she knew better than anyone that the two of you belonged together. just like her and Dexter, you and Ilja needed to remain with each other. there was even a few wrestlers on the roster she had to scare away in order for her plan to work.

you saw the way Ilja's chest was turning red as Walter continued to chop at it, making it bleed and creating small cuts here and there. Indi stood next to you as she watched Ilja put Walter in a very easy chokehold. it wasn't one that seemed that Walter would falter too but it happened in an instant, Ilja had him wrapped so tightly that it seemed Walter was about to pass out.

"holy shit."

Walter was quickly tapping himself out of Ilja's grasp as the bell rang. Indi turned over to you to see the way you dropped your bag and without thinking, ran out of the curtains and onto the ramp. a few of the producers called your name to return but you were too far out to hear what they were saying.

the crowd was going wild to see you practically sprinting down the ramp. Ilja hadn't realized what was going on but you snatched the belt away from the ref and stood in front of him, holding it up high as Ilja tried to process what was going on. "you won, Ilja! you finally did it!" you yelled, shaking the belt in front of him.

Ilja's breath hitched as he grabbed the belt and held it tightly for a moment before putting his leg on top of Walter's chest, "you did it," you whispered to him. Ilja screamed in victory as you grabbed his hand and made him hold the belt higher to show the crowd that he had in fact dethroned Walter after 800+ days

you had no idea what this meant for you and Ilja going forward but you had the inkling feeling that somehow, someway, Ilja had crawled his way back into your life. not that you were complaining of course.

#wwe x reader #wwe imagine #wwe #nxt uk imagine #nxt #nxt uk #nxt imagine #ilja dragunov #ilja dragunov imagine #ilja dragunov x reader #fics #wrestling imagine #wrestling fic