The FFW logo appears on the screen before “Focus” by Ariana Grande begins to play. Then we see the studio being set up, the glass table sat in the center being cleaned, two cups sat on opposite sides of the table. Next we see Zack Hudson tying his shoes and checking himself in the mirror before he heads out to the set as a producer puts a microphone on his shirt before sitting down. When he looks across, we next see the various women who make up FFW and Future Shock flash by in images from their career until it finally stops on Tara Cortez. Then we cut into the familiar studio finding Zack on one side of the round glass table and Tara on the opposite side.
Zack: Hello, fans watching here on FFW All Access. Welcome to the fourth episode of Focus, our new interview show where we help you get to know more about the people who make up both FFW and Future Shock. We’ve had some very strong viewership, and I’m sure today will be no different.
The camera changes to show none other than Tara Cortez as Zack continues.
Zack: Today, I’m going to be talking with Tara Cortez, former Future Shock Champion who enjoyed quite the unbeaten record all the way to attaining that title. Not to mention winning championship gold not too long after jumping to the FFW roster. Tara, thank you for joining me today and welcome to Focus.
Tara: Thank you so much for having me! And it’s great to be back in FFW, and having an opportunity to talk about more than just wrestling in an official FFW show.
Zack: On this show as our regular viewers know, I like to get into things that we don’t see on camera. We know how you feel about this match or that opponent, but Focus is designed to help us get to know you better as a person and maybe gain some insight too, motivations and all that. As I’ve said before, every story is best started at the beginning. So let’s start with you telling everyone about your parents.
Tara: My parents… both worked in the entertainment industry in a way or another. Mom was a performer, dad was an entrepreneur, both actually from the Phoenix region in Arizona. And the story we always heard was that, as soon as they met, it was an instant match. My father became something of an agent to my mother as she performed all across the South and Southwest, before ultimately settling in Texas. More precisely, Fort Worth, where my sisters and I were born. Mom was the one who taught the three of us about all the little secrets and kinks about performance arts; things like dancing, eloquence and whatnot; we lost touch with our father at a younger age, but I’m sure he would have golden tips for us as well.
Zack: Now you hear a lot from people who were in the entertainment industry how they try to shield their children from it. But that doesn’t sound like the case with you and your sisters. It sounds like your parents showed you the ropes as soon as you were old enough to realize what it was all about. Is that accurate?
Tara: You could say so, yeah. I can understand how some parents would try to shield their children when they deal with something that can be… rather unsavory, socially speaking. And as a female performer, there are a lot of extra hurdles and irritations we end up going through, in addition to all the craft we have to learn. But at the same time, sometimes, that specific form of art is everything a person knows to do. I’m sure my parents would be really happy if we turned out to be doctors or lawyers; every parent does. But they lived and breathed performance arts, and I guess watching us follow in those footsteps was something they felt was right.
Zack: Before we sat down today to talk, I did my background research on you and had a long chat with your manager, who I presume is a very reliable source of information when it comes to you. He told me of your love of books and reading, so that leads into my question of what kind of student were you in school? I assume you made high marks, but tell me if I’m wrong and if you were into any athletics at all.
Tara: Would it surprise you too much if I told you I… actually wasn’t that stellar a student? I know I’m something of a bookworm today, but that came later in life, thanks to my love for trivia and foreign cultures. But tell a history and mythology buff to pay attention to trigonometry, you’re gonna have a hard time. I was all about humanities, but that was it: straight A’s in World History and Literature. Physics… eh. Not so much. Now Anna! She was the smart cookie of the bunch, always was. All the hatred I had for numbers, she turned into love. And that’s why I’m the storyteller, and she’s the hacker. Oh, and about the athletics: unsurprisingly, that was Luna’s thing. If we could… “rank” the three of us in PE classes, let’s say I was the worst of the three, with Luna being the best, and Anna being a very close second. Somewhere along the way, though, Luna started focusing on just looking fit and pretty, and Anna just took off with her athletic skills, so as of right now, Anna is the athletic one, and Luna is the prom queen.
Zack: Growing up, did you find yourselves in different cliques in school? In most schools, you got your jocks, your cheerleader types, the band kids, you know the usual groups. Were you part of any of those at all? Or did you three rely on each other most?
Tara: It’ll come as no surprise that, from the very moment we realized we were exactly alike, we took pride in confusing people. It always felt like children’s play, you know, to join a conversation and bamboozle people with “no, I’m Luna,” or “no, I’m Anna” and then swap it around. But we did have our little cliques outside the familiar core. Luna always hung out with the athletic people, and there was a time we thought she was going to join the lacrosse team, but it never panned out. I was more of the lone wolf of the group, and Anna hung out with the “nerds”. But as we got older, Anna became more… let’s say, “antisocial”, and I was the one to stay by her side while Luna pursued her own stuff. But at the end of the day, the three of us were always there for one another, no matter what we were pursuing.
Zack nods with a smile at that.
Zack: That explains a lot. I offered to have all three sisters on the show at separate times, and Anna was the only one who declined for the time being. Maybe after she sees this, she might change her mind one day in the future. Back to what we were talking about. Did your parents encourage you to pursue higher education like getting a degree?
Tara: They did not. It was something I pursued by myself after I really came to understand my love for history and such. Like I said, performance arts was their whole life. And for the longest time, we didn’t have the means to pay for tuition so they didn’t even think about it. I’m not saying we were dirt poor, because we weren’t. But college education was one of those things that were out of the question.
Zack: I think a lot of us can empathize with that. I didn’t graduate from a college either. That had to wait a while. Speaking of your sisters and yourself, what was the biggest fight you all had growing up? All siblings have squabbles, after all. And I’m sure you three had one or two major disagreements growing up. Tell me about one.
Tara: Luna and I disagreed on a lot back then, and she’s always been very vocal about what she thinks. Our disagreements could get very testy at times. Anna, not so much. And some of the arguments I had with Luna could be very petty on occasion, like the one time she wanted to swap roles with me in a school play because she thought my role had more lines and she wanted to be the main star… And it made little difference, because neither of us was the protagonist!
Zack: I could see that. Given each of your personalities and all, I’m going to guess you found yourself to be a little closer to Anna than Luna as you matured? It seems like you two had more in common.
Tara: In the sense of being less flashy and more “nerdy”, perhaps. Anna, more in the mathematics and exact sciences competences, me in the humanities. Our interests came together when it came to storytelling, and with us being performance artists, we always came up with new stories to tell. So theater came to us very naturally. You may remember back when the three of us were first seen together in FFW, and Anna was WAY more talkative, merit of all three of us using the same tone of voice. That was, in fact, Anna and I matching Luna’s voice. So the “original” Tara Cortez, as far as speech patterns go, was actually Luna Cortez!
Zack: That’s an excellent segue into my next question actually. Because I want to know what your first exposure to professional wrestling was. What did you see that made you think that was what you wanted to do?
Tara: Oh, wow. This one takes me back, because we always knew wrestling was a thing, but it wasn’t until Luna came across a wrestling school that she realized we could all do it. She had different arguments for Anna and I to join her, but it all could be boiled down to visibility: Luna wanted to be famous, and do so by being athletic. And, you’ll agree with me, she IS pretty gifted in that regard. But Luna was too concerned with the flashy part of it, while Anna and I started risking ourselves more. I was more focused on the wrestling core, while Anna started pushing the boundaries of her own athleticism, which was crowned by her SVW Adrenaline Championship conquest. When it was decreed that I was ready to start wrestling before Luna was – and remember, Luna is the middle sister, I’m the youngest –, Luna suggested that she would join me as “my shadow”. And we decided to put all of our acting and theater chops on the line and see for how long we could keep the con going, all while Anna worked literally in the shadows, taking charge of all the smart camera cuts, sound, light and fury.
Zack: Where did Christian Kincaid come into all this? As soon as you arrived on FFW television, he was there with you. How did that relationship come about?
Tara: He has this knack for recruiting talent, doesn’t he? And he has this no-fucks-given way of approaching them. Like, “I want you in my team, you’re coming with me, few questions asked”. It was exactly what happened: the three of us were competing in the independent scene in the Southwest, I believe it was San Diego. He was fascinated with the idea of twin sisters that could run a long game, and look good while doing so. Now imagine his face when he saw a third twin.
Zack: I imagine his mind flooded with possibilities about that time. But it was your choice to hire him. There’s a lot of managers out there after all. So it was the way he presented himself that won all three of you over? Or was there trepidation? After all, you all had been doing your own thing all that time.
Tara: You’d be surprised with how many scumbags are out there promising big things to small girls. We did get approached by many managers before CK came along, many of them with either offers that we knew were bullshit from the get-go, or just… Freaking shady. There was one that wanted us to be a permanent Las Vegas attraction, like we were magicians… Or worse, mud wrestling cuties. No shade towards people who earn a living through that, but it wasn’t our jam. When CK showed up telling us about FFW, we could attest to his credibility, because he was on national TV already, we could see his work. And back then he was already managing people like former FFW Champion Leona Vega, or… heck, his wife, the CURRENT FFW Champion Kelly Kincaid. So he made an offer, we had no other possible answer than “yes”.
Zack: That doesn’t surprise me, especially about other managers trying to jump on board. Unfortunately there are lot of those types in this sport who just want to exploit women. Then I’ve been told in passing that you’ve had interest from managers here. I know Kyle Kilmeade has said he’d have signed you up as well. And DOC, for that matter. Now…
Zack takes a sip from his glass of ice water.
Zack: Let’s talk about the hiatuses you three have had, which has caused a lot of speculation. We’re actually going to debut a segment on this show shortly called Wiki Right or WIki Wrong, where you’ll get to affirm or debunk what your Wikipedia says. But before we get to that, tell us about why you three have disappeared twice from FFW.
Tara: I’m gonna open this segment with an apology to one of my sisters, because we’re gonna have to get into a bit of personal stuff in order to explain that. So, Anna… I’m gonna spill some beans, but it’s just so we can get some stuff debunked here, and no suspicion is ever raised again, right? Okay.
Tara adjusts herself on her seat.
Tara: The first time we had to leave was because of an accidental collective breach of contract. We got caught up in small letters, and some weird domino effect happened. In order to let the legal mumbo-jumbo play out, we reached an agreement with Samantha Star that we would stay away from FFW for the duration of the process. Lawsuits and bureaucracy were involved, some very boring stuff. As soon as that was over, we had a short period of time to get back in shape, but we were very eager to get back in the ring. And then the second hiatus came, and that… That was all Anna. I told you she became “antisocial”, right? Turns out, Anna has a severe case of anxiety. And the second hiatus was caused by a massive breakdown she ended up having, that sent her to the hospital and everything. Luna and I agreed that we had to take that time off to be by Anna’s side and let her recovery play out. She’s much better now, and she was the one who proposed the comeback in the first place – I guess capturing the SVW Adrenaline Championship gave her purpose in this sport, and I was all too happy to accommodate that wish of hers.
Zack: As this is being recorded, Tara has just had her first match back a few days ago at FFW vs. Future Shock. So it’s clear to me that even while you were all away, you were still keeping in ring shape, no doubt with Christian, the entire time. Is that fair to say?
Tara: Fair and 100% accurate.
Zack: Alright, are you ready to confirm or deny what your Wikipeida says? Fans, anyone can edit those pages and it’s always interesting to see what they say. So we’re starting this segment going forward to help our talent tell you what’s accurate and what isn’t. And if it isn’t, maybe have Anna do some editing.
Tara: Oh boy. Something tells me Anna’s gonna have her work cut out for her. Give me your worst, internet!
Zack: Alright.
He picks up a few sheets of paper to read from before he begins.
Zack: Well this first one, you already debunked earlier in the interview. It says your father was a master plumber. And that he was Canadian. Wiki Right or wiki wrong?
Tara: Ah, no, that’s true.
A moment of silence as Tara smirks.
Tara: … for a stage play! But, no, my father was from Phoenix, Arizona. As far as being a plumber… I dunno, man, I don’t think he ever worked with that, and neither was he named Mario.
Zack: There is more than three Cortez siblings. Your WIkipedia says there’s a fourth, and it’s a brother named Otto.
Tara: It does follow the naming pattern of the family right? But, no, false. This one I have on good authority: my mother wasn’t expecting triplets. And as soon as my sisters and I came to be, our mother decided that it was more than enough.
Zack: All three of the Cortez sisters have criminal records.
Tara: Well… Regrettably true. In a sense. Like I said before, this is part of the contract breach we ran into. But everything has been cleared, on the merit of lack of evidence.
Zack: Anna was never the sister who won the Adrenaline Championship in SVW, and it was you all along.
Tara: Now this is a funny one. How about we keep the mystery alive here? It could’ve been either one of the three of us. Putting aside how winning this championship was kind of a turning point to turn an antisocial, shy girl into someone with a purpose… It could’ve been anyone.
Zack: Can you tell she’s going to be busy editing after she watches the show?
He asks before he flips to the next page.
Zack: Luna can’t return to the state of Missouri for outstanding speeding tickets that will see her arrested if they catch her there.
Tara narrows her eyes.
Tara: Luna doesn’t even drive.
Zack: Well there’s something none of us knew. That’s probably for the best. We already kinda debunked this one too during the show. Tara has two degrees in the field of social sciences from the University of Texas.
Tara: That is false, and regrettably so! Ever since we started dedicating our lives to wrestling there has been little opportunity to go back to a proper classroom. But I will say this right now: I would love to have the chance to go and get such a degree. And if life on the road is forgiving enough… Who knows?
Zack: And finally, there is a secret OnlyFans that Luna has set up. That one doesn’t even make sense. If you’re gonna have an account, you probably don’t want it to be secret since you want subscribers.
Tara raises an eyebrow.
Tara: I couldn’t answer that one to the best of my authority, one would have to ask Luna about it… But since she hasn’t told us about it, I don’t think… Huh. This IS something she would… Naaaaah, I don’t think she does. At least not that I know of!
Zack: We’ve covered a lot of bases today. So for the last question, I want to give you an open forum here to tell everyone something you wish they knew about you that maybe they don’t yet. If you have something like that, the floor is yours.
Tara: This is especially tricky, because people know what I stand for. I make that rather clear. But if anyone’s gonna take anything from this interview, a single thing, may it be this: I don’t have my face buried in books half the time just to be a haughty asshole. Knowledge expands the mind. It makes the fantastic sound simple. And you never run out of stories to tell. Tell me, Zack: have you ever seen someone be interesting while having nothing to say? Can someone possibly come off as someone cool if they can’t keep a conversation going? No, my people, knowledge is power in more than just one way. Keep your minds wandering and wondering, Faithful; you’ll see just how much that can change you.
Zack: I couldn’t have ended it on a better note. Tara, I want to thank you for taking some time with me today and being part of the show. I feel confident everyone watching has learned something about you they didn’t know beforehand, myself included.
He reaches across the table to shake hands with her before sitting back down.
Zack: Thank you all for watching as well here on FFW All Access. I’ll see you back here on the next edition of Focus.
As he starts talking with Tara about something we can’t hear, that’s when the credits roll and the show fades to black.
