Post by Teo Blaze on May 10, 2019 15:12:10 GMT -5
“Did you do it?”
“Yes”
“What’d it cost?”
Heat. As the scene slowly begins to fade in from darkness, the one overbearing feeling, the sensation that emanates from every angle, seeping into the very air itself, is a tyrannical, forceful heat. The orange, water-parched sands of the Mexican desert seem to stretch out infinitely in every direction, an endless sea of wanton misery and death laid beneath a cloudless blue sky.
But cloudless though it might be, there is above all one thing that dominates the entire scene, sky...sand...and that is the constant, dominating presence of the fiery king of the wasteland, the round orb that brings life and pain in equal measure, the creator and destroyer around which everything known revolves...the Sun.
The circular presence seems to hang over the horizon, larger than life, emitting a radiant light that is all-too familiar to any man or woman who has ever dared to step into that beautiful wasteland.
And standing in the very center, cast in silhouette, ringed with a radiant aura that seems to highlight every nearly imperceptible motion, is a familiar figure. He stands, his arms hanging at his side. As the camera slowly approaches him, whirling across the sea of death with a wild motion, it comes to rest to reveal the details.
It is the infinity man. Standing, staring upward, the beacon of light reflecting off of his bright red lenses, his expression is one of solemn contemplation, as though he is considering something far off and distant.
A moment passes, holding on the enigmatic expression, the sun almost highlighting every detail of his face, any otherwise miniscule expression is magnified, amplified under its rays, and every twitch, every flare of the nostrils betrays a new thought.
After a moment, the camera slowly pans down to allow a more full view of the former champion. The details are almost identical to his previous appearances. Bright white T-shirt and blue jeans over well-worn tennis shoes. Beads of sweat over scarred skin visible on his exposed arms...but what is different immediately catches the eye of the viewer.
Clutched in Teo’s left hand is an item that is instantly recognizable to anyone in the WCF Galaxy.
A tattered, stained, and ragged wrestling mask, tinged in white and gold, imprinted with the emblem of a bright golden sun.
The camera hangs on the mask, even with its faded fabric, the gold still reflects the glory of the Mexico sun like a torch, shining brighter than seems even possible given its current condition. A slight breeze causes the fabric to rustle in the wind, the first sound in the otherwise silent scene.
Teo’s head turns down, looking at the fabric blowing in the hot wind, and his eyes narrow, his face turning from an expression of contemplation to one of determination as he considers the mask clutched in his hand. He stares deeply at the cloth, and, inhaling deeply, begins to speak.
Teo Blaze: You can’t hang on to the past forever.
As if to accent his words, the breeze seems to pick up, carrying a cloud of sand in the distance.
Teo Blaze: It is a beautiful thing, the past. It is filled with memories of triumph, of conquest. It is a realm of accomplishment, a realm of glory. There is not a man, woman, or child who does not look upon the past without a feeling of joy. Some all it nostalgia, some call it glory days… the name doesn’t matter. The idea remains constant. The past is a place of happiness, a place to return to...relive. To remember. To enjoy each and every moment, captured like a portrait in a museum.
Teo’s face suddenly snaps forward, his eyes narrowing into an expression of pure, focused emotion.
Teo Blaze: But you can not cling to it. You cannot look to the past as a refuge, as a place to hide all of your deepest, most cherished and beloved thoughts. The temptation is great. To decorate your mind’s eye with only those moments of greatness, of happiness, of joy. Those moments that any man would kill to be able to relive over and over again.
But the past is exactly that. It is passed. It is gone. No man can hope to ever return to those moments, for once they have passed? They are lost.
Slowly, Teo kneels down with one hand and begins to run a hand through the loose orange sand, letting the grains run through his fingertips with each motion.
Teo Blaze: And though it pains me, no, it kills me!
...With each syllable that I am forced to say, the time will come very soon when WCF itself will reside only in the past.
So many moments, so many iconic victories, defeats, tragedies, heartbreaks, triumphs, and failures have come through the years. Only at the end do we look back and realize just how lucky we have been, just how many grains of sand we wish we could pull back to the top of the hourglass.
But in our hearts and in our minds we know, that no matter the desire, no matter the drive, that we will never be able to stop the march of time.
Teo slowly looks up towards the camera, as if gazing directly into the viewer’s eyes.
Teo blaze: Time is unchanging. It does not care for our desire. It is always moving, always shifting towards a new destiny.
And to paraphrase a certain mad titan… You can run from destiny, you can hide from it, but it arrives all the same.
Teo turns and looks at the tattered wrestling mask still clutched in his hand, and with a smile he turns once again to continue speaking.
Teo Blaze: And as for Noble Savage and Alex Richards? They are blind to the destiny that awaits us at Endgame.
The destiny that awaits at endgame is not a story that encompasses weeks or even months, but one that stretches across years of time. It begins with a young, idealistic man in a white and gold wrestling mask.
I wonder Alex, do you remember? Do you remember that day that I walked into the company, full of excitement, full of joy, and I will even admit looking up to you. Did you realize on that night that you would be looking at a man who would rock the company to its very core? A man who would set records with title reigns, redefine title belts, and be at the forefront of the company for the next four years?
I would think not.
I wasn't that man. Not yet. That was in my future, after all. But even then Alex, even as I was finding my place, forging an identity? Destiny was guiding me. You lost your internet championship, still the only thing most people remember you for, pinned by your own friend Scarecrow and handed the People’s Championship like a consolation prize.
That young man Alex? He hoped that you would do with that People’s title what you did with that internet title. Make it talked about, make it something celebrated....
But fuck that. You lost it in two weeks to Spencer Adams and never bothered to go after it again.
That was the moment, Alex. That was the moment when the true cracks in your armor began to show. The archduke of mass confusion, the man who legitimized the internet belt, and he practically wiped his ass with the same title that I would make famous months later.
Think about that Alex. Really think about that. You were handed an opportunity with the People’s Championship, the chance to give something an identity of its own, to truly elevate a championship that deserved it…And you couldn’t be bothered.
Teo chuckles to himself, as though he is thinking of the punchline of a particularly memorable joke. He glances up at the sun, light reflecting down into the orange sand off of the lenses, casting a white circle of light upon the ground.
Teo Blaze: But our story continues, because it wasn’t long before that naive young man, he made a few friends. Vic Venable and Spencer Adams if you want to be specific. You had friends too, didn’t you Alex? Pantheon! The greatest stable in the history of WCF, if you believe the hype. In fact they managed to win the Trios Championship from the Dark Riders gang! I have to say Alex, that was a pretty sweet little scam you ran there. Another title reign in the books and all you had to do was stand there and look gruesome. Of course this would be a return to form for you Alex. With your teammates at your side you would no doubt undo the embarrassment of your People’s Title reign, and with the most dominant stable in the world, go on to have a title reign that would dwarf even the most storied…
Teo immediately bursts out laughing, a loud, wicked laugh that echoes like a hyena’s bark throughout the desert, bouncing off of dunes and columns, redoubling over itself until it seems to encompass the entire area, a demon’s laughter among the sands.
Teo Blaze: I’m sorry, I couldn’t even finish that sentence. Alex, we both know what happened. At Helloween, the greatest stable in the world fell to that same naive young man and his new friends in a matter of seconds. A thrown-together group of young stars just trying to do the right thing not only beat the “greatest Stable in WCF history”, we embarrassed! Them, Alex! We embarrassed you!
And what did you do upon this staggering defeat? Upon seeing not just your own title reign, but your friends fall flat on its face, did you stand up and unite Pantheon? Kick all of our asses one by one until you were the last one standing, smashing in our face with the Trios Championships until we had no choice, no other option but to give you a rematch?
Teo stares with a cocked eyebrow, already knowing the answer to the question. After all, Pantheon had practically imploded within weeks of the loss.
Teo Blaze: Are you beginning to notice a pattern, Alex? I do wonder if that pickle jar you call a brain is even capable of deducing something that a three year old could see a mile away.
Alex Richards, you may have a belt, but you are not a champion.
You are poison.
You are a toxic dose of ego in a company that has been addicted to it for years. You are so delusional, so rotten in the head, that your sole focus for years has been only on doing just enough to get another short, empty, meaningless title reign, another entry on Wikipedia! You are a walking, talking asterisk on a title reign who drags down every championship that he has held like a goddamned albatross!
People’s title, gone in two weeks, first defence!
People’s title again, won it by being pinned, gone in two weeks, first defence!
Trios Title, gone in four weeks, first defence!
Teo pauses, his breathing labored and heavy, his eyes cold steel behind the lenses, veins bulging as the emotion in his words begins to spill through. He pauses though, as he considers his next words. They emanate from him with a certainty, as though he is simply stating a fact.
Teo Blaze: World Championship. Gone in first defence.
Teo stares daggers into the camera, his expression one of pure malice, disgust emanating from every syllable as he continues.
Teo Blaze: Alex Richards, you do not know what it means to be a champion. You do not know what it is to be under constant threat, a goddamned target painted right on your forehead. To be looked at as a piece of meat, a conquest to feed someone else’s dreams of glory. To stand week in, and week out, against a sea of challengers. To know what it means to have to be better than every man who walks down that ramp, no exceptions! To know that even an instant of weakness, even a split second where you are not the very best you can possibly be is the end of everything!
You do not know that Alex because you have never wanted it. You had a taste of it with the internet championship and you decided that you did not want the burden.
But Alex...I know that feeling all too well. I know what it is Alex, to be hunted, to be targeted, to feel the eyes of each and every one of that pack of wolves we call the WCF locker room.
Pausing, Teo stares down and looks at the mask that now sits in his hand, as if he is regarding that tattered white and gold, the faded sun.
Teo Blaze: Alex Richards, you more than anyone else in the WCF, you are clinging to the past. You look at me and you see that naive young man, you see that wide-eyed luchador who wanted to change the world through the power of grit and determination alone.
You see that young man who challenged Dune, John Rabid, Joey Flash without hesitation, who would jump at the chance to bite off more than he could chew. You think of me as Teo Del Sol, hero of the people, righteous champion of those whose voices are not their own.
But Alex? I haven’t been that man for a long time. His passion, his drive, his desire, they are still here.
But they are greater, Alex. They are refined.
Each and every victory has sharpened me, and each loss has done the same. Whether walking out with my hand raised or staring up at the lights, each and every moment has nurtured me, sustained me, stoked the fire that burns within!
You are not facing the lone flame casting a light in the dark!
I am a fucking. Wildfire.
You want proof?
When that young man won the Television Championship, he managed to hold it a little over a month, losing and regaining it in the process.
When I won it last year? I put it in a stranglehold. I went on an undefeated streak lasting for months, redefining the championship, and held it for so long that people were actively calling for me to vacate it!
And Alex...do you remember one of the people that I defeated in doing so?
You remember, I know you do. You can try to play it off, but each and every person watching around the world knows what happened.
I beat Alex Richards clean as a sheet in the middle of the ring, I not only kept his filthy hands off of the Television Championship, but I wrenched an infinity stone from him in the process!
I know that you don’t want to think about it Alex, I know it flies in the face of the narrative you’ve been pushing for months now, but simply put those are the facts!
Alex Richards lost to Teo Blaze.
The same Alex Richards that went on to main event One, the same Alex Richards that claimed the be the most overlooked wrestler in the world, the same Alex Richards who just months later would be handed the World Championship on a silver platter by a deranged Savage and her two cronies…
That Alex Richards lost to me.
That Alex Richards has never beaten me.
Teo’s breath is heavy as he considers his next words carefully, staring at the sand as it passes through his fingertips.
Teo Blaze: But Alex, stain though you might be on that title, when it comes down to it you are ultimately a pawn.
And it is time that I address the would-be queen.
Sighing, Teo’s expressions softens only slightly, going from one of complete contempt and disgust to one of amusement as his thoughts turn towards a new opponent.
Teo Blaze: It’s always the ones you don’t see coming, isn’t it Noble?
The word “meteoric” is thrown around quite often, but rarely has it applied more fittingly than to you. War Winner and Flash Slayer, One main eventer, World Champion...
I watched it firsthand. We’ve even tangled once along the way, though truth be told I think we both know that we can do better than that.
But Noble, there is one advantage that you have that poor Alex does not. You have not had the chance to see me at my lowest points. You have witnessed my rebirth in the forge of a Television Title reign that hardened my resolve and made me into the man I am today, the man that saw your grand design and threw a monkey wrench in. That’s why you had your henchman rob me of the Television Title. To send my attentions elsewhere.
But Noble, I don’t want to talk about Tempest, I want to talk about you. I want to talk about this grand design to finally rid yourself of the Time Witch once and for all.
Because that’s where it all went wrong, isn’t it Noble? Til Death Do Us Part. The World Championship on the line, the chance to finally defeat Bonnie Blue, the one asterisk on that world title win of yours, the one whose title you had taken while never actually beating her.
Suddenly, Teo’s face cracks into a wicked grin as his eyebrows lower, chipped teeth barely visible through the lines of his mouth.
Teo Blaze: The one who took back her world title and exposed you in front of the world.
A creaky chuckle empties out from somewhere deep inside Teo as he shakes his head forlornly, as though reminiscing over a long forgotten memory.
Teo Blaze: You know Noble, I always suspected it. The measure of one’s character is not how they act in victory, but how they respond in defeat. Almost instantly upon realizing that people now saw a crack in your facade, a chink in your armor, you withdrew. You brought in enforcers, muscle, tried everything in your power to distract from the simple fact that you had just lost to the very person you tried to make your legacy off of.
And then? The excuses.
You could have done more, Bonnie pushed you to your limit, but you can push harder, you can this, you can that…with your friends on your side, the sky's the limit for Noble Savage!
And then...you saw something. You saw that Alex Richards, handed a title shot by virtue of a score to settle, was challenging Bonnie Blue. You saw that the same man that you had already once pinned for the World Championship was now challenging for it...and those gears started turning. You realized that if you could just influence things enough, that the path would be clear for you to claim that title, and you could skirt Bonnie by beating Alex.
So you brought your dogs, you brought yourself, and in an act of villainy so blatant, so disgusting it would make Beach Krew blush, you practically fixed the match. It was a master stroke, now all you had to do was waltz in and pick up the pieces. You believed you had played the entire WCF Galaxy like a fiddle and now only Alex Richards stood between you and the world championship.
Teo turns his head upwards towards the camera with a grin. For a brief instant, a light flashes across his lenses, seeming to change colors as it goes. Yellow, green, blue, purple, orange, and red. The colors of infinity.
Teo Blaze: But Noble, you should have known you couldn’t prepare for me. The truth is that although my hand was forced by recent events, I was never going to let it be that easy for you. Even if your toadie hadn’t made it personal, I had earned, through blood, sweat, and tears, the chance to control my destiny.
And unlike you, Noble? I don’t manipulate my circumstances. I do not! Try to force destiny. This belt guarantees me a championship match at any time, day or night. I could have walked down to the ring after our “champion” Alex Richards laid semi-conscious and pinned him with a finger.
But I didn’t do that.
And do you know why?
Because Noble, I am better than that.
Better than you.
I have forged myself, I have trained for this day, sharpened and refined myself since the day I walked in that door.
And I have always lived by one guiding principle alone, and that is that there is no victory without challenge.
There is no redemption without loss.
And there is nothing worth having that is not worth sacrificing for.
When I took up the Television Championship, I swore an oath that I would defend that championship with everything I had until I could give it no more. Even with a world title shot in my hand, even with the opportunity to literally steal the world…
My dedication was to that prize.
I swore that I would not stop fighting, would not stop until I had given myself fully to a championship that redefined me! A title that forced me to be at my best on every! Single! Night!
And do you know my reward?
Pain! Anguish! I was beaten time and again to my limits by some of the best talent this company has ever seen!
But still I gave. Still I poured everything I had into that championship.
And do you know what?
It made me better. It hardened me, made me realize exactly what it meant to take up the honor and the burden that comes with a championship.
You have never had to face that burden. You have always had the freedom to lose, the opportunity to fight another day. To bide your time and wait for a better opportunity. To strike like a viper in the grass.
Teo begins to wipe his hand across the sands, as if he is trying to dig lower, to reach for something beneath the sands, swiping his right hand back and forth to uncover the grains.
Teo Blaze: Noble, you are a being of pure delusion. You think of yourself as a killer, as one of the greatest wrestlers walking the planet, but you surround yourself with sycophantic followers whose sole existence is to tell you how great you are and just what you’re capable of. You believe you can manipulate destiny, make it softer, more malleable.
But you are fucking blind.
Teo’s eyes raise, and beyond the lenses, a wildfire is burning deep within them, his expression is tightly focused, any possible shred of humor burned away under the fiery grimace that now consumes his entire face.
Teo Blaze: You look at me and you see a has-been, a washout, someone who is only worthy of the television championship, someone whose greatest accomplishments have been lower tiers, someone who is not capable of winning the world championship.
As he says those words, his head tilts slightly to the side, his mouth breaks into a smile, but this is not an expression of joy. The angle is crooked, unnatural, the lines of his mouth jagged, as though the smile is the only thing holding back a scream of anger. The words seep from his open mouth in a dark manner, almost hanging in the air as he speaks.
Teo Blaze: Do you know how many times I have heard people tell me that I have never won the world championship? No matter how many records I have broken, no matter how many times I have taken championships and made them greater. No matter how many world champions I have beaten, no matter how many odds I defy, they can always cling to that same thing. That one little fact.
It burns inside me, it aches that people like you, that cowardly manipulators try to hold yourselves in higher regard than me by that lone accomplishment.
But when I held that Television Title, when I saw what I had to do to keep it for as long as I did?
I realized something, Noble.
It was never that I was not capable of winning the world championship…
It was that I wasn’t ready.
I had not known true sacrifice, I had not known true struggle. I had not let the forge of combat turn me into the man you now see standing before you.
The ability was always there, but I could not bring it out on my own. The World Championship was always my destiny, but it was a destiny that I had to earn.
That I had to deserve.
It is true that Tempest Razum was the one who finally took that Television Championship away from me.
But that was destiny as well.
The Television Title had nothing left to offer me, no more lessons to teach.
It was time to realize what Infinity had promised.
As Teo speaks, his hand brushes against something. He looks down at the sand and sees what appears to be a darkened wooden surface. He slowly reaches down and grabs it with his hand, and with a brief effort, extricates it from beneath the sands.
He now holds in his hand an ornate hourglass, carved wood with a curved glass center. He looks at it with a look of longing, the look hanging on it for an almost immeasurable time. But finally, and with a look of pure sadness, he reaches over and removes the top, leaving the top of the hourglass completely open and exposed. He slowly begins to turn it as he resumes speaking.
Teo Blaze: WCF will soon be resigned to history, the last grains in its hourglass are falling.
And it needs a saviour.
It needs someone who can preserve its legacy, someone to stop this sinister plan, someone to restore the world title to its former glory one final time before it breathes its last breath.
You, Noble Savage, you are a cancer on the WCF. You feed off of it, you use it like your own personal plaything, manipulating from behind the scenes to try and build a false legacy, to be remembered as a dominant hero rather than the lying, two-faced, heartless bitch you are.
The moment you realized you would never overcome the time witch, you twisted everything around you, you used Richards as a pawn in your disgusting, twisted scheme to seize the world, even if it meant taking the entire company down with you.
You have squandered what started as a promising career, you have withdrawn into a shell forged in your own insipid ego, so convinced, so determined that you are an unbeatable, unstoppable force that you actually believe you can control your fate, that you can hide from the truth that you were never as good as you think you are.
You have been exposed, Noble. The aura you once radiated diminishes with each and every passing second. You have withdrawn into a world supported by excuses and followers, and you have orchestrated every second of it to escape from the possibility, the mere suggestion that you could ever improve.
True strength does not come from those who win, Noble.
It comes from those who can fall time and time again, and never cease to get back up.
WCF needs someone who can save it from you, and it knew that Alex Richards was not the man to do it.
It knew just like I had, that any greatness Alex Richards once had was long buried beneath a sea of malaise, that when truly challenged he crumbled like wet tissue. That he only fights long enough to get his name in the history books before giving up entirely.
And that is why Destiny saw fit to take away my Television Championship.
Because I could not be both the WCF’s saviour and the Television Champion.
I had been built up, forged by defending it, by holding it.
But I needed to sacrifice one final time. I had to give up that title that I had poured my heart, my soul, my everything into.
Because I was always destined for something more.
So it was taken away. My treasure, my light, the thing that had driven me for so long.
Because the truths that I have always lived by are still as strong as they have ever been.
There is no victory that comes without sacrifice.
No redemption that comes without loss.
As the clock ticks down on the final days of the WCF, there is one final truth that I will now share with both of you.
I will not let that sacrifice be for nothing.
I was destined to give up my most precious treasure in order to gain something greater.
I had proven I was finally worthy of the responsibility.
That I was finally ready to take the world on my shoulders.
And though every second that passes is a reminder that something I loved so deeply is now gone, a painful memory of knowing that my time as Television Champion is now resigned to the past..?
I know that I cannot cling to the past. I cannot reclaim the moments that have passed.
There is a truer future on my horizon, my final destiny that I have fought for so long for awaits.
And it is only because of what I have sacrificed that I am finally able to grasp it.
Alex, Noble...you can deny destiny.
You can run from it.
But my destiny will arrive no matter what.
I am WCF’s Saviour, I will cut out the poison that is Alex Richards and the cancer that is Noble Savage.
And one last time, I will do the impossible.
As Teo speaks, the last bit of sand now falls from the empty hourglass. In the endless desert wastes, the little bit of sand has disappeared. Teo drops the items, turning and walking away as the camera slowly pans down to reveal an empty hourglass laying next to a tattered white and gold wrestling mask.
