SCW Taking Hold of the Flame Battle Royal

[The Matt]

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May 27th, 2023
Boston, Massachusetts
Off Camera
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It’s Saturday, just over one week away from Taking Hold of the Flame, the event that marks the beginning of Rise To Greatness season. It is the one event that can change a wrestler’s career because winning that battle royal, winning Taking Hold of the Flame, would immediately catapult you into the main event of Rise To Greatness to challenge for the SCW World Championship. Now why is this important to Kimberly Williams? She has had only two other opportunities at the SCW World Title. Once in the chaotic double jeopardy match last year. Then again in February of this year against Owen Cruze. Both instances Kim came up short in claiming her first ever world championship. The first time didn’t sting as much because, at the time, Kim never really cared about being World Champion. It was a match forced upon her by SCW management, specifically commissioner Shaun Cruze. The second time stung a great deal, mostly because she also lost her SCW Underground Title in the winner take all match. But it also stung because she realized just then how close she came to finally achieving the same level of greatness the rest of her family had achieved. And ever since that loss, that defeat, Kimberly felt as if her career was stalled. She felt as if it just went nowhere. Now with Rise To Greatness season about to begin, Kimberly finds herself back in a situation where she can once again make history, where she can once again try to make her family proud of her. This isn’t about legacy for The Woman Scorned. She has already established her legacy by reenergizing the Underground Division, by literally becoming the new Underground Queen. This is about making sure everyone remembers her name. Winning Taking Hold of the Flame and thus punching her ticket to the main event of Rise To Greatness, possibly forcing the Underground Championship that she now holds into the Rise To Greatness main event with her, that would be historic. Winning the SCW World Championship and finally adding her name among the Jones family greats would be icing on the cake.

Making her family proud is just one of many things on the mind of everyone’s loveable yet eccentric ginger. After all, Kimberly hasn’t really had a true family for that long; at least, not when compared to most normal family situations. When one looks at the reigning SCW Underground Champion, no one truly thinks of anything about her as being normal, and that includes her family situation. She was torn from her family at birth and reunited with them at the age of eighteen. But the reunion wasn’t a pleasant one; Kimberly was criminally insane and wanted to hurt them. This landed the demented ginger in a mental institution for a couple years before the love and kindness of her family broke through to her and helped ease some of the calamity in her mind, helped bring some light into her dark soul. Kimberly doesn’t like showing weakness, and emotion, in her mind, is a form of weakness. Therefore she won’t advertise it that often, but she truly does care for her family. The emotional bond she feels for them is strong. She would do anything for them. This is why she has been so obsessed with the state of affairs involving her nephew.

Sean Connor Jones is the son of Kimberly’s identical twin sister Marie Jones. The Woman Scorned has been very concerned with her nephew’s behavior lately. His grades started to suffer, and she learned later that it was because he was skipping school, she learned that after he manipulated her into lying to his mother. The most recent behavioral issue involving Sean was a fight he got into at school. Marie seems to think that she can settle the problem on her own. Perhaps she can. But Kim is deeply disturbed; with each behavioral issue Sean displays, the more he reminds her of herself. His actions seem to be getting worse and worse. And it bothers Kim to no end. It bothers her not just because she recalls her own ill-fated childhood fraught with violence and crime, but also because it reminds her of her father and uncle Sean Williams and Douglas Williams. Douglas was a convicted serial killer and many suspect that Sean was involved with it. It seems as if the entire Williams family is cursed to go down a dark path. Kimberly does not want that same fate for her nephew.

This is what brings Kimberly Williams to “the rough part of town”...ok, that’s a lie. It isn’t a rough part of town. It’s actually the upscale neighborhood where her identical twin sister Marie Jones lives. But don’t tell that to The Woman Scorned. The demented ginger wants to think this is the “rough part of town” because it fits her crazy narrative for this evening. The Queen of the Death Match is walking around outside under a moonlit night dressed in a brown overcoat, a brown hat, and wearing a pair of jeans, black boots, and a “Queens of Chaos” t-shirt underneath. A solemn, almost grave look is etched across her face as she slowly walks the neighborhood, talking to herself.

“I aint no rat, ya see…I aint no stool pigeon…” she shakes her head vehemently “...I gonna squeal to the feds, see? Not gonna happen. “Kimmy ‘The Big Tuna’ Williams don’t squeal to no feds!” Williams stops in front of a rather luxurious looking home. The walkway leads to the front door. She stares at its ominous presence and shakes her head. “But there it is. Lucky Luciano survived the feds. Albert ‘Tick Tock’ Tannenbaum survived the big house. But I aint sure I can make it. They’re gonna try ta make a deal, they’re gonna put some pressure on me to break the code, to break omerta.” Kimberly shakes her head again. “I am loyal to la cosa nostra! I am a loyal soldier! I am a made man…woman…it don’t matter, I can identify as whatever I want! The feds can’t make me talk!”

Kimberly may be talking to herself but that doesn’t mean she’s been talking quietly. In fact, she has been speaking rather loudly and she has gotten the attention of someone from within that home. Lights that were previously off suddenly turn on. Kim is startled as she sees curtains opening and then the face of her identical twin sister, Marie Jones, is looking outside. Kim curses to herself.

“Damn! They’re spying on me!” She points an accusatory finger. “I hope ya got a warrant for that wiretap or my attorney’ll have yer job!” Marie can be seen shaking her head from inside the house. Then she disappears for a brief moment. Not too long after that and we see the door opening and Marie emerging on the front doorstep. Her hands are folded across her chest. Marie is wearing pink pajama pants, a pink top, and a plaid coat. She shakes her head in disbelief.

“Kim?! What the hell are you doing out here?”

“Ya can’t interrogate me without first reading me my rights, copper!”

“Seriously?”

“Read me my writes or I’ll sue!”

“Ugh…” Marie rolls her eyes “...you have the right to remain silent. Anything you say can and will be used against you. Happy now?”

“Perfect!” Kim says cheerfully.

“Now what the hell are you doing here this time of night?”

“I PLEAD THE FIFTH!”

“Really? Again?” Marie rolls her eyes. “What are you…”

“I will NOT break the code! I will not cooperate! Omerta!”

“Omerta?” Marie shakes her head. “You’ve been watching Mafia’s Greatest Hits again haven’t you?”

“Yup!” Kim nods her head excitedly. “I’m watching the one about Albert Anastasia next!”

“That explains the weird getup and your even weirder…” she pauses momentarily “...behavior.”

“Oh c’mon, it isn’t much more weird than usual.”

“True.” Marie sighs and motions for Kim to come inside. “Obviously you want to talk about something. So come on in.”

Williams nods her head before quickly making her way up the walkway and towards the front door. Kim rushes through the front door and Marie shuts it behind them. Kim doesn’t wait for Marie. She knows this home almost as well as her own. She immediately goes straight for the living room where she leaps onto the sofa as if she owned the place. Marie emerges into the living room shortly thereafter. Marie sits down in a recliner located perpendicular to the sofa.

“So, would I be getting ahead of myself in congratulating you?”

“Congratulating me for what?” Kim asks, arching her brow.

“Winning Taking Hold of the Flame.” Marie smirks. “I know what time of year this is, and I already heard you were entering.”

“You’re definitely getting ahead of yourself. “There’s thirty nine other people I gotta maim, or beat, or whatever in order to win that thing.”

“You don’t give yourself enough credit. If I recall the last battle royal SCW had, last traditional battle royal that is, was won by you.” Marie says. Kim nods her head.

“It was Ducky’s cash in. Although technically my penguin won, not me.”

“You know what I mean. You won that night and it earned you a world title match. Here’s another battle royal, Taking Hold of the Flame. You win this, you get another title match.”

“Who cares?” Kim asks. “I already have the championship I want.”

“Yes, you are the SCW Underground Champion. But you must care at least somewhat, otherwise why would you enter?”

Kim sighs. She had been lying down but she swings her legs over the side so that she is now sitting up. She shrugs her shoulders. “I dunno, it’s just…”

“What?”

“Look, being a world champion isn’t the end all be all for me. But I look at what you and Jessie have done, I look at what our mom has done, and compare it to what I have done.” She sighs. “Quite honestly, I’m not sure I measure up.”

“What do you mean?” Marie asks. “Of course you measure up. Look at how much you’ve achieved in SCW. You are two titles away from Supreme Champion. You resurrected and revitalized an entire division, the Underground Division. Me, Jessie, mom, we’ve all been a part of SCW at one point or another and we haven’t come close to that kind of success. And you did elevate the Underground Title. You got into a main event status against the world champion at Body, Heart, and Soul.”

“Yeah…” Kim sighs “...and I screwed it all up. I couldn’t lose graciously. Maybe had I dealt with that loss to Owen things would be different.” Kim looks up into Marie’s eyes. “I don’t necessarily NEED the world title. But to main event Rise To Greatness? That would make up for it. To take everything that happened at Body, Heart, and Soul and run it back, only this time on an even grander stage, that would give me a second chance, a second chance to either win the world title or if I lose, to actually lose graciously and hold my head high even in defeat.” She shakes her head. “But I NEED to win Taking Hold of the Flame first in order to get there. I need to win to prove that I belong in this family.”

“You don’t need to do anything to prove that you belong.” Marie smiles warmly. “You are a Jones whether you like it or not. But take my word for it, everyone believes in you, everyone is cheering you on, especially your nephew who is asleep upstairs.”

Now comes the hard part. Kimberly came here to talk about that nephew who is asleep in bed. That same nephew who plans to cheer her on to victory at Taking Hold of the Flame has also been in some deep trouble as of late. Kimberly has a lot to discuss with Marie about young Sean Jones.

“Yeah, speaking of the kiddo, did he tell you about visit to Burger King last Sunday?” Kim asks curiously. Marie shakes her head.

“No, not really. He just told me you and him had a great time and left it at that.” Marie pauses momentarily, staring a hole through her twin. “Did you find out something else that he’s done?”

“No, not this time. At least not that I’m aware of. But I did manage to find out a little more about what might be causing his recent string of bad behavior.”

“Oh really? I definitely want to hear about this.”

“Do you remember how I told you he had these new friends who put him up to that fight?” Kim asks. Marie nods her head. “I think they’re probably the root of everything.”

“What are their names?”

“There’s three of them.” She holds up three fingers. “Kyle, Jackson, and Max. I’m not sure who the real leader is but Sean is definitely just a follower. Those three have apparently been the school bullies for as long as Sean can remember. And now for whatever reason they’ve decided to make friends with Sean.”

“So they’re a bad influence on my son? They’re corrupting him?” Marie asks. “It’s that simple?”

“That simple.” Kim says, nodding her head in confirmation. “And my gut tells me that those three are really bad news.”

“Well, if it really is that simple then I will end this once and for all.”

“How?” Kim asks.

“Like you said, Kim. Simple. I’m just going to tell him he can’t be friends with them anymore.” Kim starts laughing immediately after Marie says this. Marie frowns. “What’s so funny?”

“You.”

“Why am I funny?”

“You think forbidding him from talking to those three clowns will stop him? Yeah, that’s hilarious.”

“I’m his mother.” Marie points out. “He will listen to me.”

“No he won’t.” Kim argues, shaking her head. “First, you can’t be there at school with him, you can’t be around him 24/7. So you can’t enforce who he befriends. Secondly, he’s a kid. Almost a teenager. He’s at that age where he doesn’t listen to anyone, especially not to parents.”

“Then I’ll ground him.” Marie states. “Keep him in the house at all times unless…”

“He’ll find a way around whatever enforcement mechanisms you come up with.” Kim says, interrupting her twin. “And the more you push him, the more you tell him not to, the more he will want to, the harder you come down on him, the more rebellious he will become because he is at that age where he will become more and more rebellious. Sorry, sis, but you’re just gonna have to accept that this is one problem that doesn’t have an easy solution.”

“I know.” Marie shakes her head and sighs. “I just want it to be easy, y’know? Because I worry about him.”

“You and me both.” Kim states. “I know our history, not just my history but OUR history.” She motions to herself and Marie. “Our dad, our uncle, Sean’s grandfather and great uncle, they went down a terrible path. I don’t want that kid to turn out like them. Or like me.”

“He won’t.” Marie leans over and embraces her sister in a tight hug. “We won’t let it happen. Sean may not have a father, but he has a great mother and an awesome aunt who will make sure he turns out ok.”

Kimberly nods her head. She hopes that Marie is right, she hopes that all it takes is some tender loving care from herself and Marie to keep Sean on the right path. She hopes that they can steer him back into the right direction. She knows very well of her family’s dark history, their curse if you will. She does not want Sean to fall into that same curse.

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May 28th, 2023
Boston, Massachusetts
Off Camera
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A little less than twenty four hours has passed since Kimberly Williams was at her sister’s house touching base on the status of Sean Connor Jones, Kimberly’s troublesome nephew. The Woman Scorned is still nervous about what the future might hold for Sean, she still worries about whether or not she can help him get back on track. Unfortunately there’s not much that the eccentric ginger can do right now. Quite honestly, her ability to do much of anything in this situation is rather limited. She isn’t the mother, she is just the aunt. Ultimately its up to Marie to figure this out. Kimberly’s role is a supportive figure. Yet Kim wants to do more. Kim feels as if she should do more to help, because she sees Sean potentially going down the same dangerous path she went down and she would do anything to keep that from happening. These distressing thoughts are going through her head as she walks through her dilapidated run down home just within the Boston city limits. The Woman Scorned has a bottle of pellets in hand, pellets intended for her foul mouthed hamster Caligula. Kim is whistling cheerfully as she walks through the home, dressed in torn denim jeans, barefoot, and a plain black t-shirt.

“Caligula!” She calls out as she enters the dusty, dirty living room. “Sweetie! Are you ready for your dinner?”

“It better be a fuckin’ steak, bitch!” Comes the voice of ‘Caligula the hamster’, although its actually just Kimberly herself providing the voice of the hamster.

“Now is that a nice thing to say after I prepared a fine meal for you?” Kim asks as she approaches the hamster cage and drops the pellets inside.

“After the long day at work I’ve had, you call this shit a meal? You really are a fucking lunatic.” Kim sticks her tongue out at Caligula. She sets the bottle of pellets down on a nearby coffee table and then sits down on the sofa.

“Try to be nice, ok?” Kim asks. “You know I have a lot on my mind right now.”

“Yeah, that ignorant ass kid.”

“Hey!” Kim exclaims angrily. “Don’t say such nasty things about my nephew!”

“I’m not saying anything you don’t already know is true. If that idiot is stupid enough to just blindly follow those jackasses around, he deserves what he gets. So why bother when you have other, more important shit to take care of?”

“What’s more important than family?” Kim demands angrily.

“Taking Hold of the Flame.”

“Oh right…” Kim sighs and shakes her head “...I do want to win. I want to win it badly. But who am I kidding? I can’t win.”

“You got that right, bitch.”

“Huh?!” Kim exclaims. “I was being sarcastic!”

“I wasn’t. My money is on that sexy piece of ass Kandis. And trust me, she knows a thing or two about asses. I know a thing or two about asses. I’m an ass connoisseur.”

“Kandis?” Kim rolls her eyes. “You’re seriously picking her? Over people like Syren. The Onesie. Glory Braddock. Hell, even me!”

“Yup. Kandis is my pick. Got a problem with it?”

“As a matter of fact, I do!” Kim stands up quickly. She snatches the cage and holds it up. “I may not seem like a threat to some, I may appear like a joke to others, but damn it, I take this business and what I do very seriously! I am going to prove to them and especially to you, you stupid hamster, that I am one of the best to lace up a pair of boots! I am going to win Taking Hold of the Flame! I am going to Rise To Greatness! I am going to win the SCW World Championship!”

“And you’re gonna argue with a fuckin’ hamster, right?”

“DAMN IT! YES! YES I WILL!” Kim shouts loudly.

“Right on. Now put me down before ya drop me and accidentally break, ya stupid bitch.”

“Sure…” Kim gently places the hamster and his cage back on the table. Kim sits back down on the sofa. “...thank you for motivating me, Caligula.”

“Motivation?”

“Yes, motivation. You only pretended to pick Kandis to win just to motivate me, right?”

“Fuck no. I’m not bullshitting ya. Kandis is my pick to win.”

“Well fuck you, Caligula!” Kim exclaims. She folds her arms over her chest and leans back on the sofa and begins to pout. She knows she’s really just arguing with herself, not a hamster, but still, the feelings of doubt are there and they are real. She did enter Taking Hold of the Flame. There is no walking that back. Can she make it with her while? She can win it all and bring the Underground Championship into the main event of Rise To Greatness? Can she get a chance to redo the catastrophe that was Body, Heart, and Soul?

Body, Heart, and Soul and its aftermath still haunts Kimberly Williams. She had already elevated the Underground Title to being on par with the World Championship by earning the title for title match at Body, Heart, and Soul against Owen Cruze. But she failed to defeat Cruze and on top of that, she failed to lose graciously. She didn’t live up to what she felt were her standards. She had been a poor representative of herself and her family, the Jones wrestling family. Kim Williams recognizes that Taking Hold of the Flame represents a second chance. She could earn another world title match, and thus earn another opportunity to make that moment happen. She could “run it back” as they say, redo Body, Heart, and Soul, this time with the end game of making her family and fans proud. Winning Taking Hold of the Flame is a must. Winning this battle royal has to happen first.

Suddenly Kimberly is startled out of her deep thoughts when she hears loud knocking at the door. The Woman Scorned may live on a bad part of town but she isn’t exactly afraid of much of anything. She sighs as she turns to face the loud knocking.

“Come in!” She shouts. “If you plan to rob me, at least make it fun!”

It isn’t long afterwards when the door opens. Kim spots her sister, Marie Jones, rushing quickly into the home. Kim tilts her head to one side, watching her curiously as she enters the living room. “Didn’t we just do this yesterday? Did I somehow get sucked into that stupid Groundhog Day movie?”

“No, Kim, this is serious.” Marie quickly sits down on the sofa next to her twin sister. Marie seems deeply troubled. There is a mixed look of anger and disappointment on her face. Kim can only wonder what is going on, but it doesn’t take long before she finds out. “It’s Sean…”

This quickly alerts Kim. Hearing that her nephew may have gotten into more trouble rings alarm bells for The Woman Scorned. The grin that Kim had been sporting quickly disappears. She stares at Marie with a stoic gaze.

“Sean was caught and arrested.”

“What?!” Kim exclaims. Marie nods her head.

“He and his new pals were caught breaking into their school.”

“Crap…” Kim shakes her head “...did you let him go see them?”

“No!” Marie insists. “I already told you that I’d rather him not see them ever again! But apparently he snuck out…” tears form in her eyes “...I’m a failure.”

“No, you’re not.” Marie says, patting Marie on the back in order to comfort her. “It could have happened to any parent. Especially to a single parent.”

“Don’t make excuses for me, Kim. I shouldn’t have let that happen. I should have known…I…”

“Shoulda, woulda, coulda,” Kim shakes her head “that doesn’t matter right now. Right now we need to focus on what’s next.”

“Right.” Marie says. “I want you to come with me. We’re going to get him out of there and…”

“No.”

“What?” Marie cocks her brow out of curiosity. “Uh, maybe you didn’t hear me correctly. Sean was ARRESTED! He is in CUSTODY! We need to bail him out!”

“No, no we don’t.” Kim shakes her head.

“So, wait a sec…” Marie rubs her forehead, she still doesn’t believe the words coming out of her sister’s mouth “...you want me to leave my son there in custody overnight?!”

“Yes. Exactly.” Kim nods her head. “Look, Sean is going down a bad path. I wanted to protect him from all of this but now I realize that he needs to learn a lesson.”

“We’re in agreement then. I’ll go pick him up and I’ll ground him for fucking life.” Marie says. Kim shakes her head.

“No…” Kim pauses momentarily “...Sean needs to be scared straight. Being arrested was part of that process, but once he realizes that we’re not coming for him, and that he is going to spend a night in jail, maybe he’ll see that this is his future. This is where the road he is going down leads. And maybe he’ll change.”

“That sounds ok in theory.” Marie says in protest. “But what if you’re wrong? What if he just gets angry with us for not bailing him out? What if it makes him all the more rebellious?”

“I suppose that is a possibility.” Kim admits.

“And you’re still willing to take that risk?”

“Yes.” Kim nods her head. “I think this will work.”

“Damn it, Kim.” Marie nods her head. “Fine. We’ll leave him.”

Kimberly keeps up a good, strong front. She doesn’t let on to Marie that she, too, questions this plan. But she and Marie have helped him all of his life and it has thus far led to this. Perhaps a change of strategy is necessary? Perhaps Sean can be scared straight? Kim can only hope and pray that she is right, that this will indeed work. If it doesn’t work, Kimberly will never forgive herself.