Hit Me With Your Best Shot (Post-VBMT2020 Day #14)

When Morgan Payne holds the Silver Mountain Champion up in an Argentine backbreaker rack position with her Dahntahn After Dark inverted Death Valley driver in mind, Cass’s eyes grow wide and desperate! She tries to squirm out of the hold, scratching and clawing at the Kingdom member’s back until she stumbles back to her feet with a relieved sigh. As the crowd unites like one singular hivemind to let Cass know her effort isn’t in vain, Baumer puts her girl’s varsity soccer tactics to great use when she cuts back and nails the Pittsburg native with a dropkick to the back of the knee! Running the ropes like she’d run the pitch, Baumer shouts and leaps to kick her friend with a powerful Bleeding Edge instep drive straight to the chin! Scurrying to reach underneath Morgan’s armpit from behind, she pulls Payne back to her feet with a half nelson and drills her down with a Fact Check somersault reverse DDT! Already exhausted after her first match of the Vlad Blackheart Memorial Tournament, she hooks the leg on Day #2 while the fast-paced video package moves onto Day #4.

As soon as Cass throws Remi Fortaine onto the apron, she rushes at him with a reckless Fly By Night spear suicida only to get dazed when all her momentum slams into the Rebel Angel’s well-timed knee to the skull! He follows this up with a sunset flip powerbomb, the pin combo scoring a two count until Cass kicks out with urgency! After a running busaiku knee he calls the Big Bang Attack strikes her in the same spot the earlier knee connected, Cass lies on her back fighting unconsciousness with little rest between matches. At the same time, Rémiel climbs the top rope intending to end the bout with a spectacular #GetWrecked phoenix splash. However, Cass climbs back to her feet with help from the ropes before he could jump and joins him in the precarious position to the audience’s delight. The two are evenly matched with hard strikes back and forth until the DTW Death Dojo student hits a Japanese flying arm drag to knock them back to the ring! As soon as the two arduously make it back to their feet, Cass counters a charging Remi to hit her Miramira spear dropped into a lifting side slam! She gets the pin, shock written on her olive-skinned expression as she surveys the crowd’s endorsement while she holds the Silver Mountain Championship overhead. A stylized leaderboard shows the top Block B rankings after that match recap.


Next, it’s Day #6 when she counters Angel Kash’s Kashflow double knee facebreaker with an impromptu slam and then hits a snap release German suplex. She catches Angel with a Bleeding Edge just like she did to Morgan, then drives it home with a Fact Check! The refreshed leaderboard overlays Cass’s bright smile with white text and green tribal designs to match the tournament’s aesthetics.

Notably, Sela-Rica Lark failed to hold onto her top spot while the other three continued to hold tight in a three-way tie. When we reach Day #8, Debby Haze disco dances into an elbow drop, missing the mark when Cass rolls out of the way. When the Disco Diva climbs to her feet, she’s caught with a snap release German suplex too! The Silver Mountain Champion stands to the audience’s delight, playfully disco dancing poorly while she stalks Debby climbing to her feet. Immediately, she strikes and hits a running Fact Check with emphasis!

Cass Baumer: 8

Maki fell out of her top spot too. Still, the video package continues to show a confident Sela-Rica Lark knocking Cass off the apron with a Roughhouse springboard German suplex that sends Baumer crumbling to ringside! The conniving Underground Queen gets back into the ring to allow the referee to start the count of twenty. He neared the number twelve when a dazed Cass began to stir as she tries to catch her bearings in her most challenging match of the tournament thus far, then stood with wobbly legs at the count of sixteen. The effects of all these matches so close together like this started to wear down her body. Yet, when the count of nineteen reverberated throughout the Collision Center, Cass groggily rolls back into the ring.

Instead of taking advantage, Sela-Rica argues with the referee about the speed of the count! With this distraction, Cass hobbles to her feet and delivers a strained Fact Check! Shouts of joy blanket the arena as the Silver Mountain Champ collapses on top of Lark without the leg hook and earns the three count on Day #10.

With a face covered in blood from an eyebrow wound suffered earlier in the bout, Maki and Cass clash in the middle of the ring on Day #12. With fury in her eyes, the high school wingback slide tackles a leg out from under Maki. Then she hits the ropes to come back and deliver a ruthless Bleeding Edge! With her support foot beside Maki’s head after the running start, she swings her kicking leg swiftly forward to connect her laces with Maki’s now-bleeding forehead! One-half of Asian Persuasion looks incensed by the sight of her blood, following up with a Makihouse Kick! Baumer, running on adrenaline with blood dripping down her face too, arches her back to matrix dodge the kick in a sudden burst of athletism that surprises everyone in the arena! Transitioned into a Fact Check, she sends her rival crashing down into the steel beams, and wood surface only topped with thin foam padding and a canvas cover!

This is it. Day #14. Anton versus Cass. The Vlad Blackheart Memorial Tournament is far from over, but the stakes are at an all-time high when the two of them battle back and forth. Anton controls the majority of the bout, using his striking ability to keep Cass on the defensive. Through it all, the Silver Mountain Champion stays in the fight and asks for more! Crowley scowls and hits Cass with a hellacious backdrop driver he calls The Fall, but Cass kicks out with an audible gasp of disbelief! Anton looks visibly frustrated, running at her with aggression to hit his ad stellam matutinam kick only to notice the Kiwi dodge and follow through with a headbutt to the nose! Now that Anton is stunned, Cass hits him with a chop block before nailing the same Bleeding Edge that scored her goal after goal throughout this grueling tournament, but Anton stays in the fight!

Cass tries to regroup quickly, visibly distraught as she tugs Crowley into a half nelson to hit the Fact Check when Anton breaks out of it before it could connect! Running at the ropes, he darts back to hit the clothesline from Hell that flips Cass to the mat! She struggles to breathe after the clothesline, writhing in pain from all she’s suffered in the past two weeks. She didn’t know when the bandage around her head fell off, but she could feel the warmth of the blood drip down her cheek from the wound Maki afflicted. And now she’s caught in Crowley’s The Mark anaconda vice submission hold. Crying and pleading out for mercy, she begged for the pain to stop, but she refused to tap! She called Anton a co-champion in an attempt to lower his guard to break free, prayed aloud to God that the demon would spare her from his grip, and to her shock, her prayers have been answered.

When Cass hears the bell, she visibly expects the worst. Was the match ended via stoppage? No. The time limit has expired.

Now at ringside after Anton has left through the curtain, Cass slams her shoulder against the ring post a couple of times to restore her blood circulation after The Mark did its job. Backstage interviewer Josh Davidson, dressed in a freshly pressed blue suit with a pink collared undershirt, grins gently to the camera and stops the Silver Mountain Champion as she does recovery exercises.

Josh Davidson: Hello! I’m here with Block 2 standout Cass Baumer who has been doing phenomenal throughout this Vlad Blackheart Memorial Tournament thus far. How are you feeling?

With her hand cupping her elbow and her palm upwards, she bends and straightens her arm again. Up close, Cass looks exhausted with dark bags under her eyes. The title belt wraps around her waist as she listens to his spiel.

Cass Baumer: Numb. I mean— that vice really did a number on my blood vessels, eh? You know that feeling when your leg falls asleep. That pins and needles feeling. Yeah. That’s my arm right now. And hell, I’m knackered! It’s like seven sixteen-wheelers have run over me in two goddamn weeks! But that numbness? That’s my biggest concern right now.

The fast-talking Kiwi wasn’t short on words as she opens and closes her hand with her opposite hand continuing to support her elbow.

Josh Davidson: Well, I hope you get well soon! Especially with the knowledge, you’ll have more matches to fight in no time at all. Are you going to be able to continue at this same pace?

Cass Baumer: Yeah nah.

Josh looks surprised at the response while Cass smiles smugly. The pause only lasts a second, if that.

Cass Baumer: I’mma go twice as hard for the rest of the tournament 'cause that’s the shit it’s gonna take to walk out with that trophy at the end of it all. Tonight's performance won't cut it! Hell, everything I've done 'til now in NFW isn't enough either! I'm out here tryna show I've got what it takes to represent NFW at its peak on a worldwide scale, and I encourage everyone else in this thing to give me that Pat Benatar treatment!

Cass unhooks her Silver Mountain Championship from her waist and raises it in front of the camera’s view with pride.

Cass Baumer: From the beginning, Mr Brody announced the Vlad Blackheart Memorial Tournament as a ‘true test of skill and endurance.’ So this... when we're all tired and worn... is where things really get difficult. For all of us. We're in the endgame now, and I don't know what's gonna happen next.

After snapping with a flourish to the camera, Cass slowly limps out of frame with a serious expression on her face as Josh Davidson signs off.