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Supercard Archives / Re: LAURA PHOENIX v HARPER MASON
« on: October 20, 2023, 04:12:01 PM »
This is going to be such a veteran thing to say; but back when I began my professional career, things were a whole lot different.
Let’s go back to 2005.
I was just around 23 years old, and my teacher and mentor Kurt Collins, also known as Kurt Kaoss had given me a phone call and asked if I could possibly do him a favor. At the time, I was strictly working the independents for the last few years and had awaited just a sniff of a chance. The top pro-levels at that time had next to nothing for women. It was practically unheard of at that time for women to face men in the ring, let alone even have their own division for some unknown reason at that point.
So when I was brought it, I became the first woman amongst a locker room full of dicks, both literally and figuratively, that until that point only had women there as eye candy.
I was quickly dismissed by the “good old boys” club and there was even one vet that went as far as to try and get me fired for just existing. But I kept pressing and pushing and eventually all the chirping stopped and the praise began.
Of course there will always be people out there that don’t like how you look, what you do or even how you do it, but you have to be stronger mentally than those naysayers. If you let the ones that try and push you out control your narrative, you are going to have that happen to matter what you do.
In the matter of one year, I had been the first woman to capture their X-Division Champion, MULTIPLE times, been in serious contention for the top title, attacked by my stablemates which included the very man that brought me in AND with that he almost killed me.
With that coming back, shoving the whole damn thing down their throats, becoming the World Champion and not once did I look back and say to myself “Maybe I went just a little too far”.
I went full throttle and it continued that way until my life took something amazingly special away from me.
Between all my accolades in PWSWF, PWSR and PWSi, the moment I lost my mother to cancer, nothing else mattered. Not anymore.
You see, my mom and I had quite the turbulent relationship in my late teens. But before that we were as close as we could get. She would push me to be my absolute best but when I became pregnant with Bella, my family, moreso my father did everything in his power to try and not only hide it but convince me to give her away. Mom was stuck in the middle, but she did try through the years to keep her and her kids together in some way.
Michael, my older brother, took off to Japan for a while.
My younger sister, Jennifer, took her place as dad’s princess, doing anything that dad asked to make sure she stayed the favorite and in turn she turned into a spoiled ass priss that lingers to this day. Even though she’s now a single mom of two beautiful girls.
And my youngest sister, Cameron kept her nose down, made it through school and when she was old enough, told dad to take his bullshit and shove it.
Mom was the one that brought the family back together again and when Bella was found (That’s a whole other story that I really chose not to rehash), she tied it all together and made sure it stayed that way.
When we lost her, the passion that she instilled in me when it came to anything that I ever did went away. I just focused on Bella and Nick. It still kills me to this day that she never got to meet Aaron but I see a lot of her in that little boy.
I lost my passion for a long time.
So when I agreed to come be a part of SCW’s Blast From the Past, to say I found my passion again was an understatement. I walked in with a whole lot of respect already given, nothing to prove and just there because I missed the ring. I missed competing like I did.
Yeah, since then to now, the game has changed. Women are far more prevalent and can carry main events.
I’m proud of every single one of them for taking the path that I helped paved.
All I can do now is hope that the legacy lives on.
I can’t say ‘Don’t let that spark die’ because it did for me. And I can feel it happening again.
So is this going to be my final bow?
The Masquerade is Getting Older
It was a somewhat wild day in the Madison household. Due to having to be out of town, Laura decided to make up a late birthday celebration for not only her baby sister Cameron’s 34th birthday, but for Zion, her 2 year old nephew and son to Cameron and Jesse Russow.
Every time the Madison’s and the Russow’s got together, it was never boring but after children being born it had teetered on the less wild and the more grown up fashion. Aaron and Zion had taken to the typical cousin playdate and had toys scattered all across the living room while their mothers looked on with pride.
“So when did Mike say he’d be here?” Cameron asked as she watched Aaron show Zion how to press down on a button that would make the toy they were sharing play some annoying high pitched tune.
Laura smirked, opening up her phone, “Quote unquote soon. We know how he can be but he swore he would be here.”
“Which means there’s a 50-50 chance! Too bad we can’t say the same about Jenn.” Cameron grumbled.
That just brought a wave of the hand by the eldest O’Neil daughter, “I have all but given up hope and besides you know how she is since her divorce. She barely takes care of those girls. Thank God for dad and his girlfriend.”
“HEY HEY!!” they heard a voice call out from entryway to the house, “Can a big brother get some help out here?!?”
Cameron and Laura looked around the corner to see their big brother Michael standing there with a bag of presents over his shoulder with one arm and a car seat with the other, holding his 9 month old son, Gabriel Aki. Behind him his wife, Akari with another present on one side and their 6 year old daughter, Emi Grace. She was born shortly after her grandmother had passed and had the honor of carrying on that legacy.
“It’s about time!!!” Cameron let out, hugging her brother while taking her nephew from him. “Well hello there Gabriel, you have gotten so big!”
“Aunt Cam! I got big too!!!!” Emi let out, holding her arms out wide, as Laura scooped her up.
“That you did, Emi!” Laura tickled her a bit, “Are you enjoying your new school?”
“Yeah, it’s a little weird but I already made a new friend.” Emi said giving her aunt a hug, “Where’s Aaron and Zion?”
“They are in the living room playing. Why don’t you go join them?” Cameron said, shuffling off with Gabriel and leaving the hostess to welcome the adults into the house.
“Come on in you two! Akari, it's great to see you again.”
“Thanks for the invitation. It’s been so long since we’ve all gotten together like this.” Akari said with a smile and hug for Laura, “Especially since we had to move back to the states.”
“Which, please tell me the rest of your guys stuff showed up.” Laura asked with curiosity.
Michael laughed as he dropped the bag by the entryway to the living room, making sure that his daughter made it in and immediately began playing with her cousins, “Yes, thank God. Dad was a huge help with that believe it or not, got the company on the phone one day and the next the truck was outside the house and unloading in record time. Can’t say that money and power can’t fix everything.”
“Most of the time. Everyone else is in the kitchen. Bella was just finishing feeding Máire, if you’d like to meet your new great-niece.” Laura said pointing in the general direction.
“Oh yes!” Akira said with a smile, “Pictures that we got sent seemingly don’t do it justice, I need to see those beautiful blue eyes.”
“Mike knows the way.”
Michael and Akira had been together for a number of years, from the time he first went to Japan to the time he went back for her. They got married quietly, started their family quietly but stayed close to Laura and Cameron. They returned to the states just this summer for Mike to finally take his place in their dad’s company just so the old man could finally retire for good. After losing his wife almost 7 years ago, he deserved it.
And they all had to grow up sometime.
Laura traveled the house and looked longingly at each moment.
When she started, she was practically on her own.
Her peace was made with her dad. Michael was home. Cameron was happy. Nick was by her side and all the kids. It was everything she had dreamed of.
Nick retired.
Cameron too.
Michael hadn’t even touched a ring in almost 10 years.
So why was she the last one?
Stepping out onto the deck, she found herself needing air.
“Babe?” she heard Nick call from the kitchen sliding door, “Everyone is here, maybe we should...get the..Laur?”
She was gripping the rail of the deck so hard her knuckles were turning white, she was having issues catching her breath. Basically in the midst of a full on panic attack. Nick immediately recognizes this and wraps his arms around her and pulls her as tight as he can against him.
“Shhh, hey...come back to me.” he said low, as to not attract any more attention, “Breathe, babe. Talk to me.”
“Can I really do this? Just walk away from the one thing that gave me this life, brought me to you?” Laura says, between breaths, “Can I just call it and never think about it again?”
“You don’t need to call it if you don’t want to.”
“But I do. I don’t mind being a mentor to everyone but it is obvious that I no longer belong in the ring like the rest.” Laura says pulling back and wiping her eyes, “Besides, it was agreed. Once Bella was ready....”
“But that doesn’t mean that you have to walk away if you don’t want to, Laur. At least all together, if you don’t want to.” Nick looks back at the house and notices Bella watching them with a smile, while feeding Máire for a moment before leaving them be, “I know you’re gonna wanna continue on in some form and I’m not about to tell you no. We’ve been together long enough to know better.”
Laura laughs and kisses her husband, all these years and they love each other just as much if not more than the day they both stubbornly realized it.
“Let me get through this match and then we’ll go from there.”
“Fair enough. Come on, let’s get some cake. Cake always makes you feel better.”
“That it does.”
Rookie mistakes are simple to point out but we all know Harper is not an idiot. Putting a feather in her cap for a veteran that holds multiple Hall of Fames, world titles and so on would be a spectacular moment for her.
But alas for her, I am not one to just accept that this is it and I should just go out with the passing of the torch to her.
I passed that torch a while ago on two separate occasions.
Bella and Kayla
I have absolutely zero interest in splitting it up like horcruxes so let’s move on, shall we?
As far as I am concerned, following High Stakes, that is it for me inside any ring. 4 sided to 6 sided and otherwise. I have given everything that I had and the last thing I got is my sanity and I will be absolutely damned if I give that away willingly. I almost lost it once a long time ago and I will never have that happen again.
So let’s go from there to this, Harper you are about to find yourself under the learning tree on the biggest show of the year with a woman that could easily write the book about overcoming impossible odds. Top rookie or not, your journey, Harper...it’s just beginning. There is nothing left for me to prove but to just go out and show you that you haven’t even begun to learn.
That’s my job and then I’ll bow out gracefully.
And this chapter is done.
But Harper, be ever so careful. For if you underestimate me, you are going to pay for it and kid...it’s nothing personal.
It’s just how I do business.
Let’s go back to 2005.
I was just around 23 years old, and my teacher and mentor Kurt Collins, also known as Kurt Kaoss had given me a phone call and asked if I could possibly do him a favor. At the time, I was strictly working the independents for the last few years and had awaited just a sniff of a chance. The top pro-levels at that time had next to nothing for women. It was practically unheard of at that time for women to face men in the ring, let alone even have their own division for some unknown reason at that point.
So when I was brought it, I became the first woman amongst a locker room full of dicks, both literally and figuratively, that until that point only had women there as eye candy.
I was quickly dismissed by the “good old boys” club and there was even one vet that went as far as to try and get me fired for just existing. But I kept pressing and pushing and eventually all the chirping stopped and the praise began.
Of course there will always be people out there that don’t like how you look, what you do or even how you do it, but you have to be stronger mentally than those naysayers. If you let the ones that try and push you out control your narrative, you are going to have that happen to matter what you do.
In the matter of one year, I had been the first woman to capture their X-Division Champion, MULTIPLE times, been in serious contention for the top title, attacked by my stablemates which included the very man that brought me in AND with that he almost killed me.
With that coming back, shoving the whole damn thing down their throats, becoming the World Champion and not once did I look back and say to myself “Maybe I went just a little too far”.
I went full throttle and it continued that way until my life took something amazingly special away from me.
Between all my accolades in PWSWF, PWSR and PWSi, the moment I lost my mother to cancer, nothing else mattered. Not anymore.
You see, my mom and I had quite the turbulent relationship in my late teens. But before that we were as close as we could get. She would push me to be my absolute best but when I became pregnant with Bella, my family, moreso my father did everything in his power to try and not only hide it but convince me to give her away. Mom was stuck in the middle, but she did try through the years to keep her and her kids together in some way.
Michael, my older brother, took off to Japan for a while.
My younger sister, Jennifer, took her place as dad’s princess, doing anything that dad asked to make sure she stayed the favorite and in turn she turned into a spoiled ass priss that lingers to this day. Even though she’s now a single mom of two beautiful girls.
And my youngest sister, Cameron kept her nose down, made it through school and when she was old enough, told dad to take his bullshit and shove it.
Mom was the one that brought the family back together again and when Bella was found (That’s a whole other story that I really chose not to rehash), she tied it all together and made sure it stayed that way.
When we lost her, the passion that she instilled in me when it came to anything that I ever did went away. I just focused on Bella and Nick. It still kills me to this day that she never got to meet Aaron but I see a lot of her in that little boy.
I lost my passion for a long time.
So when I agreed to come be a part of SCW’s Blast From the Past, to say I found my passion again was an understatement. I walked in with a whole lot of respect already given, nothing to prove and just there because I missed the ring. I missed competing like I did.
Yeah, since then to now, the game has changed. Women are far more prevalent and can carry main events.
I’m proud of every single one of them for taking the path that I helped paved.
All I can do now is hope that the legacy lives on.
I can’t say ‘Don’t let that spark die’ because it did for me. And I can feel it happening again.
So is this going to be my final bow?
The Masquerade is Getting Older
It was a somewhat wild day in the Madison household. Due to having to be out of town, Laura decided to make up a late birthday celebration for not only her baby sister Cameron’s 34th birthday, but for Zion, her 2 year old nephew and son to Cameron and Jesse Russow.
Every time the Madison’s and the Russow’s got together, it was never boring but after children being born it had teetered on the less wild and the more grown up fashion. Aaron and Zion had taken to the typical cousin playdate and had toys scattered all across the living room while their mothers looked on with pride.
“So when did Mike say he’d be here?” Cameron asked as she watched Aaron show Zion how to press down on a button that would make the toy they were sharing play some annoying high pitched tune.
Laura smirked, opening up her phone, “Quote unquote soon. We know how he can be but he swore he would be here.”
“Which means there’s a 50-50 chance! Too bad we can’t say the same about Jenn.” Cameron grumbled.
That just brought a wave of the hand by the eldest O’Neil daughter, “I have all but given up hope and besides you know how she is since her divorce. She barely takes care of those girls. Thank God for dad and his girlfriend.”
“HEY HEY!!” they heard a voice call out from entryway to the house, “Can a big brother get some help out here?!?”
Cameron and Laura looked around the corner to see their big brother Michael standing there with a bag of presents over his shoulder with one arm and a car seat with the other, holding his 9 month old son, Gabriel Aki. Behind him his wife, Akari with another present on one side and their 6 year old daughter, Emi Grace. She was born shortly after her grandmother had passed and had the honor of carrying on that legacy.
“It’s about time!!!” Cameron let out, hugging her brother while taking her nephew from him. “Well hello there Gabriel, you have gotten so big!”
“Aunt Cam! I got big too!!!!” Emi let out, holding her arms out wide, as Laura scooped her up.
“That you did, Emi!” Laura tickled her a bit, “Are you enjoying your new school?”
“Yeah, it’s a little weird but I already made a new friend.” Emi said giving her aunt a hug, “Where’s Aaron and Zion?”
“They are in the living room playing. Why don’t you go join them?” Cameron said, shuffling off with Gabriel and leaving the hostess to welcome the adults into the house.
“Come on in you two! Akari, it's great to see you again.”
“Thanks for the invitation. It’s been so long since we’ve all gotten together like this.” Akari said with a smile and hug for Laura, “Especially since we had to move back to the states.”
“Which, please tell me the rest of your guys stuff showed up.” Laura asked with curiosity.
Michael laughed as he dropped the bag by the entryway to the living room, making sure that his daughter made it in and immediately began playing with her cousins, “Yes, thank God. Dad was a huge help with that believe it or not, got the company on the phone one day and the next the truck was outside the house and unloading in record time. Can’t say that money and power can’t fix everything.”
“Most of the time. Everyone else is in the kitchen. Bella was just finishing feeding Máire, if you’d like to meet your new great-niece.” Laura said pointing in the general direction.
“Oh yes!” Akira said with a smile, “Pictures that we got sent seemingly don’t do it justice, I need to see those beautiful blue eyes.”
“Mike knows the way.”
Michael and Akira had been together for a number of years, from the time he first went to Japan to the time he went back for her. They got married quietly, started their family quietly but stayed close to Laura and Cameron. They returned to the states just this summer for Mike to finally take his place in their dad’s company just so the old man could finally retire for good. After losing his wife almost 7 years ago, he deserved it.
And they all had to grow up sometime.
Laura traveled the house and looked longingly at each moment.
When she started, she was practically on her own.
Her peace was made with her dad. Michael was home. Cameron was happy. Nick was by her side and all the kids. It was everything she had dreamed of.
Nick retired.
Cameron too.
Michael hadn’t even touched a ring in almost 10 years.
So why was she the last one?
Stepping out onto the deck, she found herself needing air.
“Babe?” she heard Nick call from the kitchen sliding door, “Everyone is here, maybe we should...get the..Laur?”
She was gripping the rail of the deck so hard her knuckles were turning white, she was having issues catching her breath. Basically in the midst of a full on panic attack. Nick immediately recognizes this and wraps his arms around her and pulls her as tight as he can against him.
“Shhh, hey...come back to me.” he said low, as to not attract any more attention, “Breathe, babe. Talk to me.”
“Can I really do this? Just walk away from the one thing that gave me this life, brought me to you?” Laura says, between breaths, “Can I just call it and never think about it again?”
“You don’t need to call it if you don’t want to.”
“But I do. I don’t mind being a mentor to everyone but it is obvious that I no longer belong in the ring like the rest.” Laura says pulling back and wiping her eyes, “Besides, it was agreed. Once Bella was ready....”
“But that doesn’t mean that you have to walk away if you don’t want to, Laur. At least all together, if you don’t want to.” Nick looks back at the house and notices Bella watching them with a smile, while feeding Máire for a moment before leaving them be, “I know you’re gonna wanna continue on in some form and I’m not about to tell you no. We’ve been together long enough to know better.”
Laura laughs and kisses her husband, all these years and they love each other just as much if not more than the day they both stubbornly realized it.
“Let me get through this match and then we’ll go from there.”
“Fair enough. Come on, let’s get some cake. Cake always makes you feel better.”
“That it does.”
Rookie mistakes are simple to point out but we all know Harper is not an idiot. Putting a feather in her cap for a veteran that holds multiple Hall of Fames, world titles and so on would be a spectacular moment for her.
But alas for her, I am not one to just accept that this is it and I should just go out with the passing of the torch to her.
I passed that torch a while ago on two separate occasions.
Bella and Kayla
I have absolutely zero interest in splitting it up like horcruxes so let’s move on, shall we?
As far as I am concerned, following High Stakes, that is it for me inside any ring. 4 sided to 6 sided and otherwise. I have given everything that I had and the last thing I got is my sanity and I will be absolutely damned if I give that away willingly. I almost lost it once a long time ago and I will never have that happen again.
So let’s go from there to this, Harper you are about to find yourself under the learning tree on the biggest show of the year with a woman that could easily write the book about overcoming impossible odds. Top rookie or not, your journey, Harper...it’s just beginning. There is nothing left for me to prove but to just go out and show you that you haven’t even begun to learn.
That’s my job and then I’ll bow out gracefully.
And this chapter is done.
But Harper, be ever so careful. For if you underestimate me, you are going to pay for it and kid...it’s nothing personal.
It’s just how I do business.