Post by Cass Baumer on Nov 28, 2020 20:52:41 GMT
• RING NAME •
Cass Baumer
• NICKNAME •
The Headliner
• BILLED FROM •
Wellington, New Zealand
• HEIGHT & WEIGHT •
5'9" & 141 lbs.
• OATH ACHIEVEMENTS •
n/a
• TWITTER HANDLE •
@ HashtagBaumer
• PIC BASE •
Marta Piekarz / “Marta The Martian”
• ENTRANCE MUSIC •
"Smooth Sailing" by Queens Of The Stone Age
• ENTRANCE DESCRIPTION •
As the vocals of Queens Of The Stone Age burst through the crackling arena speakers, the OATH crowd stands to their feet in anticipation! A thin wisp of smoke swirls and mingles with the green spotlight beaming down at the entryway. The shot slowly descends, gradually revealing a self-assured Cass Baumer with a small lighter in the path of the hairspray valve at an upward angle. The Kiwi's confident smile glints against the glow of her oscillating aerosol flamethrower. The boisterous audience pours down appreciation at the gaudy display. Once she's finished with the theatrics, The Headliner defiantly struts down the aisle in a dark blue leather jacket, weapons still in hand. As she nears the center of the clearing, she spins and steps backward, unashamedly showing off the glossy "RUN CASS" emblem at the back of her distressed coat.
"Smooth Sailing" continues while Baumer's lips form a triumphant smirk, her head turned to the side 'til she leisurely twirls back with her arms extended when she nears the apron. She stops at the steel steps to set down the hairspray and the lighter. She grabs a microphone, then slides into the ring. The palpable cheers grow in intensity as she bounces back to her feet and mounts the ropes, raising the microphone with pride as she answers the visceral reaction of the crowd with a guttural shout of her own!
• ALIGNMENT •
Face
• GIMMICK •
New Zealander with a controversial history trying to rewrite her legacy in The Citadel with hard work.
• WRESTLER HISTORY •
Cass grew up in Wellington, New Zealand, not unlike most Americans. With two older brothers, she naturally grew into a tomboy, unafraid to share her thoughts in the bluntest way possible. Sometimes her mouth even got her in trouble back in grade school, but nothing too serious. When she got older, she joined the soccer team and became a natural fit. Her brash personality and her unapologetic attitude lent itself well to her on the field, but she didn't take it as seriously as she could have. Cass was naturally good at the sport and had fun doing it, but she wasn't exactly after a spot on any FIFA team.
She took a journalism elective for a couple of years and learned her way around an article. She was great at investigating and getting to the truth, thanks again to her personality. She wasn't afraid to ask the hard questions, even if it made people uncomfortable, pressing until she got the story. In the middle of junior year, just like with soccer, she didn't apply herself and ended up dropping the class in favour of more free time. In her senior year, she picked it back up again and would later get a masters in journalism at the Victoria University of Wellington. Years after graduating from grade school and shortly after gaining a degree in journalism, she left her static life as a writer for a small New Zealand online newspaper for a multitude of reasons. That's the 'official story,' anyway.
In truth, wrought with the recent death of her eldest brother, John Baumer, at the hands of an inexperienced armed robber, Cassandra was fired from The Wellington Post news outlet for speaking out against the new boss' stance on profit over substance in early 2016.
John Baumer was a fledgling professional wrestler himself who despite proficient training and a pension for competing in great matches where he respected his opponents' skills, could not get a major wrestling promotion in New Zealand to hire him. Before he could make the trip to the United States, John was slain, and Cass would soon pick up the mantle where her late brother left off out of a responsibility to keep a promise she made to him. She swore she would make sure the name Baumer would be a prominent name in the world of wrestling across the globe as a way to make sure he would never be forgotten and she promised to do whatever it took to make it happen.
She used to watch wrestling on TV and on her computer almost constantly, following some of the bigger names from her couch. She loved the sport, but again, she didn't think she'd ever actually become a wrestler in her wildest dreams. It was right up there with being drafted for a major soccer team or being an actual news anchor on TV in the list of things that would probably never happen. When one promotion finally did a New Zealand tour and landed in her hometown, she offered her services as a backstage interviewer. She was accepted, and for a while, she worked as an independent wrestling journalist. She finally had a reason to go to where all the action was - the United States of America - and she gladly left her old life behind.
Since then, a legend of the sport took her aside and offered her lessons to defend herself. He is only known as V. This unlikely mentor grew into somewhat of a father figure to her, teaching her things that any normal trainer wouldn't have been able to teach. In time, the lessons grew more complicated, and she was starting to learn how to wrestle. That's when she vowed to pick up the torch dropped by her brother.
After her short, unsuccessful stint as a wrestler in #FSociety Wrestling, she decided to stick to what she knew as an interviewer for the time being. That is, until finally deciding to try one more time.
Using what she knew as a former journalist to get out of the shadows of obscurity, Cass pulled herself up by the bootstraps into becoming one of the most recognizable names in wrestling at the time from the beginning of 2017 to mid-2018 with limited talent under her belt. Put in matches against some of the best competitors in her federations at the time thanks to her mouth/tweets, she learned what it would take to defeat them, but it was clear her in-ring potential was far from reached at the time. She was complacent with her spot, gaining five high-profile championships but lost each of them in the first or second title defence.
At first, she disguised her lies as rumours, but it didn’t take too long at all for #BaumerReport to grow. Soon, Cass allowed anonymous sources to DM “rumours” they’ve heard and tweeted them out to the world with little oversight. Of course, some of the rumours were true, but most were instantiated lies used as weapons to hurt the people around her with the repeated mantra that all publicity was good publicity. #BaumerReport became infamous, but there were always those who enjoyed it - so long as those same people never became the victim of it themselves. Contrarily, some people even proclaimed they hadn’t made it until there was a #BaumerReport about them. It wouldn't be arrogant to acknowledge that the wide-reaching impact of the service when it was most popular was a moment that was unrivalled at the time.
It was a trend that Cass Baumer proudly called her own and all the while, the anger she garnered from all these people earned her more prominent spots in the wrestling world. Main events came, and posters were created with her face on them. People paid to see Cass Baumer get what she deserved. In the process, she managed to win five prominent championships within two years of the beginning of her career. She learned to fight the toughest, strongest, fastest opponents alive with her smarts, her creativity, and her durability.
In the end, though… All trends fade. People grew out of the #BaumerReport. It stopped becoming a commodity and started to become background noise. With it, Cass started to struggle. The matches she received were not nearly as prominent. She attempted to keep the brand alive, to keep herself relevant, but it was no use. Everyone moved on. And it was time Cass did the same after two straight years of superstardom success. She might not have won a world championship, but she did more than she ever thought she would have when she decided to move to America on a whim three years prior.
When the national hatred of journalists died down, and the #BaumerReport trend died, she needed to rely on her in-ring talent to get herself noticed with little success. Reluctantly, Cass Baumer decided to take her ball and go home. Despite everything, she was confident in the thought that nobody would forget the name Baumer any time soon and she was proven right when she returned in a Yamashi Pro After Dark ring in a winning effort.
After five months of time spent back in Wellington, New Zealand, Cass knew she couldn’t let that be the end of her career. She couldn’t allow herself to work in a call centre for customer support forever. She grew an empire, became a household name with wrestling fans, and she didn’t want to be ordinary again. She wanted to reshape her entire legacy, and so she closed #BaumerReport for good to start from the bottom on her in-ring merit alone. She's intent on challenging herself here in OATH.
• FIGHTING STYLE •
Ultraviolent brawler/showman
• PROFESSIONAL RESEMBLANCE •
1. The Miz
2. Jon Moxley
3. Mick Foley
• WEAPON OF CHOICE •
hairspray/lighter aerosol flamethrower; can run out of hairspray/fuel
• COMMON MOVES •
1. biting
2. corner running European uppercut
3. dropkick to oncoming opponent
4. hammerlock twisted into a short-range lariat
5. headbutt to nose or mouth
6. inverted suplex, sometimes from an elevated position
7. Lou Thesz press into mounted punches
8. rope-hung swinging neckbreaker
9. Samoan drop
10. slide tackle
• SIGNATURE MOVES •
1. BLEEDING EDGE (Instep drive penalty kick to the head of the opponent, using the top part of the foot covered by shoelaces as soccer players do instead of the tip of the shoe. With a running start (occasionally bouncing off the ropes beforehand), Cass plants her foot right next to her target and swings her ankle-locked kicking leg forward to connect her laces with her opponent's head in one fluid motion. Both feet leave the ground, and her arms support her balance too. If the opponent is below Cass in any way, Bleeding Edge can connect. It could make them bleed, too.)
2. FLY BY NIGHT (spear suicida through the ropes into the opponent(s) standing on the apron. It's typically aimed with the intention to slam their opponent into the barricade, a steel chair, a table, etc. Her opponent could dodge, allowing Cass to hurt herself significantly. Either way, this move always hurts Baumer too and she'll show the effects.)
3. TANGLED WEB (schoolgirl pin into a schoolgirl grapevine leglock wear down submission. Alternatives include a drop toehold transition occasionally into weapons/hard surfaces.)
• FINISHING MOVES •
1. FACT CHECK (somersault reverse DDT or a running somersault reverse DDT o; transitioned into a pin combo. This could be a reversal. A double Fact Check to two opponents is possible, too.)
2. MIRAMIRA (spear dropped into a lifting side slam to oncoming opponent. On opponents over 300 pounds, it's a non-lifting side slam instead. This is most often used as a surprise reversal but it's also used after an Irish whip.)
• DESPERATION FINISHER •
1. FACT CHECK (somersault reverse DDT or a running somersault reverse DDT slamming the opponent's neck down with force instead of the back of the head.)