HWA FLASHBACK 2004: Michelle Trachtenberg vs Brittany Snow
The instructors at the Hollywood Wrestling Alliance’s training school all agreed that two of the most talented students they have ever had were Michelle and Brittany. Big things were predicted for both when they were finally called up to the league, and they did not disappoint with their initial matches, each notching W’s and quickly gaining fame.
Not surprisingly, both Snow and Trachtenberg were bitter rivals at the training school, and now that both were pros and eager to rise up the ranks, they saw the other as a roadblock on their road to success. They finally had a match on an episode of the Monday night broadcast, but the twenty minute match went to a draw. The following week they met again, and the brawl that erupted and spilled out of the ring eventually got both rookies disqualified.
Now they would meet for a third time, and on a pay-per-view no less. What’s more, this match would have a one hour time limit, and would be submission only, which the booking committee felt was a stipulation that would keep the two combatants within the bounds of the rulebook, and not allow the match to sink to a back alley brawl again.
The match was nearing the forty minute mark, and the spectators sat spellbound. Already the internet pundits were waxing rhapsodic about how this was a veritable symposium on pure wrestling, with the two tyros displaying equally awesome talents at submission grappling. Time and again, Brittany and Michelle subjected one another to the most devastating of holds…the Stepover Armlock Camel Clutch, the Cross-Legged STF, the Gory Special, and many more…which only through their superb physical conditions and iron wills they managed to endure without submission. The referee kept in his back pocket a wireless microphone, which would be held to the mouth of one of the wrestlers so that her surrender could be heard loud and clear, compounding her humiliation.
Both the blonde and the brunette were running on fumes by this point, their last dregs of strength fading from the grueling punishment each had endured. They realized that if either of them is to win, it would have to be soon.
Suddenly, fate seemed to smile upon one, as Michelle managed to snare her rival in a Texas Cloverleaf. Snow let out an agonized howl as her body was brutally twisted.
“Give up,” Trachtenberg gasped in an exhausted voice,
“or I swear I’ll break your leg!”Brittany’s only possible hope for salvation was the fact that she was so tantalizingly close to the ropes. Her hands darted forward, but fell just a few inches short of the bottom cable. Moaning in pain, she desperately claws at the canvas, slowly dragging herself forward, until she is finally able to hook the rope with her fingers. The referee calls for the hold to be broken; Michelle is reluctant at first, but finally she realizes that she can’t win if her opponent is on the ropes.
Releasing the leglock, Trachtenberg stands up, then she grabs Snow by her tangled golden mane and pulls her crawling on all fours toward the center of the ring, where she intends to re-apply the Cloverleaf, this time nowhere near the strands. But just then, Brittany swings her left arm up, slamming her forearm into the brunette’s groin! Michelle lets out a
YEEP of pain and staggers backward, knock-kneed.
Drawing upon what’s left of her ebbing power, the blonde struggles up to her feet and faces her foe. She then turns her back to Trachtenberg, brings her right arm up to wrap it around her adversary’s head, and then drops down to the mat, delivering a Stunner to the brunette. Michelle’s body flops to the canvas, her glazed eyes rolling in their sockets as she struggles to not pass out.
Sensing victory within her grasp, adrenaline now pumps through Brittany’s body, invigorating her. She gets back to her feet and delivers a boot stomp to the back of Michelle’s skull, further stunning her. The blonde then limps over to the nearest corner and unties the turnbuckle padding, tossing it aside to expose the steel clamp beneath. She next returns to the groaning Trachtenberg, who has managed to push herself up to her hands and knees, and hauls her rival up to her own unsteady stems by two handfuls of hair.
Dragging her foe to the corner, Snow slams Michelle’s forehead into the steel buckle. Trachtenberg slumps against the ropes, her body threatening to melt into a hapless puddle on the canvas. The blonde then has a most insidious notion.
Wrapping her arms around Michelle’s waist and hoisting her opponent up over her shoulder, Snow manages to set the brunette down atop the turnbuckle, throwing her legs behind the top ropes. Then she slips between the cables and alights to the arena floor. Grasping Trachtenberg’s ankles with her hands, Brittany places first the sole of one boot against the edge of the ring apron, then the other, and she leans backward, until the blonde is almost upside down and her head hovers just above the floor as she tugs her adversary's legs with all of her might.
This results in pulling the brunette’s body downward, with the steel buckle grinding viciously into her crotch! The sudden jolt of anguish snaps her out of her stupor, and she throws her head back and yowls in torment.
“NO NO NO NO NO!” she shrieks as tears streak down her face.
“Ask her!” the blonde commands the referee. The official is paralyzed with confusion. Clearly this is not a legal move…Trachtenberg is technically on the ropes, after all. But as the zebra looks over to the HWA official sitting at the timekeeper’s table, the executive gives a small nod.
With that, the ref, pulls the microphone out of his pocket, switches it on, and holds it up to the embattled beauty’s face.
“What do you say, Michelle,” he asks.
“Ready to submit?”Michelle shuts her eyes tight and bites her lower lip, trying to block out the unimaginable pain. Her resistance lasts a full four seconds longer, until she frantically clutches the microphone and shrieks,
“YES! I GIVE UP! I SUBMIT! OH GAWD I SUBMIIIIIIIIIIT!!!”(The photo snapped by a ringside photographer at the exact moment of surrender was splashed on magazine covers across the globe, and won him a sports photojournalism award.)
This hard-won victory cleared the path for Brittany, who shot up the ranks, and within four months of this match got a shot at the HWA Intercontinental belt…which she won.
Michelle found her star substantially dimmed for a time. She was relegated to the house show circuit for the next half-year, until finally she worked her way back onto the broadcast cards. And there was greatness and gold in her future as well. But there was also this black mark on her record and in her memory as well, and it was a long time before she had the chance to possibly erase it.
But that’s a story for another day….
