Post by The Paragon of Hardcore on May 11, 2008 18:58:50 GMT -4
~Wednesday, May 7th....~
*I know that this week's Monday Night Overdrive takes place in North Carolina... but that's not where the pirated transmission of Sex and Violence: Version X's Personal Cameraman, Emrys cuts in. Instead the scene is the outside of what until a month or so ago was an abandoned disused building that was once known as Sports Plus in a town called Lake Grove in Long Island, New York. This place was once teeming the American Public. People of all ages from small children to teenagers to adults once packed out this building for a myriad of reasons... I could've been for the giant, cutting edge arcade that this building housed... It could've been for the family fun of its 40 Lane Bowling Alley... It could've been for the expansive Ice Skating Rink that used to host the minor league Long Island Ducks Hockey Team... It could've been for the two Sports Bars upstairs... Or it could've been for what was once known as the Sports Plus Events Center... Also known as the IWC Arena that hundreds of fans would flock to weekly to see Insane Wrestling Championships and stars like Hurricane Jeff, Twister, Trevor Blackwell, Dominique Maxwell and Kaos...*
*Now as the #1 Contender to the APW World Heavyweight Championship, The King of Hardcore, "The Career Killer" Trevor Blackwell stood outside its cracked glass double doors... it held so much more. To The Hardcore Icon, this building now held the future of this industry... Inside is a wrestling school that Trevor Blackwell quietly opened a couple of months ago... Inside is a place that he likes to call The Blackwell Academy... but its first string of students give it a much more dramatic name... Behind the backs of their instructors, they call this place the House of Tortured Souls...*
*Emrys follows his employer through the doors into the airconditioned building. The ruins of what used to be a huge arcade now spread out before them... Old disused cabinets that once housed video games dot the landscape as they stroll through, The Excellence of Extreme's ever-present Singapore Cane at his side. They walk up what used to be an escalator when it had power hooked up to it... now as stationary as any regular flight of stairs. Trevor scrapes his Singapore Cane across the concrete walls with a satisfying "SCREECH" as they make a left through another set of doors into the hallway outside The Blackwell Academy.*
*Without a word, The Career Killer stands in the doorway, looking out at the wrestling ring amidst the small convention hall of seats. Around the squared circle are six young students... all between the ages of 17 and 24... eagerly looking up and listening to the lecture being given by the three instructors inside the ring.*
*David Xavier Christensen... A man they used to call Rocker... A career midcarder but a loyal friend and ally of the man they call The King of Hardcore. When former IWC Owner, Steve Beckett flew Trevor and Emrys out here on his private jet, Rocker was the first person he spoke to. They've had their differences over the years... And Rocker was never the greatest when it came to pumping up a crowd on the microphone... but he is loyal. And there are few high flyers in the business today that can teach you ring awareness the way this man can. He is dedicated, as he has always been, to the promoting the future of Professional Wrestling. What more could Trevor Blackwell ask for in an instructor for his new students...*
*Kristina Blackwell... The Hardcore Princess... His own little sister... Here is a girl who knows what intensity is all about... Here is a girl who knows how to work a crowd like few others. Here is a girl who at only 19... around the same age as her students... has already wrestled in Mexico, IWC, WWC, TCW, APW... The list goes on and on for a girl so young... She took him to Hell and back at APW Carnage before he finally defeated her to become the first ever APW Xtreme Heavyweight Champion. She said she needed a break from the business... this is her way of keeping in ring shape. And again, the Future of this industry couldn't ask for a better teacher.*
*Finally we come to the man who now addresses his students... George Greer... A man once known the world over as Glove Guy... former CWF Combat Champion... former IWC Suicidal Champion... and the Head Instructor at The Blackwell Academy... The students call him The Grand Inquisitor behind his back... He works them harder then anyone else they've ever met in their lives... He has been one of Trevor Blackwell's most loyal and closest confidants throughout the majority of his career... He is a smoking buddy and an ear to vent to and a valuable ally in ever stable The Career Killer has ever ran before Action Packed Wrestling... A horrible horseback riding accident ended what was sure to be a Hall of Fame career... but Glove Guy is still one of the most decorated competitors in the History of Professional Wrestling... and a tecnical wrestler the likes of which this business has never seen before or since... This is the reason Trevor Blackwell is here today... why he is so far away from the arena in which this week's Monday Night Overdrive will be held... He has a match against a true technical wrestler... A young upstart Lambardo looking to make a name for himself that wasn't set up before him by his older brother... A man who calls himself The Submission Technician...*
*Despite popular belief, "The Career Killer" Trevor Blackwell is quite the accomplished Technical Wrestler himself... He may not dabble in Mixed Martial Arts... He may carry a Singapore Cane in his hand and put people through Flaming Tables... He may be The Excellence of Extreme... But he trained in the famed Hart Family Dungeon in Calgary, Alberta, Canada with the venerable Bret "The Hitman" Hart... and maybe he needs Glove Guy and his students to remind him of that... It would be so easy to just beat Vin E. Lambardo into submission this Monday... It would be so easy to give him a Full Throttle through a table and knock the boy unconscious for the pin... But where would the satisfaction be? He wants to beat The Submission Technician at his own game... Time to go back to basics...*
Glove Guy: To survive in the world of Professional Wrestling you need more then just a few flashy moves... You need to be able to take the crowd in the palm of your hand and manipulate them to react the way you want them to. Love you or hate you... you have to make them care... You have to make them want to pluck down their hard earned money. Alright, everyone in the ring... 300 Wind Sprints apiece...
*The students groan and get ready to climb into the ring when a familiar voice echoes across the arena... familiar to anyone with a television set in the last five years anyway*
Trevor: You've never been able to do 300 Wind Sprints in your life, Glover...
*The students let out a collective gasp and suddenly rethink their decisions to climb into the ring. Here is the man they signed up to learn from... Here is the man they aspire to be like some day... The King of Hardcore stalks down the aisle and climbs into the ring, Singapore Cane in hand. He looks to his old friend but The Hardcore Princess intercepts her big brother with a huge hug.*
Kristina: Took you long enough to get down here... the school is going great... Wait... aren't you supposed to be in North Carolina?
*David Xavier Christensen pushes past her, shaking his old ally's hand. He looks a bit older and more weathered then the last time he was shown on Worldwide Television... but he's still the same old Rocker.*
Rocker: Yeah... I hear you got a World Title Shot coming up against Kaos. Man, those were the days. Fighting alongside guys like you and Glover and Andy McHeyman and Matt Metal...
I hear Diana's getting ready to marry Kenny... no accounting for taste I guess...
*David is Diana Steel's ex-boyfriend... He has plenty of reasons to be bitter... Losing to the better man is only one of them... But Diana was never his. She was always Kenny's. David was just borrowing her for a minute... Kinda like Trevor did... But at least he got a beautiful little girl named Skylar out of the deal... The Hardcore Icon just smiles, shouldering his Singapore Cane.*
Trevor: Yeah... I don't know where her head is these days... Diana's all over Kenny's CoK. But it won't matter. She'll leave him as soon as he loses the title to me at Mayhem anyway. I have more immediate concerns though. I'm facing his little brother, Vin E. Lambardo this week at Monday Night Overdrive.
*Glove Guy laughs and steps through his associates. He looks Trevor Blackwell up and down and the two instantly engage in a very heterosexual, manly hug.*
Trevor: Holy Shit, Glover! Its been way too fucking long... How's your back doing? How are these kids measuring up?
*Glove Guy smiles and releases his old friend, tightening the leather gloves on his hands and looking almost identical enough to Hurricane Jeff to be his brother.*
Glove Guy: Meh, my back is holding up but my days of wrestling competitively are over... I'm holding up the ideal that you created way back in the Combat Wrestling Federation with The Future Shock. I'm making sure that these kids will be the next household names in our industry. They don't like me very much but that's because I push them to the limits of their human potential. I show them that they're capable of so much more then they give themselves credit for. They'll love me for it someday when they're headlining pay per views.
*A murmur of conversation passes through the students and Glove Guy immediately snaps at them like a drill sergeant.*
Glove Guy: SHUT THE FUCK UP!! 100 LAPS AROUND THE RING! EVERY LAST ONE OF YA'S!
*The former IWC Suicidal Champion composes himself and turns back to his friend like the outburst never happened.*
Glove Guy: But that's not why you're here, Trev... I've been watching APW... You're facing that Submission Technician kid this Monday... Seems like you've fogotten what its like to make people tap, haven't you?
*Trevor Blackwell flashes a sheepish grin as his ice blue eyes flash with embarassment, his hand scratching at the back of his head.*
Trevor: Yeah... I guess I have gott--
*The Hardcore Icon is suddenly cut off as Glove Guy takes the former APW Xtreme Champion to the mat like he was Chris Benoit looking for a Crossface and locks on a Fujiwara Armbar. The students suddenly stop running, almost bulldozing each other over as they watch their instructor make The Career Killer squirm in pain. He rolls onto his free shoulder and straight through, reversing Glove Guy's leverage and leaving him on his stomach as The Excellence of Extreme holds onto the arm and wraps the other before driving both knees into the small of his friend's back and wrenching in with a dangerous Butterfly Lock. With seemingly nowhere to go, he still refuses to lose face in front of his students. Out of desperation, Glove Guy slams the back of his skull into Trevor's face, forcing him to recoil in pain and release the hold. Glove Guy rolls underneath the #1 Contender and comes out with his leg, standing up and elevating him into a painful Anklelock. Trevor Blackwell panics for a moment and squirms in pain, obviously out of his element as he reaches for the ropes before finally centering himself. He rolls straight through the hold and sends Glove Guy flying into the ropes. Before he can reach them, The King of Hardcore is back on his feet wrapping his arms around his opponent's waist and sending Glove Guy over with a brutal Release German Suplex that leaves the man crumpled to the mat in a heap. Quick to press his advantage and smelling blood on the water, the eldest of the Pack of Wolves called The Blackwells immediately seizes up Glover's legs in a painful variation of The Sharpshooter that he's dubbed the Strong Island Twist. Glove Guy flails for a few moments before finally realizing that he's in the middle of the ring with nowhere to go and the march larger Blackwell has him locked... he inevitably taps out. But the Career Killer's ice blue eyes have gone large and cold... the color completely drowning out the whites of his eyes... almost making him look blind and alien as he refuses to relinquish the hold. Kristina and Rocker are immediately on him, snapping him out of his reverie and finally forcing him to release Glove Guy. The former CWF Combat Champion scurries to the outside, holding his knee in pain as the students applaud.*
*Christensen claps The Career Killer on the shoulder and hands him his Singapore Cane.*
Rocker: Man... Vin E. Lambardo has no clue what he's in for, does he? Never underestimate a Blackwell!
*Trevor smiles as he looks down at Glove Guy who flashes him a thumbs up that says he's ok*
Trevor: I'm not worried at all. Don't get me wrong. Lambardo has talent. But I'm going to take out all of my aggression at his older brother on his little red headed ass. The Crucible won't matter once I take out his legs and the fucker can't get any leverage. If he thinks I'm a fucking stepping stone, he's sadly mistaken. He's going to be begging Jeff for matches with Jason Royce and The Hardcore Kid once I'm done with him. Its a shame that kid is such a big fan of CoK. I could've used a human weapon like him.
*A couple of students start conversing again before a stocky kid slides underneath the ropes. The boy... no more then 19 himself, is built like a refridgerator. His eyes show a bit of fear but he seems determined.*
Student: Excuse me, Mr. Blackwell?
*The Hardcore Icon wheels on him and the boy recoils like he's about to be struck.*
Trevor: Name's Trevor... Who the hell are you?
*The kid seems to summon up a reserve of willpower that wasn't there before. Courage gets men killed sometimes...*
Student: My name is Brian Puccio. My friends call me Pooch. I'm a huge fan. But what are you going to do after you lose at Mayhem to Kenny Lambardo? I mean, I saw that Iron Man match last month. Interference or no interference... you're still not World Champion...
*The other students gasp but one boy in the crowd smiles... a lanky looking goth kid who must be half Puerto Rican... Trevor's eyes flash with rage and for a moment he doesn't see this "Pooch" kid... For a moment he sees The Submission Technician... The boy's short black hair is replaced by a shock of red in The Career Killer's fractured mind. In a flash of rage, Trevor Blackwell cracks his Singapore Cane over Brian's face. The impact sends the kid into the ropes as he bounces back only to be hoisted onto The Excellence of Extreme's shoulders only to be driven to the mat with a serious Full Throttle. The boy rolls out of the ring into the impressed and astounded arms of his classmates.*
Another Student: Told you that would work! I can't believe you just took a fucking Full Throttle!
*Pooch holds the back of his head in pain as he glares at his friend.*
Pooch: Shit, Dan... that Full Throttle fucking hurt!
*Trevor Blackwell smiles down at the students... now only seeing Brian Puccio as his rage fades.*
Trevor: Welcome to the business, Kid...
*He notices Glove Guy as he slides back into the ring, giving a quick hug and kiss to his little sister and shaking Rocker's hand.*
Trevor: Thanks guys... I needed that... Keep up the good work here. I gotta catch a flight to North Carolina. I got a match to win...
*Glove Guy turns to his longtime friend as Kristina cleans up the shattered Singapore Cane and Christensen goes to check on his beaten student. He slaps another student named Dan Russel in the back of the head for putting Pooch up to it and sends everyone to the showers.*
Glove Guy: So what else can we do to help?
*The Career Killer smiles as he walks through the door. The camera fades out on his words.*
Trevor: Pray for Vin E. Lambardo...
