James Evans vs. Amelia Blythe

[Wisteria Waltz]

Our scene opens up on a rather simple setting, that being what looks like a hotel room. Two things that stand out to us right away are that we find ourselves looking at the back of the head of the woman we're here to see as she's seated on the edge of the bed. The reason for that becomes clear once we turn our attention to the TV in the room, which is currently playing the closing moments of the James Evans/Datura match from Retribution where Datura is choked into unconsciousness via guillotine. As soon as the announcement is made that Evans is the winner, the woman hits a button on the remote and the footage switches to Playing the Wildcard, specifically the moment where James puts Cassie Wolfe in his See the Light submission and chokes her into unconsciousness as well. As soon as James is announced the winner, another button is pressed that pauses the video. The scene is still for a moment, and then our view pans around the bed to see Amelia Blythe's face as her eyes are locked onto the TV screen, clear discomfort in her gaze. She doesn't even shift her focus to us as she begins to speak.

“My father, Aleister Blythe, is often considered one of the greatest pure wrestlers in all of the United Kingdom. When it came to commanding a match and imposing his will onto his opponents with the ultimate goal of getting them to the mat and making them submit, there were few better. His signature hold, the Blight Choke, was his pride and joy, and once he had you in his clutches, that was it. Very few ever escaped, and everyone who fell victim to it in one way or another never forgot what it felt like to have their consciousness slowly fade away until defeat was the only option presented to them. I don't know for sure if it was a thought that crossed his mind before or after he fell for my mother, but somewhere along the line he came to the realization that he couldn't wrestle forever, as much as I'm sure he would've loved to find a way to do so. When your ego becomes so inflated by the thought that you may very well be one of the finest technicians to ever grace the squared circle, how do you ensure that no one ever forgets what you were capable of?

The simple answer would be to begin a family legacy... if only that man actually saw me as his daughter and not as a means to vicariously continue living out his wrestling glory through me and my accomplishments.

I was the youngest of three children all born into the second generation of Blythe wrestlers. My older siblings, Edward and Emily, were always praised by my mom and dad for the natural talent they seemed to possess for the sport, but they were barely ever considered 'proper links in the family chain' purely because they were born into this world as twins. In my father's eyes, that only ever made them worthwhile as a tag team, which would never work for the legacy he envisioned. That's where I came in... did I ever want to be a wrestler? Honestly, I couldn't tell you, because from the moment I was old enough to comprehend the world around me, it was practically drilled into my head that I was going to be the one to directly follow in my father's footsteps and be just as good of a wrestler as he was, if not better, because that's what it meant to be a Blythe. As soon as my parents felt I was old enough to physically keep up, my father began to train me.

I was still several years away from becoming a teenager the first time I found myself in my father's grasp for the hold he wanted to be synonymous with that family legacy... you tell me what kind of child is able to get free of a fully grown adult man choking the life out of you?

That became my father's way of disciplining me for even the smallest of failures, all as a means to make me understand the power held by this one submission hold so I could master it for myself and then use it on others in the ring, just as he did. I've honestly lost track of how many times growing up I found myself coming to after he'd put me in that hold, and never once did he show any remorse for what he'd done or act as though he'd done anything wrong. As far as he was concerned, what he felt was 'right' was all that mattered, and if that meant I needed to have my ability to breathe taken away from me so I could learn and master his greatest weapon, then he felt he was doing his job as my trainer correctly... note that I said my trainer, not my father...”

Amelia slowly turned her head now, her look morphing into one of disgust. She wanted to hope that it was the same look that many people who were watching this were now wearing themselves, because it was the kind of behavior that people like her father should never be allowed to get away with just because they had the money and influence to try and make all of their problems just disappear.

“Do you know why I'm sharing this story of my upbringing James? It's simple, really... I take one good look at you and I see a man who reminds me so much of my father. A man so wrapped up in what he wants and what he thinks is right that he fails to grasp the reality around him unless it can be twisted to suit his narrative. As much as I want to hope that disgusts you deep inside James after what I just revealed about him, the two of you are more alike than you'd probably want to believe. After all, my father held a very simple but very powerful philosophy when it came to the wrestling business, a philosophy that he ingrained into my very way of thinking to the point where it's just one piece to the greater puzzle that is the trauma I'm still recovering from at his hands even all these years later. To my father, wrestling should be nothing more than a test of grappling skills between two people to see whose talents are superior. No weapons, no brawling, no leaving the mat for any reason unless it was you lifting your opponent off of it so you could slam them down into it... does that sound familiar?

Week after week, you preach this idea of purging the wrestling business of violence and returning it to something more pure... the same thing my father, a man who has beaten and abused me under the guise of 'training' me, has preached for decades and continues to hold onto even to this day.

I'd like to think that your little crusade did have pure intentions when you first started down this path James... you clearly have a history with violence in the business that you want to put behind you. The problem, however, isn't the wrestling business itself... like it or not, people like you and my father can preach until you lose your voices, but you're never going to simply talk people like Kim Williams into dropping everything that makes them who they are or force them to become something they're not just to achieve your ideal vision of the business. No one person has that power, just as no one style is 'the right one' when it comes to wrestling. The fact that I can stand here and proudly admit that while I may have been molded into a technical wrestling machine I found true love and friendship in a woman who isn't afraid to take risks and fly around the ring to her heart's content is proof of what makes this business so great in the first place, and we consistently find ways to blend our respective styles together and teach each other new things so that we can keep evolving to prove that we belong here, among the ranks of the very best in the world on the SCW roster.

The fact that Luz and I are both able to stand in front of a camera and honestly admit that we still have our flaws and feel the need to prove we belong here and will put in whatever work we have to in order to prove that... something about that bothers you, doesn't it James? Because the fact of the matter is that for all your talking and your efforts to force people to accept your viewpoint as the only correct solution to your problems, you've completely lost track of who James Evans truly is... and you've decided to take it out on us because we know exactly who we are and continue to be ourselves no matter what challenges we face in this company.”

Amelia grabs the remote and presses a button before standing up, the camera panning around again so that her back is to us as the TV plays highlights of Luz's Underground Title match against Kim Williams last week. Amelia mutes the TV so that the visuals are all we have to accompany her words as she watches some of the highlights briefly before turning to face us once more.

“After Retribution, Luz and I both took part in Kim's Trios cash-in and we did so our way, fully admitting in the process that we weren't expecting to win any of the titles up for grabs but wanted to see where we stand among those who were competing and how much work we still need to do to get to where we want to be. You had that same opportunity James, and yet you walked away and never gave it a chance. If you watch that whole thing back closely, you'll clearly see that neither one of us actually embraced the Underground Rules at any point and just stuck to the ring, doing what we feel we do best. You could've done the same, using it as a way of proving that your vision was superior to the violence you think you're trying to squash in SCW, but you never did. It just so happened on that night that my Luz outscored the woman who ultimately left with the Underground Championship and had a rightful claim to an opportunity at that title. She didn't have to point that out, nor did she need to actually go through with that match, but she did even knowing full well it was outside of what she's normally comfortable with and she made Kim, someone who's built her whole identity on the concept of ultraviolence and hardcore wrestling, admit that she proved herself worthy on that night even if she didn't win.

I respect the hell out of Luz for putting herself through that and continuing to evolve to meet the challenges that SCW demands of both of us, and I will stand here and confidently promise you that La Pequeña Luz will prove herself to be a worthy champion holding SCW gold at some point because when that time comes, she will well and truly earn it.

And for that, you have declared us problems that need to be fixed... not the first time either of us have heard those vile words leave somebody's mouth towards us, and it probably won't be the last either.

We've been wary of you since the moment we caught your attention James, and it's become abundantly clear that what we fight for was misinterpreted by you, further proving what I said about how much you've stopped paying attention to the reality around you. Luz and I came here to compete, to prove ourselves out in that ring week in and week out while earning our wins fair and square and preferably avoiding all the extra shenanigans that some people prefer to employ. If that means competing in a match that's outside of our styles or comfort zone, taking a few extra risks in the process, then we see it as an opportunity to prove we can adapt to that challenge because we don't expect to always be competing in standard matches. Whatever rules we have to to fight under, we'll work within to prove ourselves, just as Luz did last week. If push comes to shove and someone thinks that means they have free reign to get the jump on us, then we'll fight back if we need to because we're not here to be victims just because we want to do this our way. I'm sorry if that's not what you were hoping for out of us, but that doesn't change the fact that we're here to fight for a better future in SCW and not even you are going to stop us from living up to our namesake just because we're not the light that you want us to be.

You didn't have to make this personal James... we could've just had a fair, respectful contest this week in Salt Lake City. It could've just been as simple as me seeing how well I fare against a former World Champion to prove that I'm ready to be one step closer to maybe calling myself the new United States Champion. You had to make it into something more, and you have no one to blame but yourself when you find out firsthand that I'm not going to be so easy to choke out like you've so proudly done to the likes of Datura and Cassie Wolfe. I'm not going to be a victim of your blind and senseless hatred James... I'm going to be the one to choke you out and open your eyes to how lost you've allowed yourself to become.

You think I should've abandoned my girlfriend, the woman who helped me out of the darkest period of my life and showed me that there is more to both wrestling and life than the fake world my parents tried to build around me... all just because she had an opportunity and took it even if it involved fighting in the Underground?

Then thank you, James, for proving just how similar to my father you truly are... because you've given me a purpose to seeing him in that ring come Breakdown when we meet so that I can find some long overdue catharsis through eliminating you from this tournament.”

After a moment, we see the camera slowly being lowered onto a nearby table and angled so that Amelia's face can still be in the shot as our camerawoman, none other than La Pequeña Luz herself, steps into the frame and pulls Amelia into a tight and reassuring hug, the last shot we get being a soft and gentle kiss between both women before the video ends.