Caramel Bear

[Malaki Toala]

{ We open our scene in a relatively cheap looking diner somewhere on a highway in America/ A fan rotates awkwardly on the ceiling, barely held in by the bolts securing it to the ceiling as Malaki Toala walks along the rong of the counter with a tray in his hand. He gradually approaches a cubicle where we can see Joey Leroux sitting with his arms crossed, clearly quite visibly irritated. }

Joey Leroux: I can’t believe you had a meeting without me!

{ Malaki sits down opposite Joey, pushing over a cup of coffee and a plate of pancakes to him. }

Malaki Toala: Are you going to sulk about that all week?

{ Joey pouts. }

Joey Leroux: I’m not sulking!

{ Malaki shrugs. }

Malaki Toala: Could’ve fooled me.

Joey Leroux: I’m meant to be your manager, I don’t even know what you discussed.

Malaki Toala: I just told him that I am sick of being an afterthought and requested more consistent booking.

Joey Leroux: Wait… is that it?

Malaki Toala: Yes. What did you think I was speaking to him about?

Joey Leroux: I don’t know…

{ Joey begins to play with his pancakes, resting his cheek on his fist. }

Malaki Toala: What’s wrong?

Joey Leroux: Nothing.

Malaki Toala: Don’t pull that passive aggressive crap on me, I have to put up with you all week, I’m not wasting the build up to my title match with you pouting like a toddler all the time.

Joey Leroux: I just feel…

Malaki Toala: Wow, you really do have feelings, I think a few people owe me some money…

Joey Leroux: Hey!

{ Malaki smiles. }

Malaki Toala: Sorry, go on…

Joey Leroux: I think that you don’t need me anymore.

Malaki Toala: I knew it! You’re jealous.

Joey Leroux: I am not jealous that you and Roberto had secret liaisons without me! Probably over a fine red wine and caviar, maybe some salmon…

Malaki Toala: You have a funny way of showing it…

Joey Leroux: I’m being serious, it’s like you’ve out grown the nest and don’t need me to puke disgusting worm mush down your gullet anymore.

{ Malaki looks down at his food and opts to immediately push it away. }

Malaki Toala: That is the most unsettling thing you’ve ever said. And that's saying something.

Joey Leroux: Are you going to eat those?

{ Joey points a fork at Malaki’s scrambled eggs who simply pushes them over to him. }

Malaki Toala: Look, you can quit the pity party, I have no intention of out-growing you or moving on to a better model any time soon. I told you I just wanted to have more control over my own career and that’s all I’m doing, you’re just as important to that now as you were in the beginning. Nobody is looking to replace you, even if it’s incredibly tempting right now…

Joey Leroux: Maybe… but if you don’t want me to attend business meetings, what exactly am I supposed to do? Stand there and look pretty? I don’t have the breasts for that.

Malaki Toala: Support me.

{ The pair pause as Joey opens his mouth, prompting Malaki to interject. }

Malaki Toala: Don’t you dare make a bra joke.

Joey Leroux: Ok, but… that all sounds a little fruity Caramel Bear.

{ Malaki stares at Joey. }

Joey Leroux: What?

Malaki Toala: Don’t call me that. Ever. Again.

Joey Leroux: You let the girls call you that!

{ Malaki rubs the bridges of his nose as he shuts his eyes and sighs. }

Malaki Toala: Look, this business is cut throat, you know that, I know that. I don’t need you to book my matches or shout at the corporate dogsbodies, I need you to be my eyes and ears.

{ Joey begins to shovel down the plate of eggs before looking up at Toala. }

Malaki Toala: And my mouth too evidently…

{ Joey stops, gulping down the contents. }

Joey Leroux: What do you mean?

Malaki Toala: I mean I need you to watch my back, keep your ear to the ground and see who is looking to screw me, where there may be opportunities to progress my career and most importantly, who we can really trust.

Joey Leroux: And you trust me enough to do that?

Malaki Toala: Of course, shouldn’t I?

{ Joey pauses, his normal arrogant composure shaken as he is visibly touched by Malaki’s trust. As his face begins to flush a little Malaki looks at him with concern. }

Malaki Toala: Are you choking…

{ Joey suddenly perks up, shaking his head as he begins to faux-cough and reach for his coffee to hide his smile. Malaki shakes his head as Joey regain his composure and our scene begins to gradually fade to black. }[/

Jack Gaither…

I can’t fault the pep in your step of the desire in your heart, but I can criticise your grip on reality. Any man who believe that I am friends with Simon de Montfort waved good bye to his sanity a long time ago

Do you want to know why I complained to Verona about my lack of bookings, Jack?

It’s because unlike you, I’m not just happy to pick up my paycheque and wave to the kid’s whenever the booking committee can be bothered to invest in me as a performer. I have more professional pride than that, I won’t accept just being a part of the furniture around here, if I can’t give the fans my best week in week out and put this company on the map, then simply put, I don’t want to be here.

I will never apologise for having standards.

The fact is I couldn’t care less who I am wrestling, I couldn’t care less where I am wrestling on the card and I couldn’t care less if it’s for championships or simply to put on a God damn show. Competition is in my blood, I aren’t here to fill my pockets or wear a fake smile as though IWF is doing my favour by allowing me the honour of waving to the crowd, I’m here to wrestle.

I’m here to give people what they really want.

If you’re truly just content with being employed, feel free to be my guest and bask in the pleasure of just being another cog in the machine who never goes anywhere, just don’t criticise me for having a passion for professional wrestling instead of just being grateful for air time once in a blue moon.

You continually undersell yourself, Jack, with this carefree attitude and it’s only going to hurt you in the long run. It may be noble to not invest too much into wins and losses, to play the court jester and put smiles on a few people faces out of pity, but it’s going to get your eaten alive. You have it in you to achieve something with your career and I can promise you this Jack.

You can do that without losing sight of who you truly are.

There’s nothing wrong with having pride in your work and wanting the best for yourself, it doesn’t make you selfish and it sure as shit doesn’t mean you have to abandon your principles to accomplish success. You can keep all of your morals and still make a career for yourself, but only if you stop taking what you’re given and start asking for more.

You’re not contractually obligated to kiss the staff’s ass to get ahead here.

Trust me, I’ve checked!

This weekend you have an opportunity to write your name in the history books, stop acting like it’s a favour you haven’t earned and start seeing it for the potential it truly is. If you don’t, then there is no hope for you at Danger Zone.

I’m not charitable, I will not go easy on you just because you’re a nice guy and happy go lucky. I will hit just as hard as I always do, I will pick you off without mercy if it improves my opportunities of winning and I will put you on your ass without a second thought of how humble you may be.

You need to learn that you’re running with wolves who will do far worse.

Do yourself a favour and learn your lesson sooner, rather than later.

Speaking of humility, my next opponent seems to completely lack this virtue despite possessing and abundance of material wealth. Who’d have ever thought that having access to a large percentage of the world’s oil wealth and gas reserves would lead to being so full of noxious fumes that have a habit of emerging every time they open their mouth.

But I guess money can’t buy you class.

Hey, Al-Thani?

I suppose I shouldn’t be surprised, after all you were born with a silver spoon in your mouth in a city of ever increasing opulence and grandeur, that fact you feel so entitled should come as no surprise. Thankfully, I’m not ignorant enough to write off your entire country based on the feckless arrogance of the privileged elite, Lord knows I benefitted from hospitality of the rich and famous on the Rugby Seven’s circuit in the Gulf, but I was also lucky enough to meet the humble and kind men and women who weren’t so lucky to be born into the right tribe.

You’re a disgrace to the Qatari’s who don’t take their wealth for granted, Mohamed. Your arrogance paints a terrible picture and does a disservice to the warm and welcoming nature of so many of your compatriots across the region, every single time you open your mouth all you do is simply cement the Orientalist stereotypes that blight your people’s image abroad.

You have a responsibility, not only to yourself, but also those men and women you represent back home…

Hey, don’t hate my client for simply trying to Qatar to a wider audience!

That was awful.

Oman, how embarrassing.

Please. Stop.

Oh I will, Bahrain any unforeseen circumstances…

{ Joey stands next to Malaki, his mouth wide open smiling and his arms out-stretched as the pair share an increasingly awkward silence. Malaki shakes his head and does his best to simply keep going. }

You know, Mohamed a lot of people simply don’t like you because you’re not American. A few more will hate you simply for being a Muslim. The majority, however? The majority can’t stand you because you’re a loud mouthed little scum bag who pisses all over his abundance of talent in favour of cheap tricks and dirty tactics.

Not that the fans adulation means all that much to you, you get plenty of that back home, right? Even if it’s through obligation rather than real admiration.

The only problem is, as much as cheating and jumping people from behind pisses off the fans who’ve paid money to see you compete, it only infuriates your colleagues even more. Sooner or later, karma is going to smack you flat on your back because the fact is, nobody here really cares who you are or whose womb you crawled out of.

You may be able to run your mouth back home or on that microphone in front of fans, but I guarantee you that your colleagues are more than happy to slap the arrogance out of you.

Over and over.

Now, you’re hardly the first jackass with an over inflated ego to run his mouth in front of these cameras and Lord knows you’re not going to be the last but what separates a select few from a bundle of idiots who are sent packing is their ability to back up their claims inside that ring. Say what you want about guys like Alex Jones and Angel Blake, but for every self-aggrandising comment they make you know damn well that they have what it takes to back it up.

The question is, Al-Thani, do you?

You’ve torn through Training Grounds and for that, you deserve credit, there’s a lot of crazy talented guys down there and it’s not easy to get a run going against that sort of quality, but this weekend is entirely different. This is a Man of Steel championship match, a match you aren’t going to be able to bend the rules in to succeed.

If you want to walk out a winner this week, Al-Thani, you’re going to have to do this the hard way. It’s time for you to put up, or shut up.

{ Malaki pauses, smiling as he nods before waving a finger at the camera. }

Cliff, I warned you.

I also offered you my barber’s phone number, seems like you’re a double disappointment.

I said that if you interfered in my business one more time that I would make it my goal to take that Man of Steel Championship from you. You had a choice, you could have swallowed your pride and evaluated what would be the best for your career and focused on the ever extending line of competitors wanting to deprive you of that belt, yet you couldn’t let it go.

We all have to reap what we sow, Clinton.

You chose to put your hands on me to fulfil some futile vendetta over a strike you fully deserved for getting in my way and I promise you that you’d live to regret it, it is down to you, and you alone that you’re force to defend your belt to me this weekend. You could have let things go and concentrated on the real threat in Al-Thani, but you chose to spread yourself too thin in the name of defending your honour.

Admirable.

But stupid.

You’re a talented guy, that is clear, you wear your heart on your sleeve and you’ve earned everything you’ve been given in this company, but that isn’t enough when you poke a bear with a stick. Part of being a champion is assessing how much you can reasonably be expected to overcome, but you have made a habit of biting off far more than you can chew.

And this Sunday, at Danger Zone, you’re going to live to regret it.

Everything you’ve worked hard to build is going to come crashing down around you, all of that hard work is going to prove futile and the reign you have worked so hard to cultivate is going to come to a grinding halt.

The Man of Steel Championship is often overlooked by people in this company. Everybody walks through those doors with one objective in mind. To become the Imperial Champion. That’s all well and good, but if you ask the true icons of this business how they built their legacy they’ll tell you that they did so by constructing solid foundations before they built their thrones.

All week I’ve been asked by well-meaning people whether I consider being placed in a Man of Steel Championship match as a step down from the heights I achieved early in my career when I become the Imperial Championship only mere months after I arrived. To that I only ever had one response.

I have absolutely no shame competing for this belt this weekend.

I am not in IWF to simply chase the limelight, I am here to build a career. I am proud of becoming the Imperial champion, but it was only one step on a long road with numerous lessons to learn. Arguably, my reign came too soon, I was too naïve to the realities of this business and Angel Blake and Simon de Montfort capitalised on that to cut my run short before it ever really got going.

During my enforced absence I had a lot of time to think, to consider what I truly wanted from this industry. I realised that if I want to be remembered in the same breath as Spike Kane, Angel Blake, Roberto Verona, Steve Awesome and all of the other icons of professional wrestling I needed to build a legacy.

And legacies need to include reigns with often under-appreciated titles.

The Man of Steel division has a long and proud lineage that has for too long been criticised and torn down. I am an arch-competitor, this division is tailor made for me to represent it and to showcase my abilities as an athlete in an environment that encourages fair competition.

This weekend I have every intention of joining Ryan Blade, Mason St. Croix and Reneé Pleasant as a Man of Steel champion and putting this division on the map where it deserves to be as I build my own legacy.

This isn’t a step backwards.

This is an opportunity that everybody should crave.

After this weekend, I’ll make damn sure that the title and division on everybody’s lips is the Man of Steel Championship.

I promise.