The video begins and as normal we see the inside of a hotel room. With so many different promotional tapes appearing for the Trios Tournament anyone would be forgiven for not recognising the room as the very same one that twenty four hours previously hosted Autumn Valentine as she stood and gave her take on everything related to the Trios Tournament but in front of the camera today, dressed in a very form fitting shirt adorned with a large Superman logo on the front and in clear view of the camera, stands Zoe Sperling, better known to the wrestling world as Syren. “Hey everyone,” she begins with a little nod toward the camera. “I’ve been doing a lot of thinking lately. I said earlier in the week that I wasn’t exactly in the place that I wanted to be in my career at the moment and I think that much is obvious. Where is the place that I want to be, you ask? The answer to that is the same answer I’ve been giving for the last four and a half years, whether people loved me or hated me, whether I was surrounded by friends or standing completely alone, the one place I’ve ALWAYS wanted to be in that time has never once changed - in the spotlight! It’s where I was born to be, it’s where I’ve wanted to be every day for as long as I can remember, from the days that I’d pick up a hairbrush in the bathroom and sing in to it and watch myself in the mirror or I’d out on talent shows in front of my family. Of course my family did the thing that all families do in that situation. They told me that I was good, they assured me that I was going to make something of my life and have a career entertaining the world, but as I look back now I know that they were just saying all of that because it’s what families are meant to say. Hell, my brothers only said anything nice at all because they feared what my dad would say to them if they didn’t. The truth is that they probably thought the same thing as everyone else has thought about me over the years and that’s that I was just going to lose interest and end up doing something else entirely. My stepmother thought I’d meet a nice Jewish boy and get married, that’s what she wanted for me. My father thought I’d grow out of it all and that I’d need an education when I did to fall back on. And my brothers... Well, god knows what boys think about anything like that. But as each of them doubted me, I always knew that I’d make it. I always knew I would be standing one day in the spotlight...”

“I go out every week now, four times a week on most weeks, and I stand in front of the world with that spotlight shining down on me. The more success I’ve gained in this business the harder it’s become as well. The more I win the more I heap the pressure on myself to go back out there the next night and top what I did the night before because I’ve never just been happy with getting the job done and walking away again, I’ve never once been satisfied with just phoning it in, and instead I’ve wanted to constantly go out there and prove myself at the highest level. The more I win the more I become a target, the more success I’ve found the more I’ve found myself hunted out by others looking to make a name for themselves by beating those who’ve already made it and the more I’ve raised championship belts above my head the more I’ve found it so very difficult to keep elevating myself in new ways and finding some route back toward the championships again. It’s never even easy. I’ve never had anything handed to me. Whether it was beating Gigi Steward in a non-title match when I’d only had a professional contract for about a month to earn my first Women’s championship match, whether it was fighting every single team that CHBK could find to throw in front of Dark Fantasy in a quest to have us prove ourselves before he FINALLY granted us the opportunity to compete for the number one contendership to the World Tag Team Championships or whether it was winning a one-night tournament and beating three former World Heavyweight Champions on the same night in the same ring – Katie Steward, Lucas Knight and David Helms – to get my foot in the door for the very first time at the very highest level I’ve been tested every step of the way, I’ve had to fight for my place every step of the way and I’ve EARNED my right to stand in that spotlight every single time. Maybe I do put it on t-shirts and maybe it does look amazing on there but when I say that I am the BEST FEMALE WRESTLER IN THE WORLD it’s so much more than just a marketing slogan. It’s the truth. It’s got four and a half years of history behind it and it’s something I’m so very proud of.”

She nods for a moment before smiling at the camera again. “And that brings me right back to the beginning again, because after all that effort, after everything I’ve done I’m not where I want to be anymore. I’m in the spotlight I admit, my name is out there every show but I’m not where I truly want to be, I’m not standing in the BRIGHTEST possible light. I’m not main eventing every single show. I’m not wearing the biggest, shiniest championship belts. And I want to be! I want every last bit of that. So, how do I get it? How did other people get it? How did the Jason Zero’s of the world get their seven World Heavyweight Championship reigns? How did the Shilo Valiant’s or the Greg Cherry’s of the world get their four? How did the Jake Starr’s get three? I could do what they did. I could whine. I could complain. I could backstab. I could become the biggest, most obnoxious bitch on the planet. Or I could do the in-thing right now and I could look at my situation and I could look at the Board of Directors or at Mr Douche and I could place the blame solely on them. I could point out that the only rematch I had from losing the World title at Rise to Greatness was to step inside the Elimination Chamber, a match that I earned my way inside anyway by pinning Jake Starr in the Thunderdome last September. I could point out the way I’ve been treated, the way I was banished from the Women’s division, the way Dark Fantasy were treated as World Tag Team Champions and the fact that I wasn’t even involved in the match, let alone the decision, to lose those titles. I could do that. I could claim a conspiracy against me. I could cry and whine and hold out my hand and DEMAND that Mr Douche give me opportunities but what can I say, for some crazy reason lately I feel like that’s already been done.”

She laughs, shrugging her shoulders innocently before rolling her eyes, knowing that anyone listening will know exactly what she means. “But let me ask you guys a serious question,” she says before pausing again, as though she’s trying to figure out exactly how to word it. “How many of you go to work every day thinking that you deserve more out of your job? I can’t really claim to know too much about what most people go through because I’ll be honest with you, being in this business is vastly different to anything else and I was only nineteen when I started doing this. But this is something I’ve thought about lately, and I worked as a waitress for a few months when I was in high school so it’s not like I have no experience with having to go to work for ‘the man’. But I’m willing to bet, even without really being able to ask you guys directly, that most of you go to jobs where you feel undervalued, right? Most of you go to jobs and think you deserve better than you get. Most of you go to jobs and think that your boss just doesn’t see the real potential in you and that you could do his job, or your supervisor’s job, better than they could, am I right? Totally, I so get that! In fact a lot of you probably go to work and you’ve been turned down for promotions as well, right? So, how many of you walk up to your boss and tell him that he’s a complete and total piece of shit? How many of you have been turned down for that promotion and then walk around work the next week grabbing office equipment and hitting people around the head with it? How many of you attack the guy who DID get the promotion from behind and scream at him that you’re better than he’ll ever be and he’s nothing more than a worthless asshole who doesn’t even deserve to stand in your shadow? None of you? Oh...”

She pauses again for a moment, pretending to be confused by the answer to her own question. “Hmm, that’s weird,” she says before pondering again. “Well then, how many of you take to social media to air your complaints? How many of you log on to your Facebook account or your Twitter and tell everyone one of your friends or followers, many of whom you probably work with and one of whom may even be that boss or supervisor, that you’ve been overlooked and it’s not fair at all and you DEMAND that something is done about it? How many of you blame every single problem on your boss on that social media account? I mean, everything that happens is TOTALLY his fault and the guy who DID get that promotion didn’t deserve it at all, right? It wasn’t just that he’d been at the company longer than you, or that he was better than you in any way because you’re the best there has ever been at your job. So, how many of you air that completely righteous and deserved anger to the world on social media? What, none of you again? Yah, because if you did that – if you acted like a spoiled bitch on social media – then your boss would probably just fire you, right? I mean sure we all THINK we’ve been overlooked when things don’t go out way,  we all want the best opportunities to come our way but should we act like spoiled children when they don’t? Should we assume that it’s a conspiracy against us and not that the other person maybe was just actually better? I mean I have in the past. I admit that I’m not exactly an angel. But I’ve also been punished for it and I’ve learned from my mistakes. Now, I’m willing to do what all of you do. Rather than crying about it, I go to work every day and I bust my ass. I go to work every day and I fight and I win, and week by week I remind those who overlooked me that I’m the best and they can’t overlook me forever.”

“So, when I was given an opportunity to compete in the Trios Tournament I could have had so many reactions but I was given an opportunity to write my own ticket, an opportunity to make another little bit of history and win this tournament yet again, and rather than complaining about how unfair it was instead I grabbed hold of it with both hands,” she explains happily. “Do you think that I want to team with Jake Starr? I don’t. The last time I was part of a team with him he hit me with a steel chair, because you know, that’s what Jake does. And I know going in to this match, no matter what he might say, that when this is over there’s every chance he’s going to attack me with a chair again, just because he can. But whether I like it or not this week Jake is my partner and I only get one chance at this. There’s nobody right now lining up to give me championship opportunities but if I can win tomorrow night, if I can do the impossible all over again then I won’t need to wait for an opportunity, I won’t need to rely on the generosity of Mr Douche or anyone else because I’ll HAVE my opportunity any time I want it, any place I want it, and I know a little something about that. Do you remember Riding the Lightning last year? I do. I was in the main event on Night Two. I fought for the World Heavyweight Championship in the match I wanted, a Steel Cage match in my hometown, and I won. That victory was not only one of the best nights of my career; it was one of the best nights of my LIFE! That’s the power of this tournament. That’s the opportunity that lays in front of all of is this weekend. In one night I can go from wondering where my opportunity is going to come from to having in my hand the ability to book that same match again this year, or to find one even bigger than before.”

“That was the match I made last year after all, but in 2012 I made another match with my Trios Contract from the year before, a Fatal Fourway match for the undisputed SCW World Heavyweight Championship. In the end I didn’t win. I didn’t get everything I wanted out of that match, but what I did get out of it was a chance to test myself in the biggest match I could think of,” she explains again proudly, in spite of the fact that she admits she didn’t win. “When people talk about the Trios Tournament and they think about all the different matches they could make, how many of them really think about doing it in the biggest possible way? How many would willingly put themselves in a Fatal Fourway? They all want the easy option. They all want the match where they have the biggest advantage. If the champion is a grappler, they’ll think they can fight in an Underground Rules match. If the champion just happens to love that environment, they’ll think they can fight them in a pure wrestling match. The Trios Tournament allows them to do that. Winning this tournament allows them to book any match they can imagine – like last year it allowed Brittany Lohan to book a match that would guarantee she didn’t even have to compete for eight weeks after if she’d won – but winning this tournament allows ME to book the BIGGEST match I can imagine! And that’s what I do. I don’t think small. I don’t want to win a championship when I’ve made it super easy, when the odds are stacked in my favour and when the story is already written to all but guarantee me victory, but the tournament allows you to do that. The tournament allows you to book a sixteen on one handicap match if you get the overwhelming desire to do that. But if I win tomorrow night, if I claim my THIRD Trios Tournament in a row, then I can promise you right now that I won’t be thinking about the easiest option, I’ll be doing what I’ve done for four and a half years and stepping up to the biggest possible challenge, where the lights are on the brightest they’ve EVER been!”

“But surviving this tournament takes a lot more than just experience,” she explains calmly. “The first time I took part in this tournament I was part of the most cohesive team in the tournament, bar none. Lucas Knight, Christy Matthews and Syren, representing the Infamous, went in to the tournament perhaps not the favourites in the eyes of the entire roster but definitely the favourite’s in our own eyes. We knew we could work together better than anyone else, we knew we had the ability in the three of us to beat any one of those teams and we did exactly that. Along the way we fought the team that probably were the favourites in the semi-final and we were the ones who walked out the winners. That experience was one I’ll never forget. It completely changed the way I saw so many things, and it gave me a respect for this tournament that I’ve never forgotten, because even though we went in to it as a cohesive unit it still pushed us to our limits, it still tested every aspect of our ability to work together. Last year though? Last year was something else entirely! Last year my team didn’t have that same bond. We didn’t have that same intensity. Last year I teamed with Brittany Lohan and Gable Winchester and I don’t think there was a single moment of any of those matches that Brittany and I ever got along. We did as much damage to each other as our opponents did to us I think, but even despite the craziness of it, even despite the complete lack of any form of partnership the three of us still found a way to win. When I tell you that the Trios Tournament is crazy, that it can bring out the very best in people that you didn’t even know was there, then I speak from experience. I look back on that experience now and I can’t help but smile, but at the same time I see the same dynamics in the team I’m a part of this year. I didn’t like Brittany Lohan last year, and I don’t like Jake Starr this year. Gable Winchester was a wild card for us last year, just as Skullkeeper is a wildcard for us this year. There are so many elements in my 2014 team that were present in the team from last year, but the one that stands out above all the others is a desire to win.”

“I don’t like Jake but I do respect him. I don’t think there are many people out there who actually DO like him, but nobody can deny the things he’s accomplished. He’s a Supreme Champion, the current reigning United States Champion and a former three-time World Heavyweight Champion. When you look back over the last five years then I’m so very proud of all the huge matches I’ve been a part of but if there’s one guy who’s been right there in terms of competing in the biggest matches then it’s Jake, and Jake has done things that I’ve not even come close to,” she says, almost in admiration. “He’s stepped inside an Elimination Chamber and he’s won. He’s fought in so many multiple person matches, including a triple threat match for the World Heavyweight Championship, and at the end been the one out of all of them who’s had his hand raised. I’m proud to tell you how much I give inside that ring, I’ve always been proud to tell you that I don’t hold back whenever I step inside there but Jake doesn’t either. He never has and he never will. I’m not stupid enough to trust him, and there’s no way that we’re ever going to hug even if together we do accomplish the impossible, but of all the people on the roster to end up on my side of the ring tomorrow night I’m not too upset that I’ve got Jake Starr as a partner. And clearly there are other people who have faith in this partnership working out as well, because going in tomorrow night we’re the number one seeds. I’m not sure exactly why they decided to seed the tournament, or who it was that picked the seedings, but whoever it was saw the fact that there are five World Championships between the two of us, they knew us both well enough to know that we’ve both got a passion for this business that goes above and beyond anything else, and they knew that with either one of us it’s going to take nothing short of incapacitating us to stop us from finding a way to get back up.”

“As much as that may be true though, there are plenty of people in this tournament who are capable of incapacitating anyone else. There are main event stars, hungry up-and-comers and even legitimate legends all taking part in this tournament and all with the same goal in mind. There are tag team specialists and those who can’t get along with anyone all thrown together to see what will happen because that’s what this tournament means. This isn’t just a tournament full of the biggest egomaniacs, this is a tournament that the ENTIRE ROSTER wanted to be a part of because not only is the prize at the end the biggest thing you can imagine but there is SO much pride just in being able to say that you fought the entire roster as a part of a three-person team and you won,” she explains, smiling proudly as she does so. “And there are combinations this year that you’d have to be an idiot to overlook. There are combinations like the fifth seeded team, with Kennedy Street and Rachel Foxx, current or former World Tag Team Champions, looking to fight the world and we all know that either one of them is capable of doing exactly that. There are combinations like the hungry desire of Gigi Steward, Thirteen and Stacy Kissinger, a three person team who ALL have something to prove going in to this tournament, and there is even a team with the experience factor of Simon Lyman and CHBK, accompanied of course by the willingness and perseverance of Collin Cole. You look at these teams and maybe you could look at the individual elements and you can say that that one element by itself might not have enough, but that’s the beauty of this tournament because you see combinations you never imagined and they find strengths in one another. That is, after all, what made Dark Fantasy the team that we were. It’s why we were able to hold the World Tag Team Championships for more than six hundred days, because we both brought to the table unique traits that when combined made us a match for ANY team in the world and I see that same thing in so many of these Trios Tournament groupings.”

“I want nothing more in this world than to enter this tournament tomorrow night and fight my way all the way to the final. I want nothing more than to enter this tournament tomorrow night and prove to the world once again why I am the best in this company and why I have a legacy in tag team wrestling second to none, but even from the very first match I know how tough it’s going to be,” she says before pausing and smiling. “We’re the number one seeds, which should mean that we get the easiest of all possible combinations, but Soopaman Luva, Merrick Wiseman and David Miller which part of that is ‘easy’? We know how hungry Luva is, I know firsthand how tough and determined Merrick Wiseman is and I also know that he’s undoubtedly looking at this match as a chance to get even with me after Aiken got involved in our match before and it ended the way it did. And then there’s David Miller, a dangerous man who can end ANY match with just one move. The statistics say this is the ‘strongest’ team against the ‘weakest’, but in a tournament like this ANYTHING can happen. The statistics probably didn’t say in August 2012 that a former Women’s Champion could win a number one contendership tournament and yet it happened. The statistics probably didn’t say that last year the team I was a part of would make it through the first round and yet IT HAPPENED! In this kind of environment you disregard statistics, in this kind of environment you put personal hatred aside and you concentrate on doing whatever you can to go out there and you fight until you can’t fight anymore because you get ONE chance at this, maybe not even one chance a year, maybe even one chance in a LIFETIME and I know how blessed I am for the fact that this is my third straight year but I also know how easily I can lose it at any time.”

“In this tournament anything can happen and enemies can become the most cohesive of friends for just one night while friends can put each other through hell because only one of them can make it to the final,” she says with a passion before pausing for a moment. “I have friends in this tournament. I have two girls I consider sisters in this tournament and I know in the second round or in the final that I might have to fight one of them, that I might have to go out there and do everything I can to deny that sister her dream so that I can experience mine, and I know that that won’t be something that’s easy for me to do but it’s something I’m willing to do if I have to. I lost the World Heavyweight Championship at Rise to Greatness to Shilo Valiant, and I haven’t touched championship gold since. It’s been seven months, it could be seven more before I get to raise another title above my head and I know that but I want to change it. This tournament gives me this chance, and I’m going to do everything I can to fight for that chance tomorrow night. Going in to Breakdown I was told that I’d be holding back, that I’d be saving something in reserve for tomorrow night, but I didn’t. I didn’t hold back, I NEVER hold back, and I may not be on the form I was when I won the number one contendership, the competition may be tougher this year than it’s EVER been before, but I’m not going to shy away from this tomorrow night. Tomorrow night, in front of the world, I’m going to give every last ounce of energy, I’m going to fight no matter how much my body aches at the rounds go on – if I even get to the later rounds – and I’m going to do what I love to do. I’m going to perform. I’m going to seize that spotlight. I’m going to steal the show! Me, Jake Starr and Skullkeeper, the number one seeds and with a little luck and a lot of heart the 2014 Trios Tournament Winners. Tomorrow night I’m going to fight friends and I’m going to fight enemies. Tomorrow night I’m going to battle until I can’t go anymore. Tomorrow night, I hope to be one of three still standing when the final bell sounds, and if I am then to everyone else who wants this chance just as much as I do got just three words – JUST BE JEALOUS!”

She laughs before stepping up closer to the camera and kissing the lens and just then the video ends and the replay button flashes up on to the screen.