Deanna Frost vs. Spencer Pryce

[SnowQueenSCW]

So… where do we start?

Don’t worry, guys. I actually have an idea what I am going to talk about here. Not going to freeze up or get overrun with emotions this go around. Because I’ve had a month to sit with a lot of things. A month to deal with a lot of thoughts and feelings. Because, this time last year, I was quite a different person.

Let me just take a bit of walk – you can join me if you want or keep scrolling to the next promo, up to you, gritters – but those staying and indulging me in this, a year ago, I was on top of the world. I had just completed a year-long reign with the United States Championship. A feat that, really, hadn’t been done in some time across MOST of the singles title divisions within SCW in years. The number of people that have held a singles title for that long… you could literally count it on one hand – with most of those names being Hall of Famers! And while there was a growing ‘Enigma’ of a problem, I truly believed with all my heart that things were going to only get better for me and for SCW.

And then… within… I don’t know, a month or so into the new season? It was just taken away. In a moment, I was rendered unable to wrestle. Told to stay home, seek constant psychiatric evaluation, forbidden from stepping foot in the ring until I was cleared. And for nine months, I was forced to sit on the sidelines, unable to even ‘check-in’ with the place I loved. The place I felt was a second home to me.

I can honestly say that the near two years I was falsely imprisoned was NOTHING compared to that hell. Because I didn’t know back then what it was like to be an SCW superstar. To be a wrestler. To have all of you watching and listening and supporting the journeys we went through together. I didn’t what it was like to fight for all of you. To fight for what we wanted SCW to be. I didn’t know what it was like to main-event a show. I didn’t know what it was like to see my name on fan-made cardboard, you guys showing your support in so many colorful and wonderful ways. I didn’t know what it was like to be challenged – pushed to the point of physically breaking and finding the will to get back up and keep fighting with all of your voices shouting for more. I didn’t know how amazing it felt to not just hold a championship title because your wife had won it, but to hold it because you earned it. Because it was YOUR accomplishment. It was YOUR success.

So when I say that there was no greater hell than having all of that taken from me – to go from your voices in SCW to utter silence in a bedroom – I mean it with every fiber of my being! I mean it with every fiber of my being and I mean it when I say… it really did almost drive me crazy.

So if you’re wondering how I am feeling coming out of Rise to Greatness – you can understand me when I say that I am… actually okay.

Because if I could survive that hell? I could survive losing a match, am I right? And truthfully? It was almost a relief.

Don’t twist that. I was disappointed. I won’t lie to you, gritters. A part of me wanted to be the ‘Cinderella story’ that Cid Turner was pushing. To come out from being out for so long and pull off the upset. He made it sound so lovely and he got it! Kudos to him for that. Part of me wanted that, even though I knew the odds were stacked so high against me. But it didn’t turn out that way for me. I didn’t succeed in my story but I succeeded in helping end the doubt and the controversy surrounding the United States Championship because we have a new unified champion and I couldn’t be happier, I couldn’t be prouder of her.

And after that night, the path could not be clearer for Luz. She is going to be an amazing champion – the path is for all to see. The next step for her after winning the title? Will be to defend it and I wish her the very best in that! I know she is going to be amazing! I know SCW is going to love where that goes. I am going to love where that goes!

But my path? Up until last week, it wasn’t so clear. It wasn’t so set in stone. There was no ‘next step’ laid out for me. Hell, I wasn’t even sure I’d be allowed back after ‘screwing the pooch’ like some say I did in Houston.

But then… SCW answered that question. And suddenly, within a second, a path was laid out before me. The most unlikely of paths – certainly the most surprising of paths – because who could have imagined the return of one of the most iconic tournaments in SCW’s illustrious history. The Shot of Adrenaline tournament.

A tournament second in fame ONLY to The Trios Tournament held practically every year.
A tournament that had not seen the light in nearly a decade.
A tournament that has been linked to quite a few names of SCW.

And just because it’s been so many years, there have only been three winners of the Shot of Adrenaline tournament. And yet, there is no denying the impact those tournaments have had on each winner’s career. Sharper and Knots talked about it – Discord has talked about it – the SoA tournament is not just a test of one’s ability and endurance, it is an opportunity on par with winning the Taking Hold of the Flame royale – hell, of winning the SCW world championship!

And it’s starting… with me.

You have to understand how much that news affected me. Because everything I have said of this tournament? I didn’t just hear it. I didn’t just study it in prep for this. No, I got to be a witness to it. I got to watch backstage, and in the audiences, I got to see everything that the fans aren’t always privy to, as a young woman, still trying to find herself – still trying to find out who she was in this big world, this universe, called SCW – scared and intimidated yet refusing to give in, refusing to give up, take this tournament on. Not once, but twice! And I got to see that woman overcome every challenge, every obstacle and win it.

And from that tournament win, she gained the courage to challenge the best of the best, which lead to her having the courage to go after the richest prize in the game, which lead her to becoming ‘The Face of SCW’, which lead to her becoming, arguably, the best there is in the history of SCW. I know that isn’t going to be taken well, but whether you are a believer or not, there is not a soul in the world that can deny what she has done and it all began with this tournament!

Because that is what this tournament does! It forces you to face your fears, face your weaknesses, and, even when you’re at your lowest, to fight, scratch and claw for every point because every point in this scoring system is as precious as the very championship we are fighting for! One point could mean the difference between who goes to the semi-finals and who stays in the ‘discard’ pile.

And for someone that spend nine months there, I will NOT willingly go back to that pile again!

Because I look at Rise to Greatness not as a failure, but as something that had to happen. In my heart, gritters, I did not believe I was the United States Champion. I felt that my reign had ended long before that night in Houston. I felt that my reign ended when I couldn’t compete anymore. And what I had in association with it now, was a ghost of something. A ghost that needed to be put to rest so I could move on with my own career. My own healing.

Because now? Like my partner was back then, I have nothing to lose and EVERYTHING to gain. I am at the bottom of the hill, looking up at a monster of a challenge before me. A mountain of difficulty. And yet… I feel more alive and more at ease than I did running back in just to take down Jordan Majors. Because I am all too familiar with this fight.

Having my name attached with doubt over my ability.
Being the underdog.
Being the ‘unlikely’.

And I want this. I want this chance. I want this opportunity to test every part of myself. Everything that I have learned and every way I have grown. I want to test myself to achieve what I never have before. A tournament win. A title I have never held before, but more importantly, I want to work my way to the top like I did before. Earning my shot. Earning my chance. And redefining the perception of Deanna Frost!

Which leads me to Spencer Pryce, a man that is, quite honestly, probably feeling the same emotions I am feeling. Because like me, he has a family member that won this tournament in Amy Chastaine – his mother. So I am sure, like me, he knows firsthand the significance of this tournament. And, like me, Spencer has been looking for ways to rise up through the ranks and find his place within SCW. While I was making my debut at the end of 2021, he was being declared as ‘Rookie of the Year’ at that same event. While I was taking down people that kept saying they’d rather ‘face my wife’ getting beaten by women named after sex-diseases and commercial tag-lines, Spencer was winning the United States Championship and defending it for months in 2022. You talk about who had the better ‘year’ in 2022? You’d be hard pressed to think Deanna Frost over Spencer Pryce.

But… we are not in 2022 anymore, are we? And while Spencer, coming back just last June like Cid after so many years away, I stayed through those years. I took the hits. I took the losses. I took the embarrassments like losing to “Where’s the Beef?” and the “Five Moves of Doom match” I had with Adam Allocco and I learned from them, pushing myself further and further until I literally broke.

And the reason you need to know that, Spencer, is because that is how this tournament is going to be for me. I don’t plan to do your approach of ‘going down and staying down’ like you did but how I’ve done everything else in the past. Pushing myself further and further until I either succeed or I break! Because if I am right, and each point is crucial in this tournament, then whether I face you in the opener or the Adrenaline champion next for the title, each match has to be the equivalent of Rise to Greatness for me, deserving nothing less than all I have and all I can endure for it! And before you cook me by reminding me that I lost RTG this year, let me remind you that so did you, Spencer! We’re both suffering from losses here, and it will be how we get back from that that will determine tonight.

Because, tonight, Spencer, we are not just opening Breakdown, we are setting the pace of this whole tournament. Polly and Lawler will have their war but you and I? We will be showing everyone – every participant in this tournament and all of SCW – how this return of the Shot of Adrenaline tournament is to be. And I don’t know about you, Pryce, but I want this to be like RTG was for the U.S title.

Devoid of doubt!

So I’m not going to just smile and say ‘may the best wrestler win’. I’m not going to tell you how lucky I feel to be part of this tournament. No, Spencer, I am going to tell you exactly how it is: I’m coming for you. I’m coming for you this Breakdown and I am coming for you with every intention of going right THROUGH you!

Because this ISN’T me fixing a problem now. This ISN’T me ‘saving a title’. This ISN’T me doing something ‘for the good of SCW’. No, this is me doing what I have wanted to do for nearly a year and that’s fight with the best to BE the best! And with this new season of SCW starting – a fresh start for SCW and for me – that will begin tonight!

It will begin tonight, Spencer, because I am – crazy as this will be – I am calling my shot here and now. I am not only going to take this challenge head on with zero hesitation and my foot never leaving the gas pedal as I shoot upwards towards the top, but I am going to take this challenge, like our match tonight, and I am going to win the whole damn thing!

I am not going to ease up or give up until I hear my name called as the winner of this tournament! I am not going to stop getting up until I am the next “Shot of Adrenaline Tournament winner”!

So as good as you are, Spencer, as much as you have shown the kid from 2021 still has that ability to be ‘lightning in a bottle’, Pryce, you’re going to have to find another way to the semifinals of this tournament. Because there is only going to be one person that’s setting the bar for this thing, and it’s going to be!

And Spencer, when I do set that bar… I can assure you, good as you are, I don’t think even you will be able to reach it!

Checkmate, bitches!