The sun was setting in Texas. It was a brutally hot day today, in the 100's. Jenny has stayed inside most of the day, getting a massage, her toes down, swimming a few laps in the pool, and checking her social media pages. RLF would be back in September, and she could go back to kicking ass and taking names, but she figured she would stick around XWF for a little bit longer. Something about this place, as fucked up as it is, is captivating. She even got her nails done in the colors. Toes blue, fingers black. If she's gonna come back, she may as well come back right.

The scene comes on with Jenny, laying face down on her bed, her legs kicking slightly. She has on a pair of booty shorts and a cami top. Next to the bed is the table she pulled over with the bottle of wine she ordered, and a half-full glass on it. She has the clicker in her hand, but isn't pressing the buttons. The TV in front of her seems to be playing some sort of action movie, but the camera is able to pick up the XWF logo in the bottom right corner. It was XWF TV.

Her phone illuminates and begins to vibrate. She picks it up, looking at it with a smile before answering.

"Hayyyy girl. Crazy night the other night huh?"

"Hell yeah, I'm still hung over. I don't drink like that. At all, really."

"Lightweight" she said with a giggle.

"I can't believe that guy's wife showed up! And she was pregnant! Insane!"

"Girl, please, that's a Monday morning in Vegas. You gotta get out more."

They both agreed.

"So what are ya doin?"

"Eh, thats a good question. I am watching TV, and I decided to turn on the XWF network, see how the 'new era' is promoting themselves. For some odd reason, I've been stuck on what looks like a movie for the last 35 minutes."

"A movie?"

"Yeah, seems like it. There haven't been any commercials, and there are a bunch of strange men talking and running around, talking all fancy and rambling on about some attack on some compound."

"Hmmmm.......does your room have HBO?"

"I think so."

"It is a Game of Thrones re-run?"

"No, they aren't dressed like Zelda. Though, the main character does have the same physical characteristics as Peter Dinklage."

"Hmmmm....."

"It strikes me as like a cross between Battlestar Galactica and The 4400. Except the acting is worse."

"That's hard to do"

"Yeah it really makes no sense to me at all. I am wondering if like maybe XWF TV got hacked or something?"

"Not likely."

Just then Jenny heard something on the TV and gasped.

"OOOOOOOOOOOH MY GOD! ITS A THADDEUS DUKE ORIGIN STORY! He is still doing these?! Holy Hell, I thought these would have died out years ago."

Megan, apparently having flipped to the same channel, now gave off an audible "ahh" on her end too.

"I just heard him say Thaddeus."

"So did I. But this has absolutely nothing to do with the match we have. It's just him running around trying to be Jack Bauer."

"Maybe it is one of those things that you have to watch multiple parts to follow the story?"

"Who would want to watch this more than once? I feel bad enough I am watching it once.

"I bet there are some people who like it, a niche market, you know? Like Bronies, Glamberts, Whovians, The BeyHive?"

"Oh for sure. This most certainly has its fandom cults, I can see it already."

"Anyone you know?"

"I can see Vinnie liking this. After he is done with his Fortnite, he probably throws on some 80's rock, pops open his 1 liter Mountan Dew, orders Lil Ceasers and has a giddy old time."

They both giggle.

"I mean Duke seems to have a hard-on for him and this place, wouldn't be surprised if it goes the other way around, too."

"Girl, you're bad."

"You knew this."

"You aren't worried about them being pissed?"

"In a company that rewards trolls? No way. Some of the shit you see here, you wonder if everyone is mentally unstable. I've seen some stuff on the airwaves here that even I have gasped at."

"Shocker."

"But this.....this is just.......bland. This shouldn't be on wrestling airwaves. This shouldn't be something that their fanbase should be subjected to. Holy hell, this could put a meth-head to sleep!"

"But aren't the average wrestling fans kinda nerdy anyway?"

"Yes, but I mean...this isn't Attack on Titan nerd, its not Dungeons and Dragons nerd....hell this isn't' even Toonami nerd. This is like National Geographic nerd."

She shudders into the phone.

"That's the worst kind."

"The absolute worst."

Then the girl talk shifted a bit, taking a more serious tone.

"So what if you lose?"

Jenny took a moment to answer this one. Duke's sci-fiction movie droned on in the back.

"First off, I am not going to lose to him. But, lets say I do....I have lost nothing, really. I am still the champion he never could be, I'm still a bigger name than him, I am still the hotter commodity. I have literally nothing to lose. All the pressure in this match is on him. He needs this a hell of a lot more than I do. I have everyone in that building rooting against me. Imagine if I come back after all this time and beat their golden boy? He wouldn't be able to show his face around the XWF....and we know how much he loves to do that!"

"I like your approach."

"As you should."

There was a bit of a silence on the line for a moment as Jenny looked at her newly black nails.

"So what would your fandom groupies be called?"

"I thought you'd never ask. I was thinking Mystics!"

"Isn't that an old lady cigarette?"

"I think its a juice....."

"Yeah, that too."

"Well, do you have a better one?"

"Myst-icles?"

There was another silence on the line before Jenny, who was smiling ear to ear, exploded.

"I LOVE YOU! For real, this is why I pay you the big bucks."

"You don't pay me anymore."

"Just let me have this one."

They giggled together for what seemed to be a too-long amount of time.

"Okay, I can't watch this garbage anymore. I'll turn it back on when it gets to something of substance. Text me when the 'trash talk' starts."

"You got it."

They hung up and Jenny set it next to her , smiling and filling her glass of red wine.

As she flipped the channels, she came across a fall movie marathon. Halloween Movies had started already. Freddy Kruger came up on her screen, and she happened to time it just right.

"WELCOME TO MY WORLD, BITCH" he grumbled out.

"Now there is something I can get behind!" the camera faded out as the victims scream echoed in the background.


"Oh Dukey,

I see nothing has changed on this end. Still so simplistic, still more Vanilla than nursing home ice cream. Still not seeing the bigger picture, and still holding yourself in a higher class than you belong. People change, ego's don't. It's not flattering. A little defensive, are we? Perhaps I have struck a chord? Perhaps I have uncovered your delusional mind frame and exposed your undeserved sense of self worth and brought it into the light. Perhaps you aren't ready to accept your mediocrity just yet. That's okay, its not an easy thing to do. I mean, if I were in a company loaded with the best talent in the world and were just a place holder, a paperweight, I'd be a little upset too. All this hooplah from you about how good you are, but what have you really done Duke? Where do you fit in the giant XWF puzzle? You're a pinhead on the XWF map, Duke, but you walk around with the same chest-puffing arrogance of a Robert Main or a James Raven. You want us to believe you've accomplished anything here. You want us to believe that you have blue and white pom-poms and are all in on the XWF when you're just as frustrated and disenchanted on the inside as the rest of us....you just don't have the balls to leave it behind. You rah-rah in their corner when you've been nothing but a card-filler for YEARS. They don't care about you, never have. You know it, but you are too stubborn to chalk it up as a loss, lick your wounds, go somewhere else and be successful.

Oh my god.......

You're Chris Chaos!

Sorry babe but its true.

You even comprehend things at a Chris Chaos level then try to throw them back in people's faces with a "oh yeah, well you're a....."style playground diss. Tisk tisk. Maybe you should go back behind the swing-set and think this through a little more. This title, you know what a title is I assume, though I wouldn't be surprised if its a foreign concept to you, is equal to the Hart in where it sits in the title rankings for RLF. I know damn well we aren't as established as XWF or as the Hart Title itself. Stop dick riding, it's not flattering. They wouldn't do the same for you. Strong words defending a title you've never held, Thad. Defending a title that Dolly Waters, the only reason Thaddeus Duke isn't permanently out of the history books completely, held it twice. Strong words from someone whose only famous for a last name. The only Duke with any sort of substantial title history around here was named Sebastian. But Thaddeus? No. You're as useful as Anne Frank's drum kit. Face it, Duke, you're a load that should have been swallowed.

For real, I mean, out of all the sperm, the one that made YOU was the fastest?

Duke I don't just look good, I transcend. I set trends. I change divisions and alter rosters. I am successful everywhere I go. You're barely successful, and you've only been here. That is the difference. Like I said, I am here for a match, but I was hoping it was with someone better. Someone who didn't talk a game 10 times bigger than their capabilities. Someone who can I can at least say "damn, that's a big challenge." I can't say that about you. I am more worried about ring rust during my off time during this RLF hiatus than I am about Thaddeus Duke actually dominating me. Puh-leeze. You see me as the same person because you are only capable of seeing one dimension. Typical male. You claim I am the same "artificial, superficial, self-important bitch that left the XWF all those months ago." Well, first off, this is all natural. Jealous? Thought so. Superficial? Why, because I demand respect and only associate myself with greatness? Sounds jealous to me. Self-important? Am I any less 'self-important' than you are? Do I hold myself in any higher regard than you hold yourself? For god sakes Thad, I know its a scary sight but look in the mirror every once and a while. While you went on your little hiatus, doing whatever the hell it was that you were doing, I was competing in Main Events and running this very show. I left, Duke, not because I wanted a place where the competition was weaker, but because I was going stale. I had done everything I needed to do here, and I needed to re-invent myself. I needed to take a step away and collect myself. This place wears on you, we both know that. Not to mention I was injured. If you did your research you'd realize that I had back issues ever since my match with Brock Lesnar way back in the day. The doctors said it was a good idea for me to step away from active competition for a bit. So that is what I did. Then I went to what some would consider the minor leagues for a rehab assignment, was successful, and now I am back here. Professionals do it all the time, but I don't see you trashing them. I see you deflecting your own insecurities. I see a little boy in a little boys body, throwing a tantrum because he can't be right. There is no excuse to look like a boy band burnout, and act like one too.

Grow up.

But it's fine, because as much as you want to hurl the same tired insults you hurled at me the first time we squared off, I know how much I have grown. I know how my progress has gone, and I know that I am better than you now, Thad. I have the resume, I've been better than you for a long time. You're outdated. You're tired. You're obsolete. You’re the human version of Internet Explorer. You're a putrescent mass, a walking vomit. You are a spineless little worm deserving nothing but the profoundest contempt. You are a jerk, a cad, and a weasel. I take that back; you are a festering pustule on a weasel's rump. Your life is a monument to stupidity. You are a stench, a revulsion, a big suck on a sour lemon. I will never get over the embarrassment of belonging to the same species as you. You are a monster, an ogre, a malformity. I barf at the very thought of you. You have all the appeal of a paper cut. Lepers avoid you. You are vile, worthless, less than nothing. You are a weed, a fungus. You are a technicolor yawn. If cluelessness were crude oil, your scalp would be crawling with caribou. You are so clueless that if you dressed in a clue skin, doused yourself in clue musk, and did the clue dance in the middle of a field of horny clues at the height of clue mating season, you still would not have a clue.

Oh My God, You really ARE CHRIS CHAOS!

Thaddues, you were right about something. If I were to die, nobody would miss me. Those who hate me would rejoice, those who 'love' me would keep silent, for they no longer have a reason to be jealous of my progress. I singled myself out because the only one I can rely on is myself. I like it this way. Drink some more of that hater-ade and don't let the door hit you on the way out.

This week I have a chance to put you through a table and shut you up for good. How did I get so lucky?

This is my world, and you should be thankful I am allowing you to live in it.

Its not easy being Queen.