Last week’s Breakdown was arguably the biggest night of Ricky James’ SCW career. Ricky’s night began with the announcement that he would be part of the Adrenaline Championship Elimination Chamber match at Under Attack. Later, Ricky James was able to secure the pinfall for his Trios Team, advancing them to the semi-finals. It was Ricky’s first appearance in the main event of an SCW show, and he delivered.
More impressive and definitely surprising was the lack of The Silent Majority’s presence at ringside. Sure, there was still a circus around the ring the entire match, but Rudy and Lucy were shockingly absent. It seems not having Rudy and Lucy there to distract him paid off big time for Ricky. Ricky was able to keep focus through a wild match and pull out the victory over a team that included two of the best wrestlers in SCW today, Cid Turner and Selena Frost.
While Ricky, Ace, and Kandis seem to be riding high, things don’t get any easier for them this week. They will take on two former world champions in Kennedy Street and Hall of Famer Tommy Valentine, and a man who has held basically every other championship SCW has to offer, Asher Hayes. Ricky may have been fortunate to be given two great partners, but their road to the finals of Trios is probably the most difficult.
Unlike last week, Ricky actually has some history with his opponents this time. Ricky has defeated Valentine in one on one action, but now things are different, considering Tommy’s tag wrestling prowess. Asher has been a thorn in Ricky’s side in the past - Ricky lost a match to Asher, and later Asher and Ricky were the final two in the Last Laugh 2020 Battle Royal, with Asher eliminating Ricky to win. When it comes to Kennedy, Ricky doesn’t have much of a history (aside from insulting her family members), making her possibly the biggest challenge of the three.
Despite the pressure of these matches, Ricky has reason to feel confident. He is on a bit of a hot streak in the ring, and he seems to have formed personal bonds with his teammates. Ricky has found an unlikely mentor in Ace Marshall, the two having gone on a few adventures with each other since becoming partners. When it comes to Kandis, it’s a little more complicated, and…..physical in nature. While Ricky seems to be getting answers about his life from Ace, Kandis is complicating things just a bit, driving a wedge between Ricky and Lucy, the woman he has always loved.
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October 27th, 2021
AC Hotel by Marriott
Downtown San Jose, CA
Rudy Powell and Lucy Huckabee Sanders make their way into the hotel lobby. Lucy looks visibly upset and stomps toward the front desk. Rudy does his best to calm her as the two check into a room. Rudy turns to Lucy.
Rudy: Hey Luce, you know me. I’m MORE than happy to share a room with you.
Rudy winks and Lucy rolls her eyes, disgusted.
Rudy: I’m just surprised you didn’t bunk with Ricky.
Lucy glares at Rudy with a look of fire in her eyes.
Lucy: I’m not speaking to that man. If he wants to run off on his own and hang out with SLUTS, I’m not going to stop him. He thinks he doesn’t need me - fine. Let him learn the hard way.
Rudy: But WE need him, Luce.
Rudy looks around at the hotel lobby suspiciously, making sure no one is around. He then attempts to lower the volume of his voice, but his whispers are still loud.
Rudy: Look, we’re actually close here. I don’t know how the hell he did it, but they won last week. And our chamber plan is working out nicely too. In a few weeks, we’ll have the Adrenaline Championship AND that contract.
Lucy doesn’t show the same enthusiasm as Rudy. Rudy picks up on this and tries to get her to understand.
Rudy: Which means more money, Lucy. For both of us.
Lucy almost smiles but still looks annoyed. She clearly cannot get over Ricky and Kandis’ interactions.
Rudy: But I need you to stay close to him, Lucy. He won’t let me near him. You’re our only hope. You gotta work your magic again. Make him feel loved. He can’t see that jealousy.
Lucy takes offense.
Lucy: I’m NOT jealous.
Rudy laughs. Lucy has to block her nose from his rancid breath.
Rudy: Well if you ain’t jealous, work your magic on the guy. Make him feel loved. Be friendly. Touch him. You know what men want.
Lucy takes a minute to ponder. She considers everything Rudy said, oblivious to the fact that the perverted attorney seems to be fantasizing about something while she pauses. Lucy eventually nods her head.
Lucy: Fine, I’ll do it.
Rudy is unresponsive, as he seems to be stuck in some weird fantasy in his head.
Lucy: Rudy? ……….RUDY!
Lucy elbows Rudy.
Rudy: Oh, God yea! I mean….sorry Lucy. Good. Let’s not waste any time. My sources tell me Ricky has already checked in.
Rudy hands Lucy one of the two room keys he received.
Rudy: Let me track down where he’s at. You head up to the room and I’ll meet you there. We’ll gameplan.
Lucy grabs the key from Rudy and makes her way to the elevators to go up to their room. A few moments after Lucy’s elevator goes up, Ricky James walks out of another elevator. Ricky makes his way toward the front desk and immediately spots Rudy, who is trying to bribe the woman into giving out Ricky’s room number. Ricky walks up behind Rudy and puts his hand on his shoulder, startling the sweaty attorney.
Ricky: Well, well, well. Just the man I wanted to see.
Rudy gets defensive.
Rudy: Ricky, please. I don’t want any trouble. You know I’m just here because I still represent Lucy and -
Ricky: Don’t worry, Rudy. I’m glad you’re here. I need a favor from you.
Rudy looks surprised and relaxes a bit.
Rudy: Oh?
Ricky: Yeah. You seem to be well connected, for some reason. I need a press conference set up at the arena.
Rudy: An emerg-
Ricky: No. A regular press conference. With real reporters. No plants. No Kellyanne. No stupid TSM podium.
Rudy: Ricky I can’t -
Ricky: You can make anything happen, right? 3 PM, today. I’ll be at the arena. Spread the word.
Rudy: I’ll try….
Ricky: No, you will do. If you want to keep hanging around and riding my coattails, you’ll do this for me.
Rudy can’t muster any words as Ricky sternly looks him in the eye. Rudy has begun to sweat more profusely than ever, if you can believe it. Rudy ultimately nods in agreement. Ricky smiles.
Ricky: Good. I’ll see you there.
As Ricky starts to walk away, Rudy notices Ricky’s room key sticking out of his back pocket. Rudy is somehow able to stealthily grab Ricky’s key from his pocket and replace it with his own extra key, leaving a wet trail of sweat in his footsteps. Ricky feels something and quickly turns around, startling Rudy and causing the lawyer to slip on his own sweat, hilariously falling down to the floor. Ricky just laughs at Rudy’s misfortune and then continues out of the hotel. Rudy moans on the ground a bit, creating enough of a distraction where Ricky doesn’t second guess anything.
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About an hour later, with Ricky still out and about in the city, Lucy and Rudy are frantically going door to door testing the key Rudy stole from Ricky. They eventually find his room and enter. The two look at the bed, and then back at each other.
Rudy: Alright, you know what to do, right?
Lucy: Yes, I got it.
Rudy: Good. Ricky should be back any minute now to get ready for this press conference.
Lucy shakes her head.
Lucy: I’m not excited about that…
Rudy: Me neither. But focus, Luce. We - er - you need to get RICKY excited. Remember that.
Lucy: Yeah yeah…
Rudy: I’m going to head over to the arena and get this shit together. Just text me when you feel like you got him back.
Lucy nods as Rudy makes a feeble attempt to hug her, which is immediately rejected. Rudy shrugs and leaves the room. Lucy looks again at the bed and sighs before unbuttoning the top button of her blouse and laying down on the bed. She then makes herself comfortable on the bed while she waits for Ricky to return.
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Roughly 20 minutes later, Ricky James walks up to his room. He goes to put the key in and notices it doesn’t work. He tries again, and nothing.
Ricky: What the hell?
Lucy hears this and quickly heads to the door. She looks through the peephole to confirm it’s Ricky behind the door. She then quickly fixes her hair a little before slowly opening the door. Ricky looks surprised at first until his eyes wander down to Lucy’s visible cleavage.
Lucy: What took you so long?
Ricky: I uh...what are you doing here? I thought you were staying with Rudy.
Lucy: I had a change of heart. I mean, I’d never want to sleep in the same room as Rudy, but in terms of us. I’m sorry for being jealous of you and Kandis. I know you’re just trying to be a better teammate and play along. I know you’d never…
Ricky smiles.
Ricky: Of course not. You know how I feel about you. I just wish sometimes you’d….
Lucy lays down on the bed. She motions for Ricky to join her. Ricky shrugs and lays down next to his legal wife. The two look deep into each other’s eyes before Lucy moves her lips close to Ricky’s. Ricky and Lucy then kiss. As he pulls back a little, Ricky smiles at Lucy. Lucy smiles back, and the two kiss again. The cute kissing soon turns into making out. While running the fingers on his right hand through her hair, Ricky tries to unbutton Lucy’s blouse with his left. Lucy abruptly stops kissing Ricky and rolls off the bed. Ricky looks around perplexed as Lucy angrily stands up and closes the top button of her blouse.
Ricky: What- what happened?
Lucy: We’re not going there, Ricky. I’m not that type of girl.
Ricky is absolutely stunned. He tries to make sense of the situation as Lucy grabs her purse from the table and starts to make her way out of the room.
Ricky: Lucy I thought you-
Lucy: Save it, Ric. I’m not some sort of slut like your friend Kandis. And I don’t like this new attitude you have either ever since you started hanging out with Ace.
Ricky: Lucy you were coming onto -
Ricky stops himself. His confusion quickly becomes anger. He stops trying to question Lucy and instead pulls out his phone. He scrolls through his contacts and pulls up Kandis’ name. His thumb hovers over her number, but Ricky thinks twice and exits out. He notices Lucy has her back turned to him and is on her phone. Ricky stands up and looks over Lucy’s shoulder. Lucy, preoccupied herself, doesn’t notice as Ricky can clearly see she is texting Rudy. This enrages Ricky, but he manages to keep his composure. He walks over to the other side of the room as Lucy finishes sending her text. She turns back to Ricky.
Lucy: You have changed, Ricky James. And I don’t like it. If you want this to work between us, I need the old Ricky back. Whenever you can bring him back, let me know.
Before Ricky can answer, Lucy opens the door and storms out of the room. Ricky shakes his head and pulls his phone back out. He opens his contact list and calls the top contact - Ace Marshall. Ace answers after 3 long rings.
Ricky: Hey Ace, it’s Ricky.
Ace: Ricky? Ricky who?
Ricky: James.
Ace: Evans?
Ricky: No-
Ace: Exeter?
Ricky: No RICKY JAMES!
Ace: Ohhh Ricky! How you doin bud? Listen, I’m a little tied up right now, can we make this quick?
Ricky: Not good, man. I thought I was going all the way with Lucy. We were making out, she was touching me. She had her top open…
Ace: Oh man, you’re getting me so hot dude. You should record yourself reading sex novels and sell the recordings.
Ricky: Yeah and...wait what?
Ace: Nevermind. Continue. So you’re rounding the bases….
Ricky: She just stopped. I tried to take her top off and she just stopped and got all upset.
Something is going on in the background with Ace, who is clearly preoccupied.
Ace: Yeah I don’t know man….women are strange creatures. Like I said, maybe you need to fuck someone else….
Ricky: Well we talked about me taking that offer when we were at the bar…
Ace: Huh? Offer? Oh yeah, go for it, dude.
Ace clearly has no clue what Ricky is talking about and is not in the right state of mind to be giving advice, but Ricky is oblivious to this.
Ricky: You’re right, Ace. I think I’m going to go for it.
Ace doesn’t immediately respond.
Ricky: You think I should, right?
Ace: …...yea sure thing man! Listen, I gotta go. I’ll see you tomorrow.
Ricky: Alright, man. Thanks, I really appreciate-
Ace hangs up before Ricky can finish. Ricky sighs and says to himself “I’m going to do it. I’m going to fuck Kandis.” He then goes back to his contact list and calls Rudy Powell, who unlike Ace, answers right away.
Ricky: Rudy…..yeah, still on for 3. Oh and do me one more favor. Make sure Lucy is there.
Ricky hangs up the phone more abruptly than Ace did to him. He takes a few deep breaths before getting ready for the press conference at the arena.
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3:00 PM PST
SAP Center
San Jose, CA
In a meeting room inside the arena where Breakdown will take place in just over 24 hours, a very professional looking press conference is set up. The room is filled with SCW staff and reporters. Rudy Powell and Lucy Huckabee Sanders are present, but this time they are in the front row as spectators, per Ricky’s request. Rudy looks anxious and Lucy looks annoyed, her face red and her arms folded. The door to the room opens and Ricky James walks in to a chorus of cheers. Rudy claps along, but Lucy ignores the whole thing in spite. Ricky makes his way behind the podium and addresses the group.
Ricky: Good afternoon, everyone. Thank you for coming here today. I’ll get right to it as I want to be respectful of everyone’s time. I have a few statements I would like to make about my Trios match tomorrow night. I will then take a few questions.
Ricky notices some skepticism amongst the crowd, who are well aware of how these “press conferences” have gone in the past.
Ricky: I assure you everything I say today will be truthful. That EPC crap is in my past. I wanted to get out in front of you because I have some very important things to say. Let me start off with some apologies. I would actually like to personally apologize to all of my opponents this week. I have slandered all of you or your family members in some way. I’ll start with the person with whom I am least familiar, but who is probably the biggest star in our match. Kennedy Street. Now Kennedy, I know we don’t know each other well. We’ve had very little interaction. I do, however, have a little bit of a history with your cousin and her wife. I would like to apologize to you, Kennedy, as well as Regan and David for slandering you in the past. I was speaking out of pure ignorance and hate that was fed to me.
Ricky looks over to Rudy and Lucy. Rudy doesn’t understand Ricky is throwing a shot at him as he intently listens. Lucy looks away. The rest of the crowd seems very intrigued.
Ricky: I know that sounds like I’m placing blame on others, but I don’t mean to. I take full responsibility for my actions. Kennedy, I am sorry. I also apologize to you, Tommy. I made some assumptions about you that are simply not true. I slandered you as well. I sincerely apologize. You are an SCW legend and you did not deserve to be treated the way I treated you. I should be showing you respect. You’re a damn Hall of Famer! So again, Tommy, I apologize.
The reporters are silent as they are completely drawn in and amused by Ricky’s statements.
Ricky: And last but not least, Asher Hayes. We have quite the history, don’t we, Asher? I mean, it’s probably a bigger deal for me than you. I saw you as my arch rival for some time, but I likely meant nothing to you. You have accomplished so much in this business, and beating Ricky James twice probably doesn’t rank too high. Still, I slandered you as well. So Asher, I apologize to you as well.
The mood in the room goes from one of awe to one of confusion as the reporters start to mutter amongst themselves.
Ricky: With that, I will take some questions.
Ricky calls on the first reporter he sees as several hands shoot up at once.
Reporter 1: Yes, Ricky, thank you for taking the time today. I think I speak for most of us in this room when I ask - why are you apologizing to such vile people? Are you aware of what Kennedy, Tommy, and Asher have done? Have you not been paying attention to them lately?
Ricky: I pay attention to what matters, and what matters is the three of them are incredible competitors. They are three of the best SCW has to offer. Tommy’s Hall of Fame résumé speaks for itself. Kennedy Street is a star in and out of the ring. She pretty much dominates all facets of life. And Asher Hayes has done almost everything there is to do in SCW. I know, I know. The World Title has eluded him. But I know he will do whatever it takes to win this Trios contract so he can complete his destiny. These are all elite wrestlers we are up against this week. However they choose to live their lives aside, it doesn’t change what great competitors they are. This will certainly be a challenge this week.
The reporters have a mixed reaction, some nodding in agreement, others still very skeptical as to why Ricky would speak so highly of the three. Ricky motions for another reporter to ask a question.
Reporter: 2: Ricky, you’ve touched on your opponents a lot thus far, but how about your teammates? Are you worried about trusting Ace and Kandis? And aren’t you worried about the two of them going at it? And sorry one last question before your answer - are you concerned about Kandis not wanting to compete against Tommy?
Ricky: All valid questions, but the answer is the same to all of them. The answer is no, I’m not concerned. I am concerned about our opponents, yes. I’m not concerned about our team. In fact, I think Ace and Kandis are misunderstood. Ace is really a good guy when you get to know him. And Kandis, I really think she means well.
Most of the reporters scoff as they have a hard time believing this is genuine. It truly is though.
Ricky: At the end of the day, we all have the same goal. We all want that Trios contract. I actually think we may be the most cohesive unit left in the Trios Tournament.
A few reports actually laugh out loud.
Ricky: I’m serious. If you don’t believe me, go watch the tape of our last match. Now I’m not going to stand here and guarantee victory. This will be an extremely tough match for us. But I feel great about our team. I’m excited for the opportunity. I am excited to be once again taking on three of the best SCW has to offer. And I am excited to possibly take one step closer to winning this Trios contract.
Ricky quickly glances at Rudy, who signals at his watch. Lucy continues to ignore the whole press conference. Ricky nods and begins to wrap up.
Ricky: I apologize, but I need to cut this a little short. I will be available for more questions in the hallway after for those who want to stick around. But before I go, I just have one last thing to say, with everyone watching.
Ricky looks directly into the camera.
Ricky: Kandis…..I ACCEPT your offer.
Ricky then grins as some of the reporters gasp. He quickly turns to Lucy and glares at her. Lucy finally looks at Ricky, angry, but with tears in her eyes. Rick smiles again as he backs away from the podium and makes his way out of the room, reporters still trying to ask him questions.
![[Image: Kennedy-Sig2021.png]](https://i.ibb.co/gvCpzXt/Kennedy-Sig2021.png)