PROMO: 'Falling'

[Toxxic 0]

Night is starting to creep in over southern Canada, and the illuminations around the famous Horseshoe Falls on the Niagara River start to glow as dusk darkens the sky. Tourists who have travelled over from the US for the day are starting to head back, but one man stands at the rails of an observation point and watches, steel-grey eyes seemingly heedless of the countless millions of gallons of water relentlessly thundering over the falls.

 

“Penny for your thoughts?”

 

“At this exchange rate?” Stephens returns, turning his head to see the girl who approached unheard from behind; not difficult, this close to the cacophony from the gorge below. He recognised the voice, of course; Naomi Walters, more usually known to the general public by her old ring-name of Jet. His ex-girlfriend and former manager, now working as an SWF talent scout and part-time PA to Joseph Peters. She fixes him with a stare and flicks her red-and-black dreadlocks back over one shoulder.

 

“I dunno,” Mike says, turning back to look out at the Falls, “I guess I’m sort of wondering where I go from here.”

 

“How’d you mean?” Jet asks, coming up to lean on the rails next to him.

 

“It’s like, Genesis was it, Stephens says, “from the moment I knew Tom wanted the title I was sure Peters was going to throw us together at Genesis. It was going to be the biggest match of my career, the hardest match of my career. Everything I did - well, nearly everything - was based on the run-up to it. I was going to be going into that match as prepared as I’d ever been in my life, I was going to make Flesher fight for a win. And bugger me, I did it. I beat him. So now…” he laughs, mirth with a faint bitter edge. “What do I do? How do I follow that?”

 

“How do you prove them wrong now?” Jet murmurs. Stephens’ eyes flicker towards her for a second, and he chews the inside of his lip absent-mindedly.

 

“…yeah.”

 

“So tell me,” Jet says slowly, “are you proud of beating Tom because you know it was a really difficult thing to do, or are you proud of beating Tom because a lot of people thought you wouldn’t?”

 

Michael Stephens stands for a moment, apparently lost in thought. If he has the answer, he doesn’t give it.

 

“See, that’s one of the reasons I liked you, back then,” Jet says, “because you honestly didn’t care what anyone else thought. You didn’t like the guys who played to the fans, you didn’t like the guys like Flesher who did things deliberately to fuck the fans off. You just did what you did, and told anyone who liked it or didn’t like it to go hang. But now… are you interested in wrestling as well as you can? Or do you just want to try and prove somebody else wrong, and keep on until you find something you genuinely can’t do? I mean,” she continues, “you’ve beaten Tom Flesher in straight singles at Genesis, what’s next? Taking on the Weapons of Mass Destruction by yourself? Defending the Cruiserweight, Tag and World Titles one after another on the same night? Locking yourself in a cage with five guys who all want your title?”

 

“Did you want to labour your point any more?” Stephens asks dryly.

 

“Only until you start to fucking focus,” Jet snaps. “You know damn well what’s next, Mike - Spike’s next. You’ve got him on Lockdown, and he’s coming for the Cruiserweight Title. Plus, last time you faced him on PPV, he beat you.”

 

“Thanks for the reminder,” Mike grunts. “I’m surprised Peters agreed to put it back from Aftershoxx, really.”

 

“Oh come on,” Jet laughs, “you’re just beaten Tom Flesher at Genesis. You’re career’s bigger than it’s ever been before; Peters doesn’t like you, but every time he looks at you he sees dollar signs. He’ll give you little requests like that, but he wants to get as much money out of you as possible as fast as possible before you disappear on him again. Hell, he even wanted to set up an official Michael Stephens fan club through the SWF website, but someone beat him to it.”

 

“..say what?” Stephens says, brow furrowing, “how can something like that be official unless I’m in on it?”

 

“Well, apparently you are,” Jet says, “Joe’s still trying to find out the details but it seems two girls are claiming you gave them personal permission to set one up?”

 

“Oh God,” Stephens says, closing his eyes, “Prague. I bet it was Prague. It was after I left last year, I was travelling around Europe, two girls recognised me in Prague.”

 

“What did they look like?”

 

“They had a lot of eyeliner,” Mike recalls.

 

“Figures,” Jet sniffs. “And you said they could set a fan club up?”

 

“They asked me if they could,” Mike says. “…to be honest, I think my exact words were ‘knock yourselves out’, but…” He stops. He places his head in his hands. His next words are muffled by speaking through his fingers.

 

“This fan club… what’s it called?”

 

Jet doesn’t answer for a second and Mike peeks out from between his fingers. Then he sees her smirking and shuts his eyes again.

 

“Go on…”

 

“Well, the Official Michael Stephens Fan Club goes by the name of ‘The Sensation Nation’,” Jet tells him.

 

“Bloody hell…” the World Champion, Cruiserweight Champion and one half of the Tag Team Champions mutters. It figures that two girls and a throwaway comment can embarrass him more than Tom Flesher managed in Toronto. Then he removes his hands and regards his ex-girlfriend steadily.

 

“What’s happening with Gabe?”

 

“How d’you mean?”

 

“I mean, is he being punished for his attack on Landon at Genesis?” the straight-edger says. “I mean, is he being suspended? I mean, is he being fined? I mean, is Peters going to be putting me in the ring with him any time soon?”

 

“You’re probably going to have to ask Joe that yourself,” Jet replies, “because much as I still like you Mike, I’m still not risking my job for you. But he has got something in store for you, I know that much. He wants to get one massive payday out of you. Look out for yourself.”

 

“Yeah, you too,” Mike says. They look at each other for a second more, then Jet places a chaste peck on his cheek, grins at him and turns to walk off. Stephens watches her go for a second, then looks back out at the vista of tumbling water and nods to himself.

 

“Focus. Spike’s next.”

 

These days, it’s not often that the mirthless half-grin that used to define the Straight-Edge Sensation crosses the face of Michael Stephens. But Michael Stephens has no history with Spike Jenkins. Toxxic, on the other hand, has a bundle. From enmity, to allies as part of Revolution Zero, to growing hostility and resentment until finally, once he was convinced Spike had put his own interests ahead of the group’s, Toxxic turned on Jenkins. Revolution Zero helped Scott Pretzler end Spike’s record-breaking Cruiserweight Title reign, beat him down and threw him out of the stable. It wasn’t until Spike had slipped a psychedelic drug into Toxxic’s drink to mess with his fellow straight-edger’s head, then won a Last Man Standing match at 13th Hour 2005 by hitting the Ratings Grabber on Toxxic through the announce table, that the self-proclaimed New Straight-Edge Sensation (and how Toxxic always hated that) felt he’d got some revenge.

 

The grin creases Stephens’ face.

 

“Spike’s next. Poor Spike.”

[Secret Agent 0]

I like your portrayal of Stephens, I really do. I get the vibe that even though he’s a guy who currently holds three titles at once and just beat Tom Flesher in the biggest match in his career, that he still holds some doubt on his ability to contain Spike.

 

Either that or he’s really planning on opening a can on Spike. Anyway, excellent as always.

[Toxxic 0]

I'm going for the 'local derby' angle - the form book goes out of the window because of the emotion involved. It's been ages since Spike and Toxx got in the ring together, but because of what's gone down between them it's never going to be pretty. No matter what Toxx brings, Spike knows him well - but of course, the reverse is also true.

 

I'm not ruling out opening a can on Spike either, mind you

[The Amazing Rando 0]

I was hoping for an Elimination Chamber (locking yourself in a cage with five men).

[HollywoodSpikeJenkins 0]

With all the competition/talent in this place, that would be a stupid idea.

 

 

 

 

Also the fact that he's going to job to a backslide.

[The Amazing Rando 0]

I actually think Toxx could pull it off. He's done everything else.

[HollywoodSpikeJenkins 0]

You missed the part where I said I'm jobbing him to a backslide.

[Toxxic 0]

Yeah, well I'm jobbing you to a slide. As in, I'm going to slide down the slide and land on you with a Slide Splash, then pin you.

[HollywoodSpikeJenkins 0]

Crash Holly was awesome.

 

 

 

RIP homie.