The camera opens upon Seleana Zdunich sitting alone in the edge of a hotel bed in Detroit, Michigan wearing a pair of Nikes that look way above her pay grade along with a warm-up suit, her hair pulled back in a ponytail. She sighs, nodding as the camera’s telltale little red light illuminates.
Seleana Zdunich: So, here I sit…
She shakes her head again, sadness seemingly settling in for the moment.
Seleana Zdunich: I should be excited. I am here for my first preseason game. I get to play this game with my wife as my quarterback and I should be, as you say, on cloud nine for it. I will be receiving passes from my wife…
Sitting back on the bed, she looks into the camera and shrugs.
Seleana Zdunich: And I was for a time. I know I will be again soon but right now?
She sighs heavily as she contemplates her words carefully.
Seleana Zdunich: I feel…
Looking off into the distance, Seleana ponders the proper completion of that statement, finally coming upon the proper word to express herself.
Seleana Zdunich: Powerless.
She shakes her head and looks away, pulling her right leg up closer to her body while her left dangles off the end of the bed.
Seleana Zdunich: My stepdaughter is on the shelf and I was powerless to stop the injury that put her there. She’s seventeen and is already enduring this kind of…
She shakes her head and waves off the camera.
Seleana Zdunich: Yes, yes, I know, she’s in the ring legally, she is fair game but still...
Seleana looks back up to the camera.
Seleana Zdunich: Brittany is a teenager and that did not deserve what happened to her just because Kate Steele does not like Brittany’s mother! Have some fortitude and fight the one you hate instead of being the coward that goes for others because…
She shrugs almost hopelessly.
Seleana Zdunich: Or if you cannot be bothered to do such a thing, come at me and I will fight you! I might not be what you want but I can give you the fight you deserve!
She looks away, shaking her head.
Seleana Zdunich: But I know you will not give me such a chance…
She almost laughs at the very idea.
Seleana Zdunich: At least not where you might have to worry about me fighting back anyway.
Looking back to the camera, she nods again and then looks to the floor.
Seleana Zdunich: My wife is constantly the object of ridicule for things that have apparently happened in the past and I am powerless to stop that because even if I did know all the details, which, I never will know all of them, some people are entirely too thrilled to fire these slings and arrows at her because they get off on making others feel less than and Christina has apparently made herself an easy target over the years.
Her gaze moves up to the middle of the wall before her.
Seleana Zdunich: The other night, I was managing her elsewhere against someone else i consider family and I was powerless to stop them from escalating what should have been a friendly, competitive encounter into a deeply personal fight that threatened to split the very family unit that had been established in recent years.
She nods stiffly to herself.
Seleana Zdunich: I watched as they tore into each other…
She almost laughs mirthlessly before glaring into the camera.
Seleana Zdunich: And, yes, I am aware that none of you care but this is not about you so shut it and allow me to finish! These are my thoughts, my feelings, my time and my story and I can tell it however I please even if no one is going to bother to listen because I am just “Crystal Hilton’s stupid, unfortunate blonde Swedish trophy wife!”
Seleana shakes her head in disgust and then looks off into the distance as she composes her thoughts.
Seleana Zdunich: I watched them, my wife and who I call a sister, throw down on each other and I watched as my wife tried to fight back despite not really having her head in the game that night because of what had happened to Brittany.
She nods pointedly, her gaze falling to the floor.
Seleana Zdunich: She was not Crystal Hilton: Superstar.
Shrugging slightly, Seleana swallows sadly.
Seleana Zdunich: She was not even Christina Rose: Sweet Competitor.
She nods to the wall as if that is the recipient of her words.
Seleana Zdunich: On that night, in that building, in that ring, she was Christina, distraught mother of an injured teenager and there was nothing I could do. I was powerless to help her because when you are in that ring, you are alone and no one else can fight the match for you!
Releasing her leg, it moves to join its mate dangling off the bed.
Seleana Zdunich: She took a beating and then got caught and I…
She shrugs sadly again.
Seleana Zdunich: I was left with no choice but to save her from herself and in that moment, again, I felt powerless. My wife was in agony and I knew even if the application of force was halted on the physical front, it would not truly ease her pain!
Nodding to herself she moves to the edge of the bed and stands up facing the camera.
Seleana Zdunich: I have felt powerless for so long that I had almost gotten used to it especially with everything else going on in this country. Every day, things happen to make me question if anyone is truly safe anymore, or…
She nods to the camera.
Seleana Zdunich: In deed, if anyone was ever truly safe in the first place.
Looking up, she nods slowly, her gaze moving inch by inch until it finds the camera’s lens.
Seleana Zdunich: So why am I discussing feelings of powerlessness on the eve of a championship opportunity?
She shrugs as if the answer should be obvious.
Seleana Zdunich: Because the set-up for the Roulette Championship is such that no one involved has any power at all over how the match will go. We have no idea what we will be doing until just before the bell rings. When competing for this championship, we are powerless over the circumstances and must become used to it in order to ready ourselves for what might come.
Seleana nods grimly.
Seleana Zdunich: The champion and I have found ourselves in this position once before and as has been mentioned somewhere, Evie Baang won when she hit me in the face and made me bleed.
She shrugs and looks away for a second.
Seleana Zdunich: So, I was all set to ponder that thought all over again, allow the epiphany of the day roll over me until I noticed that Evie Baang has so little respect for me that she did not even bother to step before a camera and cut a promo on me nor did she do what most others have done and cut a promo on my wife, only vaguely remembered to throw my name in at the end to make it appear as if they they had known all along they were fighting me instead of Christina. Somehow that passes as a “sick burn” to many of the people around here…
She shakes her head in disgust, the sadness suddenly gone.
Seleana Zdunich: But not our illustrious Roulette Champion…
She shakes her head again, the disgust being joined by anger and a slight degree of enmity.
Seleana Zdunich: No, Evie Baang apparently decided it was such a forgone conclusion that she would steamroll me in whatever match is chosen for us, that it was beneath ehr to do such a simple thing and simply submitted a written statement that basically just said, “Doesn’t matter, don’t care what you say, you lose, goodnight.”
She turns forcefully to the camera, glaring hatefully.
Seleana Zdunich: I know I am still a rookie and i know you have beaten me before, but at least do me the courtesy of trying!
Seleana almost spits in outrage.
Seleana Zdunich: Din arroganta jävla fitta!
She pauses, thinking over what she just said and nods forcefully.
Seleana Zdunich: Oh, I am so sorry, I forgot, you will not know what that means, so allow me to translate…
Her glare remains fixed and rage-filled.
Seleana Zdunich: You arrogant fucking cunt!
Her hand rises up and pulls to her chest.
Seleana Zdunich: I know I’m not an exciting new opportunity for you to show your dominance, but I AM an opportunity no matter what you think of me and I will show you what you apparently failed to learn last time. You did not pin me, you did not make me submit and you did not dominate me! You won on a fluke hit after I fought and took as much as you could give me! I am tired of people like you simply looking passed me because you have all convinced yourselves that my wife is nothing and my stepdaughter is young and related to my wife and thus this makes them unworthy of any kind of respect no matter what they have actually managed to accomplish in this business and in this company already!
The hand balls into a fist and pounds on Seleana’s chest.
Seleana Zdunich: I will show you that you should at least learn what my fucking relationship is since I am no one’s mother-in-law yet, you simpering buffoon! Brittany is my STEPdaughter, no my daughter-in-law. If she gets married, then I will be a mother-in-law, but since that has not happened yet and you could not be bothered to actually look things up, why should anyone be surprised that you got that wrong in your… not really a promo… promo?
She nods and moves in a step closer to the camera.
Seleana Zdunich: So I say, spin the wheel, draw cards, play actual roulette and bet black, pull the lever on a slot machine, pick whatever anyone feels like and I will make you pay for such blatant disrespect to me, the company and the sport. This might be a rematch of something that has come before, but that does not mean it has to be either boring or predictable and it does not mean you can just mail it in and pretend nothing else matters. I am tired of feeling powerless and in this match against you, I take the power back no matter what that damn wheel says!
She walks right up to the camera and glares in extreme close-up.
Seleana Zdunich: Now bang on that, Evie!
