Promo - News From Home

[Sly 0]

(The following events that I am presenting to you occurred within an hour’s worth of time in the twilight of August 2nd, 2007.)

 

*Brrr-Ring…*

 

..

 

*Brrr-Ring…*

 

The all-too-familiar sound of a telephone ring cuts through the stagnant, humid Missouri air. It’s always miserable this time of year, when you can step outside at 9:00 PM and still break a sweat. Not from the temperature, just from the humidity. It’s not nearly that late, though. It’s only approaching 7:00 PM now.

 

*Brr-Ring…*

 

“Hello?” the sound of a child’s voice breaks through the silence.

 

“Hey there kiddo!”

 

“Uncle Austin!” he cries out excitedly. Cupping his hand over the phone, he turns and calls out “Mommy! Mommy! It’s Uncle Austin!”

 

“That’s right, heh.” The voice of SWF superstar and international rock sensation Austin Sly answers from the other side of the phone, a slight hint of nervousness in his voice. “How’s everything…”

 

“What’s up, Austin?” the kid cuts him off.

 

“I’m doing a show in England.”

 

“What kind of show?”

 

“A wrestling show, Zach,” Austin responds casually. “Tonight’s a big night for you uncle. I’m getting a shot at the Tag Team Titles…”

 

“Mommy says wrestling is fake.”

 

“Oh she does, does she?” The Revolutionary responds, caught off-guard by the boy’s response. “Well, do you think wrestling is fake?”

 

“I don’t know,” Zach says, still just as excited as ever. “I don’t know why Mommy would tell me it was fake if it wasn’t.”

 

“Well is your mother around, Zach?”

 

“Yes.”

 

“Could I speak to her, please?”

 

“Sure!” Zach cups his hand over the phone again. “MOM!!!”

 

There’s a brief lull in the conversation as the phone is shuffled from hand to hand. “Why don’t you go play outside for a while, Zach?”

 

“Okay, Mom,” the child calls as he heads out the back door of the house.

 

“Hey Austin,” the young woman says with a sense of dread.

 

“Hi Holly. You don’t have to sound so down about talking to me.”

 

“I’m not…” Holly trails off for a moment. “I’m not down about talking to you, Austin. I always look forward to talking to you. I’m just never quiet sure of why you’re calling.”

 

“There’s no agenda behind this call,” Austin says reassuringly. “I just…”

 

“Just what?”

 

“I just missed you is all.”

 

“I miss you too Austin, but there’s nothing I can do to…”

 

“… solve it, I know.” Austin sighs, “sometimes I wish life would’ve turned out differently, you know that. There just wasn’t a life for me back home.”

 

“I was here. Zach was here, too.”

 

.

 

… silence fills the air…

 

.

 

“I know…”

 

“I still haven’t forgiven you for leaving us behind.”

 

“I don’t ever expect you to, Holly. What I did was selfish, but I was just…”

 

“Just what, Austin?” Holly says with spite in her breath.

 

“… I was just trying to give you and Zach a better life. I guess I’ve failed at that,” all the joy seems to have left Austin’s voice now. “I wanted you two to have all the things that I could never have. Nice things, you know.”

 

“Well you’ll always have one thing that you took away from Zach.”

 

“What’s that, Holly?” Austin says, hoping that he can somehow remedy the situation. Make right a wrong that he must’ve overlooked.

 

“You don’t want to know, Austin.”

 

“No, I really do. I want to make it right.”

 

“You can’t fix it,”

 

“No, I’m sure I can. I’m much better off these days then I was…”

 

“A dad, Austin.” Holly finally spits out. “No amount of money or fame or whatever it is that you wanted when you left four years ago can fix the time that he’s lost with you. God damn, Austin. He was two!”

 

“I know, Holly…”

 

“I don’t think you’ll ever really know, Austin! You didn’t have to raise our son by yourself, after all.”

 

“I know, Holly. I tried to help…”

 

“Monetarily. Money doesn’t raise a child.”

 

.

 

… silence fills the air again…

 

.

 

“Look, Austin. You’ll always be a part of Zach’s life. The time you spent with him when he was a kid will always be with him. If he ever does forget, I have the pictures we took to prove it to him.”

 

“Heh…” Austin laughs nervously.

 

“But…”

 

“But what?”

 

“I’m getting married, Austin.” Holly says very matter-of-fact. “John asked me to marry him, and I said yes.”

 

“What?!” Austin screams.

 

“Lower your voice, Austin.”

 

“What? I… uhh… but…” Austin stumbles over his words. “But… I didn’t think you guys were that serious?! Have you even been dating that long?”

 

“I know it’s all very sudden, but…” Holly trails off. “He’s… he’s a good guy. I think he’ll make a good dad for Zach and… I’m tired of being alone.”

 

“Oh Holly…”

 

“Look, Austin. There’s nothing we can do about all of this, anyways. It’s just how life has turned out.”

 

 

…..

 

 

Elsewhere in England, someone’s bad night is just starting. Stonehenge is our setting for tonight’s pay-per-view, but there’s hardly any room around the giant makeshift arena that has been built to house all of the appropriate offices and locker rooms and just everything that goes into making the SWF. Most of the wrestlers and staff are holed up in a select few hotels a city over. Tom Flesher has assembled a makeshift office on the second floor of one such hotel.

 

“Naomi!” The voice of Tom Flesher booms out over a the hotel telephone line. “Naomi, could you get in here please?”

 

Its been a while since we last heard from Toxxic’s ex-girlfriend, known to most of the world simply as Jet. That doesn’t mean she hasn’t been busy behind the scenes, though. Originally kept under contract by Joseph Peters as a talent scout and part-time PA with the possibility of returning to the managerial ranks if the right chemistry was found, she moved on to work with Tom Flesher when he took over. She’s rather busy tonight making some of the final preparations for Ground Zero… but it sounds like her plate is about to get just a little bit fuller.

 

“Naomi!”

 

“Yes, Tom?!” she responds, red and black dreads trailing behind her as she charges into the commissioner’s office. “What is it?”

 

“I need you to take care of this paperwork for me,” Tom says, casually pushing a bundle of papers across his desk. “I need them done as soon as possible. We’ve got to make this all good and legal with our insurance company before the show tomorrow night.”

 

“Pretty standard…” Jet leans over to pick up the paperwork, “oh FUCK that!”

 

“Problem?” Flesher says, spying the woman out of the corner of his eye.

 

“This is the Rev-Zero versus Wild and Dangerous match!”

 

“So…?”

 

“So?!” she sighs. “You know my history with them!”

 

“I’m sure you and Toxxic had a run-in or two, but that’s hardly my business. My business is business,” Tom says, spinning in his chair to face Naomi, “and the last time I checked, you were my assistant. I’m even going easy on you tonight. Everyone else got two matches, but you‘re only getting one due to the amount of people that involved.”

 

“This hardly seems like my…”

 

“…”

 

“Fine.”

 

Disappointed, Naomi spins on her heals sending a barrage of black and red hair flying behind her. The door slams shut behind her on the way out.

 

Most people might be bothered by having to work in such close quarters with a former lover. It’s not really so bad for these two, though. It’s really the other person involved in the match that has her bothered. Once upon a time, one Joseph Peters was trying his hardest to groom Austin Sly to become the next Michael Stephens. Toxxic had taken a break from the fed at the time and ratings had taken a little dip, and he was aiming to fix that any way that he could. Sly was sure to be a quick fix with his mainstream popularity and similar style to Stephens. He was so driven to make a replica that he even tried to force Austin to take on Jet in a managerial role. That was met with a *ahem* less than positive response. Undoubtedly, this is setting on Jet’s mind as she enters the elevator and pushes the button to climb to the fifth floor.

 

 

…..

 

 

We now enter into Austin Sly’s hotel room, where he sits perched on the side of his bed with a phone plastered to the side of his face. Strewn about the room is various odds and ends that he’s collected over the last several weeks on the European leg of the world tour. It sounds as though the conversation is just about wrapping up. The usually calm and collected demeanor has left him, as he is visibly shaking.

 

“You’re happy, though, right?” Sly questions, getting only silence as a reply. “Holly?”

 

“… yeah, of course I’m happy.” Holly replies, unconvincingly. “I’m going to have to get off the phone in a second, Austin.”

 

“Holly.”

 

“Yes?”

 

“I still love you.”

 

“I know,” she responds, sounding as if she’s holding back a sea of emotion. “I love you too. Bye, Austin.”

 

“Bye, Holly…”

 

*click*

 

Austin sits motionless for a second, phone still in hand. Shaking his head, he drops the receiver onto the bed and pulls the bottom drawer of his nightstand open to reveal a brand new bottle of Stolichnaya Vodka and a single glass. He grabs the bottle and begins to twist the cap free from the top of the bottle when…

 

*knock knock knock*

 

… someone begins to pound on his door. Muttering under his breath, he stands up and begins to make his way to the door, taking a swig out of his bottle on the way.

 

*knock kno…*

 

“What?!” Austin yells as he slings the door open to reveal Jet.

 

“Hi, I just have…” Jet’s eyes wander around the room. First to the pile of clothes, then to the phone receiver on the bed that’s currently in shambles, then back to the bottle of vodka and finally to Austin’s bloodshot eyes. “… are you okay?”

 

“Heh,” Austin breaths back heavily, “of course I’m okay. I’m always okay. What’d you need exactly?”

 

“I just have these… uh… you know what, can I come in for a second?”

 

 

…. “sure.”

[Guest WhollyChao]

Whoa! Scandal-types!

 

Seriously, good promo. Gives a bit more depth to Austin.

 

Really makes me interested to see how this pans out.

 

 

[Toxxic 0]

And the wonderful thing? Toxxic's gay now, so there's unlikely to be any friction in the Rev-0 camp!

 

Excellent promo though, I liked it a lot. It's always hard to write promos that are basically dialogue back and forth, but for something like this all that matters really IS the dialogue.

[The Amazing Rando 0]

Toxxic's what??! Are you the 'Sen-SAAAAY-shun, BAY-BEE!!' now?

 

 

I need to read matches and promos more thoroughly............

 

And, anyways, I thought if Toxxic would be gay for anyone, it would have been Landon Maddix.

[Toxxic 0]

...Toxxic was revealed as being gay just before he left in 2005. Jet revealed it to Chris Card while they were out at the Electric Ballroom in Camden, London, shortly before Ground Zero 2005.

 

Also, what did you think all Landon's homophobic jibes were about in 2006?

 

Also, what about the bit in my stats where it says "oh yeah, and he's gay, but it's just a background character thing, not an overt part of his gimmick"?

[Angel_Grace_Blue 0]

I chalk it up to Clark actually being unable to read. lolzerzpants.