Post by Jana Rikar on Jun 14, 2018 23:23:42 GMT
Norfolk, VA
Monday 6/11
“Hey baby! Just landed in Norfolk about 20 minutes ago. Grabbed an Uber so I'll be home in a few.”
The cheerful voice of Jana Rikar as she rides in the backseat of the Uber taking her from the Norfolk International Airport. She glances down at her phone at the view of her husband, Lex Collins on the other end of the video call.
“I need to go the Hardware Store, well at least I think I should, maybe the place with the helpful hardware folks?”
“Planning on Building something?”
“Well, no, not really. Training Purposes. I gotta see if I can lift a ladder about 3 feet up and slide it onto a platform.”
“Oh. Gotcha. I think we have a ladder in the garage that'd do, if that’s all you’re doing.”
“Oh? Well I'll be home in a few …”
The car stops in front of their house in Virginia Beach as Lex turns the corner to see her stepping out of the Uber.
“... and we can take a look. See you shortly. Bye Baby!”
He laughs as she hangs up, looking at him. She drops her bag on the driveway and runs in a full sprint to him, jumping up into his arms, wrapping her arms and legs around him.
“Hi Baby.”
“Hi Yourself.”
She kisses his lips then lets go, landing on her feet. He takes her hand as they turn the corner towards their garage at the back of their house.
“You doing ok? When ya leaving for Reno?”
“Doing alright. And I leave tomorrow morning.”
“At least we have tonight together.”
Lex lifts open the garage door and beside of one of his motorcycles, a stepladder hangs on two hooks along the wall. The two walk over towards the ladder. Lex goes to reach for it but Jana stops him.
“I was looking online while in NYC and a ladder weighs about 40 pounds, that's 1/3 of what I weigh and If I can't lift it.. or set one up.. it's gonna be hard for me in this match. Not to mention the barbed wire.”
“They using steel or aluminum ones?”
“I dunno. Aluminum ones I guess? Steel would be heavier, wouldn't it?”
“I think steel would be more like the 40 lb ones. But I'm no scientist.”
She takes her phone from her pocket and turns it to show Lex.
“That's what I found the other day online.”
“Oh yeah that one looks like the high end kind roofers use.”
“Ohhh! Well then it might not be so bad then. Guess I should have put in cheap when I was doing my search.”
“Not like you look for ladders everyday.”
Jana grabs the ladder and lifts it off the hooks. She stumbles backwards, nearly falling backwards onto the motorcycle, but Lex steadies her then helps lower the ladder.
“That’s a little awkward. I still might wanna go to the hardware store though, in case we are using those steel ladders in the match.”
“Well, most of the ladder matches I’ve seen, don’t have a ladder hanging on the wall. Most are standing or flat on the ground.”
“True. And it’s about 3 foot from the floor to the apron, so I’m gonna have to pick it up and slide it in. I at least need to be able to do that.”
“More importantly, you need to be able to climb the ladder and take down the title. Go grab your bag and get changed. I have an idea that might work.”
“OK Baby.”
She kisses his cheek, runs back to grab her bag from the driveway and heads inside to change her attire.
-Minutes Later-
“Are you sure about this?”
In a tanktop and yoga pants, Jana stands about halfway up the ladder. Above her, hanging from a loop about 5 feet above the top of the ladder, is a replica of the DWF Defiant Title. She looks down at Lex, who’s holding a hose with water coming out of it. The splash of water is heard coming from below the camera view.
“There’s four things you have to be able to do in this match. Pick up the ladder, Set up the ladder and climb the ladder.”
“And the fourth?”
“Try not to fall.”
He sprays her with the hose for a second and she laughs, nearly losing her grip on the ladder.
“OK! OK! Point taken. But I doubt Nolan, Phantom or Luna will be trying to spray me down with a water hose.”
“Probably not, and the barbed wire isn’t going to be pleasant either. I’ve been in a couple of these barbed wire ladder matches. Keep your gloves on, pick your spots in the match, don’t dally on the ladder and you should be ok.”
Lex turns off the water and looks up at Jana.
“And don’t fall.”
“Is that like the stock answer for ladder matches? I asked Todd, Mom, Kaden. They all said ‘Don’t Fall’ and I even asked Google and you know what it said? ‘Don’t Fall’. I mean, really?”
“Yep, Don’t Fall.”
She shakes her head and climbs up the ladder another rung. She reaches up and tries to reach the title.
“Do you really think I have a shot at this? I mean, Finn did send me a reply tweet that I should avoid Phantom, Luna was trash, and Nolan’s my only real threat. I know you don’t like Finn, but do you think that assessment might right?”
“You have as good of a chance as any of the others, regardless of his assessment.”
“Yeah, you’re right. So how do you take this off the loop?”
“You have to get up high enough to reach and unhook the latches on the back of the belt.”
She climbs up one more step, nearly the top of the ladder. She reaches up and grabs the title. She tries to pull it loose but it won’t budge. Jana stands up on her tiptoes, unhooks the title from the loop and takes it in her hands.
“I DID IT!!! Uh-oh…..”
She loses her balance and falls off the ladder…… and a big splash comes up, as Jana lands in the above ground pool, surrounding the ladder that sits in the middle, water all around her. She comes up splashing and sputtering for air.
“COLD! COLD!! COLD!!!”
Lex laughs as Jana tries to stand, her clothes soaked and clinging to her small frame.
“I told you not to fall.”
Jana slowly gets to her feet as Lex lays the hose down on the ground, looking over at her.
“More importantly, did you lose your grip on the title?”
She pulls her hand from out of the water and holds the title over her head with one hand, smiling from ear to ear.
Virginia Beach VA
Thursday 6/14
"You're braver than you believe, and stronger than you seem, and smarter than you think."
The camera focuses in on a sweat covered Jana, carrying around the ladder from earlier in the week. She lifts it up onto a three foot table then slides it in about four feet, the sun shining down on her from the afternoon sky.
“Not often do you get to quote from a Winnie the Pooh movie but hey, it works in this case. I thought about doing something very heavily Disney-related and making this about the size difference that that I have in this match with my opponents. Phantom would remind people of Stromboli from the Pinocchio, whereas I'm more like Jiminy Cricket. Or that Luna might remind some people of the Queen of Hearts where I'm more like the Dormouse. Even good old Nolan Rowe, who has a uncanny look and resemblance to the famed Captain Hook, and here I am, flying around like Tinkerbell. But that's just a little too Disney for me.”
Jana pulls the ladder back off the table and sits it onto the ground. She looks back up at the camera and wipes her forehead with a towel, clearing the sweat from her brow.
“I'm sure that other people would think, ‘Oh little Jana is just a little princess. What is she doing in this match? With barbed wire? And Ladders? And Look at who she’s gotta go against?’ ”
She rolls her eyes slightly and giggles.
“I mean, you have the big monster, the Unstoppable Killing Machine, Phantom.”
Jana pantomimes trying to be Phantom, spreading her arms wide.
“And the Scandinavian Amazon-like Warrior, in Luna Cosmo.”
She holds her chin up and stands up on her tiptoes, trying to be as tall as she can, imitating Luna.
“Then the man who calls himself Death Rowe.”
She makes a gun from her hand and points it at the camera with a smile and a wink, similar to Nolan.
“And… then little ol’ me. Just a little Time Bomb.”
She smiles and flutters her eyes then shakes her head in disbelief.
“So perhaps I am a little princess compared to those three. So keeping with the Disney Princess theme, I may look like Aurora from Sleeping Beauty but I'm going to be in this match like I am Mulan. I'm not asking for the easy way out. I'm not asking for anything other than the chance. Mulan was a woman in a man’s army in a time when women were shunned at doing what a man can do. I’m here to show that, like Mulan did, I belong in this match for the WildCard title.”
Jana sets the towel back on the edge of the table, then picks up the ladder and stands it up, opening and locking the legs into place.
“Wild Card- How very apropos for this match.”
Jana looks up at the top of the ladder.
“Because this match, a barbed wire ladder match for the WildCard title. And it'll be hanging right up there...”
She points up at the top of the ladder, never looking down at the camera.
“... about twelve feet above the ring and you have four individuals that all have a chance at this wild-card title. Now one of these is not like the others because you have the 7-foot 350-pound Monster, You have the 6-3 223 pound Amazon. You have the man from Death Row at 6-foot and 230…
She looks back at the camera.
“...and then you have me, as Shakespeare would say, “Though she be but little, she is fierce!” That's me! The fiercest little princess at 5’1 and 115 pounds, soaking wet with rocks in my pockets and carrying a 10 lb knapsack on my back. So already I'm different from the others, but different is better. I’m sure everything thinks that I'm just going to fade into the background a little bit, be the unassuming character and hide away from all the carnage that’s gonna take place.”
“Not gonna happen. As you can see, this ladder here is bigger than I am and probably weighs just as much. But that's where strategy comes in. If you look at the tale of the tape, I'm definitely a lot smaller than the other three. But I'm a lot quicker than the other three. I consider myself very intelligent as well as very strategic. And in a match like this, it doesn't take somebody who has years of experience, or who's 7-foot and 350 pounds, or a big talker to win. What it does take though, is somebody who plans, somebody who can improvise, somebody who can be surprising, and somebody who no one expects.. But just may shock the world. Now I know I'm going into this match a huge underdog…. I mean… HUUUUUUUGE UNDERDOG.”
Her eyes widen as she says the last two words but then changes back to her normal look.
“But no matter what the oddsmakers say, no matter what the betting public says. The fact still Remains - I have a one-in-four chance of walking out of Walt Disney World as the WildCard Champion.”
She unlocks the ladder and closes it, pushing it to the ground. She bends at the knees and lifts the ladder, placing it back on to the table again, exhaling as she pats the ladder.
“I've been thinking about this match since last Showdown. Even though I nearly threw up on that old man backstage, I settled down now, managed to enhance my calm a little bit and thought more and more about what to do in this match. This is not going to be an easy match for me, because in all honesty, I don't match up very well. But I can only make do with what I have.
I’m not Phantom, but I’m also not going to be struggling to climb a ladder.
I’m not Luna, but I’m also not going to be worrying about what everyone thinks how i look in the ring.
I’m not Nolan, but I’m not gonna try to be the ‘Highlight of the Night’ either.
I’m just gonna be Jana. I know what I can do and I’m gonna do everything I can to win. At any cost. So the risk is higher for me but the reward of the WildCard Title is well worth the risk “
She takes the gloves off and sets them on the table.
“To be honest, I'm not going to be out there using the ladder as a weapon very much. I'm definitely going to try to avoid the barb wire as much as I can. But this match is made up of four unique individuals that all have their strengths and weaknesses. And in a normal match, their strengths would definitely play into a bigger part of the match against me. But with this style of a ladder match, even with the barbed wire, I have equal footing and an equal chance. I don't have to beat any of the three, or all three either. I just have to simply climb the ladder and grab the title. I'm sure that sounds a lot easier than what it is. And I'm sure that my opponents are looking at this match, seeing me as a throw-in, like I'm a sacrificial lamb.”
She nods slowly.
“And I hope that they do, because this lamb isn’t going to be led to slaughter. This dainty little lamb is going to hop right up that ladder and the Fairy Tale Dream for a little girl from Virginia Beach in her fourth match ever… will happen. This may not be a Disney movie but this will be a Mighty Duck ending. The fans are gonna get their next Disney Princess, not because I found my Prince Charming and not because I've slayed the three-headed dragon, but because I’m gonna do what no one else thought possible.”
She taps her head then her chest.
“I believe in myself, my ability and in my heart that no Monster, no Amazon, and no Bringer of Death is going to stop this Time Bomb from exploding. And I'm not doing this for me. I'm not doing this for Lex. I'm not doing this for the hype. I'm doing this for all the little Tinkerbell's, for all the Jiminy Cricket’s, all the Dormouse’s and for every little girl out there who wants to be a Princess, who wants to be fierce, and who wants to show the world that they're more than just a little girl. These little girls are gonna grow up to be champions, just like me. I'm going to walk up that ladder. I'm going to avoid the barbed wire. I'm going to take down the WildCard Title and I’m not gonna fall either.”
“Then… I’m going to enjoy the rest of Disney World, as Princess Jana, the Fierce Little WildCard Champion.”
She throws up two fingers in the victory sign.
“Be well.”