The video begins and we see a shot of a trophy case. In the case there are various trophies with dancers on the top, with cheerleaders on them, and most of them have a similar theme. They’re from the high school career of one Zoe Rachel Sperling. The camera moves slowly over the case before moving on to more trophies, these ones in the form of championship titles. Replicas admittedly, but championships nonetheless. “You know, I’m pretty good at winning,” Syren’s voice says from behind the camera, along with a little laugh she lets out at the thought. “Over the course of my life there’s been a lot of things I’ve not been able to do all that well – math, for example, was something I was never good at. Or science. Or any academics, really – but when it came to competition, when it came to pushing myself to be the best that I could be, that’s just the way I’m wired. It started for me in high school. It started with dance, with athletics, with cheerleading, with any competition that I could throw my all into in order to succeed. That’s, ultimately, how I found wrestling. I’m not the smartest girl in the world, I’m not the sharpest knife in the drawer, but I am a competitor. In the past nine years I’ve proven that, and I’ve proven that by competing on every level imaginable. Not only did I compete, but I broke records too. I’m the longest reigning Women’s Champion in history. I’m one half of the longest reigning World Tag Team Champions in history. I’m the longest reigning World Champion in history. And yah, I’m pretty proud of those facts. Over the course of the last nine years I’ve spent a lot of time MAKING history… but how much have I LEARNED from it?”

She turns the camera around on herself and walks a few paces with it in her hand, placing it down on something – presumably a tripod – and then steps back from it. She’s dressed in a pink ‘Syren’ t-shirt and dark blue skinny jeans. She looks both professional and casual at the same time. And she has a smirk on her face. “As I said, I’ve been involved in a lot of history over the course of my career, and I’m proud of that. Every time I’ve stepped into the ring I’ve tried to make another little bit of it. Sometimes that’s just been in beating a certain opponent. Other times it’s been in winning a particular match type. A lot of times it’s not even been by doing something unique, rather it’s just been by making a little bit of history for the fans watching on, so that they can go home that night talking about the show and remembering something special they saw. And in 2017 I did a lot of that. I worked a lot for the fans. I worked a lot to give them moments. Truth is I had to, because in 2017 I didn’t get a whole lot of chances to make much history of my own,” she says with a sigh before shrugging her shoulders. “You know that’s not what I wanted. Truth is, 2017 wasn’t the year that I wanted it to be. I mean, it started on a down note, didn’t it? It started with me coming off a loss of the World Championship in December 2016 and longing for a rematch to win back that belt. I wanted that shot in January last year. Instead I let myself get distracted by the fact that rather than it be me who was competing for the title it was the one single woman I hate more than any other in the world. I let that get in my head. And looking back I regret that.”

She takes a breath and lets out a sigh. “I regret how I started out in 2017. I regret that I let the frustrations get the better of me. But that wasn’t just how I started 2017, was it? That was my 2017. Letting people get the better of me was the story of my year. Feeling frustrated over everything that happened was the story of my year. And more than that, feeling powerless was the story of my 2017. I mean, I was powerless when I faced Vixen Cain early in the year, wasn’t I? I could have beaten him. I should have beaten him, and even a year later I still think about that. Problem was that I never got the chance to beat him because I was attacked from behind. Wasn’t the only time either. The next time I got attacked from behind was more serious. It put me on the injured list. Just like that my career was nearly ended all because one jackass decided to take me out, and I was powerless to stop him. Do you know what that’s like? No. You don’t. You can’t even imagine the fear that comes with having that little power over your own life,” she confesses to the camera, a deep look in her eyes revealing that talking about the subject of feeling powerless is something meaningful to her. “All the time I was out injured all I did was think about how things would be when I came back. All the time I was at home recovering all I did was think about the things I’d do once they cleared me to compete, because I KNEW they’d clear me to compete. No matter what the doctors warned me, no matter how many times they tried to prepare me for the worst, I KNEW I’d be back in that ring competing again. And I was right. I was. And I vowed when I came back I wouldn’t be powerless anymore…”

She starts laughing as though that comment is unintentionally hilarious to her, and after a few moments of laughter just sighs and shakes her head. “God, was I ever stupid. Can you believe I actually thought that I could come back and not feel that level of helplessness again? But of course I did. Of course I did, because when I came back I wasn’t just fighting one man who took me out. I wasn’t just fighting Josh Hudson the man. I was fighting Josh Hudson the myth. I was fighting Josh Hudson the legend. I was fighting propaganda. I was fighting hatred. And I was a good girl fighting against a very, very bad man. So of course I was powerless. I was powerless to get my revenge over him last year at Taking Hold of the Flame. I was powerless to stop him eliminating me from the Battle Royal. I was powerless to stop him standing in that ring looking down at me and laughing at me, knowing that he’d gotten to me again, and knowing that even though the son of a bitch tried to END MY CAREER there was nothing I could do to hurt him. It was after that that I promised myself that I wouldn’t be that powerless anymore, and I knew there was only one man who could help me with that,” she says calmly before stepping slightly aside and revealing that behind her is a photograph hanging on the wall of her, Ravyn Taylor and CHBK standing together. She smiles as she glances at the photograph and then looks back to the camera. “Yah, that man was Alex Desoubrais. That man was the Canadian Heartbreak Kid. That man was a LEGEND who I admit I needed, because without him by my side I truly did feel helpless, but with him? With him I beat Josh Hudson at his own game.”

She smiles and nods her head proudly. “Last year at Rise to Greatness I wasn’t so much interested in MAKING history by making Josh tap out in the middle of that ring, as I was by LEARNING from history, learning from the mistakes that I’d made before and the mistakes that others had made in similar fights, and by ensuring that come the end of Rise to Greatness it would be ME standing over HIM. And it was. And with Alex at my side I didn’t feel powerless anymore. At least, I didn’t feel powerless when it came to Josh Hudson. So, I set about trying to do what I’d promised to do back in January, and regain the title I was never pinned to lose. That didn’t work out so well for me, and little by little I started to feel powerless again. Regan Street, Sienna Swann, Josh Hudson – Past, Present, Future – got involved in my business time after time after time, and my life became about Dark Fantasy versus them. Us versus them. Who ended up winning that? I guess if you count wins and losses it was a draw, since Regan may have gotten the better of me but Ravyn got the better of Sienna. Is that the way you remember it though?” she asks before shaking her head. “No, it’s probably not. Do you remember, like I do, the sight of Sienna standing in that ring with the Women’s title on display in that photograph, bragging about getting away with thievery, and Dark Fantasy being helpless to stop her? I do. Do you know how powerless it made me feel to know that there was nothing I could do about it? I hated that feeling. I felt like we’d lost. I felt like they’d beaten us. I felt like everything they’d done to my career in 2017 had been their victory. I felt powerless again.”

She takes in another deep breath before letting it out as a sigh. “I didn’t like that feeling,” she admits before beginning to laugh. “So, I decided I’d do something about it. Deciding that I no longer wanted to sit on the side-lines and hope I thought I’d take fate into my own hands. I issued a challenge, a challenge to the winner of Alistair Allocco and Jake Starr, to fight me for the World Championship. Why shouldn’t I, right? Other than against Regan I’d lost only one other match in 2017. I was never pinned to lose the title in 2016. I was owed a rematch by SCW management that I’d yet to receive. Truth is I figured I had a right to that match and I was determined to regain the power I felt I’d lost by claiming it. I guess that makes me a fool, huh? I was a fool because I actually thought making a challenge was the right thing to do. I mean, it’s been the right thing for others, hasn’t it? When someone steps up to me and challenges me, I step up and accept. Ask Donovan Kayl. Ask Alexis Quinne. Ask Blake Mason. Ask ANY of the people who’ve challenged me over the years, even when I was wearing the World Championship, and they’ll tell you the same thing. They challenged me and I accepted. And I thought I could get the same treatment… but I guess Jake Starr and I don’t have that in common, huh? Don’t worry Jake. I’m not calling you a coward. You were distracted trying to win every belt you could get your hands on. You were distracted trying to be one half of the World Tag Team Champions. Why would you offer to fight twice in the same night, right? Why would you step up to a challenge you didn’t have to? No, that’s never been your style. You issue the challenges and call people cowards for not accepting them, but you never step up when one is issued to you!”

She sighs and shakes her head before shrugging her shoulders again. “Yah, I know what you’re going to say. He was busy. He had to honour his tag team partner. He couldn’t afford the distraction. I know all his reasons, I know that not a single one of them was a slight against me, but it sure felt like a slight against me. When I’d been proud a year ago to step up and fight THREE PEOPLE on the same night in defence of my World title it felt like a personal slight against me that Jake Starr wasn’t willing to step up and fight one. But I don’t blame him. He was doing his Jake Starr thing, looking out for Jake Starr above all else. Nothing new there. And I still got a chance, didn’t I? I still had a chance to compete in a contendership match. So, it all worked out for the best, right?” she asks before shaking her head. “No, it didn’t. It didn’t because someone took it upon themselves to take another chance away from me. Someone took it upon themselves to cost me the chance to even enter that match. Someone took all the power I was trying to recapture away from me again and left me with absolutely nothing, and I ended up feeling utterly powerless all over again. But do you want to know something weird about that experience? Do you want to know something I got from that that I never thought I would? I learned how it felt to be desperate, to issue a challenge and be rejected and then cost another opportunity. I learned how it felt to be utterly powerless again, and I promised in 2018 things were going to be different for me. I promised in 2018 I wasn’t going to let that feeling continue to define me. 2017 wasn’t my year, and I promised 2018 would be. And it will be. And it starts on Sunday.”

She laughs and shakes her head slowly. “The name of this pay per view is pretty apt because over the past year I’ve learned a lot from history. Now this Sunday I’m interested in making it yet again, I’m interested in making it by becoming only the second ever individual to call themselves a six-time World Champion, but this Sunday I’ve also learned a lot from it. I’ve learned, for example, that I can’t fight all these battles on my own. Now I want to believe that I can. I want to believe that I can overcome anything on my own. I want to believe that there is no challenge so big that I can’t beat it by myself. And I believe that… when the challenge is fair. And Jake Starr and Bree Lancaster in a triple threat match is a hell of a challenge, one of the biggest I’ve faced in a very long time, but I do believe I can overcome it. I do believe I can triumph. I do believe that I can end the night with the World Championship raised above my head. But, in the spirit of the pay per view and in Learning from History, history has taught me that this Sunday will be anything but fair,” she says knowingly before starting to laugh. She shakes her head and smiles. “I’m not talking about Jake. Ok, sure, we all know about Jake and what he’s willing to do to win. We all know about the chair swinging and the levels he’ll go to. But, and this may make me incredibly naïve, but I don’t think THAT’S the Jake Starr who’s coming out this Sunday. I don’t. I think the Jake Starr who’s coming out this Sunday is one who has something to prove, and who wants to win WITHOUT the chair shots and the cheap shots. And I respect him for that. But Bree Lancaster? Yah, I don’t believe for half a second she’s willing to fight fair.”

She sighs. “Oh yah, I know, blah-blah-blah-classy-blah-blah, I’ve heard the speech and I know what she’ll say, but I also know actions speak louder with me than words ever have, and I’ve seen the kinds of actions Bree is capable of. I’ve seen the depths she’ll go to, and I know the people she’ll be willing to use to get what she wants this Sunday. I also know that this Sunday is Triple Threat Rules, where everything is legal, and where she can bring as many friends as she wants down to that ring and the referee can’t do a damn thing about it. Now I could trust that Jake and I will just be good enough to overcome those odds, like I was trusting enough to believe that I could be good enough to overcome the same odds against the likes of Kennedy Street a few years ago, or I can LEARN FROM HISTORY and actually do something about it this time. And that’s what I’m going to do. This Sunday I won’t be entering this match more in hope than expectation. This Sunday I won’t be relying on Bree being honourable and doing the right thing, this Sunday I’ll be entering with CHBK at ringside watching my back, and with Ravyn Taylor on patrol not just looking out for anyone Bree tries to get involved but looking out for everyone else who wants to put their nose in my business this Sunday as well,” she says with fire and anger. “See, history teaches me that I’ve got a lot of enemies and there isn’t a single one of them who are above trying to cost me this chance, just like they cost me the chance to enter the Battle Royal. And I know how it feels to be powerless over situations like that, but this Sunday I won’t be powerless. This Sunday I’ll be prepared.”

She smiles proudly. “I’ve waited a year for this match. But in truth I’ve been waiting for this chance for far longer than that. You want to know something else about this Sunday? This is a first for me. For the first time in almost nine years, a few weeks ago I stood in the middle of the SCW ring and I heard Mr D tell me that he was giving me a title shot. I didn’t have to fight anyone for it. I didn’t have to cash in a rematch for it. I didn’t have to win a contendership match for it. I didn’t have to cash in a Trios Contract for it. For the first time in nine years Mr D stood in that ring and told me that I was getting a title shot, and I knew in that moment that after waiting all this time for that feeling I wasn’t going to be naïve enough to let it slip away from me by doing anything but being as prepared as I could be. I didn’t get that chance in 2017. And this Sunday, when I get that chance, I have every intention of being all that I can be and more. This Sunday, when I get that chance, I have every intention of pushing myself harder than I ever have before, knowing I’ll need to under triple threat rules, knowing I’ll have to against one of the toughest bitches with the brightest futures in Bree Lancaster, and one of the oldest, most wily competitors in this company in Jake Starr,” she says with a smile. “I know I’ll need to be beyond my best this Sunday considering Jake went through the Elimination Chamber and opponent after opponent just to claim that title and has no intention of relinquishing it here, but Jake has to know what I’ve been through to get this chance, and that I have no intention of going home empty handed on Sunday either.”

She pauses for a moment before taking in a deep breath. “Hey Jake, Bree, let me ask you both a question to finish this off, ok? Do you know what it feels like to be powerless?” she asks with sincerity. “I don’t think you do. I know you’ve fought challenges before. I know you’ve had the odds stacked against you before. I know you’ve been in the situation where your opponent seemed to have all the answers and you didn’t even know the questions, before. But I don’t think you know how it feels to be powerless. I don’t think you know how it feels to try your hardest, to fight at your very best, and still have people coming at you from every angle denying you the chance to achieve what you’re trying to achieve. I’ve had that. That was my 2017. I won’t let it happen to me again. This Sunday I have a chance to regain what I’ve been longing to regain for over a year. This Sunday I have a chance to recapture the thing that drove me to come back after that attack last year, the thing that drove me to defy the expectations of my doctors and the medical staff, the thing that drove me to overcome the odds against me and return, to overcome Josh Hudson, to fight against Past, Present, Future, to keep pushing against every single one of the odds against me, to keep fighting when I’ve been attacked from behind for over a year, to keep hoping even when I was run off the road in December, and this Sunday that is a chance I’m going to take. That means I need to beat you. It means I need to take the belt from you, Jake. And I know how you feel about that. I know how much you want to prove you can beat me. I know you’ve probably got yourself convinced that you’re destined to do that, to prove something to yourself this Sunday… but you won’t, Jake. You won’t because I won’t let you make me feel powerless anymore.”

She takes in a deep breath. “It’s been a long road for me to get to where I am, and I’m more than grateful for this opportunity. I believe I deserve it, but I could see why others might think that I don’t. I believe that I’ve earned it, but I could see why others might have an argument to state that I haven’t. But this Sunday ultimately the story won’t come down to whether I earned this chance or not, it’ll only come down to whether I can capitalise on it. This Sunday the story won’t come down to who deserves this opportunity the most, it’ll come down to who’s most capable of succeeding in the middle of that ring after the bell rings. This Sunday it isn’t about the path we took to get here, it’s about what we do now we’re finally here, and I’ll tell you what I’m going to do right now. I’m going to win,” she promises solemnly. “I’m more prepared than I’ve ever been. I’m less naïve than I’ve ever been. I have the right people in my corner, and the right mind-set going in. I know who I’m fighting, I know how damn good they are, and I know that neither one of them will go down without a fight, but I also know that I won’t either. This Sunday is not about jealousy. This Sunday is not about fate. This Sunday is not about who beat who and when but about who CAN beat who and win! This Sunday is something I thought about during the darkest moments of my career last year, promising myself that I’d come back to and promising myself that I would never feel as powerless as I did back then, and I won’t. I won’t feel powerless this Sunday, I’ll feel powerful. It was a long and winding road for me in 2017, but it’s behind me, it’s history now and I’ve learned from it. Now this Sunday there’s nothing left to learn but one thing more to teach, and that’s something I intend to teach to Jake Starr and Bree Lancaster in that ring. That lesson is simply this: when it comes to the main event this Sunday, and the SCW World Heavyweight Championship, I won’t be powerless. I. Will. Be. UNSTOPPABLE!”

She smiles at the camera, nodding her head with self-belief. “That’s what I’ve learned,” she says confidently. “And this Sunday it’s why I’m going to make history again.”

She blows a kiss at the camera before the scene fades out and the video comes to an end, with the replay button flashing up on the screen.