Post by Roberto Verona on Mar 25, 2018 0:14:02 GMT
{ Our scene opens in the familiar setting of the offices of the IWF headquarters as Roberto Verona closes an office door behind him to find his partner Hannah Reed in a world of her own at her desk. Roberto leans against a filing cabinet as Hannah furiously swipes through mounds of paperwork before slapping his palm on her desk in frustration. }
Hannah Reed: That son of a bitch.
Roberto Verona: Calm down.
Hannah Reed: Calm down? Do you know how many phone calls I’ve had to deal with from investors concerned about the impending return of blacklisted employees? If I could personally sue every dirtsheet that has circulated his hype piece I would gladly do so.
Roberto Verona: I can imagine, but you’re just giving him what he wants.
Hannah Reed: And what’s that precisely?
Roberto Verona: The satisfaction that he can still make the company dance to his tune and react to his juvenile taunts. Steve lives for the attention and if we buy into his bullshit we’re just giving him what he wants, this is the only way he can keep himself relevant.
Hannah Reed: So what exactly do you suggest we do?
{ Verona smiles. }
Roberto Verona: We give him what he wants.
Hannah Reed: But you just said… what do you mean give him what he wants?
Roberto Verona: When he plays his little trump card, we give him the platform he craves. Let him go out there and spin his wheels, let him feel important.
Hannah Reed: And what exactly will that accomplish?
Roberto Verona: It’ll be the casus belli me and Cable require to make an example of him. Steve just wants to feel important, he’s kicking up a fuss to try and goad us into fighting him because he understands the sort of exposure a match with me and Cable can bring him, and he’d be correct to assume as such. Yet, he’s forgetting one very important thing.
Hannah Reed: Which is?
Roberto Verona: That when he gets what he wants, all the eyes of the world on him, the humiliation of what we will do to him will not be something he can easily live down. He’s expecting to regain some level of notoriety by clashing with me and Cable, but he doesn’t realise that whilst I am sure he expects to allow Malo to do all the heavy lifting, either one of us is more than adept enough to demonstrate to the world just how washed up he really is. Steve has been living on his name value for years and he’s not performed in that ring on a full-time basis for over half a decade, he’s rusty. He hasn’t got the spring in his step he used to and he’s just too stupid to admit that to himself.
Hannah Reed: So by giving him what he wants, you and Cable can show the world just how much it has passed him by… its devious, but then I perhaps shouldn’t expect anything less.
Roberto Verona: It’s on his head. He wanted this fight to plump up his stock, but me and Cable will make sure it crashes. It’s time he learned that you can only live on your fame in this business for so long, he doesn’t realise this is his last chance saloon and what better way than to make him learn this the hard way? If economy travel and two star motels didn’t drive it home, mine and Cable’s feet on his throat sure will.
{ Hannah pauses. }
Hannah Reed: Do you think it’ll work?
Roberto Verona: Of course it will. After this tournament Steve will soon realise all the doors left open to him in this business will be firmly closed, we’re the only place still willing to take a chance on him and he will have two choices available to him. Either he fades away into Z-List celebrity columns or he realise that he needs to start applying himself and proving precisely why anybody took any notice of him to begin with. He’s a nauseating little prick, but he’s got the talent, either he’ll rediscover this need for application or he’ll no longer be our problem, either way, we win.
Hannah Reed: What if he wins?
{ Roberto laughs. }
Hannah Reed: I’m being serious.
Roberto Verona: Then we obviously lit enough of a fire under his ass that he decided to dig deep and reapply himself. We’ve been sacrificial lambs to motivate the roster more than once, if we need to be so again then so be it.
Hannah Reed: I just hope you’re prepared to face the consequences because if I have to explain, at length, why this company will never do business with ex-employees whose contracts were terminated I think my head will explode.
Roberto Verona: We’re more than prepared for Steve Awesome and anything he has up his sleeve. If it makes you feel any better I’ve got a ton of material we can leak to these parasites to keep them busy for the next few months?
{ Hannah raises an eyebrow curiously. }
Hannah Reed: Oh?
Roberto Verona: It’s the road to Night of the Immortals, those idiots will believe anything. Let’s pour a glass and see what comes to mind. The right balance of insane yet plausible is always the most effective.
Hannah Reed: Alcohol and dirtsheet baiting? You sure know how to please a girl.
Roberto Verona: Isn’t frustrating perennial virgins the past time of 80% of the female population?
{ Hannah laughs as Roberto begins pouring her a glass of wine. }
Roberto Verona: Let’s make a list of who will be “buried” by me and Cable at Night of the Immortals…
{ Hannah smiles and picks up a pen as Verona sits on the side of the desk and our scene fades to black. }
Hannah Reed: That son of a bitch.
Roberto Verona: Calm down.
Hannah Reed: Calm down? Do you know how many phone calls I’ve had to deal with from investors concerned about the impending return of blacklisted employees? If I could personally sue every dirtsheet that has circulated his hype piece I would gladly do so.
Roberto Verona: I can imagine, but you’re just giving him what he wants.
Hannah Reed: And what’s that precisely?
Roberto Verona: The satisfaction that he can still make the company dance to his tune and react to his juvenile taunts. Steve lives for the attention and if we buy into his bullshit we’re just giving him what he wants, this is the only way he can keep himself relevant.
Hannah Reed: So what exactly do you suggest we do?
{ Verona smiles. }
Roberto Verona: We give him what he wants.
Hannah Reed: But you just said… what do you mean give him what he wants?
Roberto Verona: When he plays his little trump card, we give him the platform he craves. Let him go out there and spin his wheels, let him feel important.
Hannah Reed: And what exactly will that accomplish?
Roberto Verona: It’ll be the casus belli me and Cable require to make an example of him. Steve just wants to feel important, he’s kicking up a fuss to try and goad us into fighting him because he understands the sort of exposure a match with me and Cable can bring him, and he’d be correct to assume as such. Yet, he’s forgetting one very important thing.
Hannah Reed: Which is?
Roberto Verona: That when he gets what he wants, all the eyes of the world on him, the humiliation of what we will do to him will not be something he can easily live down. He’s expecting to regain some level of notoriety by clashing with me and Cable, but he doesn’t realise that whilst I am sure he expects to allow Malo to do all the heavy lifting, either one of us is more than adept enough to demonstrate to the world just how washed up he really is. Steve has been living on his name value for years and he’s not performed in that ring on a full-time basis for over half a decade, he’s rusty. He hasn’t got the spring in his step he used to and he’s just too stupid to admit that to himself.
Hannah Reed: So by giving him what he wants, you and Cable can show the world just how much it has passed him by… its devious, but then I perhaps shouldn’t expect anything less.
Roberto Verona: It’s on his head. He wanted this fight to plump up his stock, but me and Cable will make sure it crashes. It’s time he learned that you can only live on your fame in this business for so long, he doesn’t realise this is his last chance saloon and what better way than to make him learn this the hard way? If economy travel and two star motels didn’t drive it home, mine and Cable’s feet on his throat sure will.
{ Hannah pauses. }
Hannah Reed: Do you think it’ll work?
Roberto Verona: Of course it will. After this tournament Steve will soon realise all the doors left open to him in this business will be firmly closed, we’re the only place still willing to take a chance on him and he will have two choices available to him. Either he fades away into Z-List celebrity columns or he realise that he needs to start applying himself and proving precisely why anybody took any notice of him to begin with. He’s a nauseating little prick, but he’s got the talent, either he’ll rediscover this need for application or he’ll no longer be our problem, either way, we win.
Hannah Reed: What if he wins?
{ Roberto laughs. }
Hannah Reed: I’m being serious.
Roberto Verona: Then we obviously lit enough of a fire under his ass that he decided to dig deep and reapply himself. We’ve been sacrificial lambs to motivate the roster more than once, if we need to be so again then so be it.
Hannah Reed: I just hope you’re prepared to face the consequences because if I have to explain, at length, why this company will never do business with ex-employees whose contracts were terminated I think my head will explode.
Roberto Verona: We’re more than prepared for Steve Awesome and anything he has up his sleeve. If it makes you feel any better I’ve got a ton of material we can leak to these parasites to keep them busy for the next few months?
{ Hannah raises an eyebrow curiously. }
Hannah Reed: Oh?
Roberto Verona: It’s the road to Night of the Immortals, those idiots will believe anything. Let’s pour a glass and see what comes to mind. The right balance of insane yet plausible is always the most effective.
Hannah Reed: Alcohol and dirtsheet baiting? You sure know how to please a girl.
Roberto Verona: Isn’t frustrating perennial virgins the past time of 80% of the female population?
{ Hannah laughs as Roberto begins pouring her a glass of wine. }
Roberto Verona: Let’s make a list of who will be “buried” by me and Cable at Night of the Immortals…
{ Hannah smiles and picks up a pen as Verona sits on the side of the desk and our scene fades to black. }
Do you know what’s the most insulting?
It isn’t that you wanted to parade some blacklisted former employees to get under my skin, it isn’t that you trotted out anybody who was willing to spew some inane complaint and it isn’t even the fact that you of all people were trying to question mine and Cable’s integrity.
No. It was the fact that you of all people, one of the most entitled, stuck up, pampered prima donnas in the history of professional wrestling had the absolute gall to sit in the middle of that ring and pretend like you given anything approaching a crap about anybody else but you.
Let’s be realistic, Steven, you’ve been a self-absorbed, selfish prick since the first day you strapped on a pair of boots, you’ve always looked down your nose at others and demanded special privileges, which have frequently been entertained because for some reason you’ve been a valuable commodity. Yet, with all this power, with all this influence… when have you ever spoken up for the little guy?
You’ve had the ear of Leonard Fox, Kelly Fox and even myself and all of a sudden now you want to paint yourself as an activist?
Give me a break. The only reason you care about the plight of the little guy is because it has finally dawned on you that in 2018, nobody gives a damn about Steve Awesome. You can’t just coast on by from your past achievement and you can’t sit in a chair opposite me and make anything close to the sort of demands you could five years ago. You chose the silver screen and now you’re a bargain bin talent you want to leech off the profession where you made your name in the first place but the reality is, Steven, regardless of the gravitational pull an ego of your size may possess the world doesn’t revolve around you.
Professional wrestling has moved on from its love affair with Steve Awesome.
You haven’t been relevant in over half a decade, let’s not pull punches, the only thing you are to me is a novelty act from New Championship Wrestling that I milked for as long as there was some value left in you. You greatest achievements are a distant memory, ironically enough the only reason anybody can re-watch them is because I have bothered to upload your legacy onto the IWF Network. This entire business has left you behind and instead of knuckling down and proving to the world why you were ever a big deal in the first place you’ve been content to leech off the equity of your stardom but here’s a newsflash, Awesome, you’re way overdrawn and deeply in debt.
The simple fact is that as far as this company and this business is concerned, you’re just a James Gilmore with a NCW Hall of Fame ring.
You turned your back on everybody who made you the household name you were and you showed absolutely no respect to the men and women who have had to continue to put their bodies on the line week in, week out, whilst you’ve sipped martinis and partied yourself into a coma at awards ceremonies. Then you have the audacity to march down to my ring and start acting as though you speak on the behalf of men and women you couldn’t give a damn about all in some vain attempt to try and get one over on me and Cable?
You paint an awfully ugly portrait of a humble hero of the every man, Steven.
Whilst you want to sit there and call Cable a tyrant perhaps you ought to tell your new found gullible sycophants about all of the asinine clauses you insisted were part of your contract back when you were still worth compromising with? Perhaps you’d like to tell them why you think you’re above performing on IWF’s schedule and only when it suited you despite contributing and achieving the square root of nothing for your entire tenure in this company? Maybe you’d even like to share with them all the perks you have had with your travel expenses and accommodation?
Or better yet, why don’t you tell them the real reason you’ve suddenly become an activist for workers’ rights.
It’s the simple fact that for the first time since you achieved notoriety you’ve been treated like everybody else. No more private jets, no more first-class tickets, no part-time appearances. All of a sudden it’s dawned on you that you’re no longer worth the investment you once were and all of the comforts you’ve been accustomed to have suddenly evaporated and you’ve been left with the cold realisation that Steve Awesome is just another name on the roster
And now, in a desperate attempt to cling to relevancy you’ve positioned yourself to leech off of the most prominent figures in the company.
It’d be even more sad if it wasn’t incredibly predictable. You’ve managed to line yourself up with a token lacky and now you’re doing everything in your power to try and convince everybody you’re still relevant but the sad truth is, all this weekend will be is a sad reflection of the demise of a once glittering talent. Across the ring will be two men still in their prime who are committed and devoted to this business and this company, who’ve continued to achieve and demonstrate why they are amongst the best to have ever graced the squared circle and in your corner will be a washed up has been and a gullible idiot who doesn’t can’t see a snake oil salesman when he’s staring him in the face.
If have any sympathy for the pathetic excuse for a “team” I have to invest my time into wrestling weekend it’s for the poor sap whose carrying you in his back whilst you continue invest the least amount of effort the maximum gains.
Instead of devoting time and energy into El Grande Malo and the raw potential he has, instead I’m left addressing you. What should be a contest between two Hall of Famers and a team of respected veteran and a hot prospect is instead overshadowed by Steve Awesome’s burning need to be the centre of attention. Malo, you’re nothing more than a prop in another elaborate, cliched, tired production of a performer who doesn’t know when to get off the stage.
Take my advice, open your eyes and see Awesome for what he is, a user.
The only reason he has engaged your services is because he is confident enough that you’re competent enough to do his heavy lifting whilst he swoops in to take the plaudits for any success you have without having to risk his own credibility if it all goes pear shaped. When me and Cable leave you laying on your back this week, which we will, you can bet your ass that the person who will be to blame won’t be Steven, even though we both know he hasn’t got the spine to get his hands dirty.
You’re nothing but the fall guy for overly entitled man child and once he’s finished passing the buck onto you he’ll slither back into obscurity again until he needs another paycheque to keep the bailiffs off his back.
I’d advise you think carefully, Malo. The reality is that Steven’s stock has plummeted, he can see that his gravy train is beginning to reach the end of the tracks and the reality is until he starts to apply himself and appreciate that he’s a has been with absolute nothing to offer, the only thing in his future is autograph sessions in bingo halls. You on the other hand? You’ve got your whole career ahead of you, you’ve still got the drive and the opportunity to make something of yourself.
Don’t let yourself get dragged down by the weight of Steven’s ego as he hurtles into oblivion.
He will discard you once you cease to be useful to his desperate attempt to cash in on any relevancy he has left, even if by some miracle you can carry your entire team to success in this tournament with a two hundred pound waste of space around your ankle he’ll soon kick you to the curb when all of the photo ops come pouring in. Whatever people may say about you Malo, you don’t need to be the punch line in the joke that is Steve Awesome’s latter pro wrestling career.
This, this is your life, for Steven this is just another platform to bask in unwarranted appraisal.
At least do yourself the service of making him work for his moment in the spot light instead of leeching off of your hard work, it’s the least you owe yourself. Perhaps after me and Cable dismantle you this week it may dawn on you that nearly everybody else in this competition, for better or worse, knows their partner has got their backs.
Ask yourself where Steve Awesome is going to be when you need him the most.
My guess? Passed out in some cheap motel with an even cheaper bed fellow wallowing in self-pity when his latest attempt to parasite off the stardom of his superiors backfires whilst the number of dollars in his bank balance reaches single figures. The least you owe yourself is to realise you’re simply collateral and you turn the tables back on him and milk whatever’s left of his star power for your own benefit.
The choice is yours.
It isn’t that you wanted to parade some blacklisted former employees to get under my skin, it isn’t that you trotted out anybody who was willing to spew some inane complaint and it isn’t even the fact that you of all people were trying to question mine and Cable’s integrity.
No. It was the fact that you of all people, one of the most entitled, stuck up, pampered prima donnas in the history of professional wrestling had the absolute gall to sit in the middle of that ring and pretend like you given anything approaching a crap about anybody else but you.
Let’s be realistic, Steven, you’ve been a self-absorbed, selfish prick since the first day you strapped on a pair of boots, you’ve always looked down your nose at others and demanded special privileges, which have frequently been entertained because for some reason you’ve been a valuable commodity. Yet, with all this power, with all this influence… when have you ever spoken up for the little guy?
You’ve had the ear of Leonard Fox, Kelly Fox and even myself and all of a sudden now you want to paint yourself as an activist?
Give me a break. The only reason you care about the plight of the little guy is because it has finally dawned on you that in 2018, nobody gives a damn about Steve Awesome. You can’t just coast on by from your past achievement and you can’t sit in a chair opposite me and make anything close to the sort of demands you could five years ago. You chose the silver screen and now you’re a bargain bin talent you want to leech off the profession where you made your name in the first place but the reality is, Steven, regardless of the gravitational pull an ego of your size may possess the world doesn’t revolve around you.
Professional wrestling has moved on from its love affair with Steve Awesome.
You haven’t been relevant in over half a decade, let’s not pull punches, the only thing you are to me is a novelty act from New Championship Wrestling that I milked for as long as there was some value left in you. You greatest achievements are a distant memory, ironically enough the only reason anybody can re-watch them is because I have bothered to upload your legacy onto the IWF Network. This entire business has left you behind and instead of knuckling down and proving to the world why you were ever a big deal in the first place you’ve been content to leech off the equity of your stardom but here’s a newsflash, Awesome, you’re way overdrawn and deeply in debt.
The simple fact is that as far as this company and this business is concerned, you’re just a James Gilmore with a NCW Hall of Fame ring.
You turned your back on everybody who made you the household name you were and you showed absolutely no respect to the men and women who have had to continue to put their bodies on the line week in, week out, whilst you’ve sipped martinis and partied yourself into a coma at awards ceremonies. Then you have the audacity to march down to my ring and start acting as though you speak on the behalf of men and women you couldn’t give a damn about all in some vain attempt to try and get one over on me and Cable?
You paint an awfully ugly portrait of a humble hero of the every man, Steven.
Whilst you want to sit there and call Cable a tyrant perhaps you ought to tell your new found gullible sycophants about all of the asinine clauses you insisted were part of your contract back when you were still worth compromising with? Perhaps you’d like to tell them why you think you’re above performing on IWF’s schedule and only when it suited you despite contributing and achieving the square root of nothing for your entire tenure in this company? Maybe you’d even like to share with them all the perks you have had with your travel expenses and accommodation?
Or better yet, why don’t you tell them the real reason you’ve suddenly become an activist for workers’ rights.
It’s the simple fact that for the first time since you achieved notoriety you’ve been treated like everybody else. No more private jets, no more first-class tickets, no part-time appearances. All of a sudden it’s dawned on you that you’re no longer worth the investment you once were and all of the comforts you’ve been accustomed to have suddenly evaporated and you’ve been left with the cold realisation that Steve Awesome is just another name on the roster
And now, in a desperate attempt to cling to relevancy you’ve positioned yourself to leech off of the most prominent figures in the company.
It’d be even more sad if it wasn’t incredibly predictable. You’ve managed to line yourself up with a token lacky and now you’re doing everything in your power to try and convince everybody you’re still relevant but the sad truth is, all this weekend will be is a sad reflection of the demise of a once glittering talent. Across the ring will be two men still in their prime who are committed and devoted to this business and this company, who’ve continued to achieve and demonstrate why they are amongst the best to have ever graced the squared circle and in your corner will be a washed up has been and a gullible idiot who doesn’t can’t see a snake oil salesman when he’s staring him in the face.
If have any sympathy for the pathetic excuse for a “team” I have to invest my time into wrestling weekend it’s for the poor sap whose carrying you in his back whilst you continue invest the least amount of effort the maximum gains.
Instead of devoting time and energy into El Grande Malo and the raw potential he has, instead I’m left addressing you. What should be a contest between two Hall of Famers and a team of respected veteran and a hot prospect is instead overshadowed by Steve Awesome’s burning need to be the centre of attention. Malo, you’re nothing more than a prop in another elaborate, cliched, tired production of a performer who doesn’t know when to get off the stage.
Take my advice, open your eyes and see Awesome for what he is, a user.
The only reason he has engaged your services is because he is confident enough that you’re competent enough to do his heavy lifting whilst he swoops in to take the plaudits for any success you have without having to risk his own credibility if it all goes pear shaped. When me and Cable leave you laying on your back this week, which we will, you can bet your ass that the person who will be to blame won’t be Steven, even though we both know he hasn’t got the spine to get his hands dirty.
You’re nothing but the fall guy for overly entitled man child and once he’s finished passing the buck onto you he’ll slither back into obscurity again until he needs another paycheque to keep the bailiffs off his back.
I’d advise you think carefully, Malo. The reality is that Steven’s stock has plummeted, he can see that his gravy train is beginning to reach the end of the tracks and the reality is until he starts to apply himself and appreciate that he’s a has been with absolute nothing to offer, the only thing in his future is autograph sessions in bingo halls. You on the other hand? You’ve got your whole career ahead of you, you’ve still got the drive and the opportunity to make something of yourself.
Don’t let yourself get dragged down by the weight of Steven’s ego as he hurtles into oblivion.
He will discard you once you cease to be useful to his desperate attempt to cash in on any relevancy he has left, even if by some miracle you can carry your entire team to success in this tournament with a two hundred pound waste of space around your ankle he’ll soon kick you to the curb when all of the photo ops come pouring in. Whatever people may say about you Malo, you don’t need to be the punch line in the joke that is Steve Awesome’s latter pro wrestling career.
This, this is your life, for Steven this is just another platform to bask in unwarranted appraisal.
At least do yourself the service of making him work for his moment in the spot light instead of leeching off of your hard work, it’s the least you owe yourself. Perhaps after me and Cable dismantle you this week it may dawn on you that nearly everybody else in this competition, for better or worse, knows their partner has got their backs.
Ask yourself where Steve Awesome is going to be when you need him the most.
My guess? Passed out in some cheap motel with an even cheaper bed fellow wallowing in self-pity when his latest attempt to parasite off the stardom of his superiors backfires whilst the number of dollars in his bank balance reaches single figures. The least you owe yourself is to realise you’re simply collateral and you turn the tables back on him and milk whatever’s left of his star power for your own benefit.
The choice is yours.
Well howdy there pardner.