vs. Tommy Valentine

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Off Camera

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“I am not carrying on a war of extermination against the Romans. I am contending for honour and empire. My ancestors yielded to Roman valour. I am endeavouring that others, in their turn, will be obliged to yield to my good fortune, and my valour.” – Hannibal

Anyone with half of a brain and even a slim amount of an attention span knows about my fondness for Sun Tzu.  But that great military genius isn’t my only favorite.  A close second would have to be a man known as Hannibal.

Hannibal is a Carthaginian general known his military feats in devastating the armies of the Roman Empire, and for transporting an entire army, over treacherous land most would have deemed impossible for him to pass.  His most celebrated victory is probably the Battle of Cannae. The Romans were sick of his constant victories over them and decided to amass an army so large that no one could defeat it. Using genius tactics he defeated their army. It was one of the greatest victories in military history, and one of the greatest defeats. After his many victories over Rome Hannibal was cemented in history as one of its greatest military strategists.

Many have questioned why I do what I do.  What is the purpose behind my mind games?  I recall times when I tormented Dawn Lohan.  I targeted my own trainer and best friend’s father Glenn Braddock, a man I idolize.  Most recently I made it my mission to prove to the entire wrestling world at large that their heroes are just as foul and tainted as any of the villains.  What have I accomplished through my mental torture and social experimentation?

Most would argue that I have accomplished absolutely nothing.  They would have an easy case to make, for I have not held championship gold in quite some time.  If you measure success in terms of the material possessions you win inside of the squared circle, then perhaps I would indeed be a failure.

I do not measure my success in terms of material possessions alone.  Four times I have been a world heavyweight champion.  Five times I have been a world tag team champion.  I can definitely get the job done if I want to.  But I’ve been focused on other matters.  Matters of philosophy, matters of ethics and morality, and matters of my own mind.

Conquering the Roman Legions was the easy part for Hannibal.  It was traversing lands that many thought were impossible to traverse, that was the difficult part for Hannibal.  That tested his leadership and forced him to look deep into his own soul to discover just who he really was.

That was my ulterior motive behind everything.  Never was this done to find out about the morality of society but my own morality.  I wanted to find myself by going deeper and darker into an abyss of my soul that I have never been to before.  I knew I was not inherently evil but I had to know if I could bring myself back from the darkness once I went to that place.

I am sorry.  I am deeply apologetic.  But I had to know.

It was a fine day in New York City.  The Big Apple will play host to Breakdown in a few short days.  It will be an important Breakdown for me.  I haven’t been on television in a couple of weeks.  In fact, the last time I saw action was against Helena Merriman; albeit it was a victory, but still, that’s just one victory in what has thus far been a lackluster and not so impressive SCW career.  I need to string together a series of victories if I hope to be taken seriously in my new quest; a quest for championship gold.

 A miniature storm had washed every sidewalk and gutter clean and a tincture of freshness still lingered in the air despite the traffic fumes. The vibrancy of the city had bounced back in the instant the clouds cleared and already the parks were a hum of activity.  I find myself just inside the city itself…alone.

The pavement, in all its stunning decrepitude, looked as if someone had taken a sledgehammer to it, diligently hitting every cement rectangle with enough force to make a network of cracks, many of them now colonized by weeds.

You know the bars are open when the streets are full of folks who walk as if the ground is the deck of a storm-tossed boat. Each foot comes to the sidewalk as if the collision of shoe and concrete wasn't entirely anticipated and the person lurches, stumbles. The sober ones stride like the only adults in a party of infants, shepherding them to a car ride home.

A part of me, a large part of me in fact, looks down upon them as inferior.  They are inferior due to their lack of common sense and intelligence.  They are oh so reminiscent of my brother.  And yet as I think that, I cannot help but think about how loyal my brother has been to me.  He has been loyal and very kind to me when I have done nothing to deserve loyalty and kindness.

These are just the people I need right now.

I scan the area at the group of individuals walking to and fro, most without much of a sense of direction due to the alcohol that has inhibited their sensibility.  I need someone sober for my purposes.

Three men, two of which are sober but they are busy carrying their drunken friend.  I can’t bother them.

A woman, she looks sober but she also looks like a hooker.  Not chancing her.

A man dressed rather nicely in denim and a button up shirt.  He walks straight and narrow and upright.  Clearly sober.  A woman who apparently is his girlfriend is with him.  She appears to be sober as well.  They are my targets.

“Greetings!”

They didn’t quite hear me yet, or understand that I was talking to them.  I jog lightly to catch up with the couple.  Waving my hand to flag them down, hoping that will get their attention.

“Hey there!  Hold on just one moment, mates…”

They slowly come to a stop as they begin to realize that I am talking to them.  They smile at me curiously as I approach.  I hold out my hand offering a friendly handshake which, thankfully, they do accept graciously.

“Uh, hello…” the man says

“Hi!” the female answers cheerfully.  Clearly she is the extrovert here.

“My name is Sophie O’Brian.” I greet them with a perfect winning smile. “You wouldn’t happen to know me, do you?”

“I don’t think so.  Should we?” The girl asks curiously.

“Your face looks familiar, but I can’t place the name.”

Perhaps the man is a wrestling fan?  I have been all over the world wrestling for many different companies before coming to Supreme Championship Wrestling.  If he is a wrestling fan, there is a good chance he ran across me on his television set before.  But there is only one way to truly answer that question.

“It is possible.  I work for Supreme Championship Wrestling.  We’re having an event here, Breakdown, have you heard?”

“Oh yeah!  Me and Clarissa are going!”

“That’s right!” Clarissa answers, nodding her head. “I admit I’m not big into wrestling but Todd here is and he is excited about going.”

A confident smirk forms across my face.  This is going better than I expected.  I reach into my pocket and produce a couple of tickets.  I pass them across to Todd.

“I assume you already have your tickets, but these are backstage passes.” I wink at him. “Just ask for Sophie and Mark and we’ll show you around.”

“That’s awesome!” Todd replies, his face lighting up like a Christmas tree.

“But, I’d like you to do something for me, if you don’t mind.”

“What’s that?  Nothing hard, I hope.” He chuckles.

“Oh it’s nothing hard.” I shake my head. “I just want you to answer a question.”

Todd folds his arms over his chest.

“Go ahead, shoot.”

“Suppose there was a person, and that person lived a very tough life.  You name it, she experienced it.  Abusive drunk of a father led to her and her sibling being on their own at age eighteen.  As she grew up she felt a strange…tugging…”

“Tugging?”

“Yes, a tugging.  A pulling towards the darkness, a temptation towards evil.  She tried very hard not to give in to that temptation but then, one day, she decided to embrace the darkness, not because it was easy, not because she wanted to get even with a world that she felt had wronged her all of her life, but because she simply wanted to find out if she could pull herself back out of the darkness once she went there.  What would you think about that woman?”

There is a tense moment that passes as Todd and Clarissa stare at me with wide eyes.  It isn’t hard to figure out that they know who I am talking about.  Clarissa looks nervously at her boyfriend Todd.

“Uh, Todd…?” her voice trails off.

“Right…” he looks over at me “…sorry, Sophie, but we have to go.  Thanks for the tickets.”

Todd and Clarissa quickly walk off.  I watch them walk away and then bow my head, sighing. “That was the answer I was afraid of…”

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On Camera

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“Aut viam inveniam aut faciam.” --- Hannibal

This Latin phrase means “I will either find a way or make one.”  It is most commonly attributed to Hannibal in response to his generals who had declared it impossible to cross the Alps with elephants.

I love the stories of Hannibal almost as much as I enjoy the works of Sun Tzu.  Both are great military tacticians and strategists.  Hannibal’s strategies and tactics helped him overcome the greatest Roman Army to march across Europe.

And it will be my own great strategy and tactics that help me overcome you, Valentine.

You see, Thomas, I am through being overlooked and passed over.  It was ok at first, for I had my mind set on other issues and other goals.  But that time has passed.  I am done sitting idly by while other people take the credits that I deserve, take the accolades that I deserve, take the glory that I deserve.

I am an accomplished athlete yet I was left off the Retribution card?  Why is that?  Because I didn’t hold a fancy trinket?  Because I didn’t come up with some multi-layered automobile accident and frame up?  Because I’m not a self-absorbed sociopath or the comic relief out of Japan?

I am tired of being overlooked, Thomas, and it is you who will pay the piper.  You will be the first to suffer for what I find to be the great offense of looking past Sophie O’Brian.

The beginning of the Sophie O’Brian era begins here when I TAKE what is mine.  When I TAKE hold of my destiny and start to write my own path.

But unlike Hannibal, I will not eventually be overrun by the Roman Legion.  It will be the legion, YOU, who gets run mowed over by me.