Memories coursing through my veins
Like the scars in yours, my roots remain
I was raised in hell
I made it out by myself
I was raised to bleed
Bad blood runs wild and free
“In my dreams last night I saw your face, You held me and washed away my tears, Then I woke to realize you're gone. I'm drowning in solitude again”-Maria Brink
Scene One-Daddy Issues
Off Camera
Atlanta Georgia
22 years ago….
The day was like any other. The sun rose high in the sky, the smell of summer in the air as the heat in Georgia seemed to bake us all alive. I was five years old. Long curly blond locks, chubby cheeks. Every bit a mixture of my southern belle mother and my father. A rough and rugged wrestler named Jason Maxwell. He was seven feet tall, huge muscles and long blond hair. A smirk that was playful and boyish despite his age. A look that my mother fell for, hook, line, and sinker. I don’t remember everything from that time. But I remember being happy.
I remember my mother being happy. I was the firstborn. The princess. Followed by my brother Josh and our baby sister Zoey. Josh was 2 and a half, Zoey was a newborn, maybe three or four months. I don’t remember exactly how old. I just remember the weird feeling. My mother for a time had been questioning my father on his choices. On what he was doing for the family. She had come from money, she gave that all up from the family to marry my father. A star crossed forbidden love it seems. But times grew tougher….
The wrestling business as a whole had become stagnant. There was no money to be made in the mid-90’s and with three children my mother worried. She was scared and wanted Jason to find another job. My father was stubborn as a mule. I suppose that is where I get it from. But I sat on the floor, the hardwood floor of the house we lived in. A small three bedroom affair, My brother and sister both having a nap, not that they would have remembered much anyway. All I remember was the yelling. My mother and father in the kitchen. My mother then telling him to keep his voice down once she realized I could hear everything.
I didn’t think much of it that day.
It had become a little more regular than I would like to admit. The arguments back and forth, always over money and direction. Things that never held much weight in my mind. At the time all I cared about was my little brother touching my shit. But I heard the boots on the floor. My father stepping through the house. I remembered feeling different, weird. The vibe was all wrong and I was upset. He walked out of Josh and Zoey’s room, he walked over to me setting his bag down and picked me up sitting me on his knee. His eyes looked strange. Not the happy relief I was used to when he was able to see us, spend time with me and actually be a father away from the traveling circus life of professional wrestling.
A life I myself now subscribe to and endure and love. In a way, I understand why he left. Why the last I saw of him for 20 years was his back. His large silhouette moving out our front door with a bag in his hand. My mother angry and shaking her head hiding the tears and keeping them back and away. He loved the life. He loved the feeling. He loved the rush. At the time I thought he was just leaving for work. That someday my father would walk back in the door like nothing happened. Give me a hug, tell me he loved me. But that day didn’t come, not for 20 goddamn years.
And when it did, I felt happy, I fell for the lies, I fell for the bullshit. I let him back in only for him to walk out time and time again, and over the last two years, I have had to deal with that fallout. The feeling and knowing that my father is a failure as a man, as a professional wrestler, as a father, and as a grandfather…..
But. I still want him to do that one thing every little girl dreams about. I want him to walk me down the aisle….
Alicia looked up, now a fully grown woman in the present day, her bright blue eyes staring forward at the man in front of her. His hair a silver grey with a matching beard. Pictures and documents in front of him as two cups of hot coffee sit between them. Alicia’s long blond hair tied back away from her face. Her body ragged up in a black hooded sweatshirt and jeans. The weather in Canada being as harsh and changing as her own feelings forwards her father.
“Thank you for the backstory, it can help me get into your father’s mind as to why he came all the way up here.” Alicia scoffed and looked out onto the street through the large bay window in this tiny coffee shop in outer Toronto. Her fingertips reached out and moved along the top of the cup before picking it up and taking a sip leaning across the small table. “I know why. There’s a cardiologist up here he wanted to see. He borrowed 12 grand from me 6 months ago…”
Alicia trailed off and swallowed hard, part of her angry that Jason was here and hadn’t bothered to contact her, part of her relieved he was still alive and part was annoyed. Annoyed, she had to go to the lengths of hiring a private investigator to find her own father. She shook her head and seemed to drift off into thought, the PI’s voice snapping her out of it causing her to jump a little. “Well that would explain why I found him in Toronto General….”
“That’s...two blocks away” He gave her a small nod and clasped his hands together as Alicia took a long deep breath. Her heart ached, her breathing staggered as she tried to hold back tears. Her eyes closed and as she visualized it, the last time she saw him, her eyes reopened and she swallowed hard. “I have to see him, I have to know ...give me the room number…”
His hand moved to his pen, he wrote it down fast and folded it over before slowly sliding it across the table, before Alicia could grab it he slid it back a little. “I held up my end of the bargain….” She gave a small nod, the payment slipping her mind. She reached into her bag pulling out the envelope handing it to him. “10K….want to count it?” The last words spat with anger as he eyes burned a hole through the paper. He scoffed and slid the paper to her before collecting the pictures and documents. “Good day Miss Maxwell….”
Scene Two: And end to the saga
On Camera
New York, New York.
Present Day
Alicia took a long and deep breath in. The air filling her lungs as her bright blue eyes closed. Her hands gripping the leather strap of the SCW Bombshells world championship. A title that had been in her possession for over a hundred and fifty days.
”I can smell it, feel it. The end of all this.
Her eyes slowly opened, a smile coming across her ruby red lips. She looked out across the houses in the suburban area of upstate New York. A beautiful place she had lived in now for over two years. An idyllic life she had given up hope of ever having.
”For months it seems like I’ve been locked in this constant tug of war between myself, this title and one family. The roots of which go back to when I first won the title. Back when Danielle Weston was the champion. She and I went to war and she was able to do something that very, very few had been able to do before. Beat me one on one. I congratulated her, I trained and whooped some ass and then I walked into a match with her in the beginning of February and I was able to finally claim the title. It was a competitive war and it made me feel alive and I will always respect Danielle Weston for the title reign she had and the fight she brought to me.”
“And see that match and that victory was huge. Dani was shaping up to be a contender to break Mikah’s record for length. Dani was being viewed as the leader of the new breed of women in SCW. That was until Honor and SCW merged and I became a member of the roster. As good as Dani Weston is, as good as Mikah was, I truly believe I am the greatest women’s wrestler on the planet today. And just because of the competition I have had to face and the trials I have willingly put myself through I should already have that distinction. But,.well…”
“I also understand that records and statistics go a long way in the world of proof.”
“I have the numbers and history to back up all my claims. Every single company I walk into I become a star and I become the one to beat and go on record breaking reigns. I defined and built the Honor Wrestling women’s division. Not Mercedes, Not Crystal, Not Winter. ME. I made the WWH women’s world championship mean something at a time when that division was filled with killers. I walked into LAW and I beat some of their best and was getting so close to a match with Gabby for that title I could taste it right up until it closed. This is not a fluke…”
Alicia scoffs and shakes her head, she seems to get annoyed as her body language changes from contemplation and relaxation to tight and anxious.
”Some people would have you just look at SCW and forget everything else I have done and claim that I am a fluke or I am just “lucky” Despite all the evidence to the contrary. And there was a point when I almost believed that too. And that point wasn’t when I fell to Dani, no, that point was when I was sitting in the middle of the ring on the twenty-fourth of February this year. When Seleana Zdunich was holding the SCW title in the air and I had watched a reign that I wanted to mean something crumble and get blown away like fucking dust.”
“But that moment wasn’t my fault. It wasn’t Seleana’s fault. It wasn’t the fans, the referee, the management group. No, that moment was made, manufactured and shown for the world to see in a fucked up presentation by Crystal Zdunich. And yes, Crystal, I am using your married name to prove a point. Now, while I get to tell the world I am a two-time champion I would have rather had one reign. One whole reign. But because of you, I was robbed of twenty-one days. And sure, I was able to salvage that and I now have one that is longer than Danielle’s. I can puff my chest out and crow about how good I have been. But I look back at my run of opponents and I can say I am sick to death of you and your fucking family.”
“I’m sick of Williams, Zdunichs. Millars, Hiltons. Whatever last name there is. If it was raised by you, married to you or in Kate’s case just someone who has been around you by proxy I am sick to death of seeing you.”
“Your actions started all of this and while Seleana was caught in the crossfire and she is someone I respect and I did enjoy facing you did more damage to her career than any loss to me would have. Your actions, your arrogance, your begging for title matches and validation did damage not just to your own career and credibility which was already in the goddamn toilet but you damaged your wife’s career, the validity of the SCW bombshells title and of course...MY CAREER.”
Alicia points to herself, her anger rising as she yells into the camera. Her voice deeper and going back to her southern twang with a Georgian tinge.
”But, because I am a champion because I am the best in the world I beat you, Seleana and Dani in one night to repair all the damage you have done. I then went on to beat Kate, Seleana and your daughter. I needed a break and gave a title shot to Amy Marshall because I wanted a break from you and your family Crystal. But all the while I knew I had this coming. I knew I had a match with you and a title defense all lined up. There is light at the end of the tunnel and while I am not foolish enough to look passed you I am looking forward to it. I had that list, Crystal. Remember it?”
“Your name wasn’t on it.”
“Amy’s was, Cat Riley’s was, Mercedes Vargas was. And of course. Roxi Johnson and now, well now whoever comes out of Climax Control with the SCW title gets to face Roxi. Now, if nothing else had transpired between us that would be enough for me to want to get to Summer XXXtreme and face her. An SCW legend, a real one, not a fake like you, against me. But, that isn’t the only thing between us. Is it Crystal?. There is all that history from SCW, from Honor and shit even LAW. LAW is the one place in all of this where you were able to beat me and the sad fact is that I should respect you.”
“I should.”
“But I don’t. I can’t. Because I have seen the whiny, arrogant, self-serving bullshit you have been pulling and I just can’t give a shit Crystal. And you just sit there and talk about how you’ve changed and how you want to get all that respect back but you just keep doing it. This isn’t the first time you’ve pulled this and it won’t be the last and you cannot expect people just to smile and go “well hey that’s just Crystal”. No more. Never again. And you really have to ask yourself...when you look in the mirror...Why?. Why don’t people respect you the same way they do me or even Vargas?.”
She laughs to herself and pulls the SCW bombshells title up and over her shoulder.
”I mean think about it, Crystal. All the success you had in IWF, LAW and of course here in SCW. Shit, just in SCW Crystal. A former blast from the past winner, last ever Bombshells internet champion, former bombshells roulette champion, a three-time world bombshells champion and a hall of fame. That is just here. And all of that means you should be respected on the same level as Roxi, as Mikah, as Amy.”
“I should be excited about facing you, I should be happy about facing you and I should want to walk into this match and shake your hand before and after it no matter who wins. But I’m not. And that is your fault, Crystal. So I need to end this for my own sanity. I need to walk into that ring, give you the beating you deserve and walk out with the SCW title and also, judging by how people treat you and react to you. I need to do it for SCW. They need a real champion and that isn’t you. The fans deserve better Crystal. They deserve Alicia Lukas versus Roxi Johnson. And you…..you need to fade away and be remembered for what you once were. Not what you are…”
