The Friction Spotlight with Taylor Parker and Kelly Conway!

Talia's arrival swiftly put a damper on Taylor's fun. She was unsmiling while the psycho girl phrased her question. She was so eloquent when she was talking about crazy shit.

"Well, Talia, Kelly's not going to always come after me. She'll learn her lesson eventually. We are wrestlers, though, and she is more than welcome to challenge me as much as she wants, and every time I beat her, she'll understand a little more that she has wasted her life to this point on cheating and scheming and stabbing people in the back, and none of that has made her a better wrestler. The thing is, I think she could have been great... But all her potential went to waste because of her total lack of character or honor or balls."

She quietly took a sip of her water before folding her arms on the table and leaning in close to her microphone so she could speak in a low voice. "But... Maybe you weren't really asking me about Kelly. But don't worry, it's the same answer. You have wasted your lives and I'll show you by not wasting mine."

As Kelly answered the question, Talia more or less paid no mind to it, at least on the face of things based from how she was staring at Taylor. She wasn't exactly subtle, but that was more or less what she wanted Taylor to hear. Inquisitive others around could have picked up on it, but Talia doubted they did. People were stupid. Especially this lot.

The brunette's head twisted to the side as Taylor lowered her voice, a tiny but smug grin on her face. "I wouldn't worry about that. Sounds to me like you won't have the chance to waste your life while Kelly's wasting you. Guess you don't really have the balls to finish what you start." Everyone around Talia knew whose side she was on but maybe they hoped she'd at least try not to show it. She smiled with a wink towards the champion as bitter others told the bias woman to sit back down. As she did, her smile shifted again as she looked back at Taylor with the small grin.

Of course, she was never actually referring to Kelly.

"Ooook, well, thanks for the plant, Kelly-san." Mai muttered as she easily slipped through the audience and put a mic to another set of lips. Her bright and cheerful smile was easily painted back on and she urged the next audience member with a coy wink.

"Don't be shy now!"

The silver hair of the next speaker would make it obvious who she was, Haley stepping closer to the mic as she looked at Taylor.

"Heya Sparkles, long time no see. So before I get to my question, I gotta just say: Taylor and I aren't exactly super best buddies. I've always felt she's sort of looked down on my matches and career since I've been here, and I've sort of had or have issue's with a lot of her closest friends.

Plus, on the times where she's invited me into her home, I managed, both times, to make a complete ass of myself and disrespect her and mess things up. She might not recall, but last time she even punched me in the face after I made some...fucked up comments. I deserved that one."

She chuckled a little, rubbing the back of her head.

"Still, I like Sparkles, so hopefully at Madison Square Garden, she'll kick Kelly's ass and take back the belt she deserves. Which kinda leads to my question."

She took the microphone, ignoring Kelly completely as she looked at Taylor.

"You already know Kelly will break and bend and ignore every rule possible to win, but aside from that, she's got this entire group behind her, willing to do whatever just to hurt you. They've beaten you up, they jumped both the sumo and Nikolette, neither of whom has been seen in a ring since getting attacked, though I hope their alright, and you can bet Kelly will bring them along with her for your title match.

"So, speaking as someone who had a title stolen from her because I didn't account for my opponent bringing illegal backup, my question is, how do you plan, or have you planned, for how to handle the members of Kelly's Coalition in case they try to interfere or attack you before or during your title match? I mean, I know you're tough as hell, but if you need some backup of your own or something, I'm willing to help out. I know you got the Dojo girls, but that's still like 2 against Kelly's 5 or 6, ya know?"

"Hey, Haley."

Taylor was not at all surprised to see Silver Ace. Showing up here was a very Silver Ace thing to do, and with her girlfriend or whatever not far away...

"Hey, man, the Dojo is strong. We've got Akashi Tanikaze, Nikolette Tessla, Alaina Sanders, Julia Rodgers, and me, and that's five. I've got Dixie Clemets in the roll-a-dex too, so we could call in some extra muscle if we wanted, but we wouldn't need it, anyway. What I'm counting on, though, is that Kelly doesn't want them to interfere, because I think that Kelly really wants this match, finally. After the match... maybe I better watch out.

"But man, lemme just say that the very best way for you to help the cause is to just put your heart and soul into the sport and fight hard and with honor. People like Kelly... They might win matches, they might hurt people backstage, but they'll never be great. We have an opportunity as AFW wrestlers to shine, to inspire, to be something more than just cats and dogs, and we do it by doing this right. This sport is about passion and dedication and pushing your limits and conquering your fear, it's about getting in the ring and giving everything you've got, and you fight clean and fair and not just to hurt the other girl because we're all sisters here. We're all in this together, and people like Kelly just need us to show them that.

"So if I can ask anything of you, dude, more than just being there to scare away the Coalition girls, like... be good. Get your head together. Be something great."

Taylor paused and took a sip of water. The gears were still turning.

"And lemme just say... I'm really trying to clean up my act. I've been trying for years, and I'm better now, but one thing is that I'm trying to clean up my language. So I'm sorry to everyone when I... say stuff I shouldn't. I'm just... I don't think things through, I just do them, and I don't always catch myself before I go cussing like a trucker. I'm gonna do better with all this stuff. I owe all you guys that much. Right?"

She took another sip, and then while still holding the glass added "Oh hey, sorry Kelly. You look thirsty, and your water's all gone. Here, have mine."

She leaned over and, while still soaked from Kelly's glass, pushed her water cup as far toward the champ as she could.

Kelly scoffed at Taylor's words bitter. This punk talked like she knew her but she didn't Kelly had honor and Taylor was barely worthy of it. She knew Taylor would be the one with a wasted life after her career took an abrupt halt.

The next guest was Silver Ace. Kelly gave her a look over without a word, she had no real opinion of Ace. Talented from what she heard but Kelly didn't really like her or dislike her. It wasn't until she spoke that Kelly made up her mind and hated her.

"...Fuckers..." Did nobody think Kelly was capable of a one on one fight!? Though Taylor hit the nail on the head regarding what the champion wanted.

"Uhh... Hello!? I didn't create the Coaliton to fuck people over! I created it as a means to defend myself from Taylor's unfair legion of followers! Everyone knows she would not left as champion at last year's Avalanche if the... Late Avery Shields didn't interfere. Interference is something I worry about from Taylor's camp." Kelly declared over the the mic before her opponent offered her water of all things.

Kelly's eye twitched as she flashed a hateful glare at Taylor before bringing her hand back and then lashing it out to swat the cup away. "Enough!"

Haley blushed a little at Taylor's inspirational words, rubbing the back of her head awkwardly. It wasn't exactly a secret that she hadn't managed to make an impact in the league since her match with Taylor, something that had weighed on her a long time. Having somebody like Taylor actually show a little confidence in her like that...felt nice.

"Thanks...Sounds like you got it all covered at least. Just do us all a favor and get the belt off Kelly, so that I don't have to do it for you alright? I DO plan on holding that myself sometime, and I'd rather face a real champ for it, rather than a girl who lost her belt by doing a Heather Sunderland impression and getting her face sat on."

She finished, handing the microphone back to Mai and getting back in her spot, content to watch the rest of the event.

Taylor lifted up her arms as Kelly sent a river flowing down the table from the overturned water glass. She looked around with a bright-eyed smirk to see if anyone else was enjoying messing with Kelly as much as she was.

"Man, Kelly," she remarked. "It's like you're not even here!"

She gestured out at the audience with both hands and looked over at Kelly. "You're the champ, and no one's even talking about you. Like, maybe they don't know they can talk to you, too."

She picked up the glass Kelly had knocked over and set it upright again before she was suddenly overtaken by an infectious, effervescent giggle-fit. "Man, I'm just picturing you losing your title to Lady Lakota's ass! It's just too good!"

"Ms. Conway, please! Behave with some civility!" Hilde scolded as Kelly petulantly knocked over the water like a spoiled child. "Ms. Nagasawa, next question, please!"

"Hai" Mai chirped and hopped through the audience to the next questioner.

What Mai doesn't know is that the next one to ask a question or two was an old colleague of hers, from Wrestle Angels. Katori Kimura the student and successor of Mighty Yukiko was next, although she is not really recognizable right now due to the fact, that on top of wearing her training clothes, she also was wearing the red jacket it came with and is wearing it's hood to cover up her baby blue hair and some of her face.

When Mai came over Katori stood up and raised her head enough for her to see her face. "Long time no see, Mai-chan." She said to her before going "shhhh..." to her and took the mic from her before moving a bit from her seat.

"Hello umm, if being called by your surname do you prefer Parker-san or Higurashi-san?" Katori asked as she prefers to be polite and keeping up with Japanese standards and formalities when addressing others, especially when they are older and in a higher position then her.

That is unless they were Kelly whom the young angel doesn't even acknowledge as the "champion" or even a wrestler at all since she was the biggest disgrace and embarrassment to wrestling of this era. She just looked over to her for a second, scoffed and turned her attention back to Taylor.

"Well anyway, as most of the main questions I can think of about your match with the false and would-be champion have already been asked and answered, unless someone here has more, I wanted to go slightly off topic here to get a chance and ask about your students that you brought up earlier.

What did you see in both Alaina Sanders and Julia Rogers to decide to take them under your wing and train them to be the raising stars they are now, and are you still recruiting other wrestlers to train under you?"

"Oh, and also..."

"I heard a rumor I wanted to ask you about, did you at one point look up to Mighty Yukiko of Wrestle Angels by any chance?"