[Christian Underwood]

Post your roleplays here by deadline. Good luck and have fun!

[Roux]

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Explanations
Romania
23 APRIL 2023
OFF-Camera



I was just ready to get out of Romania. Nothing about the trip here had gone according to plan. The flight to this godforsaken place had been a nightmare in and of itself. Camping in the woods was not only ridiculous, but a pain in the ass. I hadn’t gotten to do the one thing that I felt would give me an edge in Blast from the Past because of the stupidity of lodging in a haunted forest. Add a pinch of Jet City South drama, a guy returning from the dead, and one very embarrassing fainting episode, and there was no way I was getting into the right headspace to take on Devona and J2H. I felt it going into the match. I was distracted during the match. I wasn’t there for my partner when he was starting to fall short. I guess I should have felt good about the fact that I wasn’t the one that actually blew it for our team. It didn’t help though. Not really. The only thing that was going to help was getting the fuck out of here and getting back to a place where things were normal.

I had been running around nonstop since the start of the tournament. It seemed like no matter how hard I tried there was always some new problem to address. I needed time to decompress. I needed to go home and get away from all these people, even if just for a few days. I had never gotten changed, packed and out of a venue faster than I had the BTArena. I hadn’t even planned to go back for any of the things at camp. There was no point. Sin City would take care of anything left behind, lest it tarnish their reputation as a company with the community. Besides, trying to take any of it with me would have been more trouble than it was worth. It’s not like I was ever going to mistake camping for a good time anytime soon.

I burst out one of the many backdoors of the arena, and out into the parking area expecting to see it empty. Fans weren’t permitted to roam through the area, and everyone involved with the show was still inside doing their job. Once again, I was wrong. There was not only someone waiting outside the door, but a car waiting with them, and an envelope with my name on it. Jet City hadn’t bothered with the details of getting us to Romania, but they were apparently concerned with getting me out. I knew that it could only mean one thing. I mean, it is not like we were going to be waiting on any of the others. I was being singled out.

I don’t think that I exchanged a single word with the driver. Why would I? I wasn’t going to have to share the same space as this guy ever again. It wasn’t his fault that I didn’t really want anything to do with what was undoubtedly waiting for us at the airstrip. He was just doing the job that he was hired for. He even got out and opened the door for me once we arrived and pulled into the hangar next to Jet City’s private plane. He hadn’t followed me toward the plane, and the only bag that I had with me was already slung over my shoulder. I took a deep breath before climbing the stairs that had already been lowered for me.

COURT: Let’s get this over with….

I caught sight of him before I even reached the top of the stairs. His eyes were glued on the phone screen down in his lap but there was no way that he hadn’t heard me coming. He was wearing the same plain red, hooded sweatshirt that his early Sin City promo work had made famous. It was strangely comforting, even if the man underneath it seemed completely different than the man I knew. When I crossed the threshold, he must have caught the movement out of the corner of his eye, because his eyes shot up at me.

KRIS: I figured you might be in a hurry to leave Romania behind…

I wasn’t going to let him start off our conversation with a lie though.

COURT: Are you sure that’s what it was? It wasn’t that you’re supposed to be dead, and since you aren’t you definitely owed me some kind of explanation of why I put my entire life on hold to make sure your gym didn’t fall apart.

I didn’t raise my voice even though the thought of doing so was more than intriguing. He deserved as much. At the very least, he owed me for all of the tears shed at his expense over the last year.

KRIS: I thought that went without saying….

It was such a typical Kris thing to say. It was an apology without actually having to say the words. That wasn’t going to be enough for me.

COURT: It doesn’t. Never did. People just let you get away with murder…

In this particular case, I guess the meaning was literal. I could tell that he wanted to make a joke about my choice of words, but somehow he knew that this wasn’t the time.

KRIS: I don’t know what you want me to say.

I took solace in the fact that for once he actually said something that was the truth. For the first time in all of our interactions, he had arrived at the rational human answer to his predicament.

COURT: Was it all a lie? Were you ever even at the gym that day?

He didn’t answer me at first. I could tell that he was struggling to come up with the words to actually explain himself, but he didn’t have them. Instead of trying to stall until he could find them though, he stood up from the chair that he was seated in. Kris reached down at the bottom edge of his sweatshirt and in one fluid motion pulled it up and over his head. The scars that he revealed were telling enough that the whole thing hadn’t been a lie. Just an inch or two beneath his sternum, and ever-so-slightly towards his right arm, was the first of two discolored scars, still not entirely healed. It would probably be years before the skin changed to a more normal color. A few inches below that one, and off-centered the same distance the other direction was a second. He pointed to the top one without hesitation.

KRIS: ...because of the angle it took, it nearly nicked my spine. I would have been paralyzed at the least. If it had missed to the other side, I wouldn’t be standing here now….

His fingers traced around it before moving down to the second of the two.

KRIS: This one was just above my stomach. Got a piece of it, but just barely. If it had hit square, or bounced around, I would have been dead and gone before the EMTs ever made it to the scene. Luckily for me… it didn’t.

He turned around, revealing several tiny marks on his back that still hadn’t healed, along with the exit wound from the second shot. It hadn’t bounced around because it had passed straight through him and into the ground where he was laying. The scratches looked like what happened when the bullet split the tiles on the floor, causing them to shatter and stab at him.

COURT: ... so you almost died? That still doesn’t explain why you left us all in the dark for the last year. You know, people have even joked that you were still around. Do you have any idea what that was like for all of us? We went to your fucking funeral!

I had to raise my voice. Seeing the scars on his body made my eyes start to glass over, and I wasn’t going to allow him that kind of satisfaction. Just because he was telling me the truth now doesn’t mean the whole family hadn’t lied and manipulated me all year long.

KRIS: I did die, for something like four minutes.

He phrased it like that admission was supposed to make the whole thing better somehow. It didn’t, and I wasn’t going to let him use it to get himself off the hook.

COURT: Sorry it didn’t stick…

He looked genuinely stung by the words. He physically recoiled away from them, and then slid his hoodie back on as if trying to protect his wounds from the words.

KRIS: They brought me back pretty quick, but I didn’t wake up until closer to my birthday. It was safer that way, and at the time, Mikah didn’t think that drawing attention to the fact that I was alive was the smartest idea. I can’t say that I blame her. She had kids to worry about.

Suddenly some of the little things about the last year started to make a little more sense. Mikah abandoning Eiley’s training and shipping her away made a lot more sense if she was harboring a dead person in her house. That still didn’t make any of it okay.

COURT: I get that you didn’t want the world to know you were alive, but it seems like everyone knew but me. We were friends! I was the one that ended up putting my whole life on hold to take care of the gym! Why didn’t I deserve the truth!?

I finally found myself unable to control the volume of my voice, but unlike all of our past conversations, he didn’t seem to find any joy in getting me to break. If anything, it only made him look more guilty than he had when I first stepped onto the plane.

KRIS: It wasn’t just you, it was everyone. Mikah and her kids are the only ones that have known the whole time. Jason didn’t know until I was finally awake and coherent. Coby didn’t know until just before Blast from the Past.

None of the information was a big piece of the story, but each time he opened his mouth, something else about the last year snapped into place.

COURT: That was why he couldn’t tell me why he wanted me to sign up for the tournament. Coby knew that I was happy living life at the gym. He only pushed me so hard because you were the one that asked….

The words didn’t come out as a question because I already knew the answer. The way that Coby had acted that whole afternoon seemed off. The way that he wouldn’t tell me why he was upending my life finally made sense. Coby hadn’t been the one asking me to join Blast from the Past.

KRIS: You were the one that trained Jaycee, and you were the only one that had an eye on all of the other students everyday.

Jaycee had started to tell me that part of the story the other night before Kris surprised me and I passed out.

COURT: Jaycee said it was all Oz’s fault, but it was only the two of you at the gym that day. We all saw it on the cameras. You two argued, and then you went to throw him out. Then they found you on the floor…

He shook his head. The whole situation was strange. Usually Kris tried everything at his disposal to try and avoid giving anyone a direct answer. Yet, there he was walking me through everything step-by-step. I hoped that he didn’t think it was going to make me cut him any slack. There was no explanation that could make all of this okay.

KRIS: Jaycee was running away from some people that Oz sent his way. That’s a long story that I don’t even fully understand. We didn’t even know it was him until after the tournament started.

It all made sense. Every horrible thing stacked nearly perfectly on top of one another, and the question that I had been asking all year didn’t have a real answer. Nobody was actually after Kris. They came for Jaycee.

COURT: ...and you were just in the way. Probably running your mouth until they had no choice but to shoot you…

His face twisted and he looked offended by the accusation.

KRIS: They weren’t going to be leaving any witnesses no matter what I said or didn’t say, and that’s the point. If I wasn’t the target before, not dying made me one. That’s why we kept up the lie. That’s why even now you are one of just a few people that know, and likely ever will. That’s wh--

That was when things turned. He went from filling in blanks and answering questions that I hadn’t yet asked to creating more questions without answers. I hadn’t signed up for that.

COURT: I don’t care.

I wasn’t trying to hurt him with the words. I didn’t even know that they were going to come out before they did. They popped into my head the moment that they came out of my mouth, and suddenly the weight was lifted off of my shoulders.

COURT: I really don’t. It’s always something with you people. There is always some reason that the world is crashing down around you. There is always some clear and present danger facing all of us. And you know what? None of it has ever been my doing. I walked in the door to your gym and the only think any of you have done since is make my life so fucking hard…

I didn’t want any of this. I was a kid that loved the wrestling industry. I wanted to be seen by massive crowds all around the world. I wanted them to see what I was capable of inside that ring, and acknowledge my small existence whether they loved me or hated me. None of this had anything to do with me. None of this was my fault, or my responsibility. Jet City had hijacked my dream, and superseded it with their bullshit. It was the worst distraction that I never asked to be a part of. Guilt had been keeping me involved, but with Kris sitting in front of me, that wasn’t something that I felt anymore.

KRIS: Court, I’m so--

I wasn’t going to let him say it.

COURT: Don’t you dare say those fucking words to me! You don’t mean them. If you did, I wouldn’t be in fucking Romania right now. I wouldn’t have signed up for this fucking tournament…. I wouldn’t…. I wouldn’t have broken my hand five years ago. You don’t care about me. You only care about me doing what is right for you.

He avoided my eyes like looking into them would have turned him to stone. The physical deflection let me know that he knew I was right.

KRIS: That’s not wh--

If he couldn’t look at me while he lied, then he didn’t deserve to speak. I cut him off again.

COURT: I don’t need this, and I don’t think I ever did.

I didn’t give him the chance to change my mind. As soon as the words left my mouth, I turned away from him and headed back down the stairs. I didn’t care that it meant flying commercial. I didn’t care that it meant heading back to the creepy driver that I never wanted to share the same air with again. I wasn’t flying back to the states with Kris no matter what the inconvenience. It was just going to be a gateway for them to lure me back in. I wasn’t going to let that happen. What I needed was distance between myself and Jet City. Permanent distance.



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>COURTside: Me, Myself & I

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”Affiliations are overrated.”

”What good has being a good soldier for Jet City ever done for me? I have been injured. I have been a punching bag for the people that they really value. I have been an afterthought in Sin City, even though Jet City takes all of the credit for getting me in the door there. They take all of the credit for all of my successes, and leave me to face all of my failures alone.”

”Did Jet City stop moving any of the times that I was hurt? Have any of their students ever come out to commend me for giving them the leg up that they needed in this business? Look at people that have come out of this gym in the time that I have been a trainer. Have you ever heard one of them say something positive about me? Have you ever seen Kate Steele step up on my behalf as someone that I have worked side-by-side with for years? I wasn’t even permitted to promote myself through the company social media until after I joined Blast from the Past this year. Never even a mention.”

”They basically blackmailed me into joining The Black Sheep to help protect Kris and Mikah’s reputations. They manipulated me into stepping up into a higher position in the wake of Kris getting shot. They coerced me back into the ring after I was more than happy to stop competing. They saddled me with rookies that were supposed to be the next coming of well… me. And then they were willing to disregard me without even a pat on the back for coming so close to the Blast from the Past finals for the second time.”

”For all of the effort that I have put into Jet City, I haven’t gotten a single fucking thing back. I have given that place my heart and soul since the moment I first walked through the door, but I am starting to realize that there was never a point where I got a return on that investment. Sure, I met my future wife inside the four walls of that gym, but that was more happenstance than anything. We were competing in the same company. There was no way that our paths weren’t well on their way to crossing with or without the help of Kris and his merry band of idiots.”

”...and if you take my relationship with Ruby out of the equation, the only thing that is left is misery. For years I have justified countless injuries, gaslighting, and horrible experiences by telling myself that Jet City was giving me back more than I was putting in. That was never the truth though. It was just the company line that I was sold. I never got any opportunity through them that I wouldn’t have earned on my own. Better yet, if I would have done it without being affiliated with them, I wouldn’t have to deal with their constant credit claiming for the things that I have done in my life. They didn’t train me up to win the 2018 Blast from the Past, Mikah did. They didn’t have anything to do with Ruby repeating that performance a couple of years ago, because that was all me. It took me watching them trying to push the same lie with Eiley before it really clicked.”

”When times are good, Jet City is always there to take the credit. When things are going bad, I am always forced to deal with it on my own. When I got injured, it was because I wasn’t level-headed enough. I was weak. I could be baited into making mistakes. Yet, that wasn’t a problem for them when I was winning matches or being called the future of the Bombshell Division. When Kris Ryans was around, I got reminded constantly that I was never going to be able to do the things that he could do in the ring. I was never going to be Hall of Fame level great. However, the moment that he was gone it was me that they asked to step up and take over. When it came to the tournament this year, I was just supposed to be the babysitter for their new talent. Yet, I was the one that made it the furthest out of all of them. I was the one labeled as their best hope of a third tournament victory.”

”Maybe five years ago I was too young, and too naive to see them for what they were. Maybe I had too little opinion of myself to care that they were taking advantage of me. It doesn’t matter, because whatever the real reason was, I was blind to the reality of my situation. Jet City didn’t exist to make things easier for me or my career. I existed as a vehicle to bring more attention to their gym. I was an advertising ploy. I was a feel good story so that they could worm their way into the pockets of girls like me that actually wanted to make something of themselves in this business.”

”I don’t know when I stopped being the teenage girl that stalked Mikah day-after-day and begged her to train me. That kind of thing is taken for granted these days now that Mikah has her own gym where she takes on students willingly. I was good enough to convince the most self-centered Bombshell in the history of Sin City wrestling that I was good enough to invest some time into while she was busy standing at the very top of the world. Mikah was the Bombshell Champion with children and a whole manicured life to live, but she saw something in me from the moment that I first stepped into a ring with her. She saw the talent that was begging to burst out of me. She knew that I was going to be something special.”

”I have sat around and let Jet City squander all of my untapped potential for long enough. Fuck’em. I’m out; done, for good.”

”The only person that I ever really needed was me, myself and I.”



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All Signs Point to The LBC
San Diego, CA -- Jet City South
4 MAY 2023
OFF-Camera



I thought that being back home was going to make me feel better. I thought that if I got back into the routine that I had before I joined Blast from the Past that I could somehow find the feeling that I was missing. Before Coby brought me into his office and coerced me into babysitting his new projects, my life was perfect. I was finally happy. Sure, I wasn’t competing anymore, but I didn’t need it. I had found a purpose at Jet City South. I was good at my job, and had hope that the people that came through our program would do big things in the business. I even had all of the things that someone could hope for outside of a career, but Jet City had been responsible for that as well. Ruby and I wouldn’t have the story that we have without them, or without Sin City for that matter. The gym, and the family that came with it, were deeply woven into every part of my life.

That was the problem. My time in the Blast from the Past tournament showed me the drawbacks of being so closely tied to this place. The last year of looking at it through rose-colored glasses hadn’t helped. Ever since Kris had gotten shot, I had done whatever I could for this place. They needed someone to step up, or everything that he worked for could have just fallen apart. I made it my purpose to make sure that didn’t happen, because I felt obligated to repay him for all of the things that he had given me. As it turns out, that was never the reality of the situation at all. Everything in this place was a lie, and it always was.

Kris was the one responsible for several of the setbacks that I suffered in my career. Whether directly, or indirectly, the chaos in the last few years of my life always ties back to him. Back when it was just Mikah and I, I couldn’t be stopped. Things didn’t start getting sideways until after he got involved, and they had been sideways ever since. I had stepped up in his absence to try and keep things stable, but that joke was on me. Things around here had never been stable. They couldn’t be. Kris is the human embodiment of instability, and all of the hard work that I put in to try and fix that was based on a lie. He wasn’t dead. It wasn’t some great mystery how or why it happened. I didn’t need to be on edge every time that I walked through the doors of this place for the last year. It was all bullshit, and they dragged me right into the center of it by asking me to join that damn tournament.

Being back at Jet City hadn’t been the warm hug that I wanted it to be, but it had brought some clarity. I knew exactly what I needed to do in order to reclaim the person I was before all of their drama got dumped in their lap. Oddly enough, it was the exact thing that I should have done the day that Kris goaded me into breaking my hand as a rookie. The truth was, I never really needed this place. I was well on my way to becoming a superstar without them. And they don’t need me either. While Kris was gone, the wheel kept on turning. The place didn’t even miss a beat. I wouldn’t even be leaving some kind of soul crushing hole in the place by leaving.

And that’s what made it easy to pack up all of my shit without a word to anyone. It’s not like I owed them an explanation, since I hadn’t deserved one for any of the things they asked of me. There wasn’t enough in my office to even require anyone’s help. The desk and furniture had all been provided by the gym. I hadn’t brought many personal effects. Everything that I needed would easily fit into the bag that I carried in and out of the place on a daily basis so nobody would even notice anything out of the ordinary about me. I collected most of what I needed before there was a light tap on the door. It was just my luck that I wasn’t going to be able to make an escape uninterrupted.

COURT: Please leave me alo--

Whoever had been on the other side of the door wasn’t waiting for permission to enter. The door opened before I could even get all of the words out of my mouth.

RUBY: I think it’s OUTRAGEOUS you think that you could head out to London without at least saying--

The reason that she didn’t wait for a response made sense. She knew that there was no way that I would kick her out of my office, regardless of what I was doing in here. She was the one bright spot that existed for me in the murky swamp of bullshit that the last five years had been. I hadn’t told her about the conversation with Kris because I didn’t know how. I had planned to pack everything up and then talk to her about it while I was on the flight. I should have known that any plan that I had was bound to backfire.

RUBY: What happened to your office?

I hadn’t changed much about the office since it first became mine, but the absence of those few personal items were enough to make the place seem foreign. Her voice had been light and playful when she first opened the door, but the second question came out with legitimate concern. I felt my blood pressure kick into overdrive as I leapt into an explanation.

COURT: I knew that you would try and talk me out of it so I just thought that I would just kind of pack it all up and then kind of deal with it later. Like I know that it is all for the best, but there is no way that I could talk to you about it without you thinking that you had something to do with it, and you don’t. I promise that there is nothing that--

Tears started to well up in the corners of my eyes. I tried to blink them away, but it was no use. I was already rambling, but I never made it to the end of the thought. As the words ran closer and closer together and started making less sense she could tell that something wasn’t right.

RUBY: It’s okay. Just calm down.

She moved forward and wrapped her arms around me. That was all that it took for me to finally break down. I had been in a kind of fog since talking to Kris, and I had done everything that I could to avoid mentioning it to her. All of it was killing me though. I couldn’t be dishonest with her anymore.

COURT: I have to leave. I have to get out of Jet City. I can’t do it anymore.

I hugged her back tightly so that she couldn’t pull away from me. I knew that she wasn’t going to like hearing that. She still gave full credit for our relationship to the gym itself.

RUBY: You have taken off a lot since K---

I couldn’t allow myself to let her make excuses for him anymore. He may not have wanted anyone to know, but there was no way that he expected me to lie to the woman that I was going to spend the rest of my life with.

COURT: He’s alive… It’s all just been some dumb game. All of it. Me taking over so much. Asking me to join the tournament. Taking me away from you. All of it was bullshit.

She didn’t let go of me, but she did lean back so that she could look into my eyes. It didn’t take more than a second for her to realize that I was telling the truth. It may not have made any sense to her, but she knew that there was no way that I would lie about something this big.

RUBY: Kris is alive?

Each word came out individually as she tried to reconcile that information with everything that we had gone through in the last year.

COURT: He surprised me before the match in Romania and told me everything.

Her mouth fell open. The fact that she was actually speechless would have been hilarious under any other circumstance. I could tell that she was still working her way through the information though.

COURT: That’s why I have to leave. I won’t let myself be a part of the games anymore. I understand if you don’t wa--

She snapped out of the shock at the thought of my leaving without her.

RUBY: No. I’m going with you. I’ll let Coby know I’m headed to London. You’re more important to me than anything going on here.

That was when it clicked. That was the warm feeling that I was looking for when I stepped into Jet City. It was never the place. It was always her, and if she was with me, none of the rest of this even mattered.



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>COURTside: The Future in the Present

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”What can I say about Crystal Caldwell that hasn’t been said a thousand times already?”

”Five time Bombshell Champion if you count up the reigns from all of her different names. Two time Bombshell Roulette Champion. One time Bombshell Internet Champion, and at the time she retired the belt by unifying it with the Bombshell Championship that she took away from Mikah.”

”She’s had well over a hundred matches in this company, and has done more than almost any other woman that has come down SIn City’s aisle, or stepped into their ring. We have watched her go through dozens of name and personality changes. We have watched her fall all the way to the bottom of the roster, just to work her way all the way back to the top. Nobody has climbed the ladder in this company as many times as Crystal, and I couldn’t take that away from her if I tried. The result of this match won’t change what Crystal has done, or who she is in the history of this company. It’ll hardly be a footnote in her story whether she wins or loses this match. In the grand scope of her career, this match means nothing.”

”...but it's not nothing to me….”

”I have been around this company a lot longer than most of the Bombshells currently on the roster. I may not have ever had many matches before disappearing for large stints of time, I may never have held the spotlight for very long, but I was always lurking in the shadows. I have gotten to watch the majority of Crystal’s career; first as a fan, and later as a colleague. I can talk about her various reinventions because, for the most part, I was there. Early on, I was being trained by Crystal’s greatest rival. By the time I was actually competing in the ring, Crystal had joined up with The Black Sheep, standing side-by-side with everyone that had a hand in training me. When I competed in Blast from the Past, she was the one holding the championship that I wanted my fair shot at. So rest assured, I know what I am talking about when it comes to Crystal. Everything that has happened in my career has been in the backdrop of hers.”

”...and that is what makes this important to me.”

”Let me take it back to 2018 for those of you that haven’t been following along that long. I was the rookie that nobody thought would make it out of the first round of Blast from the Past. Fenris and I were given zero shot to win the damn thing, but if anyone put money on us, they are probably still living off of the winnings. Back then Crystal and Mikah were in the middle of a series of matches that everyone was tired of seeing. It seemed like every time Mikah or Crystal’s music hit, the other wasn’t far behind. They couldn’t have been more involved with one another if they were joined at the hip, and the Bombshell division was suffering because of it.”

”I mean, Sin City could have had a real Bombshell division revitalization on their hands. Chelsea Payne was up and coming before suffering the same kind of injury that took me out. Mercedes and Sam Marlowe were still legitimate threats to win titles. Evie was just about unstoppable. The ladies of London Underground impressed just about everyone. Yet, I was the real hyped acquisition at the time, and I went and won the biggest tournament of the year if that tells you anything. However, none of that really mattered. The only two Bombshells that the company was invested in were Crystal and Mikah. Mikah was already talking about being part-time and not really being invested in competing anymore. Crystal was gobbling up every possible chance in an attempt to finally beat her before she rode off into the sunset. Mark and Christian were more than happy to push that match on everyone card after card, no matter who hated it.”

”....even at the expense of the Blast from the Past winner. You see, everyone remembers that I got hurt before I ever got my shot at the Bombshell Championship. They might even know that my injury had something to do with Kris Ryans being his usual vindictive self. The fact that somehow got lost in all of that shuffle was that the entire situation was the fault of one bombshell in particular: Crystal Caldwell.”

”I won the Blast from the Past Finals at Into the Void 2018, and on that very same night, Crystal managed to finally pull off the big one and take Mikah down for the Bombshell Championship. Granted, that probably something like the twentieth time that she tried. That should have put the two of us on a collision course for one another, but that wasn’t meant to be. Mikah wanted her rematch, and Crystal was more than happy to step back into the ring with her. It pissed me off at the time because I was the next rightful contender. Crystal was too afraid to step into the ring because I was looking unstoppable. Instead she agreed to try and pick the bones of the greatest bombshell of all time because Mikah already had one foot out the door. The only problem was, even with Mikah one foot out the door, she was more than capable of putting Crystal down. Crystal’s Bombshell Championship reign ended the show after it began.”

”Understandably, I thought that the timeline had been reset. Going into the finals, I was sure that my date with destiny against Mikah for the Bombshell Championship was a foregone conclusion. The Crystal detour only being a week was something that I could stomach. I was still going to get the prize that I earned in Blast from the Past. Summer XXXtreme 2018 I was finally going to get what I deserved, only instead, Crystal pried her way back into the picture. For some reason not only was she going to get another opportunity, she was going to get to crash my opportunity. Instead of getting my shot at the championship that I deserved, I was going to be competing against both Mikah and Crystal. I was on the verge of being iced out for a second time, but luckily for me I got hurt and saved myself the embarrassment of being passed over yet again. There I was, a rookie that had done something spectacular by winning the tournament only to have my shot given away or bastardized.”

”...and we all know what happened from there. Each time I came back, the powers that be wanted to make me start from the bottom. I had to have match after match with bombshells that everyone knew weren’t going to go anywhere. I can barely remember some of their names; there weren’t many that left a lasting impression. Whenever it looked like I was finally going to be in a position to get what I deserved all of those years ago, more roadblocks got thrown in the way. Whether that be Crystal, one of her flavors of the week, or one of her offspring, there was always someone trying to take my spotlight. By the time I did manage to get a one-on-one shot against a Bombshell Champion, three years had gone by and that champion was none other than Amber Ryan. I’m sure everyone remembers how many contenders she went through during the full year that she held that championship.”

”...and how many more shots did Crystal get in all of that time? How many times have we all seen her challenge for championships? How many supercards has she been in the co-main events of all of these years? Crystal was never someone that was made to wait. She was never a Bombshell that got blown off for some flashier match. Since the first day that I stepped into this company, she has gotten everything that she has asked for without question. It doesn’t matter which personality she wears to the ring. It doesn’t matter what her name is this week. It doesn’t matter if she is an active member of the roster, or the executive assistant to the bosses. For some reason, Crystal gets a free shot at whomever she wants, whenever she wants, the rest of us be damned…”

”...and I’ve tried to get over it. I’ve tried to let it go. Do any of you think that I have wanted to carry this around for five years? Do you think that this is what I want to be spending all of my time talking about? Do you think this is the match that I want? Of course not. But the thing that I want is the one thing that nobody can give me. We can’t go back to give me the match against Mikah. We can’t go back and set my career off the way that it was intended. Crystal’s selfishness cost me everything that the last five years of my life should have been. People are still calling me the future of the bombshell division, I should be the present. I should be chronicled in the recent past of this company. I should be known as the most dominant bombshell in the history of Sin City by now, but I am not. Crystal made sure that I never got that opportunity. She took my career off the rails before I ever really got to show people what I was made of. And for what? All she did was add a couple more losses to Mikah to her record, and that time cost me everything.”

”This match at Into the Void isn’t going to be what Crystal expects it to be. I am not going to walk down to the ring in awe of the things that she has accomplished. I am not going to step through the ropes as her friend. The only thing that matters to me is that she was the one that started me down the dark path that nearly ended my career. Crystal is going to find out that nobody holds a grudge like I do. I have been waiting a very long time to get my hands on Crystal, and I am not going to be wasting this opportunity.”

[Kate Steele]

{Apologies to Jay, this is not what I wanted to do but Youth Ministry went long this week, and I was under the weather for a bit so I am sorry. My focus was honestly on the other match and not letting Calvin down)

Into The Void

You know I have to be completely honest with all of you. I am not happy with what went down in Romania but I hope that all of this is finally over.

After being here for months and having to listen to Kimberly Pain over and over again. Can I just say that it is finally over?! I finally got that long awaited win over her and hopefully now we can finally move on. It’s not really in the way that I had envisioned things going.

I just wanted to go out there and beat her without anybody getting involved but I guess that’s a tale for another day.

At least it’s all done for now so we can move on.

This week I got bigger fish to fry and it’s in the form of Courtney Pierce…

I get to step into the ring with a former BFTP winner and I am excited to be in this match with her. Everybody claims she is the future World Champion and has so much to her name. I can’t wait to see what she brings to the table.

I await to see what she can do. Let the best woman win.

Flame On!