EPISODE 26: Glorious

EPISODE 26: GLORIOUS

Monday July 5, 2010
Kemper Arena-Birdz locker room
Kansas City, Missouri
10:21 PM Local Time

With a smile, Wendy zipped up her duffel bag and slung it over her shoulder, smoothing out her street clothes as she did. Her ring gear was stowed away, not to be used for another week (although, thankfully for her opponents, it would be washed). Slinging the bag over her shoulder and glancing around to make sure she hadn’t forgotten anything, Wendy took out a small mirror, and looked at her beaming visage. Fifteen minutes ago, Terrence and her had just finished their match, and the ecstatic feeling over winning her first title since her return hadn’t quite gone away yet. Unlike the situation with the WWA titles back in March, there was no controversy, just the air being let out of Michael Norcia’s lungs as two not-so-small objects came crashing atop him in rapid succession.

She smiled. They oughta use the Hailstorm more often.

Opting to leave her hair out of hits usual ponytail, Wendy brushed a few loose strands away with her fingers, and smiled back into the mirror. Finally, she swung the door open, and re-emerged from the bathroom into her and Terrence’s locker room.

And stopped dead in her tracks.

She had expected a party to be in full swing, with Pollaski having smuggled some food in, and Cassie and Theresa laughing, while all of them watched the remaining three matches of the Do Or Die pay per view. Instead, the locker room was empty save for Terrence. Like her, he had changed into his street clothes, but he sat on a chair, hunched over, staring at the title belt now held in his hands. Although she couldn’t see his whole face, she saw enough to realize that Terrence was engaged in some deep contemplation.

It wasn’t an expression she was used to seeing from her husband.

“Hey,” Wendy said, and her husband looked up from his thoughts.

“Hey,” he replied, shooting his tag partner a smile.

“I figured you’d be watching Ojeda and Szatkowski fighting.” Wendy said, grabbing another folding chair and sitting down, facing her husband.

Terrence shrugged nonchalantly.

“What are you thinking about?” Wendy pressed.

Terrence gave a short, harsh, chuckle, and looked at her, showing his wife a small, lopsided smile in the process. “I didn’t think it would hit me this hard.”

Wendy nodded. “It has been seven years.”

“Yeah,” Terrence argued, “But it hasn’t been seven years of futility. You and I both had excellent records in singles competition, and even after we retired, we had successful careers. So we haven’t held a tag title in that long... its not like we were even actively competing in the division for much of that.”

“But, Terrence,” Wendy said, smiling. She reached out, and put her hand on the belt Terrence held in his. “Whatever else we’ve done, it’s always been one of us. You were supportive of me when I ran the theater, and I was supportive of you when you raced, ,but in the end, the successes were ours and ours alone. But the tag titles, we did together.”

Terrence nodded. “I know.” He paused, looking away.

“What’s wrong, Terry?” Wendy asked.

“I don’t want this to end the way our last reign ended.” Terrence said quietly.

Wendy nodded, remembering the night of March 3, 2003 well. She and Terrence were on the rocks relationship wise, but despite their ever-growing dislike of each other, they were still the champions and forced to defend the belts. The defense against the Pharaohs of Rage had been going well, until Wendy missed a roaring elbow, hitting Terrence instead, and knocking him off the apron. Terrence, enraged, flipped her off and walked out of the match, leaving her at the mercy of the Pharaohs of Rage.

Temple Kreed and Apophis Caine weren’t known for their mercy, however, and they had a good deal of fun with Wendy before finally relieving her of her belt.

Obviously, the two had reconciled about a month later, but ever since, they had focused more on singles competition instead of tagging together, save for special events like the Crockett Cup. And while Wendy had long ago forgiven Terrence of his actions that night, she knew he had never quite forgiven himself.

Wendy gave Terrence a reassuring smile. “It won’t, Terrence. You and I were young and stupid then. We’re both too mature now to let something as silly as this break us up.”

“Are we?” Terrence asked, looking directly into her eyes.

Wendy knew that her husband was referring to their recent fights upon returning to wrestling, not to mention the three seperate occasions Wendy had left Terrence for the sake of her career. But she didn’t back down, just returned her husband’s gaze.

“Yes,” she said emphatically. “Every time I walked out that door, Terrence, I knew I was going to come back. If anything, I did what I did to keep the tension from coming between us. And even though we’ve had our fights, I never stopped loving you.”

“Nor I you.” Terrence responded.

“And its going to be a long time before I ever spend a week away from you again, I end up missing you too much.” Wendy said, getting out of her chair, and walking behind Terrence, embracing him around the neck. “But when we lose these belts Terrence, it will because a better team beat us. Not because we broke up.”

Terrence grinned as he turned into his wife’s embrace. “Or because two cheating bastards just put one over on us.”

Wendy giggled, and moved forward, closing her eyes. Their lips met, and Terrence returned his wife’s embrace, pulling her in-

“OY!” a male voice shouted, and both Birdz jumped and turned towards the now-open locker room door, Wendy losing her balance and falling on her rump.

“Thanks, Pollaski,” she snarled, picking herself off the ground. She noticed that Pollaski was carrying a grocery bag stuffed with snacks, while Cassie, who had returned to the room with him, carried a couple cases of soda. Theresa had done her part as well, carrying in a monstrous bag of potato chips that was nearly half her size.

But Dan wasn’t looking at the new champions, but rather the television, a look of utter disgust on his face. “Why the HECK are you two not watching the Szatkowski-Ojeda match?”

“We were changing,” Terrence explained, pointing to the plain red t-shirt he now wore.

“Well, you’re changed,” Pollaski said shortly, walking over and flipping the TV on. “Augh! We missed it!”

“We’ll catch the replay,” Terrence consoled, looking at the TV. “Nice! Danny won!”

Sure enough, Danny Szatkowski was celebrating on the television, which illicited a cheer from the rooms occupants.

“Good for him!” Wendy said, beaming at the TV, as Pollaski turned his attention to opening the snacks, while Cassie passed out cans of pop. “I’m sure Ojeda deserved everything he had coming to him.”

“Yeah,” Terrence chuckled. “But I bet Ojeda’s not going to be happy about losing that one. I’d hate to be the poor sap they stick him against in his rebound match.”

With that, Terrence cracked open the can of Dr Pepper Cassie handed him, and sat back on the chair, as the rest of the WhirlyBirdz settled in to watch the rest of the show.




Saturday July 10, 2010
The Nest- Living Room
Indianapolis, Indiana
8:17 PM Local Time

[Fade up.]

[Not entirely the usual scene we see as we fade into The Nest’s living room. The camera’s on a tripod, turned towards the living room’s couch. Wendy Briese is there, but she’s not sitting in her usual uber-rigid promo position. Instead, she looks quite relaxed. Wendy’s turned sideways on the couch, her back up against the right-side armrest, her bare feet resting on the middle cushion. It’s a fairly comfortable position to be reading a book in, and by George, she’s reading one. In fact, Wendy is so enthralled with her book that she doesn’t even seem to be realizing the camera’s on.]

[Good thing this isn’t, technically, her promo.]

[Another figure walks into the picture from the right-hand side, walking towards the left hand of the couch. He’s a little too close to the camera to see anything above his stomach, but given the approximate build, the NASCAR related t-shirt he has on, and the fact that this IS his house, it’s a fair bet that the new arrival is Terrence Thompson. Terrence stops, and turns towards Wendy.]

Terrence- “Hey, I need to cut my promo on Ojeda. That okay?”

[The young woman looks up from her book, and slowly nods.]

Wendy- “That’s fine.”

[Wendy brings her feet in, freeing up more of the couch space, and Terrence sits down on the left-hand side of the chair. We can see his face now, and the Mechanical Mayhem is definitely looking quite pleased with the way the previous week turned out. That ever-present sardonic smirk starts to come across Terrence’s face, but he pauses, and looks over exactly at his wife.]

Twister- “What are you reading, anyways?”

[Wendy, who apparently had (mistakenly) thought she would still be able to read while Terrence cut his interview, looks up from her book again, this time closing it shut.]

Wendy- “It’s about the Glorious Revolution of 1688. An interesting read...”

[It’s obvious from the get-go that Terrence doesn’t have a flying fuck of a clue what the hell the “Glorious Revolution” was. Wendy takes one look at the blank expression on her husband’s face, and decides to quickly explain.]

Wendy- “It was when William of Orange and his wife Mary rebelled against King James II of Britain, and deposed him within a month, it was considered one of the most finely executed Insurrections in history-”

Twister- “Until now!”

[Surprised at being interrupted, and even more surprised about her husband arguing with her on a historical matter, Wendy arches an eyebrow and looks quizzically at Terrence.]

Wendy- “Pardon?”

Twister- “It took William and Mary a WHOLE FUCKING MONTH to depose ONE king? It took you and I less than TWENTY-FIVE MINUTES to depose TWO!”

[Given the absolute dumbfounded expression on Wendy’s face, this was hardly the reaction from her husband she was expecting. Or hoping for.]

Wendy- “You’re joking, right?”

Twister- “Naw! They oughta change the name to the ‘Kinda Glorious, but not as glorious as the WhirlyBirdz because they just took regicide to a whole new level Revolution’!”

[Another pause, with Wendy again staring blankly at Terrence.]

Wendy- [wit a bit of sarcasm] “I’ll notifiy the historians.”

Twister- “That’s right, baby. The Kings are dead, and long live the WhirlyBirdz. Two honest-to-God PWX Legends couldn’t stop Wendy and I from climbing that hill. And the best part is, everyone except John Pariah and Michael Norcia saw it coming. They were so sure, so convinced that there wasn’t anyone out there that could beat them. That the mere fact that we earned our shot by beating Punch and Pie somehow meant we didn’t have a chance. And the way Norcia acted that whole match, you had to think he felt the conclusion of the contest was foregone. Until my wife spiked his head into the mat with her Vortexinator.”

[Terrence chuckles at the memory of Norcia being laid out by his desperate wife, which pretty much triggered the end of the match. Next to him, even Wendy’s managed a small smile.]

Twister- “And now the blame game’s apparently begun between the two. Pariah apparently is going to have some choice words for Norcia this week on Adrenaline. Obviously, these little encounters seldom end well, so before the fists start flying, let me make it clear that whatever Mike did, whatever John did, none of it matters. You can point the blame all you want, but in the end, it didn’t matter what you guys tried, or who you even had in that ring, because Wendy and I will destroy any two individuals put against us.”

[Wendy’s smile becomes a little strained, primarily because she obviously isn’t as much a bragger as Terrence is. However, even she has to admit that their performance at Do Or Die was nothing short of stellar. Terrence, who was originally talking to his wife, has turned his attention more to the camera, since he’s pretty much already gone into promo mode.]

Twister- “But I guess it’s back to singles competition for me this week. While my wife gets a well-deserved week off.”

[Given the expression on Wendy’s face, its obvious she’s NOT happy about being left off the card this week.]

Twister- “John Ojeda, I’ll harbor no illusions that what the Birdz accomplished at Do Or Die will have any sway over you whatsoever. From previous observations it’s fairly obvious that the concepts of ‘teamwork’ and ‘tag wrestling’ are two of the many facets of this sport that you fail to grasp.”

[Small smirk]

Twister- “The irony is, for all you eschew teamwork, for all you pretend that you’re better off alone, there isn’t a damn thing you’ve accomplished in the PWX without using something, or someone else, as a crutch. Whether it’s blackmail, tasers, whatever, you haven’t won a damn thing on your own skill and merit. And the few time’s you’ve even TRIED-”

[Terrence chuckles.]

Twister- “Well, we all saw what happened last week.”

[He saw a tape of the match, considering he was talking to Wendy in the locker room while it was live.]

Twister- “See John, at the core, you are a failure. You wrapped your entire PWX career around your bullying of Szatkowski. You threw everything you had at him to run him out of the PWX, and you couldn’t do it. In the end, after all the sneak attacks, the name-calling, the attempted kidnappings, you were the one left lying on the ground. You want to know why, after everything you did to Szatkowski, you still lost?”

[Terrence thumps his chest, right over where his heart is.]

Twister- “Because Danny Szatkowski has this. Danny Szatkowski has more heart in one capillary than you do in your entire body, John.”

[Wendy looks over at her husband, giving a derisive snort.]

Wendy- “Nice metaphor, Terry.”

[For a response, Terrence shoots her a grin, then goes back to talking to the camera.]

Twister- “Now, I’m not going to lie and say I have even more heart than Danny does. Save for the possible exception of my wife, I don’t think anyone has more heart than Danny. But where’s your heart, John? Where’s your drive to succeed?”

[Big smile]

Twister- “You don’t have it. You have talent enough, but you want everything spoonfed to you. Behind your big tough biker facade, there is a diva almost screaming to get out. I remember well, John, that night four weeks ago, when you hid in the back like a coward because you’re incapable of tag team wrestling. Anyone with HEART, anyone who’s truly cut out for this business, would have come out, and done the best he could. But no, you hid in your locker room, and played the ‘I don’t like my teamates’ card. Here’s a newsflash, John. I’m not exactly friends with Jeremiah and Jacob. But I was out there.”

[Derisive snort.]

Twister- “You see, I don’t think it’s because you didn’t like Danny. I think the REAL reason you didn’t come to the ring that night is because you were afraid. Not afraid of pain, mind you. You’ve shown that dealing with pain is one of the few things in this business you CAN do well. But you’ve built up this whole notion that you are the meanest person in the PWX. The big bad biker, John Ojeda, destroying everything in his way. But every time you lose, every time you’re the one left lying on the canvas when that bell rings, a little crack forms in your armor.

[Wendy looks at Terrence, obviously intrigued by his line of thought, while Terrence returns to his usual smirk.]

Twister- “At Do or Die, Danny put a BIG crack into your armor. And this week, I’m going to rip the whole fucking carapace wide open, and expose you for the fraud you are. Because to me, John, all you are is a pathetic weasel who can ride a motorcycle and swing various items wrapped in barbed wire. You don’t scare me, you don’t scare my wife, and you sure as hell don’t scare my manager.”

[Ah, we’ve come to that... “issue”. Terrence chuckles lowly]

Twister- “I can’t tell you whether or not Pollaski’s going to be at ringside for this match. It’s really up to him. But I can tell you that, if he does come down that ramp, there will be absolutely no interference on his part. But go after him anyways, John. Go beat up a guy with no in-ring experience because he wrote a blog. That’ll make you look REAL tough.”

[Terrence chuckles disdainfully]

Twister- “So I’ll see you in the ring on Monday, John. It sounds like you’re planning on actually showing up to face me, which admittedly is a step up. Hell, bring this new ‘owner’ you’ve developed such a hard-on for. I’d love to see who you could have wrapped so tightly around your little finger. But in the end, it isn’t going to matter, because there ain’t a damn thing either of you can do to stop the Mechanical Mayhem.”

[With that, Terrence gets up, and walks to turn off the camera, while Wendy grabs her book to resume her reading.]

Twister- [While fidgeting with the camera] “Oh, one more thing, John. That whole ‘kill ‘em all, I’m on top line?’ It really makes you sound like an advocate for necrophilia.”

Wendy- [horrified] TERRENCE!

[Twister breaks out into laughter at his own joke, and the feed cuts]