Interim United States Championship

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Previously…

Off Camera

April 5th, 2018

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It is dark outside in Belfast, Northern Ireland and the thunder rolling in the background signals to any normal common sense individual that a storm is brewing and it would be best to stay indoors.  But Sophie O’Brian is far from normal, even if her common senses do tell her that she is about to get wet.  But she knows that she can get to her destination before the downpour.  She knows because she can see her destination, an old warehouse, up ahead in the dim lighting of a few overhead lights mounted on the warehouse itself.

Her journey here was one she hasn’t made in a long time, and yet she still remembers it all too well.  The houses gave way to an empty barren road a full twenty minutes ago and the verge became more of a junkyard than the junkyard.  The old machinery lines, the road covered in dirt, and scavenged into skeletons of whatever they were.  Still it has the curved roof like an aircraft hanger and the walls are corrugated tin. The broken tarmac around it is empty except for a forklift – it must be in use again, just like it was all those years ago.

Sophie O’Brian feels the first rain drop hit her hand.  She stops gazing at the warehouse and makes her way up to the door.  One might expect this place to be locked up by whoever owns it but not Sophie.  Sophie expects it to be unlocked and, sure enough, as she turns the doorknob and it opens easily.  She steps inside and shuts the door behind her.  The lights are off and it is pitch black.  Sophie can’t see her hand in front of her face.

This causes great frustration for the Belfast native.

“Ok, stop the games!” Sophie shouts loudly. “I know you’re here!”

She pauses to wait on an answer from someone who apparently doesn’t exist.  Sophie growls angrily, shaking her head.

“Damn it!  You wanted me back!  You ALWAYS wanted me back!” She spins around. “Well here I am!  So come out of hiding!”

Again Sophie pauses, waiting for an answer from this unknown individual.  But still nothing.  Sophie is very agitated by this point.

“I called you!  You said you’d be here!  Now you stand me up?!  You stand me up when I need you the most?!”  Sophie sighs and shakes her head.  “I suppose I deserve this…”

Suddenly the lights in the warehouse come on all at once.  Sophie smirks knowingly.

“Now I know you’re here.”

“Of course, how could I reject this proposal of yours?” Comes a female voice from off in the distance.  The sound of clicking heels can be heard as she continues talking. “I had to have my fun, though.  You said it best, Sophie.  You deserve it for abandoning me.”

Sophie watches the center of the room.  A woman with raven black hair in a crimson red dress and matching patent leather heel pumps steps into the room.  She motions for Sophie to come towards her.  Without waiting for another request, Sophie immediately steps towards this woman.

“Greetings, Sohpie.  It has been a long time.  Too long, if you ask me.”

“Yes, it has been too long….” Sophie’s voice trails off as she kneels down before this woman “…my Mistress.”

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Scene 1

Off Camera

April 5th, 2018

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In the holy scriptures, thunder often signifies a divine truth or divine judgment about to be sent down upon mankind.  To the saintly, to the good, to the god-fearing, thunder could be something worth rejoicing over.  After all, it is symbolic of God Himself.  To the sinner, it brings about great distress, worry, and even fear; fear of the judgment and wrath of God.

I am a Catholic but I haven’t exactly been practicing my faith.  Most observers would say that I am quite the sinner and if I don’t change my ways soon, then I will be on a highway straight to hell.  I never feared hell before, nor did I fear God’s judgment.  Naïve as it may be, I always felt that the hell on earth that was my childhood and teenage years prepared me for any kind of hell that God could dish out.

Yet now, as I remain here kneeling before this woman; a woman I haven’t seen in nearly two decades, I am fearful.  Shudders of fear run through my body as the thunder and lightning cracks outside of the abandoned warehouse where I find myself with this woman.  Perhaps this is the “fear of God” that so many people speak of?

I am slightly taller than this woman and I have more experience as a fighter.  I was trained by the best wrestler in the world, Glenn Braddock.  I should have no fear of her, and yet I feel a sense of intimidation in her presence.  She gives off a strange aura of power.  One that I never could seem to master myself.

Her name is Quinn Murray.

“Yes, yes it has been far too long since we’ve been together, my dear Sophie.” She purrs as she gazes down at me with a controlling stare and a devious smile. “It most certainly wasn’t on account of anything I did, was it?  Was I at fault, Sophie?”

“What do you mean?” I ask, still not daring to even look up at her.

“Perhaps my thought process is on a level superior to yours?  Allow me to, how do you say, dumb it down?” She snickers.  Normally I wouldn’t take that insult from anyone, and a part of me wants to protest, but I can’t find it within me to fight back. “Did I do something to drive you away from me?”

“No…of course not, my Mistress.”

“Well if that is the case, tell me something,” she rubs the back of her hand across my cheek “why did you leave me?  Why did you abandon me?”

“Mistress, you should know this.” I ask, sounding somewhat surprised that this question was even posed to me.

“Perhaps I do.” She folds her arms over her chest. “Humor me.”

“Fine.  But you knew that Mark and I were training at the Braddock Wrestling School. You knew that Glenn Braddock was training us to be professional athletes…wrestlers.  We owe a great deal to Glenn.” Tears begin to form in my eyes as I recall the terrible memories. “Mark and I got beatings from our alcoholic father on a regular basis.  We both ran out of the house as soon as we legally could and never looked back.  But we needed help.   Glenn Braddock provided that help, not only monetarily but in the form of training so that we could defend ourselves going forward and so that we could have a future for ourselves going forward; a future in professional wrestling.”

The confidence begins to return to me.  It’s enough to make me stand back up, eye to eye and nose to nose with Quinn Murray.

“Glenn Braddock helped secure us contracts with Global Division of Wrestling where we made our professional wrestling debut.  That’s why I left.”

“That is a lovely speech my dear, and a beautiful recounting of the events, but they are slightly inaccurate.”

“In what way, Quinn?”

“MISTRESS!” She slaps me across the face.  It rocks me backward, stunned more than anything else.  I rub the stinging from my cheek as I stare at Quinn who has an angry glare on her face. “We need to clear this up, Sophie!  Glenn Braddock did not ‘save you’; I did!  You came to me before you ever went to him!  I gave you a home before your idiot brother ever did!  I was the one who encouraged you to go to Glenn Braddock and allow him to give you the necessary wrestling training!  That is why I owned you back then and why I was your Master and you were my loyal servant!  At the very least you still owe me that much, Sophie!  Are we clear?”

Once again, those who know me realize that this would not be something I would ordinarily take very lightly.  Yet my confidence is immediately shattered by Quinn’s impressive, mighty aura.  I bow my head like a repentant young girl.

“Yes…my Mistress.”

“Good.” Almost like flipping a switch, Quinn goes from angry to calm.  It even makes me shudder, just ever so slightly, to watch her swing from one extreme to the next like that. “Yes, I recall how you told me you were leaving me to become a professional wrestler.  And I followed your career, Sophie.  I hope you realize that.  I followed you from Global Division of Wrestling, Motor City Wrestling, Future Wrestling Alliance, Millennium Wrestling Alliance, Independent Wrestling Cartel, Global Championship Wrestling, and now your most recent venture…Supreme Championship Wrestling.”

I admit, it does surprise me that she kept up with me for this long.  I always had the impression that she just thought of me as a toy or a pawn, someone she never really cared about.  Perhaps she actually does care?

“Then you will admit that I was ready to leave.” I state defiantly, my confidence starting to emerge again. “I held world championships in four of those organizations, Mistress.  I have been a champion everywhere I have ever wrestled.  Everywhere that welcomed Sophie O’Brian would end up getting dominated by Sophie O’Brian.”

“Perhaps this is partially true but you are leaving off a key piece of information, Sophie.”

“What are you talking about?” I demand with an arched brow.

“Supreme Championship Wrestling.” She shakes her head, making tsk tsk noises at me. “Hardly a show of dominance if you ask me, my dear.  I mean, you HAD me convinced that you really had learned everything you could from me, but then you showed up in SCW and you humiliated yourself.”

It’s like a punch in the gut to hear her say that to me; and what makes it worse is that she is absolutely right.  I have been a disgrace to myself and everything I stand for since coming to SCW.  I haven’t lived up to my potential.  This is why I came here in the first place and she knows it.  Quinn Murray knows it.

“No, I haven’t done well in SCW.  This is why I have returned to you.  This is why I came back.” I kneel down before her once again as a sign of what I’m willing to give her, to offer her. “I seek your guidance, Mistress.  I want to learn more and to improve myself so that I may dominate SCW as I have dominated everywhere else.”

I dare not look up into Quinn’s eyes in fear of offending her again but the slight laughter that I hear is enough to tell me that this isn’t going well for me.

“You abandoned me, Sophie.  You foolishly left because you thought that you knew everything there was to know.  You thought you learned everything that you could possibly learn from me.  I was offended when the student tried to declare herself a graduate before the teacher could evaluate her.  So tell me, my dear,” she reaches down and guides my head upward so that she is looking directly into my admittedly nervous eyes “why should I help you?”

No answer comes from me.  It isn’t on account of not having an answer.  I do have an answer.  I just am afraid of what that answer is; I am afraid of having to make the sacrifice that I will have to make in order to obtain her help as a mentor, as a guide, yet again.  I really do not want to answer this question but I doubt very seriously Quinn will let me off this easily.

“No answer from the supposed sociopath?  Nothing from the master strategist herself?” She shakes her head in disappointment.  “You disappoint me, Sophie.  I had watched you progress so very far away from my presence and now here, before me, you regress back into childhood.”

“I apologize, my Mistress.”

“No need for apologies; at least not yet.  Just tell me one simple thing; how desperate are you, Sophie?”

“ Very desperate.”

“Finally, some honesty!” She exclaims with a wide ear to ear grin and laughter.  “I mean, clearly you are enough desperate enough to return to your rightful and proper place…”

She paces a hand on my head “…and your rightful and proper place is at my feet and in my service, all for the mere hope that I will give you more knowledge.  Am I correct?  Is this what you are offering me?”

“Quit teasing me!” I have had enough and immediately stand up, one final rush of adrenaline and anger causes me to get up in Quinn’s face, staring her down with a narrowed, hateful glare.  “Yes!  You are absolutely right!  I know what you want more than anything else in this world!  For all the wealth and privilege and influence that you have, there was just one person who ever walked away from you!”

I pat myself on the chest. “Me!”

Quinn glares with hatred right back at me.  She slaps me again but this time I don’t back down.  There is a tense pause before she finally speaks.

“Yes, I admit it.  It ate me alive for years when you left me, when you abandoned me.  I felt as if I had lost a piece of my heart and soul!  Damn it, I cared about you Sophie!  Yet you walked away!”

“Bullshit!  You never cared about me!  I was just a servant to you…hell, I was less than a servant…I was your plaything!  I was your toy!  I was a possession that you could use and manipulate at any time.  I could see it.  I wasn’t ignorant to what you were doing to me.  But I never spoke up and I never complained because I wanted to learn from you.  I wanted the beautiful wisdom that you had to offer and for years you taught me.  For years I not only was your possession but I was, as you said, your student.  And I learned from my Mistress.  I learned a great deal from my Mistress and what I learned helped me win four world championships.”

I sigh and shake my head. “But now I need help.  I am clearly missing something because it has been damn near a year in SCW and I have yet to make any sort of impact, let alone get close to a championship.  I am desperate, Mistress.  Desperate enough to come crawling back to you, pleading for assistance.  So damn it, are you going to help?  If not, don’t waste my time!”

She smirks knowingly, devilishly even.  I’m not quite sure how to interpret that smirk but it doesn’t take long to ponder before she gives the answer.

“Oh I’ll help you, my dear; but my valuable wisdom comes at a price.”

“What’s the price?”

“You left me, Sophie.  And it hurt me.  You may not believe me, but it did hurt me.  I will not lose you again.  There is more, but all I ask for now is your undivided loyalty and devotion and a promise that you will never again leave my side.”

“I promise, my Mistress.”

“Not good enough!” She exclaims, her voice raising ever so slightly. “I want you to kneel down and say it!”

Realizing I don’t have much of a choice here before this imposing woman, I kneel down before her and bow my head in reverence.

“I belong to you, my Mistress.  You have my loyalty and devotion for as long as I live.”

“Excellent,” she grins from ear to ear “then we begin immediately.  Understand that you will be called upon once again to pay a price for my knowledge.  Nothing is free in this world, Sophie, especially wisdom.  Wisdom, in fact, is the most expensive gift of them all, as you will find out.  When the time comes that I inform you of the price of my wisdom, will you be ready to pay?”

“Yes.”

“Yes, what?”

“Yes…my Mistress.”

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Off Camera

April 11^th, 2018

Breakdown

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A submission victory is something I haven’t managed in quite a long time, despite the fact that I am a submission specialist; trained by one of the best submission and pure wrestlers in the world.  It was humbling to have to admit that I had fallen from such a lofty perch to the point in my career where I was barely surviving in Supreme Championship Wrestling.  Facing a comedic joke of a human being named Billy Breakdown is, in and of itself, a humbling experience.

Finally it happened; the breakthrough I had been wanting has happened.  Well, perhaps ‘breakthrough’ is too strong a term for a victory over a simpleton like Billy Breakdown, but the fact that I did make him tap out rather quickly is, at the very least, a turning point.  Maybe I have finally turned my luck around and if so, not a moment too soon.  Coming up in a few short days I get the opportunity to claim the Interim United States Championship; a battle royal where the winner faces AJ Helms for the title.

I realize that one victory over Billy Breakdown may not mean much, but it has restored in me some much needed confidence that I had been lacking for the past year in SCW.  And I owe it all to one person…

…Quinn Murray.

The smile on my face will most likely have to be surgically removed and everyone knows it as they watch my brother and I walk through the backstage area of the arena following my match on Breakdown.  I am confident yet again in my abilities and I know I will be the Interim United States Champion when all is said and done.

We ignore the officials and other superstars that line the backstage area.  Mark follows me closely as I finally find my way to the dressing room, pushing it open and stepping inside. Mark follows me inside and lets the door shut behind him.  I turn around and, in a move that is rather unbecoming of me, I embrace my older brother in a tight hug.

“I did it!”

“Yeah, I knew you’d bounce back, Soph!” We break the embrace and he looks at me curiously, cautiously even. “But, uh…”

“What?  What is it?” I ask, arching my brow out of curiosity.

“Are you sure you’re ok, Sophie?  Cause, I mean, you don’t normally do that.”

“Do what?”

“Hug.” He smirks. “You’re not a hugger.”

“There’s a first time for everything, Neanderthal.” I wink at my brother, letting him know that I did not mean anything by the insult…this time.

“Now that’s the Sophie I know.” He lets out a slight chuckle.

“Yes and it is the Sophie that always should have been.” I declare proudly and defiantly. “I have clearly lost focus this past year.  My brain was not where it should have been.  But now that I have my priorities straight, I can finally achieve the goal that should’ve been my primary goal all along.”

Mark and I lock eyes and I can tell that he is pondering my words.  He is deep in thought.  Yes, this giant Sherman Tank of a brother of mine is capable of normal human thought, even if I question it on occasion.  Finally he tilts his head to one side and studies me.

“Was it really that simple, Soph?” Mark asks somewhat skeptically. “You just had your priorities out of whack and you needed your head screwed on straight?”

“If you want to minimalize what I did with such language then yes, I had my priorities ‘out of whack’ and I needed my ‘head screwed on straight’ as you so eloquently put it.”

“Then how did ya do it, Sophie?” Mark asks again, pressuring me this time. “Or DID you figure out?  How can you be sure that you got things back on track?”

“Look, dimbulb, who is the brains of this time?  Me or you?” I gently but firmly smack him in the back of his head. “I know myself better than you, Mark, so I can honestly and forthrightly tell you that I have indeed gotten back on track.  I have set my priorities straight.  I am the Sophie of old.”

“Funny,” Mark shrugs his shoulders “I never knew she was gone.”

I stare angrily and intensely into his eyes.  Then I hear my phone ringing.  I reach into my bag and pick up the phone.  I see the caller ID and immediately turn back to look at Mark.

“Go away.  I need to take this.”

“Who is it?”

“It doesn’t matter!” I exclaims loudly. “Just go!  I’ll be out in a moment…this won’t take long…”

Mark again shrugs his shoulders as he exits the dressing room.  Then I answer the phone and place it to my ear.

“Yes, my Mistress?  I take it you saw that match.”

“I did.  I want to congratulate you on a job well done.  But that was just a first step.  Now we must prepare you for the next big challenge.  You will claim this United States Championship, Sophie.  Whether it’s interim or not, doesn’t matter.  It shall belong to you.  Your training and education must continue if you are to win.”

“Yes, of course, my Mistress.”

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On Camera

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“That's been one of my mantras - focus and simplicity. Simple can be harder than complex: You have to work hard to get your thinking clean to make it simple. But it's worth it in the end because once you get there, you can move mountains.” --- Steve Jobs

Now Steve Jobs was hardly a warrior in the military sense but in the tech world and the business world he was one of the truest and mightiest of warriors and, dare I say, one of the expert strategists of the business world.  Focus and Simplicity was his mantra and that mantra helped turn Apple into one of the technological powerhouses today.

This past year I haven’t exactly been following that mantra of success.  To be perfectly frank, I have been completely lost focus on what was really important and, in turn, I made my task here in Supreme Championship Wrestling entirely too complex and complicated than what it should have been.  I was focused on trying to prove some social theory of mine to be true.  Yes, I was proven to be correct.  My theory that each and every one of you are no better than the villainous sociopaths you claim to detest was proven accurate.

While I admit, being proven right does make me feel good, I also have to admit that it was but a mere short term pleasure.  After all, what did it get me in the end?  How did being proven right help my standings in Supreme Championship Wrestling?

It didn’t help me at all.  My standings remained the same; I remained at the bottom of the barrel, where I started nearly one year ago today in this company. I had earned nothing for my efforts.  But that begs the question, what do I really want out of my career in SCW?

That’s where Steve Jobs comes in.  Focus and simplicity; well my focus clearly was on something far too complex and complicated to help me earn anything.  I needed to simplify my goals. I needed to get back to the very basics of why wrestlers wrestle in the first place.  I had to go back to the very beginnings of myself, if you will, and gaze deep into my own dark soul and find out what it is that I wanted, why did I want to be a professional wrestler?

Competition; as cheesy and corny as it may sound, and as surprising as that may be coming from a dark-hearted sociopath like myself, competition is the one thing that connects us all.  Whether you are a glammed-up fake goddess named Katie Steward, a one-eyed goat loving freak like Beard, a Japanese Karaoke master, or a wannabe Cruze, we all have the same competitive spirit that drives us forward, that keeps us going in this sport, in this industry.

That is when I had the epiphany.  If all I wanted to do was engage in social experimentation upon the mass of unlearned Neanderthals in the world, I could do that in any other career field.  But I chose to be a professional wrestler because I loved to fight and I loved the thrill of competition.

On four separate occasions in four different companies I proved myself to be the best damn professional wrestler in the world…or at least in that company…yet here I stand, nearly one year after my SCW debut, and I’m struggling?  I’m barely hanging on by a thread to any sort of relevance?

That isn’t who Sophie O’Brian is and you will all find that out the hard way at Unflawed.  Two world champions in the form of Alexis Quinne and Tommy Valentine will find out about the REAL Sophie O’Brian…especially Valentine, who I owe some payback…

Gothfather and Barnhart, both of whom have had just as much bad luck as I have, will see their bad luck continue and will learn about the REAL Sophie O’Brian…

And Aaron Blackbourne, while he has had some minor success, more success than me anyway, he too will continue his downward spiral, while I finally move my way up into the spot where I deserve to be…the spot where the REAL Sophie O’Brian deserves to be!

I realize now that I only have myself to blame for my lackluster rookie year in Supreme Championship Wrestling.  I’m not the ‘world beater’ I knew I could be and that is because I was distracted by unimportant, trivial matters.  But my focus is back and that is bad news for each and every person involved in this scramble for the Interim United States Championship.

Especially AJ Helms.

AJ never wanted this United States Championship match because he didn’t want to face his family.  That is very sweet of you, my dear, and I can promise you that I will make damn sure that you will NOT get the Interim United States Championship.  I will win that battle royal and I will then proceed to destroy you to take that championship; that way you will never have to worry about facing mommy dearest.

You’re welcome.