Post by Sunny Skye on Oct 23, 2024 22:41:30 GMT -6
Fade in
The Bronx stretches out in front of Sunny, clad in a pair of frayed denim shorts and a long sleeved flannel tied off at her midriff. Her hair is pulled back in a pair of braids, a vintage discman in her hands with a pair of old school over the ear headphones on as she walks down Grand Concourse toward 161st street. The Chuck Taylors add the final vintage touch, making her look like she could belong in EWC’s Rumble in the Bronx on Monday… or back in 2006. She steps aside, pulling a CD from her purse.
She pops it into the player, tucking the discman into her waistband before continuing down the road.
Just a few more days… and it’s me, Yankee Stadium… and the EWC Rumble. I can see it now. My name, lit up on the scoreboard like I’m Aaron Judge. Just pointing out to the crowd, like I’m calling my shot. Pfhew!
Sunny mockingly pops off a finger gun, giggling to herself. In any other city, the people around her would likely give her the strangest looks but…. This is New York City. This isn’t the weirdest thing they’ve seen in the last 20 minutes. She slows her walk, looking over to the Bronx Museum of Arts before she gets a shoulder in the back, knocking her forward. She stumbles, giving a glare to the passerby as they just keep walking.
“Rude…”
The discman starts skipping, and Sunny pulls it from her waistband with a frown. She smacks it a few times, trying to get it to cooperate but the pitch changes and instead of Iggy Swango’s voice, suddenly it’s now Alicia Keys singing in harmony with Jay-Z. Sunny looks at her discman like it’s potentially haunted, but instead looks down at the CD spinning through the window. The blur of pink and purple hues willing her to just… relax.
Follow the music.
Catch me at the X with OG at a Yankee game
Shit, I made the Yankee hat more famous than a Yankee can
Sunny grooves to the beat, her gait matching to the rhythm as the camera crew struggles to match her vibe in the process.
“New York really is a state of mind, isn’t it? You know, you can do things here that just don’t make sense anywhere else in the world. You can go vibe in the middle of Times Square with a naked cowboy. You can walk a camera crew down the street and nobody bats an eye. I couldn’t live here, but I respect it. I respect the power this city has. And when I think about the Rumble and the people in it, I think about the people who I just don’t think respect the power this match has. People like Nika Kosov. Rick Rampage. Ace Sky. They see the opportunity, and they jump for it… but I just don’t know if they know what winning this means, you know? I’ve been to Wrestlefest. I’ve been in front of that crowd, championship on the line. I know that pressure. And while Chelsea Skye and Phoenix Winterborn might know that pressure? I’ve overcome it. I walked out of Wrestlefest with championship gold over my shoulder. It’s not that it’s impossible for them to win, but the odds aren’t great when you don’t have the experience to draw from. Look at the last like… seven years’ worth of Rumble winners. They’re not exactly lacking credentials.”
Sunny stutter steps, nearly causing the camera crew to topple into her as she pauses at the intersection of 164th street. The jolt causes the discman to skip, the lyrics buffering before a familiar beat drops. Her lip twitches, a smile spreading across her face as the walk symbol appears and she shimmies and struts through the crosswalk.
Bring it on, ring the alarm
Don't stop now, just be the champion
Her own theme song rattles through the headphones, a fellow pedestrian joining in with the strut alongside Sunny with a laugh before going her own way. She pops herself up onto the curb with a stomp, looking over her shoulder to the camera man.
“You better work bi….”
She drifts off, seeing the toddler playground in front of her before pressing her finger to her lips with a wink.
“Anyway, like I was saying. It’s going to be hard work out there. I might have the upper hand on those other guys because I’ve won a championship, but there are plenty of others in the field who have too. Pretty much everybody else has. Hell we have two mystery people in the Rumble and even if they’ve both never won gold in EWC that’s still well over half the field who have. And five of ‘em that want it really bad though... Mercenary, ZERO, Jack Severn, Amis Shelton, and Marcu$ $t John. None of them have ever been the Undisputed champion. Marcu$ wants it so badly, he was willing to put it all on the line and called his spot to be the first one in the match. But you know who else wants it really badly? You want to know who doesn’t just want it, but needs it to make up for having the biggest fall on her face moment in EWC history since Natalie Young’s epic collapse at Night of Champions 2018?
Me.
From Undefeated to Unacceptable. That’s what happened to me this season. Absolutely embarrassing, after I put the work in on Darkwater alongside Narumi at Parabellum.. Just to get myself absolutely annihilated by ZERO. I was the first one eliminated in Brand Warfare, and I won’t let it happen again. I don’t care what I have to do. I don’t care what sacrifice I have to make. I worked so hard to get where I am today, I’m not letting everyone’s memory of me this season be the girl who got left a sweaty, squished mess on the canvas in Phuket.”
Ahead the Lorelei fountain rises up above the trees, and Sunny approaches the fenceline. Leaning against it, she admires the marbled statute. She leans on the discman button and the song changes. Staring at the statue, she sees herself in the marble. Her NextGen championship win in effigy, title raised in the air in South Africa.
I can still hear you saying
You would never
break the chain
break the chain
“I don’t want to be remembered as the girl who was left in Phuket. And I won’t be.” She affirms, her voice growing confident as she continues to the sound of Fleetwood Mac, “but there are those in EWC who have already cemented legacies that they will never be able to outrun. Candy being the first to be Indysputed. El Pablo’s legendary run with the X-Division championship. Ace King’s inconceivable 777-day reign as US champion. Ito’s 334 day reign as North American champion. Even though Ace King has won the Undisputed Championship twice - and was the first to successfully defend the Undisputed championship in the Insanity Cage - he’s known by 777. El Pablo’s racking up championships like Infinity Stones, but he’s the guy everyone thinks of when they think of the Hardcore championship. These are legacies these men are never going to be able to break away from. Those chains are going to tie them to those successes for the rest of their careers. And sure, I’m the first NextGen champion… a status that no matter what happens in the EWC, no one will ever be able to take from me, but that’s not a legacy. Ask anyone else in this match - I’m sure that it’s no legacy to anyone else out there. And it’s why it’s the best weapon in my arsenal on Monday. I have the experience that came with winning it, and none of the legacy that comes from having carried it.”
She looks down at her feet, purple and gold laces in her Chucks bringing a hint of a grin to her face.
“I’ll carry NextGen with me wherever I go, and don’t get me wrong, I will always be proud of what I did there… but it doesn’t weigh on my shoulders the same way that the US title did on Ace. Or Candy’s championships. Or being the Ace of Paramount. It meant everything to me, but it didn’t burden me. It didn’t chain me to the expectations of being the perfect example of that championship. Not like you all. I get to go out there in the Rumble, and I get to win it… so I can go on to Wrestlefest and show the world that I can be the best Undisputed champion, without the baggage of comparison to some legendary run with another championship.”
She pushes herself back up off of the fence, finishing her walk to the corner of the intersection. The scenery goes from lush park to rough - quick - the statue in the park replaced by graffiti covered garage doors. She puts her hand out, stopping the crew who nearly walk past her into a taxi, the boom mic swats her thigh, clipping the discman and the music changes.
Look how far I've come
The wars that I have won
Falling in Reverse spins now, Sunny crossing the street silently. She’s avoided it but…
“I know it’s coming.” she admits, “I let Narumi down, and after Parabellum I’m sure I’m getting somethin’ at Rumble. It doesn’t matter if I worked over Darkwater for her, with her, I’m pretty sure she’ll be after her pound of flesh and I deserve it, I guess. I should’ve worked harder, leading up to that big match… and I let her, and Prime down. But Monday is everyone for themselves. Narumi’s won plenty in her own right, and she’s come within inches of winning this very match - I know how bad she wants this. You think she’ll bat an eye if it’s me in front of her? Shiiiiit…. I’ll be lucky she doesn’t lawn dart me into the outfield.”
Sunny shrugs her shoulders, the glib admission hiding nothing. If anyone is getting a receipt come Monday from Narumi - it’s her.
“But she’s not the only person in there who’s going into this match feeling wronged. Xavier Reid and Cosmo Goldworthy are both in there, just aching for another chance at the Undisputed championship that they feel they’re entitled to. Cosmo thinks he’s simply better than the rest of the field, and well, he’s not exactly wrong. Cosmo’s been good, I mean he’s racked up insane numbers it’s not like he doesn’t have a reason to think he’s better. Stats are stats. Numbers don’t lie. I’m not Scott Steiner, but even I know when the numbers spell disaster. Then there’s Xavier Reid. Guy pulled off what most thought impossible by winning the championship in last year’s Rumble, then won it back at Stranglemania… and now he’s back trying to win back to back Rumble matches and be the second person in EWC history to win three Rumbles. It’s an almost impossible task… but so was Sally Talfourd, right?”
Sunny weaves between boxes and street vendors selling bootleg EWC merch as she gets closer to her destination, lips pursed into a frown.
“It’s the kind of impossibility that makes you look at your own career and wonder how you’re supposed to stack up. How do you compete against folks who’ve got miles on you? But then you remember - this isn’t a normal match. This isn’t about MVP-this or counter-that. This is a match where ego can take over and screw over the best. Favorites have been eliminated early. Underdogs have come out of nowhere to have stellar runs. I have to remind myself - what’s more impossible? Having that underdog moment? Or Xavier having lightning strike for a third time? What’s more likely? I get a lucky break, or Cosmo gets overconfident and goes to level someone right over the top rope with all the glitz and glam of his Gold Rush, and they take him right out with them? All it takes is one slip, one wrong move, and you’re over that top rope and your night is done. Reid and Cosmo are so zeroed in, so focused, they’ve got tunnel vision. They’re looking down the barrel, and they don’t see anything else…. And in a match with nineteen other people? You can’t risk not looking around you. You just can’t.”
The concrete jungle breaks away - Yankee stadium dominating the skyline as she looks toward the entrance. The EWC signs are all over the place, plastered over the traditional Yankees posters as the sun has begun to set behind the top of the stadium. The music in her headphones changes all on its own this time, the voice of Iggy Swango crooning.
As we gazed up from this pitch-black world,
the stars looked like they were falling from the night sky.
I wonder when, I started to
Chase after you.
Sunny’s eyes well up, looking skyward as the first of the night stars begin to twinkle in the twilight. An ethereal wink from the cosmos. The security crew waves her and the cameras by, and they weave through the interior of the stadium, toward the dugout.
“I haven’t had the year I hoped for…. But Monday night, everything has the potential to change. I’ve been working my ass off to get better in that ring, thanks to Ozzy, and I’ve been chasing opportunity after opportunity ever since I got called up to the main roster almost two years ago. I might’ve complained about it at the beginning of this season, that I was undefeated and overlooked… but there’s something that there’s no overlooking. Winning the Rumble, main eventing Wrestlefest this year? Getting that Undisputed Title shot? Nobody can overlook that. Nobody can just write that off to somebody else. I said it earlier - I not only want this, but I need this.”
Sunny steps out of the dugout, the ring half assembled over second base as the stadium lights have come on to bathe the field in a glow.
“This isn’t a match built for my strengths, in a traditional sense. I’m not going to be able to out lift, out throw my opponents. I have to out think them, I have to out pace them. I have to out hunger them. If they’re trying to throw me a curveball, I need to check my swing and not get suckered into their game. There are plenty of people in this match who are going to try and make this a battle of making people play their game…. But I promise, none of you are familiar with mine.”
She reaches down into her purse, pulling out a pair of Iggy’s iconic sunglasses before placing them onto her face as she looks toward the scoreboard in the outfield. She can see it now… fireworks exploding above Yankee stadium, the feeling of hair clinging to her neck with sweat, with her arm raised high.
Destination - Wrestlefest.
Fade out.