Life has a funny way of throwing irony in your face, doesn’t it?
When I first arrived in the company back in 2018 I found myself as a small fish in a large pond. Someone bound to be swept away in the immensity that is EAW, likely near the top of most people’s lists for future releases when budget cuts would come around. A contract to be eaten up to get the merger done with REVOLT! and likely to be discarded soon after. And those who’d come before me made sure to tell me as much. They made sure I knew that I was a child lost amidst wild animals with no hopes of survival, or at least that’s what they thought of me. I had to adapt, of course. But my history has been one of constantly proving haters wrong and shoving their words right back down their throat. People laughed when I looked Cloud Matsuda in the face and told her I would be a world champion after only six weeks in the company. The veterans rolled their eyes when I said I would be in a Pain for Pride main event. I was thrown at the New Breed Division to get rid of me because if no woman had ever won the title before, how could I do it? They mocked me when I stepped into a five woman match at my first ever marquee event. And yet at all of these things, I succeeded. I’ve been a world champion. I’ve main evented Pain for Pride. I made history with the New Breed Championship before making history with many other things in my career. And even as a brand new rookie, I won a match designed entirely to let Daisy Thrash shine against the rest of the pawns that management had nothing for. When I’ve set it in my mind that I’m going to become something in my career, it no longer matters what anyone around me thinks or feels about it. I simply do it. The path isn’t always clear or straight. But I get the job done. And I remember telling every single veteran that stood over me and laughed at me to go fuck themselves because they had no idea who I was or what I was capable of, but I was damn sure about to show them. And when I did, I made sure my response was just as loud as their mockery. I warned every one of them that their time was coming to an end. And that someone new was coming to take their place, someone named Raven Roberts. And one by one, I watched them all drop like flies. Almost none of the veterans from that time are even left in the company. And before long, I stood at the mountaintop. I was the reigning queen of the very land that I was told I barely belonged in as a peasant. Even more than just being a champion. I had become undeniable.
But life and irony, they go hand in hand.
Before long I was now seen as one of the veterans, and I had to hear every new girl around who would come up squawking about how my time was at an end and that they were the one to replace me. I had to bare through them declaring that they were the new invading force and that a new era was beginning. And I laughed. Because I realized then why everyone looked at me puffing myself up with such hilarity. It was because the same speeches I used to give were the same ones you’d get from every upstart who stepped into the company. So when I heard the same words coming from the mouths of others, I couldn’t help but smile. Because in my eyes, I was still just getting hated on, just from a different angle. I was now the veteran at the top meaning I had gone from being the one hunting to the one who was hunted. But I was fine with that. I embraced it. It was a shift to the same challenge I’d overcome time and time again. It became one of my favorite things to hear because it would motivate me that much more to cut down the little shits that thought they’d surpassed me when they weren’t even fit to breathe my air.
But time is fleeting. And all seasons come to an end. I did eventually fall off that mountaintop. And eventually, I disappeared. I had my own battles to fight and so I left. With so much of my career still in front of me, I took time away and kept to just me and my husband for what I began to think was forever. But eventually, I found myself returning and thirsting for the feeling of being in that ring again. The pulsing of adrenaline in my veins, the taste of blood in my mouth, the vibrations through my bones with every punch or slam. I missed it. But now that I’m back I find myself in an odd position. Not just the veteran everyone wants to knock off the mountain. Now I find myself getting a new set of accusations that I recall throwing at others back when I first arrived here. Accusations that I can’t do what I used to do. That I’m not the same woman I once was. That I’m not able to hang with the new crop of talent that has risen to the top. I look up and part of me gleams with an odd pride to see the industry thriving as it is right now, and seeing women who were just starting when I left as mainstays of the program and advancing what it means to be a female in professional wrestling, breaking down barriers to even further leave behind the old ways of thinking that would’ve seen us in bra and panties matches and pillow fights. And another side of me boils with anger as I find myself yet again facing unwarranted hate and doubt to try and keep me down when I still have so much left to give in this business. And even yet another piece of me starts to once again smile as I face the same challenge of proving my doubters wrong all the more with everything that is yet to come. Because when I prove the doubters wrong again, what will be left for them to doubt about me? When I stand atop the industry holding gold once again after all these years, will I get questioned and doubted again? Of course I will. That’s the natural cycle of this business. It’s how things go. There will be a day when Raven Roberts’s last match comes to pass, and I will leave my boots inside the ring never to return. Memories are short. But moments are forever. And the things I’ve done, and the things I’m going to do, they will live forever in the history books and be studied by the future stars of this industry for years to come. That’s the legacy that I’ve built for myself despite every odds maker saying I’d never do it, despite every industry expert saying I didn’t belong around here. Raven Roberts is the one who defies the average. And every doubter I’ve ever had has been left speechless eventually. It’s my nature. It’s an inevitability.
But with everything I’ve said here, there then comes an obvious question about this week. Why, Raven, have you been so harsh and critical of Miku Sakai? Why have you hurled the same things at her that have been thrown at you? Why do you accuse her of being inferior and unable to get things done? Why do you say you’re better than her? Isn’t that kind of an asshole thing to do especially with all the insults you just talked about having endured?
Yeah. I’ve been an asshole to Miku this week. I’ve hurled every accusation at her that I’ve endured in some degree or variation. I’ve told her that I don’t think she’s got what it takes to even think about beating me. And I’ve said that with my whole chest. But you know what would be worse than doing that?
Lying.
Miku has long since passed her time to be what you’d call a young upstart around here. She has had opportunity after opportunity and has failed to ever capture true momentum without the help of someone beside her to accelerate herself forward. And when you hear her speak, you know that’s what she’s going to continue to do. There’s a reason I stopped entertaining her circular arguments about who’s gaslighting who. Because there’s no point in it. And it’s about the only thing she has to cling to. I’m on the record saying Miku is a future champion. And I do believe that. But she isn’t set for some monumental rocket ship to the top, certainly not if she keeps jumping off the fucking ship every time it tries to blast off. Miku Sakai’s career trajectory will follow much more like Terry Chambers. Someone people have forgotten was a loafing nobody in this company until after almost half a decade he miracled his way to his first championship. He got some momentum and even shed all that weight afterwards and now he just wants people to remember the big moments. But not the fact that he was seen as nothing more than a write off for years until he finally caught lightning in a bottle. Miku almost can’t even claim that. Because she’s actually held gold in her career. But whenever that momentum begins to build, she finds ways to self-sabotage and send herself plummeting down because for all her claims about people trying to steal her spotlight, I think she’s afraid of the spotlight. Because if she gets in too many major moments people will see through the bullshit and she’ll be exposed for the fragile toddler underneath it all. She has all the potential in the world. Miku Sakai was born to be a wrestler.
But she is most certainly not a star.
And that’s why I know I’m better than her. Why I know that when the chips are down that I’m the one you can rely on. Because I’ve done it again and again and again. And in the times when I’ve failed, I’ve picked myself up and even surpassed what I was trying to do before. My trajectory is only up as I fly higher into the sky. And Miku, sincerely, I hope you’ll join me one day.
But at Grand Rampage, the only way you’ll see the sky is when they cart you out in an ambulance after the match.
I’ve said it already this week but let me make it ultimately clear.
I wanted a match with you because both of us want to be on championship trajectory, so it made sense to me that we should face off. But you’ve attacked me, insulted me, disrespected me left and right. You’ve joined the list of fools who’ve tried to use me as a doormat in recent months and you’re the unlucky cunt who happens to be facing me when I finally broke.
Falls Count Anywhere means there’s no escape. No forcing a disqualification to run away from the match. No hitting a cheap shot and running away cackling. I get you all to myself and no one can save you. So run, Miku. Run all you like. Try to hide. Try to find some sanctuary to escape the brutality that’s coming. I honestly almost want you to try. Because you will dodge and flee and try to cover yourself all you want, but eventually I will catch you. I will corner you. And then I will fucking execute you. So try it. Run. Run and hide from this. It only adds to the anticipation and then the satisfaction of my next kill. Because I will track you, stalk you, corner you, and then I will end you.
My eyes are locked on you, Miku Sakai. You are my target. And your clock is ticking ever closer to when I get my hands around your throat.
The Huntress loves a good hunt.
