Meanwhile, in Kalamazoo, MI at a quiet lake rehab facility, Jessica sits on the back porch staring at the tranquil sight of the beautiful blue water of the lake. The sun shined bright and it felt nice and warm. She could sit there all day long if they allowed her to. It had been 3 months since she decided to get sober and she didn't feel like she was ready to leave the half- way house yet.
A lady sits next to her.
Lady: "Miss Mendez, are you all right?"
Jessica: "Oh, hey Mary. Yeah, I was just thinking about something."
Mary: "What were you thinking about if I may ask?"
Jessica: "You may ask me anything you want. You're the only person who treats me like I'm a human around here."
Mary: "Is that why you haven't graduated yet?"
Jessica: "No. I haven't graduated because all I have to go home to is an empty house full of old memories. My ex and I shared a place and we've had a lot of good times with our friends at that place and I'm afraid going back to that place may be too much for me to handle right now."
Mary: "So, you were thinking about what you're going to do after graduation?"
Jessica: "Yeah kind of. I mean, counselor Jeff said I can't stay here forever and most people graduate within 6 months and become restless within weeks."
Mary: "I am afraid that is true. I became restless within one week of being here, but they made me realize that I needed to get better for myself and I weren't going to do anyone any good rushing out of here."
Jessica: "That is true. I think I had a break down from all of the time I spent out on the road."
Mary: "What did you do for a living that kept you out on the road?"
Jessica: "I am a WWE professional wrestler. We have a crazy schedule where I am on the road 300 days out of the year and it's stressful out there and you can easily lose yourself and get wrapped up in the fame and fortune."
Mary: "I imagine you can. So, what made you leave the WWE?"
Jessica: "I never officially left the WWE. I came to rehab to get myself together before I hurt someone. I already have two strikes on my record. I broke someone's nose and I gave someone a concussion."
Mary: "Oh my goodness and yet you still go back to that violent life."
Jessica: "It's not a violent life. Its fun and accidents happen when you miscommunicate out here and people misstep and get injured all the time. Its part of the hazard pay you know. It's kind of like being a professional dancer or a professional stunt person."
Mary: "Yes. I get it. You can fall or slip at any given time and it can all be over."
Jessica: "Exactly and I was doing really well until they threw me under the bus over the broken nose controversy."
Mary: "What is the broken nose controversy?"
Jessica: "I forget I am talking to an outsider. You have no clue what the professional world of wrestling is about. Ok, let me see if I can break it down for you. Do you watch WWE at all?"
Mary: "I am familiar with WWE, yes."
Jessica: "OK, good. Then you know who Charlotte Flair is?"
Mary: "Yes. She's the daughter of Hall of Famer Ric Flair and she is the current WWE Women's champion."
Jessica: "Right. That's all true. Well, Charlotte and I were involved in a cage match for the title. We basically went through a modified version of Hell in a Cell together and both came out of it beat up and bruised. Well, one of my famous moves is my flying knee where I jump off the ropes and basically kick someone straight in the head with my knee. Well, I was going for my flying knee when Charlotte turned around and faced me. Her head was up as my knee was coming down and I nailed her dead in the face. She hit the mat hard and I ended up winning the match, but I didn't realize she was actually physically hurt at the time. I thought she was just being dramatic for the sake of the cameras until I looked down and noticed there was an excessive amount of blood on the mat and she had her hands over her face with blood on her fingers."
Mary: "Oh my goodness."
Jessica: "Yeah. That's not exactly what I said when I saw it, but I'll keep it G rated because I know you don't like swearing."
Mary: "I'm sure you weren't."
Jessica: "So, anyway I got passed the holy crap factor of the excessive amount of blood gushing everywhere and I try to ask her "Are you all right? What the hell happened?" She can't speak and she waves me off as her father comes running out there to check on her. He hands her a towel and she cleans up, but you can see her nose is not where it's supposed to be on her face. So, at this point I get the "Oh my God" look from hell from her father. I get the doctor to come over there and look at her. She's freaking the hell out and I am trying to calm her down. I finally get her to calm down and she goes off on me. "You broke my nose. That wasn't supposed to happen out there. There's too much blood everywhere. They're going to freak out and cut us out of the show." I assured her we weren't going to get cut and told her she needed to go to the hospital and whatever she hears don't look in the mirror. It's gruesome and she's going to freak At this point, she passes out from the blood loss and the paramedics rush her out in the ambulance."
Mary: "That had to be extremely frightening for you."
Jessica: "Oh it was scary as hell. I didn't even notice my own concussion because I was too busy making sure she was ok. I've never had an opponent pass out on me like that. So, they doctored me up and took me to the hospital. The first thing I did was ask if she was going to be all right. They assured me everything was going to be fine. Ric came in and talked to me and filled me in on everything that was going on with the reconstructive surgery and that she was going to make a complete full recovery. That was the most awesome news I'd got all night long. So, she recovers and we all go back to our hotel for the evening and everything seems to be all right until the next day. The next day, I wake up and there is a manila envelope waiting for me on the table. Now, in my profession those envelopes only mean one thing paper work and paper work is usually involved with contract negotiations and legal business. So, I look over the paper work and find out she is suing me for breaking her nose. Her lawyers made it sound like it was a negligent accident that could've been avoided if there weren't extreme circumstances involved."
