Friday, November 10, 2017

Cold War: Part 1

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October 25th, 2017
Off Camera
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Breakdown from Edmonton, Alberta, Canada was a turning point for Angelica and Kayla Jones.  After a long string of losses, losses that included one at the Under Attack pay per view event, the former two time SCW World Tag Team Champions finally broke the streak.  They finally picked up a win and got themselves back on track.  No, the team was far from being on their talent level.  They were just local talent, no more and no less, but a win is a win and getting that win felt good to the Jones siblings and it was just what the doctor ordered.  It made them believe that maybe, just maybe, their luck had changed.

Unfortunately they were attacked by Dante McCaffery and his new gang of thugs, Ms. Buddhe and Jack Parker.  The three on two mugging after Angelica and Kayla had already wrestled was too much for them to overcome and Dante’s group, The Network, easily overwhelmed them.  So even in victory, they were still left lying face down as if they had been defeated.

We find Kayla Jones backstage in the trainer’s room.  She’s still in her wrestling gear and has an ice pack pressed up against her neck.  The trainer is there with her when the door swings wildly open and her older sister, Angelica Jones, also in her wrestling gear, storms into the room, confronting the trainer.

“How is she?!”

“Easy, Angel.”

Kayla speaks in a vain attempt to calm her raging, angry sister down.  But Angelica isn’t having any of it as she storms up to get face to face with the trainer.

“How is my sister?!”

Kayla Jones has had a history of neck injuries and the assault tonight has perhaps reinjured it or, at least, aggravated it.  That much is clear due to the ice pack pressed up against Kayla’s neck.  Angelica Jones, meanwhile, is irreconcilable as a result.

“Ms. Jones, please,” the trainer begins “let me explain.”

“My sister and I were decimated out there.” Angelica says in a flash of anger, grabbing the trainer by his shirt collar. “She has a history of neck injuries!  I need to know that she’s ok!”

“Angelica!” Kayla exclaims as she gingerly hops up out of the chair she was sitting in and pushes her sister away from the trainer. Angelica looks into the eyes of her sister intensely. “Angel, please, just listen to the man.”

Angelica slowly softens as she stares into her sister’s eyes.  She then turns away from her sister and looks at the trailer.

“Your sister is fine.” The trainer begins. “A few bumps and bruises but overall she is fine.  Not even a minor injury to the neck.”

“See, Angel?” Kayla says, briefly removing the ice pack. “I’m fine.  I’m a little bruised but I am fine.”

“Are you sure?”

“Yes.”

“Alright,” Angelica turns to face the trainer “look, I’m sorry, but can Kayla and I have a moment alone?”

“Sure,” the trainer responds “I’ll just be right outside if you need me.”

With that said, the trainer walks past Angelica and Kayla and opens the door.  He exits out of the training room and shuts it behind him, leaving Angelica and Kayla alone in the trainer’s room.  Kayla places the ice pack back on her neck and then sits down.

“Geez, Angel,” Kayla remarks, shaking her head “what the hell has gotten into you?”

“I’m sorry for overreacting, ok?  But I couldn’t live with myself knowing I let something happen to you.”

“Oh please, I’m a grown woman.  I can take care of myself.” Kayla snickers. “But I appreciate your concern.  It is touching.”

Angelica pulls up a chair and places it next to Kayla.  She sits down in the chair and sighs, shaking her head with a look of frustration etched across her face.

“It’s also frustrating, you know?  Just when it appears as if we’re turning the corner, just when it seems as if momentum is back on our side, we get smacked right back down by a bunch of cry babies who can’t take the fact that they lost at Under Attack.”

This is a reference to Dante McCaffery and his allies.  They lost at Under Attack and, worse yet, his own partners in the five on five match abandoned him.  This is why Dante, along with Parker and Buddhe, had attacked The Sisterhood on Breakdown tonight.

“And where the hell was everyone else, huh?!” Angelica demands, still very frustrated. “We were left high and dry!  We were left all alone out there!  We…”

“We brought a lot of it on ourselves, Angel, and you know it.”

“Huh?” Angelica blinks her eyes curiously, clearly confused. “What are you saying?”

“We haven’t exactly been endearing ourselves to the tag team division or to SCW in general lately.”  Kayla remarks.  “No one likes us right now.”

“Still, someone could’ve come out and made the save.  Someone who doesn’t like Dante or believes in justice or whatever…”

“Why would they do that?” Kayla asks.  “Our favorability rating is probably about as low as Dante’s right now if not lower, in the Donald Trump range.  Do you expect anyone to come to our rescue?  If we ever do get our hands on Dante and his crew…”

“When.” Angelica snaps back furiously, definitively.

“Fine…WHEN we get our hands on Dante and his crew, the entire SCW universe will be thrilled to get to see all of us beat the holy hell out of each other.  The SCW universe won’t care about whoever comes out of it the worse of the wear.  They don’t like either of us.”

“It doesn’t matter.” Angelica shakes her head furiously. “Not right now, all that matters right now is that we get payback.”

She stands up and Kayla follows suit.  The sisters stare into each other’s eyes before Kayla speaks up.

“Then what?”

“Then…we refocus on those tag team titles.  We’ve finally regained some momentum and there is no way in hell I am going to get Dante or his crew of idiots stop that momentum.”

With that Angelica turns and exits the trainer’s room.  Kayla sighs as she rubs her neck in pain.

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November 4th, 2017
Off Camera
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It’s been over a week and one Breakdown and several more House Shows have come and gone in that time period, lending plenty of time for Angelica and Kayla to lick their wounds from the October 25th beat down at the hands of Dante McCaffery’s new gang, apparently called The Network.  The Sisterhood has been itching to get their hands on The Network , an opportunity at revenge for what happened on Breakdown from Edmonton.  Now it appears as if it will happen, but with a little icing on the cake.

The Sisterhood will be facing Dante McCaffery and Max Kane of The Network in a tag team match, a first round tag team match in an 8 team tag team tournament to crown new number one contenders to the SCW World Tag Team Championship.  For Angelica and Kayla, this opportunity is a golden one, pardon the pun, to get their hands back on the gold they so desire.  And it is also an opportunity at redemption.

For the past several months The Sisterhood has declared war on the SCW tag team division, declaring that it belonged to them and that they were the best team in SCW.  In the process they alienated themselves from every other friend and ally they once had.  It’s no wonder, then, that no one bothered to come out and assist them on Breakdown when they were attacked by The Network.  It was a fact that Angelica’s daughter, Marie Annabelle Jones, had to drill into her own mother’s head the hard way: The Sisterhood had dug their own grave and now they had to fight their own way out of it.

This way at least they have an opportunity to do just that, and in the process earn a shot at the tag team titles and maybe get some payback against The Network.  It will be challenging to say the very least.  They will have to win three matches in one night and they competition is very competitive with teams such as Adrenaline Rush, BAE, Bree and Sienna, Blake and Taylor, The Resurgence, and Chad and Lexi.

For now the siblings find themselves in Boston, Massachusetts at Angelica’s home, the large estate she playfully calls “Purgatory”.  It has been quite a literal “Purgatory” for her lately, what with the disappearance of Lindsey Carter and all of her children except her youngest, Kelly, moving out and doing their own thing.  Kayla has Trenton Snow and they are living together and yes, Angelica does have Aphrodite Noel, but they haven’t moved in together.  At least not yet.  Angelica is still alone in this large home.  She just has her youngest daughter, Kelly.  She wishes she had Marie, Jessica, or even Kimberly to talk to, but she realizes, with some regret, that they are no longer her little girls, but grown women who make their own decisions.

That look of regret, regret over a lost childhood, is seen on her face as she sits in a chair in her study, staring off into the distance, completely oblivious to what her sister is doing.  Kayla is sitting in a chair at a desk in the study.  A laptop computer is setup and Kayla has YouTube pulled up, searching for Dante McCaffery matches to study.

“I can’t find much on Max Kane.” She remarks clicking a video with the mouse. “But there’s plenty of Dante here.”

“Right…” Angelica’s voice trails off but it is clear that she is completely uninterested in what her younger sister has to say.  In fact, she probably didn’t hear it at all.  Lucky for her, Kayla doesn’t notice that she didn’t hear it.

“But then again, we’ve been in the ring with him before, so we may not need to study much tape on this creep.  We know enough to figure out some strategy against him and Kane.”

“Uh-huh…” Angelica is still very distant.

“Besides, we are The Sisterhood, two time SCW Tag Team Champions, one of the best teams in professional wrestling.  We have natural chemistry.  We should be fine.”

“Yeah…”

“Come to think of it, we should probably limit this time we’re studying tape and focus more on preparing for endurance.  We have to wrestle three times in one night to get that tag title shot.  Beating Kane and McCaffery alone won’t be enough.”

“Sure…”

“Three times, Angelica!” Kayla spins around and flashes three fingers at her older sister. “We have to compete three times against three top tag teams and…”

Kayla suddenly stops speaking as she notices the distant look in her sister’s eyes.  It becomes quite clear and evident to Kayla that her older sibling has not been paying a bit of attention to anything she has said for the past few moments.  Kayla folds her arms over her chest.

“I think we should quit SCW and join a traveling circus.”

“Uh-huh…” Angelica blinks a few times and looks incredulously at Kayla, apparently snapped out of her daze, “…wait, what?!”

“I thought that would snap you out of your trance.” Kayla says with an unimpressed frown on her face.  Angelica just sighs and shakes her head, looking very disappointed, disappointed in herself.

“I’m sorry, Kay, I really am, I was listening…well, at least halfway listening…and I do care about the tournament, it’s just that…”

“What is it, Angel?” Kayla asks incredulously. “What is wrong?  What has to be dealt with that is more important than this tournament and the SCW World Tag Team Championship?  Because let’s be honest here, we did pick up a win finally, but it was a win against a pair of losers.  We need to get a serious win to prove it wasn’t a fluke.  We have the chance to do that and to do so much more.  We can punch our ticket to a tag team title shot.”

Kayla reaches out and grabs her sister by the hand, squeezing it tightly. “But we aren’t going to get out of the first round if you’re in a funk like this.  So tell me, sis, what’s wrong?”

“No, it’s stupid.” Angelica shakes her head. “It isn’t important.”

“Well you’re right,” Kayla says with a smirk “it probably IS stupid, but it IS important, especially if it is going to be distracting you from our goal of winning that tournament.  So tell me what the problem is, dummy.”

Angelica sticks her tongue out at Kayla and the two share a laugh.  Angelica then nods her head.

“Alright, fine, you win.  It’s just that I feel that I keep screwing up…that we keep screwing up…”

“How so?” Kayla asks, tilting her head to one side.

“We reform The Sisterhood in SCW, we win the tag titles, we lose the tag titles, we don’t handle the loss very well, and we ruin what good PR that we have…we work to earn back our reputation, we win back the tag titles, we lose them again, and again we don’t handle the loss very well, and now we’re again stuck trying to regain our reputation.”

“Good point,” Kayla says, nodding her head “but in fairness, who wouldn’t have been as frustrated as we were after losing like we did?  Besides, since when did you care about public relations?  Aren’t you the one who used to say that this business was all about winning and that you did whatever it took to win?”

“Yes, I said that.” Angelica remarks, nodding her head. “But it doesn’t necessarily mean I was right, and as I think about it, I’m beginning to think that I may not have been right.  And besides, when I say I screwed up, I don’t just mean regarding SCW…”

Kayla pauses for a moment to stare into her sister’s eyes, eyes that are, even now, beginning to form tears.  After a moment to think about it she finally speaks up.

“Angel, does this have anything to do with what Marie said to you the other day?”

“Yeah…and she is right…she is a grown woman and I cannot expect her to be there at my beck and call anymore.  She can make her own decisions.  She does not need my approval for her relationship with Arthur.  But more than anything else…” Angelica reaches up and wipes some tears out of her eyes “…it made me realize just how much professional wrestling and other aspects of my crazy life has caused me to miss.”

Angelica stands up out of her chair and twirls around in a three-sixty. “I have all of this, this grand estate, because of my country music singing and because of my professional wrestling, but in that same time period I have had five different significant others, I am on number six now with Aphrodite…Jessica is probably lost to me because of my own mistakes, primarily the mistake of focusing so much attention on Marie at Jessica’s expense…and I focused so much attention on Marie because I so wanted her to love me, maybe because I know I’m the reason she doesn’t have a father, and yet despite my best efforts I still sense that Marie doesn’t fully trust me nor will she ever fully trust me…then there’s Kimberly, who I willingly gave away just to protect myself, it’s no surprise she has mental issues, and they’re all my fault…”

“Angel, please,” Kayla stands up and tries to embrace her older sibling with a hug, “calm down.”

“No!” Angelica shakes her head as she gently pushes Kayla away. “It IS my fault!  And that’s not all…think of what all we lost out on, think of what we both missed out on, Kay, things that were not our fault…we never got to be normal teenagers.  We had to grow up real fast because our mother was killed and our father abandoned us.”

“Yeah…” Kayla’s voice trails off as tears now form in her eyes “…I never could forgive daddy, even when he returned from Russia back to the states and tracked us down.  You eventually did but I never could.  At least not until the very end and by then it was too late…”

Angelica and Kayla embrace in a tight hug.  Eventually they break the embrace and Kayla wipes some of the tears from her eyes.

“But Angel, as much as it pains me to say it, we have to try to let the past stay in the past.  We need to focus on the future and we have a shot at the tag team titles in our future if we can just win this damn tournament.” She places a hand on Angelica’s shoulder. “Mom and dad would be damn proud of us right now.  In fact, they are probably looking down at us right now from heaven with big smiles on their faces, proud of what we’ve accomplished.  Anyone else in our situation with the hand that life dealt us would have been dead right now but look at us, two time world tag team champions in SCW, former world champions in other companies, you a successful country music singer…we have made something of ourselves.  There is nothing to be ashamed of.”

“You know, Kay, you are absolutely right.” Angelica says with a big smile on her face and a tear rolling down her cheek. “We have a lot to be proud of and I’m sure mom and dad are smiling down upon us from heaven above.  And maybe, if they are still smiling down upon us, then we’ll win that tag team tournament and get the tag title shot.”


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On Camera
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By any means necessary…it isn’t just a catchy phrase but a way of life for many in the sport of professional wrestling.  It was first coined by French intellectual Jean-Paul Sartre in his 1963 play Dirty Hands.  Malcolm X used it as a rallying cry during the civil rights movement in 1964.  But it seems as if “by any means necessary” has become more than just a catchy phrase in professional wrestling today, it has become an art form that many in our industry has mastered throughout the years.

Dante McCaffery may have learned the tricks of the trade, he may have learned the art of “by any means necessary” under the learning tree of PUNK HAZARD, and to a degree I can appreciate what he is doing.  Look at who is on top right now in Supreme Championship Wrestling and notice that all of them have something in common…

…they have backup.  Sienna Swann and Bree Lancaster, Blake Mason and Taylor Chase, even that idiot Lexi Von Aaron has backup in the form of Chad Evans.  They may not be the most beloved of individuals in SCW right now but they have backup.

I can appreciate the concept of having backup and even more than that of getting things done by any means necessary.  I have built a career on doing things my way.  Most of my career was spent stepping on other people and, if necessary, ending their careers if it meant advancing my own.

In other words, I don’t just know your type, it isn’t even as simple as to say that I’ve dealt with your type before.  I am that type of person, Dante.  Or at least, I have the potential to become that person, that dangerous Dragon, the bitch who will destroy and decimate anyone who gets in her way.

You and your Network, you dug your own grave at Under Attack. That fight was not ours and that’s why we left your sorry ass high and dry.  Is that why you decided to assault us on Breakdown?  Or was it just because you wanted to give Mr. D a show of force in order to intimidate him; show him what you could do with your new gang of buddies, your PUNK HAZARD Wannabes?

Here’s the problem that you face, Dante.  All you’ve done is manage to put together a group of PUNK HAZARD Wannabes and it’ll take more than what you and any of them can bring to the table to stop The Sisterhood because you’ve managed to wake up a sleeping Dragon.

That’s right, you pissed us off and now on Breakdown we have the chance to tear you apart and make you pay, make you wish you had just left well enough alone.  And if beating the living hell out of you and Max Kane wasn’t incentive enough, why don’t we add the fact that this is all part of a tournament to crown new number one contenders to the SCW World Tag Team Championship?

So we can beat your sorry asses from pillar to post AND at the same time earn a tag title shot…I like that prospect…I like it a lot.



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On Camera
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I like it a lot too.  I’m itching to kick their damn heads off on Breakdown.  But you know something, Angelica mentions allies and having backup.  Right now The Sisterhood has no backup.  We have no allies outside of maybe her daughter.  That’s it.  And it’s all our fault that we are in this situation right now.  We declared war on the entire tag team division, thus isolating ourselves from everyone.  And that’s on us, we fucked up.  And we accept that we’ll have to earn the respect of the division again.

That goal is within reach, just like the goal of earning another shot at the SCW World Tag Team Championship is within reach, even if it is a monumental mountain of wrestling and winning three matches in one night in order to accomplish that goal…but you, you and The Network…you’re heading in the opposite direction.

You are isolating yourselves from anyone and everyone who might have taken pity on you.  Why else do you think EVERYONE abandoned your pathetic ass at Under Attack, Dante?  It’s simple and let me spell it out for you…

..NO ONE LIKES YOU!

PUNK HAZARD Wannabes is an appropriate description for The Network because just like PUNK HAZARD isolated itself from everyone else, your Network is isolating itself from everyone else, and just like PUNK HAZARD eventually came crashing down in a blaze, so will The Network.

The only difference is that if Angelica and I have anything to say about it, The Network will be destroyed a hell of a lot quicker than PUNK HAZARD.  If we have anything to say about it, then it’ll be The Sisterhood who burns your little vision to the ground before you can even have a chance to get it off the ground.

So forget about the tag titles, Dante, worry more about survival.  Don’t focus on wrestling three times in one night, focus on trying to survive the destruction that The Sisterhood is bringing your way.  We will kick your asses at Breakdown.  We will kick your teeth down your throat.


And yes, we will win that tournament and earn a shot at the tag team championship.

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