Saturday October 9, 2010
The Nest- Formal Dining Room
Indianapolis, Indiana
1:59 PM Local Time
Wendy Briese coughed at the dustcloud that had been kicked up as she opened the hutch, waving away the airborne particles lest she breathe them in. How long had it been since she cleaned this thing? Too long, obviously. For a second, she debated about grabbing an old rag and using it to cover her mouth, lest she breathe in the dust, but she was behind enough already today.
Still, Wendy mused as she sprayed the shelvings of the ornate wooden cabinet with a liberal dose of Pledge, cleaning had been going very well. Wendy prided herself on her housekeeping, but considering her grandmother had worked as a maid in Belfast for many years, she knew Nana had a critical eye about everything, and she intended to make the house as beautiful as she could. So when she wasn’t training for her upcoming match against Jenna Himmler, or spending some quality time with her daughter, Wendy had devoted pretty much every waking hour to the enormous task preparing for company entailed.
Wendy was too engrossed in her task that she initially failed to notice her daughter bounding into the room. Theresa stared at her mother, curious as to what the young redhead might be doing. Realizing she wasn’t going to be getting an answer any time soon, Theresa’s attention turned towards the stack of china plates and other valuable dishes sitting on the dining room table. Theresa grabbed a porcelain teapot, staring in wonder at the ornate flowery designs covering every inch of its surface.
Some sixth sense alerted Wendy to another presence in the room, and Wendy turned around, smiling at her daughter. That smile disappeared almost immediately, and Wendy had to fight down the urge to shriek in dread as she saw the priceless antique in her daughter’s hands. “No...” she said, leaving the rag and the can of Pledge in the hutch, and hurrying to her daughter’s side. “Please don’t touch ANYTHING, hon” Wendy begged her daughter as she delicately removed the teapot from her grip. “A lot of this stuff is very old and very valuable. And VERY fragile”
“Sorry,” Theresa replied, looking sullen. “Didn’t know.”
“It’s okay, sweetie,” Wendy said, carefully setting the teapot on the table, and then turning back to her daughter. Just always ask permission before you touch something, okay?”
Theresa nodded. “Okay,” she said, although she still looked somewhat crestfallen.
Wendy looked at her daughter, and smiled. “You want to help mommy clean the hutch?”
Although Wendy knew full well that within ten years, her daughter would dread a task such as this, the young girl nodded ferociously. Wendy smiled, and walked back over the hutch, grabbing another dustcloth and spraying some pledge on it. “Here, you can wipe down the outside, as high as you can reach, while I do the rest. Okay?”
Theresa noddd with excitement, and took the cloth. “Mmm! It smells like lemons!” she said.
“It does, but don’t breathe it in,” Wendy warned. “The vapors aren’t good for you. Just wipe down the wood, like this, okay?” Wendy demonstrated, and Theresa went to work on the bottom of the hutch, mimicking her mother.
“Well, aren’t you two having fun?” a male voice behind her surprised Wendy, who wheeled around. When she saw it was just her manager, Wendy exhaled. Pollaski grinned at her. “Sorry, didn’t mean to surprise you.”
Theresa gave a shriek of joy, and ran to Pollaski, who knelt down, and gave her a quick hug.
“What are you doing here?” Wendy asked, not unkindly. By this point, Pollaski pretty much came and went as he chose during the day, and was more than welcome to enter the Nest without bothering to knock. “I thought you were on your way to the airport”
“You’re leaving?” Theresa asked, disappointed, before Pollaski could even respond.
“I am,” he confessed, although he smiled as he did so. “But just for a couple days. I gotta go to Los Angeles to compete in CPW. Your mommy and daddy are picking me up from the airport in Chicago on Monday, so I’ll see you then.”
“Don’t we come with you?” Theresa asked.
“Not this time,” Wendy said in a consoling tone. “We have too much to do around here. Pollaski’s on his own.”
“I’ll be fine,” Pollaski promised her, waving a hand dismissively. He turned his attention back to Wendy. “Oh, someone left the ladder out, I put it away for you.”
“Thanks,” Wendy said, although she rolled her eyes as she did so. “Figures Terrence would leave that out. If he’s done cleaning out the gutters, he’ll be clearing out under the back deck, if you want to say goodbye.”
“Thanks,” Pollaski said.
“Good luck against Aoraki,” Wendy said, smiling, and turning to head back to her task.
“Thanks,” Pollaski repeated. “And just in case he DOES break every bone in my body like a meat-grinder,” he said, winking at Theresa to let her know he was kidding, “good luck against Himmler.”
Wendy’s expression hardened for just a second, then softened as she looked away. “She’s tough,” she finally said. “If she’s even better this time around... I could have my hands full.”
“Bah, you can take her,” Pollaski replied reassuringly. “Its a big match, and you shine in those. Just remember- you lose, and Terrence is probably forced into a ten thousand flaming sandpaper thumbtack legos on a pole glass cage of death match. Or something.”
“Thanks, Dan,” Wendy responded, shooting her manager an annoyed look.
Pollaski grinned back. “Just sayin’. We’ll both be fine. I’ll see you on Monday. What we say, Theresa?”
“POLLLLLLAAAAAAAAAAAAAA.....” Theresa began, but before she could finish the phone rang. Wendy quicky picked up the cordless receiver she had set on the dining room table, and looked at the caller ID.
“It’s Terrence...” she said, sounding confused. She flipped the phone on, and held it up to her ear. “Terry where are-”
Wendy cringed, and pulled the phone away from her ear, as if it was suddenly hurting her. Even from several feet away, Pollaski could hear a male voice screaming over the earpiece.
Wendy stared at Pollaski, and the portly manager wasn’t entirely certain if she was about to laugh or cry. “Did... did you make sure he still wasn’t on the roof when you put the ladder away?”
“I didn’t see him,” Pollaski shrugged. “But I didn’t exactly walk around the entire house either.”
“Perhaps you should have,” Wendy replied, turning pale.
There was a long pause, where the only sound that could be heard was the continued screaming of Terrence over the phone, along with a few loud thuds coming from over their heads. Wendy, Pollaski, and Theresa all looked at the dining room ceiling, where the hanging light fixture was beginning to sway back and forth.
“I’ll... um... go get him down.” Pollaski said meekly.
“Please,” Wendy agreed, as her manager turned and sprinted towards the front door of the house.
========================================
Saturday October 9, 2010
The Nest- Living Room
Indianapolis, Indiana
7:19 PM Local Time
[So the main event of Never Say Die IV will be a Pollaski Pinata on a Pole match.]
[Nobody’s exactly sure what the hell that is, but Terrence has vowed on all that is holy that will be the match should Wendy defeat Jenna Himmler at the next Adrenaline. Near as anyone can tell, it involves hanging Daniel Pollaski from a pole and beating him with a very large stick, something Terrence is no doubt keen to do at the present moment]
[Anyways, Wendy found the whole ladder incident slightly amusing (save for being screamed at by her husband- something he later apologized for), and chalked it up to just another misadventure to be had when preparing for company.]
[So we now cut to the living room of the Nest, where Wendy is sitting on the couch. Not wanting to cut her promo wearing cleaning clothes, Wendy has changed into a much nicer long dark green skirt, along with a white blouse. As usual, Wendy’s sitting stiff as a board, as prim and proper as she could possibly be.]
“Well, I suppose everyone knew this was going to happen sooner or later.”
[Wendy slouches her shoulders just a bit, but ]
“Almost two months ago, at Adrenaline 42, I faced a young rookie in just her second match by the name of Jenna Himmler. While most of the so-called ‘experts’ predicted an easy win for me, I had a feeling that despite her inexperience, I would be in for one rough battle. Unfortunately for the nerve endings in my body, I was proven right, and we fought to a tremendous contest that left me battered and bruised, but ultimately the victor.”
[Wendy smiles ruefully]
“As with most contests that end in a near-upset, rumors of a rematch began almost immediately, but soon after, Jenna was taken off the active roster, feeling she needed more training. Only this past week, she returned to in ring competition, and, as could be predicted, we’ve been chosen to face once again.”
[Wendy nods, and looks away from the camera for just a second, before turning her attention back]
“Its funny, because I hear whisperings that perhaps this time, it is I who’s the underdog. After all, Jenna was just raw talent, while I’m a fully trained experienced wrestler, and yet, she still almost won. Now that she’s gotten more training under her belt, its only logical that she should win this time, right?”
[Wendy sighs, and shakes her head.]
“I suppose its crazy, but I actually feel MORE confident about this match than I did our last meeting.”
[Wendy shrugs, and brushes a stray hair from her face, before resuming]
“I’m sure Jenna’s refined her technique through endless hours of training. I’m sure she can punch and kick harder than ever before, and her knee strikes are flat out devastating. But, near as I can tell, Jenna lacks one key element, the exact same missing element that led her to lose against me the first time.”
[Small pause]
“Discipline.”
[Say what?]
“In the ring, Jenna is driven by pure emotion, namely rage. She attacks with abandon, doing everything in her power to do as much damage to her opponent as quickly as possible. She doesn’t hold back anything, and that makes for an extremely exciting slugfest of a match. But there’s a problem with that mentality- it expends so much energy.”
[Wendy talks calmly, as if she’s lecturing a group of students on the merits of in ring strategy.]
“Fighters such as that end their fights in one of two ways. They either land a devastating blow, and gain the victory, or they tire quickly, until they make a critical mistake, one that can easily be capitalized on to defeat them. And that’s what happened back in August- I was willing to be patient, Jenna wasn’t. And because of that, it was my hand raised at the end. All the training she’s gone through won’t matter if she lets her emotions control her in the ring again.”
[Wendy shrugs, and sighs again.]
“Maybe she has, and maybe I’m wrong. I won’t know until I step in that ring, but I do have a strategy for whichever way Jenna decides to approach it. She wasn’t the only one who learned some pretty tough lessons in that match. I will say one thing for certain- if we lock up, I’ll be watching out for those knees.”
[Weak smile]
“But whether Jenna decides to turn this into another brawl. or actually decides to compete in a wrestling match, this is a contest I cannot afford to lose. I’m already coming off a tough loss to the Belmonts, a frustrating contest where Jer and Val managed to keep me impotent on the apron for the majority of the match, isolating Ashley Graves and picking up the win. Losing once is tough enough, but with the Belmonts coming up next week, losing two in a row heading into that match would be devastating.”
[Wendy shakes her head, disgusted with herself and her inability to help her partner a couple weeks ago]
“And then there’s the stipulation of this match- the winner’s significant other will get to pick the match type at Never Say Die. A tremendous advantage to be sure, and one I would love Terrence to have. But even more important than allowing Terrence to pick the match, is NOT allowing Ojeda to pick the match.”
[The fire in Wendy’s emerald eyes kindles just a bit, although Wendy’s voice remains mild]
“Unless JPO has a surprise up his sleeve, Never Say Die will mark Terry’s first defense of his Grand Prix Championship- a title that hasn’t been successfully defended in an actual match since the World and Next Generation titles were merged at Full Throttle. I’m not going to let John Ojeda turn this match into a mockery with one of his stupid death match gimmicks.”
[Wendy’s eyes blaze even more intensely. It’s obvious that John Ojeda’s about the last man on Earth she ever would want to see holding the GP title.]
“As far as Jenna goes, the dislike is mutual. I don’t like what she stands for, and I most certainly don’t like her attitude. I’ve said it before, but it’s a shame, because the raw talent she possesses is remarkable. But her attitude will always keep her from being the best she can be. Jenna can hate me all she wants for saying that, but deep down, she knows its true.”
[A sad sigh]
“But she’ll never change. The hatred in her heart is too much, and one day, it’ll probably get her into something worse than a loss in a wrestling match. But it’s not any of my business, I guess. I just need to focus on the task before me. But after Jenna’s comment at the last PWX show about her need to prove that her family was just as ruthless as it was in the nineteen thirties, I got to thinking.”
[Pause]
“Seventy years ago, the Third Reich was the scourge of Europe, terrorizing half a world with their effeciency and brutality. And now its ‘legacy’ is a deranged foul-mouthed brawler who is little more than a mistress for a two-bit biker thug.”
[Wendy sighs one more time, before cracking a small smile that has neither mirth nor humor behind it.]
“Considering all it ever had been was a bunch of deranged thugs, it’s awfully fitting.”
[Fade]
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