One day after Tag Party IV

JJ Dixon stands shirtless in an empty locker room, swigging from a bottle of water. Most notably is his chest - it is red and bruised and even a little blistered. 

JJ Dixon:
I lost at Tag Party IV. I have lost many matches before -- so many that losing became a part of my personality, that I would always be a loser, and that I should quit and go on my life. But things have changed over these past few months. I’m no longer the afterthought in the locker room. Now I am The Special Attraction. And now losing does not define me. Instead, it DRIVES me.

JJ takes a swig from his waterbottle. 

JJ Dixon:
Now, we’ve broken down our match frame-by-frame, move-by-move over 20 times by now. I know exactly what went wrong and where it went wrong. But one thing stood out - and that is the announcers conjecture that after our lost I drove Cristiano Coballero’s face into the mat because he cost us the match. No. That is not why I did that.

JJ takes another swig.

JJ Dixon:
You see, I was taught professional wrestling was an industry bent on respect. I was taught to stay quiet, to stay in my lane. So I did. I trained. I watched every match I could. But I stayed quiet. I didn’t ask anyone here for any feedback as to what I could do to get better. I didn’t ask anyone to help me train. For career advice. Instead, I waited. I waited and waited and waited for one of the legends in this industry to realize that I am an elite level athlete. That I am Giannis Antetokounmpo as a teenager playing basketball in Greece. I am a diamond in the rough.

JJ wipes some sweat from his forehead.

JJ Dixon:
One of the legends I admired here in DEFIANCE is Henry Keyes. His accolades are many. He’s done what I want to do. Like I said - out of the respect I was taught, I never approached him. And just when I mark my arrival as a burgeoning star on the big show, I see Henry Keyes and a lot of the others in this promotion that I admired -- Oscar Burns and Kerry Kuroyama and Lindsay Troy -- band together to form a faction to control DEFIANCE, and making sure they have a guy who annoyed the piss out of me in the BRAZEN dungeons in Butch Victorious carrying their luggage. And, to me, that’s the single most disrespectful that I’ve ever seen in DEFIANCE - the cool kids at the middle school lunch table, the rich kids at the Ivy League school, banding together so people like me don’t get a chance.

JJ Dixon:
I knew going into Tag Party IV that it would be an uphill battle. I surely wanted to win the thing... but I also know that professional wrestling is hard, and tag wrestling in particular leaves you with a lot of variables. But the one thing I wanted to do more than anything else was to step behind Henry Keyes, to put him in a full nelson, and to take his skull for a drive down Sunset Boulevard. Cristiano Caballero deprived me of that opportunity. So because of that I had to make him enter the concussion protocol. 

JJ now looks at his blistered chest.

JJ Dixon:
My chest is red and its bruised because I got the crap chopped out of me. That’s fine. Because I RELISH this. Because I now know what it feels like to be in the ring against a legend like Henry Keyes. Guess what? It hurts. But it doesn’t hurt that much... and it’s only going to make me that much better. And that takes me to another point in the match. One where Zoltan and Teri Melton got involved and I was reluctant to take advantage. I hesitated in doing so. 

JJ throws his water bottle down after one last swig.

JJ Dixon:
Well, that’s not happening anymore. The top dogs of DEFIANCE banded together to get their jollies off against people like me. It feels a little bit like what everyone in this world feels just about now -- that this game is rigged, and we’re the pawns that get moved around and tossed away. I’m not interested in fighting fairly against people who don’t adhere to those rules. I’m going to do some very bad things to some bad people. Our dirty deeds won’t be done dirt cheap. And I’m done being the diamond in the rough waiting to get picked. 

Zoltan walks from the back and lurks as JJ stands up with an angry look on his face. And Teri Melton jots in from the side, cigarette holder in hand, in her sparking silver dress.

Teri Melton:
The Special Attraction, Zoltan and myself are The Uncut Gems. You cast us off. You dismiss us. You overlook us. But soon enough, we’re going to shine brighter than anyone else in DEFIANCE ever has. And I know this because Teri Melton...

She takes a step closer to the camera and hunches over as JJ and Zoltan follow.

Teri Melton:
Is ready...

Teri now bends over and leans into the camera as JJ and Zoltan both make their “diamond hands” Uncut Gems gesture behind her.

Teri Melton:
For her closeup! 

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