BCW Pt. 05: The Spark that Glowed

*I am not affiliated with World Wrestling Entertainment, the original 'Gorgeous Ladies of Wrestling', or Netflix's GLOW. This story is fiction. If this is your first time reading one of these, BCW takes place in an alternate universe, the same alternate universe as parts 1 through 4. While even though WWE ring names are used a different name is used because a different roster exists. It is completely separate from anything that's happened in WWE, and did not actually happen.*

*It was a couple weeks after the Rumble. Charlotte, the blonde, second generation ultra-fit superstar was hungry for another chance at winning back the Women's Title. She happened to be the first to show up at RAW in Los Angeles that night. She walked into the empty women's locker room, when she felt something strange happen to her body...

Paige, dubbed the 'enchanting raven-haired lady' by her countryman William Regal, walked into the Women's locker room. When she started to feel a chill in the room, she squinted her eyes. While the room had appeared empty, it did not feel as so...

Sasha Banks, the pink-haired black woman could see upon entering the arena, she was no more than a few paces behind Charlotte and Paige. She saw them turn all the same corners as she did on their way to the locker room for RAW. Then why, she thought, was nobody else in the locker room when she entered it?...

Kaitlyn, the part-blonde, part-brunette physically intimidating woman had a lot on her mind- the BCW Women's roster had just seen an incredible match, that main evented another Pay-Per-View. She was proud of everyone in it, but it also motivated her. Eighteen months prior, she and A.J. Lee main evented a Pay-Per-View, and she wanted to get back there.

That's when her mind rushed with thoughts about A.J.. Just a few weeks ago, the two were involved in one of the most carnal, and sexually exhausting nights of her life, when them and other members of the roster welcomed rookie Eva Marie the best way they knew how. A few weeks later, A.J. welcomed another rookie, Asuka to their world, and A.J. allowed Asuka to turn the tables on her. With a lot on her mind, Kaitlyn was relieved that she was the first one to enter the locker room that week so she could think...

When the Australian Emma, walked into the locker room, she sensed something right away. She had been in the locker rooms of tons of different arenas and she looked all around to try to figure out what was up with this one. She turned to a wall of lockers, walked by one, and that's when it flashed- a light that would blind someone if they looked at it too long. That's when Emma saw the glow in that locker room, that she soon, uncontrollably, found her body infusing with.

Charlotte wondered if she had been asleep. She couldn't have been. Just a few seconds ago she was walking into the locker room for tonight's RAW. Now, she's... she appears to be in a different locker room.

Emma finds herself sitting on a toilet in a stall in a public bathroom. She can't remember how she got here, on a toilet while fully clothed. She shakes her head a few times, and opens the door to the stall. Clearly this isn't the Staples Center. If it is, it would be the worst appearing women's locker room she's been in in BCW.

She sees a rusty metal shelf with toilet paper and various cleaning supplies. The light blue walls and the old cylindrical light fixture give off the impression that this room hasn't been altered in years, and it certainly isn't the locker room she just walked into.

Sasha Banks wakes up sitting on the cold floor against a row of beige metal lockers. She lifts up her knees holding her legs against her and touches her hair and forehead to try to regain a sense of her surroundings.

Paige finds herself on a wooden bench in between an aisle of lockers. This locker room appears shoddier than most of the ones she was in in the independents. She wonders if she's been kidnapped.

She walks past a row of lockers and sees Kaitlyn, lying on her back on another bench. Kaitlyn sits up when she notices Paige walk past her. Paige goes past another row and finds Sasha, confused, and distraught, with a blank look on her face. Paige walks over to Sasha quickly and outstretches her arm and Sasha accepts it. The two meet Kaitlyn without talking and walk a few steps where they see Emma and Charlotte.

The five women look at each other, and look around inquisitively. They all feel light-headed and can sense the uneasiness in the rest of them. Paige and Emma continue to wander around. Feeling the walls, they can all tell that this is not where they should be.

"So we all, felt the same thing right?" Sasha asked.

"Blacked out for a second. Wake up here? Yeah." Paige answered.

"As soon as I stepped through the door of the locker room I just felt a flash and then..." Charlotte just trailed off.

"No one saw A.J.? Or Bayley, Becky? Anyone else?" Kaitlyn asked.

"Nor Eva, or Lita. I don't know, maybe they'll show up here too." Paige said.

"It's like we all, teleported here or something." Emma said, continuing to pace around the room.

The five women approach the door to the locker room which has a clear, square window. Kaitlyn steps ahead of the other four, pauses and looks out the window of the door. She just sees an empty hallway. One that looked nothing like the hallway of the Staples Center.

She hesitates again. The door doesn't have a lock, it just has a handle. Kaitlyn opens it, and peeks her head through the door and sees a small figure approaching.

Kaitlyn closes the door. "There's someone coming." She guides them to all back away from the door to see if the person is coming in, and they wait.

A young woman, with shoulder-length black hair wearing a white tank top opens the door and looks around at the five strange women. To the five women from BCW, this woman, this girl almost, looks pretty normal to them. To this one woman, these five strangers look like they might be from another part of the country.

"I didn't know Sam was already casting more people." She says.

"Casting?" Charlotte repeated.

"You're here to learn how to wrestle right?" She asked.

"Sweetie, we already know how to wrestle." Sasha said sharply.

"O.K. Sorry. I'm Justine, or Scab on-screen, and you're all here for GLOW right?" Justine said trying to be helpful, but also annoyed that there were five new strangers for her to compete for T.V. time with.

"GLOW? Like the show from thirty years ago? The one Ivory was on?" Kaitlyn asked.

"Thirty years ago?" Now Justine was getting annoyed with how confusing this all was. There was no Gorgeous Ladies Of Wrestling thirty years ago, only so few people owned televisions.

"Hang on..." Emma said, "What year is it?"

"1985. If this is Sam's way of hazing us it's not funny." She replied. "Look I just came in here to piss, so you can all go out there and Sam or Bash will be back soon." She brushed past everyone and went into one of the stalls.

The five women took her direction and walked out of the locker room. They went down the hallway and when they turned the corner, it sunk in that they were definitely not in the Staples Center. They were in a gym with a wrestling ring, wooden bleachers for about 500 people and a few workout machines.

The gym was as old-looking as the locker room. There's a staircase outside with an office connected to it. It certainly looked nothing like the BCW Performance Center in Atlanta. There were a few other women in various parts of the gym who all started to look at them as they came in, and wondered who they were, just as the BCW women wondered who these women were.

"GLOW.. 1985." Sasha was thinking out loud. "Girls, do you think we... traveled through time?"

"Come on Sash." Paige said, not believing her. They walk a few more steps into the main room, and observe the rest of the gym. The other women they see, gives more confirmation that they are no longer in the 2010s. Some of the women working in the ring, at the workout machines, have the bigger, more elaborate, 1980s hair styles. Slowly, they stop working and stare at the five intruders.

To the GLOW girls, these five women don't appear to be from another town. Maybe they guessed they weren't from California, but would never believe they came from another time.

"Are, are you all here to audition? Because casting was months ago." A cute, white woman with short curly hair goes over to the BCW women and introduces herself. "I'm Ruth or..." She pauses, "Zoya!" She says her ring name in a Russian accent.

Charlotte shakes her hand and the rest of the GLOW girls who were there come over to them. The five women are intrigued by the diverse, and contrasting appearances of these girls. With their flashy hair and looks, especially the one dressed up as a wolf.

The two groups start to introduce themselves. A pretty blonde woman approaches the BCW women. "Debbie, hi. What are you guys doing here, and how'd you get in?" She introduces herself with a harsh tone. She has already been established as GLOW's top face and doesn't want any of these new women to take her spot, at least not this soon.

Like most of the GLOW girls, Debbie still has little wrestling experience, so she finds difficulty being as intimidating as she'd like to be. Especially looking at Charlotte and Kaitlyn, assuming how easily they could beat her.

Why were they here?... And how did they get here?... Were questions on the minds of everyone in the room. "Back to the Future" had just been released, and Justine, and everyone else who had seen it, are now wondering if 33 years in the future, time travel actually became possible. Paige was realizing she shouldn't have dismissed Sasha just then.

The two groups continue to talk and try to work this situation out. Justine comes back from the locker room and is still as puzzled as everyone. The BCW meet the colorful characters that appeared on television thirty years ago. Like Sheila the She-Wolf, Zoya the Destroyer, Ethel and Edna, two older hair-stylists.

Emma, "So you're all the ladies of GLOW? This is your whole roster?"

"Most of us." Melanie who was portraying 'MelRose', the heavy-partying character answered. "Welfare Queen, our champion, and Junkchain are out doing promotional work somewhere else in L.A.. So is Machu Picchu, she's the daughter and brother of some famous wrestling family. Our esteemed director Sam Sylvia is usually overseeing us, but he's somewhere else in town." Melrose studies, as suspiciously as everyone else, the five women who have appeared from the year 2018.

Emma and Charlotte nod at each other and Charlotte begins, "The five of us, we believe, have traveled through time, back from the year 2018, we wrestle professionally for a company called BCW, and everybody from our time owe you all a lot. Gorgeous Ladies of Wrestling becomes a hit." The GLOW girls all smile and nod, they look at each other excitedly, but are all still amazed that these five women actually traveled through time.

"Yeah," Emma continues, "Some of us weren't born yet when it was on and growing up in Australia, I didn't know what it was at all until much later in my life, but you did all inspire me, and a lot of women wrestlers thirty years from now."

"So, there is a place for lady wrestlers?" asks Vicky the Viking, the tallest, and most physically intimidating women in the room asks. A question that everybody, both in the cast and on the production side, didn't know the answer to before the making of the show began.

"Yeah." Sasha says with a smile. "In a thirty year period there will certainly be some peaks and valleys for the scope of women, but right now, in 2018, we're in one of those peaks. And we're all a big part of it, and as cool as it is to meet you guys, I'd like to go back and enjoy it." Sasha turns away.

"Sasha, where are you going?" Charlotte asks. Sasha doesn't answer and walks back towards the locker room. No one goes after her.

After a few minutes, Paige returns to the locker room they all wound up in, and in those few minutes, Sasha has walked through every inch of the room- the aisle of lockers, the bathroom, the showers. Desperately trying to find out how they all got here.

Paige walks in and sees the frustration on the black woman's face. "C'mon Sash. We're gonna figure this out. We all are." Sasha is pacing through the room, flailing at various parts of the wall.

"How? HOW?! I know 'GLOW' turns out to be a fun show and all, but the present, OUR time, that's where our real, wrestling opportunities are." Sasha argues.

"I know, but we will get back there. Let's go back and work this out okay?" Paige reasons with Sasha and the two youngest BCW women walk back to the main part of the gym.

Sasha stays quiet for a few minutes as the two groups of women continue to talk about how they got here, what exactly they felt as they traveled back to 1985, some of them still feeling nauseous from the apparent jump.

Sasha finally speaks up. "Alright." She looks at the GLOW girls, then to her own group. "We all don't want to talk about how to get back, just how and why we got here? Maybe we're here to help them stay on the air longer-"

Liberty Belle steps forward and confronts Sasha. "On the air longer, do we get cancelled?" Liberty Belle had just been fired from a soap opera and didn't want to have another role with questionable stability.

"Yes." Sasha says

"Really?! So what magic touch do you five have that could-"

Charlotte steps between the two. "She didn't mean it like that. And you guys do have a four and a half year run on the air. And I mean, doesn't every show get cancelled at some point?" She says defending her friend as her temper rises. "Sasha, I think you're on to something. Maybe we are here to help out in some way."

Liberty Belle steps back but is unapologetic.

"Maybe they can help us." Ruth interjects. "If you five are willing that is, maybe it will benefit both of us... BCW and GLOW..." she repeats, trying to make sense of everything... "What is this... A crossover episode?" A few moments of awkward silence pass before Ruth looks around and adds, "My ex would've laughed at that."

**

"Where should we start... What have you guys learned so far?" Charlotte asks.

"Well, we had a real wrestling coach on the first day and he taught us some stuff but he got fired, then Junkchain and Machhu taught us some other things, and we just had our first live event and episode." Melrose recapped.

"A lot of us knew nothing about wrestling. See, I was on a soap opera, and over the course of preparing for our first show, I saw a lot more similarities between the two than I thought." Debbie said.

"Our first show went well, but if you all knew how to make it, and us, even better, and have us be more successful early on, we'd be open to learning. Especially since we only had a real wrestling coach for just one day." Ruth said, as the five BCW pondered exactly what they could teach them, and how that would translate back to getting home.

One thing Ruth and the rest of the GLOW girls take notice of, is that there's no surprise that the five of them are real wrestlers. While GLOW had Vicky and Junkchain, it appeared that in the future everyone, who was a professional wrestler, even smaller, slimmer women like Sasha and Paige, had the impressive, athletic physical statures.

"Yeah. I mean sure we can teach you guys some stuff that has advanced in wrestling in the last thirty- cool you guys have a robot?!" Paige, and the BCW women were immediately distracted as they saw a very 1980s looking robot stroll through the gym.

Sasha was the first to excitedly approach the fascinating robot, which looked like something out of movies from the 80's she and the rest of the women had watched in their youths. It had a head that swiveled, a phone plugged in, and a bunch of knobs, which she and Emma were careful about touching as they observed it, taking in another sight that proved they were no longer in the 21st Century.

"Hello. Welcome to the GLOW rehearsal space." The robot says to the five strangers, it's led dots on its head flashing as it speaks. Sasha takes the keenest interest in it.

"Yeah," Melrose answered, "Glow-bot lives in our producer Bash's house but sometimes we keep it here to keep training more lively." Melrose reaches down and presses a button on the robot.

"You're welcome to any of its... gifts" She says as a drive in the robot opens and presents a neatly-organized array of drugs, with cigarettes, joints, baggies of cocaine, and four different colored pills.

"Thanks," Paige says amused by the robot's feature, "But I'm gonna pass, we all have to take wellness tests when back in 2018, which we hope to get back to soon." The other four women follow her lead and politely refuse as Melrose presses the button again the robot's drugs recede back into itself.

"Yeah, I guess time-traveling is enough of a trip in itself. I've cut down myself to try to get into athletic shape, you know. I was pretty fucking amazed when I saw that. Hey I got an idea, Glow-bot, learn what you can about time travel, to see if our new friends can get out of here." Melrose jokingly addressed the robot not knowing how well it responds to human communication. The robot unresponsively rolled away from the two groups of women.

The five BCW women converge amongst themselves and then each agree to give two GLOW girls tutorials apiece.

"Now," Debbie halted them, "You all seem professional and exactly what we need, but Sam did say he didn't want to direct just another wrestling show."

"Right," Sasha said, "And since we've seen the finished product, 'GLOW' will still be exactly what it was, just it will be even better." She assured her.

The two groups break off- Charlotte takes Ruth/Zoya one of the leaders of the group and Sheila the "She-Wolf," who Charlotte is still intrigued by, but recognizes she is in a different time, and that she may not be that different.

Kaitlyn takes Reggie, also known as Vicky the Viking, and Arthie, or "Beirut the Mad Bomber". Kaitlyn wants to help out Vicky as she can tell they're both the powerhouses of their respective rosters.

Sasha takes Jenny, who was given the other gimmick that would be deemed racially insensitive today, "Fortune Cookie" and Justine, or "Scab" who they met earlier. There's something about Justine that Sasha takes a liking to.

Paige works with Rhonda, also known as "Britannica" the redhead, and her fellow Englishwoman, and Melrose.

"Britannica, huh?" Paige says, "Are you as smart as your character? Can you help us get back?"

"I'm actually not. That smart." Rhonda responds. "Sorry, I don't know how you got here, but I do find it fascinating."

Emma agrees to help the older blonde ladies, Ethel and Edna. The five trios all go to different parts of the gym, and Liberty Bell floats around, observing the tutelage of each of the five women to the eleven of them.

The BCW women struggle to translate a 33 year difference to people with little wrestling experience. They spend part of the day working on simple things like bumps, selling, basic moves, and more complex aspects of wrestling like storytelling and match composition. Sasha, & Paige and Charlotte & Emma each put on a brief match with each other as an example.

The five BCW women rotate around between the five pairs of GLOW girls, and they all sense that they've at least picked up a few things since they got there, but still, how were they gonna get back?

After a productive couple of hours, they watch a tape back of the first live event. Offering tips based on observations such as Beirut being a bit too rattled by the crowd's racially-fueled taunts, Sheila needing more aggressiveness, considering she's a wolf, and Ethel and Edna on selling.

"Well, you all need work on all the stuff we assumed you would need work in, wrestling-wise, but overall, you girls did great considering how quickly it was put together." Paige offered, "I liked the show, and I appreciate the respect Liberty and the rest of you have gained for the art."