Post by Teo Blaze on May 10, 2019 22:27:40 GMT -5
As the scene slowly fades in from black, there is something slightly off. Though it appears to be a WCF locker room, the scene that is playing out on the monitor shows a match that is years old at this point. On the monitor, a white and gold masked Teo del Sol has just unmasked Los Tiburones in the center of the ring. He stands triumphantly, holding up the mask, only to be hit from behind with a low blow! Tiburones takes advantage of the situation, quickly escaping through the cage door and seizing the Television Championship from the ringside area. As the crowd boos the fleeing Tiburones, the locker room almost seems to shift, fading to a scene of the masked Teo being consoled by his tag team partner and fellow member of “The People’s Choice”, Vic Venable.
Vic Venable: It’s okay man, you’ll get him next time!
Teo del Sol: How could I be so stupid? Like he’d care about me unmasking him...
Teo turns and slams his fist into one of the lockers, causing a noticeable dent. He cradles his fist, trying to hide the fact that punching metal actually hurts a lot. Vic responds by putting an arm over his shoulder sympathetically.
Vic Venable: Look Teo, you gotta realize at some point that not everybody plays by the same rules that you do. If you don’t wanna cheat, that’s fine, but you can’t expect someone like that to freak out just because you unmasked him.
Teo del Sol: It’s just...agh! What if I never get the Television Title again? This sucks!
Vic Venable: It always sucks to lose, man, that’s why they don’t call it winning! But you have to learn from it, that’s all.
Teo del Sol: I will be champion again, the people deserve it.
Vic Venable: Damn right they do, now come on, let’s go get you some ice.
The duo turn and walk out of the locker room as the scene slowly changes, fading away slowly on the locker room until there is nothing but darkness.
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The scene that greets the viewer now as the camera slowly fades in is much more familiar. The four-time Television Champion Teo Blaze is now leaning against a well-worn bar. He is smiling up at a glowing neon sign for “Whoop-Ass” beer, as well as a faded poster advertising vacation packages at Price tower. He reaches down and retrieves his drink, a translucent brown liquid in a shot-glass, and throws it back, letting the fiery liquid dance down his throat and warm his belly. He leans and looks up at the small, cracked CRT television. A blonde news reporter is giving a special report advertising WCF’s last show. Teo shakes his head forlornly, letting out a long sigh as he turns back towards his drink.
Suddenly, the monotony is cut by the sharp sound of a ringing bell from the entryway, signalling the arrival of a new customer. The young man walking in the door looks like a fairly typical college-journalism type. He has a long microphone plugged into a tape recorder and is currently fumbling about with the cord. He tries to plug it in, leading to a loud burst of microphone feedback echoing through the bar. Finally, however, the young man takes a seat next to Teo.
Young reporter: Um, excuse me, Mr. Blaze?
Teo takes another pull from his drink, emptying the glass this time.
Teo Blaze: You’re the one from WCFGalaxyunited.com, right?
Young Reporter: That’s me! Thank you so much for the interview by the way. I’ve been tweeting at so many different wrestlers, I-
Teo Blaze: Hold on, you mean I wasn’t your first choice?
The color almost seems to drain from the young man’s face; Teo had jokingly put a bit of anger into the question, doing his best to sound indignant. He had to admit though that the reaction was stronger than he had expected.
Teo Blaze: Calm down, just a joke, relax.
The young man collects himself with a weak laugh, and puts the microphone on the bar between them.
YR: Well, I don’t want to take up too much of your time Mr. Blaze, so let’s go ahead and get started.
Teo Blaze: Whenever you’re ready.
YR: This Saturday you’re going to be challenging for the WCF World Title for the fourth time in your career against Champion Alex Richards and Former Champion Noble Savage.
Teo Blaze: Fourth time not counting Showdown and War of course.
YR: Of course...and many people are actually considering you the underdog in this match, given that you have never beaten Noble Savage before.
Teo Blaze: Well there’s a first time for everything, isn’t there? But let me tell you this, anyone who is considering me an underdog in this match hasn’t been paying attention, and that goes for anyone who is considering me a dark horse. I have spent the better half of six months defending the Television Championship on the main event of Slam! Week in and week out, no exceptions, no weeks off. Prior to my loss to Tempest Razum, I had been undefeated since Helloween.
Now there are those that are going to jump on that loss, possibly my opponents themselves, but let me tell you why that is- it’s because that’s all they have. One mistake, one slip-up in six months of unchallenged dominance, in six months where I not only held the Television Championship, but managed to unite all six infinity stones at One and become a double champion for the third time in my career.
Look, I’m not going to stand here and try to muddy the facts...unlike a certain bipolar muppet and goodyear blimp I could mention... I lost the Television Championship, fair and square. But do you know who else lost in that time frame? Noble Savage! She lost twice in fact on Pay-Per-Views, to both Alex Richards and Bonnie Blue! Both of whom are names that I have beaten cleanly one on one! And as for Mr. Richards, there’s high profile losses at One as well as becoming a member of my undefeated streak’s list of names.
So yes, it’s true that I haven’t beaten Noble Savage in my one single match I’ve had with her. But when you look at the records, you look at what I have done, and if anything I am the best kept secret in the WCF right now.
YR: So you are confident you are going to win, then?
Teo pauses, seeming to consider the question for a moment before answering.
Teo Blaze: Confidence invites mistakes, young man. If you are absolutely sure of something, then you’re not going to take steps to ensure it happens. I have had my sights set on the WCF World Championship since the day I walked in the door, and it’s taken the likes of Dune, John Rabid, and Stephen Singh plus a team of police officers to keep me away from it.
Teo’s face curls into an expression of frustration, and almost involuntarily he slams his hand across the bar, sending his drink flying into the wall in an explosion of glass shards. The young reporter looks surprised by this, but Teo begins speaking, his voice no longer casual, but shifting into a roar!
Teo Blaze: I want this more than anything I have ever wanted in my entire life! When I close my eyes I see that gold flash in the darkness. Every second, every thought that goes through my mind is all focused on that world championship!
Teo grabs the stool from the bar side and picks it up over his head, launching it across the room where it collides with a stack of pool cues, clattering to the floor.
Teo Blaze: I knew, I fucking knew! That Noble Savage had something planned, some despicable doublecross or dirty trick. I remember when the name Noble Savage meant something, but the moment she got her fucking talons into that world title, the moment that she stole, and you can quote me, stole! The world championship, I saw the real Savage. That realization that she was willing to take any shortcut, rely on any underhanded tactic if it meant another day with that title that she never deserved to hold in the first place! Mark my words, if the One main event had been Bonnie Blue vs. Noble Savage, then she would not get to call herself a former world champion!
Because Noble Savage, for all of her claims of greatness, for all of her threats, doesn’t want to admit the simple and basic truth, and that is Noble Savage is scared!
The young reporter at this point has slowly backed away from Teo, thrown off by the unpredictability of his reactions. As Teo grabs a napkin dispenser from a table and hurls it across the rooml, the young man shakily tries to speak.
YR: S-sc-scared?
Teo Blaze: Yes! She is scared! Frightened! Intimidated! Fucking Horrified! At the reality that she is not as good as she thinks she is. Noble has constructed, and let me emphasize that word constructed, a reality where she is this amazing and unbeatable wrestler, someone around whom the world revolves!
And this worldview has been shaken to its very core by her continued mediocrity, her inability to succeed on a fundamental level beyond simply holding the world championship. Not defending it, not elevating it, not owning it- she was a title holder who just got lucky in the first place.
And Noble didn’t like that. But let me ask you, because I truly believe this is the measure of anyone’s character, when she was faced with her first major loss, her first major stepping stone to overcome..? She denied it. She withdrew, she refused to face that she, that the perfect Noble Savage was capable of anything other than fantastic success.
And then along came thing 1 and thing 2. Now Noble doesn’t even have to fight her own battles anymore! Because she is just too awesome, right? Because she is different than everyone else, better than everyone else.
Or maybe it’s her split personality! That’s it! She didn’t lose because of any natural limitations, she just needs to embrace her dark side, or maybe her light side, or is it the dark side? Or maybe her slightly dark, slightly light side, yeah! That’s the ticket!
Because she is too much of a damned coward to look herself in the mirror and say that she fucked up. That on that night, Bonnie was just better.
Teo reaches over the bar and grabs a bottle, ripping the cork out and taking a long drag from whatever liquor is inside.
Teo Blaze: It disgusts me, it makes me want to wretch even thinking about the fact that Noble Savage managed to worm her way into a title shot after screwing Bonnie, Alex, and the WCF Galaxy of the showdown we deserved.
It would have been so easy, so easy to walk down to the ring and pin Alex moments after Noble and her cronies forced the title on Richards, but I did not. Sitting in the back, I knew that if I cashed in then, I would be no better.
If I was going to truly overcome Noble, to show her once and for all the folly of her ways, there was only one way. To challenge fair and square in front of the world. Circumstances forced my hand, but I always knew that my chance would come again, and I will be damned if I let Noble Savage’s treachery be a stain on the memory of WCF!
With that, Teo turns and grabs the bar’s pool table by the legs, and with notable effort and a roar of emotion he lifts the enormously heavy contraption, tipping it towards the camera with one heavy movement. The green felt flies towards the screen covering the viewing area entirely as the camera slams to black.
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As the scene slowly fades back in, a familiar scene is waiting. It is a WCF locker room, almost identical to the first, all the way down to the dented locker. The image that plays on the monitor though is once again an older WCF match. Teddy Blaze is in the ring, standing over best friend Spencer Adams with the People’s Championship in hand. Not only is the belt on the line, but so is a spot in Ultimate Showdown. With tears in his eyes, Blaze rams the belt across his best friend’s face, knocking him down for the three count. The teary-eyed fans respond with a chorus of boos and chant’s of “Why?” As Blaze runs up the ramp, belt in hand.
As the match finishes playing out on the screen, almost immediately Blaze comes into the locker room, holding the still bloody People’s Championship in one hand and a cell phone in the other on speakerphone. A voice comes out at an audible volume.
Vic Venable: I did not just Fucking see that, Teo!
Teddy Blaze: Look Vic, I had no choice, he wouldn’t stay down!
Vic Venable: Wouldn’t stay down?? Am I hearing this from Teo del Sol?
Teddy Blaze: He knew the risks. This is the World Championship we’re talking about, when the hell am I going to get another-
Vic Venable: Fuck the world championship, that was your best friend you just hospitalized!
Teddy Blaze: Look, Vic, just calm down-
Vic Venable: You calm down! You son of a bitch, you don’t deserve the world title, and you don’t deserve that People’s Title! Fuck you, lose my number and forget we ever met!
Teddy Blaze: Don’t say that, Vic...Vic!
…
Dial tone.
Blaze inhales deeply for a moment, then turns and slams the cell phone against one of the lockers. It shatters into hundreds of pieces of plastic, flying about the locker room floor in a cascade of sparks. Blaze looks at his hand where it once sat, cut open by the glass. The blood begins to drip from his hand...landing on the People’s Championship, itself marred by the blood of his best friend.
Blaze drops the belt and throws himself down on the bench, looking down at the floor.
There is nothing left to say.
This is what it takes to be world champion.
If he had to sacrifice to achieve that dream...then so be it.
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The scene that greets the viewer now is a chaotic mess, the results of Teo’s emotional outburst evident throughout the bar. Teo is now sitting next to a very frazzled looking young reporter, the two of them sitting on the floor and leaning against the pool table. Teo is glaring daggers ahead, the half-empty bottle now sitting in his left hand. With each passing moment he raises it to his lips to empty a little more, but his steely eyed expression remains the same.
Young Reporter: So...what about Richards then?
Teo snorts, a sound that almost seems like laughter, but the expression remains virtually unchanged. Each word that he speaks drips with the same venomous anger he has spewed towards Noble.
Teo Blaze: Alex Richards is a fat, overrated slug who was in the right place at the right time, same as always. Quote me on that.
The reporter looks to his tape recorder, smashed beneath him as the result of some previous outburst and nods, looking at Teo, who is busy emptying out the bottle as fast as he can.
Teo Blaze: There’s a part of me that wants to like Alex Richards. To laugh at the jokes, the jabs.
But I realized something about Alex long ago. He doesn’t care about the WCF. He doesn’t care about the fans, he doesn’t care about anybody except Alex fuckin’ Richards.
I’ve gone on at length about the times that he let down the WCF Galaxy, whether it was the implosion of Pantheon, his announcement that he would face Zombie McMorris for the Internet title at One, only to disappear before the match ever officially happened. Zombie ended up holding the belt almost the rest of the year until I beat him at One the next year.
I gave the people what they wanted to see, a true Internet Championship match at One. Alex Richards said he wanted to move on, that he was too good for the belt, that he had nothing left to prove.
The arrogance, the sheer and unadulterated ignorance of that statement continues to confound me to this day. To ever think that you are bigger than a championship- to spit in the face of every single competitor who ever fought and bled for it. I may have ultimately lost the internet championship to Katherine Phoenix, but at least I gave a damn about the match and lost with my honor intact. Alex’s internet title reign ended at showdown without so much as a whimper, and he never bothered going after it again, even when people were crying, begging! For a Zombie match.
Because Alex Richards only cares about himself. Simple as that. If Alex Richards isn’t getting something out of the deal, then mark my words, he will walk away from or betray everyone that ever had the common decency to give a damn about his fat ass.
Young Reporter: You think so?
Teo Blaze: I’ve seen it firsthand. Look back to Mexico- I am not going to pretend to know everyone’s motivations but I do know this: Alex Richards was not only one of the first ones gone from the company, but he also took the longest to return out of just about anyone who left. Minus the ones who never came back of course.
And you know why he came back? It’s not hard to figure out. It’s not because of any sense of honor or loyalty, it’s not because WCF is the reason anyone gave a damn about him in the first place, oh no.
He returned because he wanted to be a champion again. Look at his actions, whether hounding the Monstimals for a tag team Title shot for months or forcing his way into the One Main event because of his victory over Savage, every action Alex Richards has taken has been to one end and one end alone, and that is with that World Championship around his waist.
Well congratulations Alex, after all these years, after all this time, you get to be known as the guy who Noble Savage handed the world title to. You get to be the World Champion who pinned his own former best friend after she was beaten. That’s how much it meant to you to get your name on that history page, that you were willing to be a laughingstock of a world champion too stupid to realize he’d been made a fall guy!
And you have the arrogance, the ignorance, the fucking gall to look me in the eyes after all this time and still treat me like I’m a rookie? To look down on My career?
And you still cling to that same old Chestnut, Alex. “Teo’s good, but he’s never been world Champion”. As if that fucking means anything coming out of your damn mouth.
No Alex, I have not been World Champion, but I’ve beaten Bonnie Blue fair and square.
If I had been in that match in your place, I would be world champion right now too.
But I don’t want that accomplishment, if I did I would have walked down that ramp and cashed in on you then and there. Erase that stain of a championship “win” before it even had the chance to blight the television screens of the WCF Galaxy.
But I didn’t do that. Because unlike you Alex, I know that a champion is only as strong as the way he wins, and the way he loses. Now since I announced my participation you have made a point of emphasizing my Television Title loss to Tempest Razum.
I don’t deny it, I lost that match.
But Alex, consider this. Tempest Razum did what you couldn’t. Tempest managed to be the one to catch me in that one instant and take the Television Title.
So if Tempest could beat me for the Television Title, and you couldn’t..? Then what does that say about you?
But sure enough, Alex will desperately try to emphasize it. “Look at this, Teo lost ONE match!”
Because that’s all Alex has. He knows when he looks in my eyes, he can see what I’m feeling. When I look at that belt around his waist...the world goes quiet. No sound, no voices, nothing. All I can see is that gold staring back at me, my reflection in its polished surface. I’ve watched it from afar for four years. I have come within instants of claiming it, and it took the likes of Dune to keep it away from me. It took a full contingent of armed police officers to keep it away from me.
It calls to me, do you understand? I see it and I want nothing more than to be in the ring, to spill my blood, to tear away at whoever holds it until there’s nothing left!
When I see that championship, I see destiny! I see the one prize that has eluded me, that has been so close to my grasp time and time again and slipped through my fingers!
Because I was not worthy. I was not ready. I still had to grow.
So time and time again I have let myself fail, let myself fall, and no matter how low I got, no matter how many times I suffered for it, I got up again and again!
Only now, at the end of WCF, do I see that every match I have had, every obstacle I’ve overcome, every thing I’ve given up and every heartbreak has all been to turn me into the saviour that so many believed I could be!
It has been painful, it has been agonizing, I have stood in the ring and felt tears fall from my eyes every single time that I have failed.
But that feeling, that loss, that pain? It drives me.
It pushes me.
Everything I have suffered, every scar, every drop of blood spilled has all been building up to this moment, this one chance! The WCF Galaxy has called on me to risk everything one final time! Not to go after the Television Championship, not to settle any scores.
WCF asked me to give up infinity for one chance at the world.
So I made that sacrifice. I gave up the very thing I had worked so hard to attain.
Because that was WCF’s final lesson for me.
There is no victory without sacrifice.
But there is also no victory without risk.
If I wanted the chance to do what I have always known I can do...I had to give up something in return. I had to lose something that I would never get back or else I would never get the chance to take that risk again.
There are other roads I could have taken. Rematch Tempest for the Television title and retire as infinity champion.
Maybe cash in after Alex and Noble kill each other and sneak away with a cheap win.
But I knew in my heart this is the way it had to be.
If I did not put everything I had worked for, everything I had sacrificed on the line, then I could not call myself worthy of the World Championship.
Alex may be a pawn in Noble’s plan, she may have handed him the World, even if he’s too stupid to realize it.
But there is justice in this universe. There is retribution.
And everything happens for a reason.
I am the Saviour of the WCF, I am the one who will put the World back in order.
And I can only lay claim to that title because of what I had to lose to get there.
Teo takes another long drink from the bottle, then turns and offers it to his companion. The young reporter waves off the gesture as Teo grins, taking another drink as the scene slowly fades.
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As the scene slowly fades in, the viewer is once again greeted by the familiar locker room, but the match that plays is far more recent. It is XIII, and Teo has just been pinned by Dune despite kicking out of multiple Sandstorms. The match has taken place at the bottom of a basin in the Mojave, but after a moment Teo fades in, sitting with the tattered mask. He stares at the screen, shaking his head listlessly. He had been so close to winning the World Championship, and yet it had just not been enough.
He removes the mask and tosses it aside. He had taken to wearing it again specifically because of the fan outcry. Truth be told, he had enjoyed the nostalgia, but it was not enough to upend one of the most dominant champions ever.
He turns toward his locker, opening it and reaching into his bag, stuffing the mask inside. He didn’t understand why it didn’t work. He had done everything that the people had asked of him, put on the mask, been happy go lucky...but the result stayed the same.
As he reaches through the bag, his hand brushes up against something. Something that he had long forgotten about. He turns to look, and his hand slowly grasps it, pulling from some long untouched pocket a very familiar pair of red sunglasses.
As he looks at them, the result from the monitor plays again, as if on a loop. Teo shakes his head, but the thought remains. What if the problem was that he was trying to recapture something lost..?
What if the answer wasn’t something old, but something new?
He stares at the glasses in his hand, considering them carefully, then places them back in the bag.
Mask, glasses...it didn’t matter. One way or another, come hell or high water, he would be world champion, no matter what he wore.
If he just worked hard enough, one day his chance would come again...and no matter what, he would make the most of it.
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As the scene slowly fades in from darkness for the final time, Teo is no longer seated in the bar, but instead he stands in a sight that is even more familiar than the WCF locker room. With his arms stretched out and in full ring gear, taking in the magnitude of the sight, Teo Blaze stands in the empty arena, the site of WCF’s swan song.
His eyes are closed, and he appears for all intents and purposes he is completely lost in thought.
Finally though, after a moment that seems to hang much longer than it actually is, he opens his eyes and begins to speak.
Teo Blaze: I never thought this day would come, or certainly that I would find myself at the center of it. Think about it Alex, Noble...this is it. This is the last time we will make this walk.
Teo shakes his head mournfully, as if remembering a fallen friend, and despite the somberness of the words, looks at the camera with a smile.
Teo Blaze: But at the end of the day, I’m going to treat it just like any other show. I am coming out with one purpose and one alone, and it’s the same purpose I’ve had since day one in this company.
To win.
And to put on a hell of a show in the process.
But before I conclude, I have one final thing I would like to say to you. Because I know that both of you are thinking it. You’re thinking that I have never been world champion, that simply put, I cannot do what you have already done.
It’s the biggest black mark you can throw at me, the idea that there is a ceiling that I can just not break through.
To that I would like to say the following....I know that neither one of you could ever do what I have done.
Do you realize that I have held more than twice as many belts as both of you combined? That I have had more title defenses than Noble has had matches in the company? That I have held nearly every belt the company has ever produced?
I have seen the way that you look at me, the way you try and undermine my accomplishments, to cast doubt on what I have done.
Because you’re frightened.
You know that this has been coming for a long, long time.
Every division, every title that I have had the honor to compete in, I have elevated. Every opponent I have ever gotten in the ring with has gone on to greater heights.
Every win, every loss has all been building towards this moment. You can choose to bury your head in the sand, to think of me as some rank amateur with his head in the clouds....
But that Teo is long gone.
I needed that Teo to become who I am today, but if you honestly expect that Teo to walk down the ramp..?
It’s going to be a reckoning.
My chips are down, I have given up everything. My health, my well-being, my television championship, and even the one and only infinity championship.
Because when destiny asks you to risk everything? You grab destiny and you hold on.
You never let go, you never! Let it get away.
Because moments like this do not fall from the sky.
They are made.
And they are earned.
I am here today only because I have paid every price that the WCF has asked of me.
And in doing so I am prepared to be the Saviour of WCF, to cut out the cancers and the poisons of ego and manipulation.
Teo chuckles as he looks up at the ring lights.
Teo Blaze: You see Alex, Noble...it’s as simple as this. You believe the world revolves around you.
But everyone knows that the world? Revolves around the Sun.
As Teo finishes, he holds his hands out to the side. The camera slowly pans upward towards the arena ceiling, which fades away to reveal a clear blue sky, dominated by the shining white Sun.
