Post by Bruce "The Beast" Richards on Apr 13, 2007 23:49:12 GMT -5
(Spring has come to Edmonton. Or perhaps that should read, "Has spring come to Edmonton?" The sun has been out for two days now, melting the light snows of the previous few days, leaving large puddles and potholes in the streets, and brown grass and piles of muck in the fields. At the End of Steel Park, a few kids race across the grass, running home from school, while a teenage couple walk slowly along the sidewalk, the breeze messing up the carefully constructed emo haircuts. Bruce "The Beast" Richards sitting on the traincar at the end of the park. He's in blue jeans, a blue t-shirt, and sneakers, but he still has his duster and Tombstone hat on as well. He addresses the camera.)
BRUCE RICHARDS: The End of Steel Park. It's a sorry excuse for a "park", to be perfectly honest. There's a few non-working audio stations, a big slab of concrete, and a train car. Otherwise, it's just a patch of land in between The Yardbird Suite jazz club and The New Asian Village restaurant. But the people who built it had their hearts in the right place. (He gestures to the concrete pylon at the end of the track.) That hunk of concrete is a monolith of sorts, commemorating the importance of the railway to what was once a small community. It was built to commemmorate the arrival of the first train in Strathcona back in 1891, as well as marking the end of the railroad line. Once you came this far, there was nowhere else to go except back.
(Bruce hops down from the traincar, swinging on the pole as he does so, and lands gently on his feet. He dusts his pants, then walks leisurely southwards.)
BRUCE RICHARDS: One place to mark the very beginning AND the very end of the line. Seems like an appropriate place, to me. After all, it's where I find myself right now. The very first NAPW show, in October 2005? I was there, part of D-X. I was in the main event. I won that match, and the NAPW Tag Team Titles. Bruce Richards is a living monolith, a reminder of the very beginning of New Alberta Pro Wrestling. Aside from Bob Ravager, there's nobody else here that can claim that honour. I'm not saying that the NAPW was built on the foundation of my backbreaking labours; I'm no Atlas carrying the company around on my shoulders. I'm no D!. But everyone here knows how hard I worked for this federation, and my record speaks for itself. I don't need to remind everyone of the past seventeen months of history. That was the glorious First Age of the NAPW. That all ended last month. When The Doomriders took on three other teams and proved just how much they deserved those Tag Team belts. When Ravager proved everyone wrong and actually retained the NAPW title. When I pinned that son of a bitch Kyle Roberts and sent him running to Rebel Pro with his tail between his legs. And when Simply Beautiful overcame the odds to be the Sole Survivor. That marked the end of the First Age of the NAPW.
BRUCE RICHARDS: So we're here, at the end AND the beginning. Less than a week from now we will usher in the Second Age of the NAPW. And just like the first time, I'm here to show what Bruce "The Beast" Richards has to offer. To show everyone what I can do. To make an impact. And I'll sure do that on Tuesday night. Four men, one match. To Dan Ryan, our special guest, I want to extend a special welcome, seeing as I'm basically the old guard here. It's a true, true honour to be wrestling in the same ring as you. You're a legend. You currently hold more titles than the NAPW has. You're an inspiration to most everyone in this company. See, the thing is, because I have all this respect for you...it means I just want to beat you that much more. To you, I'm just one more competitor in one more match. But I want you to leave remembering who I am. Remembering me as the guy from the NAPW who beat you.
(The wind picks up, and Bruce straightens his hat.)
BRUCE RICHARDS: Sebastien Martyr, I don't know what to think of. On the one hand, he keeps his opponents' blood in Ziploc bags as trophies. Not the weirdest thing I've ever heard: I've wrestled ThePredator, Nightmare, and Sir Thomas Deathrow, so I've had plenty of experience with weird and creepy. But it's still weird. I don't know what he wants to do with them, hang on to them as keepsakes or use them in some strange ritual, but it's definitely not something someone well-adjusted would do. (Grins.) And let me tell you, I know a lot about what goes on inside the mind of a disturbed man. Clinically and from experience. On the other hand, he showed plenty of grit at the Sole Survivor match. He almost stole the whole damn show. He's sure a hell of a competitor. I can't think of many people who have made such an impact here in such a short time. All the better reason to pop his little bubble. He's going to get a swelled head, going around bragging about how he's un-pinned, un-submitted, and undefeated. Someone needs to put that man down. And when he loses - and trust me, he will eventually lose - it might as well be someone who actually matters. There's no shame in losing to The Beast. One might even say there's honour in it. Not as much honour as beating me, true, but...that's not going to happen. Sebastien Martyr's underestimating people. It comes with the over-inflated view of himself. I'm easily beaten? All you need is to make me angry and you've got the match in the bag? Tell that to Kyle Roberts. No-one had EVER made me that angry before, and I didn't slip up. I didn't make mistakes. I took out the (BLEEP)ing trash. Just like I will come Tuesday.
(It's getting darker now, and Bruce takes his sunglasses off and puts them in his pocket.)
BRUCE RICHARDS: And Simply Beautiful. Mister Sole Survivor. He's got something that I want. What could it possibly be? At the last show, he himself a title shot. (Makes a fist, showing off his BattleBowl ring.) So do I. So it's not that. That spotlight that Sebastien Martyr almost stole? Belongs to him. But I don't want that either. He deserves his moment in the center of attention, and I don't begrudge the man that. But he's the number one contender for the Heavyweight Champion; I'm number three. And those are some numbers I want to reverse. Simply Beautiful's a hell of a wrestler, and he's certainly got the talent to take the Heavyweight Championship. But so's The Beast. I would LOVE to wrestle for that title belt, and I'd relish that victory the same no matter who's wearing it. Well, that's not entirely true. I'd love to take the belt from Bob, just in principle, and to beat my old buddy Chris Casino for that belt would be like having a rich chocolate cheesecake with sweet "you got what's coming to you" syrup on top. I like SB; he's a stand-up guy, and I'm looking forward to working with him next week. It's just that, well, he's not going to give up that spot without a fight. And I'm just the man to give it to him.
(Bruce Richards buttons up his duster and the camera gets a tight focus in on him.)
BRUCE RICHARDS: This match coming on Tuesday. It's the alpha and the omega. It's where it all ends and begins again. And when the match is over, I'm going to be that much closer to the number one contender's position. Just like the first show all over again. Just like the first match all over again. It's the match I have to win. To make the impact. To get everyone excited. To make people remember what it was like the first time. I'm not giving up. I'm putting up a fight. (His face darkens for a moment.) No-one's gonna take me alive.
(Bruce looks over to the line at the Yardbird Suite; Tiffany waves to him and he brightens, then walks over to join her. She gives him a kiss on the cheek as we fade to black.)
BRUCE RICHARDS: The End of Steel Park. It's a sorry excuse for a "park", to be perfectly honest. There's a few non-working audio stations, a big slab of concrete, and a train car. Otherwise, it's just a patch of land in between The Yardbird Suite jazz club and The New Asian Village restaurant. But the people who built it had their hearts in the right place. (He gestures to the concrete pylon at the end of the track.) That hunk of concrete is a monolith of sorts, commemorating the importance of the railway to what was once a small community. It was built to commemmorate the arrival of the first train in Strathcona back in 1891, as well as marking the end of the railroad line. Once you came this far, there was nowhere else to go except back.
(Bruce hops down from the traincar, swinging on the pole as he does so, and lands gently on his feet. He dusts his pants, then walks leisurely southwards.)
BRUCE RICHARDS: One place to mark the very beginning AND the very end of the line. Seems like an appropriate place, to me. After all, it's where I find myself right now. The very first NAPW show, in October 2005? I was there, part of D-X. I was in the main event. I won that match, and the NAPW Tag Team Titles. Bruce Richards is a living monolith, a reminder of the very beginning of New Alberta Pro Wrestling. Aside from Bob Ravager, there's nobody else here that can claim that honour. I'm not saying that the NAPW was built on the foundation of my backbreaking labours; I'm no Atlas carrying the company around on my shoulders. I'm no D!. But everyone here knows how hard I worked for this federation, and my record speaks for itself. I don't need to remind everyone of the past seventeen months of history. That was the glorious First Age of the NAPW. That all ended last month. When The Doomriders took on three other teams and proved just how much they deserved those Tag Team belts. When Ravager proved everyone wrong and actually retained the NAPW title. When I pinned that son of a bitch Kyle Roberts and sent him running to Rebel Pro with his tail between his legs. And when Simply Beautiful overcame the odds to be the Sole Survivor. That marked the end of the First Age of the NAPW.
BRUCE RICHARDS: So we're here, at the end AND the beginning. Less than a week from now we will usher in the Second Age of the NAPW. And just like the first time, I'm here to show what Bruce "The Beast" Richards has to offer. To show everyone what I can do. To make an impact. And I'll sure do that on Tuesday night. Four men, one match. To Dan Ryan, our special guest, I want to extend a special welcome, seeing as I'm basically the old guard here. It's a true, true honour to be wrestling in the same ring as you. You're a legend. You currently hold more titles than the NAPW has. You're an inspiration to most everyone in this company. See, the thing is, because I have all this respect for you...it means I just want to beat you that much more. To you, I'm just one more competitor in one more match. But I want you to leave remembering who I am. Remembering me as the guy from the NAPW who beat you.
(The wind picks up, and Bruce straightens his hat.)
BRUCE RICHARDS: Sebastien Martyr, I don't know what to think of. On the one hand, he keeps his opponents' blood in Ziploc bags as trophies. Not the weirdest thing I've ever heard: I've wrestled ThePredator, Nightmare, and Sir Thomas Deathrow, so I've had plenty of experience with weird and creepy. But it's still weird. I don't know what he wants to do with them, hang on to them as keepsakes or use them in some strange ritual, but it's definitely not something someone well-adjusted would do. (Grins.) And let me tell you, I know a lot about what goes on inside the mind of a disturbed man. Clinically and from experience. On the other hand, he showed plenty of grit at the Sole Survivor match. He almost stole the whole damn show. He's sure a hell of a competitor. I can't think of many people who have made such an impact here in such a short time. All the better reason to pop his little bubble. He's going to get a swelled head, going around bragging about how he's un-pinned, un-submitted, and undefeated. Someone needs to put that man down. And when he loses - and trust me, he will eventually lose - it might as well be someone who actually matters. There's no shame in losing to The Beast. One might even say there's honour in it. Not as much honour as beating me, true, but...that's not going to happen. Sebastien Martyr's underestimating people. It comes with the over-inflated view of himself. I'm easily beaten? All you need is to make me angry and you've got the match in the bag? Tell that to Kyle Roberts. No-one had EVER made me that angry before, and I didn't slip up. I didn't make mistakes. I took out the (BLEEP)ing trash. Just like I will come Tuesday.
(It's getting darker now, and Bruce takes his sunglasses off and puts them in his pocket.)
BRUCE RICHARDS: And Simply Beautiful. Mister Sole Survivor. He's got something that I want. What could it possibly be? At the last show, he himself a title shot. (Makes a fist, showing off his BattleBowl ring.) So do I. So it's not that. That spotlight that Sebastien Martyr almost stole? Belongs to him. But I don't want that either. He deserves his moment in the center of attention, and I don't begrudge the man that. But he's the number one contender for the Heavyweight Champion; I'm number three. And those are some numbers I want to reverse. Simply Beautiful's a hell of a wrestler, and he's certainly got the talent to take the Heavyweight Championship. But so's The Beast. I would LOVE to wrestle for that title belt, and I'd relish that victory the same no matter who's wearing it. Well, that's not entirely true. I'd love to take the belt from Bob, just in principle, and to beat my old buddy Chris Casino for that belt would be like having a rich chocolate cheesecake with sweet "you got what's coming to you" syrup on top. I like SB; he's a stand-up guy, and I'm looking forward to working with him next week. It's just that, well, he's not going to give up that spot without a fight. And I'm just the man to give it to him.
(Bruce Richards buttons up his duster and the camera gets a tight focus in on him.)
BRUCE RICHARDS: This match coming on Tuesday. It's the alpha and the omega. It's where it all ends and begins again. And when the match is over, I'm going to be that much closer to the number one contender's position. Just like the first show all over again. Just like the first match all over again. It's the match I have to win. To make the impact. To get everyone excited. To make people remember what it was like the first time. I'm not giving up. I'm putting up a fight. (His face darkens for a moment.) No-one's gonna take me alive.
(Bruce looks over to the line at the Yardbird Suite; Tiffany waves to him and he brightens, then walks over to join her. She gives him a kiss on the cheek as we fade to black.)