Gavin Taylor vs. Alexis Quinne
#1
SCW United States Championship Tournament

2 RP Limit for singles

Deadline: 11:59:59 pm ET Monday, May 2, 2022 (NOTE THE EXTENDED DEADLINE – THE SHOW WILL STILL “TAKE PLACE” ON SUNDAY)
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I love AJ Allmendinger.
#2
[START]

[Camera pans open inside the State Farm Arena. A quick pan shows the stage for Holly-wood of the South being constructed. To the left, staff members were currently setting up the ring. A few seconds later, there's a shot of Alexis, sitting in the stands, with a black and white hoodie and black jeans. Her hear is down and her eyes lock in on the camera.]

Alexis: Yo. Let me tell you a story.

[In the background, the sound of the workers could be heard. Alexis presses her lips together while leaning in.]

Alexis: Summer of 2012. Down in Frisco. I had wrestled about three matches before this night. I was a rook. There's a one night tournament, just for rooks like me. Franklin just decided one day, screw it. I'll take eight of them, put together a little bracket and let it spin. Winner gets $1,000. And he made that the whole show.

[Alexis chuckles a bit.]

Alexis: A $1,000 at that point was like a million for me, haha. Yeah...it's true when you hear wrestlers say they start from the bottom, scrapping to make something. You make dick when you start out. You're just a face. You might have some connections. You might come from a famous family and you skip the line. But if you're the majority, people like me, you start off with just you and you gotta figure it out.

So I'm going into that tournament, I'm feeling good. Here's my chance already. I'm walking into the building, just yelling, talking shit to everyone that was in it, telling them I was going to kill them all in the ring. My first match. It's against this dude named Powerstone. That's what he called himself. He was this roided up, you know, muscle head. Type that hits the gym like everyday. Veins coming out of his arms. Hair all mohawked up and blonde and shit. He looked at me and laughed in my face. And I remember telling him that I was going to pop him like the zits on hi back from all the steroids he took.

[Alexis laughs.]

Alexis: I really said that. No lie. I was felling it. It was my night. No one thought I had a chance and that made me want to win even more. I was five foot nothing. This dude looked like he came out of He-Man. I pissed a lot of people off because I was always talking from my first match. So people definitely wanted me to get knocked down a peg. Just made me want to win even more. My match was the first match in the tourney too so going into it, I just remember feeling really giddy. My heart was running laps. Mile a minute. In my mind, I was picturing beating Power Stone, beating whoever was next and then winning the finals and getting that check. Was planning plans about how I could splurge on that check. it was my night....until it wasn't... He wiped me. I got some cracks in. Of course. But he was too much. Just too strong and he cleared me in like 5 minutes.

[She shrugs her shoulders a bit.]

Alexis: He ended up winning the whole thing. I don't know what happened to the guy know. Shout out to Powerstone if you're listening. I remember when I was getting scrapped off the mat and they carrying me to the back and, you know, the doctors and medics, they're all checking on me, I feel awful. I made all these plans and I was destroyed.

It fucking sucked.

Worse, my parents were there. They couldn't make it for my first match ever, but they made sure they were in that dingy ass high school gym. They didn't get the wrestling thing when I told them that's what I wanted to do in high school, but when I went through GG, they accepted it and they supported it. They supported me. So I don't win $1,000, I get destroyed, all in front of my parents, who had to watch it all. I just remember walking out there for the finals, forehead throbbing, ice pack on the back of my head, and I watched. Because I wanted to see the level that I needed to be, how much I needed to get better and how I was going to do it.

Tough.

[She rubbed the back of her head.]

Alexis: There were a few more tournaments that happened between then and when I got in SCW the year later. I was in a few more. Second time, I actually got through the first round, lost in the second. I went out and watched the finals of that one. Vikki Venom won that won. Shoutout to her. I took note of what they were doing. I experienced what that feeling was like, being in a big match. Took it all in and I worked on what I needed to do. Last tournament I was in, April 2013, I was actually in SoCal. LA. Same thing. Young prospect tournament. Franklin had recommended me to a few promoters down there, said I would represent the scene pretty well. I drove all six hours from Francisco to LA. Just me. Took my dad's old ass 1990 Totoya with the bad muffler. I didn't even think I would make it there with how bad that car was. But I pushed through. I couldn't miss that tournament. If it broke down and I had to get a lift from a stranger, I had to get there.

And I did. And I fucking won that tournament, too.

[Alexis grins.]

Alexis: I thought about that going into this one night tournament. US title on the line. This is like the old days. It's like pick up for basketball or when someone's freestyle and someone throws a beat down. Whatever you have, wherever you're at from a skill level, whatever you have down here-

[Alexis points to her chest.]

Alexis: I'm not a cars person. But it's like when you take your car to the shop and they pop the hood. You're going to find out exactly where you are.

[She lowers her hoodie.]

Alexis: That's how I see it. I will find out by the end of this night where I'm out.

That sounds scary.

I use to tell people I use to wrestle angry and afraid. I hated to lose. I hate to lose now. That'll never change. Because I know what I put into my skills, watching wrestling, practicing and for all that work to result in losses, I will never feel happy about losing. All the enemies I've made; Autumn, Christy, Dawn, Hudson, Chrissy Gardner. I wrestled all of them, just afraid of every losing to them and for them to be better than me. And it was that fear that everything I put into this would all be wasted that would stick with me. I wanted so badly for everyone to eat their fucking words about me and what i could do that losing would literally cause me to break down.

[Alexis pauses.]

Alexis: I go through these curtains now, music playing. Crowd going crazy. My eyes looking down the aisle. And inside, I still have that fear. It hasn't changed. Gavin, I don't know if you wrestle that way. That tag match though, there was something different. There was definitely something different. You ran the ropes harder. You hit harder. You were quicker. More decisive. Ravyn and Ducky are off doing their thing. And where did that leave you? Hood popped up and checking what do you have underneath. The All Star. All those fucking nicknames. You were a man that night.

[Alexis nods.]

Alexis: I still pinned you, though. But now it's one on one. And the prize is that US belt. It's all out there for us. That's my thing. There's a lot of great wrestlers in this tournament. If I get through Gavin, it's Glory or Tsunami. On the other side, Hudson and Owen, you know, that's as good of a match as it gets. Polly and Ameila, they're peaking their heads around the top and they want to be in the mix. I could talk about who I want to face, what's coming ahead, all that stuff. I listened to what a few of them said.

It doesn't matter.

Doesn't matter what they say. It's all on me, you know? If I'm going to win that belt, it's because I won three matches. If it's Glory or Tsunami or Owen or Hudson, it doesn't fucking matter. When we all show up to the arena, we coming with whatever we have. It's like those old Westerns. You show up, you put bullets in the chamber, you come down with your horse and you shoot. And you aim for the head.

[Alexis uses her fingers as a gun to the camera.]

Alexis: I still wrestle with that fear. But it's different. Back then, you're just out there, yelling at the world, "watch me." When i wrestle now, you all know who I am.

[She laughs.]

Alexis: There was a time where wrestlers heard my name and they would laugh and talk shit. I was like Scrappy Doo, always talking shit, always pissing people off . I still talk shit now. But now, you listen to Glory, you listen to Hudson, to Owen, there's respect. They know. I took the road most don't even take. Even now, since being back, you don't see me with any cliques. I'm not doing comedy. I don't do much press. I'm just show up.

I'm charging up.

Match by match. Just trying shit out. Different moves. Different styles. Some times I fall on my face like I did with Ameila and Owen. Sometimes I pin you, Gavin.

[Alexis rubs her face a bit.]

Alexis: I do all that with the same fear of losing. The difference now I think is there's a freedom that comes with that. Win, loss, I'm willing to take it. I'm willing to eat shit if it happens. I won't like it, but I'm not afraid. What am I to be afraid of? You? These wrestlers? People talk about legacies...my legacy. Spencer threw out the word Legend. I hear that in my city. You hear it when people mention my name now. "Oh shit, Alexis Quinne." I'm respected everywhere I go. People throw out that legend word and to me, that sounds like people think I've done it all.

But no one else makes my legacy for me other than me.

You talk about legacies when you're done and you're talking about the old days. There's things I've done that are great. Things no one else has done. This shit is not complete. The thing about the old days is that they're the old days. There's new challenges. There's new shit out there. I'm 29. There's a lot more that I want to do and that I haven't done yet. My road is my road.

That's the life of a pro wrestler. That's what I've chosen.

I wrestle for a lot of people, now. My city, my parents, you know. But it's always for me first. Has to be. No one makes your life for you. That's why I don't worry about these wrestlers in this tournament. I'm not worried about what they say or what they do. They can worry about me. And they should. But they now that. That's why when they say my name, they're not laughing. They're not talking shit. They know in that gun fight, I'm the one they'll never stop firing until they all have a bullet right between the eyes.

[Alexis point to her head.]

Alexis: I will never change who I am, how I wrestle and how I approach things. Because I wouldn't be me if I did. That's how I got to the dance. That's how I'm going to be. And that's how I'm going to win the US belt. So come with it. I'm waiting for all of your motherfuckers.

[FIN]


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