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[C-Verse 97] [HGC/DaVE] Everybody Knows

Phantom Stranger

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“Well, I wasn't used to working masked...” Chris “Fox Warrior” Morrisette laughs, rubbing the back of his head. “And then, bam, career. HollyWeird, CGC, USPro World Champion... So it paid off for me, weirdly. Fire Fox was great practice for the bigger jobs later...

 

“But what actually happened was, I'd been in LSW for a while, learning how to work a TV-style match, and someone came down and said they wanted me as a centerpiece for a new faction, and would I like to take a meeting with Mr Stallings because this was his idea?

 

“If this happens, you agree like a shot, or you're a moron.” He grins. “It's really that simple. Got flown out to talk to him and I got – and this is still the weirdest meeting I've ever had about a job, by wrestling standards – a PowerPoint presentation on HollyWeird merchandise.

 

“Because the luchadores, man, they were selling merchandise beyond anyone's predictions. It'd been years since anyone had tried selling luchadores as big names on a national scale outside of Mexico, and I guess the time was ready for it. And kids were buying these masks and making out like Lucha and Electrico were superheroes, but Lucha and Electrico, even Phoenix, they owned their masks. HollyWeird had to pay image licencing rights on top of the share our contracts promised for making merchandise worthwhile.

 

“Mr Stallings wanted to tap into this, so his idea was to create some new masks, ones the company would own. If you watch, after I left, all my fox masks were different one way or another... but anyway, he had this plan. And if the kids wanted to make like luchadores were superheroes, Mr Stallings said give them flat-out superheroes.

 

“So he picked me to anchor the trio – I'm still not sure why, I'm just always going to be grateful – and he brought in Chris and he brought in Harrison, who was the only guy who was used to a mask, and we spent a few weeks training on double-team and triple-teams while the videos ran, and then we got thrown into the midcard.

 

“I don't think any of us expected we'd make it past the midcard, you understand, but that wasn't the point. We were handpicked by the boss to stay visible and supported, and every single one of us heard cash registers going off.”

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Alex Braun chuckles. “We bled so many people...” He shakes his head. “It really hurt the whole idea behind Vibert's 'Future of DaVE', which... well, OK. At first that was just a way for heels to be smug because they had the boss at their back, but then the losses started – this is before I even came in – and Phil changed his mind. And I've got to admit his idea was really slick.

 

“You set these guys up as the future of DaVE. None of 'em are that exciting – bear in mind, JD belongs with the first lot – but they can work a match and carry a feud. And Bliss, who the fans still love, gets behind some other guys – this is how Phil sold me on coming in – and we end up a top tier, and we're the real new direction; you've got the luchador tag team, the Japanese Junior, and me, working American power-technical and willing to go hardcore, and Roy... look, I'm not gonna diss the guy, I'm his son's godfather, we're on the same bowling team since I moved to New York, the man's a fireman and we all know how important they are, but Roy was kind of what came with the package.

 

“Problem was, we lost Shawn, we lost a bunch of the other guys, and the feud was kinda ragged. The plan was to build to a big Cage War in March, something we could promote to feed off HGC HollyWeird. But so many people were coming in and out that plans kept changing, rosters shifted, then Stuey Ferdinand got his wrist broken in Japan...”

 

He shrugs helplessly. “The plus side was that we had Pay-Per-View, and people were jumping at us. And then just before December started word came down that we were getting TV to support it, and that was great.

 

“DaVE Danger Zone TV opened December First, doing ninety minutes weekly, and the East Coast War changed just that fast.”

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As Destructive Energy rolled on, Rip Chord and Thomas Morgan locked up once again. What began as respect had evidently curdled into hatred, and the match turned into a battle. Heedless of the referee, the contest spilled out to ringside.

 

The announce team's speculation throughout was framed around the question: Can wrestling's greatest tactician, the loaded gun that is Rip Chord, actually find a way to overcome the Trademark? For a long while, it seemed that that was impossible; but eventually, in time, things changed. Chord countered out of an armlock, boosting Morgan as he broke the hold, sending the Canadian crashing against the guardrail chest-first.

 

While the Trademark, clutching his chest, attempted to recover – while Azaria speculates on the damage that could be done, cracked sternum, broken ribs, internal bleeding – Chord threw the protective matting off the arena floor.

 

'Extreme Ref' Ryan Holland went for Chord, only to be sent flying by the mat mastermind. Morgan had already won by disqualification when Chord hit him with a perfect Rip Chord DDT to the exposed concrete.

 

Thomas Morgan was stretchered from the arena, and never seen again under an HGC logo.

 

 

“Y'see, Morgan, you were wrong about one thing,” Chord told the camera the following HollyWeird TV. “One of us still has a career to get on with.”

 

 

The Fox Den had truly arrived. In their contest against Steadyfast, Tornado, and new Untouchable Killer Kovach, they demonstrated some astonishing high flying – more than they had to date – including a triple through-the-ropes suicide dive that would make its way into Hollywood idents before the year was out.

 

The masked wonders dominated the match, but Steadyfast showed his worth to the Untouchables in the finish, low-blowing Night Fox and rolling him into a cradle while American Fox and Fire Fox took it to Tornado and Kovach outside the ring.

 

 

The undefeated Steve Flash took on Peter Valentine to defend the honour of Black Cobra at Destructive Energy. To the amusement of Rhodes and Azaria, both of whom continually sang the praises of Black Cobra and stressed, while laughing, that he was gone for good, and despite irate protests by Floyd Goldworthy, Flash remained undefeated, planting Valentine with a Flash Bang.

 

 

In the triple-threat tag team title match, tensions rose high. The Specialists focused their offence, aggression, and attention entirely on their rivals the Vesseys, and time and again the announcers stressed that this made both teams vulnerable to Dusty and Sid Streets.

 

Nonetheless, the Vesseys continued to overcome the assaults. Dusty ate a spike piledriver from the duo. Bob Oxford was nearly decapitated by Larry's Vessey Line. Time and again, the brothers nearly retained their titles – but when Sid Streets wrestles, things can change in a second, and the Road to Justice caught Bryan when he was almost out of energy. Sid made the cover, and the invaders held the tag championships.

 

 

It had been something of a downbeat PPV to that point, in the semi-main event. The audience's heroes, one by one, had begun to crumble. But as the cage descended around the ring, the mood changed. The ultimate hero was returning to pay-per-view, and the giant would be slain.

 

Masked Patriot was present at Bruce's side, though kept outside the cage; defying the letter of Shane Sneer's judgement, Whistler came out with Sam Strong.

 

The battle was a prolonged one, and a worthy main event. But at the end of it, what we saw was not the Strong Arm Tactic but the Chokeslam, and the giant prevailed.

 

HollyWeird was a wounded animal.

 

 

The following Tuesday, the Streets hit the ring, Dusty wearing his belt, Sid carrying his slung over his shoulder. They struck the poses they'd honed in the SWF, to the displeasure of many in the crowd.

 

Sid raised a microphone to his lips -

 

Suddenly he flew sideways, out of the close-up shot. Dusty went to his brother's aid as the crowd exploded, but Sid's assailant ducked the clothesline, hit a hammering elbow, then another, then sent Dusty to the ropes, backdropped him out of the ring on the rebound.

 

Sid, meanwhile, was clawing his way up the ropes in the corner -

 

The newcomer crashed into him with a flying corner splash. The moment of impact was the first time the viewers at home saw his face, the first time the majority of those in attendance in the Virginia Park Fields saw it.

 

 

Christian Faith let the Streets bail from the ring, pulling off his sweat top to reveal a muscle-tight HGC T-shirt. He let the crowd roar their approval for almost a minute, then scooped to pick up Sid's abandoned microphone, held up a hand, palm out, and the crowd silenced.

 

Faith turned to face the locker room.

 

“If you thought you could run,” he begins, “if you thought you could hide, if you thought I wouldn't get fired to go where I could catch you and give you what you deserve, you were a damn fool.

 

“Y'see, I have faith that I made the right choice. I have faith that competition is good for the sport and good for the soul. I have faith that I. Can. Hand. You. The. Ass-Whuppin. You. DESERVE!”

 

The pop was explosive, but it died down in a hurry when Black Sabbath began to play.

 

 

Charlie Homicide, the champion, appeared. He looked at Christian Faith. The two of them locked eyes, stared-

 

Charlie Homicide smiled, in absolute contentment, as happy as a babe in arms.

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Slayen Newbie

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Oh my.

 

Morgan gone from HGC*

Sam Stong falls as Bruce rises

 

and then

 

Christian-freaking-Faith comes to Hollyweird.

When you hinted that someone picked a fight with Eisen I never in a million years would have guessed this outcome. Talk about a hell of a coup for Stallings and company.

 

 

 

*"never seen again under an HGC logo." Interesting choice of words there....

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Thomas Morgan smiles apologetically. “I really enjoyed the work with Rip, I really did. But I'd made a little more money with HollyWeird, I could afford to gamble, and Dan Senior had us on an upswing – and wasn't furious about his son walking out yet.

 

“So when my contract negotiations rolled round, I asked for a couple of years of guaranteed money, enough to make up for losing two DaVE paydays a month and five or six HollyWeird paydays.

 

“And I got it.” He holds up his hands cheerfully. “I dropped a fall back to Troy in DaVE and went out on my back to Rip at the Pay Per View. Dues paid, but Rip insisted on the finish we did to let us pick it back up if we got the opportunity, and I moved back to Canada.

 

“Bought a house. And then Dan Junior walked out, and sure, I wasn't the top guy, but I had a chance to shine harder. I sold Dan Senior on a few more promos, honed the Trademark a little...

 

“It was a good time, you know?”

 

 

Sean McFly offers a wry smile to the camera. “To the best of my knowledge, neither of them have talked about it in a decade and a half. All we've got are guesses.”

 

He sits back. “Now, the received wisdom about 1997 is that the East Coast companies struggled to keep their rosters in the kind of order where they could go forward, and North of the Border, Supreme, HollyWeird, even the DeColts, they just kept forward motion. But, much as I hate to burst the “informed” fan's bubble, that's not what happened.

 

“At the time of THAT match, Nemesis was gearing up to take a run at Christian Faith. Obviously, that fell through. Christian's main event at the Supreme Challenge died, we ended up tagging in something thrown-together, all that.

 

“And then history repeated with Sid Streets. By that stage, Sam, me and Rory had the main event picture to ourselves for a while, mostly Sam and Rory, and Christian was a little outside that.

 

“Everything between him and Richard still looked pretty rosy, right up til it didn't. Richard didn't show up for a couple of weeks even backstage, nor did Christian. And then Christian was in HollyWeird, we knew he'd been fired, and everyone badgered Jerry for the inside scoop.

 

“Which was when we found out...” He pauses. Smirks. “Richard Eisen doesn't show up on TV that often, and it was even more true back then, before the Supreme Centre and the Hall of Fame and all that.

 

“Not a lot of people who aren't wrestlers know that nose is less aquiline and more broken.”

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“It doesn't matter who wins tonight,” Tommy Cornell told the assembled DaVE audience as Lords of the Ring nears its end. “Whoever has the Extreme Championship tonight, the new guy or Walker, the man who's Too Good For TV is gonna take what's his. Archangel wasn't enough; I've got a title shot in hand.

 

“And I'm gonna be proud to use it. Proud to win it. Eric Tyler packed his bags and ran off to the land of Supreme, the land that got scared and kicked me out. That bunch of t**sers couldn't handle me. Tyler thought he could. He was wrong and bloody all. ” His lopsided grin followed. “Nobody... nobody... has what they'd need to put me down and out.

 

“Some people've been talking about Stone taking that belt and running. Well, Danny boy, if you do that, that's fine. Because me and Brick and Easy E and Big Dan, we'll find you. We'll break you. And we'll take it back.

 

“You'd rather stand and fight, Danny boy, that's fine too.

 

“We're gonna have ourselves a party before the month is done.”

 

Dan Stone and Monty Walker tore into each other for thirty minutes, the belt on the line. With the score at 1-1, the timer inexorably ticked down, until in the final minute, the Stone Ankle Stretch was locked in. Walker struggled and strained, and on commentary, guest third seat participant Miss Bliss taunted Phil Vibert.

 

“It's not just your vision you've lost control of. A man who isn't even under contract is about to take the Extreme Championship. You've lost it, Phil. It's gone! Face it!”

 

Vibert stormed off commentary and out of view.

 

A few moments later, his lackeys stormed the ring en masse. Stone dropped the hold immediately, helping Walker to his feet, and the two faced off back to back with the encroaching tide as the timer ticked down.

 

And then Bliss State arrived to even the sides, and as the PPV went off the air, all hell broke loose.

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The petition to reinstate Whistler and Liberty having been successful just the prior week, Peter Valentine kicked off October with a petition to eject Duane Stone for circumventing the rules. By the end of the week it had four signatures; Valentine's, Charlie Thatcher's, Rocky Constantino's and that of Duane Stone himself.

 

Shane Sneer rejected it out of hand.

 

 

“Alright,” Valentine says, the TV behind him paused on a split-screen, with Black Cobra performing the Alabaster Agony and Duane Stone performing the move the announce team are using the same name for. “So, we have the exact same positioning here. It's not just the same hold, it's the same execution.

 

“And.” He delves into the big cardboard box. “Same size boots!” He produces one of each, dropping them on the table.

 

 

Shane Sneer stares at them thoughtfully. “Hold on – you stole boots off each wrestler?”

 

“Would you listen? Same size boots. Same manufacturer.” He turns them over, exhibiting the soles. “And they're custom-made. Outside the ring...”

 

Back into the box he goes, emerging with two large white plastercasts.

 

“Identical footprints! Oh, and...”

 

Two pairs of steel calipers hit the table. “Their heads have the same circumference!”

 

“When did you... Never mind.” Sneer shakes his head.

 

“They're the same person, Shane. Duane Stone must be kicked off.”

 

Sneer pinches the bridge of his nose. “Leave the office, Peter.”

 

“I'm serious! I have a constitutional right to-”

 

“Those words are not a magic charm.”

 

“You used to use it.”

 

“Peter, I've been kind of an a****** most of my career.”

 

“...For old times' sake?”

 

“No.”

 

The following week, Valentine is walking into the arena. Duane Stone waits at the doorway, arms folded. “Excuse me,” he says. Valentine and Thatcher exchange glances, uneasy. Stone delves into Valentine's bag, pulling out his own boot... and Black Cobra's. “He'll be wanting this back,” he says firmly. “See you at the Pay-Per-View.” And with that he stalks off.

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