As the video begins we hear the commotion of activity all around us and it takes a moment for the picture to focus in. When it does we see that we’re backstage at a wrestling event, but not in the normal, camera-friendly interview areas but rather seemingly in the midst of the mayhem all around us. The camera slowly moves away from people walking back and forth and toward an unmarked room, and as we pan inside we find that it seems to be the medical area. There are numerous ice packs scattered across the counter tops where it seems different people have used them throughout the night while being treated after their respective matches but aside from the medical staff there seem to only be two people in the actual room itself and we recognise both immediately. The first, standing a few feet in front of the camera and with an ice pack over his right shoulder that he’s holding on with his left hand is David Helms, still in his wrestling gear but seeming as though it’s been a while since he was in the ring. On the unused gurney next to him sits one of the SCW World Tag Team Championships. The other individual in the room isn’t in as good shape however. Sitting on a gurney in front of David, her hair red with her own blood and blood on her arms and down the pink and black ring attire she’s still dressed in, is Zoe Sperling, clearly not in good shape.

“–good news is that he doesn’t think you’ve got a concussion. You were lucky tonight though babe. Seriously, what the hell were you thinking?” asks David as we pick up the conversation already in progress as we get close enough to hear what’s being said. “I mean I know that you wanted to win, but... I’m just glad that nothing more serious happened.”

“Ok, so maybe it’s the blood loss talking but hello, last time I checked it was the winning part that mattered more than anything,” Zoe replies defiantly. “And guess what? I won. I know it could have been a whole lot different, and seriously at the end there I swear that I thought Jake was actually going to kill me at one point, but I wasn’t going to back down. I wasn’t going to let him win!”

David sighs and shifts on the spot, obviously uncomfortable with everything that he witnessed and that Zoe was willing to do to herself to get the victory. The video keeps running for a moment before a voice behind the camera speaks out. “How are you feeling?” asks the unfamiliar voice of Tamara Johnson, Zoe’s younger half-sister, perhaps better known from her stage and Twitter name, Robyn Valentine. “It looked absolutely brutal out there. Does it hurt?”

“Only when I move, or blink, or breathe,” Zoe admits before laughing a little.

David begins to turn, as though he’s about to say something when he sees the camera and the expression on his face changes. “Wait, are you filming this?” he asks. “Tam, don’t you think it’s a bad time to be filming anything at the moment?”

“It’s for a project,” Tamara insists from behind the camera. “We’re exploring the truth behind what you see on television, trying to remove the glamour and to show the reality behind it. I thought, what could be better than to show the reality behind this? I mean thousands of people tune in every week to wrestling shows, and they see guys and girls beat the hell out of each other and on television it looks incredible. But they don’t see what happens afterwards. They don’t see the price you guys pay for it, what it does to you physically or what it does to you psychologically. I wanted to show that. Zoe said that I could ask her a few questions.”

David turns to look at his girlfriend who just shrugs her shoulders. “She’s my sister, what was I supposed to say?” Zoe reminds him. “Besides, the truth is I kind of like the idea. Ok, so I’m not exactly at my best at the moment, and I think if I try and stand up right now I’ll probably fall on my face, but isn’t the whole point?”

“Can’t you do this tomorrow?” David asks with a disapproving look.

“It won’t be the same tomorrow,” Tamara argues from behind the camera. “By tomorrow it’ll just be like you see on TV. It’ll be a few Band-Aids and talk of stitches, and how many times have we heard that? I wanted to show more than that. I wanted to show the reality of wrestling, and what you guys really go through. I mean you hurt your shoulder tonight, and Zoe’s so beaten up she’s going to need stitches. Anyone who sees this is going to think you’re completely crazy for putting yourselves through this when you could just, I don’t know, get ‘normal’ jobs or something. You could work in malls, or work in television where it’s fake blood and stuntmen taking the big hits with clever camera angles. So why don’t you? Why do you put yourselves through this?”

Zoe and David both look at one another for a moment before Zoe looks up in to the camera, still holding a piece of gauze against her head to stop the bleeding, and smiles. “Because this is the price you pay sometimes,” she says softly. “I’m a wrestler. I wrestle, I don’t brawl or fight, and I’m really, really good at doing that, but sometimes you’ve got to go beyond that.”

“Why?” Tamara asks again, focusing in closer on the blood on Zoe’s arms and chest.

“To prove you’re better than everybody else,” the blonde replies coldly. “You know it drives me nuts sometimes when I hear some people – who will totally remain nameless, even if you know exactly who I mean – talk about ‘entertainment’. This isn’t about entertainment. Stepping in to the Thunderdome tonight I didn’t go in there thinking ‘oh god, I really hope I entertain’. I went in there to win, and I did. If you want to ‘entertain’ then go put on a black and white outfit and face paint and pretend to be opening doors or pulling on ropes, or put on a red nose and blow up balloon animals, you know? Yah, this business has got an element of entertainment, but mostly it’s about fighting. And when it comes to fighting I’m the best woman in the world, period!”

“Even if that means climbing in steel cages of death?” Tamara asks with disbelief.

“Whatever it means,” Zoe replies with a determined look on her face. “You know four years ago when I wrestled on the Apocalypse pre-show if you told me that tonight I would have fought inside the Thunderdome, let alone won, I would have called you crazy. I would never have done any of this four years ago. But now? Now I’ll get inside cages, inside chambers, inside any environment.”

“Doesn’t it scare you?” Tamara asks, focusing in tightly on Zoe’s facial response. “When you think about what could happen to you, when you think about how your career could just end in one of those matches, doesn’t it scare you?”

“Do you get scared crossing the road because you could get hit by a bus?” Zoe asks defiantly. “It’s not that I’m not afraid. Tonight, before that match, I was terrified. But just because something scares me doesn’t mean I’m not going to do it. Do I want to do this every night? No. Am I even slightly happy that I’m bleeding, and my EVERYTHING hurts, and tomorrow I’m going to wake up and I’m going to need to take painkillers just to be able to get out of bed? No. But tonight I faced two guys who’ve won seven World Championships between them, one who’s already in the Hall of Fame and one who’ll probably end up there one day, and everyone in the world told me that I couldn’t beat them but I proved them wrong. Tonight I beat Jake Starr. Tonight I beat Jake Starr! So yah I’m hurting, and I’m covered in my own blood and that sucks, but was it worth it? Totally!”

“So if you had to, you’d do it again?” Tamara asks her sister, still keeping the camera tight on Zoe’s response.

“Every time somebody tells me I can’t do something it just makes me more determined to prove them wrong,” Zoe replies with a nod. “So yah, I’d do it again. I’m going to prove to everybody that I’m the best, and if that means I have to fight these kinds of matches, and not wrestle, then I’ll do it. You only live once, right? And I’m going to be remembered as the best, no matter what it takes!”

“Did you get what you need?” David asks from out of view of the camera, which is still focused on a cold and determined look in Zoe’s eyes.

“I think so,” Tamara replies before we fade out.