Cali Kaplan

Cali pogging the hell out rn

"The Time Bender" Cali Kaplan

"The Pious" Cali Kaplan (Retired since 2020)

Cali Kaplan (born 10th August 1996) is an English professional wrestler. She previously performed on SWA, LAW, TNT and FNF but is now recognized under the CWL territories, debuting under the Genesis brand and currently performing on Nemesis.

## **Background**

Kaplan was born in Exeter, England to parents Tobias Kaplan and Demi Hensley on 10th August 1996. The family moved from Exeter to Norwich on February 6th, 2003 when Kaplan was only 7 years old. Her father is a fork-lift driver and a wrestling fan whilst her mother is a manicurist/makeup artist. Cali was an only child to the family. Her parents always noticed her creativity at such a young age and encouraged their daughter to pursue her interests.

Cali found an interest in wrestling when her father took her to local live events when she was younger. At one of these live events, a contest was held in intermission where whoever screamed the loudest was able to get free autographs backstage with the wrestlers. Cali managed to win the contest, with her recounting in an interview about the incident that the announcer was 'taken aback' by how hard she was screaming. It was at this contest where she met a wrestler called 'Mean' Mikey Carman, who she took particular interest into as he was the only one who played up a character to her during the event.

#### Wrestling Training (pre CWL)

Cali enrolled in the 'Head over Heels Academy', the developmental for wrestling promotion 'Storm Wrestling Alliance' on November 28th 2015, training under head coaches Jack Gibbs and Nevada Storm. She would be selected for the promotion's US tour in 2018 for international experience, where Cali would first get a taste of wrestling on an international stage. Cali officially moved to the US under the blessing of her parents on June 19th 2019.

Since arriving in the US, Cali bounced around various promotions, including the likes of Los Angeles Wrestling (LAW), Global Grapplers Alliance (GGA) and Global Wrestling Federation (GWF) before signing with the CWL on 2nd November 2020.

#### **The Neon Panther**

When discussed about how she managed to get Neon Panther Powers (NPP), Cali has stated that it "must've been the wind". A list has been credited on all the powers the public have seen Cali display so far:

1. The ability to warp time itself, either by mass scale in a certain area or only directly affecting two parties in the time warp. This can lead to an event restarting which people may not know even existed, or freezing two people in a time state. This is most commonly seen in what's been dubbed by fans as 'The Neon Panther Glitch' on her Genesis debut.
2. A 'super jump', which she has used to perform out of this world wrestling moves (See the BAMF section). This is believed to have been credited to Cali's very silly dancing, which is believed to be her calling upon the power to do that move.
3. The ability to summon a large panther like animal made out of neon night and neon crystals. The summoning is usually alerted to those who witness it by Cali's eyes flashing a bright white light, and her outline shining pink. While fans believe that this figure is summoned to protect Cali and her friends from great supernatural danger, Cali has stated herself that his main purpose is to "be a good boy and receive lots of head scratches". Cali has also said the figure is "just a fuzzy friend".
4. The ability to shoot beams of light that have a burn effect. This was found out by a fan in a nearby hotel room seemingly capturing Cali shooting random beams of light in the middle of the night, next to what they described as "a pool of neon pink and purple vomit".

The origin of Cali's NPP are unknown.

## **CWL Genesis (2020–2021)**

#### Debut Match and The Rise of The Neon Panther (November 2020)

Kaplan made her first appearance on the 8th November 2020 show of Genesis (Genesis 4.14), in a triple threat match against Aine Rose and Ace. Originally debuting as "The Pious", a devout follower of the mythical panther being on her chest, she showed off her technical offence, working over both women's arms throughout the match in order to soften them up for her arm-based submission finisher, the **Lunar Assault**. The most notable part of her debut was landing a deadly Suicide Dive on Ace to the outside, near enough ending the match and almost giving Kaplan her debut win on Genesis. Ultimately, she came up short despite her strong performance, being unable to break up Aine Rose's pin on Ace due to being KO'd outside the ring.

In her second ever match on the 14th November Genesis show, she made history by being the first restart in CWL history, after her omnipresent powers of the Neon Panther caused her to apply a fatal death grip on Liza Horror, completely removing the fabrics of space time and human movement as we know it. Sadly, when this was rewritten by a higher power, her power was drained tremendously by this stunt and she was then pinned by a debuting Toksyn after a solid back and fourth fatal four way match. This match was the start of Kaplan's winds of change on Genesis, transforming from a devout follower of the panther to the vessel of the panther itself, ditching the nickname "The Pious" and going with a more suitable nickname of "The Time Bender".

#### Losing Streak (2020–2021)

In the first two matches mentioned above, Kaplan lost both of them - the first due to being KO'd outside the ring and unable to breakup the impending pin, and the second match caused by her being pinned herself. This streak would, unfortunately, continue on her time in Genesis, losing to a vast majority of talent, most notably The She-Monster Sheila, Rayo De Oro and Natalia on their way to their Queen of Genesis Championship reigns respectively, and Maria Black twice (on her third match with Genesis and her final match with Genesis). Although she had no notable feuds, she developed rapid crowd support for her never-say-die attitude and keeping her head up high in the face of adversity. Despite her then 0-9 record in Genesis, Tommy Hazard saw a future for Kaplan under his promotion, and quickly snapped her up just in time for a major Nemesis promotion to start, Global Warning.

## **CWL (2021 )**

#### Global Warning Debut and the Shattering of her Losing Streak (January 2021)

Cali Kaplan shocked the CWL by appearing on the pre show of Nemesis' Global Warning PPV, facing Halie Hudson, after she assured fans that she wouldn't be leaving Genesis for a while. Kaplan hit the Modified Kaplan Mutilation (abbreviated to MKM later on) for the submission win, her first win in the CWL to this date. Kaplan celebrated very excitedly in response, with the fans in attendence going crazy that she finally managed to break the streak on her first match on Nemesis. Notably in the match, Cali hit two new moves she learnt away from Genesis, the aforementioned **MKM** (A suplex transitioned into a rear naked choke) and the **Neon Sunset** (a Pumphandle Death Valley Driver).

#### New Places, New Faces (January - March 2021)

As Cali was talking with Nemesis GM Tommy Hazard behind the scenes for her transition from Genesis to Nemesis, Cali quickly ran into former Nemesis women's champion Cassidy Clark as she was campaigning to recruit Genesis new stars to take under her wing. The two hit it off and agreed to train with each other, which led to Cali's first win on Nemesis and CWL as a whole and her subsequent use of her new special moves. The two then took the week off to discuss Cali's training, agreeing on this training program:

Nemesis 4.24 (Global Warning) - Cali Kaplan would debut on Nemesis after private training from Cassidy Clark against Halie Hudson. Cali managed to defeat her.

Nemesis 4.26 - Cali Kaplan would test her durability in matches in a 2 on 1 handicap match, where she faced the then Nemesis Women's Champion Jada King and the monster known as Sheila. Cali would be unsuccessful in winning this match.

Nemesis 4.27 (**Supershow**) - Cali faces against Cassidy Clark in a steel cage, the first in a series of stipulation matches which was used to test Cali's endurance and creativity in ring. Despite her best effort, she would succumb to Cassidy's Black Widow submission, the same move she retired in Genesis.

Nemesis 4.29 - Cali faces off against Pinball Witch in a tables match, the second in a series of stipulation matches which was used to test Cali's weapon offence. Cali would win the match the match by putting Pinball through a table.

Nemesis 4.30 - Cassidy decides to face then Nemesis Women's Champion Jada King with Cali in her corner for her to study match pacing, whilst allowing her to have a break. After a solid back and fourth, Jada would end up defeating Cassidy.

Nemesis 4.31 - Cali would face Olivia Bodom in a ladder match, the third in a series of stipulation matches which combined the use of weapons, environment, creativity and durability. Olivia would end up winning the match. After the match, Cassidy implicated that another 2 on 1 handicap match would take place at Battlelines 4, but this was a ruse meant to test Cali's adaptability to surprise match stipulations.

**Battlelines 4** (4.32) - Cali would face Cassidy again in one final test, an iron woman match. The match was very fast paced between the two, each gaining back to back falls against each other in quick succession until 3/4 through the match, where Cali ran away with a lead of 6 - 3. For the remainder of the match, Cassidy was playing catch up with Cali, eventually getting the score up to 6 - 5 and hitting the Blessing in Disguise to look to tie it up, but the timer expired before the ref could count the three, meaning Cali beat Cassidy narrowly with the score ending at 6 - 5.

After the Battlelines match, Cali would be sidelined with an arm injury sustained after a rough landing from a kick on the outside, forcing her out of active competition until June 2021.

#### Friend, or foe? Or... teammate?? (June-August 2021)

On Nemesis 4.41, Cassidy Clark faced off against Liza Horror. After the match, Jessie Anderson came down to the ring to seemingly confront Cassidy, but Cali returned from her absense to prevent anything going south for Cassidy. This event sparked a personal war between Cali, sparking an interior conflict in herself regarding whether or not she should hurt someone she considered a friend. After Jessie's continuous taunting, including trying to mock Cali's first win in the CWL and brutally attacking Cassidy backstage which led to her nose being broken, Cali made a choice and unleashed all her anger directed at Jessie brutally backstage. This altercation set the scene for Cali to face Jessie on the Nemesis 4.47 Supershow in a KOs only match, which Cali ended up coming up short in. This sparked a shift in Cali's overall wrestling style, choosing to do a lot more high risk and dangerous offense in her matches from this point.

The feud progressed from the end of Season 4 to the start of Season 5. Following the events of Endgame where Zac Anderson defected from The Fatal Vices to join the Kingsmen, Jessie's attitude towards Cali shifted from antagonising to begging, pleading with Cali to forgive her past actions and to start over. Cali initially refused, not trusting Jessie's advances to extend an olive branch until some convincing from Cassidy. As soon as Cali and Jessie agreed to work on the same page, The Hunt (Belle Florent and Tifanie Quinn) came down to the ring to challenge them to a match. The Hunt hadn't been seen since their loss to Best Enemies (The Blxck Rose and Sarah Price) at Supemacy 4, which led to them being banished from Vindication. The Hunt started to attack Jessie's character, which put Cali in a position to defend her former rival. This then built up to a match on Exiled 5.4, where Cali and Jessie beat The Hunt, but parted ways as a team soon after.

#### Kingswomen Rise! (June-December 2021)

After Cali and Jessie parted ways, Cali would go back to her mentor Cassidy Clark to officially tag with her as a branch of the Kingsmen, appropriately dubbed the Kingswomen. The two would have their first official match as a duo on Wildfire's Femme Fatale 3, where they defeated The Renegades (Marilyn Benson and Grace Wildman) to become the #1 contenders for the Women's Tag Team Championships. In the upcoming CWL weeks before and following this win, Cali's developing risk taking in ring style came into full fruition, with moments like Cali Kaplan and Hannah Star crowd brawling in their match on 5.6, as well as Cali hitting an apron DDT, Rope Step Tope Con Hilo and a suicide dive over Cassidy Clark to Grace Wildman, all while continuously taunting the opposing teammate on the apron.

Meanwhile, the Best Enemies lost the belts to rising stars Vanity! (Rachel Lochlan and Bebe Ca$h), the Illustrious Invitational was ahead and Marcella Reyes seemed to want to team up with Cali herself. But not was all that it seemed, as Marcella used the kindness Cali showed her to betray the Kingswomen to make way for herself and Quinn Edwards, forming a team now known as Es un Shigoto. Soon after this event, the Kingswomen were awarded an early tag title shot due to scheduling conflicts with the Illustrious Invitational at Genesis 2.14 against Vanity!, but they were unsuccessful after Cali failed to kick out of a Northern Lights Suplex. The two teams put on a 13 minute back and fourth competitive showing that could've gone either way.

These two major blows in confidence to the Kingswomen led them to regroup and assess what to do before their scheduled match at Merry Mayhem. The two women decided to regroup and fight people of their past that they lost to to build up momentum and confidence, before assessing their performances. Cassidy would face Jada King after she beat her whilst Cali's training was underway, whilst Cali would go on to face Adisa Okeke to prove she can beat her when there's no worry of a looming threat constantly dangling over her. Cassidy lost to Jada King in a close match, but Cali picked up a win against Adisa in convincing fashion.

Meanwhile, the Illustrious Invitational picked up steam, which ended in Vanity's Rachel Lochlan and Bebe Ca$h losing their belts to the makeshift team of Vanity's Natalia and then representative of StarJammer LLC, Yui Nishimura. Whilst the pressure of facing a team you already lost to was off the Kingswomen's shoulders, Cali still had lingering personal battles with facing Natalia, as Natalia's debut match in all of CWL was defeating Cali.

#### Overcoming The Odds (December 2021)

At Merry Mayhem, the Kingswomen defeated Yui Nishimura and Natalia to become the Women's Tag Team Champions in a match centred around Natalia being the gamechanger for Yui/Natalia's team. The match was fast paced, with spots like Cassidy hitting the Blessing in Disguise to Nishimura on the outside and Natalia wisely using her tag team knowledge to try and divert attention off Nishimura to her on the apron, but ultimately these tactics would prove futile. After Cassidy softened up Natalia with a Blessing in Disguise to her, she tagged Cali in off the apron as Cali hit the Neon Sunset on Natalia for the victory. This is the first championship Cali has won ever since she debuted with the company.

#### **I don't think Cali can say this tournament name so this heading won't either (December 2021- )**

Soon after her win at Merry Mayhem, Cali would compete in the second annual **Bad Ass Mother Fucker (BAMF) Tournament**.

Cali would advance to the top 24 of bracket A by winning a match against WWA's Chop Block Competitor Vico Flavio. The match just ran under 8 minutes, with the most notable moment in the match being Cali taking dance breaks numerous times in the death match with one of those times being followed by a Kinniku Buster. This is the first example of the panther's power being displayed clearly to the public and the fourth time in history that the panther has graced people with it's power.

Cali would advance to the top 12 by defeating retired Vindication wrestler Andre Hunter. The match was an electric 15 minutes, with notable moments like an MKM on the exploding barbed wire on the outside, Cali kicking out of four crossbodys from Andre that took out Belle Florent in the top 24, Cali hitting two more Kinniku Busters and winning the match by choking Andre out. This match was far more bloody than her round of 24 bracket, only cementing further the 'switch' fans notice in her when she enters a ring.

Cali would advance to the Bracket Finals of Bracket A by defeating Vindication wrestler El Rayo Dorado. The match was the most violent display we've seen from both competitors in a time frame just under 24 minutes, with Cali and Rayo equally hitting devastating moves like the Neon Sunset or a top rope hurricanrana onto exploding barbed wire on the outside, and Cali hitting 4 of her leaping Kinniku Busters, one of which was no sold by Dorado.

Cali would advance to the BAMF tournament finals by defeating then Genesis superstar Benicio Gurerro in a barbwire steelcage deathmatch in the Bracket Final. The match built around Benicio's surprise rollup ability, which managed to take out her best friend Cassidy Clark early on in the tournament. The match would end much quicker than her last two matches, where Cali would knock out Benicio with a Neon Sunset onto exploding barbed wire.

Cali would enter the tournament finals against Michael Young and eventual winner of the tournament, Jasper Star, but would come up short in the finals of the BAMF tournament, ending up in third place. She was KO'd 18 minutes into the match by an Emerald Flowsion from Star.

## **CWL (2022)**

In January 2022, it was announced by CWL management that the Kingswomen would be defending their tag team championships against Vanity!, with the latter team choosing to use their rematch clause they were awarded due to three successful defences.

## **Notable Theme Songs**

* Rebel Heart by CFO$ (Genesis theme)
* Jerrycan by Jeff the Second
* Jerrycan by Jeff the Second (Rebel Heart remix) - Battlelines 5
* Jerrycan by Jeff the Second (Battlescars remix) - Supremacy 5

## **Accomplishments**

* 1x holder of the CWL Women's Tag Team Championships with Cassidy Clark
* BAMF 2021 Finalist (3rd place)
* Shortest time in Battle for Supremacy (26 seconds)

## **Notable Wrestling Moves**

### Signature Moves

These are Kaplan's current signature moves she uses in her arsenal. This list could potentially change over time due to the various factors listed in the **Retired Signature Moves**section.

* MKM [Full abbreviation: Modified Kaplan Multilation] (Kirifuda Driver)
* Timebreaker (Hammerlock Suplex)

#### Retired Signature Moves

These were the moves that Kaplan used to use in the independent scene as a signature move. These moves have either been removed entirely from her arsenal, switched from a Finisher to a Signature, or have been renamed to fit gimmick changes.

* Neon Fury (Chi-Town Combo)
* Neon Sunrise (Panama Sunrise)
* Neontamer (Liontamer)
* Kaplan Mutilation (Suplex/Hammerlock Armbreaker)

### Finishing Moves

These are Kaplan's current finishing moves she uses in her arsenal. This list could potentially change over time due to the various factors listed in the **Retired Finishing Moves**section.

* Neon Sunset (Pumphandle Death Valley Driver)
* The Goomba Stomp (Tiger Suplex 4)
* Lunar Deathlock (Catching Scorpion Deathlock)

#### Retired Finishing Moves

These were the moves that Kaplan used to use in the independent scene as a Finishing move. These moves have either been removed entirely from her arsenal or have been renamed to fit gimmick changes.

* Lunar Assault (Cattle Mutilation)
* Lionkiller (Liontamer) - downgraded to a signature move
* Panther Suplex (Tiger Suplex 4) - finishing move name change