Off-Camera
Friday, August 4, 2023
Room of Seleana Zdunich
Hilton Garden Inn Cusco
Cuzco, Peru
10:11 AM Local Time
A chime sounds to signal a call coming in.
Seleana rolls off the bed and grabs her phone to quickly answer her familial wake up call. A beaming twelve-year-old face greets her.
Aurora Zdunich: Hi, Mommy! Did I do it right?
Seleana Zdunich nods, making sure to show both approval and pride in her little girl as she does so.
Seleana Zdunich: Ja, tack!
Aurora’s smile, already broad and bright, somehow increases in intensity at her mother’s answer. This had worried the young woman as it had seemed important to her mother for this trip especially without either of her wives, Christina “Crystal Hilton” Zdunich or Alexandra “Diamond” Caldwell, on the trip with her.
Aurora Zdunich: Happy wake up call, Mommy!
Seleana smiles at her daughter as she is joined by Diamond.
Alexandra "Diamond" Caldwell-Zdunich: She’s been awake for two hours just waiting to make this call for you. Somebody was excited to help!
Seleana laughs as Aurora shrugs.
Aurora Zdunich: Mommy needed my help!
Diamond nods knowingly.
Alexandra "Diamond" Caldwell-Zdunich: And you did great!
A third face joins them on the screen.
Christina "Crystal Hilton" Zdunich: She really was excited!
Seleana snickers again.
Seleana Zdunich: Ja, she would be for you and Alex as well.
Crystal nods.
Christina "Crystal Hilton" Zdunich: I know.
She and Diamond hug Aurora.
Christina "Crystal Hilton" Zdunich: Monday?
Seleana shakes her head.
Seleana Zdunich: The match is on Sunday, then we go to Rio. I do not think I return until after Violent Conduct in Mexico.
Aurora’s eyes light up.
Aurora Zdunich: Isn’t your family from there, Mommy?
Crystal nods.
Christina "Crystal Hilton" Zdunich: My father’s family is, yes.
Aurora claps excitedly.
Aurora Zdunich: Can we go?
Diamond can't help but smile at the little girl’s exuberance. Crystal looks to Seleana, unsure of how to answer this. Seleana simply smiles back at all of them.
Seleana Zdunich: If you want, it is alright with me.
Crystal frowns, worried.
Christina "Crystal Hilton" Zdunich: Are you sure? I mean, this could be a title match for you and do you really want me in the building for it? I…
Before he can finish, Seleana raises a hand to slow her down.
Seleana Zdunich: Calmate, Estrellita, calmate…
Diamond smiles knowingly.
Seleana Zdunich: I love you, Stjärna, of course I would want you and our family there if that happens. I do not care what others will think or say about it. It is not for them, ja? It is for us and any chance we get to be together and show our daughter your father’s homeland is special.
Diamond nods, again, knowingly.
Alexandra "Diamond" Caldwell-Zdunich: Told you she’d be cool with it.
Aurora cocks her head lightly.
Aurora Zdunich: You did?
Diamond nods to the little one.
Alexandra "Diamond" Caldwell-Zdunich: Christina was worried that you would ask and Sel wouldn’t want her there. I told her she was worrying for nothing, that there was no way Sel would say no.
She holds out her hand towards the computer camera on them.
Alexandra "Diamond" Caldwell-Zdunich: So… yeah, I told her so.
Crystal nods, looking slightly embarrassed.
Christina "Crystal Hilton" Zdunich: You’d think I’d have learned by now…
Before anybody else can answer, Aurora looks up at her mother and shakes her head.
Aurora Zdunich: Mommy, no! None of that! You’re the Burning Rose! Mommy’s Dat Girl! None of this, “I’m horrible” stuff!
She clamps on and hugs Crystal tightly, lovingly, Diamond following suit almost immediately as well as Seleana smiles on from her hotel room.
Aurora Zdunich: We love you, Mommy!
Diamond kisses the top of Crystal’s head.
Alexandra "Diamond" Caldwell-Zdunich: She’s right.
Seleana smiles even more than before.
Seleana Zdunich: She does this often, ja?
Diamond and Crystal both nod in response.
Alexandra "Diamond" Caldwell-Zdunich: She does, bless her.
Christina "Crystal Hilton" Zdunich: She does and I love her for it.
Aurora shrugs.
Aurora Zdunich: Mommy needs to hear it!
Seleana smiles proudly.
Seleana Zdunich: Tack for saying so.
Diamond chuckles.
Alexandra "Diamond" Caldwell-Zdunich: Oh, come on Sel, let’s not kid ourselves about who taught her that!
Crystal nods her agreement with Diamond’s assessment but Seleana shakes her head slightly.
Seleana Zdunich: I did not have to, she already did it. I just encouraged and reinforced it, ja?
Diamond smiles knowingly even as Crystal starts to say something but thinks better of it and stops herself. Aurora simply smiles.
Aurora Zdunich: I love you, Mommy! Who is in the match you’re fighting on Sunday?
Seleana Zdunich: Bea Barnhart and Alexandra Callaway, whoever wins challenges for the Roulette Championship in Mexico.
Both Diamond and Crystal exhale heavily at the second name.
Christina "Crystal Hilton" Zdunich: Bea’s one thing…but Callaway?
Alexandra "Diamond" Caldwell-Zdunich: She is a hateful thing.
Seleana nods sadly yet knowingly.
Seleana Zdunich: Ja, I know.
Now, it’s Aurora’s turn to frown slightly for the first time since the call started.
Aurora Zdunich: Mommy, why does that lady hate you?
Seleana frowns at her daughter in confusion and slight worry. This was not a question he was prepared for.
Seleana Zdunich: Älskling? I do not know what we are talking about.
Aurora just looks dead into the camera.
Aurora Zdunich: Alexandra Callaway. Wasn’t she part of the Queens of Chaos? Didn’t they help us?
Seleana nods.
Seleana Zdunich: Ja…
She nods a second time.
Seleana Zdunich: Ja.
Aurora looks between all three of her mothers.
Aurora Zdunich: Then I don’t understand, why?
Diamond and Crystal both sit back slightly, visibly uncomfortable even as Seleana shrugs.
Seleana Zdunich: Some people change, Älskling, ja? I do not know why, but it happens.
Aurora nods slowly.
Aurora Zdunich: I hope you kick her ass, Mommy!
Diamond and Crystal both smile proudly. Seleana nods to the camera knowingly.
Seleana Zdunich: Who taught her that, I wonder?
Diamond and Crystal both grin.
Christina "Crystal Hilton" Zdunich: She’s a smart one.
Alexandra "Diamond" Caldwell-Zdunich: Very!
Seleana nods her agreement.
Seleana Zdunich: It’s true. I love you!
Alexandra "Diamond" Caldwell-Zdunich: Love you!
Christina "Crystal Hilton" Zdunich: Love you!
Aurora Zdunich: Love you, Mommy!
On-Camera
Friday, August 4, 2023
Room of Seleana Zdunich
Hilton Garden Inn Cusco
Cuzco, Peru
2:01 PM Local Time
The camera opens upon Seleana Zdunich sitting on the bed, ready to look into the camera right off.
Seleana Zdunich: This morning, my daughter asked me a question.
She pauses, allowing her gaze to drift towards the floor and her shoes.
Seleana Zdunich: I admit, I was not prepared for the question.
Staring at her feet, Seleana inhales deeply, slowly letting the breath out after.
Seleana Zdunich: I do not enjoy speaking with my daughter about such things. It is not something I wish to instill…
She looks up into the camera.
Seleana Zdunich: Bea Barnhart we have danced this way before. As I have said many times before, you have all the tools. You can physically handle anything thrown at you. You can battle with anyone. You have won tag team championship gold here. You have proven you can be a threat if you set your mind to things.
Seleana shrugs.
Seleana Zdunich: But that is what tends to be the problem, ja?
She nods knowingly, almost pointedly.
Seleana Zdunich: You do not set your mind to things. You lose the battle in the grey.
She points to her head.
Seleana Zdunich: You know all the moves, you know how to nominally fight but you do not put things together the way it is required if you want to stand on your own two feet and prove the world wrong about you!
Sitting forward slightly, her hands fold in front of her, her wrists resting atop her thighs.
Seleana Zdunich: I feel for you because much the same has been said about me and my wife, especially here in Sin City Wrestling. Many cannot help themselves but go to that almost like a crutch against me. They attempt to beat me over the head as if that crutch is actually a club that should splatter me and break me like a berserker on a rampage on the battlefield or a large worker wielding a sledgehammer against weakened and rotting wood.
She shakes her head, almost pleading.
Seleana Zdunich: It does not have to be that way, Bea, I am living proof.
She waves her hand through the shot.
Seleana Zdunich: Many a time someone has come at me like that and found their club is a child’s plaything that will not do the damage they envisioned.
A small, wry smile crosses her face.
Seleana Zdunich: Indeed, we are both about to see one with Alexandra Callaway…
She nods, the smile fading as she glares into the camera.
Seleana Zdunich: You were the question I was not prepared for this morning, Alexandra.
She draws in a sharp breath.
Seleana Zdunich: My little girl asked me why you hated me and I had no reply for her because there should not be an answer. We have never had much of an occasion to interact. But..
She pauses slightly, anger festering underneath her words like an acid ready to start eating at anything in its path.
Seleana Zdunich: My wives have.
She almost allows herself a mirthless chuckle.
Seleana Zdunich: And I know you hate Christina because…
She shrugs.
Seleana Zdunich: Most do. They think she is overly entitled and overly assured of herself bordering on the kind of arrogance that one should have.
Again, Seleana almost laughs mirthlessly.
Seleana Zdunich: You can relate, ja?
She nods knowingly.
Seleana Zdunich: You started a group in the company where you work with both Christina and my Alexandra that is called Legacies that is based on all of you being second generation wrestlers who think that just makes you better than everyone else.
Seleana stands and motions as if someone else is standing next to her.
Seleana Zdunich: Lana Corvin says so much when she calls it “The Corvin Way.” Jamie Austin and Otto Nova both seem to have been gifted this thought process as well and there you stand at the front of that group because…
She shrugs.
Seleana Zdunich: You are older than them and in wrestling terms, just old?
Seleana shrugs again, this time in acknowledgement.
Seleana Zdunich: Not that much older than me but others would not hesitate to use that, ja?
She looks down to her hand as if it has a long list on it.
Seleana Zdunich: You would now list off your accolades as proof that you earned your place at the head of this group however you would do that at the same time as waving off as irrelevant everything all three of my household have accomplished. Christna alone has accomplished enough to bury you and anyone else who would chastise her in her prizes and yet it is still not enough because you say so…
She waves everything else away.
Seleana Zdunich: The same as when others stand against you and you say they are irrelevant and do not matter. It is your favorite stance and is quite telling about you.
She nods to the camera, her eyes staring daggers through it.
Seleana Zdunich: You feel it coming for you, Alexandra. You feel that everyone else in that group is so much younger and coming for people like you and you do not like that your own friends are better than you. You felt this before, ja?
She nods slowly.
Seleana Zdunich: The Queens of Chaos, who you were previously a member of but no longer because you suddenly realized they did not necessarily hold your same beliefs and acted surprised even after they had already proven this was true six months earlier when they helped…
She holds her hands up as if to ask the question before turning them to point to herself.
Seleana Zdunich: Us!
She nods, pointing almost accusingly into the camera.
Seleana Zdunich: That is the saddest thing of all about you, Alexander. You are not a child. You are a veteran competitor who should know better but you delude yourself. You delude yourself about Legacies, you deluded yourself for months about the Queens of Chaos and you delude yourself about SCW and me.
She shakes her head, anger starting to radiate from her.
Seleana Zdunich: Lana should have been your call to wake up that she still feels the need to prove herself every time she steps in the ring while you act the same way you and many others say Christina does because you think you should not have to any longer. The Queens of Chaos should have been your call to wake up when you suddenly realized in may that they were not all about hatred and destruction as you are even after they had shown that in December when they helped Christina, my Alexandra, my little girl and me against people who have seen harm done to our daughter in front of the world.
She pauses, looking down at her shoes again, shaking her head.
Seleana Zdunich: How it took you so long to get that memo, I do not know, aside from you simply did not wish to receive it because it played into your worst fear that you have become the old, obsolete and irrelevant being that you call everyone else!
Looking back up into the camera, Seleana steps closer.
Seleana Zdunich: Now you step into the ring with Bea Barnhart and I, two people you will declare beneath you and irrelevant and this should be your call to wake up again, ja?
She nods knowing the answer before she even asked the question.
Seleana Zdunich: Wake up, Alexandra because there is no winning this match for you. Even if you get your hand raised, you will not have really won because you will not get what you want. You will have beaten two people who you think of as not worth your time and irrelevant and thus if your hand is raised, so what? You were supposed to do that. You are the veteran with so much more training and experience so you will have only managed an “as expected” and gained none of that wondrous manna from heaven you crave so much called “relevance.”
A wicked smile comes across her face.
Seleana Zdunich: But if you lose to one of us and we are the irrelevant unworthies beneath your heel that is a woman who is nothing without her husband and a woman who without her wife is just a zookeeper covered in big cat shit, what does that make you?
Seleana nods pointedly one more time.
Seleana Zdunich: You delude yourself in thinking that you know me and what I am made of because of my wives but you fail to realize they are not me and I am not them. Hate me all you want, Alexandra, but you cannot end my wife here. She beat you to that on her own after her name was already inscribed in places that means it lives on forever whether you like it or not and you cannot end me.
Stepping forward, Seleana places both hands on the camera.
Seleana Zdunich: Wake up, Alexandra, your nightmare is upon you. Your bloodline cannot help or save you now!
