Post by Deleted on Aug 10, 2019 18:17:59 GMT -5
In the woods of Northern Arizona, Andrea Hernandez sits on a log in front of a campfire on a recent Friday night. She can hear some rustling in the woods in the distance but that doesn’t bother her at all. It’s a rather warm night as Andrea is in a reflective mood hanging out with Clarissa Vega, her former manager and at this point, her best friend following Monday night in which she cut all ties with Chelsea LeClair. She stares deep within the fire and she gets a bit angry when she sees a weird vision of Redacted when she was attacked by the owl brigade.
Clarissa: I just hope… for Chelsea’s sake… she ends up okay.
Andrea: Same.
Clarissa: I thought you’d be a lot more happy being rid of her for good, however…
Andrea: Beating Chelsea LeClair is no cause for celebration, Clarissa. I’ve accomplished so much more in my career that she really doesn’t mean anything to me anymore. That fucking assault at Redacted though… UGH… that nonsense is still burned in my brain.
Clarissa doesn’t respond right away when suddenly, a barn owl swoops in from the night sky and lands right in front of their food. Andrea angrily rolls her eyes at the sight of the owl who just gives her a blank, but innocent stare. The owl looks down at a leftover piece of chicken and back at Andrea who is not amused by this.
Andrea: I knew I should have brought a shotgun…
Clarissa: What?
Andrea: So I can shoot that fucking thing right now…
Clarissa: Andrea… it’s just an owl…
Andrea: You really think I want to look at one right now?
The barn owl looks back at the piece of chicken, then back at Andrea, then back at the chicken. Suddenly, it grabs the piece of chicken with it’s beak and flies off which just annoys Andrea further.
Clarissa: I know you didn’t get any answers that you wanted, but can you quit being such a negative Nancy right now? You just haven’t been the same since the NSFW show…
Andrea: And what’s that supposed to mean?
Clarissa: Like I wasn’t going to notice a difference? Come on Andrea… you were loose and enjoying yourself in the ring when you were taking down the likes of Curt Canon and Mario Maurako and routing the likes of Evin Empire out of OCW but it’s like that ladder match really soured your wrestling experience. Your match with Chelsea was actually the first match you’ve wrestled since then… you just…
Clarissa looks into Andrea’s eyes which are filled with anger, but otherwise, Clarissa is observing a blank stare.
Clarissa: ...lost the fire somewhere along the way. Really, you’ve never gone so long between matches since you hit the mainstream.
Andrea doesn’t respond whatsoever. All she can see in that fire at this point is the very moment she lost that ladder match.
Clarissa: Two weeks later… you’re talking about challenging yourself and moving on… but with all due respect to Alice Knight, you should have jumped right back in the chase. It’s like… you’re…
Andrea: WHAT? SETTLING? Is that what you’re going to say? Are you suddenly going to regurgitate something Chelsea already tried to tell me?
Andrea angrily stands up.
Clarissa: Andrea… surely you noticed how Chelsea’s career went after she just to that Moab guy…
Andrea: Just save it!
Clarissa: You’re acting like you’re the only one that’s ever lost their first crack at a world title…
Andrea: I’m not dealing with this right now! Who are YOU to criticize me when you’ve only wrestled about 2 matches in your own right? I’ll be back…
Clarissa: Where are you going?
Andrea: Somewhere where I don’t have to deal with any of this crap!!!!
Andrea briskly walks away from the campfire and into the woods, hardly caring about the fact that she’s doing so without a light. She’s not paying too much attention to her surroundings although constant owl hoots are just further annoying and angering her.
Andrea: UGH! Will you rats with wings just FUCK OFF already?
Andrea picks up a rock and tosses it into the distant woods hoping to silence the owls, but to little avail.
Voice: Running away from your problems, Andrea?
Andrea is briefly blinded by a flashlight then sees someone else coming toward her. It’s not Clarissa… but it is a man that she is very familiar with.
Andrea: Jay? Is that really you? Am I seeing a ghost right now?
Jason Gallardi was her trainer once she graduated from her father’s school and he was her agent responsible for her Independent bookings in the nascent part of her career. One of the most psychologically gifted wrestlers of his time, he doesn’t seem to be impressed with one of his most successful projects ever.
Jay: I sure picked a hell of a time to take a camping trip with my family, didn’t I? I also couldn’t help but notice you were having some… problems…
Andrea: Jay, with all due respect, I’m fine.
Jay: You’re “fine”. Is that why you avoided the ring so long after losing that madder match? Is that why instead of taking on the world title scene again, you’re taking on Alice Knight instead? I get you want to test yourself against legends but why not force your way into that Best-O’Connor match and make it a triple threat, huh? Why are you brushing off NSFW as if it never happened?
Andrea: I’m NOT…
Jay: So why is it that when Clarissa brought it up, you essentially said “fuck you” and walked away? How in the hell are you ever going to grow into a world champion if you’re just going to run away from your shortcomings, huh? I taught you better than that before I sent you Myra’s way to GCW. How in the world will you EVER be a world champion if you’re running away from the pain?
Andrea at this point, has nothing to say.
Jay: Very few wrestlers win their first ever world championship match, Andrea…
Andrea: You know this HOW?
Jay: I sure as hell didn’t. Yeah, it was painful for me! I’m not going to lie! It was a stab in the old ego, I’ll tell you that much for sure. But I didn’t run away! No, I kept on fighting and I kept on improving. Next thing you know… 5 months later… I’m a world champion for the first time. You can run away from the pain all you want to, but at the end of the day… that’s not going to get you anywhere. Going so long between matches isn’t going to help you any. Hell, you’re lucky that assault even happened to you…
Andrea: You’ve got to be kidding me…
Jay: The fact of the matter is, had you wrestled against Alice… you would have lost. I can sense when someone is still on the psychological mend… as you are right now. As blunt as I can put it… the best thing I can tell you right now is to quit being a little bitch about NSFW and face the pain! It’s difficult as fuck… but that’s the only way you’ll ever beat Alice… and that’s the only way you’ll ever be OCW Champion.
Jason turns around and begins to walk back into the darkness of the woods.
Andrea: Jay… wait…
Jay: I have a family to get back to, Andrea.
Andrea: There’s more I need to know…
Jay: You have my number…
Jason disappears into the darkness of the woods, leaving Andrea with a new mystery of her own to figure out.
Andrea: I hate to admit that he’s right but…
Her anger is essentially gone as now she’s dealing with the proverbial slap in the face she just got… albeit one that she desperately needed at this point to snap her out of whatever loop she’s been in since NSFW. She doesn’t have long to process this before she hears Clarissa calling out to her.
Clarissa: Oh thank GOD I found you…
Andrea turns to Clarissa, who is holding a lantern.
Clarissa: Sometimes, you just have to look in the mirror, you know?
Andrea doesn’t respond, which catches Clarissa by surprise.
Clarissa: Everything okay, Andrea?
Andrea: They haven’t been… not since NSFW…
Clarissa sighs with concern.
Clarissa: I’m glad you finally admitted that. Look, let’s just get back to the campfire, okay?
Andrea nods without saying a word as the duo heads back through the woods and back toward their campsite.
A few hours later…
It’s about 1:00 AM. Clarissa has disappeared for the night sleeping in the RV that they both brought, but Andrea is still wide awake, glaring at the fire, still thinking about the words Jay told her back in the woods.
“He’s right…” she thinks to herself. “I have been avoiding the pain. I know two weeks later, I went out there in front of the world and I acted so strong… but inside, I was still hurting. I felt that by challenging a hall of fame member in Alice Knight and that by saying what I said that night that my fans knew that I was fine… but I’ve been anything but fine. It’s just that the pain… the sting… of being THAT close… only to feel like I blew it… I’ve never wanted to deal with it and I always thought that the best way to go about it was to just ignore it. I realize now… that I’ve made a mistake…”
Andrea pauses her thoughts as the vision she gets in the fire is her very first OCW match against Jack Puffer, one that of course, she would win.
“Wrestling Jack Puffer isn’t going to do much for me… but what it is going to do is have me going back to the very beginning of my OCW ride… when I took a massive gamble at that time by leaving GCW, where I had a very secure place on the roster and could have blossomed into a main event player there, and joining something better. When I stepped into an OCW ring for the first time and got the reception that I did… it was absolutely amazing! I knew at that moment… I found my home. Last time against Puffer, finding my home was what I was aiming to do. This time?
It’s finding the phoenix within… because if there’s ONE bird that’s leagues better than an owl… it’s the phoenix… many times before, I’ve risen from the ashes. I rose from the ashes of my tag team with Chelsea to become a singles wrestler… I rose from the ashes of my awful UWA run in order to become a singles champion in GCW… I rose from the ashes of my departure there to become Paradigm Champion in OCW… I rose from the ashes of my heartbreaking loss of said title and Death March and became the Craze Champion… becoming the biggest up and coming star in OCW… and now I have to rise from the ashes of NSFW… to become… well… I honestly don’t know what I’m going to become. I won’t find those answers against Puffer… but I know I can at least find that phoenix that burns within my soul… one that I hope will defeat Alice Knight… one that I know will exact revenge for whoever’s responsible for Redacted’s events… and one that I hope turns me into an OCW World Champion.
Andrea gets one more vision in the fire… not one of the past… but of the future… her holding the OCW Championship over her head…
“I’ll get there… I know I can… I KNOW I will! Starting with Jack Puffer, I’m going to face the pain of NSFW head on and no longer run away from it anymore! It was that hack detective where I began my OCW journey… and again, it’ll be Jack Puffer where another journey begins… one where I find my full potential… one where I become OCW Champion… one I find that Phoenix, once it burns at its brightest… there’s not a person in OCW that can stop me… not Mike Best, nor Mack O’Connor, nor Alice Knight, nor whoever’s responsible for that owl attack…
...nobody!!!!”
Andrea watches the fire for a few more seconds before leaving it behind… ready to start a new journey and new chapter of her OCW career.
Clarissa: I just hope… for Chelsea’s sake… she ends up okay.
Andrea: Same.
Clarissa: I thought you’d be a lot more happy being rid of her for good, however…
Andrea: Beating Chelsea LeClair is no cause for celebration, Clarissa. I’ve accomplished so much more in my career that she really doesn’t mean anything to me anymore. That fucking assault at Redacted though… UGH… that nonsense is still burned in my brain.
Clarissa doesn’t respond right away when suddenly, a barn owl swoops in from the night sky and lands right in front of their food. Andrea angrily rolls her eyes at the sight of the owl who just gives her a blank, but innocent stare. The owl looks down at a leftover piece of chicken and back at Andrea who is not amused by this.
Andrea: I knew I should have brought a shotgun…
Clarissa: What?
Andrea: So I can shoot that fucking thing right now…
Clarissa: Andrea… it’s just an owl…
Andrea: You really think I want to look at one right now?
The barn owl looks back at the piece of chicken, then back at Andrea, then back at the chicken. Suddenly, it grabs the piece of chicken with it’s beak and flies off which just annoys Andrea further.
Clarissa: I know you didn’t get any answers that you wanted, but can you quit being such a negative Nancy right now? You just haven’t been the same since the NSFW show…
Andrea: And what’s that supposed to mean?
Clarissa: Like I wasn’t going to notice a difference? Come on Andrea… you were loose and enjoying yourself in the ring when you were taking down the likes of Curt Canon and Mario Maurako and routing the likes of Evin Empire out of OCW but it’s like that ladder match really soured your wrestling experience. Your match with Chelsea was actually the first match you’ve wrestled since then… you just…
Clarissa looks into Andrea’s eyes which are filled with anger, but otherwise, Clarissa is observing a blank stare.
Clarissa: ...lost the fire somewhere along the way. Really, you’ve never gone so long between matches since you hit the mainstream.
Andrea doesn’t respond whatsoever. All she can see in that fire at this point is the very moment she lost that ladder match.
Clarissa: Two weeks later… you’re talking about challenging yourself and moving on… but with all due respect to Alice Knight, you should have jumped right back in the chase. It’s like… you’re…
Andrea: WHAT? SETTLING? Is that what you’re going to say? Are you suddenly going to regurgitate something Chelsea already tried to tell me?
Andrea angrily stands up.
Clarissa: Andrea… surely you noticed how Chelsea’s career went after she just to that Moab guy…
Andrea: Just save it!
Clarissa: You’re acting like you’re the only one that’s ever lost their first crack at a world title…
Andrea: I’m not dealing with this right now! Who are YOU to criticize me when you’ve only wrestled about 2 matches in your own right? I’ll be back…
Clarissa: Where are you going?
Andrea: Somewhere where I don’t have to deal with any of this crap!!!!
Andrea briskly walks away from the campfire and into the woods, hardly caring about the fact that she’s doing so without a light. She’s not paying too much attention to her surroundings although constant owl hoots are just further annoying and angering her.
Andrea: UGH! Will you rats with wings just FUCK OFF already?
Andrea picks up a rock and tosses it into the distant woods hoping to silence the owls, but to little avail.
Voice: Running away from your problems, Andrea?
Andrea is briefly blinded by a flashlight then sees someone else coming toward her. It’s not Clarissa… but it is a man that she is very familiar with.
Andrea: Jay? Is that really you? Am I seeing a ghost right now?
Jason Gallardi was her trainer once she graduated from her father’s school and he was her agent responsible for her Independent bookings in the nascent part of her career. One of the most psychologically gifted wrestlers of his time, he doesn’t seem to be impressed with one of his most successful projects ever.
Jay: I sure picked a hell of a time to take a camping trip with my family, didn’t I? I also couldn’t help but notice you were having some… problems…
Andrea: Jay, with all due respect, I’m fine.
Jay: You’re “fine”. Is that why you avoided the ring so long after losing that madder match? Is that why instead of taking on the world title scene again, you’re taking on Alice Knight instead? I get you want to test yourself against legends but why not force your way into that Best-O’Connor match and make it a triple threat, huh? Why are you brushing off NSFW as if it never happened?
Andrea: I’m NOT…
Jay: So why is it that when Clarissa brought it up, you essentially said “fuck you” and walked away? How in the hell are you ever going to grow into a world champion if you’re just going to run away from your shortcomings, huh? I taught you better than that before I sent you Myra’s way to GCW. How in the world will you EVER be a world champion if you’re running away from the pain?
Andrea at this point, has nothing to say.
Jay: Very few wrestlers win their first ever world championship match, Andrea…
Andrea: You know this HOW?
Jay: I sure as hell didn’t. Yeah, it was painful for me! I’m not going to lie! It was a stab in the old ego, I’ll tell you that much for sure. But I didn’t run away! No, I kept on fighting and I kept on improving. Next thing you know… 5 months later… I’m a world champion for the first time. You can run away from the pain all you want to, but at the end of the day… that’s not going to get you anywhere. Going so long between matches isn’t going to help you any. Hell, you’re lucky that assault even happened to you…
Andrea: You’ve got to be kidding me…
Jay: The fact of the matter is, had you wrestled against Alice… you would have lost. I can sense when someone is still on the psychological mend… as you are right now. As blunt as I can put it… the best thing I can tell you right now is to quit being a little bitch about NSFW and face the pain! It’s difficult as fuck… but that’s the only way you’ll ever beat Alice… and that’s the only way you’ll ever be OCW Champion.
Jason turns around and begins to walk back into the darkness of the woods.
Andrea: Jay… wait…
Jay: I have a family to get back to, Andrea.
Andrea: There’s more I need to know…
Jay: You have my number…
Jason disappears into the darkness of the woods, leaving Andrea with a new mystery of her own to figure out.
Andrea: I hate to admit that he’s right but…
Her anger is essentially gone as now she’s dealing with the proverbial slap in the face she just got… albeit one that she desperately needed at this point to snap her out of whatever loop she’s been in since NSFW. She doesn’t have long to process this before she hears Clarissa calling out to her.
Clarissa: Oh thank GOD I found you…
Andrea turns to Clarissa, who is holding a lantern.
Clarissa: Sometimes, you just have to look in the mirror, you know?
Andrea doesn’t respond, which catches Clarissa by surprise.
Clarissa: Everything okay, Andrea?
Andrea: They haven’t been… not since NSFW…
Clarissa sighs with concern.
Clarissa: I’m glad you finally admitted that. Look, let’s just get back to the campfire, okay?
Andrea nods without saying a word as the duo heads back through the woods and back toward their campsite.
A few hours later…
It’s about 1:00 AM. Clarissa has disappeared for the night sleeping in the RV that they both brought, but Andrea is still wide awake, glaring at the fire, still thinking about the words Jay told her back in the woods.
“He’s right…” she thinks to herself. “I have been avoiding the pain. I know two weeks later, I went out there in front of the world and I acted so strong… but inside, I was still hurting. I felt that by challenging a hall of fame member in Alice Knight and that by saying what I said that night that my fans knew that I was fine… but I’ve been anything but fine. It’s just that the pain… the sting… of being THAT close… only to feel like I blew it… I’ve never wanted to deal with it and I always thought that the best way to go about it was to just ignore it. I realize now… that I’ve made a mistake…”
Andrea pauses her thoughts as the vision she gets in the fire is her very first OCW match against Jack Puffer, one that of course, she would win.
“Wrestling Jack Puffer isn’t going to do much for me… but what it is going to do is have me going back to the very beginning of my OCW ride… when I took a massive gamble at that time by leaving GCW, where I had a very secure place on the roster and could have blossomed into a main event player there, and joining something better. When I stepped into an OCW ring for the first time and got the reception that I did… it was absolutely amazing! I knew at that moment… I found my home. Last time against Puffer, finding my home was what I was aiming to do. This time?
It’s finding the phoenix within… because if there’s ONE bird that’s leagues better than an owl… it’s the phoenix… many times before, I’ve risen from the ashes. I rose from the ashes of my tag team with Chelsea to become a singles wrestler… I rose from the ashes of my awful UWA run in order to become a singles champion in GCW… I rose from the ashes of my departure there to become Paradigm Champion in OCW… I rose from the ashes of my heartbreaking loss of said title and Death March and became the Craze Champion… becoming the biggest up and coming star in OCW… and now I have to rise from the ashes of NSFW… to become… well… I honestly don’t know what I’m going to become. I won’t find those answers against Puffer… but I know I can at least find that phoenix that burns within my soul… one that I hope will defeat Alice Knight… one that I know will exact revenge for whoever’s responsible for Redacted’s events… and one that I hope turns me into an OCW World Champion.
Andrea gets one more vision in the fire… not one of the past… but of the future… her holding the OCW Championship over her head…
“I’ll get there… I know I can… I KNOW I will! Starting with Jack Puffer, I’m going to face the pain of NSFW head on and no longer run away from it anymore! It was that hack detective where I began my OCW journey… and again, it’ll be Jack Puffer where another journey begins… one where I find my full potential… one where I become OCW Champion… one I find that Phoenix, once it burns at its brightest… there’s not a person in OCW that can stop me… not Mike Best, nor Mack O’Connor, nor Alice Knight, nor whoever’s responsible for that owl attack…
...nobody!!!!”
Andrea watches the fire for a few more seconds before leaving it behind… ready to start a new journey and new chapter of her OCW career.