MD39 - Titus vs. Blade

[Phoenix]

Now that Corey Payne is eligible to cash in his King For A Day Contract, Titus will be hard on the lookout to avoid losing the World Heavyweight Championship. This week, he takes on Blade who has yet to name whether he will challenge for the Elite X or EurAsian Championship at Apocalypse, both men will be wanting to make an impression towards their potential opponents so expect nothing less from either men in this encounter.

Deadline: Monday 10th May 23:59 EST

 

[Blade]

The scene opens on a sunny day in a small Irish village. Blade is standing at the end of a driveway, a driveway that leads to a large yellow bungalow. He stares at the house, his face pale as he quickly smokes his way through a cigarette and constantly readjusting his trench coat and sunglasses out of nervousness. Finally, after flicking the cigarette onto the country road, he walks down the tarmac driveway. He hears a voice in his head, speaking an internal monologue of his thoughts.

Back here yet again... I swore I wouldn’t come back; I hate this place so much.... And I hate him so much.

Suddenly, from behind the house a large golden Labrador comes bounding forward at Blade, tail wagging madly. The dog jumps up on Blade, sending him stumbling backward a few steps.

Blade: Whoa, hey Angel! Now, get the hell off me.

Blade pushes the big dog away and sweeps the hair off his coat and continues on to the door. He gets to the door and raises his hand to ring the doorbell, but hesitates. He takes a deep breath as he finally raises the hand and finally pushes the doorbell

Ok, get in and out as quick as possible.

The front door is opened by a short middle aged woman who looks at Blade in shock for a moment before her face break into an emotional smile.

Blade: Hi, mam.

Mother: What... What are you doing here? I thought we were never going to see you after... After last time...

Blade: Last time was... Regrettable. But I’ve matured a lot since then, and I want to try patch things up.

Or at least, that’s what I’m telling you...

Mother: Oh, that’s... very admirable. Want a drink?

Blade: Umm, sure, I guess.

They walk through the hall of the house. As they walk past the nearly-closed living room door, Blade peeks through the opening and sees his father in there, reading a newspaper. Blade takes a deep breath and continues walking.

Blade: So, yeah, I’ve got a match with Titus this week.

Mother: Yeah, I saw the advertisements.

Blade: Will you be watching...?

They enter the kitchen and Blade’s mother walks over to the kettle and starts filling it with water as Blade takes a seat.

Mother: I always do, son.

Blade: And... What about dad?

Blade’s mother hesitates before she slowly shakes her head. A flicker of anger appears on Blade’s face, but it quickly goes away. His mother puts on the kettle and walks over to the table.

Mother: Son... Do you think you might be... In over your head this time?

Blade looks inquisitive and slightly angry from this comment.

Mother: I mean, you attacked Titus not so long ago... You know it was a stupid idea and that it would come back to haunt you. It’s coming back to haunt you right now.

Blade’s face becomes expressionless.

Blade: I did what I had to to get noticed. Before that, I had been going nowhere and now, I’ve got a match with the world champion and I’m going to be facing either the EurAsian or Elite X champion. I’m getting there.

Mother: And that’s another thing, both Big Dave and Karnage are out for revenge too. Son, in one week you screwed over Titus and two of them most dangerous guys in the company. I know you need to get noticed, but you’re getting to end up seriously hurt... I’m worried about you.

Blade’s mother’s eyes start to get watery. Blade gets up from his seat and walks over to her for a moment, but then turns away.

Blade: I’m... I’m going to talk to dad.

Blade walks out of the kitchen, breathing slightly heavily.

God Dammit... I was not ready for this shit. Not before such a big match.

He reaches the living room door and hesitates before pushing the door forward. It opens with a slow creaking noise and Blade steps inside to see his father at the back of the room. Blade stands there for a moment in complete silence.

Just say something. Anything.

Blade: Hi... Hi Dad.

Blade’s father doesn’t reply and continues to stare determinedly at his newspaper.

Blade: I said... Hello.

Again, Blade’s father doesn’t reply. Blade quickly walks over to his father, grabbing the newspaper out of his hands and throwing it across the room.

Blade: Dammit, I came to talk to you!

Blade’s father lets out a heavy sigh and slowly looks up into his son’s eyes.

Father: And I’m choosing not to talk to you.

Blade: This is typical. You’re such a stubborn old man. And ever since I’ve been signed to WZCW you’ve been so jealous of me.

Blade’s father looks like he’s been slapped in the face. He pushes himself out of his chair and stands toe to toe with his son.

Father: And what exactly should I be jealous of? Your losses? Your terrible behaviour? Your international hatred from the fans?

Blade smirks and takes a step backwards.

Blade: The fact that I’ve already made it further than you did in twenty years. I’m facing the world champion, I’ve got a title match at the next Pay Per View. I actually matter.

Father: You have all those things, but you’re never going to win the titles. Not with your ego. Your ego is the thing that’s going to make you lose to Titus. It will be your downfall.

A vein in Blade’s pops out and starts throbbing, as rage spreads across his face.

You motherfu...

Blade: My ego? MY EGO? Titus’ ego is so huge that he could put it in the passenger seat of his car and drive in the carpool lane. I’m confident in my destiny and the only reason I’m like that is because you spent my whole childhood telling me I was going to be a world champion. You taught me this.

Father: Maybe I did, but I certainly didn’t teach you to go around acting like an arrogant little prick.

Blade: Actually, I did learn that from watching you. You used to act like an asshole backstage and it got you a few titles matches, even if you did lose every single one. You know what that means? You weren’t only a failure as a wrestler; you were a failure as a father too.

The expression on his father’s face is complete shock for a moment, but that slowly transitions into rage.

He’s going to hit me, I know it....

Suddenly, Blade’s mother walks in with two cups of tea. She sees Blade and his father in each other’s faces, about to explode. She stares at them with a mixture of shock and fright on her face before speaking timidly.

Mother: Maybe... Maybe you should leave, son.

Yeah.... Maybe I should.

Blade, still breathing heavily, slowly turns away from his father and storms out of the house.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
It’s the dead of night and Blade is walking towards the WZCW locker rooms through the halls of the building hosting Meltdown this week. Despite the signs of exhaustion on his face, he walks in a steady stride. He bumps in Rebecca Serra.

Rebecca: Oh, Blade. What are you doing here so late?

Blade: Collecting my wrestling gear... I just got back from Ireland.

Rebecca: Oh really? What were you doing there?

Blade: Becky... I, like most people, have my demons. But the difference is, most people try to make peace with their demons. I decided to kill them. For weeks, I’ve had such weight on my mind... I’ve been haunted by my past for quite some time, and never have I been able to excel like I should.... And with both the match with Titus and the title match coming up, I figured the time for silly excuses for my losses. The past is erased, never to be revisited... And now all that’s left is me.

Rebecca: But surely you don’t think that simply dealing with your past can help you defeat Titus?

Blade: In his arrogance, he’ll be expecting a win this week, and in my arrogance, I’ll be expecting him to severely underestimate me. But very few people know how liberating it is to have a fully clear conscience... Certainly Titus doesn’t know, after he’s alienated Carmen Bratchny. Titus’ conscience is weighing on him heavier than ever.... And if he's not thinking about Carmen, then clearly he's more of a heartless bastard than we all give him credit for. Plus he has Payne to worry about. So maybe in most people’s eyes, Titus and I aren’t equal... But I know his weaknesses, and I know that I can prey on them... And win. And when I do... I will finally make the announcement people have been waiting for. I will be challenging either the EurAsian champion or Elite X champion. I have finally made a decision and I assure you that a championship will be mine very soon. With the past forgotten, the future is so much clearer.

Blade walks away, leaving Rebecca looking perplexed.

 

[Lee]

Leon Good evening WZCW universe, it is I Leon Kensworth with something a bit different. As you can see next to me is a TV screen, and any moment now we are expecting a live feed via satellite from WZCW unified champion Titus.

The camera shows the TV screen where nothing is on

Leon Any moment now

Titus Can you hear me?

We cut to Titus live on the TV. It is quite dark with the sound of cars and the hustle bustle of city life going on in the background.

Leon Yes Titus, I hear you loud and clear...where exactly are you?

The view goes to the same on a live News feed with Leon on the left and Titus on the right.

Titus' voice is as though he's shouting to be heard over the background noise

Titus Don't you recognise this place Leon? We've passed here a number of times.

Leon No Titus, I can't say I do.

Titus Well if I can get the cameraman to pan round

The camera pans round showing that Titus is on a bridge

Titus We are in fact on the Keystone bridge, Leon!

Leon Why exactly are you on there Titus?

Titus It's a good question, and I was expecting you to ask that. I remember as a child I used to watch wrestling, before I got into acting and there were a number of traditional things that generally happened. Firstly the weapon of choice was usually the Steel Chair, I always felt sorry for the guy who had his chair stolen as he had to stand for the rest of the event! However when I hit my late teens early twentys there was one thing that seemed to happen a number of times. I always thought it would be a cool thing to do, so here I am on Keystone bridge about to do that.

Leon I can't say I follow you Titus

Titus Well as we all know at Redemption I pretty much gained redemption by defeating Everest and Bratchny in a match to determine the unified WZCW champion. With that I won a relic of a group that set out to destroy me, those people united under one order, the Ricky World Order. So here I am, on the Keystone bridge with two prizes from Redemption.

Titus bends down and picks up the two world title belts.

Titus This is my prize (Titus taps the WHC belt) and whilst a new belt will be mine come Meltdown, this one I will keep on my mantle piece, along with my four Oscars for a memento when I'm in my 80s. This hunk of junk doesn't deserve to exist, everything about it is wrong, whether it's the fact that it was given to Ricky to keep him happy, the fact it's everything about that group, or the fact it currently has a hammer and sickle on it. I mean come on, Communism died when mullets did!

So some place, somewhere there's some people crying. Carmen Bratchny is crying he's saying (Titus puts on a Russian accent) “In Soviet Russia, belt loses you!” he's wishing that he won the match, wishing that he kept the belt, well Titus says to you Carmen, you had your chance and you blew it! Then at home is Ace David, getting his wife to cook him another shrimp on the barbie, he had dreams of taking over from Ricky, his dream was to end me....and he blew it! There's Steamboat Ricky, wherever the heck he is, he'll be crying because he mucked up, time and time again. Who's the one at number one Ricky? It sure as heck isn't you! Then there's Everest, how he wishes he could keep focused. Big Dave and Karnage, strutting around with your Elite X and EurAsian titles, deep down you wanted this belt. Well you'll never get this belt!

Titus takes the Real World Championship and throws it over the bridge, you can hear a splash in the water

LeonI can't believe you just did that!

Titus Of all those people in WZCW it leaves only one. You see Leon, there's one man who thought he'd change his attitude. There's one man who thought he could be bad ass, there's one man who attacked me from behind. There's one man who has struggled, one man who's inconsistent, one man that misses his “ma nd da” one man who has delusions of grandeur! So on Meltdown finally I get my opportunity in the ring, finally I get the chance to take revenge for that cowardly act. Finally Titus can rid of those parasites trying to eat away at him, when I defeat Blade for the one, two, three it will mark a new era in my career and the entire company will be better for it! Leon thank you, and good night!

Titus' feed cuts out.

LeonThere you have it folks, Titus has said it's the mark of a new era in his career, find out how it unveils by tuning into Meltdown 39!