Post by Deleted on Jan 11, 2021 5:35:21 GMT -7
((Off Camera))
January 11th 2021Atlanta, Georgia
United States
3:33 AM
He woke up again, another set of flashes of moments: future, fear, fact and fiction all jumbling together, only thing that felt real was his body reacting to it all. Cold sweat soaking him up, matting the hair on his body from head to toe. Eye’s wide as saucers, panic evident and very real. Looking over to the wife he let out a sigh of relief. This time he had not yelled, she slept there. So peaceful, so calm, gently he moves her arm from his chest, places it softly beside him, sitting up and making sure she got the covers on. Sitting there just for a second longer to remember what he had in life: what mattered and what was all he needed.
Getting up he felt the ghost aches again, reminders from a dream, nightmare beyond compare. Subconsciousness slicing the meat off his bones, cracking them one by one, loud enough to echo through his insides but yet quiet to the world outside of his own existence. Standing felt weird this was Atlanta, humid nights heat and air standing still, yet he could feel the chills going through his body. Chills one minute, hot flashes the next. His heart was beating mile a minute, that heartbeat sounded so loud he was sure it would pump through his chest at any given second.
Stumbling forward, feet sticking to the wooden floor, he made it through the hotel room, to the little kitchenette, opening the faucet letting the cold water run, seconds, ten, fifteen..twenty before dunking his face under the icy stream. Water clogged his hearing, well everything except the thumping in his chest. Few quick sips of water, he managed to swallow maybe half of it, spitting the leftover water in the sink. Silence, he heard water dripping from the faucet, from his hair, down his face. Standing up it dripped down his chest. A trickle of the elixir of life..was he even alive anymore? Or was he just a corpse, a shell of a man he had once thought himself of as..and just didn’t know he was dead yet.
Few more days, a few short days and he would have to go through it all again, to step in the ring, between the ropes with the beast, the creature, the monster known as Juliet Black. Juliet. Motherfucking. Black. Mere thought of her send painful flashes through his vision. Stable gun, cuts, bruises and blood. The aches, the pains, the tears. He could hear himself scream, groan, cry..a grown man against something he had never truly faced within all of his years, something inhuman, something out of this world, something unreal..something that didn’t care for who he was or what he wanted. Something beyond brutal, who just kept coming at him, match after match. Mocking him, taunting him, null and voiding any chance, any hope of solving a single goddamn match, to settle this situation so he could move on as a champion. Only to get another chance, another shot, another opportunity to victimize him.
His eyes darted around, he saw the bag with the championship, fingers trembling he slowly, quietly opened up the zipper, feeling the inside for the championship before pulling the cold combination of metal and leather out to the darkness. Watching the night time light dance on the plate.
Southern Rebellion Wrestling
Conquest Championship
Luther Thunder
He clenched the championship against his chest, hoping to silence or at least muffle the thumps his heart made, blood rushing in his veins, like a damn powerful untamed rapids. Nature had always found a way to have power beyond men, yet man had always tried to find a way to harness that power to do their bidding, to provide power, to forward progress, success and future..yet there were times when nature put man back in it’s place. Tsunamis, storms and other natural disasters. All the technology and all the knowledge in the world was powerless when nature decided to lash back.
THAT was what Juliet Black was to him. An uncontrollable force of nature, something that just doesn’t seem to be controlled or harnessed, stopped or even held back. Yet he had to try, again and again he had to try and for what?
He looked down at the championship in his hands
..for this.
He glanced over to the bed, his sleeping wife.
..for her.
He placed the championship on the kitchenette’s table, staring his reflection from the darkened television screen.
..for himself.
((On Camera))
We open up to Luther Thunder, dressed in a pair of jeans, boots, and a Southern Rebellion Wrestling T-shirt. His hair is combed back along his head. He seems focused, determined, intense even.
Luther: Winter Storm, what a fitting name for an event, we have moved on from what has been a tragic, strange year to a new one but by the looks of it the start of it is not as smooth as one could have hoped. I would expect that it will be a bumpy ride for a while and expect that things may just have to get even worse before they can start to get better. So starting my year in SRW against the phenom that is fondly called by some “rabid zombie pitbull” seems fitting. Juliet Black, there are times when I look back on some of the matches we’ve been through, some of the single most brutal and destructive matches that I have at least been through in my whole career and I wonder if all of it has truly been worth it. Since I first approached you on social media and told you that I was looking forward to our match, you made it very clear that I shouldn’t you didn’t sugarcoat or beat around the bush and that honesty is a rare quality in this business these days. However what has unfolded sense has proven to me at least and to anyone with a pair of eyes and a functioning brain to go along with it that you do not belong to the Conquest Division, Juliet. You are not a competitor, you are not a contender, I am not sure you are even a human being. I think you are a monster, a beast, something that belongs in a whole different setting that what you have been in with me, the handful or so of the matches we have had. You have showcased your appetite, your lust for violence, brutality and carnage. You have made it clear even stating, so yourself that you do not care for the Conquest Championship which I hold, tha your purpose, your goal in our matches has been and I believe still is, destruction.
He swallows a bit before going on.
Luther: You have done your best to break me down Juliet, mentally, physically and wholeheartedly. If you do even have a heart that is. You have cost yourself matches people would have given so much for, you even managed to get a match tailored to your own devices and got the management to approve of it. Emerald Death House match, I will not forget that name as long as I live Juliet, there will be legends told of the atrocities we did, our blood, sweat, tears and screams have forever etched that match into the not so pretty history of this company and I would imagine that someone like you looks back at that fondly, with pride, gleefully smiling at just what all you got away with, nice and legal. Even if as in so many of our matches, nothing was truly settled. While we have had these vulgar displays of violence, while you have handed me hollow victories over you, wins in name only like our last match where you assaulted not just me but my wife, leaving both of us laying. Like bodies at your wake, yet don’t want this championship of mine?
He holds up the the Conquest Championship, looking at it for a moment before going on.
Luther: I won this on my third match in Southern Rebellion Wrestling, first male signed to the roster and on my third match I won the Conquest Championship, sure it may not be the biggest nor the brightest title in the company hierarchy, but considering what I’ve gone through to keep it, I’ve gone to hell and back with you while Melinde Rhodes, the head Rebel in charge has not seen any reason why we shouldn’t get these brutal, vicious, decadent displays of mayhem. Yet I haven’t quit, I haven’t given up. I could have done that Juliet, I could have walked away months ago, I could have just put up my hands and said “nope, I can make a living easier” I could have signed up somewhere else, faced some simple, softer opponents and coast my way towards legendary status and a steady income in to my autumn years. However I didn’t do you know why that is Juliet? Because I am proud of my accomplishments, I take tremendous pride of being SRW’s Conquest Champion and I am willing to defend this championship through my sweat, my blood and my tears against you or anyone else Melinda Rhodes sees fit to put up against me. However even you must admit, withing your heart of hearts that even if we continue this dance of ours, for the rest of our careers and we keep taking each other to the limit, pushing eachother further and further..yet nothing truly gets solved, nothing gets settled. The fans will start to hate it, WE are the ones who put our bodies on the line for their hard earned money Juliet; you and me, not someone who pushes papers and sits in the office calling for people to put in their best work and hardest work so they can reap the benefits and praises! Sure you don’t care for praises, you don’t need thank yous or pats on the back, you don’t even want championships..only thing you want is a victim, somebody, anybody will do. It makes no difference to you are you bouncing my head off those ringposts or is it Johnny from catering. You don’t care, you don’t even pretend to care but even you must know that the two of us, no matter how special we have made these matches, no matter how much “fun” we have had, well you moreso than me I’d assume..we can’t go on with this forever.
He takes a moment, breathes in, gathers his thoughts.
Luther: Our match at Winter Storm is labeled as FINAL ROUND on the advertisements and from the matches we have had in the past, any lesser man would have tucked his tail between his legs and ran home. Yet I am still here Juliet, I have kept coming back, not because I’m a glutton for punishment or because I like it. I am not a hardcore wrestler. I am not in this business to end people and their careers but the subtitle final round makes perfect sense because by now, you probably have already realized that if you plan on stopping me from coming back. You will have to kill me Juliet, do you understand that? You will have to end my life in that goddamn ring to stop me, to get this championship off me, the championship you don’t even care about. You’ve gotten away with a lot against me Juliet, do you think Melinda Rhodes would allow you to get away with my life? I don’t think she’d blink twice before handing you over to the authorities, she would benefit from your macabre reputation, probably get some sweet deal on movie rights, get herself a cushy producer job too, who knows. You? You would end up in the system, asylum, prison..who cares. You would not be able to fulfill what you desire, hurting people would be if not impossible then a heck of a lot harder than it has been for now. Think about it Juliet, on this very show the HARDCORE Championship is contested in a over the top rope battle royal. What’s hardcore about throwing people off the top rope?! We flew off ladders, damn near killed ourselves in one match, anything and everything we have done in our matches has been more brutal, more hardcore than what the Hardcore division has provided. Do you ever wonder just what you could accomplish if you had a division worthy of a monster such as you?
He chuckles.
Luther: Not talking about championships or accolades obviously, but think of the throngs of people who think they are tough, who think they are rebels, punks and vicious motherfuckers. All of them flocking to you to prove how tough they are, and you could break them down, one by one until there was none. Who would stop you? Who could stop you? Think about that Juliet. You do not belong in the Conquest Division, you know that and I know that. The one person who seems to doubt that is our boss. Mel, you are aces and have employed some talented people on this roster but I feel that sometimes your vision on things is a touch narrow, you praise UVR our top champion as you should since Ursula is a great contender a magnificent specimen that very few organizations dare to put up on a position as you have. However she is not the only star you have here Miss Rhodes, she is not the only champion you have than can prove how good they are. You have a roster full of hungry men and women eager to prove their dedication, their determination to be the very best they can be, all for SRW yet you keep pinning me and Juliet against each other, time and time again. Yet seeing there has not been a clear winner or solution to it all. Do you think that is the best you can do with two stars of our caliber? Is that REALLY utilizing us to the fullest for your and your company’s benefit?
Luther sits down on the locker room bench. Putting the Conquest Championship over his shoulder.
Luther: I am not saying I could run this place better than you or any place. I am not a boss I am not the one in charge, but I have worked for a lot of bosses during my years and I know that good boss, a good leader takes responsibility for their people. Not just the chosen few they prefer but all of them, you are employing them, hiring them. If you don’t want them around you can boot them out, give them the pink slip and be done with it, but there is no sense in employing people if you don’t want them do something and if you want them to do something you would want them to do their very best, right? So stay true to the advertisement Mel, make this the final round and let myself and Juliet Black do just what we are best at. Don’t take this as me trying to tell you how to do your job as I said, I am not the boss. I just feel that maybe you have been somewhat distracted lately maybe there are things outside of SRW that have required your focus and your attention, times are tough, everyone has to make sacrifices. I have made tremendous sacrifices for THIS championship, for SRW and for you too Mel, just by going through these matches with Juliet, yet I am still here. Doesn’t that prove my worth? Doesn’t that show you how much I give a damn? I’ve risked my life, my livelihood and everything for this place, for this championship and you. What do you think that is worth Ms. Rhodes? How high would you value such dedication and determination to your vision.
He stands up, adjusts the championship on his shoulder.
Luther: I’ll see you at WINTER STORM Juliet, we’ll dance one final time and do what we always do. Put the rest of the damn roster on their heels and show them how it’s done. I’ll bring the hardware, you know I won’t run away. If anyone out there is still uncertain on what it takes to put everything on the line for what you believe then join us at the State Farm Arena in Atlanta,Georgia and see just what it’s all about. There are some conguests that are forever etched in the annals of history. THIS is one of those.
He walks off as we fade to black.