Post by Will Washington on Sept 17, 2010 12:56:34 GMT -6
The scene opens with Will Washington sitting on the edge of a couch with his tie loosened and his shirt sleeves are rolled up slightly. Leaning forward he glances up and notices the camera. After hitting a few buttons on his Blackberry®, he lays it down on the couch cushion and focuses on the viewers at home.
“Welcome to my home for yet another Will Washington promotional opportunity. This time I’m here to talk to you about the long-awaited Warfare Match taking place this weekend. The bad guys and the good guys finally square off in what is sure to be a bloodbath. Going into this there are a lot of questions you have to ask yourself. Like: Why am I here? What am I doing? Will I make it out alive?, but more than that that there’s one thing that should linger on your mind….”
“One question….”
We zoom in for a close-up, emphasizing the importance of this particular question.
“What are you fighting for?”
“It’s not a hard concept to master, yet it’s a question that could be difficult answer. We all have our reasons, some more valid than the rest. Maybe you’re fighting for validation or respect, that’s up for you to decide, but that is the question I pose to you on this evening.”
He settles back in the comfortable pillows of the couch, preparing for a potentially faith-breaking rant.
“What are you fighting for Ron Gibson? Do you honestly care if F. Off survives through this weekend? I’ve known you since I first came around a little over a year ago, and over that time I’ve only seen you decline. Dirty Deal was the most dominant team in the company, and most people would only place them second to the Brothers Holland as greatest of all-time. You ended the Burning Angels epic title run, you defeated two Hall-of-Famers in Adam Knite and Gib for the titles, and you even managed to fend off the legendary team of Terminus and William Spencer. You were on top of the world!….And then it all came to a crashing halt.”
“Suddenly you find yourself at the lowest point in your career. Curtis Kanyon is flourishing on his own without you to weigh him down. All the debate over who the better member of Dirty Deal was is put to rest. DDK is taking the world by storm and the lowly Ron Gibson gets lost in the shuffle. You have to make a move to rejuvenate a dying career, so you join up with Leonard Fox. Surely this will put you back in the limelight. You’d be getting title after title shot…opportunity after opportunity.”
“That didn’t happen.”
“You fought your former teammate to determine who truly was the best, and Kanyon came out on top. You were embarrassed by your old best friend and you had nothing to show for it. He kept ascending and you stood stagnate. Now he’s the top contender for the World Champion and you’re nothing more than a tool for Fox to use at his disposal. You’re main eventing a Pay-Per-View, but why? Because you’re another body. They’ll throw anyone they have in front of Awesome to keep him safe and secure at the top of the card. You Gibson, are nothing more than a human shield. You’ll take all the bullets for Steve and he’ll come out smelling like a rose and as fresh as a daisy.”
“But not this time.”
“This time there’s nothing a few piled up bodies can do to keep your beloved Steve Awesome safe. You came to Battle Grounds looking to re-establish yourself….to make yourself a contender, but you were just too stupid to see the bigger picture. This isn’t your big, breakthrough match Ronnie. This isn’t the opportunity to make a name for yourself. This is Steve Awesome and three other guys. Unfortunately for you when it’s all over, nobody is even going to remember Ron Gibson was even in the Warfare Match. They will only remember the four bloody lumps of fleshy mass left in the ring when it was all over.”
Honestly there have never been any hard feelings with Ron Gibson. Every time they’ve faced off, Will has come out on top. In this situation he’s just in the wrong place at the wrong time.
“What are you fighting for Joe Everyman? You didn’t have anything to do with this faction battle. Nowhere during the course of these conflicts did anyone ever mention your name. This was never about you, yet you somehow managed to weasel your way into the conflict last week. All the other members of Leonard’s band of miscreants were too frightened at the very thought of entering that Warfare Cage and conveniently found themselves busy on the nineteenth of September. So you decided to step up out of your coward’s existence and represent the bad guys in fight. I suppose you want a medal for being a hero or something right?”
“You’re going to have to look elsewhere for that.”
“Because you’re not a hero at all are you Joe? What credible reasoning could you have for joining in this match? You obviously don’t care about either side, nor does either side care about you. Thus making it obvious to the entire world why you put your name in the hat…..you did it for the money. You did it for the Joe Everyman brand. Ever since you brought in your promotion guru slash part-time beard Ashlie Ember, you’ve been desperately trying to reinvent yourself as a serious competitor after a period of losing week after week. Congratulations. You’re still a loser only now you’re not as lonely.”
“See Joe, a tiger never changes their stripes. No matter how much you try to change your image by actually showing up for and winning matches, deep down you’re still the same guy you’ve always been. Some say lovable loser, some say pathetic excuse. I say simply this: you are weak. You’ve got a weak heart, a weak jaw, and weak character. You’re proving nothing by stepping into this match other than the fact that you’re desperate for the attention. Overlooked and put down as the weak person you are for months, if not years, has played a toll on your psyche and now you find yourself looking to change perceptions. Nobody is ever going to throw money or endorsement deals to the lovable loser. The lovable loser isn’t going to get another sympathy World Title shot. I could give you credit for having the balls Leonard’s other lackeys didn’t have if you were doing this for pride or purpose, but just like the other’s you lack either.”
“Nothing will ever change perceptions Everyman. You’ll always be seen for the weak soul you are.”
Joe Everyman truly does represent the average everyman in today’s society. He’s greedy and conniving…..and willing to do whatever it takes to get his name out there. This man pretty much disgusts Will. The visions of punching him over and over again in the face dance in Will’s mind as he tries to focus on the next opponent in line.
“What do you fight for Charlie Velez? What have you gained from all this? You were already National Champion when this all started. You were the breakthrough guy that could avoid the classic mistake of painting yourself as an outsider…and then you went and did it. You aligned yourself with people you were familiar with instead of trying to forge through on your own. You trapped and typecasted yourself as a group of guys from a failed dumpster fire of a federation that wanted to invade and take over. It doesn’t matter if that’s what you wanted to do. It’s how it was perceived by everyone. You people wanted to dominate the very place that others have worked so hard to build. You made it about yourself and your boys instead of the National Title. In doing so, you disrespected everyone who has held that title and everyone that yearns to.”
“Yet that wasn’t the worst of it.”
“For whatever reason you decided to give up whatever freedoms you had and became mindless drones in the AwesomeBot Force. I understand if you want to associate with JFK and Venom because you’re familiar with them, but the Front Office move really puzzles me. The standout star of a group of four decides to lump himself in with around ten other guys and guarantee himself that he’ll never be any better than third in command. It seems like a big step backwards career-wise to me. Why do that to yourself? Do you enjoy getting in your own way? You like having your toes stepped on? You went from being a big fish in a small pond to a medium sized fish in a huge pond. Now you’re forced to represent not only yourself, JFK, and Venom, but also Ron Gibson, Steve Awesome, Johnny Rotten, Jayson Matthews, not to mention Leonard Fox. You put all that unnecessary weight on your shoulders for what reason? It hasn’t advanced your career any. You’re in the same spot you were four months ago, only now you get a Pay-Per-View match out of it. Was it worth it?”
“Ironically it would actually be beneficial for you to lose this match. You lose, the Front Office disbands, and once again Charlie Velez is free to do whatever he wants to do. Without the C.E.O. and the Face of the Franchise looking over your shoulder all the time only good things could happen for you. Sure you just lost the National Title, but doesn’t the lure of the World Title call to you? There’s no way you can honestly say it doesn’t. We all want to be World Champion, and I bet you are no exception. Win and you’re back in the middle of epic nothingness. You’re Leonard’s bitch….you’re Steve’s bitch. Lose? And you can be bigger than you ever were. You’ve forced yourself into a bad situation, but don’t expect sympathy from myself or any of the opposition this week. You won’t have to worry about the repercussions of winning. You don’t stand a chance.”
Despite what Charlie claims, deep down Washington does have some respect for the guy. Originally he was paving his own way and making his own success story before selling out. Velez is like the diamond in the lump of crap that is the Front Office, but if he keeps going the way he is, he’ll never realize that true potential. Lackeys don’t win World Championships.
“What do you fight for? Who do you fight for? These are the questions you should be asking yourselves. As far as the world is concerned, you fight for one thing…….”
A disgusted look creeps over Will’s face and he has to fight back the urge to throw up at the thought of easily the smarmiest d-bag you’ll ever encounter. He has to stand up and drink a glass of water before moving on.
“………Steve Awesome……Darth Vader himself. By far the worst person that has ever walked the face of this Earth. What does Steve fight for? He fights for himself and his own distorted reality. Somewhere in the corner of this guy’s mind he thinks that people actually love him. Like some sort of mental patient he’s built up his own perfect utopian society in his mind where Kelly Knite would be on one arm and the World Title on the other. How’d that work out for you buddy?”
He chuckles. It’s always fun to laugh at an enemy.
“Not so well I’d say.”
A smug look comes from Will now. Just remembering the night when Kelly broke Steve’s heart is enough to make even the biggest cynic a believer in karma.
“This whole entire *** damned Front Office experiment has been based around two things Steve! Getting you Kelly, and getting you the title. Everything set up perfectly and you couldn’t pull it off. The summer for you was failure after failure, with your only success being that you hurt Zelda’s shoulder. Wow….write a memoir about that one. Altogether the only thing you’ve actually managed to accomplish this summer was making yourself and a whole group of other guys look like complete and utter imbeciles. All of it was for nothing. You didn’t get the belt or the girl, and you lost your best friend in the process. If there is anyone in this world that should have a lack of confidence in themselves right now it’s you, but you’re Steve Awesome, so that won’t be an issue. It‘s virtually impossible to humble you. I mean, if none of your screw-ups this year have done it yet, nothing will.”
“But god know I’m going to try.”
“There’s nothing in this world I want to see more than the end of the Front Office, but if by some disastrous turn of events I don’t get to see that through, but I still get to see Steve go down….I think I’d still be pretty happy. The greater mission would have been lost, yet we’d all feel some satisfaction in knowing that that b*tch of man had failed once again. Eventually you’re going to have to put that guy on suicide watch. Career suicide is entering this match, but there’s only so much failure one make can take in a short time before he just wants to end it all. I’m sensing Steve is on the brink. I mean…He’s supposed to be this ladies man who can get whoever he wants, and he gets denied by his dream girl, so he has to go on a VH1 style dating show to find love? It’s funny how unfunny that is.”
Now standing, Will’s intensity increases. The fire in him has been building up since Ascension. This is the opportunity to finally take down the Front Office…..it can’t go to waste.
“This Sunday, Steve Awesome fights for his own relevance. He fights for the very essence of who he is and what he’s becoming. He fights to protect the one thing that was set-up to protect him. Nobody has more to lose in this match than you Steve. Everything you have is on the line in that cage. Going into this you had to figure that there was only so long you could hide from a coalition of the disgruntled. Once we buzzsaw through your three other teammates and there’s only you left, where will you run? Who will protect you then? When you’re trapped in side the confines of the steel, who will save you?”
“Nobody.”
“You alienated everyone who ever cared about you. You’ve backed yourself into a corner….put yourself in an un-winnable war. I hope it was fun while it lasted.”
Will moves to a coat rack and slings his jacket on, preparing to walk out into the chilly New York autumn.
“So I ask you all one final time: What do you fight for?”
Motioning towards his heart, he answers for himself.
“Me? I live for the fight and I’ll die for the fight.”
Washington opens the door of his building and steps out into the street. Stuffing his hands into his pockets, he continues talking as the nCw camera crew walks backwards down the street trying to keep it all on video.
“The night we’ve all been waiting months for is finally coming up this Sunday. The time for talking will be done and the call to action will take place. Four of nCw’s fiercest warriors converge in one ring, for one match to prove who really controls New Championship Wrestling. Will the Front Office win and continue to run roughshod over the company, or will the rag-tag group of heroes stand up and win back the company? Will corporate greed or company pride reign supreme?”
He stops walking for a moment….
“You already know that answer.”
….And then continues.
“There’s a new day dawning in nCw. No matter what happens, the sun will still rise on Monday morning. That much is guaranteed. But that cloud of darkness that has been ruling the landscape ever since the inception of the Front Office and Young Guns will be gone for good. On that day we will take back our company and return it where it should be. Where the best wrestler always wins, and not just the one with the most friends. Collectively the Revolution and Will Washington…four men with nothing in common will come together to for one night and a common cause….the destruction of the Front Office. I’ve heard you say that we won’t be able to work together and it will be our downfall. You’re wrong. If anyone has to deal with in-fighting and politics, it‘s you boys.”
Build to crescendo, prepare for the finale. Time to wrap this one up as the streets become more crowded.
“Come Sunday, you’ll have no reason, no hope, no cause….you’ll have no fight left.”
Fade to black.
“Welcome to my home for yet another Will Washington promotional opportunity. This time I’m here to talk to you about the long-awaited Warfare Match taking place this weekend. The bad guys and the good guys finally square off in what is sure to be a bloodbath. Going into this there are a lot of questions you have to ask yourself. Like: Why am I here? What am I doing? Will I make it out alive?, but more than that that there’s one thing that should linger on your mind….”
“One question….”
We zoom in for a close-up, emphasizing the importance of this particular question.
“What are you fighting for?”
“It’s not a hard concept to master, yet it’s a question that could be difficult answer. We all have our reasons, some more valid than the rest. Maybe you’re fighting for validation or respect, that’s up for you to decide, but that is the question I pose to you on this evening.”
He settles back in the comfortable pillows of the couch, preparing for a potentially faith-breaking rant.
“What are you fighting for Ron Gibson? Do you honestly care if F. Off survives through this weekend? I’ve known you since I first came around a little over a year ago, and over that time I’ve only seen you decline. Dirty Deal was the most dominant team in the company, and most people would only place them second to the Brothers Holland as greatest of all-time. You ended the Burning Angels epic title run, you defeated two Hall-of-Famers in Adam Knite and Gib for the titles, and you even managed to fend off the legendary team of Terminus and William Spencer. You were on top of the world!….And then it all came to a crashing halt.”
“Suddenly you find yourself at the lowest point in your career. Curtis Kanyon is flourishing on his own without you to weigh him down. All the debate over who the better member of Dirty Deal was is put to rest. DDK is taking the world by storm and the lowly Ron Gibson gets lost in the shuffle. You have to make a move to rejuvenate a dying career, so you join up with Leonard Fox. Surely this will put you back in the limelight. You’d be getting title after title shot…opportunity after opportunity.”
“That didn’t happen.”
“You fought your former teammate to determine who truly was the best, and Kanyon came out on top. You were embarrassed by your old best friend and you had nothing to show for it. He kept ascending and you stood stagnate. Now he’s the top contender for the World Champion and you’re nothing more than a tool for Fox to use at his disposal. You’re main eventing a Pay-Per-View, but why? Because you’re another body. They’ll throw anyone they have in front of Awesome to keep him safe and secure at the top of the card. You Gibson, are nothing more than a human shield. You’ll take all the bullets for Steve and he’ll come out smelling like a rose and as fresh as a daisy.”
“But not this time.”
“This time there’s nothing a few piled up bodies can do to keep your beloved Steve Awesome safe. You came to Battle Grounds looking to re-establish yourself….to make yourself a contender, but you were just too stupid to see the bigger picture. This isn’t your big, breakthrough match Ronnie. This isn’t the opportunity to make a name for yourself. This is Steve Awesome and three other guys. Unfortunately for you when it’s all over, nobody is even going to remember Ron Gibson was even in the Warfare Match. They will only remember the four bloody lumps of fleshy mass left in the ring when it was all over.”
Honestly there have never been any hard feelings with Ron Gibson. Every time they’ve faced off, Will has come out on top. In this situation he’s just in the wrong place at the wrong time.
“What are you fighting for Joe Everyman? You didn’t have anything to do with this faction battle. Nowhere during the course of these conflicts did anyone ever mention your name. This was never about you, yet you somehow managed to weasel your way into the conflict last week. All the other members of Leonard’s band of miscreants were too frightened at the very thought of entering that Warfare Cage and conveniently found themselves busy on the nineteenth of September. So you decided to step up out of your coward’s existence and represent the bad guys in fight. I suppose you want a medal for being a hero or something right?”
“You’re going to have to look elsewhere for that.”
“Because you’re not a hero at all are you Joe? What credible reasoning could you have for joining in this match? You obviously don’t care about either side, nor does either side care about you. Thus making it obvious to the entire world why you put your name in the hat…..you did it for the money. You did it for the Joe Everyman brand. Ever since you brought in your promotion guru slash part-time beard Ashlie Ember, you’ve been desperately trying to reinvent yourself as a serious competitor after a period of losing week after week. Congratulations. You’re still a loser only now you’re not as lonely.”
“See Joe, a tiger never changes their stripes. No matter how much you try to change your image by actually showing up for and winning matches, deep down you’re still the same guy you’ve always been. Some say lovable loser, some say pathetic excuse. I say simply this: you are weak. You’ve got a weak heart, a weak jaw, and weak character. You’re proving nothing by stepping into this match other than the fact that you’re desperate for the attention. Overlooked and put down as the weak person you are for months, if not years, has played a toll on your psyche and now you find yourself looking to change perceptions. Nobody is ever going to throw money or endorsement deals to the lovable loser. The lovable loser isn’t going to get another sympathy World Title shot. I could give you credit for having the balls Leonard’s other lackeys didn’t have if you were doing this for pride or purpose, but just like the other’s you lack either.”
“Nothing will ever change perceptions Everyman. You’ll always be seen for the weak soul you are.”
Joe Everyman truly does represent the average everyman in today’s society. He’s greedy and conniving…..and willing to do whatever it takes to get his name out there. This man pretty much disgusts Will. The visions of punching him over and over again in the face dance in Will’s mind as he tries to focus on the next opponent in line.
“What do you fight for Charlie Velez? What have you gained from all this? You were already National Champion when this all started. You were the breakthrough guy that could avoid the classic mistake of painting yourself as an outsider…and then you went and did it. You aligned yourself with people you were familiar with instead of trying to forge through on your own. You trapped and typecasted yourself as a group of guys from a failed dumpster fire of a federation that wanted to invade and take over. It doesn’t matter if that’s what you wanted to do. It’s how it was perceived by everyone. You people wanted to dominate the very place that others have worked so hard to build. You made it about yourself and your boys instead of the National Title. In doing so, you disrespected everyone who has held that title and everyone that yearns to.”
“Yet that wasn’t the worst of it.”
“For whatever reason you decided to give up whatever freedoms you had and became mindless drones in the AwesomeBot Force. I understand if you want to associate with JFK and Venom because you’re familiar with them, but the Front Office move really puzzles me. The standout star of a group of four decides to lump himself in with around ten other guys and guarantee himself that he’ll never be any better than third in command. It seems like a big step backwards career-wise to me. Why do that to yourself? Do you enjoy getting in your own way? You like having your toes stepped on? You went from being a big fish in a small pond to a medium sized fish in a huge pond. Now you’re forced to represent not only yourself, JFK, and Venom, but also Ron Gibson, Steve Awesome, Johnny Rotten, Jayson Matthews, not to mention Leonard Fox. You put all that unnecessary weight on your shoulders for what reason? It hasn’t advanced your career any. You’re in the same spot you were four months ago, only now you get a Pay-Per-View match out of it. Was it worth it?”
“Ironically it would actually be beneficial for you to lose this match. You lose, the Front Office disbands, and once again Charlie Velez is free to do whatever he wants to do. Without the C.E.O. and the Face of the Franchise looking over your shoulder all the time only good things could happen for you. Sure you just lost the National Title, but doesn’t the lure of the World Title call to you? There’s no way you can honestly say it doesn’t. We all want to be World Champion, and I bet you are no exception. Win and you’re back in the middle of epic nothingness. You’re Leonard’s bitch….you’re Steve’s bitch. Lose? And you can be bigger than you ever were. You’ve forced yourself into a bad situation, but don’t expect sympathy from myself or any of the opposition this week. You won’t have to worry about the repercussions of winning. You don’t stand a chance.”
Despite what Charlie claims, deep down Washington does have some respect for the guy. Originally he was paving his own way and making his own success story before selling out. Velez is like the diamond in the lump of crap that is the Front Office, but if he keeps going the way he is, he’ll never realize that true potential. Lackeys don’t win World Championships.
“What do you fight for? Who do you fight for? These are the questions you should be asking yourselves. As far as the world is concerned, you fight for one thing…….”
A disgusted look creeps over Will’s face and he has to fight back the urge to throw up at the thought of easily the smarmiest d-bag you’ll ever encounter. He has to stand up and drink a glass of water before moving on.
“………Steve Awesome……Darth Vader himself. By far the worst person that has ever walked the face of this Earth. What does Steve fight for? He fights for himself and his own distorted reality. Somewhere in the corner of this guy’s mind he thinks that people actually love him. Like some sort of mental patient he’s built up his own perfect utopian society in his mind where Kelly Knite would be on one arm and the World Title on the other. How’d that work out for you buddy?”
He chuckles. It’s always fun to laugh at an enemy.
“Not so well I’d say.”
A smug look comes from Will now. Just remembering the night when Kelly broke Steve’s heart is enough to make even the biggest cynic a believer in karma.
“This whole entire *** damned Front Office experiment has been based around two things Steve! Getting you Kelly, and getting you the title. Everything set up perfectly and you couldn’t pull it off. The summer for you was failure after failure, with your only success being that you hurt Zelda’s shoulder. Wow….write a memoir about that one. Altogether the only thing you’ve actually managed to accomplish this summer was making yourself and a whole group of other guys look like complete and utter imbeciles. All of it was for nothing. You didn’t get the belt or the girl, and you lost your best friend in the process. If there is anyone in this world that should have a lack of confidence in themselves right now it’s you, but you’re Steve Awesome, so that won’t be an issue. It‘s virtually impossible to humble you. I mean, if none of your screw-ups this year have done it yet, nothing will.”
“But god know I’m going to try.”
“There’s nothing in this world I want to see more than the end of the Front Office, but if by some disastrous turn of events I don’t get to see that through, but I still get to see Steve go down….I think I’d still be pretty happy. The greater mission would have been lost, yet we’d all feel some satisfaction in knowing that that b*tch of man had failed once again. Eventually you’re going to have to put that guy on suicide watch. Career suicide is entering this match, but there’s only so much failure one make can take in a short time before he just wants to end it all. I’m sensing Steve is on the brink. I mean…He’s supposed to be this ladies man who can get whoever he wants, and he gets denied by his dream girl, so he has to go on a VH1 style dating show to find love? It’s funny how unfunny that is.”
Now standing, Will’s intensity increases. The fire in him has been building up since Ascension. This is the opportunity to finally take down the Front Office…..it can’t go to waste.
“This Sunday, Steve Awesome fights for his own relevance. He fights for the very essence of who he is and what he’s becoming. He fights to protect the one thing that was set-up to protect him. Nobody has more to lose in this match than you Steve. Everything you have is on the line in that cage. Going into this you had to figure that there was only so long you could hide from a coalition of the disgruntled. Once we buzzsaw through your three other teammates and there’s only you left, where will you run? Who will protect you then? When you’re trapped in side the confines of the steel, who will save you?”
“Nobody.”
“You alienated everyone who ever cared about you. You’ve backed yourself into a corner….put yourself in an un-winnable war. I hope it was fun while it lasted.”
Will moves to a coat rack and slings his jacket on, preparing to walk out into the chilly New York autumn.
“So I ask you all one final time: What do you fight for?”
Motioning towards his heart, he answers for himself.
“Me? I live for the fight and I’ll die for the fight.”
Washington opens the door of his building and steps out into the street. Stuffing his hands into his pockets, he continues talking as the nCw camera crew walks backwards down the street trying to keep it all on video.
“The night we’ve all been waiting months for is finally coming up this Sunday. The time for talking will be done and the call to action will take place. Four of nCw’s fiercest warriors converge in one ring, for one match to prove who really controls New Championship Wrestling. Will the Front Office win and continue to run roughshod over the company, or will the rag-tag group of heroes stand up and win back the company? Will corporate greed or company pride reign supreme?”
He stops walking for a moment….
“You already know that answer.”
….And then continues.
“There’s a new day dawning in nCw. No matter what happens, the sun will still rise on Monday morning. That much is guaranteed. But that cloud of darkness that has been ruling the landscape ever since the inception of the Front Office and Young Guns will be gone for good. On that day we will take back our company and return it where it should be. Where the best wrestler always wins, and not just the one with the most friends. Collectively the Revolution and Will Washington…four men with nothing in common will come together to for one night and a common cause….the destruction of the Front Office. I’ve heard you say that we won’t be able to work together and it will be our downfall. You’re wrong. If anyone has to deal with in-fighting and politics, it‘s you boys.”
Build to crescendo, prepare for the finale. Time to wrap this one up as the streets become more crowded.
“Come Sunday, you’ll have no reason, no hope, no cause….you’ll have no fight left.”
Fade to black.