Post by Kyle Travis on Sept 19, 2014 16:24:15 GMT -6
::Night has fallen. The sun has set and the moon is out. Stars fill the cloudless sky.::
::Aside from the stars and the moon, the only light source is from the various street lights that light the parking area where the UWA is now keeping its production and equipment trucks and trailers. No one is around. No one except on man on top of one of trailers.::
::Wearing what can only be called his uniform, “the Canadian Legend” Kyle Travis is on top the trailer. He paces along the edge of the truck. There is some kind of bundle folded up, but tied to the trailer with a rope. In his left hand, he swings the crowbar back and forth. He keeps pacing back and forth, back and forth.::
“There is an irony in someone with a connection to the IRA questioning a group’s use of violence for what that group believes is a good and righteous cause, you do realize that, don’t you Pauly?”
::Travis smirks a bit as he paces back and forth.::
“Somehow I doubt that you do.”
::He stops walking and looks at the stars. “The Once and Future King” looks up at the stars.::
“They call me “the Canadian Legend” because I have wrestled great matches, sold out arenas all over the world, been a main event player again and again, been in the main event of so many pay-per-views.”
“They call me “the Once and Future King” because I win championships. There are people in this business, in this company that will never accomplish even a quarter of what I have done. And yet, no matter what I do, no matter how much I win, or what I accomplish, I never seem to get the respect I deserve or that I have earned. All I ever seem to earn is people telling me that they would end my career or that my time was over and I should retire or something.”
::He shakes his head again and starts to pace.::
“When the ACW closed down I took a year off to spent time with family and pursue a few outside business opportunities. During that year, many people in wrestler asked me to come back time and time again. Every time I talked to anyone in wrestling, the question of when I would return kept coming up. They begged me to return. Promoters wanted me back. People I had known in this business kept asking me when I would come back. They wanted it.”
::Travis spreads his arms as he speaks. He keeps pacing along the edge of the trailer.::
“And I finally, finally, made my return. I finally announced to the world that after a year away, I would come back to wrestling. I would once again lace up my boots.”
::He stops pacing and clenches his right hand, his free hand, into a fist.::
“And it was an absolute disappointment.”
::There is a hint of anger and resentment in his voice as well as a tone that indicates he feels as if he has been insulted.::
“After weeks of begging me to come back, wanting me back, I return and everyone single person that wanted me back was suddenly “meh”.”
“Do you have any idea how insulting it was to walk out to the ring, after making my long awaited return, after months and months of listening to people wanting me to come back and my first match back is a dark match against two complete losers who would actually never wrestle again after I beat them? Do you have any idea what it is like to walk out, declare your intention of winning the world champion and rather than people taking you seriously or considering it a threat, they treat you like the rookie that walks in, starts swearing through an entire promo and immediately demands that he be given a shot at the world title for no reason other than he showed up?”
“For a year, they all wanted me to come back and when I finally came back, they were acted like “hey, it’s great that your back, but we really have no idea what to do with you, so you’re just going to float around, so have fun with that”.”
“I would walk out to the ring, wrestle and no matter what I did, no matter who I beat or how many matches I won, it never amounted to anything. And all the time, I watched the same people get every single opportunity, or the same people go for the same championships, or I would watch a guy who just walked through the door be handed an opportunity. Meanwhile, I would continue wrestling again and again and no matter what it would never amount to anything.”
“I took a year off, and they all wanted me back and then when I finally came back, when I finally gave them what they wanted, they all stopped care. They had me back and it was like a small child wanting and begging for a toy and then getting bored when he finally has it.”
“Do you have any idea how insulting that is Pauly?”
“Do you have any idea how insulting, how humiliating it is to be treated like that?”
“And then, of course, I had nearly all my opponents telling me that my time was over, that they were going to be the one to end my career or that they would be the one to take me out. If I had a nickel for every single opponent that told me those same tired lines, I could send all three of my children to Harvard and still have enough left over to totally pay off a Ferrari.”
“All I ever wanted was respect Pauly. I didn’t need epic fanfare or a parade. All I needed, all I ever wanted was a shred of respect.”
“That is what Georgio Oliver promised me when he convinced me to join the UWA and that is exactly what I have not gotten. Once again, I have not been given the respect I deserve, the respect I have earned.”
::“The Canadian Legend” slides his right hand over through his hair, under his ear and around his jaw, then covers his face with it and slides it down his face. He squeezes the crowbar in his hand.::
“I was on Monday Night Mayhem for most of the shows between when I debuted and Spring Slaughter. And that was fine. Then, right after Spring Slaughter, right after I won the UWA North American Championship, it was as if the UWA just got bored with me and decided to focus on the same eight wrestlers week after week after week while dealing with the Children of Nephilim. I was put on the backburner, an afterthought. Now I am not saying that I need to be on every show or that I need to be talked about every night, but I would like to wrestle more often than once every two months and maybe on pay-per-view.”
“This is what I do for a living. I cannot make money or get myself out there if all I ever do is wrestle maybe once or twice every two months while I watch the same people get to be on every show. I cannot earn opportunities if I only get one match every couple of weeks, while they go to people who happen to popular or because they just walked through the door, but they are a friend of a friend. I have no problem earning my opportunities the hard way. I do not want to be handed anything, though I admit it would be nice to be that guy just once, but I have never been that guy. But how am I supposed to earn those opportunities if I never get to wrestle except for maybe one match every few months? The answer is that I cannot. It is hard to actually climb the ladder when you are not allowed to even touch the rungs and that is what I feel is happening to me now.”
“Promises were made to me Pauly, and I feel as though they have not been kept.”
::Travis stops pacing and shakes his head.::
“You want to know what happened to me Pauly?”
::He thrusts with his crowbar as if to accentuate his points.::
“That is what happened to me!”
“I am tired of constantly being shown no respect! I am tired of busting my ass and feeling like it is not getting anywhere while I see a rookie with one match under his belt handed a title shot or the same damn feuds and rivalries. My God, I would be shocked if the next pay-per-view had something that did not involve K.I.S.S. or Gautier or the Children of Nephilim. That would be amazing!”
“I have sat by for almost seven months watching the same eight people be on every show. I have spend nearly seven months watching the melodramatic soap opera that was the sham marriage between Jeszika Gautier and Broderick Montgomery that ended with her emasculating him and then feeling bad when he was abducted by the Children. And I have spent seven long months taking a back seat to some hillbilly rape cult that in all honesty has no credibility as a threat and cannot win a match when it counts, or to any flash in a pan UWA thinks they can get a match or two out of before casting them aside.”
“I am tired of the system Pauly. The UWA is slowly turning into just another NEW, and considering that company tanked, I fail to see why that is something to aspire to be. The system there did not work. That same system will not work here because that system cannot work.”
“Now if you are wondering why I do not just quit, why I do not just walk away from the UWA and find somewhere else to wrestle, it is the simple fact that I actually do believe in the potential UWA has. It could be great. But, as it is now, with the same people on every week and the rest of us maybe getting one or two matches every other month while those chosen ones are just constantly shoved down the throats of everyone watching.”
“I am absolutely bored with the Children of Nephilim. I was one of their biggest supporters when they debuted and yet I have been disappointed because all I see out of them is abduct a guy, be creepy and lose a match. I am slightly more interested in the fact that your best friend has completely sold out her core values and honestly, is coming off a greater threat than McBride. I honestly hope Broderick takes McBride out so we can move on to something that maybe, just maybe will not be as disappointing. And while I am on the subject, if I wanted to see the dissolution of a marriage between some rich brat and a woman with questionable emotional issues and a stolen identity, I would watch daytime soap operas! I find this whole thing with Silver Baron fighting this dark and “evil” side of him the stupidest thing I have ever seen and I was once in a company who had a man in a pink rabbit costume as their world champion. And yet somehow, he and rookie were given an opportunity at tag team gold without ever having to team up. I mean it seems like it is the same damn thing every week.”
::Taking a deep breath to calm himself down, Travis looks at the crowbar in his hand. There are dark stains on the weapon. He looks at the curved edge of the tool he has used as a weapon for so many years.::
“Pauly, you and I know that words very rarely change things. We can hold to the high ideals that an impassioned speech or beautiful prose or elegant writing or a passionate song can change the world. However, history has proven that words rarely ever work. The only way to change things is through action. Unfortunately, the human race, as advanced as we are, we are also the most ruthless, savage and violent creature on Earth and violence is the action we respond to most.”
“I could walk out to that ring and make an impassioned speech about how the UWA needs to change, about how I believe in it and that I know it can change. But, I tried that in the NEW and the reaction was essentially “quit whining” or “shut up, NEW is awesome and you don’t know nothing about nothing”. So that course of action is not going to work.”
“I could go out to the ring, set up a chair and hold the show hostage until my demands are met, but there is no way to enforce it and my protest could easily end as soon as someone walks up and wails on me with a chair, and those fans will cheer it.”
“And thus, that leaves violence as my one and only option. I think that was my mistake in NEW. I had the same message that the system was broken and that it needed to change, but I did not issue that message by using the business of a crowbar. Now Pauly, now that message is being heard and I will make sure it is taken seriously.”
“You think I am making empty threats? I am giving Georgio an opportunity to address the UWA and I hope he does hit on the issues I have pointed out. If he does, then maybe the violence stops. If he does not, then maybe I beat him with in an inch of his life. I have not really decided yet. It all depends what he says at Monday Night Mayhem.”
::Travis twists the crowbar in his hand as he looks at it.::
“Now you ask about this Pauly?”
::“The Once and Future King” drops the crowbar on the trailer, where it hits with a loud clanging sort of sound.::
“I have no need for this in our match Pauly. I have no intention of using it in our match. This is a tool to be used for when I need to do something violent. No Pauly, I have no reason to try and bludgeon you with crowbar. Ragnarok has no reason to storm the ring and beat the hell out of you. It would be pointless.”
“This is the first time you and I have ever faced each other in the ring Pauly. I am looking forward to it and not just because this may be my one and only token match in this span of two months between pay-per-views, but because we have never wrestled and I am curious to see how this will go.”
::Travis opens and closes his left hand, spreading his fingers out and flexing him. They move almost like snakes, writhing slowly and waiting to strike.::
“You want to see what I am capable of? You want to see what I can do in that ring? You want to think that my time is done and I have nothing left? That’s fine. Go ahead and underestimate me. Despite everything I have done in my career, people still underestimate me or think that my time is done. It just makes it all that sweeter when I drive their head into the mat or tear their arm from the socket.”
::Travis closes his left hand into a fist.::
“You can question my motives all you want, but in the end, only history judges us. I am not a footnote. I am a damn book. I am “the Canadian Legend”, “the Once and Future King” and at Monday Night Mayhem, I will make you bow before me. And Ragnarok will change the UWA or take everyone down with us.”
::Kneeling down, Travis unties and unfolds the bundle and tosses it down. It unfolds into a banner. The banner is the UWA logo, but upside down. Painted over it is a large red letter “R” made to appear almost runic in style. Travis picks up the crowbar and rises to his feet.::
“Challenge and learn Pauly.”
::The scene fades out on Travis raising the crowbar in his left hand as he stands above the banner.::
::Aside from the stars and the moon, the only light source is from the various street lights that light the parking area where the UWA is now keeping its production and equipment trucks and trailers. No one is around. No one except on man on top of one of trailers.::
::Wearing what can only be called his uniform, “the Canadian Legend” Kyle Travis is on top the trailer. He paces along the edge of the truck. There is some kind of bundle folded up, but tied to the trailer with a rope. In his left hand, he swings the crowbar back and forth. He keeps pacing back and forth, back and forth.::
“There is an irony in someone with a connection to the IRA questioning a group’s use of violence for what that group believes is a good and righteous cause, you do realize that, don’t you Pauly?”
::Travis smirks a bit as he paces back and forth.::
“Somehow I doubt that you do.”
::He stops walking and looks at the stars. “The Once and Future King” looks up at the stars.::
“They call me “the Canadian Legend” because I have wrestled great matches, sold out arenas all over the world, been a main event player again and again, been in the main event of so many pay-per-views.”
“They call me “the Once and Future King” because I win championships. There are people in this business, in this company that will never accomplish even a quarter of what I have done. And yet, no matter what I do, no matter how much I win, or what I accomplish, I never seem to get the respect I deserve or that I have earned. All I ever seem to earn is people telling me that they would end my career or that my time was over and I should retire or something.”
::He shakes his head again and starts to pace.::
“When the ACW closed down I took a year off to spent time with family and pursue a few outside business opportunities. During that year, many people in wrestler asked me to come back time and time again. Every time I talked to anyone in wrestling, the question of when I would return kept coming up. They begged me to return. Promoters wanted me back. People I had known in this business kept asking me when I would come back. They wanted it.”
::Travis spreads his arms as he speaks. He keeps pacing along the edge of the trailer.::
“And I finally, finally, made my return. I finally announced to the world that after a year away, I would come back to wrestling. I would once again lace up my boots.”
::He stops pacing and clenches his right hand, his free hand, into a fist.::
“And it was an absolute disappointment.”
::There is a hint of anger and resentment in his voice as well as a tone that indicates he feels as if he has been insulted.::
“After weeks of begging me to come back, wanting me back, I return and everyone single person that wanted me back was suddenly “meh”.”
“Do you have any idea how insulting it was to walk out to the ring, after making my long awaited return, after months and months of listening to people wanting me to come back and my first match back is a dark match against two complete losers who would actually never wrestle again after I beat them? Do you have any idea what it is like to walk out, declare your intention of winning the world champion and rather than people taking you seriously or considering it a threat, they treat you like the rookie that walks in, starts swearing through an entire promo and immediately demands that he be given a shot at the world title for no reason other than he showed up?”
“For a year, they all wanted me to come back and when I finally came back, they were acted like “hey, it’s great that your back, but we really have no idea what to do with you, so you’re just going to float around, so have fun with that”.”
“I would walk out to the ring, wrestle and no matter what I did, no matter who I beat or how many matches I won, it never amounted to anything. And all the time, I watched the same people get every single opportunity, or the same people go for the same championships, or I would watch a guy who just walked through the door be handed an opportunity. Meanwhile, I would continue wrestling again and again and no matter what it would never amount to anything.”
“I took a year off, and they all wanted me back and then when I finally came back, when I finally gave them what they wanted, they all stopped care. They had me back and it was like a small child wanting and begging for a toy and then getting bored when he finally has it.”
“Do you have any idea how insulting that is Pauly?”
“Do you have any idea how insulting, how humiliating it is to be treated like that?”
“And then, of course, I had nearly all my opponents telling me that my time was over, that they were going to be the one to end my career or that they would be the one to take me out. If I had a nickel for every single opponent that told me those same tired lines, I could send all three of my children to Harvard and still have enough left over to totally pay off a Ferrari.”
“All I ever wanted was respect Pauly. I didn’t need epic fanfare or a parade. All I needed, all I ever wanted was a shred of respect.”
“That is what Georgio Oliver promised me when he convinced me to join the UWA and that is exactly what I have not gotten. Once again, I have not been given the respect I deserve, the respect I have earned.”
::“The Canadian Legend” slides his right hand over through his hair, under his ear and around his jaw, then covers his face with it and slides it down his face. He squeezes the crowbar in his hand.::
“I was on Monday Night Mayhem for most of the shows between when I debuted and Spring Slaughter. And that was fine. Then, right after Spring Slaughter, right after I won the UWA North American Championship, it was as if the UWA just got bored with me and decided to focus on the same eight wrestlers week after week after week while dealing with the Children of Nephilim. I was put on the backburner, an afterthought. Now I am not saying that I need to be on every show or that I need to be talked about every night, but I would like to wrestle more often than once every two months and maybe on pay-per-view.”
“This is what I do for a living. I cannot make money or get myself out there if all I ever do is wrestle maybe once or twice every two months while I watch the same people get to be on every show. I cannot earn opportunities if I only get one match every couple of weeks, while they go to people who happen to popular or because they just walked through the door, but they are a friend of a friend. I have no problem earning my opportunities the hard way. I do not want to be handed anything, though I admit it would be nice to be that guy just once, but I have never been that guy. But how am I supposed to earn those opportunities if I never get to wrestle except for maybe one match every few months? The answer is that I cannot. It is hard to actually climb the ladder when you are not allowed to even touch the rungs and that is what I feel is happening to me now.”
“Promises were made to me Pauly, and I feel as though they have not been kept.”
::Travis stops pacing and shakes his head.::
“You want to know what happened to me Pauly?”
::He thrusts with his crowbar as if to accentuate his points.::
“That is what happened to me!”
“I am tired of constantly being shown no respect! I am tired of busting my ass and feeling like it is not getting anywhere while I see a rookie with one match under his belt handed a title shot or the same damn feuds and rivalries. My God, I would be shocked if the next pay-per-view had something that did not involve K.I.S.S. or Gautier or the Children of Nephilim. That would be amazing!”
“I have sat by for almost seven months watching the same eight people be on every show. I have spend nearly seven months watching the melodramatic soap opera that was the sham marriage between Jeszika Gautier and Broderick Montgomery that ended with her emasculating him and then feeling bad when he was abducted by the Children. And I have spent seven long months taking a back seat to some hillbilly rape cult that in all honesty has no credibility as a threat and cannot win a match when it counts, or to any flash in a pan UWA thinks they can get a match or two out of before casting them aside.”
“I am tired of the system Pauly. The UWA is slowly turning into just another NEW, and considering that company tanked, I fail to see why that is something to aspire to be. The system there did not work. That same system will not work here because that system cannot work.”
“Now if you are wondering why I do not just quit, why I do not just walk away from the UWA and find somewhere else to wrestle, it is the simple fact that I actually do believe in the potential UWA has. It could be great. But, as it is now, with the same people on every week and the rest of us maybe getting one or two matches every other month while those chosen ones are just constantly shoved down the throats of everyone watching.”
“I am absolutely bored with the Children of Nephilim. I was one of their biggest supporters when they debuted and yet I have been disappointed because all I see out of them is abduct a guy, be creepy and lose a match. I am slightly more interested in the fact that your best friend has completely sold out her core values and honestly, is coming off a greater threat than McBride. I honestly hope Broderick takes McBride out so we can move on to something that maybe, just maybe will not be as disappointing. And while I am on the subject, if I wanted to see the dissolution of a marriage between some rich brat and a woman with questionable emotional issues and a stolen identity, I would watch daytime soap operas! I find this whole thing with Silver Baron fighting this dark and “evil” side of him the stupidest thing I have ever seen and I was once in a company who had a man in a pink rabbit costume as their world champion. And yet somehow, he and rookie were given an opportunity at tag team gold without ever having to team up. I mean it seems like it is the same damn thing every week.”
::Taking a deep breath to calm himself down, Travis looks at the crowbar in his hand. There are dark stains on the weapon. He looks at the curved edge of the tool he has used as a weapon for so many years.::
“Pauly, you and I know that words very rarely change things. We can hold to the high ideals that an impassioned speech or beautiful prose or elegant writing or a passionate song can change the world. However, history has proven that words rarely ever work. The only way to change things is through action. Unfortunately, the human race, as advanced as we are, we are also the most ruthless, savage and violent creature on Earth and violence is the action we respond to most.”
“I could walk out to that ring and make an impassioned speech about how the UWA needs to change, about how I believe in it and that I know it can change. But, I tried that in the NEW and the reaction was essentially “quit whining” or “shut up, NEW is awesome and you don’t know nothing about nothing”. So that course of action is not going to work.”
“I could go out to the ring, set up a chair and hold the show hostage until my demands are met, but there is no way to enforce it and my protest could easily end as soon as someone walks up and wails on me with a chair, and those fans will cheer it.”
“And thus, that leaves violence as my one and only option. I think that was my mistake in NEW. I had the same message that the system was broken and that it needed to change, but I did not issue that message by using the business of a crowbar. Now Pauly, now that message is being heard and I will make sure it is taken seriously.”
“You think I am making empty threats? I am giving Georgio an opportunity to address the UWA and I hope he does hit on the issues I have pointed out. If he does, then maybe the violence stops. If he does not, then maybe I beat him with in an inch of his life. I have not really decided yet. It all depends what he says at Monday Night Mayhem.”
::Travis twists the crowbar in his hand as he looks at it.::
“Now you ask about this Pauly?”
::“The Once and Future King” drops the crowbar on the trailer, where it hits with a loud clanging sort of sound.::
“I have no need for this in our match Pauly. I have no intention of using it in our match. This is a tool to be used for when I need to do something violent. No Pauly, I have no reason to try and bludgeon you with crowbar. Ragnarok has no reason to storm the ring and beat the hell out of you. It would be pointless.”
“This is the first time you and I have ever faced each other in the ring Pauly. I am looking forward to it and not just because this may be my one and only token match in this span of two months between pay-per-views, but because we have never wrestled and I am curious to see how this will go.”
::Travis opens and closes his left hand, spreading his fingers out and flexing him. They move almost like snakes, writhing slowly and waiting to strike.::
“You want to see what I am capable of? You want to see what I can do in that ring? You want to think that my time is done and I have nothing left? That’s fine. Go ahead and underestimate me. Despite everything I have done in my career, people still underestimate me or think that my time is done. It just makes it all that sweeter when I drive their head into the mat or tear their arm from the socket.”
::Travis closes his left hand into a fist.::
“You can question my motives all you want, but in the end, only history judges us. I am not a footnote. I am a damn book. I am “the Canadian Legend”, “the Once and Future King” and at Monday Night Mayhem, I will make you bow before me. And Ragnarok will change the UWA or take everyone down with us.”
::Kneeling down, Travis unties and unfolds the bundle and tosses it down. It unfolds into a banner. The banner is the UWA logo, but upside down. Painted over it is a large red letter “R” made to appear almost runic in style. Travis picks up the crowbar and rises to his feet.::
“Challenge and learn Pauly.”
::The scene fades out on Travis raising the crowbar in his left hand as he stands above the banner.::