After Inception…
I was in the locker room within one hour after finally regaining the SCW Bombshells World Championship. I had already gone through all of the sentimental emotions and all of the tears and the reminiscing about the journey and all of the good stuff when I happened to be in a FaceTime chat with my mentor Myra Rivers who of course, was in a hell of a happy mood.
“I don’t think I’ve ever been more proud of you than I am right now…” Myra said with a smile. I was definitely feeling great knowing that I had such a hell of a validation from her.
“Thank you…” I told her.
“You don’t need to tell me how hard it was to get back there because trust me, I know. I’m not going to wax lyrical about everything that you’ve had to overcome just to get to this point because we’ve beaten that to death really, but nonetheless, it makes me incredibly happy to see you with that championship again.”
“I do wish that you had won it yourself at one point…” I responded, knowing that in spite of what her former detractors, most of whom aren’t even in SCW anymore might say, she was more than good enough to do so.
“Don’t worry about me…” Myra said, taking it in stride. “I turned out to be more than fine after I left. Worry about you, okay? You know that the last time you were a world champion there, things didn’t go the way you wanted them to and I know you’re hungry to prove that you can be a world champion in SCW and that you’re ready to have the main event spotlight and lead that division the way that I always knew that you could. You very much deserve to have this moment and I’m not going to let you spend one iota of it thinking about anything else other than the situation that’s at hand right now. You’ve got a long road ahead as you know…”
“Right…” I acknowledged, knowing that my history of holding this championship wasn’t all that great. “The first time around, I wasn’t ready to hold this championship. I will own that to kingdom come and everything because when I won it, I was spiraling toward my weakest point. But now that I am at my strongest point yet, things are going to be a hell of a lot different.”
“Don’t forget that you beat one of the most dominant champions too…”
“Of course…” I said as I took a deep breath. “It took two fucking tries, that’s how fucking tough she is. She is a very harsh person. She can be quite mean. I don’t quite understand her methods or why she carries herself the way that she does, but she is a hell of a wrestler and a hell of a champion and I didn’t go through some slouch to win this and I will always acknowledge that.”
I took a pause for a moment as I began to think about Kayla Richards. For all of the similarities that I was noting privately and publicly about her toward certain people thatI had my issues with during my first SCW run, the one thing that I had to give her aside from the obvious is that even though she was a bit harsh toward me in what she was saying and even though I didn’t necessarily like the reason why she wanted a rematch with me, she didn’t bury me through the dirty or verbally eviscerate me the way she had most of her challengers before her.
“That’s why you should go congratulate her on not just her reign, but for the amazing match that you two just had.”
I was thrown off guard because that was the last place that I was expecting Myra to go with this. I was immediately feeling the skepticism. Myra already saw the confused expression on my face and she didn’t seem surprised by it in the slightest.
“I understand that this seems like out of left field for you, Andrea. I get that you don’t like her personality. But for one, you have to remember that your personality the first time you were in SCW wasn’t all that different from her to begin with. But still, it’s kind of a time honored tradition that is fading by the wayside. Let’s face it, we both know that division is cutthroat and that being a sore winner can be a very common thing. She wasn’t a sore winner with you after High Stakes. She thanked you on Twitter, remember?”
“But is she even going to want anything to do with me? You know how she is. I think the last thing that she wants right now is for me to even approach her. She’s definitely smarting over losing this championship to me and the last thing I want to do is to give her a reason to be even more pissed off than she already is.”
“It’ll be fine. Trust me. You seem to be one of the few in that division that she might even have any respect for anyway. If anything, try to make the effort to be a good sport and to congratulate her for the good karma for your title reign than anything else. I don’t see what’s wrong with that. I get it. She’s prickly and everything. But that doesn’t mean that you can’t get along with her or that you can at least respect each other as competitors. The way I see it, you’re both more alike than both of you realize.”
I still wasn’t sure, but there was a part of me that was coming around on it knowing Myra was pretty much right.
“I suppose it wouldn’t hurt…”
“What’s the worse that can happen? That she reject your overture and tell you she’s going to come back and try to win it back from you?”
“That’s what I would expect really.”
“The effort is what matters here. You didn’t take this opportunity to do this with Crystal and Roxi when you won the world title the first time… though knowing how they are, I suppose I can’t fault you for that.”
“I’d rather be friends with Kayla then both of them combined anyway.”
“Then do it! Go congratulate her on her championship reign! You’d be surprised by how far a gesture like that can go in this business.”
“Okay. Sure! Thanks, Myra. What’s the worst that can happen? She deserves her due and I’m going to rise above all the hate she gets and give her that.”
“You’re already starting your title reign the right way, Andrea…” Myra says with a confident reassurance in her voice. “...congratulations again and I know you’re going to have a far better reign this time around with all of the strength that you’ve gained over the years.”
“Thank you Myra, we’ll talk soon.”
The FaceTime call ended and I took a deep breath. I was pretty nervous all in all. Kayla’s prickly personality had me on edge, but I knew it was the right thing to do because I knew she had gotten so much hate during her reign which is something that I could very much relate to during my first run in SCW. With that being said, I left my locker room and went down the hallway. I found the door that led to Kayla Richards’s locker room and knocked on it.
“Kayla?”
I knocked on it again, but I got no answer.
“It’s me… Andrea… can we talk for a second?”
I still wasn’t getting an answer and I was starting to get worried. I knocked once more, but still no answer.
“She left…” a stagehand that was walking by informed me. “...I don’t know if you are aware of this, Andrea but there was a situation with her, Finn, an ex… it’s pretty messy.”
“Oh…” I said with a bit of a sigh, remembering what he was talking about. “Thanks. I forgot about that.”
The stagehand nodded at me and left.
“I guess I’ll just drop her a tweet then…”
I turned and headed back to my locker room, partially disappointed. I was hoping to congratulate her on her reign face to face, but I also understood she had a personal situation going on. I would, eventually, acknowledge her in a tweet and praise her accomplishments but I also knew that despite the respect, that a rivalry between us was probably just beginning…
March 6
“That’s crazy! How can you even trust her?”
Chelsea LeClair decided to swing by my Paradise Valley home for a Netflix binge. We were both sitting on the couch discussing the match to come.
“You don’t think Kayla hates you for taking the championship from her?”
“I don’t think she hates me…” I reasoned. “I do believe that she wants to take the championship back from me, that much is a given. But I don’t think she hates me. Though… I don’t think she likes me either.”
“All the more reason for her to screw you on Sunday…” Chelsea quipped with a sigh and an eye roll.
“Chels…” I began, sighing myself. “Do you honestly think that Kayla Richards… KAYLA FUCKING RICHARDS… would want to screw me over and ultimately cost us the match when you and I both know that the woman has too much pride in her own career and how she carries herself to have a loss on her record to Mercedes Vargas?”
Chelsea was taken aback by this and her eyes widened some. She was thinking of a counterpoint to this, but she took a deep breath knowing that she had nothing to say to that.
“Touche, Andrea…” she said with a playful eyeroll. “But after that final bell rings, watch your back.”
“See, that is where you could have a point. I did try to meet her in the locker room after I beat her and everything, but she wasn’t there. For all the flak that she gets about her attitude and for all the intensity that our matches and our war of words have gone between the two of us, she IS more trustworthy than most people on the roster. I’m not going to go as far as saying that I trust her with my life or anything, but she says what she means, means what she says. I trust her a hell of a lot more than I trust other people in that locker room and don’t forget that I’ve teamed up with people that either don’t like me or people that I don’t like…”
“Yeah, but it doesn’t happen often, Andrea and it’s not like we ever teamed together when our friendship has been on the rocks, you know? Unless there was like a random instance neither of us might remember at the moment. Just understand that I am trying to look out for you.”
“Oh god…”
“What? We’ve known each other forever. Why wouldn’t I do that?”
“I’m not going to have the same speech with you that I had with my mother a few weeks back…” I said with a laugh. “But I understand.”
“I don’t want you to lose your confidence at the worst time and don’t roll your eyes at me like you just did…”
“Sorry…”
“You deserve to be successful and happy and you deserve to have a much stronger, better journey with the title than you had before and that’s all I want for you. Kayla is going to want to trip you up along the way and she will be coming for your throat. It’s not going to happen on Sunday because you’re right, she’d rather win with you than have a loss to Mercedes on her record, but trusting her is still a risky move to begin with. You don’t know what she’s capable of when her back is against the wall or when she feels like she has to prove a point.”
“Chelsea, I’ve teamed up with Crystal multiple times even if most of those times didn’t happen in SCW and that bitch is the most untrustworthy there can be, right?”
“Right…”
“And are you forgetting that the one person that helped me heal the pain of the past and that gave me that final push to find the best version of myself was my brother, right? Not the one that coddled me, protected me and took care of me when I was down in the dumps, but the one that bullied me, made it clear growing up that he never wanted a sister, beat me up in the closet that one time and did everything he could prior to his prison sentence to make me feel like a worthless piece of shit.”
Chelsea kind of winced at how I referenced Roddy. I could tell that she understood where I was going with this but the thought still made her uncomfortable nonetheless.
“Roddy, for me, is the strange bedfellows of all strange bedfellows. As kids, we NEVER got along, but he redeemed himself after he got out of prison by helping me get over so much shit, you know? I didn’t have to trust him after everything that he did to me growing up and after treating me as if he wished I never existed all those years, but I did because in my heart, I felt like it was the right thing for my career and I was proven to be right. So, the fact that I trusted my worst enemy from my childhood and arguably the root of all the pain I was in and all of my self-esteem issues from my last time in SCW with my career to get back to the top of the mountain finally…”
“Everyone else would be child’s play…” Chelsea admitted, fully seeing my point. “Don’t let her ego and her constant starvation for all the glory she can get weigh you down though and have eyes on the back of your head, especially after the match is over, okay?”
“Chelsea, you got my promise on that. I don’t see our opponents getting along at all if their little Twitter bitch fight is anything to go by.”
“Honestly, it doesn’t even matter if they get along or not. As long as you and Kayla get on just fine, which you’re CRAZY to think so by the way, but you do you girl, you should have this.”
“It’s going to be FINE, Chels. We got this. I don’t doubt Kayla for a second, for better or worse. But believe me, once we take care of our business and once we defeat Mercedes and Cassie, there’s no mincing words or holding back. We’ll achieve this common goal, but after that, it’s back to business as usual between us. After all, Kayla’s turning into a fiercer rival of mine in SCW than Crystal ever could’ve been…”
Chelsea seems a bit worried about what I just said.
“I don’t think this thing between you two is anywhere near over…”
I stood up to grab some water.
“Honestly? I wouldn’t be shocked if we ran it back next High Stakes the way things are going…”
With that, I want to the kitchen and really began to think of the possibility that Kayla and I were on a collision course potentially for months to come. I couldn’t think of it for long though…
Not when mutual business needed to be taken care of…
March 7
The camera was on me as I was standing by an inactive trolly on a random hill in San Francisco. With the championship over my shoulder, I was feeling pretty confident in myself even though this coming Sunday, I was definitely in a situation that most people in my shoes wouldn’t find as ideal at all. I was taking into account the burgeoning rivalry with Kayla and all, but I also know that this was something to put to the side which is more than I can say for my opponents. Add on getting caught in an unfortunate crossfire despite the fact that I won against Victoria Lyons and I definitely had plenty on my mind…
“Talk about a unique circumstance in the second match of my second reign as the SCW Bombshells World Champion, right? I mean, the match against Victoria, I won that, but that carried an unfortunate asterisk in all of that. I can sit here and I can mope about that fact and let it get me down, but I’m not going to do that. I said what I meant after the match when I said that there were going to be more opportunities to solidify my reign especially before the chamber and that’s exactly what is happening here. Kayla and I, I think everyone knows the growing story between us. I know SCW media is going to try to push the whole question of ‘can we get along’ and I have no doubt in my mind that we can and that we will… at least while the match is in progress. After the fact? I can only speculate so much and I’m not going to do that but what I do know is that we can get along WAY better than our opponents can. I mean, you got Cassie whining up a storm on Twitter about the match in and of itself and you’ve got Mercedes Vargas talking about the match as a cruel punishment…”
I sighed and I rolled my eyes.
“Never evolve from those egos, ladies? Am I right? I’m going to start off with Cassie here. Cassie, let me be real with you. I don’t mince words and you might even get a bit heated with what I am about to say. I know that this isn’t the ideal situation for you, but to say that you’d rather team up with your dog than team up with Mercedes? Are you fucking kidding me? Now, I’m not necessarily defending Mercedes here and I get why you don’t like her and why you think she’s an albatross to you because of how long it’s been since she’s held a singles championship or the age old bullshit of ‘she’s hung on for way too long’, but fucking seriously? I’m not Mercedes’s biggest fan, I admit that. I wish she would find a way to evolve and grow because someone her age is still very much capable of doing that and I’ve witnessed it with my mentor after she left this company and has since had the time of her career, but still… you can’t take away what she has accomplished. If you’re spitting on her in the present day, that’s one thing. But the way YOU are treating it, it’s like you’re disrespecting her entire body of work here. Sure, it’s been a minute since she’s won a title here and yes, even I have gone after her for her accolades and how most them were fleeting reigns. I own that shit. But at the end of the day, she has still accomplished more in this business than you have and by no means is it a guarantee that you’re going to have a better career than her in the long run.
Is she the most ideal partner for you? Absolutely not. But you could’ve ended up with SO much worse… like Bea Barnhart… speaking of dogs…
Yes, on paper, you’re behind the eight ball with this match, but carrying the attitude that you have about it, especially with your partner, you’re basically beating yourself before the match even starts and of course, you’re far too young and inexperienced to even come close to realizing that you’re doing this and you’re especially too inexperienced to see HOW you’re doing it. And this thing that you, and SO many other people do with asking ‘when was the last time you were relevant’? God, can people get new material than that? It’s one thing if it’s coming from Kayla who has come out and trashed her god knows how many times by now and everything because at least she’s been relevant and absolutely relevant now but coming from YOU? Someone that is barely starting out in her career and doesn’t have the resume to talk about other people being relevant? Yeah, that’s where you lose me. You could be a big player in the future, but when you’re making rookie mistakes and when you’re approaching things like someone that’s just barely out of wrestling school the way you are with this match, I fear that you’re going to fade away just like Krystal did.
I mean with the attitude you have… so many red flags…
Maybe instead of bitching about how you’re so sick and tired of being unable to ‘get any momentum in SCW to save your life’, bitching about having to team with Mercedes or hell, bitching in general, you should chill the fuck out and see the big picture. People your age don’t see world championship matches very often. Maybe instead of bitching about Mercedes, you should be grateful for this opportunity. I mean, ARE YOU really? I would imagine it might be hard to be considering the way you won your qualifying match…
But I suppose Sunday, we’ll get some answers with you…
Now as far as Mercedes Vargas goes…
Yes, I’ve had my battles in the past with her. Hell, she was my second match here. I admit that at that time, when I faced her for the first time, I didn’t treat her right and I was overly harsh about her even though a fair portion of what I said to her back then was true. I admit that I ran her down pretty fucking badly when I beat her to win the SCW Bombshells Internet Championship which up to this point, is the closest she’s been when it comes to being a champion here again. But for all that I’ve said in the past about Mercedes and for all of the hate she gets around here, especially from my partner this Sunday I should add, I’m going to approach this better. So Mercedes, to start off with, on behalf of just about everyone in this division, I want to say that most would rather have you in the chamber than Crystal Hilton and you did the division a favor by making sure that she didn’t make it. I will give you SOME credit in that in more recent times, you’ve shown some flashes of brilliance and that you have had your moments and even a couple of nice wins here and there. You’re definitely someone that seems to have found kind of a second wind. But I say ‘kind of’ instead of ‘definitely’ because for all of what you’ve been able to do, that consistency?
It’s still not there.
You have your moments, but you’re still having a hard time putting it all together the way you used to before. Sure, you beat Crystal to get in the chamber, but was it because you were having another flash of brilliance or was it because you just happened to have the luck of the draw as far as opponents are concerned? Imagine if you faced someone that was going to be a little more difficult for you like Victoria for instance. Would you have qualified at that point? Hell, let’s be real here. The win that got you noticed enough to even be in the qualifying position was probably the win that you got at Inception which I guess is good enough for you, but it’s not like Song is lighting the world on fire or anything. That’s you though, Mercedes. You’ll take what you can get and damn it to hell how you get it. For better or worse, that’s always been you, but ultimately, your attitude toward all of this still hasn’t evolved a bit since the first time we faced each other all those years ago. You’re the most experienced of all of us and you’re the only one of the four of us in this match that is actually in the Hall of Fame and as much as i get that this isn’t the ideal situation for you either, as the Hall of Fame member, and as the veteran, you should rise above the bullshit and you should be the one that is setting the example of how to conduct yourself at any sort of adversity and if what I saw on social media when you reacted to this match is any indication?
You fell WELL short of the mark….
‘Cruel punishment…’
Are you fucking for real, Mercedes?
What the fuck kind of attitude is that? You took this match as a ‘punishment’? Why? You shouldn’t be taking this match as a punishment., You should’ve taken this match as an opportunity to silence so many haters that you clearly still have in the locker room if anything but instead, you want to complain about ‘cruel punishment’ and act as if this match for you is a glorified handicap match. When you’re carrying that type of attitude into this match, then you’re only justifying the repetitive opinions of your haters and you’re also showing why you still can’t get the consistency that many would expect out of someone that is an SCW Hall of Fame member and a two time one at that. Someone like you that acts the way you do at any sign of adversity is someone that proves time and again that they not only can’t be a champion, but on attitude alone, they don’t deserve to be a champion. Rather than give your partner a chance to really prove yourself, you’re talking about how you’re going to carry the team showing that you clearly lack faith in anything that Cassie Wolfe might bring to the table. It’s really sad that for your age, an age where many wrestlers show a greater sign of maturity, you’re still acting as if the Mean Girls still exist in Sin City Wrestling. You’re the one woma n in this division that doesn’t seem to know how to grow up and quit acting like a child when things don’t go your way and with how you have ALWAYS carried yourself and with that type of crap that you put out there with how you reacted to this match, I look at you and I see the one Bombshell that I’m glad I never became because really…
Had I stayed on the path that I was on the first time I was here? I fear that I might have slowly become another version of you and that’s absolutely the last thing that I would’ve ever wanted… well, second to last thing. Being another version of Crystal is a fate worse than burning in hell. But when I left here and after I was able to bring my mental health back together and revive that spirit in me that I always had while I was gone, I changed my attitude toward things. I grew up. I managed to pick up the pieces enough and grow a new perspective strong enough to make me confident enough to come back here and even THEN, I STILL had to CONTINUE to change my attitude and my perspective on things and I was NEVER going to win this championship that I have here if I didn’t. I STILL had to learn how to get over myself and let the past go, which is something you’ve lacked for so many years especially the former, to win this championship again. That’s what separates people like me from people like you in this business, Mercedes. I’m not going to tell you to hang them up. I’m not going to berate you for hanging on for too long. I mean, I’m sure Kayla may have that covered. But through my own experiences? I have realized that the issue with you, at least in my opinion, isn’t the fact that you’ve hung on for too long…It’s the fact that you’ve stuck to the same old attitude and the same old formula as your age grew in size and you’ve never been able to grow past the stubbornness that seemingly makes you resistant to any sort of change at all.
So maybe the next time you find yourself in a similar situation as this Sunday, you might want to think about letting yourself breathe and allowing yourself to grow up and develop a fresh perspective on your career, this company and how you approach things in professional wrestling. All I know is that come Sunday, even with the rivalry between us, Kayla and I are going to win this match because we both want to win and we’re focused on winning while you two are bickering and whining and either acting as if you have no chance to win because of who your partner is or taking this match as a punishment. How do you both have any hope of winning this thing when you can’t even trust each other for five minutes?
Kayla, all I have to say to you for now is… let’s kick some ass! You know… and I know… even if our reasonings for how it’s going to happen may differ to some degree… that we’ve got this and you know that I’m not going to fuck you over and leave you hanging.
I trust that you won’t do that to me either…
So for this one night?
Let’s put the rivalry aside…
Even though you and I both know after the match is over… it’ll be business as usual…
I wink at the camera, showing that I’m taking that in stride. But afterward, I shut it off and got even more hyper focused on what was to come.
