Friday, May 26, 2017

Know thy self, know thy enemy. A thousand battles, a thousand victories.




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Scene 1
Off Camera
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From the outside this house looks stylish, intimate, and cozy. It has been built with red bricks and has tan stone decorations. Small, rectangular windows allow enough light to enter the home and have been added to the house in a very symmetric way.  The roof is high, triangular and layered and is covered with slate shingles. One small chimney pokes out the center of the roof. Rows of small windows let in plenty of light to the rooms below the roof.  The house itself is surrounded by a tranquil garden, with various flowers, a long pond, and various rock formations.

Needless to say, I am not quite used to this kind of luxury.  Ever since my marriage to Tony Morgan came to its rather abrupt end, I have been quite the traveler, just living wherever I can.  Professional wrestling has taken up much more of my life, because I can be on the road all of the time and not worry about settling down in any one place.  I am not the type of person who needs to settle down.

I’ve tried settling down before.  Bad things happen when I settle down.

So I keep busy, I kept busy with Global Division of Wrestling, Millennium Wrestling Alliance, Future Wrestling Alliance, and the Independent Wrestling Cartel.  I wrestled for each company at one point in my career, sometimes I wrestled in more than one at one time.   In all I held four tag team titles and four world titles.  But now those companies are all but distant memories.  Once again I must keep myself busy or else bad things happen.  I’ve been keeping myself busy in Global Championship Wrestling trying to prove my theory correct, trying to prove that heroes do not exist and, to go even further, all people have the same dark, dastardly violent personality that people accuse me of having.

The difference between me and the rest of the world is that I am not afraid to admit that I am a monster.

I’m growing bored now.  I need a new challenge and I believe I have found that new challenge.

Supreme Championship Wrestling.

I follow the careers of Angelica and Kayla Jones rather closely and that is how I came to find out about Supreme Championship Wrestling.  My brother Mark and I, together known as Total War, once had quite the rivalry with The Sisterhood.  Perhaps it would be nice to reintroduce ourselves to the pompous Jones siblings?

Negotiations have been going on between myself and officials with SCW and I must say that I am quite pleased with how things have gone.  I even negotiated a rather good deal for my brother.  I would hope that he would join me in this next stage of my career.  And in the past, I could just about guarantee that he’d follow me like a lost little puppy.

Alas, Mark’s meddlesome girlfriend, Ashley Murray, has taught him how to think for himself.  Now when I need Mark for something, I actually have to manipulate the poor dumb bastard.  Used to, it was just a simple matter of me telling him to jump and he’d ask how high.

Curse independent thought.  Curse it all to hell.

That is what brings me to his and the home Mark and Ashley share in Belfast, Northern Ireland.  My finger gently touches the button that is clearly the doorbell.  I stand there and wait patiently after ringing the doorbell, waiting for the arrival hopefully of my brother.  I would rather speak to him right now and no one else.  Unfortunately, I do not get my wish granted and that is made abundantly clear as the door opens to Ashley Murray, my brother’s girlfriend, standing there in the doorway.  The ice-cold gaze from her eyes tells the entire story: she is not happy to see me in the least little bit.

“Sophie….”

“Yes, I’m Sophie, and you’re Ashley, now that the introductions are out of the way may I speak to my brother?”

That ice-cold gaze turns into one of hate.  So maybe she didn’t appreciate my attempt at humor?

“No!”

Ashley attempts to shut the door on my face but I stop her by holding out my hands, blocking the door from being shut completely.  That’s one advantage to being a professional athlete.  I am much stronger than Ashley, someone who has had no real training in how to defend herself.  I can at the very least keep this door open.  A confident grin passes across my face as I gaze deep into her eyes, I can see that she knows she can’t keep me out.

“Still not a member of my fan club, eh Ashley?”

“You’re not good people.  You’re poison to Mark.”

I roll my eyes, this whole good and bad nonsense is really quite tiresome and calling someone “poison” is overdone.

“Honestly, Ashley, you’re going to label people good or bad?  Really?  There is no such thing as good in this world, you naïve little girl. You just have two groups; the pretenders who like to pretend to be good and then those who are honest with themselves and the rest of the world about the monsters they really are.”

Ashley vehemently shakes her head.

“I refuse to believe that.”

I chuckle.

“You may live in whatever fantasy world you choose to live in, that’s fine, but Mark is my brother, and whether you like it or not I have a right to speak with him.  Besides, I think I have a proposition for him, once he’d be very interested in.”

“We aren’t interested in hearing what your type has to say.”

“My type, is it?”

“Yeah, your type…psychopaths!  Homicidal lunatics!”

The words string and ring true.  I have perpetrated many heinous acts.  I am responsible for the murder of the two men who framed Ashley’s twin sister for a murder she didn’t commit.  I murdered Carolyn Rose York, a former patient of Tony Morgan’s, before murdering Tony himself.  All of these acts, while suspicious, are all labeled as suicides.  Open and shut cases as far as the police are concerned as they really have no interest in solving them further.  Those people I killed and made it to look like a bunch of suicides, society never cared about them let alone police.  It was the perfect crime.  I couldn’t control myself and Ashley knows it.  Mark knows it.

Speaking of the devil, my large, dumb, yet loveable brother steps up behind Ashley.  I grin from ear to ear as I can sense already that victory is nearly mine and that Ashley will be thoroughly rejected.  When he first started dating Ashley, Mark and I had our difficulties, but we have since resolved them.  The only difficulty I have now is that damnable independent thought process Mark has.

“Sophie, what’s up?”

“Good afternoon, Mark,” I say sweetly, putting on a fake smile but one that should easily fool Mark “I just wanted to catch up and run something by you, if you don’t mind.”

Mark shakes his head. “I don’t mind.   Come on in.”

Ashley looks incredulously at her boyfriend. “But Mark…”

“You heard the man,” I respond as I interrupt her, my voice dripping with sarcasm, “he wants to talk.”

I step inside and get nose to nose with Ashley, who growls under her breath. “You little, bi…”

“Ashley, Sophie,” Mark steps in between the two of us and shuts the door, “you are not going to argue.  Not here.”

“Fine!” Ashley storms off down the hall. “When you’re done talking to her, you’ll know where to find me.”

I chuckle. “She seems upset.”

“Behave, Sophie.”

With that, Mark leads me towards the living room.  This place used to be dirty and run down, it’s amazing to me how much work they’ve done to the place.  The carpeting looks brand new, even though I know they’ve had it for at least a year or two.  The rest of the living room is rather simply decorated with a coffee table in front of a long cream colored sofa.  Against a wall is a large flat screen television.  On the wall is a window and on either side of the wall are large green plants.  This place is quite immaculate looking.

Much better than I would do, but then again, I’m not domesticated like Ashley is.

I glide across the floor to the sofa where I leap on top, lying down full length across.  My brother approaches, gazing down at me with a frown on his face.

“If you don’t mind…”

“Sorry,” I move, allowing him room to sit down next to me “I was just getting comfortable.”

“I can see that.”  Mark says, sitting down.  “So what brings you here?”

“What?  Can’t I stop by to see my brother?”

Mark rolls his eyes.  “With you?  It’s never just to see me.  You always have a plan.”

“Oh you know me so well, dear brother.  I suppose it’s to be expected, considering the many years we’ve traveled the roads, side by side, as Total War.  Do you remember when we got our start in Global Division of Wrestling?”

My brother nods his head, a smile on his face seems to indicate pleasant thoughts of this time. “Yeah, I remember.”

“Twice we won tag team gold,” I hold up two fingers “one from Might & Majesty, once from Chance of Raine.”

“Don’t forget that Tag Team Any Given Night.”

“How could I forget?  And then there was our brief stay in the Millennium Wrestling Alliance.”

Mark smirks, now thoroughly enjoying this reminiscing session. “Yeah, brief but we still won two tag titles while we were there.”

“True enough, Mark.  True enough.”  I take in a deep breath and sigh. “We had some wonderful times, did we not?”

“Yeah, we did.”  Mark cocks his head to one side and studies me curiously for a few seconds. “So what’s your point?”

“Wouldn’t you like to create more of those moments?  You and I, together, running roughshod through a tag division.  It would be splendid!”

He nods his head in agreement. “Yeah, it would be, but…”

“But….?”

“…but it’s never just about the tag titles with you.  You always have another agenda.  So before I agree to go out creating any new moments with you, I don’t just need to know where this damn place is, but I need to know what your agenda is.”

Mark does indeed know me all too well.  I roll my eyes out of frustration. “The company is Supreme Championship Wrestling.”

“SCW?” He asks curiously.  I nod my head and a light bulb goes off in his. “Oh I know that place, it’s the place Angelica and Kayla wrestle.”

“That’s the one.”

“What’s your deal with SCW?  Do you want to get revenge on The Sisterhood?”

It’s a fair question.  Our beef with The Sisterhood goes back to our final days in GDW.  They beat us for the GDW World Tag Team Championship.  It took me awhile to get over that, I will admit.  But my business in SCW has nothing to do with the Jones women.

“Please, Mark, give me more credit than that.  I have moved on from them.  My agenda in SCW is two-fold.  First, I genuinely want to get Total War back into tag team wrestling and I can’t think of anywhere better to really do that than Supreme Championship Wrestling.”

“And what else?”

I grin knowingly. “You know me, dear brother; I do enjoy my social experiments.”

“So that’s it, then.  You need a new group of losers to mentally torture.”

“Look, Mark, you should know by now what my agenda is.  You’ve been around me long enough to know exactly who in the hell I am.  No, my motives are not exactly pure, but then again, no one is pure.  Not truly.”

I poke him in the chest. “This is YOUR chance at the big time yet again.  This is your second chance at gaining that spotlight.  And as much as I hate to admit it, I DO need your help.  So are you in, or are you out?”

He chuckles. “That’s all you had to say, Sophie…”

I look on quizzically. “Huh?”

“I just wanted to hear you admit that you need my help.  You always think you have things well in hand, sis.  It’s good to hear you humbled for once.”

“Bloody hell, Mark…” I respond, rolling my eyes.

“Sorry, Sophie.  But yes, I’m in.”

A wicked grin forms across my face. “Excellent, now I’ll tell you what we’re going to do first.  Have you heard of Taking Hold of the Flame?”



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Scene 2
Off Camera
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The Braddock Wrestling School is an amazing sight in the daylight.  Students who attend the school are struck by the near run-down appearance of the legendary establishment, an establishment that still pumps out some of the best wrestlers in the world today.  In the moonlight of night time in London, England it is almost a fearful sight.  It looks like a place you want to avoid for fear of being mugged.  But for me, this place is neither an awe-inspiring sight nor is it a fearful sight.  Whether it is daytime or nighttime, this place, to me, can be described with just one word…

…home.



This building contains wonderful memories of me, my brother, and our good friend Glory Braddock training together, learning the tools of the trade together under the infamous Glenn Braddock.   Glenn Braddock rescued me from the horrible home situation I had been in.

Well, it was a combination of my brother and Glenn.  Our father was an abusive drunk who regularly beat us.  Mark finally stood up to him and beat his ass one day and walked out.  That left me alone to take all of the abuse myself.  Little did I know that Mark was receiving training from the great Glenn Braddock in how to be a wrestler.  One day Mark returned for me and brought me out and introduced me to Mr. Braddock and thus my road to professional wrestling had begun.

Thus this school, whether memories are good or bad, this place will always be like a second home to me.  This is why I am not afraid of it nor am I intimidated by it as my fancy black Lexus pulls up in the parking lot in the dead of night.

After coming to a stop near the front, I turn the car off and exit.  Then I walk towards the school.  I walk with a purpose and a clear determination in my stride until I get to the front door.   I stop and push the door open.  Inside I find the lights are dimly lit and no one is anywhere in sight.  Equipment is strewn about.  It looks like a warzone.

But then again…that’s normal…

For Glenn Braddock, the end result is everything.  He doesn’t have time to make sure everything is fancy.  His methodology is not chaos but it is not cruel. His methodology has been quite similar to that of a drill sergeant.  He was tough but fair and did not care if everything was pretty.  He just wanted the job done.

“Glenn?  Are you here?”

There is no answer.  Then I notice that the office light is turned on.  As I start to head towards the office the light turns off.  I can hear the door shutting.  I stop walking as I see Glenn Braddock emerging.  A grin spreads across my face as I resume my walk towards him.  He looks on at me with a perplexed gaze.

“Sophie?”

“That’s right, Glenn.   It’s me.  One of your three best students, one third of Trinity.”

Trinity is what Mark, Glenn’s daughter Glory, and myself were nicknamed by the other students.  We were so good at the craft and we were such close friends that the name came naturally.  Yet another memory that this wonderful place evokes.

As I approach Glenn I hold out my arms.  Glenn does so as well and we embrace in a tight hug.

“I am so glad to came out at this time of night, Glenn.”

“I admit that I was surprised to get your call.  Bloody hell, Sophie, you haven’t called in ages.”

I laugh lightly. “That’s my fault.  I’ve been very busy ever since I left your school.”

“I’ve noticed.” He motions to the wrestling ring set up near the center of the workout area. “Come on…”

I allow him to take my hand and lead me towards the ring.  When we get there he sits down first on the edge of the ring apron.  I sit down next and look into the eyes of this grizzled veteran who has been through many wars.  He had accomplished everything a wrestler could accomplish in Great Britain.  He would have gone to the Olympics had a career ending back injury not abruptly stopped him.  Now he passes his knowledge onto the next generation of professional athletes.

“So what did you want to talk to me about?”

“Oh Glenn, I just needed to see you and to see this place again.”  I shut my eyes as a wide grin spreads across my face. “This is home.”

I open my eyes and, before Glenn can answer, “you may think I’m crazy, Glenn, but I do not have a steady place where I live.  I try to keep as busy as possible with my wrestling so that I’m mostly traveling, but if I ever do have an extended stay anywhere, it’s at my brother’s house.  I don’t have a place to call my own…”

I wave my arms, motioning to my surroundings “…except this place!  This is home to me, Glenn.  This place, and you, saved my life.  And for that I can never be more grateful.”

Glenn chuckles and his face turns red from the blushing.  “Well hell, thanks.  But really, it was what any decent human being would do.”

“Perhaps, but you went above and beyond what a “decent human being” would do, Glenn.  You gave me the tools necessary to become the person I am today.  All of my achievements, inside and outside of the ring, they can all be credited to you.”

I shake my head. “I mean, let’s be honest with ourselves.  I am not a product of that abusive ass George O’Brian, formerly known as my father.  And as much as he tried to do a good job taking care of me in my teenage years, I’m not a product of my brother Mark O’Brian.”

I place a hand on Glenn’s shoulder. “I am a product of the Braddock Legacy.”

Glenn seems to be genuinely touched by this.  It isn’t often this tough old bastard cracks a smile and yet he’s grinning from ear to ear.

“Thanks, Sophie.  I appreciate that.”

“And that’s why I wanted to talk to you here, at this place, TONIGHT.  I wanted to let you know that I am now ready and prepared to finally repay you for what you’ve done for me.”

Immediately my former trainer shakes his head. “Nonsense.  You don’t need to repay me a damn think, mate.”

“Oh I do owe you, Glenn, and I will repay you.  You taught me about achieving goals, and while most students just took them as wrestling lessons, I understood the deeper meaning. I knew what you really meant…”

I nod my head “…achieving your goals both inside AND outside of the ring.  You taught us that success may not look pretty but damn it, success is still success.  That applies both inside and outside of the ring and I believe I’m the only one who grasped it, the only one who understood it, and that is what makes me your greatest student.”

“Sophie, I don’t think…”

“And I will utilize those tools you gave me, I will use what I learned from you to carry on the Braddock legacy as only I can.  And I’m going to do it in Supreme Championship Wrestling.”

Glenn is clearly taken off guard by this announcement. “Really?  SCW?”

“That’s right, Glenn, Mark and I are going to SCW and we’ll show what TOTAL WAR is all about.  But first I need to introduce myself to the sheep of SCW and what better way to do that than at the Taking Hold of the Flame battle royal?”

I embrace him again. “I promise I won’t let you down, Glenn.  I will show SCW what the Braddock Legacy means for them and for their future.”

“Sophie, I don’t think you get it.” He gets off the ring apron, standing up.  I follow suit. “I don’t think you get the Braddock Legacy.”

I gaze at him with confusion. “What do you mean?”

“I did say that success may not always look pretty, but I never meant that you won by any means necessary.  And I sure as hell didn’t mean the tactics you’ve utilized in the past.”

I feign innocence, though I have a good feeling I know what he’s talking about. “What are you talking about, Glenn?”

“Inflicting mental and emotional torture on your opponents just to gain some advantage before the match isn’t fair play.  It’s sick.  You should try to use whatever means available to you in the ring.  In other words, are you a better wrestler than your opponent?”

I shake my head. “No…”

Immediately I kick him below the beltline and throw a right hand that drops him to the floor.  I laugh nastily.

“I feared that you, like your daughter, had gone soft.  But don’t worry, Glenn, I will salvage the Braddock Legacy.  I will make the Braddock Legacy my own as I resurrect it.  The wrestling world will fear us once again.”

I kneel down and give him a kiss on the forehead. “You can thank me later.”

I get up and turn and walk away, leaving Glenn behind to writhe in pain.



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On Camera
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Sun Tzu says, “Know thy self…”

You may not know me.  In fact, I doubt any of you know me outside of the annoying yet talented Jones women.

Angelica, Kayla, how are you?  Last time we were in the same company we were beating the hell out of each other!  And little Marie, my how time flies.  Last time I saw you, you were a much younger little twat. Now you’re a grown up little twat with a gold trinket.  United States Champion.  Congratulations to you.  But neither you, your mother, nor your aunt can stop me.

My name is Sophie O’Brian and I am a product of the Braddock Family Wrestling Legacy.  No, I am not a Braddock by blood, but spiritually, emotionally, and mentally I may as well be.  My trainer was Glenn Braddock and he quite literally saved my life when he introduced me to professional wrestling. And you couldn’t have a trainer better than him.  He was so good at what he did that people nicknamed him “Britain’s Best.”

Ah but it was not so much a nickname as literal fact.  Only one individual managed to defeat him in his entire career.  He could’ve gone on to be in the Olympics had a career ending injury not sidelined him permanently.  But he went on to do greater things.  He passed on that great knowledge of his to the next generation.

That next generation would include his daughter, Glory Braddock, and my brother and I, Mark O’Brian and Sophie O’Brian.  I listened to everything he taught me.  I took it all in and I learned.  I grew.  I matured.  Everything Glenn Braddock taught me stayed in my heart and in my mind and I used those lessons and the tools he gave me in order to succeed in this sport.

Mark and I won five tag team championships together in three different companies.  There was also a sixth tag title I held in a company you should know all too well…

…Independent Wrestling Cartel.

Rest in Peace, by the way.

Glenn’s daughter, Glory Braddock, had been my best friend for the longest time.  She and I were like sisters.  And she learned her lessons from her legendary father; she learned them better than me, for at the peak of her wrestling career she had won thirteen world championships in multiple organizations.  Her father was called Britain’s Best but she had been called quite simply The Best in the World.  She became the best through the teaching of the Braddock Legacy.

I wish the Braddock Legacy was being carried on properly but alas it is not.  Perhaps it is due to the weariness of the constant schedule a pro-wrestler has to keep?  Maybe the grind finally got to them?  Maybe the constant ring wars finally made them grow weary?  Whatever the reason may be, Glory Braddock and even her father Glenn have grown weak.  They are both shells of their former selves.  They don’t even know what it means to be a Braddock.

The Braddock Legacy is important to me because it saved my life and helped me become the wrestler I am today. That is why I have taken up the mantle and why I will remind the wrestling world what the true values of the Braddock Legacy really are, this is why I will remind t he wrestling world what the lessons of the Braddock Legacy really are…

…winning, by any means necessary.   As a matter of fact, the Braddock Legacy can be easily understood if you are knowledgeable of “The Art of War” by Sun Tzu.

The Art of War is an ancient Chinese military treatise and yet this beautiful text has been applied to many fields well outside of the military. Much of the text is about how to fight wars without actually having to do battle: it gives tips on how to outsmart one's opponent so that physical battle is not necessary.

I will use all of these lessons of Sun Tzu as well as the lessons of Glenn Braddock as I step into the next phase of my life journey; Supreme Championship Wrestling.

SCW is the perfect place for a person like me.  That company is chock full of so many wonderful case studies for my social experimentation.  I would be giddy with delight if I were capable of being giddy.

I already told you flat out that I will do anything to win.  If I have to physically dismantle you in the ring, then I’ll do it.  But Sun Tzu teaches how to win a war without even having to get physical.  If I have to play mind games in order to psyche my opposition out, I will do that.  Anything and everything is fair game as far as I’m concerned.  It’s the Scorched Earth policies of such famous American generals as William Tecumseh Sherman who won the American Civil War and I will utilize those same Scorched Earth Policies, the policy of TOTAL WAR, to bring the SCW roster to its knees.

And for that reason, I am labeled a monster.  People claim that I am abnormal because I follow that philosophy.  But it is my belief that I am the norm.  I am the status quo.  I represent normal humanity.  Most everyone in the world, whether they admit it or not, are like me.

Sun Tzu says, “Know thy enemy.”

SCW’s annual Taking Hold of the Flame, a night where one person will rise up to claim a World Championship match on the grandest stage of them all, Rise To Greatness.  Taking Hold of the Flame, forty entrants and most of them hypocrites, pretending to be something they are not.

And the people in the audience, the leeches who cheer and chant and buy their merchandise, you allow it.  You allow it by being hypocrites yourselves.

Blake Mason will not get to participate in Taking Hold of the Flame and why is that?  Because he did what anyone else would have done in his situation had their loved ones been threatened by a jackass.  It’s no secret that the Cannon boys are mostly assholes, Chris threatened Blake’s little girlfriend, what was he supposed to?  Wag his finger at Chris and say “that’s not nice?”

Any normal human being would strike back, any normal human being would eliminate the threat.  Statistics show that criminals commit less crime after a bullet is put through their head.

Ok, I admit, perhaps I am stretching things ever so slightly.  Maybe Blake isn’t missing The Flame for that reason.  But he IS missing The Flame because of his honesty.  He is honest with himself and the rest of the world about who he is.

And the rest of you can’t stand it because by doing so he accuses the rest of you.  When the rest of these ignorant hypocrites taking part in Taking Hold of the Flame look at Blake Mason, they realize that they are looking into a mirror and they cannot stand it.

Kennedy Street, I hate to tell you this…honey…but Ethan Von Aaron is right about you.  Ethan may be a complete idiot about a great many things but he is right when he says that the real Kennedy Street is Keenie, the woman who manipulated her way to the top of Supreme Championship Wrestling, had an entourage to help protect her when she was world champion.  Redemption stories are but mere falsehoods.  They last for awhile, sometimes a long while, but eventually all redemption stories come to an end and the true face is revealed.  Eventually the fairy tale comes to an end and you revert back to your former ways.

I look forward to saying “I told you so” when you revert back to your old ways…Keenie.

Speaking of redemption stories, Marie Annabelle Jones.  Yours has to be the biggest joke of them all, even bigger than Kennedy’s.  You’ve walked this redemption journey before and faltered before, just as I predict Kennedy will.  You’ve walked this journey and fell flat on your face.  This is your second chance and supposedly you’ve made it, but if you truly are serious about redemption then why do you bother to keep that psychotic lunatic Kimberly Williams around?

Others may not know Kimberly but I do.  She’s dangerous, possibly more dangerous than me, and that really is saying something.  Yet you keep her around and that puts other lives in danger.  But it isn’t just you who is the hypocrite, Marie.

Jake Starr has a history with the Jones family.  The former Television Champion is widely cheered by the SCW fans.  How quickly those sheep forget about when Starr would throw a fit like a tantruming child, interfering in the matches of people who upset him, and didn’t just cost them their matches, but assaulted them with steel chairs.

I have no problems with tactics like that, especially if it accomplishes your goal, but let’s be perfectly honest here, he is no saint and there’s no sense in pretending he is.  According to the values of the pathetic sheep, he should be jeered and hated.  According to YOUR values he should be chastised and outcast.  But he is beloved now.

My how the sheep change their minds ever so quickly.

There are those in this match who are honest with themselves.  Katie Steward has no qualms with utilizing her family as a wrestling style mafia to get the job done.  Regan Street does whatever it takes to win and if that hurts your feelings, well, she doesn’t give a shit.  People like them and others in this match, I respect their honesty.  They accept this industry and society for what it is.

Flawed.

Imperfect.

Cruel.

Sun Tzu says, “Know thy self, know thy enemy.  A thousand battles, a thousand victories.”

Yes, I told you a few things about me, but you only know what I have allowed you to know about me.  You don’t know everything there is to know about me, but I know enough about you to know that I can get the job done at Taking Hold of the Flame and as for the thousand battles and thousand victories, well I only need to win thirty nine of them in order to achieve my goal.

You may assume that my goal is to become SCW World Champion.  Becoming SCW World Champion, though, is just mere icing on the cake.  The real reason I want to win Taking Hold of the Flame is so that I can have the spotlight on the grandest stage of them all.  By winning Taking Hold of the Flame the spotlight will be on me and I will have the greatest bully pulpit of them all to proclaim my message to the world.  And if I can manage to actually win the SCW World Championship at Rise To Greatness, then I can continue to spread my message about the truth of humanity and the truth of society to the highest of heavens…

…and you will all be forced to listen to me.

Right now you desperately hide your face from the mirror, because each and every one of you are afraid of what you will see.  You know you will see the face of the man you have condemned, the face of Blake Mason, staring back at you, and you hate it, you are afraid of it, because you know deep down inside that none of you are any better than him.

Shaun Cruze already knows it.  Your hero, your HONOR CODE hero, is a beater of pregnant women.  He has now gazed into the mirror and seen the truth.  It is time for the participants in Taking Hold of the Flame to look into the mirror.

I will make you look into that mirror, I will go on to break your resolve, and then I will win Taking Hold of the Flame.