Post by Deleted on May 1, 2017 3:57:36 GMT
Lessons Learned
Date: April 28, 2017
Julianna: I don’t know what I am more annoyed by…
Julianna DiMaria takes a deep breath to let loose some annoyance that she is experiencing as she talks to both of her parents in a two-star hotel room in a small neighborhood in an unidentified city in Mexico. Her mother rolls her eyes, annoyed by the fact that she’s about to hear her complain about something. Her father, on the other hand, is paying some attention to her as he sets down his suitcase by the bed.
Julianna: I don’t know if I am more annoyed by the fact that we’re spending time in Mexico in some run down neighborhood where there’s no Olive Garden anywhere NEAR here, or the fact that every place I go to in my wrestling career, from Long Beach and Ontario for WCG and now here in Mexico, you two have to follow me EVERYWHERE! You guys do realize that I’m 22, right?
Mrs. DiMaria: Life isn’t all about Olive Gardens and going to these fancy suite parties we’ve become used to.
Julianna: I get that, but WHY do you guys have to be so cheap? If you guys are going to follow me all over the place at least have the common decency to get a better hotel, even if it costs a couple of more hundred dollars! Gosh! I know we’re not the richest people and we’ll never be millionaires… well, at least you two won’t… but still…
Mr. DiMaria: Jules, ya gotta calm down. It’s no big deal.
Julianna sighs at her father trying to diffuse the situation.
Julianna: Not a big deal?
Mr. DiMaria: You’re right, I coulda gotten us something better.
Mrs. DiMaria: We’re not being cheap. We wanted to bring you to a place like this so you can learn something.
Julianna: Learn something?
Julianna scoffs, again, not understanding anything her parents are trying to get through to her because of her self-entitled demeanor.
Julianna: I don’t need to learn anything, okay? You two taught me everything I know.
Mrs. DiMaria: But we didn’t teach you everything WE know.
Julianna: Whatever. Look, I don’t need any advice about GOL’s tournament, okay? I know that it’s my first exposure to anything outside the United States and it’s a huge deal for you guys but I can take on anyone from any company at any time. I know that even with my “status” as a “developmental talent” in West Coast Genesis, I have everything it takes to make professional wrestling my world to reign in.
Mr. DiMaria: Ya got the potential to be there, sweetheart. Neither of us are sayin’ that ya don’t.
Julianna: So, what is this “lesson” you’re trying to teach me?
Mrs. DiMaria: How to be grateful, that’s what.
Julianna wears an expression of confusion on her face since this is coming out of left field.
Julianna: Huh? How to be grateful?
Both of her parents sigh, as they each have a conflicted look on their respective faces.
Mr. DiMaria: Sit down, sweetheart. We gotta talk.
A confused Julianna obliges with this request by her father, although she does it with reluctance as she takes her time to pull out a chair and sit down. Her parents do the same as they sit down across from her. Julianna rolls her eyes when she sees the expressions her parents are wearing of uncertainty and conflict.
Mr. DiMaria: Alright so… your mother and I have been talkin’ about ya lately.
Julianna: Right…
Mrs. DiMaria: Remember the celebration and the party that we threw for you when you first signed with WCG and quickly secured your spot in GOL’s Super Falcon Cup tournament before you even wrestled a match on the mainstream stage?
Julianna smiles when her mother mentions this.
Julianna: Of course! That night was so perfect! It was all about ME! It was a dream come true, you guys. You were both awesome for doing that for me and I’m definitely grateful for it.
Julianna gives off a conceited shrug and a small smirk on her face.
Mrs. DiMaria: Riiiight…
Julianna: And for you to bring all of my peers to the celebration meant so much to me! Did you hear how LOUD they were cheering for me after I left? I am so touched that they think so highly of me.
Mr. DiMaria: Let’s not get too off subject here. Like we’re saying, we had a talk about you after we had that party. Out of concern, we decided that it was best for you if we stopped sugar coatin’ the shit out of ya and just tell things straight to your face.
Julianna: Pardon?
Julianna raises her eyebrows, once again having a confused look on her face.
Mrs. DiMaria: Julianna, we’ve always been honest with you, let us make that clear to you. But, for so long now, we’ve been stretching the truth a bit to protect you. Once you got out into the world on your own, we realized that we were being too overprotective. You said it yourself, you’re 22! You’re doing your own thing. You’re an adult. So, we’ll treat you like one and tell it like it is.
Julianna: Did the way I react to losing that ladder match in WCG have anything to do with this?
Mr. DiMaria: That’s what added to it, yes. But, let’s just be honest with ya. Your peers back at the facility? They weren’t cheerin’ because they like ya. They weren’t cheering because they were happy for ya. You wanna tell her, Elise?
Mrs. DiMaria: Fine! They were cheering for you because you were gone.
Julianna raises her eyebrows again, but this time, it’s out of shock instead of confusion.
Julianna: WHAT?!?!?!
Mr. DiMaria: Sweetheart, we got more complaints from our staff about you than anyone else that’s ever walked through those doors. Nobody there really liked you.
Mrs. DiMaria: You were a complete bully to your peers, Julianna. You bossed them around, you acted like you were entitled to everything, you thought that just because you were our daughter, that you could get away with everything.
Mr. DiMaria: And the big takeaway we want to tell you is that anything you got away with, with us, ya ain’t gonna get away with it out in the real world. You ain’t entitled to anything and any wrestler out there that can’t stand the sight of ya is going to let ya know that when they’re beatin’ the snot outta ya!
Mrs. DiMaria: You’re taking on 15 other wrestlers in this tournament that all come from different wrestling companies. Julianna, we don’t doubt that you can hold your own in that tournament. But we have our doubts that you are mature enough to become the star that we all know you can be. Remember our talk just a few days after you didn’t win the West Coast title? I had to talk you out of your stasis. In fact, for a brief moment there, I was embarrassed to even call you my daughter.
Julianna winces a bit, taking those last few words her mother just told her to heart. Her mother sighs and shakes her head.
Mr. DiMaria: Elise…
Mrs. DiMaria: It hurts to say that, but you need to get it through your head that your father and I aren’t going to do everything for you all the time.
Julianna: You two were always hard on me…
Still a bit shocked from the direction the conversation is going, Julianna folds her arms and forms an angry pout on her face, largely as a tactic to try to get her parents to feel guilt for the conversation that is taking place at the moment.
Mr. DiMaria: We were.
Julianna: I do owe my work ethic to the two of you since you two never allowed me to be lazy. For as long as I can remember, that’s how it had always been.
Mrs. DiMaria: That’s because where we come from, there’s no room for laziness.
Mr. DiMaria: Besides, you had it a lot easier than I did with my parents. When I was growin’ up, my father didn’t hesitate to smack me a new one if I wasn’t listenin’. We never treated ya like that. And when we first got to America, your mother and I were broke as hell. You think it was easy livin’ off an Independent wrestlin’ career?
Mrs. DiMaria: You talk about us never breaking through into the mainstream scene as if it’s a horrible thing but make that kind of money that you make in the Indies and tell me that your father and I didn’t do so much for you. We couldn’t even afford to pay our rent on just those Indy dates alone. We had to have a second job to make it happen and it was even harder when we found out that you were on the way. We sacrificed everything for you, Julianna. I gave up my career as soon as I learned I was pregnant with you.
Mr. DiMaria: And I tried to keep it goin’ after you were born, but the money wasn’t enough. I tried to break into that mainstream, Jules, but I just couldn’t do it. Nobody was ever interested. I had to give it up to, for your sake.
Mrs. DiMaria: You’ve only just started, but with WCG and now this tournament, and with the way this business has progressed over the last few decades, you’ve already had more opportunities than we’ve ever had. We had it pretty good in Europe, but it’s not the same as what you have going for you.
Julianna sighed, not out of annoyance, but out of resonation.
Mr. DiMaria: You obviously don’t remember it because you were a tot at the time, but we were livin’ out of old apartments in the worst parts of San Diego.
Mrs. DiMaria: You saw all of those neighborhood areas out there along the way to the hotel where people were getting water from the fire department, going out in the streets selling food to make ends meet and having candles for lighting, right?
Julianna: It was pathetic. How primitive!
Mr. DiMaria: That’s how we were livin’ when you were that young.
Mrs. DiMaria: We had to work regular jobs like regular people to get out of that situation, and we did it all for you. For the last 22 years, everything we’ve ever gotten out of this world, we’ve given it all to you. We don’t want to miss a second of your mainstream wrestling career. That’s why we travel with you and watch you compete. That’s why we’re so “clingy” as you’ve put it before. It’s not because we’re trying to live vicariously through you…
Mr. DiMaria: It’s because you’re the most precious thing in the world to us and we want to see ya succeed where we couldn’t. We do want ya to have a better career than we did.
Julianna: When you put it that way, I suppose I feel like an ungrateful bitch… excuse my language…
Julianna takes another deep breath as her parents stand up.
Mr. DiMaria: We’re going to be with ya all the way with this tournament, no matter how long it lasts for ya. We’re proud of ya no matter what, ya got that?
Julianna nods.
Mrs. DiMaria: And we don’t want to hear you whine and complain about not having things your way again, you got it? You’re not a teenager anymore.
Julianna: Fine. I understand. I get why you guys want to be around me every time I compete in that ring. This tournament is not just for me, but for you guys too. I get it now. You two have really broken your necks for me. I know from all the stories you’ve told me from before I was born. I’m sorry for being such a child about this whole thing. But, I do want you guys to give me more space. I get that it’s out of love and care, but you don’t have to be at EVERY wrestling event that I go to and you don’t have to guide me and coddle me through every single thing either.
Mr. DiMaria: You’re damn right about that. There’s only so much else we can teach ya after this talk we just had.
Mrs. DiMaria: So, you don’t mind us joining you for this entire tournament?
Julianna: No. I don’t mind.
Julianna stands up and takes a deep breath.
Julianna: You guys deserve to be there. You’ve never had an opportunity to experience what I’m experiencing, like you both drove into my head just now. I’m annoyed with you two a lot, or at least that’s what it looks like, but honestly, I don’t think I could have ever had a better set of parents. Having said that, you guys understand my position about having my own space?
Mrs. DiMaria: Yeah, we understand. If that’s what you want, we’ll give it to you. But, at the end of the day, you’re still our daughter and we’re always going to be there for you whenever you need us. Sometimes, you’re going to run into issues that only we can help you with. Don’t forget that.
Mr. DiMaria: Thanks for havin’ an open mind. It tells us that we raised ya right.
Julianna: I love you guys.
Julianna gives a warm smile as she hugs both of her parents, first her mother, and then her father.
Julianna: I’m going to be thinking about you guys in this tournament. I know tha the best way I can show appreciation for everything you’ve both done for me throughout my entire life is winning the entire thing! So, that’s what I’m going to do! I’m going to conquer this tournament… for US!
Mr. DiMaria: That’s our girl!
Mrs. DiMaria: You’re on your way, no matter the outcome of this tournament.
Julianna: Thanks. I guess I’ll head outside and soak in whatever sights I can get. Maybe I can learn some more from that.
Both of her parents nod and her mother gives off a smile as Julianna turns and leaves the hotel room. Walking down the hallway, Julianna heads outside the hotel to soak in the less-than-fortunate neighborhood that the hotel happens to find itself in, from all the people buying from food carts and the neighborhood kids playing stickball on a dirt road. Experiencing this for the first time that she’s capable of remembering it, Julianna comes to realize how her parents really built her not just as a wrestler, but as a human being as well.
ON-CAMERA
Date: April 30, 2017
The scene cuts into a neighborhood street on a small town in Mexico that’s near the border. It’s nothing close to fancy. It’s a blue collar neighborhood with things like ice cream carts, food carts, houses in need of maintenance and older vehicles being prominent in the background. In the forefront of the blue collar shot is none other than WCG wrestler Julianna DiMaria, who appears to be confident going into the thoughts she’s about to express. There’s a slight look of concern on her face, knowing that she’s in a different environment in so many ways when she gets her Super Falcon Cup journey started. Julianna sits down on a bench, with the neighborhood behind her, as she expresses her thoughts.
Julianna DiMaria: I have to admit, being in Mexico is a culture shock for. Considering where my parents come from, I’ve been to Germany and Italy before, but this is something different. Hearing the stories from my parents of how they were brought up and then coming here and getting a taste for myself of what their stories were like, it’s certainly an eye opener. However, I didn’t come here to be sentimental. I know that I’ll be somewhere far more prestigious than my current location when I begin my Super Falcon Cup journey representing WCG, the developmental promotion of the world-renowned Redemption promotion. I’ll be honest, as much as I’d want to come here and say that I’m doing this for all of my peers in WCG, that’s not the case at all. I’m winning this tournament for ME and you can stack me up against any competitor from any wrestling promotion and I am going to bring them back down to earth. I’m no idiot. I know that people are going to see me, the young lady from San Diego, with barely a few mainstream matches under her belt, who is in a DEVELOPMENTAL roster currently, as someone with little or no chance to win this tournament. But, I’m just fine with that. It doesn’t faze me. If you want to underestimate me, that’s fine. In fact, I think many people in my home promotion overlook me if we’re being quite honest. But, I promise one thing. Regardless of whether I win or lose this tournament, I WON’T be underestimated or overlooked anymore because I am making my presence known outside of the United States for the very first time.
And that brings me to this Coby Quik character from DARC. I admit, I don’t know TOO much about you. I know the basics and really, the basics of what I know about you make me sick to be honest. What’s this nickname you got going on? Kid Flash? So, what? You think you’re a superhero now? Listen Coby, I’ve heard a few things you’ve had to say in your DARC videos and one of the first things that stand out to me is your take on wrestlers who have family connections in this business because, hello, both of my parents were wrestlers. Let’s have a little discussion about that, okay? While you’re right about the fact that it’s always part of your life when you have family in the business, it’s FAR more complex than that on a case by case basis. You might see me and you might think of me as just another wrestler that got through because of who her parents were. You might see me as someone that thinks she’s entitled to the entire world just because she had parents for her. You couldn’t be more wrong if that’s what you thought of me, Coby, because my parents weren’t even world famous professional wrestlers. Sure, my mother wrestled in Germany, sure, my father wrestled in Italy, but they were more of what you preach about when it comes to you: breaking into this business without the family connections, the nepotism that you’ve mentioned before when you talk about DARC’s champion, Rayven Hardy, without the money to have the best trainers. THEY had to claw their way into this business in a similar fashion YOU did.
Nepotism isn’t what got me here, Coby. Simple as that. If you’re going to paint me as “another Rayven Hardy”, then you’re way off the mark. Sure, I want to make this “my world”, but I know that won’t come easy. I know that nobody is going to hand the world to me and it’s never been handed to me. When you talk about “nepotism” and “family connections” in this business, you neglect to talk about how not EVERY second generation wrestler had parents that were mainstream famous. My parents weren’t. They never even wrestled for a mainstream American wrestling promotion. With the way technology was at the time, when they came to this country together, nobody even knew who the hell they were. They were wrestling in high school gyms and small arenas for a while, and then my mother got pregnant with me and had to retire. My father never broke into the mainstream. He was an Independent lifer. Once I was on the way, he had to get a regular job in order to make ends meet on top of his Indy career. Once I was born, he retired too and my parents ended up being… GASP…. REGULAR PEOPLE… originally living on a blue collar neighborhood like the one that’s behind me. I remember when a god damn McDonald’s cheeseburger was considered “too expensive” when I was like three years old. Fortunately, my parents were incredible with their finances. They knew how to invest, how to save, and eventually, they got back into the business by opening their own wrestling and training facility. Yeah, maybe that’s how I ended up getting in, but my parents WORKED for that while teaching ME the value of that hard work to begin with.
Doesn’t sound like your typical second-generation wrestler, does it, Coby?
Get used to it, because I’m the kind of girl breaking all stereotypes in this industry and the fact that you have the position that you do about people with family connections in the business, labelling pretty much all of those cases “nepotism” is damn insulting to everything my parents did for themselves and for me to make their dreams and mine come true. I’m not saying there aren’t cases of nepotism, they are. But ultimately, my point is, you’re facing someone in the first round of this tournament that is closer to YOU than the Rayven Hardys that you’ve wrestled time and time again in DARC. It’s so ironic that such ignorance and arrogance comes from someone who prides himself in what he does. How can someone with YOUR background consist of such stupidity? HOW? I’m talking to someone that didn’t even break into this business on his first try, correct? I got to admit, I do commend that you did what you had to do, including getting the education that you did, in order to break into this business, but that doesn’t make you any better than me. That doesn’t give you the right to dismiss second-generation wrestlers like me as people that got in as nepotism cases. Just because you went from nothing to getting to where you are doesn’t make you any better than anyone else, nor does it give you the right to be as judgmental toward your peers in DARC the way I’ve heard you be when I had a tape-study session on some of the videos that you’ve recorded for your matches there.
But that’s enough about you, I’ve talked enough about that. Let me tell you what you’re going to be going up against when we clash in the first round of the Super Falcon Cup tournament. Granted, I already told you about my parents’ stories, so let me tell you a bit about mine, even though it’s a small book so far compared to the novel that you’ve written for your wrestling journey. I wrestle for West Coast Genesis… and as I mentioned before, it’s a DEVELOPMENTAL promotion. One of the very BEST out there, I should say, but still, key word: DEVELOPMENTAL! And Redemption, the parent company, sure as hell didn’t hire me because of who my parents were, they hired me based on the Independent tape that I have. Despite training at a school and a facility owned and ran by my parents, I STILL had to make this happen on my own. First off, there’s the fact that I’ve got to earn my spot on Redemption’s main roster. Have you ever had to do that, Coby? It sounds to me that when you came back, you went straight back to the mainstream, without having to go the developmental route like I am going through right now. Secondly, my parents? They may have trained me, but when it came to my Indy wrestling career? Here’s how that worked out, from a financial standpoint. They bought me my gear, but they left everything else to me. Travelling from Indy show to Indy show? Finding a hotel to sleep in??? If I could even AFFORD IT??? Food? Other necessities? It was all up to ME to take care of all that and yes, just like my parents, I had to have something on the side to cover those expenses. Granted, it wasn’t a “regular job”, it was doing some side modeling for a few hundred dollars a photoshoot and even that was hard because some of those modeling companies didn’t even want me because I refused to do anything racy… because… you know, I’m about sophistication, grace and class, really. Again, my parents… tough love with them, always. They never handed me a damn thing.
But, I’m all the better for it. My hard work, those values that they taught me, the work ethic that they passed down to me in their DNA, that’s what led me here and even though I’ve had maybe like five mainstream matches at most up to this point, I’ve already faced my fair share of adversity. I thought things were going to be simple when in my first mainstream match, I won in a triple threat. I thought my world was going to be easier to attain than expected when I won a battle royal to qualify for a triple threat ladder match at WCG’s first big show to crown the first ever WCG West Coast champion. Here I thought that I was not only going to be representing WCG in this tournament, but also representing it AS its West Coast Champion. Well… you don’t see me holding a championship over my shoulder, do you? Believe me, I’m embittered by it, but it’s just another obstacle along the way that’s going to make me stronger in the long run and to be quite honest, Coby, you’d have an easier chance if I actually WAS the West Coast champion because if I WAS West Coast Champion, I wouldn’t have a defeat from a ladder match to learn from that would give me that strength to be better. It’s that bitterness from falling short in that ladder match in my home promotion that is going to drive me to defeat you and move ahead in this tournament. And yet…
There’s still so much more to learn for me.
My story is just beginning, Coby. I go into this match with little to nothing to lose. I mean, nobody REALLY expects anything out of me in this tournament, do they? You’re far too used to facing those stereotypes that you decry back in your home promotion, but you’re not used to facing someone like me, who as I’ve mentioned before, has a similar background to you. How are you going to prepare for that? Not only do you have to deal with that factor, you have to deal with the factor of the UNKNOWN! With barely a few mainstream matches under my belt, you don’t have much on me. You can’t even get a clue from the wrestling career of both of my parents because neither one of them ever made it to American mainstream wrestling. THEY were unknowns… but contrary to their story, my story isn’t going to be unknown for long. I promised them that I was going to have better their careers than they did and I will. This world is going to be MINE for the keeping one day, Coby. You might be the broke kid that had to go through so much financial issues and had to go through college to get to where he is, but to me? You’re one of the early chapters of the greatest wrestling story that’s just started to be written. When we meet in that ring, you’re going to learn a hell of a lot from me. It’s going to be a reawakening experience for you, I promise you that. But, as much as you’ve learned, as much as you’ve overcome… it still won’t be enough to beat me! I’ll send you back to DARC with a perspective that you never even imagined had any sort of existence. I’m going to take your pride, I’m going to rip it out of your soul, and I’m going to conquer what’s left as I humble you and move forward in this tournament toward my next challenge.
Now THAT, Coby Quick?
THAT’S what’s up!!!!
Date: April 28, 2017
Julianna: I don’t know what I am more annoyed by…
Julianna DiMaria takes a deep breath to let loose some annoyance that she is experiencing as she talks to both of her parents in a two-star hotel room in a small neighborhood in an unidentified city in Mexico. Her mother rolls her eyes, annoyed by the fact that she’s about to hear her complain about something. Her father, on the other hand, is paying some attention to her as he sets down his suitcase by the bed.
Julianna: I don’t know if I am more annoyed by the fact that we’re spending time in Mexico in some run down neighborhood where there’s no Olive Garden anywhere NEAR here, or the fact that every place I go to in my wrestling career, from Long Beach and Ontario for WCG and now here in Mexico, you two have to follow me EVERYWHERE! You guys do realize that I’m 22, right?
Mrs. DiMaria: Life isn’t all about Olive Gardens and going to these fancy suite parties we’ve become used to.
Julianna: I get that, but WHY do you guys have to be so cheap? If you guys are going to follow me all over the place at least have the common decency to get a better hotel, even if it costs a couple of more hundred dollars! Gosh! I know we’re not the richest people and we’ll never be millionaires… well, at least you two won’t… but still…
Mr. DiMaria: Jules, ya gotta calm down. It’s no big deal.
Julianna sighs at her father trying to diffuse the situation.
Julianna: Not a big deal?
Mr. DiMaria: You’re right, I coulda gotten us something better.
Mrs. DiMaria: We’re not being cheap. We wanted to bring you to a place like this so you can learn something.
Julianna: Learn something?
Julianna scoffs, again, not understanding anything her parents are trying to get through to her because of her self-entitled demeanor.
Julianna: I don’t need to learn anything, okay? You two taught me everything I know.
Mrs. DiMaria: But we didn’t teach you everything WE know.
Julianna: Whatever. Look, I don’t need any advice about GOL’s tournament, okay? I know that it’s my first exposure to anything outside the United States and it’s a huge deal for you guys but I can take on anyone from any company at any time. I know that even with my “status” as a “developmental talent” in West Coast Genesis, I have everything it takes to make professional wrestling my world to reign in.
Mr. DiMaria: Ya got the potential to be there, sweetheart. Neither of us are sayin’ that ya don’t.
Julianna: So, what is this “lesson” you’re trying to teach me?
Mrs. DiMaria: How to be grateful, that’s what.
Julianna wears an expression of confusion on her face since this is coming out of left field.
Julianna: Huh? How to be grateful?
Both of her parents sigh, as they each have a conflicted look on their respective faces.
Mr. DiMaria: Sit down, sweetheart. We gotta talk.
A confused Julianna obliges with this request by her father, although she does it with reluctance as she takes her time to pull out a chair and sit down. Her parents do the same as they sit down across from her. Julianna rolls her eyes when she sees the expressions her parents are wearing of uncertainty and conflict.
Mr. DiMaria: Alright so… your mother and I have been talkin’ about ya lately.
Julianna: Right…
Mrs. DiMaria: Remember the celebration and the party that we threw for you when you first signed with WCG and quickly secured your spot in GOL’s Super Falcon Cup tournament before you even wrestled a match on the mainstream stage?
Julianna smiles when her mother mentions this.
Julianna: Of course! That night was so perfect! It was all about ME! It was a dream come true, you guys. You were both awesome for doing that for me and I’m definitely grateful for it.
Julianna gives off a conceited shrug and a small smirk on her face.
Mrs. DiMaria: Riiiight…
Julianna: And for you to bring all of my peers to the celebration meant so much to me! Did you hear how LOUD they were cheering for me after I left? I am so touched that they think so highly of me.
Mr. DiMaria: Let’s not get too off subject here. Like we’re saying, we had a talk about you after we had that party. Out of concern, we decided that it was best for you if we stopped sugar coatin’ the shit out of ya and just tell things straight to your face.
Julianna: Pardon?
Julianna raises her eyebrows, once again having a confused look on her face.
Mrs. DiMaria: Julianna, we’ve always been honest with you, let us make that clear to you. But, for so long now, we’ve been stretching the truth a bit to protect you. Once you got out into the world on your own, we realized that we were being too overprotective. You said it yourself, you’re 22! You’re doing your own thing. You’re an adult. So, we’ll treat you like one and tell it like it is.
Julianna: Did the way I react to losing that ladder match in WCG have anything to do with this?
Mr. DiMaria: That’s what added to it, yes. But, let’s just be honest with ya. Your peers back at the facility? They weren’t cheerin’ because they like ya. They weren’t cheering because they were happy for ya. You wanna tell her, Elise?
Mrs. DiMaria: Fine! They were cheering for you because you were gone.
Julianna raises her eyebrows again, but this time, it’s out of shock instead of confusion.
Julianna: WHAT?!?!?!
Mr. DiMaria: Sweetheart, we got more complaints from our staff about you than anyone else that’s ever walked through those doors. Nobody there really liked you.
Mrs. DiMaria: You were a complete bully to your peers, Julianna. You bossed them around, you acted like you were entitled to everything, you thought that just because you were our daughter, that you could get away with everything.
Mr. DiMaria: And the big takeaway we want to tell you is that anything you got away with, with us, ya ain’t gonna get away with it out in the real world. You ain’t entitled to anything and any wrestler out there that can’t stand the sight of ya is going to let ya know that when they’re beatin’ the snot outta ya!
Mrs. DiMaria: You’re taking on 15 other wrestlers in this tournament that all come from different wrestling companies. Julianna, we don’t doubt that you can hold your own in that tournament. But we have our doubts that you are mature enough to become the star that we all know you can be. Remember our talk just a few days after you didn’t win the West Coast title? I had to talk you out of your stasis. In fact, for a brief moment there, I was embarrassed to even call you my daughter.
Julianna winces a bit, taking those last few words her mother just told her to heart. Her mother sighs and shakes her head.
Mr. DiMaria: Elise…
Mrs. DiMaria: It hurts to say that, but you need to get it through your head that your father and I aren’t going to do everything for you all the time.
Julianna: You two were always hard on me…
Still a bit shocked from the direction the conversation is going, Julianna folds her arms and forms an angry pout on her face, largely as a tactic to try to get her parents to feel guilt for the conversation that is taking place at the moment.
Mr. DiMaria: We were.
Julianna: I do owe my work ethic to the two of you since you two never allowed me to be lazy. For as long as I can remember, that’s how it had always been.
Mrs. DiMaria: That’s because where we come from, there’s no room for laziness.
Mr. DiMaria: Besides, you had it a lot easier than I did with my parents. When I was growin’ up, my father didn’t hesitate to smack me a new one if I wasn’t listenin’. We never treated ya like that. And when we first got to America, your mother and I were broke as hell. You think it was easy livin’ off an Independent wrestlin’ career?
Mrs. DiMaria: You talk about us never breaking through into the mainstream scene as if it’s a horrible thing but make that kind of money that you make in the Indies and tell me that your father and I didn’t do so much for you. We couldn’t even afford to pay our rent on just those Indy dates alone. We had to have a second job to make it happen and it was even harder when we found out that you were on the way. We sacrificed everything for you, Julianna. I gave up my career as soon as I learned I was pregnant with you.
Mr. DiMaria: And I tried to keep it goin’ after you were born, but the money wasn’t enough. I tried to break into that mainstream, Jules, but I just couldn’t do it. Nobody was ever interested. I had to give it up to, for your sake.
Mrs. DiMaria: You’ve only just started, but with WCG and now this tournament, and with the way this business has progressed over the last few decades, you’ve already had more opportunities than we’ve ever had. We had it pretty good in Europe, but it’s not the same as what you have going for you.
Julianna sighed, not out of annoyance, but out of resonation.
Mr. DiMaria: You obviously don’t remember it because you were a tot at the time, but we were livin’ out of old apartments in the worst parts of San Diego.
Mrs. DiMaria: You saw all of those neighborhood areas out there along the way to the hotel where people were getting water from the fire department, going out in the streets selling food to make ends meet and having candles for lighting, right?
Julianna: It was pathetic. How primitive!
Mr. DiMaria: That’s how we were livin’ when you were that young.
Mrs. DiMaria: We had to work regular jobs like regular people to get out of that situation, and we did it all for you. For the last 22 years, everything we’ve ever gotten out of this world, we’ve given it all to you. We don’t want to miss a second of your mainstream wrestling career. That’s why we travel with you and watch you compete. That’s why we’re so “clingy” as you’ve put it before. It’s not because we’re trying to live vicariously through you…
Mr. DiMaria: It’s because you’re the most precious thing in the world to us and we want to see ya succeed where we couldn’t. We do want ya to have a better career than we did.
Julianna: When you put it that way, I suppose I feel like an ungrateful bitch… excuse my language…
Julianna takes another deep breath as her parents stand up.
Mr. DiMaria: We’re going to be with ya all the way with this tournament, no matter how long it lasts for ya. We’re proud of ya no matter what, ya got that?
Julianna nods.
Mrs. DiMaria: And we don’t want to hear you whine and complain about not having things your way again, you got it? You’re not a teenager anymore.
Julianna: Fine. I understand. I get why you guys want to be around me every time I compete in that ring. This tournament is not just for me, but for you guys too. I get it now. You two have really broken your necks for me. I know from all the stories you’ve told me from before I was born. I’m sorry for being such a child about this whole thing. But, I do want you guys to give me more space. I get that it’s out of love and care, but you don’t have to be at EVERY wrestling event that I go to and you don’t have to guide me and coddle me through every single thing either.
Mr. DiMaria: You’re damn right about that. There’s only so much else we can teach ya after this talk we just had.
Mrs. DiMaria: So, you don’t mind us joining you for this entire tournament?
Julianna: No. I don’t mind.
Julianna stands up and takes a deep breath.
Julianna: You guys deserve to be there. You’ve never had an opportunity to experience what I’m experiencing, like you both drove into my head just now. I’m annoyed with you two a lot, or at least that’s what it looks like, but honestly, I don’t think I could have ever had a better set of parents. Having said that, you guys understand my position about having my own space?
Mrs. DiMaria: Yeah, we understand. If that’s what you want, we’ll give it to you. But, at the end of the day, you’re still our daughter and we’re always going to be there for you whenever you need us. Sometimes, you’re going to run into issues that only we can help you with. Don’t forget that.
Mr. DiMaria: Thanks for havin’ an open mind. It tells us that we raised ya right.
Julianna: I love you guys.
Julianna gives a warm smile as she hugs both of her parents, first her mother, and then her father.
Julianna: I’m going to be thinking about you guys in this tournament. I know tha the best way I can show appreciation for everything you’ve both done for me throughout my entire life is winning the entire thing! So, that’s what I’m going to do! I’m going to conquer this tournament… for US!
Mr. DiMaria: That’s our girl!
Mrs. DiMaria: You’re on your way, no matter the outcome of this tournament.
Julianna: Thanks. I guess I’ll head outside and soak in whatever sights I can get. Maybe I can learn some more from that.
Both of her parents nod and her mother gives off a smile as Julianna turns and leaves the hotel room. Walking down the hallway, Julianna heads outside the hotel to soak in the less-than-fortunate neighborhood that the hotel happens to find itself in, from all the people buying from food carts and the neighborhood kids playing stickball on a dirt road. Experiencing this for the first time that she’s capable of remembering it, Julianna comes to realize how her parents really built her not just as a wrestler, but as a human being as well.
ON-CAMERA
Date: April 30, 2017
The scene cuts into a neighborhood street on a small town in Mexico that’s near the border. It’s nothing close to fancy. It’s a blue collar neighborhood with things like ice cream carts, food carts, houses in need of maintenance and older vehicles being prominent in the background. In the forefront of the blue collar shot is none other than WCG wrestler Julianna DiMaria, who appears to be confident going into the thoughts she’s about to express. There’s a slight look of concern on her face, knowing that she’s in a different environment in so many ways when she gets her Super Falcon Cup journey started. Julianna sits down on a bench, with the neighborhood behind her, as she expresses her thoughts.
Julianna DiMaria: I have to admit, being in Mexico is a culture shock for. Considering where my parents come from, I’ve been to Germany and Italy before, but this is something different. Hearing the stories from my parents of how they were brought up and then coming here and getting a taste for myself of what their stories were like, it’s certainly an eye opener. However, I didn’t come here to be sentimental. I know that I’ll be somewhere far more prestigious than my current location when I begin my Super Falcon Cup journey representing WCG, the developmental promotion of the world-renowned Redemption promotion. I’ll be honest, as much as I’d want to come here and say that I’m doing this for all of my peers in WCG, that’s not the case at all. I’m winning this tournament for ME and you can stack me up against any competitor from any wrestling promotion and I am going to bring them back down to earth. I’m no idiot. I know that people are going to see me, the young lady from San Diego, with barely a few mainstream matches under her belt, who is in a DEVELOPMENTAL roster currently, as someone with little or no chance to win this tournament. But, I’m just fine with that. It doesn’t faze me. If you want to underestimate me, that’s fine. In fact, I think many people in my home promotion overlook me if we’re being quite honest. But, I promise one thing. Regardless of whether I win or lose this tournament, I WON’T be underestimated or overlooked anymore because I am making my presence known outside of the United States for the very first time.
And that brings me to this Coby Quik character from DARC. I admit, I don’t know TOO much about you. I know the basics and really, the basics of what I know about you make me sick to be honest. What’s this nickname you got going on? Kid Flash? So, what? You think you’re a superhero now? Listen Coby, I’ve heard a few things you’ve had to say in your DARC videos and one of the first things that stand out to me is your take on wrestlers who have family connections in this business because, hello, both of my parents were wrestlers. Let’s have a little discussion about that, okay? While you’re right about the fact that it’s always part of your life when you have family in the business, it’s FAR more complex than that on a case by case basis. You might see me and you might think of me as just another wrestler that got through because of who her parents were. You might see me as someone that thinks she’s entitled to the entire world just because she had parents for her. You couldn’t be more wrong if that’s what you thought of me, Coby, because my parents weren’t even world famous professional wrestlers. Sure, my mother wrestled in Germany, sure, my father wrestled in Italy, but they were more of what you preach about when it comes to you: breaking into this business without the family connections, the nepotism that you’ve mentioned before when you talk about DARC’s champion, Rayven Hardy, without the money to have the best trainers. THEY had to claw their way into this business in a similar fashion YOU did.
Nepotism isn’t what got me here, Coby. Simple as that. If you’re going to paint me as “another Rayven Hardy”, then you’re way off the mark. Sure, I want to make this “my world”, but I know that won’t come easy. I know that nobody is going to hand the world to me and it’s never been handed to me. When you talk about “nepotism” and “family connections” in this business, you neglect to talk about how not EVERY second generation wrestler had parents that were mainstream famous. My parents weren’t. They never even wrestled for a mainstream American wrestling promotion. With the way technology was at the time, when they came to this country together, nobody even knew who the hell they were. They were wrestling in high school gyms and small arenas for a while, and then my mother got pregnant with me and had to retire. My father never broke into the mainstream. He was an Independent lifer. Once I was on the way, he had to get a regular job in order to make ends meet on top of his Indy career. Once I was born, he retired too and my parents ended up being… GASP…. REGULAR PEOPLE… originally living on a blue collar neighborhood like the one that’s behind me. I remember when a god damn McDonald’s cheeseburger was considered “too expensive” when I was like three years old. Fortunately, my parents were incredible with their finances. They knew how to invest, how to save, and eventually, they got back into the business by opening their own wrestling and training facility. Yeah, maybe that’s how I ended up getting in, but my parents WORKED for that while teaching ME the value of that hard work to begin with.
Doesn’t sound like your typical second-generation wrestler, does it, Coby?
Get used to it, because I’m the kind of girl breaking all stereotypes in this industry and the fact that you have the position that you do about people with family connections in the business, labelling pretty much all of those cases “nepotism” is damn insulting to everything my parents did for themselves and for me to make their dreams and mine come true. I’m not saying there aren’t cases of nepotism, they are. But ultimately, my point is, you’re facing someone in the first round of this tournament that is closer to YOU than the Rayven Hardys that you’ve wrestled time and time again in DARC. It’s so ironic that such ignorance and arrogance comes from someone who prides himself in what he does. How can someone with YOUR background consist of such stupidity? HOW? I’m talking to someone that didn’t even break into this business on his first try, correct? I got to admit, I do commend that you did what you had to do, including getting the education that you did, in order to break into this business, but that doesn’t make you any better than me. That doesn’t give you the right to dismiss second-generation wrestlers like me as people that got in as nepotism cases. Just because you went from nothing to getting to where you are doesn’t make you any better than anyone else, nor does it give you the right to be as judgmental toward your peers in DARC the way I’ve heard you be when I had a tape-study session on some of the videos that you’ve recorded for your matches there.
But that’s enough about you, I’ve talked enough about that. Let me tell you what you’re going to be going up against when we clash in the first round of the Super Falcon Cup tournament. Granted, I already told you about my parents’ stories, so let me tell you a bit about mine, even though it’s a small book so far compared to the novel that you’ve written for your wrestling journey. I wrestle for West Coast Genesis… and as I mentioned before, it’s a DEVELOPMENTAL promotion. One of the very BEST out there, I should say, but still, key word: DEVELOPMENTAL! And Redemption, the parent company, sure as hell didn’t hire me because of who my parents were, they hired me based on the Independent tape that I have. Despite training at a school and a facility owned and ran by my parents, I STILL had to make this happen on my own. First off, there’s the fact that I’ve got to earn my spot on Redemption’s main roster. Have you ever had to do that, Coby? It sounds to me that when you came back, you went straight back to the mainstream, without having to go the developmental route like I am going through right now. Secondly, my parents? They may have trained me, but when it came to my Indy wrestling career? Here’s how that worked out, from a financial standpoint. They bought me my gear, but they left everything else to me. Travelling from Indy show to Indy show? Finding a hotel to sleep in??? If I could even AFFORD IT??? Food? Other necessities? It was all up to ME to take care of all that and yes, just like my parents, I had to have something on the side to cover those expenses. Granted, it wasn’t a “regular job”, it was doing some side modeling for a few hundred dollars a photoshoot and even that was hard because some of those modeling companies didn’t even want me because I refused to do anything racy… because… you know, I’m about sophistication, grace and class, really. Again, my parents… tough love with them, always. They never handed me a damn thing.
But, I’m all the better for it. My hard work, those values that they taught me, the work ethic that they passed down to me in their DNA, that’s what led me here and even though I’ve had maybe like five mainstream matches at most up to this point, I’ve already faced my fair share of adversity. I thought things were going to be simple when in my first mainstream match, I won in a triple threat. I thought my world was going to be easier to attain than expected when I won a battle royal to qualify for a triple threat ladder match at WCG’s first big show to crown the first ever WCG West Coast champion. Here I thought that I was not only going to be representing WCG in this tournament, but also representing it AS its West Coast Champion. Well… you don’t see me holding a championship over my shoulder, do you? Believe me, I’m embittered by it, but it’s just another obstacle along the way that’s going to make me stronger in the long run and to be quite honest, Coby, you’d have an easier chance if I actually WAS the West Coast champion because if I WAS West Coast Champion, I wouldn’t have a defeat from a ladder match to learn from that would give me that strength to be better. It’s that bitterness from falling short in that ladder match in my home promotion that is going to drive me to defeat you and move ahead in this tournament. And yet…
There’s still so much more to learn for me.
My story is just beginning, Coby. I go into this match with little to nothing to lose. I mean, nobody REALLY expects anything out of me in this tournament, do they? You’re far too used to facing those stereotypes that you decry back in your home promotion, but you’re not used to facing someone like me, who as I’ve mentioned before, has a similar background to you. How are you going to prepare for that? Not only do you have to deal with that factor, you have to deal with the factor of the UNKNOWN! With barely a few mainstream matches under my belt, you don’t have much on me. You can’t even get a clue from the wrestling career of both of my parents because neither one of them ever made it to American mainstream wrestling. THEY were unknowns… but contrary to their story, my story isn’t going to be unknown for long. I promised them that I was going to have better their careers than they did and I will. This world is going to be MINE for the keeping one day, Coby. You might be the broke kid that had to go through so much financial issues and had to go through college to get to where he is, but to me? You’re one of the early chapters of the greatest wrestling story that’s just started to be written. When we meet in that ring, you’re going to learn a hell of a lot from me. It’s going to be a reawakening experience for you, I promise you that. But, as much as you’ve learned, as much as you’ve overcome… it still won’t be enough to beat me! I’ll send you back to DARC with a perspective that you never even imagined had any sort of existence. I’m going to take your pride, I’m going to rip it out of your soul, and I’m going to conquer what’s left as I humble you and move forward in this tournament toward my next challenge.
Now THAT, Coby Quick?
THAT’S what’s up!!!!