The video begins and we see the inside of a bedroom, but it doesn’t look like a hotel room. In fact it’s a room that long-time viewers will remember from many months ago as the bedroom of Zoe Sperling at her home in Malibu, California. It’s notable for the pink and white wallpaper that’s visible in the background along with the pink sheets on the king-size bed along with the number of stuffed toys we can see sitting at the top of the bed. The room is just about as girly as one would imagine a bedroom that belonged to Syren would be, not disappointing in the slightest anyone who may have considered her a ‘Barbie’. Rather than trying to hide any of it though the look on her face as she sits in the middle of the bed grinning at the camera seems to be actually embracing everything around her. “Hey everyone,” she says with a smile toward the camera. “So, I’m filming this at home for the first time in a long time because the truth is that this is the first time I’ve actually been in this room for quite a while, and I’d forgotten how much I loved it here. Being in the wrestling business has meant that I’ve spent a lot of my life in hotels, I spend a lot of my life on the road, and after a while you get so used to the hotel lifestyle that it’s almost like you forget what it’s like to have somewhere you can come back to, somewhere that you can relax, somewhere that you can just be yourself. And right now I feel like that’s something I need. I need to relax because preparing for this weekend, preparing myself for Taking Hold of the Flame, preparing myself for one of the biggest challenges I am likely to ever have to face this Sunday has been a very stressful experience. And I know it doesn’t have to be. I know I could kick back and put my feet up and say ‘I’ve got this’ like so many others do, but that’s not my style. That’s never been my style!”

She laughs a little as she looks around the room and then back at the camera. “You know, when I was younger I used to get accused of ‘floating through life’. My own father even said that to me one time. He said that I ‘floated through life’ and I didn’t know what responsibility was, that I thought I could get away with anything, that I didn’t take anything seriously and if I didn’t smarten up and start taking the world seriously then I’d amount to nothing. That’s hard to hear from your own father as well, someone who loves you unconditionally but who believes that you don’t apply yourself, who believes you don’t try at anything and you don’t really want anything. He was wrong. I did apply myself. I just didn’t excel at the right things for him. I was never the smartest kid in class. I was never the straight-A student. You could probably spell out words with all the B’s, C’s and D’s on my report cards when I was growing up, you know, if you didn’t mind the fact that you’d have to spell them out without using any vowels. And he thought that meant that I didn’t apply myself, he thought that meant that I didn’t try hard enough but he was wrong. I worked really hard, but I was just never that smart. What I did do though was I competed. When it came to athletics, when it came to gym, when it came to dance, when it came to anything like that I was always at the top of my class and not just at the top of the girls either. I remember one time we did this bleep test. Anyone who’s ever done any kind of proper fitness training will probably know what I mean already, but basically it involved running back and forth between two points, and you had to make it to the other point by the time the bleep sounded. The longer the test went on, the shorter the time you got. Every time we did that test when I was growing up I was ALWAYS the last one left.”

“Now it wasn’t just because I was fitter than everyone else either. I mean, I probably was. I walked a long way to school most days, I loved playing any kind of sport I could, and I’d take part in just about any game I could during lunch at school, so I was pretty fit, but it was more than that. It was because I NEEDED to win that. I NEEDED to be the last one left, I NEEDED to beat every boy in my class every single time because they were all smarter than me, they were all more approved of than I was but when it came to running that test it didn’t matter how much my body hurt or how cramped up my muscles felt I wouldn’t let myself fail,” she says with a determination in her eyes and etched on her face. “I had to win back then to prove a point to all of the other kids, but also to myself. I had to prove that I was good at something. And as I got older I’ve never lost that determination. So this close to the biggest match of my life and I could just put my feet up and relax and think that if it’s going to happen then it’s going to happen, that somehow it’s my ‘destiny’ to win on Sunday, but that’s not the way I work. And in order to prepare for Sunday I’ve been pushing myself, but I’m going to push myself even harder when I get in that ring, I’m going to push myself to my limits and to the limits of my endurance and then, when my body is aching, when I’m in so much pain I can’t even stand up anymore, I’m going to dig down deep in to that special little place where I store all those feelings I had of rejection, dejection and heartache whenever anyone has hurt me or told me I’m not good enough and I’m going to tap in to all that anger and all that rage and I’m going to force myself back up and I’m going to force myself to keep fighting because that is what I am ladies and gentlemen. You can say what you want about me, you can call me Barbie, you can think of me as less than you but when it really comes down to it I’m a FIGHTER and I FIGHT!”

“And this Sunday I’m going to need that, I know that much. I also know how easily it can be taken away from me this Sunday. Someone runs up from behind me, no matter how prepared I am, and just throws me over the top rope and boom, it’s gone. No matter how good I tried to be its just gone, just like that, in an instant. And considering this Battle Royal is going to have forty people in it that’s a lot of potential people to run up behind me and rob me of what I want. But I don’t have eyes in the back of my head, and as you’ve probably noticed over the past few months with everything I’ve had to deal with, all the people who’ve tried to make me their victims, I don’t have anyone watching my back anymore either. No more Infamous. No more Pinnacle. No more friendships. No more allies. Only me. Only Syren. Standing Alone. And that makes this Sunday even harder, knowing that there won’t be anyone in that ring who wants to save me if I’m on the verge of elimination, and knowing that there will be more than just a few who want to join in and make sure I am eliminated from this thing,” she says before shaking her head and laughing a little more. “You know who you are, don’t you? All the guys and girls in that locker room who don’t like me, all the guys and girls in that locker room who want to step on me to make their way above me. They know who they are and I know they’re all coming for me this Sunday. They want to be the one who gets to rub it in my face that they’re the one who denied me my dreams. I don’t blame them. I know I could, but I don’t. I could just lash out at all of them the same way they lash out at me, I could attack them in the back the same way they attack me, I could spend hours on Twitter rubbing everything I do in their faces just like William Mason did when he jumped me from behind. You want to know why I don’t? Because I’m not reducing myself to their level!”

“‘You can’t reach for the stars if you’re holding on to the ground’,” she says before giggling a little. “My best friend Abigail told me that when I was nineteen. I’d just signed my first contract with SCW and I was scared. I didn’t really know what was going to happen, I didn’t really know where my future would end up and I didn’t want things to change in my life because, well... back then I actually liked my life. I didn’t want to get hurt, I didn’t want to get bitter, I didn’t want to spend my life in a wheelchair because someone who couldn’t handle the fact that I’d beaten them decided to attack me from behind and put me there, like we’ve seen a thousand different petty little losers do when they’ve found themselves on the wrong end of a match. She just smiled at me and she said those words. ‘You can’t reach for the stars if you’re holding on to the ground’. I don’t know what inspired that quote, I don’t know where it came from but it’s one that’s always stuck with me, and this Sunday in Atlanta when I step in to that ring I WILL be reaching for the stars, make no mistake about it. I’ll be reaching for the stars not only because I need to win this match to go on to Rise to Greatness and get a second chance at finishing what I started last year when I lost there, but because I need to prove to myself that I can do it. It’s just like those bleep tests when I was a kid, the bleeps are going to get faster and faster and faster and faster this Sunday and I’ve got to keep pushing myself harder and harder to always reach the other wall, to always reach the other marker, to get to the other side because I need to win this. It’s not just about Rise to Greatness. There are other ways to make it to Rise to Greatness, I know that. But this is Taking Hold of the Flame. This is a forty person Battle Royal. You don’t get bigger than this match. And while everyone is telling me to ‘earn it’ that’s what I intend to do, and join the list of greats who’ve earned it before!”

She pauses for a moment before smiling a little. “You know I’ve had a really tough run in my life recently. I’ve had my heart broken, I’ve had sadistic monsters attacking me from behind and trying to drain my blood – literally as well, literally trying to drain my blood – and I’ve had bitter, twisted little jealous children attacking me and thinking they could take my spot. Oh I’ve had a hell of a 2014 without doubt, and yah it has left me a little bitter at times, you’ve probably noticed,” she says with a laugh, “but I feel like I’m turning a corner right now. Something’s happened recently, I’m not really ready to talk about it yet but it’s made me remember that happiness is possible, and it’s made me want to be happy again, and just recently I have been miserable. I imagine I’ve not been much fun to be around. But there’s been a reason for that as well. For the longest time I haven’t been happy here, and I’ve blamed that on a lot of different things, a lot of different people, but the truth is it’s that I’m jealous. I look around and I see Kelcey Wallace flying high, one of the best competitors in the world and I’m jealous that I’m not in that ring with her, tearing the house down at every event we compete at. I see Shaun Cruze in the ring, another of the best competitors in the world even though it’s no secret how I feel about him, and I’m jealous that he has something that I don’t. I see my ex-boyfriend and his new flame and all the things they’ve done separately and all the fight they’ve got when they’re together and it burns me. It burns me up inside and I’m jealous. For the longest time I haven’t been happy here, and it’s about so much more than not being the World Champion. I want to be the World Champion, there’s no doubt about that, but it’s more than that. It’s that I’ve busted my ass for five years and I still don’t feel like I belong.”

“Seriously, I look at someone like Jake Starr and all the success that he’s had, and I look at David Helms and everything that he’s done, I look at Tommy Valentine, Regan Street, Shilo Valiant, CHBK, and even after everything I’ve done I still don’t feel like I belong. That’s why this Sunday is so important to me. That’s why I NEED to win this Sunday. It’s not just about the World title at Rise to Greatness, it’s about proving myself. I got angry in my last video, really angry, when I thought about Jonathan Knots telling me to ‘earn it’ after everything I’ve been through, but I’ve been thinking about that for a few days now and maybe there is something to it. Maybe I do need to earn it. And this Sunday at Taking Hold of the Flame, if I can win this Battle Royal, if I can outlast thirty nine other people, there won’t be any doubt left anymore, will there?” she says with a smile. “My first World title reign was as the ‘interim’ World Champion, and I guess I’ve never forgotten that.  And even though I earned my rematch, even though I won Tactical Warfare AND the Trios Tournament to finally get my hands back on that title again people still look at me like I shouldn’t have been there. People still treat me like I wasn’t really the champion, that I was just filling in the time before the real champion stepped up and reclaimed his throne. And that burns me too. And when I need to this Sunday, when I’m hurting this Sunday and I don’t think I can keep fighting, that is what I’m going to call on to push myself back up and keep fighting because this Sunday I need to win this match not just for the World title shot, not just for the main event at Rise to Greatness, but to finally feel like I belong! And if I have to fight the entire roster to get it done... well, then bring them all on!”

“The last year of my life hasn’t been easy. I stepped aside for Regan Street because I thought it was the right thing to do, and all I ever saw after that was her whining that it wasn’t good enough. I went through hell to fight a bloodthirsty, sadistic and violent psychopath in her own world and I may have gotten my ass kicked two different times, I may have been left in a pool of my own blood, and she may have defeated me when all was said done but she never beat me. She never broke me. And when that was done I thought I could refocus. God, I wanted to refocus. I wanted something good to come out of it all, and instead I get attacked from behind by William Mason, I get challenged by Jessica Howell, and then I’m back in that ring yet again fighting just to prove myself to them and prove myself to the world and my dream is getting further and further away from me and it sucks. But it’s like I said, I’m a FIGHTER and I FIGHT. It’s what I do. So I fought through all of that to get to here, I fought through all that misery to get to here, I fought through all that heartbreak to get RIGHT HERE and right here is Sunday night, right here is Taking Hold of the Flame, right here is my opportunity to ‘earn it’, to prove myself, to show the world that no matter what they say that I DO BELONG HERE and that I AM the BEST FEMALE WRESTLER IN THE WORLD,” she screams at the camera before stopping and taking a deep breaths, calming down again and looking around for a moment before looking back at the camera. “But you don’t believe me. You don’t have to. Not yet. But after this Sunday I hope you will. And there’s something else that you guys should all know. I’m not just doing this for me. I’m doing this for all of this...”

She holds out her arms and looks around at the pink room all around her before she starts laughing again. “Yah, I’m a girly girl. Yah, I have a pink bedroom. I have stuffed toys on my bed. I drive a pink car. Does that make me inferior to you?” she asks before shaking her head passionately. “No. You see I’m not ashamed of this. I’m not ashamed of who I am. But if you think this is all I am, you’re wrong. I’m not the smartest girl on the planet. I’m not a cunning super genius. I’m not a vicious, sadistic, blood thirsty mega-bitch. I’m not a giant. I’m not a monster. I’m a little girl. I’m a little girl who used to believe in fairytales. I’m a little girl who, in her head, still starts her stories with ‘once upon a time’. I’m also a fighter. I’m a warrior. I don’t quit. I don’t back down. I don’t stop until I get what I want, or I get broken on the way to trying for it. So that’s your challenge ladies and gentlemen of Supreme Championship Wrestling. Your challenge is to break me. Your challenge is to stop me. But for five years every single person who’s come up against me as tried and after all of that I’m still here. This Sunday I NEED to win this. For me there is no second chance, there never has been before and there probably never will be again. For me this is it. This is everything. This is my moment. This is my time to shine, and this Sunday I’m going to reach for the stars, and maybe I’ll reach them or maybe I’ll get broken once again, but if that’s going to happen to me then I’m not going down without a fight. So here it is, my closing thoughts, my closing statement, are you ready? It’s not an angry statement for the world to know, it’s not a roar because I’m a beast waiting to be unleashed, it’s not a sob story about how much I want this. No, my closing statement is simply a promise. On Sunday I STAND TALL, and if you don’t like it then JUST BE JEALOUS!”

She laughs again before waving at the camera. The scene ends there and the video finishes with the replay button flashing up on the screen.