Best of the Best

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Best of the Best

Scene 1

Off Camera

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Change is important in life.  Science has proven that if you do not change and adapt to your environment then life will pass you by and, eventually, you will go extinct.  It happened to the dinosaurs, it happened to the dodo bird, and it will happen to any and every creature, no matter how great and no matter how small, who dares ignore the reality of evolution and natural selection.

For the longest time in her wrestling career, Corey Jones was known as Jessica Lasiewiccz and people knew her as the woman who fought against the bad guys and the villains within the sport.  She was the woman who stood up for what was right, who stood up for the “little guy” as their defender.  But that grew old quickly, and not just as she was getting compared to her father, the infamous Andreas Lasiewicz, but also because she was only helping others to break free of the shackles that bound them so that they could achieve their goals.  Never once did she consider achieving her own goals.  She tried to be unselfish about her wrestling career but maybe, just maybe, it was time for her to be a little selfish.  Maybe it was time for her to think about herself.

Step one was to reinvent herself and she did with a name change.  She dropped “Jessica Lasiewicz” and went by her middle name of “Corey” and her mother’s last name of Jones.  She wanted to maintain the Jones identity because it spoke of and demanded respectability.  Step two was a difficult one for Corey and it was not one she was readily able to accept.  She needed to quit trying to be someone she wasn’t.  She needed to quit being a different person for different people just to help them.  She needed to be herself so that she could help herself.

She had always played the role of hero or vigilante for so long, a role that really wasn’t her at all, that she forgot who she truly was.  She forgot how to be who she really was.  To top it all off, Corey had so much  going on in her life that she had no idea how to control it all, how to balance it all, and how to find through all that mess who she really was.  Corey Jones was…

…Kyle Butler’s girlfriend.

…a student at Duke University, studying accounting.

…a cheerleader for Duke University.

…a GCW wrestler.

…an SCW wrestler.

That being said, who is the real Corey Jones?  This is a question that she is seeking answers to herself.  In a way it is an adventure, an exciting adventure.   And if all things go the way she has planned, then by the end of the adventure she will have her college education and she will be well on her way to a successful wrestling career not just as the daughter of Angelica Jones and Andreas Lasiewicz but as herself, as Corey Jones.

With every good plan there are bumps in the road, or obstacles if you will, that will try to hinder your progress.  In Corey’s case the biggest obstacle is the aforementioned issue of how is she going to balance all of this?  It’s already proven difficult for her.  While she did defeat Dylan Howell in the Shot of Adrenaline Tournament, the loss to Selena Frost in that same tournament ensured that she would not make the semi-finals.  Corey would not get booked for quite awhile until she finally got another match, this one against Gigi Steward.  Unfortunately, that match also turned into a loss for Corey.

Now SCW’s Best of the Best Tournament is coming up and while she is in the tournament, a first round match against Greg Cherry, she still can’t help but feel that the only reason she is even in this tournament is because it is generally expected that every SCW wrestler on the roster should actively participate, including those, like Corey, who have not been doing well as of late.

Still, this is a rare chance for Corey to pull off an upset and prove that she is still a threat in SCW.  For starters, no one expects her to do anything in the tournament.  If she is underestimated, she could fly in under the radar and win the whole thing.  Another thing working in Corey’s favor is the fact that her beloved Duke Blue Devils have been eliminated from the NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament.  With Duke out of the tournament, Corey can now take a full length break from cheerleading and focus only on her professional wrestling.

And even still, while some distractions go away, there are other distractions that rear their ugly head.

Summer Newman and Corey Jones met when Summer was Summer Collins and Corey was still going by Jessica Lasiewicz.  They were professional rivals at first but grew to respect one another and, eventually bonded and finally had a friendship for one another.  As a team they were unstoppable.  As friends they were inseparable.  They were there for one another through thick and thin, including the lowest point of both of their professional careers.

In GCW they feuded with Golden Era, a team made up of Neil Newman and Kyle Butler.  The pair thought traditional wrestling was dying a slow death and that they were the only ones who could save it.  Among the things they felt they needed to do to save it was force women to quit wrestling, claiming that it was a “man’s sport” and not for women.

Summer and Corey would get the better of Neil and Kyle nearly every time they fought but that didn’t stop the male chauvinists from coming back.  They were annoying and very persistent.  Finally it was Corey who spoke up, against Summer’s better wishes, and convinced Neil and Kyle to put their wrestling careers on the line in one more match.  Neil and Kyle agreed only if Summer and Corey would agree to become their cheerleader valets if they lost.

Summer was hesitant about agreeing to the match and with good reason because on that night Golden Era managed to defeat Summer and Corey, thus subjugating them to cheerleader valets.  Months passed by and both women began to feel their wrestling careers could be over but they never once abandoned the other.  Quitting GCW was an option but they did not take the easy way out.  They stayed by each other’s side.  That’s how close they were to one another.

Eventually things would change.  Neil and Kyle would change as they grew to legitimately care for Summer and Corey, and vice versa.  Neil and Kyle allowed the ladies to wrestle again.  Summer would start dating Neil and Corey would start dating Kyle.  Now Summer is married to Neil and Corey is hoping that Kyle will pop the question to her one day.  But for now her focus is entirely on her best friend Summer.

Summer had been pregnant with Neil’s child until a psychopath with a sledgehammer drilled her in the gut, causing her to lose the baby.  Corey realizes that perhaps the best thing for her is to be preparing for Best of the Best but at the same time her friend needs to come first.  Summer suffered a great loss and she wants to be there for her right now more than ever.

Corey is sitting on a couch in the waiting area of a local hospital.  She watches nervously as her boyfriend Kyle paces the floor, seemingly more anxious than her.  Corey is wearing a knee length blue skirt (Duke blue obviously) a blue and white floral print blouse, and high heeled sandals.  Her long red hair is pulled into a ponytail in the back.

“I don’t think pacing is going to help anything, Kyle.  Unless you’re trying to create a moat.”

Despite himself and despite the tense situation that brings them here today, Kyle cannot help but chuckle a little at Corey’s response.

“That’s what I love about you, Corey.  You can always bring a smile to my face.”

“Someone has to.”

Corey stands up.  She walks over to Kyle and grabs him by the hands and then leans in and plants a gentle kiss on his cheek.  Shortly thereafter, the door creaks open.  Corey and Kyle turn to see Neil Newman, Summer’s husband, step into the lobby.  His putting up a strong front, trying to look unshaken, but clearly he, too, has been crying from this whole affair.  Newman approaches Corey and Kyle.

“I hate to break this up.”

“What’s wrong?”

Corey asks with a nervous look on her face.  Neil shakes his head.

“Nothing, just Summer wants to see you.”

Corey nods her head and then follows Neil back through the door.  Neil leads her down a hall, a hall colored in a dull blue paint with an off white floor tile.  Eventually to a room where Summer has been staying.  The hospital room is of the same dull blue paint and off white tile floor, only the walls here happen to be decorated with a few paintings.  There are also flowers here, brought in by friends and family of Summer Newman.   Summer herself is sitting up in bed, which is a good sign considering what she just went through.  Corey approaches the bed and immediately grabs Summer by her hand.

“Oh Summer!   How are you coping, sweetie?”

“I’m coping as best as you can imagine.”

Summer says this with a clearly forced smile on her face.  Corey looks at her and sighs.

“Yeah and I can’t imagine.  No one can imagine what you just went through.”

Corey shakes her head.

“People like that should be locked up.”

“I can’t say I blame her, Corey.”

Corey blinks her eyes a few times in surprise upon hearing this.

“What are you saying?  She caused you to lose your baby!”

“Yes, because she is psychotic and she is psychotic because I MADE her that way through how I treated her.  It’s a weird, twisted version of karma, but no one said karma was normal.  Karma is a bitch, isn’t it?”

Corey frowns and shakes her head again.

“I don’t believe that.  I don’t believe any of that.”

“Still, it’s the truth.”

Summer laughs lightly.

“And the funny thing is, I was going to retire after this and be a full time cheerleader valet for my husband Neil.”

“Really?”

Summer nods her head.

“Yeah, that was the plan anyway.  When we first met Neil and Kyle they forced us to serve as their cheerleader valets.  Now I’m married to Neil, you’re dating Kyle, you are a Duke cheerleader and I was going to willingly be Neil and Kyle’s cheerleader valet after I retired from wrestling.  We have truly come full circle, haven’t we?”

Summer sighs.

“I guess I won’t be returning to a wrestling arena at all…”

Corey squeezes Summer’s hands tightly.

“You’re right, we have come full circle, but there is no way in hell I’m letting you just give up like this.”

“Corey, sweetie, it just doesn’t make sense anymore.  It’s just too dangerous, especially with psychopaths like…”

“NO!”

Corey shouts loudly to interrupt Summer in mid-sentence.

“You are NOT going to let a maniac like the one who attacked you determine your future for you!  You are a strong, powerful woman who can determine her own future!  Now tell me, do you want to be Neil and Kyle’s cheerleader valet?”

Summer nods her head weakly.

“…yeah.”

“Then do it.  Furthermore, do you really want your wrestling career to be over?”

Summer stares at Corey.  Their eyes meet as they study one another intensely.  Finally Summer speaks.

“Honestly?”

“Yes, honestly.”

“I honestly did want to retire, but after this,  I don’t want to.  I don’t want to give her the satisfaction of knowing she made me quit altogether.”

“Then don’t quit!  Don’t give her that satisfaction!”

“It’s so much easier for you to say, Corey!  You don’t have that fear I have…”

Corey smirks.

“Do you really want to talk about fear?  My parents are both certifiable maniacs who could snap at a moment’s notice, and yet both Angelica Jones and Andreas Lasiewicz are incredibly talented and successful wrestlers.  Imagine the fear of having to live up to that standard while, at the same time, trying to overcome the shadow of their psychosis?  I will always have the fear that no matter what I do to make a name for myself that I will always be compared to my mother and my father. But did I ever quit?”

Corey shakes her head.

“I never quit.  I kept going out to the ring week in and week out and did my own thing.  It was hard for me at first to learn to do my own thing and still to this day it is hard but I do it.  I do it because I have to.  I win some, I lose some, but from now on I will always be just one person, and that person isn’t ‘The Daughter of Angelica Jones’ or ‘The Daughter of Andreas Lasiewicz’, that person is an accounting student, cheerleader, and a pro-wrestler, that person is me, Corey Jones.”

Corey gazes down at Summer, grinning from ear to ear.

“Now I have Best of the Best coming up in SCW.  I could go out there, be eliminated in the first round, and you know what I’ll hear?  I’d hear about how my mother or father  could probably have done better.  But guess what?  Do I care?”

She shakes her head.

“I don’t care.  This isn’t about them.  This is about me and my career.  Now as for you and your career, Summer, you just need to ask yourself are you going to be ruled by fear or are you going to get out there and do what you want with your career?”

Tears are forming in Summer’s eyes, despite the smile that is also forming on her face as she nods her head.

“You’re right, Corey.  You are absolutely right.  I will not let that psychopath decide what I do with the rest of my career.”

Corey leans down and the two women embrace.

“Thanks, Corey…”

“Anytime, Summer.”

Corey and Summer break the embrace.  Corey then walks out of the door, while Neil stays behind to be with Summer.  Corey walks back down the hall and back into the lobby.  Immediately back in the lobby Corey finds Kyle still pacing.  She shakes her head and sighs.

“Still pacing, I see.”

“Yeah…”

She gently guides him back to the couch.  She sits down first and then pulls him down onto the couch, sitting down right next to her.  She gazes into his eyes lovingly, warmly.

“There’s nothing we can do right now, Kyle.”

“I know, it’s just…it’s just…”

He shakes his head.

“…it’s so frustrating!  How could a psychopath like that be allowed anywhere near an arena full of innocent people?  She should’ve been locked up an asylum, not allowed anywhere near Summer.”

“Calm down, Kyle.”

“I can’t calm down, Corey, not until that psychotic bitch pays what she did to Summer and Neil.  They would’ve been…”

He stifles back tears.

“…they would’ve been great parents.”

“And they might still be someday.”

She squeezes Kyle’s hands tightly.

“But you need to calm down.   Seriously, Kyle, you seem to be taking this harder than Neil did.”

“Well maybe I am?  But I think I have the appropriate reaction because actions like that shouldn’t even be allowed in the ring, backstage, or anywhere near a wrestling ring! It just isn’t right!”

“Are you really worried about Neil and Summer…”

Corey kisses Kyle on the cheek.

“…or are you worried about me?”

“What do you mean?”

Corey grins knowingly.

“I can read you like a book, Kyle.  It’s not hard to figure you out.  Tell me, what’s wrong?”

Kyle sigh sand nods his head.

“Fine…it’s just, this happened in GCW to Summer.  I watch SCW, especially when you’re on…”

“You better watch when I’m on!”

Kyle rolls his eyes.

“…anyway, but I do watch SCW and I see some of the things that happen; I saw what Trinity Street did to CHBK, I saw what Red Rayne has been getting away with doing to Mr. D’s own daughter, I see Jake Starr and his nearly daily blindside chair shot attacks, unstable maniacs like Dylan  Howell still employed, and you even have people considered normal, like Dawn Lohan, who once thought of Red Rayne as her mother…”

Kyle sighs and bows  his head.

“…I just don’t want anything to happen to you.”

“Nothing is going to happen to me, Kyle.  I promise.”

“Really?  Not even in Best of the Best?  You are in the same bracket as Red Rayne, Jake Starr, and Nicole Kinnick, three dangerous individuals.”

Corey smirks and shakes her head.

“I appreciate the concern but I will be fine.  I’m not easily manipulated like Mr. D’s daughter nor am I afraid of Red Rayne.  And it’ll take more than a steel chair to keep me down.  Besides, I have to get through Greg Cherry first.  One match at a time, right?”

“I guess you’re right, I just get worried, you know?”

He embraces Corey in a tight hug.

“I don’t want anything happening to my future wife.”

“Nothing will happen to your future wi…”

It’s at that moment that what Kyle just said begins to sink in.

“…future wife?!”

Kyle nods his head and then produces a ring, placing it on Corey’s finger.

“Jessica Corey Jones-Lasiewicz…”

Despite herself she giggles.

“You don’t have to use my full name!”

“Sure I do, it’s tradition.  Now where was I?  Oh yes…Jessica Corey Jones-Lasiewicz, will you marry me?”

Corey doesn’t waste any time.  She nods her head vehemently.

“Yes!  Yes I will!”

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Best of the Best

Scene 2

On Camera

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The camera feed begins to roll on the basketball court of the famous Cameron Indoor Stadium in Durham, North Carolina, home of the Duke Blue Devils.  Corey Jones hops and skips into the scene from stage left, wearing her Duke color cheerleading uniform, her long red hair pulled into a ponytail in the back.  She steps into center screen and, with a wide jubilant grin on her face, begins to speak.

“It’s March Madness in college basketball!  The NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament is on and finally we are down to four!”

She flashes four fingers up.

“Well I guess if the NCAA refers to its tournament as March Madness then can the Supreme Championship Wrestling’s Best of the Best Tournament be April Anarchy?”

She shakes her head.

“No?  Oh well, I tried…but the NCAA Tournament and the Best of the Best Tournament DO have a lot in common.  For instance, just as the NCAA Tournament was held in various cities, so will the Best of the Best Tournament.  SCW will be in Buffalo, Orlando, Anaheim, and Omaha as sixty four wrestlers, of which I am included, will fight for dominance until just one wrestler remains, the true Best of the Best in pro-wrestling!”

“Now the NCAA started with sixty eight teams but they are now down to four, just four teams fighting to see which is the best in the nation.  You have your number one seed, Carolina, which would be akin to SCW’s current champions who are in this Best of the Best Tournament, namely Sienna Swann the Women’s Champion, Gable Winchester and Autumn Valentine the world tag team champions, Selena Frost the Adrenaline Champion, Ravyn Taylor the United States Champion, Craig Thomas the Television Champion, and of course, Amy Chastaine, the current SCW World Champion.  Those would be your heavy hitters, just as Carolina is a heavy hitter in this NCAA Tournament, and for a Duke girl to say that about the Tar Holes that’s saying something!”

She winks at the camera.

“Then you have your two number two seeds, Villanova Wildcats and the Oklahoma Boomer Sooners…BAH GAWD!  SLOBBER KNOCKER!  BOOMER SOONERS BAR-B-QUE SAUCE!”

She clears her throat.

“…apologies, but I have always wanted to say that!  Anyway, what was I saying?  Oh right, those number two seeds are good, good enough to even beat the number one Carolina even.  Here they are representative of the athletes in this tournament who, at any given time, could knock off one of our reigning champions. These would people like a former world champion Kennedy Street, a current number one contender Syren, another number one contender Regan Street, and Kelcey Wallace, who holds a Trios contract.”

“Finally you have the Syracuse Orange.  Every year the NCAA Tournament has a Cinderella story and Syracuse is that story.  They are a number ten seed that has made it all the way to the final four.  And if they can somehow manage to topple the number one Carolina, they could make the national championship game and shock the world by winning the whole damn thing.”

Corey pats herself on the chest.

“I am going to be SCW’s Cinderella story. I am going to be the Syracuse of the Best of the Best.  I am a twelve seed up against a five seed named Greg Cherry.  If seeding means anything then I shouldn’t even make it out of the first round.”

Corey shakes her head.

“But I disagree with that logic.  For starters, who the hell decided Greg Cherry deserved a number five seed?  Now I’m not saying my work here in SCW since the last Best of the Best was all that great, but I know for damn sure that I have done MORE than Cherry has this year. He returned for Trios and was eliminated the first round.  I wasn’t even given the chance to participate in Trios.  Thanks for nothing, SCW.”

She sticks her tongue out at the camera.

“What else has he done?  He had a great match against Shaun Cruze…which he also lost, by the way.  Now once again, I don’t want anyone to think I’m being a hypocrite or anything.  I definitely earned this twelve ranking I currently have, but to say Greg Cherry earned such a high ranking is beyond ridiculous.  He lost in Trios, he lost to Cruze, and he will go out in the first round when he loses to me.”

“You can’t stick just to the way it looks on paper.  If the seeding, the statistics, and how things measured up on paper really mattered then Kansas, Oregon, and Virginia would all be in the final four right now, but they are all watching from home while Carolina, Villanova, Oklahoma, and a little underrated, underappreciated, underestimated team like Syracuse is now one step away from the grandest stage of them all in college basketball.”

“I am going to be that underappreciated, underestimated, underrated athlete who refuses to go away, who refuses to quit.  Greg Cherry can knock me down as much as he wants and I will keep getting back up, I will keep coming, and I will eventually beat him.  Then whether its Katelyn Buehler or Seymour Bucks, I’ll face them and no matter how many times they knock me down, I’ll keep kicking out, I’ll get my shoulder up, I’ll make it to the ropes, but however I do it I will not be stopped until I get past them.  Helms, Mason, Green, or Syren?  It doesn’t matter.  I believe in myself even if the SCW management does not.  But whether its Helms, Mason, Green, or Syren, I’ll beat them to make it to the finals of the Buffalo Regional where I could face Red Rayne, I could face one of the lowest ranked wrestlers named Derek Adonis.”

She smirks.

“Hey!  It happened last year!  And unlike some people, I refuse to underestimate anyone.  I will be prepared for anyone in this tournament, because I am the underdog and I relish my role as the underdog.  I know I have the tallest mountain to climb, I know I have the greatest challenge, but I am ready for that challenge and I am ready to prove any doubters and critics that I have wrong, because I know in my heart of hearts that I am the Best of the Best.”

The camera fades to black.