[Roux]

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Longshots
Long Beach, CALIFORNIA
22 MAY 2023
OFF-Camera


Last night was a bit of a mixed bag. On one hand, I got to accompany my wife out to the ring for her first match back in Sin City. On the other hand, things hadn’t gone her way. She took the loss pretty hard, not that I could hold that against her. I shouldered a lot of the blame for that, even if she would never admit it. My wife, Prudence Pierce, saw how much fun I was having being back on the road for Blast from the Past and realized it was time for Ruby Steele-Pierce to return. She heard the things that people were saying about how well I was doing in the ring. I was probably making it all look a little too easy to resist. The social media world has been consistently complimentary about my return, and the people behind the scenes at SCW clearly had big plans for me.  I stepped out of Jet City, and directly back into the spotlight.

It is no wonder that she wanted to get back in the ring, but it couldn’t have come at a worse time. Around the time that she was falling short in her return, Mark and Christian had been finalizing the decision to give me a shot at the Bombshell World Championship. I was going to be in the main event of the next Climax Control. That meant while my wife felt crushed, I had to somehow act like I didn’t feel like I was standing on top of the world. I couldn’t really savor the opportunity that they were giving me, because it would feel like rubbing my success in her face. Walking out of Jet City had already caused a rift between us, even if she pretended it wasn’t there.

And it was the combination of those two problems that made me glad I was able to convince her to come back to Long Beach with me. I knew that if we had gone back home, she would already be toiling away inside Jet City South trying to make sense of how things had gone wrong. Since I promised not to step foot back inside that place, I wouldn’t be there to support her. And if I wasn’t there helping her through it, I know what the other trainers and students would say. It would suddenly become about this opportunity I was given. The narrative would become about how I was putting my career in front of our relationship. That wasn’t something I was willing to tolerate.

Long Beach was far enough away for us to be able to put Jet City in the back of our minds, but close enough that she didn’t feel like she was abandoning them by taking off with me. If anything went spectacularly wrong, she could alway rush back. However, if the two of us planned on stepping in a gym today, it wasn’t going to be there. Luckily for me, I didn’t actually have to compete last night on Climax Control. Both the match and the travel had taken a lot out of Prudence. By the time she finally crashed, I figured that there was no chance that she was going to be up and ready for the day like normal. That gave me the morning to be unapologetically excited, and channel that into something positive.

I hadn’t slept at all, but I wasn’t dragging. From the moment that I saw my name under that main event headline, I felt like I had electricity pumping through my veins. Add to that the fact that I was back in Long Beach for the first time in years, and it just felt like there was magic in the air. Before the sun even thought about rising, I was already running through the neighborhoods that I grew up in. It was strange running past houses that used to be parks, and other things that had changed in my absence. I made it to the beach in time to watch early sunlight chase the purple sky all the way out across the ocean and past the horizon. It was the way that I started every morning before I left here with Mikah.

I could say that it was about the view, but that was only half of the story. The spot where I watched the day was the exact halfway point between my parent’s house, and the only gym in the city that was willing to look past the fact that I was too young, and too small. It hadn’t been like the state of the art facilities that either of the two Jet City locations have become. It wasn’t even in the same league with places like Wolfslair, or Hero Academy. In fact, it was almost the exact opposite of that kind of place. The owner never wanted the place to be renowned. He never wanted to create a beacon that would attract the greats of the next generation of athletes. He wanted to put together a place where people could put in the work, and not be bothered; a place that people grew out of once they made a name for themselves. He didn’t bury the lead either. The name on the door told you who was welcome: Longshots.

Looking at it from the outside, he hadn’t changed a thing about the place in the six years that I had been gone. I knew the real secret though. The outside was meant to keep people away. The inside was where the owner spent money. The exterior paint job that had been fading when I first started showing up had flaked off almost entirely, and the windows were so smudged from the inside that you couldn’t see through them. It was my first time really seeing it for the negatives though. As a teenager, and even now, all I could see was the potential that the place had.

ANTHONY: Somehow looks worse, even though you didn’t think that was possible, right?

His voice startled me. My eyes had been busy studying the place and I hadn’t noticed the fact that I wasn’t alone waiting on the light anymore. Before I turned to him, I was embarrassed to have been caught so off guard.

COURT: I thought maybe the owner would have put some of that money people have been giving him to good use.

He didn’t look any different than the last time I saw him. Granted, I shouldn’t have expected any less. Anthony Dawkins had spent nearly all of his forty-five years of life inside that gym. When I was growing up he was something of a local legend, because he made being inside the ring look effortless. He was putting on amazing matches that had his phone ringing near nonstop from companies that wanted to sign him exclusively. The only problem with that was the guy hated the lifestyle. He hated jumping from one hotel to the next, and living out of a suitcase. He hated the crowds, and couldn’t stand the interviews. The only part of it he enjoyed was being inside the ring, and once he realized he could do that at home in his gym his career was over. He packed it in and went home.

ANTHONY: If I let the outside keep going to shit, I don’t have to tell as many walk-ins to fuck off.

That was just his way of gently telling me to do the same thing. After all, I knew the rules, and my presence would come with the kind of attention that he didn’t want. The light finally changed, and the two of us started to cross. If I wanted in, I was going to have to talk my way into the building.

COURT: I’m not necessarily a walk-in. It seems like my dues come out of my account every month like clockwork.

I wasn’t naive enough to think that mattered. Back when I first left I hadn’t canceled any of the payments because I wasn’t sure that everything with Mikah was going to work out. I wasn’t convinced that I wouldn’t be back. I should have trusted that instinct. The whole Mikah, Kris and Jet City chapter of my life had been a disappointment professionally. I should have just stayed, and deep down I have always known that.

ANTHONY: I consider it a residual. You give all the credit for my work to those two sociopaths. I earned a little something for all my efforts.

He couldn’t really use that excuse. Not with me. I happened to know that credit was the last thing that he actually wanted.

COURT: If that’s the case, I can always make sure to call the place out next time there’s a camera in my face.

It made him laugh, and he pointed up at the building.

ANTHONY: People would think you were crazy. Any reasonable person that laid eyes on this place would just leave. Any unreasonable person wouldn’t make it past the front door before getting sent packing. All you’d ruin was your own reputation.

We were getting close to the front door, but I wasn’t just going to let him shut me out. As he reached for the handle, I stepped in front of it.

COURT: Then clearly it’s best for us to just make a compromise. I don’t say anything to anyone, you keep pocketing all my money, and me and my wife can use the place for a few days while we are in town. Everyone wins.

He shook his head without even a moment of consideration.

ANTHONY: No, that’s everything you want. Pass.

He tried to reach around me for the door handle, but I slapped his hand away and stood my ground.

COURT: Look, we’ve done all this before, and I won this argument as a teenager. We know how this is going to go. You’re going to say no. I’m going to keep annoying you about it. You’re going to get tired of hearing my voice, and you’re going to cave. I know all the rules, an--

I was surprised he let me get as far as he did before cutting me off.

ANTHONY: If you know the rules, you know why I am saying no. You’re not going to come in, and make this whole place about you for a couple days.

The fact that he thought I had those kinds of intentions was insulting. I had never stepped out of line inside of his gym. Most of the time, I had gone about my business without saying a word.

COURT: I wouldn--

He wasn’t going to let me even try to convince him otherwise.

ANTHONY: You wouldn’t have to try. It’s not like we don’t know what you have going on this weekend. You’re a local. They follow you. You show up, they’re going to swarm you. You become the focus. That’s not fair to them, and you know that.

I hadn’t thought about it that way. Things were different at Jet City because everyone there was expected to get out into the business and do something special. They were set up to be the last stop before people actually signed a contract. That was why Prudence and I both came out of the gate polished and ready to go. In Anthony’s gym, I would suddenly be a much bigger fish in a smaller pond.

COURT: Just give it a shot. I’m not even asking for any kind of special treatment. Give me a chance to fuck it up before saying no.

It sounded more like begging than asking, but I wasn’t above trying to pull the pity card.

ANTHONY: It’s not a good idea.

It was progress. There wasn’t a single ‘no’ in that sentence, and there was just a touch of guilt in the way the words came out. That was the opening I needed to wear him down.

COURT: Look, you have classes this morning, right? You usually have someone there to be the training dummy. Use me. Everyone you’re worried about will spend the morning beating on me, and then I won’t be shit to them anymore. Kill the questions before they feel the need to ask them. Show them I am nothing special. If it works, they won’t be interested in me anymore. If it doesn’t, you get to have them beat up on me before throwing me out.

I could tell that the prospect of taking me off the pedestal that the students had placed me on was interesting to him. It could solve one of his problems long after I was already back on the road.

ANTHONY: You’re willing to risk that with what you’ve got coming up?

He surprised me all over again. I was thinking that he would be more focused on what taking me out could do for his students’ confidence, but he was worried about me.

COURT: I’ve got to get in a ring somewhere, and no way I’m going back to Jet City. Going anywhere else would draw attention. This is my only option. Either way you win.

I stepped out of the way of the door as a show of good faith, and finally got him to crack a smile.

ANTHONY: I won’t let them hold back.

He opened the door, but then paused, and motioned for me to head inside in front of him.

COURT: I wouldn’t want them to.



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LBC, What About Me?
Long Beach, CALIFORNIA
22 MAY 2023
OFF-Camera


My time at Longshots had gone better than I could have ever imagined. Anthony hadn’t lied when he said he wasn’t going to let anyone hold back. He forced me to hold my own against anyone that walked in the front door. Most of the faces were new, and I knew that most of them would be gone by this time next year. I remembered a handful of the people that strolled in over the course of the morning hours. Most of them were on the backside of any potential career they could have had and were just looking for a place to stay in shape. A few were just getting started back when I left, and were now in prime condition. Of those, there were only a couple that seemed like they had the talent to really make it. Regardless, Anthony had me squaring off with all of them. The object of the morning had been to shatter their image of me. His goal was to show them that I was no better than any of them, and not worth their attention. It was to show them that there was nothing special about me at all. However, despite being their crash test dummy for a few hours, I just kept getting up and getting back at it.  Nothing had gone according to Anthony’s plan. Instead, I proved the same thing that I did all of those years ago; I was never a longshot.

I didn’t belong there. Maybe I never did. I fully expected him to show me the door when classes were wrapping up, but he surprised me. He decided anyone that would willfully take that kind of beating was crazy enough to stick around. Besides, after showing up everyone else, there was no way anyone tried to come anywhere near me while I was in the building.  Since it was just a few days, he wouldn’t have Prudence and I thrown out if we needed a place to train. Mission accomplished! And despite my lack of sleep, I still had all the energy in the world left to head home and tell my wife the good news. She could probably use it.

I didn’t make as good of a time as I did on my morning run to the beach, but I wasn’t disappointingly far off given the intense workout that I accidentally sandwiched in between. By the time I slowed down to a jog in order to make the turn into the driveway, the sun was hanging directly above me in the sky. I hadn’t planned on being gone for the whole morning, and was praying to any higher power that would listen that Pru was still sleeping off the effects of her match last night. Luck had been on my side recently, so there was a chance she hadn’t woken up abandoned. Even if I was wrong, I was hoping the fact that I had secured us a place to train while we were in town would soften the blow. After all, how mad could she really be that I got an early start on preparing for the biggest opportunity of my life?

Although, leaving my phone behind probably wasn’t the smartest idea. I didn’t think that I would be gone long enough for it to matter, and there wasn’t necessarily somewhere for me to put it inside my top or leggings; not that I would have wanted to. It would have been a distraction, and I was doing my best to avoid them. I needed to stay present in the moment if I was going to get to where I needed to be before stepping into the ring with Roxi. I had to stay focused. Prudence would understand that.

RUBY: You look like hell…

I barely made it in the front door before she came my way from the living room space. I could tell that she hadn’t been up long, because her hair was still frazzled from the bed. She hadn’t functionally gotten started on her day yet either, because she was still draped in a massively oversized Sin City shirt that we had stolen off of the merch table. The neck hole of the thing was so wide that it was hanging half off of her shoulder, making one of the short sleeves nearly reach her wrist. The whole thing hung just past her knees, and would have looked ridiculous if it wasn’t so commonplace around our house.

COURT: I thought I would have time to get myself cleaned up before you got up…

I shook my head, confused by my own words. Even as I was saying them, I was contemplating how I was going to try and explain myself. But those particular words were too honest, and had come out without my consent. I hadn’t even given myself space to bend the truth a little. I guess that was a good thing, it just wasn’t natural. Maybe the sleep deprivation was finally starting to catch up to me.

RUBY: Cleaned up?!

I had taken for granted the actual look of concern on her face. She hadn’t broken her stride since laying eyes on me coming through the door, and grabbed my wrist to hold my arm out. There was already a bruise starting to wrap its way inside my forearm from the backside of my elbow. The whole arm was stiff, and I could tell that it was starting to swell. She didn’t stop there, and raised her hand up to my eyebrow which made me wince away from her as what felt like a bolt of lightning ran down my face.

COURT: Jesus fuck… I didn’t necessarily look in a mirror for all the bumps and bruises. There’s no way I look that bad though.

I could already see on her face that I was wrong about that though. It didn’t matter how I felt, because she was legitimately worried. I fucked up, and there was no way around it.

RUBY: Not that bad? You look like you got hit by a car and you’ve been gone all morning. I woke up and the whole place was empty.

I stopped whatever words tried to rise up to my defense, and shook them away before they became a problem.

COURT: I’m sorry. I’m okay though, really. I didn’t expect to be gone for so long. I went for a run. The same one that I used to do back before I left to train with Mikah.

The concern on her face disappeared, and worse, was replaced by frustration. She was about to burst and cut me off, so I slammed my mouth closed so that she could get it out.

RUBY: You didn’t think that I might want to do that with you? It’s hard enough to get you to open up about your life before Jet City. I could have gotten the grand tour, but you left me behind?

She took a deep breath, and tried to swallow the rest of it. That would end up being a piece of evidence in a long ongoing argument in our relationship, but now was not the time. Since she got it out, she was more concerned about why I looked like I got mugged.

COURT: I said I was sorry. I just thought after last night maybe you wanted to sleep in a little. I didn’t want to bother you, and I couldn’t sleep.

Her eyes fell to the parts of my body she could see, and now that she had drawn my attention to it, I was starting to feel all of the imperfections from the morning at the gym. My arm would be back to normal with some ice. Aside from a little swelling, and a busted lip, I couldn’t imagine my face was too bad or Anthony wouldn’t have let me walk out of the place without getting cleaned up. There were small superficial cuts on my knuckles, and a pretty gnarly burn from the mat on the backsides of both of my arms. All in all, it was nothing that I hadn’t experienced dozens of times before, but I could understand why seeing it out of context would be cause for alarm.

RUBY: You didn’t get like this running.

Suddenly the good news that I had to share didn’t seem like it was going to go over very well at all.

COURT: Well since I walked out of Jet City, and we were going to be here for the week, I ran past my old gym. I worked some of the morning classes to earn our way in. We’re good to go.

She was trying so hard to give me the benefit of the doubt, but she wasn’t having an easy time. I thought that she might actually get angry, but she managed to keep her voice level.

RUBY: You did this on purpose?

I laughed. That seemed silly considering what the two of us did for a living. There were days at Jet City where the two of us came home a little busted up. I didn’t see why it was such a big deal.

COURT: Well yeah. We can’t just go anywhere. We would draw a crowd. We didn’t have many options, so I went and earned us a spot.

She tried to turn away to stop from blowing up at me, but I reached out and grabbed her arm to stop her. I didn’t understand what the problem was, but it seemed like every word out of my mouth just made her more upset.

RUBY: You mean we could have literally walked into any gym in the entire world, but being asked questions was so inconveniencing that you decided to maim yourself before the biggest match of your life?

When she put it like that it did seem like a stupid risk, but that was the price I had to pay. Everything was good. No harm, no foul.

COURT: I’m fine Pru, really. I’m sure it looks much worse than it is. I feel great though. I mean I ran all the way back home after. It’s not like I am barely standing or anything.

She pulled her arm away from me, and started heading back towards the living room. I wasn’t going to let her just storm out on me though, so I followed behind her.

RUBY: You just don’t get it!

I matched her angry tone and immediately regretted it.

COURT: Then explain it to me instead of storming off!

The spun back around towards me with her index finger leveled in my face.

RUBY: You just got up and decided one day that you needed to go back to Sin City without me. You didn’t tell me anything about Coby or Kris asking you to join the tournament. I heard about it the same way that the world did. And it was the same thing all over again when you left Jet City. Now this. You keep making all of these big decisions, and it doesn’t feel like I am ever a part of the equation.

Her eyes watered, and the anger faded out of her face. Maybe I was wrong and it was never really anger at all. I had hurt her, and she was right about all of it. I hadn’t talked to her about going back on tour. I had sprung the fact that Kris was alive and I was leaving Jet City on her at the last minute, and only because she caught me in the act of packing. I didn’t have an excuse for any of it. We were supposed to be a team, and I kept making this life altering decisions without her.

COURT: I keep making the same mistake over and over again. I should have come to talk to you. I should have waited for you this morning. I don’t know wh--

She wasn’t going to let me talk my way out of trouble though. This wasn’t some small offense.

RUBY: What makes it worse was how you made it look so fucking easy! You just stepped in the ring and it looked like you never left! That’s not something that just anyone can do, you know? Look at what happened last night…

I can’t believe that I had missed the mark by so much. I should have known better. Somewhere in the back of my head, I probably did. That was the reason that I had been so nervous about getting back before she woke up. It was the smart part of my brain trying to tell me that it was a bad idea to leave at all. Last night had been hard on her, and I left her to deal with it alone. Worst of all, she only suffered that defeat because she wanted to spend time with me on tour.

COURT: I’m sor--

She didn’t want to hear the words. She wanted to see the behavior change, and I couldn’t blame her. There was no point in trying to defend it.

RUBY: Stop. It doesn’t matter. What does matter is the fact that you are so good that they are handing you the opportunity of a lifetime. They’re giving you the chance to do what I came up short of doing, and you’re throwing it away fighting it out with some nobodies at a gym in Long Beach.

I nodded, defeated. She didn’t deserve to be as upset. I caused that. It would have been so easy to loop her in every step of the way. A better partner wouldn’t have had to realize that in hindsight. Looking back, every decision I made was selfish.

COURT: You’re right.

She reached forward and pushed me playfully in the chest. It shouldn’t have taken me off balance, but I had to take a step backwards to stop from falling backwards.

RUBY: You’re damn right I’m right! You have got to start talking to me before you do crazy things! I may not even want to talk you out of it! At least give me the chance to do them with you. That’s what we signed up for with the vows, flowers, and gathering up our friends and family.

She brushed at her eyes, and forced a smile to her face. I think it helped that I wasn’t getting defensive about any of it at all.

COURT: I’ll do better.

I stepped forward and threw my arms around her. She rested her head on my shoulder and wrapped her arms around my waist, and suddenly the whole argument seemed to fade away. I am sure her breaking point had something to do with the loss last night, but I couldn’t fault her for it. Everything she said was something that she had been holding back for weeks. It felt better to have the air between us cleared.

RUBY: You better! Or I am going to have to come take that Bombshell World Championship from you after you beat Roxi.

She squeezed me around the waist, which was more painful than I was willing to let on. I broke away from her, but looked back with a smile.

COURT: I’d like to see you try.

I took off as fast as I could away from her, and she laughed before giving chase. I knew that I was in no condition to out run her, but that was a challenge that I would be happy to lose.



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>COURTside: Five Simple Words

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The scene opens with a shot of the Reno Events Center from the sky overhead. We zip across the building and spin back to look at the marquee on the side of the building as it changes. The first message read: SCW Climax Control This Sunday. However, when it switched, pictures of Roxi, Court and the Bombshell World Championship flashed on the screen under the MAIN EVENT heading. The camera doesn’t linger on the board though. Instead, we start to plummet towards the ground before stopping to hover just above the sidewalk. The crosswalk in front of us changes, and the camera crosses as if it were a pedestrian. Fans finally spot where it is headed to though. On a bench across from the venue is Court Pierce. The camera whirls around her, showing that she is literally watching her name light up the marquee in front of her.

”Sometimes the best things in life are the ones that you never saw coming. Seems like those kinds of things are happening to me a lot more often. Being in the main event of Climax Control this week was one. Stepping into the ring with Roxi was another. Competing for the Bombshell World Championship was one I never expected, at least not anytime soon.”

She stands up from the bench, and the camera rises with her. As she moves forward, the lens stays squared up on her face, cutting out the world around her.

”Honestly, I am still dealing with the shock of it all. If anyone had asked me Saturday if any of those three things were in my immediate future, I would have laughed in their face. I mean obviously the main event is where everyone in our business aspires to be. Being the Bombshell Champion has been a dream of mine since I first started training with Mikah. And there is nobody that represents the Bombshell division better than Roxi Johnson. Stepping in the ring with her is a big enough deal on its own, but add in the other elements, and my mind was blown. But I know what you’re all thinking. Being that complimentary is not usually my thing. However, I think I should start this off on a slightly different note than normal because of how huge this moment is for my career; my story.”

She looks up, away from the camera, probably waiting for the light to change so that she can cross towards the event center.

”I usually try to come out of the corner swinging for these little promotional videos. I try to say something headline-grabbing, and usually a little below the belt about my opponent in order to get things rolling. I bet Roxi expects the puns, the condescension, the superhero jokes at her expense. She expects me to hype how I was trained by the best, and talk about how that makes me so much better than everyone else she has faced. But it’s my turn to surprise all of you, because I don’t want to do that tonight. Better yet, I don’t think that I can do that tonight.”

She didn’t seem bothered by the fact that she couldn’t conduct business as usual, but most of the fans watching already had an educated guess as to why based on Court’s social media posts.

”Roxi Johnson is one of the very few people in this business that I have nothing negative to say about. She is one of the very few people that I am thrilled about seeing my name across from on a big marquee like this. Like I said, there is nobody more synonymous with the Bombshell division than she is. Sure, people like Mikah, Amber Ryan, and Alicia Lukas have come in and shattered all the records during their runs of dominance. Others like Mercedes and Crystal have stockpiled a bunch of championship reigns that they spend all their time reminding others about. I guess Jessie Salco and Keira have been around roughly just as long, but neither of them have the reputation that Roxi does inside that ring. What’s better is that Roxi knows all of this. She hears it every time that she steps into the Sin City ring. For the longest time, all of her opponents have given her props. She is one of the most loved members of this company’s Hall of Fame.”

”More than that, and certainly more importantly to someone like me, Roxi has been something like a gatekeeper for the Bombshell division. She is the measuring stick, and that is because if you take all of the best qualities of the notable bombshells of Sin City’s history and add them all together, Roxi is what you would get. She has longevity. She can be as dominant as anyone that has ever squared up with her. She debuted nearly a decade ago, and she is still at the top of her game, despite the fact that she isn’t getting any younger. I can’t say anything negative about Roxi, because there is nothing negative to be said about Roxi. There is no flaw. She isn’t riding off of long forgotten glory days. She has proven her worth and earned her place year after year.”

”She is what all of us want to be when we first sign our names on the bottom of a Sin City contract.”

”...and don’t misunderstand that to be as flattering as it sounds on the surface. I am not saying that I agree with how she gets things done. I’m not necessarily even a fan of her as a person. I certainly haven’t tried to mold myself after her, nor would I say that I follow her example. I’ve never cared about the people in the back, or the people in the seats the way that she does. I couldn’t care less if people love me or hate me, and I would do just about anything to get what I want. Roxi and I couldn’t be more different as people, and I am more than fine with that. However, if I can be half the competitor that she is when I am her age, I could retire happy. That would be a career worth having.”

”...and realistically, all of those things are the reasons that I am so happy that I get this opportunity against her. She represents what the best bombshells in this company can do on their best day. She isn’t some transitional champion, or one hit wonder. Roxi is the real deal, which makes this Bombshell World Championship match feel huge for me. Back when I won the Blast from the Past tournament, I thought that nothing could be bigger than facing off against the woman that helped to train me. I was wrong, and it took me this many years to figure that out. It couldn’t be anyone other than Roxi, because when I beat her, she’s the one bombshell with the ability to admit it.”

”Mikah or Crystal would have tried to take that win away from me all of those years ago. Alicia or Amber would have called it a fluke. Most of the bombshells go one of those two directions each and every time that I prove I am better than just about anyone in that ring. Nobody likes admitting defeat, even in a meaningless matchup. Roxi is one of the few that can actually own up to it when she falls short. She is the type of person that can admit when someone got the better of her. I mean, maybe her hands are tied by the whole gatekeeping thing. You can’t be the measuring stick if you can’t admit the potential that you’re measuring. Look at everything that she said to Ariana. Apparently Roxi didn’t think she was ready, tried to warn her, and then went out to prove it to the world. I have no doubt that if the match had gone the other way, she would have been the first to raise Ari’s hand and admit she was wrong.”

”Which is why she would also be the first person to raise my hand if she had to. When I win this match she isn’t going to try and take it away from me. She isn’t going to say that I wasn’t worthy. She isn’t going to leave the ring and say that I don’t deserve to be the Bombshell World Champion. She will acknowledge everything I have accomplished, and everything that I have yet to accomplish because that is the person she is. That is what makes her The Icon.”

”Strangely, getting this match has brought me a whole lot of peace of mind. I came back for the Blast from the Past tournament with a chip on my shoulder. I wanted to prove that if I really put my mind to it, I can be just as good as I ever was, if not a little bit better. Each time I stepped in that ring, a feeling started to grow inside me. I started to feel like if I could stay healthy this time around, maybe things could be different. When I beat what was left of Crystal WhoTheFuckCares I started to think maybe my luck was finally turning around. Something about this time around has felt different, and it seems like everyone else sees it too. Never in my career has anyone given me praise anywhere close to calling me the future of this division. I never felt that the powers that be had the belief that I could carry this division. I didn’t think it was possible that I could be mentioned in the same breath as Roxi, let alone step up to challenge her.”

”....and that is why it surprised me when it happened. That’s why the announcement of this match flipped my world upside down. I am finally in a position where something like this is starting to feel possible, and then the opportunity drops into my lap. If I had to dream of the most perfect opponent to start my first Bombshell World Championship reign, it could only be Roxi. And finally, it seems like everyone feels like it is possible, maybe even likely.”

”So I am not taking this opportunity lightly. I am not going to make it cheap by taking shots at Roxi that she doesn’t deserve during a promo that neither of us really care about. I look up to Roxi because of what she represents inside the six sides of that ring, and I am going to do everything within my power to make sure that I am better than her, even if just for three seconds. I know that Roxi is every bit as good as advertised. I know that her hype is real, but she better understand what she is stepping into the ring with as well. I didn’t earn all of the nice things that people have said about me later by pandering to them. I won people over by stepping between those ropes and showing them what I am made of.”

”Hopefully that is going to be enough to finally take the step that I wouldn’t have been ready for five years ago. I can’t describe how badly I want to lift that Bombshell World Championship into the air. Roxi is going to have to be at the very top of her game to rip that dream away from me on Sunday, because it’s so close that it almost already feels real. I know that she won’t go down easily, but I have faith that I will still be standing with the smoke clears.”

”I crave those five unbelievably simple words that would make that path I took to get here somehow worth the setbacks and heartbreaks.”

”....and new Bombshell World Champion…”

With that, the camera moves up from Court for one last shot at the promotional pictures of both champion and challenger on the marquee before fading to black.