Post by doc on Mar 10, 2010 6:22:19 GMT -6
I've got butterflies.
I've felt this way about wrestling probably once in the last couple of years. That one match I had last year, the career-defining victory in what people were calling the biggest match in "the other company's" history...that had me feeling somewhat similar to this.
Except not.
At that time, I was fueled by rage, passion, fury...I was looking to inflict the most damage I could in one match against two people I hated more than anyone in the world.
I was looking to beat men who people called the two greatest wrestlers in history in the one ring. I was looking for the respect and legacy that came with doing it.
This time?
This time it's not about hinging the legacy of a whole career on one match. This time it's about the big picture.
About feeling excited about the long-term challenges ahead.
When was the last time I truly felt like this? God, I can't even remember. The years of drink and drugs on top of constant blows to the head have affected my memory recall - just a tad.
Must have been...what...four, maybe five years ago?
Something like that. As I sit here at this very moment, I feel almost like a rookie again. I have a hunger in my gut that I haven't experienced since I was the laughing stock of the wrestling industry. I haven't wanted to prove people wrong so much since they said I would never be a champion.
Some people tried to talk me out of doing this. Put my body through enough punishment already, they told me. Achieved all I could achieve, I heard. What more respect was there for me to gain? What more did I have to prove?
Everything.
nCw isn't any other federation in the wrestling industry. You don't get to be the best here simply by being the best somewhere else. That's a right you have to earn through grueling contests, week after week, month after month...year after year. That's where I fell down last time around.
See, nCw is still a loose end in my career. I came to nCw believing that people should recognize my prior achievements. I came to nCw thinking that I would go straight back to the top of the wrestling industry. I came to nCw...to flaunt my wealth...to taunt my opponents about being a superior athlete to them.
This time, I'm here for respect. I'm here to cement a legacy. I'm here to prove I'm a superior athlete to them.
I let people down last time. The board of directors, the backroom staff, the wrestlers in the back, my friends, my family - and most importantly, myself. I treated nCw and it's staff with little respect. I treated it almost like a retirement home. A part-time job. Then I had enough and packed my bags.
Is that what my career was built on? Taking my ball on going home?
That's not a legacy I can leave to rest. Not in any company. Not at any profession.
This time, I'm back without any big clique by my side. This time, I'm back without any grand appearance to mark my return. This time, I'm back without expensive suits, Rolex watches or expensive jewelery.
I came back to this company under the radar. I came back like a rookie, someone who has to earn every ounce of respect he is going to get. I came back...and in my first match...well, if that isn't a coincidence.
Nah, I don't believe in those.
Charlie Velez. A true innovator. One of wrestling's greats, a man who some in nCw may claim not to recognize despite copying his style, either directly or by copying those who copied his style. Even I've taken some of what made him great in the ring and added it to my own arsenal. I'm not scared to admit that.
He's a man in a similar position to myself. A man with all the respect and money that he could ever need from a solitary shot at life.
Except not.
Nah, it's no coincidence that we're going to be at opposite ends of the ring this Friday night. nCw's management aren't ignorant, nor are they stupid. They are aware of what we've been through together in the wrestling industry.
They're aware we both came from "the other company".
This is a test, and one I didn't expect so early on. This is Julius Caesar picking out the two best physical specimens he could capture and forcing the two gladiators to battle it out to the death.
Second best doesn't mean a thing. We might both be great athletes. We might both have been superstars elsewhere.
But Julius Caesar only wants one victor. He wants to see which is the best of the two gladiators. He wants to see which one of the two has the physical and mental tools to survive against the other.
And Julius Caesar isn't finished. He doesn't just want to see who is the best of the two gladiators. He wants to throw two hungry young lions in to the coliseum and watch the drama unfold. The gladiators could get so sucked in to wanting better the other that they take their eyes off of the hungry lion for just one, just one small, split, second.
And then it's done.
No gladiator is victorious. They might have waged an epic war against each other, man against man. But Caesar wanted to see if they were going to become obsessed with bettering the other...and he wanted to see if one was intelligent enough to focus on the only aim in the coliseum.
To survive victorious.
Both gladiators know that each lion is still young and naive enough to the world to lack that killer instinct which both gladiators posses. They know that each other is their biggest threat to victory. But each lion is still hungry. Worrying about being better than the other is the biggest mistake possible.
Worrying about defeating all three opponents and standing victorious...
...That is the objective.
The scene which we open to is somber and unassuming. The wicked ways of winter has had its way with this park, leaving trees bare, grassy fields muddy and the open landscape of white hills in the background open to view. The park strikes of the kind of unforced beauty which a child possesses before moving on to the adolescent traps of make-up, designer clothes and jewelery. The camera slowly pans round the empty park until we come to a lonely bench at it's forefront. The occupant of the bench exhales deeply, breathing out the frosty air which kids pretend to be cigarette smoke. He shuffles a little on his seat, adjusting his heavy "nCw" hoodie, then turns his head to stare directly at us, as if just noticing the camera for the first time.
"It's a humble place, Glasgow."
The occupant of the bench looks around once more, then faces the camera again.
"And not just because I grew up here. While the memories of my youth keep me grounded, there's just a certain...atmosphere...which keeps you humble. All around me lie derelict flats once occupied by my catholic forefathers who escaped the potato famine in Ireland and came to the West of Scotland in search for a better life...in search for survival."
"Instead, they got this. They got to share one small room between twenty or so people, a bucket outside to use as a toilet and religious discrimination to stop them finding adequate work to enhance their standard of living".
The occupant sights.
"Sometimes I try to reason with myself for flaunting my wealth the way I did. I think, maybe the reason I placed such an emphasis on materialistic value is because I grew up with nothing. I'm a self-made millionaire. Without that drive to get rich, and get rich young, I'd probably either still be living here, in Glasgow, or I'd be doing shows for some regional wrestling organization south of Kentucky. That's what I tell myself."
"Truth is, there's no excuse. There's no excuse for me to behave the way I did, taunting those who didn't share my wealth or valuing business over the wrestling industry. I forgot about my roots. I forgot about the reason I go into this industry in the first place...to win championships. To be remembered as the best..."
He nods his head, then repeats the last phrase.
"...The best."
He nods his head again, as if to agree with his own words, then smiles.
"I know that people have been asking questions. People want to know why I left so suddenly, and that's understandable. It's also simple to answer."
"Last time the nCw fans saw me inside their ring, I was a different man. A different man to the one who started off in this business, and a different man to the one speaking this very second. I was a man changed by the politics of the wrestling industry, a man who thought he was on top of the world because his cheque book could buy him a new Mercedes whenever he wanted - a man who overestimated his own accomplishments."
"I thought I had been, seen, and done it all, and that all I would have to do was turn up once a week, win a wrestling match and go home. That isn't Doc. I built a career on hard work, determination, integrity. Without those characteristics, I don't have it in me to go that extra yard, to run that extra mile, just to secure victory. I didn't even have it in me to stick around."
"But I'm sure we all know people who do things, say that it was them in the past, talk about how they've changed, say they're back now, ask for a second chance and then spit directly in the faces of those who gave them that second chance with their actions."
"That's easy."
"The hard part is proving to people that you are for real. I'm trying to explain myself, and to extent, I don't really think anyone will even care. When I start winning wrestling matches, when I start showing people what I'm really capable of - that's when people will take notice."
The occupant of the bench looks around yet again, but this time he stands up as he does so, and begins walking through the park's pathway as he speaks.
"That all starts this Friday. It's a match that, on paper, might look like a warm-up. A match to get back in to the swing of things. But I know different. I'm facing not one, not two, but three individuals all desperate to make their mark in this company. This is no warm-up. This is a test."
"But it's not impossible."
"I know what I'm capable of doing in that ring, and I know because I'm someone who has done what he said he was going to do, consistently, for years. And look at me now...still only 26. To me, it seems a little far-fetched when someone who is 41 years old still has so much to prove in a sports profession. Your body becomes tired, worn-down, unreliable. If Severe Payne is still trying to work his way up the ranks at 41, he couldn't exactly have been the most gifted wrestler on the planet in his prime, could he? But at the end of the day, he only lost last week because of below-par refereeing. He might be old, but he's still very capable."
"And then there's someone who is like an apprentice to none other than good ole AJ Phoenix, or whatever he's calling himself these days. And being such a keen studier of AJ's work, I'm sure Jason Evans is well aware that I've beaten AJ...how many times now?...at least for, maybe five times? Hell, maybe even more, and to be honest I stopped counting or caring after the first few times. But that's not the point. AJ is still a man who can get the job done, a man who also has that flame burning inside of him to run that extra mile, just to get the job done, and if he was standing opposite me on Friday, I would be very aware of what he brings to the table."
"But he isn't."
"Instead, I'm facing off against his waterboy, a man who lost to the cable guy. Now Jason, don't take any of this the wrong way. I like what you're trying to do in this business. You could even say I admire your honorable ways. But maybe you should listen a little to the advice AJ is passing down to you, because to me, you just don't seem to have the determination, that fire, to make you capable of rising to the top."
But I do have an opponent who is capable of rising to the top.
"I'm under no illusions here. I know just as well as everyone else on the planet who my biggest threat to victory is in this match. This isn't the first time we've squared off in a main event. It's not even the second time. The only difference is that this time around, we're not selling pay-per-views."
"We had our battles in the past. Charlie Velez is the man who took away my pride and joy, my X*Crown championship, before I could even get comfortable with it."
And he beat me again when I tried to regain it. Two more times.
"Truth is, Velez is just about the only member of my previous employer's upper echelon that I've faced and not defeated."
Couldn't defeat.
"And it's ironic how these things play out, isn't it? For years I wanted to chance to prove I was the better man. For years, Charlie Velez was the only black mark on my record. And only now, in my return to nCw, do I get that chance."
"So I guess, in some ways, I couldn't be happier to square off against him this Friday night, and prove to the world - prove to myself - that I have what it takes to better him."
"But throughout those years where we never faced off, one last time, I gained something much more valuable than revenge. I gained a friend. Underneath his arrogance, his wealth, his business-mind...I know Charlie Velez for what he is. An honorable man in his own right, and one of the greatest competitors I've ever faced. I heard what you had to say Charlie, and I appreciate the fact that you're happy to see me back in the ring. The feeling's mutual. I don't know how much money your top of the range legal team managed to squeeze out of nCw management to convince you to wrestle again, but whatever it was, it was a coup. Of that - I'm sure."
"But what I'm not so sure about is some of the other things you've been saying or doing. The Charlie Velez I knew had a passion for this business much deeper than the one you've been showing in the last few weeks. The Charlie Velez I knew didn't make a fool of himself in front of the world by injuring himself via trying to punch someone who was setting up his cable television. And the Charlie Velez I knew would certainly never dismiss me as readily as you did. Wont provide the competition you need? Come on Charlie, I thought I deserved a little more respect than that. If you are truly serious about making an impact in nCw, you're making a big mistake in underestimating just how much I'm going to do to secure victory at Suspense. Don't make that mistake Charlie, for your own good."
"And it's easy for me to draw comparisons. I see you now, lacking the will that you once had to be known as the best in the business. And then I remember you the first time we squared off. A young upstart who was willing to do anything to get where he wanted to go in this industry. I remember you when people didn't know your name, when you were nothing more than an ant in the land of giants. It's ironic to me when you dismiss me as not providing the competition you need, because the whole reason we ever met in the first place was for you to try and make a name for yourself. You attacked me after one of the biggest matches in my career, and you done it to make an impact. You became famous because of me, Charlie. Don't ever forget that. I was the famous face who put you in the spotlight. I was the champion who gave you a taste of the main event. And now I'm not even competition?"
The man finally stops walking along the path as he reaches a tall, overshadowing statue. He looks at it and exhales deeply, then lifts his mouth to a smile in a moment of warm satisfaction. His city. His fans. His people.
As the camera pans up, we can see that the statue is of none other than the man himself, caught in pose of his finest hour. On his knees, in disbelief that he had accomplished his goals, 9 world title belts draped over his shoulders and lying beside him. The aftermath of a victory he will never forget. The camera then pans back down to the foot of the statue, and zooms in to reveal the tagged metal plate.
The man touches the statue, and his smile fades back to the same steely, determined look which has been visible throughout.
"I wish all three of my opponents luck for Friday. But this isn't a match where I can afford to show too much good will. This is my return to this industry, to this company, and a match where I have to prove I'm here to do exactly what I said I was going to do. And sure as a Roman Gladiator does what he has to do in the coliseum, I'll do what I have to do inside the squared circle, whether it be against Severe Payne, Jason Evans, or my old friend..."
"...Charlie Velez."
The man takes his eyes off the statue and begins to walk briskly back down the path he came from, before covering his head with the hood on his nCw top, probably to avoid the kind of attention which comes with being a hometown hero.
Fade out.
I've felt this way about wrestling probably once in the last couple of years. That one match I had last year, the career-defining victory in what people were calling the biggest match in "the other company's" history...that had me feeling somewhat similar to this.
Except not.
At that time, I was fueled by rage, passion, fury...I was looking to inflict the most damage I could in one match against two people I hated more than anyone in the world.
I was looking to beat men who people called the two greatest wrestlers in history in the one ring. I was looking for the respect and legacy that came with doing it.
This time?
This time it's not about hinging the legacy of a whole career on one match. This time it's about the big picture.
About feeling excited about the long-term challenges ahead.
When was the last time I truly felt like this? God, I can't even remember. The years of drink and drugs on top of constant blows to the head have affected my memory recall - just a tad.
Must have been...what...four, maybe five years ago?
Something like that. As I sit here at this very moment, I feel almost like a rookie again. I have a hunger in my gut that I haven't experienced since I was the laughing stock of the wrestling industry. I haven't wanted to prove people wrong so much since they said I would never be a champion.
Some people tried to talk me out of doing this. Put my body through enough punishment already, they told me. Achieved all I could achieve, I heard. What more respect was there for me to gain? What more did I have to prove?
Everything.
nCw isn't any other federation in the wrestling industry. You don't get to be the best here simply by being the best somewhere else. That's a right you have to earn through grueling contests, week after week, month after month...year after year. That's where I fell down last time around.
See, nCw is still a loose end in my career. I came to nCw believing that people should recognize my prior achievements. I came to nCw thinking that I would go straight back to the top of the wrestling industry. I came to nCw...to flaunt my wealth...to taunt my opponents about being a superior athlete to them.
This time, I'm here for respect. I'm here to cement a legacy. I'm here to prove I'm a superior athlete to them.
I let people down last time. The board of directors, the backroom staff, the wrestlers in the back, my friends, my family - and most importantly, myself. I treated nCw and it's staff with little respect. I treated it almost like a retirement home. A part-time job. Then I had enough and packed my bags.
Is that what my career was built on? Taking my ball on going home?
That's not a legacy I can leave to rest. Not in any company. Not at any profession.
This time, I'm back without any big clique by my side. This time, I'm back without any grand appearance to mark my return. This time, I'm back without expensive suits, Rolex watches or expensive jewelery.
I came back to this company under the radar. I came back like a rookie, someone who has to earn every ounce of respect he is going to get. I came back...and in my first match...well, if that isn't a coincidence.
Nah, I don't believe in those.
Charlie Velez. A true innovator. One of wrestling's greats, a man who some in nCw may claim not to recognize despite copying his style, either directly or by copying those who copied his style. Even I've taken some of what made him great in the ring and added it to my own arsenal. I'm not scared to admit that.
He's a man in a similar position to myself. A man with all the respect and money that he could ever need from a solitary shot at life.
Except not.
Nah, it's no coincidence that we're going to be at opposite ends of the ring this Friday night. nCw's management aren't ignorant, nor are they stupid. They are aware of what we've been through together in the wrestling industry.
They're aware we both came from "the other company".
This is a test, and one I didn't expect so early on. This is Julius Caesar picking out the two best physical specimens he could capture and forcing the two gladiators to battle it out to the death.
Second best doesn't mean a thing. We might both be great athletes. We might both have been superstars elsewhere.
But Julius Caesar only wants one victor. He wants to see which is the best of the two gladiators. He wants to see which one of the two has the physical and mental tools to survive against the other.
And Julius Caesar isn't finished. He doesn't just want to see who is the best of the two gladiators. He wants to throw two hungry young lions in to the coliseum and watch the drama unfold. The gladiators could get so sucked in to wanting better the other that they take their eyes off of the hungry lion for just one, just one small, split, second.
And then it's done.
No gladiator is victorious. They might have waged an epic war against each other, man against man. But Caesar wanted to see if they were going to become obsessed with bettering the other...and he wanted to see if one was intelligent enough to focus on the only aim in the coliseum.
To survive victorious.
Both gladiators know that each lion is still young and naive enough to the world to lack that killer instinct which both gladiators posses. They know that each other is their biggest threat to victory. But each lion is still hungry. Worrying about being better than the other is the biggest mistake possible.
Worrying about defeating all three opponents and standing victorious...
...That is the objective.
The scene which we open to is somber and unassuming. The wicked ways of winter has had its way with this park, leaving trees bare, grassy fields muddy and the open landscape of white hills in the background open to view. The park strikes of the kind of unforced beauty which a child possesses before moving on to the adolescent traps of make-up, designer clothes and jewelery. The camera slowly pans round the empty park until we come to a lonely bench at it's forefront. The occupant of the bench exhales deeply, breathing out the frosty air which kids pretend to be cigarette smoke. He shuffles a little on his seat, adjusting his heavy "nCw" hoodie, then turns his head to stare directly at us, as if just noticing the camera for the first time.
"It's a humble place, Glasgow."
The occupant of the bench looks around once more, then faces the camera again.
"And not just because I grew up here. While the memories of my youth keep me grounded, there's just a certain...atmosphere...which keeps you humble. All around me lie derelict flats once occupied by my catholic forefathers who escaped the potato famine in Ireland and came to the West of Scotland in search for a better life...in search for survival."
"Instead, they got this. They got to share one small room between twenty or so people, a bucket outside to use as a toilet and religious discrimination to stop them finding adequate work to enhance their standard of living".
The occupant sights.
"Sometimes I try to reason with myself for flaunting my wealth the way I did. I think, maybe the reason I placed such an emphasis on materialistic value is because I grew up with nothing. I'm a self-made millionaire. Without that drive to get rich, and get rich young, I'd probably either still be living here, in Glasgow, or I'd be doing shows for some regional wrestling organization south of Kentucky. That's what I tell myself."
"Truth is, there's no excuse. There's no excuse for me to behave the way I did, taunting those who didn't share my wealth or valuing business over the wrestling industry. I forgot about my roots. I forgot about the reason I go into this industry in the first place...to win championships. To be remembered as the best..."
He nods his head, then repeats the last phrase.
"...The best."
He nods his head again, as if to agree with his own words, then smiles.
"I know that people have been asking questions. People want to know why I left so suddenly, and that's understandable. It's also simple to answer."
"Last time the nCw fans saw me inside their ring, I was a different man. A different man to the one who started off in this business, and a different man to the one speaking this very second. I was a man changed by the politics of the wrestling industry, a man who thought he was on top of the world because his cheque book could buy him a new Mercedes whenever he wanted - a man who overestimated his own accomplishments."
"I thought I had been, seen, and done it all, and that all I would have to do was turn up once a week, win a wrestling match and go home. That isn't Doc. I built a career on hard work, determination, integrity. Without those characteristics, I don't have it in me to go that extra yard, to run that extra mile, just to secure victory. I didn't even have it in me to stick around."
"But I'm sure we all know people who do things, say that it was them in the past, talk about how they've changed, say they're back now, ask for a second chance and then spit directly in the faces of those who gave them that second chance with their actions."
"That's easy."
"The hard part is proving to people that you are for real. I'm trying to explain myself, and to extent, I don't really think anyone will even care. When I start winning wrestling matches, when I start showing people what I'm really capable of - that's when people will take notice."
The occupant of the bench looks around yet again, but this time he stands up as he does so, and begins walking through the park's pathway as he speaks.
"That all starts this Friday. It's a match that, on paper, might look like a warm-up. A match to get back in to the swing of things. But I know different. I'm facing not one, not two, but three individuals all desperate to make their mark in this company. This is no warm-up. This is a test."
"But it's not impossible."
"I know what I'm capable of doing in that ring, and I know because I'm someone who has done what he said he was going to do, consistently, for years. And look at me now...still only 26. To me, it seems a little far-fetched when someone who is 41 years old still has so much to prove in a sports profession. Your body becomes tired, worn-down, unreliable. If Severe Payne is still trying to work his way up the ranks at 41, he couldn't exactly have been the most gifted wrestler on the planet in his prime, could he? But at the end of the day, he only lost last week because of below-par refereeing. He might be old, but he's still very capable."
"And then there's someone who is like an apprentice to none other than good ole AJ Phoenix, or whatever he's calling himself these days. And being such a keen studier of AJ's work, I'm sure Jason Evans is well aware that I've beaten AJ...how many times now?...at least for, maybe five times? Hell, maybe even more, and to be honest I stopped counting or caring after the first few times. But that's not the point. AJ is still a man who can get the job done, a man who also has that flame burning inside of him to run that extra mile, just to get the job done, and if he was standing opposite me on Friday, I would be very aware of what he brings to the table."
"But he isn't."
"Instead, I'm facing off against his waterboy, a man who lost to the cable guy. Now Jason, don't take any of this the wrong way. I like what you're trying to do in this business. You could even say I admire your honorable ways. But maybe you should listen a little to the advice AJ is passing down to you, because to me, you just don't seem to have the determination, that fire, to make you capable of rising to the top."
But I do have an opponent who is capable of rising to the top.
"I'm under no illusions here. I know just as well as everyone else on the planet who my biggest threat to victory is in this match. This isn't the first time we've squared off in a main event. It's not even the second time. The only difference is that this time around, we're not selling pay-per-views."
"We had our battles in the past. Charlie Velez is the man who took away my pride and joy, my X*Crown championship, before I could even get comfortable with it."
And he beat me again when I tried to regain it. Two more times.
"Truth is, Velez is just about the only member of my previous employer's upper echelon that I've faced and not defeated."
Couldn't defeat.
"And it's ironic how these things play out, isn't it? For years I wanted to chance to prove I was the better man. For years, Charlie Velez was the only black mark on my record. And only now, in my return to nCw, do I get that chance."
"So I guess, in some ways, I couldn't be happier to square off against him this Friday night, and prove to the world - prove to myself - that I have what it takes to better him."
"But throughout those years where we never faced off, one last time, I gained something much more valuable than revenge. I gained a friend. Underneath his arrogance, his wealth, his business-mind...I know Charlie Velez for what he is. An honorable man in his own right, and one of the greatest competitors I've ever faced. I heard what you had to say Charlie, and I appreciate the fact that you're happy to see me back in the ring. The feeling's mutual. I don't know how much money your top of the range legal team managed to squeeze out of nCw management to convince you to wrestle again, but whatever it was, it was a coup. Of that - I'm sure."
"But what I'm not so sure about is some of the other things you've been saying or doing. The Charlie Velez I knew had a passion for this business much deeper than the one you've been showing in the last few weeks. The Charlie Velez I knew didn't make a fool of himself in front of the world by injuring himself via trying to punch someone who was setting up his cable television. And the Charlie Velez I knew would certainly never dismiss me as readily as you did. Wont provide the competition you need? Come on Charlie, I thought I deserved a little more respect than that. If you are truly serious about making an impact in nCw, you're making a big mistake in underestimating just how much I'm going to do to secure victory at Suspense. Don't make that mistake Charlie, for your own good."
"And it's easy for me to draw comparisons. I see you now, lacking the will that you once had to be known as the best in the business. And then I remember you the first time we squared off. A young upstart who was willing to do anything to get where he wanted to go in this industry. I remember you when people didn't know your name, when you were nothing more than an ant in the land of giants. It's ironic to me when you dismiss me as not providing the competition you need, because the whole reason we ever met in the first place was for you to try and make a name for yourself. You attacked me after one of the biggest matches in my career, and you done it to make an impact. You became famous because of me, Charlie. Don't ever forget that. I was the famous face who put you in the spotlight. I was the champion who gave you a taste of the main event. And now I'm not even competition?"
The man finally stops walking along the path as he reaches a tall, overshadowing statue. He looks at it and exhales deeply, then lifts his mouth to a smile in a moment of warm satisfaction. His city. His fans. His people.
As the camera pans up, we can see that the statue is of none other than the man himself, caught in pose of his finest hour. On his knees, in disbelief that he had accomplished his goals, 9 world title belts draped over his shoulders and lying beside him. The aftermath of a victory he will never forget. The camera then pans back down to the foot of the statue, and zooms in to reveal the tagged metal plate.
Doc
Who proved boyhood dreams
can become a reality.
Who proved boyhood dreams
can become a reality.
The man touches the statue, and his smile fades back to the same steely, determined look which has been visible throughout.
"I wish all three of my opponents luck for Friday. But this isn't a match where I can afford to show too much good will. This is my return to this industry, to this company, and a match where I have to prove I'm here to do exactly what I said I was going to do. And sure as a Roman Gladiator does what he has to do in the coliseum, I'll do what I have to do inside the squared circle, whether it be against Severe Payne, Jason Evans, or my old friend..."
"...Charlie Velez."
The man takes his eyes off the statue and begins to walk briskly back down the path he came from, before covering his head with the hood on his nCw top, probably to avoid the kind of attention which comes with being a hometown hero.
Fade out.