Off-Camera
Friday, September 15, 2023
Common Room
Shieldmaidens Clubhouse
San Clemente, California
9:22 AM PDT
Family visits always brighten days. For the San Clemente Charter, today was going to be special just because it was time for a visit from a championships tag team that were relatives of the Vice President, Haylie Jo “Halo” Annis, but also of prospects Brittany “B-Brat” Williams, Dawn “D-Dub” Warren, Sofia “Coneja” Hilton and Ravenna “Cuervo” Rojas. With B-Brat, D-Dub and Coneja off running various errands, Halo and Cuervo were now sitting with Seleana Zdunich and her middle sister, Zenna Zdunich, as they wait for the others coming to train with them.
Halo: Y’all really talking about having a match with Team Hero?
Seleana nods.
Seleana Zdunich: Ja, but it might not happen.
Halo simply nods but Cuero frowns in confusion.
Ravenna "Cuervo" Rojas: ¿Por qué no?
Selena shrugs.
Seleana Zdunich: Well, I have a championship match Sunday. If I win, there is a possibility I would not be available for the tag team match. There is also the possibility that someone else accepted that challenge and will be given that opportunity instead.
Still looking confused, Cuervo
Ravenna "Cuervo" Rojas: You did not accept?
Zenna nods.
Zenna Zdunich: We did.
Seleana smiles.
Seleana Zdunich: Sometimes even when a challenge is accepted, it does not mean the match happens.
Cuervo starts to answer but catches and stops twice before just shaking her head.
Ravenna "Cuervo" Rojas: I do not understand.
Halo shrugs.
Halo: Sometimes there’s al;ready plans. Sometimes other plans collide and conflict. Like Mama Sel said, she’s got a match for the Roulette Championship this week. If she wins, she ain’t takin’ no tag match. She’ll likely be defendin’ again, possibly against the same person she just took it from, maybe more. You never know what ideas are poppin’ in them bookermans’ heads. Like the one match you had…
Cuervo shudders at the memory and Halo nods.
Halo: Were you even trained then?
Cuervo shakes her head and Zenna frowns.
Zenna Zdunich: You were not?
Cuervo shakes her head.
Seleana Zdunich: You were not even a wrestler on the roster, ja?
Cuervo nods slowly, almost ashamedly.
Ravenna "Cuervo" Rojas: I teamed with Coneja against La Llorona.
Seleana starts to frown but Halo nods knowingly.
Halo: The Bisque Dolls.
Cuervo nods, still shuddering at the thought. Seleana and Zenna both smile at her.
Zenna Zdunich: But you did the match even though you were frightened?
Cuervo nods, again, shame seemingly flowing over her.
Zenna Zdunich: You were brave then.
Cuervo shakes her head.
Ravenna "Cuervo" Rojas: Coneja was. She stand for me. We lost because I could not help her.
Seleana shrugs.
Seleana Zdunich: But you gave it a go anyway, ja? Overcoming fear and standing there with your sister. Zenna and I have done that in multiple companies. Zenna has won two more tag team championships than I have. She won in Hybrid with her wife and our cousin for both tag and trios. She won with me for trios in WWA and tag in CEW. We might have gotten a chance at either in WWR but the company closed before we got the chance.
Halo smiles.
Halo: I won a championship in WWR. My sister won the tag titles in Hybrid. Your cousins have won a bunch of championships too, Miss Cuervo.
Cuervo nods.
Ravenna "Cuervo" Rojas: Es la verdad.
Halo: I know your sister will too just like my wife has.
She pauses and nods to her mother-in-law.
Halo: Just like Mama Sel has.
She nods to Zenna.
Halo: And Aunt Z. Family’s just loaded with gold.
Seleana almost laughs.
Seleana Zdunich: Not enough, ja?
Zenna frowns.
Zenna Zdunich: Who say?
Halo shrugs.
Halo: Who cares? Those people are either full of shit or they’re trying to downplay others to build themselves up because they aren’t really as confident in themselves as they like to portray themselves to be.
She cracks a smile and snickers.
Halo: Sometimes both.
Seleana and Zenna both nod their agreement.
Zenna Zdunich: Happens a lot, ja?
Seleana nods sadly.
Seleana Zdunich: It will probably happen before Sunday again. Alexandra Calaway will not want to admit things and will want to accentuate others.
Halo shrugs.
Halo: Don’t they always?
Everyone shares a laugh as they wait for their session to begin.
On-Camera
Friday, September 15, 2023
Common Room
Shieldmaidens Clubhouse
San Clemente, California
9:01 PM PDT
The camera opens upon Seleana Zdunich standing by the door, seemingly having just come from a workout.
Seleana Zdunich: Congratulations are in order, Alexandra. You won your championship here in SCW, ja?
She nods, slowly, smiling as she does so.
Seleana Zdunich: You defeated Jessie Salco, ended her run and her reign and took the SCW Bombshells Roulette Championship thus cementing yourself as having achieved championship status, ja?
She nods almost playfully.
Seleana Zdunich: Enjoy…
Her eyes flash as her smile broadens.
Seleana Zdunich: Savor.
The smile starts to fade.
Seleana Zdunich: Even if your reign lasts, this feeling will not.
She points into the camera.
Seleana Zdunich: You should know, sometimes it is your doing. You and people like you cannot wait to rip and tear at champions until they are not perched on a pedestal but on the precipice of falling into an abyss because you chiseled sway until that pedestal was a cliff threatening to fall away into the ocean below.
Looking away, Seleana almost laughs.
Seleana Zdunich: It is what you have always been afraid of, ja?
She nods into the camera, her eyes seemingly boring a hole right through it.
Seleana Zdunich: It is why you surrounded yourself with others to hold you up but also why you walked away both times.
She raises a hand to slow the response that is incoming down.
Seleana Zdunich: Ja, I know, it is not your fault.
Seleana shakes her head in disgust.
Seleana Zdunich: Ja, it is your fault, Alexandra. You walked away because you both lacked confidence in yourself, but you also lacked trust in others and while you currently hold proof that you can stand on your own and look down from above as a champion on your own, you are still afraid it will end before you have achieved all that you wish for.
A wry smile crosses her face, one that is clearly without mirth and somewhat filled with malice.
Seleana Zdunich: And to prove your hypothesis that way you need look no further than my wives.
She nods, touching her right hand to her chest.
Seleana Zdunich: My Alexandra worked in the same company you did at the time. She held a championship but you and your comrades of the time would not allow her to enjoy anything resembling championship standing.
She shakes her head.
Seleana Zdunich: You went out of your way to make sure she was harassed and bombarded until she lost her championship and then had her name trampled on in the mud.
Her eyes show the anger pulsating through her.
Seleana Zdunich: And you enjoyed it!
She points into the camera accusingly again.
Seleana Zdunich: You enjoyed it because it made you feel better about yourself to make sure she felt beaten down. You pound on her until she questioned whether she even deserved to be anything, much less a professional in the wrestling field.
Seleana shakes her head in disgust.
Seleana Zdunich: For this, you will deserve your downfall when it comes.
Through gritted teeth, Seleana nods slowly, almost laughing to herself though it is an almost cold and mirthless laugh that comes through.
Seleana Zdunich: But that does not include what you and others have done to Christina…
Her gaze returns to the camera, her glare fixating dead center in the lens.
Seleana Zdunich: I know… she has given many reasons for many to not like her.
She nods, her hand outstretched to the camera, palm out.
Seleana Zdunich: I know. You do not need to inform me of my wife’s missteps.
Glaring into the camera, she points to herself, tapping her own chest.
Seleana Zdunich: I know, I was there.
She waves her hand through the shot.
Seleana Zdunich: None of you were there for much of it, but I…
She nods angrily, pointing to herself again.
Seleana Zdunich: I was there for it all. I was there for the highs, the lows, the in-betweens. I was there for championships that should have cemented her in the same breath as Roxi Johnson and Mercedes Vargas. I was there for Hall of Fame. I was there to watch as she stepped into the spotlight she earned and see people like you and many, many others, throw rocks at her because it was not you standing there in that spotlight.
She nods angrily again, still pointing to herself.
Seleana Zdunich: I was there to see many of those rocks land and for her to stumble back, hurting, confused, bleeding and begging to know why it was never enough.
Her point closes into a fist against her chest.
Seleana Zdunich: I was there to catch her, to catch Alexandra and to make sure they did not fall as completely as you wanted them to. I was there to see you smile and laugh at their misfortune.
She nods harshly.
Seleana Zdunich: For this, you deserve when your downfall come!
The glare intensifies.
Seleana Zdunich: And now it is my turn to have rocks thrown at me again and I’m not even in the spotlight.
She points into the camera again.
Seleana Zdunich: You are.
Her head cocks to the right.
Seleana Zdunich: And I know, you are afraid
Her head moves more straight upright.
Seleana Zdunich: You are afraid that this is all a fantasy that soon will end and leave you right where you were before except now you’ve had that little taste and you are begging the dealers for just one more hit. Most afraid that the spotlight will turn off and leave you in the darkness from whence you came.
She nods, pointing to herself again.
Seleana Zdunich: And I know where the switch is.
Her hand falls back to her side.
Seleana Zdunich: I’ve flipped it on Alicia Lukas before. I’ve flipped it on Jessie Salco more than once before.
She glares one last time through the camera.
Seleana Zdunich: You best hope I do not flip the switch on you, ja?
