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Angelica Vaughn · (05-05-2023)

Angelica didn’t often do interviews. She often felt uncomfortable, as if the person asking her questions was purposefully trying to undermine her, mock her, or twist her words. That was one of the reasons she didn’t often talk to the backstage interviewers at Warfare, because what was the point? More bad blood between opponents? If wrestling fans couldn’t hype themselves up for a good wrestling match without insults flying back and forth, they weren’t really wrestling fans. The sport spoke for itself, Angelica believed. At least it did when she was a fan.

But she also realized that every now and then, you had to throw the fans a bone, and do it in another format than just a short #CoolTube vlog. So her agent, who she had rehired after forgetting to turn in her paperwork for a recent Warfare episode, had put out some feelers, and had booked Angelica on a wrestling podcast.

”You’re certain this is a good idea?" Angelica asked Edith Seybold. Her agent was a beautiful, platinum blonde woman in her late forties who had represented many top athletes, and had been Angelica’s agent for many years now. They had parted ways for about a week because Edith had claimed she wanted to downsize her client wallet and felt like Angelica had outgrown the need for a micromanaging agent, but Angelica had predictably forgotten to do any of the necessary paperwork right away, and after a phone call full of ugly crying, had agreed to take her on as a client again.

Edith walked up to Angelica and wiped a crease out of her dress and rearranged a lock of hair. She had a stern look on her face, but that was par for the course.

”Of course it is. Get your name out there. There’s five other people competing for the spotlight, you HAVE to go public. Especially considering the kind of loudmouths some of them are. Plus, this guy is no gutter tabloid journalist. He’s well respected, unlike those hacks like Venus Flytrap. Besides, being on podcasts is all the rage these days. It can do wonders for your career.”

”Well, if you say so. Why do they still call it podcasts though, the iPod doesn’t even exist anymore."

”I’m surprised you even know what an iPod is, to be honest.”

”Hey, I know about old stuff! A friend of mine had one in high school. But I wasn’t jealous because I had a 3DS, and…"

”Yeah, I’m going to have to interrupt you, Angelica. Time for you to get in on the call, you’re supposed to come on after their break. Remember, just be yourself, be genuine, and they’ll love you.”

”You think?"

”I know it.”

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”Welcome back to the Masked Man Show, presented by The Ringer. I’m The Masked Man, David Shoemaker, and as I told you guys before, we have a special guest tonight. She is a former World Champion, tag team champion, a grand slam champion,… Has known success all over the world and across multiple disciplines. Welcome to the show, Angelica Vaughn!”

It wasn’t exactly visible to the listeners, but Angelica’s smile was almost audible. She had to resist the urge to wave. Even though there was nobody there to see it, it would’ve looked silly.

”Thankies ever so much for having me on, Mister Shoemaker! I haven’t been on a podcast in, like, forever! I hope you’re doing well."

”Call me David, please, Angelica. And I’m doing great! It’s fun having you here, considering you don’t often do interviews. Now, I know you’re still young and it’s a bit early to be doing career retrospectives, but when you look at where you are in your career right now, are you happy with what you’ve achieved?”

”Honestly? Sure. I’m pretty satisfied with my resume. You summed it up pretty well before."

”Are you sometimes worried, however, that your best days may already be behind you? Some would say you were an early bloomer, but ever since coming to the XWF, you’ve held two tag team championships, both short-lived reigns.”

”That’s always a worry, and believe me when I say it bothers me. And it’s not like the level of competition is significantly better here than it was in the previous places I wrestled in. Sarah was a Universal Champion, and I beat Sarah before, for example."

”Then what is it? Distractions? Early in your career, you were all about the squared circle. These days you’re trying to get a college degree, you’re playing quarterback in the LFL, you’re managing a few businesses of your own…”

”No, I don’t think so. Ironically, I think I am a lot less distracted these days in spite of everything you just mentioned. Sure, I do a lot of things on the side, but I also feel a lot more self-confident. The distractions, as you call them, are just simply more out in the open. They used to be all in my head. Getting a college degree made me realize I’m smarter than I thought I was. Playing in the LFL made me realize I am a better athlete and a leader than I thought I was. And that last thing is exactly why I wanted to be a War Games Captain, because I feel like I can do a good job at it. A few years ago, I would’ve run away screaming."

”I’m glad you brought it up, Angelica, let’s talk about that War Games captaincy. Personally, I have to admit I was a bit surprised that you signed up for it. I think most of the pundits, and fans, were anticipating you and your sister trying to get on the same team. With both of you declaring for War Games captaincy, that opportunity has gone out of the window. What made you decide to throw your name in the hat after Sarah Lacklan already had?”

”Well… Like I said, I know I can lead a team. I know I can bring out the best in a team of competitors and help lead them to glory. Would I have liked Sarah on my team? I mean OBVS. She is my sister. I love her dearly, and we’re a great tag team. But I have proven throughout my career that I am the best team mate in this biz. Bold statement, maybe, but it’s true. I’ve been a tag team champion with more than five different people. And last year, I did really well for the Meat Clowns despite not really knowing any of my teamies personally, other than maybe Raion Kido. This year, I really wanted to lead a team myself. And as much as I love Sar-sar, she does not like to be lead. And I don’t want to stifle her or get locked into some weird power struggle where I draft her and then she pretends to be captain anyway, either. So in the end, I think it all worked out really well."

”That’s… quite a statement. You don’t think Sarah will take offense to that?”

”Nope. She’s probs listening to this right now, and going ‘Yeah, she has a point’. I know her pretty well, you know."

”In regards to the captaincy, there are a lot of big names in the draft. Do you have your draft board ready, or are you just going to wing it?”

”Ummmm… Good question. I should probably get some kind of draft board ready. But in the end, there’s so much talent on there, you can’t really go wrong talent-wise. But I do believe that the best teams are made up of people who play well with others. A team of selfish individuals won’t win War Games. But even if the draft falls poorly for me, it’ll be up to me as a captain to make sure I turn them into a cohesive unit. My LFL experience has helped tremendously with that. We’ve had our team struggles there as well. A locker room full of strong personalities is always going to clash at some point, but in the end we were a very tight unit and playoff bound. I’m not taking all of the credit for that, but I think I can replicate that success at War Games. Now it's up to me to put myself in the best possible draft position."

”Well, you are a bit of a battle royal specialist. Your very first win in wrestling came in one, didn’t it?”

”Wow, that’s cool-as-flame that you remember that! It did! I love the dynamic and tactics in those matches."

”At this point in your career, do you have any ambitions left? I can’t imagine that you don’t?”

”Obvs. Tons! Now, not sure if becoming Universal Champion is one of them, but winning War Games? We came close last year. This year I’m captaining, and if my team and I pull this off, it would be one of my proudest ever achievements for sure."

”Of course, there’s five other captains and their teams that stand in your way. Let’s go over some of them. I guess we already talked about your sister. Now, Vagabond seems a bit of a dark horse. What’s your take on him?”

”Vagabond has exploded onto the scene. He’s still relatively new here, but he’s already confident enough to declare for captaincy and that says a lot. But whether he can lead, and so by example? Thaaaat’s a big question mark. Now, a Win-Loss record doesn’t mean a lot when it comes to being able to lead a team to victory, but after his loss to, erm… RoboGravy… you could say he’s one of the easiest to underestimate here. But hey, even if you get thrown out first, you get two picks in a row, so some say being first to be eliminated is as good as picking first! Now saying that’ll definitely be Vagabond, obvs."

”Thunder Knuckles! Some say he is the odds-on favorite here?”

”Oh, do they? Well, he *is* very good. I do think he gets a bit of a bad rep. I think he’s very agreeable, myself. Most of the time when I hear him talk he says stuff like ‘Yeah, I agree with all of that’, or something. But if he’s gonna lead, he’s going to have to think for himself and make some tough decisions!"

”And what about Ned Kaye? Is it fair to say he got inside of your head last time you faced off?”

”Ummmmm, yes. That… *is*… fair to say… Although it was a devious plot, designed by the Cult of Kaye and the rest of the nedophiles to play dirty, dirty mind games! But oh well, my ranch ended up in Maine, and it’s all good. I just hope there won’t be too many Ned chants this time around. Those are very annoying. Maybe I should hire some peeps to make loud gorilla noises."

”And you and Dolly have exchanged some wins as of late. It’s been a weird rivalry between the two of you, hasn’t it?”

”Hmmm. Rivalry? I suppose so. I never did anything to start it however. Dolly for some reasons doesn’t really like me. Sar-sar, for some reasons really really loves her. Dolly is immensely talented. But can she lead? All I’ve ever seen her do is follow. Whether it’s Sar or Bourbs… But maybe she is doing this to break free from those kinds of prejudices. I can respect that. Maybe this is her time. But not if I have anything to say about it."

”This has been a lot of fun, Angelica. I’m afraid that’s all we have time for right now, but it was great to hear your insight. Maybe we’ll hear from you again after War Games?”

”Yeah, this was great! This whole podcasting thingy is axly quite amazeballz. You did a great job, too! Other than those HACKS from Shots Fired!"

”The less said about those guys the better! Now, I NEED TO TELL YOU GUYS ABOUT POINTSBET…”

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