vs. Nate Lawson

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On Camera

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Everyone loves a surprise, right?  Everyone except Lethal Weapon.

Harris, old boy old friend, are you asking yourself right now why would I choose to align myself with Dante?  What a silly question asked by a silly individual.  The real question is, why wouldn’t I align with Dante?

I mean, there is that charm and elegance about him that I love so much.  But there is the other little factoid, the fact that he and I share a mutual disdain for you and desire to see you taken down a few notches.

Have you forgotten already, Harris?  You ended my first reign as MCW World Champion.  Fair play to you, but to add insult to injury you refused to grant me a one on one rematch.  Did you forget that, Harris?  I know I didn’t forget that and to see you brought down a few notches will just make my day.

And for the record, I’m not just here to bring you and FWA down.  And I’m not even here to serve Dante.  I am his princess, not a minion.  Get that right.  I am here to revive my legacy and revive it I will by winning any damn championship I decide to set my eyes upon.

If anyone in FWA thinks they can stop me then they are welcome to try.  This is a far more dangerous beast than you have ever known.  This isn’t the Firestar who once dominated the ranks, nor is it the Dragon who wreaked havoc and carnage throughout the land.

I am a Golden Goddess and this company is my domain, it is my world, and my kingdom.  When I’m ready, I will reclaim my throne in the heavens.

Nate Lawson, you are going to be the first of many to fall.  I’m not new to FWA and I am damn sure not unfamiliar to this roster.  Everyone knows who the hell I am.  Including you.  And if you’ve forgotten, ask around about me.  They will all tell you the same thing.

You’re fucking screwed.

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Off Camera

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Angelica Jones is known for being quite the independent, free thinking woman.  As a young girl she grew up in a Catholic family, being raised to those ideals and virtues, having drilled further into her skull at a Catholic boarding school after her mother was killed.  The young woman was pressured into going into training to be a nun.  She had been a candidate and a novice and had even made the temporary profession of vows until backing out right before making her perpetual profession of vows to the Church, her first time bucking societal norms to do whatever she wanted.  Her first child, Marie Annabelle Jones, was born out of wedlock, yet another bucking of the system by Angelica Jones.

Her trend of bucking the system would not stop there.  Instead of growing up as a good Catholic girl and marrying a good Catholic boy she trained to be a professional wrestler.  Fighting in the middle of the ring is what she wanted to do and she would be damned if anyone was going to stop her just because of her gender.  She got a job wrestling for the Global Division of Wrestling where she continued to break societal norms.  Women weren’t supposed to be world champion.  Men held that title.  But Angelica broke the glass ceiling for women everywhere by becoming the first woman to win that coveted championship.

All of her life this woman has done whatever she wanted without much regard for what others thought about it.  Doing things her way had garnered her nine world championships and the honor of being inducted into three separate halls of fame.  Why should she stop doing things the way she’s been doing them when that way has been successful?

You may not know it just from talking to her, but things have changed.  Jones had oozed confidence and was borderline arrogant during her legendary career that began back in 2003.  Ever since she lost her ninth world championship to Dazz back in MCW, she has been on a drought.  A four year drought in which she has not been on top of the wrestling world.

Jones is a nine time world champion and a three time hall of famer and that made her, in her eyes, the queen of professional wrestling.  Queens should sit atop their thrones.  But she had throne.  She had no kingdom.  Angelica had been toppled and for four years  she had been unable to reclaim her throne.

When one goes on a drought that lasts four years, needless to say, that confidence one had starts to evaporate.  No more is Angelica Jones the confident, borderline arrogant queen of professional wrestling that she had once proudly declared herself to be.

No, she had gotten to the point where she had thought herself to be mediocre.

Average at best.

So many wrestlers were changing, evolving, becoming better and better than she ever was while she was sitting at a stalemate in her career.  Jones attempted to revive her legacy by going back to the place she had first called home: GDW.  But she failed to win the Civil War Match.  She failed to earn a world title shot.  The best she managed to do was win the world tag team titles with her sister Kayla and a part of Angelica’s own mind questions how much she actually contributed to that team.

Her attempt at reviving her legacy had been a miserable failure.

She was at a crossroads, either retire and admit that she was never again going to be as good as she once was.  Or take desperate measures…

Desperate people will do desperate things and Angelica was desperate enough to reunite with Samantha Hodgson, her former agent.  Hodgson and Jones had worked together during Angelica’s famous run from 2003 to 2010 when she won nine world titles and earned her way into three halls of fame.  Hodgson refused to work with Angelica because the red head Boston native would not take her advice.  Angelica, always the free thinking individual, wanted to do things her way and her way did not go along well with what Samantha Hodgson thought was best.  So the two parted ways.

Now Jones cannot help but look at those seven years she had with Samantha, seven years ripe with success and championship gold, as compared to the four years ripe with miserable failures galore; four years of a drought from championship gold.

Samantha Hodgson was quick to say “I told you so” to her former client and much to her surprise, Angelica agreed.  But then again, it would expected would it not?  Angelica’s confidence had evaporated.  Self-doubt was eating away at her.  She began to buy into what Samantha Hodgson had been telling her all along…

…she needed Samantha Hodgson in order to become a champion again.

The bathroom connected to the bedroom opens up and Angelica herself steps out, dressed at the time only in a lace black bra and panty.  Her long, luscious locks of hair are naturally red and she prefers to keep it that way but Samantha asked her to become a blonde.  ‘Blondes are more attractive’, Sammy would say, and thus Angelica’s formerly red hair is dyed blonde.

She walks gracefully over to the closet and opens it up.  She reaches inside and pulls out a spaghetti strap black dress.  Jones steps into it and pulls the straps over her shoulders, finally zipping it up in the back.  She bends over back into the closet and finds a fair of strappy high heeled sandals which she brings over to the bed.  Jones, sitting on the edge of the bed, places her feet, one at a time, into each sandal and tightens the straps.  She always has preferred to look nice out in public, but for wrestling appearances which she is about to attend here this afternoon, she has always preferred to look like she’s ready for a fight.

Once again, though, Samantha Hodgson’s advice came into play.  Samantha told Angelica that her actions as a flamboyant lesbian sleeping with any woman that’s breathing had tarnished her reputation and that she needed to rebuild it.  Samantha said the best way to do that was to emphasize the classy look and thus wherever Angelica goes from now on, she is to look as classy as possible.

The door to the bedroom itself opens and Angelica looks up to see her wife, the raven haired beauty known as Lindsey Carter, step over the threshold.  She is wearing a pink sun dress that stops just below her knees and matching sandals.

Lindsey: Knock, Knock!

A smile creeps across her face.  She would love to ravish this woman right here and now.  Truthfully, here in the privacy of their own home is the only place they can publicly be a couple.  As per strict orders from Samantha Hodgson, Angelica is not to appear in public with Lindsey Carter and they are never to show any public displays of affection towards one another.  This mainly applies to Angelica as Lindsey is not one of Samantha’s clients but she obeys the rule simply for Angelica’s sake.

Lindsey and Angelica love one another and she is thankful to have someone as understanding as Lindsey to be her wife.  Angelica thinks that of all the men she has been with in her life, including the likes of Andreas Lasiewicz and Sean McBride, that none of them measure up to this woman right here.

And that’s why she feels so damn guilty about having to hide this relationship with Lindsey as if it is wrong.  It is not wrong and yet if she does not keep it hidden she knows Samantha will quit.  And she needs Samantha.  Right?

Thankfully Lindsey does understand…

Lindsey: You look amazing, Angel!  Are you going out with Dante?

Jones shakes her head.  That’s another thing she is thankful for about Lindsey.  She is a very free spirited individual.  She is completely aware of Angelica’s side relationship with FWA’s own Dante and she is perfectly ok with it.  As long as she is happy and the two of them can continue to have their own fun on their own time as well.

Dante is why Angelica Jones recently rejoined the Future Wrestling Alliance.  It was Angelica’s decision, one of the few she made on her own without consulting Samantha Hodgson and while Hodgson was initially upset that she was not consulted on the matter she ended up liking the idea when Angelica told her what Dante had planned.  Now Angelica is in FWA and ready for her first singles match there against none other than Nate Lawson, a former MMA fighter turned professional wrestler.  Angelica looks forward to this challenge.

Angel: Thanks, Lindsey.  I appreciate it.

The beautiful Boston native stands up to her fully elegant form, encased in the black dress that stops just above the knee and hugs her every curve.  Her blonde hair hangs down to just a little past the shoulders but not overly much.  She never did like too much hair.

With a nod of her head Angelica beckons Lindsey to come closer.  That is all the encouragement the raven haired Carter needs in order to make the decision to approach her wife.  The two interlock in an embrace and then a passionate kiss on the lips.  Upon breaking the kiss Angelica looks at Lindsey with sad eyes and a happy grin, an odd contrast.

Angel: You have been too good to me, Lindsey.  I do not deserve you.

Lindsey: Oh and what made you decide to be Little Miss Pessimist today?

Angel: I’m just telling the truth.  I don’t deserve you.  You only married me because Meagan Collins and I tricked you into it.

Carter nods her head.

Lindsey: Yes, but…

Angel: I see other people behind your back, namely Dante.  And I won’t even take you out in public to show you off as my girl, as my wife.

Jones shakes her head.

Angel: No, Lindsey, I do not deserve you.

The two women stare into each other’s eyes.  Lindsey can tell that there is pain in her wife’s eyes so she takes her by her hand and guides her to the edge of the bed where they sit down next to one another.

Lindsey: Angel, darling, are you listening to me?

The red head nods slowly.

Lindsey: Good.  Now listen to me, missy, my dad always used to tell me that God could take the worst of situations and turn them into blessings.  Yes, what you and Meagan Collins intended to do was wrong, but…

She leans over and gently kisses Jones on the cheek.

Lindsey: ...you learned to love me, and I learned to love you.  So what if Meagan tricked me?  Had it not been for that trick you and I would not be together right now.  And so what if you are seeing Dante on the side?  Once upon a time when you were engaged to Brittany Lohan you were seeing me on the side, if you recall?  You know I am a very free spirited and accepting individual.

Angel: And that’s what I love about you…

Lindsey: Damn right.  Now as for that last one…

She sighs but smiles, an obviously forced smile.

Lindsey: …no, I don’t like it.  But I understand what you’re going through.  I really do.

Now it’s Jones who sees the pain in Carter’s eyes.  The pain in her eyes makes the guilt well up even more than before and Angelica quickly shakes her head.

Angel: You don’t mean that.

Jones turns her head away so that she doesn’t have to look at Lindsey.  She is ashamed to look at her wife, a wife she cannot take out in public for fear of offending Samantha Hodgson.  Lindsey, though, takes her by her chin and guides her face back so that she is looking back into her eyes again.

Lindsey: I do know that if you had a choice in the matter you would be showing me off every chance you got.

There’s that word; choice.  In the past Angelica would make all the choices for herself and her career but now she isn’t so sure of herself.  Now that she has lost her confidence she feels she needs the guidance of Samantha Hodgson and that, no matter how much she may disagree, she needs to obey her.  And much to Angelica’s chagrin, Samantha Hodgson is convinced that her overtly bisexual lifestyle would be detrimental to her quest to regain the world heavyweight championship.  A quest that will begin on Mayhem as she faces Nate Lawson.

Angel: Samantha is…well…

Lindsey: She doesn’t understand.

Jones shakes her head as she wipes some tears from her eyes.

Angel: No, she doesn’t.

Lindsey: Care you to try and explain why our relationship has a damn thing to do with your performance in a wrestling ring?

Angel: Samantha believes that image is everything.  She doesn’t thing organizations like FWA will want a bisexual or lesbian as their champion and would try to hold me back if I were open about it.  That’s also why I am being elegant and classy everywhere I go now.  I have to look like a champion, according to Sam.

Lindsey: But Angel…

Carter takes her by her hand and squeezes it tightly.

Lindsey: …is that what you want?

Angel: I want…

Jones pauses as she thinks long and hard about the answer.  She isn’t sure herself what she wants.  She just knows that she hasn’t had any success over the last four years getting what she wanted and that’s why she has aligned herself with Samantha Hodgson again.

Angel: …I want…

Lindsey: Yes?

Angel: …I want to be world champion.

Lindsey stares deep into her wife’s tear filled eyes.  She is disappointed in Angelica.  She was hoping to hear something different out of her.  She knows Angelica still has that same fighting spirit she once fell in love with.  She just has to find it once again.  Lindsey knows Angelica can win a world championship on her own without the assistance of someone like Samantha Hodgson, she just has to find her confidence again, the confidence to stand up to Hodgson and remind her who makes the rules.

Kelly: Mommy?

Both Lindsey and Angelica are startled only slightly as they look up to see Angelica’s youngest daughter, little Kelly McBride, walking into the room.  Jones immediately forgets all of her problems as a motherly sense washes over her.  She gets up and approaches her daughter, embracing her in a hug.

Angel: Oh, Kelly, what are you doing here?

Kelly: I heard you and Miss Lindsey talking.  Are you ok, mommy?

She probably overheard much of this conversation, Angelica thinks to herself.  They were quite loud.  She sighs as she runs a hand through her daughter’s shoulder length red hair.

Angel: Mommy’s fine, sweetie.  Mommy is fine.

Kelly: You look pretty mommy.

Jones smiles proudly.

Angel: Thanks, darling…

Kelly: You’re the prettiest wrestler ever AND you’re the best wrestler ever, mommy.

Angel: Thanks, sweetie.  Now run along, mommy has to get ready to leave in a moment, ok?

Kelly McBride nods and makes her exit.  Angelica turns around to face Lindsey who is now standing up, arms folded over her chest, staring down at her wife.

Lindsey: Were you just listening to your daughter?

Angel: I heard her.

Lindsey: Well?  She gets it.  Why don’t you get it?

Angel: Get what?

Lindsey: That you are the best wrestler in the world.  You shouldn’t be begging Samantha Hodgson to guide your career, she should be on her hands and knees begging you to let her manage you.  She gets money off of your success.  You are the star, not her.

Angel: I wish I could believe that, Lindsey.  I really wish I could.  But the evidence is all there.  For seven years Sam and I were together I won nine world titles.  When I dropped her for those four years I went without any world titles.  It’s time for me to swallow my pride and just admit that Samantha Hodgson was right, her guidance is what helped me win those nine world titles and it will help me win a tenth.

With that Angelica turns and makes her exit out of the bedroom.

Lindsey: What has happened to her?

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On Camera

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In my time as a wrestler I have battled all kinds of individuals.  I have fought with high flyers and matched wits with submission specialists.  I have brawled with the most violent of them all.  In my time as a wrestler I have competed in all kinds of matches from Weapon’s Lair, Glass Chamber, Apocalypse Matches, and Seven Stages of Hell just to name a few.  My body bears the scars of what I have endured.

One thing I have never done in my career, one individual I have never had to match wits with, is a former MMA fighter.

I love a good challenge and Nate Lawson, I do hope you live up to the hype.  I do hope you live to your own billing.  I hope you are as good as your promoters say you are.  I am itching for a challenge.  I haven’t had a real challenge in a long time and I look forward to seeing what I can do against a former MMA fighter.

See, you’re still rather green to this industry.  I remember you back when you were in GDW.  Yeah, that’s where you should remember me from, right Nate?  Is that jogging your memory, buddy?

Being new to the industry has its short comings and one them is inexperience.  You don’t know me well enough to know exactly what you are up against and what you are getting yourself into.  So let me spell it out for you in plain English so that there’s no excuses.

I am the type of wrestler no one wants to face.  I am the type of wrestler that no matter what you try to do to me, I will always have a counter.  I am the type of wrestler that if you try to go hold for hold with me, I’ll beat you hold for hold.  If you try to make it a brawl, I’ll stain the arena with your blood.  If you try to take to the air I’ll beat you there too.

In other words, anything you can do I can do better, and that’s a damn fact.

The only wrinkle here is your MMA background, which is why I am so excited about facing you.  I have never faced an MMA fighter before.  Can I go hold for hold with an MMA guy?

You see, Nate, as much as I may talk there is one thing that is true and that is the fact that I do respect you for what you can do in that ring.  It is a skill I never did learn and probably never will learn.  You can’t teach an old bitch new tricks, right?

But I don’t need to know any new tricks to defeat someone like you.  I have every tool I need to defeat you, I have every skill available in my arsenal to defeat you.  This isn’t a question of whether or not I can match wits with some ex MMA boy, because that’s a no brainer.  I am The Golden Goddess, of course I can match wits with you.

The real question is can you hang with me?

The answer is you can.  You can hang with me.  But can you defeat me?  No, you can’t.  You and I will have a hell of a match.  You may even turn a few heads and impress FWA management, but at the end of the day I will be victorious, because that’s just what I do.

I win.

That’s what I do in this industry, Nate.  I win.  That’s what I’m paid to do and people like you are paid to get in the ring with me and try to win but ultimately fail each and every time.  But it’s ok, you know why?

I’m so great I’ll make you look good by default.  My greatness will rub off as we…or more aptly I…steal the show.

You’re welcome, by the way.