4.12.18
Chicago, Illinois
“The last person in the world…”
I had actively been trying to avoid people since I first left Long Beach. I mean, that was kind of part of the whole deal that Mikah and I worked out. She would train me as long as I stayed away from her spotlight. When SCW went under, she only kept up with meeting me at the gyms as long as I didn’t tell anyone that she was helping me out. She didn’t want to be tied to it. Something about making it look like she didn’t care. I wasn’t really listening. She talks way too much.
That’s life though. Everyone that is left in my life, which isn’t a lot, stayed in Long Beach. I’m a friendless hermit thousands of miles away from home. It’s why I keep my head down at the gym. It’s why I don’t try to draw any attention to myself when Mikah isn’t around. It’s also why I was surprised when the SCW World Heavyweight Champion stepped through the front door, scanned the crowd, and came over to where I was warming up. I was the last person in the world that he should be worrying about.
Still though. I wasn’t just going to be rude to a guy that was somewhere way above my pay grade. I pulled the headphones off my ears to let them hang around my neck and managed to hold eye contact as he approached. He didn’t seem mad, but I also wasn’t going to let him get the first word and use it to insult me. I had done way too much homework on SCW for that.
Court: “If you’re looking for Mikah she’s not going to be here for a while.”
The words came out with a confidence that even surprised me. It sounded like we were close friends instead of complete strangers. However, I tried to keep any sense of pride in that fact off of my face. I wasn’t going to let him see it and use it against me. Although, he did seem a little surprised that I had the nerve to speak first. I kind of hoped that it would work in my favor, or at least score me some brownie points.
Kris: “I’m actually looking for some rookie who thinks she knows better than her teacher.”
Ten seconds into meeting him and I could tell why so many people hated him. Each word was smug, and the fact that he was smiling while blatantly insulting me made my blood pressure rise. I felt the smile fade off of my face, and there was nothing that I could do to stop it. I gritted my teeth, and scoffed, all while rolling my eyes. He didn’t seem to take kindly to the reaction either. He went to pile on, but I knew better than to let him keep going.
Court: “You don’t know me. I don’t know you. I can admit that you started at the very bottom, and now you’re a huge success. I can’t take it away from you. You definitely more about this business than I do, but again, you don’t know me.”
I tried to continue, but he raised his hand up with his palm facing out towards me and my voice just cut off. I tried to keep going, but it was no use. It took a few seconds before my jaw got the memo, but the silent words tapered off and I clamped my mouth shut tight. He still didn’t seem mad, but shook his head what I could only assume was disappointment.
Kris: “So how could I possibly know if you’re ready or not? Right? That’s what you were going to say.”
No words came. I had expected him to explode at me, but it felt more like the setup to a parent-like guilt trip. I crossed my arms in front of my chest, and nodded without uttering a syllable.
Kris: “That’s what I thought.”
He had let me get away without responding, but made no attempt to continue. I knew what he wanted, and it was all a game to get me to give in. I had immediately gotten defensive, and tried to shut down whatever advice he was planning on giving me. Now that he had called my bluff, he was not going to tell me until I asked for it. Mikah had prepared me for it, but I still got baited into it so easily. We sat there in silence for a few seconds before I dropped my arms and sighed heavily.
Court: “Fine. Tell me. What do you think?”
That same smug smirk came back to his lips as soon as he saw the defeat on my face. If anything, the words were just a bonus to seeing me cave in. He chuckled at me, and in that moment I probably should have just hit him. It might have served me better.
Kris: “I think that if Mikah says you are not ready, it could only mean two things. The first is the most obvious, even though you don’t like it.”
He was not going to spoon feed it to me, and legitimately waited for me to offer the answer that I didn’t want to hear him say, let alone have to voice myself..
Court: “That I’m really not ready.”
He nodded, but the smugness faded a little with it. Maybe he was impressed that I was able to follow along. I had to admit, the other females in SCW had set a pretty low bar for intelligence. It was totally possible that I was just rising to the occasion better than he expected.
Kris: “...and the other?”
I hoped that the expression on my face didn’t seem as caught off guard as I was. I had given him the easy answer expecting that he would be satisfied enough to give me the other one. I admitted the hard truth, and assumed there would be a reward for it. I was wrong. I ran through a bunch of possible answers that I thought he would want to hear, but realized that the pause between his asking and my answering was stretching too long. The only thing I could do was blurt out how I really felt.
Court: “That I am ready, and she is afraid that I will take away from people paying attention to her. So, now that she’s back, she isn’t happy about me signing there too. That wasn’t part of the plan.”
Was this his best friend that we were talking about? Yes. Had I probably just signed my own career suicide note? Possibly. Was it worth it just to show him that I wasn’t afraid or intimidated? Absolutely. If he was going to grill me, the least I could do was attempt to earn a little respect in the process. From the look of it, it had worked too.
Kris: “A little hostile… but close enough to what I was thinking.”
He started to circle around me, sizing me up as he went. I knew that he had spent a lot of time in Seattle training people at his own gym, so it didn’t seem like anything more than being scouted. I tried to keep my shoulders squared to him, but he disappeared around the back side of the heavy bag that I was working against when he first walked over.
Court: “So which one are you leaning towards?”
He shoved the bag towards me, but I was expecting as much. I raised by right leg, and caught the bag as it swung towards me. The force pushed me back, but I stayed balanced, and raised my hands up in case he decided to come around the other side with more tricks. Instead, he surprised my by hugging his arms around the bag and stopping its momentum with his weight. When he peeked around it, there was a smile on his face.
Kris: “I think you’re somewhere in between the two. Somewhere on the cusp of being ready to step in front of the ring, but even if you were there, Mikah wouldn’t want to tell you.”
He nodded at the headphones still hanging around my neck, and I answered before he could ask.
Court: “Yeah. I guess that was your tip then, right? Crowd noise from a handful of shows just blasting at the highest volume.”
I could tell that I was starting to win him over. He let the bag go and came around to stand in front of me. I took a step back, which only appeared to entertain him. He held up his hands like he was pleading his own innocence to reassure me.
Kris: “Don’t start in the same place every day. You will start to learn the timing of the sounds. The point is to not know what is going to happen. You can’t plan for it in the ring. They will definitely distract you if you can’t tune them out. That’s a good start.”
It was as close to a compliment as I could have expected to get. Kris was more known for insults that sounded vaguely complimentary. This was a clear step up from that. I wasn’t going to press my luck too far, but since he was standing right in front of me, I gave it a shot.
Court: “So why are you here, exactly? If it’s not to yell at me, or tell me I am in over my head, then what do you even want? We aren’t friends. We don’t need to be either. Separate rosters.”
Kris offers a nonchalant shrug. I know he is still trying to play it off that he doesn't really care about anyone or anything. Well, at least in THIS world. The absence of his entourage of extended family wasn't just obvious to me. I knew differently. I may not be experienced in this business, but my experience in being able to read people was well, good.
Kris: “You’re in Blast From The Past. It would probably serve me well to check out all the teams and size up who I think can make it out of the first round.”
I tried not to let the pride that I felt make an appearance on my face. The last thing that I needed to do was give him an opening to cut me down. The fact that he was here must of meant that I was worth a second glance. It wouldn’t be me challenging him for his championship, but there’s no way that my partner can make it there without me. That made me important, at least for the moment.
Court: “You wouldn’t be here if you didn’t think I was going at least that far. I guess that means you weren’t so confident in picking who you thought would win….”
It was strange to see him look away and take a step back from me. Maybe he was not used to people being able to pick back at him the way that he did to others. I could tell that the smile on his face was trying to extinguish itself, but he was forcing it to stay on his face.
Kris: “I don’t really see any outcome where some rookie is going to come in and win the whole thing. You and… whatever the fuck that guy’s name is… aren’t on my radar to win. I mostly just want to see who I think you will knock out before you eventually learn you’re not quite good enough yet.”
I had tried hard not to give him an opening, and he had found one anyways. Maybe I was just a little too confident for him to tolerate. Maybe calling his opinion into question was a new enough approach that it caught him off guard. Either way, he made it very clear that he was done playing, so I thought it for the best to end the conversation any way that I could.
Court: “I guess we will have to wait and see what happens at Climax Control then, won’t we?”
The words came out confident, and even believable. He laughed in my face though, and in that moment, I hated that I had even opened my mouth. In trying to end the conversation, I had just given him the opportunity to tear into me a little bit more. I clenched my fists at my side, determined just to stand there and take whatever it was that he had to say.
Kris: “What happens at Climax Control, huh?”
He started to move around me again, and I didn’t make an attempt to keep my shoulders squared to him. I wasn’t going to give him the satisfaction of looking him in the eye while he made fun of me. This wasn’t what I signed up for when I asked Mikah to train me.
Kris: “I think what’s going to happen is that you and your partner are going to get laughed out of the building when someone like Cross puts you out of the tournament. ”
I could feel him getting to me. My knuckles turned white as my fists balled up as small as they could go. I stopped breathing without realizing it, and found myself just trying to hold it all in.
Kris: “I think that you are going to embarrass yourself, and anyone that had anything to do with you getting a contract.”
He kept moving in a circle around me, but was not exactly looking at me. He was not even facing me anymore, instead looking in the direction that he was walking. I thought that I was going to be able to make it through. He called me an embarrassment. He didn’t believe in me. What else could there be?
Kris: “I think you’re going to lose, because you’re not ready to step into Sin City yet.”
I lost it. He took it one step too far, and I could not hold it in anymore. I flattened my hand and brought it up to chop at his windpipe, the only thing that I could think of to shut him up. I don’t know why I thought it would work. I was angry, probably blinded by it, and I was nowhere near as well-refined as he was. I thought that I was fast before, but he managed to grab my hand out of the air without even shifting his head to look at me directly. For a split second I thought that maybe it was just because he had been trying to bait me into it since the moment he walked up to me, but before I could really work through that thought, he pulled me his direction, and extended his left leg to trip both of mine out from under me. I fell forward, but instinct took over and a tucked my head, doing a full front flip before slamming down onto the mat we were standing on. My back hurt from the impact, but my attention was not there. It was on his hand, which was still holding onto my wrist.
Kris: “I could have easily broken this, you know?”
His fingers tapped my wrist twice before he changed up his grip to take hold of my hand. What surprised me more than the sudden change of tone in his voice, was the fact that he offered me his free hand in order to help me up. I looked at it, not wanting to be baited into some trick again.
Court: “You wanted me to hit you...”
I took his hand, and he helped me up to my feet with a smile on his face.
Kris: “That would be insane. I have no interest in being hit. I wanted you to try to hit me. I wanted you to try and fight back. I wanted to see if you were going to, even when you knew it was a fight that you were not going to win.”
I tried not to take offense to the fact that he was admitting that he was just screwing with me. It was not the easiest part of the conversation, but not the hardest either. The whole experience left me with just one question. Given that he was clearly not holding back, I didn’t think that I should have to either. I brushed myself off, and met his eyes with my own.
Court: “Why?”
He shrugged his shoulders, and that smirk that I had seen on television screens and computer monitors for the last few years came to life right in front of me.
Kris: “Sin City is mine. I try to make sure they don’t let scrubs in too often.”
He winked at me, and then looked back over his shoulder towards the door. There was someone that I did not recognize standing in front of it, but he did not look happy. The two looked like they made eye contact, and Kris’ expression changed when he looked back to me.
Kris: “Time’s up. See you around kid.”
I opened my mouth, but could not find the right words to sum up the experience. I watched him as he walked through the gym and got to the door. He did not stop and exchange words with the man that was waiting, and instead just walked through the door and out of the gym. With a final glance at me, the man turned and followed him out, leaving me to try and figure out exactly what the hell had just happened.
4.13.18
“Ready.”
The scene opens up on the ring setup in the middle of Sam’s Town. The chairs surrounding the ring are empty, but the house lights are on, and there is something inside the ring. As the camera begins to move towards the ring, we can make out that the shape inside the ring is a person, laying on the mat. As we move even closer, the shape of the person in the ring is easily identifiable as female. As the camera approaches the ring, it ascends into the air, moving above the ropes and looking down at the person in the center. Finally we are close enough to see that the person is none other than Sin City newcomer, Courtney Pierce. Her fingers are laced together, and she uses her hands to cradle her head. Her eyes are closed, but there is a small smile on her face.
”Ladies and gentlemen of the Sin City fan base, let me introduce myself….””
She opens her eyes, and moves her arms out to her sides, looking straight up at the camera.
”My name is Courtney Pierce and I’m the one person in this tournament that you should be interested in.”
She pauses, almost like she knows that she is going to need to give the viewers a moment to roll their eyes and collectively doubt her. Court makes no move to get up off of the mat, nor does she allow her eyes to stray from the camera.
”I know what you’re thinking….”
Her nose scrunches up a little, and her voice becomes much more sarcastic and stereotypically catty.
”Been there. Heard that. What is some rookie girl going to tell me that someone else has not already said before her? I mean look at her! Laying down in the middle of the ring before her big debut. She should get used to being there!”
She shrugs before adding, equally sarcastically.
”...or maybe she is just showing us what she had to do to get the job…”
Her expression shifts away from the caricature of a naysayer that she was trying to imitate. The smile almost immediately comes back to her face. This time when she speaks, her voice is back to normal.
”You’re right. You have heard it before. The hypocrisy of calling it out is what I find funny though. For every rookie that joins a company, there are a group of mainstays that says they are never going to make it. You can’t call me out for repeating the same shit as everyone else, when you all parrot back the same response every time, no matter the talent, promise, or skill set of the person that says it. You will disregard all newcomers with the same few lines. It shows a lack of imagination. It shows me that it won’t be too hard to do better, and aim... higher....”
She winks at the camera, and points up at it with the index finger of her right hand.
”It’s all starting to make sense now, right? I get tired of watching the same thing week in and week out, so I thought that maybe I would change everyone’s perception for a little bit. For every entitled newbie, or condescending veteran, there are a few dozen people in between that stand in the middle of a dark room, stare blankly at an eye-level camera, and put us all to sleep.”
She sighs heavily and pushes herself up from the mat. Once she gets to her feet, she straightens her top and then looks up at the camera. Court rolls her eyes, almost looking disappointed, and motions for it to come closer.
”Come here, will you? I’m tired of having to talk so loud.”
Surprisingly, the camera drops down closer to her, albeit still hovering slightly above her head.
”So what’s so special about me? That’s what you’re thinking, right? If I’m going to call out everyone for being the same, then I damn well better be different, right? Otherwise I am just wasting your time.”
She holds her arms out to her sides and spins in a small circle, allowing all of the viewers to get a good look at her.
”Obviously I am better to look at than a good chunk of the people that will be competing. I like to think that I have a little more personality too. Neither of those really matter though. They don’t make me stand out. What makes me stand out, is that I stand by myself. I’m not someone coming from a wrestling dynasty. I’m not someone with connections to this business. I’m not someone that lucked into this line of work when I really want to be somewhere else, and I’m definitely not someone coming in with a big history and a bunch of established friendships with people that will back me up. I’m not an instant star. I’m not a prodigy.”
She drops her hands back to her sides and they slap against her thighs. She sighs again, and looks directly into the camera lens.
”I’m just a regular person who wants this a little more than everyone else that I have seen sign up. I’m someone who nobody thought would end up here. I’m someone who had a hard time finding someone to take me seriously enough to train me, but I did it. I didn’t have a last name that people knew, but I still signed it on the bottom of an SCW contract. I entered Blast From The Past. I got my name put on the card for the first Climax Control of Sin City Wrestling’s rebirth.”
She allows herself to chuckle lightly as if to ask the people at home what more they wanted from her.
”I have had to prove people wrong at every step, but I’m still here. You don’t think I have what it takes to win Blast From The Past and challenge the Bombshell Champion? That’s strange to me. The person that trained me how to be successful in this company IS the Bombshell Champion. She’s the person that broke records, and set standards that most women in this company can’t hope to measure up to. Mikah Green is as good as it gets in SCW, and I already convinced her that I was worth investing in. Compared to her, what do you people know?”
She waits for the camera to answer her, but one does not come.
”I mean, I get it. This is a tournament where nobody has to even know their partner, let alone get along with them...or in my case understand them. You guys are probably looking at the teams, and judging them based on who you know, and who you don’t. For me and Fenris, that doesn’t give you a lot to go on, but let me break something down for you all. I have been busting my ass day after day for this opportunity, and I have yet to fall short of even one gaol. Fenris came out of MMA, trained with Gabriel, and is in good with the London Underground. Neither of us have five or six years in the business like Otaki does, but you have to admit that is a hell of a combination.”
The camera drops down a little in front of her as she moves from the center of the ring. The camera follows, but as Court gets to one of the six corners of the ring, she turns to put her back against the turnbuckles. The camera stops, but not fast enough. She raises a hand up to her face to block the super close-up shot and brush the camera backwards.
”Way too close… who is flying this thing?”
She reaches just under the lens of the camera, and the screen wobbles a little bit. Soon after the camera part of the drone in front of her drops into the palm of her hand. She brings it down in front of her face at the same time that she steps back onto the bottom turnbuckle in order to hop up and sit on the top. She smiles at the small camera in her palm as the drone it was attached to takes off across the arena.
”Look at that… you’re all already in the palm of my hand...”
She has no shame about giggling at her own joke, but quickly composes herself.
”Me and my partner are going to figure out how to advance through this tournament, one way or another. I don’t think either of us have plans to leave Sin City any time soon. If you don’t think we want to win this whole thing more than someone being billed as a ‘guest signing’, you’re sadly mistaken. Pair that up with the fact that Cross can’t seem to stop making himself look stupid on Twitter, and the team across from us doesn’t stack up…. not even against two rookies.”
The smile fades a little from her face, and she gives the viewers one final shrug.
”,,,BUT... continue to doubt us if you want to. It’s not going to change the way I approach this match, the things I’m willing to do to win this tournament, or what happens when I eventually challenge for the Bombshell Championship. That’s the thing about opinions. They only have as much power as you give them. Unfortunately for all of you, I don’t really care what you think.”
She hops down from the turnbuckle and starts to walk across the ring with the camera held out in front of her.
”All week people have been asking me one thing, and it wouldn’t feel right to end without answering. Am I ready for this?”
There is no doubt at all in her voice, and the smile comes back to her face in full force.
”I’ve been waiting for this moment for way too long not to be.”
