The difference a year makes: Same...But Different...
Sept 10, 2023 16:50:55 GMT -5
TIA Promotions likes this
Post by Selena Frost on Sept 10, 2023 16:50:55 GMT -5
What the hell was I thinking…
The question trailed its way into Selena’s mind to illicit the familiar feelings of frustration as she dragged her two suitcases behind her, each by the handle and hearing them rolling across the uneven, stony asphalt that made up the freeway.
She didn’t know what time it was. Her phone had died because the charger she thought it was plugged into was broken. Of course, that was known only AFTER her car had popped a tire and sent her into a ditch, leaving her stranded just several miles off from her desired location: The Compound.
Now here she was, the former world champion of SCW, having just headlined her third ‘Rise to Greatness Pay-Per-View’… dragging herself through the dusty and dirty freeways, dragging suitcases behind her and-
SNAP!
She heard the sound before she felt the shift in weight in her left arm. The second sound she heard was the thud of metal and plastic as the suitcase, no longer supported by her, flopped to the ground, the impact enough to break the lid. Immediately, Selena felt the strong wind pick up, as if sensing the opportunity, and seizing the loose articles into their updrafts.
“NO! COME ON!” Selena screamed out, immediately propping the other suitcase onto the ground and rushing after the clothes that seemed to ‘come alive’ as they skidded back the way she had walked, rubbing against the dirt and bits of gravel. She heard a snap again – different than the first – and her walking felt strange but she kept her mind focused on getting her clothes back. She heard cars honking their horns at her and some were even yelling or laughing at her. She ignored all of it and grabbed the shirt against the guardrail and the nightgown next to it. She didn’t bother checking them, simply stuffing them back into the broken suitcase and slamming the lid shut, pressing into it as if she could will the latch back into place.
Biting her lower lip, Selena turned the suitcase to its side, grasping the smaller side handle and lifting it up to carry before grabbing the other suitcase (still in-tact) with her free hand to continue dragging it along the road. At this point, her irregular walking caught up to her, causing her to see the broken shoe she wore, the short-heel snapped off. With an angry sigh, Selena stopped again, casting off the shoes and tossing them away. Pulling her non-broken suitcase to her, she opened the lid carefully, only enough to dig her hand through and pull out a pair of white running shoes. Slipping them on, she winced a little at the blisters on her Achilles, the skin a dark red from the newly exposed skin. “Perfect…” she muttered, pulling herself back up to her full height to continue her trek.
She had looked ahead on her GPS before everything had went south, and the signs on the road, probably put up there by Kayfabe Travels, certainly helped. TIA had done all they could – the Sauce Boss wanting to give back to the wrestling world with another world series of wrestling…
Except it’s not ‘World Series of Wrestling’… Selena thought. TIA is ending…
The feeling brought forth a series of familiar emotions, Selena relating to the sadness she had seen in the Sauce Boss’ face when he had made the announcement for ‘Last Man Standing’, the new name for the event.
Maybe that’s why she had stayed in the competition while others kept quitting and people kept leaving before the thing had even begun.
She wasn’t a ‘representative of SCW’ anymore. She had walked away from the federation that had turned on her in the past year, SCW choosing scandals and controversy over integrity and talent. Even the SCW commentary were confused by it, but management saw only dollars and Selena… well… she wasn’t wanted there anymore, not unless she sold out her morals and adopted a more ‘controversial’ attitude.
So, she had left.
She had cancelled all her upcoming meet-and-greets. Yet… she couldn’t do it for this. She couldn’t just walk away like the others had. Maybe it was because she had had so much fun last year or maybe it was to catch up with a few people.
Or maybe… she sighed and winced a little as she kept walking.
Maybe I’m just looking for something worthwhile again in wrestling…
It was the only thought she had had in the past few hours that was calming. Last year, she had wanted to represent SCW and bring in more eyes to watch the federation as it grew. She had finished 8th overall of over sixty wrestlers from around the world. Now? She didn’t care about SCW. She didn’t care about representing the company. She didn’t even care that much about winning the competition – hell, it had changed so much, she wasn’t even sure of the rules anymore or the ‘way to win’. She was working with a team now, was that it? She had comrades? On a ‘Red Team’ - Talk about a missed opportunity… making me ‘red’ instead of ‘blue’.
But none of that mattered to her now. In truth, SCW had taken something from her over the past year since WSOW. Bit by bit, day by day, week by week, month by month… and now? Maybe she wanted it back. Or maybe she needed things to end on better terms for her than to be cast out by the SCW fans. Maybe she needed to thrive outside of SCW. Or maybe… maybe she just needed a better ending to her wrestling career than that.
She wasn’t sure – how could she be with so much else she wasn’t sure of. The event, the rules, the state of TIA, but maybe that was a good thing. Maybe with all this uncertainty, maybe she could find something definite in her life, even if she didn’t win the event.
That still doesn’t excuse your own stupidity! Her brain chastised, as her eyes gazed out towards the sun as it drew closer to the horizon. They might not even let you in at this point!
That part filled Selena with more alarm than she was willing to admit. It was true! Orientation and check-in had occurred hours ago, and with no cellphone to call, and people just driving by her and not giving a damn (agitating that familiar ache from SCW), they probably were thinking she wasn’t going to show up or something!
And it was her own fault! Kayfabe Travels had offered her a ride to the complex, hell, she could have used the AXTGRIFF prize she had won last year during the world series of wrestling! But no!! She had to get away from everything! She had to ‘go back to basics’! She had to be ‘I don’t like relying on people besides my family’ and refuse a pick-up, opting for a damn rental car to drive herself from the airport to the Compound!
“Why are you so stubborn?” she asked herself. “Why do you always have to do things by yourself? Why do you always have to carry the weight of the world on your own shoulders? Why couldn’t you just have taken the help offered?”
A bit of dust flew up and drifted into her face, causing Selena to shake her head, blinking a little to clear her vision before resuming her quest. Teamwork? She had trusted the SCW Universe to have her back and stand with her in the fight for integrity, but they had thrown her away on the greatest accomplishment in her career – booing her out of Toronto when she had done nothing wrong. She had trusted Oleksa Drachewych to do right by the company, instead handing it over to the biggest sleezeball imaginable!
Trust was not something she had much of right now, much like having very little love to continue being part of the wrestling world. Maybe that’s why the idea of being part of a ‘team’ with ‘comrades’ was better for her. Maybe she could get it all back… her love of wrestling, the integrity she longed to preserve, and working with and trusting people again…
A last ditch effort…
She suddenly stopped as she saw the signs and driveway before her – how long had she been walking with such thoughts? Carefully, she read the sign, ensuring that this was, indeed, the Compound, breathing a long sigh of relief.
Okay, step one, get my phone with a proper charger from my suitcase. Charge phone. she listed. Step two, get Deanna to drop of the AXTGRIFF here, do a little ‘driver-shuffle’ to get her back home to Manhattan. Step three, do some leg work on this competition and…
Her mind stopped as she reached the door to the lobby, her eyes catching her reflection in the glass of the door. She had wanted to show up making a decent entrance as one of the few ‘returners’ from the first World Series of Wrestling. She had chosen a nice black dress, her platinum-blonde hair tied in its iconic, thick braid. In short, everything had been ‘on point’ for her ‘big return’ to the WSOW and TIA productions.
The woman staring back at her? Her dress was ripped, her hair was now undone and a mess with streaks of dirt in it, her face bore similar markings and her feet were covered with blisters and running shoes. Hardly the appearance of someone of integrity or value, right?
With a sad sigh, Selena pushed the door open and walked in, doing her best to ignore the confused and, even, disgusted looks from the lobbyist/concierge. She had lost the ‘map’ of the Compound that she was given that said where everything was and odds were most people were settling into their rooms by now.
Maybe that’s for the best… Selena sighed, gazing down to look at her room key that the front-desk had given her, clearly too disgusted to even give her directions to the rooms. Carefully, the dirtied former world champion gazed around the nearly empty complex, seeing mostly the lights that illuminated parts of it as the sun continued to set.
“Okay…” she sighed, doing her best not to let the frustrations get to her over such a lousy first-impression/entrance. Holding a shaky finger up, she moved it across the array of buildings before her, some houses, others actual businesses! “Eeny, Meanie, Miney, Moe…” she whispered out, her hand moving frantically. “If he hollers, let him go…” she finished the song as her finger settling on one building off in the corner. Biting her lower lip, she pulled her suitcases across the Villa, a short distance from where she stood to her ‘chosen’ destination.
Be friendly. She reminded herself. We’re here to find purpose again! Find trust!
Her eyes settling on the first people she saw out front, Selena spotted a lean man with tattoos and the other was a beautiful dark-skinned woman with… let’s face it, far better assets than Selena possessed. “Excuse me…” her voice, dry and cracked, came out as a bit of a rasp. She managed to gain the two’s attention, who looked at her with more shock than disgust – thank goodness.
“My…my name is Selena Frost…” Selena tried to introduce herself. “I’m on the red team for this event and I…I…” she wanted to be friendly, kind, the person she had been a year ago when she first had started the World Series of Wrestling. But instead, her eyes cast down, seeing the dirt on her, the rips in her clothes, the blisters on her feet.
“I’m sorry.” She whispered, her cracked voice becoming a bit more of a cry. “I don’t know what team you’re on or if we’re enemies but… can you just point me towards the rooms…” she looked up, fighting back the tears in her eyes. “I just really need a shower.”
The question trailed its way into Selena’s mind to illicit the familiar feelings of frustration as she dragged her two suitcases behind her, each by the handle and hearing them rolling across the uneven, stony asphalt that made up the freeway.
She didn’t know what time it was. Her phone had died because the charger she thought it was plugged into was broken. Of course, that was known only AFTER her car had popped a tire and sent her into a ditch, leaving her stranded just several miles off from her desired location: The Compound.
Now here she was, the former world champion of SCW, having just headlined her third ‘Rise to Greatness Pay-Per-View’… dragging herself through the dusty and dirty freeways, dragging suitcases behind her and-
SNAP!
She heard the sound before she felt the shift in weight in her left arm. The second sound she heard was the thud of metal and plastic as the suitcase, no longer supported by her, flopped to the ground, the impact enough to break the lid. Immediately, Selena felt the strong wind pick up, as if sensing the opportunity, and seizing the loose articles into their updrafts.
“NO! COME ON!” Selena screamed out, immediately propping the other suitcase onto the ground and rushing after the clothes that seemed to ‘come alive’ as they skidded back the way she had walked, rubbing against the dirt and bits of gravel. She heard a snap again – different than the first – and her walking felt strange but she kept her mind focused on getting her clothes back. She heard cars honking their horns at her and some were even yelling or laughing at her. She ignored all of it and grabbed the shirt against the guardrail and the nightgown next to it. She didn’t bother checking them, simply stuffing them back into the broken suitcase and slamming the lid shut, pressing into it as if she could will the latch back into place.
Biting her lower lip, Selena turned the suitcase to its side, grasping the smaller side handle and lifting it up to carry before grabbing the other suitcase (still in-tact) with her free hand to continue dragging it along the road. At this point, her irregular walking caught up to her, causing her to see the broken shoe she wore, the short-heel snapped off. With an angry sigh, Selena stopped again, casting off the shoes and tossing them away. Pulling her non-broken suitcase to her, she opened the lid carefully, only enough to dig her hand through and pull out a pair of white running shoes. Slipping them on, she winced a little at the blisters on her Achilles, the skin a dark red from the newly exposed skin. “Perfect…” she muttered, pulling herself back up to her full height to continue her trek.
She had looked ahead on her GPS before everything had went south, and the signs on the road, probably put up there by Kayfabe Travels, certainly helped. TIA had done all they could – the Sauce Boss wanting to give back to the wrestling world with another world series of wrestling…
Except it’s not ‘World Series of Wrestling’… Selena thought. TIA is ending…
The feeling brought forth a series of familiar emotions, Selena relating to the sadness she had seen in the Sauce Boss’ face when he had made the announcement for ‘Last Man Standing’, the new name for the event.
Maybe that’s why she had stayed in the competition while others kept quitting and people kept leaving before the thing had even begun.
She wasn’t a ‘representative of SCW’ anymore. She had walked away from the federation that had turned on her in the past year, SCW choosing scandals and controversy over integrity and talent. Even the SCW commentary were confused by it, but management saw only dollars and Selena… well… she wasn’t wanted there anymore, not unless she sold out her morals and adopted a more ‘controversial’ attitude.
So, she had left.
She had cancelled all her upcoming meet-and-greets. Yet… she couldn’t do it for this. She couldn’t just walk away like the others had. Maybe it was because she had had so much fun last year or maybe it was to catch up with a few people.
Or maybe… she sighed and winced a little as she kept walking.
Maybe I’m just looking for something worthwhile again in wrestling…
It was the only thought she had had in the past few hours that was calming. Last year, she had wanted to represent SCW and bring in more eyes to watch the federation as it grew. She had finished 8th overall of over sixty wrestlers from around the world. Now? She didn’t care about SCW. She didn’t care about representing the company. She didn’t even care that much about winning the competition – hell, it had changed so much, she wasn’t even sure of the rules anymore or the ‘way to win’. She was working with a team now, was that it? She had comrades? On a ‘Red Team’ - Talk about a missed opportunity… making me ‘red’ instead of ‘blue’.
But none of that mattered to her now. In truth, SCW had taken something from her over the past year since WSOW. Bit by bit, day by day, week by week, month by month… and now? Maybe she wanted it back. Or maybe she needed things to end on better terms for her than to be cast out by the SCW fans. Maybe she needed to thrive outside of SCW. Or maybe… maybe she just needed a better ending to her wrestling career than that.
She wasn’t sure – how could she be with so much else she wasn’t sure of. The event, the rules, the state of TIA, but maybe that was a good thing. Maybe with all this uncertainty, maybe she could find something definite in her life, even if she didn’t win the event.
That still doesn’t excuse your own stupidity! Her brain chastised, as her eyes gazed out towards the sun as it drew closer to the horizon. They might not even let you in at this point!
That part filled Selena with more alarm than she was willing to admit. It was true! Orientation and check-in had occurred hours ago, and with no cellphone to call, and people just driving by her and not giving a damn (agitating that familiar ache from SCW), they probably were thinking she wasn’t going to show up or something!
And it was her own fault! Kayfabe Travels had offered her a ride to the complex, hell, she could have used the AXTGRIFF prize she had won last year during the world series of wrestling! But no!! She had to get away from everything! She had to ‘go back to basics’! She had to be ‘I don’t like relying on people besides my family’ and refuse a pick-up, opting for a damn rental car to drive herself from the airport to the Compound!
“Why are you so stubborn?” she asked herself. “Why do you always have to do things by yourself? Why do you always have to carry the weight of the world on your own shoulders? Why couldn’t you just have taken the help offered?”
A bit of dust flew up and drifted into her face, causing Selena to shake her head, blinking a little to clear her vision before resuming her quest. Teamwork? She had trusted the SCW Universe to have her back and stand with her in the fight for integrity, but they had thrown her away on the greatest accomplishment in her career – booing her out of Toronto when she had done nothing wrong. She had trusted Oleksa Drachewych to do right by the company, instead handing it over to the biggest sleezeball imaginable!
Trust was not something she had much of right now, much like having very little love to continue being part of the wrestling world. Maybe that’s why the idea of being part of a ‘team’ with ‘comrades’ was better for her. Maybe she could get it all back… her love of wrestling, the integrity she longed to preserve, and working with and trusting people again…
A last ditch effort…
She suddenly stopped as she saw the signs and driveway before her – how long had she been walking with such thoughts? Carefully, she read the sign, ensuring that this was, indeed, the Compound, breathing a long sigh of relief.
Okay, step one, get my phone with a proper charger from my suitcase. Charge phone. she listed. Step two, get Deanna to drop of the AXTGRIFF here, do a little ‘driver-shuffle’ to get her back home to Manhattan. Step three, do some leg work on this competition and…
Her mind stopped as she reached the door to the lobby, her eyes catching her reflection in the glass of the door. She had wanted to show up making a decent entrance as one of the few ‘returners’ from the first World Series of Wrestling. She had chosen a nice black dress, her platinum-blonde hair tied in its iconic, thick braid. In short, everything had been ‘on point’ for her ‘big return’ to the WSOW and TIA productions.
The woman staring back at her? Her dress was ripped, her hair was now undone and a mess with streaks of dirt in it, her face bore similar markings and her feet were covered with blisters and running shoes. Hardly the appearance of someone of integrity or value, right?
With a sad sigh, Selena pushed the door open and walked in, doing her best to ignore the confused and, even, disgusted looks from the lobbyist/concierge. She had lost the ‘map’ of the Compound that she was given that said where everything was and odds were most people were settling into their rooms by now.
Maybe that’s for the best… Selena sighed, gazing down to look at her room key that the front-desk had given her, clearly too disgusted to even give her directions to the rooms. Carefully, the dirtied former world champion gazed around the nearly empty complex, seeing mostly the lights that illuminated parts of it as the sun continued to set.
“Okay…” she sighed, doing her best not to let the frustrations get to her over such a lousy first-impression/entrance. Holding a shaky finger up, she moved it across the array of buildings before her, some houses, others actual businesses! “Eeny, Meanie, Miney, Moe…” she whispered out, her hand moving frantically. “If he hollers, let him go…” she finished the song as her finger settling on one building off in the corner. Biting her lower lip, she pulled her suitcases across the Villa, a short distance from where she stood to her ‘chosen’ destination.
Be friendly. She reminded herself. We’re here to find purpose again! Find trust!
Her eyes settling on the first people she saw out front, Selena spotted a lean man with tattoos and the other was a beautiful dark-skinned woman with… let’s face it, far better assets than Selena possessed. “Excuse me…” her voice, dry and cracked, came out as a bit of a rasp. She managed to gain the two’s attention, who looked at her with more shock than disgust – thank goodness.
“My…my name is Selena Frost…” Selena tried to introduce herself. “I’m on the red team for this event and I…I…” she wanted to be friendly, kind, the person she had been a year ago when she first had started the World Series of Wrestling. But instead, her eyes cast down, seeing the dirt on her, the rips in her clothes, the blisters on her feet.
“I’m sorry.” She whispered, her cracked voice becoming a bit more of a cry. “I don’t know what team you’re on or if we’re enemies but… can you just point me towards the rooms…” she looked up, fighting back the tears in her eyes. “I just really need a shower.”