Post by doc on Mar 28, 2010 6:11:44 GMT -6
We open up in what appears to be a lab research facility, a room crowded out with high-tech machinery and equipment. In a section of the room there appears to be sports science equipment, and Doc is on an excercise bike wearing only shorts and trainers, with what appears to be hundreds of wires attatched to his body, presumably to monitor the response of his heart, lungs and muscles to exercise. The camera moves a little to show that watching Doc on the bike is a guy who...well let's just say he looks like Albert Einstein. Your stereotypical scientist geek, white lab coat, glasses, white hair...a German accent...the full works. He has a clipboard in his hand and appears to be ticking off boxes as he looks at the readings for Doc's performance on a screen.
"I'm sorry, but I do not zink zat eet eez possible. I haff tried everyzing in my power, but eet...eet eez just not possible."
Doc stops pedalling on the bike, sweat dripping off him as he shakes his head in defiance.
(While catching breath) "No...no...but...it...there has...there has to be a way."
Doc grabs a nearby towel and wipes the sweat off his face as the scientist just shakes his head.
"But eet eez not! I av tried every possible way to make eet work, but as I predicted, ze only way is through light activity."
"But you don't understand, if I can't keep up with my opponents, how I am supposed to win? I need this program."
"I know no uhzer way to phrase it for you, Mr Doc. Zer is no way I can design you an effecteev training program for ze match on Sunday wheech eencludes five hours of straight exercise. As I haff zed, ze only way eez through light exercise, like slow-paced jogging to complete a marathon."
"But it has to be possible. You see, I have this opponent on Sunday, his name's Freakke, and he used to work in a carnival...or he used to be a king...or something...but anyway, that guy completed five hours of straight training. So there must be a way. And it can't be like completing a marathon, after all, how would that help him prepare for our match?"
"Mr Doc, if one even tried to exercise in ze way required for ze professional wrestler, even at medium eentensity for such times, ze cardiovascular system would seemply be unable to cope. Ze amount of pulmonary ventilation vud haff to increase to amounts exeeding 5,000 mililtres per minute. Cardiac output and arterial blood pressure vud simply be too high and you vud incur a heart attack, eef not hyperventilation beforehand. Vascular shunt vud mean zat zer vud be no blood circulated to ze liver or ze kineys, which we need to survive. Thermoregulation could not prevent ze body from overheating, and even eef eet could, you vud in theory lose up to 10 litres of fluid from sweat."
Doc stares at the scientist and blinks, obviously not sure of what anything he has just said actually means.
"Een short, Mr Doc - it eez not possible."
Doc's eyes widen and his mouth opens in a look of shock.
"So Freakke...he must have..."
"Exactly, made eet u-"
"...Superhuman powers."
Doc's eyes widen even more as he just stares in to the distance. The scientist just shakes his head as if to say "I give up", tosses the clipboard to the ground and walks off.
As he does so, Doc's look of shock fades swiftly in to a look of raw focus. He rips the wires off his body and adjusts his position, still sitting on the exercise bike, as he stares in to our screens.
"I wish I could sit here and keep playing around all day, like some of my opponents seem to do. I wish I had time to make up bedtime stories, or help out with fixing the equipment backstage."
"But I don't."
"The time for games is over. In less than twenty-four hours, I go in to what will be the biggest test in my short nCw career. In over twenty-four hours, I will either be the man who proved his worth in this company by overcoming that obstacle, or I will be just another face in the crowd, someone who makes up the numbers in this kind of match. Just another "Joe Everyman", you could say."
"But before I start addressing Joe, I actually have to express a little bit of sympathy for Freakke for singling him out earlier. After all, Freakke is the only man other than Venom and I who stuck his head above the parapet all week. Unfortunately for him, all it does is make him an easy target for a lot of the things he does in his promos. I mean, in his last promo, the guy starting speaking in text language. Who the hell would say "cut the camera, I gtg" ? Nobody. Yet Freakke and his buddy are cutting a promo talking about something called an "rp". Now, excuse me for perhaps not keeping up with the younger generation, but I've never even heard of an "rp" before, so god only knows what they were talking about. Someone suggested to me that it might mean "role-play", but if Freakke is talking about him and Dr Dream roleplaying together...I mean...ugh."
Doc brings a slight sickened look to his face then quickly drops it back to his look of focus.
"As if that wasn't inappropriate enough, though, we also have Severe Payne. Now here we have a guy who doesn't show his face all week, and then, when he actually does decide to show it, he doesn't even mention the biggest match of his nCw career. Instead, he's too busy showing the world his "telepathic abilities" of knowing exactly what his son converses about. Very nice, Mr. Payne, I'm sure it's a very useful little magic trick. But inside an nCw ring, facing four opponents who are itching to end your overrun career for no reason other than victory, magic tricks just don't cut it. If I were you, I would either change my focus to this match very quickly, or I would stop discouraging my son so much, because by this time tomorrow, he could be your only source of income."
Doc pauses for a second.
"At least Severe Payne is going to compete this Sunday. Now, don't get me wrong, it's perfectly understandable if AJ can't make it to Sovereign. But it does show a lack of heart. If I was someone who had no right to make that statement, then I wouldn't dare let the words come out of my lips, but I have every right. I'm someone who has defended world championships through the agony of injuries that most people can never appreciate. As Venom said, this Sunday, AJ was scheduled to compete against the two men he has had most trouble with over the years. I don't know if that had anything to do with him pulling out, I really don't, and I do wish him a speedy recovery. But what I know for certain is that, at the start of the week, I questioned how many of my five opponents really wanted this victory. We're already down to four before the match has even begun, one of whom is more interested in his son than his opponents, another who is undertaking a training program which is sure to leave him weak and fatigued before the bell even rings...and another who didn't even realize AJ had been taken out of the match."
"Which brings me to you, Joe. I wont dwell on the fact that you brought up AJ in two promos after he had been already been taken out of proceedings, because Venom already got you on that one. But what it does show me is that you are just as prepared for this match as Freakke and Severe Payne - you aren't. I mean, Venom had already spoke about how AJ wasn't in our match before you even cut your first promo. But you still didn't notice? Joe, how can someone who doesn't even know who his opponents are possibly expect to win a match of this importance? You've got heart, and a much bigger mouth than you used to have, but not focus."
"And you should watch that mouth of yours too, because it's likely to get you in to trouble with bigger, nastier men than Doc. But let me begin by saying that I did show you respect this week, I did say I would take the challenge head on. So I really don't understand what you're talking about when you say that I had the chance to 'get on your good side', but that I decided to be 'disrespectful and heartless' instead. When exactly was I so disrespectful and heartless, Joe? One minute you're cutting a promo talking about how I shook your hand after a match and showed the type of class which is almost never seen nowadays. Then, without me saying anything in between, you talk about how I've been 'disrespectful and heartless'. Are you even aware of anything that goes on around you, Joe? You need to snap out of your fantasy world of bedtime stories and start focusing a little more on reality."
"The funny thing is that I actually remember that match you spoke about. I remember beating you and then shaking your hand - and you know why I did that? Because back then, you were observant. You were just an average kid trying to make it. People never showed you respect, but in what was the biggest match of your career, you earned mine by giving it absolutely everything you had. I was actually ready to show you the same respect again. I would have been more than happy to shake your hand after our match at Sovereign, win or lose...had it not been for your big mouth."
"But all you are now, Joe, is confused. You're still trying to be the average kid who just wants to make it big, and at the same time, you call yourself a legend. Talk about a paradox. Stop talking as if you're some kind of icon in this business Joe, because it doesn't suit you. I never, never thought I'd see the day when Joe Everyman took such a tone with Doc and Venom, spoke down to us like our accomplishments are bronze to your gold, and asked us 'what chance we have against you'. I used to respect your approach Joe, but you have become the most ridiculous joke I have ever seen in my life. Legends don't make a fool of themselves in their promos. Legends don't win belts they can't defend. Legends win world championships, something you have never done, and they defend them week-in, week-out. Venom defended his world title like that for what, six months? I can understand if Venom calls himself a legend, because he is. But you, Joe, are the man who holds hamsters in his hands for longer than he holds title belts."
"You ramble off the names of nCw legends and call them 'five times' the wrestlers that I will ever be. Joe, you're the person who said in your first promo that AJ Phoenix was the greatest wrestler you had ever seen."
Doc can't help but interrupt himself with a small laugh.
"Aw come on Joe, give me a break. Venom and I have probably beaten AJ more times than you've managed to win a singles match. AJ was always a a joke to us. So when you call him the greatest wrestler in the world, you automatically destroy any credibility you might have had to speak about other wrestlers. Don't get me wrong, I'm well aware that Lance Ryan, Spike Kane and Milo Holland are nCw legends. I respect everything that those three guys have done. But Spike and Milo were around this industry at the same time as me Joe, and just like AJ, there weren't guys I ever considered a threat."
"I'll tell you a story about your great legend Spike Kane. Spike is the kind of man who, when he was put in the position where he had to face me, handed over his number one contendership to get out of the match. That's right, he just gave it to me and said he didn't want to have to face me. He handed me the contract in the middle of the ring, in front of thousands of fans, and the footage is still there for everybody to see. That's how you're legends ranked up to me."
"Like I said Joe, I wanted to cut you some slack. I wanted to show you some respect. But just like The Ace did last week, you brought this upon yourself. You dreamt up statements that I never made and then tried to use them as an excuse to talk to me like I'm some kind of rookie. I have nothing more to say to you Joe, not even good luck. I'll see you soon enough, and we'll see just how much of a 'legend' you are when you are opposite me inside the squared circle."
Doc pauses again, obviously ready to get Joe Everyman out of his mind and move on.
"But one of my opponents, I do consider a legend. You were right Venom, this match is going to come down to me and you. Maybe I was wrong to expect a little more from our opponents, but it doesn't matter. Me and you Venom, just like old times."
"You couldn't have put it any better. We both started together, and we both rose to the top together - as rivals. And here we are, starting off at the bottom once again, together. Is it so unlikely that we will rise to the top together once again? I don't think it is. Our careers have been parallel to a degree that you couldn't even make up. I still remember the first time we ever squared off, clear as day. The Junior-Heavyweight Title was on the line, a title which, at the time, didn't get a lot of respect - kind of like the Xtreme Title. You held that title Venom...and I took it from you."
"But that was nothing. Nothing but the foundations for what we would go on to become. We both had our career-defining wins on exactly the same show, wins which catapulted us from the best of the little guys to the best of the best. Before us, not one single junior-heavyweight had managed to break the glass ceiling in "the other company". And there we were, simultaneously holding the two biggest belts that it had to offer."
"We paved the way for many of the greats Venom, and we did it all in the same position which we find ourselves in yet again - opposite each other. Maybe we lurked deep in the other's subconscious the whole time, pushing each other to be the best. But unlike so many others, I was always your enigma. You could never stay ahead of me, not for too long. While others crumbled, I beat you. And that will get to you Venom, I know it will. I know you inside-out, and I know the competitive drive which you possess. You never liked the fact that I always brought out the best in you, but that most of the time, it wasn't good enough. That's the reason that while we get on well, while we share a deep mutual respect for each other as people as well as athletes - we will never co-exist in a competitive environment."
"If we were cowboys rather than wrestlers, this town wouldn't be big enough for the both of us. But you already know that Venom, that's the reason you've been breaking your back, just trying to gain a little bit of knowledge - because you know that only one of us is going to walk out victorious. It's too bad, though, that you don't seem to have gained any real insight what-so-ever to the workings of nCw. For a minute I even thought I heard you say that Steve Awesome would be defending his championship, but then I remembered that not only is he not defending one, he doesn't even have a championship."
"But that's ok V, because he did used to be a champion. Just the same as you used to be the man to beat. But not any more. Sure, you might have even have got back to your best. We might really see the old Venom in less than twenty-four hours. But the old Venom isn't the best any more."
"You haven't kept up with inflation Venom. All around you, the wrestling industry has evolved. Wrestlers have continually progressed, while all you have done of late is rack up more YouTube hits than a Zelda Knight slumber party."
"Everybody else has gotten better, while you struggle to be what you once where. This the real world Venom, and in real terms, the best then isn't the best now. That's how the world works, V. That's how society works."
"And how ironic it will be then, when this Sunday night Venom, you will become the only casualty..."
"...to society."
Cut to static.
"I'm sorry, but I do not zink zat eet eez possible. I haff tried everyzing in my power, but eet...eet eez just not possible."
Doc stops pedalling on the bike, sweat dripping off him as he shakes his head in defiance.
(While catching breath) "No...no...but...it...there has...there has to be a way."
Doc grabs a nearby towel and wipes the sweat off his face as the scientist just shakes his head.
"But eet eez not! I av tried every possible way to make eet work, but as I predicted, ze only way is through light activity."
"But you don't understand, if I can't keep up with my opponents, how I am supposed to win? I need this program."
"I know no uhzer way to phrase it for you, Mr Doc. Zer is no way I can design you an effecteev training program for ze match on Sunday wheech eencludes five hours of straight exercise. As I haff zed, ze only way eez through light exercise, like slow-paced jogging to complete a marathon."
"But it has to be possible. You see, I have this opponent on Sunday, his name's Freakke, and he used to work in a carnival...or he used to be a king...or something...but anyway, that guy completed five hours of straight training. So there must be a way. And it can't be like completing a marathon, after all, how would that help him prepare for our match?"
"Mr Doc, if one even tried to exercise in ze way required for ze professional wrestler, even at medium eentensity for such times, ze cardiovascular system would seemply be unable to cope. Ze amount of pulmonary ventilation vud haff to increase to amounts exeeding 5,000 mililtres per minute. Cardiac output and arterial blood pressure vud simply be too high and you vud incur a heart attack, eef not hyperventilation beforehand. Vascular shunt vud mean zat zer vud be no blood circulated to ze liver or ze kineys, which we need to survive. Thermoregulation could not prevent ze body from overheating, and even eef eet could, you vud in theory lose up to 10 litres of fluid from sweat."
Doc stares at the scientist and blinks, obviously not sure of what anything he has just said actually means.
"Een short, Mr Doc - it eez not possible."
Doc's eyes widen and his mouth opens in a look of shock.
"So Freakke...he must have..."
"Exactly, made eet u-"
"...Superhuman powers."
Doc's eyes widen even more as he just stares in to the distance. The scientist just shakes his head as if to say "I give up", tosses the clipboard to the ground and walks off.
As he does so, Doc's look of shock fades swiftly in to a look of raw focus. He rips the wires off his body and adjusts his position, still sitting on the exercise bike, as he stares in to our screens.
"I wish I could sit here and keep playing around all day, like some of my opponents seem to do. I wish I had time to make up bedtime stories, or help out with fixing the equipment backstage."
"But I don't."
"The time for games is over. In less than twenty-four hours, I go in to what will be the biggest test in my short nCw career. In over twenty-four hours, I will either be the man who proved his worth in this company by overcoming that obstacle, or I will be just another face in the crowd, someone who makes up the numbers in this kind of match. Just another "Joe Everyman", you could say."
"But before I start addressing Joe, I actually have to express a little bit of sympathy for Freakke for singling him out earlier. After all, Freakke is the only man other than Venom and I who stuck his head above the parapet all week. Unfortunately for him, all it does is make him an easy target for a lot of the things he does in his promos. I mean, in his last promo, the guy starting speaking in text language. Who the hell would say "cut the camera, I gtg" ? Nobody. Yet Freakke and his buddy are cutting a promo talking about something called an "rp". Now, excuse me for perhaps not keeping up with the younger generation, but I've never even heard of an "rp" before, so god only knows what they were talking about. Someone suggested to me that it might mean "role-play", but if Freakke is talking about him and Dr Dream roleplaying together...I mean...ugh."
Doc brings a slight sickened look to his face then quickly drops it back to his look of focus.
"As if that wasn't inappropriate enough, though, we also have Severe Payne. Now here we have a guy who doesn't show his face all week, and then, when he actually does decide to show it, he doesn't even mention the biggest match of his nCw career. Instead, he's too busy showing the world his "telepathic abilities" of knowing exactly what his son converses about. Very nice, Mr. Payne, I'm sure it's a very useful little magic trick. But inside an nCw ring, facing four opponents who are itching to end your overrun career for no reason other than victory, magic tricks just don't cut it. If I were you, I would either change my focus to this match very quickly, or I would stop discouraging my son so much, because by this time tomorrow, he could be your only source of income."
Doc pauses for a second.
"At least Severe Payne is going to compete this Sunday. Now, don't get me wrong, it's perfectly understandable if AJ can't make it to Sovereign. But it does show a lack of heart. If I was someone who had no right to make that statement, then I wouldn't dare let the words come out of my lips, but I have every right. I'm someone who has defended world championships through the agony of injuries that most people can never appreciate. As Venom said, this Sunday, AJ was scheduled to compete against the two men he has had most trouble with over the years. I don't know if that had anything to do with him pulling out, I really don't, and I do wish him a speedy recovery. But what I know for certain is that, at the start of the week, I questioned how many of my five opponents really wanted this victory. We're already down to four before the match has even begun, one of whom is more interested in his son than his opponents, another who is undertaking a training program which is sure to leave him weak and fatigued before the bell even rings...and another who didn't even realize AJ had been taken out of the match."
"Which brings me to you, Joe. I wont dwell on the fact that you brought up AJ in two promos after he had been already been taken out of proceedings, because Venom already got you on that one. But what it does show me is that you are just as prepared for this match as Freakke and Severe Payne - you aren't. I mean, Venom had already spoke about how AJ wasn't in our match before you even cut your first promo. But you still didn't notice? Joe, how can someone who doesn't even know who his opponents are possibly expect to win a match of this importance? You've got heart, and a much bigger mouth than you used to have, but not focus."
"And you should watch that mouth of yours too, because it's likely to get you in to trouble with bigger, nastier men than Doc. But let me begin by saying that I did show you respect this week, I did say I would take the challenge head on. So I really don't understand what you're talking about when you say that I had the chance to 'get on your good side', but that I decided to be 'disrespectful and heartless' instead. When exactly was I so disrespectful and heartless, Joe? One minute you're cutting a promo talking about how I shook your hand after a match and showed the type of class which is almost never seen nowadays. Then, without me saying anything in between, you talk about how I've been 'disrespectful and heartless'. Are you even aware of anything that goes on around you, Joe? You need to snap out of your fantasy world of bedtime stories and start focusing a little more on reality."
"The funny thing is that I actually remember that match you spoke about. I remember beating you and then shaking your hand - and you know why I did that? Because back then, you were observant. You were just an average kid trying to make it. People never showed you respect, but in what was the biggest match of your career, you earned mine by giving it absolutely everything you had. I was actually ready to show you the same respect again. I would have been more than happy to shake your hand after our match at Sovereign, win or lose...had it not been for your big mouth."
"But all you are now, Joe, is confused. You're still trying to be the average kid who just wants to make it big, and at the same time, you call yourself a legend. Talk about a paradox. Stop talking as if you're some kind of icon in this business Joe, because it doesn't suit you. I never, never thought I'd see the day when Joe Everyman took such a tone with Doc and Venom, spoke down to us like our accomplishments are bronze to your gold, and asked us 'what chance we have against you'. I used to respect your approach Joe, but you have become the most ridiculous joke I have ever seen in my life. Legends don't make a fool of themselves in their promos. Legends don't win belts they can't defend. Legends win world championships, something you have never done, and they defend them week-in, week-out. Venom defended his world title like that for what, six months? I can understand if Venom calls himself a legend, because he is. But you, Joe, are the man who holds hamsters in his hands for longer than he holds title belts."
"You ramble off the names of nCw legends and call them 'five times' the wrestlers that I will ever be. Joe, you're the person who said in your first promo that AJ Phoenix was the greatest wrestler you had ever seen."
Doc can't help but interrupt himself with a small laugh.
"Aw come on Joe, give me a break. Venom and I have probably beaten AJ more times than you've managed to win a singles match. AJ was always a a joke to us. So when you call him the greatest wrestler in the world, you automatically destroy any credibility you might have had to speak about other wrestlers. Don't get me wrong, I'm well aware that Lance Ryan, Spike Kane and Milo Holland are nCw legends. I respect everything that those three guys have done. But Spike and Milo were around this industry at the same time as me Joe, and just like AJ, there weren't guys I ever considered a threat."
"I'll tell you a story about your great legend Spike Kane. Spike is the kind of man who, when he was put in the position where he had to face me, handed over his number one contendership to get out of the match. That's right, he just gave it to me and said he didn't want to have to face me. He handed me the contract in the middle of the ring, in front of thousands of fans, and the footage is still there for everybody to see. That's how you're legends ranked up to me."
"Like I said Joe, I wanted to cut you some slack. I wanted to show you some respect. But just like The Ace did last week, you brought this upon yourself. You dreamt up statements that I never made and then tried to use them as an excuse to talk to me like I'm some kind of rookie. I have nothing more to say to you Joe, not even good luck. I'll see you soon enough, and we'll see just how much of a 'legend' you are when you are opposite me inside the squared circle."
Doc pauses again, obviously ready to get Joe Everyman out of his mind and move on.
"But one of my opponents, I do consider a legend. You were right Venom, this match is going to come down to me and you. Maybe I was wrong to expect a little more from our opponents, but it doesn't matter. Me and you Venom, just like old times."
"You couldn't have put it any better. We both started together, and we both rose to the top together - as rivals. And here we are, starting off at the bottom once again, together. Is it so unlikely that we will rise to the top together once again? I don't think it is. Our careers have been parallel to a degree that you couldn't even make up. I still remember the first time we ever squared off, clear as day. The Junior-Heavyweight Title was on the line, a title which, at the time, didn't get a lot of respect - kind of like the Xtreme Title. You held that title Venom...and I took it from you."
"But that was nothing. Nothing but the foundations for what we would go on to become. We both had our career-defining wins on exactly the same show, wins which catapulted us from the best of the little guys to the best of the best. Before us, not one single junior-heavyweight had managed to break the glass ceiling in "the other company". And there we were, simultaneously holding the two biggest belts that it had to offer."
"We paved the way for many of the greats Venom, and we did it all in the same position which we find ourselves in yet again - opposite each other. Maybe we lurked deep in the other's subconscious the whole time, pushing each other to be the best. But unlike so many others, I was always your enigma. You could never stay ahead of me, not for too long. While others crumbled, I beat you. And that will get to you Venom, I know it will. I know you inside-out, and I know the competitive drive which you possess. You never liked the fact that I always brought out the best in you, but that most of the time, it wasn't good enough. That's the reason that while we get on well, while we share a deep mutual respect for each other as people as well as athletes - we will never co-exist in a competitive environment."
"If we were cowboys rather than wrestlers, this town wouldn't be big enough for the both of us. But you already know that Venom, that's the reason you've been breaking your back, just trying to gain a little bit of knowledge - because you know that only one of us is going to walk out victorious. It's too bad, though, that you don't seem to have gained any real insight what-so-ever to the workings of nCw. For a minute I even thought I heard you say that Steve Awesome would be defending his championship, but then I remembered that not only is he not defending one, he doesn't even have a championship."
"But that's ok V, because he did used to be a champion. Just the same as you used to be the man to beat. But not any more. Sure, you might have even have got back to your best. We might really see the old Venom in less than twenty-four hours. But the old Venom isn't the best any more."
"You haven't kept up with inflation Venom. All around you, the wrestling industry has evolved. Wrestlers have continually progressed, while all you have done of late is rack up more YouTube hits than a Zelda Knight slumber party."
"Everybody else has gotten better, while you struggle to be what you once where. This the real world Venom, and in real terms, the best then isn't the best now. That's how the world works, V. That's how society works."
"And how ironic it will be then, when this Sunday night Venom, you will become the only casualty..."
"...to society."
Cut to static.