vs. Helena Merriman

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Off Camera

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Sun Tzu says….

夫兵形象水，水之形，避高而趨下：兵之形，避實而擊虛；水因地而制流，兵因敵而制勝。故兵無常勢，水無常形；能因敵變化而取勝，謂之神。故五行無常勝，四時無常位，日有短長，月有死生。

 “Military tactics are like unto water; for water in its natural course runs away from high places and hastens downwards. So in war, the way is to avoid what is strong and to strike at what is weak. Water shapes its course according to the nature of the ground over which it flows; the soldier works out his victory in relation to the foe whom he is facing. Therefore, just as water retains no constant shape, so in warfare there are no constant conditions. He who can modify his tactics in relation to his opponent and thereby succeed in winning, may be called a heaven-born captain. The five elements (water, fire, wood, metal, earth) are not always equally predominant; the four seasons make way for each other in turn. There are short days and long; the moon has its periods of waning and waxing.”

Warfare takes many shapes as it goes along.  To win a war, one must be able to adapt to an ever changing environment in the war.  A warrior must be able to adapt to the ever changing environment, to the flowing stream of warfare.  Sun Tzu warned future generations that warfare was fluid.  He compared warfare to a flowing stream of water in that it retains no constant shape.  It’s always changing.  In other words, according to the great Chinese military philosopher, the best laid plans go to shit rather quickly.

For the longest time I have proclaiming to the ends of earth, to anyone and everyone who will listen, that there is none pure, none holy.  To put it perfectly blunt, I went a step further and declared that within everyone is the stain of a sociopath, just like me.  And those that pretend otherwise, the heroes of the world, are but merely lying to themselves and lying to those who look up to them and idolize them.

I found a great deal of experimental subjects within Supreme Championship Wrestling who proved my point.  Mr. D is either corrupt or stupid, proven when Bree Mason, a woman who while unpopular did rightfully earn a world title shot but had to share that title shot in a triple threat match with a “hero” in Syren and why?  Because Syren was involved in an “automobile accident”, an accident of her friend’s devising?  And Syren, the hero, selfishly took the opportunity and the title, all the while framing Kennedy Street.

Yeah, they are the heroes.

I was right, right all along, and I should be boasting right now, boasting about how I was right about the filth and corruption within SCW.  I should be gloating about how I was right about how each and every one of the heroes are, in actuality, a sociopath just like me.  I should be happy.

Yet what was accomplished?  What have I gotten out of this and indeed what will I get out of gloating over this perceived victory?  This is what makes it difficult to brag.  Knowledge is only half the battle.  While Sun Tzu did speak highly of knowledge and strategy before the physical fighting itself, ultimately there must be some form of physical fighting in order for true victory to be obtained.  And I fear that what I have learned with my time in SCW may impact elsewhere, it may impact other parts of professional wrestling.

It’s a secret I must share, even with those who I never thought I would entertain a visit with, not in my lifetime at least.

We open at a small café on the outskirts of Belfast, Northern Ireland.  The yellow sundress that I am sporting on this day features criss cross straps, along the empire waist, smocking at the back and a hidden side zipper. This sundress conveys fun and has a feminine touch.  My long dark hair hangs down straight and unrestrained to just below my shoulders.

I am sitting at a table.  A cup of coffee is sitting in front of me but it has barely been touched.  I am too anxious to drink it, too excited to touch it.  The nerves and stress of the upcoming situation are getting the best of me.

“Do you want a refill?”

“Hmm?”  Startled I turn to see the waitress standing there with a coffee cup in hand.  I smile pleasantly as proceed to shoo her away.  “No thanks, love, I’m fine.”

She nods and walks away.  I regret ordering this coffee.  I will regret even coming here if Glory Braddock doesn’t soon show herself.  She is the one I am supposed to meet.  She reluctantly agreed to meet me here, and I suspect that it’s because her father asked her to come.  I have made somewhat of an uneasy peace with Glenn Braddock.  He was willing to forgive me because he spent so much time and energy training me.  His daughter Glory Braddock, who competed in the End of the Year Battle Royal, were trained together, side by side.  We both received the same lessons from her great father and yet we seem to have vastly different outlooks on life and the sport of professional wrestling.

Glory Braddock always held back.  She never did whatever it took to obtain ultimate victory.  Don’t get me wrong, she’s extremely good at what she does and has a killer instinct, but she lacked the willingness to actually go that extra distance all for the sake of victory.  I am the darkness to her light, I am the yin to her yang.  I am and always have been willing to do whatever was necessary to get what I wanted.

That just never sat well with Glory and eventually we went out separate ways in the sport.  But perhaps it is time to bury the hatchet?

I begin to get more discouraged until I hear a familiar voice behind me.

“Sorry I’m late.”  I turn my head in time to see Glory Braddock approaching.  “I got caught up in traffic.”

I let out a sigh of relief, hoping mother didn’t notice.  “Ah, it’s ok, mate. I barely noticed you weren’t here.”

“You always were a bad liar, Sophie.”  She says, grinning as she sits down at the table with me.

“Am I that obvious?”

“Yes, but it doesn’t matter.” The self-described British Bombshell folds her arms over her chest and stares at me with an intensity that few get to see, but I know it all too well.  She’s on guard, ready for a fight.  I can tell that she doesn’t trust me. She has no reason to. “I take it we’re not here for a friendly chat anyway, am I right Sophie?”

“Yes, you’re right.  But before we get to why I called you here…” I make a waving motion with my hand to flag down the waitress, she comes over with a pen and notepad and I motion to Glory “…get her whatever she wants.”

“Just a water will be fine.  I don’t plan to stay long.”

The waitress nods and walks off to fill the order.  Glory turns and looks back at me intensely. “Yes, Sophie?”

“For what it’s worth, Glory, I apologize for any grief I’ve caused you.”

“Apologize?” Glory’s eyes grow wide with shock. “That’s what you wanted me here for?  To apologize?  That just…” she chuckles “…that just doesn’t seem like the Sophie I know.”

“The apology is part of why I wanted you here.” I respond, watching as the waitress returns with a glass of water, placing it in front of Glory. “We’ve been through a great deal you and I, some good times and some bad, and it is my belief that some troubling times for all of us may be coming up.  It may behoove us if we, at the very least, buried the hatchet.”

Glory thanks the waitress as she walks off.  Glory then takes a sip of her water and then shakes her head in disbelief.

“Sorry, Sophie, I just find it difficult that you’re making this sudden one hundred and eighty degree turn on me.  You must have an ulterior motive.”

“Yes, and I told you what it is.  I believe troubling times are on the horizon and we should be prepared for it; and besides, I…” my voice trails off as I simply shake my head “…just forget it.”

“What?  What is it?”

“It’s nothing.”

“It was something.” Glory smirks. “Now what was it?”

“I…miss you.”

“You miss me?” Glory snickers. “The so-called sociopath misses me?”

“Don’t gloat.” I snap back at my English friend. “I will admit when I am wrong and I was wrong to ruin the friendship we had.  I’d like to get it back, if possible.  I’d like to rebuild that bridge I burned.”

“Hypothetically speaking, if this is true, when did you finally realize that your “brilliant mind” led you to making  some stupid mistakes that destroyed our friendship, Sophie?”

“The End of the Year Bash.  I was there, I wasn’t competing but I was there, watching you the entire time.  You had been through hell since we went our separate ways, enough that would’ve broken a normal person.  I thought this entire time you’ve just been putting on a brave face and I sincerely expected to see pain in those eyes.  And yet at End of the Year Bash, and even here tonight as I look into your eyes, I see something that I never expected to see…”

“What’s that?” Glory asks, now genuinely curious.

“Happiness.  You were happy and I never expected that.  But then, that’s something I can never be an expert on.  I have studied the military experts of history from Sun Tzu, Alexander the Great, and Julius Caesar to William Tecumseh Sherman and Patton, I have studied philosophy and politics.  You name the academics and I know it like the back of my hand.”

“Ever so humble, are we Sophie?” Glory says mockingly.  I ignore her.

“But you were feeling happy, happy in a way that I will never feel because I am just not wired that way.  I am not a feeling person, Glory, you know this better than anyone else alive other than my own brother Mark.  I realized at the End of the Year Special that we went our separate ways because of my jealousy.”

“Jealousy?” Glory asks, arching her brow.

“Yes, I envied you, Glory, because you have something I never had and never will have.  But that’s not a reason to destroy our friendship.” A sly grin forms upon my face. “You, Mark, and I were quite the trio are your father’s wrestling school.  You do remember what they called us, don’t you?”

“How could I forget?” Glory says with a laugh. “Trinity!”

“We were the best in that school and we even dominated professional wrestling for a couple of years until my jealousy destroyed everything.   We could have it again, Glory.  We could recreate Trinity.”

“So that’s what this is all about.” Glory chuckles lightly. “What’s the problem, Sophie?  Are you having difficulties within SCW?”

“Whether you believe me or not is irrelevant, trouble is brewing and there’s nothing better or stronger than the alliance we had to prepare ourselves.”

“Yeah, you’ve said that already a few times now.  What are you babbling about?”

“It isn’t babbling.  It’s fact.  It’s something I’ve observed during the entirety of my wrestling career but has now been proven fact in Supreme Championship Wrestling.  Each and every superstar we wrestle, who we work with, in any and every company we work for, all of them has a dark side, all of them has an inner sociopath just waiting to get out.  Even the heroes.”

“Oh, the Dark Fantasy controversy you mean?” Glory chuckles. “You know, I expected that would get a rise out of you.  A couple of fan favorites prove to be involved in a complex automobile frame-up all in order to get the world championship.  You can say you were right about them all along.  So now what?  I know Ravyn Taylor beat your ass a few times. Are you going after her, is that it?”

Glory shakes her head. “Well let me stop you while you’re ahead and just tell you that I’m not interested in helping you this time, Sophie.  Besides, if you think you’re going to jump that far ahead of the line and face the likes of them you’re delusional.”

“I don’t care about Dark Fantasy!” I bang a fist on the table. This gets Glory’s attention. “What worries me is what I learned.  A theory is nothing until right or wrong.  I was hoping that my theory about the inner darkness of humanity would be proven false but I was proven right, Glory.  In other words, what I’m getting at is that if Syren would do something like that, then what could ANYONE do to either of us, Glory?”

“So this isn’t some crazy mission of yours?”

“No, it isn’t.” I answer while shaking my head. “Trinity was originally created not to dominate the sport but to watch each other’s back.  That’s why I want Trinity back together. I think we should go back to its original purpose of watching each other’s back.”

I extend a hand across the table. “So what do you say, Glory?”

I watch Glory as she pauses to consider my proposal.  I feel anxious as I await her response, hoping that it will be a positive one.  She takes a sip of her water and puts the glass back down.  She sighs and, to my disappointment, she shakes her head.

“Sorry, mate, but there’s been so much done already by you, things that I cannot just forget.  I cannot just forget all of that and reform Trinity.  I don’t trust you yet.  But…” much to my surprise she reaches out and accepts the handshake “…I do believe in second chances, even if you don’t.”

“So does this mean we’re…”

“Yeah…” she winks at me “…we’re friends again.”

It is true, I always envied Glory Braddock due to her ability to feel whereas I was always the thinker.  While I never have been labeled as such, I have self-diagnosed myself as a sociopath due to my seeming inability to feel emotions.  But that isn’t entirely the case.  Every so often, in rare occasions, my emotions come out unexpectedly.  Glory no doubt would have to be blind in order to miss this one.  Tears are flowing the cheeks of this sociopath.

Who would have imagined?

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On Camera

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Expecting another rousing quote from “The Art of War” as written by the great Sun Tzu?  Not this time.  Helena Merriman, as your mentor should have informed you, and as you should know if you’ve done your homework, I am a student of military strategy and military history.  Sun Tzu may be my favorite but there are other military geniuses from history and one, in particular, who has made an observation about you.

Julius Caesar says, “Men in general are quick to believe that which they wish to be true.”

I would dare say you are on cloud nine, are you not Helena?  You have a few wins under your belt here in SCW; Scarlet Grey.  Mr. Money Maker.  And you even took out your own mentor, Brittany Lohan.  The once feared War Machine is gone thanks to you.

I applaud you for that, all of it.  Even the destruction of Brittany Lohan.  I mean, let’s face facts, I would be a hypocrite myself if I were not to applaud you for what you’ve done up until now.  As another military genius, William Tecumseh Sherman, once said “War is cruelty. There is no use trying to reform it; the crueler it is, the sooner it will be over.”

If only the rest of your SCW career could continue to be that easy, right Helena?  It won’t, though, and I’m not entirely sure you are aware of it.  I believe that you are falling into the trap that Julius Caesar alluded to.  Men, or women in your case, are quick to believe that which they wish to be true.

I call it buying into your own hype.  You so fervently believe that you are the next War Machine, that you are carrying on Brittany Lohan’s legacy and that you truly did her a favor by taking her out.  You believe that you are capable now of taking anyone out, of beating anyone.

This is where your world come crashing down around you, Helena, because I am here to inform you that I am not a Mr. Money Maker and I am not a Scarlet Grey.  No, I’m not even Brittany Lohan, and that’s not a knock on her, because I recall how good she was in this squared circle.

I am Sophie O’Brian.  You want a fight, Helena?  You’re going to get one but it will be a fight on my terms, not yours.  It will be a fight where I dictate the pace, where I dictate the rules of engagement.  After all, it is according to Sun Tzu’s teaching “this the expert in battle moves the enemy, and is not moved by him.”

Oops, I apologize, I lied a teensy little bit there.  I did use a Sun Tzu quote.

You want a straight up fight.  No tricks and none of my mind games.  But you are not in any position to dictate the terms of this battle which we are about to engage.  Do you have something I want?  Hardly.  You are but merely new to this game.  You may have done well in development companies but I’ve competed all over the world winning world championships.

But my championship accolades isn’t what brings you to me, is it Helena?  You’re not stupid.  You’ve heard the stories from Lohan and her associates, many of whom I have fought in the past. They have told you about what I am capable of.  For you this presents a unique opportunity, an opportunity to truly test yourself.

Thus you need me and you need this fight.  Thus I dictate the terms of engagement, not you.

You knew all along that there was nothing you had that I wanted, Helena.  If you thought there was then you are truly delusional and I’m happy to have opened your eyes.  But don’t get me wrong, I do want to defeat you.  I want this victory.  While you have been handed softball matches early on in your SCW career I have been from the outset facing the toughest of the tough.

Torsten Voigt, a former SCW Television Champion.

Angelica Jones, two time former SCW World Tag Team Champion and the current SCW Television Champion.

Ravyn Taylor, her resume speaks for itself.

Those are just a few of the names I’ve been facing off against since my arrival in SCW.  Needless to say, I never got a softball start like you. I’ve been fighting tooth and nail since the beginning and it’s been like a roller coaster, up and down, wins and losses left and right.

Well it’s time to accumulate some wins and forget all about those bloody losses and Helena, you’re the first; the first in a series of victims.  I don’t care about proving myself right any longer about the nature of man.  I believe Dark Fantasy already did a pretty damn good job of proving me right. The philosophical debates and experiments end.  Now I want success of my own.

You stand in my way, Helena, and that is just not a good place to be, especially for a very green rookie who has never been challenged and does not know what it is like to taste defeat in SCW yet.

But that’s where I come in.

Here’s a spoiler alert for the upcoming edition of Breakdown, so cover your ears if you plan to tune in…Helena Merriman, I will hand you your first defeat in Supreme Championship Wrestling.  And with that defeat you will be brought kicking and screaming into reality.  And when you get over the shock of it all, you will realize that making a career of it all here in SCW will not be as easy as you perhaps thought it would be.

It won’t be as easy as it was when you took out Brittany Lohan.  It sure as hell won’t be as easy for you when you defeated Money Maker and Scarlet Grey.  You will realize that you will run into opponents like me, sometimes tougher than me, and you will have to figure out how to deal with it.

I may have quoted Julius Caesar but he isn’t exactly the best example of a warrior due to the simple fact that he never lost.  Few true warriors ever are that lucky and I guarantee you won’t be as lucky as Julius Caesar because I will defeat you on Breakdown.

A true warrior, Helena, is determined based upon how they handle adversity, and specifically how they handle defeat.

You call yourself a warrior; so the world will be watching with great interest to see how you handle defeat.  We’re all about to find out very soon, my dear.

vs. Tyler Tucker

The world is a great big dichotomy.  The world is full of heroes and villains.  Innocent and guilty.

Adrenaline Rush might be referred to as heroes but I prefer to think of them as the innocent, innocent lambs led to the slaughter.  And if you don’t believe me, just look at their own record.  They get opportunity after opportunity to grab a tag team championship match but they are denied each and every time, most recently by Chad and Lexi.

Chad and Lexi, the most heinous and diabolical of human beings, the scum of the earth if you will, and yet they get the blessings and rewards that come with championship opportunities while you three continue to get a bunch of nothing and yet all you can do is sit there and smile about it.  You sit there and take it.  Why?

Because you are the innocent.  You are good.  You are wholesome.  You are role models to the pathetic masses who wish to believe in good.  But trust me, Tyler Tucker, there is no good in humanity.  Humanity is wretched.

If you want a true illustration of a pair of humans being HONEST with themselves, just look at Chad and Lexi, the pair who bested you and Craig at Future Is Now.  Chad and Lexi make no pretense as to who the hell they are.  The rest of you are liars, pretending to be something you are not.

But you, Tyler, you and your friends might just be the one exception to my rule.  You might be the only trio who doesn’t hold up to my theory on humanity.  You seem to be so pure and good.  You appear to be those perfect role models I spoke of earlier.  No matter what happens to you, no matter how many times you get knocked down, you keep getting right back up…only to get knocked right back down on your ass…

…but it doesn’t seem to phase you!  You just smile and say “oh, better luck next time!”

Stacy Kissinger may have lucked up and become the SCW Television Champion but mark my words when I say she’ll lose it to one member of the KamaSutra Clown Duo, Manvel or Derek Adonis.  How proud will you then be, knowing your friend lost a title to a clown?

You were SCW United States Champion, Tyler.  So there is that.  But then you lost that one, too.  You lost it to Marie Jones.

“Better luck next time!”

Careful, Tyler.  There may not always be a next time.  You may be innocent as to how the world works but listen to me, child, when I say that this world is an evil place and only the horrible individuals will thrive.  So what I am going to do to you on Breakdown will be a gift from me to you.

I am going to brutalize you on Breakdown.  I am going to put you through hell on Breakdown.  You will either learn your lessons well from me and survive or, if you refuse to learn your lessons, then I will exterminate you.  I will put you out of your misery if you cannot survive on your own two feet.

Survive or perish, Tyler Tucker.  The choice is yours.

Changing and Adapting

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Off Camera

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I truly despise and detest Thanksgiving.  So many ignorant people with smiles on their faces and visions of stuffing their guts with an assortment of food, all coming up to me and in a cheery, sing-song voice, sounding out the too-familiar “Happy Thanksgiving, Sophie!”

What’s so damn happy about it?  Everyone speaks of being with family but all of mine is dead save my brother Mark and his meddlesome girlfriend Ashley Murray.  The food is of no consequence to me.  I do not need nor do I care to indulge myself like a gleeful glutton.  And I damn sure do not have any desire to watch American football.

The worst thing about this is how the Americans treat this damnable feast.  They shove it in our face as if it is a holiday to be proud of and yet the truth of the history behind it is far more menacing.  Contrary to what generations of American students have been taught, the background behind the first Thanksgiving meal between colonists and native Americans were not peaches and cream.  Pilgrims and natives did not just look past their differences to break bread.  The Wampanoag tribe saw in the Pilgrims, a group of Europeans armed to the teeth with English weaponry, including guns, strong allies to help them fend off their rival tribe, the Narragansett.

Thus the friendly feast of Native and Pilgrim wasn’t a happy time of putting aside cultural differences to break bread.  It was an alliance of politics and war.  And what happened to the Native Americans in this alliance?

Betrayal.  Their friends, the Europeans, would eventually betray them.  If they weren’t being massacred they were having their land taken from them, slowly but surely, inch by bloody inch.  Once the Natives had outlived their usefulness, the new Americans would eventually wipe out the Native American culture and Native American way of life.

That is the true meaning of the first Thanksgiving.  It is one of the lessons of war.  Use everything and anything, or anyone, to their fullest extent, and once that individual has outlived his or her usefulness, get rid of them.  It is a beautiful lesson, if I do say so myself.

So why would I hate Thanksgiving so much?  It is because the message of Thanksgiving is lost on the idiotic dolts running the world today.  They would rather sweep it under the rug and pretend that history doesn’t exist.  The world, and Americans in particular, do not want to recognize that part of history because it ultimately proves me right.  It proves my point about humanity.

Humanity is fallen, it is ultimately dark and evil, just like me.  Anyone who tries to prove otherwise is just fooling themselves.  That is what Thanksgiving means to me.

“GOBBLE! GOBBLE! GOBBLE!”

It’s just moronic troglodytes like my brother, Mark O’Brian, who continue to drive my stress level up into the outer atmosphere and continue to make me detest this wretched holiday with his dumb little gags.  I had been sitting quietly at a nice mahogany desk in the study of his and his girlfriend Ashley’s house, preparing strategy for what could very well be a long night on the next Breakdown, when I heard that gobbling coming from the hallway.  Mark pretending to be turkey is bad enough, but therein lies the greater problem…

…that did not sound like Mark.

“GOBBLE! GOBBLE! GOBBLE!”

The gobbling continues as I watch the door.  It becomes evident that whatever it is now stands outside of the study.  I watch as the door is pushed open and Mark walks into the room carrying a turkey…

…a live damn turkey.

Immediately I shoot up out of the chair I had been sitting in and stare daggers across the room at my brother.

“What in the name of sanity are you doing?!” I point to the turkey. “What the hell is that?!”

“GOBBLE! GOBBLE! GOBBLE!”

“It’s our new pet turkey!” Mark declares with a sense of pride etched across his face. “Her name is Ravyn.”

“No.  Just no…” I shake my head vehemently.

“GOBBLE! GOBBLE! GOBBLE!”

“Shut the damn thing up before I shut it up!” I exclaim.

“She’s very vocal today.” My idiot brother winks at me. “I think she likes you.”

“I do not like it.” I sigh and shake my head with disbelief written across my face. “This isn’t happening.  This isn’t true…”

“Yeah, it’s true!” He insists as he brings “Ravyn” closer to me. “This is our pet turkey.  Ravyn, meet Sophie!”

I glare angrily at the bird. “I’m going to eat you or one of your friends in a few days.”

“GOBBLE! GOBBLE! GOBBLE!”

“That’s not nice!” He jerks the turkey away from me quickly. “You scared her!”

“It’s a turkey, you oaf!” I exclaim.

“But she has feelings!” He looks down sympathetically at the bird. “It’s ok, Ravyn.  She doesn’t mean it.”

“You are an idiot, Mark, and I am going to tell you why, because there are several things wrong with this.”

I hold up one finger. “First of all, you named that damn thing after my opponent on Breakdown.”

I step away from the desk and menacingly approach Mark his turkey, all the while holding up a second finger. “Second, that’s a turkey…not a raven…”

“Yeah, and…?”

“You don’t see what’s wrong with this?” I roll my eyes. “Bloody hell, Mark, it’s like naming a dog ‘Cat’ or naming your pet cat ‘Dog’.”

“Yeah, but Ravyn Taylor isn’t a raven either.”

“That’s not the point, you Neanderthal.” I smack him in the back of his head. “And that brings me to point number three…”

I touch the bird, “Ravyn”, on its beak. “Turkeys are meant for eating.  Not meant for having as pets.”

“You honestly think that?”

“I know it, Mark.”

Mark sighs and gazes sadly down at “Ravyn”. “Sophie isn’t in a good mood today, Ravyn.  You should probably run along and find mommy.”

“GOBBLE! GOBBLE! GOBBLE!”

Mark sets the turkey down and it quickly waddles away, bolting out of the room.  I gaze back up at Mark and shake my head with utter disgust.

“Mommy?” I blink my eyes with some confusion. “Ashley?”

“Yeah…” he nods his head “…Ashley.”

“Bloody hell…” I shake my head “…you’re really going to let that thing run rampant in your house?”

“Well, yeah,” he chuckles “it is my house after all.  I can do what I want.”

“True enough.” I nod my head in agreement.  He has a point on that one, as much as I hate to admit it and despite thinking that he is an idiot.

A sigh escapes my lips as I slowly walk back towards the mahogany desk.  I sit down in the chair and lean back and relax.  Mark approaches the desk, watching me closely.  He tilts his head to one side and studies me closely.

“You ok, Sophie?”

“Am I ok?” I ask somewhat incredulously as I sit back up straight and stare at my brother intensely. “This is one of the holidays I hate most, not to mention the fact that very soon I will have to walk through the very fires of hell if I want to leave Breakdown as the SCW Television Champion.  I’m a little stressed, Mark.  So no…I’m not ok…”

“Listen to me for a second, ok?”

Mark sits down on the edge of the mahogany desk.  I look at the desk and then back at him with a frown on my face.

“Get off of the desk, Mark.”

“Sorry.” He jumps up off of the desk. “Anyway, just listen to me for a second.  You are the absolute best pure wrestler in the world today.  I don’t care about Ravyn Taylor’s reputation.  I don’t give a damn what she’s done in the past.  She hasn’t dealt with anyone like you before and the one time she did she couldn’t get the job done.  Now here’s your second chance.”

“That’s the thing, Mark, it shouldn’t require a second chance.  If I really am as good as you say I am then I should’ve beaten Ravyn the first time we fought.”

But there was outside interference.” My brother, God bless his soul, counters in a vain attempt to make me feel better.

“The best military strategists in the world never made excuses.  Sun Tzu, William Tecumseh Sherman, Genghis Kahn, Julius Caesar, none of them had to make excuses because they just got the job done.  But me?  The great Sophie O’Brian?” I shake my head with disgust and disappointment in myself. “I couldn’t get the job done because of outside interference.”

“But she also didn’t beat you.” He counters. “He never pinned you and he never made you submit.”

“It doesn’t matter!” I exclaim, banging my hands on the desk loudly. “It’s still an excuse at the end of the day.  And saying that she never beat me is just grasping at straws in an attempt to save face.  I graduated from the Braddock Wrestling School, trained by the greatest wrestler that ever lived, Glenn Braddock, and I learned everything from him.  I am supposed to be the heir to the Braddock Wrestling Legacy and yet I couldn’t get the job done against Ravyn one on one?”

“No, Sophie, you’re looking at this all wrong.” Mark shakes his head incredulously. “You’re setting your standards too high.  You seem to think that you need to be perfect but no one is perfect.  You just need to do the best you can.”

“Right, well the best I could do clearly wasn’t enough the last time I fought Ravyn.  And now I fight her again and sure, maybe this time I can beat her, but if I do successfully take the title from her I have to turn around that same night and defend against Jake Starr because the bloody bastard invoked his trios contract and wants to face all the champions?  How can I…”

I sigh and drop my head onto the desk “…how can I do this, Mark?”

“Because, Sophie…” he pats me on the back “…you are the best in the world.”

“I’m glad you think so, Mark.” I sit up and look him dead in the eyes. “I’m not as certain about that any longer.”

“Confidence, Sophie.  That’s all you need.  Confidence.”

I gaze at him with a somewhat curious look, curious as to why he is doing all of this, curious as to why he is saying all of this to me.  It just doesn’t make sense.  None of this makes any sense.

“Mark, may I ask you a question?”

“Shoot.”

“Why are you doing this?”

“Doing what?”

“Why are you being nice to me?” I ask plainly.

“Well, you are my sister so that’s part of it I guess.”

“Oh come on you doofus,” I snap back at him “I am mean to you, I am nasty to you, I insult you, and yet you’re always so uplifting and kind to me.  It makes no sense to me.”

“Oh yeah…well, I kinda figure that you don’t mean any of it…”

“How do you know that I don’t mean any of those things say about you?” I ask with a smirk.

“I’m just assuming you don’t because I’m your brother.  Siblings gotta stick together, y’know?  Besides, even if you did mean it, I’d still love ya.  Normal human beings are like that, you know?”

“Yes, well, I am not a normal human being and we both know this.”

At this time the door to the study opens yet again.  Mark and I turn around to find we are now being greeted by the arrival of Mark’s girlfriend, Ashley Murray.  Mark immediately gets this puppy-eyed gleam in his eye as he hops up and walks over to greet Ashley with an embrace.

“Hi, Ash!” He kisses her in a sickeningly sweet manner on the lips.

“Hi there, Mark!” Ashley says in a rather chipper tone, more chipper than usual for Ashley, which I find rather odd.  Why is she so damn happy?  Especially considering there is a damn turkey running around the house.

“Is Ravyn causing any problems, Ash?”

“If you mean your stupid turkey then no, he isn’t causing any problems.  I put him in his room for the night before he could break anything.”

“Stupid turkey, eh?” I remark, arching a brow and smirking at my brother. “I take it you don’t like this Ravyn anymore than I do.”

“No, Sophie, I don’t.” Ashley sighs. “But if Mark wants another child, then by all means, he can have another child I guess.”

Ok, now that was an odd choice of words. “Another child?”

“Yeah, another child.” Ashley frowns. “Didn’t he tell you?”

“Tell me what?”

Ashley looks at Mark. “You didn’t tell her, did you?”

“I wanted to wait until you were here so we could tell her together.”

“Tell me what?!” I ask, my frustration depleting by the second.

“Sophie…” her voice trails off for just a moment “…how would you feel about being an aunt to a sweet little niece or nephew?”

My eyes grow wide as I take in the enormity of what she just suggested. “You mean…?”

“Yes!” She nods her head quickly and excitedly. “Mark and I are having a baby!”

==========

On Camera

==========

The Army of the Potomac and The Army of Northern Virginia would encounter one another several times during the American Civil War.  Now the Army of Northern Virginia was led by a fierce commander, a famous military strategist named Robert E. Lee.  Many thought Lee was unbeatable.  Many thought he was invincible.  And that feeling of invincibility was on display in the Civil War.  In the early stages of the war, the two forces met in the field of combat in Fredericksburg, Virginia.  In that battle, the Confederate Army of Northern Virginia beat and humiliated the Union forces.  The South proved to the arrogant Union forces that this war would not be as easily won as they thought it might.

Oh but things would turn around rather quickly for the Union.  One year later the same two armies would clash in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, and this time the Union nearly obliterated the great Army of Northern Virginia, humiliating that once feared fighting force and humiliating its leader, Robert E. Lee, proving to the world that this commander was not as unbeatable as so many people thought.  That invincible warrior, that invulnerable fighter, was brought to his knees by the Union forces of George Meade.

I can honestly say I felt the humbling feeling of Robert E. Lee felt after his loss at Gettysburg.  I was on top of the world, a multi-time world champion, multi-time tag champion, and I prided myself on being the ultimate strategist and one of the greatest technical wrestlers in the game.  I had the same feeling of invincibility that Robert E. Lee felt when he marched into Gettysburg and got stomped.  I had that same feeling of invincibility when I saw that I was facing Ravyn Taylor for the SCW Television Championship.

I failed to capture the championship, much like Lee failed to win at Gettysburg.  Now I had excuses lined up, the primary one being the fact that outside interference led to the match being thrown out.  I even grasped at straws by claiming that Ravyn never pinned me and never made me submit.  But I’ve since done some reflection and realized that those were just excuses…and I was just grasping at straws…

…I also realized that a great warrior must always be ready, willing, and able to change and adapt to a new battlefield.  In warfare the battlefield never stays the same.  It’s always evolving, it’s always changing, and if you are not able to adapt and evolve with it, then you will fail.

William Tecumseh Sherman said, “Every attempt to make war easy and safe will result in humiliation and disaster.”

Ravyn, coming up on Breakdown you will not face the same Sophie O’Brian that you went toe to toe with several weeks ago, the Sophie O’Brian who took you to the limit and yet still failed to capture the Television Title. You will face a new Sophie O’Brian, a Sophie O’Brian with a new focus and a new intensity.  You will face a Sophie O’Brian who will throw everything she has at you and will leave the battlefield bloody with carnage and gore…

…your blood, my carnage.

Breakdown the tables will be turned.  No longer will I be playing the role of Lee being humbled and humiliated at Gettysburg, but instead it will be you playing the role of Robert E. Lee, and it makes perfect sense, does it not?  The great Ravyn Taylor, the invincible Ravyn Taylor, the supposedly unbeatable Ravyn Taylor, brought to her knees and humbled by Sophie O’Brian.

Ah but this war is unlike any other, for you definitely will be wrestling more than once in one night and me, if I do manage to finally climb the great mountain and defeat you for the SCW Television Championship, then I have to defend it one more time that night against Jake Starr.

Jake, your bravado is one to be admired.  You truly are shooting for the stars.  You are going to try to reach as high as you can and grab that brass ring.  To put yourself in such a match, a true test of endurance, is admirable.

While your actions may be admirable, you still become my victim as soon as I defeat Ravyn Taylor for the SCW Television Championship.  If you had any hopes or visions of facing Ravyn then cast them to the side immediately, my friend.  Ravyn will be an afterthought after I am done with her.  And I refuse to have my championship taken from me the same night I won it.

Just like Sherman famously “made Georgia howl”, I will make Ravyn and Jake howl on Breakdown as I cement myself as the newest and greatest SCW Television Champion of all time.

Patience is a Virtue

==========

Off Camera

==========

One could say that I made my debut in Supreme Championship Wrestling like a house fire and it would be quite an appropriate description considering my fireball damn near took out the entire roster in the Taking Hold of the Flame rumble match.  From there my brother and I went on to compete in the Scaffold Scramble at Rise To Greatness.  Neither time did I manage to pick up a victory, but both times we made an impact on Supreme Championship Wrestling and we made sure that they knew we were there and we were serious.

Then the very next Breakdown after Rise To Greatness I defeated Angelica Jones.  I beat her one on one all on my own and that victory earned me the right to challenge Ravyn Taylor for the SCW Television Championship.  And despite her very best efforts, Ravyn Taylor could not pin me and she could not make me submit.  She has the outside interference of her other enemies to thank for her walking out that night with her SCW Television Championship.

With this kind of debut, and considering the physical limits I took Ravyn to, at the very least I should’ve been granted an immediate rematch.  Yet what did SCW management do with the greatest tactician, strategist, and wrestling talent to arrive in their company in years?

Nothing.  Absolutely nothing.  I was left to do nothing while I watched The Sisterhood, whom I already conquered shortly after Rise To Greatness, go on to sadly fail in their attempt to revive their pathetic career in losing efforts to Kennedy Street and Amy Chastaine and then again at Under Attack in the five on five tag.

Where was I at Apocalypse?  Where was I at Under Attack?  I had to watch it all from home.

Nevertheless, it appears as if I will have the opportunity to make SCW see the error of their ways.  It has always been drilled into my head since my beginnings at the Braddock Wrestling School that in order to get noticed you have to make an impact.  You have to make the management sit up and take notice.  And in Berlin, Germany I will make SCW sit up and take notice by eliminating Christy Matthews, Andrew Raynes, and Konrad Raab on my way to earning myself another shot at the SCW Television Championship.

Still, knowing that my chance has arrived does not help ease the frustration and my frustration is quite evident as I storm into my brother’s living room on the outskirts of Belfast, Northern Ireland…

“MARK!  Where are you?!”

I scan the rather filthy, un-kept room.  Then I turn to the sound of the television.  I find my idiotic sibling seated on the living room sofa, a comfortable black leather design, in front of the flat screen television set.  Mark has his feet propped up on the coffee table and a slice of pepperoni pizza in his hand.  I glare angrily at him.

“Mark!  What the hell are you doing?!”

“This shit is awesome!” He takes a bite of his pizza and then uses it to point at the television set. “Look at Angelica and Kayla! They’re kicking ass!”

He’s watching the replay of Under Attack, specifically the five on five tag team match.  I can’t handle much more of this…

“Give me that!”

I grab hold of the remote control that sits next to Mark’s left hand.  I quickly switch the television off and he turns around and looks at me incredulously.

“Hey!  I was watching that!”

“You are NOT watching it any longer!” I throw the remote to the side so that Mark won’t be tempted. “We have to make plans.”

“Not again…” Mark says, his whiny voice trailing off as he points to the remaining pizza in the box on the coffee table “…can’t you see I’m eating?”

“Does it look like I care?” I walk over the front of the sofa.  First I snatch the pizza box off of the coffee table and throw it to the side.  Mark looks at his fallen food prize incredulously as it falls to the floor.

“My pizza!  You ruined it!”

“Oh bloody hell,” I roll my eyes as I sit down next to my idiotic brother “your priorities and focus are rather lacking, dear brother.  You should notice that this place of yours is already a dump!”

“Well…” his voice trails off as he scans the room, looking at all of the garbage everywhere and then he shrugs his shoulders “…I like it…”

“Of course YOU would, but how does your wife, Ashley, deal with it?”

“Practice?”

“Damn it, Mark…” I smack my forehead.

“Sorry.”

“Look,” I begin as I try to maintain my composure “just try and follow me, ok?”

“Follow you where?  Where are going?”

“Not literally!” I smack him in the back of his head. “Try to follow my logic.  We came to Supreme Championship Wrestling to accomplish two things, the first was to get our revenge against Angelica Jones and her sister Kayla.”

“Yeah, and you did beat Angelica.”

“That’s right.” I nod my head. “But as good as that win was…and it did feel real good…we still have not accomplished our other goal.”

I pat him on the chest. “We’ve been made to look like fools, Mark.  You know this, right?  We couldn’t do anything at Taking Hold of the Flame.  We couldn’t do anything at Rise To Greatness.  And thanks to outside interference I couldn’t become SCW Television Champion.”

“Yeah, that did kinda suck.”

“It sucked?” I roll my eyes. “It was far worse than that.  I hope you realize that.  I could have been the SCW Television Champion.”

I turn and bang my fists on the coffee table.

“Then they ignored me!  They forgot about me!” Rage flashes in my eyes as I glare at Mark. “No one forgets about me!”

“Whoa, calm down, sis.” Mark says in a vain attempt to calm me down. “You just need to be patient, y’know?”

He points to the pizza on the ground. “Have a slice of pizza.  It’ll help.”

“Pizza?!  Are you nuts…” just then a thought hits me.  It is almost like a light bulb went off in my head.  A grin spreads across my face.

“…actually, Mark, you may have a good idea.”

“I do?”

“Yes, quite a brilliant idea, actually.”

Mark nods his head. “Well, like I said, a slice of pizza will help you calm down.”

“Not the pizza!” I sigh, shaking my head with frustration. “I mean your idea of being patient.”

“Oh…well yeah, that too…”

“Yes, you can have a good idea every once in a while,” a low chuckle escapes my lips “even if it is by complete accident.”

“Thanks…I think…”

“Now that being said, it is time to make my return to Supreme Championship Wrestling and make them pay for ignoring me.”

==========

On Camera

==========

Sun Tzu says, “One who is prepared and waits for the unprepared will be victorious”

My last match in Supreme Championship Wrestling was a Television Championship match against Ravyn Taylor.  I pushed the champion to her limit and while she did escape with the title still in her possession, she never did pin me and she never did make me submit.  Ravyn Taylor could not beat me.  To put it as simply as I can for you simple-minded fools, I am the absolute best pure wrestler in this company.  Ravyn knows that she has met her match in terms of wrestling ability and in terms of strategy and intelligence when it comes to Sophie O’Brian.

And if that weren’t enough to make a believer out of you, then take this into consideration: I defeated Angelica Jones to earn that Television Championship Match, one half of the former two time SCW World Tag Team Champions.  But what happened since then?

I have been off SCW television.  I wasn’t a part of Apocalypse.  I wasn’t a part of Under Attack.  It was as if I had been a distant memory.  It was as if I was forgotten. But while SCW may have forgotten about me, I had not forgotten about Supreme Championship Wrestling.

They say patience is a virtue and while it was unfortunate that I could not be a part of the action to advance my agenda, I used the opportunity to prepare myself for the time that I would return, to prepare for the opportunity to push myself forward and turn SCW into my own personal playground.  Do you have any idea how many times I thought about facing Ravyn Taylor just one more time?

She could not beat me.  Her very best was not good enough to take me down.  My only mistake was not finishing the job when I had the chance.  All I need is one more chance, one opportunity, and I will finish the job.  I will become SCW Television Champion.

Ah but there is the beauty of being a sociopath.  I have tremendous patience and I can afford to wait.  And my waiting has damn sure paid off…I have another chance against Ravyn Taylor.  I have my chance at redemption and my chance to finally finish the job.

It’s just a matter of when.

I can afford to wait.  In fact, waiting is what I would prefer.  I have waited this long, I may as well wait just a little longer.  I want to prepare myself, prepare my offenses and defenses, so that there is no way she can stop me.  I want to be the one to control my own destiny.

Christy Matthews, Andrew Raynes, and Konrad Raab are standing in my way of controlling my own destiny.

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

None of you know me; not very well, at least.  But I know you because I have studied you.  Raynes and Matthews are the only two I actually have any semblance of respect for.  You two know what must be done and you will do it.  Whatever it takes to achieve the end goal, correct?

Machiavelli said that it is better to be feared than to be loved.  Matthews, Raynes, and I seem to have learned that lesson.  We know that we can be greats in this business, we can be champions even, or we can make the people love us…

…I do not give a damn about the love of the people.  That is why I consider Matthews and Raynes kindred spirits.  But make no mistake about it, they are still standing in my way and I cannot allow that to happen.  I will not let them stop me.

Then there’s Konrad Raab.

You are a pathetic fool.  You are truly the “man-baby” that Jason Helms says you are.  Your whiny immaturity should relegate you to wrestling bears for the rest of your damn career as a punishment for the stain you’ve been on this great sport.

This sport isn’t about entertaining the mass of humanity in the crowd, far from it.  If you want to know what this sport really is about then pay attention to this other quote, a quote from a great man, a man who happened to train me as a professional wrestler; the great Glenn Braddock…

Glenn Braddock said, “A professional wrestler is, him or herself, a lethal weapon. Know this and use this knowledge and ability you have wisely.”

This means that, as professional wrestlers, Christy Matthews and Andrew Raynes, you, and I have all been given all of the necessary tools.  We can use those tools, those weapons if you will, to get whatever we want in this sport.

Fame.

Power.

Glory.

Or in this case, the SCW Television Championship.

But you, Konrad?  You get in needless, endless twitter wars, because Jason Helms hurt your feelings and you constantly whine about how to handle your anger issues or about how you hate violence...

…I don’t have such issues, my friend.  I am completely and utterly disconnected from human emotion.  I will do whatever it takes to get what I want regardless of how it affects those around me.  That means you, Christy, Andrew, and anyone else who dares stand in my way will get burned to the ground.  No one will stop me from becoming the SCW Television Champion.

No one.