L O S A N G E L E S • C A L I F O R N I A
Mercedes, Ricardo, Tomas, Irma and Hugo are sharing a pizza at a stylish restaurant in Los Angeles. Mercedes raises her Honor Wrestling Year-end trophy and gives a light-hearted speech before her friends clink raised glasses with various drinks in celebration. To say the least, 2018 started off rough but even when she had doubts and couldn't find her way out, she found a way. Her record wasn't all that great, but she ended the year on a high-note, and if that meant making history at the expense of Sierra Williams then so be it.
If it meant winning her third Honor Wrestling award for being the Most Hated of the Year, then she wouldn't obliged to simply smile and thank the people who nominated her. This trophy would look good right by the Moment of the Year and Female Wrestler of the Year awards she won the year before. This is because nothing succeeds like success. Any promotion she set foot in, she's been successful. She made a name for herself in Sin City Wrestling. As it turns out, that sucess followed her Honor where she became just as much of a name there too.
Ricardo: So, Mercedes, the world wants to know: Are you tired of winning yet?
Irma: Didn't Donald Trump's run on that? Didn't he, when he was campaigning say that?
Hugo: How many times did he say "you're going get so tired of winning and we're going to keep on winning?"
Mercedes: Leave it to a businessman to come up with such a great line. It's so popular now, it annoys me. But, yeah, tired of winning? I'm not even done yet.
Tomas: Is there anything that doesn't annoy you?
Irma: Dogs barking at 9am on the dot while I’m trying to sleep, and I’m a light sleeper. I can't sleep even when I take meds to help me sleep, so the struggle is real.
Ricardo: Theater majors. What.
Mercedes: How awful Black Friday really is. Thanksgiving celebrates pillagery Christmas is a religious, commercialized, approximated birthday. New Year's Day is nothing but a man-made tradition of time-keeping better spent hungover. Now after we just celebrated a day for being thankful we line up at the first chance we get to buy more things?!
Hugo: Stream of consciousness?
Mercedes: Yeah.
~~~
Blog: Almighty Fire: Redefined the Ninth
semana del 27 de enero al 3 de febrero de 2019
I hear there's a line forming for that World Bombshell Championship and, to the surprise of no one, Alicia Lukas and Apple Coren are part of that group. Funny thing is, they both share something in common - they already had their shot at Dani Weston, and they blew it. Now everyone loves a good redemption story. With Alicia, this isn't so much about adding another world championship to her trophy case than it is about her being embarrassed and humiliated at Inception, losing the Honor Championship and going from un-de-fea-ted to o-ver-rat-ed. It's becoming a thing now in SCW. From Charlotte Elliot to Lachlan Kane and Sierra Williams to Mackenzie Page, Cat Riley, and Evie Jordan. They all had their first career pinfall loses in SCW over these last six months, and I'm responsible for ending two of those streaks.
Yes, Alicia spent some eight months, 253 days total, with the Honor Championship, but let's not forget - or rather what she won't seem to tell you - is that her claim to fame of breaking my then-record of 202 days didn't happen in an Honor ring, it happened in an SCW ring. That's like me going to, say, Dunkin Doughnuts and asking for a skinny dirty soy chai latte size tall from Starbucks. Sure, Dunkin might get it right, but it just wouldn't be the same.
No matter how Alicia wants to spin it, the record books will always read January 13, 2019. Dani Weston DEFEATED Alicia Lukas. Here's the thing about Alicia being handed her first singles loss...it won't be her last. Dani Weston broke the mystique that Alicia had at Inception, took her title and her singles undefeated streak with it and kicked her ass in front of the entire world to close the show. And like how Dani owned Alicia, SCW owned the night and was able to clean sweep Honor in four straight title matches.
But, see, while impressive, what Dani did three weeks ago, I did it first in Honor by taming the Lioness and taking out her entire team in an elimination match. I pinned Alicia's shoulders to the mat and ended her six-month undefeated streak when she returned to the company. No, I couldn't care less if it wasn't in singles, couldn't care less that we shared the ring in a 30-person battle royal or I didn't eliminate her but still had the most with five, lasted almost forty-five minutes and won the whole thing from the number four spot, and I couldn't care less that I won a tag match between us because of outside interference. I handed Alicia three of her only five losses in that company.
Know what else that record book says? Two women crossed 200-plus days as Women's Honor Champion in a single reign.
But I did it first.
At Inception, Alicia needed two more defenses to make history. She could of had it all, but she let it slip through her fingers that Sunday in Las Vegas. She stumbled in her fourth defense. Now the record books will forever state that I'm the most defending Women's Honor Champion of all time.
Because I did it first.
Dani thinks Alicia deserves another go, but the only thing she deserve is getting sent to the back of the line, same with Apple. Cat Riley has gone on some existential crisis or something after her first loss. Now she's broken. Kate Steele won the Golden Briefcase, but come on, does ANYONE takes her seriously? Last week, she came out here and said she was the one to beat. As it turns out, people took that one to heart because she sure got her ass kicked a lot last year. And before she made her decision last week, she got destroyed by Jessie Salco and got her Golden Briefcase stolen. Pathetic.
Crystal Zdunich got embarrassed the three times she challenged for the Bombshell Championship when Mikah was champion and that rocked her to the core that she was using Twitter to have people feel sorry for her, then pulled another fake retirement stunt. If it wasn't bad enough her own daughter beat her step-mom to win a contender's match in a fatal four-way, Crystal already got beat up by Brittany, and on Mother's Day no less Now Crystal beats up her own wife, because reasons.
And selfish ones at that.
I guess the circle is now complete.
Nobody asked me, but shouldn't SCW look into what Crystal did last show because I'm almost sure that's domestic abuse, and that's not okay.
Shocking, right? Eyebrows raised and all that?
Are these really the challengers Dani expects to take that title off of her? Maybe she's waiting for whichever Bombshell wins this year's Blast From the Past Mixed Tag Team Tournament to hopefully give her the match of her life, give her a run for her money and push her to the limit? People seem to forget that one out of five tournament winners have actually gone on to win the Bombshell Championship at the next pay-per-view after winning the tournament. The one? Evie Jordan. That's right, one of her good friends. So, I think it's safe to say that history is on her side. I mean, look at who is in the tournament this year: Jessie Salco, perennial loser; Amanda Cortez, too busy posting selfies than being taken seriously; Char Kwan is irrelevant; Stephanie Sullivan, give me a break. Calia, we don't even know how she's going to fare, Amy Santino has been known to be getting lucky breaks.
You see, none of them have accomplished the one thing that matters. If there's anyone who deserves a shot at the World Bombshell Championship, it's none other than the most winningest Bombshell in SCW history, the most decorated wrestler not just in the women's division, but the entire company,
Let's not forget the fact that I'm the one who beat Dani Weston. Apple, Alicia, Cat, Crystal, Kate, the girls in this year's BFTP, none of them can say that, and I don't think they will after the fact.
So I hope when Dani is done with that conga line that she doesn't come looking for me.
Because I'll be waiting for her.
As for Apple Coren, she's the next on my checklist. And while no one has ever defeated her in singles...
I'm going to do it first.
~~~
Smile Because it Happened The Twelfth: Look What You've Made Me Do The Eleventh: Outliers, Part VII: Glory is Fleeting, But Obscurity is Forever
Present Day • L O S A N G E L E S • C A L I F O R N I A
The scene opens on a man playing violin. Impeccably dressed in a tuxedo, he caresses the instrument as he draws the bow across the strings playing the piece, Luigi Boccherini's Minuetto, with refined elegance and grace.
The camera pans slowly across afternoon tea and finger-food waiting in the shade of white umbrellas then a garden lawn as the blades of grass are lit by the sun last rays. We here voices indulging in genteel banter. A group of women dressed in regal attire, say, 18th century, casually gather for a game of croquet. Two balls are visible on the lawn - green and yellow - showing that a game is in progress. Short moment from the game. Mercedes Vargas, has her mallet at the ready. The wooden mallet hits the green ball, which rolls forward and pass by a small wicket. Her efforts receive light applause, but Mercedes huffs, a pained expression on her face.
"Phooey!"
One of the other women pipes up.
"A gentle tap goes a long way."
The women's advice receives a side-eyed glance from Mercedes before she turns to face all of them, mallet raised at them.
"Then you can just leave. All of you!"
Mercedes manages to scare the women away as they bolt from the table. The violinist already has a head start and almost stumbles in escape. Moments later one of the women comes back to where Mercedes was to grab a tray of cucumber sandwiches which she bobbles before running off again.
Mercedes maintains a Mona Lisa smile as she turns to the camera, aware that she was being filmed.
"People like Alicia Lukas, Pandora Barrett and Trinity Jones say that I'm past my prime, that I've lost it. Well, you can't lose something you always had. If I had a nickel for every plucky new up and and comer or flavor-of-the-month who did more than sign their name on a contract and passed Mark and Christian's eye-test, I'd be retiring in Hawaii right now. They want to say that they now run the Bombshells Division. I've been here nearly six years, I have yet to see it.
A famous woman was quoted as saying something close to "When people call me cocky or arrogant I just think 'How dare I think anything less of myself.' " I'm not going to apologize because others think I should be modest. This isn't a popularity contest.
"Granted, the Golden Briefcase Ladder match at Inception didn't go my way, but I can live with the result because when someone like Kate Steele winning just proves that anyone can get lucky. Don't think luck smiled on her when Jessie Salco took her out last show, but it's never a bad moment to #BeatUpKateSteele.
A short pause here as Mercedes removes her bonnet as her wavy, brunette hair fell into her face.
"This weekend is a special one for yours truly. Not only do I have an opportunity to make history one more time by breaking another record of Roxi Johnson's as the winningest Bombshell on Climax Control, but I get to step in the ring with Apple Coren. A lady of sophistication, mystery, elegance, class, and a Victorian English accent that can probably melt the heart of anyone who have ever heard a promo from her.
Apple, you can cut down my accomplishments but you still have to face the fact that in the almost seven months you've been here, you still haven't won a championship. You can hand out advice about odds because you're a riddle wrapped up in an enigma shrouded in mystery."
Lost in thought.
"Maybe you're a riddle, wrapped in a mystery, inside an enigma. No, that's not it."
As she says this, Mercedes snaps her fingers trying find the ideal scenario before pointing at the camera.
"I got it! You're a riddle wrapped up in an enigma, that loves wearing top hats and doing jazz hands!"
Not like Mercedes could walk around pretending she spoke Victorian era English, and Google Translate isn't much help.
"Not telling you the odds would be unfair to you, Apple. Not telling you the odds would imply there's a chance of success. Sweetheart, you never did. It won't change at Climax Control. From the day Christian made this match, from the day your name was across from mine, you simply signed away what miniscule hope you had of ever making it any further in this company. You said no one was going to stand between you and destiny, but destiny didn't favor you at Inception.
The only thing standing between you and destiny, is me. When your name is mentioned in a match, no one worries about facing you. Your name doesn't strike fear in anyone. That just says you're beatable. No one goes in that ring and thinks they're going to lose. Now compare that to me. Against an opponent, they know they have a ninety percent chance they're going to lose and a ten percent chance they might get lucky.
And the odds, I hate to tell you, don't look so favorable on Sunday. Losing to a veteran like me probably isn't going to look good on Ivy. It's just going to make you look stupid that you got in the ring and squandered any chance to get lucky. I'm the girl that make opponents nervous. Not only do I beat them in the ring, I beat them verbally."
Mercedes unconsciously brushes away strands of her brown hair out of her face.
"As Napoleon once said, glory is fleeting, but obscurity is forever.
Consider yourself lucky that SCW remembered you still exist because you have more than Amy Santino to worry about. Sunday, Apple, you and I are going to learn to coexist to give those fans a great match. Because after that, they'll be nothing left but disappointment and me standing over you with a victory at your expense."
There’s a cocky half-grin on her face as she now speaks in Spanish.
"Estar preparado para lo peor, esperar lo mejor."
"Prepare for the worst, hope for the best."
In her hand was her clipboard. She stares at it for a moment before slowly turning it around, showing the camera Apple's name written in cursive with a felt-tipped red Sharpie. To add some personality, she draws a pair of apples after it.
"Y que la suerte está siempre en su favor.”
"And may the odds be ever in your favor."
With a kiss of her fingers, Mercedes waves at the camera before the scene fades on the image of her drinking her tea.
***Fade***
