A Wolves Den
2 Years ago
You get out what you put in. That was the mantra in life, in training. If you work hard and put your best foot forward you’ll get a return on life. And the last few days Alicia felt it. At the end of every day she went home and relaxed with her family. Her fiancé, her two sons. She would talk to her sister, her mother and the others she worked and trained with. A support network that seemed to be there when others failed, both professional and personal. Michael had been amazing, since coming into her life a year ago her self worth and self esteem had taken a turn upward. It’s not that she didn’t have the ability to believe in herself or that she needed a man to validate her life choices.
It was about healing.
For years Alicia had been drifting in and out of horrible circumstances. From locking herself away after her abusive relationship with her son's father ended, to coming back to the United States and falling into horrible relationship after horrible relationship. She needed the stability and now she had it. No more emotional terrorise, no more drama and stupidity. Chris Cane, Travis Blake and Kaden Kessler almost broke her. But Michael was the kind of man she needed. An emotional Rick, someone who would look at a mountain and climb it with her.
He had agreed to move from DC to New York, he knew it was a better place for them and after buying a house, getting the boys settled in school and Alicia working at the gym it was feeling like home. Michael transferred his business to a new office only 20 minutes away. Life was good. And this new serenity showed in her body and work ethic. Alicia had always been a beast in the gym, but this was a different attitude.
A different way of thinking.
For years she had been miserable but still succeeding in life and wrestling. But now she was smiling. Happy at home, happy at the gym, happy at work. And today was just like any other. The last few weeks she would turn up to the gym, put her bag in her locker and then go about her routine. Stretching, cardio, weights and finally may work. Seeing the young hopefuls with their fresh faces made her remember what it was like to start in wrestling.
It took her back to Japan.
The first day she walked in, the smells, the noises, the vision of so many people working together. It was new, fresh and exciting. But for three years her body paid the price. The Japanese style was all about violence, controlled aggression. And on rookies they were particularly harsh. They broke her down, built her up. And it gave her success. The champions mindset.
But now she stood on the main floor of the gym, she was warmed up ready to go, she gave a small smile as Alex walked up to her. He seems to have something on his mind, his long hair tied back away from his face as he was decked out in his own workout gear, black shorts and a skin tight compression shirt. [color-red]”Hey I need a favor.”[/color]
This should be good. Alicia folded her arms over her chest with a grin. ”What do you need?”
Alex cleared his throat and turned on looking over at someone, Alicia‘s eyes Trail over to find a woman standing just outside his office, she was talking to Alex’s wife Sonja. She was about the same height as Alicia, long blonde hair that was done in dreadlocks tied back and up away from her face, her upper body covered in tattoos and also very muscular. ”I need you to work with someone.” Alex pause for a moment, he turned and motion for Alicia to follow him as he walks slow enough that he could finish his thought. ”Her name is Johanna, she’s had some experience in Europe, but she came here to train...can you see what she’s got?” Alicia gave a small note and a smile, they moved up to where the two women were talking, Alex paused for a moment and waited as he got their attention. ”Alicia, Johanna, Johanna, Alicia….she’s going to be assessing you”
Johanna gave a nod of understanding looking over at Alicia offering a handshake. Alicia took her hand could not believe how strong she felt she could almost feel bones in her hand cracking. ”Thank you for the opportunity.” she had a strong German accent, her English was perfect but there was still something there. Alicia hit Alex on the shoulder and gave him a smile before leading Johanna to the grappling mats.
”Alright….let’s do this…”
Nobody's Listening.
It was a strange feeling. Not having the championship over her shoulder, not having it close by just in case she wanted to show it to the camera to remind everyone the position that she held. The position was no longer hers, that championship no longer in her possession.
”Mistakes, we all make them. It is nothing to be ashamed of, we all have missed steps in life that seem to change the direction that we’re heading. The key though, is making sure that you do not make the same mistakes over and over again. That you actually examined where you went wrong and you pick up lessons and learn and grow. I repeated my mistakes, for the first time in a long time I stand here without a clear direction of where I want to go and what I want to do. For the first time in a very long time I have to be brutally honest with myself and not just opponents in the rest of the division, I have to look at myself and realise where I went wrong and what I need to do to fix it.”
“Back when I walked into this company I was already a start, everyone who is watching from home knew it, everyone who would just come into this company with me it, it was just a matter of everyone feels in sin city wrestling accepting that fact. I won the bombshells championship, but then lost it in my first defence. I promised myself I would never make that mistake again and when I won the championship back, well we all know how that turned out. But here I am my third rain suffering the same fate as my first and I don’t know where to go or what to do.”
“i’m not someone who believes that I should just get a rematch right away, I’m not someone who is going to chase after that opportunity.“
“But what do I do now?. Where do I go?. Part of me wants to just start going after the best of the best. I wanted to face Amber Ryan but unfortunately she’s needed to take some time away from the ring. So, do I go after Andrea? Do I go after Myra? Who about Kate Steele?. The truth is, I think I just need some time to rediscover what it was that made me great. Face weather that the company wants me to, explode and chase down the biggest scalps in this company.”
She steps back and forth, her hand sliding to the front pockets of her skinny black jeans.
” some people say that I’ve actually lost a step. That’s why I lost the championship right? That’s why I seem to have had more problems now in the last few months that I had in the years previous. Because I’m not as good as I once was right? Do you all remember that I still here, many times over and over again and told everybody, fans, members of management, all of my fellow bombshells, I told every single one of you one of my goals was to raise everyone up to that level. The only way you can get better is if you face people who are willing to learn and also improve. See for every Dani Weston, Evie Jordan and Andrea Hernandez there was a Violet Holt, Bea Barnhart and Jesse Salco….”
“For every woman willing to learn and stand up and become a better version of themselves there was one who held onto every single mistake that they were making, and was happy enough to just do the same thing over and over again. The truth is, I’m happy that Keira has reached the top. I’m ecstatic that I was proved wrong. I like being proof from, it reminds me that I’m still human and that I don’t know everything in that I can’t just do everything. I told her to prove me wrong, and she went out to the ring and she did it and now Keira Fisher Johnson is your world bombshells champion. She has the right to call herself the best. And no matter what people like Mercedes Vargas think...she earned it…”
“How long will she keep it? How far can she get as the champion? How will she deal with all the pressure that comes with being a marked woman?. I don’t know. Neither do any of you.”
“But what I do know, is that there is one woman in this company that has refused to do anything different and it has been a complete detriment to her career and also how people view her in this business.”
At least she gives a small not an alive, she takes a long deep breath before choosing her words wisely.
”Oh Jessie. It didn’t take very long did it? It did not take you very long for you to open your mouth and make a complete and utter ass of yourself. A few weeks after you blasted my stable mate Johanna Krieger for asking for and receiving a rematch that she deserved, you are caught on social media running your mouth about how you could be champion. Why?. Why do you think you deserve a crack at the champion, why do you think you deserve to even be in the ring with someone like me Jessie? The short answer is, you don’t.”
“And I know that everyone has said that to you and I also know that you were gonna come out swinging and say that that is typical of me to say and all of that crap. But you need to go and look in the mirror and actually ask yourself, why do you deserve bigger matches?“
“You live in this delusional world where you are one of the best professional wrestlers on the planet today that you have not done a goddamn thing to prove it. I talked about mistakes earlier, and that is the key difference between you and me. I mean, aside from the fact I know how to actually be a champion. You make mistakes and you don’t learn from. You talk about wanting a championship match and you talk about being the best of the best and then when you actually come close to any of the top names in this business, you fail. You stumble and you fall and that is not a bad thing. We fall and we get up that is what we do in this business.”
“But when you fall and get back up, you don’t learn from it. You trip over a stick, you don’t trip over it again, but all you have been doing for years is tripping over a stick and landing on your face and the worst part is it’s not even a new fucking stick Jessie.”
She seems to get angry, not angry at her insinuation of wanting a title shot, angry that she won’t just learn her fucking place and try and grow from her mistakes.
”You have had 170 matches in this fucking company, and you have lost 123 of them. It doesn’t take a brain surgeon to sit there and figure out that that is a horrendous record, and you do deserve some credit for coming back time and time again and putting all of your effort in but you also completely destroy your point and you destroy anyone giving a shit about you by constantly running your fucking mouth and never learning anything.”
“Show some fucking humility.”
“And hey, I get it that is rich coming from me right? After all, I’m one of the biggest egos in this company and this business. But I have learned enough to validate it. I go out there each and every week and I do my best and most of the time I get my hand raised, I do things for the betterment of this company and the division as a whole. And when I do you get beaten, I admit it. I admit my mistakes, I admit that the other person was better and then I get up and dust myself off and I move on. But you? You lose and you get beaten and you make excuses and never except what is happening. And because of that you will never grow, you will never get better, and that championship will be forever out of your grasp.”
