Behind the Scenes

Aftermath

Valora’s Hotel Room

Nashville, Tenn.

Valora sat in her hotel room taking a drink from her bottle of tequila as she recovered from the fight against Father Nathan.  It had been over 2 years since she had last fought and yet she was able to step right back into action as if she had never left active competition.  That thought brought a brief smile of satisfaction to the latina fighter as she took another drink and raised an eyebrow as she watched Vanguard and Warzone once more, taking notes and beginning to make plans for Civil Warfare

On-Camera Interview

Drinks and Responses

Hotel Bar

Greenville, South Carolina

The camera comes into focus to show Valora sitting at the table, drinking her tequila.  She sports a short sleeved hoodie with Barcelona’s logo on it and a Dodgers baseball cap.  James Collins sits across from her.  He sets his phone down, set to record the conversation.  “James Collins here and my guest is Co-Owner of CWF, Former Elite Champion, Valora Salinas.  I want to get right into things.  Kara, your opponent for Civil Warfare, has already arrived in South Carolina.  She accused you of trying to stack the deck against her, failing, and -”

Valora raises a hand.  “I saw her video.  Let me start with stacking the deck.  Stacking the deck would have been requiring her to pin or submit both Abby and Akame.  Stacking the deck would have been forcing Kara to fight the entire stable of the Upstarts in a gauntlet match.  A handicap match?  Well within Kara’s wheelhouse.  She fought through an ambush by the entire nKo and she beat Akame and Abby so it would seem that my match was pretty reasonable all things considered.  As for racism?  Well, I never claimed to be a fuckin’ paragon of PC culture.  Even if the morons running the media, politics and such in this dumb ass country misuse the term ‘political correctness’  but for the way we use it.. Yeah that’s me.. But let’s talk racism.  Racism isn’t someone using a word you don’t like.  Racism is being told to sit in the back of the fuckin’ bus.  Racism is being told to use a separate bathroom, or fuckin’ drinking fountain.  Real racism is redlining where you go to buy a house, open a business and are denied the opportunity because you’re black, or hispanic, or fuckin’ asian.  Little miss whitebread wouldn’t know anything about real fuckin’ racism because she’s never run into it because she’s European and white.”

Valora pauses to take a drink and then continues.  “Oh and let us not forget, real racism is being afraid of being kidnapped by some fuckin’ gringo in a mask because you have brown skin or because your last name is Salinas, or Delgado, or Sanchez, or Mendoza.  So I don’t wanna hear her fuckin ass whining about racism and ethnic slurs.  I’ve been called spic, wetback, and worse.  Had to deal with racist stereotypes like assumptions of laziness because Hispanics tend to take siestas during the day, you know when it gets to be about 200 fuckin’ degrees outside.  So Kara can fuck right off with her whiny bitch ass.  Fuckin’ Pendeja.  As for breaking my perfect record?  If you think you can, try it.  Just remember that everyone else who tried, failed.  Just like you will.”

James Collins nods.  “Alright, well that taken care of, let’s talk about the change of ownership.  Jeremiah Vastrix has been in as a member of the new triumvirate of owners for CWF for half a season now.  How do you think he’s doing?”

Valora rolls her eyes.  “Better than Armand ever did.  I could complain about Vespertine leading him around by his dick, but Jeremiah has always had poor impulse control when it comes to the ladies and before you ask, yes he has hit on me and I promptly told him to fuck himself to which he replied that was what he was trying to do, we both had a good laugh and.. That was pretty much that.  I will say this, potential HR nightmares aside, Jeremiah Vastrix has been born and raised to be a businessman, which is pretty much what the office of CWF president requires.  I handle the wrestlers because I’m not a businesswoman.  I’m a wrestler.  I know the business of pro wrestling, handling rosters, booking and the like so that’s what I do.  Childress has his expertise and background and Vastrix, a businessman, gets to do that.  I think CWF is in a better position right now than we were when we had to contend with Armand playing out his Roman gladiator fantasies.”

James Collins nods.  “So why the return to the ring?”

Valora shrugs.  “Why not?  I am listed as a part time wrestler, so figured I should wrestle every once in awhile.  Also, I enjoy being an active wrestler, getting in the ring.. Pretty much the only job where you can beat the shit out of someone and not have to worry about legal consequences.”

“Kara did also question the location of Civil Warfare.  Can you speak to that?”  James asks as he leans back.

Valora takes another drink of her tequila and shrugs.  “I don’t pick the location.  I make suggestions but final decision is usually left to others.  I agree with Kara on this one, were it up to me, CWF wouldn’t go.. Well to be honest, if it were up to me, we’d skip most of the south but especially South Carolina.  So fans in this state should be glad it wasn’t my call.”

James follows up.  “You said you give advice.  Was the side trip to Puerto Rico your idea?”

Valora grins.  “It was.  As was dodging Alabama and Mississippi to do so.  I saw a chance to hit an area that is often overlooked by wrestling feds and took it.”

James Collins thinks for a moment and then continues..  “Alright.  One final question about the owner side.  How do you feel about the various title matches?  Any predictions?”

Valora smirks.  “No predictions.  If I’m wrong, I get accused of not knowing what I’m talking about and if I’m right, I get accused of rigging things.  Either way it’s no bueno for me.  That being said, the Skirmish title is interesting.  3 members of the Upstarts and me there as ref to make sure they don’t all jump Kat Hale.  I know people expect me to pick my daughter as the favorite and why not?  She’s held two CWF titles already.  But if I had to pick a favorite to win, I actually lean towards Fiona.  She’s quietly put together a nice little winning streak and she’s due for a big time win, it also can’t be overlooked that she is the 4 Winds Tempest champion which means she can boast something that no one else can.  The fact that she is already a lightweight champion.”

Valora takes a drink and shrugs.  “Valora title?  Rayven.  She reminds me a lot of myself at that age.  Less crazy though, I think.  Bottom line is this woman is prepared to do whatever it takes to win and she has extra motivation from running out of time in the last match.  I don’t know how you don’t consider her a favorite to win.”

Another sip of tequila and Valora thinks for a moment.  “Elite title?  Padre Nate and Eoin in a pub?  I think the fans win this one because whoever comes out as champion is gonna fuckin’ earn it.  I say this one is a toss up, flip a coin.”

Valora takes another drink and cracks her knuckles.  “Conquest title.  Hard to go against my hermana Apathy.  I have been her tag team partner, I’ve been in the ring against her.  When she’s on her game, she’s damn hard to top.  She won the Valor title and defended it 5 times to get here.  Drago and the Eternal Grove?  Well Drago is definitely the ace of the group but they fucked with Apathy’s daughter and that seemed to have awakened the old Apathy.  The Apathy I remember.  I’d like to say I feel sorry for Drago, but I’d be lying.  I find it hard not to consider Apathy the favorite to come out as Conquest champion.”

James nods.  “Speaking of the Conquest title.. As the wrestler.  It must gnaw at you.  You famously have been world champ in every fed you’ve wrestled in but not in CWF.  There’s got to be some part of you that resents that, yes?”

Valora cracks her neck and takes a deep breath before she looks at James and nods. “I won’t lie.  It does eat at me.  Maybe I’ll find a proxy I can trust and come in and give it a good run to keep the streak going.  But I tell myself what I’m doing is more important.  And my daughter won the World title here in CWF so I got to see that, at least.”

Behind the Scenes

Prep Work

Valora sat in her hotel room, watching matches and promos from Kara, taking notes.  On the table in front of her are empty bottles of tequila and leftover pizza, as well as some of Valora’s psychology books.  A couple of history books and such are scattered about as well.  Every so often. Valora glances at Kara’s promo and narrows her eyes.  “Alright, puta.. You wanna play.. Let’s fuckin’ play.”  She mutters as she opens a new bottle of tequila and takes a drink, eating some pizza and going back to work.

On Camera Promo

A Measured Response

Starring Valora Salinas

As the camera comes into focus, we first see a green screen of a courtroom.  Valora, in her ‘corpo’ look turns off Kara’s promo and turns to her right.  “Umm okay that.. Sounds bad.  Any thoughts?”

The camera makes a quick jump cut and we see Valora sitting in the chair, dressed in her trademark wrestling look and she shrugs.  “I dunno, wasn’t really paying attention, just sounded like a puta with diarrhea of the mouth to me.”

The camera cuts back to ‘Lawyer Val’ who is pinching the bridge of her nose.  I don’t know why I bothered.  Luckily, I have a backup plan…”  She says as she stands up and nods.  “Your honor, for our response, the defense calls, Dr. Salinas.”

The camera jump cuts again and we see Valora sitting in the witness chair, dressed in her Mexican Federal Police uniform.  Valora gives us her trademark smirk.  “Alright, puta.. You wanna come at me all formal.  I can do that.  See, it’s common knowledge I served as a member of the Mexican Federal Police.  What you might not know, however, is that my specialty was psychological profiling.  And chica.. Let me tell you, you are a fuckin’ gold mine…”

Valora stands up as the courtroom background fades away and takes out her phone and scrolls, pulling up something.  “Let’s start with the most obvious.  You were in the system too long.  The German government was absolutely right to let you go.  You don’t really have any idea who you are unless it’s been stamped, signed approved and given to you.  I’ll bet all the money I have you still follow the routine you did with the military and GSG-9, don’t you?  You’re a human robot at this point chica and without someone to tell you what to do?  Without someone to tell you who you are.. You really don’t know do you?  I challenge you, Kara.  Tell me one thing about you.  One thing that isn’t a result of your military training.  Go ahead.. I’ll wait.”

Valora falls silent, looking around and taking a drink of tequila as she nods.  “Can’t think of it, can you?  I thought so.  Let’s move on.  You’re single.  You tell yourself and others it’s by choice but it really isn’t, is it?  Your actual problem is lacking a strong sense of personal identity that isn’t given to you by the German government, you can’t form any real connections to people and thus and you can’t maintain a real in depth relationship.  The only kind of relationships you can form are toxic relationships or taboo ones.  But I’ll get to that in a second.. Firstly..”

Valora snaps her fingers and her uniform disappears changing to her more usual trademark clothing.  “When you were with GSG-9, you were an undercover specialist, si?  Ohh chica.. That’s the worst assignment for someone like you.  How many people you got in that head of yours?  Jesus Christo you must have more voices in your head than I do.  How many identities have you assumed?  Backgrounds?  Stories?  I almost feel sorry for you, chica.  Almost.  You probably really don’t have any idea who you truly are.”

Valora checks her phone again as she takes another drink from her tequila and nods.  “Back to the relationships.  How many people did you seduce while undercover?  Was it hard to lie to them, to whisper sweet nothings in their ears as you planned to lead them to jail?  You say you’re not a psychopath?  Chica. I say you are.  Now onto the taboo relationships.. You know where I’m going to go with this right?  Do I even need to say it?  Do you daydream of what it would be like to have him take you?”

Valora grins and winks.  “Since I didn’t say it out loud, I won’t demand you do.  But you should stand in front of a mirror and ask yourself the question and give it some thought.”

Valora takes a drink from her tequila and cracks her knuckles once more.  “Now, I’ll add more profiling as we go here when and where suitable, but let’s go through your issues one by one, shall we?”  She takes a drink from her tequila and nods.  “Item 1?  Guilty as charged.  I am a violent psychopath.  Which makes you a special kind of fuckin’ stupid for picking a fight with me.  Addict?  Yeah.  I like alcohol and I like violence.  What you should worry about is the fact that I am this good while being inebriated most of the time.  Imagine how good I would be stone cold sober..”

She takes another drink and looks at her list again.  “Okay.. item 2 was.. Heh Rob Riot.  Rob wasn’t one of the villians.  His crime was not having the spine to stand up to his friends.  His friends were happy to dominate and use him, I urged him to be himself. But he’s apparently a Libra and unable to do anything and thus prone to letting others push him around.  Also, I might have the timeline a bit off, but pretty sure the Upstarts formed before I came into my position.  I would also state that under my jurisdiction CWF has signed more young talent than ever before and we have become more merit based.  So why have you found yourself locked out as you put it?  Simple Kara.. you’re not pushing yourself.  You fight the same opponents, people you know you can handle.  You’re unwilling to push yourself.  THAT is why I put you in a handicap match..  Tell me you didn’t thoroughly enjoy yourself.  Tell me the thought of stepping into the ring with me, a living legend, hasn’t got you excited as all hell.  You want a chance to earn title shots?  Come and take it, pendeja.”

Letting out a sigh as she shakes her head and drinks more tequila, Valora looks over her phone once more.  Item 3.. Sorry chica, only so many slots on a card.  Sometimes that means Padre Nate goes a few cycles off.  Sometimes, Kronin gets a break.  And especially since both men expressed to me that they were willing to take time off to have their daughters get needed match experience, I figured it was okay.  Specially since both Rayven and Fiona are on hot streaks right now and Rayven is growing pretty fuckin’ popular with her social media schtick.  For fucking anyone over.. I’ve been ref before.  I’ve been told my count has, at times, been slower or faster than the normal ref.  But my count is always consistent.  So once the four chicas in the match see how i count that match, they’ll be able to adjust accordingly and I resent the implication that I would fuck around with my daughter’s life.  I’m considered a big proponent of personal freedom.  My daughter is an adult, if she wants my advice, I’ll fuckin’ give it to her, but I won’t try to control her.”

Valora narrows her eyes.  “That’s another time you’ve fucked with mi familia, chica.  To tell you the truth, I’m losin’ my fuckin’ patience.. So spend all the time in the gym you can and get right with Odin or whatever fuckin’ god you pray to because at Civil Warfare…”

Valora cracks her neck again, letting out a breath.  “Val’s gonna kill you."