Ash Scion: Chronicles

Here's the flat-out stone cold truth: If you want something in life, you have to reach out and take it. No one is going to give you anything, not ever. Opportunity is a fleeting thing, and when it presents itself, you have to take advantage, you have to seize the day and make it your own. And such as it was, on a hot, sweaty Saturday night in August. Last night, to be specific. I'd signed with F-Society just one day too late to be included on the card for Anarchy's second episode, and while I'd spent the week hyping my appearance in Vegas on the 21st, drawing both the eyes of fans and fellow combat sports athletes to the fledgling company, the fact remained that it appeared that my first appearance for my new company wouldn't include an actual fight.

Or would it?

See, last night, I had an idea. As one of the most followed combat sports athletes on social media, I got the idea into my head to use that platform to challenge any one the fighters signed to episode #2 of Anarchy to add me to their match at the event. I figured that maybe, even if no one in the locker room went for it and accepted the challenge, that the resulting pressure from Ash Scion fans might force Robb Hardy into putting me into one of the matches himself.

It never came to that though.

Within minutes of me issuing the challenge, both veteran Darien Hacaga and relative rookie Cass Baumer agreed to let me into their match. And just like that, F-Society fans have a Triple Threat Match that has the whole internet talking and all eyes staring into the Vegas desert come August 21st. It's funny, really. Earlier in the day, I'd watched a conversation on social media between Hacaga and Baumer about how all the new roster signings in F-Society would translate into more eyes on their match, something they were both real happy about. Well, as anyone who's ever been in a match with Ash Scion knows and can testify too, this redhead knows how to promote a fight, so if it's eyes they wanted, they'd better believe that it's eyes that they're gonna get.

It's a pretty incredible match, really. A legend, a legend in the making, and a young star just starting out. Hacaga's been around a long, long time. Even longer than my husband Kyle Cross or my trainer Chris Legion... and that's saying something. He's a legend, through and through, and there's no denying it. But at 46 years of age, facing off against two young and capable women, one of whom is in her absolute prime right now? It's a tough hurdle. Would be for anyone in his shoes. Experience is good, and he's got it in spades, but the mind can only command the body to do what the body is willing and able to do. Cass and I will be faster, Cass and I will have more stamina, Cass and I will be able to outlast Darien. And my elite striking will pick him apart.

Meanwhile, you've got Cass... well trained but green, she's exactly where I was 4 years ago. I've heard rumors about who her legendary 'secret' trainer is. I'm not going to reveal anyone's secrets, but if I'm right, then at least on the training side of things, we're on a pretty even keel. 'Course, in the nearly four years since I went pro, nevermind the four years I spent on the indy circuit before that, I've come a long way from that original Fear Factory training. I've also come a long way from my original ultra-violent deathmatch roots. Bottom line, I'm not the fighter I was when I first stepped into the business as a pro, and Cass isn't yet the fighter she'll be in five years from now. It was only a metaphorical yesterday ago that she was just a backstage interview girl, and while I respect how far she's come in a very short time, there are things you can only learn from years of real, in-ring fight experience.

It's a perfect axis of youth and experience, with my two opponents out on either extreme, and me right here in the center. At this moment in time, at this place in history, I am the perfect combination of both of my opponents strengths, I have the experience that Cass has yet to gain and the youth and ability that is slowly leaving Hacaga's 46 year-old body. Three fighters, all in different points in their careers, all trying to establish themselves in a new, fledgling company. It's not the Main Event, but it could well be. It's a match that reeks of opportunity... and it was my very unwillingness to let opportunity pass me by that brought me to this match in the first place. That right there should tell you everything you need to know.

But maybe I'm getting a little ahead of myself. FSW is a new promotion for me, Vegas a new city to wrestle in, and it's very likely that some of you FSW fans don't know exactly who I am, so...

...Hi, F-Society. My name is Ash F'n Scion. I'm also known as The Redheaded Bloodbath, largely because I spent most of my indy career working in dirty, dangerous garbage deathmatch promotions, and then spent the first year and a half of my pro career being booking in just those types of matches by promoters looking to bank on my ultra-violent reputation. Since then, as I've made my way through places like the eWo, Boardwalk, F1W, the IWA, PURE Seattle, and more... I've become more known for my world class striking. I am a former Boardwalk Anarchy Champion and IWA Internet & Tag-Team Champion.

I'm also a bit of a social media maven. I choose to represent women's combat athletics and I support true women combat athletes all over our sport. I created the #AllGirlFightClub last year to highlight and promote the achievements of female combat sports athletes all around the world. I've fought the best, male and female, all over our sport. I've made a lot of friends through this endeavor, and made enemies of all the misogynistic assholes who don't believe the women belong in combat athletics. Haters gonna hate.

And now I'm here, in FSW. I walked in the door, and, unwilling to wait until September to debut, I made my inclusion in this match happen. I'm not going to waste the opportunity now that I have it. Baumer and Hacaga both get my respect for accepting my challenge, but neither will get any mercy. I've never been better than I am right now, and you don't have to look too far or for too long to know what happens when you put the Redheaded Bloodbath into a match with no rules. There has never been more momentum behind me then there is right now, right at this moment. There has never been a better opportunity for me to make a big impact in a fledgling company like there is right here, right now... and as I've already demonstrated last night, I'm not one to waste opportunity when it comes knocking.

I have a reputation for elite level striking. I have a reputation as an ultra-violent warrior. I have a reputation for being able to absorb massive amounts of damage and keep moving forward. If you've ever seen an Ash Scion match before, you know all of this is true. Now, in one week, I get to prove it once again, on a new stage, in a new ring, in another new city. The Redheaded Bloodbath has touched down in Vegas, and F-Society Wrestling will never be the same.

Buckle up, it all starts here.

This week, you're going to hear every participant in the TLC Match at Anarchy, the match that will award the very first Anarchy Champion here in FSW, tell you that they are going to win the match. Including me. But the fact is, none of us know it. You can't know it. Not in a match like this. Don't get me wrong, there are some of us who thrive in this sort of match, some of us who excel in this exact sort of environment, some of us who do our very best work in these sort of multi-participant, super-clusterfuck matches. But even then, with this many moving parts, with this many unpredictable variables, with as much pure chaos that will be unleashed in this match, you can't know for sure. Anyone saying otherwise is either an idiot or a bullshitter.

Sure, we can believe it. I'm sure that every one of my opponents this week believes that they can win this match, that they can wade through the steel and the bloodshed and be the first up one of those ladders to claim that belt. I'm sure they all believe that they can do it and that they will do it. And believing a thing is powerful, and in the right type of match, simply believing in yourself can be enough to make the difference.

But not in a match like this.

And that's going to be a problem for some. Because sure, like I said, everyone is going to tell you that they're going to win this match, but obviously, they can't all be right. And the fact of the matter is, some of us have advantages going into this type of match, some of us don't. Let me paint you a picture. A few months ago, there was this girl. She signed on to fight in a big Falls Count Anywhere Match, against multiple opponents. Final fall before the show went off the air would score the win, and a title belt. It was her very first appearance for that company. The place was Boardwalk Wrestling, the title was the BW Anarchy Championship, and the girl was none other than yours truly.

And the point of the story? Look, I could talk about all the experience I have in ultraviolent matches and deathmatches, I could talk about all the bloody, bloody wars that I've been in over the last 3 years as a pro, and even before that during my time in the indy circuit. I could talk about a lot of the things that I've done before that have prepared me specifically for this very match, at this very time, in this very place. And all of my opponents would come back with all of the usual responses. They'd talk about how FSociety is a new company, and how we all start with a clean slate, and what we all did elsewhere doesn't mean shit to anyone. It's all bullshit, of course, but they'll say it nonetheless. I mean, all any of us are is the sum of the experiences that have led us to this moment. But here's my point... I'm not talking about some nebulous thing in the distant past that has questionable relevance to the current situation. I'm talking about winning a big-time match, in a company not unlike this one, in a match very similar to this one, for a title just like this one, just a few months ago. Real world experience that relates directly to the current situation.

And that matters. It matters because a lot of wrestlers will go their whole careers without ever once having to fight in a match like this TLC Match at Anarchy this week. A lot of wrestlers can make it all the way to the Hall Of Fame of a company without ever once having to fight 5 opponents at once, without having to fight in a match where anything is legal, without ever once having to risk like and limb at the top of a 15' ladder.

And then for others of us, this is just par for the course.

But for all those history haters, let's say you're right, and only what happens in #FSociety matters in #FSociety. If that's true, who's in this match has already won a multi-participant match here in FSW? That's right, this gal.

But I digress. Back to the TLC Match.

So far, only two of my five opponents have made any attempt at promoting the match, at addressing it. They are Corey Bull and Gray Malone, two men all two familiar with each other. Bull is the definition of cliche. He makes a point of mentioning all the mountains he's climbed, all of the championships he's won, all of the HOFs he's been inducted to... but as soon as he starts talking about his opponents, he wants it made perfectly clear that nothing from the past matters, unless of course it's HIS past, and even going so far as to suggest that my victory over Hacaga and Baumer is irrelevant as it happened all of a week ago.

I bet he's a birther, too.

The fact of the matter is that Corey Bull is a big, tough fighter who's a whole lot more impressive before he opens his mouth. And that's fine, when your as big as he is, you don't need to be a talker, I suppose. But I've beaten bigger than him before, in more direct confrontations than this one is going to be, against men far less distracted than Corey Bull is going to be in this match... but I'll get to that in a second. Corey Bull describes his presence in this match as 'A Storm Coming', which seems to lack some creativity seeing as how there's actually a guy named Storm in this match, but no matter. I've never been one to be afraid of the weather anyway.

Next up is Gray Malone. Now, after all the psudo-gothic garbage-speak about The City Of Sin and all that other nonsense he was spewing, Gray did manage to say something interesting. He said that it was his goal to win the Anarchy Championship because he wanted to elevate it to the role of the most prestigious title in the company. This sparked my interest, because it's exactly what I said a few months ago in regards to the Boardwalk Anarchy Championship. In fact, it's exactly what I did. I defended that title on nights I didn't have to, against opponents I didn't have to. I threw every 'non-title' match back in Boardwalks face and stated that if I lost a match, I'd hand over the belt, regardless of if they'd sanctioned it as a title match or not. And, in fact, that's exactly what happened when I lost it to Amy Jo Smyth. My title was only on the line at all because I insisted that it would be.

So look, if Gray says that's what he wants to do here in FSW with this Anarchy Championship? That's great. I'm sure we can all take him at his word. But I'm not saying it's what I'll do... I don't have to. You all already know exactly how I'll carry myself, you all already know that I do everything in my power to elevate ANY championship I hold to be the top championship. I've done it before, everywhere I've gone, and I'll do it again.

Now that I've got that out of the way, Let's look at what Gray said about me, shall we? It's a little confusing actually... he, like Bull before him, seems to approach the subject of Ash Scion with quite a bit of respect, acknowledging everything that I bring to the table, and yet somehow thinking that all of those weapons that he recognizes as being more than dangerous enough to win this match, somehow don't apply to him. Interesting. Here's the thing, Gray. You describe your presence in this match as one bomb and five duds. It would seem that by you're own comments, you know that I'm no dud, so you've already called your own credibility into question. Furthermore, do you know what bombs do, Gray? They blow up. And in the fight game, 'blowing up' isn't usually a good thing, especially when one of your opponents is known the world over for her stamina, endurance & recovery. Could be trouble for you.

Of course, the biggest problem for both Malone & Bull is each other. With so much history and so much animosity between the two, there can be no doubt at all that once these two are in that ring, surrounded by weapons and tools of destruction, that both of their primary targets will be each other. In the grand scheme of things, Corey Bull and Gray Malone will nullify each other, keep each other from ever getting up that ladder, and will virtually ensure that neither wins the match. We're going to be watching these two try and destroy each other for a very long time here in FSW, in a rivalry that may even at times overshadow the Anarchy Championship itself... but that war doesn't start with either one of them winning it. Amidst all of the chaos, turmoil and variables in this match, their hatred for each other is the one true constant.

That brings me to the next, and only other participant, who I can firmly say will not win this match. Psychnuts. Her presence in this match, in this company, is both an insult to the actual combat sports athletes on the roster and hugely irresponsible on FSW's part. I will not be held responsible for anything that happens to her. Putting a woman of her age with obvious mental illnesses in a match like this is a black mark on this company, and I can only imagine the legal ramifications to Robb Hardy & Co. should she end up being badly hurt, as I don't imagine there is a court or a judge in the land who would hold up her mental competency to understand the risks she's putting herself to, regardless of how many waivers the FSW lawyers made her sign.

Which leaves the three combatants between whom this match will actually be fought... Mark Storm, Seth Lawless & Ash Scion.

Mark Storm... where to even begin? Where do you start to analyse a guy who, after 8 years in the business, claims to be an absolute master of every wrestling and professional fighting style under the sun & moon? I mean, look... anytime someone makes that outlandish a claim on their press bio, they'd better be able to back it up, every single time in the ring, because if you can't you lose credibility pretty damn quick. Me? I'm a striker with ultraviolent roots. Mark? Well, to hear him tell it, he's fucking awesome at every single thing. Doesn't have a flaw anywhere in his game.

Almost.

See, despite claiming complete mastery over street-style striking, kickboxing, muay thai, BJJ, Japanese strong style, submission wrestling, technical wrestling, lucha libre and cruiserweight-style high flying... there's nothing in his bio about him having any degree of proficiency as a hardcore, extreme or ultraviolent pro-wrestler. This is interesting not only because it's surprising to me that a man like Mark Storm would miss the opportunity to claim supremacy over any aspect of our sport, but because those style make up about 50% of my own historical skillset and 100% of what this match is going to be about. Tough break for Mr. Storm. And like I said earlier, a little bad weather ain't something that Asn F'n Scion is likely to shy away from anyway.I'm a pretty decent technical striker myself, it'll be fun to trade blows with a 'master'.

Which brings me, finally, to Seth Lawless. A man on a bit of a hot streak right now, not unlike this girl right here. A man who's no stranger to social media, not unlike myself. Two wrestlers both labeled as the 'Next Big Thing'. But here's the thing, Lawless: Yes, you're big and yes you're strong, and it was those two assets that led you to this sport alone. It was those two assets that led you to early success as well. But here's the thing... those two assets can only carry you so far, Seth. I know that you're strong, I know that you're tough, but what I don't know is if you have any heart at all. Because it's easy to be called The Problem Solver when your solution to any problem is to quit. Because that's what you did, isn't it, Seth? The very first time things in your career didn't go the way that you wanted, you quit.

Sure, now you're back, wanting to act like that chapter of your career never happened, but it did. You faltered, and you ran. Strong is good. Tough is good. But in a match like this, when the steel starts to fly and the blood starts to flow? Heart matters. Intestinal fortitude matters. The ability to stay ing the fight when the world is trying to beat the fight out of you, that matters. And I don't think you've got it, Seth. And I thing this match, with all of it's chaos and moving parts, I think it's going to expose your soft underbelly. I think it's going to show that deep down, you don't want this as bad as I do, because anyone who did could never just take their ball and go home at the first sign of trouble. You may be strong, Seth, but not strong enough to crush my spirit of snuff out the fire I have inside of me. Not even close.

At the end of the day, it's pretty clear. Next week, in Vegas, put all the chips on Red. But don't take my word for it, like I said, this week we're all just idiots or liars if we tell you we know we're going to win this match. Look at all the evidence though, and you're going to see the answer, clear as day. It's written on all of the walls, and it's whispered in the hot desert winds. Ash Scion will be the first FSW Anarchy Champion.

No bullshit.

#AssesInSeats
#BodiesInGraves

Some things simply are what they are. Other things are not what they want to be, so they pretend to be something else. The trick, for you the viewer, if you want to know who to place your money on in the upcoming TLC Match at Anarchy, is to separate what's real from what isn't, and then to place your bets on the real. Let me help you out with that.

As I pointed out a week ago, Corey Bull is a big, tough fighter. He has some advantages that could serve him well in this fight, and he has some serious disadvantage that he fails to acknowledge. Some of his advantages, I've already pointed out. Same thing with some of his flaws. Some of his flaws I haven't talked about, and won't... for purely strategic reasons. A girls got to have a few secrets, and in this instance, I'm keeping my cards close to my chest. But Corey's biggest flaw, and the one that will be the most crucial in this match, is that when he looks in the mirror, he doesn't see a fighter, not even the big, tough fighter that he is. What he sees is a monster. Corey Bull believes he is a walking, hate-fueled monster, and he bemoans the fact that others don't see what it is that he sees when he looks into that mirror.

Of course, the reason no one else sees it is because it's fantasy. Myth. Not real. Corey Bull isn't a monster, he's a man. A fighter. A big, tough fighter, sure, but a fighter who can never reach his full potential because, as a fighter, you can never address flaws that you don't know or can't accept that you have. You can't defend against holes in your game that you don't know or accept are there. Creating a fantasy about who or what you are is simply a mask, a way to try and hide those flaws instead of developing an actual fight strategy that addresses them. It can be effective when facing lesser opponents, wrestlers who buy into the indestructible image, but against anyone with an analytical mind for combat athletics, it's nothing but easily disregarded camouflage.

Let me give you an example. Everyone who's ever watched me fight knows that my mat game isn't my strongest suit. Now, there are people in combat athletics, lesser minded people, who would think that my ability to admit that or my willingness to address it is problematic, that it tells my opponents something they could be able to use against me later, that it's like giving something away. It's not, and here's why. I know what my flaws as a fighter are, and I've developed my strategy to address them and cover for them. I have specific strikes that I train over and over and over again to protect me specifically in situations that would allow opponents to capitalize on those flaws. Coming in for a shoot to take me down and try to submit me? You're catching a knee to the face on the way in. Try to take my back to apply a choke? I reflexively go to one of a dozen judo-style throws I can apply before you get your arm secured.

But a fighter who convinces themselves that they're flawless, like Bull? They can't see or address... hell, they often can't even fathom the holes in their game. And to an instinctively analytical fighter like me, and that's checkmate. No Bull.

Malone, on the other hand, suffers a different delusion. His problem isn't that he thinks he's indestructible, although he probably does. His problem is that the thinks he's entitled. He said so himself when he claimed that the #FSociety Anarchy Championship is, in his own words, his opportunity to rise to a position that only he knows that he deserves. And he's right. In recent online polling, when asked whom of myself, Bull, Malone and Lawless would walk out of the TLC Match at Anarchy with the title, only 9% voted for Malone, as opposed to 42% for myself. 42% in a 4-way race is paramount to a landslide folks. So you're right, Gray. People don't think you deserve it, and those same people do seem to think that I do. Why? Because I don't talk to them like some dark, gothic poet from days long past, for one thing. I don't call myself an Agent Of Anarchy or The Prince Of Chaos or any some shit. I talk to them like a fighter. One of the hardest working fighters in the sport, one of the deadliest striker walking into arenas today. Period. Oh, and one other thing. I get results.

Truth + Results = Respect, Gray. And it's clear that you hunger to be respected. And what you have in this TLC Match, it isn't the coronation that you want it to be, it's just an opportunity. An opportunity that you'll never be able to reach out a seize so long as you believe that the prize is already yours. With that mindset, you'll never have the real hunger or heart to stop someone like me.

Then there's Storm, the aforementioned Prince Of Chaos. This one's the perfect combination of Bull and Malone in he believes he's indestructible, flawless AND entitled. And no Storm, I haven't forgotten that I have a receipt for you from EWC, but don't tend to spend very much time taking about my time working for both the most corrupt promotion and promoter to come through this sport in years. But since you bring it up, let me point out that you stand as a member in a very small club... one who's members include names like John Pariah and Amy Jo Smyth... of fighter who have an unavenged loss against Ash Scion. But don't get comfortable, as it's a club you won't be in for very much longer, for the very same reasons that neither Bull or Malone will be joining it.

Which brings me to the opponent that I think had the best chance of winning this thing if not for the fact that I'm in this match myself, Seth Lawless. Seth's problem in this match, however, is me. Because his assessment of both my skills, my motivation and the fact that I'm one of the hardest working combat sports athletes in the sport is so far off base that he can't really have any real idea who he's going to be in that ring with, and as such can't prepare for what I bring to the table. For four years now I've proven, time and time again, that anyone who underestimates me as grossly as Seth did this week, pays for it.

Because while I'm sure has a regimented training schedule, his belief that someone gets better and truly hones their skills by fighting once every two weeks, as opposed to someone who has real fights several times a week, is laughable. Nobody in this sport works harder than I do and very few can even come up to my level. The ones who don't come close are the ones who always, invariably, cry: She's spreading herself too thin! Every time. I've been hearing it for years. I mean, I guess it makes sense. It must be tough, thinking you're a good fighter, thinking that you work hard, thinking that you train right and work right and prepare right... and then you see someone who does it all just as well, but who performs the practical application of all that work four times as often as you do.

Must make you feel small.

And here's the thing, Seth. Go back over everyone else's comments in regard to me this week. Each and every one, except for you and the old bat, at least had some tone of respect when talking about Ash Scion. Why do you think that is, Seth? In a business where most are so afraid to show any sign of weakness, why is it, do you think, that most of the participants in this match were willing to recognize the threat that I pose?

Don't answer that, Seth. It's a rhetorical question, and one you won't be able to piece the answer to together anyway. Not until after this match.

But I'll give you a clue. This belief you have that I can't hurt you, because you're a man and I'm a woman? It's gonna get you hurt. Just like it's gotten everyone hurt who's believed it before you. 'Cause I've knocked out bigger, tougher, stronger men than you, Seth. I've been doing it for years, in places more established and more respected than FSW is yet. And the real punchline? Seems like you're the only one in this match who doesn't know it. That's why the rest of them, even in the midst of their trash talk, don't sell short who or what I am, Seth. Because I'm not here in FSW to prove anything to anyone. I don't have to. I've paid my dues, all over this sport, for the last four years. I'm just here to win. I'm just here to put asses in seats and bodies in graves.

I very much come from the 'DO WORK' mentality. Stay positive, work harder than everyone else, and you'll get results. That's what I've be doing and promoting for years now, both in my career and on social media. But Seth, like many others, either can't see it or won't see it. It's the same criticisms, the same critiques, every time. They can't even imagine a woman who is a total package... who has brains, brawn and beauty and knows how to use all three, in the real, male dominated world of combat athletics, to get what they want. So they same I'm just a 'pretty face', and they demean and disrespect the legions of fans who have followed me here as nothing more that perverts. But don't worry Seth. You're not the first to disrespect me in this manner, and you won't be the last. But you'll learn, just like all the rest. You can underestimate me... right up until you've actually been in the ring with me.

And that's the field. Most of my opponents are smart enough to know what I bring to the table, a couple aren't. At the end of the day, it doesn't make any difference though, because over the last two weeks, I'm the only one who's truly addressed this match for what it actually is. I understand the chaos, the anarchy... and I don't try to claim ownership over something that by it's very definition cannot be owned or ruled. Claiming to be the Prince Of Anarchy or the Lord Of Chaos is like being a ship captain who believes that he has any control over the seas that he sails. You're going down fast, right to the bottom. You're gonna drown.

Me? I have the experience to navigate these waters. Not to try to control them, not to declare the outcome before the storm has even hit. I'll go with what this match presents me, sail the waves as they come, confident that my experience and my battle-honed instincts will lead me back to safe harbor after all other ships have sunk. that's truth, tried and tested. I'm a fighter, one who specializes in exactly this type of fight. I'm not a monster or a beast or anything mythological, and I don't feel like the universe owes me anything. I've worked hard, and I'll take what's mine.

No illusions. No doubt. No turning back.

It's my time.