The scene opens inside the Grand Arcade section of the St. David's shopping centre, in Cardiff, on the afternoon of Wednesday 6th January. Sat on the lower floor, outside a branch of Costa Coffee, not long after having completed a workout, are Natalie McKinley and Simon Jones; Natalie is wearing a pair of black leggings and a red jacket, whereas Simon is wearing a pair of navy blue tracksuit bottoms and a black coat.
While Simon is taking a sip from his mug of tea, Natalie's focus is currently on her mobile phone, with her being occupied by sending a text message to someone; once the text has been sent, Natalie puts her phone away and looks at Simon with a smile, just as he puts his mug down on the table.
Simon: 'What are you smiling about?'
Natalie: 'You know on Monday, we discussed the Open Invitation Battle Royal that is scheduled for this Sunday's Climax Control.'
Simon nods his head, recalling a conversation that he had with Natalie earlier in the week.
Simon: 'And?'
Natalie: 'Well, since then, I've thought long and hard about that match, and I've made the decision that I'm going to enter myself into the battle royal - at least, I'll try to enter myself into the battle royal, just as long as Christian doesn't prevent me from setting foot inside the building.'
Simon frowns.
Simon: 'Have you come to that decision just this instant, or have you just waited until now to tell me?'
Natalie: 'I had been leaning towards making that decision since I first spoke to you about the match two days ago, but it's only now that have I made up my mind about it.'
Simon: 'And what has swayed you?'
Natalie: 'I've been speaking to another friend of mine, to...'
Before Natalie can go any further, she is interrupted by Simon.
Simon: 'Who else have you been speaking to about this?'
Natalie: 'Someone else that wrestles for a living; I do have other friends in wrestling besides you, Simon - some of whom you don't know.'
Simon's tone of voice quickly changes from near-offended to apologetic.
Simon: 'Yes, of course you do; sorry. Anyway, you were saying?'
Natalie smiles again, trying to out Simon at ease.
Natalie: 'You're well aware of how much I value your opinion, but I wanted to get someone else's view on the matter, and so yesterday I contacted this particular friend of mine, to get their thoughts; having talked it through with them, they're supportive of the idea, and that is what has convinced me to enter the battle royal.'
Natalie picks up a mug of coffee that is in front of her on the table.
Natalie: 'It was my friend that I was just texting.'
Simon: 'So I guessed.'
Natalie has a sip of her drink.
Natalie: 'They said they think that the idea is "perfect" - after reading that, I didn't need any more convincing.'
Natalie takes another sip of coffee, before putting the mug back down on the table.
Simon: 'But what about - as you've already alluded to - the problem that you have with Christian Underwood? I mean, I saw his tweet, telling you not to get any ideas - what if he stops you from even entering the building, never mind the battle royal?'
Natalie replies matter-of-factly.
Natalie: 'Then I'll have had a wasted journey.'
She then smirks.
Natalie: 'If you saw Christian's tweet, then I'm guessing that you probably also saw the one from Mark Ward that followed soon after.'
Simon nods.
Simon: 'I did - if I remember correctly, he said, get all the ideas you want.'
Natalie: 'Exactly; I've got one of the co-owners of SCW telling me to stay away, whereas the other one is encouraging me to turn up to the show. I'm going to take my chances: I'll make my way to Reno for Climax Control, and see what happens; worst case scenario...'
Natalie shrugs nonchalantly.
Natalie: '...like I said, I'll have a wasted journey; best case scenario: I'll leave Reno as the new number one contender for the SCW World Bombshell Championship - I'm confident that the latter event is the more likely of the two.'
Simon: 'And should that happen, I would be elated.'
Natalie: 'As would I. But for me, this match is more than just a chance to earn a shot at the world bombshell title: it's a chance for me to get back in the ring - any ring - and put right what went wrong in my last match.'
Natalie lets out a small sigh.
Natalie: 'Tomorrow, it will be a month to the day since I last competed in a match - and with all of the uncertainty that is currently surrounding the future of the promotion I've been working for in Japan, who knows when their next show will be? I'm sick of kicking my heels on the sidelines - that's why I'm keen to participate in this battle royal.'
As Natalie continues, Simon drinks some more of his tea.
Natalie: 'In the past few weeks, I've watched that last match of mine back a couple of times.'
Simon: 'That's the right thing to do, so as to try to learn from your mistakes.'
Natalie: 'The commentator put the kiss of death on me before the match had even begun, by saying that I was the favourite to win; do you remember the previous time that I went into a match with the tag of being the "favourite"?'
Simon shakes his head.
Simon: 'No, but I'm sure you'll remind me.'
Natalie: 'Last May, at Mayhem In Morocco, when seemingly everyone expected me to beat Crystal Hilton, only for her to win, to take the bombshell roulette title from me. Things will be different this Sunday, though: after so long away from SCW, no-one will expect me to win this match.'
Natalie places her hand on her mug of coffee.
Natalie: 'And that suits me just fine - if I do manage to win, it'll make it even better.'
She then raises the mug, and takes a sip from it.
Natalie: 'I don't like losing.'
As Natalie puts her mug back on the table, Simon speaks.
Simon: 'No-one likes losing, Natalie.'
Natalie: 'I know, but some people hate it even more than others; after what I've experienced recently, I'm just eager to get back to winning ways.'
Simon: 'You just need to continue to train hard, and then you'll soon start to pick up wins again - hopefully as early as this Sunday; you're too good to go much longer without winning, Natalie.'
Natalie smiles.
Natalie: 'Thanks, Simon.'
Simon: 'You're welcome.'
A brief silence follows. Natalie then fidgets, nervously, as she changes the subject.
Natalie: 'You know a couple of weeks ago, when you told me about what your Mam is going through...'
Simon raises an eyebrow, uncertain of what direction the conversation is heading in.
Simon: 'Yes?'
Natalie: '...do you remember me saying that I had a personal issue I wanted to talk to you about?'
Simon: 'Vaguely.'
Natalie: 'At the time, after what you had revealed to me about your Mam, I thought it would be insensitive of me to then force you to have to listen to my problem; would it be alright for me to talk to you about it now though?'
Simon nods his head.
Simon: 'Sure. I'm all ears. What is it that you want to talk to me about?'
He then smiles, reassuringly.
Natalie: 'It's something that happened last month, while I was in Tokyo, a couple of hours after appearing on the promotion's first supershow.'
Simon: 'What happened?'
Natalie hesitates momentarily, before then replying to Simon.
Natalie: 'Edie kissed me.'
"Edie" is a friend of Natalie's, who has also recently been working for the same Tokyo-based wrestling promotion. Simon's surprise at what Natalie just said is obvious from the expression on his face.
Simon: 'What? Why?'
Natalie pauses to collect her thoughts, as she recalls the incident; she then begins to explain to Simon what happened.
Natalie: 'Regardless of whether I won or lost, I wanted to go out after the show for a drink, instead of just heading back to my hotel room for the night; I asked Edie if she wanted to go with me, and she accepted my invitation.'
Natalie breaks her eye contact with Simon, and instead looks towards her mug of coffee, feeling a bit embarrassed.
Natalie: 'So the two of us went to a club that I had heard about; we split a bottle of wine, then moved on to shots, and before long, we were on the dancefloor. And as we were dancing, Edie kissed me.'
Natalie continues to stare at her drink.
Natalie: 'She told me that she has had a crush on me for a while.
Somewhat bewildered, Natalie looks back to Simon.
Natalie: 'I had no idea - I didn't see that coming at all.'
Simon: 'What did you say to Edie?'
Natalie: 'I told her that I'm not into girls. And then I left.'
There is a moment's pause, before Simon shares a thought.
Simon: 'You did kind of lead her on.'
Natalie frowns.
Natalie: 'What? How did I lead her on?'
Simon: 'You tweeted a picture of Edie with the Woman Crush Wednesday hashtag. And I remember another tweet, in which I believe you referred to her as being your "swolemate."'
Natalie: 'But those were simply two tweets from one friend to another - I didn't mean anything more by them.'
Simon: 'Maybe not - but if Edie has a crush on you, it's possible that she could quite easily have interpreted them otherwise.'
Natalie buries her head in her hands - as she does so, Simon uses the pause in the conversation as an opportunity to take another drink from his mug; Natalie then raises her head, to look at Simon.
Natalie: 'I feel bad about the way that I rushed for the exit, leaving Edie in the club, on her own. I was so shocked though, and it was such an awkward situation to be in - I didn't know how else to react.'
Simon: 'Have you spoken to Edie since that night?'
Natalie shakes her head.
Natalie: 'I like Edie - maybe not in the way that she likes me, but still, I don't want to lose her as a friend.'
Simon: 'Natalie, if you still want to be friends with Edie, she's the one that you need to talk to about this - not me. And the sooner you do so, the better - the longer you leave it, it will only make the situation worse.'
Natalie nods her head, accepting Simon's advice.
Natalie: 'Okay. Thanks, Simon.'
Simon smiles warmly.
Simon: 'No problem.'
Simon drinks what remains of his tea; he then puts his mug down on the table, and points towards Natalie's coffee.
Simon: 'Right, finish that off, so that we can get away from here, and go and spend what's left of the afternoon studying your opponents for the battle royal; at present, we may only know for certain that Celeste North and Mikah are going to be in the match, but if you want to have the best possible chance you can of winning, then there's no time to waste.'
Natalie: 'Right you are, Simon.'
Doing as instructed, Natalie hurriedly finishes her coffee; she and Simon both then get up from their chairs, gather their belongings, and as they begin to head away from the Costa Coffee branch, the scene fades to black.
The scene opens, on the evening of Thursday 7th January, inside the Wallis Room in the All Nations Centre - a multi-purpose building located in the Gabalfa district of Cardiff. In the room are eight rows of chairs, which face towards the camera, with ten chairs in each row, five each on either side of a central aisle. Sat in on the chairs in the back row, with her head bowed, is Natalie McKinley; she is wearing a pair of dark grey leggings, and one of Simon Jones' royal blue "I Know What I Am" t-shirts - which are still available from the online SCW shop.
Natalie raises her head to look at the camera, and begins to speak.
Natalie: 'It is over seven months since I last recorded a video like this for SCW; recording this particular video could yet turn out to be a waste of my time, but I won't find out for definite whether or not that is the case until Sunday evening, when I arrive at the Reno Events Center, for Climax Control.'
Natalie puts her hands on the back of the chair that is in front of her.
Natalie: 'The last time that I was able to be present for an SCW show was four and half months ago, when I was at ringside for the main event of Summer XXXTreme III. Anyone who saw the World Heavyweight Championship match that night will remember what happened - anyone who saw it will remember what I did, which would subsequently result in me being barred from SCW indefinitely by Christian Underwood.'
Natalie then leans forwards.
Natalie: 'Christian said that I would be lucky to ever see the inside of a building that SCW appears in again. Well, I guess it's lucky for me then, that Despayre saw fit to schedule an Open Invitation Bombshell Battle Royal for this Sunday. Like I tweeted yesterday, I'm going to test how much of an open invitational event this battle royal really is, by showing up at Climax Control, with the intention of participating in the match. I know that I might still be refused entry to the venue, but I hope that won't be the case - I hope that all of this will prove to be a worthwhile exercise.'
Natalie gets up from the chair she is sat in, and steps into the aisle.
Natalie: 'For those of you that are wondering what I have been doing with myself since Summer XXXTreme, please allow me to explain. At the time that my suspension from SCW commenced, I was two months into my recovery from a dislocated left shoulder; around five weeks later, I was given the news that my shoulder had fully healed, and so I began to train for a return to the ring. But whose ring would I get to compete in? With Christian showing no signs of having a change of heart, I decided to look elsewhere for work; a few days later, I joined the roster of a fledgling joshi puroresu promotion.'
Natalie then takes a step forwards.
Natalie: 'For the uneducated amongst you, joshi puroresu is Japanese women's wrestling. By joining a Japanese promotion, I knew that I would get to experience different styles of wrestling than I was used to, and that I would get to train with different people - I hoped that those things would help to develop my skills, and that they would contribute to making me a better competitor.'
Natalie puts her hands on her hips.
Natalie: 'Thanks to my injury, I was forced to miss the episode of Climax Control that was staged in Japan, last July. I've more than made up for that since, though; I'm glad that, rather than taking the safe option of joining another promotion based in the US, I decided to take a risk, and join one in Japan, as I feel that the time I have spent there has definitely been beneficial to me. And what better way for me to showcase how much I have improved in my time away from SCW, than by winning this Sunday's battle royal?'
It is a rhetorical question, and taking her hands off her hips, Natalie shrugs her shoulders.
Natalie: 'My debut in Japan came, appropriately enough, in an open invitation battle royal. With me having less experience than most - if not all - of my opponents, no-one was expecting me to win that match. But win it I did - I even have a trophy at home, which I was awarded for winning that battle royal. There are no trophies at stake this Sunday, though - instead, there's something far more important up for grabs: a shot at the SCW World Bombshell Championship - and just like I made that trophy mine, I intend to make that shot at the title mine, too.'
Natalie nods her head, confidently.
Natalie: 'Not to put too fine a point on it, my ambition is to be the World Bombshell Championship - ever since I first arrived in SCW, eighteen months ago, I have aspired to win that title. Throughout the time that I have been in SCW, I have been striving to progress to that level - but until now, I've never been in contention for the world bombshell title. This battle royal though, gives me the chance to catapult myself straight to the front of the line, to be the one to get the next shot at Mikah's title - it's a chance that I plan on making the most of.'
Natalie walks forwards, and then stops in what is roughly the centre of the room.
Natalie: 'The fact that Mikah herself will be participating in the battle royal only serves to make this match even more of an intriguing prospect. If Mikah wins the match, she will then have the opportunity to pick who will be the next challenger for her title; should that scenario occur, I think it's highly unlikely that Mikah would pick me, so I need to make sure that I'm the one that wins this battle royal, not her - I can't afford to have to rely on a second chance lottery.'
Natalie now shakes her head.
Natalie: 'This will be the first time that Mikah and I have ever been in the ring together. I think a number of people are looking forward to seeing me get my hands on her, wanting to see me wrap my arms around Mikah, and suplex her around the ring - before eventually chucking her over the top rope. I'm certainly looking forward to being in the ring with Mikah, and getting to lock horns with the SCW World Bombshell Champion; I have already beaten a former champion, in Amanda Cortez, but I expect the current champion to be a much sterner challenge - it's a challenge that I will rise to, and I know that I'm more than capable of overpowering Mikah, to eliminate her from the match.'
Natalie flexes her right bicep.
Natalie: 'I respect Mikah - she is the longest reigning World Bombshell Champion in SCW history, after all - but I'm not in awe of her. I would take pleasure in being the one to oust her from the battle royal - not least because a few weeks ago, she referred to me as a "sketchy chick;" Mikah might think that I'm disreputable, but if I can win this match, it will do wonders for my reputation - and if I can eliminate her in the process, then even better.'
Natalie walks further forwards, and stops just a couple of rows from the front.
Natalie: 'As I speak, there are only two confirmed entrants for the battle royal - not including myself - with the other one, besides Mikah, being Celeste North. Celeste may not have the achievements to her name that Mikah does, but after what she put herself through at December 2 Dismember, against Jessie Salco, in a match that she ultimately won, I've got some respect for her, too.'
Natalie smiles.
Natalie: 'Celeste and I have exchanged pleasantries on Twitter in the past, but when the bell rings on Sunday evening, all goodwill will go out the window; just like Mikah, Celeste will get what's coming to her.'
Natalie's smile then becomes a smirk.
Natalie: 'Although I just mentioned using Twitter, I don't live my life on there - unlike some people - so I may well have missed one or more of the other SCW bombshells tweeting that they are going to enter the battle royal. However, I have seen one bombshell tweet that she will be entering this match - that being Jessie Salco.'
Natalie walks to the end of the aisle, so that she is now stood by the front row of chairs.
Natalie: 'Together with Amy Marshall, Jessie was one of my two opponents the last time that I was in the six-sided ring, in what is a match that I would prefer to forget. While things might not have gone my way that night, the two other encounters that I have had with Jessie both had a much more favourable outcome - an outcome that I aim to replicate on Sunday night, with me being the winner.'
Natalie tucks an errant strand of hair behind her ear.
Natalie: 'I shall wait to see how many other bombshells - if any - throw their proverbial hat into the ring for this match. But whether there are four of us in the battle royal, or fourteen, my goal is simple: to be the the last one standing; no matter how many opponents I find myself in the ring with on Sunday, I don't plan on letting any of them stop me from achieving my goal.'
Natalie takes a seat in the front row, in the chair that is to the right of the aisle.
Natalie: 'It's no secret that I'm friends with Simon Jones; that I'm sat here wearing one of his t-shirts is a sign of the respect that I have for him.'
Natalie has a quick glance down at her t-shirt, before looking back to the camera.
Natalie: 'Three years ago, Simon's debut in SCW came in an open invitation gauntlet battle royal. He only decided to enter that match at the eleventh hour, which meant that he had very little time to prepare for the ten opponents that he would face - but despite that, he overcame the odds, to be victorious. I train with Simon on a near-daily basis, and I take inspiration from what he has achieved in SCW; it's time for me to follow in his footsteps, by winning an open invitation battle royal of my own.'
Natalie then gazes downwards again, longer than before, this time staring at her lap; after a few seconds of silence, she looks back up at the camera, and continues.
Natalie: 'After how long I've been away from SCW for, I doubt that many people expect me to win this battle royal - but then, how many people expected Simon to win the match I just mentioned? Again, probably not very many. Unlike Simon, though, by the time that my match starts, I will have had several days to prepare for at least three of my opponents, meaning that the odds of me winning won't be as long as the odds that were against him; if Simon could triumph in the face of such adversity, then I see no reason why I can't do similarly, this Sunday.'
Natalie puts her hands on her knees.
Natalie: 'Well, I don't think there's much else for me to say, so I guess that I ought to wrap this up.'
Natalie then stands up.
Natalie: 'It's time for Traci Patterson to step aside, so that I can reclaim my rightful moniker as the most physically powerful specimen in the Bombshell division. And it's time for me to prove that I have what it takes to be one of the best bombshells in SCW; ladies of SCW: Nat will tear you apart again.'
Natalie smiles broadly.
Natalie: 'I'll see you all again on Sunday, at Climax Control - as long as I don't get stopped from entering the building. Until then, hwyl fawr.*'
As Natalie continues to stand, looking towards the camera, the scene fades to black.
*"Hwyl fawr" is Welsh for "goodbye."
