Off Camera
Present Day
Crystal tossed and turned in bed before she rose up out of bed screaming at the top of her lungs.
“NOOOOO… This can’t be the end of my career… I can’t stop… I love wrestling and I need to get back out there!!!”
Crystal opened her eyes and was surprised to realize that she was in the comfort of her own bed. Seleana slowly sat up beside her as thirteen year old Aurora came into the room. The teenager jumped into the bed as she gazed into the eyes of her mother.
“Are you okay mom?!”
Seleana could see that sweat was dripping down the forehead of Christina. She grabs a thermometer and uses it against Crystal’s forehead and the temperature read 101.6. Seleana opened her eyes in amazement as she slowly got out of bed and grabbed a towel to press across Crystal’s head.
“Babe… You are burning up with a fever. Is everything okay?!”
Both ladies just glanced over at Crystal who couldn’t help but glance back at her daughter.
“…To be honest not really. Ever since this match was announced I have been having PTSD thinking about what Bella did to me last time. She put me in the hospital. I couldn’t even walk out of the arena on my own two feet. I had to be stretchered out. I keep having visions of doctors surrounding me telling me that maybe I shouldn’t wrestle anymore. How I can’t afford to take any more head injuries and I am putting my livelihood at risk every time I step out into that ring…”
Aurora is very concerned at this point as she just rests her head against her mother.
“Mom… I remember what Bella did to you and it was really bad. I don’t want her to ever do that to you ever again…”
Crystal slowly nods her head.
“I know pumpkin and I definitely don’t want to feel that happening to me again either. It has only brought the worst of nightmares but I have to admit that I was a different woman back then and I deserved everything that came my way…”
“Mom…”
Crystal slowly looks down into the eyes of her daughter.
“Yes pumpkin?!”
Aurora quickly shakes her head as she looks firmly at her mother.
“You aren’t that woman anymore! I don’t care if the entire world refuses to believe in you or they think you are a phony and a fraud. In my eyes you aren’t the woman that they say you are. I know you have done a lot of bad stuff in the past but I don’t think it is your entire fault. You were sick and were dealing with an addiction. Maybe the drugs took a hold of your life and caused you to act a certain way…”
Crystal looks at her daughter and can’t help but smile. Even when crystal felt like she was the worst woman in the entire world Aurora made her feel as if she was still a hero. Seleana nods as well as she looks at her wife.
“Ja…All that matters is you are doing well now and this is what we care about. None of that stuff from the past even matters…”
Crystal just shrugs her shoulders as she looks back at the two of them.
“I appreciate all of your love. It means the entire world to me but I don’t want to get caught up in thinking that drugs are the excuse for everything because honestly it’s not. There was a part of me that was pulling the strings and I have to be respect that some of it was me. I take ownership for the shortcomings and can only vow to do better next time…”
Aurora hugs her mother even tighter as she keeps looking at Crystal.
“Mommy… Let it go… I forgive you…. I forgive you of your mistakes. I forgive that you got drunk in me. I just want you to ever do those things ever again…”
“I won’t pumpkin… I want ever try to hurt you ever again, and I won’t be in a position where you see me get hurt either… Seleana…”
Crystal looks at her wife as the tears slowly begin to stream down her face.
“…I am sorry for the lies. I am sorry for putting my hands on you two summers ago and throwing a fit when things didn’t go my way…”
Seleana remains very focused as she looks as deeply as she can into her wife’s eyes.
“Chickie… I have always forgiven you and none of that matters, I know you feel like you are one big failure but I have never seen things that way. in my eyes you are my everything and always do what is best for our family. Marriage is an ongoing work in progress. Some days are going to be good days and there will also be bad days. As long as we come together at the end of those days that is all that really matters…For better or for worse, but honestly it has always been better days…”
She holds Crystal as tightly as she can, Aurora joins in as she refuses to let go. Both women are really making Crystal feel how loved she is. The blue haired vixen just wipes her tears as she looks at the both of them.
“I love you both so much. You have no idea how much you all mean to me…”
Aurora just hugs her back as those little brown eyes look back at Crystal.
“Mommy can I ask you a question?!”
“Of course… You know I am always willing to answer whatever question you might have…Fire away…”
“Are you afraid to fight against Bella Madison?!”
Crystal sighs.
“Do you want me to be honest…”
“Of course I do. That’s why I am asking you….”
“Truthfully I am a bit nervous. I just don’t want the same thing to happen in this match that happened during our last one. I want to actually walk out of the arena and I want to be in a position when I can safely come home to the both of you, and of course Alexandra as well…”
Aurora however quickly shakes her head as she looks deep into her mother’s eyes.
“You don’t need to feel like that though. Regardless of how you feel you aren’t the same woman that walked into that original match. You have changed since that day. You are taking things more seriously and I know the result will be different…”
“Oh?! You are that confident in me?!”
Crystal slowly nods her head.
“Of course I am… After all this time you actually decided to show up. Don’t get me wrong Bella seems pretty cool. Juliet’s aunt Dawn constantly talks up Bella so much but I know for a fact that my mom is way cooler. It’s hard to beat up on the coolest woman in the entire world. As long as you focus nobody could ever stop you!”
Crystal is finally all smiles as she looks right back at her daughter. She gives her the thumbs up as she begins to giggle.
“You know what Aurora?! You are right… You do have a really cool mother. I have nothing to be afraid of. I am going to do my best and let my actual ability do all of the talking… This match is going to be for you sweetheart…”
With that Crystal couldn’t help but hug her loved ones as tightly as possible as Aurora smirks.
“Good now good beat Bella and showcase why you are a Hall of Famer and nobody could touch you…”
“I promise… Bella better be ready because as soon as I get into that ring she isn’t going to know what hit her. I guess with your support I can’t ever fail…”
There is laughter in the room. What looked like nightmare has turned into one of the biggest happiest moments in Crystal’s life. The only thing that remained was for Crystal to walk into her match and do the unthinkable. If she could get that horrible lost to Bella off of her back nothing would be able to stop her. It is on the three women just laughing and having a good time with one another that we fade out and we go to elsewhere. The road to recovery was never meant to be easy but it seemed like Crystal was being sincere in every step in its journey.
November 20th 2022 is a night that I will never forget. Honestly I cannot mentally recall what happened on that actual night but thanks to watching videos and seeing various replays it’s definitely something that I would like to let go and move beyond, but truthfully it’s hard to let go. For those who might be wondering it was on that night when I was scheduled to step into the ring with Bella Madison in a street fight. I was at the highest form of my shallow self. I didn’t care about anybody other than myself. I turned my back on my good friend Kat Jones. I laughed over the fact that I gave Chloe Benton a concussion and I even went as far to hide under a mask to mess with everybody in the bombshells division.
I did a lot of stuff that I am not really proud of and I also thought I could waltz wherever I wanted and get by on what my name meant to the company. There was one woman who really didn’t care for my antics and she goes by the name of Bella Madison. I didn’t even give her or the company any respect by promoting the match. As soon as the match started it was back and forth until she was in full control. Once she took over there was no turning the situation around.
Bella had dominated and destroyed me. She took a folding chair setting it up and nailed me with eleven Ashes to Ashes DDTs face first on top of it. It was apparent that she had me beaten to the point I was completely defenseless. The referee had to get involved and ruled that Bella had won the match due to a knockout.
I was forced beyond my own will to be brought to the hospital by Bella Madison. That was definitely a bad time for me in my life considering I don’t even remember it. All of that is a blur to me. What I do remember however is waking up in a hospital bed and having doctor after doctor tell me that I had suffered a severe concussion because of what Bella did to me. My little twelve-year-old was in tears because she had never saw me like that before. Seleana was heartbroken because she didn’t want that to be my fate. My actions took a major toll because the following week was my different in my hometown of Los Angeles, California.
But I wasn’t even a member of the roster anymore. I was told that I was let go of my contract and I had to sit on the sidelines of a few months just to find a loophole to enter back into the fray with the open invitational Roulette match.
I won that title but it wouldn’t be long until I fell into the trap and left the company again by May. I could sit here and make excuses for everything that went down but truth be told I know that I probably deserved everything that came my way. It was only right that I was forced into a hospital by the hands of Bella.
If I can be honest when I returned for that invitational I was under the notion that Bella would be entering into that match. I had trained as hard as I could to win the title but more importantly than that I thought about the possibility of just stepping into the ring with Bella again. I had to rewrite on what she did to me.
However, that wasn’t the case because Bella would announce that she was an expecting mother and because of such I had to go about that match which I won which brought me back to SCW. It felt good to be a champion again. It was one of my better moments but something was just missing.
It just didn’t have the same feel as if Bella was involved in that match. Now here we fourteen months removed from the match that has haunted me. I finally get a chance to face Bella and in some sick humor I am booked to face her in the same exact match type that she had severely hurt me in.
I have all sorts of thoughts running through my head right now. Bella I know you are a threat. You are a second generation wrestler just like I am. Wrestling is in your blood and it gives you a competitive nature for you to go out to that ring and get the job done. Unlike our last encounter you have my attention and I am definitely lessoning. I know what you are capable of and if pissed off you may very well put me on the shelf again. I am not going to take you lightly.
There is one thing that does bother me though and it’s the fact that those eleven ddts that you gave me could have caused some severe brain damage. Who knows if I have CTE as that can only be detected after death but I do know that what you did in our match was overkill.
A respectable woman would have just took the win and went home after the deed was done but you wanted to make an example out of me. As bad as I might be even at my very worst I wouldn’t have gone as far as you did. This is coming from a woman who at one point disrespected Despy, who had betrayed her own wife, and even bullied Chloe. I wouldn’t have gone that far.
I am not making excuses because karma indeed had to catch up with me at some point but did you even consider that my little girl was in tears because mommy didn’t come home that night, now that you are a mother you can probably understand the way that I feel.
The only saving grace about that whole ordeal was the fact that my good friend Kayla managed to beat you and turned you away from the Internet Championship. Bella if I can be completely honest I know you have all of the talent in the world. You have been in this company for a while now and you just haven’t won when it truly matters the most. You have yet to hold a championship and no matter how much you fire away going at all cylinders it just doesn’t seem to be enough. Now that we are in a New Year how are you going to break away from tradition to showcase that you are that wrestler that is ready to break out of her shell?!
The entire world is waiting to see if you have what it takes to leap over the hurdles into the next level. That is one problem that I don’t have however. As inconsistent as I might be at times when focused I have shown that I am one of the very best bombshells in this division. You can ask Vargas, you can ask either of the owners or anybody really but when Crystal Zdunich is determined she can hang with the best of them. Hell for a while until Roxi Johnson and J2H decided to play catch up I was the ONLY five-time World Champion in this company.
I am not here to toot my own horn as I don’t want to get caught up living in the past but some people don’t even have World Championship reigns if you don’t believe me just ask Jessie Salco and she can tell you how much it hurts that she hadn’t been able to accomplish that in her career. Looking at you as far as what you have done in SCW you seem to be in the same boat and there are still some titles that you haven’t even held as of yet so you still have much to accomplishment.
On the other side of the coin I have a been there and done that mentality. I basically done everything there is too accomplish. Blast from the Past winner? Check.
Roulette Champion?! Check that off the list twice…
Queen for a Day?! Check
Internet Champion?! Check… Hell I was undefeated when I won that and ended up unifying it with the World title.
Of course It would be redundant to talk about the World Title but what really stands up is the fact that I am in the Hall of Fame… Whether anybody wants to respect it or not that means I paid my dues and I earned my keep in this company. So there should be some sort of respect that goes in my way right?!
That isn’t the case and I know you don’t respect me because of my other antics which puts a dark cloud over my entire legacy. It brought you to the very brink of trying to end my career and making the entire world happy. I can’t get you to like me Bella and I doubt I will ever be a woman that you consider a friend or an ally, but what I can do is prove to you that I should be respected.
I could make this match about being vengeance and talking all of the smack in the world to show that you are inferior to me in every single way but that’s not being a good example for my daughter. When I made a vow to give up on being a drug addict and journeying through this recovery process I told myself that it would be a long process. It wouldn’t be something that would happen overnight and I am going to hold onto that very ideal.
I don’t hate you Bella…
I have all of the reasons in the world to feel a certain way but no of them are channeling hatred. You were just a woman who felt she did what she had to do.
When we meet in the ring as much as the PTSD of being in the hospital and replaying images of various doctors telling me that I shouldn’t probably do this profession I refuse to just call it quits. I have heart and it is that very organ that is propelling me to go out into that ring and give you my absolute best. Will it be enough?! I honestly have no idea but one thing I do know is that if I come out firing on all cylinders I won’t have any regrets. I won’t hold onto a notion that I didn’t take the time to cut a promo on you. I won’t hold the fact that I overlooked you or that you weren’t worth my time.
As long as I put up a fight and I know that it is my very best then I will be happy. This is the attitude that I want to portray to my daughter and even to my granddaughter. One cannot be afraid and every bad step that a person takes in life shouldn’t be looked upon as a failure but they are teachable moments that we can learn and develop from.
I have atoned for the sins of the past and everyday people want to keep bringing up everything I did. If that’s the route we want to go so be it but hear me on this though Bella. This time you have my complete and full attention. I made a vow that I was going to be the best this year. I am two matches into this year and already have two wins under me.
In order for me to do what I said I was going to do and go undefeated I need to beat everybody placed in front of me. You are the hardest woman that I have had to face this year but I am ready to answer the challenge and build some momentum into our four-way match for the Super Card.
Bella I wish you the best of luck, let it be known I am not the same woman you fought last time. I am focused, I am determined and I am destined to beat you.
Through everything you will see that this rose will forever blossom…
