Post by Kenzi Grey on May 26, 2017 11:30:02 GMT -5
Here I am in the fight of my life for a prize that I set my sights on back in January, and I don’t know if I’m going to be fighting for those LAW Tag Team Titles all by myself or not. Kate Steele, whom I have barely seen hair nor hide of since LAW 62, apparently took her ball and went home just as we were on the verge of achieving everything that we had hoped to accomplish. Now, with only days to go, I was starting to wonder why I didn’t just quit and go home back in December, just like I was planning to. After everything that had happened with the Chaos Title and the war with The Pink Ladies…the ultimate insult had come in the form of one that am sure that others probably considered a great honor…to be named the LAW 2016 Heel of the Year!
…when Jenni Drew had ‘won’ that accolade, she was overjoyed…I was not…
It felt like a slap in the face after I had come so far after being so low. Losing every match in my first year, and then turning it around and finally winning a championship the next. Why had I not been lauded for turning my career around and becoming a household name? Did they not realize how I had struggled and fought back from the most horrific thing to ever happen to me? Did they not realize how close I had come to ending it all after being humiliated in front of the world because of who I loved...twice? I didn’t want to live after everything that I thought was so important had crumbled around me. My personal life was in shambles and my career inside the ring was a bust.
I literally clawed my way back…fighting tooth and nail to get win after win, by whatever means it took. I needed to change my fortunes if I wanted to achieve my dreams. I poured my heart and soul into performing for the fans of LAW. I never missed a date...I never missed a chance to put LAW in the spotlight. I did everything that I could to become a success. I thought I had accomplished all of that and more last year…until the wheels started to come off towards the end. Losing the Chaos Title hurt…but having my time and effort to try to become someone in LAW reduced to being called ‘the most hated’ was the final straw. What was the point of all of the blood, sweat, and tears?
I was tired of the disrespect and the outright hatred I was getting, not only from the fans, but from management as well. Never once did anyone believe in me. Never once did LAW acknowledge that I was worthy of carrying its banner...even as the lowly Chaos Champion. LAW put its faith in people like Mackenzie Roberts, Gabby Camacho, and Amy Jo Smyth. Those were the names that got pushed forward...those were the names that Megan Helms King spouted off as the greats in LAW...the women that put asses in seats and drew the money that kept LAW in the black. Kenzi Grey was a footnote...if even that. I had been in the feud of the year...I had cut all the best promos...and yet, when LAW so fit to acknowledge those who were the future, my name was not among them. I was literally days away from resigning from LAW…especially after I was forced into being a tag team with Kate Steele by CTN.
Kate and I had been at each other's throats for months...and when CTN saw a chance to squeeze a bit of blood from that lemon, they made us a music group. Controversy creates cash...or so they say. It was a strange dance that she and I did, singing together on stage one night and running each other down in the ring the next. Our war had been epic...both verbally and physically, yet as it escalated, instead of going nuclear, we were given an ultimatum...become a team and win...or be let go. HELL, I was ready to up and quit anyway! What did I care if my contract was cut short and I was sent packing? I had failed to get anyone to believe in me...I had failed to even believe in myself. In the irony of all ironies, Kate called me and said four simple words that stuck with me, words that changed my mind and turned my world upside down…
…we can be great…
No one had ever said that about me with the conviction that Kate had said it. Potential...that is what people like the General Manager and Amy Jo Smyth had said. I had potential if I focused and did all the right things. I had potential if I stayed in my lane and didn't make too much noise. I had potential if I kept my head down and worked hard until someone noticed...
Had I not done all the right things? Had I not beaten all of the top stars I had been pitted against? Had I not kept my focus on my dream of winning the Chaos Title...had I not achieved that dream? Had I not worked hard and got noticed by not only the girls in the back...but by the wrestling world at large? Why did none of this matter to anyone? Why did I have to have my confidence in myself shattered?
Kate's words to me...those four words had made all the difference. She sparked a belief in myself that I really could go out there and be great! I could reinvent myself from the person I was last year…the Heel…the most hated. I could make the world forget the Kenzi Grey of old and I could be something better…I could finally earn the respect of those I craved...and I could be GREAT!
…enter The Boardwalk Angels, armed with nothing more than reminders of a past I had hoped to forget…
I should have been fighting alongside Kate Steele for my opportunity to be something better than everyone believed I was. I should have been fighting for the right to be great…but I wasn’t. I was fighting against the same past that had been wrapped around my neck like a noose…all thoughts of greatness and accomplishment with Kate was now forgotten. The Tag Team Titles were no longer the focus…being great was no longer the focus…HELL…being a team was no longer even the purpose. Farrah Martell and Zoey Star had succeeded in turning back the clock to a time when I was at my lowest and the world was against me.
I didn’t dream of being a champion…I only wanted to be treated like a person…like I belonged…like I mattered. To have my career reduced to ‘the wronging of Jamilyn Cornett’ made me sick to my stomach and it made me angry beyond reason. Accused of ruining the career of a woman I had claimed to love...when in fact she had come to LAW with the sole purpose of humiliating me. She accomplished that goal and I didn't strike her...I never raised a hand to her. My one crime was that I dared to survive...I dared to thrive when she did not. I had made it to a point where I was the number one contender for the LAW Tag Team Titles alongside a woman who had once been my sworn enemy, but the talk wasn’t about the potential greatness of Guilty Pleasure…it was about how terrible I was…how I should be fired…how my accomplishments were nothing…
…how I was nothing…
Yes…I raged…I lashed out…I swung at every face that dared to mock me. What choice did I have? The court of public opinion was stacked against me. For every step forward…I was pushed back three more, not only by the Boardwalk Angels, but by their friends and allies. I should have been fighting in the ring alongside ‘Lil Miss UltraViolence’ to achieve greatness…but I was fighting to keep my job against accusations levied at me by people who didn’t even have the balls to confront me directly!
Here we were…one month out from Validation…one month out from one of the biggest rematches in the history of the LAW Tag Division…Guilty Pleasure challenging the undefeated Boardwalk Angels for the titles…but LAW wasn’t promoting this, LAW was busy talking about lawyers, investigations, and firings. The owner of the company should have been talking about how he had two of the finest tag teams in all the world going head to head for his company’s championship…but he was telling the world how piss poor my record in the ring was and how meaningless my accomplishments were.
Hell...I could have survived that. I didn't believe a word that Lucas Dupree said! I knew my history and I knew the heart that thundered inside my chest. He didn't take any of those Kill Zones...he didn't take a single Crush, Crush, Crush...no one had ever leveled him inside the ring with a Seven Sins Kick! I had taken all of those things and I had survived and overcome them to fight and keep on fighting...sweat, blood, broken bones be damned! Out of all of that...the thing that hurt me the most was when the woman that I looked to as a friend and a mother figure in this business told me that she agreed with Lucas. My accomplishments and my efforts meant nothing.
…again…how I was nothing…nothing great about me…nothing at all…
LAW 62 was an opportunity to change that…but in the end, all that match did was reinforce that I was nothing, I was not part of a team, and my time and effort was meaningless. We didn't fight as we had fought before...random elements aside, we didn't perform as we had in the past. When we were slighted as a team...we fought back and we fought hard! We fought to proved the naysayers wrong and to rub it in their faces. Now, all we did was prove them all right. We weren't a team...we weren't a unit...we weren't contenders. Obviously Kate Steele felt the same since she walked away from the arena that night and couldn’t be bothered with Guilty Pleasure the band or even Guilty Pleasure the tag team. All the talk that had brought me back to LAW was gone…
…we can be great…
I had believed those words when Kate spoke them to me and we went to war with The Boardwalk Angels in January and fought them to a draw. It was a tag team match the likes of which no one had ever seen before between a pair of teams that wanted to be…champions…two teams that wanted to be…GREAT!
…we believed it then…we could be great…
After that match, we had opportunity denied to us heading into Rising Stars. The Boardwalk Angels got the chance to complete for an opportunity at the titles, while Kate and I were left off the show. Kate and I showed up at that arena and we made our presence felt that night. We were vicious and ruthless...we were together and we faced down the Boardwalk Angels and showed the world that we weren't afraid. She and I knew that we could be…GREAT!
…we showed everyone…we would be great…
Kate and I charged into Rising Stars and we took what should have been our opportunity two weeks prior when we became the Number One Contenders to the Tag Team Titles. We showed the world what Guilty Pleasure could do as a unit…we put our greatness on display and we made it clear that LAW had made a mistake in denying us opportunity! The Tag Team Division was the hottest that it had ever been and we were riding the crest of that wave as part of the change that was taking hold.
…we showed everyone…that we were great…
Oh…how the mighty have fallen since that moment. My team is divided…and everyone is busy dancing on our graves…pissing on our legacy…thinking our adversaries to be unbeatable…at least by the likes of myself and Kate Steele. There is no longer any talk of greatness…only of failure as a team…as competitors…and even as friends and allies. No one believes that we are anything but what the Boardwalk Angels and their friends have made us out to be; just another bump in the road…and not even one worthy of mention as a credible threat.
…we were never great…nor were we ever going to be great…
I house divided shall not prosper and that is what we were; Kate Steele and I. We had been divided and we had been worn down on all sides…pushed in different directions. The Boardwalk Angels had been nothing but The Boardwalk Angels at every event…but Guilty Pleasure was Kenzi Grey battling those she had wronged in 2016. Kate Steele wasn’t Guilty Pleasure, she was just fodder for those seeking the Marquee Championship.
All we had asked for was a chance to complete for and win the Tag Team Championship, but now that dream seemed so far off that there was no way in hell that we would ever get it back. Validation could not be closer and the title of that pay-per-view could not be more apt. All of the hard work and the sacrifice was supposed to pay off here. This was supposed to be our time…this was supposed to be our moment to finally do what we always knew we were capable of doing…as a unit…as a team…as two of the greats.
Robbed of our confidence…ripped apart at the seams and shoved in two different directions; this was our last chance to get it together before we could make history. If Kate Steele and I were ever going to be greater than the sum of our collective parts and realize the potential that we always knew was inside us…we’d have to find a way to come back together. We’d have to find a way to put all the talk about who did what to whom a year ago in the past…where it belonged! Kate and I would need to find our way back to believing in one another…we would have to find our way back to believing…
…we could be great…
CTN STUDIOS
Los Angeles, California
25 May 2017
Kenzi Grey sat in the back of the car that had sped her and her platinum haired lover with the shocking red eyes to the studio where she was to see Kate Steele for the first time since the three of them were together for LAW #62. Sarah Lacklan stared at Kenzi as she didn’t get out of the car, she only sat there in the black leather seat, her fingers dance over the face of the Fucking Awesome Hardcore Title she had only just won from Cass Baumer a week ago. Sarah cleared her throat, but that did not garner her attention. So she placed her hand over Kenzi’s, taking it into hers as she brought it to her lips and kissed it. “Beloved…are you worried that Kate won’t show up after everything that happened before?” Sarah smiled at her, showing off her famously white teeth that she had put to good use on Kenzi’s neck more than a time or two. “I told you before…if she leaves you high and dry, you know that you can count on me to take her place…you did the same for me in England.”
She had done the same for Sarah. When her partner had disappeared, Kenzi had taken her place at the last minute and the two of them had went on to earn a spectacular victory as Team Kickass in UKWF. Kenzi looked up at Sarah and smiled, pulling her hand away and placing it against the side of her lovely porcelain face. “I know you’d be there for me Sarah…I know all I have to do is say the word and you’re there. Hell…for all I know on Sunday I may have to do just that, but as much as I’d love teaming with you again…I can’t help but to wonder about this team that I am already on.” She sighed, turning her attention to the studio building right outside her window were she was supposed to have a sit down with Kate concerning their troubles as a team and their future at Validation against The Boardwalk Angels. “I am wondering if this is just another failed relationship…if this is just another one of those times where things started out so very right…and ended up so very wrong…”
Sarah’s expression darkened a bit as she took her lover’s hand into both of her own and held it. Her eyes sought out Kenzi’s holding them tightly to her own. “I hope all of this concern regarding relationships is about the ones you have inside the ring…and not the one you have outside of it.”
Kenzi leaned in and kissed Sarah on her lips, holding her forehead to hers as she looked her in her eyes. “Out of all of the things in the world that I have to worry about right now…you’re the one thing that I know I can trust…” she sighed heavily and frowned, “…you’re my rock and you’re the only reason I haven’t gone completely insane right now! You’re holding me together Sarah…you’re keeping my eyes on the prize.”
Sarah nodded, “But you’re concerned that Kate no longer shares your passion. Her lack of communication is troubling…but…maybe you mistake her lack of interaction for a lack of desire.” Sarah lifted Kenzi’s chin and looked at her evenly. “I will not pretend to know what is inside Kate’s heart…but if she is half as fierce as the woman I know you to be…she’ll be inside the building and she’ll be filled with white hot desire to beat the Boardwalk Angels within an inch of their lives…” she paused, “…and possibly you and I as well.” She laughed and gave Kenzi’s chin a little shake. “You have to trust that she will be there and she will be ready to walk through the fire with you…just like you did with me…like we do with one another, yes?”
Kenzi could only nod in agreement, because Sarah was right…of course. Kate’s silence was her own business. No matter if she had to go somewhere to get back her smile or if she just didn’t feel like fighting over Twitter with the hashtag queens, the fact was that she said she would be here tonight. If Kenzi walked into the building and found that Kate really was there…then that would be half the battle, getting on the same page would be the rest. Kenzi sighed heavily, “I wonder if things might have gone differently if you had made the save for our team after Kate ate that superkick? I wonder if things would be different if we had actually won that match?”
Sarah sat back, her hand playing with Kenzi’s braids as she shrugged, “If Mama Bae had feathers she’d be a bird! Who cares about that?! It’s water under the bridge and now if you and Kate want to continue your journey, you need to travel those same waters and not mind the choppy bits so much.”
The choppy bits...there were plenty of choppy bits. People going behind her back to ask her boss to fire her and then there was the recent blow up between her and Kate Bass, Sarah's opponent for Validation. Then only just yesterday another person from the Cornett camp was starting in on her as well. All of these seemed like calculated actions all meant for one thing and one thing only, to distract her from her goal. Kenzi leaned back with a heavy sigh, “I don't want to think about all the random horse shit that is been thrown my way lately! All the firing rumors from their cheerleading section and the hurt fucking feelings from people who can't separate fiction from reality! I just want to focus on what really matters! I want to win this match so badly…all I want is the chance to look everyone in LAW in the eye and finally say that I accomplished something and no one had to hand it to me…I earned it…I deserved it and it’s mines!” She turned her head, looking at Sarah. “Like you…mines.” Kenzi put her hand against the side of Sarah’s face, thumb playing at her bottom lip.
Sarah narrowed her eyes, “Keep doing that Beloved…you’ll earn yourself a late and decidedly messy appearance on tonight’s show…”
Kenzi laughed, “Fair enough!” She leaned in and kissed Sarah’s painted red lips one more time, then slapped her taunt thigh. “Okay…no more stalling…if she’s here, it’s time to get this over with!”
Kenzi exited the car first and waited for her Queen to follow her, hiking up her dark cowl over her mass of light platinum twists. Kenzi paused, looking around and Sarah gave her a questioning glare. “What is it?”
She could only shake her head. “Nothing…it was just that AMC said she was going to be here…that’s all.” Kenzi looked disappointed, but she took a deep breath and held on to what mattered. She took Sarah’s hand and walked into the studio…it was time that Guilty Pleasure got back together or fell apart like everyone always expected them to…
eXposed!
The camera swings in on the large studio audience on the set of eXposed! as it’s host, Domino walks between the aisles and up to the stage. Two chairs were positioned there, one a comfy single and the other hardly much more than an oversized loveseat. Domino stands between them as she addresses the crowd and the fans watching at home.
“On January 8, 2017 in Cleveland, Ohio the boiling feud between Kate Steele of the Pink Ladies and Kenzi Grey of the Kentourage reached a fever pitch. After months of being at each other’s throats, both in and out of the ring, the pair found themselves thrust together as a tag team by this very network! On that night, Guilty Pleasure…the music group became Guilty Pleasure, Ladies All-Star Wrestling tag team. The two women were given an ultimatum…work as a team and win the LAW Tag Team Titles or have your contracts with the company terminated.”
The massive screen behind her comes to life with an image of the promotional shot of the very first meeting between Guilty Pleasure and The Boardwalk Angels…
"At LAW 57 in Philadelphia, Guilty Pleasure wrestled their first tag team match together and they found themselves in a war with none other than The Boardwalk Angels. This battle was one born of animosity and deep seeded hatred over events stemming from 2016. The match was a brutal affair and ended indecisively with a double disqualification that settled nothing between the two. The Boardwalk Angels would go on to be put in a number one contender's match at the next show while Guilty Pleasure was not booked at all. This only added gasoline to an already raging fire between the two teams. At Rising Stars, Martell and Star would go on to win the LAW Tag Team Titles while Grey and Steele would become the #1 contenders...setting the stage for an epic confrontation."
“It has been a long time coming, but on May 28th Guilty Pleasure will finally face off against the undefeated Boardwalk Angels for the tag team championship at Validation 2017. Both of these women are chasing after history in their own right. Kenzi Grey won her very first match in LAW last year at Validation when she defeated Keira Fisher in a highly controversial contest. Kenzi parlayed that win into a very successful run in 2016 that saw her win a singles title and garnered 3 LAW end of year awards. Kate Steele has the unprecedented opportunity to become the very first Triple Crown winner in LAW, having already captured the Marquee and LAW Championships. It would be quite the memorable night if they could overcome their greatest rivals…but I’m not talking about Farrah Martell or Zoey Star…”
The screen behind Domino changed to an image of the promotional shot from their last meeting in the ring at LAW 62 in a three verses three match.
“At LAW #62 the fans got somewhat of the rematch they had been pining for since Guilty Pleasure and The Boardwalk Angels battled to a double disqualification over four months ago. Though some of the players were different, the core of both teams was the same, but Kate and Kenzi did not appear to be on the same page at all on that night. The match ended with Kenzi sacrificing herself for Sarah Selena Lacklan and Kate ate a super kick from Courtney Steele as the Boardwalk Angels prevailed. Now, with Validation just days away, everyone is wondering if that last match is just a preview of what we will see on Sunday, May 28th in San Antonio, Texas…is Guilty Pleasure destined to go down in defeat for a second time when it counts the most?”
“Ladies and gentlemen, tonight my guests on this very special edition of eXposed! are Kate Steele and Kenzi Grey…the number one contenders for the LAW Tag Team Titles…Guilty Pleasure…”
The fans cheered as the two women walked out, albeit from opposite sides of the stage, further adding to the notion that the two were not at all on the same page for their upcoming title opportunity. Domino greeted each woman in turn, then the two took seats next to one another, though neither bothered to acknowledge the other.
Domino took a seat across from the two ladies, eyeing them in turn as she settled back and laced her fingers. “Well…first things first…welcome to eXposed! ladies. Thank you very much for taking the time to come here tonight to discuss your partnership and your upcoming match against the LAW Tag Team Champions.”
Kate started to speak, but Kenzi talked over her, “You’re quite welcome Domino! It was incredibly difficult to drop everything with my movies, television show, and music to be here tonight…” she patted Kate on the thigh, “…but I felt it was important to come here and sit down to work through some of the issues that my ‘partner’ has as we head into this match against the champions. Guilty Pleasure has had to rely on only my cunning and in-ring prowess to get to this point, so it would be a shame if the selfishness of one member of the team…” she paused and glanced at Kate, then cut her eyes back to Domino with a rye grin, “…cut short our opportunity to do what we committed ourselves to back in January.”
Domino looked at Kate, who was obviously seething as she glared a hole right through Kenzi. Kenzi ignored Kate, keeping her eyes everywhere but on her tag team partner. Domino cleared her throat. “Ahem! Uh, Kate…do you have a response to what Kenzi said?”
Kate eyed Domino and then turned back to Kenzi, grabbing her by one of her shoulders and forcing her tag team partner to look at her. “You left me high and dry in the ring at LAW 62! We were supposed to be a bloody team out there, but instead you were too busy stepping in for your…GIRLFRIEND…instead of watching my damn back so I could win the match for us…like I always do!”
Kenzi took immediate offense at this and swatted Kate’s hand off of her. “What in the hell are you talking about? You don’t win all the matches for us! Get your head out of your ass Kate!”
“Ladies…” Domino tried to cut in, but the two were focused in on one another like a laser.
Kate shoved Kenzi back, her brow knitted in anger. “EVERY TAG TEAM MATCH WE HAVE HAD, I HAVE GOTTEN US THE WIN!” Kate’s voice dropped to a low hiss, “Don’t be pretending like I haven’t been carrying you in the ring like I carry you on stage when we sing!”
Kenzi’s eyes were big with shock as she sat back. “Carrying me?! Is that right?! The last time we had a match, you were the one getting carried out…NOT ME!”
Kate threw up her hands, “OH MY GOD! YOU’RE AN IDIOT! I just said that you left me high and dry in that match! There is no way in hell that Courtney Steele…” Kate paused and looked around at the audience and Domino, “…no relation…” she turned back to Kenzi, “…would have EVER in her life beaten me with what stupid superkick if you hadn’t been more interested in playing house than helping me win that match!”
Before Kenzi could chime in again, a woman stood up from the crowd, a tall statuesque brunette in a tight fitting dress that hid none of her fit curves, and headed up to the stage. The crowd clapped as they recognized her as Kenzi’s manager, Ashley Marie Chase. “HOLD ON! Stop this…please, stop it right now.” She looked to Domino and she nodded, signaling for her to continue. She looked at Kenzi and Kate in turn, “LADIES! Look, this is what you are both here for today…to get to the bottom of this and stop all the fighting. You are both part of the same team, whether you like it or not! You have an amazing opportunity against the best tag team in LAW…maybe one of the best tag teams period.” She eyed both of them in turn after finally getting their attention. “If you win this match at Validation…as a team…which is the only way you can win, you would lay claim to being called that…the best tag team…period!”
Kate smiled, “Damn right! I’ll be a triple crown championship winner…something that no one else has done EVER in LAW!”
Kenzi rolls her eyes, “No one cares about that! They want to see me go on to Validation, the place where I won my very first match last year, and this time…see me win a title in 2017!”
Kate stared at Kenzi, then blurted out, “MAN, AINT NOBODY TRYING TO SEE THAT RUBBISH!”
The two immediately started in on one another again, until AMC stepped in to get control. “Look! The two of you!” She pointed at Kate, “Winning the a triple crown in LAW is amazing!” She looked at Kenzi, “Making Validation your place for landmark victories…also great! However, those are individual goals…goals of ‘Lil Miss UltraViolence’ and ‘LAW’s Top Draw.’ You aren’t going into Validation as individuals…you are going into Validation as a unit…a tag team with a single focus and a single purpose!” AMC let that thought sink in for both of them before she continued, “If you walk into that match on Sunday like you walked into that match at LAW 62…expect the exact same result…”
Kenzi smirked at her manager, “Kate Steele knocked out cold!”
Kate glared at Kenzi, but she didn’t have to say a word because AMC summed it up for her. “And you right there with her…just as you were on that same night!” She gave Kenzi her full attention. “You think that only Kate lost that match? You lost too…and you’ll lose again if you don’t fix this thing between the two of you and see the prize that the two of you need to reach out and seize!”
Kate piped in, “EVERY TIME I TRY, THIS ONE BUGGERS IT UP! I am clearly the best wrestler between us, just like I am the best singer in our band…probably the best actress on our show!”
“Kate…you are good…you’re one of the best…” AMC added.
“Don’t blow that bitch’s head up.” Kenzi rolled her eyes.
AMC chuckled, “I’m not blowing her head up…I’m telling the truth. Kate Steele is every bit as good as she says she is…I saw her in LAW as my time as General Manager…”
“ABOUT BLOODY TIME!” She stared at Kenzi with a broad grin on her face.
AMC wasn’t finished as she took her chance to complete her thought, “…and that’s your problem Kate, you spend too much time trying to make everyone around you believe it. You’re great…just in LAW alone you have accomplished more than enough to ensure a spot in the Hall of Fame as a first ballot pick…but you’re too concerned with who knows it!”
Kate laughed out loud at this, cutting her eyes. “Bollocks to that! I don’t care what anyone thinks about me!”
AMC pretended to be taken aback by Kate’s proclamation of innocence, but she couldn’t wipe the smile off her face. “Kate, you have had a Hall of Fame career, ten times over, but you waste too much time and effort chasing after acknowledgement. Anytime someone questions your ability you go off the deep end! That’s how you got yourself goaded into match with Stephanie McDiddle over your own spot in Guilty Pleasure…and that’s why the Angels got the drop on you during your match with Crystal and during the three person tag match.”
Kate was still indignant as she responded, “They got the drop on me because I can’t count on anyone…” she glared at Kenzi, “…especially HER!”
Kenzi rolled her eyes, ignoring Kate as AMC responded. “There is no “I” in team Kate. Sorry to tell you, but tag team wrestling means that you can’t do it all by yourself! The Boardwalk Angels, as arrogant as they are, at least know that they have to perform as a unit and no single piece is greater than the sum of its parts. Running around like a crazy person and trying to show everyone how much better you are than the people who stand with you is only going to get left out in the cold when you need them the most!”
Kenzi chuckled as she raised her hands in the air as if she were in church, “Preach Sista Chase! Go tell it on the mountain!”
Kate pulled Kenzi’s hands down, “You’d burst into flames if you walked into a church you daft cow!”
Kenzi laughed, “You mad that I’m getting some action and you’re not?”
Kate rolled her eyes, turning her attention to AMC, “If Kenzi could stop thinking with her crotch, we would have never been in this jam in the first place! She’s the whole reason that Farrah and Zoey are all up inside her head!”
“REALLY BITCH?!” Kenzi responded. “You on that old ass shit too now?”
AMC cut in, stopping her cold, “Aren’t you?” Kenzi turned and glared at her, but her manager didn’t flinch. “You have been constantly defending yourself against these imaginary wrongdoings that Farrah and Zoey have both gone on and on about since the day they stepped foot in LAW. It was a readymade feud for them with built in talking points, all just readymade to do nothing but get under your skin and distract you from doing anything other than defending yourself against someone who’s not even here.”
“I…” Kenzi started, then silently closed her mouth as she realized the truth in her manager’s words.
She laid things out plainly for her, “You can slice this up any way that you want to, but you know as well as I do that you and Kate were focused on those titles…right up until the moment Farrah and Zoey made it about your past with Jamilyn. From that moment on, you weren’t fighting the Boardwalk Angels, you were chasing after ghosts…and that is exactly what they wanted you to do! They beat you the old fashioned way…by letting you beat yourself…didn’t they?”
Kenzi looked down at her hands and Kate elbowed her in the arm, forcing her attention back on AMC. She reluctantly spoke up, “…maybe…I don’t know…”
AMC leaned forward, ready to break things down for Kenzi, “Let’s do the math here. After you and Kate became number 1 contenders, you went right into a fight with Christina Millar, all because she interjected herself into an online debate you were having with The Boardwalk Angels and tagged in the Cornett clan…firing you up and sending you off in an entirely different direction.”
Kenzi added, in a rather morose tone, “…yeah, but the LAW bookers made the match…not me…”
AMC shrugged, “You made it easy for them to do it, plus they saw a big money match. The point isn’t what LAW did, it is what you let yourself get pushed into doing. Fighting over the mention of Jamilyn…again…just like the Boardwalk Angels wanted you to do.”
“BLOODY HELL!” Kate looked at Kenzi, wide eyed, “Surprise…look who the newest member of the Boardwalk Angels is! It wouldn’t be much of a stretch to think that she was with those wankers the whole time…distracting you and me! Anything to keep our minds off of the titles!”
“To keep your minds off being a tag team!” AMC corrected. “The same thing happened on the next show with Dazi Reed. Again…she jumped in when you were trying to focus on the Angels, and then you are magically in another singles feud. And guess who was right there a ringside? The Boardwalk Angels…making sure you…got what you had coming.” She looked at Kenzi, narrowing her eyes just a bit, “You are seeing this, right?”
Kenzi swallowed hard as she replayed the events in her mind. “We let them take us off our game…”
All Kate and Kenzi could do was look at one another as the truth of the situation they were in was laid out before them in glorious detail. The Boardwalk Angels had done a masterful job of distracting Kenzi and Kate from their goal. Every time either of them tried to turn their attention to the Tag Team Titles, someone from their circle of miscreants popped in and stirred the pot in a different direction, just to distract both of them from the one thing that had made them a team to begin with. It all seemed so basic…and even in the end, if that wasn’t really the case at all, they had managed to put the Boardwalk Angels in the driver’s seat heading into Validation. Kenzi and Kate were no longer a team and their focus had been all but shattered. They would have to get it back before Sunday…that was the only way to win.
Kate drug her fingers through her blonde hair, the realization of their situation suddenly setting in. “We are so completely fucked if we don’t fix this Kenzi. All that hard work…all that bloody fighting…scratching and clawing our way back into the title picture of we got shut out of an opportunity at Rising Stars.” She looked at Kenzi, taking a deep breath. “We made so many sacrifices after all the drama with The Kentourage and The Pink Ladies. Becoming Guilty Pleasure after all of that wasn’t easy…but we did it. We had our eyes set on accomplishing something…and yeah…it was forced on us…but we wanted that, right? We wanted those titles!”
Kenzi nodded, “Yeah…we wanted those titles and yeah…we did sacrifice a lot to get to this point…” Kenzi sighed and ran her hands over her face in frustration. “…we had to listen to so many people tell us that we had no business being a team…and we couldn’t co-exist after the feud we had been in. We had every reason in the world to quit as soon as we got passed over for the title opportunity…”
Kate rolled her eyes, “Like they were testing us…because they knew we just quit!”
Kenzi nodded, “Yeah…they thought we would pack it in and just start fighting with each other again while the path to the titles was paved for The Boardwalk Angels…but we stayed in it…we didn’t quit and we became number one contenders!”
AMC walked behind the couch, putting her hands on each of their shoulder, “Then the mind games started and the two of you ran off in different directions.” The two of them started to say something, but a squeeze of this shoulders kept them quiet, “Until now…Guilty Pleasure has been a shade of its former self. You two need to stop the petty bickering that has allowed everyone in LAW to write you off as two chicks who can’t get it done when everything is on the line. The egos need to be set aside…at least for one night…at least for your match at Validation!”
Kenzi and Kate stared at each other, their minds pondering everything that had been said. The two of them had been unified when they thought that LAW had screwed them, overcoming the odds…as a team. Now the two of them needed to be unified one more time…they needed to become a team…the two ruthless bitches that didn’t let anything stand in their way.
Kate took a breath, holding out her hand to Kenzi, “I still think I’m a better singer than you…but I wouldn’t mind sharing the tag team titles with a bitch who can’t sing worth a damn!”
Kenzi looked down at Kate’s hand and slowly reached in and took it, “Your acting is terrible…people only watch you to see if it can get any worse…but I wouldn’t mind sharing the tag team titles with a cunt who doesn’t know a movie camera from a traffic camera!”
The two women stared at one another, determination etched in their face. AMC chimed in, “Fortunately for the two of you, I’ll be on hand to make sure that lack of singing and acting ability doesn’t adversely impact this match.” Kenzi and Kate looked up at her and she gave a nonchalant shrug. “The Boardwalk Angels are always yelling about people watching their backs…maybe you two need someone to direct traffic and watch your backs.”
The two looked at one another and nodded, raising their fists to AMC as she joined in a triple fist bump. Domino stood up, “Well…this is certainly not the show that I had in mind, but I suppose the means certainly justifies the ends in this case.” She took back control of her show, as gestured for AMC to take her seat. “Usually I moderate the point/counterpoint, but I think we can all agree that Ms. Chase did an amazing job!”
The audience clapped, but Domino still wasn’t finished. She turned to the trio, eying each of them in turn. “I understand that the three of you just had a really great feel-good moment at the end…but I’d be remiss in my duties as host of this show if I didn’t ask a few questions on my own…” She paced back and forth before finally settling on Kenzi Grey, who perked up, ready for the question. “Ms. Grey, since becoming #1 Contenders, you have had several run ins with The Boardwalk Angels, but you have generally favored ‘hit and run’ tactics…” Domino paused, frowning a bit at the past perceived knock at Kenzi over allegations that she had run down her mother. “…poor choice of words, but back to the question; don’t you think that has only emboldened Farrah and Zoey?”
Kenzi wrung her hands, “I hope that it has emboldened them…I hope that their confidence is soaring at an all-time high! As I have said before, they are a great team…but their arrogance is their weakness. They don’t respect the talent of the other women in the division, and the certainly don’t respect mines! It’s better that way…now that Validation is finally here and the titles are on the line, I can think of no better time to introduce myself to them inside the ring…properly!”
Domino gave a nod and turned her attention to Kate Steele next, “Ms. Steele…The Angels have made you out to be a coward. They have said that you run when the going gets hard or the odds are not in your favor. You all but vanished after you were pinned at LAW 62. How do you reconcile that sentiment, as you go into the biggest tag team match to date?”
Kate cut her eyes to Kenzi for a moment, then she looked back at Domino. “Look! First things, first…I am Lil’ Ms. Ultraviolence, and I run from no one!”
Kenzi added, “She regroups…tactically…”
Kate stared at Kenzi, then chuckled with a nod. “I regroup and I come back harder.” She sighed, “I wasn’t happy with Kenzi after our match at LAW 62…hell…I haven’t EVER been happy with Kenzi! She knows that…and if she didn’t, she knows it now, but I know this…when she and I are clicking on all cylinders, I don’t need to regroup! The Boardwalk Angels on the other hand; well they say what they want, but they don’t know me! HELL! They confused me with Kate Bass a few weeks ago, but I’m not Kate Bass…I’m Kate bloody Steele, the very first LAW Champion…former Marquee Champion…and soon to be a triple crown winner at their expense!” Kate glared into the camera, “After Validation…they will never forget who I am again!”
Domino turned to AMC; the manager winked at her, inviting whatever question she had for her. “Ms. Chase…your list of championship accomplishments, especially in tag teaming, reads like a grocery list, but have you ever had the challenge of a partner that you didn’t get along with? How can you even get past that?”
AMC smiled, long and slow as she laced her fingers in front of her. “I have had many challenges in my career and I have found a way to get past them all. This situation between Kenzi and Kate is no different. In the end, they need to know one thing and one thing only…neither of them can do it alone. They need to be a team in every sense of the word if they are going to beat a team like the Boardwalk Angels.” She chuckled a bit, “They will be ready by Validation…one way or another…”
Domino nodded and turned to the audience. “Ladies and gentlemen, Guilty Pleasure!”
The trio stood up as the audience applauded in anticipation of the number one contenders returning to form as the hour for them to face off against their rivals fast approached...
Brace yourselves...this will not be over quickly and a great many of you will not enjoy it...
I know, this seems an odd way to lead off a promo for a match of the magnitude of the one I am about to have at Validation in just a mere couple of days. A high profile championship match between a pair of teams that do not like nor respect one another. It should be more than enough that the LAW Tag Team Titles hang in the balance, but over the course of the last few months the struggle between Guilty Pleasure and The Boardwalk Angels hasn't been about the titles...it has been about a bunch of shit that happened in the past, with them fighting to turn LAW and the rest of the wrestling world against me; and for my part, it was about me, reliving that same idiotic past and trying my best to put down every stupid person that dared to try to call me out for it.
I ain't gonna lie, no one enjoys a good verbal battle of wits more than I do, but at the end of the day what does all of it really get me? Yeah, I got to punch Crystal Hilton in the mouth again, I got to embarrass one more former LAW General Manager in a match in Atlanta, and I got to reconcile a lot of those negative feelings I had about the part that I played in the fiasco with Jamilyn last year...but in the end, what does any of that matter? I can...and have...won hundreds of arguments with faceless nothings and certified Hall of Famers and no one has ever given me a trophy for that. I have beaten people that have claimed to be light years beyond me in talent, and yet to hear my own boss tell it, my victories are miniscule and amount to shit. Why am I even still trying...who am I trying to impress anyone at this point?
I fight because that is all I know how to do. I fight because the day that I stop fighting and accept your reality is the day that I need to hang up my hopes and dreams and head off into the fucking sunset! I fight because that is how I know I am still alive...that is how I know that I am who I believe myself to be! I have never once rolled over and taken the high hard one because someone said that I wasn’t worthy or I was undeserving. I have always fought back, no matter the odds! I have faced down every challenge with my head held high and I have never taken a backwards step in the face of mounting odds. I am not built that way…and I make zero apologies for it.
For five long months I have been called a sociopath...I have been called unstable...I have been called a liar...and I have been called a nothing. I have been called all of these things by enemies...and I have been called these things by people that I considered to be my friends. I don't know if they were meant to discourage me...to encourage me...or simply to be descriptive of who they all thought I was. Kenzi Grey...the worst performer in the history of LAW...never once worthy to be called a champion, even when she was one. Never worthy of respect, even when she tried to give it. Allow me to bottom line this…
…Kenzi Grey will never amount to anything in this business because she has never been anything in this business...
Whispers in the darkness...planting the seeds of doubt inside my mind. Anything and everything to distract me from doing the one thing that I know I am capable of doing...earning my place in LAW in a way that my mother never did and in a way that no one else ever believed that I could! This is the legacy that The Boardwalk Angels are attempting to take away from me...the same one that they are attempting to take away from my tag team partner. Our match was made to be about the quality of our character and the hatred that we have garnered because of it. We wronged this person and that person...we would reap what we had sewn...
We would do everything but compete for the LAW Tag Team Titles...never that...because that wasn't what our match would be about. Our match was about righting wrongs that had been done to others in the past. It had been about crimes committed and imminent firings to pave the way for another to make her glorious return to LAW. That was Jamilyn's dream...and LAW was her dream organization, but ‘she'd never get a fair shot with Kenzi Grey still on the roster...’
What an incredible crock of shit! So much so that I won’t spend very long it at all. I have never held Jamilyn or anyone else in this business back! I have elevated those around me and I have done my level best to make sure that everyone got a voice. If she didn’t get elevated or if she felt like she didn’t have a voice, that was her own doing and no fault of mine. However, that is the new and latest fiction that I must endure.
Is that why I have been a target for the lies and attacks since the moment I decided to make something of myself in this company? Is that why when I finally earned a shot at a title that I didn't have to ask my manager to beg for on my behalf I got told that I had nothing to offer the company I gave years of my life to? Farrah...Zoey...I must give credit where credit is due, you did a marvelous job of taking the attention off of my quest to become a legitimate champion in LAW. You and your friends played LAW like a fiddle as you made sure that I stayed fighting against everyone and anyone that wasn't walking through the halls of LAW spouting hashtags and carrying the titles that Kate and I had earned our shot at several times over.
HELL! Before LAW 62 the two of you came to tell me to my face that our fight at Validation was going to finally be about the titles...mostly...yet even then you couldn’t say that with a straight face. Even Maya Jensen, a girl that has yet to wrestle in her first match could see that when she did her Prime Data segment. For the two of you drama queens, you are so use to everything being about this family member and that family member that you can’t see that none of those family members have skin in this game.
The Boardwalk Angels are nothing but the mouthpieces of others who have plenty to say and nothing to do. I am done listening to those do-nothing voices as they rail against me behind blocked accounts and sing songs about me getting my pink slip so others can call LAW home. You know who calls LAW home?
KATE STEELE AND I DO!
We have both fought and clawed our way up the ladder in different directions that have caused our paths to cross on more occasions than I care to count, but in the end we always stay steadfast and true to the cause. Yeah, I put LAW on blast more than once when I thought I was being treated unfairly...but I never once turned my back on LAW and I never once cut and run because things didn't go my way in the ring or because the General Manager was up my ass! I gritted my teeth and I rolled up my sleeves and came back and I fought harder than I did the first time!
That is what is going to happen at Validation...Kate and I are going to fight even harder than we did the first time! We are going to put the talk about 2016 to bed. We are not going to worry about investigations and lawyers. Our minds will not be clouded by having to watch our backs because of whatever scary boogieman you two might dig up to bring with you to San Antonio. You see, the only thing that we care about you bringing is you A game...and those LAW Tag Team Titles!
Bring your A game guys...because we plan on bringing ours. We already know that you don't respect what we can do since you've already said how easy it was to dispatch us. Bringing our best is not going to amount to very much...in your opinions, so bring your very best and do what you can to put us on our backs for a second time. I promise you, that task will not be nearly as easy as you think it will be. I promise you that when it is over and the dust settles, you'll respect what Guilty Pleasure is all about inside those ropes. All the hashtags about flying and doing this that or the other thing won't mean shit when that bell rings and you finally see that talking big was one thing...and acting big was quite another!
Bring those LAW Tag Team Titles with you and hoist them up high for everyone in the arena to see. Make sure that the photographers and all of your fans get a good shot of the both of you as Champions of the division before you come face to face with Kate Steele and I. Feel that leather and gold as it sits firmly in your grasps because that is the last time you will feel it on Sunday night! Those titles are leaving San Antonio with Guilty Pleasure and there is nothing you can do about it!
Our attention has been divided and we have been fighting a war against everyone and each other, but at Validation both Kate and I now know who the real enemy is and more importantly we know what it is that we are fighting for. We aren’t fighting for others and we aren’t fighting for vendettas…we are fighting for our rightful place in the history books of LAW!
Kate Steele wants to be a triple crown champion…she wants to cement herself as the first woman to capture three different titles in LAW. Until now, the only person standing in the way of that goal has been herself…but now that path is clearer than ever and it runs through Validation and it runs right through the two of you! You both called Kate a coward and you said all that she did was run…and that will be partly true on Sunday; Kate will run…she will run right over and through the two of you to get what she wants and deserves…her third championship in LAW.
Me? Well…I want respect…and I want people to acknowledge that I am more than just some revisionist history. I have taken the hard road in LAW…I am for all intents and purposes a child of this company. I cut my teeth in this business inside the sweat and blood drenched rings of LAW. This company has been more of a mother to me than my own mother. I have followed in the paths of women that I revered as mother figures as I continued to grow and evolve.
My win/loss record speaks volumes about myself…to here Lucas Dupree tell it and then to hear the Boardwalk Angels and others echo it. Am I ashamed to of my losses in LAW? HELL FUCKING NO I’M NOT! I came to fight each and every single night and I always left it all out there in the middle of the ring…I earned those losses…and I earned the knowledge I gained from those losses…each and every one of them! So…make fun of my record…by all means, call me a loser and say that I haven’t earned my spot in this company. Come Sunday night, you’ll eat those words when you face me…that, I can promise you!
I know that I am not what comes to mind when you think of the best that LAW has to offer, but I’ll be damned if I will believe anything other than that! Point out the Mackenzie Roberts’ or the Gabby Camacho’s as the standard bearers all you like…but know that when it is all said and done, I am the one who has your attention …and I am the one that has the spot light! I might not have it because LAW wants me in it…I not might have it because you think I deserve it…but I can promise you that I earned that shit! I busted my ass to get to where I am and I am going to bust your ass to show you that I belong!
Say what you want Angels…call for my firing and tell the world that I am not worthy of what you possess. Call me crazy…say that I am unworthy to be where I am. Do all of the things that you’ve been doing to hide the fact that I am coming for what you have…I earned the right to be here and no one in LAW can dispute that…come Validation…neither will the two of you…
…when Jenni Drew had ‘won’ that accolade, she was overjoyed…I was not…
It felt like a slap in the face after I had come so far after being so low. Losing every match in my first year, and then turning it around and finally winning a championship the next. Why had I not been lauded for turning my career around and becoming a household name? Did they not realize how I had struggled and fought back from the most horrific thing to ever happen to me? Did they not realize how close I had come to ending it all after being humiliated in front of the world because of who I loved...twice? I didn’t want to live after everything that I thought was so important had crumbled around me. My personal life was in shambles and my career inside the ring was a bust.
I literally clawed my way back…fighting tooth and nail to get win after win, by whatever means it took. I needed to change my fortunes if I wanted to achieve my dreams. I poured my heart and soul into performing for the fans of LAW. I never missed a date...I never missed a chance to put LAW in the spotlight. I did everything that I could to become a success. I thought I had accomplished all of that and more last year…until the wheels started to come off towards the end. Losing the Chaos Title hurt…but having my time and effort to try to become someone in LAW reduced to being called ‘the most hated’ was the final straw. What was the point of all of the blood, sweat, and tears?
I was tired of the disrespect and the outright hatred I was getting, not only from the fans, but from management as well. Never once did anyone believe in me. Never once did LAW acknowledge that I was worthy of carrying its banner...even as the lowly Chaos Champion. LAW put its faith in people like Mackenzie Roberts, Gabby Camacho, and Amy Jo Smyth. Those were the names that got pushed forward...those were the names that Megan Helms King spouted off as the greats in LAW...the women that put asses in seats and drew the money that kept LAW in the black. Kenzi Grey was a footnote...if even that. I had been in the feud of the year...I had cut all the best promos...and yet, when LAW so fit to acknowledge those who were the future, my name was not among them. I was literally days away from resigning from LAW…especially after I was forced into being a tag team with Kate Steele by CTN.
Kate and I had been at each other's throats for months...and when CTN saw a chance to squeeze a bit of blood from that lemon, they made us a music group. Controversy creates cash...or so they say. It was a strange dance that she and I did, singing together on stage one night and running each other down in the ring the next. Our war had been epic...both verbally and physically, yet as it escalated, instead of going nuclear, we were given an ultimatum...become a team and win...or be let go. HELL, I was ready to up and quit anyway! What did I care if my contract was cut short and I was sent packing? I had failed to get anyone to believe in me...I had failed to even believe in myself. In the irony of all ironies, Kate called me and said four simple words that stuck with me, words that changed my mind and turned my world upside down…
…we can be great…
No one had ever said that about me with the conviction that Kate had said it. Potential...that is what people like the General Manager and Amy Jo Smyth had said. I had potential if I focused and did all the right things. I had potential if I stayed in my lane and didn't make too much noise. I had potential if I kept my head down and worked hard until someone noticed...
Had I not done all the right things? Had I not beaten all of the top stars I had been pitted against? Had I not kept my focus on my dream of winning the Chaos Title...had I not achieved that dream? Had I not worked hard and got noticed by not only the girls in the back...but by the wrestling world at large? Why did none of this matter to anyone? Why did I have to have my confidence in myself shattered?
Kate's words to me...those four words had made all the difference. She sparked a belief in myself that I really could go out there and be great! I could reinvent myself from the person I was last year…the Heel…the most hated. I could make the world forget the Kenzi Grey of old and I could be something better…I could finally earn the respect of those I craved...and I could be GREAT!
…enter The Boardwalk Angels, armed with nothing more than reminders of a past I had hoped to forget…
I should have been fighting alongside Kate Steele for my opportunity to be something better than everyone believed I was. I should have been fighting for the right to be great…but I wasn’t. I was fighting against the same past that had been wrapped around my neck like a noose…all thoughts of greatness and accomplishment with Kate was now forgotten. The Tag Team Titles were no longer the focus…being great was no longer the focus…HELL…being a team was no longer even the purpose. Farrah Martell and Zoey Star had succeeded in turning back the clock to a time when I was at my lowest and the world was against me.
I didn’t dream of being a champion…I only wanted to be treated like a person…like I belonged…like I mattered. To have my career reduced to ‘the wronging of Jamilyn Cornett’ made me sick to my stomach and it made me angry beyond reason. Accused of ruining the career of a woman I had claimed to love...when in fact she had come to LAW with the sole purpose of humiliating me. She accomplished that goal and I didn't strike her...I never raised a hand to her. My one crime was that I dared to survive...I dared to thrive when she did not. I had made it to a point where I was the number one contender for the LAW Tag Team Titles alongside a woman who had once been my sworn enemy, but the talk wasn’t about the potential greatness of Guilty Pleasure…it was about how terrible I was…how I should be fired…how my accomplishments were nothing…
…how I was nothing…
Yes…I raged…I lashed out…I swung at every face that dared to mock me. What choice did I have? The court of public opinion was stacked against me. For every step forward…I was pushed back three more, not only by the Boardwalk Angels, but by their friends and allies. I should have been fighting in the ring alongside ‘Lil Miss UltraViolence’ to achieve greatness…but I was fighting to keep my job against accusations levied at me by people who didn’t even have the balls to confront me directly!
Here we were…one month out from Validation…one month out from one of the biggest rematches in the history of the LAW Tag Division…Guilty Pleasure challenging the undefeated Boardwalk Angels for the titles…but LAW wasn’t promoting this, LAW was busy talking about lawyers, investigations, and firings. The owner of the company should have been talking about how he had two of the finest tag teams in all the world going head to head for his company’s championship…but he was telling the world how piss poor my record in the ring was and how meaningless my accomplishments were.
Hell...I could have survived that. I didn't believe a word that Lucas Dupree said! I knew my history and I knew the heart that thundered inside my chest. He didn't take any of those Kill Zones...he didn't take a single Crush, Crush, Crush...no one had ever leveled him inside the ring with a Seven Sins Kick! I had taken all of those things and I had survived and overcome them to fight and keep on fighting...sweat, blood, broken bones be damned! Out of all of that...the thing that hurt me the most was when the woman that I looked to as a friend and a mother figure in this business told me that she agreed with Lucas. My accomplishments and my efforts meant nothing.
…again…how I was nothing…nothing great about me…nothing at all…
LAW 62 was an opportunity to change that…but in the end, all that match did was reinforce that I was nothing, I was not part of a team, and my time and effort was meaningless. We didn't fight as we had fought before...random elements aside, we didn't perform as we had in the past. When we were slighted as a team...we fought back and we fought hard! We fought to proved the naysayers wrong and to rub it in their faces. Now, all we did was prove them all right. We weren't a team...we weren't a unit...we weren't contenders. Obviously Kate Steele felt the same since she walked away from the arena that night and couldn’t be bothered with Guilty Pleasure the band or even Guilty Pleasure the tag team. All the talk that had brought me back to LAW was gone…
…we can be great…
I had believed those words when Kate spoke them to me and we went to war with The Boardwalk Angels in January and fought them to a draw. It was a tag team match the likes of which no one had ever seen before between a pair of teams that wanted to be…champions…two teams that wanted to be…GREAT!
…we believed it then…we could be great…
After that match, we had opportunity denied to us heading into Rising Stars. The Boardwalk Angels got the chance to complete for an opportunity at the titles, while Kate and I were left off the show. Kate and I showed up at that arena and we made our presence felt that night. We were vicious and ruthless...we were together and we faced down the Boardwalk Angels and showed the world that we weren't afraid. She and I knew that we could be…GREAT!
…we showed everyone…we would be great…
Kate and I charged into Rising Stars and we took what should have been our opportunity two weeks prior when we became the Number One Contenders to the Tag Team Titles. We showed the world what Guilty Pleasure could do as a unit…we put our greatness on display and we made it clear that LAW had made a mistake in denying us opportunity! The Tag Team Division was the hottest that it had ever been and we were riding the crest of that wave as part of the change that was taking hold.
…we showed everyone…that we were great…
Oh…how the mighty have fallen since that moment. My team is divided…and everyone is busy dancing on our graves…pissing on our legacy…thinking our adversaries to be unbeatable…at least by the likes of myself and Kate Steele. There is no longer any talk of greatness…only of failure as a team…as competitors…and even as friends and allies. No one believes that we are anything but what the Boardwalk Angels and their friends have made us out to be; just another bump in the road…and not even one worthy of mention as a credible threat.
…we were never great…nor were we ever going to be great…
I house divided shall not prosper and that is what we were; Kate Steele and I. We had been divided and we had been worn down on all sides…pushed in different directions. The Boardwalk Angels had been nothing but The Boardwalk Angels at every event…but Guilty Pleasure was Kenzi Grey battling those she had wronged in 2016. Kate Steele wasn’t Guilty Pleasure, she was just fodder for those seeking the Marquee Championship.
All we had asked for was a chance to complete for and win the Tag Team Championship, but now that dream seemed so far off that there was no way in hell that we would ever get it back. Validation could not be closer and the title of that pay-per-view could not be more apt. All of the hard work and the sacrifice was supposed to pay off here. This was supposed to be our time…this was supposed to be our moment to finally do what we always knew we were capable of doing…as a unit…as a team…as two of the greats.
Robbed of our confidence…ripped apart at the seams and shoved in two different directions; this was our last chance to get it together before we could make history. If Kate Steele and I were ever going to be greater than the sum of our collective parts and realize the potential that we always knew was inside us…we’d have to find a way to come back together. We’d have to find a way to put all the talk about who did what to whom a year ago in the past…where it belonged! Kate and I would need to find our way back to believing in one another…we would have to find our way back to believing…
…we could be great…
CTN STUDIOS
Los Angeles, California
25 May 2017
Kenzi Grey sat in the back of the car that had sped her and her platinum haired lover with the shocking red eyes to the studio where she was to see Kate Steele for the first time since the three of them were together for LAW #62. Sarah Lacklan stared at Kenzi as she didn’t get out of the car, she only sat there in the black leather seat, her fingers dance over the face of the Fucking Awesome Hardcore Title she had only just won from Cass Baumer a week ago. Sarah cleared her throat, but that did not garner her attention. So she placed her hand over Kenzi’s, taking it into hers as she brought it to her lips and kissed it. “Beloved…are you worried that Kate won’t show up after everything that happened before?” Sarah smiled at her, showing off her famously white teeth that she had put to good use on Kenzi’s neck more than a time or two. “I told you before…if she leaves you high and dry, you know that you can count on me to take her place…you did the same for me in England.”
She had done the same for Sarah. When her partner had disappeared, Kenzi had taken her place at the last minute and the two of them had went on to earn a spectacular victory as Team Kickass in UKWF. Kenzi looked up at Sarah and smiled, pulling her hand away and placing it against the side of her lovely porcelain face. “I know you’d be there for me Sarah…I know all I have to do is say the word and you’re there. Hell…for all I know on Sunday I may have to do just that, but as much as I’d love teaming with you again…I can’t help but to wonder about this team that I am already on.” She sighed, turning her attention to the studio building right outside her window were she was supposed to have a sit down with Kate concerning their troubles as a team and their future at Validation against The Boardwalk Angels. “I am wondering if this is just another failed relationship…if this is just another one of those times where things started out so very right…and ended up so very wrong…”
Sarah’s expression darkened a bit as she took her lover’s hand into both of her own and held it. Her eyes sought out Kenzi’s holding them tightly to her own. “I hope all of this concern regarding relationships is about the ones you have inside the ring…and not the one you have outside of it.”
Kenzi leaned in and kissed Sarah on her lips, holding her forehead to hers as she looked her in her eyes. “Out of all of the things in the world that I have to worry about right now…you’re the one thing that I know I can trust…” she sighed heavily and frowned, “…you’re my rock and you’re the only reason I haven’t gone completely insane right now! You’re holding me together Sarah…you’re keeping my eyes on the prize.”
Sarah nodded, “But you’re concerned that Kate no longer shares your passion. Her lack of communication is troubling…but…maybe you mistake her lack of interaction for a lack of desire.” Sarah lifted Kenzi’s chin and looked at her evenly. “I will not pretend to know what is inside Kate’s heart…but if she is half as fierce as the woman I know you to be…she’ll be inside the building and she’ll be filled with white hot desire to beat the Boardwalk Angels within an inch of their lives…” she paused, “…and possibly you and I as well.” She laughed and gave Kenzi’s chin a little shake. “You have to trust that she will be there and she will be ready to walk through the fire with you…just like you did with me…like we do with one another, yes?”
Kenzi could only nod in agreement, because Sarah was right…of course. Kate’s silence was her own business. No matter if she had to go somewhere to get back her smile or if she just didn’t feel like fighting over Twitter with the hashtag queens, the fact was that she said she would be here tonight. If Kenzi walked into the building and found that Kate really was there…then that would be half the battle, getting on the same page would be the rest. Kenzi sighed heavily, “I wonder if things might have gone differently if you had made the save for our team after Kate ate that superkick? I wonder if things would be different if we had actually won that match?”
Sarah sat back, her hand playing with Kenzi’s braids as she shrugged, “If Mama Bae had feathers she’d be a bird! Who cares about that?! It’s water under the bridge and now if you and Kate want to continue your journey, you need to travel those same waters and not mind the choppy bits so much.”
The choppy bits...there were plenty of choppy bits. People going behind her back to ask her boss to fire her and then there was the recent blow up between her and Kate Bass, Sarah's opponent for Validation. Then only just yesterday another person from the Cornett camp was starting in on her as well. All of these seemed like calculated actions all meant for one thing and one thing only, to distract her from her goal. Kenzi leaned back with a heavy sigh, “I don't want to think about all the random horse shit that is been thrown my way lately! All the firing rumors from their cheerleading section and the hurt fucking feelings from people who can't separate fiction from reality! I just want to focus on what really matters! I want to win this match so badly…all I want is the chance to look everyone in LAW in the eye and finally say that I accomplished something and no one had to hand it to me…I earned it…I deserved it and it’s mines!” She turned her head, looking at Sarah. “Like you…mines.” Kenzi put her hand against the side of Sarah’s face, thumb playing at her bottom lip.
Sarah narrowed her eyes, “Keep doing that Beloved…you’ll earn yourself a late and decidedly messy appearance on tonight’s show…”
Kenzi laughed, “Fair enough!” She leaned in and kissed Sarah’s painted red lips one more time, then slapped her taunt thigh. “Okay…no more stalling…if she’s here, it’s time to get this over with!”
Kenzi exited the car first and waited for her Queen to follow her, hiking up her dark cowl over her mass of light platinum twists. Kenzi paused, looking around and Sarah gave her a questioning glare. “What is it?”
She could only shake her head. “Nothing…it was just that AMC said she was going to be here…that’s all.” Kenzi looked disappointed, but she took a deep breath and held on to what mattered. She took Sarah’s hand and walked into the studio…it was time that Guilty Pleasure got back together or fell apart like everyone always expected them to…
eXposed!
The camera swings in on the large studio audience on the set of eXposed! as it’s host, Domino walks between the aisles and up to the stage. Two chairs were positioned there, one a comfy single and the other hardly much more than an oversized loveseat. Domino stands between them as she addresses the crowd and the fans watching at home.
“On January 8, 2017 in Cleveland, Ohio the boiling feud between Kate Steele of the Pink Ladies and Kenzi Grey of the Kentourage reached a fever pitch. After months of being at each other’s throats, both in and out of the ring, the pair found themselves thrust together as a tag team by this very network! On that night, Guilty Pleasure…the music group became Guilty Pleasure, Ladies All-Star Wrestling tag team. The two women were given an ultimatum…work as a team and win the LAW Tag Team Titles or have your contracts with the company terminated.”
The massive screen behind her comes to life with an image of the promotional shot of the very first meeting between Guilty Pleasure and The Boardwalk Angels…
"At LAW 57 in Philadelphia, Guilty Pleasure wrestled their first tag team match together and they found themselves in a war with none other than The Boardwalk Angels. This battle was one born of animosity and deep seeded hatred over events stemming from 2016. The match was a brutal affair and ended indecisively with a double disqualification that settled nothing between the two. The Boardwalk Angels would go on to be put in a number one contender's match at the next show while Guilty Pleasure was not booked at all. This only added gasoline to an already raging fire between the two teams. At Rising Stars, Martell and Star would go on to win the LAW Tag Team Titles while Grey and Steele would become the #1 contenders...setting the stage for an epic confrontation."
“It has been a long time coming, but on May 28th Guilty Pleasure will finally face off against the undefeated Boardwalk Angels for the tag team championship at Validation 2017. Both of these women are chasing after history in their own right. Kenzi Grey won her very first match in LAW last year at Validation when she defeated Keira Fisher in a highly controversial contest. Kenzi parlayed that win into a very successful run in 2016 that saw her win a singles title and garnered 3 LAW end of year awards. Kate Steele has the unprecedented opportunity to become the very first Triple Crown winner in LAW, having already captured the Marquee and LAW Championships. It would be quite the memorable night if they could overcome their greatest rivals…but I’m not talking about Farrah Martell or Zoey Star…”
The screen behind Domino changed to an image of the promotional shot from their last meeting in the ring at LAW 62 in a three verses three match.
“At LAW #62 the fans got somewhat of the rematch they had been pining for since Guilty Pleasure and The Boardwalk Angels battled to a double disqualification over four months ago. Though some of the players were different, the core of both teams was the same, but Kate and Kenzi did not appear to be on the same page at all on that night. The match ended with Kenzi sacrificing herself for Sarah Selena Lacklan and Kate ate a super kick from Courtney Steele as the Boardwalk Angels prevailed. Now, with Validation just days away, everyone is wondering if that last match is just a preview of what we will see on Sunday, May 28th in San Antonio, Texas…is Guilty Pleasure destined to go down in defeat for a second time when it counts the most?”
“Ladies and gentlemen, tonight my guests on this very special edition of eXposed! are Kate Steele and Kenzi Grey…the number one contenders for the LAW Tag Team Titles…Guilty Pleasure…”
The fans cheered as the two women walked out, albeit from opposite sides of the stage, further adding to the notion that the two were not at all on the same page for their upcoming title opportunity. Domino greeted each woman in turn, then the two took seats next to one another, though neither bothered to acknowledge the other.
Domino took a seat across from the two ladies, eyeing them in turn as she settled back and laced her fingers. “Well…first things first…welcome to eXposed! ladies. Thank you very much for taking the time to come here tonight to discuss your partnership and your upcoming match against the LAW Tag Team Champions.”
Kate started to speak, but Kenzi talked over her, “You’re quite welcome Domino! It was incredibly difficult to drop everything with my movies, television show, and music to be here tonight…” she patted Kate on the thigh, “…but I felt it was important to come here and sit down to work through some of the issues that my ‘partner’ has as we head into this match against the champions. Guilty Pleasure has had to rely on only my cunning and in-ring prowess to get to this point, so it would be a shame if the selfishness of one member of the team…” she paused and glanced at Kate, then cut her eyes back to Domino with a rye grin, “…cut short our opportunity to do what we committed ourselves to back in January.”
Domino looked at Kate, who was obviously seething as she glared a hole right through Kenzi. Kenzi ignored Kate, keeping her eyes everywhere but on her tag team partner. Domino cleared her throat. “Ahem! Uh, Kate…do you have a response to what Kenzi said?”
Kate eyed Domino and then turned back to Kenzi, grabbing her by one of her shoulders and forcing her tag team partner to look at her. “You left me high and dry in the ring at LAW 62! We were supposed to be a bloody team out there, but instead you were too busy stepping in for your…GIRLFRIEND…instead of watching my damn back so I could win the match for us…like I always do!”
Kenzi took immediate offense at this and swatted Kate’s hand off of her. “What in the hell are you talking about? You don’t win all the matches for us! Get your head out of your ass Kate!”
“Ladies…” Domino tried to cut in, but the two were focused in on one another like a laser.
Kate shoved Kenzi back, her brow knitted in anger. “EVERY TAG TEAM MATCH WE HAVE HAD, I HAVE GOTTEN US THE WIN!” Kate’s voice dropped to a low hiss, “Don’t be pretending like I haven’t been carrying you in the ring like I carry you on stage when we sing!”
Kenzi’s eyes were big with shock as she sat back. “Carrying me?! Is that right?! The last time we had a match, you were the one getting carried out…NOT ME!”
Kate threw up her hands, “OH MY GOD! YOU’RE AN IDIOT! I just said that you left me high and dry in that match! There is no way in hell that Courtney Steele…” Kate paused and looked around at the audience and Domino, “…no relation…” she turned back to Kenzi, “…would have EVER in her life beaten me with what stupid superkick if you hadn’t been more interested in playing house than helping me win that match!”
Before Kenzi could chime in again, a woman stood up from the crowd, a tall statuesque brunette in a tight fitting dress that hid none of her fit curves, and headed up to the stage. The crowd clapped as they recognized her as Kenzi’s manager, Ashley Marie Chase. “HOLD ON! Stop this…please, stop it right now.” She looked to Domino and she nodded, signaling for her to continue. She looked at Kenzi and Kate in turn, “LADIES! Look, this is what you are both here for today…to get to the bottom of this and stop all the fighting. You are both part of the same team, whether you like it or not! You have an amazing opportunity against the best tag team in LAW…maybe one of the best tag teams period.” She eyed both of them in turn after finally getting their attention. “If you win this match at Validation…as a team…which is the only way you can win, you would lay claim to being called that…the best tag team…period!”
Kate smiled, “Damn right! I’ll be a triple crown championship winner…something that no one else has done EVER in LAW!”
Kenzi rolls her eyes, “No one cares about that! They want to see me go on to Validation, the place where I won my very first match last year, and this time…see me win a title in 2017!”
Kate stared at Kenzi, then blurted out, “MAN, AINT NOBODY TRYING TO SEE THAT RUBBISH!”
The two immediately started in on one another again, until AMC stepped in to get control. “Look! The two of you!” She pointed at Kate, “Winning the a triple crown in LAW is amazing!” She looked at Kenzi, “Making Validation your place for landmark victories…also great! However, those are individual goals…goals of ‘Lil Miss UltraViolence’ and ‘LAW’s Top Draw.’ You aren’t going into Validation as individuals…you are going into Validation as a unit…a tag team with a single focus and a single purpose!” AMC let that thought sink in for both of them before she continued, “If you walk into that match on Sunday like you walked into that match at LAW 62…expect the exact same result…”
Kenzi smirked at her manager, “Kate Steele knocked out cold!”
Kate glared at Kenzi, but she didn’t have to say a word because AMC summed it up for her. “And you right there with her…just as you were on that same night!” She gave Kenzi her full attention. “You think that only Kate lost that match? You lost too…and you’ll lose again if you don’t fix this thing between the two of you and see the prize that the two of you need to reach out and seize!”
Kate piped in, “EVERY TIME I TRY, THIS ONE BUGGERS IT UP! I am clearly the best wrestler between us, just like I am the best singer in our band…probably the best actress on our show!”
“Kate…you are good…you’re one of the best…” AMC added.
“Don’t blow that bitch’s head up.” Kenzi rolled her eyes.
AMC chuckled, “I’m not blowing her head up…I’m telling the truth. Kate Steele is every bit as good as she says she is…I saw her in LAW as my time as General Manager…”
“ABOUT BLOODY TIME!” She stared at Kenzi with a broad grin on her face.
AMC wasn’t finished as she took her chance to complete her thought, “…and that’s your problem Kate, you spend too much time trying to make everyone around you believe it. You’re great…just in LAW alone you have accomplished more than enough to ensure a spot in the Hall of Fame as a first ballot pick…but you’re too concerned with who knows it!”
Kate laughed out loud at this, cutting her eyes. “Bollocks to that! I don’t care what anyone thinks about me!”
AMC pretended to be taken aback by Kate’s proclamation of innocence, but she couldn’t wipe the smile off her face. “Kate, you have had a Hall of Fame career, ten times over, but you waste too much time and effort chasing after acknowledgement. Anytime someone questions your ability you go off the deep end! That’s how you got yourself goaded into match with Stephanie McDiddle over your own spot in Guilty Pleasure…and that’s why the Angels got the drop on you during your match with Crystal and during the three person tag match.”
Kate was still indignant as she responded, “They got the drop on me because I can’t count on anyone…” she glared at Kenzi, “…especially HER!”
Kenzi rolled her eyes, ignoring Kate as AMC responded. “There is no “I” in team Kate. Sorry to tell you, but tag team wrestling means that you can’t do it all by yourself! The Boardwalk Angels, as arrogant as they are, at least know that they have to perform as a unit and no single piece is greater than the sum of its parts. Running around like a crazy person and trying to show everyone how much better you are than the people who stand with you is only going to get left out in the cold when you need them the most!”
Kenzi chuckled as she raised her hands in the air as if she were in church, “Preach Sista Chase! Go tell it on the mountain!”
Kate pulled Kenzi’s hands down, “You’d burst into flames if you walked into a church you daft cow!”
Kenzi laughed, “You mad that I’m getting some action and you’re not?”
Kate rolled her eyes, turning her attention to AMC, “If Kenzi could stop thinking with her crotch, we would have never been in this jam in the first place! She’s the whole reason that Farrah and Zoey are all up inside her head!”
“REALLY BITCH?!” Kenzi responded. “You on that old ass shit too now?”
AMC cut in, stopping her cold, “Aren’t you?” Kenzi turned and glared at her, but her manager didn’t flinch. “You have been constantly defending yourself against these imaginary wrongdoings that Farrah and Zoey have both gone on and on about since the day they stepped foot in LAW. It was a readymade feud for them with built in talking points, all just readymade to do nothing but get under your skin and distract you from doing anything other than defending yourself against someone who’s not even here.”
“I…” Kenzi started, then silently closed her mouth as she realized the truth in her manager’s words.
She laid things out plainly for her, “You can slice this up any way that you want to, but you know as well as I do that you and Kate were focused on those titles…right up until the moment Farrah and Zoey made it about your past with Jamilyn. From that moment on, you weren’t fighting the Boardwalk Angels, you were chasing after ghosts…and that is exactly what they wanted you to do! They beat you the old fashioned way…by letting you beat yourself…didn’t they?”
Kenzi looked down at her hands and Kate elbowed her in the arm, forcing her attention back on AMC. She reluctantly spoke up, “…maybe…I don’t know…”
AMC leaned forward, ready to break things down for Kenzi, “Let’s do the math here. After you and Kate became number 1 contenders, you went right into a fight with Christina Millar, all because she interjected herself into an online debate you were having with The Boardwalk Angels and tagged in the Cornett clan…firing you up and sending you off in an entirely different direction.”
Kenzi added, in a rather morose tone, “…yeah, but the LAW bookers made the match…not me…”
AMC shrugged, “You made it easy for them to do it, plus they saw a big money match. The point isn’t what LAW did, it is what you let yourself get pushed into doing. Fighting over the mention of Jamilyn…again…just like the Boardwalk Angels wanted you to do.”
“BLOODY HELL!” Kate looked at Kenzi, wide eyed, “Surprise…look who the newest member of the Boardwalk Angels is! It wouldn’t be much of a stretch to think that she was with those wankers the whole time…distracting you and me! Anything to keep our minds off of the titles!”
“To keep your minds off being a tag team!” AMC corrected. “The same thing happened on the next show with Dazi Reed. Again…she jumped in when you were trying to focus on the Angels, and then you are magically in another singles feud. And guess who was right there a ringside? The Boardwalk Angels…making sure you…got what you had coming.” She looked at Kenzi, narrowing her eyes just a bit, “You are seeing this, right?”
Kenzi swallowed hard as she replayed the events in her mind. “We let them take us off our game…”
All Kate and Kenzi could do was look at one another as the truth of the situation they were in was laid out before them in glorious detail. The Boardwalk Angels had done a masterful job of distracting Kenzi and Kate from their goal. Every time either of them tried to turn their attention to the Tag Team Titles, someone from their circle of miscreants popped in and stirred the pot in a different direction, just to distract both of them from the one thing that had made them a team to begin with. It all seemed so basic…and even in the end, if that wasn’t really the case at all, they had managed to put the Boardwalk Angels in the driver’s seat heading into Validation. Kenzi and Kate were no longer a team and their focus had been all but shattered. They would have to get it back before Sunday…that was the only way to win.
Kate drug her fingers through her blonde hair, the realization of their situation suddenly setting in. “We are so completely fucked if we don’t fix this Kenzi. All that hard work…all that bloody fighting…scratching and clawing our way back into the title picture of we got shut out of an opportunity at Rising Stars.” She looked at Kenzi, taking a deep breath. “We made so many sacrifices after all the drama with The Kentourage and The Pink Ladies. Becoming Guilty Pleasure after all of that wasn’t easy…but we did it. We had our eyes set on accomplishing something…and yeah…it was forced on us…but we wanted that, right? We wanted those titles!”
Kenzi nodded, “Yeah…we wanted those titles and yeah…we did sacrifice a lot to get to this point…” Kenzi sighed and ran her hands over her face in frustration. “…we had to listen to so many people tell us that we had no business being a team…and we couldn’t co-exist after the feud we had been in. We had every reason in the world to quit as soon as we got passed over for the title opportunity…”
Kate rolled her eyes, “Like they were testing us…because they knew we just quit!”
Kenzi nodded, “Yeah…they thought we would pack it in and just start fighting with each other again while the path to the titles was paved for The Boardwalk Angels…but we stayed in it…we didn’t quit and we became number one contenders!”
AMC walked behind the couch, putting her hands on each of their shoulder, “Then the mind games started and the two of you ran off in different directions.” The two of them started to say something, but a squeeze of this shoulders kept them quiet, “Until now…Guilty Pleasure has been a shade of its former self. You two need to stop the petty bickering that has allowed everyone in LAW to write you off as two chicks who can’t get it done when everything is on the line. The egos need to be set aside…at least for one night…at least for your match at Validation!”
Kenzi and Kate stared at each other, their minds pondering everything that had been said. The two of them had been unified when they thought that LAW had screwed them, overcoming the odds…as a team. Now the two of them needed to be unified one more time…they needed to become a team…the two ruthless bitches that didn’t let anything stand in their way.
Kate took a breath, holding out her hand to Kenzi, “I still think I’m a better singer than you…but I wouldn’t mind sharing the tag team titles with a bitch who can’t sing worth a damn!”
Kenzi looked down at Kate’s hand and slowly reached in and took it, “Your acting is terrible…people only watch you to see if it can get any worse…but I wouldn’t mind sharing the tag team titles with a cunt who doesn’t know a movie camera from a traffic camera!”
The two women stared at one another, determination etched in their face. AMC chimed in, “Fortunately for the two of you, I’ll be on hand to make sure that lack of singing and acting ability doesn’t adversely impact this match.” Kenzi and Kate looked up at her and she gave a nonchalant shrug. “The Boardwalk Angels are always yelling about people watching their backs…maybe you two need someone to direct traffic and watch your backs.”
The two looked at one another and nodded, raising their fists to AMC as she joined in a triple fist bump. Domino stood up, “Well…this is certainly not the show that I had in mind, but I suppose the means certainly justifies the ends in this case.” She took back control of her show, as gestured for AMC to take her seat. “Usually I moderate the point/counterpoint, but I think we can all agree that Ms. Chase did an amazing job!”
The audience clapped, but Domino still wasn’t finished. She turned to the trio, eying each of them in turn. “I understand that the three of you just had a really great feel-good moment at the end…but I’d be remiss in my duties as host of this show if I didn’t ask a few questions on my own…” She paced back and forth before finally settling on Kenzi Grey, who perked up, ready for the question. “Ms. Grey, since becoming #1 Contenders, you have had several run ins with The Boardwalk Angels, but you have generally favored ‘hit and run’ tactics…” Domino paused, frowning a bit at the past perceived knock at Kenzi over allegations that she had run down her mother. “…poor choice of words, but back to the question; don’t you think that has only emboldened Farrah and Zoey?”
Kenzi wrung her hands, “I hope that it has emboldened them…I hope that their confidence is soaring at an all-time high! As I have said before, they are a great team…but their arrogance is their weakness. They don’t respect the talent of the other women in the division, and the certainly don’t respect mines! It’s better that way…now that Validation is finally here and the titles are on the line, I can think of no better time to introduce myself to them inside the ring…properly!”
Domino gave a nod and turned her attention to Kate Steele next, “Ms. Steele…The Angels have made you out to be a coward. They have said that you run when the going gets hard or the odds are not in your favor. You all but vanished after you were pinned at LAW 62. How do you reconcile that sentiment, as you go into the biggest tag team match to date?”
Kate cut her eyes to Kenzi for a moment, then she looked back at Domino. “Look! First things, first…I am Lil’ Ms. Ultraviolence, and I run from no one!”
Kenzi added, “She regroups…tactically…”
Kate stared at Kenzi, then chuckled with a nod. “I regroup and I come back harder.” She sighed, “I wasn’t happy with Kenzi after our match at LAW 62…hell…I haven’t EVER been happy with Kenzi! She knows that…and if she didn’t, she knows it now, but I know this…when she and I are clicking on all cylinders, I don’t need to regroup! The Boardwalk Angels on the other hand; well they say what they want, but they don’t know me! HELL! They confused me with Kate Bass a few weeks ago, but I’m not Kate Bass…I’m Kate bloody Steele, the very first LAW Champion…former Marquee Champion…and soon to be a triple crown winner at their expense!” Kate glared into the camera, “After Validation…they will never forget who I am again!”
Domino turned to AMC; the manager winked at her, inviting whatever question she had for her. “Ms. Chase…your list of championship accomplishments, especially in tag teaming, reads like a grocery list, but have you ever had the challenge of a partner that you didn’t get along with? How can you even get past that?”
AMC smiled, long and slow as she laced her fingers in front of her. “I have had many challenges in my career and I have found a way to get past them all. This situation between Kenzi and Kate is no different. In the end, they need to know one thing and one thing only…neither of them can do it alone. They need to be a team in every sense of the word if they are going to beat a team like the Boardwalk Angels.” She chuckled a bit, “They will be ready by Validation…one way or another…”
Domino nodded and turned to the audience. “Ladies and gentlemen, Guilty Pleasure!”
The trio stood up as the audience applauded in anticipation of the number one contenders returning to form as the hour for them to face off against their rivals fast approached...
Brace yourselves...this will not be over quickly and a great many of you will not enjoy it...
I know, this seems an odd way to lead off a promo for a match of the magnitude of the one I am about to have at Validation in just a mere couple of days. A high profile championship match between a pair of teams that do not like nor respect one another. It should be more than enough that the LAW Tag Team Titles hang in the balance, but over the course of the last few months the struggle between Guilty Pleasure and The Boardwalk Angels hasn't been about the titles...it has been about a bunch of shit that happened in the past, with them fighting to turn LAW and the rest of the wrestling world against me; and for my part, it was about me, reliving that same idiotic past and trying my best to put down every stupid person that dared to try to call me out for it.
I ain't gonna lie, no one enjoys a good verbal battle of wits more than I do, but at the end of the day what does all of it really get me? Yeah, I got to punch Crystal Hilton in the mouth again, I got to embarrass one more former LAW General Manager in a match in Atlanta, and I got to reconcile a lot of those negative feelings I had about the part that I played in the fiasco with Jamilyn last year...but in the end, what does any of that matter? I can...and have...won hundreds of arguments with faceless nothings and certified Hall of Famers and no one has ever given me a trophy for that. I have beaten people that have claimed to be light years beyond me in talent, and yet to hear my own boss tell it, my victories are miniscule and amount to shit. Why am I even still trying...who am I trying to impress anyone at this point?
I fight because that is all I know how to do. I fight because the day that I stop fighting and accept your reality is the day that I need to hang up my hopes and dreams and head off into the fucking sunset! I fight because that is how I know I am still alive...that is how I know that I am who I believe myself to be! I have never once rolled over and taken the high hard one because someone said that I wasn’t worthy or I was undeserving. I have always fought back, no matter the odds! I have faced down every challenge with my head held high and I have never taken a backwards step in the face of mounting odds. I am not built that way…and I make zero apologies for it.
For five long months I have been called a sociopath...I have been called unstable...I have been called a liar...and I have been called a nothing. I have been called all of these things by enemies...and I have been called these things by people that I considered to be my friends. I don't know if they were meant to discourage me...to encourage me...or simply to be descriptive of who they all thought I was. Kenzi Grey...the worst performer in the history of LAW...never once worthy to be called a champion, even when she was one. Never worthy of respect, even when she tried to give it. Allow me to bottom line this…
…Kenzi Grey will never amount to anything in this business because she has never been anything in this business...
Whispers in the darkness...planting the seeds of doubt inside my mind. Anything and everything to distract me from doing the one thing that I know I am capable of doing...earning my place in LAW in a way that my mother never did and in a way that no one else ever believed that I could! This is the legacy that The Boardwalk Angels are attempting to take away from me...the same one that they are attempting to take away from my tag team partner. Our match was made to be about the quality of our character and the hatred that we have garnered because of it. We wronged this person and that person...we would reap what we had sewn...
We would do everything but compete for the LAW Tag Team Titles...never that...because that wasn't what our match would be about. Our match was about righting wrongs that had been done to others in the past. It had been about crimes committed and imminent firings to pave the way for another to make her glorious return to LAW. That was Jamilyn's dream...and LAW was her dream organization, but ‘she'd never get a fair shot with Kenzi Grey still on the roster...’
What an incredible crock of shit! So much so that I won’t spend very long it at all. I have never held Jamilyn or anyone else in this business back! I have elevated those around me and I have done my level best to make sure that everyone got a voice. If she didn’t get elevated or if she felt like she didn’t have a voice, that was her own doing and no fault of mine. However, that is the new and latest fiction that I must endure.
Is that why I have been a target for the lies and attacks since the moment I decided to make something of myself in this company? Is that why when I finally earned a shot at a title that I didn't have to ask my manager to beg for on my behalf I got told that I had nothing to offer the company I gave years of my life to? Farrah...Zoey...I must give credit where credit is due, you did a marvelous job of taking the attention off of my quest to become a legitimate champion in LAW. You and your friends played LAW like a fiddle as you made sure that I stayed fighting against everyone and anyone that wasn't walking through the halls of LAW spouting hashtags and carrying the titles that Kate and I had earned our shot at several times over.
HELL! Before LAW 62 the two of you came to tell me to my face that our fight at Validation was going to finally be about the titles...mostly...yet even then you couldn’t say that with a straight face. Even Maya Jensen, a girl that has yet to wrestle in her first match could see that when she did her Prime Data segment. For the two of you drama queens, you are so use to everything being about this family member and that family member that you can’t see that none of those family members have skin in this game.
The Boardwalk Angels are nothing but the mouthpieces of others who have plenty to say and nothing to do. I am done listening to those do-nothing voices as they rail against me behind blocked accounts and sing songs about me getting my pink slip so others can call LAW home. You know who calls LAW home?
KATE STEELE AND I DO!
We have both fought and clawed our way up the ladder in different directions that have caused our paths to cross on more occasions than I care to count, but in the end we always stay steadfast and true to the cause. Yeah, I put LAW on blast more than once when I thought I was being treated unfairly...but I never once turned my back on LAW and I never once cut and run because things didn't go my way in the ring or because the General Manager was up my ass! I gritted my teeth and I rolled up my sleeves and came back and I fought harder than I did the first time!
That is what is going to happen at Validation...Kate and I are going to fight even harder than we did the first time! We are going to put the talk about 2016 to bed. We are not going to worry about investigations and lawyers. Our minds will not be clouded by having to watch our backs because of whatever scary boogieman you two might dig up to bring with you to San Antonio. You see, the only thing that we care about you bringing is you A game...and those LAW Tag Team Titles!
Bring your A game guys...because we plan on bringing ours. We already know that you don't respect what we can do since you've already said how easy it was to dispatch us. Bringing our best is not going to amount to very much...in your opinions, so bring your very best and do what you can to put us on our backs for a second time. I promise you, that task will not be nearly as easy as you think it will be. I promise you that when it is over and the dust settles, you'll respect what Guilty Pleasure is all about inside those ropes. All the hashtags about flying and doing this that or the other thing won't mean shit when that bell rings and you finally see that talking big was one thing...and acting big was quite another!
Bring those LAW Tag Team Titles with you and hoist them up high for everyone in the arena to see. Make sure that the photographers and all of your fans get a good shot of the both of you as Champions of the division before you come face to face with Kate Steele and I. Feel that leather and gold as it sits firmly in your grasps because that is the last time you will feel it on Sunday night! Those titles are leaving San Antonio with Guilty Pleasure and there is nothing you can do about it!
Our attention has been divided and we have been fighting a war against everyone and each other, but at Validation both Kate and I now know who the real enemy is and more importantly we know what it is that we are fighting for. We aren’t fighting for others and we aren’t fighting for vendettas…we are fighting for our rightful place in the history books of LAW!
Kate Steele wants to be a triple crown champion…she wants to cement herself as the first woman to capture three different titles in LAW. Until now, the only person standing in the way of that goal has been herself…but now that path is clearer than ever and it runs through Validation and it runs right through the two of you! You both called Kate a coward and you said all that she did was run…and that will be partly true on Sunday; Kate will run…she will run right over and through the two of you to get what she wants and deserves…her third championship in LAW.
Me? Well…I want respect…and I want people to acknowledge that I am more than just some revisionist history. I have taken the hard road in LAW…I am for all intents and purposes a child of this company. I cut my teeth in this business inside the sweat and blood drenched rings of LAW. This company has been more of a mother to me than my own mother. I have followed in the paths of women that I revered as mother figures as I continued to grow and evolve.
My win/loss record speaks volumes about myself…to here Lucas Dupree tell it and then to hear the Boardwalk Angels and others echo it. Am I ashamed to of my losses in LAW? HELL FUCKING NO I’M NOT! I came to fight each and every single night and I always left it all out there in the middle of the ring…I earned those losses…and I earned the knowledge I gained from those losses…each and every one of them! So…make fun of my record…by all means, call me a loser and say that I haven’t earned my spot in this company. Come Sunday night, you’ll eat those words when you face me…that, I can promise you!
I know that I am not what comes to mind when you think of the best that LAW has to offer, but I’ll be damned if I will believe anything other than that! Point out the Mackenzie Roberts’ or the Gabby Camacho’s as the standard bearers all you like…but know that when it is all said and done, I am the one who has your attention …and I am the one that has the spot light! I might not have it because LAW wants me in it…I not might have it because you think I deserve it…but I can promise you that I earned that shit! I busted my ass to get to where I am and I am going to bust your ass to show you that I belong!
Say what you want Angels…call for my firing and tell the world that I am not worthy of what you possess. Call me crazy…say that I am unworthy to be where I am. Do all of the things that you’ve been doing to hide the fact that I am coming for what you have…I earned the right to be here and no one in LAW can dispute that…come Validation…neither will the two of you…