(Josh was used with his handler’s permission)
Harper’s Vlog, backstage at Climax Control 384, Henderson, Nevada
Sunday the 28th of January 2024, 21:00pm
(start Vlog, on camera)
Harper turns her phone to start recording her Vlog in the wake of everything that’s happened tonight.
”So yeah, there’s probably at least a few ways you could describe my decision to challenge Tempest to a match at the Go Home show.” Harper sighs as she leans against the wall. ”Brave, courageous, stupid, reckless, I get the feeling that there’s no real middle ground here! And I know Josh and Jessie have had their own things to say about this match, but in my mind? There’s only one opinion that matters as it relates to this match, and that’s my own, so Harper?
Why did you challenge Tempest to a match?”
Harper lets out a deep breath as she glances at the ceiling.
”Was it to be the first? Because to my knowledge, in the three or four years that Tempest has been a member of the Bombshell Roster, no one has ever outright challenged her to a match, usually only getting booked against her by surprise or as part of a multi-person match, so what made me decide to throw my hat into the ring? I’ve literally just entered my first full year as a wrestler, and I’m three weeks away from my first title match in SCW against Bobbie Dahl, a woman of similar size and strength to Tempest, I’d almost call this a warmup if it didn’t mean incurring Tempest’s wrath and I’m not in the business of pissing off women who can lift cars!
The truth is? It’s kind of a combination of both of those points, and me getting tired of the constant jokes/threats by Christian to book me against Tempest, I’ve heard the stories of her immense strength, about how she ran through two Go Gym rookies at once in the leadup to her last match, how she once had to pull out of a match because she threw her back out lifting up a car, yeah, why would anyone challenge her, right?” Harper let out a deep breath as she brushes some hair over her shoulder. ”The only way I’m going to grow as a wrestler is if I wrestle all kinds of opponents, so far in SCW I’ve wrestled women who are around the same weight class as me, from Jane McGullican to Mercedes Vargas to Bella Maddison to Bella’s mom Laura to Courtney freaking Pierce! But my match against Bobbie is the first one where I’ll be wrestling with a weight disadvantage against me in SCW, or at least it would’ve been if I had never challenged Tempest, so to summarise?
I challenged Tempest to push myself as a wrestler and prepare for my match against Bobbie, Jessie and Josh may be against the idea but they don’t understand, I NEED THIS MATCH!”
Jessie’s home, Las Vegas, Nevada
Monday the 22nd of January 2024, 14:00pm
It was the day after Harper issued her challenge to Tempest and the moment Jessie heard about it was the moment she wanted to talk about the match with Harper.
”Kid, are you trying to give me more heart problems?!” Jessie asked bluntly as Harper entered her home gym, Jessie couldn’t do more than some light workouts due to her pregnancy but that wasn’t why she was in the home gym, and that wasn’t why Harper was in the Home Gym either. ”I know you’re a competitive girl but challenging Tempest? REALLY?!”
”It was either that or wait for SCW to allow for intergender matches outside of the Mixed Tag Division or the Blast from the Past Tournament, and I think Christian Underwood will be senile before he books me against the likes of Austin James Mercer!” Harper responded as she shook her head and Jessie frowned in response. ”I don’t even know if Tempest will take me up on the match or if I’ll even have another match before I challenge Bobbie for the Roulette Title at My Bloody Valentine, but no one else has had the guts to stand up and challenge Tempest to a match, why shouldn’t I be the first?”
”Gee, I don’t know Sherlock, why is it a bad idea to challenge the strongest Bombshell on the roster to a match when your match record isn’t even in the double digits yet?!” Jessie responded sarcastically as she ran a hand down her face. ”I’ve already talked too Josh about this match and I know that you did this without any input from him, but if anything that makes this worse because he’s your manager!”
”How else am I supposed to prepare for my title match with Bobbie?! Tempest is literally the closest thing the Bombshell Division has to Bobbie’s size and strength since Zoey left the company.” Harper responded with a frustrated huff and Jessie shook her head. ”How else am I supposed to prepare for Bobbie?!”
”Oh I don’t know, train at Hero Academy? The Go Gym? At Josh’s gym? Literally anything but challenging a Bombshell that even veteran wrestlers struggles to get a grip with at the best of times, never mind a rookie who hasn’t even reached the first year anniversary of her graduation from wrestling school yet?! For fuck’s sake, she ate two Go Gym rookies for breakfast when they challenged her to a two on one handicap sparing match and the whole world saw the state she left them in days after the match!” Jessie responded with a frown as she started pacing around. ”And if I know anything about you Harp, it’s that it’s pointless to try to talk you out of this match because you’ve got the same stubborn, hot headed streak as I do! My only advice if Tempest accepts the challenge is to train with Josh and listen to everything he says, he may not have the same level off success as me but he knows just as much about the business as I do, he’ll be your best mentor for this match!”
”I mean, doesn’t that go without saying? I’ve been training with him almost exclusively since your health scare last month!” Harper responded as she folded her arms and Jessie just shook her head. ”There’s only so many matches I can have against women in the same weight class as me, I had to push myself as a wrestler at some point and my match against Bobbie would’ve been my fist such match with a disadvantage like this before I made this challenge, I needed this challenge before I go into the match with Bobbie!”
”You’re assuming that Tempest will even give you a chance to be ready for that match, even two weeks after the Tempest match.” Jessie responded as she shook her head and Harper frowned. ”I’m only this angry because you’re about to enter the biggest match of your SCW Career to date and you are being reckless about who you challenge, regardless of whether you walk out the new Bombshell Roulette Champion or not, you’re going to have to start running your ideas by me and Josh from now on.”
”And how many times did you run ideas by anyone else? Because from what I remember you tended to act first and deal with the consequences later.” Harper responded with a frustrated look on her face and Jessie frowned. ”How is that any different from my match with Tempest?”
”I’ll answer that question with one of my own, do you know how many of those actions came back to bite me on the ass in the long run?” Jessie asked and Harper shook her head. ”More than I care to count! Feel free to use the equipment down here to train, I need to cool off.” Jessie added before she stormed off leaving Harper on her own.
Harper’s Vlog, Jessie’s Home Gym, Las Vegas, Nevada
Monday the 29th of January 2024, 21:00pm
*on camera, start vlog*
Harper is seen sitting on the middle turnbuckle after she turns on the camera, she looks like she’s had a good workout today to say the least.
”Ever since I issued that challenge to Tempest, Josh and Jessie have been working me pretty hard.” Harper states before shaking her head. ”Okay, that’s not the entire truth, the moment my Roulette Title Title Match against Bobbie was announced they started training me harder because this is my first title match in SCW, but ever since I made my mind up against challenging Tempest and called her out on Climax Control? Yeah, things have definitely been taken up a notch.
It's not like I didn’t see this coming either, Tempest is one of the few Bombshells who can say that they’ve never really been challenged to a match, at least to my knowledge and, well, considering how my last match against Mercedes went, I’m not gonna ask the resident SCW Historian if she has any evidence of wrestlers being brave or stupid enough to challenge Tempest to a match!”
Harper lets out a deep breath.
”I guess that’s the big question surrounding my challenge to Tempest, was I brave or stupid for issuing this challenge, especially since this will be my first match before I challenge Bobbie at My Bloody Valentine, some would probably call me stupid and I’m not naming names either, I think they know who they are anyway, but on the bravery side? I’m not even sure if there is anyone outright calling me brave for this challenge, I guess you could say that anyone with mor sense would’ve backed out by now.”
Which, off course, implies that I don’t know what exactly I’m getting into with this match!”
Harper lets out a deep breath.
”I may be a Hero Academy graduate but I have been doing reps at the Go Gym since Jessie made amends with Gabriel last year, I know the girls that Tempest turned into her personal punching bags the other week pretty well, Kelly, the Irish girl with just as much attitude as she has talent, Hayley, the poor girl who got dragged into that handicap sparring match against Tempest, I’ve catted and sparred with them both! Kelly’s just a bit shorter than me and weighs around the same weight as my partner in crime Cassie Wolfe, me and Hayley are the same hight and weight, and Tempest ran right through them.
How do I know this? Well aside from those girls making cameos on the Climax Control two weeks ago? Word gets around, I do have an edge over them in that I’ve been wrestling professionally for a bit under a year a year now but it still begs the question:
Can I withstand the storm? Can I defeat Tempest?”
*end vlog*
Josh’s gym, Las Vegas, Nevada
Wednesday 31st of January 2024, 18:00pm
It was another hard day of training for Harper though this time she had some help in the form of the girls that Tempest had thrown around like ragdolls recently.
“You know Harp? When you said that Josh had been pushing ya extra hard in preparation for the Tempest match, I thought you were kidding.” Kelly commented in between deep breaths as the Irish girl leaned against the ring ropes, Harper was across the ring from her, leaning against the turnbuckle whilst Josh watched on with a frown on his face, also at ringside was Hayley who also looked worried. “That was before I got here.”
”He did say that he was going to start pushing me harder on twitter.” Harper responded as she glanced over at the Irish trainee. ”Ad he’s been pretty serious about that all week.”
“I don’t appreciate being blindsided like that, even if your reasoning for challenging Tempest was sound.” Josh responded before glancing over at Kelly and Hayley. “Just a quick question for Kelly and Hayley, how long have you girls been training at the Go Gym?”
“Just over two years now?” Kelly responded after doing some math in her head. “Hayley only started towards the tail end of last year.”
“Yeah, I enrolled not long after the fallout of that whole Krystal/Sin saga that ran through last year’s Violent Conduct cycle.” Hayley added as she turned to Josh and he nodded as he got the idea. “Not saying I want to emulate that whole thing when I graduate, it was just the timing is all.”
“You seem like a nice girl so I wasn’t thinking that anyway, my point is Harper’s been a professional wrestler for just over a year and has come a long way.” Josh responded with a nod as he glanced over at Harper. “Feel free to take five, it’s getting late in the day anyway, Hayley, once the break is over I want you to swap places with Kelly.”
”Sure.” Harper responded before sitting down in the corner where she was joined by the two Go Gym trainees. ”Sorry about Josh, he’s not normally like this but I did blindside him when I challenged Tempest.”
“Hey, compared to Tempest using me to make an imprint in one of the Go Gym’s rings the other week? This is a walk in the park!” Kelly joked as she made herself comfortable. “And don’t even get me started on when me and Hayley faced her two on one.”
”A match that you tricked Hayley into if I remember correctly.” Harper responded as she let out a deep breath. ”Any tips for surviving Tempest? Because I know I’m asking the wrong women for tups in beating her!”
“At least your honest.” Hayley groaned as she ran a hand through her messy black and blue hair. “Honestly? Just use your speed and kicks to keep Tempest off balance and hope for the best, I know you’re a strong girl because I’ve seen you on the Go Gym’s weight machines but there’s no way in hell you can beat Tempest in a game of strength.”
”Who can, am I right?” Harper asked sarcastically and the two Go Gym trainees nodded in agreement. ”Also Kelly I’ve gotta ask, what was that story between you and Fenris about?”
“The one Aron described on Twitter? Pretty much as he described it, I come from a martial arts background as well, namely karate but I also dabbled in kickboxing before deciding to try out wrestling, I thought my kicks hit pretty hard before I arrived at the Go Gym.” Kelly shook her head as she subconsciously grabbed at her nose. “I ended up with a broken nose for my troubles.”
”Sounds to me like we need to have a match where we focus on our kicks, my taekwondo against your karate/kickboxing.” Harper suggested and Kelly nodded to indicate that she liked the idea. ”What belt are you in karate? Just wondering?”
“Red belt, I’m two belts down from black belt.” Kelly explained and Harper nodded as she got the idea. “You’re a black belt in taekwondo, right?”
”Right, I was going for second degree before the pandemic shut down my lessons, my classes never really started up again after that and I never really thought about pursuing it again before I started training at Hero Academy.” Harper explained with a nod before Josh returned. ”Time to go back at it?”
“You know it, Hayley you’re up, Kelly, you’re taking a break.” Josh instructed them and the girls nodded before Kelly left the ring and they resumed training.
Harper’s vlog, Josh’s gym, Las Vegas, Nevada
Wednesday the 31st of January 2024, 21:00pm
*start vlog, on camera, promo time*
Harper stands in the middle of the ring with Josh filming her vlog for her.
”I’ll admit, I know I stepped into it big time when I challenged Tempest two weeks ago but it was either that or wait for Christian to pull the trigger on the match himself, I figured I may as well try to beat him to the punch.” Harper explained as she folded her arms. ”But make no mistake Tempest, I’m not under the delusion that I’m anything but the underdog in this match, but what I am is determined to give you one hell of a fight!2
Harper says as she flips some hair over her shoulder.
”Josh, who was gracious enough to act as my cameraman since I’m filming this in his gym, has been putting me through what can best be described as training from hell, he’s been working me longer hours than he normally does since I made this challenge, admittedly I blindsided him when I made this challenge but that was because I was worried that he’d try to talk me out of this.” Josh nods in response to indicate that she’s right. ”And trust me, this will be the one and only time I pull this kind of stunt in an SCW ring, you can be assured of that, off course, the context of that depends on two factors.”
It's that simple.
”The first factor is whether or not I can beat Tempest at my current experience level, and that’s a pretty tough question considering that Tempest is a hell of an opponent for any wrestler regardless of experience, and honestly? I’m not even sure if I can answer that.” Harper admitted before she threw some kicks into the air for a few seconds. ”My key weapons in this match will be my kicks and my submissions, I can’t rely on my aerial offence too much because Tempest could easily catch me at any moment and trying to outpower Tempest? I’m a strong girl, I can lift a good amount of weight.” Harper flexes her arm muscles to drive the point home. ”But trying to fight Tempest with power? Do I look like Zoey Lukas? Don’t answer that.”
And with that Harper decided to wrap things up.
”The other factor is a bit more complicated, if the match doesn’t go my way and Tempest squats me aside like a mosquito, will I survive? Or to put it bluntly, can I survive Tempest?” Harper asked as she folded her arms with an uncertain look on her face. ”For the first time since I graduated from Hero Academy last April? I don’t have an answer, all I can hope for is a miracle or one of Tempest’s opponents at My Bloody Valentine costing her the match to mess with her, not exactly great odds for me when I’ve got my own title match lined up!” Harper added as she let out a deep breath. ”But at Rise of the Avenger Part X: Conquering the Giant? I will give it nothing less than me all because the world needs a new hero and her name is “The Slaytanic Avenger” Harper Mason!”
Harper turned off the camera as the scene fades.
