Myra: Everyone in this business strives to end their careers on their own terms…
Myra takes a deep breath as she appears to be reflecting on something. She’s with Jason Schneider, her boyfriend, as they both chat in the lobby of the hotel.
Myra: That’s what I came to SCW for… to close the book on my terms. I didn’t come here just to be another face in the crowd. I didn’t come here to be held down by the proverbial glass ceiling. I want that last moment of glory before I go… and I don’t want to waste a second of what may just be the last opportunity I’ll have in professional wrestling with my contract here…
Jason: You’re off to a great start.
This reminder brings a bit of a smile out of Myra as she’s suddenly reminded of her debut win over Bella Madison, one that she’s taking in great stride because it certainly didn’t come easy for her.
Jason: I know you’re going to have the ending that you want… the real ending.
Myra: Having a career ending injury is so much better than… you know… the way it ended before. You remember…
Jason: Right… I do. God, time flies. I can’t believe it’s been seven years since… you know…
Myra: What? The most devastating loss I ever had in my professional wrestling career? I’m 36 two months and 10 days from now, you don’t have to sugarcoat. Listen, I’m going to take a walk, alright?
Jason: Everything okay?
Myra: Yeah. I just need some time alone.
Myra stands up and walks to the other side of the lobby to clear her head, indicating that this loss that occurred seven years ago still has some sort of hold on her somehow. She can’t help herself however, when she sits by a fountain. Catching a brief glimpse of her reflection in the water, Myra flashes back to the day that altered the course of her career forever…
April 24, 2013
Myra Rivers finds herself in a state of shock and bewilderment when she walks through the PRW locker room for the last time. It’s their last show… period. The company disappeared into the archives of wrestling history after this night came and went. She feels sadness flood her heart… the same heart that she poured into the company herself for more than four years, the same company that she had valiantly defended in its honor no matter what. This was the company that… while it wasn’t where her first world championship happened… it was the company that truly made her a household name. Pausing and leaning against the wall, looking at the floor, she soaks in the atmosphere before a familiar voice surprises her.
“Ready to win a 4th world championship tonight?”
Myra doesn’t smile when she looks up at a man that is in no way a wrestler, but someone that she’s extremely familiar with.
Myra: Ricky… wow… you scared me.
Ricky: Sorry. You look extremely nervous. It’s Luciana. You’ve beaten her before. I get that she’s your biggest rival and everything, and probably the biggest rival you’ve ever had in your career…
Myra: ...not to mention the person that has brought on the most torment and torture upon me more than anyone else I’ve EVER met… all she ever did was drag the company down with her nonsense. But every time she’s always tried to start trouble… it’s always been ME that’s put a stop to her bullshit! For me to do it one last time… on PRW’s last show… to take that world title from her and close things out as the last world champion of the company that made me a star? Yeah… I’m game for that…
Ricky: Why do you look so nervous though? You’ve beaten Luciana on the big stage before. You’re not worrying about her, are you?
Myra: No… um… Ricky, it’s not that. It’s… well… you know how I hadn’t been feeling well lately and I had my appointment today?
Ricky, who at this point, was Myra’s fiance, nods.
Myra: ...earlier today… I got some… life altering news… news that… is going to put an end to my wrestling career tonight.
Ricky: ...oh god! Please tell me it’s not a terminal illness! I don’t want to lose you. Or… is it some type of degenerative disability? That’s not good either… but…
Myra: No no… nothing like that.
Myra takes a deep breath and sighs.
Myra: I’m pregnant…
Ricky looks like he just got some life altering news of his own.
Myra: And win, lose or draw… this is it for me. When my mother found out about me… she left the wrestling business…
Ricky: It doesn’t mean YOU have to…
Myra: I’ve done everything that I could possibly ever dream of, Ricky. I’ve made a lot of money. I’ve done well with it. I never wasted or splurged a dime of what I inherited from my father’s money when he… you know… killed himself. I don’t HAVE to leave… you’re right. But… I’m happy! I’m not retiring because I “have to”... I’m doing it because I want to. I’ve paid my dues. I’ve done my time. Maybe someday I’ll start my own wrestling company… but to beat my biggest rival ever… to retire as a world champion… GOD… does it get more AMAZING than that? I’m doing this tonight for our baby… and then that’s it. I’m going out in the best way possible… with one more world championship… with one more moment of dominance over my biggest rival. I can’t think of a better way to end a career.
Myra and Ricky exchange a huge hug.
Ricky: I believe in you… you know that. Karma has its ways… everything Luciana ever put you through… she’s about to pay for it all.
Myra nods and smiles, maintaining her poise.
Myra: Tonight? I’m closing out PRW… and my career… in the way so many can only dream of…
Myra exchanges a kiss with the father of her child before leaving the scene and preparing for what would be… at that time… her final match…
Later…
...but what Myra Rivers could’ve never prepared for is the outcome… or the feeling in the aftermath. She’s left lying on the ropes… stunned. Floored. Tears in her eyes. Watching her career long rival walk away with the PRW World Championship to end the company after she pulled out the win against her is the most sickening feeling in the world for her at this point. The expression on her face indicates how she feels. “This isn’t right…” keeps running through her head again and again… before one sweeping thought forms in her mind… and remains stuck on her conscience for a long time to come…
Myra (thinking): ...I failed my child… I don’t even know the gender of my own baby and I’m already a horrible mother…
Myra would stand up… the fans standing behind her giving her a standing ovation as she leaves since the news about her pregnancy, and subsequent retirement, had spread through the locker room and the company themselves announced it just before the match. But Myra’s completely numb to the fans and their appreciation for her career. The roaring approval of the crowd doesn’t mean anything to her at the moment. All she could ever think about was not just the fact that she was already feeling like a failure of a mother, but the fact that she had a dream ending to a career that so few in the business would ever have the opportunity to make a reality… and it went right down the drain. She had wanted that perfect ending… the best ending that she could possibly have.
Instead? She ends up with the WORST possible career ending that she could ever imagine…
Losing a world title match… to her biggest rival… someone she had LONG hated for years.
The feeling of failure… the realization that she had failed to do what she had done for so many years… it shattered her. What nobody could imagine, however, is the long term consequences of what this night would bring to her…
Present Day
Myra continues to sit by the fountain dealing with the pain of the most heartbreaking night of her career seven years ago. Her eyes narrow into a wince, almost as if that heartbreak still traumatizes her in some way. The pain hits her soul in the form of the same bitterness and anger that evolved from the sorrow of that night.
Myra: I was angry at myself for so long. When Kimberly was born and when I looked into her eyes for the first time, I never experienced that happiness a mother would have. I felt so guilty… looking into the innocent eyes of someone that I had let down before I ever even got to see her in an ultrasound… and the more time passed… the more I got angry… I got angry at myself for ending my career the way I did. Her first birthday was weird… I knew she was happy, but deep down, I wasn’t. I love her more than anything in this world and my unhappiness wasn’t because of her… it was that horrible guilt… that awful anger… that increasing, bitter feeling of “IT’S NOT FAIR” pouring through me again and again. On the night of her first birthday I made the decision that I had to make… I had to come back… because deep down I knew I deserved better than that ending and I was going to do whatever it takes to have it… even if it meant straining my marriage…
Myra flashes back to 2015… and when she lost herself to the darkness…
June 2015
Ricky: I thought you were happy!
Myra: Are you KIDDING? Why would I be happy being a stay at home mother dealing with a daily reminder that I’m such a FAILURE of a parent?
Ricky: Myra, you’re a great mother…
Myra: NO I’M NOT!
Myra’s bitterness and anger from two years prior was really getting to her at this point, though neither party realized that this bitterness would further drive her into darkness.
Myra: Do you REMEMBER how my career “ended”? Did you really think I’d ever want it to end like that.
Ricky: I understand but times are different. You’re a mother now. You can’t just travel around the world with GCW knowing that you’re going to see Kimberly for about what? Three to four days a week? You can’t be a part-time mother, Myra…
Myra: Wrestling is about sacrifices Ricky… and as much as it pains me to do it… this is one of them. The way it ended… that feeling of guilt and shame knowing that I’m such a terrible mother…
Ricky: You’re NOT…
Myra: I AM! I FAILED HER, remember? I dedicated my last match to her… I was going to retire as a world champion for her… AND I BLEW IT! The pain of being a part-time mother DOESN’T COMPARE to the pain I felt two years ago!
Ricky: ...couldn’t you do some local wrestling brand?
Myra: No… and that’s FINAL! So what? I join this local company that nobody outside the city has ever heard of and win a MUNICIPAL CHAMPIONSHIP? Fuck that... and you know what, Ricky? FUCK YOU TOO! You can’t control my life! You don’t get to tell me what to do! You don’t make the rules! This isn’t the fucking 1920’s where you’re the head of household and you get to control me like I’m your god damn maid!
Ricky: I’m not asking you to. What’s gotten into you?
Myra: For two years… I’ve made a LOT of sacrifices… for you… for our marriage. I’ve played by your rules long enough! It’s time to think about ME for a change! It’s time to do something for ME. I’m not going to let you hold me back.
Ricky is completely stunned by this selfish attitude that Myra is exhibiting. Myra herself is surprised at this as her eyes briefly widen. She quickly looks down at the floor, then back at her then-husband.
Myra: Honey, I’m so sorry… I… I don’t know what’s getting into me. I shouldn’t be acting this way…
Ricky: I understand that you want to wrestle again, really. But at the same time, there has to be a better way than going somewhere that’s going to keep you away from Kimberly for three to four days at a time.
Myra: No… this IS the way. I’m not going to live another day in torment, being haunted by my last match. I’m leaving tomorrow morning…
Ricky: What?
Myra: You’re not changing my mind…
Ricky: But…
Myra: Kimberly’s got two parents for a reason you know…
Myra rolls her eyes, not caring about the feelings of her husband at this point. She walks out of the house giving no second thought to her words and actions that are becoming increasingly selfish. Still… nobody has any true idea at this point in time how truly selfish, cold, manipulative and self-centered she would eventually grow to become once her return to the wrestling business really kicked into high gear.
November 2015
The same audience that had cheered Myra Rivers after what many thought would be her final wrestling match is now giving her a completely different reaction as she stands in the center of a GCW ring with a championship slung over her shoulders. They’re not giving her any standing ovations this time. They’re booing the hell out of her.
Myra: Don’t be mad! This is YOUR fault! Two and a half years ago… while I’m bawling my eyes out at having the WORST wrestling ending EVER… you’re all kissing my ass, giving me a standing ovation all while I’m crying and feeling like the biggest failure of a wrestler I could ever possibly be! You NEVER cared about how I FELT! You NEVER cared about me! For two years… you forgot I existed! All you people ever did was take me for granted! For many years, I stood up for you! I fought for you! And you all took advantage of me like I was your stupid little dancing monkey! You all treated me like a puppet! I HATE… and I mean HATE… every single one of you! You took away my joy, my happiness! You created this! It’s about what I want… it’s about ME!
And let me tell you something… I didn’t come back to be GCW NORTH AMERICAN CHAMPION…
Myra scoffs in disgust while nonchalantly tossing the title she has over her shoulder.
Myra: I came here to be the best wrestler in the world… in MY OWN WAY… even if that includes cheating on my husband with my best friend’s boyfriend… OOPS! Cat’s out of the bag… and I don’t give a shit about your FEELINGS! You want to brand me as evil? FUCK IT! I AM evil! You have NO IDEA… NONE… about the monster… the DEVIL… you just created… and I’m going to make life in GCW a living hell for ANYONE that wants to deny me what I DESERVE!
Myra slams the microphone on the ground and when she drops down to pick up her title, she’s noticing that trash is being thrown at her. She doesn’t care for this at all. In fact, when she rolls out of the ring, she’s got quite the evil smirk on her face. What nobody would know however, is that this was just the beginning of Myra Rivers… at the time wrestling as Myra Lynwood… becoming the most hated wrestler on the entire GCW roster…
Present Day
Myra is going through a bit of stunned silence as she reminisces about how that darkness within her begins to take form.
Myra: Ricky…
Some regret about her ex starts to take form.
Myra: I wish you were alive so I could really express how sorry I am… you treated me so well and then… THAT is how I returned the favor?
“He’d be happy to see you as you are now…”
Myra is surprised by Jason’s appearance but nonetheless, she stands up to greet him.
Myra: Maybe… but… I can never erase what I’ve done…
Jason: No… but you’ve learned a hell of a lot from your mistakes. Remember… you managed to become even BETTER after you came back than you ever were before you had retired in the first place. It takes one hell of a wrestler and a special kind of breed to be able to do that. It also takes a very strong person to break free from the darkness like you did. Ten years from now, when Kimberly is old enough to understand, she’ll realize it too.
Myra: I just want to do right by her… that’s all.
Jason: And you will! You’re too strong of a person and too great of a wrestler not to…
Myra flashes a smile, happy from the reassurance that Jason’s giving her. They exchange a hug and a quick kiss before looking in the direction of the water fountain.
Myra: I’m never going back in that black hole… and I’m going to make myself as strong as I can to ever avoid the temptation or the possibility of it happening again…
Myra takes a sigh of relief, happy at the moment to have sifted through some old internal scars and wounds from some of the hardest times of her career and from an era of her career that she’d like to forget as much as she can. Escaping that darkness wasn’t easy, and Myra knows that staying out of it won’t be easy as well… but she knows she can pull through… even through some of the darkest times she may encounter on her SCW journey…
May 8, 2020
The cameras cut in on a dark room that is lit only by hanging lights that make the scenery appear as though it’s a bunch of fireflies lurking in the night. However, this shot doesn’t last long as a bright spotlight appears in the middle of it and Myra, dressed in black, stands in the center of it, looking around, seeing that the walls are nothing but mirrors, seeing the maze that one most go through to get out of the darkness… a scary, yet fitting, visual metaphor for where she was at one point in time… and where she absolutely avoids ever wanting to be again. With a look of grim determination in her eyes, Myra begins to express her thoughts.
Myra: I’ve been in this business long enough to know as much psychology about it as I can. I know for a fact that at one point or another, this business drives everyone crazy. I recognize the fact that nobody in this business is immune from going down a dark path in their lives and careers at least once. Even the purest of souls end up down this self-destructive path and all it takes is ONE moment… ONE… and suddenly, you’re on that path. I know this because when I first started doing this, when I was always fighting that good fight and rebelling against any cause that dared to bastardize the wrestling business that I loved, there wasn’t a person on earth that would ever believe that I’d go down this path. I was as much of a paragon of virtue as anyone could possibly be. I was beloved. I was seen as the one person in this business that would never sell out, that would never break, that would never attempt to bastardize the business for herself. I was seen as the one person that would ALWAYS stand up for what’s right and that would NEVER put herself above the business…
...until that actually happened…
Everyone ends up in the dark at some point. The path to getting there may be different depending on the person, but the outcome is the same. Me? I ended up there with insecurities about myself as a wrestler and as a mother. I ended up there because something didn’t go my way and I chose to be a victim from it. I chose to be self-centered. I made that choice to put myself above everyone. I made that choice to hurt people… to terrorize the spirits and the psyches of anyone that ever crossed my path even if it meant that my enemies had to take a sledgehammer to the career… all because nothing was ever good enough for me… all because I once took it all for granted… yet I escaped… to once again fight the good fight and combat the darkness… to combat those that dare to bastardize the business while going down their path of self-destruction… to overcome and neutralize people like YOU Bobbie Dahl…
The mention of her opponent’s name suddenly brings an angry, yet determined, glare in her eyes before she begins to tear into her.
Myra: YOU, Bobbie… have to be one of the most egomaniacal, UNGRATEFUL, ANNOYING, overbearing whining little BITCHES I’ve EVER met in my career and considering I’ve been doing this for a LONG time… that’s saying something. You have to be one of the biggest cancers that this Bombshell division currently employs because my GOD… the ATTITUDE you have when things don’t go your way is UNREAL! YOU are exactly what I swore to protect this business from because you, Bobbie, are a blight to it. You don’t scare me. I don’t care how big you are… you could never scare me. I know what you’ve done before. I’ve seen what you’ve done to Alicia Lukas in the past. I’ve seen the way you and Dani Weston put each other through HELL recently and I know you enjoyed torturing the shit out of her at Blaze of Glory, outcome be damned. I saw what you did a couple of weeks ago when you ruined that match with Alicia and Roxi and it made me SICK… it DISGUSTED ME to know that this business… this company… has a cancer like YOU in it. But you know why I’m not afraid of you, Bobbie? Do you know why I’m not going into this match with any sort of fear whatsoever?
It’s for two big reasons…
Number one? I’ve been on that path that you’re on. I know exactly why you think the way you do and why you behave the way you behave. I know what makes you tick Bobbie… and that’s that shitty, horrible, stinging feeling that resides in your heart… or whatever’s left of your heart anyway… that’s telling you that you’re not good enough. Don’t tell me that you don’t feel that way… because I’ve heard the stories… I’ve SEEN that social media timeline of yours… you know… where you lost that world title match to Roxi and were crying about it and expressing how much you wanted to quit? Yeah… the mirror is the scariest thing to look at, isn’t it? Every time you look in the mirror, your eyes tell you how you feel… the eyes from your reflection gaze into your soul and tells your mind that you’re not good enough… and your body language reflects that…
Every time you lose… you have to suffer through that feeling. You can’t help yourself. Every little thing that doesn’t go your way, you have to cry about it. How about Sunday, I give you something else to cry about, Bobbie? That is… if these words I’m speaking right now don’t cut into that fragile, glass-textured piece of shit you call a thin skin by then.
And I’m supposed to be afraid of THAT?
Oh right… reason number two… you know… for why I’m not afraid of you? That very thin skin I just mentioned. I hate to go too far into the past here but last year… you know… when you faced Andrea Hernandez one on one and she got a little personal with her words toward you, gave you some constructive criticism and all that… how’d you take them? Like a champ?
Nah… you went on the air prior to your match against her that night and you whined and bitched about them until the cows came home. You let her words throw YOU off of your game… not that Andrea NEEDED her words to do that… she’s the champ, that speaks for itself. She beat you. And then when you couldn’t win the Roulette Championship from Sam Marlowe, that was the straw that broke the camel’s back, wasn’t it? After you failed on the big stage… that’s when you became this…
THAT’S when you decided to become one of the most hated people on the roster and start pulling the shit you’ve been pulling. You decided that as you were… you weren’t good enough… so fuck the world right? Raise hell, try to shorten careers, try to ruin it all for everyone just because you look in the mirror and you see a giant piece of shit that truly, deep down, hates herself because she’s struggling to be on the same tier as a Roxi Johnson, or an Alicia Lukas, or an Andrea Hernandez or an Evie Jordan, right? Fuck it all… I can’t hack it with the way I was doing things before… so try to be the BIG BAD EVIL of the division, right? Yet… you know that it hasn’t gone so great for you. You COULD’VE been that had you beaten Roxi. Yet, you failed. Did BIG BAD BOBBIE say “I’m going to come back stronger than ever and I’m gonna kill the bitch next time”?
No.
Because that’s not the Bobbie Dahl way. What’s really the Bobbie Dahl way is doing what you did… going on social media… HATING all the praise and all the congratulations that Roxi got… LOATHING the fact that everyone else was CELEBRATING your loss… making a HUGE fuss about it… feeling sorry for yourself… whining, crying… threatening to move on… don’t deny it honey, your Twitter wall is graffitied in all that shit… go back and read your tweets following your loss to Roxi and tell me that it’s not true.
You brought that on yourself, honey. Take some responsibility… wait… no… that’s not the Bobbie way either…
You know what I did when I was on that path that you’re on now… when things wouldn’t go my way here and there? I did whatever the hell I had to do to bounce back. I NEVER, not ONCE, felt sorry for myself. No… I reared back… I did everything I could to get BETTER… and I came back and I fucking raised hell. January 2016… I had a loss that was pretty damn gutting… even for someone like me on the dark path. Did I whine? Did I complain? No… I SWORE I was going to raise more hell and that I was going to get back at the bitch that had beaten my brains out in that chair match and a month later that’s EXACTLY what I did. You on the other hand… are on a worse self-destructive path than I ever was… at least I had the CONFIDENCE to dust myself off and get mine… you? You ain’t got the guts… you never did… you’ve got to be the biggest coward on ANY roster… our division, the men’s division, GRIME, SCU… you name it. The moment that Alicia Lukas finally gets you one on one, she’s going to embarrass you and expose you. She’s not going to just get her revenge for what you’ve done to her… hell no… she’s going to eat you alive. I may not be the biggest fan of her attitude and reputation, but I know she’s always going to be at least one tier above you!
I know how psychologically frail you are Bobbie… not just because I’ve been down the road you’re on… but because you’ve proven on more on one occasion how sensitive and fragile you are. When I think of you… I don’t think of the wrestler that put Alicia on the shelf… I think of the childish little bitch that let a few “MEAN WORDS” from her opponents get to her head every… single… match… that she wrestles. I don’t think of the person that won that four way to become the number one contender… I think of the scared little girl that has to ruin a hell of a main event match because she can’t stand the fact that someone that is beyond superior to her is back and she can’t handle the fact that she couldn’t end her career. I don’t think of the person that nearly wrecked Dani Weston during her last man standing match… I think of the overgrown child that HAS to have the last word on EVERYTHING… that HAS to take EVERYTHING personally… that HAS to pick her stupid little girl fights on Twitter like she’s some sort of princess… well sorry, PRINCESS… that’s not how I was brought up to be in this business.
As long as you continue being the pathetic little girl you are… you know… the stupid little girl that can’t take the heat more often than not… hon, you’ll NEVER get to where you want to be in this business. What goes around always comes around, “princess”... and reckoning day is coming for you. It won’t be me bringing that reckoning… I know that’s not my place… but for me? Sunday? I’ll not only showcase the strength I had to have to break free from the same dark path I was once in… but I’ll also showcase the fact that I can take on ANYONE on this roster, no matter who they are… and I can push them to their limits and I can beat them any given night…
You want to keep going down this dark, self-destructive path, Bobbie? You want to keep spiraling downward all the way to hell? Fine! So be it! Sunday? I’ll do whatever the hell it takes for the good of the business that I’ve loved since I was a little girl to put you one step closer to getting there…
Myra maintains her look of angry, fiery determination before she snaps her fingers. On this cue, the light goes off, leaving just the firefly-like lights that continue to flutter and fluctuate in color in the dark, mirrored room Myra finds herself in as the shot cuts out.
