Post by Dr Riley Griffiths on Jul 19, 2013 23:55:25 GMT
Last week my mind wasn’t in the right place. I never wanted to get in the ring with my brother.....I never wanted to be in the ring with a man in a separate weight class. I never wanted to be a referee, but the cards were dealt, and I took it all on the chin. I brought it to Brad and Bushido just like I said I would, harder than they expected it seemed, and despite everything that Criminal Intent has thrown at us, despite every single one of their mind games we still stand here, the one and only InFamous.
The ONLY Undefeated tag team in IWF.
That is the reason why we hold this gold, why these belts mean so much, and why Criminal Intent will do so much to try and take them from us. We have raised this titles high into the air, and I would garner to say that our division has more interest than any other despite the slim pickings, because we go out there and we give our heart every week.
Last week we took on two of the greatest wrestlers this business has, and this week we finally get our hands on Criminal Intent. Listen close to me boyo’s, what in the blue hell makes either of you think that you can survive the shit storm that is coming your way at Lineage? You poked the bear, you kicked the beehive....
Now it’s time to pay the price.
~~~
We open up on the scene of a prison, the exact location is unknown and kept from us intentionally. The camera is handheld and tilts a little as the face of Spike Kane appears, donning simple grey cargo trousers, some black skate shoes, and a white t-shirt under a claret hoodie. He looks around a little shocked as he speaks to the camera.
Spike: Well, seeing as who my opponents are this week I’ve managed to arrange a visit to a prison to see what life inside is really like, and what Rob and I will really be going up against.
That is when Rob comes into view, wearing an InFamous cap, with an Affliction t-shirt and some khaki chinos along with white Vans shoes. He raises his eyebrows.
Rob: Not my idea, but Spikey wants to take Steve Irwin and Paul Hogan seriously, despite us beating them several times already.
Spike’s voiceover takes over as the two of them enter the prison being searched both with a pat down and with electric pads checking their pockets and body.
“We entered the prison, and had to hand over some possessions like our mobile phones, and our wallets. Apparently if prisoners had a chance they would take anything if possible. Rob and I weren’t exactly afraid but we were doing everything that the guards asked just to make things run smoother. This was our experience, our way of getting into the heads of Criminal Intent”
The prison guards talk instinctively to Spike and Rob as they eads them through the prison and towards a lift, whilst they wait for the lift to come to them Rob steps into the frame of the camera as he begins to question the main guard leading them up.
Rob: So where is it that you are taking us to?
Guard: Oh we’re going to sixth level.
Rob: And what type of criminals are on level six?
Guard: Oh, murderers, killers, rapists.
“The shock that we were going straight to the worst was bizarre and I felt just as nervous as Rob looked. We had heard the guards telling stories about how inmates would jerk off at people that walked past them just to show disrespect. They had told us that there could be up to twelve people in a cell, these were much bigger than the standard 6 x 6 cells the world usually imagined, we were going to a place where the guards rules were thin and meaningless, we were going where the inmates had their own rules, and their own code.”
The party walked out of the lift, and walked towards one of the cells. A lot of prisoners started making whooping sounds and wolf whistles, acting up because there was a camera present. The one cell that they happened to go to had six bunks and almost all the beds were occupied bar two top bunks. There were two white men, three mexican men, and five black men. The two mexicans kept together and two of the white men turned their backs to the camera, one came closer as one of the black people came towards the camera.
Guard: Jonas, they would like to ask you some questions about life here.
Jonas: Aww sheet man, I ain’t no snitch.
He stood there with a few teeth missing, and some yellow teeth to match, with some very unkempt dreadlocks flopping around. A couple of his cellmates sniggered, and one or two of the black inmates wrapped their blankets around them to hide their faces.
Rob: That’s pretty nasty, what happened to your eye?
Jonas: I wah in ah fight man.
Spike: A fight? With who?
Jonas just shrugs he doesn’t point out who his fight was with but one of his cellmates shouts out “the pussy in the med wing” Spike looks flabbergasted.
Spike: What did you fight over?
Jonas grins, the toothless grin saying more than any words of description ever could. He lets a little laugh out as he eyes Spike up, and then turns to Rob with a grin, thinking the smaller man to be some sort of easier prey than the large Irishman.
Jonas: Dat’s just da way, ain’t it? Ya know. Ya fight for ya bunk.....or ya go up top.
Rob: The top bunk is a punishment?
Rob looks genuinely surprised, and the look on Spike’s face seems to be begging Rob not to make a childish joke about wanting to sleep on the top bunk.
Spike: So when you first come into the cell, you have to fight for your bunk?
Jonas: Dat’s right. Or your ass goes up top, but if ya bitch out, everyone takes yo ass.
Rob: Takes?
Jonas: It might be one motherf*cker who joins da fight, or da whole cell, but your ass gettin’ beatin’
Spike: Damn.....so if you don’t fight everyone beats you up, but if you do fight and lose, you get respect?
Jonas: Dat’s da way man.
“The rules in this place seemed just crazy and almost unnatural, but it struck me that fighting is the oldest sport on the planet, and it felt ever so hypocritical of someone who makes his living off of fighting. The way these people lived, you could see the fear in some of their eyes....the rest, they were long gone. Institutionalised is the word we’d used, something someone once said about me. People can change, but only if they want to. I wondered idly as the tour continued, if Cyrus and Stephen had to go through something as similar in their time in jail.”
~~~
I’ve grown tired of hearing your rhetoric Kingsley. Week after week you stand there and try to legitimize yourself as a threat in this company. You keep trying to put words into peoples mouths, assuming that people are scared of you. Oh, the big bad Crocodile Hunter is standing across from me this week, whatever will I do? I’m shaking in my stylish, yet affordable boots.
-Not-
You’ve become the joke of this entire company Stephen, not just the joke of the tag team division, and trust me, there were quite a few choices to go with....but the entire company. Hell, Joe Everyman is more intimidating than you, and I know Joe incredibly well....he’s a friggin’ teddy bear! Thing is Stephen, you’ve been running your mouth so flippantly, that you forgot what you were saying to begin with, in your own mind the line between fact and fiction has blurred, you can’t tell the difference anymore. I guess, what I’m saying is...
You believe your own bullshit.
Don’t think that you are alone in this though Stephen, it happens to more people in this business than you would expect. You wouldn’t believe the amount of people who have tried to knock me off of my pedestal. People who tried to claim that THEY were the new God of Xtreme, that I was believing my own hype, I had blown smoke up my own ass. Yet....I’m still here, and not one of them remains. That should say enough, right “mate?” If you had the intelligence to see that in the first place, I know I keep ragging on it dude, I know I keep coming up with clever and insightful ways to insult your intelligence, but Stephen....you make it so easy.
You play the role of a big nasty bastard Stephen, but you forget to deliver on the end of it. Without Cyrus behind you, guiding you, pointing you, we all know that you are nothing. You think that threatening a man’s child makes you cool, it makes you intimidating. It does nothing of the sort, you crazy bastard. If anything it just makes the target on your back that much greater. Now, y’see, I understand that in the slammer walking up to the biggest dog in the yard and socking him on the nose MAY make the right kind of statement (or of course get you killed) but that isn’t how things work in this company, that isn’t how you get respect in this company.
You have to earn it.
You don’t have the right to look across the ring from us and ASSUME you will win, you don’t have the luxury of seeing the team getting ready to tear you to pieces and EXPECT to win. You can’t make demands, no, that is for the people who have paid their dues, people who have had orbital fractures, people who have broken limbs, chipped their tail bones, suffered 3rd degree burns....not some pumped up Aussie Drama Queen. I mean you talk a big game boss, you take your frustrations out on some poor innocent Crocodiles so that you can show that you are the manliest of all manly men. You know what I do to assert my male dominance? I beat people clean in the middle of the ring. I don’t need Rob to tell me what to do, I don’t need anyone in Rob’s family to tell me what to do.....I’m my own man. I decided that I would team with my best friend and show this world what InFamous can do when they have their head in the game.
Until now we were playing around.
You wanted our attention Kingsley, you wanted InFamous to take you seriously and worm your way into a title shot instead of being a man and asking for one.....well, despite your methods you managed to get under our skin, you’ve got our full and undivided attention, and now you realise what a mistake you made. You have that deer in the headlights look about you, and I can’t help but smirk Kingsley, because when Lineage is over, I god damn guarantee that InFamous will still hold the most prestigious championship in this company, because we made it that way! But Criminal Intent?
Well, you’ll simply be over mate.
Done with.
Sentence served.
~~~
“We had gone down to level four to talk to another inmate, one who had “checked out” as the inmates called it in the prison. He had asked to move cells for fear for his life, the inmate Carlos had gotten his wife to call in to explain and he had been moved, Carlos was awaiting trial for a double murder and the guards were not sure if he was really fearing for his life, or if he was trying to get a move closer to some contraband or even if he was trying to get closer to a target who may have had a hit put out on him.”
The door swung open and Carlos stepped back and sat down on his bed, Spike and Rob entered along with the camera man and each took their time to shake the prisoners hand.
Rob: So Carlos, do you know what charges are being brought against you?
Carlos: Yea man. I got accused of murder. Two accounts, but it’s bullsh*t man, I weren’t even there.
Spike: What was it you were accused of, who?
Carlos looks at Spike a little annoyed but nods his head and seemingly agrees to tell his story.
Carlos: It was some other gang, they members gone and got theyselves shot up. Right outside da courthouse.
Rob: Why were they at the courthouse?
Carlos: Sheeeet, I dunno! They musta had a court date.
Rob nods his head and folds his arms as Spike sits down at the end of the bed and turns to face Carlos, trying not to provoke the prisoner but help him express himself and his story.
Spike: So why did you ask to move cell?
Carlos: Cause I ain’t stupid man!
Rob: What do you mean?
Carlos shuffles on his bed, getting his hands out in front of him. He points to his head and nods, before putting a hand over his heart.
Carlos: God gave you a brain to think, and a heart for courage man. Ya can’t think with yo heart, cause dat’s how y’all end up dead. I ain’t gonna stay in no cell and take an ass whoopin’ just so I can say I was gangsta and stayed in da cell. Hell naw. I move, I stay safe, I work on my defence and my books.
Spike: You write books?
With a slight movement and a bit of a shuffle Carlos produces some stacks of paper from underneath some clothes, he hands one to Spike and one to Rob to quickly browse through.
“It seemed like despite being in prison Carlos had his head screwed on right. He had taken the hit to his ‘street cred’ to be moved to a safer room where he ended up with a cell to himself, and he had taken the chance to use his time to write books that he had planned on getting published by sending them out to his wife to do it for him, a decent idea that may help him if he was ever to get out of here.”
Rob: So what are you looking at?
Carlos: Years? Oh....I be lookin’ at da death penalty.
The words hung in the air, and neither Spike nor Rob knew what to say. Carlos simply nodded his head, understanding that neither man really had the words for him right now.
Spike: Sorry bro....
Carlos: Not your burden my man. It’s mine, God gave it to me, and I’ll deal with it.
Rob: Well thanks for talking to us, I hope your books get published.
The two of them leave and walk out into the main corridor, as the guards lock the door and then unlock Carlos’ hands through the door. Spike looks around the rest of the cells whilst running a hand through his hair letting out a deep sigh.
Rob: Sup Spike?
Spike: I’m lucky not to be in a place like this myself Rob.....after everything I’ve done.....I should be fighting for my life on a daily basis.
Rob: We do fight Mike.....every week, just like we will on Sunday. We’re in their heads now, in their mindset. We’ve got this.
Spike nods his head as the guard goes to direct them, Spike takes one last long look back at the cells.
Spike: I hope you’re right bro.
~~~
You are the threat.
You’re the brains in this operation.
It’s no secret that Cyrus Daniels is the driving force behind Criminal Intent. I look at you Cyrus, and I see an echo of myself. I see a man who is determined to make a name for himself, determined to be successful at any means necessary, and I mean any means.....you’ve thrown everything back at me that I’ve thrown at people over the years. Like some twisted moral lesson you’ve made me think about the things I’ve done over the course of my career.....
The lives I’ve ruined...
The people I’ve corrupt....
The careers I’ve ended.....
Thing is though Cyrus, this is the part where I break right? Where I beg you to forgive me and put me out of my misery right? Where I cave in and my soul punishes me for the rest of my life, like a tortured bastard who wants nothing but the world to forgive him. Right? …..hell no! Do you really think that you are the first person to ever try and “teach me a lesson” huh? The last person who tried that was Alex Jones, and that culminated in a Dragon’s Den match.
Why don’t you ask him how that went?
You see, you’re not the first Cyrus, and you most certainly won’t be the last. So, whilst I really can’t wait to get into that ring and beat ten shades of crap out of you, I have to applaud you for the way you have orchestrated this whole thing. I mean you picked the dumbest of the dumb to do your bidding for you, knowing full well that Kingsley owes his life to you and will do everything you ask him to, like.....let you bang his sister.
Nice.
But you are a predator Cyrus, you sniff out the weaknesses of your prey and you pounce. Like with Rob and myself, you saw the very vulnerable families that we had, and you put them in the crosshairs. Even though I’m almost adamant that you wouldn’t do shit, you made us believe that you would. You put that seed of doubt in our minds, and you watched them grow. You saw Rob flip out, you saw me almost turn on my best friend because you two had come up with some elaborate plan to try and turn us against each other. It was a pretty simple plan, and the thing is simple things usually work so much better than those over the top plans. It almost did work Cyrus, you had me wanting to punch my tag team partner, you had me wanting to fight my friend.
But we’re stronger than that.
And this gold means more to us than that, more than I think you realise. You see, Rob and I, we came here and wanted to make a statement. We wanted to make history, and have that legendary tag team run that we’ve always wanted. IWF was a new start for us, we’d had our ins and outs at nCw, we’d done pretty much anything that we could do, to the point where nobody gave us a chance anymore. Everybody was so caught up with giving the newbies a shot, they never looked to us, and we still wanted it, we were still hungry. We had that drive inside us that wanted us to be the best, to be at the top of the pile, that desire to be recognised as the best that this business has to offer.
IWF offered us that.
It gave us the chance to do what we do best, to team together like the cohesive unit we have been since our days in Chaos Theory. We know how each others minds work, and we simply fit like two pieces in a puzzle, Rob has become my family, closer to me than my own brother. We’re in sync with each other because we enjoy what we do, whether we’re having fun in that ring, whether we’re taking things to the next level and busting some heads in, or whether our caped alter ego’s are solving stupid mysteries half away across the world. The main thing about us Cyrus...
We’re a team.
We came here to fight as a TEAM. We came here to entertain as a TEAM. We came here to dominate as a TEAM. Now here we are representing the tag team division as it’s inaugural champions, and you couldn’t really ask for two more high profile members to carry the flag for you. Let’s be serious for a minute, which belt means the most right now? The heavyweight? The cruiserweight? Pffft we all know it’s the tag team championship, because Rob and I made it that way. We made these belts worthwhile, and you my friend will have to pry them from my cold dead fingers.
Oh, and before I leave you, let me remind you Cyrus, as you seem so happy to gloat about beating me. I’ve beaten you more times than I can count. I’ve taken down you and your cellmate down on several occasions and with several partners, one of them being Rob Diamond himself. So tell me.....MATE....by your own goddamn logic, how do you stand a chance? Don’t answer, it was rhetorical. Thing is me old mucka, you’ve got everything you wanted, you’re name is in lights, we’re clearly one of the most anticipated matches of IWF history......but I’ve visited your world Cyrus, I’ve seen what you’ve seen.....and it doesn’t compare to the horrors I’ve been through, the demons I’ve seen.
I have been, and I always will be better than you.
You’re pathetic career so far may be criminal....
But I’ll always be InFamous!
Well howdy there pardner.