Post by Vita Valenteen on Dec 18, 2018 16:35:20 GMT -8
..::THEN::..
What… what happened? The events of the night were fuzzy. The last thing that I could clearly remember was being out in the ring. Jessalyn as I were defending our titles against Peter Gilmour and Michael McBride, but for the life of me, I can’t remember the finish. I sit up from the trainers table which seems to cause a sharp pain in my head reminiscent of a migraine. I clench my eyes shut and drive my palm into my right eye with a circular rubbing motion. What the hell?
“Careful now, you suffered a pretty nasty concussion.”
I look over to to see a man that I hadn’t noticed was in the room with me. He’s one of the medical professionals that travels with the XWF. He’s standing with his back turned towards me as he seems to be flipping through some papers on a clipboard.
“Concussion? How long until I can defend the Tag Titles again?”
Without so much as turning to look at me, he continues to flip through the pages on the clipboard as he responds to my query.
“At the moment, there is no sure answer on how quickly you can return to the ring. What we’ll do for the time being is give you a few weeks off to rest, and then we will run some test to try and determine when you can return to work. Until then, I think that it would be best if...”
I begin to look around the room, slowly at first, but then more and more frantically as the trainers voice seems to fade away. Where is my championship belt? Where’s Jessalyn?....
“Oh my God… Did we lose?”
The trainer finally turns to face me, but I know the answer to my question before he can even think of the words to say. We lost our championships and judging by the condition that I’m in, I think it’s safe to say that I’m the reason for it.
Suddenly the memories come rushing back. The end of the match, McBride dragging me up to the top rope. My face slamming into the mat as he hit Banshee's Wail, then nothing but a flash of darkness before waking up here. I look to the trainer like a frightened child. He takes a deep breath and starts to speak, but before a word leaves his mouth, I end up hurling right in the middle of the floor before falling back on the table.
I ended up losing consciousness again and when I awoke this time, I found myself in a hospital bed. The doctors told me that they were going to keep me overnight for monitoring. It didn't matter. I had nowhere else to be anyway. No longer a champion, and unable to compete for who knows how long because I was too weak. My mind raced as I thought of everyone who had tried to convince me that I couldn’t make it, that I wasn’t big enough, strong enough, good enough… Kids from school mostly. Their words stung, but it wasn’t the biggest of deals. Kids will be kids, and it’s almost expected for your peers to try and drag you down with them, at least that’s my experience. What really hurt was the image of my own parents telling me that I wasn’t good enough to achieve my dreams. Whether they said it because they were trying to talk their daughter out of dangerous lifestyle that would take her away from home, or because they truly felt that I wasn’t good enough to do this, it didn’t matter. All that mattered was the fact that they made it clear that they didn’t believe in me.
For the short time that I have been a member of the XWF, I have used their words as motivation. A fuel to drive me to succeed. That motivation has helped me achieve heights that nobody thought possible in the short time that I’ve been here, but now, now as I lay here in a hospital bed, broken, alone, and with my championship belt stripped away from me, I’m left to wonder if my parents approval is something that I need to gain in order to move forward?
..::NOW::..
I stood on the front porch of my parents house in a panic.
What is wrong with me, I wondered.
These are my parents, they’ll be happy to see me.
Won’t they?
After a moment I finally mustered up the courage and reached for the bell, my finger stopping just shy of hitting the button...
DING DOOONG!
Footsteps echoed through the house as a heavy footed person approached the door. The deadbolt make a loud click as it disengaged.
“Vita?”
“Hi Micheal!”
Okay yeah, I chickened out. Instead of ringing my parents doorbell, I tucked my tail between my legs and took the first flight out of Toronto, which just so happened to be heading to Pittsburgh, aka, the home of Micheal Graves. A man who no longer has a career in the XWF at least partially due to me.
“What are you doing here?”
The truth is, I didn’t know where else to go.
“I happened to be in the neighborhood and thought, hey, I should drop in and see how Gravy is doing.”
Yeah, I could tell that he didn’t believe that too.
“Well, um…”
Micheal took a step back and motioned for me to come in. I’m sure he feels a little awkward letting a seventeen year old girl into his house, but dammit, I need a friend! I walk in and stand in the parlor looking into the living room. I’m surprised by the fact that Micheal doesn’t have a single piece of XWF paraphernalia anywhere to be seen. Micheal shuts the door and turns to face me.
“Um, would you like me to take your coat?”
I nod before allowing the heavy winter coat to fall from my shoulders. Micheal takes it and hangs it up in the closet as I venture a little deeper into his home, taking a seat at his dining room table. Micheal follows me into the room soon after and heads straight to the fridge.
“Would you like something to drink?”
“No thank you, I’m fine.”
Micheal reaches in and pulls out a bottled beer. He twist the top off and tosses it into the trash before taking a seat across from me at the table.
“So…”
I look to Micheal as he begins to speak and smile awkwardly.
“What really brings you here?”
A thousand lies run through my head. All of the different excuses that I can use for being here. Everything and anything that I can think up to tell him other than the truth.
“Come on VV, I know that you weren’t just in the neighborhood. Nobody comes around here if they can help it. So something must be wrong. Tell me what happened.”
Micheal has no reason to worry about me so. Our time together was short, and it lead to him being forced out of the XWF. The fact that he cares at all just goes to show that he’s not really the monster that people make him out to be. I let out a quiet sigh as I decide to just be real with him.
“I did it again.”
A look of concern falls across his face.
“Did what?”
He must not keep up with XWF programming anymore.
“I cost another partner a match, but this time, we lost our titles instead of our jobs.”
Micheal cracks a smile as a small chuckle escapes through his lips despite his best efforts to fight it back.
“You’re joking right?”
His reaction catches me off guard, and if I’m being honest, kind of upsets me a little.
“You of all people should realize that this isn’t a joke Micheal. I let Jesslyn Hart down just like I let you down. I allowed myself to get pinned and it cost the both of us our titles!”
“So you dust yourself off and go get them back. Losing a match, it’s not the end of the world ya know?”
“I can handle losing if it only affects my career, but when I have others counting on me, and I fail to get the job done... When I cost them everything that they’ve worked so hard for.“
“Listen, this is the last time that I’m saying this. You didn’t cost me anything. BX3 attacked me before the match. You went out there on your own and you nearly won the damn thing all on your own. You never failed me, if anything, you impressed the hell out of me.”
Micheal has told me this before, but I have a hard time allowing myself to believe that it’s anything more than him trying to make me feel better.
“Maybe I didn’t fail you, but I did fail Jessalyn. It’s because of me that we dropped the titles, and worse off we dropped them to Peter Gilmour and Michael McBride.”
Micheal playfully winces at the mention of their names.
“Ouch… maybe you’re right, maybe you did let Jessalyn down. You should probably just retire and never show your face in a professional wrestling ring again.”
“Micheal, I’m being serious!”
“What do you want me to say? If I tell you that it’s not your fault or not a big deal, you aren’t going to believe me.”
He makes a good point. I’m so wrapped up in my own self pity that anything he could say to contradict it would likely be dismissed.
“So… let me ask you a question.”
“Okay?”
“Did you go out there and give it your all?”
I hesitate to answer. Thinking back on the night and the weeks leading into it. Did I give it my all?
“No…”
“Why not?”
“It’s… It’s just all been too much. The traveling with the XWF, training and touring with the LFL…”
“So your stretched too thin?”
“Yes, but no, I just…”
“I think that I know what the problem is.”
“You do?”
“Yes, you’re stretched too thin, but also, you’ve had too much come to you too fast, and now you are crumbling under the pressure.”
Maybe, yeah maybe he's right!
“So what can I do to fix it?”
“Depends, do you want to quit wrestling?”
“HELL NO!”
Micheal can’t help but smirk, presumably at how quickly and passionately I responded.
“What about the LFL, how important is that to you?”
“I have an entire team counting on me, so I can’t really walk away from that either.”
“Then there's only one way to go about fixing this.”
“And that would be?”
“You’re going to have to suck it up and make it all work. You’re the one who wanted to wrestle. You even dropped out of school to pursue wrestling as a career, right?”
“Yes.”
“You are also the one who decided to sign up for the LFL when Vinnie bought that team, right?”
“Tenochtitlan Quetzalcoatl.”
“Riiight, anyway, the point is that you are the one who took on all of these responsibilities. Now you need to realize that you aren’t letting your partner down when you guys lose, just like you aren’t letting the team down because you girls don’t win every game. The only person that you are letting down is yourself when you continue to beat yourself up over every little loss.”
“It wasn’t a little loss, it was a championship match!”
“Yeah, but wasn't it a championship match that your partner showed up for drunk! That’s not on you.”
“Okay yeah, but she didn’t lose the match, I did!”
“Yeah, you took the pin, but you took that pin fall in what was essentially a handicap match. Are you really going to sit there and cry about the fact that you were unable to overcome two men with a partner who was barely there?”
Micheal lays his hands on the bale and interlocks his fingers before letting out a deep sigh.
“Listen, the way I see it, you have two options ahead of you. You can continue to blame yourself for ending my career, for losing the tag titles, and for every other bad thing that happens to you from this day forward. You can let the regret eat at you until it becomes a seed of fear, and then you can let that seed grow and grow until it becomes crippling. Eventually, one day, you will find yourself so overcome with dread that you might let someone down that you cease to function. Then, you will find yourself losing over and over again. Losing will become second nature to you. To the point that you find yourself expecting nothing less everytime that you step through the curtain. Finally, you will retire. You will retire having never conquered your fear and as a result you will realize that you peaked in your first few months. Your entire life will be full of nothing but regrets, and you will sit there, in old age tracing it back to when it all turned sour, and everytime you will find the same result…”
“Or?”
“Or what?”
“You said I had two options.”
“You do…”
“So, what is the other one?”
Micheal paused as he stared deeply into my eyes.
“I think you know the answer to that already…”
..::PROMO::..
“AND YOUR TWO TIME TAG TEAM CHAMPIONS OF THE WOOOOOORRRRRLD!!!”
“Yeah, that’s right boys, I’m making a prediction right now! At the Pre-Christmas Supershow, the XWF is going to be crowning a new set of champions when those belts come back to the baddest girls in the XWF, The Midnight Dolls! See boys, you’d have everyone believe that the two of you are wrestling machines that the world just isn’t prepared to stop. The truth is, you’re nothing more than reapers of rotten luck. The two of you managed to be in the right place at the right time to catch Jessalyn and I in a moment of weakness. Jess has been battling with personal demons, and in a way, maybe I have too, but make no mistake, we are ready, willing, and able to bring those title belts back to where they belong!”
“Ugh!”
“That sounds almost as corny as the crap Pete was spewing out.”
“Make no mistake Pete, the only thing that you and Michael are killing come Wednesday night is the all you can eat buffet bar at…”
“No… That’s not very good either... “
:Off camera: “Vita, we’re rolling live!”
“I know, I know, just chill dude. I got this!”
“Mikey… Pete… This talking game, it’s not really my strong suit. I’m more of a kick the shit out of the dough boy and his somehow lazier partner kinda girl! That’s why I’m not going to waste my time standing here and telling you clowns what Jess and I are going to do to you in that ring. Instead, I’m just going to spoil the end, and let you guys spend the night worrying about the middle. Jessalyn and I WILL be walking out of Warfare with OUR belts! We are both focused and back on the top of our games, and with us both in the zone, there isn’t a universe where Peter Gilmour can carry ANYBODY to victory over us!”
“Seriously, isn’t it usually Gilly who gets carried around here?”
“How bad is McBride, really?”
“Point is, I’ve had periods that were bigger and badder than you boys, so I suggest that you come to terms with the fact that your time with those titles is coming up short, cause after tomorrow night, you’re going to remind everyone that a guy with a fat title history like yours has LOST a lot of titles!”
“Peace bitches!”
::Off Camera:: “Annnd CUT!
Jessalyn walks into view, trying hard to hide her laughter with her hand.
“You are SO BAD at this girl!”
The two of them share a laugh at VV’s expense as the scene fades.