Author’s note: I’ve provided a glossary of assorted pro-wrestling terms I’ve used in the story for those of you (probably many) who don’t watch pro-wrestling to have an understanding.   I’ve done my best to provide context during the story of what something is, but if you want further context, you can look at the information in the glossary at the start.

All wrestlers and promotions mentioned are real, I’ve provided links at the very end of the story if you happen to be curious about who they are, but I don’t believe it’d be required to enjoy the story.

 

Glossary:

Squash match – A match over very quickly with the purpose of making the victor look strong.

Heat – Creating towards a character

Kayfabe – Staying in character

Powerbomb – A devastating move that lifts your opponent over your head, then drops them onto their back – Gif example: https://c.tenor.com/u2CNR8C9xRwAAAAd/kevin-nash-jacknife-powerbomb.gif

Submission – Putting your opponent in a painful hold that’s difficult to get out of, in order to have them surrender in defeat.

 

Entrance Music

“1!.. 2!…3!” the referee shouts as he slams his hand on the mat three times in succession.  Trista lies on the mat, her long brown hair sprawled away from her head after taking a devastating powerbomb from her opponent.  Her opponent steps over her in disrespect, the referee raises her hand to declare her the victor.  Trista lies there with her eyes closed, waiting until the right moment to roll out and leave the ring.  While lying there she contemplates how her wrestling career has gotten to this point.  She loves being a professional wrestler, but these days she’s only booked on the indies in squash matches.  The amount of moves her opponents let her get in are in the low single digits per match, and the matches never go more than a few minutes.  

 

Unfortunately for Trista, she fits a mold that makes it easy for a wrestling booker to generate massive heat with the audience for their heels.  Her cheerleader-like frame, complete with a bubbly, perky personality and a seemingly permanent smile on her face makes her an easy target to get absolutely demolished by whomever is her opponent that night.  It’s become so common these days that it’s all that she gets calls for, unable to experiment with any other gimmicks she might want to try.  Wanting to be in the world of pro wrestling, she accepts the offer every time, but each time she leaves the venue disappointed.  

 

After the match is over Trista finds an opportune time to roll out of the ring while her opponent is still celebrating.  She holds her back and limps past the curtain leading to the locker room.  As soon as she is past the curtain she stands up straight and thrusts her fists down at her side in annoyance.  Even though she isn’t in the best mindset, she has to keep kayfabe by pretending to have just been beaten down.  Kayfabe is very important to the business as a whole, breaking that will cause your relationship with promoters to be severed via lack of professionalism.  

 

Once backstage she quickly cleans herself up and changes out of her gear back into her street clothes.  Before she can make her way out of the venue to head home, two of her friends stop her.  Her friends Kat and Tracy are very much opposites of each other.  Kat is the giantess of pretty much every event she’s at.  She has long blonde hair, with a thick frame and enough height she can usually tower over every opponent.  Tracy on the other hand, is typically the lightest and smallest at every event she’s at.  The crowd loves her high flying moves, with her shoulder length brown hair flowing behind her as she jumps off the top rope.  

 

Kat drapes her arm around Trista’s shoulders, “Wanna come back to our hotel room and watch some matches with us?”

“We’re gonna watch some Stardom, they do soooo many things that we want to learn.”  Tracy adds.  

“Sorry I can’t, you two realize it’s Sunday right?  I’ve gotta work in the morning, and I’ve got a long drive back.”  Trista responds.  

“Come oooon, it’ll be fun!  Just come watch a couple with us.”  urges Kat.  

“I seriously can’t, I’m so tired already and it’s a long drive back.  Are you two booked at the same show I’m at next week?  I’m gonna be in Rochester that week.”  asks Trista.  

“Yeah we’re both on that one.  Should be a good show.”  says Tracy.

“Alright, we can carpool then, and since that show’s on a Saturday I won’t have to work the next day.  Can we watch some together then?”  asks Trista. 

“I guessssss.”  Kat responds jokingly.  

“Very funny!  Ok babes I’ll see you then,  I’ve gotta start my drive back.”  says Trista as she hugs them both and heads home. 

 

Opening lockup

The next day after work, Trista gives the promoter of her upcoming Rochester show a call.  The promoter, John, is an important figure in her life.  He’s the one who booked her for her first show, and has given her advice countless times.  She’s hoping this time that he’ll also allow her to try out a gimmick she’s been working on.  

 

“Hey John!  It’s Trista, how’re you?” she says as he answers the phone.

“Hey Trista, I’m doing fine as long as you’re not calling me to cancel.  I already had a hard enough time booking this upcoming show.”  John replies. 

Trista laughs and replies, “Naaaa, I was wondering if you’d let me mess around with a new gimmick of mine at this next show?”

“Sorry to disappoint you, but I can’t do it on this show.  I’ve already got plans based on the outcome of this show, so I don’t have a lot of wiggle room.”  says John.

“Oh..” Trista replies quietly.

John sensing Trista’s disappointment replies, “I’ll tell ya what though, come early and I’ll give you time before the show to pitch your gimmick to me.  If it’s good I’ll give you a chance in the future with it.”  

Trista perks up, “Ok!  That’d be great!  I’ll see you this weekend!”   

 

The gimmick Trista wants to use is one that only her closest wrestling friends would ever expect.   Trista has the aforementioned look of a cheerleader, but the wrestlers she discovered she enjoyed the most are the ones that are brutal, violent, hard hitting, and technical.  Nothing brings her more joy than seeing Brian Danielson stomp someone’s head in, Walter chopping someone so hard it sounds like thunder, or Minoru Suzuki choking out his opponent.  She decides she needs to spend the rest of the week shoring up the gimmick to make the best impression she can when presenting it to John.  Leading up to the show this upcoming weekend, anytime that she isn’t spending sleeping, eating, working, or exercising, will be dedicated to watching her favorite wrestlers and taking notes.  

 

Fighting spirit

Later that week, Trista, Kat, and Tracy make the drive to the show together.  Kat, being the outspoken one of the group, probes Trista on their travel plans.  

 

“Soooo why did we need to leave so much earlier than normal?  Do you need that much time to get ready to get squashed?” jokes Kat.  

“Verrrrry funny, I talked to John earlier this week, he was gonna talk to me about a potential gimmick change before we did the show.” answers Trista.

“Are you still trying to get someone to agree to that bruiser gimmick of yours?  You know that you couldn’t look mean for more than five seconds to save your life right?” Tracy asks.

“Yeah yeah, I get it, but it’s what I enjoy in wrestling.  I need to figure out a way I can do it, or else I’m gonna get burnt out on wrestling.  I can’t keep doing these squash matches.” Trista responds.  

“Listen girl, I’m skeptical, but I love you and I want you to succeed at your dream.  If you can somehow make that work then we’ll team up in a group.” says Kat.

Tracy agrees, “Yeah I’ll join you too, we’ll do whatever we have to do to be together.” 

“Thanks, I hope John can help me figure out how I can get it to work.  He’s got so much wrestling knowledge, he’s gotta have some idea.”  says Trista.  

 

Once the ladies arrive at the show, Trista takes her bag and heads directly to the place John is usually holed up.  

 

“Hey John!”  Trista says in a perky tone.

John looks up from his laptop to greet her, “Great to see you as usual.  I’m running a little behind, can you just go right into this gimmick idea you have?”  

“Sure!  Ok, so I’m sure you can understand that like, I reeeeally hate having to lose every single match in quick fashion, I want at least a chance to showcase my skills.  My thought was that like, I could emulate someone like Minoru Suzuki, or Jon Moxley…’ 

John laughs, “You’re trying to tell me you want to be a violent brawler?  I bet you couldn’t look mean for five seconds if your life depended on it.”

“Didn’t expect to hear that phrase twice in one day…” Trista says dejected.

“Seriously, just try to frown, how long can you last?”  John asks.

Trista puts on a frown, and does her best to hold it.  Five seconds later she has to release it from her face, not a long time, but now she knows she could save herself if her life depended on it. 

“Listen, you know I have a tremendous amount of respect for you, I know you could do that kind of wrestling.  But the crowd dictates everything, you need to find a way to make them like that character.  I can tell you that your bubbly personality combined with how you look isn’t going to be believable to them, and that’s always a turnoff to the crowd.”  says John. 

“I get it…” Trista says somberly.

“Don’t be so down, we can probably figure something out.  I’ll try to think of a way to get the gimmick over in the meantime, and you should also do some research, ok?”  asks John.

Trista perks up a little bit, “Yes, definitely!”  

“Alright good, now go get ready to be powerbombed twenty times.” says John as he laughs.

Trista nods, then scampers off to get ready for her match.  

 

Probing the opponent for weakness

After the matches are over, and everyone has gotten ready, the three girls head to their hotel room.  Kat immediately places an order for some pizza, Tracy hooks up her laptop to the TV, and they all settle in to study some wrestling. 

 

“What were you two planning on watching tonight?” asks Trista.

“We were gonna continue watching Stardom, someone compiled a spreadsheet of all the great matches you should watch that we were going through.”  Tracy replies. 

Kat, who is browsing the spreadsheet, reads off what they’re watching next, “Looks like up next is Giulia vs Tam Nakano for the Wonder of Stardom title from their 10th anniversary show.’ 

 

Kat clicks the link to start the match, then joins the other two girls on the beds.  The three are dazzled at how good both of these ladies are, the technical ability, the in ring storytelling, all of it is top notch.  They have no need to know the backstory of what led to this match, if there was any, to understand how good it is.  The 19 minute match flies by, all three women can’t believe how short that match felt.  After the match ends, a chair is brought into the ring that the Giulia has a seat on. 

 

“What’s happening?  This doesn’t seem normal.”  Trista asks.

“This is a hair vs hair match, I didn’t mention that when I read off the match description did I?” says Kat.

“No… you did not.”  says Trista, who settles in to watch inquisitively.  

 

The ladies watch the clippers rip through Giulia’s sweat filled hair, as the haircut nears the end, there’s a knock on the door.

 

“That’s it!” exclaims Trista at the same time as the knock. 

“Hell yeah it is, pizza’s here.” says Kat as she runs to the door. 

“No, not that.. I mean yeah also that, but something else.” says Trista, almost stumbling over her words.  

Kat returns with the pizza, sets it on the table in the room, then asks, “Ok so what did you mean by something else?” 

Trista nervously responds, “I… think I need to cut my hair.” 

“Why do you need to cut your hair?” Tracy asks. 

Trista, gaining more confidence in her voice, says, “To get the gimmick I want over, I think I have to cut my hair.”

Kat looks at Giulia’s buzzed head on the tv, then back at Trista, “Am I presuming you want to do something drastic?”

“Yes, it has to be something drastic, something … tough.  I have to give the impression I’m tough, even if my personality works against me normally.” Trista responds. 

“What are you envisioning?  I’m not sure what you could even do to be honest.” says Tracy.

“I don’t know… I have to think about that.  There are plenty of barber shops near me back home, I’m sure a barber could help me figure it out.” Trista answers.

“Are you really sure you want to do this?  You have such nice long hair, it’s gonna be a huge change.” Tracy asks.

“My dream is to make it as a pro wrestler, hair is temporary.  If it doesn’t work out then I just grow it back out and continue to get power bombed 100 times a match.” says Trista. 

“I for one cannot wait to see what you do.  This is gonna be hilarious.” says Kat.  

 

Fighting back

The next day, after returning from the weekend, Trista starts investigating the shops in her area.  She needs a barber who has excellent communication skills and patience for this adventure she’s about to embark on. Trista expects that if she walked into an old school barber shop with a gruff old barber that she would have a miserable experience.  Contrary to that though, she doesn’t want to go to some barber chain.  If she’s going to go through with this, she wants to have a nice small, cozy barber shop that won’t have a ton of foot traffic.  She doesn’t want to be the center of attention in a huge shop and have everyone looking at her, quite the opposite of what she experiences while wrestling.

 

After what feels like hours of searching through google reviews, Trista believes she found a barber shop that suits her needs.  It’s a very small one barber shop that isn’t too far from her house, it features many reviews that praise the barber for his patience and technical expertise.  This sounds like serendipity to Trista to find a shop this perfect close to her house.  The excitement builds up so much inside of her that she messages her boss to let her know that she’s not feeling too well and needs to take the rest of the day off.  Not exactly the truth, but Trista can tell she’d just be useless the rest of the day anyways.  After sending the message, she immediately grabs her keys and drives to the shop. 

 

Trista pushes open the door to the barbershop, and looks around.  One guy in the chair, whose haircut looks like he’s about to be finished, and a row of empty seats in the waiting area.  A perfect situation for Trista, everything feels like destiny so far.  She has a seat in the waiting area, and pulls out her phone to quell her nervousness.  After browsing instagram for a few minutes, the barber calls out to her.

 

“Excuse me miss, did you need something?” asks the barber.

“Yeah I wanted a haircut if that’s ok.” Trista replies meekly.

“I’m not sure I’m the right place for you, I don’t really do long hair stuff here.” he replies. 

“That’s fine, I’m looking for something reeeeally short.” Trista answers back. 

“If that’s the case, then come have a seat right here.” the barber responds as he pats the back of the chair.

“By the way, my name is James, what’s yours?” the barber asks.  

“Trista, nice to meet you.” she replies. 

“Nice to meet you too, so what did you want done?” James asks. 

“Soooo, that’s one of the things that I hope you can help me with, I don’t actually know.  I need something that will make people think I’m tough.” says Trista.

“Tough eh?  You look like the type of person who couldn’t hold a frown for more than 5 sec..” James says before being interrupted.

“5 seconds yeah yeah, I’ve heard that one before.  Let me give you some more details, I’m actually a professional wrestler.  The gimmick that I want to use is not believable based on my personality and how I look at the moment.  Soooo since it’s pro wrestling, it’s ok to be flamboyant and unique, actually it’s a bonus if you stand out.” Trista says. 

“Ok, and you want to leave it up to me to figure it out?”  James says as he laughs.

“Yeah, so like I can tell you what I don’t want, and maybe you can figure out something that fits my criteria. I don’t want it to just be like a standard buzzcut, or my head completely shaved, it needs to have more style than that.  I also don’t want it to have some sort of style that might fall apart while I’m in the ring.  My sweat will make anything that requires my hair to be styled to fail pretty quickly.  Is there anything that fits what I want?” says Trista.

“Hmm, yeah there’s a few options I can think of.” James responds.

Trista smiles and says, “Yaaay, I’ll leave my hair in your capable hands then.”

 

Sensing victory

James unfurls a cape around Trista, then wraps a paper neck strip around her neck before snapping it tight around her.  He then clips a number 1 guard onto his clippers and says as he laughs, “Just remember, you asked for this.” 

 

Trista instinctively puts her hands up to cover her mouth, as she prepares for what’s about to happen.  James clicks the clippers on, a loud whirr slightly startles Trista as she pops in her seat slightly.  He then places the clippers at the front of her forehead and pulls back.  Long strands of brown hair cascade into her lap.  James goes over the top of her head continuously, front to back, the pile of hair growing ever larger.  Trista slowly puts her hands down from her face, as they’re starting to catch loose strands of the long hair.  She keeps her head still as she looks slightly down at the huge pile of hair in her lap.  Her eyes widen at how much is there, knowing that he’s only on the top of her head.  

 

As he finishes going over the top of her head, Trista can now notice the cool breeze of the air conditioning hit the newly buzzed part.  “I’m going to absolutely freeze to death in air conditioned places after this aren’t I?”  she thinks to herself.  

 

James makes quick work of the rest of her head, buzzing off the length on the left, right, and back of her head.  The pile of hair in her lap has become enormous, as Trista now sits there with a number 1 buzz all over.  James removes the guard from his clippers and heads back to work on Trista.  He places the clippers at her neckline on the back of her head, then pushes up, removing the hair all the way up to where the side of her head curves to meet the top of her head where he abruptly stops.  James repeats this process over the rest of the back of her head, then the left side, and then the right side.  

 

James clicks the clippers off, and inspects his work.  He goes back a couple of times with the clippers to ensure the line going around the top of her head is even.  Now satisfied with his work, James sets down the clippers and walks away from his station for a moment.  He returns with a hot towel that he wraps around Trista’s head.  The newfound coldness has been replaced with a very comforting warmth surrounding her head.  She closes her eyes to enjoy the warmth, but it’s short lived as James removes the towel much quicker than Trista would have liked.  

 

James slathers warm shaving cream all over the sides and back of Trista’s head.  He wipes his hands off, grabs his straight razor and gets to work.  Slowly he scrapes away at Trista’s head, each pass of the razor removes the zero guard stubble, and leaves a completely smooth path of skin in its wake.  After the razor finishes the job of removing all the stubble on the side and back of Trista’s head, James sets it down on the counter.  He runs his hands over the newly shaved parts of Trista’s head to make sure it’s completely smooth.  Trista closes her eyes and enjoys the hands running over the newly shaved part of her head.

 

“I think you’re all set, ready to see?” asks James.

“I’m not sure I’m ready, but I don’t have much of a choice do I?” says Trista.

James laughs, “I guess not, you have to look in a mirror at some point.

 

James removes the cape from Trista and lets the massive pile of hair fall onto the floor.  He drapes the cape over another one of the chairs, and grabs his mirror from the counter.  Trista takes a deep breath as James brings the mirror to her face.  

 

“Holy shit.” Trista exclaims, as she looks at herself in the mirror, and sees her new military jarhead recon haircut.  (Haircut sample for reference: https://imgur.com/a/Vv5iCvv)

She instinctively puts her hands on her head and rubs it, exploring all the new sensations.   

A smile breaks through from her immediate shock, “This will absolutely work.”  she says.  

“That’s excellent, I’m glad this’ll do.” says James.  

‘How much do I owe you?” asks Trista.

“Ten dollars ma’am.” responds James.

“What!  I was paying 60 dollars for haircuts at my previous salon.”  says Trista, as she pulls out money from her purse to pay James.  

“Well you can come here easily 6 more times then.”  says James as he laughs.  

Trista responds, “I’ll for sure be back… provided the gimmick works of course.”  

 

Trista takes a couple selfies from the chair, then happily scampers out of the shop.   She sends the selfies to John, her promoter friend, who replies with “We can absolutely do something with this.”  The reply makes Trista beam with happiness, as she goes back and forth with John via text on how they can make the gimmick work. 

 

Applying the submission

In the leadup to the next show, John has been promoting a mystery wrestler in the main event.  The local wrestling community in the area has been buzzing about who it could possibly be.  It’s not uncommon these days for bigger wrestlers from AEW, Impact or recently released WWE wrestlers to make surprise appearances at an independent show.  

 

Trista has had to play dumb with her friends asking about it, on account of her being good friends with John, they believe they’d have some inside information.  Even when Kat and Tracy ask her if she was booked for the show she’s had to act like she doesn’t know, and say she’s unsure if John will have anything for her.  Her and John are trying to keep things under wraps as much as possible to generate buzz.  

 

The day of the show, Trista goes back to the barber to ensure she looks as fresh as possible.  Later that night when she heads to the venue she shows up early and parks multiple blocks away.  She puts up on her hoodie, flips up the hood and makes her way to the venue.  Once there she heads to a room John has saved where she can change into her gear, and chill until it’s her time without anyone noticing.  They’ve taken many precautions to ensure that the surprise stays a surprise.  

 

As the show goes on, the butterflies in Trista’s stomach continue to increase.  When it becomes time for her entrance, her anxiety is at its highest it’s been in a long time.  She can hear the music she chose kick in, that’s her cue to head out of the room she’s been hiding in for a couple hours, and head down to the ring.  Trista pops up the hood over her head, lowers her head, then makes her way to the arena. 

 

Victorious

Once out there, one of the stagehands hands her a microphone.  The crowd quiets down slightly, but she can still hear many people talking and whispering amongst themselves trying to figure out who it is.  She brings the microphone up to her mouth and begins to talk.  The crowd murmurs among themselves more, many of them realizing who is hiding beneath the hoodie.  

 

Trista delivers her promo to the crowd, her first attempt to make them connect with her new character.  She talks about her frustration with her continued losses, how she can’t be herself, and how she’s willing to do anything to change her fate.  At this moment she unzips her hoodie, removes her hood and throws it on the ground.  The audience gasps at the first sight of her new look, what feels like the complete opposite of how they’ve seen her for years.  

 

She looks up at her opponent, points to them with a huge smile on her face, her dimples popping out more than ever and finishes her promo, “I’m gonna kick you so hard that it’s going to crack your ribs and deflate your lungs.”  

 

The crowd has mixed reactions between cheering, and laughing.  To Trista, as long as they aren’t booing her, that’s a winning reaction.  She can prove her bruiser style in the ring and win over the fans who are laughing.  

 

The match itself doesn’t last long, only a few minutes, but it does exactly what Trista needed.  She delivers rib shattering kicks, the loudest slaps to the chest of anyone all night, and finishes her opponent off with a painful looking submission.  When the referee raises her hand in victory, the crowd cheers for her louder than after her promo, the laughs have gone away after seeing what she can do in the ring.  It’s clear to Trista that even if only for one night, her new gimmick works, a huge victory.

 

As she makes her way to the back, she’s greeted first by John. 

“Congratulations, I’m glad the audience was able to connect with what you wanted to do.”  he says to her. 

“Thank you for the push that I needed, I had to get out of the rut I was in before, and I think I’m out of it now.”  says Trista as she hugs John.

 

Kat and Tracy run up to her while she’s talking to John. 

 

“What the FUCK Trista, why didn’t you tell us any of this?”  Kat asks incredulously.

“Come on, this is wrestling, you know I can’t spoil surprises.”  responds Trista as she laughs.

“Well, whatever you had in store certainly worked.  That crowd was electric after you won.”  said Tracy.

“You’re right about that aren’t you.  So I’ll text you two my barber, and you can head there sometime next week.”  says Trista.

“Huh, what are you talking about?” asks Tracy.

“You two said you’d do anything to join up with me if it worked.” Trista responds.

“You can’t expect us to do that though.” says Kat.

“And why not?  You said you’d do anything.” says Trista.

“Well.. it’s just…” Tracy begins to say before being interrupted.

“So I’ll see you two there on Monday then?” Trista says more forcefully.

Kat and Tracy look at each other, after realizing she’s serious, they respond in sync, “Yeah… we’ll be there.”  

“Great!  I’ll see you then!” says Trista as her face lights up.  

 

Trista skips back to her dressing room gleefully, as Kat and Tracy look at each other bewildered about the situation.  They each grab strands of their hair to play with as they sullenly walk back to their locker room.  

 

 

References:

Minoru Suzuki – https://prowrestling.fandom.com/wiki/Minoru_Suzuki

Bryan Danielson – https://prowrestling.fandom.com/wiki/Daniel_Bryan

Walter – https://prowrestling.fandom.com/wiki/WALTER

Jon Moxley – https://prowrestling.fandom.com/wiki/Dean_Ambrose

Giulia  – (bonus buzzcut pic for those who made it this far) https://prowrestling.fandom.com/wiki/Giulia

Tam Nakano – https://prowrestling.fandom.com/wiki/Tam_Nakano

Stardom – https://prowrestling.fandom.com/wiki/World_Wonder_Ring_Stardom

AEW – https://prowrestling.fandom.com/wiki/All_Elite_Wrestling

Impact – https://prowrestling.fandom.com/wiki/Impact_Wrestling

WWE – https://prowrestling.fandom.com/wiki/WWE