[Crystal Zdunich]

Off Camera
Santa Clara, California

Crystal (Caldwell) Hilton felt as if she was on top of the world at least where her professional career was concerned. Her actions had gotten her one step closer to her dream of challenging for the World Bombshell Championship but more importantly than that she was two matches away from being in the main event of the biggest Super Card of the year. It just doesn’t get any better than that. However when it came to her personal life she felt alone in a life without Seleana and having her wife pull her two youngest children away from her. A month from now her daughter Aurora would be celebrating her fifteenth birthday and it didn’t sit right with her that she had basically gone a few months without talking to her. Crystal needed to vent to someone about this entire situation and that’s why she had arranged to have a day with her oldest twin children. Brittany and Brayden Williams sat in the booth of a coffee shop as Crystal sat across from them. Crystal took a sip of her hot tea as she glanced into the eyes of her oldest descendants.

Crystal: It really is ridiculous that Seleana won’t even let me see the children. I know she wants to play the role of supergirl and act like she is all high and mighty but keeping my children away from me pisses me off. She has this notion that perhaps I might try to escape with Elijah and Aurora. You both know I would never do anything of the sort… I just don’t understand…

Brayden and Brittany both just glance at one another as they slowly turn their attention over to their mother. Brittany just sighs as she looks back into the eyes of her mother.

Brittany: Not for anything but can you really blame Seleana?! She has every reason to believe that you would do something reckless.

Crystal: Which is absurd, she tried to accuse me of drinking and doing drugs. I have been sober for a while now and I would never do anything to put my children in jeopardy…

Brayden quickly chimes in as he interrupts his mother to agree with his sister.

Brayden: Mom I really don’t want to sound rude and you know I love you with every single bone in my body but let’s just be honest. You haven’t exactly been mother of the year. You put me up for adoption when I was younger and you basically had Aunt Jennifer raise Brittany. It’s not like you have ever taken responsibility for all of the wrong things that you have done.

Crystal: I was merely a teenager when I had you both. I was still in high school and I wasn’t at a position where I could properly raise you. What else was I supposed to do?! On top of that there’s no need to bring up the past. I am no longer the same woman that I was all of those years ago. I have done everything in my power to grow and to mature. I had made a vow to be a much better woman in my later years…

Brittany: If that’s truly the case why are you acting awful to Seleana?! What makes Mercedes so important that you would practically throw yourself at her just to advance in your professional career?! That is what doesn’t make sense to us. You always want to go about promoting your own ego but to be honest your career or ego was never in jeopardy. People go through slumps at times but there’s no question in my mind that you could have found a better way to pick yourself back up. After all, you held like 23 World Championships throughout your career?!

Crystal: It’s more like 24…

Brittany just shakes her head in disgust.

Brittany: The actual number doesn’t even matter. What matters is that you have been in this position before and somehow or another you always manage to dig yourself out of a hole. However when it comes to your love life and dealing with people that’s never been the case. You walking away from Seleana is the stupidest mistake and decision that you have ever made. You are not an easy person to deal with. Everything always seems to be about you and through it all Seleana just puts up with it. You want to know why?! It’s because even if you cannot see it or even feel it she loves you. She has always loved you and she has always stuck by your side.

Brayden: It’s hard to understand why you can’t do the same and stick by her side. There’s more to life than what Christina Hilton needs. I know I needed you mom. I wanted things with Sofia to work out. I loved that woman but I had no idea that when I met Sofia that I would be marrying a woman that was basically just like my mother. I should have seen the writing on the wall when things became less about us as a couple and more about what she wanted.

Brittany: And on top of that I can relate to you mom because everybody always tells me that I am just a miniature you. It even goes as far as to me marrying somebody who basically looks just like your wife. The only difference is Halo has no problem putting me in my place. She has a backbone and doesn’t back down from correcting her spouse in love and I have learned that in marriage it’s a two way street. Even though I may have grown up as this spoiled little princess who can get by on being Todd and your daughter, the world doesn’t revolve around me. So I had to adapt and I had to suck up my pride… I wish you could do the same but you are so hard headed to realize that the best thing in your life is staring you in the face, and you are willing to throw it all away because either you want to get another accomplishment.

Brayden: Or you wish to have people around you like Mercedes who are using you but you are too blind to even see it because you like it when people feed your ego

Crystal just sighs as she looks at both of her children before she looks away. At first she is speechless and really doesn’t know what to say. She closes her eyes for a few moments and finally decides to reply back.

Crystal: Look, maybe I could have been a better woman. I should have been there for you when you were going through things with Sofia. I never said I was perfect but one thing that I do know for a fact is that I am trying everything in my power to be a better mother. I love Aurora and I would do anything for that girl. When her biological mother was on her death bed from the cancer battle I made a vow that I would take care of her little girl. I did exactly that and I even dealt with her awful father. Aurora is part of me and both of us share Mexican culture. I never got to give you a quinceanera but I want to make up for it with Aurora.

Crystal has a few tears flow from her eyes as she looks at both of her kids.

Crystal: I can’t change the past Brittany but I want Aurora to experience nothing less than the best. When I was training Michelle the other day it hurt me deeply to hear that Seleana was even contemplating giving Aurora a big birthday bash and not even incorporating me for it. I want her to have everything for this celebration. I want to be there to help her pick out her gown. I want to help her establish her court. There’s also the dance, the changing of her shoes and so much more. This is a big deal in Mexican culture. This is my family’s roots and it just hurts she couldn’t feel that she could ask me.

Brittany: And what was Seleana supposed to do when you blatantly told her that you wanted nothing to do with her. You are the one who walked out on her and now you think she needs to drop everything just to cater to you. I am sorry to say this mom but how does she even know that you even love her in the same way that she loves you. You missed your wedding anniversary. Perhaps she felt that you would forget Aurora’s birthday…

More tears flow out of Crystal’s eyes as she can’t hold her emotions in any longer. She looks back at both children as she becomes a whirlwind of different feelings. Brayden tries to hand her a napkin so that she could wipe her eyes but Crystal pushes it away as she yells back in return.

Crystal: Despite what you might think I am not that bad of a person. I know that Seleana’s birthday is June 28th, just like I know both of your birthdays are April 16th, Aurora’s is November 14th and it’s extra special because it’s thirteen days before my birthday on the 27th. I am not awful and I may have been a bad mother at one point but I am doing better. That’s why I worked hard with Tempest and watching the way that she is with her little one so I can be better for my own. I am doing better.

Brittany exits her side of the booth and she quickly wraps her arms around her mother. She wipes her eyes as she hugs her as tightly as she possibly can.

Brittany: I know mom, I know you are doing what you can to be better. I see that, Brayden sees that. I will admit that things were rough growing up but within the last couple of years you have made a turn around. You have even been there for Brayden.

Brayden: We will always love you. We may not have had the best upbringing but it still doesn’t change the fact that you are our mother. What you need to understand however is that you have a wonderful woman in Seleana that absolutely loves you. You are everything to her and you need to make her feel like she is your everything. You want to be part of Aurora’s life and her big quinceanera, don’t sit here and cry over it. Pick up the phone and tell Seleana exactly how you feel…

Brittany: So the real question is how do you feel about her?! If you fell out of love with her so be it, if you have feelings for her so be it but what you need to do is tell her one way or the other. No matter what you tell her she is always going to be in your life though because both of you will need to learn how to co-parent for the sake of Elijah and of course Aurora. Don’t let them get caught up as victims in the midst of your stupid quarrel because you want to portray yourself as being something that you are not…

Crystal sits there as she looks at her daughter before slowly turning her attention over to her daughter. She takes a long deep breath as she begins to speak out to the both of them.

Crystal: I LOVE HER!!! I AM DEEPLY IN LOVE WITH HER BUT I AM TOO MUCH OF A WRECK TO EVER BE THE WOMAN THAT SHE WANTS ME TO BE…Is that what you wanted to hear?!

She lets more tears flow from out of her cheeks before Brayden smirks back at her.

Brayden: We didn’t need to hear that but at least it felt good to hear the truth. The only one who needs to hear that is Seleana. Make her feel that and be honest about it. It won’t happen overnight but being honest is how you are going to keep your family and so much more.

Brittany: This was a good first step into being honest and truthfully this is the only version of Crystal that you need to be around her. Don’t lose the most important thing in your life because you want to be too headstrong about things that don’t even matter…

With that the three of them just continue to sit in the coffee shop as they provide hugs for Crystal as this scene comes to an end.

You know I didn’t think it was possible but in my opinion it looks like Christmas has truly come early. Just last week I walked into the ring for a chance to advance in the first round of a tournament to crown a number one contender for Frankie Holliday and guess what?! As much as Harper tried to claim that it was her time to shine. I think I made it known that the only place that I will be going in this tournament is straight to the very end. There was no doubt in my mind that the final decision was going to show me with my hand raised high into the air. It’s only fitting for a person of my caliber and certainly what I represent.

I should be able to celebrate but in the words of one my heroes in the form of the late Kobe Bryant, why should I be happy?! After all job’s not finished. Yes it was amazing that I won my first match within this tournament but there is still work to be done, and I am not going to rest nor will I truly be satisfied until I get the very thing that I have been after since the moment I came back to this company.

What I am looking for is to be in the spotlight, to be the main attraction and to be the focal point of the entire bombshell division and I am just two matches away from getting what I want. If yours truly isn’t in the main event of the biggest super card of the year, competing for the biggest prize in this business was all of this worth it in the first place?!

I am not going to lie it feels really good to gain one of my first major singles wins since returning back in June. Since returning it has been a constant roller coaster of trying to prove myself and showcase that I am worthy of the spot that I possess. I know there are many in this company who don’t think I have what it takes anymore. They think that the days of Crystal Hilton have passed me by and I am forever a woman who was living in the past.

I know from management’s perspective that seems to be the case as well because I was slotted to be in a huge double or nothing match. It was going to be my path to getting back into the limelight but before I could even step into the ring I was pulled out of that match and was replaced by Kate Steele. That in itself is bullshit because whether you all want to believe it or not. I know for a fact that I am star, I will always be a star and nobody can ever take the spotlight away from the SILVER SCREEN QUEEN!

I beat Harper and yes I don’t give a damn if it was by hook or crook. The main point is that I found a way to advance in this tournament and now I am in the position to get what rightfully belongs to me. It all sounds good but I am presented with a dilemma that is sure to screw me out of my spot.

I now have to get past a match against Alexandra Callaway and I have to do it with Harper Mason acting as the referee and it’s blatantly obvious she is going to do everything in her power to keep me from getting to the main event of High Stakes.

The odds and the decked so heavily against me, I have to overcome an obvious attempt at a screw job and I have to get through an opponent who I had issues with when I returned back to this company a few months ago but it doesn’t matter. The more you try to raise the stakes is the more that I will defy the odds. I will beat Alexandra and I will get my respect. You can bet all of your chips on that one.

How’s it going Alexandra?!

Long time no see girl. It seems like fate has put us together. Now the last time we fought one another I know you didn’t really take our match all that serious. You talked up that it would be business as usual and you beat me time and time again. You said something to the tune that the world of SCW has passed me by but let me just give you a reality check on the entire situation. Truth be told I really don’t think it has really moved on beyond me. On paper it might seem like that…

I will admit maybe you did beat me in the past but you fought a Crystal Caldwell, Hilton, Zdunich, hell it doesn’t matter what name I used because you fought a woman that really didn’t give a fuck about anything but trying to wrestle for a simple paycheck. I was here merely to be here and no matter the company I just went through the notions of being on a roster but not really putting that work in.

I will admit that… You did beat THAT woman. There wasn’t any passion, there wasn’t a plan, and there certainly wasn’t a purpose. What you fail and what EVERYBODY else in this company fails to realize is that I am no longer that woman anymore.

If you noticed when I came back to this company I did so under the advice of Mercedes Vargas. I get it we are both a duo of dinosaurs who seems to think that things should centered on them but I would say that we both are doing exactly what we set out to do.

Nothing has passed us, we have single handedly become the focal point of the division. It’s all about Fire & Fury. This is our company and you should be happy that we are allowing you to take part in it. I didn’t want to believe Vargas at first when she told me I had all of the potential in the world to be a six time champion. I myself didn’t even know if I still had the ability anymore.

She however believed in me… She kept pushing me and look at me now. She was right. I am in prime position and I will be in that main event you can mark my words on that much. Nobody should even have the audacity to question a Hall of Famer like me. I built this company.

I am a five time World Champion and I am going to rip a hole through all of you so I can tackle unprecedented territory and be a six time Champion. Nobody in this company male or female has ever done that, but of course I will because I am a trend setter.

So SCW has really passed me by?! I am a woman who thinks she is Miss Hollywood?!

Bitch it sounds a lot better being a woman living off her past accomplishments and accolades. That would make me a has-been by that definition but it’s definitely a lot better a has-been or washed up then being a never was.  When I look at you I see a woman that is a NEVER WAS so you have no room to pop off at the mouth about what I am when you haven’t even walked a mile in my shoes. Hell you haven’t even taken a single step but it’s okay you can talk but you certainly can’t walk the walk like I can.

The proof is in the Hall of Fame ring which is on my finger, it’s in the five World Bombshell Championships which is in the history books, and it’s in the Internet Championship reign, it’s in my two Roulette Championships and in my Blast from the Past win.

Maybe it happened an eternity ago but you can’t change the fact that it did indeed happen. When I look at what you have accomplished sure you might have matched my two Roulette reigns, and you fell in the finals of the tournament but then you want to hold onto the notion that you are better than me?!

Miss me with all of that nonsense, your career doesn’t even measure up to my daughter Brittany and she is a former Roulette Champion and Blast from the Past winner.

You aren’t better than me, you aren’t better than my second generation; you just aren’t on my level. I think that’s the real issue with all of this. You just haven’t fought this version of me that would do anything and everything in her power to win a match.

What’s sad is you have all of the tools to come out victorious in this battle. You could very well beat me and land yourself into a situation where you are but one match away from being in the main event of the biggest show.

I know you could taste it but nobody in their right mind wants to see that. I feel like we have all heard that song over and over again. It’s played out and it wasn’t even worthy of being on the status of a one hit wonder. Every time you find yourself face to face with a big match situation you manage to become the company’s biggest choke artist. You don’t know how to deliver and you crumble under the pressure. You just wasn’t built for the limelight and honestly it’s okay that’s why this company has women such as myself because I am not afraid to step up and show out when I am needed to do so.

When I look at the rest of the field that is left in this entire tournament I see three women that I would love to get my hands on. When it comes to you it’s about proving you wrong that you think you are better than me.

When it comes to Victoria Lyons it’s about fighting somebody that I have wanted to fight for a very long time. She claims herself to be a Queen but she has yet to really be in the ring with somebody like me. It was quite easy to stay in her little Roulette Championship bubble but she didn’t have a woman like me who would burst it quickly, and of course there’s Bella Madison.

Bella is the woman who put me on the shelf a few years ago. She delivered a ddt after ddt to me on a chair to the point I was embarrassed and sent out of this company in an ambulance. I was made to be the laughing stock of the entire company. It was humiliating but it’s time to get even and show her that I am not that same Crystal Hilton.

So is so much at stake in all of this but one thing I know for a fact is that the perfect storybook ending for me just might be everybody’s nightmare. A long time ago a woman named Amber Ryan took something from me. It became very personal. I was destroyed in front of my ten year old daughter Aurora and it left me broken.

It was the last time that I have ever had my hands on the SCW World Bombshell Championship. That was five long years ago. Five years ago I was left broken and I never really recovered from that defeat to Amber Ryan.

It was then where things started to change when it came to me. I didn’t have the same drive anymore and I went on a downward to become the broken mess that you all have saw for the past five years. It has been a journey of trying to put those pieces together but I feel like everything is back in place now.

How fitting would it be if I get through this tournament and stand to face with the woman who constantly claims to be the daughter of the woman who ruined everything for me?! That’s the only way that this tournament should end. With me breaking Frankie so I can gain back my title but also my dignity and respect.

I gain back my place at the top of the food chain, and I take back my championship.

Is it a rough road to get to where I want to be?! No doubt but when I look at the rest of field that’s left in this tournament they haven’t done what I have done. They haven’t been World Champion here! They don’t want this as much as I want this and the landscape of SCW needs to change with something that this company hasn’t seen in a long time.

It needs to have me on its marquee match and with that come the spot back on the billboards, on the big match posters, and as the focal point of the division.

Alexandra I have been through hell these past few months. I am without a wife, I haven’t even been home. Seleana took the kids away from me and I don’t have the family pushing me onward.

That’s why I need to push for myself and call for my own shot. I have harper that is looking to screw me over but despite all of that I will find a way to win. I must find a way to pull ahead. I won’t stop until I get what I have been looking for.

The one thing that I do have however is Mercedes Vargas and she is definitely a game changer. Hell hath no fury like the fiery attitude of a Hispanic woman, and when you mix two of them together working as a cooperative unit to take over this company nothing can stop what Fire and Fury wants to accomplish by running everything.

You better make sure to come at me with everything you have because I am not backing down. Not today, not tomorrow, and I will always find a way.

At Climax Control it’s time to close the chapter on your journey to get to the top and it’s time for me to be a step closer to what I want to accomplish.

Lights

Camera

Action

It’s showtime, so let’s see what you are willing to do when the pressure is on….

Sink or swim it’s up to you really…