Post by Lord Hastings on Dec 5, 2020 20:39:17 GMT -5
Donovan stands backstage at Synergy, watching on a monitor as Angie Vaughn and Lucy Wylde are victorious in their cooperative match. Donovan is unflinching as the celebrate the win, and doesn’t seem to notice as Robert Ooley, the Director of Human Resources and a third of the ruling Consortium of UGWC.
Ooley stands alongside Donovan for a moment, slowly looking back and forth between Donovan and the image on the screen of a celebrating Lucy Wylde.
Ooley: Did you miss a cue?
Hastings: Hm?
Ooley: You’re losing a step, Hamstrings. There was a time you’d have already been down there and kneecapped your Horizons opponent by now. Usually used a lead pipe, wasn’t it?
Hastings: Always got the job done.
Ooley: I’ll grant that, but it’s not quite the same as a trusty baseball bat.
Hastings: Right. Is it me, or did you guys not name a Creative Director for this month?
Ooley: Gave it to Toss.
Hastings: Well that explains why nothing came off the rails. Other than, you know, the World Champion reportedly defending the title against somebody that doesn’t even work here the week before Horizons.
Ooley: Ol’ Bob signed off on that one. Bonesaw is a persuasive guy.
Hastings: Did you want something?
Ooley: Ol’ Bob’s just making an observation. Taking a page out of Scared’s journal.
Hastings: You’re really asking me why I’m not sneak attacking Lucy.
Ooley: I’ll just assume you know you can’t take her and Sister Sorority together by yourself.
Hastings: Maybe I just want to face Lucy at her best.
Ooley: So you think her best isn’t very good?
Donovan takes his eyes off the screen for the first time, glaring at Ooley.
Hastings: She’s been World Champion more recently than I have.
Ooley: And there’s the problem, isn’t it? We’ve spent this whole year talking about history. Yours is sad.
Hastings: The history of the only 5-Time World Champion in UGWC history is sad?
Now it is Ooley that glares at Donovan out of his sole visible eye.
Ooley: You know what I hate about you, Hamstrings? You had something that most of us never get. My in-ring career fizzled out. It’s what happens to most of us. You main evented Horizons and beat one of your fiercest rivals for the World Heavyweight Championship, and you had the chance to ride off into the sunset. Storybook ending. I’d have cut out my eye for real for that. A lot of people would.
Hastings: I mean, cutting out your actual eye is probably a bridge too far for most people.
Ooley: The point is people would go to fantastic lengths for a chance at a moment like the one you threw away. But I get it. You need attention, you need the spotlight. Everyone does. Some people go so far as to fake their death just because they need everybody to look at them. This business has beaten you, and now the man who championed making a career out of building a legacy is trying his hardest to piss it all away.
Hastings: Last year at Horizons I beat the person who went on to be named the Entertainment Professional of the Year.
Ooley: That’s because you’re clever, Hamstrings. Anyone who has ever thought otherwise is a fool. You know how to pick your spots. You’ve latched on to desperate people you know you can leech success from, and when you have to stand alone you target the weak.
Hastings: Roxy Cotton held three titles on the same night only months before I faced her.
Ooley: And she had one foot out the door when you did, and you knew that. Now you’ve managed to identify another name brand that’s back on her heels. Again, you’re smart, but a word of caution. The next time you decide it’s time to walk away, we don’t have an office with a desk and comfy chair sitting waiting for you.
Ooley sneers, and Donovan turns his back to the Creative Director as he walks away, allowing him the final word.
Ooley stands alongside Donovan for a moment, slowly looking back and forth between Donovan and the image on the screen of a celebrating Lucy Wylde.
Ooley: Did you miss a cue?
Hastings: Hm?
Ooley: You’re losing a step, Hamstrings. There was a time you’d have already been down there and kneecapped your Horizons opponent by now. Usually used a lead pipe, wasn’t it?
Hastings: Always got the job done.
Ooley: I’ll grant that, but it’s not quite the same as a trusty baseball bat.
Hastings: Right. Is it me, or did you guys not name a Creative Director for this month?
Ooley: Gave it to Toss.
Hastings: Well that explains why nothing came off the rails. Other than, you know, the World Champion reportedly defending the title against somebody that doesn’t even work here the week before Horizons.
Ooley: Ol’ Bob signed off on that one. Bonesaw is a persuasive guy.
Hastings: Did you want something?
Ooley: Ol’ Bob’s just making an observation. Taking a page out of Scared’s journal.
Hastings: You’re really asking me why I’m not sneak attacking Lucy.
Ooley: I’ll just assume you know you can’t take her and Sister Sorority together by yourself.
Hastings: Maybe I just want to face Lucy at her best.
Ooley: So you think her best isn’t very good?
Donovan takes his eyes off the screen for the first time, glaring at Ooley.
Hastings: She’s been World Champion more recently than I have.
Ooley: And there’s the problem, isn’t it? We’ve spent this whole year talking about history. Yours is sad.
Hastings: The history of the only 5-Time World Champion in UGWC history is sad?
Now it is Ooley that glares at Donovan out of his sole visible eye.
Ooley: You know what I hate about you, Hamstrings? You had something that most of us never get. My in-ring career fizzled out. It’s what happens to most of us. You main evented Horizons and beat one of your fiercest rivals for the World Heavyweight Championship, and you had the chance to ride off into the sunset. Storybook ending. I’d have cut out my eye for real for that. A lot of people would.
Hastings: I mean, cutting out your actual eye is probably a bridge too far for most people.
Ooley: The point is people would go to fantastic lengths for a chance at a moment like the one you threw away. But I get it. You need attention, you need the spotlight. Everyone does. Some people go so far as to fake their death just because they need everybody to look at them. This business has beaten you, and now the man who championed making a career out of building a legacy is trying his hardest to piss it all away.
Hastings: Last year at Horizons I beat the person who went on to be named the Entertainment Professional of the Year.
Ooley: That’s because you’re clever, Hamstrings. Anyone who has ever thought otherwise is a fool. You know how to pick your spots. You’ve latched on to desperate people you know you can leech success from, and when you have to stand alone you target the weak.
Hastings: Roxy Cotton held three titles on the same night only months before I faced her.
Ooley: And she had one foot out the door when you did, and you knew that. Now you’ve managed to identify another name brand that’s back on her heels. Again, you’re smart, but a word of caution. The next time you decide it’s time to walk away, we don’t have an office with a desk and comfy chair sitting waiting for you.
Ooley sneers, and Donovan turns his back to the Creative Director as he walks away, allowing him the final word.
~
I’d love to be able to say I planned this, Lucy.
The year that I oversaw things as Creative Director, the year of my professional wrestling retirement (the type of retirement that everybody knows never sticks), was the year that you rose through the ranks to become World Champion, and a dominant World Champion you were. You beat three tough competitors to win it, had multiple successful defenses including one at the prestigious WrestleStock festival, and suffered a heart-breaking loss in a very tough match.
Perhaps we should remind people how inexplicably tied to me that reign truly was?
You beat three of my biggest rivals to win the title, and you did it at No Holds Barred under a match stipulation promoted as a match I once won myself. A few defenses later, and you also lose the title under a stipulation promoted as a match I once won myself. Some people might find that ironic. You and I know better.
I had no plans on returning to the ring at that time, I can say that honestly. But I watched you face my rivals and compete in my matches and I knew deep inside that I could still do it too, and a part of me was disappointed that I wasn’t the person that took the title from you myself. The genesis of the idea, that first spark of a burning need to return to the ring, that came from you in those summer months of 2018. You were the herald of a new generation of talent in UGWC, the first in a parade of pretenders to my throne.
By the time I made the choice to return to the ring, you had stepped away. I can’t express to you just how disappointed I was that you were no longer present to challenge. I knew that would be the true test, and there was no way to sit for that exam. Still, I consider myself a pragmatist, I made the best of the circumstances that were available to me. In the past year I’ve beaten past World Champions like Gabriel Baal at Coalescence. I’ve turned back up and coming talents like Sloane Taylor. And last year at Horizons I put down the flavor of the month in Roxy Cotton. All of that was merely a preamble, however. Now you’ve come at last to present the main course.
I was intrigued by your return at WrestleStock, and excited by your claiming of the WrestleStock Cup as I knew it would commit you to sticking around. I have bided my time, waited for the proper moment, and at last it presents itself.
In your response to my challenge, you suggested that your own return has been...what was the word you used? Abysmal? I think we both know you were simply trying to lower expectations. We’ve all experienced lulls. Vain has one bi-annually between World Title runs, he treats them like a rest hold. Travis Roberts has made a career of using a lull as an offensive maneuver. My World Title drought has something of a head start on yours. But make no mistake, we are, all of us, killers. This is in our blood, it is what drives us, and however many steps people believe we have lost, we never forget how to catch up and surpass when we need to.
You are no different.
You’ve claimed that you need this more than I do. I imagine that’s true. If I have learned anything over the course of my career, it is how to endure and survive. No matter the outcome at Horizons, you will not be the end of me. There is a reason I am known as the Immortal Lord of Pain. As far as UGWC is concerned, I am eternal, and my name will echo through these halls long after yours has faded from memory. But I’ve no doubt that I’ve wanted this more and for longer than you have.
As I said before, I didn’t plan this. As someone who has on more than one occasion spent an entire year planning and preparing for my Horizons fate, that’s a difficult thing to admit. But I’ve undoubtedly wanted it, and I am seizing this opportunity and making the most of it. Like it or not, you are an icon of the new generation, one that I will not allow to surpass me. You will not be my “stepping stone” to greatness, but rather simply the latest proof of it.
It is inevitable.
The year that I oversaw things as Creative Director, the year of my professional wrestling retirement (the type of retirement that everybody knows never sticks), was the year that you rose through the ranks to become World Champion, and a dominant World Champion you were. You beat three tough competitors to win it, had multiple successful defenses including one at the prestigious WrestleStock festival, and suffered a heart-breaking loss in a very tough match.
Perhaps we should remind people how inexplicably tied to me that reign truly was?
You beat three of my biggest rivals to win the title, and you did it at No Holds Barred under a match stipulation promoted as a match I once won myself. A few defenses later, and you also lose the title under a stipulation promoted as a match I once won myself. Some people might find that ironic. You and I know better.
I had no plans on returning to the ring at that time, I can say that honestly. But I watched you face my rivals and compete in my matches and I knew deep inside that I could still do it too, and a part of me was disappointed that I wasn’t the person that took the title from you myself. The genesis of the idea, that first spark of a burning need to return to the ring, that came from you in those summer months of 2018. You were the herald of a new generation of talent in UGWC, the first in a parade of pretenders to my throne.
By the time I made the choice to return to the ring, you had stepped away. I can’t express to you just how disappointed I was that you were no longer present to challenge. I knew that would be the true test, and there was no way to sit for that exam. Still, I consider myself a pragmatist, I made the best of the circumstances that were available to me. In the past year I’ve beaten past World Champions like Gabriel Baal at Coalescence. I’ve turned back up and coming talents like Sloane Taylor. And last year at Horizons I put down the flavor of the month in Roxy Cotton. All of that was merely a preamble, however. Now you’ve come at last to present the main course.
I was intrigued by your return at WrestleStock, and excited by your claiming of the WrestleStock Cup as I knew it would commit you to sticking around. I have bided my time, waited for the proper moment, and at last it presents itself.
In your response to my challenge, you suggested that your own return has been...what was the word you used? Abysmal? I think we both know you were simply trying to lower expectations. We’ve all experienced lulls. Vain has one bi-annually between World Title runs, he treats them like a rest hold. Travis Roberts has made a career of using a lull as an offensive maneuver. My World Title drought has something of a head start on yours. But make no mistake, we are, all of us, killers. This is in our blood, it is what drives us, and however many steps people believe we have lost, we never forget how to catch up and surpass when we need to.
You are no different.
You’ve claimed that you need this more than I do. I imagine that’s true. If I have learned anything over the course of my career, it is how to endure and survive. No matter the outcome at Horizons, you will not be the end of me. There is a reason I am known as the Immortal Lord of Pain. As far as UGWC is concerned, I am eternal, and my name will echo through these halls long after yours has faded from memory. But I’ve no doubt that I’ve wanted this more and for longer than you have.
As I said before, I didn’t plan this. As someone who has on more than one occasion spent an entire year planning and preparing for my Horizons fate, that’s a difficult thing to admit. But I’ve undoubtedly wanted it, and I am seizing this opportunity and making the most of it. Like it or not, you are an icon of the new generation, one that I will not allow to surpass me. You will not be my “stepping stone” to greatness, but rather simply the latest proof of it.
It is inevitable.