Post by The Brothers Holland on Sept 22, 2011 15:43:31 GMT -6
Do you remember me nCw?
Do you Really remember me?
I don't mean Dave Holland the man. Everyone remembers him.
Dashing, Charming, Noble, Honest...
I mean Dave Holland the wrestler.
Do you remember him?
Maybe I should remind you of what went before...
So you can prepare for what's coming.
At Battlegrouds, it all begins.
Again...
*The camera opens up on the deep blue of a crisp, clear sky. The sun shines brightly causing lens flare as the camera passes it by scanning the area. Words appear against the blue introducing the piece as was done in promos of old.*
Rememberance
"To look backward for a while is to refresh the eye, to restore it, and to render it the more fit for its prime function of looking forward."
- Margeret Fairless Barber, The Roadmender
*The camera pans down and we come across a snowman. A snowman that we have seen in months gone by. One that we know (or at least should know) to be sat at the top of a mountain somewhere in the alps. Sure enough it still holds the little flag with the words 'Alex's mountain' on it. Stood a short distance away, facing the huge vista of the mountain range is a figure. A figure who as soon as he begins speaking we know to be Dave Holland*
You're an angry man Trent. An angry and bitter man. I knew this the moment you exposed me. What I didn't know is just how bitter and angry you are. You're a man who has, apparently, been wronged by so many for so long that you don't even remember the last time anyone did anything for you. You're a man who has had to take every opportunity he could by tooth, claw or laser beam because no one was about to give them away free with this week's edition of nCw-magazine.. right? You're so angry that you don't even realise who you're talking to or about. You don't look at facts or figures to back up your words. You just spew bile, and hatred at whatever camera happens to be pointing at you. You thrust it onto the internet via whatever blogging medium you have at your disposal. You never stop and think... you just do. And strangely enough... I can respect that. I can admire that.
They say that give an intelligent man a lot of information and he can be dangerous, but give a fool but a little and he can destroy the whole world. Sounds like a match-up to me, Trent. So what I'm going to do for you... is give you a rundown. You think that bringing up every major achievement from my past and telling me not to mention them because you'll laugh, is going to stop me? You think that you can fool everyone into believing you because you attempted to put a negative spin on everything? It doesn't work like that Trent.
*Dave turns to face the camera, the camera now having moved close up so we can see a corona of light about Dave's head.*
I don't work like that.
So let me tell you where you saw it wrong. Let me tell the world what you tried to hide. And most importantly, allow me to remind you of everything that you forgot, or omitted to include, in your brief history of Holland. Let's start at the beginning shall we? For this, a change of scenery I think.
*The screen wipes aside as Dave makes the same motion with his hand. and what we see is a dank, dark basement. The walls are exposed brickwork, some places even look like old stone. There are stains on the floor and a pit sunk into the very center of this room, maybe 6 foot deep, 10 feet across. The bottom of it is covered i what might once have been sand.*
The orphanage. Do I need to spell out what happened here again? I wouldn't even have bothered bringing it up except for one thing, Trent. Something that you said. 'You were always a child a privelege'. I assume you meant to say 'of privelege'. Did we forget something Trent? Did we forget where my life started? Did we forget that I started out in my adult career with literally nothing but my brother at my side and the shirt on my back? Mistreated.... Abused... Beaten... Broken... Scarred.... Pick a word, they all apply. You know nothing of who I am. You know nothing of what I had to do to even get on the bottom rung. So just because I turned my life completely on its head that I always had everything I ever wanted. I had to work hard for everything I ever achieved.
*Dave sweeps past the camera, his knee length coat catching a draft from some unseen source as he does so. He stands over the pit looking down into the belly of his own childhood.*
I don't think I'll ever fully get over it. I still look back and despair. Not for myself, but for those children. We were just kids. And we were being forced to do so much wrong. Forced to battle so many things, least of all each other. The blood... the screams... the relentless aggression. And just one of us strong enough to refuse. Just one. What picture of humanity does that paint? Truth be told... this. This is the place where my toughness comes from. You get given enough beatings and eventually your body's going to acclimatise iself to them. This place is the reason I don't fall down when a normal man would. And this... I think, somehow... This must be the reason why I can come back from such injuries as I have had.
My back wasn't broken when I left, Trent. Injured, yes, but not anything like broken. I've suffered that before. I've been in a wheelchair. Poeple made jokes. People laughed at me. People suggested setting up matches between me and some other guy in a chair, cripple versus cripple. You know what I did to those people Trent?
I healed. God knows how but I healed. Like something from biblical times I got up and walked. And then, when I was strong enough, I taught them to never ever doubt, or mock Dave Holland again. So don't tell me I can't be fully healed from a much more minor back injury. You think it was the back that kept me away from nCw? No Trent, it wasn't. But we'll come to that later.
So lets assume you remembered this part of my life and maybe you were talking about purely in my wrestling career when you said privelege, right? Ok... Ok lets follow that line of thinking shall we? Lets keep going and see just how much I was given. Lets just see how much I asked for and didn't have to work my ass off to earn. But not here... I know just the place for this part.
*Dave jumps into the pit, his coat flailing behind him and blocking the camera from view. We see his foot land in sand, but this sand is clean and pure. The camera circles Dave as he stands upright, revealing that we are now in the center of the great Colosseum of Rome. Dave smiles as he looks around.*
Are you not entertained.... I like this place. There's history. There's grandeur. There's a very real sense that things happened here. Important, vital things. Brutal things. In a sense, this place is very similar in fact to the nCw ring itself. So lets see, who and what am I not allowed to mention... Who is it that will make you laugh if I but mention their names... well let's start with the earliest achievement shall we... Tag Championships. Yes... Yes I lost the belt to Adam Knite and his Punisher friend. Yes, you decided to tag with Adam and win the belts yourselves. Well done you. What you failed to mention is that the win Adam held over me those years ago was not a clean one. If memory serves ropes came into play, a incident the official missed but no matter... it was an incident Milo and I corrected just one month later. So how is this supposed to show how weak and worthless Dave Holland is? He loses under unfair circumstances... doesn't bitch and whine about it... and then at the soonest possible occasion rectifies the issue.
What's wrong with that, Trent, Hmm?
*Dave turns away from the camera and looks to a spot that in his mind, he can see himself cutting one of his promos for Sovereign 2008*
Next occasion of note and/or merit... Sovereign. The Colosseum. I had, for weeks and months shown up, entertained the masses, and wrestled as only a man of my calibre can. I was chosen, yes.. gifted, no... a chance in that match. The difference? One tells how I earned my shot in that cell. The other, that I had no right to be there. In fact until I had won that match I had receieved not a single shot at any singles championship belt. I was considered the best wrestler in nCw to be without a belt. Had you been in that match Trent.. I can't deny, chances are you could've won it. Multi-man cell matches like that are always crazy and frankly anyone could win it. But you weren't. You hadn't earned your spot. And since then... why haven't you been picked to wrestle in the colosseum? Ok you've only shown your face at sovereign once, but still... why? Because despite your big talk, despite what you think people think about you, you are not worthy.
And if we want to speculate, how about we look at the only real evidence we have about you and me in the same ring at the same time. You remember that week Trent? Because I remember it well. You wanted to add my scalp to the collection, you were looking forward to it. Working hard for it. And what did I do Trent?
I made a movie parody. And I walked right over you. You were nothing. An efffortless victory that gave me no satisfaction beyond a week of just having fun. I don't care if you were carrying hurt from the previous week, if it was that bad you should have called it off... but you didn't. You thought that despite everything you could just ignore the danger because you're Trent Helms. Mr Undefeatable. I knew I was better than you then and I proved it without barely breaking a sweat. You think anything has changed between then and now? Heh... course it has. A lot has changed. But you're still making the same mistakes Trent. You still think I'm nothing compared to you. You still think you don't even have to worry about me because you're Trent Motherloving Helms.
And while we're two completely different people now to who we were then, you've got to consider... who are we?
Who you are now... is a whiny, neurotic, pathetic fool. A child who feels he has to throw a tantrum because he hasn't been given that sweetie he so desperately wanted that he threatened to hold his breath for ever and ever and ever until he got it.
Whereas I... I'm Dave Holland 2.0. New, improved... and finally, at peace with himself. Let me show you.
*Dave gestures for the camera to follow him. He walks towards a set of doors. Big, oak, with a brass plaque on them. Somewhere in the turn to see the doors the walls changed from the stone of the Circus Maximus to a oak panelling and red wallpaper combination. As we get closer we see that the plaque reads 'Dave Holland - President' obviously referring to his conglomerate Holland Incorporated Enterprises. He pushes the doors open in the same way Aragorn did as he appeared at Edoras in The Two Towers. The room beyond is huge. The far wall is glass and looks out over the grounds of the hotel where Dave and his family live. One wall is lined with bookcases, all laden with books. The opposite side has been decorated with photographs and replica belts. Over the fireplace is a belt that can only be a replica nCw World Championship belt.*
When I first started in this company, I had many unanswered questions about myself. Questions I didn't even know I had. I thought I knew who I was and what I could do. I was wrong. I thought I was a gifted tag wrestler who could put on a damn good show in singles competition. As I grew, I evolved. I adapted. And with every challenger who stepped up I learned something new. With every single victory and especially with every defeat as and when they came... I learned. I grew. I improved. And Leonard saw this in me when I came back last year. Two years away and he could still see my potential even when I could not.
Road to the Gold. My second time in the tournament. First time, I struck out in round one. I wasn't ready, I hadn't prepared. I was not about to make that same mistake again. So I pushed. I drove. I went on and on and on and everyone knows what happened. I added the second of the big three events to my victory cabinet. All I need now is the RiOT. So looking back... how much have I been given? I'd say I was given my shot in Road to the Gold, but with the other competitors in there, the final victory was far from a gift, that I earned. So that's one thing. Oh what a child of privelege I am!
But everything I have just told you is unimportant. Because in the end Trent there's only one question you want me to answer. You want to know why it is that I'm in the Hall of Fame and you're not. You want to know what's different when on paper our accomplishments are pretty much evenly matched. Well I'll tell you what... if you haven't figured it out by the time I come to my final video for this week, I'll answer the question for you. Because it's simple really Trent. It's so ridiculously simple that you can't even see it. It's the same reason I was picked over you to represent nCw in that Interfederational tournament. Just think about it.
*Dave turns away from the wall of accolades and sits on his desk in front of the glass wall. He picks up one of the photographs on his desk and looks at it. We can't see it from this angle.*
But before I go let me answer the question as to my absence these months. The absence that I said wasn't de to my back injury. There has only ever been one thing that could keep me away from wrestling for so long. Family. Those who think back might remember that after Road to the Gold, my wife told me she was pregnant... well...
*Melanie enters the frame as Dave puts the photograph down. He takes a bundle from Mel and holds it so we can see. Mel picks up their son Alex Holland and holds him on her hip.*
This isn't for your benefit, Trent. This is for everyone else. Everyone... allow me to introduce Angelica Megan Holland. My little Angel. Born a little premature but she's fine now. She's why I've been away. My family kept me away...
*Milo Holland steps into shot behind Dave and family friend Terry Tate steps into shot behind Melanie. He can't help making a face at Alex who giggles.*
And now, my family convinced me to come back. If you're still having trouble remembering me, Trent... rest assured I will make sure that after Battlegrounds you will never forget who I am or what I stand for.
Never...
Ever...
Again.
*The scene fades to black.*
Oh Terry, Trent said 'Hi' by the way.
WOOO!
Ssshhhh, Angelica's sleeping
wooo!
Do you Really remember me?
I don't mean Dave Holland the man. Everyone remembers him.
Dashing, Charming, Noble, Honest...
I mean Dave Holland the wrestler.
Do you remember him?
Maybe I should remind you of what went before...
So you can prepare for what's coming.
At Battlegrouds, it all begins.
Again...
*The camera opens up on the deep blue of a crisp, clear sky. The sun shines brightly causing lens flare as the camera passes it by scanning the area. Words appear against the blue introducing the piece as was done in promos of old.*
Rememberance
"To look backward for a while is to refresh the eye, to restore it, and to render it the more fit for its prime function of looking forward."
- Margeret Fairless Barber, The Roadmender
*The camera pans down and we come across a snowman. A snowman that we have seen in months gone by. One that we know (or at least should know) to be sat at the top of a mountain somewhere in the alps. Sure enough it still holds the little flag with the words 'Alex's mountain' on it. Stood a short distance away, facing the huge vista of the mountain range is a figure. A figure who as soon as he begins speaking we know to be Dave Holland*
You're an angry man Trent. An angry and bitter man. I knew this the moment you exposed me. What I didn't know is just how bitter and angry you are. You're a man who has, apparently, been wronged by so many for so long that you don't even remember the last time anyone did anything for you. You're a man who has had to take every opportunity he could by tooth, claw or laser beam because no one was about to give them away free with this week's edition of nCw-magazine.. right? You're so angry that you don't even realise who you're talking to or about. You don't look at facts or figures to back up your words. You just spew bile, and hatred at whatever camera happens to be pointing at you. You thrust it onto the internet via whatever blogging medium you have at your disposal. You never stop and think... you just do. And strangely enough... I can respect that. I can admire that.
They say that give an intelligent man a lot of information and he can be dangerous, but give a fool but a little and he can destroy the whole world. Sounds like a match-up to me, Trent. So what I'm going to do for you... is give you a rundown. You think that bringing up every major achievement from my past and telling me not to mention them because you'll laugh, is going to stop me? You think that you can fool everyone into believing you because you attempted to put a negative spin on everything? It doesn't work like that Trent.
*Dave turns to face the camera, the camera now having moved close up so we can see a corona of light about Dave's head.*
I don't work like that.
So let me tell you where you saw it wrong. Let me tell the world what you tried to hide. And most importantly, allow me to remind you of everything that you forgot, or omitted to include, in your brief history of Holland. Let's start at the beginning shall we? For this, a change of scenery I think.
*The screen wipes aside as Dave makes the same motion with his hand. and what we see is a dank, dark basement. The walls are exposed brickwork, some places even look like old stone. There are stains on the floor and a pit sunk into the very center of this room, maybe 6 foot deep, 10 feet across. The bottom of it is covered i what might once have been sand.*
The orphanage. Do I need to spell out what happened here again? I wouldn't even have bothered bringing it up except for one thing, Trent. Something that you said. 'You were always a child a privelege'. I assume you meant to say 'of privelege'. Did we forget something Trent? Did we forget where my life started? Did we forget that I started out in my adult career with literally nothing but my brother at my side and the shirt on my back? Mistreated.... Abused... Beaten... Broken... Scarred.... Pick a word, they all apply. You know nothing of who I am. You know nothing of what I had to do to even get on the bottom rung. So just because I turned my life completely on its head that I always had everything I ever wanted. I had to work hard for everything I ever achieved.
*Dave sweeps past the camera, his knee length coat catching a draft from some unseen source as he does so. He stands over the pit looking down into the belly of his own childhood.*
I don't think I'll ever fully get over it. I still look back and despair. Not for myself, but for those children. We were just kids. And we were being forced to do so much wrong. Forced to battle so many things, least of all each other. The blood... the screams... the relentless aggression. And just one of us strong enough to refuse. Just one. What picture of humanity does that paint? Truth be told... this. This is the place where my toughness comes from. You get given enough beatings and eventually your body's going to acclimatise iself to them. This place is the reason I don't fall down when a normal man would. And this... I think, somehow... This must be the reason why I can come back from such injuries as I have had.
My back wasn't broken when I left, Trent. Injured, yes, but not anything like broken. I've suffered that before. I've been in a wheelchair. Poeple made jokes. People laughed at me. People suggested setting up matches between me and some other guy in a chair, cripple versus cripple. You know what I did to those people Trent?
I healed. God knows how but I healed. Like something from biblical times I got up and walked. And then, when I was strong enough, I taught them to never ever doubt, or mock Dave Holland again. So don't tell me I can't be fully healed from a much more minor back injury. You think it was the back that kept me away from nCw? No Trent, it wasn't. But we'll come to that later.
So lets assume you remembered this part of my life and maybe you were talking about purely in my wrestling career when you said privelege, right? Ok... Ok lets follow that line of thinking shall we? Lets keep going and see just how much I was given. Lets just see how much I asked for and didn't have to work my ass off to earn. But not here... I know just the place for this part.
*Dave jumps into the pit, his coat flailing behind him and blocking the camera from view. We see his foot land in sand, but this sand is clean and pure. The camera circles Dave as he stands upright, revealing that we are now in the center of the great Colosseum of Rome. Dave smiles as he looks around.*
Are you not entertained.... I like this place. There's history. There's grandeur. There's a very real sense that things happened here. Important, vital things. Brutal things. In a sense, this place is very similar in fact to the nCw ring itself. So lets see, who and what am I not allowed to mention... Who is it that will make you laugh if I but mention their names... well let's start with the earliest achievement shall we... Tag Championships. Yes... Yes I lost the belt to Adam Knite and his Punisher friend. Yes, you decided to tag with Adam and win the belts yourselves. Well done you. What you failed to mention is that the win Adam held over me those years ago was not a clean one. If memory serves ropes came into play, a incident the official missed but no matter... it was an incident Milo and I corrected just one month later. So how is this supposed to show how weak and worthless Dave Holland is? He loses under unfair circumstances... doesn't bitch and whine about it... and then at the soonest possible occasion rectifies the issue.
What's wrong with that, Trent, Hmm?
*Dave turns away from the camera and looks to a spot that in his mind, he can see himself cutting one of his promos for Sovereign 2008*
Next occasion of note and/or merit... Sovereign. The Colosseum. I had, for weeks and months shown up, entertained the masses, and wrestled as only a man of my calibre can. I was chosen, yes.. gifted, no... a chance in that match. The difference? One tells how I earned my shot in that cell. The other, that I had no right to be there. In fact until I had won that match I had receieved not a single shot at any singles championship belt. I was considered the best wrestler in nCw to be without a belt. Had you been in that match Trent.. I can't deny, chances are you could've won it. Multi-man cell matches like that are always crazy and frankly anyone could win it. But you weren't. You hadn't earned your spot. And since then... why haven't you been picked to wrestle in the colosseum? Ok you've only shown your face at sovereign once, but still... why? Because despite your big talk, despite what you think people think about you, you are not worthy.
And if we want to speculate, how about we look at the only real evidence we have about you and me in the same ring at the same time. You remember that week Trent? Because I remember it well. You wanted to add my scalp to the collection, you were looking forward to it. Working hard for it. And what did I do Trent?
I made a movie parody. And I walked right over you. You were nothing. An efffortless victory that gave me no satisfaction beyond a week of just having fun. I don't care if you were carrying hurt from the previous week, if it was that bad you should have called it off... but you didn't. You thought that despite everything you could just ignore the danger because you're Trent Helms. Mr Undefeatable. I knew I was better than you then and I proved it without barely breaking a sweat. You think anything has changed between then and now? Heh... course it has. A lot has changed. But you're still making the same mistakes Trent. You still think I'm nothing compared to you. You still think you don't even have to worry about me because you're Trent Motherloving Helms.
And while we're two completely different people now to who we were then, you've got to consider... who are we?
Who you are now... is a whiny, neurotic, pathetic fool. A child who feels he has to throw a tantrum because he hasn't been given that sweetie he so desperately wanted that he threatened to hold his breath for ever and ever and ever until he got it.
Whereas I... I'm Dave Holland 2.0. New, improved... and finally, at peace with himself. Let me show you.
*Dave gestures for the camera to follow him. He walks towards a set of doors. Big, oak, with a brass plaque on them. Somewhere in the turn to see the doors the walls changed from the stone of the Circus Maximus to a oak panelling and red wallpaper combination. As we get closer we see that the plaque reads 'Dave Holland - President' obviously referring to his conglomerate Holland Incorporated Enterprises. He pushes the doors open in the same way Aragorn did as he appeared at Edoras in The Two Towers. The room beyond is huge. The far wall is glass and looks out over the grounds of the hotel where Dave and his family live. One wall is lined with bookcases, all laden with books. The opposite side has been decorated with photographs and replica belts. Over the fireplace is a belt that can only be a replica nCw World Championship belt.*
When I first started in this company, I had many unanswered questions about myself. Questions I didn't even know I had. I thought I knew who I was and what I could do. I was wrong. I thought I was a gifted tag wrestler who could put on a damn good show in singles competition. As I grew, I evolved. I adapted. And with every challenger who stepped up I learned something new. With every single victory and especially with every defeat as and when they came... I learned. I grew. I improved. And Leonard saw this in me when I came back last year. Two years away and he could still see my potential even when I could not.
Road to the Gold. My second time in the tournament. First time, I struck out in round one. I wasn't ready, I hadn't prepared. I was not about to make that same mistake again. So I pushed. I drove. I went on and on and on and everyone knows what happened. I added the second of the big three events to my victory cabinet. All I need now is the RiOT. So looking back... how much have I been given? I'd say I was given my shot in Road to the Gold, but with the other competitors in there, the final victory was far from a gift, that I earned. So that's one thing. Oh what a child of privelege I am!
But everything I have just told you is unimportant. Because in the end Trent there's only one question you want me to answer. You want to know why it is that I'm in the Hall of Fame and you're not. You want to know what's different when on paper our accomplishments are pretty much evenly matched. Well I'll tell you what... if you haven't figured it out by the time I come to my final video for this week, I'll answer the question for you. Because it's simple really Trent. It's so ridiculously simple that you can't even see it. It's the same reason I was picked over you to represent nCw in that Interfederational tournament. Just think about it.
*Dave turns away from the wall of accolades and sits on his desk in front of the glass wall. He picks up one of the photographs on his desk and looks at it. We can't see it from this angle.*
But before I go let me answer the question as to my absence these months. The absence that I said wasn't de to my back injury. There has only ever been one thing that could keep me away from wrestling for so long. Family. Those who think back might remember that after Road to the Gold, my wife told me she was pregnant... well...
*Melanie enters the frame as Dave puts the photograph down. He takes a bundle from Mel and holds it so we can see. Mel picks up their son Alex Holland and holds him on her hip.*
This isn't for your benefit, Trent. This is for everyone else. Everyone... allow me to introduce Angelica Megan Holland. My little Angel. Born a little premature but she's fine now. She's why I've been away. My family kept me away...
*Milo Holland steps into shot behind Dave and family friend Terry Tate steps into shot behind Melanie. He can't help making a face at Alex who giggles.*
And now, my family convinced me to come back. If you're still having trouble remembering me, Trent... rest assured I will make sure that after Battlegrounds you will never forget who I am or what I stand for.
Never...
Ever...
Again.
*The scene fades to black.*
Oh Terry, Trent said 'Hi' by the way.
WOOO!
Ssshhhh, Angelica's sleeping
wooo!