Post by Kyle Travis on Nov 17, 2014 7:26:44 GMT -6
::Inside his personal office/trophy room, “the Canadian Legend” Kyle Travis sits at his desk. He head is down and his hands are clasped behind the back of his head.::
::Travis lifts his head up, which causes his hands to slide apart. He slides his hands through his hair and then to his forehead, his thumbs on his temples. His eyes focus on the monitor on his computer.::
::The footage is paused at the moment, but the image is clearly Georgio Oliver announcing the tournament for Tragic Engagement in which the entire roster will compete, earning points for every victory, and whoever has the most points at the end will be granted a shot at the UWA World Championship at the second Tragic Engagement event.::
“One UWA wrestler is going to outlast and survive and best the entire roster to climb the ladder and become the number one contender for the UWA World Heavyweight Championship. One wrestler will climb the ladder and have a chance to make history at Tragic Engagement. And it is an open field. Anyone, absolutely anyone, on the roster can be the one to overcome the odds, accumulate the most points and walk into Tragic Engagement to face the UWA World Champion.”
::Travis moves his hands, placing them together, his palms touching as if he is praying. However, he is not. He index fingers rest on the middle of his forehead and his thumbs at just between his chin and lower lip.::
“It doesn’t matter who it is, anyone can climb that ladder and get the title shot. Anyone can climb that ladder, reach for that star, get to the end of this tournament and maybe, just maybe, they can achieve the dream of becoming UWA World Heavyweight Champion.”
::Travis leans back in his chair, causes the chair to lean back a bit. He runs his hands through his hair.::
“Imagine it Sharpe. Just imagine what that would be like, outlasting the entire roster and making it to the main event of Tragic Engagement and challenge for the UWA Championship. Anyone, absolutely anyone, can achieve that goal and win the prize.”
::He sits up, straightening the chair, and swivels it to the right.::
“Or so that is what we are lead to believe. And that, Sharpe, is the beautiful lie everyone here believes. That is the lie that Georgio told us all.”
“The simple fact of the matter is that this Road to Tragic Engagement is NOT an open tournament. It is NOT a contest that anyone can win. But, then again, one thing I will credit Georgio with is being a very good liar. After all, he convinced us all of the lie of what UWA would be, not what it is. So, of course, everyone would believe what he says about this tournament.”
“But the brilliance of the lie, Sharpe, is the lie is so out in the open that no one sees it. The lie is that anyone can win this thing and go to Tragic Engagement.”
“Do you see the lie Sharpe?”
::With a silent chuckle, Travis shakes his head and smiles.::
“No of course not, because you are blind.”
::With a sudden clap, “the Once and Future King” brings his hands together like he was clapping just once. He then rubs his palms together and spreads them apart.::
“You see, Sharpe, the only way anyone can win the Road to Tragic Engagement Tournament is if everyone on the UWA is actually allowed to wrestle. But, because only a few chosen ones are allowed to be on week after week, they will more than likely win, not the people who get maybe one match every two or three weeks or just seem to work pay-per-views.”
“Do you truly, honestly believe that someone like Mikado, who has maybe had one match on Monday Night Mayhem and three pay-per-view matches in the last year, can win this? What about Shawn or Cameron Worley? Think either of them can do it with their maybe one match every two months? Or what about your buddy Craven, who seems to enjoy months off between the occasional pay-per-view appearance? Think anyone in Avalon can pull off the win given that only one of them, Stalker, has been able to have only two matches since their return? Because I have to be honestly, Sharpe, I really have my doubts about the chances of the people who never get to wrestle actually winning this tournament. Maybe that’s just me though. I mean it’s possible that the people who get one match every two or three months can totally win this thing.”
::Again, Kyle Travis shakes his head.::
“No, Sharpe, they really can’t. And you have to know that. Even you have to admit that this tournament, that allegedly anyone can win, is rigged for only those that get to wrestle nearly every Monday Night Mayhem are going to win this.”
“Now, maybe I get to be in that category, but honestly, I am rather surprised I am even on Mayhem. I think they just put me on Mayhem in the hopes that maybe, just maybe, it will shut me up. That, however, is not going to happen.”
::For a moment, Travis smirks. That moment, however, quickly passes.::
“And what else is not going to happen is my letting you win this match Sharpe, nor do I have any intentions of letting anyone else win this tournament.”
::Turning the chair away from the computer desk, Travis gets to his feet and looks at the wall he keeps the replicas of the championships he has won over the years.::
“The day I walked into the UWA I made one statement, and only one. I told everyone I would become the UWA World Heavyweight Champion. That was not the declaration of some newbie fresh of the street thinking he earned something just because he showed up and feels entitled. It was not a false promise. It was not a statement to make myself sound impressive. It was a promise.”
::Travis gestures to the replica titles on the wall.::
“Six times, Sharpe, six times I have been to the top of the mountain and stood above all as the world heavyweight champion. Six times I have had to crawl and claw and fight and scrap and pull myself up the ladder rung by rung to get to be world champion. And time and time again, I have had obstacles in my way. I had the management team of an entire company against the very idea of my success and they threw everything they had in my way from firing me to coming up with reasons for me to become champion. And even when I do stand on that pedestal with the ultimate prize around my waist, it is either often ignored or overshadowed or the people in power go out of their way to find a way to take the title off me. And yet, six times I have done it. I know I am more than capable of doing it again.”
::Travis points at himself with his thumb.::
“Time and time again, Sharpe, I have had to defend my legacy. Time and time again, with everything I have done in this business, I am not given the respect that I deserve. Constantly every time I walk into a place and people hear what I have done, they immediately tell me nothing I did before matters and I get treated like the rookie who has done nothing while announcers sing the praises of everyone else.”
::“The Once and Future King” keeps gesturing to himself wi98th his thumb as he speaks.::
“I know I can do it for a seventh time! I know I can climb the mountain and become the UWA World Champion, to become a world champion for the seventh time. And I know it because I am willing to do whatever I have to do to get the title shot.”
“I have been denied the respect I deserve; the respect I deserve. The respect I was promised. This is my opportunity. When I beat the entire UWA roster, when I stand alone, with the most points accumulated and a guaranteed title shot at Tragic Engagement, and I go on to become champion, the no one, absolutely no one will be able to deny my legacy. No one will deny me the respect I deserve, what I have earned when I become champion.”
“You think you want this more than me Sharpe?”
::There is a malevolent glare in his eyes as Travis shakes his head.::
“You cannot want it more than me. You are not willing to do what I am willing to do to in order to win this tournament. You are not willing to work as hard as I have, and most of all. But the biggest thing, what pisses me off so much about you, is the fact that even if you do win, you will not appreciate it.”
::His left hand, the hand he uses for the Cold Snap, opens as Travis stretches his fingers. He starts to stretch and wiggle his fingers to keep them loose. There is an audible anger in his voice as he speaks.::
“When you walked in here, you were just handed the shot at the UWA Tag Team Championships and when you made history, you squandered the huge opportunity that it was. You and Silver Baron could have made history. You two could have been great fighting champions or at least more than just paper champions or place holder champions. Instead you and Silver Baron had two tag team matches, acted like you were the greatest team in the entire history of professional wrestling and then, when it came time to prove yourselves, you lost to a team that honestly should have been the first UWA Tag Team Champions.”
::Travis makes his left hand in to a somewhat claw-like shape, holding it lie that as those cold predatory eyes of his stare ahead at his next target, or, as he prefers to term them, victim.
“Why in the hell would I want to see someone like you as the UWA World Champion? Why would I want you to win this tournament Sharpe when I cannot stand people like you? And you can say whatever you want to try and defend yourself, but the simple fact of the matter is you walked into the UWA having had one match and somehow gained a title shot when no one else had ever had the chance to do that and you did not even earn it. You and Silver Baron should never have been tag team champions and I will be dammed if I see an unappreciative punk like you become UWA Champion, because I know you will not appreciate it and I know you will waste it.”
“As far as I am concerned, no one in the Sin City Knights deserves this opportunity at the championship except maybe Skylar or maybe Craven, because they may actually appreciate it. I would hope that the Children of Nephilim would take one of you out, but as they cannot even seem to kill time, I have my doubts about Joshua’s hillbilly rapecult doing more than one attack and then just abducting whores in their latest attempt to stay relevant and prove t5hat they have not been a massively overhyped waste of everyone’s time.”
::Travis balls his left hand into a fist.::
“But before that Sharpe, you have to step into the ring with me. And I have every intention of winning this match even if I have to tear your arm out of the socket. And the fact is that I am more than willing to do it, and honestly, I would enjoy doing it Sharpe. I really would.”
“Do you know what it is like to work your ass off, to try and earn opportunities in this business, give it everything you have and then watch as some kid just seemingly strolls through the door and is literally handed everything you have worked for? No you don’t know, because you are that guy who was handed something without having to really work for it.”
“And the sad thing, if you counter that statement by telling me things you have done in your career, everyone is going to rally behind those points, but if I did it, everyone would tell me that line about nothing I did before coming here matters. And I know this because they do it every single time.”
“But you see Sharpe, they are wrong about that.”
::Stretching out his hands, Travis gestures to the titles and magazine covers and other photos that adorn this trophy room that people have called egotistical or causing Travis to live in the past.::
“Everything in my past has made me who I am today. Without a history, a person, a place, or an object has nothing; no meaning or value at all. And the one thing they seem to forget about me is that my past is my future Sharpe.”
“In my past I won championships. In my future I will win championships. In my past I left behind a road of broken bodies and shattered dreams as I made my way to the top. In my future I will add more broken bodies and more shattered dreams to my road to the top. In my past I become a world champion. In my future I will become a world champion again.”
::With a slight thud, Travis slaps himself in the chest, but he seems not to really be paying attention to anything else other than Shapre at the moment.
“Nothing in my career has ever been handed to be Sharpe. Everything I have ever accomplished, everything I have ever done, is something I have worked for to achieve. I have never been the golden boy; the person management knows that they can make the face of the company, even as world champion. I have been betrayed too many times by people in positions of authority that I just assume they are lying to me from the moment the conversation begins and I am usually right about it. I have never been handed anything. I have earned it all and had it take from me again and again. So go ahead, tell me nothing I have done before matters. Tell me my past is meaningless. Then remember you are stepping into the ring with a person who’s won a lot more titles than you, has spent a career staining his hands and the ring with the blood of his opponents, destroying dreams and ending careers and remember that he neither likes you nor cares whether or not you can even walk out of the match when he is done with you, and then tell me my past doesn’t matter.”
“Sharpe, I am going to win this tournament even if I have to break every person on the roster to do it. I am going to earn that title shot at Tragic Engagement, and I swear if Georgio even thinks of screwing me out of the shot, his life, and the health and well being of every single person employed in the UWA from wrestlers to the tech crew to the announcers to the intern working for college credit is forfeit. And, when it comes to performing violent acts of brutality, I am a man of my word.”
::Travis looks at the shelves on the wall where he keeps the replicas of championships he’s won over the years.::
“My road to Tragic Engagement and the UWA World Championship begins with you Sharpe. You are the obstacle I am going to tear down, even if I have to break both your arms to do it. I will drive you to your knees and make you bow before “the Once and Future King”, then step over your body to the next person I have to break, and the next and the next until I finally become UWA Champion.”
::He turns and spreads his arms outward, looking up towards the ceiling.::
“Challenge and learn.”
::Travis keeps his arms outwards and lowers his head. The scene fades out on those cold, predatory eyes of Travis.::
::Travis lifts his head up, which causes his hands to slide apart. He slides his hands through his hair and then to his forehead, his thumbs on his temples. His eyes focus on the monitor on his computer.::
::The footage is paused at the moment, but the image is clearly Georgio Oliver announcing the tournament for Tragic Engagement in which the entire roster will compete, earning points for every victory, and whoever has the most points at the end will be granted a shot at the UWA World Championship at the second Tragic Engagement event.::
“One UWA wrestler is going to outlast and survive and best the entire roster to climb the ladder and become the number one contender for the UWA World Heavyweight Championship. One wrestler will climb the ladder and have a chance to make history at Tragic Engagement. And it is an open field. Anyone, absolutely anyone, on the roster can be the one to overcome the odds, accumulate the most points and walk into Tragic Engagement to face the UWA World Champion.”
::Travis moves his hands, placing them together, his palms touching as if he is praying. However, he is not. He index fingers rest on the middle of his forehead and his thumbs at just between his chin and lower lip.::
“It doesn’t matter who it is, anyone can climb that ladder and get the title shot. Anyone can climb that ladder, reach for that star, get to the end of this tournament and maybe, just maybe, they can achieve the dream of becoming UWA World Heavyweight Champion.”
::Travis leans back in his chair, causes the chair to lean back a bit. He runs his hands through his hair.::
“Imagine it Sharpe. Just imagine what that would be like, outlasting the entire roster and making it to the main event of Tragic Engagement and challenge for the UWA Championship. Anyone, absolutely anyone, can achieve that goal and win the prize.”
::He sits up, straightening the chair, and swivels it to the right.::
“Or so that is what we are lead to believe. And that, Sharpe, is the beautiful lie everyone here believes. That is the lie that Georgio told us all.”
“The simple fact of the matter is that this Road to Tragic Engagement is NOT an open tournament. It is NOT a contest that anyone can win. But, then again, one thing I will credit Georgio with is being a very good liar. After all, he convinced us all of the lie of what UWA would be, not what it is. So, of course, everyone would believe what he says about this tournament.”
“But the brilliance of the lie, Sharpe, is the lie is so out in the open that no one sees it. The lie is that anyone can win this thing and go to Tragic Engagement.”
“Do you see the lie Sharpe?”
::With a silent chuckle, Travis shakes his head and smiles.::
“No of course not, because you are blind.”
::With a sudden clap, “the Once and Future King” brings his hands together like he was clapping just once. He then rubs his palms together and spreads them apart.::
“You see, Sharpe, the only way anyone can win the Road to Tragic Engagement Tournament is if everyone on the UWA is actually allowed to wrestle. But, because only a few chosen ones are allowed to be on week after week, they will more than likely win, not the people who get maybe one match every two or three weeks or just seem to work pay-per-views.”
“Do you truly, honestly believe that someone like Mikado, who has maybe had one match on Monday Night Mayhem and three pay-per-view matches in the last year, can win this? What about Shawn or Cameron Worley? Think either of them can do it with their maybe one match every two months? Or what about your buddy Craven, who seems to enjoy months off between the occasional pay-per-view appearance? Think anyone in Avalon can pull off the win given that only one of them, Stalker, has been able to have only two matches since their return? Because I have to be honestly, Sharpe, I really have my doubts about the chances of the people who never get to wrestle actually winning this tournament. Maybe that’s just me though. I mean it’s possible that the people who get one match every two or three months can totally win this thing.”
::Again, Kyle Travis shakes his head.::
“No, Sharpe, they really can’t. And you have to know that. Even you have to admit that this tournament, that allegedly anyone can win, is rigged for only those that get to wrestle nearly every Monday Night Mayhem are going to win this.”
“Now, maybe I get to be in that category, but honestly, I am rather surprised I am even on Mayhem. I think they just put me on Mayhem in the hopes that maybe, just maybe, it will shut me up. That, however, is not going to happen.”
::For a moment, Travis smirks. That moment, however, quickly passes.::
“And what else is not going to happen is my letting you win this match Sharpe, nor do I have any intentions of letting anyone else win this tournament.”
::Turning the chair away from the computer desk, Travis gets to his feet and looks at the wall he keeps the replicas of the championships he has won over the years.::
“The day I walked into the UWA I made one statement, and only one. I told everyone I would become the UWA World Heavyweight Champion. That was not the declaration of some newbie fresh of the street thinking he earned something just because he showed up and feels entitled. It was not a false promise. It was not a statement to make myself sound impressive. It was a promise.”
::Travis gestures to the replica titles on the wall.::
“Six times, Sharpe, six times I have been to the top of the mountain and stood above all as the world heavyweight champion. Six times I have had to crawl and claw and fight and scrap and pull myself up the ladder rung by rung to get to be world champion. And time and time again, I have had obstacles in my way. I had the management team of an entire company against the very idea of my success and they threw everything they had in my way from firing me to coming up with reasons for me to become champion. And even when I do stand on that pedestal with the ultimate prize around my waist, it is either often ignored or overshadowed or the people in power go out of their way to find a way to take the title off me. And yet, six times I have done it. I know I am more than capable of doing it again.”
::Travis points at himself with his thumb.::
“Time and time again, Sharpe, I have had to defend my legacy. Time and time again, with everything I have done in this business, I am not given the respect that I deserve. Constantly every time I walk into a place and people hear what I have done, they immediately tell me nothing I did before matters and I get treated like the rookie who has done nothing while announcers sing the praises of everyone else.”
::“The Once and Future King” keeps gesturing to himself wi98th his thumb as he speaks.::
“I know I can do it for a seventh time! I know I can climb the mountain and become the UWA World Champion, to become a world champion for the seventh time. And I know it because I am willing to do whatever I have to do to get the title shot.”
“I have been denied the respect I deserve; the respect I deserve. The respect I was promised. This is my opportunity. When I beat the entire UWA roster, when I stand alone, with the most points accumulated and a guaranteed title shot at Tragic Engagement, and I go on to become champion, the no one, absolutely no one will be able to deny my legacy. No one will deny me the respect I deserve, what I have earned when I become champion.”
“You think you want this more than me Sharpe?”
::There is a malevolent glare in his eyes as Travis shakes his head.::
“You cannot want it more than me. You are not willing to do what I am willing to do to in order to win this tournament. You are not willing to work as hard as I have, and most of all. But the biggest thing, what pisses me off so much about you, is the fact that even if you do win, you will not appreciate it.”
::His left hand, the hand he uses for the Cold Snap, opens as Travis stretches his fingers. He starts to stretch and wiggle his fingers to keep them loose. There is an audible anger in his voice as he speaks.::
“When you walked in here, you were just handed the shot at the UWA Tag Team Championships and when you made history, you squandered the huge opportunity that it was. You and Silver Baron could have made history. You two could have been great fighting champions or at least more than just paper champions or place holder champions. Instead you and Silver Baron had two tag team matches, acted like you were the greatest team in the entire history of professional wrestling and then, when it came time to prove yourselves, you lost to a team that honestly should have been the first UWA Tag Team Champions.”
::Travis makes his left hand in to a somewhat claw-like shape, holding it lie that as those cold predatory eyes of his stare ahead at his next target, or, as he prefers to term them, victim.
“Why in the hell would I want to see someone like you as the UWA World Champion? Why would I want you to win this tournament Sharpe when I cannot stand people like you? And you can say whatever you want to try and defend yourself, but the simple fact of the matter is you walked into the UWA having had one match and somehow gained a title shot when no one else had ever had the chance to do that and you did not even earn it. You and Silver Baron should never have been tag team champions and I will be dammed if I see an unappreciative punk like you become UWA Champion, because I know you will not appreciate it and I know you will waste it.”
“As far as I am concerned, no one in the Sin City Knights deserves this opportunity at the championship except maybe Skylar or maybe Craven, because they may actually appreciate it. I would hope that the Children of Nephilim would take one of you out, but as they cannot even seem to kill time, I have my doubts about Joshua’s hillbilly rapecult doing more than one attack and then just abducting whores in their latest attempt to stay relevant and prove t5hat they have not been a massively overhyped waste of everyone’s time.”
::Travis balls his left hand into a fist.::
“But before that Sharpe, you have to step into the ring with me. And I have every intention of winning this match even if I have to tear your arm out of the socket. And the fact is that I am more than willing to do it, and honestly, I would enjoy doing it Sharpe. I really would.”
“Do you know what it is like to work your ass off, to try and earn opportunities in this business, give it everything you have and then watch as some kid just seemingly strolls through the door and is literally handed everything you have worked for? No you don’t know, because you are that guy who was handed something without having to really work for it.”
“And the sad thing, if you counter that statement by telling me things you have done in your career, everyone is going to rally behind those points, but if I did it, everyone would tell me that line about nothing I did before coming here matters. And I know this because they do it every single time.”
“But you see Sharpe, they are wrong about that.”
::Stretching out his hands, Travis gestures to the titles and magazine covers and other photos that adorn this trophy room that people have called egotistical or causing Travis to live in the past.::
“Everything in my past has made me who I am today. Without a history, a person, a place, or an object has nothing; no meaning or value at all. And the one thing they seem to forget about me is that my past is my future Sharpe.”
“In my past I won championships. In my future I will win championships. In my past I left behind a road of broken bodies and shattered dreams as I made my way to the top. In my future I will add more broken bodies and more shattered dreams to my road to the top. In my past I become a world champion. In my future I will become a world champion again.”
::With a slight thud, Travis slaps himself in the chest, but he seems not to really be paying attention to anything else other than Shapre at the moment.
“Nothing in my career has ever been handed to be Sharpe. Everything I have ever accomplished, everything I have ever done, is something I have worked for to achieve. I have never been the golden boy; the person management knows that they can make the face of the company, even as world champion. I have been betrayed too many times by people in positions of authority that I just assume they are lying to me from the moment the conversation begins and I am usually right about it. I have never been handed anything. I have earned it all and had it take from me again and again. So go ahead, tell me nothing I have done before matters. Tell me my past is meaningless. Then remember you are stepping into the ring with a person who’s won a lot more titles than you, has spent a career staining his hands and the ring with the blood of his opponents, destroying dreams and ending careers and remember that he neither likes you nor cares whether or not you can even walk out of the match when he is done with you, and then tell me my past doesn’t matter.”
“Sharpe, I am going to win this tournament even if I have to break every person on the roster to do it. I am going to earn that title shot at Tragic Engagement, and I swear if Georgio even thinks of screwing me out of the shot, his life, and the health and well being of every single person employed in the UWA from wrestlers to the tech crew to the announcers to the intern working for college credit is forfeit. And, when it comes to performing violent acts of brutality, I am a man of my word.”
::Travis looks at the shelves on the wall where he keeps the replicas of championships he’s won over the years.::
“My road to Tragic Engagement and the UWA World Championship begins with you Sharpe. You are the obstacle I am going to tear down, even if I have to break both your arms to do it. I will drive you to your knees and make you bow before “the Once and Future King”, then step over your body to the next person I have to break, and the next and the next until I finally become UWA Champion.”
::He turns and spreads his arms outward, looking up towards the ceiling.::
“Challenge and learn.”
::Travis keeps his arms outwards and lowers his head. The scene fades out on those cold, predatory eyes of Travis.::