(Carter was used with Chris’s permission, Miles was used with Laura’s permission)
The Summer XXXTReme XI cycle would end up being one of the worst in Ariana’s career as a professional wrestler, even after she got married to Francisco, why? Because out of the four matches she competed in throughout the cycle (against Aleesha, Keira, Kim Pain and Peter Vaughn and finally Georgie Robertson) she would lose them all and even with the knowledge that Carter not only took the pin in the mixed tag but it was a tainted loss? Ariana’s confidence was at an all-time low.
She would get a chance to bounce back however at the first Climax Control of the new cycle which saw her team with her bestie to take on the husband-and-wife team of Bill and Bea Barnhart! Like Ari and Carter, they had fallen short of qualifying for the Mixed Tag Team Championship Match at Summer XXXTreme and his match would be a huge boost for either team, can Ari and Carter win?
Ari and Francisco’s hotel room, Rome, Italy
Tuesday the 11th of July 2023. 11:00am
That was just the worst.
What else do you expect me to say about the Summer XXXTreme XI Cycle? I was coming off such a high when I challenged Roxi for the World Bombshell Title at Into the Void XI in what ended up being her final defence before she dropped the title to Courtney Pierce, I just needed to use the Summer XXXTreme Cycle to build myself back up!
Instead? Well, it was all downhill after Krystal attacked me really.
First match after my unsuccessful challenge for Roxi’s title was against the newcomer Aleesha Jones, that match was the week after Krystal attacked me and to say that I entered that match with quite a bit of anger was putting it mildly, a fact that Aleesha was able to use to her advantage and win her debut, then came my dream match against he other half of Team Hero Keira Fisher, the so-called bad cop of Team Hero gave me a heck of a fight and yet again, I lost.
And them, there was Team Go’s Mixed Tag Team Qualifying Match, me and Carter against Kim Pain and Peter Vaughn, a match that we didn’t even loser honourably as Peter cheated to get the pin on Carter! We at least took some satisfaction in the fact that they didn’t walk out the Mixed Tag Team Champions at Summer XXXTreme but I didn’t walk out a winner either! I lost to Georgie Robertson in my singles Summer XXXTreme debut! At least Carter got a win over Jaycee McDonald!
In case you can’t tell? My self confidence has taken a nosedive thanks to that string of losses, Carter tried to cheer me up by pointing out that it was him that was pinned in the Mixed Tag and not me but that didn’t help! It’s a bad sign that the only good thing I can say about the last cycle was that me and Francisco got married the week before Summer XXXTreme! My self confidence is so low that I can’t even bring myself to attend Cassie’s birthday party in the city and I love that girl!
Well, okay, she’s not really a girl now, she’s twenty years old now and if anything she’s blossoming into a fine young woman but you know what I mean!
”Never thought I’d be happy to face The Barnharts!” I muttered to myself as I looked at the card text for the opening show of the World Wonders tour, Jessie’s open challenge had been accepted by Laura Phoenix and that was serving as the Main Event , as great as that match will be, I couldn’t help but shake my head as I saw it, why? Because my low self confidence had stopped me from throwing my name in the hat as well. ”Could’ve been me in that Main Event but nope, I decided to not even bother!” I commented with a sigh as I leaned my head back on the hotel bed.
”And that’s still a decision that confuses me.” Francisco chimed in ad I looked up at my husband. ”You’re a former Roulette Champion yourself and Jessie challenged you for the title last year! Hell, you won the Roulette Title at last year’s Violent Conduct show!”
”I’m a former Roulette Champion who just had one of the worst Supercard Cycles of my wrestling career!” I exclaimed as I sat up in bed to face Francisco. ”At least last year I managed to bounce back at Summer XXXTreme with that win over The Metal Maniacs, even if that win is now tainted thanks to the fact that I was teaming with Krystal, this year? I can’t even say that much, I underestimated Georgie thanks to the fact that I pinned her to win the Roulette Title last year and it cost me my singles Summer XXXTreme debut!” I exclaimed with a frustrated grunt and Francisco could only give me a sympathetic look. ”You are at least right in the fact that I achieved my biggest singles success at last year’s Violent Conduct show! Heck, my first match in the cycle is a match that will pit me against Bea Barnhart!”
”And we can thank our lucky stars that it isn’t another Battle Royal.” Francisco nodded in agreement and I grinned in response before he walked over to me and sat on the side of the bed. ”And the fact that no one remembers you being eliminated immediately after Bea Barnhart in that Battle Royal because of everything else you achieved in that cycle.”
”Bigger picture, am I right?” I asked with a sigh before Francisco leaned in a bit closer until his head was inches away from mine. ”Err, Franky? Isn’t it a bit early for this?”
”What? Oh no, no, no, you’ve got something on your cheek, must be a food stuff you missed during breakfast.” Francisco explained and a quick glance at the bedside mirror confirmed that I had a mysterious white substance on my cheek, probably some mayo or something, most importantly? I noticed that Francisco had an even bigger stain on his shirt and without warning I flipped him onto his back before getting on top of him, yes, it looks exactly how it sounds! ”Err, Ari?”
”How you walked around with this big a food stain on your shirt, I don’t know, either way, I’m getting it off for you!” I swear to god, I had perfectly innocent intentions whilst I was doing this! but Francisco was wearing a button down shirt meaning that his messy haired (from lying in bed) wife had to undo the buttons on his shirt, and if you’re thinking that this would be a hilarious time for someone who had a spare key to our room to walk in?
Well, you’d better start playing the state lottery! “Hey guys, me and Carter are about to hit the town for lunch!” Miles said as the two men entered right as I undid the last button on Franky’s shirt and my hands just happened to be hovering over his crotch area. “Want……..to……..come……..” Miles trailed off as he saw the scene before them and I probably broke a world record for rolling off my husband.
”I swear to god! That was not what it looked like!” I insisted as I blushed like a madwoman and they shared a look. ”Just because I was on top of Franky and removing his……..”
”Err, bestie? What’s the stain on your cheek?” Carter asked and my eyes widened, in all the excitement I had completely forgot about that one, white stain. ”On second thought? I don’t want to know!”
”I must have gotten it on me whilst I was eating breakfast! And by that I mean breakfast in the hotel restaurant, not breakfast in bed!” I insisted and the look Carter and Miles shared told the whole story, they weren’t buying it. ”How about we just never talk about this incident again and hit the town?”
“Sure, as soon as you fix yourselves up.” Miles responded before the two men went quiet for a bit, I glanced over and realized that my husband had removed his shirt entirely giving them a nice view of the man I married a few weeks ago. “And you are one lucky girl.”
”I know, but that won’t stop me from hunting you down if you tell anyone about this!” I responded with a grin that let them know I was joking before shooing them out of me and Franky’s hotel room.
I guess it could’ve been worse, I could’ve been down to my underwear by the time they walked in!
Riding a Gondola, Venice, Italy
Thursday the 13th of July 2023, 11:00am
When in Rome, travel five hours north and visit Venice for the day!
Yeah, I know that’s not how the saying goes but Venice has been on my to do list of vacation destinations and I strongly doubt any wrestling company would try to host a show here because of all the water, well, we decided to make a day of it.
You know, after I initially misread Miles’s tweet as five minutes instead of five hours and thinking it was going to be a quick trip! Instead, we realized that our best bet would be to get up super early this morning and make the trip out! Good thing I’m not doing this on show day, that’s all I’m saying.
”Man, this is beautiful.” I sighed wistfully as I looked around the surrounding area, then my eyes rested on my husband and I grinned. ”And the city isn’t half bad either!”
”You took the words right out of my mouth.” Francisco chuckled and I grinned in response. ”Though I’m afraid we’d be wasted if we had a drinking game for every time you were mistaken for Italian.”
”To be fair, that’s been a problem since we touched down in Italy! You’d think the locals would know the difference between a Greek girl and an Italian girl!” I commented as I shook my head and Francisco chuckled in response. ”And don’t even get me started on Cass recently finding out that she has Italian ancestry, or the circumstances behind her discovery.”
”Yeah, let’s try not to focus on Krystal too much, then again we saw how she reacted when we found out about the true nature of Carter’s relationship with Laz.” Francisco added as he leaned back and I sighed, yet another reminder of how much of a mixed bag the 2022 Violent Conduct cycle was. ”I know she admitted to using you and Carter to get ahead, but that anger was definitely genuine.”
”Charlotte’s made no secret of the fact that she’s a child abuse survivor, I believe her when she says that she genuinely felt sorry/angry for Carter when he was being abused by Laz.” I responded with a sigh as I thought back to happier times, well, relatively happier times. ”If only everything else about our friendship was that genuine, or if someone had reached to her at least one more time during the entirety of 2022, all this could’ve been avoided.”
”And you know the fact that she hasn’t gotten a title shot since the Open Invitational Match has got to be eating away at her, it’s been a rough year for you both, she’s just reacted to it in a completely different way.” Francisco sighed before he quickly shook his head. ”What are we doing? This is supposed to be a quiet, relaxing day out to one of the most romantic cities on the planet, and we’re talking about Krystal.”
”You’re right, we’re doing the opposite of what we came here to do.” I nodded in agreement before I leaned back in the gondola. ”And that’s before we try the local food, the food back in Rome was amazing, but I’ve heard that different regions of Italy have their own ways of cooking food.”
“And you are correct madam.” The gondola driver responded and we looked up. “Sorry, I had drowned out the personal stuff you were talking about but when you mentioned food?”
”It’s fine, we were going to ask you for a recommendation anyway.” I responded with a grin before showing him my wedding ring. ”Preferably someplace romantic that a recently married couple could enjoy?”
“Ahh congratulations my friends, hope it works out for you.” The gondola driver responded with a warm smile and I returned it. “Overlooking the Grand Canal is Ristorante Florida Venezia you’ll find some of the best seafood in Venice there.”
I was half tempted to make a joke about the canal that Venice was famous for when he said that but decided against it, he’s probably heard them all before anyway!
As for the restaurant? It was as good as advertised, pricey but good though we did find it a bit amusing that an Italian restaurant had Irish Beef fillet (cooked and carpaccio) on the menu.
All in all? The trip to Venice was what I needed to clear my head, and now I felt ready to take on The Barnharts.
Just needed to find a place to put the whiteboard up for my promo.
Bridge overlooking the grand canal, Venice, Italy
Thursday the 13th of July 2023, 14:00pm
As Francisco held up the board for me I got into the zone, ready to cut my promo.
”I’m not gonna lie to you class, the Summer XXXTreme Cycle was a soul crushingly bad one for me.” I stated as I used my pointer to point to a picture of me looking dejected in the middle of the ring. ”In a period of time that lasted for a long two months, I lost every match I took part in, and to make matters worse? The one time I wasn’t pinned or submitted was because Carter was there to get pinned in my place AND it was a tainted win! I take a lot of satisfaction from the fact that Kim and Peter didn’t walk out the Mixed Tag Team Champions, I can assure you of that!” I added before pointing to the pictures of me and Carter and The Barnharts. ”But on that same subject? At least me and Carter are getting a chance to redeem ourselves as we are taking on The Barnharts in mixed tag action this week on Climax Control!”
This will be interesting.
”What’s there to say about Bill and Bea that hasn’t been said a million times? They’ve practically been around forever, managed to find themselves in several title matches for their persistence, Bill himself is a former 2x Roulette Champion, Bea a 1x Mixed Tag Team Champion with Bill, on paper that should make them a formidable duo in practice?” I asked as I shook my head. ”I honestly can’t count the number of times they’ve fallen short of winning a title, and their Mixed Tag Team reign lasted all of one defence before they ran into Austin James Mercer and Tempest! As far as I can tell, the one edge Bill and Bea have over us is experience.”
And now for the nitty gritty.
”Now, we have faced off before in singles action, Carter’s beaten Bill twice and me and Bea were the first two eliminations in an Internet Championship Battle Royal, I prefer not to talk about that match even though it was on the same cycle that saw me win the Roulette Title for the first time!” I added as I let out a deep breath. ”And I’m honestly not sure if I can count that as a win or loss against Bea because neither of us won the match, obviously, but I was eliminated seconds after Bea, I’m sure Carter will tell me to count that as a win though, especially considering how low my self-confidence has been since Summer XXXTreme!”
Yep.
”Yeah, when I described the last cycle as Soul Crushingly bad for me? I meant every word of it! My self-confidence is so low that I’m basically viewing this match as something that I can only bounce back from and little else!” I sighed as I rested the pointer over my shoulder. ”And just to be clear? I love teaming with Carter! We’ve been besties since we were trainers at the Go Gym a few years ago and we’ve been inseparable since! I look forward to kicking butt with Carter in this Mixed Tag Match and I know there’s people who believe in me like Keira but at this point? I NEED this cycle to be better than the last!”
It's that simple.
”Because otherwise? I’ll seriously start doubting my worth as an SCW Bombshell and no one wants to see that, trust me!” I stated with brutal honesty as I brushed some hair over my shoulder. ”But I keep getting up! That's been the main thing that's kept me going throughout my adult life and I won't let a string of bad luck get me down! Bill and Bea are veterans of the sport, me and Carter are in our fourth years as wrestlers, it doesn’t take a genius to realize which team has the experience edge heading into this match!” I said before pointing to me and Carter’s pictures. ”But will that be enough?”
And with that I decided to wrap things up.
”Me and Carter have faced veterans before, our track record against them is pretty good if I say so myself, and personally? I don’t see this match against The Barnharts being any different!” I said as I flipped some hair over my shoulder. ”Carter will handle Bill and I’ll handle Bea, either way, once these old dogs bask in the glow of the Greek Angel’s Light? I will start my real rebuild! See you on Sunday!”
We walked off after turning off the camera as the scene fades.
