#cwu

Also confirming at the jump that these are all WWE 2K25 screenshots, I'd rather chew my own toes off than use any sort of artificial intelligence xoxo

I've mostly finalized Anna and Casey's character designs from when they were initially training and I'm honestly really enjoying their story progressions and development. This may be a little scattered and all over the place but I thought I'd at least write a general description of events. I'm eventually going to make one giant lore post about each of them, but this will do for now.

Starting with the OG, the Winged Cobra herself, Anna Condor.

Leanna Jean Runnels (born March 26, 1996) starts her training years with this notion that she needs to conform to the system and avoid the use of her wrestling family lineage in order to succeed. She starts training around the end of 2014, which in the US wrestling scene was the height of the Divas era. She conforms: she wears the tiny shorts, the glittery French tip nails, styles her hair and makeup like the other girls, and even uses a stylized version of her birth name to come off more feminine to general audiences. She'd blow kisses to the crowd and do a spin or two on the way to the ring, because that's what she thought got people interested in the women when she first started. Wrestling as Leigh Anne was suffocating, to say the least. But one day, something snaps in her. After a promo where the masses described her as "uncharacteristically venomous", she realizes that the women she looked up to in the sport - Alundra Blayze, Bull Nakano, Jazz, too many others to list - never conformed like she was. They pushed the envelope, stayed true to themselves as strong, hard hitting women, and used it as their way to stand out. So she ditched the small shorts and the perfect hair and makeup and opted for a look more true to her. She felt less stiff, less like a performer, almost like shedding a rotted layer of skin, and she truly felt something similar to rebirth in that moment. She allowed herself to have bloody bouts, leaving the ring with ugly scars and blood soaked hair, but she never felt more alive than the day she let her old persona go and just be herself. Her entire story arc has been finding authenticity despite the laws of the land, and that journey was allowed to begin once she shed the last remnants of Leigh Anne and became Anna Condor.

And next is the Southern sweetheart, Casey McKay.

Casandra Elise McKinley (born August 5, 1994) worked three jobs just to get the down payment for training school, and dedicated every waking moment not working to training. She began her training in 2012, loving and fully embracing the Diva aesthetic. Casey McKay has always been the girl's type of girl, the one ripped out of a Cosmopolitan magazine, dripped in the most trendy fashion and effortless beauty routines. She's 6'1", did powerlifting in high school, and knew she could compete with some of the guys if given the opportunity. A coach saw this in her and allowed her to start training with the men, learning how to capitalize on her strength and stature for maximum effect. And when she finally started competing in the ring, she quickly got the nickname of "Sweet Heat" - she's going to be nice and sweet as a baseline, but will set your ass on fire if you're standing in the way of what she wants. Many promotions tried packaging her as the newest copy and paste version of Nia Jax or Tamina Snuka, or even Chyna, these angry, brooding, merciless loners whose jobs were to look like walls of adversity that, at times, devalued those women's talents and accomplishments. She refused to allow this to be where her character went - she didn't want to be a supporting act. She wanted to be a star. And though some of her choices have steered her on unexpected and less-than-moral pathways, she can rest knowing that every moment in the ring and every win she gets has been earned by all the hard work she's put in. If Anna's is the story of anti conformity, Casey's is one of embracing conformity while bending it to your best interest.

And yes, if you were wondering, Anna and Casey first bonded during wrestling training over their love for Victoria, a woman who embraced the beauty standards of her era and also beat the shit out of everyone.