(Gabriel was used with permission from Mark)
The Go Gym had a proud tradition of producing future SCW Stars, it was run by two SCW Hall of Famers In Gabriel and Odette Stevens after all, and this year was no different! Enter “The French Rose” Adrienne Beaufort, an eighteen year old black belt in judo and karate turned wrestler who was the latest wrestler to graduate from the Go Gym and to the SCW roster! Her debut match would take place at Climax Control 316 where she was opening the night against fellow debutee Chloe Benton! Can Adrienne pick up the win in her first match?
Caleb’s home, Las Vegas, Nevada
Thursday the 11th of November 2021, 18:00pm
Such is life.
You’ve probably seen me in a few group shots whenever Krystal invited the 2021 Go Gym Class backstage to a show, though it has been a while since that last happened on the regular no thanks to SCW/SCU going back on the road I have been there, so who am I you ask?
My name is Adrienne Beaufort, AKA “The French Rose” and no, you get no prizes for guessing how I got that nickname! I am originally from Paris, France but I moved to the US a few years ago to start training at the Go Gym even though I turned eighteen a few weeks ago, so how did someone who’s still in her teens pull this off?
Well, it’s complicated but I’ll give you the short version, officially I joined the Go Gym as part of the 2020 class, the same class that bled into the 2021 class because of the pandemic, at the age of seventeen, unofficially? I had been training there since I was sixteen, why did I start so young? Part of it was the fact that I was willing to do anything to make it in the wrestling business, but the other part is the fact that I was a martial artist before I joined.
How good was I you ask? Oh, just a first degree black belt in judo and a second degree black belt in karate, and before you suggest anything unsavoury about my relationship with Gabriel? Aside from the age difference, I made it clear to both of them that I am a lesbian, there was nothing really traumatic and/or dramatic about that fact, I just happened to be a young woman who had no sexual interest in men and plenty of sexual interest in women, pity that I can’t find a girlfriend though.
Speaking off, that brings me to why I’m here at Caleb’s home today, much as I’d like to say that it was to see Lemmy (what can I say? I love dogs!) it was to do with what happened at High Stakes XI, I knew Katie from the Go Gym and by extension I knew Caleb, they were good people, I got on well with them both, that’s why it broke my heart to hear that Caleb’s arm was broken during his Internet Title Match.
How does that concern me? Well……..
“Lemmy, back off.” I heard Katie pull back her excited Labrador as I waited for her to answer the door, seconds later the New Yorker did just that. “Adrienne, you made it!”
”Oui, though I do wish that it was under better circumstances.” I nodded with a sigh before I knelt down to stroke Lemmy. ”How is Caleb doing?”
“Not well.” Katie sighed before she led me into the house, I saw Caleb sitting at the kitchen table with his arm in a heavy cast and I shook my head sympathetically. “Caleb, you have the contract that we went over with the bosses right?”
”Right here.” Caleb nodded before using his good hand to produce the contract and placed it on the table. ”Signed by both parties and executed by our lawyers, I take it Katie went over this with you Adrienne.”
”If she hadn’t, I wouldn’t have signed the contract and I wouldn’t be here.” I responded as I shook my head before sitting at their table. ”I had dreamed of making my SCW debut for years, I just wish that it didn’t have to be this way.”
“You and me both but the truth is? Caleb’s going to be out for a year at most and we’re not sure if he’ll be the same wrestler he was before the injury when he does come back off the shelf.” Katie explained and I nodded as I got the idea. “I needed to do something to keep the income coming, but I don’t feel ready enough as I wrestler to step inside the ring.”
”Which is where I come in.” I commented with a nod before going over the contract, it was still Caleb’s old contract, but Katie had taken it over after the injury and had negotiated our current arrangement with the bosses. ”You realize that you’re hedging your bets on an eighteen year old who hasn’t even had her first match, right? What’s to stop me from letting you guys down?”
“We know you have a good head on your shoulders Adrienne, otherwise I would’ve gone with Caitlin.” Katie admitted and I nodded as I got the idea. “Beyond that, you’re a natural in the ring, there’s a reason you were the top of the 2021 class.”
”I know but you can’t deny that there’s been some horror stories about people my age getting a deal like this and letting it go to their heads.” I nodded in response before I let out a deep breath. ”Only thing left to do is to fill out the application form, yes?”
”Pretty much, but I can walk you through that process.” Caleb offered, and I nodded with a grin on my face. ”Though from what I’ve heard the process is pretty much identical for Superstars and Bombshells.”
“Wouldn’t surprise me.” Katie nodded before I felt Lemmy’s nose against my arm and looked down, seeing the doggo had brought me his tennis ball. “Adrienne, I know you moved to America hoping to wrestle for Sin City Wrestling but are you sure you’ll be ready for this?
”Hard to say, Gabriel and Odette have trained me well, but I’d be lying if I said that the nerves weren’t completely there.” I admitted before patting Lemmy on the head and taking the tennis ball from his mouth, if we were outdoors I probably would’ve given it a decent throw but I wasn’t about to break Caleb’s windows, so I just gave it a small throw which Lemmy caught with ease. ”How are you going to handle Lemmy going out for walks with Caleb’s arm and all? That’s his dominant hand that’s n the cast, right?”
“Right, I’ll be walking Lemmy whilst we’re in Vegas, whilst we’re on the road? I’ve got in contact with a professional dog walker, specializes in breeds that are around Lemmy’s size or bigger, he’ll be handling the walks for Lemmy whilst we’re outside of Vegas.” Katie explained as she scratched the Labrador behind the ear. “We did briefly consider taking him back to the rescue centre we took him from, but we quickly agreed that that wasn’t an option.”
”Good, I don’t think Fenris, or Candy would’ve let you hear the end of it if you had.” I responded with a grin before Lemmy plopped down at our feet. ”Speaking off Fenris, next year’s Go Gym class should be starting tomorrow.”
“Same deal as my class? Same number of men and women?” Katie asked and I nodded knowing that that was the standard. “Who knows? Maybe you’ll find your girlfriend among the women?”
”Maybe, maybe not, I’m not sure how Gabriel and Odette feel about trainees and graduates getting into relationships with each other, regardless of whether it’s straight or gay.” I responded as I shook my head and they nodded in understanding. ”I’ll be paying the Go Gym a visit when my debut match gets announced, need to start training and I’m sure Gabriel will want a chat with me about my debut match.”
“Knowing how frequently he’s chatted with Krystal about her matches, that wouldn’t surprise me.” Katie nodded as Lemmy rolled onto his side and gave his legs a big stretch. “Or disciplinary hearings.”
”You mean the Tempest incident? I don’t know what was more painful, being Tempest’s first sparring partner after Krystal made those tweets or just telling Krystal that Gabriel wanted to see her and the argument that ensued.” I responded with a groan as I thought back to that day. ”At least I managed to check off “use crane kick in match” off my bucket list, even if Tempest caught my leg and flipped me over.”
“And Gabriel told you never to do that again because you were this close to landing on your head.” Katie reminded me and I shook my head, what had actually happened was that I had tried to land on my feet and try to save face, but there wasn’t nearly enough height on the flip for that and I ended up landing on my chest instead and for a brief scary moment it looked like I was going to land on my head and end my wrestling career before it even started.
That moment may have been brief but it still caused Odette to call off the sparring match and Gabriel to call me into his office to tell me all the reasons why I should never try something like that again, what can I say? The Go Gym’s like a big happy, dysfunctional as hell family and Gabriel and Odette are the proud parents in that analogy, and yeah, that comes with all the arguments you can expect.
Would I trade it for anything? Probably not.
Go Gym, Las Vegas, Nevada
Monday the 15th of November 2021, 06:00am
If you thought my nerves were all over the place before my debut match was announced, try imagining how I felt after it was announced!
On paper, the match is fairly straight forward, I’m facing Chloe Benton in our mutual debut match, which also happens to be opening this week’s episode of Climax Control because clearly, there’s not enough pressure on my shoulders, what with me opening one of the last shows of 2021!
I watched from the side as the new class of Go Gym trainees went through their training routines, starting with the guys as they had won the coin toss, it was something I knew all too well from when I had officially started my training this time last year.
Only difference? My match time back then wasn’t interrupted by Gabriel calling me into his office.
“Well Adrienne, after years of effort, you’ve made it.” Gabriel commented as I stepped into his office, and I grinned before sitting down opposite him. “You are the first from last year’s class to debut on Climax Control, how are you feeling?”
”Full disclosure? Nervous as hell.” I admitted before shifting my weight. ”I’m opening one of the last Climax Controls of the year, against a fellow rookie in Chloe Benton, someone who’s only two years older than me and is shorter and weighs in lower than me, what can go wrong?” I asked with a shrug, but Gabriel could tell what I was actually thinking, as for my kinda broken English? Look, I’ve only lived in America for a few years now, my English is pretty good but French is my first language.
“It is normal to feel nervous before a match, doesn’t matter if it’s your first or one hundredth match.” Gabriel assured me breaking my train of thought in the process as I looked up at him. “As for Chloe? From what Krystal has told me, she’s a sweetheart but she has minimal training and doesn’t have entrance music, much less a wrestling style, that is where you have the advantage.”
”Oui, I might be a rookie, but I’ve incorporated my martial arts background into my wrestling style and am quite apt at the submission game.” I nodded as I felt my confidence grow a bit. ”I would say that’s it’s a good thing I’m not facing anyone with more experience than me or Chloe but let’s face it, that’s the rest of the Bombshell roster!”
“That is indeed the case, but you can only learn from being in the ring with veterans, I’m not saying go out there and challenge the likes of Myra Rivers to a match next week, but it’ll be a learning experience.” Gabriel explained and I nodded as I got the idea. “And do try to avoid any crane kicks in your match against Chloe.”
”I’m never living that sparring match against Tempest down, am I?” I sighed in response and Gabriel shook his head.
“Adrienne, if you had landed on your head, you would’ve been lucky to be paralyzed which would’ve meant the end of your wrestling career.” Gabriel reminded me and I lowered my head knowing that he was right. “And that would’ve been the least of your troubles, your lucky that you were able to complete that rotation that land on your chest.”
”Would’ve been cooler if I hand landed on my feet like I intended, that’s all I’m saying.” I responded with a shrug and a grin, but Gabriel’s disapproving look told me to drop it. ”Gabriel, you know my martial arts background and you know how athletic I am! I would’ve pulled it off if I had more height on the flip!”
“What I know is that the risk is too great, even with those factors.” Gabriel reminded me and I nodded reluctantly. “I’m only telling you this out of concern for your well being Adrienne, you went through a lot of effort to get to this point, and I don’t want to see it go to waste.”
”Fine, I get it!” I grunted in annoyance before I stood up. ”Can I go? I’ve got a debut match to prepare for!”
“By all means.” Gabriel nodded and I went to leave his office. “By the way, are you still searching for a girlfriend?”
”Unfortunately, yes.” I sighed as I folded my arms with an annoyed huff. ”I would’ve thought being a lesbian wrestler would make the process easy, but for every taken gay chick, there’s at least two that are straight and at least one that doesn’t believe in relationships.” I sighed again before blowing some hair out of my face. ”Odette keeps telling me that Mrs. Right will come along eventually but it’s been three years since I came out of the closet and I’m no closer to getting a girlfriend!”
“I can only say the same thing, the right person will come, it’s all about patience.” Gabriel assured me and I nodded reluctantly. “You were already patient enough to wait as long as you did to officially train here.”
”Don’t I know it!” I sighed before I left his office to resume training.
Go Gym parking lot, Las Vegas, Nevada
Monday the 15th of November 2021, 18:00pm
Just like riding a bicycle.
The day at the Go Gym was much like any of the ones I spent whilst I was still a trainee but it did allow me to prepare for the upcoming match against Chloe so it’s not all bad.
Has it helped with my nerves? Honestly? No, I’ve been told by two different people that feeling nervous before a match including one of the people that trained me so maybe I should relax a bit and go with the flow,
Then again, I’m a black belt in two different martial arts, combat sports were basically my thing before I moved to the US so this should be a breeze, right?
“Oh hey, Adrienne right?” My train of though was cut off by a feminine voice and I glanced up, I recognized her as one of the new trainees at the school who, much like me, had come from overseas to train at the Go Gym, in her case it was New Zealand and I had to admit, she was gorgeous with elbow length black hair and blue eyes. “Just wanted to wish you luck in your Climax Control debut.” She added and I grinned as I stopped packing away my stuff.
”Thanks, I think I’m going to need it.” I responded as I turned to the other woman and, well, it couldn’t be more obvious that she was the eldest between the two of us but the gap wasn’t that big, maybe a couple of years at most. ”I’ll feel better once the match is over and done with I guess.”
“Yeah, I guess so.” She nodded in agreement and for a moment I could’ve sworn she was checking me out, it wasn’t exactly a secret that I was a lesbian, I included it in my application for SCW for crying out loud, so I guess I should expect that kind of attention from other LGTBQ wrestlers but that was assuming that she was looking me over for that reason off course. “When are you traveling up to San Jose for Climax Control?”
”First thing tomorrow, I won’t really know anyone personally who isn’t a Go Gym Graduate, but it’s not like SCW doesn’t have them in short supply.” I responded with a shrug as I leaned against my car. ”I don’t think I caught your name.”
“Oh, right, sorry my names Amanda, most people just call me Mandy.” Mandy responded with a nod before she stepped a bit closer and, well, I’m not sure how she acted exactly but she seemed to be flirting with me in the most awkward way possible, if I didn’t suspect that she was developing a crush on me before I did now, but she started to walk off before I could really respond. “Good luck on Climax Control, I’ll be watching.”
”Err, yeah, thanks!” I called out to her before Mandy left, I shook my head before I got in my car stopped to think things over. ”I don’t know if there were openly lesbian roster members before Team Hero, but I’m probably the first to be under the age of twenty, so off course I’m getting that kind of attention.” I muttered to myself as “Haven” by Kamelot started to play. ”She seems nice but if she starts flirting with me again, I’m definitely asking her if she has feelings for me, wouldn’t be the first time I’ve helped someone realize that they were gay.” I added before I pulled out of the parking lot and headed home.
Hiking through Jedediah Smith Redwood State Park, San Jose, California
Tuesday the 16th of November 2021, 13:00pm
*promo time*
What can I say? I like to hike, and this seems like a good spot for my promo so why not?
”Bonjour, je m'appelle Adrienne Beaufort et ce dimanche je fais mes débuts à la Sin City Wrestling! Okay, I swear, the rest of my promo won’t be in French! But for those who don’t speak my native tongue, I just said “hello, my name is Adrienne Beaufort and this Sunday I am making my debut for Sin City Wrestling!”, whoever wrote the match preview for this week’s card has already told you a little about me, that I am a French wrestler who graduated from the famed Go Gym who is taking on Chloe Benton in our mutual debut match but allow me to fill in some blanks before we start talking about Chloe, shall we?”
I asked with a playful smile as I leaned against a nearby tree.
”For starters, I’m eighteen, making me the youngest wrestler to debut for this promotion in quite a while and prior to my training at the Go Gym I already had some combat sport experience, how much you ask? I am the proud owner of two martial arts black belts! Second degree in Judo and first degree in Karate to be precise and I’ve incorporated my skills as a martial artist into my wrestling skill set so, whilst this is my first ever match, anyone who faces me will be a fool to underestimate me! Shame that my opponent is such a sweetheart though.”
Yep, here’s the other thing.
”Chloe Benton, as previously stated we our facing each other in what will be the debut match for both of us! But here’s the thing, I’ve been training for this for a long time, you? Your training is so minimal that you don’t have a wrestling style, hell you don’t even have entrance music so what am I supposed to expect from a performer like you? I want to say a good competitive match, but I sadly don’t see that happening!”
Such is life.
”Let me make one thing perfectly clear Chloe, I want you to prove me wrong on Sunday, we’re competing in the opening match of what will be one of the last Climax Controls of 2021 and SCW is coming off the hugely successful High Stakes XI so the eyes of the wrestling world will be on the product, and I just realized how much pressure that’s putting on the two of us, let alone ou so, yeah, oops.”
Yikes!
”But you know what they say, diamonds are made under pressure! And well, what can go wrong when two rookie wrestlers are opening the night in a match against each other? Great, I just had to go and open my big mouth whilst conducting my very first SCW promo, I knew I should’ve had Katie walk me through this but no, I had to do all by myself to prove that I could do things on my own! Where was I again?”
Oh, right!
”What I’m getting at is that the pressure is on both of us to put on a good show for those who have never seen us wrestle before, which is pretty much everyone who’s never set foot inside the Go Gym in my case and, well, pretty much everyone for you Chloe so yeah, the most I can say is good luck and may the best French lesbian who happens to be a martial artist turned wrestler win!”
Somehow that doesn’t seem all that fair.
”Yeah, that wasn’t exactly fair, especially since I’m new to this whole promo thing and I am trying to be nice because it’s like I said, Chloe you are a sweetheart and in all my years of watching SCW I’ve never seen anyone call Christian “Mr. Underwood” and I’ve been watching SCW since it opened, back when I was eight years old and back in my home country of France! And if that doesn’t make the bosses feel old as heck I don’t know what will honestly!”
Enough of reminding the bosses about how long their promotion has been running though.
”Okay, I’m going to stop rubbing the bosses the wrong way by reminding them that SCW is ten years old, starting now! Chloe, the world will be watching us make our debuts on Sunday, but I need to rectify something because this time last year Krystal became the first Go Gym Graduate to lose her SCW debut, now don’t get me wrong, Krystal has made great strides since then and she earned those awards at High Stakes, but I feel I need to set things right with my debut! Sure, Tempest righted the ship with her in ring debut but I’m out to prove that that wasn’t a fluke!”
It's that simple!
“Chloe, I do genuinely wish you luck in our debut match, both because I’m a nice person like that and because I think you’re going to need it against a competitor like me! This will be a tough challenge for us both and I look forward to showing the world what I can do when I make my SCW and professional wrestling debut on Sunday, I just wish that it wasn’t against a sweetheart like you, but beggars can’t be choosers I guess!”
And with that I decided to wrap things up.
”My journey into wrestling may seem atypical of most Go Gym students but I won’t lie and say that I haven’t taken a rather unusual detour along the way, Chloe you’re a sweetheart but you also happen to be my first ever opponent, both in wrestling and in SCW and that’s bad news for you because I am “The French Rose” Adrienne Beaufort and whilst this rose is beautiful whilst in bloom, you should beware of her sharp thorns! I’ll see you on Sunday!”
I resumed my hiking after a playful wink and a blown kiss to the camera as the scene fades.
