The video begins and we see Syren sitting on a deckchair by her pool in Malibu, California. She takes a long, deep breath and smiles at the camera. At her side we see the SCW World Championship. She acknowledges it in as much as putting a hand on it to touch it before nodding at the camera. “Yah, so, it’s been an interesting week for me,” she says softly before allowing another smile to cross her face. “You know when I was younger I used to look at my future and I’d see a whole bunch of certain things and I’d tell myself that that was the way my life was going to be. I look at the way I thought my life would be, I look back at that young girl dreaming of it, and I can’t help but laugh. I mean god, if I could tell her some stories, right? There were certain milestones in those fantasies that I wanted to achieve, however. One of them was to get married. I’ve done that. One of them was to have children. This past week I did that as well, sort of. Now it didn’t quite happen in the way I imagined it would, as much as I wished that it could have, but then I didn’t have much of a say in the way that it occurred. Yet, on Sunday night, I held my baby boy in one arm and my baby girl in the other arm for the first time and one of those fantasies I’ve had so many times finally came true and it was nothing like I imagined it would be. It was better. I didn’t get to do the pregnant part, I didn’t get to do the ultrasound part, I didn’t get my partner touching my baby bump or any of the stuff I imagined I’d do before it but holding Hunter and Elisa in my arms for the first time was out of this world amazing. It made me think about those naïve dreams, and what else I used to dream.”

“Now I can’t tell you that when I was a little girl I dreamt about being a World Champion in this sport. I didn’t. When I was a little girl – full disclosure – I didn’t even know what a World Champion in wrestling was. But when I first broke into this business I started to have that dream. It was said on Breakdown and while it’s not something that we all like to admit all the time it is true, that if you don’t want to be the best then you’re either lying or you’re not right in the head. That’s why we do this. That’s what we imagine being. When I broke into this sport I wanted to be the SCW Women’s Champion because it meant being the top woman in the division. A little while later Dark Fantasy came about and Ravyn and me looked at each other and we wanted to be the SCW World Tag Team Champions because it meant being the top tag team in the division. And as the glass ceilings shattered and the opportunities opened up I looked at the biggest, shiniest title belt and I wanted to be the SCW World Heavyweight Champion because it meant being the best, period. There were these voices though and they told me that I’d never do it,” she said before smiling. “You hear them too, don’t you? They’re the ones from everyone around who tells me I’m not good enough. I smile at them now, and I laugh at them now, because I’ve proven them wrong so many times that it’s just kind of funny they’re still saying it, but back then? Back then was different. Back then I didn’t know if I could do it or not. Then I did. I became World Champion. And it was out of this world amazing…”

She pauses for a minute before laughing. “Say what you want about that comparison, I can’t stop you, you’re always going to make those kinds of comparisons just like people used to tell me I couldn’t be a good enough Women’s Champion if I was World Tag Team Champion and vice versa. So tell me I can’t be a good enough mom if I’m World Champion and I’m comparing the two. Tell me I’m not a good enough World Champion now I’m a mom and I’m comparing the two. Whatever. I don’t care. I can’t stop you from saying it so just say it and I’ll ignore you, ok? Good. The point I’m making isn’t to compare the two feelings but to tell you that in both cases they were things I thought I’d never do and when I did they were the most amazing feelings in the world. But there’s another comparison to make as well. See when I held Hunter for the first time it was the best. But then I gave him to his dad and I left the room and I got a drink and I got something to eat and I came back and he gave me Hunter back again and you know what? I wanted to hold him even more that second time. Every time I had to put him down I immediately wanted to pick him up again. Whether I was holding him or not the same was true with Elisa. Every second she wasn’t in my arms I wished she was. And it’s the same with this,” she says, looking down at the World title before picking it up and placing it over her shoulder. “Holding this belt for the first time was indescribable, but EVERY SECOND I’ve not had this belt in the time since I’ve wanted it back again and every second I was holding it I never wanted to put it down.”

She shrugs her shoulders and smiles proudly. “But it’s not about wearing a title. Anyone can do that. Anyone can go to the SCW store – SCW Merch dot com, for all your shopping needs – and buy themselves a title. Anyone can put it over their shoulder. Anyone can call themselves a champion. That’s not what it’s about. See, being a champion isn’t about having a shiny belt. Being a champion is about being the best. The belt signifies that. You put it on your shoulder and you know it means you’re the best in the world. You lose it and you hunger for it back again because it means YET AGAIN being the best in the world. And that’s what my career has been about. Not chasing a ‘Supreme Championship’. Not fighting over anything that I can see. My career has been about being the best. My career has been about fighting the best. My career has been about BEATING the best. And that’s why I pushed myself as hard as I did against Shilo Valiant, to beat him, to fight arguably my greatest ever rival and overcome him, and it’s why I pushed Ravyn Taylor not to back out of the Gauntlet for the Gold but to fight in it because if she won I wanted to fight her, because it would mean she’d earned the spot, and it would mean I’d step up against my own wife and do battle. Only she wasn’t the one who won. Ace was,” she says with a smile on her face. “Congratulations, sweetie. You’re the number one contender. You’re the one coming to take this title from me. You’re the one looking to reclaim what you had. Syren versus Ace Marshall is going to be a show stealer, but this Sunday isn’t about having the best match at the event. This Sunday is about beating you, sweetie.”

“Now I know what they’re saying. I’ve heard what they’re saying. They’re saying you beat me before, by disqualification, thanks to Ace Marshall but you had me on the ropes back then and this time you could go all the way and finish me off. That’s cool. I welcome that opinion. You see I don’t know who was going to win between us last time. I can’t say you weren’t seconds away from beating me. But to those people who think that it was a foregone conclusion… well, wasn’t I seconds away from death at Apocalypse?” she asks before laughing and nodding her head. “Yah, I was. I was seconds away from James Evans driving me to hell. I was seconds away from a fall from the highest spot possible in that ring to the guard rail or the floor. I was seconds away from my career being ended, just like I was seconds away from losing to Ace, and I don’t think I need to remind you what happened, right? I mean, you’ve only seen it in every video package since. Top rope reverse Frankensteiner. ‘Seconds away from death’ becomes James Evans barely able to stand, and one Total Makeover later I was being handed the SCW World Championship. So you know what? That’s cool that you think Ace was potentially seconds away from beating me. It’s awesome that you think he had me ready and prone. I’m happy for that. Because while you’re absolutely certain I was seconds away from losing all I know is that I could have been seconds away from another impossible move and a pin and a victory. It’s kind of what I do. I mean, have you seen me? I’m not exactly the dominant kind, right? I’m ‘seconds away from defeat’ the moment the bell rings.”

She laughs and nods her head before shrugging her shoulders. “So I know there are people saying that. Like I said, that’s cool. I also know there are people telling me that Ace has the momentum, that Ace was at Breakdown fighting and I was ‘at home putting my feet up’. Ok, maybe that’s not the words they used. There were lots of them. Basically it came down to the fact that Ace was in the ring getting ready and I was at home with my family. Can’t deny it. It’s true. I was at home. Ace was fighting the good fight like the warrior he is. But I didn’t have my feet up. I wasn’t taking it easy. I don’t mean ‘being a new mother is super stressful’. No. I mean I was training. I was sparring. I was focusing on this Sunday. I was pushing myself to get fitter. I was testing my cardio and then going beyond that because I knew Ace wasn’t going to take a look at me this Sunday and say ‘oh, well, you’re a mother now? Well, damn, I’ll go easy on you then’. Of course he isn’t! He, like you, are going to think that it’s a weakness he can exploit. And I had to turn that weakness into a strength. I have to go into this match on Sunday at better than one hundred percent because of everyone who thinks I’ll be less than it. But as it turns out I kind of feel like I cheated a bit last Wednesday,” she says before frowning a little and looking guilty. “I mean yah, Ace was in the ring, Ace was pushing himself, Ace was overcoming a viable contender himself in Merrick Wiseman, but that wasn’t all. Ace was beating attacked. Ace was being hurt. And me? I was at home. I wasn’t being attacked or hurt. And for that… for that I’m actually kind of sorry.”

She laughs. “That sounds stupid now I’ve said it out loud but it’s true. I am. I’m sorry I wasn’t there because Ace got attacked, again, by Regan. He hurt his shoulder and she came out and she drove him into the ring to make it five times worse. I know how that is. It’s happened to me like a thousand times. Ace and me actually joked about it recently. See, you guys may or may not realise but we’ve kind of become friends. We were hanging out after a show. We were comparing bumps and bruises and scars and wounds, and joking about how many times we’ve been flattened from behind, how many times we’ve had rivals level us before big matches, how many times we’ve been driven into the ring or the ring post or the announce table or the ramp. It was actually kind of a joke between us that we had to stop and think about which events we WEREN’T attacked before. The winner was the first one to name one that they didn’t spend the show before getting patched up by the medics in the back. Sorry sweetie, I guess I won this month, huh?” she says with an actual genuine apologetic look in her eyes. “But you know it wasn’t planned. You know I didn’t snicker to myself and think ‘Teehee, I’ll PLAN for my sister to give birth to my children a month early so I can avoid that total bitch Regan for a week’. It just kind of happened. And I’m sorry it did. But I’m more sorry for what I’m going to do on Sunday because of it. See on Sunday I’m going after that shoulder. On Sunday I’m using that attack to my advantage. And I’m sorry, but I’m also not sorry, because you know as well as I do it’s not personal. That’s one of the funny things about this, actually.”

She laughs again and lets out a sigh. “Last time we faced off I tried to make it personal. I was still more than a little upset about Japan. We’ve spoken about Japan. You and I know what I’m talking about. For everyone else, a few years in Japan when Ace was here before he was… well, he was kind of an asshole to me. Ravyn and me were getting drinks. Ace starts hitting on us. We both reject him. He starts telling us that he’s this great lover and he’ll make us never dream about touching each other again. We both tell him where to go. He snaps and starts insulting us. He was drunk. He was an asshole. Last time I faced off against him it brought those feelings back up again. I remembered that Ace. I remembered that douchey version of him. And I made the classic mistake. I assumed he was the same douche with a new wrapper,” she says before smiling apologetically again. “Yah, I was wrong. I’ve been in this business for seven years, I’ve seen a lot of people SAY they’ve changed but actually just be the same exact piece of crap underneath. Then there’s Ace. He has changed. He’s a better man. He’s a better wrestler. He’s more committed than he was. He’s more focused than he was. He’s in the best shape of his life. He’s wiser now he’s cut back on the alcohol and whatever else he was taking. He’s gone from being that guy who got thrown off the plane for being a jackass to the flight attendants to being the TOP guy on the show and he proved that by overcoming NINE other contenders to win this shot. Last time I looked at him and I saw the same guy from before. I was wrong. I tried to make it personal and that was stupid. This time it’s not personal. It’s entirely business. But my business is being the Best Female Wrestler in the World and Second To No Man! That makes beating you this Sunday my business, sweetie.”

“See, I want you to know that I love you for everything you did for me with James. I want you to know that I respect you for trying to help me out as much as you did. I want you to know how much I appreciate you saving my neck – literally – when he attacked me after our match. But I need you to know that if I have to take advantage of your shoulder, if I have to drop you on your head, if I have to throw you to the barricade or if I have to leap from whatever to defy death one more time and hurt you so you don’t get back up, so I can pin your shoulders to the mat, I’m going to do that. You know that. It’s what this business is about. Just like I know you’d take full advantage of every bump and bruise on me to keep me down if you could. But there’s this whole OTHER story to this match as well, isn’t there? There’s this whole OTHER element to this thing that I haven’t spoken about yet, and purposefully so, because this Sunday I may not need to drop you and pin you because that might not be enough. Normal match – and no offence here sweetie – I drop you with the Total Makeover and I pin your shoulders down and the referee counts. I win. But this Sunday I drop you with the Total Makeover, I pin your shoulders down… and the scary part is I have no idea what’s going to happen. I know what should happen. The referee should drop down and count. But when the referee hates you beyond words, when she’s been in your face month after month for more than three years, when she’s the one responsible for some of the worst moments of your entire life then am I really meant to believe she’ll drop down and make the count?”

She starts laughing and shaking her head in disbelief. “And that’s the unknown factor in this match because the referee isn’t just a referee, the referee is a woman I will be fighting until one of us actually is unable to ever return to the ring after the damage we do to one another because I hate her so completely and I know damn well she hates me just as much if not more. This Sunday the referee for my first pay per view title defence of 2016 is Regan Street and… and that’s so crazy I can’t help but laugh about it every time I say it out loud,” she says before keeping to her word and laughing before shaking her head in disbelief. “And yet I’m not about to claim this is a conspiracy against me because I don’t believe it is. I don’t believe that Mr D did this to ‘get’ me. I don’t even blame him for his decision. You want the truth? I think it’s fantastic marketing on his part. Because I don’t know what’s going to happen. I don’t think Ace knows what’s going to happen. I doubt Mr D knows what’s going to happen. Hell, I’m not even sure Regan HERSELF knows what she’s going to do yet. I do know she must be fuming about this whole thing because in her mind she shouldn’t be refereeing this match, she should be competing in it. In her mind she’s so obsessed with the idea that she should be up there on that stage in place of Ace or in place of me that I’m not even sure the threats hanging over her are going to be enough. Mr D made a promise. He promised if she didn’t count the fall, if she didn’t call it down the middle, she’d NEVER challenge for this title again. Part of me thinks there’s no way she’d risk that. But then I remember you can never predict what she’ll do.”

“The funny part about her as the referee though is that as much as she hates me, as much as we’ve been fighting forever, as much as we’ve been in and out of each other’s lives, as much as we DESPISE one another, right now I can’t actually think of anyone else on the roster I’d rather replace her with when it comes to impartiality because as much as she hates me I actually believe that she might hate Ace on the same level as me right now,” she says before just laughing again and shaking her head slowly. “I mean look at the stuff he’s done. Since she jumped him at Apocalypse he’s been having all kinds of fun at her expense. He’s been making jokes. He’s been getting under her skin. There’s the whole thing in the back where she thought she was about to be interviewed by Jessica and it wasn’t Jessica? Then there’s ‘Syren’ the ‘Hellcat’. I don’t think I’ve EVER laughed more at the way someone has gotten so completely under someone else’s skin than I have at Ace getting under Regan’s, and it’s double great for me because of how I feel about them both, and yet he’s paid for it over and over again. He’s been the victim of attacks I know all too well. And yet even in spite of that, even with everything he’s done, even though I know how completely he’s in her head and how much she wants to rip him apart I STILL can’t help but wonder if this Sunday she’d rather see him walk away with the belt than me, and if costing herself the opportunity to EVER fight for the World title again wouldn’t be worth it in her mind if she could make sure one of the most incredible weeks of my life ends in the worst way possible.”

She just pauses for a moment and sighs. “I won’t put anything past her. And I know that she won’t count this like a normal referee. Right down the middle? Ok, let’s assume that’s true. But that isn’t saying right down the middle and every three-count in the right timing, is it? That’s right down the middle and the fans counting to ten before Regan’s gotten to two. If she does the same count for both of us that’s down the middle, right? She gets to fuck us both over AND keep the World title as a future possibility. And maybe she’ll do that. Maybe she’s got that in her game plan. Maybe she won’t. Maybe she’ll throw the rulebook completely out of the window and expect us to beat each other to death with weapons she provides us. Maybe she’ll… argh, god, I don’t even know! I don’t even know how that bitch’s brain works. But I do know this isn’t going to be a regular one on one match and I’m ready for that,” she says with determination and a little smile. “I know I’m a mom now. That’s not changing a damn thing with what I do in that ring. I won’t look at the ropes and think ‘oh, got to think of my twins’. I’ll look at the ropes and spring off of them and care ONLY about dropping Ace on his head, or his shoulder, or any other part of his body. Am I the same woman I’ve always been? Maybe not. Am I determined – absolutely DETERMINED – to prove that I deserve this title against a man who’s EARNED his title shot, that I deserve to be the SCW World Champion, that I deserve to be known as a FIVE-TIME SCW World Champion, and that I’m the best in the world? You’re damn right I am!”

“I don’t know what’s going to happen with Regan this Sunday. I don’t know what Ace is going to bring. He likes his games. He gets in your head. He turns you all around. Look at Regan, right? He’s so far in her head he’s selling property there. And the fact is that I can’t control what Regan does. I can’t control what Ace will bring. What I can control is me. I know what you’re saying about me. I know you think you see all these different weaknesses in me. I know there are questions to answer. I know you think I have to prove myself. But I’ve done that a HUNDRED times before and this Sunday I’m going to do it one more time. This title has changed hands more times in 2016 than I can ever remember happening in a year before,” she says, patting the belt before looking back to the camera, “and that’s not because we’ve not had some INCREDIBLE champions this year but because the level of competition here is higher than it’s EVER been! The old cliché about anyone being able to beat anyone else? It’s happened. To win this title from Amy I had to step up my game to a new level. To beat Amy and Regan to get another shot I had to step up again. To win it a second time in one year I had to go to a level beyond even that. This Sunday I’m stepping up yet again. This is my first pay per view title defence of 2016. This is my seventh Under Attack. This is the show I won the Women’s title. This is the show I lost the Women’s title. This is first pay per view card I never got to compete on, in 2009, and no matter where it is I step in that ring at Under Attack and I feel like I’ve come home. This Sunday, Ace, in Cleveland, Ohio, I’m coming home once again, I’m defying odds, I’ve overcoming doubters, Regan WILL count the three and I will stand in that ring as the SCW World Heavyweight Champion and I don’t want you to be jealous sweetie, I just want you, Regan and the world to know when it matters most you’re one of the best in the world, but I’m UNSTOPPABLE!”

She takes in a deep breath, slides the SCW World Championship off her shoulder and holds it up in front of herself proudly. “Now this is the part where I show good sportsmanship and I say something like ‘may the best one of us win’ or something, right? But I’m not going to do that. You know I love you, sweetie. You know I respect you. But this Sunday I’m determined that I’m going to be the best.”

She leans forward and grabs the camera before planting a kiss on the lens. The scene fades out then as the video ends and the replay button flashes up on the screen.