“I really wish you boys had been able to make it.” Devona said with a tender sadness in her voice, as she laid down on the bed inside of her luxury cabin, one of each afforded to the men and women booked during this acclaimed Summer XXXTreme XI cruise. Devona had been on this event in times past, and she was always booked a comfortable room, but this time around she was guested inside one of the mini suites with a balcony just outside of a sliding door. She had thought that perhaps there had been some mistake or Gabriel and Odette Stevens played a hand in her getting one of the best suites for anyone who wasn’t a champion, but it wasn’t the case. She had even wondered privately whether or not James aka J2H had a hand in it but quickly threw that idea out of her head. This was simply how it worked during this event for the SCW hierarchy. Mark and Christian got the best suites, the champions were next, their challengers and so on down. Devona had reigned once upon a time as the Internet Champion of the Bombshell division , but this was the first time where she had been so close to the top of the food chain, and do you know something?
She felt like she could get used to it.
But for the moment she was feeling the pangs of a loneliness on this cruise, a feeling that she was all too familiar with. It was why she had found more time to seclude herself inside of this suite when she had nothing else to due where her SCW duties were concerned, and she had gone back to old reliable; namely calling her boys back home in New Orleans. She was sprawled out on her side, her head propped up in the palm of her hand while she gazed at the screen of her open laptop in front of her, and there was the unforgettable face of her “brother from another mother,” the gargantuan known as Beast. Not his real name, of course, but the last person who wasn’t family discovered and used his given name, well – let’s just say the rest is history. Hm?
“I wish we could have made it, too.” Beast said from his end of the video chat. “But I had work and I had already used my last vacation this year for Mama’s birthday week. My boss is great but I just couldn’t take another unpaid week off for a week-long cruise.”
Devona smiled, albeit with a touch of sadness she had resigned herself too.
“And that brother of yours?” Devona asked. “Couldn't our boy get some time off from that job you got him?” And by ‘that job’ she meant the male go-go dancing job Beast had tricked his dim-witted younger brother into working at a gay bar. All of this time and he still has yet to put two and two together and figure out why the women are always elsewhere and the guys in that club are such great tippers.
Devona then questioned, “He is still working there, right?”
“Yes, and I have to admit I think I pulled one over on myself.” Beast grumbled. “Damn brother of mine is pulling in more dancing there in one weekend than I do at my job in one week!” He shook his head as Devona just smiled, remembering how Beauty had innocently commented on how good a tippers the guys who go to this place were.
“But…” Beast went on to answer her question. “Beauty probably would have been able to go but you would have been busy with your duties promoting your big match and wouldn’t have been able to keep a very close eye on the dipshit. He was just as likely to get thrown overboard by the women as he would have been to get molested by one of those guys.”
“It’s not as bad as all that.” Devona reasoned, to which Beast acknowledged with a sigh. He then smirked, never a good thing when the subject of his brother was concerned. Beast went on to say, “Besides, he got a wrestling gig booked.”
“Wrestling?” Devona leaned up on the point of her elbow, her head no longer supported by her hand. “Beauty is wrestling and nobody told me???”
“Easy, Didi!” Beast laughed. “It’s not what you think! His boss at the ManHole booked is behind it. He added a male Mud Wrestling night at the club and he got Beauty to sign up for it.”
A bark of laughter escaped Devona before she could clap a hand over her mouth to smother the growing smile. She slowly lowered her hand, her lips pressed tightly together as she asked, “Does he know?”
“Didi, please.” Beast tilted his head to the side with ‘that’ look on his face, the same one that he wears whenever they’re discussing his brother’s arterial flow problem from above the neck. Beast said, “He’s been dancing on a stage in a rubber thong for over two years now with guys constantly reaching into his jock to stuff cash. If he hasn’t figured THAT one out yet, I don’t think this will faze him!”
Her eyes closed, Devona trembled slightly with the laughter she held inside. The bright, wide smile on her face was evidence enough of the mirth she felt, another reason she had to make the call. When she felt down, her boys could always find a way to cheer her up.
Devona said, “I imagine when the initial surprise wears off, he’ll think the mud is just good for his skin.”
“Yeah, that’s what Mama said too.” Beast acknowledged. He then said, “But c’mon Didi. I know we all wish Dipshit and I were there, but that’s no reason for you to keep yourself all holed up in your room.”
She all but rolled her eyes at her ‘big brothers' assumptions about her behavioral patterns and she said, “I am not holding myself up in my room!” To which Beast just stared at her and that one eyebrow slowly rose up in questioning disbelief.
“Didi…”
“Okay, maybe I am.” Devona finally yielded. “A little bit. But I still go out!”
“Yeah, when you’ve been scheduled by the bosses for an interview or to meet fans!” Beast shook his head. “And as soon as those activities are over, you’re right back into your room ordering room service or sneaking back into the corner of one of the room tables!”
Guilty as charged, not that she needed to admit to any guilt. She just said with a faux sense of indifference, “You don’t know me.” To which Beast countered with, “Didi, I know you better than you know yourself.”
Fact!
“Go on out!” Beast pressed. “Have some fun! If not with the fans, well there’s got to be some folks in SCW you can hang with! What about the GGG - an affectionate term Beauty had coined that Beast had (much to his chagrin) picked up as the GO Gym Gang.”
“Well, Carter and Ariana seem to be doing their own thing.” Devona mused as her eyes gave Beast pause to think she was mulling things over. “Plus Carter has his family with him on the cruise and Ari did just get married last week.”
“Did she?” Beast broke out into a smile that some would think uncharacteristic for a man his size. Some, but not to those who knew and loved him. He said gleefully, “Well good for her!”
“Aron and Fenris are on the ship.” She then contemplated. “Aron is a sweety but he’s busy with Zoey Lukas and keeping his brother wrangled. Besides…” She fidgeted before she admitted, “I always felt intimidated trying to talk to that fella. Although… I had considered asking him for a little help preparing for this match. I mean, he teamed with Courtney. He knows her in a sense so I thought if anyone outside of Jet City could help me…”
“Well there you go, then! But…” Beast then countered, “It can’t be all business, Didi. You have to have some fun too!”
“Where is that stated in my contract?” Devona joked, to which Beast smiled appreciatively. She then looked sideways in thought and said, “Maybe I’ll see how James is doing, see his family.”
“I suggest having fun and your answer is to visit J2H…” Beast looked heavenward as he shook his head.
“Don’t go there, dear.” Devona smiled, her eyes again. “I know I may not be James’s favorite – nobody really is. But he did open up – a LITTLE bit. He’s not so bad.” Beast just stared at her with a disbelieving quiet gaze. Devona huffed and rolled her eyes before she continued, “Okay, he’s an ass of the highest order, by his own admission! But… even if there’s a small crack in the wall, he’s tolerable.”
“If you say so!” Beast murmured, clearly not believing a word she was saying about her former tag team partner. Devona sighed, glancing up at the sliding glass doors and noting the sun was beginning to set down into the ocean waters.
“I suppose I best let you go.” Devona said with resignation. “I should go get ready.”
“For?”
Devona looked back at the screen and smiled, “You just told me to go have some fun and there’s a pool party tonight once the stars come out so…” She shrugged. “I think I can manage!”
“That’s my girl.” Beast smiled, gifting her with a wink for his ‘little sister’. They exchanged their pleasant goodbyes for the night, Devona blowing him a kiss before closing the laptop. She groaned lightly as she forced herself to her feet and looked outside at the darkening sky.
“Well SCW…” Devona said as she kicked off her high tops. “Let’s see if this girl has it in her…”
And just over an hour later… Devona broke through the crowd at poolside where the party was in full swing for both fans of the SCW Universe, as well as the Bombshells and Superstars! And heads turned as this was most definitely NOT the tomboyish Devona that they had grown accustomed to, but a striking figure made up and wearing a glimmering black mini dress, slit up the thigh and matching high heels.
She all but strutted past as heads turned with admiring expressions, the beat of the music almost perfectly matched to her walk as she headed toward the bar. Beast wanted her to have some fun before her big title match this coming Sunday…
It was time to prove to her ‘big brother’ that she was more than capable!
“So here’s the thing. Life isn’t fair. There you have it, lesson learned. Goodbye. The end. Class dismissed.”
2013 Blast From the Past champion and the current number one contender for the World Bombshell title, Devona, stood beneath the starry sky on deck of the Princess Cruise. Most passengers had called it a night by this time, and she was all but alone save for a few spotted here and there. Devona paced along the rail, her arms wrapped around her upper body as her chestnut brown eyes looked out over the black waters that reflected the stars above.
Devona leaned her hands on the edge of a table and stared directly at the camera.
“Simple, yes? I know, it’s something that everyone has heard at least once in their lives, and I can say from personal experience that there are a number of people who might have heard it, but have never really taken it to heart. They think things like ‘so life isn’t fair but why isn’t it ever fair in my favor?’. That right there is a little something called the ‘Woe Is Me’ act, and we’ve all been through a mild case or two of it because, well that’s life. We don’t always get what we want from life and when we don’t, we imagine slights as the cause against us. We find any reason that we can for being in the spots we find ourselves, rather than accept that sometimes…”
She held up a hand, forestalling any potential objections.
“Sometimes – it is nobody’s fault but our own. I should know. I find myself in something of the same boat as we speak – pun intended considering the fact that we’re on a cruise. You see, ever since James and I became the 2023 Blast From the Past Champions, I was looking forward to nothing more than facing Roxi Johnson for the Championship this coming weekend at Summer XXXTreme XI. Some people have criticized her for not doing enough to hype the championship or the Bombshell division itself, and there were times I was one of those people. But, faults aside, Roxi is and remains one of the single most heralded women on the Bombshell roster – period. You might not agree with everything the woman says or does, but you can not deny her success rate inside of the six-sided ring.”
“I should know first-hand. I had been a critic of sorts of her but then look at who I got saddled with as my tag team partner this year. None other than J2H himself – the former “Brat Prince” of Sin City Wrestling. Only he remains a Brat in character, but he has risen from Prince to King where it matters most in his career. You go out and find me one man – one – who has accomplished half of what J2H had accomplished throughout his active career.”
She shrugged.
“You can’t, and do you know why? Because there is no man quite like J2H. He might have been born into wealth, but he busted his butt to earn his spot in wrestling history. And no, it wasn’t always like that. He – wasn’t always like that. He started off his career as a joke, a literal joke to any serious wrestling enthusiast. He thought he could just strut into an SCW ring with his skinny ass and buy his path to success. Only – it didn't work out that way. When he first started, he was little more than an opening act. A JTTS (Jobber To The Stars) if you will, and when he suffered those losses, he could see no fault of his own. At least, not at first. It didn’t take all that long before James grew tired of being a joke and he wanted to succeed legit and he did the one thing he never had to do before; he cast aside his wealth and ego and he worked for it. James went back to square one as a student of the game and there was simply no looking back. Tag tam titles. Singles gold! The longest reign as World Champion in SCW history! Hall of Fame! Multiple Year End Awards! That is the man that the ‘Brat prince’ rose to be, from out of relative obscurity. Now, by now you have to be asking yourself what J2H has to do with me and where I find myself on Sunday. Well, I’m coming to that.”
“It’s all a matter of perspective, of respect due. I admit that when I got paired with J2H, I groaned. I looked for a way out or to trade partners with someone – anyone. And you know something? Had I done so successfully I would have looked back on 2023 with nothing short of regret. Because I might not have wanted to deal with his ego or his attitude, but I was being exposed to someone who has really been there before, someone that wanted to succeed more than I did, and that reason alone was enough for HIM to push ME to get even better. And THAT is where I find myself this coming weekend!”
“Courtney, girl I applaud you. I have to. When you and Fenris won the 2018 Blast From the Past, the two of you made history because you were two legit rookies making your wrestling DEBUTS! That tournament, those matches, were the very first times either of you set foot inside of a wrestling ring, and you succeeded. No, you did more than succeed. You exceeded any and all expectations for what to expect from two students who graduated from Jet City and the GO Gym, my own alma mater. You two beat opponents with more experience, former champions in their own right. When few actually expected the two of you to make it out of the opening round, you two won the whole. Damn. Thing!”
Devona then applauded Courtney, clapping her hands together. First quickly, but then she slowed down until the applause stopped entirely.
“And then…?”
Hands tucked in her jean short pockets, she shrugged.
“That’s pretty much where your momentum ended. Fenris went on to become the World Champion, and is second only to J2H where reigns are concerned. You …? Disappeared. Now granted, you had an excuse. You suffered an injury that some people wondered if you’d ever make it back from, and obviously you did. But at the time, it was as if you had fallen off the face of the earth and ghosted everyone in SCW; both fans, peers and staff alike. I’m sure a few people knew about your whereabouts, but to the majority it was as if you had never existed. The young woman who so many believed would be the next big thing – wasn’t. You didn’t call, you didn’t write… you know you could give a person a real complex for not keeping in touch. You could have been laying in a ditch for years but I imagine there was no phone in the ditch. But then, from out of nowhere…”
She separates her clasped hands and mimics an explosion,
“Poof! Your name begins to creep up again. First on social media as a side piece for your now-wife, then you begin making your own presence felt with your own posts and tweets until it ultimately happens – you signed a shiny new contract with SCW. You entered the Blast from the Past and even though you didn’t go the distance, it was enough to show the higher ups I suppose just why you were so highly regarded for your last run around the block. And it might have taken five years, but you did it girl. You beat the woman to become the woman. Would the same thing have happened five years ago had you not ended up injured at the hands of Kris Ryans? Who knows? It really isn’t healthy to dwell too long in the past. This is the present, and sugar, you are the reigning World Champion. But…”
She held up a forefinger to stall.
“But… what have you really done since becoming champion? What have you accomplished? What have you done to truly make the Bombshell Championship rise to where it once was?”
Hands now pressed down on the surface of the table, Devona leaned over at the waist to stare directly into the camera.
“Absolutely nothing! You spent all that time talking down about Roxi Johnson as both a champion and a competitor. You totally and completely disregarded her role as a locker room leader, and look at you now. You beat her, and then you became her. Did you celebrate your title win with pomp and circumstance on the next show like most new champions before you? You did not. Did you honor the women that came before you, that held the very same title that you now wear around your waist? You did not. Did you discuss your plans for the future with the title, possible new horizons you wanted to climb and women you wanted to defend against? Well if you did then I must have been asleep and missed out on the whole thing because I saw you do literally nothing to truly make that championship something to revere and to fight for. Roxi might have told the world that she held no interest in a rematch for the gold but Courtney … you didn’t even extend an olive branch and offer one in the first place! The moment you won that title, the very moment your wife put that belt around your waist … you know that I was next in line. You knew I was guaranteed a shot at stripping you of that championship. And – you did nothing.”
Devona looked to the side with a wistful expression and sighed.
“And that is where my own fault comes into play. I listened to J2H’s words. I took them to heart and that was why he and I won the whole prize. But, then I made the mistake of stepping back to see where you stood. I took a seat and thought, ‘Well the ball is in her court. Pun not intended. Let’s see where she runs with it.’ Only, you didn’t run. I might have had a name drop or two, but that’s it. Literally our only interactions were on social media and it was because of your wife, not the championship. Because your wife more or less disrespected me, and you defended her for it. Now I get what you were saying, that you felt obligated to defend her even when she was the one who started the conflict. But girl…? You are literally doing her NO favors! And the proof is in the recent weeks because she thought she was just going to strut back into SCW the wife of the World Champion, and wins and championships were just going to fall into her lap! Because she felt as your wife, it was owed to her! And let’s face the truth Courtney – your wife has crashed and burned ever since she returned.”
“She learned that if she wanted to get to the level that you’re at, she would have to accomplish it the old fashioned way; through hard work. Through blood, sweat and tears. Except, that just wasn’t how she did things it would seem. If she couldn’t be handed success and titles by proxy then she just wasn’t going to try. She thought she was going to go for the Roulette Championship just because she publicly stated so? But when she had the chance to earn her way into the Ultimate X, she choked against a FAR superior athlete. Now she stepped up, willing or not, to be the tag team partner for another woman and so far she has let that woman down. If it were anyone other than Krystal Wolfe, I’d legit feel sorry for her. She acts like one of those Millennial's who thinks that they deserve to be given an award in school for participation when they literally did NOTHING to warrant or deserve it. But as those kids have their parents defending their every entitled action, Ruby has you. I even spoke up and pointed out to you how SHE disrespected ME and you could have just as easily let her fight her own battles, but no. You not only got involved, but you even said that you do it because you can. Because it's expected of you. Well…”
Devona stood upright and shrugged, sticking her thumbs through the belt loops of her jean shorts.
“That’s on you, Court, But don’t go crying to anyone other than yourself or Ruby over what’s going to happen on Sunday because I’m telling you now, your wife is the one that lit a fire under me. Not you. Your wife is the one that made me determined to unseat you as the World Champion, not you. You have done nothing as champion to really make the SCW Universe invested in our match in what could have been the Main Event."
"Now I admit it, I played just as big a role at NOT playing a role in hyping our match for this event. You go and look at everything that has went on between Michael Harris and J2H, and then you look at us. What do you see by comparison? Nothing. Zero. Zilch. Nada!"
We have got one shot at this Courtney, literally one! The boys follow us, and we have to make them regret it. We have to give those fans something to remember! We have to make Michael Harris and J2H watch what precedes them and think to themselves 'How in hell are we going to follow that!?' "
"You may not be leaving Summer XXXTreme XI the same way as you came in, but you will have the satisfaction alongside me of knowing we set the bar for the fellas to live up to. Otherwise, if that doesn't tickle your fancy? We might as well be the opening act!"
That being said, Devona takes her que and exits. Stage left.
