Post by Jess Fowler on May 15, 2019 2:34:50 GMT
Immediately following Monday Night Sacrifice and after the short introductory video package, airing live exclusively on the IWF Network, we are taken to a simple but plush studio where Damien Sparks in a suit and tie sits in the centre behind a desk, and to his left, the 2019 Iron Maiden, Eternity, clad in her signature black attire, complete with matching hat and veil over her pale, heavily eye shadowed face. On his right, the current Women’s World Champion, Vivienne Rodgers, who is wearing a simple white dress, beautifully patterned with flowers.
The camera zooms in on Damien who introduces us to this IWF Network first, a sit down interview with both the Champion and her Challenger in the Night of the Immortals VI main event.
Damien: Hello and welcome to The Live Spark, an unscripted look behind the veil of the professional wrestling business. What is life really like behind the scenes for the men and women of the Imperial Wrestling business, and just how much of what we see on live TV each week is real and how much of it is scripted for our entertainment? In the next half hour, exclusively live on the IWF Network, we will ask these questions and many more of both halves of this year’s Night of the Immortals main event, former three time Women’s World Champion and first two time Iron Maiden, Eternity, and her opponent, former Openweight Champion and current Women’s World Champion, Vivienne Rodgers...
Damien addresses both women with the practiced expertise of a professional interviewer, effortlessly shifting from Vivienne to Eternity and back again as he speaks.
Damien: Welcome ladies. We’ve never had the chance to speak before. I wanted to thank you both for agreeing to this interview. I know things have been understandably, a little tense between you two...
Vivienne: Yes. Things have been a little tense. But I admit a lot of that comes from me and the stories I’ve heard about her.
Eternity: Fairytales. Dirtsheets. Don’t believe everything you read on the internet, see on TV or hear in the screams of startled little girls at night. She just wants to know she’s safe, loved. She just wants to make her family proud, just like me. Awwww, it’s adorable, really, just like her, just like me...
Damien: Right, well, moving on, I have to ask, what happened out there between you two tonight. Why did you both decide to interfere in the Openweight Championship match between Kimberly Jackson and Rowan MacDonnough? A match neither of you had any business being in as far as I can tell...
Vivienne: Kimberly was in trouble. I might not know her very well but that doesn't mean I plan to just stay back and let evil things happen to people. I've been fighting The Pack most of the last two years. I might not be able to save everyone but I can try.
Eternity: Business, just good business. That’s why I did it, Mr Vee made the call to stand against The Pack. I answered...
Eternity now mimes a phone with her hand, and speaks into it.
Eternity: Hello, Morgan White Family Funeral Services, they pass on from you, we pass on to you...how can we help you today? Oh Mr Verona, it’s you. How lovely to hear from you again, sir...how’s Hannah? Not dead yet, is she?
Eternity now turns to Damien with her fingers crossed, and then frowns.
Eternity: Shame, I’m sure she’d make a lovely corpse when the time came, and then I’d have to take care of you, I mean her, I mean both of you. Oh god, what am I even saying? Ignore me, I’m just being a bit mad today...
Eternity then looks across at Vivienne and mouths, “That was close...”
Eternity: Yes sir, yes, I understand. You need somebody to take a stand against unholy demons and barbaric hounds of Hell, running roughshod over your company...and you thought of me? Why sir, I’m touched. Of course, I’ll do it, I’ll do anything to you, sir. Right, right, FOR you...of course, isn’t that what I said? Pretty sure, that’s what I sai -
Damien: Um, Eternity? I hate to interrupt...but we’re kind of in the middle of something here...
Eternity then slams her knuckles onto the desk, putting the phone down angrily, startling both Damien and Vivienne. She fixes him with a cold dead stare, the kind Vivienne had become intimately familiar with last week...
Eternity: No, you’re in the middle of something. We’re at the end, or is it the beginning? Maybe both at the same time. Sounds about right, doesn’t it? Life at one end, Death at the other, and you, Damien, left somewhere in the middle, the product of some long dead Valentine probably named Eliza, Ana or Max...Rest in Peace...
Damien does his best to maintain his composure and move the interview along, by turning to Vivienne.
Damien: Vivienne, Are you scared of Eternity?
Vivienne: You mean right now, or in general? Right now, I’d say yes, in general…I think anyone who has seen a match of hers is....
Eternity: Hehehe...
Damien: Even after taking on much more unhinged and dangerous women like Maxine, may God rest her soul, Brooklyn and Rowan?
Eternity: HahahahahahahahahahaHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA....
Vivienne: They have ended more careers but I try not to take anyone lightly when it comes to being in the ring. I research them and I try to keep in mind that every match is different. It is better to be over prepared and cautious then reckless.
Eternity: AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!
Eternity then abruptly falls deathly silent. Damien shifts uneasily in his seat, as he’s now struggling to maintain control of the situation. He swallows hard, and continues, choosing to focus almost exclusively on Vivienne.
Damien: You mentioned earlier, that if you can, you will try to save everyone, but it would appear that Eternity saved you out there tonight, why do you think that is? What do you make of it?
Vivienne: I...I honestly don't know.
Damien: This will be your first defense of the world title won’t it, Miss Rodgers?
Eternity: First or last, it doesn’t matter. So different, yet so alike, we are similar, we are the same, fair maidens, lost, only I am alone. More alone than she, more alike than she realises or understands. Once broken, never forget, always regret...my little Catherine, without a spark, she stands still in the cold night, pinned to the wall like a butterfly, tucked away from the world for now.
Vivienne: Yes, it is.
Damien: Have you had a chance to really give the world title the attention it deserves in the time you’ve held it?
Vivienne: I’ve done some charity work since I’ve earned it. I understand that after I won it the winner of the iron maiden would be my first challenge. I am not done with the world title but I’ve done what I can in the time since I’ve won it.
Eternity: Yes, she herself is so giving, if only they knew, if only they understood. The magic at the end of the night, the warmth of spring stolen from December, unseen, unfelt...by all but us, alone together. If only for a moment...
Damien: After the struggle you’ve had since losing the OpenWeight Belt to Hope to finally beating Rowan for it, it has to be on your mind that this match might push you back to square one. How prepared are you for that?
Eternity: And the circle starts again.
Oh oh oh, ah, ah, ah...
Oh, oh, oh, oh oh, oh, ah,ah,ah,ah,ah...
Oh,oh,oh, oh, oh, oh, ah ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah...
Vivienne: I try not to think of things as simply winning or losing. Each match I lost against Brooklyn taught me more about myself. If Eternity beats me it’s a new lesson to learn. That’s something I learned when I was a kid.
Eternity: So much left to learn, so much left to explore. In the valley, beyond the scars, she waits for me with love. Cross her heart, hope to die. The kiss of death is sweet, sweeter still than love lost...
Damien: From your father or grandfather?
Eternity: From both, we have learned so much, but still not nearly enough. Gone too soon, gone, but not forgotten. Never forgotten. It runs in her blood, the warmth beyond the cold, unexpected, most unexpected, but not nearly as unwelcome as she feared, once upon a time...
Vivienne: Bit of both. My grandfather was big in the independent scene in the 70’s. Gave his all to the sport. Opened a wrestling school and helped run a Midwest indie promotion. My father David followed in his footsteps before the injury ended his career. They both made clear how important it was to learn from the loses and the wins.
Damien: And your father passed away early 2018, correct?
Eternity: My sincerest condolences, offered, accepted but never quite believed. She thinks she doesn’t have a heart but I have found it again, buried deep, beyond the seared flesh and buried deep. So deep beyond this world, and so we wander hand in hand to the next. Comforted against fear, she waits for the inevitable, his passing is just beyond that horizon where the sun sets, forever she fears. Unprepared and unwilling to accept the unpredictable...like life, like death, like love and like sorrow...
Vivienne nods.
Damien: Do you feel he would be proud of the progress that you’ve made since he passed?
Eternity: I hope so. We live in hope. Eternally...
Vivienne: I had a good year. I worked hard. I know he’d be proud.
Damien: How are you feeling going into Night of the immortals?
Vivienne: Thrilled. Extremely proud and excited to be trusted with the main event.
Damien: And you Eternity?
Eternity: And so you turn to us once more, as they all do in the end. The forgotten are suddenly remembered as you turn away from the light and ask futile questions of the dark. Never satisfied with any answer you’ve gotten, and understanding even less of the voice as she speaks to you this whole time. No respect for that which lies beyond you, and beyond her in every way, as we wind onwards, ever onwards towards the endless night...
Damien: Right, well. I’m getting word that that’s all we got time for, so thanks for joining me once again, ladies...
Eternity claps her hands together twice, the studio lights respond by flickering and bathing everybody in a soft purple. Two more claps and then they go out completely, as the studio falls silent and the broadcast ends, as all things inevitably must.
Well howdy there pardner.