**Tiger Gold’s music erupts over the PWA Arena loudspeakers and the fans rise to their feet cheering in anticipation. The masked wrestler makes his way to the ring with a serious look on his face. He rolls into the ring and requests a microphone from a ringside attendant. Tiger Gold walks back and forth across the ring, microphone in hand, as the cheers from the audience die down. He raises his microphone to speak.**

TIGER GOLD: “For weeks I have attempted to get the attention of your PWA Heavyweight Champion Ronnie Lassiter. I have appealed to his honor… I have challenged his pride… I have made every respectable advance at my disposal.”

**Gold pauses and looks at the crowd.**

GOLD: “I have earned my place in the pantheon of the immortals through word and deed. I have build a reputation as a warrior and a man of honor by way of decades of strife and conquest. It is with no small amount of respect that I say to Ronnie Lassiter that, as a warrior born, I am unaccustomed to being DISMISSED with such impunity. Lassiter… you are the champion of the world… but you have much to learn about respect. There is much that you do not fully understand about the spotlight that you currently find yourself in. Whether you see it or not… I am trying to help you. I see the path paid out before you… and I am distressed. However… it appears that despite my intentions, you are determined to remain elusive.”

**Gold looks toward the entrance ramp.**

GOLD: “It looks as if the only way I will secure an audience with you is if we are on opposite sides of the ring. So… I challenge you Ronnie Lassiter. I do not care whether your title is on the line or not. I do not care about the stipulations. Face me in the ring… for your honor… for your PRIDE. Show me that the warrior’s fire yet burns in your chest. Come down the aisle and face your destiny… unless you are a…”

VOICE: “SHUT UP!”

* All eyes in the auditorium, including those of TIGER GOLD, turn to look up the ramp. Out stalks a furious RONNIE LASSITER, his fist clutching a microphone. He is dressed in cowboy boots, jeans, and a checked shirt, a white Stetson sitting low on his brow. His glare could puncture a sheet of steel. *

RONNIE LASSITER: “You sunova bitch! You come out here in a Halloween mask and badmouth me? Do you know who I am? Huh!?”

**Lassiter shoots an accusing look at the PWA Armada.**

LASSITER: “I am the PWA Heavyweight Champion! You waltz out here and bad-mouth me and then have the gall to talk about me disrespecting you? Lemme tell you something, ‘Golden Years’, you had your shot! You don’t get another one just because you want one! I am carrying this company! The weight is on these shoulders!”

**Lassiter rips off his shirt, pearl snaps flying everywhere, and flexes his shoulders and back. **

LASSITER: “These shoulders! I’m not going to just drop everything and give you a match because you think you can get away with it! I — I have too much responsibility to just fall for that. If you want a shot, you have to earn it, just like everyone else. Just because I’m a fighting champion doesn’t mean I have to step out into the streets every time I’m called out!”

**Tiger Gold growls under his breath and strides up to the ropes.**

GOLD: “You sound like Damion Black, boy. Do you not have your own voice, or are you as but a mynah bird, ever repeating your master’s words?”

**Lassiter strides three paces down the ramp, then stops. At this, the fans begin to “boo” him relentlessly as he backs up the ramp, the longing to fight in his reddened face..**

LASSITER: “You … you ain’t worth it, Gold. You ain’t worth it! I know who I am, and I ain’t no bird! Fury whupped you, an’ I whupped Fury, dead to rights! An’ I can lick anyone who steps out of that locker room!”

Gold: “Like you did Kevin Starr at Battery this week past?”

**Lassiter throws the mic down wit a *crack and a shock of feedback over the PA system. The crowd cheers as he stalks to the ring, until BARTHOLOMEW “BRAWLER” BECKETT runs down the aisle, wearing a three-piece suit and the PWA Light Heavyweight Title belt! He skids to a halt in front of Lassiter, stopping him. HIs argument cannot be heard over the din of “boos” that fill the hall. Finally, Lassiter and Beckett make their way back up the ramp under a hail of rubbish. Just before he goes backstage, Lassiter glares back at Tiger Gold. Whipping his hat off of his head and throwing it on the floor, Lassiter exits. In the ring, Tiger Gold scowls through his mask as he watches the PWA Heavyweight Champion go.***