[Christian Underwood]

Please post all roleplays here! Have fun and good luck!

[Julianna DiMaria]

When I came to SCW, I imagined that I would be in the main event picture from the start…

Only… not this soon.

But I know in my heart that the High Stakes stage isn’t too big for me. I’ve been a world champion twice over. I’ve overcome a lot of shit to be the wrestler and the woman that I am today. I’ve won some big time matches over my career in nearly the last seven years. I know what my potential is especially knowing how hard it was for me to rise up the ranks for a few years before I finally won my first world championship…

And to think I nearly retired just months before that…

December 2020

“How can I LOSE to someone like THAT?”

I was freaking out in my mother’s living room about 48 hours after I lost to a wrestler beneath me in skill.

“Honey, sometimes these things happen…” my mother says. “You should know that…”

“Of course… because it seems to happen to me ALL THE TIME…”

My head was all over the place. Deep down, my heart sank. I was a broken woman in this moment. My pride wasn’t even close to being where it needed to be.

“Why does it always have to be ME? Why do I always build up momentum only to squander it by losing to someone that’s beneath me? I’m sick of being everyone else’s stepping stone! I’m NEVER going to be a world champion no matter how hard I try…”

This draws a sigh out of my mother.

“Every time some rookie or some nobody needs this big win to get their career going, it’s always ME that they’re beating! WHY ME? Why am I ALWAYS the gatekeeper? Why can’t I break the ceiling? Why do I always have to prove my dad right? I’m always starting over with a new perspective only for the same thing to happen to me AGAIN! I can’t do this anymore! I’m DONE wrestling!”

“DONE? So your father wins then…”

“No…”

“So why do you keep giving him power? I know I haven’t wrestled in a long time Julianna, but I know exactly why you’re going in circles and not winning a world title.”

“Save it!”

“No! You’re going in circles because you’re always being a baby! I know that most of it is your father, but your attitude with wrestling is AWFUL!”

I was taken aback by my mother’s unexpected brutal honesty and I had no choice but to shut up.

“Every loss… every setback… you act like it’s the end of the world and your dream of being a world champion is done. STOP! Seriously! I’ve had enough of seeing you act like this! You’re 26 years old! Quit acting like a child and grow up! It’s ONE setback that nobody’s going to remember especially when you win that battle royal coming up to get a shot at that world title you want so bad.”

“If I can’t beat that NOBODY, I can’t be a world champion…”

“Did I raise my daughter to be a weak quitter?” my mother asked, further shocking me. “NO! So, you better quit acting like a child every time you lose a match or get out of my sight because  can only put up with so much of your attitude. You’re stuck being the bridesmaid because you’re ALWAYS being the victim! You want to be a world champion? Then quit being a victim! Quit disappointing me like this…”

That last sentence finally snapped me out of my funk.

“Mom, you’re right….” I said with a sigh. “I’ve got this all wrong. That battle royal is going to be so hard to win but I’m not going to win it acting like this. Can you help me? Please? Can you show me how to be mentally stronger?”

“I’ll see you here first thing in the morning, now go home, calm down and get some rest…”

I began to walk out of her living room.

“You probably hate me right now…” she said to me. “...but I don’t want to see that victim attitude from you anymore.”

“Mom, I don’t hate you. Thank you. I won’t behave like that anymore…”

I walked out of her house full of curiosity of what the near future was going to bring. Thank goodness I’ve been able to not regress to that ‘victim’ attitude anymore…

Friday…

“Mom, are you sure there’s no other way?”

I asked her this while we were sitting on her couch.

“Does it have to be a removal surgery for your kidney?”

“No. We can rid it of its cancer the same way we did before but there’s always that risk that it’s going to come back. Besides, canceling it last minute would be very unprofessional.”

“What if something goes wrong?” I asked, feeling a little panicked. “What if you never wake up?”

“Julianna… honey… don’t think like that! I’ve had a surgery before. I appreciate your concern, but you’ve got the match of your career coming up and I need you to focus on that, okay? I know that this has been very hard for you, but you need to be strong. You’re not going to win that world title if you’re worrying too much about me.”

“You know that I can’t help but worry…” I said with a sigh. “But you have a point. I admit it. Your situation has been a light distraction and I don’t mean that in a bad way. I know that I’ve got to focus on my title match but when I know you can’t be there… it feels… lonely. I want you to be there, mom! This is one of the biggest matches I’ve ever had!”

My mom wraps an arm around me doing everything that she can to reassure me. I was calming down a bit, but I still had some jitters and it wasn’t even the title match.

“I understand…”

“Do you, mother? Because nearly three years ago, I remember I was about to quit after an embarrassing loss to an inferior opponent and you straight up told me to quit being a baby and quit being a victim. I remember that for the next few weeks, you were a huge help with getting me to focus and correcting the psyche that my father completely screwed up during my proper training. I’m not where I am today without you and it hurts my heart like hell that you can’t be there.”

My mother lets out a sigh.

“It just feels so unfair…” I said, trying to hold back the tears.

“Julianna, what I taught you about not being a victim needs to kick in right now. You think I’m not scared about what I’ve got to do tomorrow? I’m terrified. You don’t see me showing it. This cancer is my fight and I need you to focus on yours. The last thing that I want as a mother is for you to lose such a big match because of me, okay? Don’t be a victim, be a champion. That’s how I am doing this tomorrow.”

“If that’s what you want, then fine…” I said with a reluctant sigh. “...I’m sorry. I can’t help it. You’re the one person that understands me and I’m always going to appreciate that. Whatever you need tomorrow before you go under the knife, name it, okay?”

“I appreciate that, honey…” she says to me as she gives me a reassuring kiss on the forehead before she stands up and walks into the kitchen. I let out a sigh as I continued to reflect on the journey that I was on toward my first ever world championship not too long after my mother taught me a few mental tricks to finally reach my fullest potential as a professional wrestler at that point…

January 2021

“CONGRATULATIONS!!!!” my best friends Christy and Ally were telling me over a dinner that were having shortly after I won that battle royal to get myself a shot at the MAINSTREAM World Champion!

“Thank you guys!” I said with an excited squeal. “I finally broke the ceiling! Do you two have any idea how great it feels to finally shed the damn bridesmaid dress?”

“You’ve earned it for a long time, Jules…” Christy says with a smile.

“Yeah! You had an awesome performance to say the least…” Ally adds. “And on top of everything else, you eliminated that bitch that got a fluke win over you last month!”

I laughed, realizing right away that what was just mentioned was the best part. But the joy wouldn’t last long when my father showed up to kill the whole mood.

“You think you’re a big shot because you won, right?” my father asks me. “Every dog has her day. You don’t deserve a damn thing, Jules.”

I was feeling that anger already.

“You haven’t earned a shot at your first world title. To me, you’re always going to be a nobody in the wrestling business. I can’t wait to see you choke your world title shot…”

“Are you done?” I asked him defiantly, as my phone buzzed to indicate a voicemail coming through.

“I’m going to be the first person to laugh in your face when you choke away that title shot, I’ll tell you that right now. Just know that I’ll never accept the fact that I fathered someone so fucking worthless.”

“I’m done being your victim, so can you just move along?”

My father scoffed, calling be a ‘bitch’ in Italian before he moved away and laughed to himself.

“What a jerk…” Christy says.

“He’s ticked because I didn’t give him the reaction that he wanted. Anyway…”

I glanced at my phone.

“My mom left me a voicemail… hold on…”

I took a deep breath as I tried to forget about that awful abuse attempt my father just put me through. I didn’t waste much time playing my mother’s voicemail.

“Hey Julianna! Congratulations on winning that massive battle royal and giving yourself that incredible opportunity to be a world champion for the first time. You have no idea how proud I am. A month ago, you were ready to give up but I didn’t let you and I’m so glad that I didn’t. I know you’ve got an uphill battle considering the champion you’re facing has been dominant and the face of MAINSTREAM for so long, but rest assured that I believe in you! There are no odds too steep for my little girl…”

I could only chuckle at this, feeling the love from my mother.

“...I promise you that you’re going to become the world champion. You’re beyond ready now. What I saw tonight was the best in ring performance I’ve ever seen from you. Keep raising the bar sweetheart! Love you!”

I let out a happy sigh with the voicemail ending.

“Are you okay, Jules?” Ally asked.

“Talk about a roller coaster with your parents there…”

“I’m alright ladies…” I said with a smile. I certainly felt fine after the reassurance and praise my mother just gave me. “...I literally forgot what just happened with my mother’s sperm donor honestly. She’s helped me be a much stronger person over the last month. I don’t remember us bonding so damn much…”

“You’re going to make her proud when you win that title…” Christy adds.

“No question…” I said with confidence as we continued on with our night…

Saturday…

I was with my mother as she lied her hospital bed, moments away from being wheeled into the operating room. I was sitting right next to her and holding her hand doing everything that I could to provide comfort to her.

“Don’t leave me here…” I said to her. “You’re the one person that’s always there for me to build me up… like that voicemail you sent me when I won that battle royal a few years back? I never deleted it. I never will.”

“Honey… you’re not using my situation to intentionally avoid thinking about your match, are you?”

I was immediately confused.

“You’re letting Courtney’s words get to you…” she adds.

“No…” I said with a little anger in my voice. “Not one bit. It’s a bunch of empty words and cowardly subtweets. Those words are empty as shit and we both know that. A wise woman once told me that what other people say about me don’t mean a damn thing…”

I winked at my mother, reminding her that these were her words. She smiled as she grabbed my hand a little tighter.

“That same wise woman also told me that I define my self-worth… I define my legacy… I define my journey… not the garbage empty words of a placeholder champion with a bunch of self-esteem issues that she’s hiding from people stupid enough to fall for her facade. If I let her define me, then what kind of person am I? She’s child’s play compared to my dad, that’s for sure.”

“Hey, maybe she’s your dad’s long lost daughter…” my mother says with a laugh, obviously trying to lighten the mood considering what she was about to go through in a few moments.

“God, can you imagine?” I said with a laugh of my own. “I learned from you… not to make other people’s words matter. That’s a lesson that I’m going to execute to my fullest potential when I take on that vapid bitch!”

“Good…” my mother says before a doctor cuts in.

“Sorry to interrupt, but the operating room is ready now.”

“Can’t we have a few more minutes?” I asked with a worried tone in my voice.

“We’ve got to do the surgery now…” the doctor responds. “Otherwise, the next patient on the list goes next and with something like removing a cancerous organ, we can’t delay another day.”

“It’s okay honey…” my mother reassures me as some nurses come in to grab her bed. They wheel her bed out of the room and I follow it as far as I can as it goes down the hall. Eventually, security stops me and my anxiety over my mother’s surgery virtually quadruples in less than a second. Tears of worry start to fill my eyes the more I watch her disappear down the hall.

Experiencing that was the coldest, loneliest thing that I had gone through in a long time… almost certainly since my father died.

My mother disappeared into the operating room at this point and I just couldn’t hold back anymore. For that brief moment, I was crippled by fear.

“Mommy…” I said as I wiped the tears away, clearly reduced to my inner child for that brief moment. I squinted my eyes and took a few deep breaths as I tried to hold myself together. As quick as that fearful moment came and went, my brain snapped back into being stronger.

“Be strong right now…” I told myself in my head. “...that’s what mother would want. You’ve got to be strong for her while she goes through this… and you have to be strong going into High Stakes. You can’t let this destroy you. She’s going to be fine. She may not be at High Stakes in person like you wanted her to be, but she’s going to be in your heart for sure. That’s all you need. Stay strong Julianna… stay strong…”

I took another deep breath before I reluctantly find myself going to the waiting room for what I knew was going to be a long, anxiety filled, few hours.

Saturday Night…

Partially to lightning my own mood and partially to make a cheap pun on my opponent, I found myself in an empty courtroom next to a smartscreen television. I had a clicker in hand and for good measure, I even dressed up as a lawyer. My mother’s situation was the furthest thing from my mind as I knew I had to be strong for her. With the camera on me, I wasted no time speaking…

“Welcome… to the COURT…room…”

I scoffed and let out a laugh before continuing.

“I want to present to the court of Sin City Wrestling that Courtney Pierce is every bit as average as a world champion as she has called other Bombshells as wrestlers. Now, Courtney, I know your reputation. I know you’ve been dominant for the better part of the year and I get that you have beaten everyone in front of you and yet, despite all of the defenses that you’ve racked up, your title reign just hasn’t felt like it’s been anything THAT special! Exhibit A…”

The names of her title defenses so far pop up on the screen.

“Your title defenses. Of the names on this list, Keira Johnson is your most impressive title defense so far and that’s not saying much because Keira has that reputation of always being the bridesmaid wrestler of this division. The others? You want to talk about me not exactly having a dominant streak going, but you call beating the likes of Ariana and Zoey dominant? You want to brag about your title reign and act like it’s the greatest thing since sliced bread when your other title defenses are against someone YOU called ‘average’ in Kim Pain and Devona who turned out to be the third consecutive disappointment as a Blast from the Past winner for the Bombshells? In my book, you have done NOTHING to progress this division and you have barely done a damn thing for the championship. In fact, one of the reasons why I know I am going to beat you at High Stakes is because I carry a FUCKTON more passion for what I do in that ring than you do! I put my fucking heart and soul into making this match between us a big fucking deal and it SHOULD be a big deal but you know why it’s not as big of a deal as it should be?

It’s not because of me, CHAMP… it’s because of YOU…. because while I’m showing up and expressing how I feel about this experience and pouring my heart and soul for the world to see, you’re being a little chickenshit coward subtweeting on social media without putting my name on it You haven’t even BOTHERED being on Climax Control in ANY capacity over the last two weeks and that is purely DISRESPECTFUL to the championship that you hold. But that’s not really new with you, is it? You mostly only show up when you’re scheduled to compete. You won the championship from Roxi and yet you couldn’t even be fucking bothered to make an appearance the very next week! For god’s sake… have a celebration… go find Devona and try to fight her… SOMETHING! NAH… you just decided to stay home. I mean, I was HOPING that you would at least interrupt me, or blindside me from behind… ANYTHING to show that you actually CARE… but no, you stayed home. The title has been an on and off disappearing act since you won it. You just MIGHT be the most uninspiring Bombshells Champion in a damn long time because during your whole reign? I didn’t see anyone take the initiative to want to face you. Where are all the old names like Crystal and Amber clamoring to come back and face you, huh? If those names don’t think you’re worth the effort, and their lack of anything seems to be an indicator of that, then does that not reflect badly on YOU as a champion?

Precisely it does!

But going into your defense against Devona asking her where all the effort and the passion for the business is…

Where's yours, bitch? You're just hiding on your stupid little Twitter page taking potshots at me like the fucking insecure coward you really are instead of coming up to my face and at least trying to scrap with me. You once mentioned that you’re showing up to all the events and making sure that the company is represented the way it deserves to be…

…not with that little two week vacation where you weren’t even on television at ALL you’re not…

Hell, I can see the lack of passion in your promos toward your defenses when you do the same old thing of just saying that your challenger is beneath you or that your challenger is a nobody and how you’re the one and how you’re the greatest and…. UGH, bitch who the fuck are you trying to convince because you’re not going to convince me that you’re “the one”...

In fact… let me present to you EXHIBIT B for why you’re NOT going to win at High Stakes…

You are literally the most insecure excuse of a world champion this side of Crystal Hilton! You don’t REALLY believe in yourself as a world champion because during your entire reign, all you’ve seemed to be focused on is bringing down other people and trying to silence some old haters and trying to atone for your failures from the past. I’m not talking out of my ass, Courtney. Listen to your own promos. Listen to yourself talk about how you never felt that the powers believed in you… or how the universe conspired to keep the title away from you for five years… or your complaining about how it took you years of heartbreak before you finally made it happen… or how your gym abandons you, how you’re always disrespected, how Roxi said this mean thing about you, how you’re better than what everyone gives you credit for… how someone tries to come along and take it all away from you…

Underneath all that “RAWR I’M THE ONE! EVERYONE IS BENEATH ME” you show on the outside is a vapid, insecure, heartbroken little BITCH who has to take out ALL of her inner demons on everyone else with her cheap subtweets and her empty insults that you got out of the “Promo Insults for Rookies” handbook because the fucking TRUTH of the matter is… you’re AFRAID of losing that championship because deep down in whatever is left of your dying heart for this business, you KNOW that the moment someone takes that championship from you, you’re going to go BACK to what you were prior to this year: on the shelf, out of the picture, someone that nobody ever really thinks about while you’re gone, and back to the same old pattern of heartbreak after heartbreak that you suffered through for years before you finally won that title.

You KNOW that dark place you used to be in before you won it all… and you’re SCARED that the moment you lose that title, you’re going back there. Well allow ME to put you back there. You sit there acting like a damn victim almost every match you’re in, crying about Roxi saying this about you or Devona saying that about you and how you’re always the one suffering when you try to do the right thing… crying about how people once labeled you as a failure of Jet City… how you’re OVER IT ALL… yet weeks later, you’re STILL bitching about all the disrespect that you get while you say “I’M OVER IT” again. NO WONDER it took you so damn long to win the title…

Because all these years, you’ve allowed your own insecurities to hold you back! You’ve been concentrating FAR too much about what other people think about you and even as the world champion, you’re STILL doing it! I know a little something about that. I used to be in that spot earlier in my career. I get it. I even want to pity you for it because you’re WAY better than what you’ve shown to be as a champion but I don’t have time to pity you. I’m not going to take pity on a two faced bitch that can’t even make up her own damn mind on anything. One week, you’re kissing Roxi’s ass and praising her as the greatest thing that’s ever happened to this division and the next you’re trashing her and whining about how she said this about you. One week, you’re praising me… no really, I remember you called me someone ‘with promise’, but the moment that I even come anywhere close to your championship, you’re trying to call me a ‘nobody’ and try to convince yourself that I don’t deserve the title shot just because I’ve only had a handful of matches.

Let me ask you something, Courtney…

How many matches did you have in your latest comeback before you had your title shot against Roxi? Did you win a number one contender’s match to get that shot? I did… granted it was against Ariana. You didn’t. You got it out of nowhere and you were as surprised as I was when I got mine. I am literally in the same spot YOU were when you won the title from Roxi and that’s so fitting that things have come full circle because when you were the challenger, you were the hungry one that wanted to create the change from the status quo about to take on a champion that didn’t give two fucks about making the division better. NOW? I’M that hungry challenger that wants to create the change that title DESPERATELY needs, about to take the championship from a complacent champion that doesn’t give two fucks about making the division better. Funny how it works right?

All that shit that you talked about Roxi… only for you to become the same fucking champion that she was only with a less impressive collection of challengers.

So when it’s YOU JUST coming back and it’s YOU getting the sudden title shot, it’s fine but when it’s ME… oh no… “JULIANNA DESERVES IT LESS THAN ARIANA DID”.

Fucking hypocrite…

And hey, let me present to you exhibit B2 of why I’m going to take that championship from you…

You’re THREATENED by me! I’m stuck in your head! You KNOW I am stuck in your head and again, I’m not pulling that one out of my ass. Tell me something, Court. Prior to this, when did I ever say a bad word about you? Oh sure, I name dropped you in maybe my first or second promo when I first got here, but I didn’t do it in a bad way at all. I recall saying that the moment YOU won the title, I came here after SCW tried to get me to sign for YEARS but I finally did because I saw YOUR title win as progress. But was that such a BAD thing? APPARENTLY! I mean there you were calling me ‘new bitch’ and whining about how I already had my name in your mouth despite ‘not doing anything worth recognizing’.  Tell me… why is me mentioning you shortly after coming through that door such a terrible thing? You can't handle a newcomer mentioning you when you're the champion? Isn't that what being a world champion is supposed to be about? Are you THAT insecure, Courtney? Also, way to be a coward. Put my fucking name on it.

You know those cute little subtweets you love to drop on Twitter every time a Climax Control airs…

Put my fucking name on it!

For fuck’s sake are you THAT intimidated by me?

I think it’s so AMUSING… how you’re praising me when I’m not a threat to your title… but the moment I become one due to a decision that the powers that be made… suddenly I’m a ‘nobody’ again. You’ll NEVER admit it Courtney… because you’ve got your own delusions of grandeur shoved so far up your ass… but deep down, you know that of all the challengers that you’ve faced so far, I’m the one that’s been the biggest threat… or at least the biggest one since Keira…

For ONCE, you’re getting a challenger that isn’t even the SLIGHTEST bit intimidated by you because unlike them, I see through your wall. I see through your fake shit. Puff out your chest and act like you’re the franchise of this division when you’re not and you never will be. Throw your silly little childish insults my way and try to convince yourself SO HARD that what you’re saying about me is true when they never have been, never will be.

Try to convince yourself as much as you can that I don’t deserve this…

But the truth is? I DO and anything you have to say about me is a bunch of thin air from a tryhard champion that I ONCE respected but once I peeled back the onion and REALLY saw who you are at the core based on your words and actions in recent months? Nope!

I can’t respect a champion who always acts like a victim even though they have the one thing any Bombshell with any heart and passion would kill to have… and I never will…

I can’t respect a champion with no heart and passion for what she does who is the definition of the ‘arrive, wrestle, leave’ type of bitch!

You’ve FAILED to push that title as a big deal, champion. In my book, you’re the placeholder to someone better: ME!

And when I win that title at High Stakes, the ‘new bitch’ will make you MY bitch…

Subtweet THAT… bitch!

What’s going to happen at High Stakes can be summed up in two words:

Court… DISMISSED…

And when you’re left wallowing alone in your darkness and being the VICTIM you LOVE to act as… you’re going to realize REAL quick that your imminent downfall is something you brought on your damn self….”

With that, it’s truly ‘court dismissed’ for this moment as the smartscreen television is shut off and I shut off the camera in front of me.

[Roux]

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Too Early To Win
San Diego, California  - Shoreline Recovery Center
9th October 2023
OFF-Camera


It had been a quiet week for me, but really just as a way of proving a point to everyone. Julianna had the audacity to say that I was talking too much in my efforts to keep people’s focus clearly on the Bombshell World Championship, so I granted her wish. Heading into Summer XXXtreme, and Violent Conduct, my matches were the most talked about matches on the card despite the fact that my challengers were lackluster. You would think that since the formula was working, the newbies would learn to just follow my lead and let me do them a favor. Julianna didn’t seem to get the memo though, so it felt like a perfect time for a personal week. I don’t have to talk about her in order to beat her. It doesn’t bother me if nobody cares about her after this match. I don’t have to do her the favor that I did for Ariana. I am not required to create a worthy challenger. So I won’t.

Besides, there were more pressing things on my mind. What happened inside the six-sided Sin City ring or in front of one of their cameras was important, but it wasn’t my only responsibility. My life had become a balancing act, and if I was taking the week away from Sin City, that created an opportunity to spend more time elsewhere. Things at home had been great. An unexpected week off really does a lot for partners that are usually separated by travel schedules. Prudence was closing in on being able to get back to the gym, and hopefully back with me on the road soon, so there wasn’t a whole lot of conflict at home.

However, there was something I considered a smudge on my near-perfect record. I was killing it as a wife. I was dominating as an unstoppable force as Bombshell World Champion, but something had fallen through the cracks. After the way that Kris and Mikah had treated me as a student, I was determined to be better than they were. I made a promise that I would always go above-and-beyond for the newbies that trusted me enough to come train with me at Jet City. When I stepped back into the ring myself, those duties became secondary. When Prudence got fired, Jet City became a tertiary concern at best, and a total afterthought on the worst days. In the middle of all that, one of my students made all the same mistakes as my mentor. My blind eye let someone walk down the very path I was trying to keep people off of. I couldn’t stomach that. If I had the week off of all other duties, I knew exactly where that time needed to be spent.

COURT: You through the worst of it yet?

I leaned against the doorframe, not wanting to step in without gauging what I was dealing with on the inside. I knew immediately that it was a stupid question. The lights were off. Jaycee was merely a shivering sheet on the bed. He was covered from head-to-toe, but from the shape of him, he was facing away from me and the lights from the hallway. At least I hadn’t stumbled across anything worse than the shakes. Maybe I came at a good time.

JAYCEE: Fuck off Court.

His voice was strained, and I could tell that he didn’t really have the energy to put any of his usual bass into it. It fell short of the force required to make it a demand. It sounded more like a desperate plea for solitude. Unfortunately, I had checked all of my pity for him at the desk before I came up to the room.

COURT: It’s a real bitch, isn’t it? All of that shit is out of your system now and all of your nerves are finally firing correctly for the first time in fuck knows how long. It’s like getting stabbed all over with about a million little needles, right?

It sounded like he tried to take a deep breath, but it didn’t work. I almost thought that the groan that came out of him instead, and the more intense shaking that it caused afterwards were going to be the only response that I got.

JAYCEE: I can deal with that part. It’s the sickness that I hate. The rest feels like a decent consequence of my actions. The inability of my body to retain absolutely anything seems like cruel and unusual punishment.

It took him a while to work his way through all of the words. It was one of the most cohesive thoughts he had produced in a few months though, and it sounded like he was rounding a corner towards starting to take some kind of responsibility for landing himself here. All-in-all it felt like a step in the right direction. I felt safe enough to come a couple of steps into the room so that he wouldn’t have to strain so loud for me to be able to hear him.

COURT: One is the consequence of your actions. The other is an added punch to make sure that you don’t end up in here again.

That was the only way I could think of to spin it in a more positive manner.

JAYCEE: Repeat offenders make up the majority of this place…

I crept my way further into the room, trying not to make much noise. I kept my voice low, trying to respect the fact that he was tolerating my intrusion even though he had gone to such great lengths to limit the amount of stimuli in the room.

COURT: The majority doesn’t mean everyone, and if it isn’t everyone, it means some people got out. Be one of those people.

I moved the chair back from the edge of his bed, and took a seat. He hadn’t snapped on me and thrown me out yet, so I was already doing better than Kris would have in my position. Although, this wasn’t just about making me feel better about the fact that I didn’t do more to keep him out of a place like this. Plus, he wasn’t buying into any of my optimism about his current state.

JAYCEE: ....or it means the other people got out, overdosed, and died.

I sighed, and did my best to not allow it to reflect the aggravation at the fact that he was putting himself in an even deeper hole with thoughts like that. He needed to be able to see that there was a light at the end of this. If optimism wouldn’t work, I thought maybe I could get some kind of spark out of him with humor.

COURT: So morbid today… I would have expected that from someone like Oz, but not you.

To my surprise, he didn’t take the bait.

JAYCEE: He’s blamed himself for everything that has happened to me since he made that phone call last year. It’s possible that could lead him here.

I didn’t think that he was wrong, but I was surprised that he was that aware of the way that Oz had been carrying that around.

COURT: He looks up to you though. Seems like they both treat you as an older brother as awful as that makes it sound that he almost got you killed.

I should have probably been glad that I waited to make sure that things at home were back on solid footing before venturing out to see Jaycee. I had apparently skipped over most of the hateful swings of the detox and caught him after a couple of days of clarity. It wasn’t enough to embolden me to make any sudden moves, or turn on a light, but it was a good sign that maybe Jaycee was going to come out of this in a better place.

JAYCEE: There’s no point blaming him. He was just surviving the life he was leading. I don’t look at it as him giving me up. I look at it as he saved himself. He had to do that, because nobody else was going to. If I allow myself to be mad about it, I am actually saying I would rather he be dead. We all made it out alive. That’s good enough for me.

He could just be telling me the answers that I want to hear so that I leave him alone, so I decided that I might need to poke a little bit just to make sure.

COURT: ....and yet he is going to be competing at High Stakes while you are missing it for a second straight year….

The sheet went deadly still, and for a moment even the shivering seemed to stop as Jaycee considered that fact, possibly for the first time. I almost felt bad for having brought it up. After a few moments of silence, he finally spoke up.

JAYCEE: When you say it like that it really does suck.

I felt bad for him because, again, I had been there. High Stakes had been an elusive show for me in the first few years of Sin City. This was only going to be my second one in five years, and the only other match I have had there so far was losing to Sam Marlowe. That’s hardly a Hall of Fame worthy High Stakes moment, but this wasn’t about me.

COURT: At least you still have a job when you’re ready to get out of here.

There was something that sounded like a chuckle from under the sheet, but it sounded painful. I knew that any amount of moment was going to shoot those needles all throughout Jaycee’s body like he was being cut up by razors. I half expected it to sour his mood but after a few moments of recovery, he seemed okay.

JAYCEE: Kris really paved the way on that one for me. Mark and Christian have done this so many times before that they didn’t even seem bent out of shape about it. They told me to get help and come back when I am ready. I expected to be fired.

That was all of the evidence that I needed to know that I was right to feel guilty about the fact that he was in here. Despite the circumstances being entirely different, the expectation of failure was something I was familiar with, and should have trained out of him.

COURT: I think all of this started because you were trying to get fired.

There was another moment of silence, but it didn’t feel like he disagreed with me.

COURT: They would have blamed you if you just stopped showing up. You would have been a quitter. You couldn’t just walk away from it. It all had to come crashing down around you. I think you wanted to see how bad it would have to get before it all got taken away, so that you could prove to yourself that it could be taken away.

I could tell that I struck a nerve, even without being able to see it on his face, because he immediately tried to turn it back on me.

JAYCEE: Sounds like something you have some experience with.

I knew that there was no way that I was going to be able to get through to him without actually being open about how I could relate, so instead of turning it into an argument, I gave him the truth.

COURT: Not the same, but similar. My problem was always pushing myself too hard, too fast. I just wanted to be where I should have been before all of the setbacks. I always felt like I was losing a race to some version of myself that didn’t exist. Every time that I failed, it was just more proof that time had already run out. I was out of time before I ever even actually got started.

It was probably a rare peek behind the curtain for him, but instead of making any attempt to reassure me, it almost felt like he wanted to agree with me.

JAYCEE: ...it did take you five years to get back to where you were a month in.

He had missed the point, or maybe I had just done a shit job of explaining it.

COURT: ...but the Court that didn’t get injured doesn’t exist. That’s a figment of my imagination. She didn’t win the Bombshell Championship. She hasn’t set records with it already. She hasn’t had the Hall of Fame career that I dreamt about, because it is some fictional thing in my head that never really happened.

He didn’t even give me a chance to pause before pressing me about it.

JAYCEE: When did you finally let that go?

I guess I hadn’t really even considered it. When I thought about it, I could tell that I didn’t have those feelings anymore. I know that I had already moved past it before my match with Roxi, or else I wouldn’t have been confident enough to step up to her. I couldn’t nail down a particular moment that stood out though.

COURT: It took way too long, because after I convinced myself that I already blew all of my chances, and that it was over, I got to go through all of the other stages. I felt sorry for myself for a while. I started to blame Kris and Mikah for even longer than that. I guess it really wasn’t until taking over Jet City that I finally started to find the right groove again.

Hopefully that helped him to see why I was part of the group of people that weren’t just going to waste away in here alone.

JAYCEE: No wonder you give a shit about the three of us rookies…

I hadn’t actually thought about it like that, but it didn’t matter.

COURT: More importantly, I was wrong. Look at what I have done since. I came back. I choked out a handful of bitches. I became and defended the Bombshell World Championship the way that I always dreamt of doing. Despite what Ariana might tell you, I’ve been pretty damn impressive.

I was hoping that more than the details, he was applying the moral of the story.

JAYCEE: ...so why are you here wasting your time with me instead of making sure that you shut Julianna up at High Stakes?

Again, another attempt to turn it around and keep the focus purely on me. I had given up too much ground by allowing him to get me to tell him my story, and now he was setting up roadblocks for me to bring the conversation back to him.

COURT: I’m not worried. It’s too early for her to win this championship.

The words seemed to offend him the same way that they had offended me back at the beginning of the summer, but they came out of my mouth before I could stop them.

JAYCEE: Don’t convince yourself that anything is inevitable, right? Don’t fall into that trap. That’s what you were just talking about with me thinking it was all destined to slip away. If you think you’re untouchable, you’re not going to see it coming when someone reaches out and slaps you in the face. That’s what happened to Roxi when you beat her.

It wasn’t the same thing. Roxi was being spiteful. My feelings were supported by fact.

COURT: The fans don’t care about her. The roster is already against her. She’ll be an afterthought before you know it.

That didn’t seem to be an argument he was willing to engage in either. The sheet in front of me dismissed my words immediately.

JAYCEE: Just like Roxi said that you were going to get bored and bail out of Sin City even if you beat her.

My mouth opened and closed a few times wordlessly. I can’t believe that he was telling me that I was acting like Roxi when I was only here to offer support.

COURT: Shut up!

He seemed to take my speechlessness as a sign of victory, and softened a little bit since he knew he got his point across. Apparently blunt honesty was flying both ways today, and I wasn’t sure that I liked it.

JAYCEE: The fans aren’t going to be in the ring with her, you are. So it doesn’t matter if they don’t care about her, it is going to be you that she is punching in the face and bending into a pretzel. Fate and crowd reactions aren’t going to beat her, so you need to decide to go out there and put her on her fucking head or it’s not going to happen.

That was always the plan, but clearly he had missed the part where I was calling her bluff about the not needing me to get people’s attention.

COURT: I intend to. She just told me that I talk to much, so I wanted to give her time to listen to sound of crickets she was getting without me.

He pulled the sheet away from his face to look me in the eye. It was incredibly obvious that he didn’t buy that line of thinking even for a second.

JAYCEE: She was in the spotlight. You were at home. Sounds like her plan worked out.

It was a lot like being slapped in the face. Maybe by trying to teach her a lesson, I ended up playing right into her hands. She did get to stand in front of the viewers at home without me there to check her. I thought I was stopping by to teach Jaycee a lesson, and it turned out that he was the one setting me straight.

COURT: Well then maybe I just need to go remind everyone who the spotlight actually belongs to.



==========================================================
>COURTside: Too Late To Know

==========================================================


The video opens with a shot of the Bombshell World Champion, seated in front of a slot machine, with her legs propped up on a second chair so that she can lean back and sit more comfortably. She seems to have been at it for a while, because the highs of a possible big win have faded, and she only absent-mindedly pays attention to the spinning wheels on the screen in front of her. They stop, and she pulls the lever on the side of the machine again, starting the process over without even a hint of enjoyment in her eyes. The Bombshell World Championships is draped over her shoulder, and she grips it tight to her chest with her right hand. She looks up, overtop of the slot machine in front of her, and the camera turns with her line of sight to show that the machine is sitting in front of a giant marquee advertising High Stakes next week. The pictures on the screen switch between the high profile matches on the card, including Courtney defending her championship against Julianna. As soon as the Bombshell Champion’s face fades off of the marquee, the camera moves back to Court playing slots.

”I have been part of Sin City Wrestling off and on for five years and I have never had my hand raised in victory at High Stakes...”

”To be fair, it is not like I have had very many opportunities. Three of those years I missed the show with an injury. Last year I was busy running Jet City while Kristopher Ryans was dead. The one match that I did get to have, I came up short to Sam Marlowe during one of the worst stretches of my career. Although, I am not telling any of you at home things that you don’t already know. You were here. You saw it all happen. My career started in Sin City, and I have never worked in any other company other than this one, because the competition here has never left me wanting for something better elsewhere. I might get thrown a few duds here and there but for the most part, every female on this roster rises up to give me their best shot each and every night, and that is about all that I can ask for as the face of this division.”

”You people might not like me, but you have been along for my entire ride in this company. We have experienced all of the lowlights together. You have seen me sidelined by a multitude of obstacles. Now, finally, you have seen me overcome all of those obstacles and take my rightful place in this company. A lot of people didn’t like that. There was a certain legend that said I wasn’t ready, and I never would be. However, the fact is, I changed the landscape of this company the moment that I won the Bombshell World Championship. I took the Bombshell Division to the next level. I paved the way for a future that was free of all of the mediocre shackles this division has been weighed down by in the past.”

”...and if you think that I am giving myself a little bit too much credit, think again. It’s not just me that thinks all this. It is not just me that knows how truly great I have been since returning for Blast from the Past this year. Julianna DiMaria knows everything I just said is true, because she has said it herself. She marked my defeat of Roxi Johnson, and ascension as Bombshell World Champion as the reason that she wanted to join this company. She saw it as a sign from the universe that it was time to come here to find her next challenge, and finally signed that contract that Mark and Christian had apparently been chasing for a couple of years. Julianna’s first day on the job, she credited me with getting her to show up. When she squared up against Ariana, she said that even without my wife’s interference at Violent Conduct, I was going to walk away from that match as the champion. Why? Because I am at the very top of my game right now.”

”...and it has been that way all year. There hasn’t been one person that has been able to keep up with me in the ring. I was dominant in Blast from the Past until my partner got us eliminated. I cut out the cancer that was Crystal Hilton. I ended Roxi Johnson’s farewell tour prematurely and choked her out to win MY Bombshell World Championship. I crushed the dreams of the winner of Blast from the Past. I was more extreme than Kim Pain, and I won a war against the fire inside of Team Hero. I spoiled the reign of the Queen for a Day, and for one night, I turned Ariana Angelos into a star. Over the last few months, I have accomplished every single goal I have set for myself, and made it look like it was predestined to happen.So you can see why it is hard to get excited about some new girl on the block that has squared up against Bea Barnhart, Dawn Warren, and Laura Phoenix to get to the spot she is in. Sure, she is undefeated, but her only credible victories came against Ariana, a noted failure, and a version of Roxi Johnson that I had already eviscerated. Can you see why it is hard to be excited for what should be my first grand High Stakes moment?”

”...and I could have chosen this match heading into Violent Conduct. Mark and Christian felt like they wanted it to happen sooner rather than later. She was the name at the top of the list that I was given, and I didn’t think she had earned it yet. Like herpes though, she just wouldn’t go away. Ariana won the honor of getting beaten to a pulp by me at Violent Conduct. Then apparently Julianna earned the right to be the next challenger by also laying her out. It felt a little flimsy to me, but what do I know? I was just the referee. I guess, in a way, I did end up giving her this opportunity, because it was my hand counting the fall that made her the number one contender.”

”Julianna should be grateful for everything that I have done for her. I basically brought her to this company. I am the one that handed her this contendership. I have provided her with the largest stage in Sin City to back up her claims that she is going to be a force to be reckoned with in this company. That’s all I can do as the champion, right? All I can do is give my lessers the opportunity to rise up against me, it’s not my fault when they choke. I guess you can take that metaphorically or literally, fun.”

”And that is exactly what is going to happen at High Stakes. It might be my championship on the line. I might be the one with everything to lose by stepping into the ring with a relative unknown in this company, but that just goes to show you how out of her league Julianna is in this match. I am not some over-the-hill Roxi Johnson that you can pick apart to make yourself look good. I am not some flash in the pan, villain of the week, that is meant to be discarded and forgotten. In case anyone doesn’t already know, I am The One, Court Pierce! I am the goddamn Bombshell World Champion, and I am the single most dangerous female inside the six-sided ring any day of the week. Julianna was right when she said that I didn’t need my wife to get involved in order to put Ariana away at Violent Conduct, because I really am that damn good without needing to bend the rules in my favor. And I am made more dangerous by the fact that if I have to, I will go ahead and bend those rules anyways. What can this nobody hope to do against me? I haven’t seen an answer to that question, and I have literally stood in the fucking ring for one of her matches. I was as close as I could possibly get. I was looking to see the spark that made her worth my time.”

”....and I still haven’t found it.”

”Julianna said after my segment before her contendership match that I was being a little bit too loud. She thought that I was wasting a little bit too much time, and because of that, I must like to hear the sound of my own voice. She missed the point though. I don’t like hearing myself talk, I like it when people are actually paying attention to what is happening in the middle of my ring, or while my face is up on the big screen. I don’t care if they boo me. I didn’t care when San Diego cheered me like I was some kind of saint. The only thing that would bother me out there is silence, and that is all I think about when you come to mind. Silence.”

”I gave you the week to generate the type of buzz that I have around each and every single one of my matches since I have been back. I sat back and allowed you to bask in the spotlight. I gave you the moment that you apparently craved, and what happened? Nothing, not even fucking crickets. Nobody even heard a pindrop, because by yourself, you couldn’t move a needle. Inside the ring, everyone already knows that I am going to break you down and beat you just like I have done so many others before you. And outside the ring, all you’ve done is ensure that there’s going to be a whole lot of eyes looking down at their phones instead of on the action. You told me to stop running my mouth, and the progress that this division was making, the progress that brought you here, halted with my silence.”

”...and that won’t come back on me. I had the world firmly behind Ariana Angelos, even if just for some fleeting moment. I have gotten the people to pull for the untalented to beat me. Yet, they could care less about you. They wouldn’t hate it if I won, because at the very least, I am entertaining. You’re just some bitch who showed up with a grudge against a washed up star of yesteryear. Congratulations, you did actually beat Roxi to everyone’s surprise. Just don’t think that puts you on my level. I didn’t just beat her, I took her apart and left absolutely no question in anyone’s mind that I should have always been at the top of this company.”

”Don’t think of High Stakes as the career defining moment that you’re hoping for, because the only thing waiting for you down in that ring is your first loss in this company. If you hadn’t of told me to hold me tongue all week, you wouldn’t have been too late to know that you are in so very far over your head this time around.”

”I will make an example of you.”

”At least then maybe you’ll have a shot at being remembered.”

[Julianna DiMaria]

I’ve heard it all…

“You’re nothing”

“You’re nobody”

“You’re not capable of this”

“You’re never going to amount to anything”

“You’re in over your head”

“Someone like you can’t accomplish this”

I’ve heard this from opponents before in the many years I’ve been in this business and yet it doesn’t bother me. How in the world could it bother me when I would hear that day after day, time after time, from the one person that makes all of them look like child’s play?

I can hear him say that to me even now… even though he’s gone… regarding High Stakes.

After all, he did the same thing before I won my first world title…

Ready to be proven wrong again, father?

March 2021

Days prior to my huge MAINSTREAM World Championship match, I was massively angry. I got out of my car when I arrived at my father’s garage and I could already feel myself shaking. I didn’t have to knock on the door because he was right there and as I approached him, he was already smirking.

“I got your voicemail…”

My father laughed.

“You know, the one where you told me I have no chance of winning and how you wish I was never born and all of that nonsense?”

“You don’t Jules… you’re not tough enough, or strong enough. Your opponent is a massive name across the industry for one.”

“So what if they’re dominant? They haven’t beaten me…”

“Yet… and the thing is, you’re a mentally fragile little bitch too! Case in point! You couldn’t handle what I said in my voicemail and you’re coming right at me, face to face. You’ve had how many chances to break the glass ceiling and you’ve always failed?”

I was less sad and more angry at this point, yet I was calm enough to throw logic back in his face.

“So the fuck what? I’m BETTER than I’ve ever been. I may have been ‘mentally fragile’, but YOU made me that way. I didn’t come here to fight over the voicemail. I came here to tell you that I’ve become that much stronger mentally that I don’t give a flying FUCK what you think! You can fluff up my opponent, you can put me down like you always have but you have made me cry for the LAST TIME! You’re going to watch me win my first world title and you’re going to like it because people like you? You don’t get to control me anymore! You don’t get to determine my self-worth…”

“Holy crap, it’s that warped bisexuality of yours coming out of your ass…” my father told me, obviously trying to anger me.

“WOW, I’m bisexual… GET OVER IT! I am who the fuck I am and if you don’t support that, it’s YOUR loss! Attacking me for my sexuality? Really? Is that how pathetic you’ve become?”

My father just scoffs at me.

“You have NO POWER over me anymore and WHEN I win my first world championship…”

“Shut the fuck up, you switch hitting FREAK…”

This angered me to the point where I grabbed him and pinned him against the wall. He was too surprised to react fast enough.

“For ONCE you’re going to listen to ME! WHEN I win my first world championship, that whole narrative I’ve had for my whole career where I can’t break the ceiling and you get to laugh at me? GONE! It’s going to be a beginning of a new phase of my career which YOU miss out on because your toxic poison no longer affects me! Got it? Good!”

I let him go as he took in what I said for a moment

“Keep being delusional, Jules! I clearly did something wrong for God to punish me with a disordered, deviant fuck up of a bisexual daughter…”

“I hope someone shoots you in the fucking head…” I blurted out as I walked away from him. I’m not sure which silence was better: his stunned silence when I said that… or the one he had when I proved him wrong…

If my biggest abuser couldn’t stop me… then there’s no way Courtney, nor anyone else in SCW, will either…

Last Weekend…

I was still panicked and waiting at the hospital for any word about my mother and how her surgery went. Luckily, I wasn’t alone. Through all of my anxiety, Christy and Ally were there for me. They had each given me a hug and encouraged me to pull through this.

“What if something goes wrong?” I asked with worry in my voice. “What if she has an aneurysm? Or goes into shock? What if they discover that the cancer has spread somewhere else? I can’t take this, you guys…”

Ally wraps an arm around her.

“How can I concentrate on one of the biggest matches of my career knowing that a vapid bitch like Courtney is going to do everything in her power to verbally put me down like her words mean a shit? It’s bad enough having to hear someone like her with her bullshit!”

“Julianna, that’s your anxiety over your mother talking…” Christy reminds me. “You normally don’t care about what people say about you.”

“Yeah…” Ally adds. “You’re better than this. Your mom wouldn’t be happy with you right now hearing you talk like that and we all know it…”

I needed to hear this from Ally. I bit the bottom of my lip for a bit and then sighed, knowing that Ally was right on the money. I shook my head and composed myself.

“You’re both right. I’m letting this get to me too much. I’m sorry…”

“Don’t be sorry. You’re just scared for your mom. It’s completely natural. On top of the fact that she’s your mom, she’s also the one that psychologically trained you to be a wrestling champion.”

“But that doesn’t give you an excuse to worry about what Courtney has to say or what she’s going to say…” Ally adds on.

“I get it, but why are you worrying so MUCH about that?” I asked her.

“You’re Julianna DiMaria, damn it…” Christy reminds me. “You’re that ‘don’t give a fuck’ bitch that doesn’t give a fuck about other people’s feelings. You clearly didn’t care about Dawn’s, or Roxi’s or Ariana’s. You took your shots from them and you still didn’t give a fuck. Just because Courtney is the champion doesn’t mean you actually have to give her words any credence!”

“Christy has it dead on! Worrying about your mom is messing with your head. You can’t let what she’s going through do that! You’re just giving Courtney power she doesn’t deserve to have if you decide you want to worry too much about her stupid, uninspired words about you.”

“Besides, you were going through that nonsense with your dad before you won the MAINSTREAM world title, remember? But you didn’t give HIM power and you didn’t give your opponent a window to beat you.”

I was starting to feel that fire coarse through my veins at this point. I was beginning to realize that remembering exactly what got me my first world championship was going to be a huge help to giving me the guidance to winning at High Stakes.

“I separated one thing from the other… but that was my Dad… who I hated. I actually love my mother, you know.”

“I know it’s hard, but don’t let your vulnerability about your mother have your guard down for High Stakes…” Ally adds. “Don’t put so much pressure on yourself. Besides, would you have won the two world championships that you have on your resume if you did?”

“I was as cool as a cucumber for the most part…” I admitted. “I remember going into that Mainstream world title match with the opportunity that I earned from that rumble match and not once was I worried about falling short. I wasn’t worried about the critics for a change and I damn sure wasn’t worrying about my father. He had long been kicked out of my head. And I can only remember how amazing it was when I finally overcame him…”

March 2021

“Congratulations honey… I’m so proud of you!”

My mother was with me backstage shortly after I had won the Mainstream World Championship. Being a world champion for the first time ever was simply surreal, but to share this moment with my mother made it that much more special.

“Mom… thank you so much for being the one that always believed in me!”

I was crying and I sure as hell wasn’t hiding it.

“Right now I’m just thinking about all the pain and all the hurt that my dad put me through for years…”

My mother was beginning to tear up.

“...how he would always tell me I would never amount to anything, that I was a disgrace to his family, and most recently… trying to use my sexuality against me.  He treated me like I was worth nothing but now that I have this title… now I know how WRONG he is! I FINALLY shut him up! I’m FINALLY above him! I’m FINALLY able to move on with my life and my career without EVER having to worry about him hurting me again!”

“You’re damn right…” my mother says with tears of joy in her eyes.

“Thank you mom…” I said without hesitation. “...not just for believing in me, but for the tough love you gave me three months ago when I wanted to quit wrestling over one loss to someone I should’ve beaten.”

“You did need it…” she says with a laugh.

“In order for this to be possible I had to grow up and I had to quit being a victim and once I caught on, I realized that all the crap my dad was saying about me and everything all the haters I have in wrestling were saying… it was just noise. The more that I heard that I didn’t have what it took to be a world champion, the easier it was for me to just ignore it all. What you did for me mother… was teach me that a setback isn’t the end of the world. You taught me that failure should be a learning process and not something to make you give up and die…”

“I’m so proud of you for finally getting it…” my mother says with pride in her eyes.

“Mom, I’m gong to promise you right now that I’m NEVER going back to the person that I was. I’m NEVER going to act like the victim again! I’m NEVER going to think that the world is out to get me and that I’m doomed to be the bridesmaid when I have proven to myself that I can always be the bride of every fucking wedding I’m a part of. Your tough love is what built me into a world champion and I’m never, EVER going to forget this.”

“Good! But remember… times aren’t always going to be this great. The unforeseen obstacles never stop. They’ll come back for you, you know this. And when they do? You better stay strong and not allow the moment to get to big for you. Don’t let anyone or anything pull you back into that darkness again…”

“I promise…” I told my mother as we exchange another hug.

Last Weekend

That promise was at the front and center of my conscience and THAT was my big eye opening moment.

“Julianna…” Ally said loudly grabbing my attention. I snapped out of my thoughts and saw the doctor in front of me.

“Ms. DiMaria… the surgery was successful and your mother’s ready to see you. The cancer didn’t spread. We took the kidney out in time.”

“THANK GOD” I said before I basically bolted from the waiting room and walked down the hallway as fast as I could to find my mother lying in her bed. She was awake and alert and I wasted no time walking up to her and hugging her.

“MOM… oh thank god… you’re okay!”

“Didn’t I tell you?” she asks with a laugh.

“I’m so glad that nothing went wrong…”

“Same here… but what about you?” she asked me, confusing me for a bit.

“Mom, this isn’t about me…”

“Focus on YOU right now. You’re what? A week away from Courtney?”

“I had a moment where I was overwhelmed…” I admitted with a sigh. “But I’m okay now. It still sucks that you can’t go to Vegas to watch me beat her…”

“No worries! We can celebrate your win when we get back to San Diego, alright? I don’t give a shit about what Courtney has to say about you. I don’t care if she’s accomplished this or that. For this particular match, it hardly means anything. You can do this, Julianna. You WILL do this. You want that match so damn bad… so much so that there’s no way someone like her is going to beat you.”

My mother grabs my hand and gives me a reassuring smile, even through all the anesthesia that is still in her system.

“Mom, I am NOT going to let such a shallow empty shell of a person beat me…” I said with an angry determination in my voice. “I WANT to be in this moment. She doesn’t… at least not as badly as I do. Seeing you okay… it erased any worries or anxiety I might have had about that match and I don’t give a flying fuck what she thinks because people like her? They’re going through their own pain and they feel the need to deflect it on other people. I know this because I used to do the same thing. This title that I’m about to win… it’s for US…”

“No honey, don’t make it about us. This is about you…”

“Mom…”

“Don’t worry about me. I’ll be fine. You do your thing the way I know you can.”

“Mom, I’m serious! I get it! Normally, I would be with the whole ‘don’t worry about me’ speech, but NOT this time! I’ve told you so many times that I wouldn’t be where I am as a wrestler if it wasn’t for you and damn it, you gave up your own career for me! You hung up the wrestling boots yourself as soon as I came into this world and you never looked back! You deserved your own flowers because you were MORE than good enough to be the best women’s wrestler in the world in your day! You’ve given me more than enough, mother! I’ve got to give back for once! I WILL give back! I’ll give you those damn flowers you’ve always deserved… that you sacrificed for me! If THAT doesn’t tell you how serious I am about winning that title for both of us, then I don’t know what the hell will!”

My mother definitely seemed touched that I was thinking about her and remembering all the sacrifices that she made for me.

“My little crown jewel really has grown up, hasn’t she?” she asks with a laugh. “Okay. For us! If it means that much to you!”

“It means the WORLD to me…” I admitted as I sat down next to her and just held her hand and did the best that I could to comfort her.

As great as this moment was… the best part was I was experiencing this burning passion in my heart to win at High Stakes… one that I never felt before…

Friday…

In my hotel room, I was reflecting on what Courtney Pierce has had to say about me leading up to this championship match at High Stakes. I wasn’t even feeling angry whatsoever. I let those words marinate in my mind. If I wasn’t angry, was I amused? I sure didn’t feel like anything she said was funny. But I dug deep in my mind a little further and then I discovered the one thing that I was feeling in regards to Courtney…

Disappointment…

And when I turned the camera on, I was ready to let her have it.

“That’s IT, Courtney?

That’s THE ONE that you try so hard to be? THAT’S the SCW Bombshells World Champion that has dominated for months? What in the actual fuck? I came into this with the attitude that I’m a better wrestler than Courtney Pierce because I’m FAR more passionate of a wrestler than she is and because she’s in her own head, completely insecure with herself and feeling the need to put other people down to compensate because even though she’s been the world champion for X amount of months, she’s STILL harping on the dark days of her career. Courtney, after hearing what you had to say? I’m not even mad.

I’m very disappointed.

I thought that even for your obvious lack of passion or any desire to compete against me, you would at least come in with the same fire that you’ve shown before and show that you actually give a shit. Granted, most of your promos are formulaic. It’s always a combination of crying about the past, blaming other people for your problems, crying about a lack of respect, bragging about what you’ve accomplished as champion and tearing down the other person with the same old ‘you don’t deserve it’ rant. Sure enough, that’s exactly what that was because what you proved to me when you said what you did?  You proved BOTH reasons why I know I’m better than you and why I KNOW I will win this Sunday…

ESPECIALLY having any sort of passion for this at all. You see Courtney, one of the first rules about being a champion is KNOWING your opponent and what you proved is that you don’t know the first thing about me. Literally YOUR best argument… the ONE thing that you harped on for why you think you are THAT much better than ne… is that SUPPOSEDLY, nobody cares about me.

Really?”

I scoffed at this, dismissing it entirely.

“THAT’S IT? First off, I don’t give a FUCK if people give a shit about me or not. I didn’t come here to impress people. I didn’t come here to make friends. I came here to do the thing that I am about to do on Sunday and that’s become a world champion in SCW. You base your supposed superiority over me based on an OPINION, not on anything that has actually happened in the ring. Literally the only thing you’ve said about what I’ve actually done IN THE RING is bringing up my victories and saying “not impressive”. That’s it. NO PASSION! NO DEDICATION! NOTHING! And you know what the bitch is about this, Courtney? I SAID that you don’t give a fuck, that you don’t have the passion for this… and not only did you prove me right, you ADMITTED IT! You straight up said that it was hard to get excited for this match… YOU SAID IT!  And you say it’s because I’m new and because because I’ve beaten ‘nobody impressive’. Bitch, are you KIDDING ME? THAT is your excuse? THAT is your reasoning behind the 'nobody' nonsense? Because SUPPOSEDLY only two of my five wins are credible?

Who are YOU to talk about CREDIBILITY, Courtney? Do you need me to go down the list of your defenses again?

Your credible defenses are against whom? Ariana who was so skittish about getting the shot that she was talking about how she didn't deserve it? Devona, who was such a flash in the pan that she probably doesn’t win Blast from the Past if the other Bombshell finalist was someone other than Dawn Warren? You literally just admitted to a lack of passion and care for this title match and THAT right there is exactly why you will lose! You're NOT MOTIVATED! This proves it once and for all! I KNEW it the whole time, but I didn’t actually think you’d ADMIT IT! Now, as far as my wins are concerned I beat who I put in front of me. I control only what happens in the ring once the match is booked. Tt just so happens that my first three matches were against the most recent challengers for the Roulette or Internet titles at the time in Laura and Dawn respectively… and against your predecessor. Sure, small sample size, but at least I can say that in my first three matches, I beat a challenger or a former champion in all THREE divisions and not even YOU can say that. But hey, if what I’ve done in SCW so far is not motivating enough for you, then that's a YOU problem.

That’s not MY fault. I don’t book my own matches or try to the way half of the damn Bombshells locker room does. I simply show up, take care of business by any means necessary against ANYONE they put in front of me. I do the job that I set out to do. Don’t blame ME for YOUR lack of motivation Courtney… the same lack of motivation that is CLEARLY going to cost you in the end.

Besides, who are you to talk about credibility filling up your defense list against the Arianas and the Zoeys of the world? In fact, other than those two, who has stepped up and either demanded a title shot rematch or booked themselves in a fight against you? Where is everyone else chomping at the bit to face you. There's ME... but BESIDES me? WHO is there? WHO ELSE could it have been? And come to think of it, who would even WANT to face a champion that has just admitted that she's not motivated for this. Who the fuck would want to face a champion that can’t even bother showing up for television when she’s not even booked? But let me get back to the question of ‘who else is there?’

Besides me… obviously Team Hero has other things in mind.

The other Bombshells for the most part either don’t deserve to be in this match or are fighting for the other titles.

Legitimately the only other possibility you can even consider for this spot besides me is Kayla Richards considering her reigns of dominance in the Internet title division but that’s it! I’m not saying that to reflect badly on me though. I KNOW I deserve to be here. Say that it’s too soon, but when you beat the FORMER Bombshells World Champion, that is MORE than enough to deserve this and I’m going to tell you the same thing I told my father once: I don’t give a flying FUCK what you think because all you know how to do is say a bunch of empty words that don’t mean a thing… especially when there is no passion behind them.

And they sure don’t when you keep on repeating them… you know… the words like “nobody”... and the whole “in over your head” thing…

The words don’t mean shit when you keep repeating them as you do with how you fluff up your accomplishments every damn promo.

They sure don’t mean a damn thing when you’re talking about how you’re trying to find a spark with me but you can’t…

I’m not worth your time?

YOU problem!

You can’t find a spark with me?

YOU problem! But that’s the thing Courtney… let me ask you something…

WHY do you need ME, or anything about ME, to give you a spark to motivate you about this match? Because if you were every bit as credible of a world champion as you so desperately want to be, you don’t look to ME to find that spark to motivate you… YOU LOOK TO YOURSELF!

YOU build your own fucking spark! YOU provide your own damn motivation! It’s not MY fault that you are completely incapable of doing that for this match because you’ve got your head and your ego shoved so far up your ass and you think you’re THAT superior to me. Literally the only motivation you could even have is “arrive, show up, wrestle, win, leave, repeat”. That’s literally the whole point of THE ONE… just dominate everything and fucking go home, right? What happened to all the “lack of respect” you kept drowning yourself in that you pathetically used to push yourself, huh? Not even THAT is coming out of the playbook? Do you have ANY idea just how badly you are setting yourself up for failure here? You, being the hypocrite that you are, talk about how it’s not your fault when your challengers “choke” against you and basically that it’s their problem not yours, but you want to blame ME for being unmotivated.

Fluff yourself up Courtney, puff out your chest. Brag about this, brag about that. It won’t bother me. I know it’s the cheapest trick in the book to make yourself look scarier than you actually are. I don’t see big, scary dominant champion when it comes to you. I see an unmotivated sack of bullshit taking out her insecurities on me simply because she can and because instead of finding her own damn spark, would rather whine and complain about who she’s facing at High Stakes acting as if it’s the biggest injustice to the Bombshell title ever. That’s right Courtney, keep making yourself the victim and acting like the universe is out to get you, just like you always do.

Continue to trap yourself in your own hubris as you continue to have no idea who the fuck I am. Continue to be ignorant of what I’m about. Continue, in all honesty, to be the anchor of the Bombshells division that replaced the old anchor that held it back for years. Congratulations Courtney, you became ANOTHER Roxi Johnson in terms of holding back the division and stymying any real progress because holy crap, if I could sum up your entire promo? It’s literally two things: “I am the one because of all these people that I’ve beaten and all of this that I accomplished” with a whole bunch of chest puffing and “I am going to beat Julianna because I’ve beaten better people and I’m better than her because nobody cares about her”

Mix in some whining about lack of motivation and BOOM, you TOO can cut a Courtney Pierce promo aspiring 17 year old wrestling school trainee…

You’re really just a diet version of my own father when it’s all said and done because at least when HE tried to run me down and say the same old shit you’ve regurgitated at least HE hated me with a passion and guess what? I’m going to shut YOU up the same way I shut HIM up and it’s going to be just as amazing! But that’s not my main motivation. You think I’m playing about having the heart and the passion for this and wanting this more than you do?

You fight for your damn ego and acting like it’s another day in the damn office for you…

ME? This isn’t just for me! My mother just got her kidney removed after dealing with cancer there for a second time. This match is for HER too! GOD, if only she COULD be at High Stakes but she’ll be there for me in spirit! That woman sacrificed everything for me and winning this championship from you at High Stakes to give back to her for not just giving birth to me and raising me, but for effectively saving my career when it was at rock bottom at one point? THAT’S my motivation! THAT is what is driving me! It’s not just YOUR lack of motivation and passion for this match and for the championship that you hold… it’s MY fire… MY fuel… MY motivation! Hell, I’ll even be honest and say that I want this for my mother more than I want this for me because unlike YOU at least I know how to fight with a damn purpose.

At least I took the time to actually KNOW who you really are. At least I’m NOT some insecure little BITCH that doesn’t know a damn thing about what it’s like to REALLY move the needle in the Bombshells division. You had plenty of time to prove you can be that ‘move the needle’ champion, but sorry not sorry Courtney… ultimately? The only one that was in over her head all along was you…

When I was a world champion where I was a world champion, I changed the game. I obliterated the status quo. I became the measuring stick! I became the champion that EVERYONE and their mothers wanted to dethrone. When I was previously a world champion, I stepped into the ring and I got shit done: no complaints, no excuses, no admitting that I had no motivation for this…

And come Sunday, I’m about to do it all over again! I’m going to make history! I WILL be the SCW Bombshells World Champion at YOUR expense and you’re going to have NOBODY to blame but yourself. You made your own damn bed with your own self-loathing and insecurities, Courtney. You buried yourself in the hole with being passionless about this match and resorting to petty high school level insults and stupid, vapid opinions with virtually no substance.

YOU did that… not me…

But come Sunday?

Not only am I going to put the damn grave on your own burial…

But I’m going to make your title reign EXACTLY like the hotel I am staying in right now…

A MIRAGE!

Not bad for a “nobody”, right?

At this point, I shut off the camera…

No regrets…

No worries…

And the knowledge that I was about to shock the world at large… even if it never was a shocker for me…

[Roux]

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>COURTside: Change of Heart

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”I feel like I can respect the hustle of just about everyone backstage in Sin City….”

”Sure, there’s people that I don’t like. There’s even more that don’t like me. There’s people that care too much about what the crowd thinks about them. There’s too many that demand championship matches for free. There are people on this roster that are clearly just here to collect a paycheck, and others that I can truly tell have an unrivaled passion for this business. There are heroes. There are villains. There are countless different ‘codes’ or ideologies about what people are willing to do in order to make it in this business, and for the most part, they are all valid. People don’t have to do things the way that I do them in order to make something of themselves in this business. If everyone was just like me it would get awfully boring around here, and for that reason, I can find a reason to appreciate all of the unique ways that people handle their business. Although I guess that’s not without exception…”

”...because the truth is there are people that I genuinely can’t stand. There is a particular style that I refuse to tolerate. There are people in this business that don’t have a spine or a real fucking thought in their head. There are people that say whatever needs to be said in order to make themselves sound good; even if they said the total opposite the week before. It’s these fickle, hateful-to-be-edgy, loudmouth bitches that really get under my skin, and not for the reasons they want to. They pretend like there aren’t people following along. They act as if we can’t see the blatant contradictions. Worst of all, they come out of nowhere like roaches in the night, kick around Sin City for a while, and then fuck off forever without ever doing anything but wasting everyone’s time.”

”Julianna loved me before this week, and I’ve never even really met the bitch other than the time I officiated her match. She gave me the credit for getting her to join this company. She was favoriting everything that I had to say about Roxi back when I beat her for the championship. She told Ariana that she had no hope of beating me, because I am at the very top of my game, and there are very few that can compare to me. That was just a few weeks ago. But just like all of you, I found out this week that she doesn’t think that anymore. I found out that because we have a match with one another, all of a sudden I am some kind of scourge on the Bombshell division. I have gone from the savior that she was waiting for, to the person she needs to eliminate, all in the course of just a few shows.”

”It’s enough to give a person whiplash…”

”...but we have to remember who it is we are talking about here. This is the same person that spent so much time bitching about the fact that I occasionally post random thoughts on social media without tagging people, but subtweeted at me that I was taking up too much time on Climax Control. This is the person that says I need to bring my concerns to her face, but spent months talking shit about Roxi on social media all whilst having her blocked so she couldn’t see it. Yet, a few tweets without Julianna’s name on them were apparently across the line? Give me a fucking break.”

”The real reason that she is upset is that she is desperate for my attention. She saw the way that I turned Ariana into a star everytime we stepped into the ring together. We went at each other on the microphone. We scuffled on several occasions and it even dragged on longer than just our match at the last supercard. Ariana went from a girl that was crying under her bed about having to face the Bombshell World Champion, to a wannabe badass that tried to step up to me. It might not have gone Ariana’s way, and it may have also gotten her nose broken, but it definitely got people to notice her. It got people to pay attention to someone that they had written off. It made The Greek Angel worth watching, even if just for a few weeks.”

”...but Julianna opened her fucking mouth in what I have learned is the most super-duper disrespectful way possible: a subtweet. She made it sound like I was wasting people’s time by talking about her, and I agreed. I went home. I let her attempt to stand on her own two feet, and what happened? She spent last week bitching and moaning about the fact that I wasn’t trying my best to turn her into the contender that people genuinely believed Ariana to be, even for just a night. Julianna thought that she was going to roll into High Stakes with me doing all of the heavy lifting, just like I’ve done for the list of contenders that came before her.”

”....but there’s a difference between Julianna and everyone else that I have faced up to this point and it is not all that hard to see. Ariana came up through the Underground. Devona came out of the GO Gym, and has been in this company as long as I have. Keira and Roxi are in the Hall of Fame. Each and every one of these women, whether I like them or not, have paid their fucking dues in this company. Our viewers have watched them grow up before their eyes. We have witnessed their accomplishments. There is a level of respect that I have for the people that helped put Sin City on the map, and the ones that have stuck it out during the shitty years.”

”None of them are loudmouthed outsiders that don’t know when to shut their fucking mouths. Julianna sounds less like a member of this roster, and more like the bitches that complain about the Blast from the Past tournament every year even though nobody ever asks them to join. She came into this company with a grudge against one of the biggest names in the history of Sin City, and ran her mouth like someone that was here to endure her stranglehold on the division. But she wasn’t. She sat at home until I finally ended Roxi’s time in the Bombshell World Championship picture. She waited to sign a contract until after Amber Ryan bailed. She bided her time until after Crystal and Mikah had moved onto other endeavors in life. Julianna was apparently recruited for years, even though none of us on the roster know who the hell she is, but things weren’t good enough for her until now. Does any of that actually make sense to anyone?”

”Why now Julianna?”

”You might have something negative to say about every single female that I just mentioned, I do too, but there is no challenging their place in the history of this company. If you’ve being recruited for so fucking long, why didn’t you show up to take on any of them? If you had such a fucking problem with Roxi, why did you wait for her to be broken down and at her weakest to finally sign a contract? Why did you wait until the last of the Old Guard was gone to show your face? And don’t hide behind the shit you were doing in other companies either. If they were so fucking awesome, you’d still be there. If their titles were so goddamn prestigious, you wouldn’t be chasing after mine.”

”If I had to guess, it  is because Sin City currently holds the shortest path to the top. I mean, Julianna’s pointed it out already. It isn’t impressive to her that I have beaten Roxi or Keira at this point in their careers. She doesn’t count Devona as a real challenge even though she won Blast from the Past. She thinks that Ariana is a joke. But who else is there? Nevermind the fact that her little undefeated streak is made up of Bea Barnhart and a handful of others that lose way more often than they win. Who is there on the roster that poses a significant threat to someone like me? Who is competing at the same level that I am? I look at the roster, and I don’t see anyone. Julianna looked at the roster and realized that from the moment she showed up, she would be Mark and Christian’s handpicked challenger. She might talk about how she won this opportunity from Ariana, but everyone knows the truth. Ariana was put in that match as a punishment for trying to insert herself into the championship picture. Christian said so himself. They had already made the plans for Julianna to square off with me, and the plans changed when I broke The Greek Goddess’ nose and she demanded a second chance at MY championship. The whole thing was an obvious sham, and I can say that because I was the referee. It wasn’t a contendership, it was a slaughter. It was a way to get an undesirable challenger out of the way so that Mark and Christian could get the marquee that they actually wanted for their biggest show of the year”

”There’s just one problem: they chose poorly.”

”Instead of picking someone that has taken the Sin City viewers on a ride over the years and could finally get what they are due on the biggest stage, they picked someone that would say or do whatever sounds good in order to take this spot. They picked someone that doesn’t stand for anything. They picked an attention-seeker without substance. And they picked an outsider, who is likely going to leave when things don’t go their way, although they will never shut up about Sin City for the rest of their miserable career. I have seen a dozen or more Bombshells like Julianna in my time with this company, and it always ends the exact same way.”

”Drama and disappointment, and like I’ve already made perfectly clear, I try to steer clear of getting any of that on me”

”I am the Bombshell World Champion because nobody has put me down from the moment that I came back. Not only that, but I have earned it over the years that I have busted my ass for this company. I am the best that this company has to offer because I stood toe-to-toe with the greats, and lived to fight another day. I didn’t pick the best possible time to try and steal my way to the top. I didn’t wait for all of the legends to fade out. I worked at it, and I kept working at it until I got everything that I ever dreamed about. There is no way that I am dropping this championship to some fickle bitch that clearly doesn’t understand what it stands for…”

”Sorry not sorry.”



==========================================================

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Distance
Las Vegas, Nevada  - MGM Grand SKYLOFT
18th October 2023
OFF-Camera


The week had been quiet; maybe a little too quiet. I had prepared myself to be anxious all week heading into the show. It would be crazy to think that I could feel any other way. This is the biggest stage that I have ever been on, and I was at the top of the card. Sunday was the dream becoming a reality. Perhaps it hadn’t really hit me yet, because I hadn’t stepped into the arena yet. Or maybe it was because I have spent my entire career having people tell me that this moment was going to be too big for me, but I was finding that I fit it like a glove. There wasn’t any imposter syndrome at play in the back of my mind. I deserved to be in the position that I was in for High Stakes, and there wasn’t anything or anyone that could change that.

So I wasn’t going to take any of it for granted.

Luckily, I was married to one of the few women in the world that actually understood where I was coming from. Prudence didn’t hold it against me that I was putting in extra hours. She hadn’t complained about the fact that I had become incredibly single-minded as the week went on. Not only was she supportive, she was an irreplaceable sparring partner inside the ring. She knew my style perfectly, and was always adapting her own to try and throw new things at me. Coming out of the same gym was another plus. We had the same expectations and standards when it came time to work. It was like the two of us were able to take Jet City with us anywhere that we could step inside the ring, with extra incentive to see each other succeed. Prudence was closer and closer to working her way all the way back from injury, and I was determined to become the greatest Bombshell World Champion of all time. High Stakes was our time.

COURT: I’m going to go on ahead and get warmed up! You can just meet me down there!

I called out to her on my way out the door and didn’t wait for a response. She had started to catch on to the fact that I kept waking up earlier each day in order to put in work before she came down. This morning she attempted to surprise me by beating me out of bed, not that it worked. When I was getting ready,  I closed the lock on her gym bag and it was going to take her a while to figure out that I had hidden the key. It bought me time to exhaust myself before she arrived. It was the only way I could simulate the way I would think and feel in the middle of the match at High Stakes. If my wife wasn’t worn down the way that I was when we first locked up, she had an edge against me that none of my opponents would ever get. And if I could consistently beat her in those moments, I could beat anyone, anywhere, at any time.

KRIS: You took the big room….

Not expecting him to be directly outside my door, he startled me. I was able to stifle a scream before it came out of my mouth, but wasn’t able to keep hold on my gym bag. It fell to the floor, and my hands came up instinctively to defend myself. There was no threat though, not really. Kris was fully sprawled out on a beach lounger, sporting a festive shirt like he was outside by a pool, not in the middle of a hallway. He held some kind of fruity drink with an umbrella in it, and took a long drink from it before looking up at me. I vaguely remembered a text from Mikah trying to forewarn me about this. Kris was the one that told me how great the view was from the SKYLOFTs, and put the thought in my head to splurge in order to make up for everything I was going to put my wife through this week. The only problem had been, Kris and Mikah decided they were coming to the show, and bringing their twenty kids with them. However, Prudence and I had already taken the largest of the lofts for just the two of us.

COURT: How long have you been sitting here?You have a new fresh goblin crying at all hours of the day and night. Aren’t you busy?

He shrugged his shoulders at me, and even though I couldn’t see through his mirrored sunglasses, I was certain that he rolled his eyes as well.

KRIS: Eh, after you go through it with a few of them, you’re basically immune. Plus, I’m retired. I have lots of time to deal with problems.

I sighed. I had already explained as much to his wife, but I should have expected that I needed to be more direct than that.

COURT: Maybe Jaycee is the problem you should be worried about, not me. I already told Mikah that you two can’t have my room.

He shook his head with a smirk on his face that wanted to tell me how wrong I was.

KRIS: Jaycee is doing fine, but you know that. You slipped in to see him before he was even allowed to have visitors. Eiley and Oz stopped by last week. Oz went again all by himself again this week. JD has been checking in daily. He has the whole support group.

I could tell he was trying to goad me into staying and playing his game, but instead I picked up my bag, and took a step like I was going to walk around him if he didn’t get to the point.

KRIS: I actually wanted to talk about the new girl.

I knew what he meant, but still wasn’t interested in playing along. I rolled my eyes and continued past him.

COURT: She’s certainly this week’s problem. In two weeks it’ll be someone else. After that there’ll be another, and so forth and so on….

He laughed, and I heard air bubbles pull through his straw as he finished his drink. It was like he somehow knew that I wasn’t actually going to walk away.

KRIS: So this is already a win in your book?

It wasn’t the words themselves, but the way he said it that was insulting. I dropped my bag in the center of the hallway, and turned back around. He hadn’t so much as turned in his chair, forcing me to walk all the way around him in order to look him in his face.

COURT: If you go into a match thinking that you might lose, you’re definitely going to. I won’t make the mistake that you did. She’s not as good as she thinks she is, and I’m gonna prove it to her.

I thought maybe that would be enough to piss him off, but all it earned me was a shrug.

KRIS: I don’t know. I have been seeing a whole lot of people saying that you two are similar….

Hearing the words made my skin crawl. The idea of being compared to that fucking hack made me sick and I think that he understood that from the tone of my response.

COURT: Not even on her best day.

A smile came to his face, and he pulled the sunglasses away from his eyes. Apparently those two words were exactly what he wanted to hear.

KRIS: Good. I think I’d be more worried if you agreed with the masses. Nobody thought that you were ready. Nobody thought that it was your time. Nobody felt like you earned it. Nobody wanted you to win the championship. You did all of those things anyways. If she is anything like you, it makes her sound pretty formidable. It makes it seem like on a stage like High Stakes, she could rise up and prove everyone wrong.

I could see his point. If everyone thought that we were similar, it was only going to close the gap that existed between us. She could just ride my coattails to relevancy if I let her.

COURT: Nobody is going to buy that. These days it’s really easy to spot a cheap knock-off.

He pushed his glasses back up to his eyes, and the smile on his face shrunk down into a cold smirk.

KRIS: Some people aren’t that bright. If you don’t want to make the same mistake that I did against J2H, then don’t. Make sure everyone sees how wide the divide is between champion and challenger.

Everyone thought he had been too kind during the Battle of the GOATs, especially given the yearslong Cold War of insults between himself and J2H. They only shared the ring once, and Kris lost. Now I understood he had camped out in my hallway to make sure that I didn’t make the same mistake.

COURT: You don’t think I’ve been clear enough?

He shook his head, and the smirk on his face seemed significantly more sinister than before.

KRIS: It’s High Stakes. There’s no reason to hold back.



==========================================================
>COURTside: A Little Talk

==========================================================


”Maybe the only thing that my silence has done is caused people to forget the divide that exists between Julianna and I.”

”That’s why I think that we all need to have a little talk. I get why there could be some confusion. Both of us have zero respect for the censors. We aren’t going to hold our tongues just to make others comfortable, and that seems to rub people the wrong way. For the most part, the fans don’t appreciate a lot of the things that we say or do, but that doesn’t seem to bother either of us. Everything we do is in service of making sure that we end up at the top of this business, and it doesn’t matter who we have to step on in order to make it happen. We’re both confident, probably bordering on arrogant if we are honest. And we both believe, regardless of the reality of the situation, that we are the best choices to lead the Bombshell Division into the future.”

”On the surface, it feels like quite a list…”

”However, I find the comparison to be misleading at best, and downright insulting at worst. See, everything that I say and do in this company, and the people that I say and do those things to, makes sense. It fits. Going into my match with Roxi I told her all about how she was one of the ones that I looked up to. I told her about paying attention to her matches, and the matches of her wife, back when I was training. They were two of the handful of performers that made me feel like this was an industry that I wanted to get into. Obviously, their style really wasn’t for me, but that didn’t matter. I had Mikah for that. However, it was their passion for this business that inspired my own, and when Roxi cut all my dreams out from under me before our match, I snapped. Understandably.”

”Compare that against some unknown coming in here with a grudge that didn’t make any sense. Julianna ran her mouth until she was granted a match with a legend. Even worse, she didn’t earn that opportunity in the ring, but on social media. I can admit that I am abrasive, but I don’t think I have ever said or done anything in this company that cheaply. I don’t have to. All of you have seen my story play out in front of you since 2018. You know the people I have problems with. You know the people that I get along with. I don’t have to manufacture a reason to fight someone on a dying app. My reason is draped over my shoulder, or wrapped around my waist every time I walk down to the ring. Because of that, you have seen some of the all-time greats like Amber Ryan pat me on the back for my reign as Bombshell World Champion, and that will always weigh far more than some hateful words from a challenger that nobody actually cares about.”

”You people don’t have to like me, but I know that all of you respect what I have done for Sin City, and what I will continue to do until my last day in the ring. That is why so many people in the SCW Hall of Fame have congratulated me for what I have accomplished. People react to my presence in the ring. I bring a certain gravity with me when I come down the aisle, that the audience can’t help but be pulled into. Everyone has witnessed me captivating audiences, even when they aren’t cheering for me. Yet Julianna thinks that this match boils down to capturing her attention on social media, without ever even having to tag her.”

”...and even though it couldn’t possibly be less important to what goes on inside the six-sided ring, that’s what appears to have irked my opponent the most. Let me ask all of you a question though. Does it seem like she has ever missed a word that has come out of my mouth? Does it seem like any of my posts have slipped past her? Because to me, it feels like she has dissected every promo and she has stalked every tweet. If nothing I say ever manages to slip past her, is anything that I am saying actually behind her back? So what exactly is her fucking problem? Or is she complaining just to hear the sound of her own voice?”

”The fact is, I know that Julianna is watching but beyond that, I know why she is watching. She looks at me, and she sees herself. She hears the words that come out of my mouth, and she can hear herself saying them too. She sees the things that I do inside the ring, and feels like she could do them just the same, if not better. She listens to me talk, and she hears her own stories from years where none of us were watching. She sees herself as a better version of me.”

”...but she is so very, very mistaken.”

”We aren’t the same. We are speaking the same language, and people are booing the both of us, but she can’t make them feel the same things that I do. That’s not where the differences end either. She is incapable of doing the things that I do inside the ring. Trust me, I got a good look when I was the referee for her and Ariana’s sham match. You know what I saw? Mediocrity. I saw someone that talks a pathetic game, and has the ring presence to match it. I saw someone that struggled to take advantage of someone that she clearly thought was beneath her. I watched her flounder each and every time that Ariana fought her way back into the match, and I saw the relief on her face when she managed not to fuck up the opportunity that was handed to her.”

”That couldn’t be further from the things that I have done in the ring this year. I broke Roxi Johnson. I have choked out half of the roster in the center of the ring without ever looking like I was in danger of falling short. I have dominated every single person that I have competed against, and the one time my wife inserted herself into my match, even Julianna has admitted I was already well on my way to a win anyways. I have accepted every single challenge that Mark and Christian have set up for me this year, and passed every test with flying colors. Back in April, I was labeled as the Future of the Bombshell Division, and as much as people hated to admit it, they knew that the owners were right. People saw me coming before I ever stepped in the ring with Roxi, and I have yet to fail to live up those expectations.”

”If there is one thing that is absolutely undeniable since my return, it’s that I am obviously The One whether Julianna or anyone else wants to admit it. It’s going to take a miracle for someone to take me out of the top spot and unfortunately, Julianna isn’t Kris Ryans.”

”Even if she was, everyone remembers what happened to him when he stepped up to the GOAT at High Stakes. The world got to see that there can only be one person at the top of the mountain, and it is nearly impossible to overcome the high ground. This year at High Stakes, the person at the top of the mountain is me. There isn’t an SCW World Heavyweight Champion carrying the belt into High Stakes, and the guy with the best shot to win it has already been put on his back this year. I am the greatest champion appearing on this card, and there’s no competition for my spot. It doesn’t matter how worked up Julianna gets trying to say it ain’t so, you can’t change the facts. I have steamrolled every Bombshell that has been put in front of me, and the only ones that can say I haven’t have simply been given the gift of extra time. I will get to all of them eventually. Julianna just snaked her way to the top of the list first.”

”After I sweep the red carpet out from under Julianna, there’s no telling if people will even remember her at all, but they will remember the night that I retained MY Bombshell World Championship, and got my first career victory at High Stakes. Sunday isn’t going to be the crowning moment that she thinks it is going to be. It is going to be my hitting the Crowning Point, and then folding her in half once I’m OVER IT!  The reality is, High Stakes was never going to be her big break. It’s just another step in my march towards being the best to ever step in the Sin City ring.”

“She is going to regret coming to my company.”

“She is going to regret setting her sights on MY Bombshell World Championship.”

“...and I am going to enjoy every fucking second of it.”

“Good talk.”