Marie Jones vs. Aisling

[The Matt]

1 of 2 for Marie
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January 24th, 2024
Boston, Massachusetts
Off Camera
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The myth of the phoenix is well known. There are many variations of the legend but for the most part the story goes that this mythical bird dies in a blazing burn before being reborn, resurrected to live again. It is this cycle of life, flaming death, and resurrection that the phoenix seems cursed to live out for its immortal life. It seems tragically ironic that Marie Annabelle Jones’s ring nickname is The Phoenix, for she feels as if she has experienced this curse of figurative life, death, and rebirth over and over again throughout her personal and professional life. The story that Marie seems to get stuck in is one of a rocket ship that takes her up to the peak of stardom, then that success goes to her head and she betrays those she cares about the most, even her closest family and friends, all in an attempt to remain at the top. Inevitably she takes things too far and her newfound success goes down in a blaze of glory, she finds herself utterly destroyed and wiped out of anything and everything she had earned. She then turns around and tries to rebuild those burned bridges, she tries to earn the trust and love of her friends and loved ones, and somehow someway she does manage to figuratively resurrect herself, she earns a second chance. Then the vicious cycle just repeats; she is successful, she squanders her good will and trust in the name of maintaining her success, then she is destroyed.

It happened in UWA where she was a World Champion but after losing the title, and receiving what she perceived to be disrespectful treatment from management, talked her identical twin sister Kimberly Williams into fulfilling the remainder of her UWA obligations, playing the role of Marie while the real Marie Jones would stab UWA in the back and sign with Supreme Championship Wrestling. She did it again by betraying her own family in an attempt to steal the mantle of Matriarch of the Jones Wrestling Family before the real matriarch, her mother Angelica Jones, was ready to retire and pass the torch. And the most recent time she experienced this burning death of the phoenix was when she walked out on her SCW contract; betraying what fans she still had, betraying the company that gave her a chance after she left UWA, betraying professional wrestling itself. But the worse part of this most recent incident was how she tried to convince her twin sister Kimberly Williams to walk out on SCW as well. It is a good thing Kimberly this one time chose not to listen to Marie. Kim would go on to make a huge name for herself. Kim would go on to become a five time Underground Champion. Meanwhile Marie would wallow in obscurity. Marie would become the forgotten daughter of Angelica Jones.

The ironic thing is that for the longest time, Marie had found herself in the spotlight while Kimberly was the afterthought. Kimberly was just simply “Marie’s sister.” In a twist of fate, Marie is now simply known as Kim’s sister. Kim is far more popular and likable than Marie. It got to the point where Marie Jones’s wrestling career was suffering. No one would book her. No promotion would give her the time of day. Apparently after walking out on UWA and SCW like an immature child was enough to lose the faith and trust of wrestlers and promoters all over the world. Now Marie was just waiting for the other shoe to drop, for the cycle to begin again as she was reborn. Much like the mythological phoenix that Marie has chosen to name herself after, she finds herself in a constant state of life, death, and resurrection. Except in this latest time is different. Marie has found her most recent “death” to be worse than others. Her wrestling career is threatened after twice walking out on a contract, and now promotions no longer trust her. Her personal life is also suffering as she lost the trust of her own family after recently rejoining the Inner Peace Enlightenment cult. She was ready to throw her life away for this sex cult. She managed to escape but her family no longer trusts her. Even her own sister, Kimberly, no longer fully trusts her. Her lack of trust is illustrated in the fact that Kim will not let Marie have custody of her son, Sean. But Marie did escape the cult, and she knows that earning the trust of her family is possible. She knows that it is possible to earn the trust of wrestling promoters again. But Marie is finding it more and more challenging to keep up this difficult routine. She grows tired of reliving this vicious cycle of the phoenix, of life and death and resurrection. A part of her wants to just give up. Another part of her wants to try one more time, and this time make it last, end this vicious cycle of life, death, and rebirth. But if she does manage to rebuild these latest bridges she burned, will she be able to make this second chance last? Will she manage to avoid going down in another blaze of glory as she has in the past?

Currently Marie Jones is having to suffer through the aftermath of her figurative fiery death. When she joined Inner Peace she was instructed to sell everything and give herself entirely to the cult. Thus Marie sold her home to her identical twin sister, Kimberly Williams. Since Kim isn’t ready yet to let Marie anywhere near Marie’s own son Sean, Kim has now planted herself in Marie’s former upscale home. Marie, technically, was left homeless. Lucky for her, she still has a mother willing to do anything to help her children. Thus in this interim period while she is trying to get her life back together, Marie has been once again living with her mother, Angelica Jones. The Phoenix is sitting on the luxurious comfortable black leather sofa in her mother’s opulent living room. Typically Marie is quite the fashionista, but she isn’t feeling like herself. She hasn’t felt like herself in quite some time. Thus she finds herself wearing simple jeans and a plain black crop top shirt. Her feet are tucked up under her and her long red hair is pulled into a ponytail in the back. Jones is watching a replay of Body, Heart, and Soul. Specifically she is watching the Underground Championship Match between her sister Kim and James Evans. This was the night Marie made her return to SCW. Her involvement, her interference, resulted in her getting escorted out of the building, but the fact that she helped Kim win back the championship was all worth it.

“You keep watching that same match over and over again.” Marie is startled a bit by this voice. She looks up to see her mother, Angelica Jones, entering the room. The elder Jones is wearing a knee length black skirt, black high heel pumps, and a silk red blouse. She smiles warmly as she comes in carrying two glasses of wine. She sits down next to Marie and offers her one of the glasses. “You look like you could use a drink.”

“No thanks, mom.”

“Suit yourself.” Angelica remarks with a shrug. “More for me.” She sets the extra glass to the side and then starts sipping on her glass of wine.

“Look, mom…” Marie begins uneasily “...uh, thanks for letting me stay here with you. You didn’t have to, but…”

“Oh stop it.” Angelica says with a smile. “I’m your mother. What kind of parent would I be if I just let you wallow out on the streets because of a few dumb decisions you made? I’d be Times Magazine’s Worst Parent of the Year winner, that’s what I’d be.”

“So you’re doing this out of obligation?”

“Not just that.” Angelica shakes her head. “If it was just out of obligation I’d force you to live in a stable.” She winks. “I love you, Annabelle. I always will. And no matter how far gone you are, no matter what you do, I will always love you. No amount of stupid mistakes you make will change that.”

“This wasn’t just one or two stupid mistakes, mom.” Marie sighs and shakes her head. “This was a catastrophe of my own making. I had already walked out on one contract out of immature anger. I should have known doing it again, walking out on my SCW contract this time, would ruin my reputation amongst all wrestling promotions. But I wasn’t thinking. I was angry, I was childish, and I did the knee jerk reaction. My wrestling career may be over but at least I had my family.” She shakes her head. “At least I did, until I threw that away just so I could rejoin Inner Peace. Now I don’t have my son, I’m not sure if I have my sister. I’m surprised I have you.”

“You will always have Kim.” Angelica points out sternly after taking another sip of wine. “Your twin sister is fiercely loyal to you. You know that better than anyone. She is keeping your son from you…” she pats Marie gently on the back “...but I think, deep down inside, you understand why she is doing that to you.”

“I do.” Marie nods her head as she lowers her head in shame. “And I don’t blame her. If the roles were reversed, I would do the same thing to her. Sean is my son but after what I’ve done with Inner Peace, joining that dangerous sex cult not once but twice, there is no reason any of you should trust me with him.”

Angelica Jones tries to look into her daughter’s eyes but Marie is evasive. She is ashamed to even make eye contact. Angelica guides Marie by the chin so that their eyes do lock. She can see the very real tears starting to flow down Marie’s cheeks. Marie is obviously repentant. She is obviously feeling extreme guilt over what happened. She wants to make amends but doesn’t know how.

“Why did you rejoin Inner Peace?”

“It’s…hard to explain…” she points to the glass of wine “...maybe I do need that drink.”

“Sure.” Angelica picks the glass of wine and hands it to Marie. She is astonished as Marie drinks nearly half of the glass in one big gulp. She sighs and sets the glass down.

“Do you have any idea how many times I have had everything I have ever wanted…love, success, money…only for me to screw it all up? I was engaged to be married.”

“To Arthur, I remember.” Angelica nods her head.

“I was going to finally give my son the father figure he deserved. But then Arthur committed suicide. He killed himself because he thought I didn’t love him and he thought I was cheating on him.”

“That wasn’t your fault.” Angelica insists.

“I had a good thing going with UWA. I was World Champion there. But I walked out on it because I wasn’t getting the ‘star treatment’ I arrogantly thought I deserved. I was lucky SCW was willing to look past my immature walk out and sign me to a contract. I had an even better thing going with SCW. But then I threw all that away because, again, I arrogantly felt SCW wasn’t treating me the way I felt I should be treated. And selfishly I tried to get my own sister Kimberly to throw away her own SCW career and walk out with me.” Marie sighs as she wipes some tears from her eyes. “Ever since that most recent walk out, no wrestling promotion has given me the time of day. Even GCW, where I still have a contract, rarely books me. I have ostracized myself from professional wrestling. I ostracized myself from my family. All of it was my fault. I screwed it all up. I fucked all of it up. And Raul…” even saying the name of the former leader of the Inner Peace cult brings a shudder down Marie’s spine “...and when Raul said my sole purpose was to obey him. It all made sense at the time. If all of the decisions I made just screwed things up, then why even bother thinking and making decisions anymore? Let someone else do the thinking for me. It seemed much simpler. So easy to just give in and let someone else rule my life.”

With that, Marie downs the rest of her drink. She sets the glass down and starts crying again. Angelica Jones and her maternal instincts kick in. She hugs her daughter tightly and pats her comfortingly on the back.

“I understand. But you realize that the easy, simple way out is rarely the right way? Life is almost always a challenge. And all too often the right way to fix a problem is difficult, challenging, and complicated. But know that you will always have a support system to back you up. Even if the entire wrestling world turns its back on you, you will always have your family.”

“I know.” Marie says in between sobs. “That’s why I wanted to thank you for taking me in. But I suppose the rest of this I have to do on my own.”

“What do you mean?”

“Somehow I have to get a job.” Marie shrugs her shoulders. “I don’t know where it will come. Like I said, GCW rarely books me any longer and other promotions don’t trust me. I just need something, anything to support myself so I can prove to all of you, but especially Kim, that I can be a responsible mother to Sean.” Marie sighs. “Even if I never again get my career back on track, at the very least I want to get my son back.”

Upon hearing this Angelica starts laughing a little. Then she sips on her wine. Marie tilts her head to one side and studies her curiously. “What’s so funny?”

“You weren’t listening to me, were you?” Angelica asks with a sly grin on her face. “I just got through saying you have a strong support system, this family, that will help you through this.”

“What are you getting at?” Marie asks.

“You do not need a new job, Annabelle. You do not need a new career. You are a wrestler.”

“That career may as well be over. No one trusts me now.”

“Yes but you have a secret weapon.”

“What’s that?”

“Me.” Angelica declares. “Remember back when Kim lost the Underground Title to Owen Cruze? She was so furious she had a knee jerk reaction and cashed in her Trios Contract, placing every title on the line, but most importantly adding certain stipulations to ensure that no one but her could win the Underground Title back. The entire roster was furious with her.”

“I know.” Marie nods her head. “I thought they were gonna riot.”

“You don’t know the half of it. As your sister’s advocate I know how bad things got backstage. It got really bad, really heated, and really tense. But she got through it, she endured it, and she eventually won back the love and trust of everyone, including the roster, thanks mostly to her but in part to me.”

“You want to advocate for me?”

“Why not?” Angelica asks. “I did it for your sister, its only fair I do it for you. I already work backstage on behalf of your sister. So I still talk to CHBK and others in charge at SCW. I can sit them down and convince them to give you another chance, to sign you to a new contract.”

“I walked out on my contract. I no showed a Breakdown main event between me and Kim against The House of Frost. The last time SCW saw me was at Body, Heart, & Soul when I interfered in Kim’s Underground Title Match on her behalf. I was escorted out by security and had to pay a fine. I doubt there’s much goodwill there.”

“And YOU doubt my power of persuasion.” Angelica grins knowingly.

“You’re good, mom, but are you that good? Are you seriously good enough of a negotiator to convince SCW to give me another chance?”

“I guarantee it.” Angelica states boldly. “Just promise me if I can deliver, if I can convince them to sign you to a new contract, that you will give it a chance, that you will return to SCW and redeem yourself.”

“Redemption?” Marie chuckles. “Wasn’t that your and James’s tag team?”

“Yes but everyone needs a little redemption now and then. Including you. You were once a beloved fan favorite. People loved you.” Angelica taps her daughter on her head. “Then success went to your head. You believed the con artists like Ethan Von Aaron and Silas Mason who tried to tell you that you were The Crown Jewel of Professional Wrestling. You believed their hype, you believed that you were bigger than this sport. That’s why you walked out on SCW, isn’t it? You expected them to come crawling back to you. But SCW didn’t come crawling back begging for you to return, just like UWA didn’t come crawling back begging for you to return.”

“Right…”

“You’ve been humbled. I can see it in your eyes that you no longer believe that you are bigger than this sport. But you can be a big star. You can win the fans back, you can win the support of the locker room back, and you can be a champion again. Return to SCW, but not as The Crown Jewel. Return to SCW as The Phoenix. Because that’s what you do. You take your lumps, you fall, but you always rise back up to the top.”

“I do.” Marie nods her head. “I live, I go down in flames, and then I rise up again. But it’s becoming exhausting, mom. I don’t know how much more of this cycle I can take.” She looks up at her mother with a look of determination in her eyes. “I will do it…if you can convince CHBK to get me a new contract, I will return to SCW. And I swear that this will be the last time I go down in flames. I will not squander this opportunity.”