Post by Kenzie Rydell on Apr 23, 2017 3:32:05 GMT
DATE: 04/22/17
CAMERA STATUS: ON / OFF
"Hey! Kenzie here."
With an exaggerated wave, Kenzie greeted you as the YouTube video began to play. Sitting on her bed in the heart of San Jose, it looked like she just woke up without any makeup. Decked out in a pair of shorts and a large pink night shirt, the woman smiled wide to the camera phone in the palm of her hand.
"It's been a while since I've done one of these, huh? Just made a video talking to all of you on a personal level like this?"
Smiling wide with starry hazel eyes, Kenzie didn't look like everyone else who taped their promotional video every week or so with an agenda on her mind. No. She looked like a girl who wanted to share her message with you and no one else.
"When I was in your position, watching wrestling on the couch or in the bedroom, I realized that I couldn't relate to anyone. On one side of the spectrum, oiled up macho strongmen demolished everything in their path with a winning smile and a cocky personality. On the other end stood models who looked like they were chiseled out of marble — women who personified sex to attract every 13-year-old boy to the television. Some were coated in angst, mysterious hardcore monsters who scoured the arena for someone to destroy and others who brooded to themselves like sparkly vampires from Twilight. You had your typical asshole douche and the common ice queen bitch who never get their comeuppance..."
Kenzie paused, leaning backward as she eyed the camera lens with a serious tone in every word she spoke.
"Some people kept to their morals for a long time, determined to do the right thing as the crowd showered them with approval. Then — for relatively no reason — they'd betray the morals that made them famous and decide to use dastardly tricks to get to their goal instead. Hell, some women act cute and harmless, oblivious to everything around them in every sense of the word like they embody the definition of innocent, but you know what? I can't relate to that either. Can you?"
Beginning to sound a little more aggressive, Kenzie didn't stop for a moment as her eyebrows furrowed and her teeth clenched.
"Can you relate to the models who look like they just stepped right out of the nearest Playboy magazine? Can you relate to the assholes who blindly fuck over anyone in their way, even when that means burning every bridge they've ever built? Can you relate to the edgelords who angst more than Batman like teenagers who can't get over the fact that My Chemical Romance broke up? No."
She shook her head.
"Unless you were blessed with stunning good looks, you probably don't relate to the models. Unless you've faced your own unspeakable hardships, you probably don't relate to the hulking monsters with a dark past. You might be a fan, sure. You might even love it when the monster causes havoc or the asshole douche wins the gold, but when was the last time you were able to put yourself in their shoes?"
"When was the last time you could completely sympathize with anyone in this sport?Aside from the occasional wince once a favorite of yours gets powerbombed through an announce table, I'm going out on a limb and guessing never."
"I could be wrong. I could be way off the mark. My point is... That was my experience. That's what I felt every time I watched wrestling week after week just like you're probably doing right now. It might not seem like it sometimes with everyone saying they're better than everyone else but wrestling is the biggest equalizer in sports. It's just hard for people to step out of the comfort zone of the pre-established personalities that still exist to this day."
Flashing her hazel hues to the camera, she gave special attention to you who watched the video on the screen of your choice.
"Who are you? What's your gender? What's your sexual orientation? How much do you weigh? What's your height? None of that matters. The only thing that matters is whether or not you're determined enough to get the proper training and whether or not you're willing to work hard to get what you want. Even the people who take shortcuts have to work hard, whether they admit it or not."
"I became a wrestler because I love this sport. I became a wrestler because I wanted to show people that you can do anything as long as you work hard enough at it. I became a wrestler because I wanted you to relate to at least one person on your television twice a month, and I wanted you to understand that every ounce of success I've gained thus far is because of you. You're the reason I get up every morning. You're the reason I bust my ass in that ring every single match and you're the reason I'll keep fighting until I feel like I can't do it anymore!"
Swallowing a piece of saliva down her throat, Kenzie took a deep breath and changed the subject a little.
"I've been thinking... The closest I have to a dark past is when my grandmother died a couple years ago. My over-protective parents are still alive and my younger sister Megan still loves me too - even when she doesn't show it all the time. We've moved from place to place and my dad was part of a war that never should have happened — a war that supposedly gave way to ISIS — but that's small potatoes when you compare it to nearly everyone else in this sport, right?"
"Sure, I wasn't good at keeping friends when I was constantly moving away. I wasn't the most popular kid in school who constantly attended party after party. I was the kid who spent her nights studying for the next test or playing video games in her room. The worst night I've probably ever had was televised at NGW City Of Sin, but I won't get into that again."
You vividly remembered the disaster that was NGW City Of Sins, but before you had time to even give it a second thought, she continued to speak.
"When I look at people like Chris Night, I literally can't even imagine what it's like to be him right now. I heard what he said about his parents. I heard what he said about the rest of his family. He burned down the house where he grew up in an attempt to escape the past that followed him like the plague, and I hate to say it, but..."
Her voice grew strong.
"I can't relate to him either."
Those eyes of yours widened.
"Sure. I feel bad. I feel horrible about what happened to the guy just like I'm sure anyone else who's not a sociopath would tell you. It's just that I can't relate to anyone who decided that it's a good idea to run away from the parents who loved him without a doubt enough to search for him when he disappeared. I can't relate to someone who would commit arson on their childhood home in an attempt to symbolically move on. I can't relate to someone with all the money and reputation in the world who would rather put everyone else down to make himself seem superior instead of constructively complimenting everyone in a way that could improve #FSociety in its entirely. I can't relate to someone with enough power and influence to create #FSociety — arguably one of the most popular federation within the past year — only to turn around and attack innocent people employed on his own payroll!"
"Like I said. For anyone watching this - I feel bad for him. I feel bad that he felt he needed to run from his parents to find success. I feel bad that he can't sleep most nights because of the night terrors. I admire the fact that he's a self-made man who found boundless success in wrestling without graduating high school or earning a GED, too. That's no joke. That's something to be applauded. And still, none of that makes me relate to him."
"I'm sorry, but I just can't bring myself to relate to a self-made man who barks orders from his ivory tower, commanding people like i10 Connection to attack people like me and Shelley Silver. I can't relate to someone who decided it was a good idea to climb down that ivory tower and attack me personally — it's just never going to happen. Does that make sense to you?"
You realized she wasn't holding back an ounce, speaking her mind the only way she knew how.
After a short pause, Kenzie eyed the camera once again with concern washing over her features.
"Chris... Mr. Night..."
She looked genuine as she addressed the owner of #FSociety with a little caution.
"You might blame yourself every day, and my opinion more than likely means nothing to you, but... It was not your fault. You didn't run away from home with the intention that you wanted your parents to— No. You had your reasons, whether I relate to them or not, and that's the truth."
"Nothing I say will automatically make you understand. I think someone close to you would have to tell you the same thing I'm telling you right now for it to stick. I don't know. All I know is that this match isn't about what happened when you were a kid. This match... It's about The Inferno Network. It's about you and me. It's about the future of wrestling as a whole."
"Wrestlers didn't ruin wrestling. If it wasn't for us — all of us — you wouldn't have been so successful with #FSociety. If it wasn't for us working hard under the #FSociety banner, you'd be twiddling your thumbs and thinking about the past on constant repeat until you went blue in the face."
With a heavy huff, she continued as she rolled to the side of the bed with the camera phone still clutched in her smooth cold palm.
Wrestlers are the reason wrestling exists. People like you are a dime a dozen. Plenty of other owners will rise up where you fall and every single person on the roster that you disrespected - every single member of the roster who busted their asses to earn the company credibility and fill up that bank account of yours in the process... We'll all go elsewhere."
"You didn't deserve our hard work. You didn't deserve the incredible #FSociety matches that put the name Chris Night back on the map. Right now, you're just a worthless talking head who would rather bash the majority of the roster than doing anything remotely productive!"
Kenzie's anger softened down again, if only for a moment.
"The Chris Night I thought I knew wasn't like that. The Chris Night I knew was the one who personally recruited me into #FSociety. He changed. It's either that or he'll pull an Allyson Morrow — 'Oh, I was always like this!' Bullshit. Something changed and you fucking know it!"
Energy suddenly filled her up in an instant.
"I defeated Chuck Matthews and Aurora Graves in the same night. I did what just a handful of people have done when I kicked out of the Adrien Cutter. I held a middle-tier championship within a few months of going professional and I've held my own against more multi-time world champions within less than two years in the sport than most! I've proven I can beat legends before and I've proven that I'm not the little girl who stepped on the scene in 2015. So you think I can't beat a fallen Chris Night when the ivory tower is ready to crumble? You think I can't defeat a man who only laid me out because he attacked me from behind? Wrong!"
"See, this isn't Kenzie Rydell vs. Chris Night. No. This is #FSociety vs. Chris Night! This is every single fan, every single one of you who had enough of Chris Night's bullshit against the man himself!"
She was talking straight to you now. It filled you with hope.
"Are you anything like me? Can you not relate to anybody else in the sport? I understand. I get it. You want to be yourself. You want to be able to contnue being genuine in everything you do instead of getting trapped in a place you don't want to be. Other people might want you to change. They might want you to act a certain way or do a certain thing but you know what? I like you this way. You're real. You're honest. And that's what I love about my fanbase so much. You're not afraid to be yourself."
"So here's a proposition for you: Live vicariously through me. I'll be your beacon of hope in wrestling. I'll be your connection. I'll be one of the handful of people who you can relate to in this sport, and every success I have will be yours success at the same time. How's that sound?"
"And you know what else? Chris Night wants all of us to 'Fear The Nightmare.' He wants us to be afraid as he prepares to tumble out of that ivory tower and fall flat towards the grass beneath. He wants us to worry, to feel constricted while he takes every ounce of pain he ever felt and reflects it back onto me."
"No."
Kenzie shook her head back and forth.
"Sarah Lacklan wants to call me The Paragon? Fine. I am The Paragon and I'm telling every single one of you watching... Enjoy the dream! I'm about to make it a reality once I send Chris Night's reign of terror crashing to an end."
The YouTube video came to an end.
