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Roleplay Boards => Archived Roleplays => Climax Control Archives => Topic started by: Andrea Hernandez on January 17, 2020, 06:22:18 PM
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“This roster has the impression of me that I’m standoffish, arrogant, among other relative adjectives because I don’t open myself up too much unless the camera is in front of me. I’m not going to debate that point because I can see how the way I carry myself comes across to people sometimes. I’m a woman that is heavily focused on my career and my goals. But I wasn’t like that. I grew up just as any normal girl. It was my dream to become a wrestler, that much is true. But the moment that I began to train, my childhood and possibly any semblance of fun in my life was immediately gone. Dad wasn’t treating me like his little girl anymore… he began to gave me a real crash course on adulthood from the day I was in a wrestling ring for the first time. While I was pushing toward a dream, it really felt like I was living in hell at times…”
May 2012
I remember being eighteen, putting the finishing touches on my look for the senior prom. My mother had just finished with my hair and she was incredibly happy for me. “You are so gorgeous, Andrea” I remember my mother telling me. “Thank you” I told her. “It’s going to be so nice to have fun for a change”.
“Your father’s not pushing you too hard, is he?”
“Sometimes he does, I’m not going to lie. He treats me like an adult…”
“You’re 18, you are an adult” my mother reminded me.
“Well, he also treats me like I’m one of the boys…” I lamented.
“You know how his family is with wrestling” my mother would remind me again. “They’ve always taken it super seriously from generation to generation. I hope one day, you can break the cycle and not lose yourself in this.”
“Yeah…” I sighed. “Me too.”
There was a knock on my bedroom door that my mother didn’t hesitate to open. Chelsea burst through the door and I was incredibly overjoyed to see her.
“Chelsea!”
“Hi!”
We walked up to each other and exchanged a hug!
“You look incredible!” Chelsea said.
“Yeah… you look like…” I had a sudden pause as a result of a loss for words. “Well… I see someone that’s going to win prom queen tonight!”
“You bet your ass that’s what’s going to happen!” Chelsea responded. “So, ready to have fun?”
“Oh hell yeah!”
“I heard that Lorenzo is setting up a BIG afterparty at 1! We should go! It’s going to be a huge blast!”
My mother cleared her throat to interrupt the conversation.
“As soon as midnight hits and the prom is over, you’re coming right back home!” my mother said. “I know you’re 18 but you’re not out in the world yet. Last thing I want to hear about is my daughter getting wasted… and possibly pregnant…”
“Fine…” I reluctantly said. “Sorry Chels.”
“That’s fine. We can just do something here afterward…”
“What the hell is all this?”
My good mood suddenly took a sullen turn at the emergence of my father.
“Dad, it’s prom night, remember?”
“Andrea… what have I told you about getting your priorities straight?”
“What priorities? I don’t have any!”
“Yes you do, young lady! I’m running a show at 9 and I need you there as soon as possible for ring crew work which means that at 8, you’re setting up the ring, and when the show’s over, you’re staying until midnight to take it down!”
“WHAT?” I shouted “But that’s the whole prom!”
“You’re not going to this… stupid white girl nonsense…”
“EXCUSE ME?” Chelsea interjected. “It’s the night that every high schooler dreams about regardless of race Mr. Hernandez! It’s not a “white girl” thing and for the record, you can’t prevent Andrea from having fun!”
“She’s my daughter, she lives in my house…”
“But dad…”
“But NOTHING, Andrea!” my father said. “You don’t get a say in this. You want to be a successful wrestler so bad? You have to have priorities! You have to have discipline! You have to WORK! You can’t set aside time for this prom crap!”
“Honey…” my mother interrupted. “Don’t you think you’re being too hard on her? She’s just a kid…”
“She’s 18… she doesn’t get to be a kid anymore.”
“I want to go to the prom…”
“If you do…” my father warned, “then I’m not training you anymore. Your choice: your career or your childhood. You can’t have both.”
I sighed, knowing there was no other choice.
“Sorry Chels…”
“Unbelievable…” Chelsea turned and began to leave. “UNBELIEVABLE!”
“Good girl” my father told me. “Now get out of that ridiculous prom dress and get to the arena ASAP. There’s work to be done…”
My father leaves me alone in the room with my mother and I just let the tears flow from me at that point.
“Is there anything I can do?” my mother asked.
“No….” I paused and shook my head. “...just to be left alone. I need to get ready for work…”
My mother sighed and left me alone in my room, heartbroken over not being able the fun that I had wanted to have on this particular night in my life making essentially, a sacrifice for the wrestling business.
January 12, 2020
I was doing something unusual and that was having a small celebratory dinner at a steakhouse in the hours following my win over Jessie Salco.
“I’m so out of my element doing this…” I told Chelsea LeClair. “It’s just weird to celebrate anything these days. What a weird trip down memory lane remembering the prom night I never got to have…”
Chelsea winced a bit with sympathy.
“It’s not going to be easy breaking out of that mindset that my dad instilled into me when he trained me.”
“I know… but the important thing is that you’re at least trying. This is just a small step. I mean… why can’t you enjoy the spoils of a victory every now and then? You earned it! I mean… you really DID make Jessie ‘crash and burn’ am I right?”
We both had a laugh at this and of course, the mantra that Jessie kept trying to repeat over and over again.
“Jessie was very tight assed…” I recalled. “I picked up the vibe from her that she had her 2019 stuck in her mind and she was trying too hard to make up for that and get back on the ball and sure enough, I took advantage of that. Now I’m here doing this with you and… I have to admit, it’s quite nice to take a step back…”
Chelsea responds with a light smile.
“Hopefully you maintain that attitude this week. In fact, there’s this big party on Wednesday that I’ve been invited to back in Jersey! It’s going to be a BLAST! It’s a wrestling themed event and there’s going to be so many fans there and I bet they’re going to be dying to meet you!”
“Really?” I asked with intrigue. “I bet that’s going to be… interesting. And possibly a lot of fun.”
“Oh yeah! Hey, maybe we can hook you up with a future boyfriend, you know what I’m saying?” Chelsea says to me with a wink.
“Chels… come on…” I playfully scoffed at this idea. “You know I don’t have time for that.”
“...or a girlfriend if you’re into that sort of thing? No judgement here.”
I narrowed my eyes in some slight, albeit playful annoyance.
“I’m straight Chels, I don’t need that kind of distraction in my life.”
“It’s not a distraction, Andrea, it’s living your life. You can’t just make your life all about wrestling. Do you have ANY idea how many people in the Bombshells division make things all about their careers? Like… I totally get the passion and the hard work that goes into it because I’m learning about that in my own right, but look at what it does to people. What’s wrong with flying to Jersey and having fun for just ONE night? It’s not going to ruin your career. Let’s be realistic here.”
“Believe me, I’d love to…” I said with a bit of a regret in my voice. “It’s just that… I can’t.”
“Why not?”
“Extra training…”
Chelsea sighed and covered her face, showing how distraught she was with the two words that I just said.
“You are unbelievable…” she said in response. “Extra training for what? God, Andrea it’s like I’m talking to a brick wall here.”
“Number one contender’s match for a shot at Roxi…” I pointed out. “I can’t take this lightly. You know these opportunities aren’t going to come around very often and I have to focus and do everything that I can to ensure that I win…”
“Because that worked out SO well when you were in that survival challenge…” Chelsea reminded me with a sigh. This side comment though, did anger me quite a bit. “God, you act like NOT doing extra training… EXTRA TRAINING by the way… is going to cost you this match. Honestly Andi, sometimes I worry that you’re going to end up JUST like Bobbie. I get how important this is to you but… SHIT… loosen up a little will you? Or at the very least… throw some more stones in the water or something because you still need to lighten up a LOT!”
“Who said this was going to be an overnight process?”
“Not me. But…” Chelsea sighs. “Forget it! Go do your STUPID extra training that you want to do SO bad. I’ll call you when I feel like you’re ready to pull that giant stick out of your ass!”
My eyes widened with surprise as I wasn’t expecting Chelsea’s sudden anger at all.
“I’m gonna go, Andi… but before I do…” Chelsea pauses and pulls out two photos sliding them across the table to me. I saw that one photo is of Roxi Johnson and the other photo is of Bobbie Dahl. “I want you to look at those pictures and ask yourself who you’d rather be. Would you rather be the champion that’s a role model and knows how to keep a strong work-life balance? Or would you rather be… well… a piece of shit that doesn’t know how to have any fun and takes this damn business way too seriously. I know that the way your father brought you up into this business was fucked up as hell… but it’s beyond time for you to stop using him as an excuse for your inability to have a life outside of wrestling!”
Chelsea sighs with anger and leaves me alone with those two photos… and of course the bill for the steak dinner we both just had. Whatever joy I got out of my win from Jessie Salco earlier in the night was pretty much gone. I wasn’t angry at Chelsea for the way that she snapped at me for refusing her offer for the party she was going to in Jersey. In fact, looking at the two pictures in front of me, I was even feeling guilty.
“I grew up wanting to be one…” I said as I looked at the Roxi picture. “...but maybe Chels is right… what if I AM turning into the other?”
Looking at the picture of Bobbie, I felt a really sick feeling in my stomach. “Was I really turning into her?” I thought to myself. I had been observing this horrific neurosis that she had gotten herself into since I had beaten her in our one on one match earlier and I hated every bit of it. It horrified me in the sense that I had this feeling in my gut that if I didn’t pull it together, that if I let any sort of main event failure continue to get to me like others have in the past, that eventually, I was going to lose it and be just like her.
“I won’t let myself be like her…” I told myself. “I don’t know how I am going to get through this and I don’t know how I’m going to break free from my father’s traditionalist, no nonsense, no fun mindset… but I will! I’m not going to let myself be someone like that. I need to try harder at having more fun in life. I don’t want to lose my friendship with Chelsea. But if I keep acting like this… that’s exactly what I am going to do.”
I sighed as I remained at the steakhouse for a little bit longer all while I was trying to figure out how to heal from old burdens and be able to take the pressures and burdens my career brought me off of my shoulders. Equally as important however, was the task ahead of me. I knew off the bat that beating Bobbie, Keira and Sam was going to be a tremendously tall order and in an instant, I was reflecting on the pressure that I had put on myself in that survival challenge and how it potentially cost me the Bombshell title. Realizing all this, I decided that going into that number one contender’s match, I had to take a different approach… one that was going to make me stand out and put me above and beyond the other three.
January 17, 2020
Back in the studio, I reflected more on perspective and the number one contender’s match I had in front of me. Even though none of my opponents were present, I could feel the tense vibe from all of them that they were going to bring to the table. I knew that they’ve had it harder than I’ve had it since I arrived in Sin City Wrestling… and I could only smile when I realized that they were fighting this match with the wrong perspective in mind and that this would give me an even greater advantage. With that, I began to express my thoughts on the match to come.
“It was a great feeling to start off 2020 with a victory… especially since my opponent in Jessie Salco thought that she was just going to run her mouth and shove this ‘crash and burn’ bullshit down everyone’s throats all while beating me so easily and trying to be relevant again at my expense but at the end of the day? That didn’t happen. Another bombshell of successes past has been put on the mantle for me and I don’t regret a damn thing I said to her going into it because she had that coming. Jessie Salco has struggled the way she has lately because she’s the type of woman that takes herself far too seriously and lets her failures get to her way too much… which… yeah… I can see people saying the same thing about me but what I know is… when I faced Jessie last Sunday, I knew that was her exact weakness. I went into that match deciding to put the bad memory of the bombshells title match I had against five other women behind me and loosening up a little bit against someone that was clearly in a psychological rut and taking her failures to heart so much and sure enough, I pulled through no matter how bad Jessie wanted to hurt me. I took quite a valuable lesson out of that seeing and feeling how Jessie was conducting herself and realizing that being another Jessie Salco is something that I should avoid doing as much as possible. I got to enjoy the win a little… I won’t lie about that. Unfortunately…”
I paused and sighed before continuing.
“I didn’t get to enjoy it for very long.”
I responded to this with a chuckle, indicating that I wasn’t being overwhelmed a bit by the challenge ahead of me.
“Now? I’ve got myself a second chance against three women that are chomping at the bit to take that next step. You’ve got Keira Fisher who is of course, going to try to prove that she’s more than just Roxi’s sidekick. You’ve got Sam Marlowe who has been there before but just recently suffered a stinging Roulette title loss to Candy. And then you have… Bobbie…. Yeeeeah…. I’ll get to her when the time is right because… holy CRAP she has CHANGED since the last time we competed in a match against each other. Straight to the point, I’m going to win this match. It’s a bold thing to say right out of the gate, but I know in my heart of hearts with all the ups and downs that I’ve been through since December to Dismember and what I’ve learned from it that I have the ONE thing that my other three opponents DON’T have… or at least don’t have it in the quantity that I do… and that’s PERSPECTIVE! Beating Jessie gave me more of it. I knew going in that I would have put myself in serious jeopardy of losing to her if I didn’t move past the world title match. All three of you? You’re hung up on something that is going to weigh you down.
You’ve got Sam who is going to be SO hung up on getting back on her feet after losing her Roulette Championship. After that heartbreaking, stinging defeat… I know exactly what her mindset is going to be.
‘I’m going to bounce back and get back to the top where I belong’, she’ll say. ‘I’m going to prove to everyone that I’m still relevant and that my reputation is still deserved’.
And that’s what is going to cost her. She’s going to be so caught up on trying to repair that Hall of Fame caliber reputation that she won’t be focused enough to win this match.
Then you’ve got Keira… who’s going to have it coming from multiple angles. It’s not just about proving that she’s better than being Roxi’s sidekick. There’s also the fact that I beat her to get into that survival challenge match and I know she’s going to focus on avenging herself for it by beating me… and there’s also the fact that she lost to Bobbie in December which I KNOW grinds her gears.
And then of course… Bobbie… her social media feed speaks for itself....
Sam is going into it with the perspective of wanting to restore her former glory.
Keira is going into it with the perspective of revenge and wanting to get out of Roxi’s shadow…
...and then there’s Bobbie… her social media feed speaks for itself.
And that’s not without getting into the fact that Sam and Keira BOTH have recent history with her, BOTH are more than likely going to come out of the gate, denouncing what she’s become and focusing ALL of their energy on her. The fact of the matter is ladies… with all due respect… Sam… Keira… I don’t see a damn reason why you two are going to come into this match with the right mindset. Are you both in this to win this? Or are you both in this to prevent Bobbie from winning this? Because if it’s the latter, you’re both seriously screwed. Me? Personally? I’m in this to win this. I’m in this to attain a dream here! I’m in this to get a second shot at the Bombshells World Championship and apply everything I have learned from the last world championship match. Unless you both show me differently, then I can only assume that both of your primary motivations are to prevent Bobbie from winning and make her pay for everything she’s done. To HELL with that, I say! I’m not going to focus all of my attention on her. Yeah, she’s done some horrible things lately, there’s no denying that and you two are just as much of my opponents as she is so if you both want to focus ALL of your energy and anger at her while overlooking each other… and me… be my guest. Make that victory easier on me. You two want to treat Bobbie as she’s some kind of wicked, evil supervillain than have at it. I’m not going to be stupid and distract myself with that kind of noise.
You both want to put that pressure on yourselves? Go for it but coming from recent experiences, I know for a fact that putting pressure on yourself isn’t the way to go! That’s what I did going into the survival challenge and the result ended up being something I didn’t want it to be. I focused WAY too hard on the wrong things. I focused too much on getting revenge on Alicia Lukas for the one on one match that we had. I focused too much on shutting her up. I focused too much on ensuring that her reign finally ended and that she wouldn’t talk down to everyone like if they were all beneath her anymore. It didn’t work out and I’ve realized since then that I shouldn’t put so much pressure on myself… and I won’t. Because deep down in my heart… honestly? This roster hasn’t seen the real me.
Yes, I have a certain way of expressing things and yes, that’s me alright but you don’t know the person that I am at heart because I’ve kept her hidden underneath my own skin. I’ve held that person back much to the chagrin of the people that are close to me and I realize that I can no longer live this way and I can no longer do that anymore. This match… this means everything to me not just because of my dream… but because… well… allow me to show you something that I saved from my teenage years… the reason why I’m fighting this match…
No, not for petty revenge… No not to keep someone else from getting that shot… but to fulfill a dream that includes… but goes far beyond... a world championship…
With that, I took a pause and pulled out two small pieces of colored paper… one that is an old poster of Roxi Johnson from about 2013 and another that’s a drawing that I made of Roxi and I fighting side by side in one panel and against each other in another… essentially my very own comic book of what being in Roxi’s universe would be like… or whatever my teenage brain was thinking at the time…
“It’s a dream that includes facing someone that I idolized at one time… when I was going through my wrestling training. I instantly identified with her when my career began to take off because as Roxi proved by winning the world championship, she represents all the true strengths of a champion… strengths that Keira could never achieve because while she’s strong and talented in her own right… there’s the reason why Roxi is the hero and why Keira is the sidekick. Roxi represents the strengths that Sam couldn’t have because I know Sam is going to be hellbent on the wrong thing. And Bobbie… well… her social media feed speaks for itself. I grew up wanting to be Roxi… but unfortunately… I realized that I’ve been in danger of turning into someone else entirely… someone who I would NEVER want to be…
“And that’s YOU Bobbie…”
Suddenly, I was feeling angry as I put my Roxi related items aside.
“When we last faced each other, you took my words to heart REALLY hard. I didn’t mean those words in a bad way and you took them that way and I get it, I would have a hard time dealing with those words to in that same situation. You clearly allowed my words to get to you and when we fought our match, it showed. It wasn’t about fighting the good fight against me, it was about shutting me up and proving me wrong, wasn’t it? And it cost you on top of the fact that on that night, I was simply better than you and ever since then, I’ve had to watch you go on this massive downward spiral! I’ve had to watch you be the biggest, whining bitch on the entire roster male or female. I’ve had to see you disgrace yourself on social media being the biggest embarrassment to the division that we’ve had in a long time all while you’re committing these atrocious actions in the ring and even putting Alicia Lukas on the shelf for months. I can’t stand the bitch… but it doesn’t make what you did to her right.
Nothing you’ve done since you decided to change your attitude for the worse has been right.
I’m not going to sit here and say that I’m going to ‘bring you to justice’ because that’s not my M.O.
That would be beating you just like I plan on beating the others. I know you’re soft. You’ve shown that enough over the last few months. I get it. I’ve been there. I used to lash out and whine and complain on social media when things weren’t going my way. I was there when it seemed like NOTHING could go right for me and when my career seemed doomed for failure. But I didn’t give up. I didn’t betray my morals the way you did. And look at me now, Bobbie. Look how far I’ve come in this company in a short amount of time. It didn’t even take me five matches to surpass you on the ladder and that makes you sick, doesn’t it? Like Sam and like Keira, you fight with the wrong perspective. I KNOW you’re going to come for me. I KNOW You’re going to want revenge for our one on one match. Bring it! While Sam is doing this to get back on her feet and reclaim old glory, while Keira is doing this to prove she’s better than being a sidekick, while YOU’RE doing this as part of this narcissistic, neurotic, hissy fit of “nobody likes me”... I’m doing this for the right reason… to face Roxi… to realize a teenage dream when I first started training for this… to give her the most honorable challenge that any of us four are going to give her.
You could have done what I did: be strong, be powerful and fight through the pain you were going through. Maybe… just maybe… you would be as successful as I am right now. Maybe we’d be on the same ladder rung.
Instead?
You showed exactly what a big, weak, quitter piece of shit you are! You let your pain control you! And of all the people in this division Bobbie, you’re the LAST ONE I ever want to be. Have fun with the “Take Wrestling Way Too Seriously” award I’m about to shove up your ass!
I’m not going to let any one of you three stop me from getting to where I want to be. I’m going to give it all I got… win or lose… I know the future is bright for me.
Can any of you gain that perspective prior to Sunday?
Doubt it!
And that’s why I’m taking this number one contender’s match!”
I took a deep, confident breath before I left the studio not feeling discouraged at all by my December 2 Dismember failure and focusing on the bright future in front of me regardless of how this match turns out to be.