CC 290…
Opening up 2021 with a victory was a great feeling and I was experiencing that great feeling as I kept to myself in the locker room. I thought about the match, particularly the fact that I had pinned Candy and scored the momentum. The show is still ongoing at this point…
“That’s how you start the year…” I thought to myself. “...but don’t think about this too much. Enjoy it tonight and then tomorrow? The real work begins. Just because you pinned Candy tonight doesn’t mean you’re going to retain at Inception. After all, Candy has a history of…”
I had to hold my thought as I heard the doorknob turn from the outside. The door opened and an office official from the company walked in with something in hand.
“Myra… just who I was hoping to see!”
I didn’t react to this as he walked up to me and I could see he had an award for me.
“The SCW offices wanted to recognize the fact that you are now the longest reigning Bombshells Internet champion ever…” he said, putting me in an awkward spot.
“Oh… well…” I said with a tone of reluctance in my voice. “...thanks…”
I reluctantly took the award recognizing my achievement, one that I had neither sought nor focused on. The official nodded at me as he turned and left the room, closing the door behind him. I sat down in front of the lockers, took a quick glance at the award and set it to the side, feeling no sense of pride or accomplishment.
“Yeah… that’s nice…” I thought to myself. “But… that’s not why I do this. Anyway, as I was saying, Candy has a history of…”
Again, I couldn’t complete the thought as my phone rang. I was quick to pick it up without even looking at who was calling me.
“Yeah?”
“MYRA!” I could hear the excited voice of Jazmyn Rain over the phone, startling me for a split second! “GREAT win! You pulled through tonight! Congratulations! I am so proud of you for being able to step up in a situation where the odds were against you!”
“Thanks…” I said with a slight smile. “I know that the tag match was an uphill battle with questions about Caleb, with Candy and Augustino having so much chemistry and some history while Caleb and I were thrown together. But, we overcame the odds tonight and… I’m quite happy with that. I think that’s going to be a pretty good omen going into Blast from the Past. I guess being a four time tag champ does go a long way…”
“You got that right!” Jazmyn said with her bubbly enthusiasm. “You’ve got momentum going into Inception! Now go and break the title defense record and cement your legacy as the greatest Bombshells Internet Champion EVER!”
“Jaz…” I said with a groan, which drew a sigh from her at the other end. “It’s not about the record. I never aimed for it. It just… happened. If I retain and break the record, then I retain and break the record. It is what it is. I’m not going to throw a big celebration…”
“Oh come on…” Jazmyn said with an annoyed tone. “You SHOULD celebrate something like that! You know, the Myra that I grew up with would’ve been putting together a shopping list for decorations for such an occasion!”
“That was the old Myra…” I reminded Jazmyn. “You’re talking about 12 to 22 years ago. I’m not that Myra anymore…”
“Which is a SHAME because the ‘old Myra’ knew to have fun! I get that we’ve grown up and we’re in our thirties now, but what is wrong with occasionally living a little? There’s no reason to downplay what you could be about to accomplish. God, you were a GREAT party thrower back in the day…”
“I was…” I admitted.
“You were such a BLAST to be around. We used to have so much fun together. I remember that even though your mother had long died and even though your father was treating you like trash that you were still always smiling, ever the eternal optimist, ever the fun loving, carefree sweetheart. When we were tag team champions in PRW, you weren’t AS bubbly… but you at least did a skit on PRW television and went to a sports bar every once in a while.”
“Those were fun times…” I admitted. “But… that was the old Myra. That part of my life is over. Back then? I didn’t have Kimberly… and I wasn’t as hyper focused on my career at that time because I didn’t need to be.”
“Sometimes… I REALLY want the old Myra back…” Jazmyn said with a sigh. “Good night, I’ll talk to you later.”
Before I could utter another word, Jazmyn hung up the call. There was a part of me that was feeling sad that my younger years were over and that it wasn’t in me to be that perky, carefree, younger self that I was before, similar to Sam Marlowe and to a much lesser extent, Candy, my Inception opponent. I tried not to think too much of it as I got my ‘longest champion’ award and put it in my locker. When I did… I noticed the 8 by 10 that I had revealed on camera earlier in the night of my younger self and pulled it out of my locker.
I found myself sighing again, going on a trip to “Nostalgia Avenue” and remembering how things seemed so damn easy earlier in my life.
“Considering the roads I’ve travelled… considering what I’ve been through… considering all the awful things I’ve done in my wrestling past… I sometimes miss the ‘old Myra’ too. In those days? Everything seemed so simple. In some ways, a person like Sam or Candy reminds me of what ‘old Myra’ was like…”
Naturally… I began to flash back to such a time…
New Year’s Eve 2007
“CONGRATULATIONS GIRLFRIEND!!!!!” I could hear the bubbly voice of Jazmyn shout out to me as I walked into my living room. I was feeling a rush of excitement and joy as I ran up to her and we gave each other a huge hug! “You got your first mainstream wrestling contract!!!!”
“Oh my GOD! I KNOOOOOW!” I said with an excited tone of voice, even gasping in delight. “This means the WORLD to me! Jazzy, come on! Did you REALLY think I threw this party just because it was New Year’s Eve? Bitch PLEASE! I did it to celebrate my contract because… you know… DUH! It DESERVES a celebration!”
“Girl, don’t I know it?” Jazmyn said.
“GIRL… DUH!” I said with sarcasm.
“Like. DUH, GIRL, DUH!” Jazmyn said with a laugh.
“Girrrrrrl…”
We both exchanged an embrace and exchanged a laugh. Jazmyn pulled out her flip phone.
“Selfie time!” Jazmyn exclaimed with excitement. “You know I gotta get in on this with my main…. GIRRRRRRL….”
“Oh you’re too much Jaz!” I said with a laugh.
We took a basic smiling selfie, then a few silly ones which included the usual duckface nonsense, the one with our tongues sticking out in silliness and the selfie where we nearly kissed each other in the lips. Essentially, we were just two young Florida girls in our early 20’s having a real blast on New Year’s Eve.
“I’m going to get another drink…” Jazmyn said to me. “You want one… er… another one?”
“Sure… I feel like I can go another round with Mr. Mojito… or two… or… three...” I said with a laugh as she left. I walked into the crowd as the music in the background got louder.
“Great party, Myra!” I heard a familiar voice say. “And congratulations on the NSWA contract!”
“Thanks Scotty…” I said to Scott Lockley Jr., the son of my trainer as we both exchanged a hug… before I caught him in a playful sleeper hold. “You know you owe me money, right?”
“Yeah… OW…” he said at first. “Like you don’t have enough of it…”
“I still broke mainstream FIRST you know!” I said with a conceited scoff. “Scotty, come oooon… don’t ruin my vibe!”
“Alright alright… you won the bet!”
I smiled as I broke the sleeper hold on him. He said “ow” again as he held the back of his neck. I merely smiled and chuckled at him as I took the last sip of the mojito I had already had in my hand.
“Well, let me tell you about how AMAZING my career’s going to be…” I continued through my youth and stupidity. “...I’m going to be this massive star… kay? Then I’m going to travel the world and be MEGA famous and I’m going to be…”
“The wrestler of our generation…”
“TOTALLY!”
Jazmyn came back with a mojito and handed it to me and this gave Scotty his way out. “Dance Dance” by Fallout Boy started playing and we both had a bit of a mark out moment as we partied with the rest of the people. The next half hour was nothing but snapping selfies with some friends of mine, hearing congratulations from them, laughing, drinking, having one hell of a time.
I wasn’t worried about anything that could go wrong.
The night as a whole though, began to be more spotty for me memory wise…
“MYRA! MYRA! MYRA!” I heard the entire party cheer as I was drinking yet another mojito while I was on a mechanical bull in my backyard. I shrieked quite a bit as I fell off and hit the floor pretty hard. The crowd gasped.
“Are you okay?” a partygoer asked. I got up almost immediately.
“Totally FINE BROOOOOOO….” I said with a drunken laugh. “WOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!”
The crowd cheered as my fun continued…
“RIGHT IN THE FACE!” I willed Jazmyn as she was chucking tomatoes at a picture of my father back in my living room. “RIGHT IN THE FAAAAACE! Come on Jazzy….”
Jazmyn’s next tomato splattered where my father’s face was!
“I GOT IT! I GOT IT!”
“YESSSSSS!!!!!!”
And the fun continued…
“Where is it? Where is it?” I asked. I was blindfolded with a donkey tail in hand. I felt what was a cardboard cutout of my father and then bent down. However, I stumbled right into the floor and I heard an audible groan. I was confused as I sat up. I removed my blindfold and I was looking up at Scott Lockley… Senior… and my trainer was NOT happy…
“Miranda Lynette Rivers, what the hell are you doing?”
“Um… pinning the tail on the DICK… cause… you know… that’s what my DAD is! Come on… don’t be a DICK Mr. Lockley… don’t kill my vibe maaaaaaaaaaan….”
“Are you DRUNK?”
“HAHAHAHAHAHAHA nooooo… you’re sooooo funny....”
“This is supposed to be a big moment for you… a celebration of signing your first mainstream contract… and you’re acting like such an irresponsible brat! Young lady, you still have a lot to learn as to what it takes to be a real wrestler in this business. Just because you’re 23 doesn’t mean you’ve got it figured out. Did you forget that you were supposed to do your big speech tonight?”
“Speech…???” I asked. “Ooooooooh… that speech… no worries… I got this… kay?”
“This should wait until…”
“No no, I’m fine…” I insisted. “Can you help me up? I’m sooooo buzzed….”
My trainer helped me up, though he was quite annoyed which of course, I understood in hindsight.
Later…
The crowd, most of them drunk, gathered around me in my living room as I took center stage with a microphone. The music had shut off at this point and my eyes were starting to flutter a bit with exhaustion setting in. Still, the massive “CONGRATS MYRA” banner hanging from the ceiling gave me enough motivation to keep on going. I had some notes that I had pre-written on some cards before the party had even started, but at this point, I could barely read them. I sloppily threw them over my shoulder, not caring that I didn’t remember what I was going to say. I basically winged my whole speech being as drunk as I was…
“So… like… thank you all for comin’...” I began. “You are ALL such BEAUTIFUL people! So yeah like… we’re celebrating me signing my first mainstream contract with NSWA and I get to travel the WORLD Y’ALL!”
The crowd around me cheered as I continued.
“It’s a… REALITY becoming such a… such a… uh… what’s the word… DREAM! YEAH! It’s a REALITY becoming a DREAM! And… you know I love you ALL… RIGHT? My ol’ high school friends that I still got… thank you soooo much for voting me as your prom NSWA champion queen… whatever… what am I talking about? OH YEAH… I also want to thank my fellow students at my rasslin’ school… did I say that I love you ALL?!?!?!! Hahahaha…”
“WE LOVE YOU TOO MYRA!”
“And I’m gonna RULE HIGH SCHOOL!!!!!! YEEEEEEEEEAH!!!!!!!!”
“You already DID! But you’re going to RULE NSWA!” Jazmyn screamed from the crowd.
“....oh yeeeeeeah…” I said with a drunken chuckle. “I’m gonna RULE NSWA….”
I punched the air with excitement.
“I’m gonna RULE all the BITCHES and become WOMEN’S CHAMPION there!”
Another excited punch in the air.
“I’m gonna RULE WRESTLING, BITCHEEEEEEEEEEES!” I screamed as I jumped in the air, almost twisting one of my ankles as I landed back on my feet. This small stumble did not deter me from being so hyper and excited. “In fact… to celebrate, I’m gonna sing a little song…”
I cleared my throat and… needless to say? The fun continued.
“I’m SOOOOOO EXCITED!!!!” I sang off key! “I’M SOOOOOO EXCIIIIIIITED! I’M SO… SO…. wasted… I’m going to bed y’all… night…”
The microphone fell out of my hands as I stumbled over to my couch. I fell on it and basically have no memory of anything else that happened that night…
New Year’s Day 2008…
The next morning, I woke up with a massive migraine.
“Ugh…” I said as I opened my eyes. “...what the hell? Where am I? UGH! I feel like I got hit by a damn truck…”
Needless to say, this was the least fun hangover I ever had. I was able to sit up.
“You’re awake… good…” I heard the voice of my trainer say. I was quite surprised when I realized he spent the night keeping an eye on me.
“Yeah… I need to see Jazmyn for my morning margarita…”
“Oh no you don’t…” he told me. “Not after last night…”
“Last night…” I gasped when some memories from the night before began to come to me. “...wait… my speech…. Oh my god… I’m SO sorry…”
“You’re about to hit the mainstream wrestling business wrestling in front of the whole world, Myra. You may have gotten to party a hell of a lot and have a hell of a time in the Indies, but out there in the real wrestling world? They’re not going to tolerate this type of behavior. I hope the hangover you’re dealing with teaches you a valuable lesson about responsibility young lady!”
“...not now, please?”
“You’re a brilliant young lady and you’ve got such a big heart…” he reminded me. “But you won’t reach your full potential being a ditzy sweetheart, I’ll tell you that much. You’ve got to be on your best behavior, young lady! Your NSWA debut is in five days! Get it together! If you don’t and you stay as you are, the NSWA is going to chew you up and spit you out!”
“Can you get me some aspirin or something?”
“Sure…”
Mr. Lockley finally left me alone. I collapsed back down on the couch with my hangover sapping me of my ability to sit up for too long. I groaned some more, really hating my hangover as I was left with those words to think about from the man I would ultimately learn to respect as my father figure the more I matured and grew in the professional wrestling business.
After CC290…
I was looking at the 8 by 10 of my younger self once again, but this time I was doing so with a smile on my face as I lay down on my bed. I turned away from the picture of my younger self and lied on my back as I looked up at the ceiling, completing my trip down memory lane. I wasn’t exactly proud of my behavior on that New Year’s Eve night. I was still feeling a little bit of embarrassment that I made such a fool out of myself at that party. But in a more lighthearted moment, I at least got to laugh at myself and smile, showing that a piece of me still had some love in my heart for my younger, bubblier, naive self.
“I was such a joy back then…” I said with a smile as I began to come around on the sweetheart that I once was. “...I wasn’t exactly the smartest person in the room and I was, at times, highly egotistical and occasionally delusional about my own potential in wrestling… but I was loose. I didn’t care about the consequences. I spent my whole Indy career more focused on having fun and having a good time and living my dream and everything. And then I got to NSWA….”
I took a brief pause to sigh, briefly lamenting the fact that NSWA is when things started to skew a different way for me.
“...and I got a reality check that I hadn’t experienced before. It wasn’t as bad as it would be later on in PRW… but once I got to NSWA, people really took advantage of my sweet, bubbly kindness and it began to jade me. I was going through so much and then the ladder match in Vegas happened and I got SO irritated at how I was doubted and ridiculed and scored that I began to take things a little more seriously… which hey, great, it got me my big breakthrough moment and all…”
I paused and sighed.
“Then I moved forward to PRW and became the face of the company in the early part of my run there and that’s all I was focused on. It’s like… somewhere along the way, I forgot how to have fun…”
“You’re not wrong…” I heard the familiar voice of my now, ex-boyfriend Jayson Scheinder. Instantly, my feelings of nostalgia faded and when I sat up to look at him, holding a bouquet of roses no less, I felt nothing but contempt for him especially when he walked into my suite and shut the door.
“What do you want?” I told him. I slid off of the bed to meet him a little more eye to eye. He tried to hand me the roses, but I shoved them right back in his chest, causing him to laugh. “You have the nerve! We break up and you just walk right in. What is this? You want me back?”
“Something like that…” he said. “We broke up over the dumbest of reasons, you know. We broke up because you couldn’t accept me for who I am.”
“OH REALLY?” I said to him, feeling annoyed already knowing that what he just said was far from the truth and he was just trying to get to my head to get a rise out of me. “I thought you changed, Jay! I thought you gave up being a part of the problem of corrupting the business. I should’ve broken up with you after the shit you said about Sam, but seeing you be part of a kidnapping plot in another company… with your EX no less…”
“An ex that broke up with me more than 13 years ago Myra… JEEZ…”
“It’s not even the fact that Luci is your ex, Jay! It’s the fact that….” I took a brief pause remembering my long, historic rivalry with Jayson’s aforementioned ex back in PRW and much of the psychological scarring that she had put me through… especially when it came to one certain match when PRW closed. These memories caused me to snap. “UGH! YOU KNOW HOW I FEEL ABOUT THAT WOMAN!!!!”
“It was almost eight years ago… get over it…” Jayson said with a snickering smirk on his face.
“GET OVER IT? Right at the end of PRW, that woman did nothing but torment me. She was PROUD of the fact that she beat me in my last match there… and what I thought was the last match I was ever going to wrestle… a match that I dedicated to my unborn daughter! She came up to me after that match in my locker room and ran up the score calling me a failure of a mother and a daughter, remember that? That DESTROYED ME! I went into a dark, downward spiral for YEARS because of her and SOMEHOW you think it’s okay for you to associate yourself with that person?”
“That’s my protege and one of my best friends, Myra…” Jayson said with a shrug, dismissing my feelings. “Of course I am going to help her! You can’t tell me who to be friends with.”
“Oh that’s SO rich from the guy who thought that I shouldn’t be friends with ‘pathetic’ Sam Marlowe because she was going to ‘drag me down’. You tried to control every aspect of my career in SCW from who I should be friends with to, to how I should conduct myself. I can’t do this anymore, Jay. I’ve known you for eleven years… as a rival, as a friend, as a surrogate sibling, as a boyfriend… and I’ve given you SO many chances, defended you so many times. I keep telling people you’ll change and you’ll grow up and you never do! You never stopped being the complete ASSHOLE I met eleven years ago! You have your moments and then you just… UGH… I can’t deal with you anymore! You’re NEVER going to change!”
“No… I won’t…” Jayson admitted without shame. “At least I am true to who I am… unlike SOME people…”
This comment truly ticked me off and I was really holding myself back from wanting to beat the hell out of him
“Really?”
“How much longer are you going to keep playing the nice girl? Until Candy beats you for the title? You keep handing title shots to people that don’t deserve them like her and Sam and eventually it’s going to come back and bite you in the ass. I LOVED the take no shit Myra who would do ANYTHING to get her way… I STILL do…”
“You love the Myra that would be a complete bitch to everyone, who would torment and abuse her own proteges and who didn’t give a fuck if someone’s career was ended, that’s what you’re saying.”
“Exactly! The ‘EVIL’ Myra that you don’t want to be anymore was a KILLER! The REAL you didn’t give a shit! Seeing you turn on Jazmyn and torment her until her career was almost gone many years ago in GCW was one of the best things I’d EVER seen in professional wrestling.”
Seeing the smirk on his face as he mentioned this made me feel sick to my stomach.
“...you’re DISGUSTING! I didn’t just almost end her career, I almost killed her!”
“Remember when you stripped and humiliated Andrea on live TV and beat her with a belt? GOD, that was AMAZING! You put HER in her place just like you should’ve. It made her tougher. Look at her now! She’s one of the best wrestlers in the world after everything you did for her!”
My anger was only getting worse the more words came out of his mouth, but this anger was just making him happier. As tempting as it was, I knew he was only trying to push my buttons just like Andrea had.
“What? I’m speaking the truth here and while we’re on the subject of the truth? I never COULD stand ‘nice girl Myra’, EVER! I remember when we first met back in PRW, I couldn’t stand how happy and vibrant you were. I couldn’t stand the fact that someone like YOU was the franchise face of PRW. I couldn’t stand the fact that you were so generous, kind, caring and giving to everyone else in the locker room… YOUR COMPETITION! It made me fucking SICK. You’ve lost your edge ever since your baby daddy died…”
“Jay… don’t push me…” I said with an angry tone. “...for her sake, I HAD to let go of that darkness. You know that…”
“Ever since your daughter went back to live with you, you haven’t been the same. I HATE the ‘sweetheart, do gooder’ that you were before and that you’re trying to be again. I can’t stand people like that. She was too damn soft to be ANYTHING in this business…”
“Yeah… well ‘sweetheart, do gooder’ Myra won my first three world championships, my first ten total championships, and happens to be the longest reigning Bombshells Internet Champion so no matter HOW you try to spin it, that do gooder that you hate so much? She’s beyond good enough to be in this business… which is more than I can say for YOU…”
“Let me ask you this, Myra. If she really is good enough, why’d you get rid of her in the first place five and a half years ago? Oh right… because you got all up in your feelings over your last match in PRW and you let that loss get to you SO fucking much that you became the woman that I loved with every bit of my heart, that ‘EVIL’ that you want to swear off so damn bad. Again, it was nearly eight years ago. Get over it and get over yourself. You’ll never be that sweetheart again. You’ll never erase all of the horrible things you had done from GCW through UWA and through Carnage wrestling.” I suddenly found myself looking down on the floor and feeling quite sad about what I just heard. “Being the nice girl and having this reign doesn’t erase any of that. It doesn’t erase the fact that you shortened careers, fucked up the psyches of others and in the case of Maggie Lockheart in Carnage, possibly permanently altered her career. No matter how hard you try… that dark past will NEVER go away… and if you lose that title to Candy? You’re going to have a hard time keeping that ‘darkness’ away. You’ve gone completely soft Myra… and that’s not going to get you to a 5th world championship. Somewhere deep down… you know I’m right. The day you’ll realize that? I’ll be waiting…”
“You’re a pig, Jay…” I said, as my anger had been swallowed up by guilt and sadness.
Jayson just scoffs at this before he turns and leaves the room. I’d be lying if I said that those words that I had just heard didn’t sting or hurt a bit as I sat back down on my bed. The part of my career where I kept doing so much wrong and hurting so many people was starting to flood my mind again, giving me a sour taste of bitterness and regret that I had ever been that person at all.
“He’s wrong on everything he just said… I know that…” I told myself, trying to keep myself together. “Well… a lot of what he said. He’s not wrong about the past. I can’t erase it. I’ve known that for an eternity. I can never change or erase that. That’s not what bothers me. What bothers me is how he said I should just get over that painful memory at the end of my PRW run with that match… not because he said it… but because he’s right. It’s going to be incredibly hard… but I do have to get over that. I just wish I knew how…”
I sighed as I took a glance from a distance at the 8 by 10 of my younger self once more.
“Mr. Lockley was right… this business really DOES change people. He warned me that gradually, as I went along in the business, I was going to be less and less of the person that I remember. It really changed me so much over the years… but I doubt even he imagined how much it would change me. Now I’ve got to go in and beat someone who’s somewhat of an exaggerated version of who I was before: someone who has a history of pulling out surprises. I like her… but I’m not going to let her beat me. I didn’t let it happen tonight. I won’t let it happen at Inception. I’ve got to stay focused and keep doing me… because I am enough… I’ve been on the roll that I’ve been on just because I’ve been doing “me” this whole time. Maybe that’s the lesson in all of this…”
I lied back down on the bed and continued to reflect on things. At this point, I was past the mixed tag that Caleb and I won and my focus was squarely on Inception and retaining the Bombshells Internet Championship one more time…
January 23, 2021
The cameras were on and I was alone in the suite, ready to speak my mind regarding my upcoming title defense. I reflected for a bit on each and every title defense that I had up to this point. Having already broken the record for the longest reign, I knew that the focus of the match for some was going to be the opportunity for me to be the first champion to have five defenses in a single reign. But, I wasn’t feeling the pressure. Despite some of my internal struggles as of late, despite the fact that I was pining for my younger years to a degree, I was heavily focused on the task at hand. I wasn’t thinking about records. I wasn’t worrying about the past coming back to bite me in the ass. I was just focused on doing what needed to be done… and that was something that I wanted to make clear when I began to express my thoughts.
“I’m going to get this part out of the way VERY quickly. I’m now the longest reigning SCW Bombshells Internet Champion ever. That is in no way insignificant, I realize that. I know that I’m about to go into this thing with the opportunity to do what nobody has ever done and that’s retain this title five times in a single reign. I get that this is a big deal. But, it’s like I said when I won this championship from Kate Steele nearly six months ago: I wasn’t going to focus on breaking records and that’s something that I am going to stand by. My focus was being the best damn Internet Champion that I could possibly be, taking on all comers and making sure that I was going to overcome every obstacle that was thrown in front of me and for nearly six months, that’s exactly what I’ve done. I did it when I retained this championship three weeks later against Kate Steele despite the fact that she had given me such a tough challenge and could’ve easily cut my reign off at just three weeks with all of that pressure on my shoulders. I did it against Sam Marlowe when she could’ve caught me on an off night just like my opponent did against her last year when she won the Roulette Championship off of her. I did it against Maki when old darknesses and insecurities could’ve come back and haunted me. I did it against Seleana Zdunich at the biggest show of the year in spite of my history of falling short in a big moment like that in recent years.
It’s safe to say that I’ve done it all… or pretty damn close to it… as the Internet Champion. It’s evidenced by the fact that I had to put in an open challenge out there for this event… for ANYONE on the Bombshells roster to take it… and to your credit, Candy, that’s exactly what you did. I know that there may be some other women on the roster that feel like you may not deserve this opportunity considering you recently lost to Royal Purple, a GRIME wrestler, and since you haven’t exactly lit the world on fire since your Roulette Championship reign ended… but I wasn’t going to back down from ANY challenge! Twisted Sister could’ve accepted the challenge and I would’ve went for it! That’s how much of a fighting champion I’ve been. You’re an impressive wrestler… you’re someone that reminds me of a younger me, that’s for sure. Your bubbly, perky attitude is one of the brightest in the locker room, Candy, I recognize that. I appreciate that. You’re going to give me a damn good fight! But at the end of the day, Candy, when it all comes down to it? You’re not taking this championship from me.
I get that you’re the big ‘upset queen’ of this division.
You upset Sam Marlowe more than 12 months ago to become the Roulette Champion. You even hung in with SIN back at Violent Conduct. Yet, ever since you lost that championship, as I mentioned before… you just haven’t lit the world on fire. I hate to say that to someone such as yourself, Candy. I know that you’re an eternal optimist that likes to see the bright side of everything and I get that because that’s the kind of attitude that I used to carry in this business in my Independent years, but your greatest strength is also your greatest weakness and that’s the fact that… as awkward as it is to point out… you’re just too damn nice and try too damn hard to see the good in everyone. From a human being standpoint, that makes you better than most of the women in the locker room, but as you know, here in Sin City Wrestling… this isn’t a contest of who is the biggest sweetheart and the most optimistic. This is a contest of who is the best of the very best. I know you’re not aiming for that Candy, and I respect that. But even you have to admit that you can do better than what you’ve been doing ever since you lost that Roulette Championship.
Even you have to admit that sometimes, it can be tiring having so many people underestimate you again and again. I was very similar to you in my younger years back in NSWA and I dealt with it constantly and it nearly pushed me to quit because I just couldn’t handle it… so I had to take things just a little bit more seriously and low and behold, I began to shine. Don’t get me wrong Candy, you are VERY good at what you do. And yet, the reason why you’re not really lighting the world on fire and capitalizing on your potential to be one of the best of the best in this company is two-fold: one, you may have too big of a heart for this and two? You’re just not consistent enough. The beginning and the end of your championship reign personify this entirely! When you won the championship, you beat Sam fucking Marlowe… in my book… the greatest Roulette Champion in the history of the Bombshells division! That’s a HUGE deal! But you wound up losing the title to Violet Amelia Holt… and I’m sorry Candy… but that’s someone you SHOULD’VE retained the title against.
If it were ME in that situation losing to someone like Violet, I’d be PISSED! I’d be chomping at the bit for a damn rematch! But… you didn’t do that at all.
No… the sun set on your championship reign, it rose the next morning and… it’s like it never happened…”
I took a pause and my head filled with confusion for a bit as I recalled what I just said.
“Violet is one of those bombshells that are a ‘work in progress’ so to speak, but she somehow managed to upset you for the title. If you lose a championship to someone like that, then it’s going to be really hard for you to move up the ladder. I’ve been upset for championships before and it’s not a pretty feeling and I’m ALWAYS chomping at the bit to even the score… which… with Violet, that’s exactly what you did but unfortunately for you, she lost the title in two weeks to Seleana. This match for me, is a parallel situation. This time, I’m you and you’re Violet. I’m probably the favorite going in, but that doesn’t mean that I’m going to look past you. That doesn’t mean that I am going to overlook you. I proved that as such last weekend when Caleb and I got the win over you and Augustino. I know the ‘upset queen’ reputation that you have. I know how you pulled a fast one over Sam and with all due respect to one of my favorite people in this company, I’m NOT Sam! This isn’t going to be a lightning strikes twice situation because by this point in my championship reign, someone would’ve snuck up on me and beat me. Sam and Maki beating me for this championship would’ve been considered an upset. I didn’t look past Sam despite her struggles. I treated her as the decorated Bombshell that she is. I didn’t look past Maki despite the fact that High Stakes was looming. I didn’t look past you in our encounter last weekend with this match coming up. I didn’t look past Seleana knowing that my stock in this company was rising.
I’m as intensely focused as they come, Candy. This isn’t a match where you get to rely on horseshoes and glass slippers to become the Bombshell Internet Champion and yeah, maybe I am sounding a bit harsh, but I’ve always tried to be real and honest with my opponents whether they like what I have to say or not. Don’t get me twisted, Candy. I DO like you. I DO think you’re a hell of an asset to this division, but I know in my heart that going into this, I AM the better wrestler… that I have been the more impressive of us two ever since I came into this company. You want to compare championship reigns? Fine! We’ll compare championship reigns! You were the Roulette Champion for a long time… but who did you defend against? How is it that your reign… as long as it was… doesn’t get brought up very much? I’ll let the big board tell the story…
I took a pause and stood up, walking to a chalkboard that highlighted a comparison between my Internet title reign and her Roulette title reign, particularly the defenses that were had. On Candy’s side, the names “BELLA, DENISE, MERCEDES, BEA” are written and on Myra’s side, the names “KATE, SAM, MAKI, SELEANA”.
“Do you see the answer yet?” I asked as I continued to make my point. From ALL of your defenses, your most memorable defense was Mercedes Vargas inside of a steel cage and we all know the locker room talk about Mercedes to the point where some of the women in the room want her to retire. Compare that to my defenses in this reign so far… look at that list… you have one of the greatest Internet Champions ever, the greatest Roulette champion ever and two former world champions. My ‘weakest’ defense on the list is Maki… and I use that term loosely by the way and considering the decline Mercedes has been on for an eternity, you can even make the argument that my ‘weakest’ defense is stronger than your ‘strongest’ defense. On top of the fact that you lost the championship to Violet, which in and of itself isn’t good… the women you defended the title against? Bella Madison isn’t at the level of any of my defenses. Bea Barnhart isn’t at the level of any of my defenses. Denise Andrews doesn’t even work here anymore. When you look at that… you can see why your Roulette Championship reign is honestly passed off as a mere Cinderella run.
Your record on supercards is touted as well… but again, from your wins on supercards, Mercedes at High Stakes is your strongest win. The rest? Bella. Bea. Violet. They’re all talented in their own way… but again… none of the four are at the level of a Kate Steele, Sam Marlowe, Seleana Zdunich or Amber Ryan.
The bottom line is, Candy… as excited as you are going to be about this, the reality is that I’m going to be the toughest opponent you’ve had on a Supercard in quite some time… and you just haven’t shown the consistency that’s required to rise up and beat someone on the level of an Amber Ryan or an Alicia Lukas yet. It pains me to say this to you…”
As such, I took a pause and expressed a sigh of regret. A piece of me was feeling quite guilty and felt like I was being harsh, but the wrestler inside of me knew that I was just doing what I had to do as the Internet Champion and that I had no reason to feel bad about what I was saying to my challenger.
“...believe me… it does… because I DO like you but the bottom line is, you’re too much of a happy go lucky girl and that’s what holds you back from getting to the next level. I get that not all wrestlers here aim to reach that upper echelon. I understand that you’ll have your wrestlers that are here just to live a dream and be happy to be here… and maybe that’s you, Candy. Maybe you’re the wrestler that’s just happy to be here and you’re not for being a world champion. That’s perfectly fine if you are. But that’s not me. I’ve ALWAYS wanted to be the best wrestler that I could be. Sure, I was naive just like you at one point, but it was naive in the sense that everything was just going to fall into place and that I was going to be an accomplished professional wrestler and a top champion overnight. It wasn’t a puppies and rainbows thing like it seems to be with you. But still… I know going into this thing that I have a greater drive and determination than you do. You defended all comers yourself as the Roulette Champion, I will give you that… but the competition that you faced during that reign doesn’t compare to the competition that I’ve faced during mine. What Inception is going to tell me about you is how bad you really want this. Are you someone that REALLY wants to rise to the top and be one of the best Bombshells on the roster… or are you someone that is just happy to be here? There’s NOTHING wrong with either… at least not with me… but I know some of the women on this roster see the latter as a bad thing. Still, I know that for all of my advantages that I’ve got, you’ve got some over me.
The pressure is on me, not you, by default.
You’re way more capable of having fun doing this than I am… and I envy you for that trait, I’ll be the first to admit that.
And you have been an upset queen in the past… while I’ve been “upset vulnerable” in the past in my own right…
But Inception?
It’s NOT going to be one of those times, Candy. I’m going to go out there and do what I do best and that’s take things one match and one defense at a time… and be the best damn Internet Champion that I can be!
Notice how through all of this, I didn’t mention the title defense record?
That’s because I’m not about that. That’s not my main focus, Candy. That’s YOU… and at Inception, once I retain against you, I’ll show you exactly the fighting champion that I’ve been and will continue to be once I defend this championship once again…
At this point, I stood up and shut off the camera. Standing behind it and looking at the board, I was still struggling a little as far as whether I was too harsh on Candy or not. But still, in the end? I knew it was just business… and I knew it was me needing to represent the division that I was the champion of to the best of my ability.
