(off-camera)
REAL TALK
You know when you find yourself in a situation you’d never imagine being in? Oh, you know how it goes. You keep to yourself, understand the consequences of your actions and all that important stuff. The older you get, the statements made by your parents or adult figures suddenly make sense. Hate when that happens.
Even then I’m still trying to fathom the choices made by individuals who do not consider all consequences. Is there a lack of development in the brain? Are you telling me there is no regard for the implications of the harsh decisions made by leaders or those in power?
These are my thoughts as of late. Nevermind the other things happening inside this ol’ cranium.
We’ll get to that later.
______________________
Financial District, NYC
It is another weekday at Lyza’s apartment in downtown Manhattan. “The Mind, Explained” is streaming on the living room television. Lyza’s reflection is seen on the screen devouring Skinny Popcorn by the handful. She watches the show in fascination as a woman manages to memorize dozens of numbers that will not mean anything once the exercise has been completed.
On the other side of the open-concept apartment sits the precocious Diana who has been living with Lyza for the past several months. Long story short, Lyza accepted to host the child until things were sorted with her parents’ immigration status. Diana was fortunate to not have to go to a detention center, but this current arrangement didn’t mean she’d miss her parents any less.
“Finally!” exclaims Diana, as she closes her notebook and proceeds to walk towards the guest room with her books.
“Park it over here, sister,” Lyza says, pausing the show.
Diana obliges, making her way to the living room. She re-opens her notebook, flipping a few pages to get to the latest assignment which was for an English composition course. A journal entry was required on a weekly basis, which could be hit or miss when you’re in elementary school and the highlight of your day is finding a pack of fruit snacks in your lunch bag.
Lyza carefully reads through the entry. She picks up a pencil and lightly points out some grammatical errors. When she finishes reading the entry about Diana’s favorite autumn memory, she keeps the pencil on the page and looks up to give feedback.
“Alright, so you’ve gotten better with using commas and periods. If you missed those, you’d sound like a voiceover reading the fine print in a psoriasis medication commercial.”
That gets a shrug from Diana.
“Okay, so misuse of ‘there’ on the third line. T-h-e-r-e. You were referring to a place or pointing at something in this case. So when you are describing something that belongs to someone you would then use ‘their’ with an I. Errr...did that make sense?”
“Just to be sure...can you write some examples of how each one is used? This could help me out next time,” Diana suggests.
“Yeah, let me come up with a few examples and I’ll share. Other than that, it was a compelling recollection of the best season of the year.”
“Okay,” Diana says, nodding. She takes her notebook to head back to her room, and turns back to face Lyza to ask her the following:
“are you scared?”
“Only when I get a missed call from your school. You know, an email would suffice for whatever event they want parents to attend. Anyway, I don’t know if I answered your question...”
“Sort of. What I really want to know is if you are scared of returning to a wrestling ring and compete in front of a large crowd?”
Lyza raises her brows when the million-dollar question is thrown in her direction. She answers with,
“not at all. I get to be in a setting that I miss the most. I’m excited if anything.”
“I don’t know how you can be calm about it,” Diana says.
“Believe me, it wasn’t always like this for me. Truth be told, this is something I learned for my own benefit. Find the calm in the chaos. That’s not the easiest thing to achieve, but when you get to that place...oh man."
“Can you help me with that? I have a math test this Friday.”
“Well, Diana...let me tell you about this place that I have taken many individuals throughout my career. It’s none other than the Space Age. Sidebar: are you doing anything on the 28th?”
“Um, I don’t think so. Does sleeping and My Hero Academia count?” Diana asks, shrugging.
“Do you remember that talk we had a few weeks back about wrestling again?”
Diana places her index finger on her chin as she recalls their talk at the park before replying with
"hmm...now I do. Why?”
“I’ve entered a tournament for Supreme Championship Wrestling. God of the Ring, sounds super cool, yeah?”
“Does that mean I get to see you in the ring?!” Diana inquires excitedly.
Lyza nods slowly, and with a smile, she says, “
I mean, if you don’t have anything of high importance happening on the 28th, then sure.” Diana squeaks in happiness, giving Lyza a quick hug before going back to her room.
As soon as she’s alone, Lyza lets out a sigh. On the outside, she always seems to have it together. Even when interacting with her friends, she is typically the calmer one that serves as the voice of reason. It’s wild how one day your search history can consist of herbs and essential oils that can help relieve bug bites, and the next, she’s trying to figure out how to set boundaries and what is the ideal amount of sleep for a growing child.
______________________
An hour or so after Diana has gone to bed, Lyza managed to do a little cleanup and prepare some things for the next day. Satisfied with the tidying, she then walks over to the living room to open the curtains, allowing the city lights to enter her home. In the distance, the city skyline could be seen with clouds scattered throughout the sky after some light showers during the afternoon. Lyza sets up a small tripod on her coffee table, placing her phone on top of the mount. In the frame, the city skyline is somewhat visible.
After figuring out the best lighting and positioning of the phone, she presses the “record” button on her phone and takes a seat on the sofa. She looks into the camera with a smirk before addressing those that will get to watch the recording.
“Greetings and salutations, my darling Lyzanites and to those that are on the fence in embracing the Universally Dope. I’m Lyza Reyes and it’s truly an honor to have been accepted as an entrant for the God of Wrestling tournament. A company with a rich history and the amount of talent to have entered the ring and continue to do so says a lot. I am happy to get to share a small part in the making of more memories for the future.
For a brief period, I was wondering if stepping back into a wrestling ring would be a wise move. Prior to being out of action earlier this year, I had a pretty good run for three years between multiple promotions. I’ve had my share of ups and downs and I’ve decided to keep going. What’s stopping me? Other than a change in responsibilities, I am not held back. Medical clearance, drive, and the desire to continue? I have it. Who or what is going to stop me?”
A beat.
“I don’t expect that question to be answered right away as you continue to view past footage and study my every move. (I get it, guys. Extensive research is important or at least cliff notes to serve as a guide.) By all means, take your time because it’s going to cost ya if you decide to half-ass it like a shady auto-mechanic.”
For a brief moment, the Queens accent was prominent.
“Now, you may be curious as to my initial reaction to finding out who I’d be facing on night one of the tournament. Miss Jessica Lasiewicz is part of a wrestling family that I am familiar with; a respectable family with an abundant amount of stories to share during a decadent Wigilia or what have you. Imagine having the opportunity to train with Andreas or Magdalena, and going over strategy with cousin Ana? I don’t know anything about their personal relationships, but if we’re just talking about the wrestling aspect? It’s dope. I realize that I am not facing someone who is just coasting off the fruits of her family’s labor. My opponent has done well for herself in the years that she has been in the business.
There are multiple wrestling families out there. Some that believe that if they play the numbers game of relatives showing up from the woodwork, they’re suddenly adding value to their stock? It doesn’t really work like that unless each member has something of value to contribute.
Which is what you do, Jessica.
Team Fabulous found an opportunity in their tag match and were the newly crowned GCW Tag Team Champions. Congratulations.
How does one top that? There’s no other way but going uphill from here on...”
She points upwards with her index finger before returning her gaze to the camera lens.
“It’s not going to be easy, and what good things are? Well, I’m certainly up for the challenge. Where you see yourself looking nowhere else but upwards, you have more to lose, whereas I have pressed the ‘resume’ button to continue. Something tells me this tournament isn’t about you wanting to go on an endless ego trip or seek joy from being called a ‘god’ or ‘goddess.’ You’re not some twerp that wants to make everyone believe that you have a major case of ‘BDE’ as the youth raised by Snapchat would say. You know you’re bad and boujee, but it’s going to take more than confidence to put me away.
Can you maintain your current energy despite Summer not standing on the canvas in anticipation of a tag from you? Do you think Kendra Classic or a variation of her will appear to shift things in your favor? I would hope not, because the moment you ponder those possibilities, that’s a moment of weakness for you. Then there’s also the thought of self-preservation as you’re a tag champion. You could pump the brakes on Our Lady Peace and think about how it would benefit you to be at one hundred percent or as close as one could get when you are presented with contenders.
So much to think about, so little time. Whatever card you pick, make sure to place it on the table with purpose and conviction. There’s no going back after our upcoming duel. Where you will have other tag teams expressing interest and pursuit in you and your partner’s championships, I will continue to welcome more challengers, either from SCW or wherever. I cannot wait, Jessica. You will be in great hands.”
And with that, Lyza gets up from her seat and reaches for her phone to stop the recording. She then makes her way to her desk where her Mac book is located. After a few clicks, she manages to retrieve the video recording through the cloud and opens it in a video editing program prior to uploading it to her YouTube channel.
Despite keeping up with her training, she would need to get up to speed with the psychological side of being effective in the ring. She knew that Miss Lasiewicz would be a great first opponent to test things out. See what works, and what could use improvement.
She trims out the first second and very last second of the clip to not show her walking to her seat and stopping the recording. Add a minor transitional effect and a subtle filter, and that was all it needed to get uploaded to her channel. She gets up from her seat and makes her way to her bedroom.