PROMO: Celebrations

[King Cucaracha 0]

PLACE: The Alamodome, San Antonio, Texas

TIME: 40 mins after the end of the show

SCENE: Martial Law's locker room

 

With Battleground in the books, the clear-up operation has already begun in the arena. Backstage meanwhile, another clear-up job is underway...at least in the Martial law dressing room anyway. With the International Championship match having ended roughly an hour ago, the three members of Martial Law are assessing the aftermath of their night. Sitting on the leather couch, Todd Cortez sits with his eye held open into the light by Megan Skye, wielding a small ball of cotton wool which she dabs across Todd's eyebrow gently. Meanwhile, their team-mate Landon Maddix sits in the matching armchair with his feet flung over the arm, his newly won International Championship belt over his still sweaty torso.

 

"There..." whispers Megan, as she backs away from Todd. "That's about all I can really do. I still think you'd be best off going to see the trainer. It looks pretty nasty."

 

"There's really no need." Todd insists.

 

Maddix glances over at Cortez, seeing his eye already swelling up and grimacing just slightly.

 

"What about your knee, Landon?"

 

"Fine."

 

"You sure?"

 

"Megs, as arousing a prospect as it is, we don't need you playing nurse for us." smiles Landon. "I'll get it checked out in the morning if it's still giving me trouble. Tonight though, I'd rather be worrying about getting more ice for the champagne than ice for my knee. After all...tonight, it's finally an opportunity for us to celebrate! Lord knows it's been a while coming. But tonight, we're going to celebrate...a job well done."

 

Smiling, Maddix raises his newly acquired gold as if making a toast, Megan giving some applause. Cortez just looks on from the side.

 

"A job well done?" Cortez finally interjects.

 

"Yeah. A job well done. I've got some gold again, Wild and Dangerous are a belt down...I've already spoken to the championship committee about getting us another Tag Title shot in the near future. Seems like mission accomplished to me."

 

"You're forgetting one thing...I lost."

 

An awkward silence falls across the room, as Cortez's blunt reminder cuts short the celebrations.

 

"AND...I got superkicked by Dangerous."

 

Another awkward silence.

 

 

...

 

"...still, it's been a good night for me, eh?"

 

Cortez glares at Maddix for a moment, trying to hold back his obvious anger...before standing up and walking out of the room. Leaving Megan and Maddix looking on uncomfortably.

 

"Something I said?"

 

"He's just upset that Ejiro beat him." Megan sighs. "He'll be fine...but, maybe it's best you go easy with the celebrations tonight Landon. You know, try not to rub it in."

 

"Who, me?"

 

The wry smile from Maddix gets a dissapproving look from Megan, who clearly seems to be more level headed than her victorious stablemate does. Sighing, Maddix nods in agreement with Megan finally, before easing off the armchair...clearly in discomfort as he limps across the locker room, opening up one of his bags and pulling out a smaller cooler bag from inside. Before opening that bag up, pulling out three champagne glasses and a large magnum.

 

"Still...seems a shame to waste this, doesn't it?"

 

Megan looks down, trying to hide the smile on her face...and doing a miserable job. Meanwhile, Maddix opens up the champagne which gushes out of the bottle, Megan cheering a little as the smiling new International Champion pours out a couple of glasses. He passes one to Megan, before looking at the other empty glass...shrugging...and pouring himself out a second glass.

 

"To success!"

 

"Success!"

 

The two clunk glasses together before Maddix chugs down the two glasses in his hands, Bionic Redneck style, while Megan sips her glass in a much more ladylike manner.

 

"Man, that's good stuff." smiles Maddix. "More?"

 

"How much more have you got?"

 

Smiling again, Maddix reaches back into the cooler bag...and pulls out another bottle of champagne.

 

"Depends. How much do you want?"

 

Megan and Maddix laugh, as Maddix quickly pours out another glass for his manageress.

[Angel_Grace_Blue 0]

Maddix is so insensitive!

 

Also: Drunkenings!

[Toxxic 0]

Ooh! More Martial Law tension! And... did we ever sort out if Todd and Megan were getting it on? If so, methinks there is yet more tension yet to be discovered as she and Landon get drunk together and then screw each other's brains out!

 

Maybe.

[Mr. S£im Citrus 0]

Intriguing promo; nice to see the tension between Cortez and Maddix advanced... I don't know how much time I have to give to a W&D/ML program, though, since I've got something on my plate, but I won't veto a title defense.

[Secret Agent 0]

I'll veto it; just to be indifferent.

 

Honestly though, Martial Law never had the tag titles so them getting a rematch for this doesn't make as much sense as Johnny getting a rematch for the International Championship.

[Mr. S£im Citrus 0]

IN-different?

[King Cucaracha 0]

You can have a rematch at the International Title anytime ya want, Johnny. So long as I get past Storm.

[JHawk 0]

Except you won't get past Storm.

 

Unless your angle outdoes my match.

 

...

 

...

 

Aw crap.

[Toxxic 0]

Angles vs matches = angles lose. Markers do not take into account angles or what is good for the fed when marking. This is why the World Title changed hands so many times last year despite Zed's desperate pleas for stability...

 

...the fact that in the vast majority of cases the defending champ no-showed didn't help either, I guess.

[the.weej 0]

That had a lot more to do with it, yeah. It ALSO didn't help that 6 straight world champions decided they would retire after losing the belt instead of staying in the main event, which drove everything into complete chaos. I mean, if you lose a match you lose a match, it's not a big deal and no matter WHAT, you can always find a way to make an angle work in spite of that. (trust me, I worked with Kibagami extensively; no matter how crucial a win is to a storyline, you can still make it work even if you lose.) If you QUIT, though, that means everyone depending on your involvement and often the entire fucking TITLE SCENE is boned.

 

Not that I'm still bitter over this or anything.

 

-Z

[the.weej 0]

Oh, and just to touch on Toxxic's point, I had often thought about jobbing people based on whether or not their victory would be better for the fed as a whole. By that I mean, if someone is holding a title and in the midst of a storyline, they tend to be a person that people rally around; people deeply involved in angles tend to energize the fed.

 

However, doing that severely compromises the competitveness of the SWF. When you get right down to it, if you're going to mark based on the value of storylines over the quality of matches, we might as well just be an RP fed. It renders the effort people put into 6000 word main events and 10,000 word PPV main events almost totally irrelevant. Admittedly, when I was in charge I wouldn't have minded at all a shift where increased importance was put on angles and matches on the whole got smaller and easier to handle, but too much of that dillutes what the fed has always been about. Besides, some markers have a hard enough time making decisions and justifying their responses to writers, and I can't imagine them, or the people they're marking, responding well to being told things like, "Yeah, your match was probably better, but you having a title reign right now isn't in the SWF's best interest right now."

 

-Z

[JHawk 0]

All that off a passing remark I meant as a joke. Wow.

[Hank Kingsley 0]

It isn't always a decision to just retire as much as it is general burnout and personal commitments that get in the way.

 

For me, it was losing at Battleground (end of April) => AP exams, which take precedence over an e-fed.

[Toshiaki Koala 0]

For me, it was losing at Battleground (end of April) => AP exams, which take precedence over an e-fed.

...and one of the reasons for my recent squashage. I promise I won't suck as much when the month of May is over. Honest!

[Mr. S£im Citrus 0]

I don't know how you guys can do it at all, frankly; there's no way I would have been able to devote any time to something like this when I was your age. Of course, there wasn't such a thing as the internet when I was some of y'all's age...

[Toxxic 0]

Hey, I wish I'd discovered this place when I was at University. The amount of free time I had then was unreal. As it is I can just about fit this in around a full-time job plus running a club night and being in a band, but it gets a little tricky sometimes. Although I seem to be booked less lately, which helps.

[Mr. S£im Citrus 0]

Hey, I wish I'd discovered this place when I was at University. The amount of free time I had then was unreal...

Had an easy major, did we?

[Mr. S£im Citrus 0]

That had a lot more to do with it, yeah. It ALSO didn't help that 6 straight world champions decided they would retire after losing the belt instead of staying in the main event, which drove everything into complete chaos...

Well, look at it this way, Zed: your loss as head booker was Toxxic's gain as a character/writer. No disrepsect to Toxxic, but who's to say that he would have already broken through to the main event if all those guys hadn't all quit one after the other? He might still be at ICTV or USJL level (since we probably would have had enough guys to keep those belts active). Hell, just look at all the main eventers/upper midcard stars that either quit or took an indefinite leave of absence during Toxxic's first several months in the fed:

 

Danny Williams*

Nathaniel Kibagami*

Tom Flesher*

Ejiro Fasaki*/Coy West

The HVille Thugg*

Janus*

Charlie Matthews*

Va'aiga*

John Duran*

Ann Onita

Jamie Drazon

Crowe

Wildchild

Mike Van Siclen

Todd Royal

 

* - Former World Heavyweight Champion

 

Quite frankly, there was nowhere for him to go but up... Of course, on the other hand, had those guys still been here, then the ladder match at Battleground could have very well been WC versus Toxxic; now there be ratings!

 

So, I suppose when you think about it, the Main Event's loss became the Cruiserweight Title's loss...

Edited April 29, 2005 by Mr. S£im Citrus

[JHawk 0]

So, I suppose when you think about it, the Main Event's loss became the Cruiserweight Title's loss...

I dunno. You've also got some good cruisers who might not be in the hunt otherwise either.

[the.weej 0]

No offense to Toxxic or anything, but I absolutely would've preferred if even half of those guys had stuck around instead of suddenly quitting like they did. I will also admit that I had intended to test Toxxic against a couple of main eventers (Grap, Williams, Flesher and Duran were the ones I figured) before everyone started quitting like they did. He was on such an insane hot streak and I definitely wanted to figure out how good he really was.

 

-Z

[muzz 0]

WC, you're making way too much out of this...

 

LOLZ

[Mr. S£im Citrus 0]

:: shakes fist at Muzz ::

 

 

[HollywoodSpikeJenkins 0]

I love how a Landon promo turned into a thread about Toxx.

 

 

 

 

ALL HAIL TOXXIC! GOD OF GODS! LORD OF LORDS!

[Toxxic 0]

I love how a Landon promo turned into a thread about Toxx.

 

 

 

 

ALL HAIL TOXXIC! GOD OF GODS! LORD OF LORDS!

EVERYTHING is about me, Spike. Won't you ever learn?