==========
July 23rd,
2014
Off Camera
==========
A hero will always
fight for what is right no matter what.
A villain is self-centered and cares only for him or herself. But then there are other types of people, a
wild card if you will, who fight the villains but their tactics and motives are
far from heroic. You have good, strong
examples of each in the world of professional wrestling. It’s just not always easy to tell them
apart. And it isn’t always easy to
decide which one you want to be. It’s
hard to be a hero, it’s easy to be the villain, and it’s even more difficult
when you are neither hero nor villain.
“Are you sure you want to go back?”
That’s a
good question that Steven Bauer is asking his future wife Jessica Lasiewicz as
she sits cross-legged on their sofa, wearing blue jeans and a Duke Blue Devils
t-shirt. Her flip flop rest on the
floor, empty, as her feet are bare right now.
The future wedded couple have been living together for a few months now,
and their wedding is coming up just over the horizon. Jessica has learned to trust Steven’s advice
and at the same time he has learned to accept the fact that the younger
Lasiewicz, much like her father, will not take orders. She will do what she wants, when she wants,
and even though that can be somewhat frustrating at times, Steven would still
have her no other way.
Jessica
Lasiewicz had just finished her last night in EXODUS and to say that it was a
disappointment would be an understatement.
To her it seemed that people could not look past her last name. They held a grudge against her in San Diego
for reasons that she did not understand.
The Morning Star isn’t usually one to make excuses, though, and only
blames herself for any losses she suffered in that organization. Still, being there she felt isolated and
alone. EXODUS never truly felt like home
to her.
There was
one place that did feel like home…at least it did for awhile. That place is the Independent Wrestling
Cartel. But Jessica had left IWC for
EXODUS because of what had been going on.
The brewing faction wars, the inability to do anything about Sinistry,
and what she viewed as the company’s mistreatment of her.
IWC now
finds itself in a fight for its very survival against Sinistry, a fight that they
could have used Jessica Lasiewicz in, and yet they ran her off. They treated her as if she was
unnecessary. They treated her as if she
was pointless.
One thing is
for certain and that is that she does not wish to remain in EXODUS any
longer. But the question is, does she
really want to return to IWC? Part of
her says yes. Part of her sees the many
good people getting screwed over by Sinistry and she wants to jump in there and
fight by their side against that evil faction.
And then another part of her remembers how she was treated the last time
she was in IWC and she wants to just let IWC suffer this fate.
“I think I am…”
The voice of
Jessica Lasiewicz trails off, fading off, and that is a clear indication to
Steven Bauer that she is not quite sure of herself. He scoots in closer to her and wraps an arm
around her shoulder.
“You made the right decision in leaving
EXODUS. I never liked San Diego anyway.”
Jessica
smirks. “It had nothing to do with the
location, babe.”
“It doesn’t matter what the reason is, they weren’t
treating you right.” He kisses her on the lips. “And my girl always gets treated right.”
“Thanks Steven, but really, I hold no
grudges against them. It just wasn’t a
good fit for me.”
Steven
frowns. “Oh and IWC will be?”
She shrugs
her shoulders. “Maybe…”
“IWC wasn’t that good to you the last time
you were there.”
“I know.”
Jessica does
know. She remembers all too well about
the criminal acts…yes, CRIMINAL ACTS…perpetrated by Tina Valentine against her
leading up to their one match. How in
the blue hell does one not get arrested for attempted hit and run? How does one not get arrested for any of the
shit she pulled? And IWC does nothing
about it? Jessica was so enraged she
threatened not to even show up for the match.
Nothing against Tina, mostly to stick it to IWC for their refusal to do
anything. What makes her think this time
will be any different?
“Then why are you even considering a return?”
Steven is
pressing the issue and Jessica is just about to answer him when the doorbell
rings. Jessica sighs as she did not
expect nor desire this interruption.
Bauer smiles cautiously, standing up.
“Stay right there, babe. I’ll get it.”
She nods her
head and places her feet back on the floor, slipping her feet into her flip
flops. She turns her head to see who it
is that has come to visit them at this time of the night. Bauer opens the door and in walks Samantha
Hodgson, Jessica’s manager and a very unwelcome visitor.
“Jessica!
I must speak to Jessica!”
Bauer tries
to get in her path. “Uh, not right now…”
“Hush!”
Bauer is
unsuccessful as Samantha Hodgson side-steps him, walks right on by, and into
the living room where she finds Jessica sitting there, waiting.
“There you are!” Samantha beams. “I am glad I found you, I have excellent
news for you!”
“You found the cure for the common cold?”
“No, but I think I have some great contract
offers for you!”
Samantha
sits down on the sofa next to Jessica where Steven had just been. Now Steven reenters the living room, finding
himself without a seat next to his wife, so he just remains standing.
“First of all, great decision you made by
leaving EXODUS. I think I may have
talked them into offering you a new contract this time with better pay than
last time!”
Lasiewicz
shakes her head. “Not interested in
returning to San Diego.”
“I thought you might say that, so I looked
at some other places. How does Supreme
Championship Wrestling sound?”
“No.”
“Too much time away from Steven, right?”
Before Jessica can answer Samantha interrupts. “I understand. That’s why I also
spoke to CJ Osborne, owner of FRONTIER, the UK-Based company. That would be more of a part time gig.”
“No, I…” she pauses, thinking about it
for just a moment before shrugging “…well,
maybe FRONTIER.”
“JESSIE!” Steven exclaims. “First Poland now England?”
Jessica
winks at him. “Trust me, Steven. I know what I’m doing.”
“Right, so FRONTIER it is…I’ll work out the
details in the morning and…”
“No, you won’t.”
“Huh?”
Hodgson is stunned that she was the one being interrupted by her client.
“Say that again?”
“I said you won’t work out any details.”
“Then who will?”
“Me.”
Samantha
chuckles. “Quit being silly, Jessica,
that’s what you hired me for!”
“Right and now I’m firing you.”
“Firing me?!”
Jessica
grins nastily. “Yes, I am firing you
because I did NOT hire you to handle my career.
I have always done a good enough job of that myself. I hired you for one reason and one reason
only.”
“What’s that?”
“Information.” Hodgson stands up, as
does Jessica. “I needed information on my
sister, who also happens to be your client, and I got the information I needed.”
Hodgson
shake her head vehemently. “We can work
this out, Jessica…”
“You don’t get it, do you? I never cared for your managerial
advice. I was using you the entire
time. Now that I got what I wanted out
of you, I’m through with you. Go back to
sucking ass with Ethan Von Aaron and while you’re at it, send him and Alana
Starr and my sister Marie a message…”
A sinister
grin forms across Jessica’s face “…I’m
coming back.”
“You’re coming back?”
“That’s right, I’m about to make my return
to IWC.”
“You can’t return to IWC, that’s where…”
She nods her
head “…where my sister is, yes I know
that. She has been corrupted by you and
I am going to save her. I am also going
to do what no one else seems to have the guts to do in IWC, I am going to do to
Sinistry what everyone else is afraid to do.
You need a monster to stop a monster and you know damn well that I am
that monster capable of destroying those who wish ill upon IWC.”
“You’re crazy!”
“Maybe, but I’m still returning, so just do
yourself a favor and come place ya bets, Sam.
Come place ya bets.”
Samantha
turns and scurries off as Jessica watches on, rather pleased with herself and
how she dealt with this situation. She
watches as Samantha opens the door, exits, slamming it shut behind her. Jessica chuckles lightly before remembering
that she has an audience.
“Jessie…”
Young
Lasiewicz turns around to look at her future husband Steven who has a smirk on
his face. “Jessie, that was hot!”
“Oh really?”
He nods his
head. “Yeah, really!”
“Why don’t you show me just how hot it was,
babe?”
==========
Angelica
Jones
On Camera
==========
In this
world there are heroes and then there are villains. There are also those people who fall
somewhere in between. Call them
vigilantes. Call them shades of
gray. Whatever you want to call them,
they usually march to the beat of their own drum.
My daughter
Jessica always wanted to be a hero and for the longest time in her professional
wrestling career she saw herself as someone people could look up to as a role
model, as a hero to those who cannot fight back for themselves. She saw herself a savior, if you will.
Things
changed as she was introduced to the dark side of our industry. Jessica saw the dark underbelly of backstage
politics and faction warfare. The toll
it will take on a person when they see the blood spilled all in the name of
personal glory took a toll on her. My
little girl didn’t want to be a hero anymore.
Things had changed.
Now she
views herself as a vigilante exacting her own form of justice.
Flash Silver
would want us all to believe that he is a hero and a savior but what I see is a
pathetic little man with too high of an opinion of himself. There is such a thing as self-confidence but
my God, man, what you have is beyond ridiculous!
I have seen
heroes and villains. You, Flash, are not
a hero. You’re not even a villain. You’re just a child crying out for
attention. Well you now have the
attention of Jessica Lasiewicz and that is a very bad thing for you because she
no longer wants to be a hero. She doesn’t
want to be the clean cut good girl who will do no wrong.
She is a
vigilante and as a vigilante she will do wrong if it is for the greater good
and she will do terrible things to terrible people if necessary.
Are you a
praying man, Flash? If you are a praying
man then by God pray, pray with everything you have in your soul, because The
Morning Star is coming to take your soul.
==========
Marie Jones
On Camera
==========
My sister
and I have had our ups and downs in our roller coaster of a relationship but
what I can tell you about her is that she is the fiercest fighter I have ever
seen. Jessica Lasiewicz, you see, doesn’t
just get the fighting spirit of the Jones women but she has Andreas Lasiewicz
as a father. The same Polish Spirit who
strikes fear into the hearts of anyone he steps into the ring with.
And if you
aren’t afraid of him, then you should be.
My sister
Jessica has the best…or worst, depending on your perspective…qualities from
both her parents. She is definitely the
last person you want to make your debut against and yet here you are, Flash,
making your debut against my sister Jessica.
I’m not
going to judge you. That’s not what GOOD
people do and I am a GOOD person. And
your manager is a fellow ginger and we gingers gotta stick together,
right? But I will tell you this, and
this is more of a warning than anything else…
…tread
carefully when it comes to The Morning Star.
She has ended careers and could end yours if you are not careful. If you tempt fate then you will bear witness
to that old serpent, the devil, and she will consume you in the flames of
vengeance.
And that’s
not fiction, that is fact.
==========
Jessica
Lasiewicz
On Camera
==========
The scene
fades in to the insides of the hallowed hall of Cameron Indoor Stadium, the
home of the Duke Blue Devils. The camera
is facing an image of head coach Mike Krzyzewski, in his typical suit and tie
look. Just then a female silhouette with
her back turned towards the camera steps into view. All we can tell about her is that she is
wearing dark clothing and her hair is black.
Our questions are answered when she turns around. The lovely woman, wearing a long sleeve black
blouse, black dress pants, black boots, and her long black hair left to hang
unrestrained to shoulder length, is none other than “The Morning Star” Jessica
Lasiewicz. A smirk is etched across her
lovely features.
“Welcome to Duke University. You may not know this but I actually attend
school here. I am nearing completion of
a Bachelor’s degree in accounting. But
this school is teaching me a lot more than just accounting. It is teaching me a thing or two about
greatness.”
“When you attend Duke University you tend to
get drawn into their sports fever. It
happens. Their powerhouse is their men’s
basketball program and the head coach is the man behind me,” she motions to
the portrait behind her “Mike Krzyzewski,
also known as Coach K.”
“Coach K went from coaching Army to coaching
the downtrodden, desperate Duke team in 1980.
It took several seasons to rebuild but he kept at it and eventually built
Duke into a powerhouse, winning four NCAA Championships and thirteen ACC
Championships. Two time FIBA World
Champion and two time Olympic gold medalist as head coach of Team USA.”
“The man’s record as a coach is golden. He is seemingly unstoppable. You’d have to be blind not to see the man’s
natural talent. Other teams from other
schools offered him more money to leave, NBA teams offered him money to leave,
but he never accepted their cash. The
cash wasn’t what was important to him.
The love of the sport was what was important to him.”
“Before I attended Duke and got to know
Coach K, I defined greatness by how many championships I won. That’s the problem I see with the Independent
Wrestling Cartel today. Too many people
in this company view greatness by how many accolades they can rack up. So what if you’re rookie of the year and a
current champion? So what if you’ve held
more world titles than god? So what if
you own the company? Does anyone really care
if you can surround yourself with a bunch of women as if you’re some cowboy
pretending to be a pimp? The real
question is, have you contributed to the betterment of the company and of the
sport or have you just been feeding your own oversized ego?”
The Polish
woman shakes her head. “No, none of them
have. IWC has been descending into
complete and utter chaos because of these people and their massive egos. That is the biggest problem with IWC today
and my opponent on New Age is a prime example of that.”
“Flash Silver is a man who thinks he needs a
fucking band to come out and play his damnable theme music everywhere he
goes. Tell me, Flash, does the band sing
about how you courageously take the dangerous toilet paper and wipe your
ass? Oh wait, you probably get the
red-head to wipe your ass for you, right?
Oh and we can’t forget Flash’s adventure of traveling to Burger Kings
across time and space. Will your band be
telling us about that one too? Oh and I
do hope you tell us about the time you took that incredible journey to your
mommy’s house so she could diaper your pathetic ass.”
A sense of
hatred seems to flash across her face. “You
are the embodiment of everything I hate.
You call yourself a messiah? A
savior? Bullshit. You are the personification of everything
that is wrong with the Independent Wrestling Cartel.”
“You are so damn full of yourself, so damn
arrogant, that you don’t even feel the need to talk to me yourself. You don’t want to address me yourself. Instead you send your ginger lackey out to be
your mouthpiece. And by mouthpiece I
mean that in every sense of the word because I can imagine scum like you
probably use that dimwit’s mouth for more than just talking. Speaking of the whore…”
The Morning
Star waves at the camera. “Hi there,
Infinity. I’m not sure if you’re in this
just for the money or if you’re as deluded as him. Either way, if you want to be his slut then
fine by me, but I’m here to warn you that you had better keep your nose out of
my business. I am going to kick his ass
all over that arena and if you get in the way then I’ll just whip your ass
after I finish with him.”
Young
Lasiewicz turns and looks at the portrait of Coach K. She then turns back around to face the
camera.
“Coach K once said, ‘there are five
fundamental principles that make every team great: communication, trust,
collective responsibility, caring and pride.
I like to think of each as a separate finger on the fist. Any one individually is important but all of
them together are unbeatable.’”
She holds up
one finger. “Communication, something you
clearly lack because you cannot speak for yourself, you’re too afraid to speak
for yourself, you have to send that loud-mouth bitch out to run her damn mouth
on your behalf. Try communicating
yourself and maybe, just maybe, someone will take your sorry ass seriously, but
if the delusional insanity you are having her spew is just a taste, then I somewhat
doubt anyone would take you seriously anyway.”
She holds up
two fingers. “Do you want to talk
responsibility? Let’s talk
responsibility. With great power comes
great responsibility. At least that’s
what Uncle Ben said. You should know
that well…hero…and you should know that taking responsibility for one’s actions
is important. I take responsibility for
my actions, both good and bad. I am a
former GCW World Heavyweight Champion and a former FWA Xtreme Champion. I am proud of my accomplishments. But I also recognize the mistakes I made and
take responsibility for what happened. I
should have stayed in IWC. I see that now. I am courageous enough to admit when I made a
mistake and that I needed to make changes.”
“Tell me something, Flash, are you going to
take responsibility for your own actions?
Something tells me you’ll be one to make up excuses. You’ll blame The Master, The Green Goblin,
Joker, The Borg, Darth Vader, or some fictional character from your deluded
mind! It was all an evil plot against
you, right? People like you never take
responsibility. You pass the buck onto
other people and only stand up and take credit
for the good things that happen.
People like you make me sick.”
She holds up
three fingers. “Trust is key and I know
who I can and cannot trust. I’m a good
judge of people like that. And I can
take one good long look into your eyes, the eyes of a man, a coward who is too
afraid to come out and face me himself, a coward who sends a bitch named
Infinity to talk for him, and I see someone who cannot be trusted. My one piece of advice to Infinity is to
ditch you. Leave him now,
sweetheart. He sends you out to talk for
him but one day he’ll send you out to FIGHT for him and that will be the day
you will be put in a wheelchair for the rest of your life. That is the day you break your neck and it
will all be on him. You can’t trust him.”
“Trust is hard to come by nowadays in
IWC. How can you trust anyone when you
have Silas World, Sinistry, Prestige, Pain & Pleasure, The Good Movement,
and other factions still popping up, all jockeying for position. You just never know who is going to stab who
in the back. Now we have Flash Silver
added to the mix. Will you kiss Alana
Starr’s ass alongside Ethan and my sister?
Are you going to worship goat heads like Sinistry does? Or are you going to find another way to be a
complete jackass?”
Jessica
holds up a fourth finger. “Caring is
number four and the reason I am here, the reason I returned, is because I care
about this industry. I care about this
sport and this company too damn much to watch it go down in flames at the hands
of egomaniacal assholes like you! I
realize you are making your debut here, even as I make my return, but still
people LIKE YOU are what created this mess in IWC and I’ll be damned if I let
another one just waltz right on into IWC unscathed and unharmed. You will NOT walk away from New Age under
your own power, I guarantee you that.”
Finally The
Morning Star holds up a fifth finger. “Last
but not least there is pride and I take pride in what I do inside of the
squared circle. There is a fine line
between ego and pride. Flash Silver is full
of nothing but ego but me, I have pride.
I have pride because I come from a wrestling family. My father is a twelve time world champion and
a hall of famer. My mother is a twelve
time world champion and a hall of famer.
I grew up in this industry and I took pride in watching my mother and
father wrestle. I took pride in my work,
even in loss, so long as I knew that I gave my one hundred percent to my
opponent and to this industry. That is
what pride is all about.”
Jessica
closes up her five fingers into a fist and punches the palm of her other hand. “These five principles create a fist, and I
will use that fist to punch you in the face on New Age. I will use these fists to rearrange your
facial features, to maim and bludgeon you, and to hopefully bring you back down
to reality. I will use these fists to
tear down your dreams and turn them into nightmares. The fact is, Flash, that being a savior comes
with severe consequences that you may not have thought about. Every savior, every hero, has a villain.”
An angry
glare enters her eyes. “I am The Morning
Star. Dobranoc…”
