Promos for PWA: Reckoning

[Pennyworth]

Pennyworth is accosted by Ronnie Stockholm when coming out of the medical room.

STOCKHOLM: Richard Pennyworth, I'm looking for a few words on what happened tonight.

PENNYWORTH: A few words? Stockholm, I've got more than just a few words. But I'll try to keep it brief. Two season-ending pay-per-views in a row now, I've been unjustly assaulted by The Union. Fortunately, this time was not nearly as devastating, and I've already been cleared by the PWA medical staff to compete again. So thankfully, I haven't lost my earned title shot thanks to their cowardly actions.

PENNYWORTH: Speaking of cowardly, once again, Akira Wyld showed his stripes. I was looking forward to a touch of revenge, taking his title from him. I was looking forward to a triple-threat match. I was looking forward to Wyld finally getting what was coming to him. But, like the chicken-shit that he is, Akira Wyld bravely tucked his tail between his legs and ran away. He knows he can't beat me. He knows I was in his head. He knew that when that match ended, I would have been NWC World Champion -- and the Union can't have that. Can't have a major dominating stable without holding a title, now can we? So of course they schemed, and plotted, and not only did Akira not compete or put his title on the line, but they violently attacked not only the legitimate competitors who were actually doing their job, but Gary Bloomfield, sitting at ringside talking about the match.

PENNYWORTH: But all of that, Stockholm, is water under the bridge at the moment. I'll have to deal with it at a later time, because I was able to retain my title shot. In just a couple of days, Mac and I step back into the ring for a title shot. The fact is...I don't like Mac. I find him to be a bit hot-tempered, his brand of hard-hitting in your face wrestling goes against everything I've trained to be. I'm one of the best submission artists in PWA today. I'm a technical wrestler. What he is, to me, is just a thug playing dress-up. But the fact is, he's damned good at what he does, and he is the PWA Heavyweight Champion for a reason. I don't have to like him to respect him. I have no personal enmity towards the champ. But since this is the shot I have...this is the shot I'm taking. No hard feelings, Mac, but I'm taking your belt.

Pennyworth walks off without looking back.

STOCKHOLM: There you have it, ladies and gentlemen. A very determined Richard Pennyworth looking forward to his title shot at PWA Reckoning.

[Nick Spoils]

Nick Spoils stands in front of a King of Deathmatch backdrop.

SPOILS: So, we at last see the true stripes. Damion Black has come out and shown the world what he has been plotting since PWA began. The way he abused his workers. Fortunately, when the Reckoning comes, we will FINALLY be rid of that scourge when Akira Wyld makes Black pay his dues.

SPOILS: But there is another match at Reckoning. When the Union, represented by Brawler Beckett, Nakamura Yamasaki, and Armageddon takes on the PWA forces of the Coldsnakes, Kevin Starr, and Derrik Arzon. All eight men fought just yesterday, and they're being forced to fight again tomorrow night. Gentlemen, I ask you if this is fair. Just two weeks ago, Ragnarok was injured in a match that then continued. This week, we all have two matches in three days. Damion Black is abusing his workers. He is creating an unsafe work environment, and we all have to suffer.

SPOILS: So, at Reckoning, we have just one question to ask of the four of you. Do you feel like a valued member of this roster? Do you feel like Damion Black has cared for your health? Do you feel like if you were injured that you'd be given the necessary time off to heal? If not...stay home. Join the strike. When the rest of you pay your dues, you will see that you made the right choice.

SPOILS: Should you all decide to show...well, there's nothing I can do for you.

[Quillz]

***The scene opens backstage shortly after the PWA King of Deathmatch Supercard. NWC World Champion Akira Wyld is pacing back and forth in the Union locker room with his championship belt gripped tightly to his chest.***

WYLD: “I’ve seen some low tactics in my time, but you take the cake Damion Black. Tonight, you cheated your loyal viewers out of a glorious and hard fought end to an amazing Supercard. As the Union stood tall at the end of the MAIN EVENT, you had to come down and push your big nose into our business. How dare you. How dare you steal a hard won finish from the locker room superstars. And for what? For a few hundred thousand more PPV buys? For a chance to make yourself the main event? For an opportunity to spring a well laid trap on the hero of this story?”

***Wyld stares down at the belt grasped in his hands.***

WYLD: “You think you have this situation under control. You think you can flex your pocket book and create a second Supercard out of thin air and undo everything I’ve worked so hard for. You think that you’ve finally got me where you want me, don’t you Black? You actually believe that you’re just one match and a three-count away from being rid of the Surgical Assassin once and for all. Well think again movie star. I’m just getting started.”

***Wyld takes a deep breath and closes his eyes.***

WYLD: “For the past three seasons, the PWA Armada has watched our conflict escalate into all-out war. For two years, you and I have been on a collision course that could only ever end one way.”

***Wyld stops pacing and stares at the camera.***

WYLD: “Since the inception of PWA we have been at each other’s throats... but in actuality, this cold war has been brewing for more than a DECADE before than that. It’s time your precious fans admitted that. Years ago in Pro Wrestling SHAFT, you could never live down the fact that you were nothing but a poor man’s replacement... for ME. You’d never admit it to the sheep and fanboys that worship you, but you’ve lived in the long shadow of my wrestling greatness for your entire career! Your career highlight reel is nothing more than a cover band playing MY greatest hits. Only... you weren’t STRONG enough to ride that comparison to its conclusion. While I stayed the course and became a take -no-prisoners, hell-or-high-water e-fed LEGEND, you quit the game and sold out! You used your money and your fame to white-wash your career and reinvent yourself as Damion Black, the benevolent dictator. You created PWA as a monument to your reincarnation. Everyone here.... every champion and curtain jerker, is here at the service of your MASSIVE ego. And nobody but Akira Wyld has has the guts to call you on your bull crap!”

***Wyld points at the camera.***

WYLD: “You and your crooked wrestling media empire might try to paint me as delusional, but the fact is that I’m right... and you know it. People THINK that The Union is all about grabbing power and winning championships... but in reality, it’s all about EXPOSING you for the fraud that you are! Your idiot fans think I’m here to run PWA into the ground... but the TRUTH is that I’m here to save the damn world... from you.”

***Wyld looks up at the lights and smiles.***

WYLD: “And now... tomorrow night... everything The Union and I have worked for pays off. You finally did it. You put control of your company on the line in a one-on-one match with ME. You idiot... you arrogant, self-important fool. You’ve played RIGHT into my hands, and in front of the world, I’m going to destroy you. And then... this facade... this house of cards you’ve banked your career and reputation on... it will all come tumbling down.”

***Wyld holds up the title to the camera in one hand.***

WYLD: “Putting this prestigious title on the line... risking this championship of championships for the chance to bring you to your knees... well that’s a risk I’m willing to take.”

***Wyld smirks and slings the belt over his shoulder.***

WYLD: “Hah, but what risk is it really? One-on-one with ‘you?’ Black, on your best day you couldn’t beat me... and this isn’t even your best day. You were a force in the ring at one time. But you’ve wrestled... what? Two or three times in the past five years? You think with that kind of ring rust you can hang with a WORLD champion who has been destroying the competition night in and night out for the past three seasons of PWA? The greatest lie you’ve sold those sheep out there is that you have any gas left in your tank at all. You’re a face and a name and a check book. That’s all you are. You’re a hollow BRAND Damion Black. And after tomorrow night, you won’t even be that anymore.”

***Wyld approaches the camera and scowls.***

WYLD: “Tomorrow night... everything ends... and everything begins. Tomorrow night your mask will be removed and the world will see you for the fraud you are. Tomorrow night... there WILL be a reckoning.”

***The camera fades to darkness.***

[Ameronth]

*The camera fades in and shows the large interior of a beautiful and expensively furnished room in what apparently is a mansion. Sitting on a black leather sofa and dressed in a black Armani suit, hair pulled back tightly and perfectly in a tail, is the owner of PWA, Damion Black. Black looks at the camera.

BLACK: "Last night, what I said in the ring was spur of the moment. I reacted to what happened last night, and really what has been happening this past several weeks, with a gut reaction. I didn't really even think about what I said or did. As soon as Akira Wyld pulled out of that triple threat match, I reacted. I had had enough and I let the Union and everyone else know, and I did everything I could to put myself in a position to stop the Union once and for all. I did not have much time to think about it last night, but I have had plenty of time since then, with my match against Akira Wyld one short day away, and I have come to a conclusion."

*Damion pauses and looks directly into the camera*

"There is nothing I would change.

"The Union has done as they see fit for whatever reason they felt at the time. They have attacked members of the PWA roster without provocation. They have sullied the reputation of my company and, by proxy, myself. They have slandered me. They demean the sport of professional wrestling with their bullying and posturing. I have been an actor in Hollywood, a star in amateur sports, and I run a few successful businesses. More than anything, I am first and foremost a professional wrestler. I have avoided competing in PWA because that would create a conflict of interest and I would not risk my legacy or my company's reputation. Akira Wyld has forced my hand and so, for one night only, I will compete in a PWA ring. In my company's wrestling ring. This is not something I do lightly. Indeed, the stakes for me personally are the highest. Look around you..."

*Damion raises his hands and indicates the room around him.*

"All of this was obtained by my hard work and business sense, and all of this is tied in to Prestige Wrestling Association. Tomorrow night, Akira, you have not only the opportunity to ruin my company and my wrestling brand, you have the opportunity to ruin everything I have worked for. Everything I have, everything I own, everything I have created. My legacy. My name. All of it will be in your destructive hands should you win our match tomorrow night. I know full well what is at stake for me. I have everything to lose and I will fight as if I have everything to lose. And really, that is the difference between you and I, Akira.

"It is clear that you will not risk very much in our contest compared to what I will risk. All you stand to lose is a title that evidently means little more to you than a representation of imagined leverage you believe it gives you. You have everything to gain tomorrow night: power over this company, power over my fate. Everything you wanted you can gain in one night. You will be fighting like a man with nothing to lose. And when you meet that first major hurdle, that first real gut check, you are going to crumble. You will break. You will doubt and you will falter. Then you will run and there will be no place to run. I will be there, waiting, and I will take my opportunity and I will defeat you and bring your clouded mind back to reality.

"Your father taught you everything you know about wrestling, but you have one final lesson to learn, Akira, and I will be your instructor. The lesson is a hard lesson, but the concept is simple. It is just this: wrestling.... is a Black thing."

[Stu]

*** ROBERT MACELROY is in the locker room, a trainer carefully tending to the wound he sustained to his face from the baseball bat strike ***

TRAINER: “... to the ER, Mac. I don’t have the facilities here to fix this. Your cheekbone and nose are broken. That’s going to affect your sinuses, foul your breathing. You’ll probably need surgery, champ.”

MAC: “Parr fourr tha courrse. Aye’ll ‘ave a saeson brrreak fourr tae ‘eal up, thaen-

*** RONNIE LASSITER rushes in, his own lacerations freshly tended. ***

RL: “Mac! MAc, you alright? I just heard what-”

MAC: “Aye, man, Ah’m fyne, Aye am, saettle yearr hash. Baetturr than yourrsael’, King. I did nae tangle wi’ barrb-wyrre … which, aye must sea, was shocking fourr te see.”

RL: *to the trainer* “The man’s on Death’s door, and he still can’t behave.”

TRAINER: “If he doesn’t stay still, this is going to get messier.”

RL: “Ew, that’s nasty, man. *heh* Nastier’n you usually look. You think you’ll be ready in two days?”

MAC: “Tew deas? What fourr?”

RL: “Black just announced it, Mac. The match between you and Mr. The Third is going to start up again in a couple of days. With his usual low-key modesty, Black declared it a Reckoning.”

MAC: “Och, Sarah MacLaughlin … “

TRAINER: “Mac, you have to go to the ER. There’s nothing for it, nothing more I can do.”

RL: “Mac if you do that, they won’t clear you in time. Black might make you forfeit.


“What are you going to do?”

[Stu]

*** A cloud of steam billows out from a spa door as Bartholomew “Brawler” Beckett steps out, a robe around his shoulders and a towel around his nethers. He glances at the camera and moves to disregard it, walking past, but then stops. Turning back to the camera, he smirks. ***

BEKETT: “I’m not going to say anything about how, as predicted, I trounced Derrick Arse-wipe. I’m not going to say anything about how, as I have both stated and proven time and again, I am the finest wrestler, the most cunning tactician, the best in the wrestling business. I needn’t, for I have proven it yet again. No, I am going to say something else, something that everyone truly does not want to hear from me, but that I have earned the right to do …

“I told you so.

“I said, some months ago, that PWA was in the grip of a narcissist, a meddling fool who thinks with his ego, who could not resist putting himself in the limelight again. Not a competitor … (jazz hands) … a star!” (laughs wickedly)

“Yes, Damion ‘I’m Here, Too” Black has shoe-horned himself into the ring once more. Not for the PWA title, oh, no. Not for the national title, either, but against our national champion! As though there were a great difference! Of course, he can’t hold it, he’s on the board. But to get into the ring with the champion, past all other deserving athletes, not because he earned it, but because he has lawyers and can sign his name … well, he has done the Union a grand favor, hasn’t he?

“He has proven beyond doubt that all our accusations are true. He has proven that his ego is his guiding star, and that he gives not a single damn about the athletes in his employ. Earn your way as best you may, it matters not. Without the Black Seal, you will get nowhere in PWA, not until the Union has triumphed. Whether he wins or loses against Wylde is immaterial; he has handed us the great victory by proving us right …

“Just as I said he would.”

*** fade out ***

[Gary Bloomfield]

We have just received word that Robert MacElroy has suffered debilitating injuries during his match against Richard Pennyworth, III at the King of Deathmatch PPV. These injuries were inflicted by members of the Union, specifically Nakamura Yamasaki and Akira Wyld. MacElroy has suffered a broken nose and a broken cheek bone, the severity of which requires surgery according to medical officials. As of this report, Robert MacElroy has decided to postpone surgery and compete tonight to defend his PWA Heavyweight Championship against Richard Pennyworth, II in a rematch from King of Deathmatch. He is doing so against medical advice. More on this situation as it develops....

[Rhett Holiday]

Rhett Holiday sits in the center of a familiar dark room legs crossed and in his ring gear with a single green flame from a candle illuminating him. His back to the camera, he rocks back and forth.

"Where did you go? You said it was my time... You said I'm the chosen one... Hello? Why wont you speak to me? Tell me it'll be ok... Tell me what to do next.."

Rhett begins to look around with fear in his eyes before the candle is goes out.

"No! Don't leave me here! I need you! Please don't go...."

The camera fades