Post by Portia Alexander on Jan 30, 2021 0:12:15 GMT -5
It's quiet backstage after New Year's Daze where we find Portia Alexander alone. Rather than the locker room she's found some other obscure cranny of the massive Wimbledon Arena to sequester herself in. She's still dressed in the same gear she wrestled in. Cowboy boots, tall socks working their way down from the knee pads they used to cover, denim cut off shorts, black athletic top. Her dirty blonde hair hangs loose and tangled in her face, her shoulders are slumped.
“I have no one to blame for this but myself. Not only did I walk out tonight empty handed, but so did my partner, Amelia Hearts. She deserved better. After weeks of building up trust I let her down, and that's on no one but me. I should have slowed down and listened to her. She knew we are better than Drago Santiago and Meghan Strader, I KNOW we're better than them, but when she said to slow down I didn't listen. I got ahead of myself and I was the one that made the mistake. I cost us those titles.”
“I'm going to have to live with that, and so is Amelia, but that's not on her, that's on me.”
She stands up slow, pushing herself up off the chair. Her face is streaked from sweat and her hair is damp and matted.
“I get it if you never want to see me again Amelia. If you feel like slapping me in the face next time you do, I get that. I said trust me and we'll end up with those titles, but after all that I was the one that let you down. I get it if you just want to leave me behind you and never look back, but I owe you one. I'm sorry we're not the Tag Champs. It's my fault not yours, but if you ever want a tag partner again, if you ever need someone to have your back, I'll be there for you. This was my mistake and I'll learn from it. I promise you that.”
She lets out a deep sigh, turning around, her hands on her hips. After a moment she looks up and kicks the chair as hard as she can clattering into the nearby wall before she walks off, dejected.
Some days have passed. No longer in England we find ourselves back in a field in Tennessee. From this distance in the pasture rides a horse, a brown chestnut with a rider on it's back. Portia Alexander's dirty blonde hair bounces in the wind in time with the mare she rides. She rides up and circles around the camera before demounting her horse.
“It's been a few days, but it doesn't sting any less.”
She takes off her riding gloves and sticks them in the waist of her dirty torn jeans before taking a hold of the reigns.
“It doesn't really help when you've let down a town full of people. Everyone I see and everywhere I go I hear the usual, 'you did great, we're so proud of you, you'll get them next time.” I know everyone means well, but it's the slow twist of a knife in a still fresh wound. That's why I came out here, to get away from it and clear my head.”
She gives the mare a long slow stroke down the side of her neck.
“I got caught up in everything that was going on and got ahead of myself, that's on me. The lack of a big gold belt around my waist and it being around the waist of some incoherent moron is on me. That match was ours to lose and I lost it, and that's on me. When you start off new and win your first few matches in a row and pin the World Champion's shoulders to the mat one week, it can get in your head and make you get ahead of yourself. It's one of those things you always get told when you're starting out, but you never really seem to see it coming till it's already happening, then the next thing you know you're trying to explain to your tag partner why two other people just walked away with your titles. We only had one chance to become the first Revolution1 tag team champions and I blew that.”
“Here I am twisting that knife myself.”
She gives the horse one more long slow stroke down her neck before turning to face he camera, her hair held back by the white cowboy hat, but her eyes buried in the shadow it casts on her face.
“How can I ever replace losing the chance to be one half of the first Tag Team Champions? I can't but I was given a big gift horse...”
She looks back at the horse. “No offence.”
“I was given a great opportunity to get over it in the form of Derrick Vayden... Now there's a guy I haven't heard of in a few weeks. What have you been up to Derrick?”
“Let's recap shall we? Last I heard from you, you were trying to argue with a referee about your own tag partner. Now, sure, when it came to partners saying u drew the short straw would be a crazy understatement. But funny that since they he put together a long package calling you everything but a white man to try to get you in the ring with him, and you just ignore him. I get it, he's kind of a tool, but why would you bother dodging a guy who has to pay someone to tie his shoes for him? Cowardice isn't a good look, Vayden.”
“But then you, the brother in law of upper management, complaining about my now former tag team partner getting a title shot when she was challenged by the champion, yet here we are. I've seen the card for Sin, imagine my surprise when I not only saw my name on that sheet for the main event, but next to you of all people, in a number one contenders match. You whined and you complained and now you have a number one contenders match.”
“I suppose you think this is some kind of validation for you? Doing nothing and getting contenders matches? You fancy yourself the bad guy, you said it yourself. You tried to drive a wedge between Amelia Hearts and myself and it only brought us closer together. You're not a bad guy Derrick, you're a failure. I know you think that sounds hypocritical, but I lost a match, there's a difference.”
“I lost a match, it was a big one too. It was even my fault. I didn't get used, I wasn't taken advantage of. I made a mistake, and that mistake wasn't stick by my partner. If I had to do it all over again I would, but I'd do better. The whole tag tournament I heard the same thing over and over and it started with you. I'm the weak link, I'm the expendable one, I'm going to get kicked to the curb. Week after week I heard it, person after person said the same thing and until I ran blindly into Meghan Strader no one proved it. Not you Derrick Vayden, not Johnny Stylez, not Morbid Dream, not even Miles A Way.”
“So now what have you got to say, Derrick? Still think I'm the weak link? Come show me. Think I'm the expendable one? Show me. You gave me advice a couple weeks ago. You told me to listen to you and stab the first chance at a friend I had to make here in Revolution1 in the back. You warned me that if I didn't listen it would blow up in my face. Take a look how that turned out for you. Do you get paid for being wrong? Cause every time you open your big mouth that I've ever heard you have been dead wrong. I didn't get used, I didn't get turned on. The only wound I've suffered was of my own doing, but that's something you're completely unfamiliar with isn't it?”
“You've never done anything wrong, right? Never made a mistake? No, of course not. You have no idea what it's like to shoulder the burden of letting down someone who's trusted you, who believed in you. You have no idea what that's like because you've never had someone trust in you. No one's ever believed you, and why should they, all you are is a proven liar. You're a snake and proud of it. I wear boots made of your hide Vayden, I'll show them to you up close and personal when I'm kicking your ass in Vegas. I'm not some sympathetic wounded princess that needs to be rescued. People don't love me because I'm a victim, Derrick, not everyone plays that card. Not everyone turns on everyone else, the rest of us don't live like that.”
“You know why people cheer for me?You have no idea and it's not something you could ever figure out on your own so I'll tell you. It's not because I'm a victim, it's not because I'm a champion of justice. It's not because I'm right all of the time. I do give the people my word, but sometimes, just like at New Year's Daze, I'm wrong. I don't live up to what I said I'd do, and I know to you that means the people should turn on me, but they don't Derrick, because all of those people know I try my damnedest either way. I fight like hell to not let them down and when I give my word people know I'll do it or die trying. That's the big thing Derrick. That's why people see right through you. You talked about Amelia Hearts getting the short cuts when she was challenged. That's just something that happens when you're good, people want to take you on. It's not a shortcut Derrick. Complaints, blaming others, those are short cuts. Those are your way. People like you think you're oh so clever and the rest of us are just a bunch of country bumpkins who don't know better so you embrace the role of villain when you can't figure out why people dislike you, but it's simple. People don't like you because you're an asshole. You're an asshole that wants to be handed things while holding everyone else to a higher standard than yourself, and when you don't get your way it's because someone is out to get you or someone is playing favourites. It' never you made a mistake, never that you came up short.”
“There's very few things in life that people like more than seeing someone who's knocked down pick themselves back up and keep moving forward. I helped knock your ass in the dirt a couple weeks ago and what have you done since? Whined to anyone who would listen. I'm better than that Derrick. I got my ass knocked down in the dirty right next to you, but at Sin I'm picking myself up, dusting myself off, kicking you right in your smug teeth, and going after that International Championship. I'm better than you Derrick, I know it. I'm better than I was at New Year's Daze too, and I'll prove that to you and everyone else at Sin. Have fun sitting in the dust while everyone else gets better and moves on, it's where snakes like you belong.”
Fade.