Off-Camera
Tuesday, May 21, 2019
Laguna Beach, California
Home of Kate Bass
3:30 PM PDT
Family was something that was supposed to be there for you to pick you up when bad things happen. The word has been redefined many times but it almost always comes down to the type of adage, “It takes a village to raise a child.” The village, however it is defined, is the family and that family helps to mold and shape everything it touches.
For Seleana Zdunich, that word was becoming more and more confusing lately given certain actions that were occurring across both Sin City Wrestling and Sin City Underground. Now she found herself sitting with other people she considered family in Laguna Beach. Kate Bass was a woman who had married into a family that Seleana has once started down the path of doing the same until they had both lost that connection in September of 2017. As she sits in the children’s room of Kate’s home watching four small children, two of whom, twenty-three month-old Trinity and six-week-old Dustin, belonged to Kate while the other two belonged to the second woman sitting in the room with Seleana, Shay Kenyon. Shay had brought her seven-month-old twins, Jami Hope and Destiny Joy, and all four children were currently on the floor of the playroom. Trinity looked as if she was directing traffic without even meaning too as Jami and Destiny both tried out their newly discovered crawling abilities, Jami leading the way for her sister.
Little Dustin was enjoying his baby gym, slapping at the dangling plastic bits as if they were the most fascinating things his young eyes had ever managed to focus on. Trinity walks over to look at her brother, nods, apparently satisfied and then wanders off to look at one of her colorful picture books where she can keep a closer eye on the twins. As they watch all four small children seemingly enjoying themselves, Shay nods to Seleana.
Shay Kenyon: Y’all think she’ll be ok?
Frowning in slight confusion, Seleana’s eyes remained glued to the children. The two of them had come after seeing Kate having what looked to them like a slight meltdown on Twitter and had rushed over to give the struggling new mom a hand as she continues to try and recover for an eventual return to the ring as an active wrestler.
Seleana Zdunich: Kate?
Shay nods, hoping little Trinity wasn’t paying attention to them as they speak about her adoptive mother.
Shay Kenyon: Yeah....
Seleana glances back at the door of the room and then turns back to face Shay and the kids. Pondering this question for only a second, she nods almost too quickly.
Seleana Zdunich: I think she will thrive soon. She is a strong woman. We just need to help her a little sometimes when a moment becomes too much.
Shay nods in agreement.
Shay Kenyon: Yeah, I spose between a near two-year-old and a six-week-old baby, she’s gonna have herself a few, ain’t she?
Seleana shrugs as this was not something she had ever experienced herself first hand. She’d seen it with animals many, many times, but never with other humans and definitely not in herself.
Seleana Zdunich: How many did you have?
Shay sighs heavily, matching Seleana’s sigh of a few moments previous.
Shay Kenyon: A few, but I also had Lena right there with me and you in town, only a call away. Dean, Jessica, Dars, Cheri, Bethy, Ash and Khary called me a lot too as did my Mama. Miss Squeaky was basically in town, as were Miss Zoey and Miss Katarina too. Kate ain’t got all that. I mean…
Nodding in acknowledgement, Shay looks back towards the door
Shay Kenyon: Yeah, she’s got you, she’s got me, she’s got Tyler around some but she ain’t got that kind of full-on family thing I did.
Seleana nods to herself, pondering this answer.
Seleana Zdunich: Zoey and Katarina are still here as well. Claire has Katie back now, but you’re right, Chickie. She has no true family. I believe both of her parents have passed and her brother does not act as a brother should.
Shay almost laughs at this thought.
Shay Kenyon: Naw, he acts like a right asshole most times. Can’t forget Stacy either but she’s on the other side of the country so it’d take her a minute to get here if Kate needed something from her.
Seleana nods slowly, her face losing it’s usual smile and this is not lost on Shay.
Shay Kenyon: What’s wrong, Sel?
Taken aback, Seleana shakes her head.
Seleana Zdunich: What? Em, it is nothing.
Shay shakes her head firmly.
Shay Kenyon: Ain’t look like nothin’, Miss Sel. What’s eatin’ ya?
Seleana turns her attention to the children and manages a small smile as she watches Jami and Destiny taking a break from their crawling, having made it halfway across the room in their exploration.
Seleana Zdunich: I just…
She nods to the babies before them.
Seleana Zdunich: I wonder if I would understand more if I had my own.
Shay frowns in confusion all over again.
Shay Kenyon: Understand what?
Sighing again deeply, Seleana looks down to her feet looking almost embarrassed to have said anything.
Seleana Zdunich: Brittany, Christina, Alicia…
She shrugs and then turns to face Shay.
Seleana Zdunich: Everything.
Looking away to the babies again, Seleana shakes her head in equal parts confusion and disgust.
Seleana Zdunich: Did we not just… do... this?
She sucks in a sharp, deep breath, desperately trying to control herself in front of the children.
Seleana Zdunich: Did we not just spend the most of six months’ time with Brittany begging her mother not to come at me like this over Alicia?
Her right hand balls into a fist, though she resist the urge to pound it into her open left.
Seleana Zdunich: Did we not just spend that same time with Christina trying to both justify and apologize for her actions in attacking me over Alicia Lukas and her championship?
She throws her hands up, visibly exasperated, before turning to face Shay again.
Seleana Zdunich: Is this all we are? Are we going to be reduced to being a broken home every time someone has a thought of becoming a champion?
She looks down to the floor, her eyes almost vacant and distant.
Seleana Zdunich: I do not know what to do because they all seem so…
Trailing off, she searches for the proper word to communicate her feeling.
Seleana Zdunich: Inconsistent.
Shay’s frown deepens.
Shay Kenyon: In what way?
Seleana’s gaze remains affixed to the floor.
Seleana Zdunich: One minute, Christina is perfectly happy as we are, the next she wants me to be the top because I’ve surpassed her and the very next she wants the top for herself. Brittany is the exact same way. One minute, she wants to kill her mother, the next she wants to BE her mother, and the next she wants to be the greatest thing ever and the only consistent thing about her every whim is that she wants it all immediately like it should be some microwavable type dish she can just add a little water to and it comes into being.
Shay raises a hand.
Shay Kenyon: Hold up, surpassed?
Seleana nods, shrugging slightly as she does so.
Seleana Zdunich: She mentions it quite often actually, both as if it is natural and as if it is a great insult to her legacy in some way. I fail to see how a student’s success reflects poorly on that student’s teacher but sometimes, she seems to think it does.
Shay nods slowly.
Shay Kenyon: And she thinks you’ve surpassed her?
Seleana nods back.
Seleana Zdunich: She speaks of it more often than she does trying to defeat Lukas. Both she and Brittany seem preoccupied that way…
Shay almost laughs.
Shay Kenyon: Like mama, like baby…
Seleana nods knowingly.
Seleana Zdunich: And Alicia cannot seem to decide if she is a nice woman or a fitta…
Shay frowns, having only heard this particular term once?
Shay Kenyon: What’s a fitta?
Seleana exhales heavily.
Seleana Zdunich: Coño…
Shay’s eyes light up with recognition. That was a term she was definitely familiar with having grown up in Texas around many Spanish-speaking people including her best friend, Darlyn Fajardo.
Shay Kenyon: Heard that word many times before, English and Spanish.
Shay can’t help but chuckle to herself as Seleana nods her agreement.
Seleana Zdunich: I had a co-worker in Christchurch called A.J. that said the word so often it almost became his name.
Shay stifles a much harder laugh.
Shay Kenyon: Really?
Seleana nods, seemingly relieved to be talking this memory rather than the previous subject matter.
Seleana Zdunich: He was from Australia and found new and innovative inflections for it almost daily. When he found out there were two others who especially did not like that word and that he also considered to be idiots, he would say it more often around them just to see their reactions.
Shay nods slowly, almost contemplatively, as if this is the only way she can keep herself from dissolving into a fit of hysterical laughter.
Shay Kenyon: Did they disappoint?
Seleana shakes her head.
Seleana Zdunich: Never, especially the one who thought she could intimidate everyone. She talked to everyone, usually as if they were beneath her. One day she finally said to the wrong man at a concert and he shut her mouth for her for a month. She was never the same after, did not last much longer at her job.
Shay’s mouth falls open in surprise.
Shay Kenyon: Wow…
Seleana nods.
Seleana Zdunich: Shattered her whole world view of herself. Christina reminds me of her sometimes that way.
Shay nods.
Shay Kenyon: When she says that stuff about y’all havin’ surpassed her?
Seleana nods.
Seleana Zdunich: If she take that attitude in against Alicia Lukas, she will go down and go down badly. Brittany would probably not allow her to forget that failure until and unless Alicia then does that to her as well.
Shay nods slowly, looking over to her girls who have slowed to almost nothing now.
Shay Kenyon: You think they’ll let y’all have your match? Like just you and Miss Alicia, one on one, no bullpucky this time?
Seleana looks to the babies and then sighs sadly.
Seleana Zdunich: Christina?
She pauses and then nods.
Seleana Zdunich: Ja, I think she will. Brittany?
Pausing again, Seleana ponders the question for a second and then shrugs sadly once again.
Seleana Zdunich: I do not know and I would…
She trails off as she searches momentarily for the proper word.
Seleana Zdunich: Lean… towards… no…
Shay looks at Seleana, suddenly alarmed.
Shay Kenyon: You really think she’d do you like that?
Seleana nods without hesitation or satisfaction.
Seleana Zdunich: Ja, I think she would, especially with Halo, her father, his wife and his sister behind her. I think there is very real possibility Brittany do either to me or for me what her mother do last time I fight Alicia. I think it all depends on who she think she can beast herself better. If she thinks I am an easier pick, she would do exactly what her mother do last time and screw Alicia. If she think Alicia is easier, she would do that to me instead.
Shay nods, slowly, sadly.
Shay Kenyon: Y’all got a bet as to which is the truth?
Seleana nods just as sadly.
Seleana Zdunich: Ja, I do…
Shay watches Seleana’s face and nods knowingly.
Shay Kenyon: That bad, huh?
Seleana nods and Shay takes hold of her hand.
Shay Kenyon: Y’all’ll figure this one out, Miss Cat, even if you have to take Brit out behind the woodshed yourself. If she’s really bein’ a royal pain like you say, God knows she could use herself a good hidin’!
Seleana nods.
Seleana Zdunich: I wish it would not come to that.
Shay nods sympathetically even as she shrugs matter-of-factly.
Shay Kenyon: Well, my Daddy always said you can wish in one hand and shit in the other and you know which one is gonna fill up faster.
Seleana nods knowingly all over again.
Seleana Zdunich: I know, that is what I am worried about…
Shay pats her hand again as they turn to look at the babies, three of whom have now managed to fall asleep on the floor.
Shay Kenyon: Ain’t they darlin’?
Seleana manages a small smile.
Seleana Zdunich: Ja… they are...
On-Camera
Friday, May 24, 2019
Detroit, Michigan
Detroit Metropolitan Wayne County Airport
8:51 PM EDT
The camera opens on Seleana Zdunich as she sits in a seat near the departure gate of the Detroit Metro Airport as she waits for her flight home following the football game she had played in only a few hours earlier. Her wife, Christina, had played quarterback and thrown four touchdowns, the game winner to Seleana. Now, Seleana was ready to return home to ready herself to take on Alicia Lukas in Reno at Climax Control 237. She looks up to the camera and nods slowly, resignedly, wishing it was all different.
Seleana Zdunich: I…
She inhales sharply and then lets it out slowly, trying to allow herself an extra few seconds of time to ponder the ideas floating in her head.
Seleana Zdunich: I really do not understand all of you sometimes…
She looks down to just below the camera’s lens.
Seleana Zdunich: All of you are just…
She folds her hands together and shakes her head again.
Seleana Zdunich: Brittany wants so desperately to be her mother and yet wants so desperately to not be her mother at the same time. Christina wants to hide who she is because she is terrified that it will never be good enough no matter how many accolades she accumulates, how much money she accumulates, how many toys she accumulates. Halo wants to prove she is not her parents so she won’t ever be who she used to be before she was allowed to make herself her own. Alicia Lukas didn’t want to be herself either so she fashioned a new name and made that name mean something. Kimberly and Jenny can’t decide if they want to be themselves or if they just want to be Todd’s playthings of one form or another and Todd just wants us all to be him with boobs.
She pauses, nodding to the camera knowingly, disgustedly.
Seleana Zdunich: Or jump on him as if his kuk is the most magisk kuk ever and will endow us all with magical powers by injection…
She waves her hands as if pitching a great story idea for a movie or a big time event.
Seleana Zdunich: See here, tonight only, the Amazing Flying Swede as she somehow manages to swoop in out of the sky and cross the highest buildings, the widest chasms, every river known to mankind…
Nodding pointedly, Seleana lowers her hands and folds them in front of her again.
Seleana Zdunich: And all she had to do was allow Todd Williams to make her his whore for a night and the world was a much better place for it, ja?
Rolling her eyes, she shakes her head in complete revulsion.
Seleana Zdunich: All of you seem to be focused on things that do not matter to what you seemingly want most. Christina focuses on everyone else’s success, especially my own and Brittany’s as if she should be frightened and threatened by both of these things instead of proud. As i have said many times before, she promised long ago to share success with me and while she does to some degree, she does not embrace it fully because there is a little voice in the back of her head that, for some reason, will not allow her to admit she already has what she always wanted. She cannot allow herself to admit she is a true success now and I do not understand why.
She looks down to her feet, inhaling deeply before looking back up to the camera.
Seleana Zdunich: Christina, you are not the silly little girl in Detroit that had to give up her athletic dreams because she allowed Todd Williams to play hide hamster.
She pauses and then shrugs to the camera almost sheepishly.
Seleana Zdunich: Did I get that one right, Shay?
She nods pointedly again and then stares directly into the lens.
Seleana Zdunich: You ARE a multi-time champion that has gotten herself into many halls of fame. You have a wonderful daughter that wants to be just like you so much, she has put an artificial deadline on herself to achieve everything you have just to say she got there! She wants to be you, to surpass you, to add to your legacy with her own and for you to be proud of ehr for doing it! You have a wife that loves you and a house that is so big, you constantly have other people coming to temporarily take residence in it alongside us. You have more money than you could ever spend and you have built what feels like four separate careers already and still, when you say your list of accolades as proof of why people should respect you, if they do not it is because they can see you do not actually believe in them yourself. They can see that you do not believe you earned all of this or that you deserve it. And since that is what you believe, many of them take your word for it and agree with you…
Looking down at the floor again, Seleana sits forward in her seat, resting her arms on top of her knees, her hands remaining folded together.
Seleana Zdunich: Brittany, I love you. You are the daughter I never got to have myself. You have something special with Halo…
She looks to her hands and then up to the camera.
Seleana Zdunich: I do not know if it is because of your father, because of your own insecurities or because you want this badly to be who you and many other people perceive your mother to be, but you are not helping yourself get where you want to go by doing what you are doing. Instead of focusing on who you should be focusing on in Alicia Lukas and making sure you are ready for her, you all but invited them to give your mother and I championship opportunities before you simply by bringing us into what should have been your story alone. You slapped your mother in the face for no real reason and implied you will do worse and more to both of us just because we were all awarded championship opportunities for winning our matches at London Brawling 2 never once taking into account that they never said what championship your mother and i would be competing for following our victory or what timeframe we would be on to be granted said championship match. If you had just been patient, Christian and Mister Hot Stuff might have been content to allow both your mother and I to wait and ponder what we had earned, knowing full well that the wait would drive your mother crazy and this would allow Christian endless entertainment. If you continue on this road, with your focus in all the wrong places, you will not like where the road takes you because it is not the road to championship glory.
Seleana shakes her head sadly.
Seleana Zdunich: It would be the road to, what did she call it…?
She frowns in confusion as she tries to recall what her friend, Shay Kenyon, had told only two days previous. After a few seconds, she nods as it comes to her.
Seleana Zdunich: Åh ja, the woodshed.
She nods to the cameras grimly.
Seleana Zdunich: Alicia Lukas would be familiar with this, ja? And she would have no compunctions in making your visit as painful as possible.
Her hands separate and rise slightly so that Seleana can wave them palms down towards the ground, obviously trying to calm the situation.
Seleana Zdunich: You must learn patience, Brit. Everything does not need to be here now. Do the work, put in the time, and you will get where you want to go. Look at your wife and her sister as examples. Rain worked ring crew to get into training school and then worked to make the roster of her company in only three months. She has continued to work and was a champion in six months after making the roster and Halo worked so diligently to avoid going back, she was a champion by her third match. Neither of them took the easy way and neither should you because the easy way only ends one way.
Her hands move back to their previous position, arms resting on her knees, hands folded in front of her.
Seleana Zdunich: Pain.
She nods forcefully to the camera as if someone is standing right there with it.
Seleana Zdunich: Ask Alicia, she will tell you all about it as she would be the one causing it if she has her way about things. She does not appreciate the way you are going about things either, however, she has nothing stopping her from doing something nasty and incredibly violent about it. She does not love you and therefore…
She pauses and waves her hand dismissively.
Seleana Zdunich: Ja, you know this, I should stop wasting breath, I know.
She pauses and shrugs.
Seleana Zdunich: But I must try, as a mother…
Her eyes flutter down to the floor for a second as she nods to herself before looking back up into the camera, this time looking as if she is looking another person dead in the eyes.
Seleana Zdunich: And thus we come to you, Alicia, the one who should have been the focus of it all the whole time. Brittany should have been tunneled on you the moment she won her chance to face you. She should have spent every second of every day getting ready to face you as that is what it will take for her to defeat you and make no mistake, she has the talent and ability to do so. She is gifted that way but you and I both know it takes more than natural gifts to get in the ring with a champion like you.
Seleana stands up, motioning between herself and the camera with the extended index finger on her right hand.
Seleana Zdunich: We have been here once before, you and I, and it did not end well for either of us. You lost your standing as champion and thus your dream of being able to look at everyone and say you made that championship mean something by bringing dignity and honor to it for a very long, uninterrupted time. There was a blip…
The extended finger pulls back in to point into Seleana’s own chest.
Seleana Zdunich: I was that blip…
She nods, her hand dropping to her side.
Seleana Zdunich: But while you lost your standing to say such things, even if only for a short time, I lost my ability to say I was truly THE Champion.
Her hand raises back up to stop the response she knows is coming.
Seleana Zdunich: Oh, make no mistake, Alicia, I was World Bombshell Champion, but as you were quick to point out at the time, I did not win how I would have liked. I was on a months-long undefeated streak at the time that technically still continues until this day and it did not matter. It still does not matter that no one, not even you, can say that they have beaten me since i punched Christian Underwood and broke his face in November. No one has been able to take one on me in six months and yet I was cast into the abyss with the rest of the co-called “trash” by the actions of my own wife.
She looks down to the floor, outrage starting to flood her face.
Seleana Zdunich: I need this match with you, Alicia.
Seleana looks back up to the camera, her clenched fist raising up seemingly of its own volition.
Seleana Zdunich: I need this one on one match with you to prove to you, to the world to my wife but most of all, to myself, that I am the best!
She nods forcefully.
Seleana Zdunich: You come in here and I will give you all the credit in world, Alicia. You did not raise the bar, you became the bar and you showed everyone who was here that you were the here, the now and the best there was out there.
Nodding again, she points to herself again.
Seleana Zdunich: And then I proved I was good and I earned that chance to prove it with you and at the end of the night, I pinned you in the middle of the ring and somehow left worse off than when I went in. That cannot happen this time!
Her fist fires down demonstrably, pointing to the floor angrily.
Seleana Zdunich: I cannot promise you that my wife and my stepdaughter will not do something incredibly stupid this time. If I were them i would stand back and allow us to simply beat the hell out of each other but that does not mean they will see things as I do but what I can promise you is that I will come into this match and do everything in my power to pin your shoulders down just like I did before! This is MY opportunity, Alicia!
She points to herself again.
Seleana Zdunich: Mina!
Her hand drops back to her side again.
Seleana Zdunich: I will come to that ring in Reno and I will show you that last time was no fluke! I am Seleana “The Cat” Zdunich and I do not care if you think you are better. I do not care who you are, who you think you are or who you think you are destined to be! I’m still the woman that pinned you, I’m still the woman that has spent six months shutting people up and I cannot wait for the chance to do the same to you!
She moves in closer and nods one last time.
Seleana Zdunich: This Cat has her eyes on the prize, Alicia, and you are in my way!
