Where are the now?

[Eddie Black]

Thing about egos is everyone has one and sometimes their really, really stupid. Take for an example a guy who barely wins any matches in a major wrestling promotion judging another guy who wrestled monsters and mad men all over the world.

And yes, I’m talking to Mike Laszlo.

Just because you have to search youtube for a match between Eddie Black and someone you’ve never heard of doesn’t mean the match was any less difficult for him to win or lose. And it doesn’t mean the man he faced was any less talented. There are hundreds of wrestling promotions in the world and while IWF is the current big fish in the pond, so was XHF and NMW and even NCW once…

Every Empire dies.

{ Rachel’s handi cam slowly comes into focus while Eddie Black is headed backstage after his match with Mike Laszlo, it was close but not close enough for most. Eddie stops suddenly and looks right into the camera. }

Eddie: Where are ya Ace? JAKE? Huh, where ya been at panda?

{ Black just shakes his head and spits on the floor beside him. }

Eddie: Ya fuck’in pussy. I grab ya sister in law, man handle the bitch an ya don’t even have the balls to show up and run ya mouth? Ya don’t even have the balls ta tweet me? Ya fuck’in pussy.

{ Black starts walking again but then stops. }

Eddie: Aight, I know what I gotta do ta get ya attention Jake, it’s Kat right? Ya women? Maybe if I show her some southern hospitality that’ll wake ya sleepy ass up, huh? Yeah, stay tuned.

{ Black just sneers as he heads off, Rachel lowers the handi came and it goes to static. }

Professional wrestling is all about making an impact, that’s why Eddie threatens a woman I’m ok with it, it’s what’s best for business, for his career and for us. See, I’m not just some fucking attachment, I’m not a part of Eddie like an appendage. He may be brash and stupid and stubborn but he’s also the man I love and will defend and when Ace put his hands on me, to help or otherwise, that crossed a line. The way Eddie see it, he owes Ace one and I have to agree with him.

{ It’s a few days later and we find Eddie Black back in his hometown, where that is? Go fuck yourself is where it is. Eddie, wearing a pair of camo pants and a beat up Megadeath shirt is currently sitting in a lawn chair at the end of a deck. His handle fiddles with something as he looks out over the pond he grew up near. Rachel’s handi cam sits in his other hand focused on his face, he seems to be thinking which is pretty unbelievable. }

Eddie: I don’t know…

{ He looks away into his hand, at what he’s playing with. }

Eddie: I been think’in bout this a long time, ya know? Should I? Shouldn’t I? I mean, I know what she’s gonna say…

{ He drifts off and his eyes look out over the water again. }

Eddie: I just don’t know if this is the life for her…

{ He seems conflicted, which is an emotion you’d probably think he was incapable of. }

Eddie: I know she wants a family, kids an shit… I just wanna wrestle, fight, climb that fuck’n ladder. What happens when We’re in our forties an still no kids an shit?

{ The question slinger in the crisp open air. }

Eddie: No house, no family, no noth’in. Just two fuck’in people travel’in the road, make’in a buck…

{ He sighs. }

Eddie: Maybe I should just throw this thing away?

{ He finally holds up the ring for the camera to see, it’s nothing fancy, just what he can afford, just exactly what he knows she would love. }

Mr. Black: Or maybe you should let her decide what she wants?

{ Eddie turns and the handi cam shifts out of focus before finding a pair of black military boots at the other end of the deck as the scene suddenly goes to static again. }

He means well, that’s the thing that people don’t understand. You see him on television and the things he does to get over and you question it, you wonder if he goes home and slaps me around but that’s not how it is. These guys, these wrestlers, they have to play it up for the camera. But sometimes their egos get in the way, sometimes it gets personal and that’s exactly what it’s about to become for the Conways. Personal.

{ Rachel brings the handi cam into focus as Eddie stands in front of the IWF banner sporting a Blood Money t-shirt tucked into a Stars and Bars belt buckle and worn old jeans. Eddie doesn’t smile or laugh, just looks dead on into the camera. }

Eddie: All I got say ta Laszlo is congratulations, good match.

{ Eddie nods slightly. }

Eddie: Now it’s time ta move on ta this week an my next opponent, a returning legend in the business a man I’m probably expected to drop to my knees and blow for all the good he’s done in the name of sports entertainment or some bullshit like that.

{ He shakes his head from side to side. }

Eddie: I hope you ain’t expect’in a warm welcome from me Ryan because ya ain’t gett’in. I know ya ain’t heard of me, I know ya probably go’in to wonder why a man such as yaself was paired up against me, I know ya probably got an ego to feed and this meal ain’t gonna do an I also know I’d greatly appreciate you gett’in ya dick outta ya own mouth. It’s disturb’in.

{ There’s a short an almost inaudible laugh that escapes his lips. }

Eddie: It’s a fuck’in kids show ya freak.

{ And that gets a laugh out of Rachel. }

Eddie: Here’s the thing Lance, as much as ya don’t know about me, as much as ya probably wanna play that up for all the yuppy fans who still give a fly’in fuck about ya, I don’t. I’m fully fuck’in aware ya don’t know or care who I am, where I been and who I may of beaten in the sixteen million years since ya last stepped inside a ring. I’m fully fuck’in aware I also don’t give a shit who you are, what ya done or plan ta do now that ya back.

{ Eddie pops his neck and shakes his head. }

Eddie: This is a what have ya done for me lately kinda world and last I checked, ya ain’t done shit in a pretty long time. I’ve search the web, youtube, looked all over for the five star matches in Japan that ya been tak’in part in and the only thing I find when I type in Lance Ryan is a cute article over on ESPN.com asking Where Are They Now?

{ He sneers and nods. }

Eddie: Well where are ya? IWF? Not NCW? Amaz’in so what ya try’in to tell me is all that shit ya did in that belly up promotion no longer means shit? What ya tell’in me is ya some kind of returning king? Some kind of legend I’m supposed to give a shit because IWF is the next chapter in the story of NCW?> What ya tell’in me is if I drink that there cool aid I may just live forever?

{ Now he laughs. }

Eddie: Yeah, I ain’t sipp’in that shit. Lance, save ya fuck’in speeches son. I know who ya are. I don’t care. I know ya don’t know who I am. I don’t care. I know that this Monday night we are go’in to beat the fuck’in shit out of each other in front of a sold out crowd and it’s go’in to be fuck’in glorious. I know people pay to see our blood. They pay to see modern age gladiators just rip each other to threads. They pay their hard earned money to see a fuck’in war on a weekly basis and all I really wanna know about the legend Lance Ryan is, are ya ready to give them what they want?

{ Eddie bows his head and waits. }

Eddie: Or is this some kinda fuck’in stunt to boost your own ego, prove to yaself that ya better than all the young up and comers? Cuz I’m a be honest, if this is some kind of stunt that ends in a month or two with you bowing back outta the spot light after the climax of some epically awful feud I am go’in to be severely pissed off. I didn’t come here to have some other promotions legends shoved down my throat an I really don’t care for fuck’in egos. What I care for is what happens between those ropes. See, regardless of how them fans feel about me, I give them what I want. I give them raw fuck’in brutality. I step into the ring intent on just hurt’in people because that’s what they pay to see and the more they pay to see me, the more I fuck’in make.

{ He nods. }

Eddie: That’s why it’s blood money, the more I spill the more I make. An ya Lance Ryan, some sort of living legend, delivered right into my hands on Monday Night Sacrifice. IWF has just handed me a just to derail your big return before it even gets started. Me. A man who has made my intentions in this company very public. Either they think very highly of me or very little of ya. Either way Lance, I want you to know in no uncertain terms that I am go’in to make ya bleed. I am go’in to make ya cry. I am go’in to put ya back down in the ground where ya spent the last few years. I am go’in to watch ya crumble under the weight of ya over inflated sense of self an then I’m go’in to laugh as everyone asks…

{ Eddie takes a big step forward and gets right into the lens. }

Eddie: Lance Ryan, where is he now?

{ Before palming the lens and sending us to darkness. }