Post by Sam Kidsgrove on Feb 21, 2021 19:02:34 GMT -5
Even Rocky had a montage.
Written by: S Kidsgrove
By: S Kidsgrove
FADE IN
INT - KIDSGROVE’S KITCHEN - MORNING
SAM KIDSGROVE, international superstar, philanthropist and all around good egg is in his bathrobe sitting at his breakfast bar. He’s pensive and idly worrying his breakfast cereal while a coffee is percolating. ZOOEY DESCHANEL, the sweetest celebrity you can find bursts through the kitchen door from the outside, wearing workout gear. She’s been through a big workout. She speaks while gasping for air.
DESCHANEL
I’m not as fit as I thought! That was brutal!
KIDSGROVE
Yeah Karl can do that.
Kidsgrove immediately grabs some water and passes it to Zooey, then starts working on making her a protein shake. He leans in to kiss her, even though she’s sweaty as all hell.
DESCHANEL
How come you didn’t come?
KIDSGROVE
I’ll go out with him later. The guy is literally a machine, what kills both of us is a warm up for him.
DESCHANEL
Sooooo? Is that an answer or?
KIDSGROVE
OK, you got me. I’m politicking. I wanted you to realise this on your own, but your training is your training.
DESCHANEL
Yeah?
KIDSGROVE
Your training is not my training.
DESCHANEL
Is this your Mr MIyagi stuff going on now?
KIDSGROVE
Kinda, now you’re in the high intensity training phase, right? We’ll train together when we’re practicing moves and whatnot, and I’ll absolutely support you with anything you need. But your training is your training. Understand?
DESCHANEL
Not exactly, Miyagi-San.
Zooey bows in prayer to Kidsgrove and he laughs little at this, a smile cracking his face for the first time of the day. Zooey always brings out a smile in him somewhere.
KIDSGROVE
OK, let me put it another way. You need to find your own voice, style, level and fitness right?
DESCHANEL
Right?
KIDSGROVE
So the only way you’re gonna do that is if you do the hard training on your own. It is one of the fundamental principles of training to become a warrior in that ring. If you train with me, I’ll naturally be influencing you because of our relationship. Things I do and say are not things you’ll necessarily do and say in the same situation, taking me out of the equation means everything that happens is all you. Which is a good thing as this training is all about finding your own warrior voice. Finding that thing that you tap into, that thing that is uniquely you.
Deschanel winces a little at this, she doesn’t like to hear that,
DESCHANEL
What if I am you and you are me? We’re bonded for life, remember?
KIDSGROVE
Soulmates till the end, completely. But when you are in the ring, alone and you have no one there to back you up and you need to tap in to that last bit of hope you have, all that has gotta be you. You might draw on us to tap into that, you might draw into the fans and the light we set for everyone. I know I do, but it’s for you to actually figure out.
DESCHANEL
No one backing you up huh?
Kidsgrove laughs again at the fake offense Zooey has on her face.
KIDSGROVE
OK, I have some backup. But with this federation, knowing the people who are around, knowing that half the roster will immediately kidnap, torture and potentially kill whoever your back up is without a single blink, you gotta hedge your bets that at one point you’ll be on your own.
Zooey shivers, remembering what Nightingale did to them.
KIDSGROVE
I know what you’re thinking, but it’s not just him. Hell, look at my opponents this week. You have Bull in one corner and Shaw in the other. They have a history and a lot of that involved family members being kidnapped and torture, it’s like AW has a serious problem with security.
Before Bull became a, well, whatever it is with Frank Lowe, he was a sadistic bastard. Especially to Carter Shaw. They have issues that go back months with each other. I mean I heard a rumour that Shaw’s still scared of Bull and can’t even be in the building while he knows Bull is around. Now they’re having to face each other?
DESCHANEL
Really? I’ve not heard that one!
KIDSGROVE
Yeah, it’s why he took the Sky Box at revolution. The President told me about how Shaw had more security and extra restrictions than he did and looked a lot more focussed and nervous when Bull was facing Lowe.
DESCHANEL
Sure he wasn’t embellishing to mess with you? You know how Joe gets.
KIDSGROVE
Maybe, but it tracks. Bull also told me how he saw the fear in Shaw’s eyes. Couple of weeks ago, while we were strategising for the match against Baker and Daemon, he said, in his oh so blunt as a heavy instrument way “I could smell his fear, I could see it whenever he stood in the ring with me, it was so great to see his eyes go wide and see the little bitch shit his pants whenever I was near.”
That makes my job on Monday a little easier. You see, I do not fear Bull. We’ve just spent the past few weeks watching each other's backs to get us to the BattleBowl. He knows I don’t fear him, I know he doesn’t fear anything. We both knew from the outset that when it comes down to it, it’ll be every man for himself. We have the same goal and that is to win BattleBowl right? So our little union is at its end, we’re going solo and it’s now down to who wants it more.
I gotta tell ya, it’s me. I want it more. Bull wants to make a scene, turn up and get some riot going, get a good ol’ scalp in beating both Sam Kidsgrove and Carter Shaw on the same night. Hell, maybe it’s to get rid of the shackles that are on him by Lowe for all I know. That’s not enough though. I want it more. I am going into that match to win, not to make a scene or cause a splash, or beat someone because I don’t like them, no. I’m going into this match to prove once again that Sam Kidsgrove is not finished. I am going into this match to prove that the people I represent, the people I am a beacon of hope for, the people that need hope are not to be ignored. We are not to be ignored. I don’t have any bad feelings with Bull. I don’t have any feelings about Shaw, so what I do in this match will be professional. I’m gonna go in there for the win, hit either one of them with a box office smash and go home with the momentum for BattleBowl. That’s the plan. If they wanna carry on their hatred of one another and kick the living piss out of each other up and down the arena, that’s fine. I hope they don’t mind if I throw a few elbows of my own though because I am not backing down, not from either of them. Some people would be tempted to sit this out, let the people who hate one another wail on themselves. I think that’s just cowardly though. In this business you either fight or you commentate, and I don’t have the best announcing voice.
DESCHANEL
You don’t think anything of Shaw, huh?
KIDSGROVE
You know what I mean. I think he’s supremely talented. I think he deserves everything he got in 2020. He had a great year, a phenomenal year in fact. He was lauded as the future of the company. I think winning All-in was kinda the piece la resistance for him though, his mountain peak. After all, he has had the best part of 6 months to cash that in and what’s he done so far? Well we know he’s scared of Bull, so does that mean he was scared of Walter? Is that why he didn’t? Maybe he was scared of Corey Black? Plenty of opportunity there to cash in that briefcase when Philidor and Walter were wrecking the stage on a weekly basis and leaving Black helpless.
I know in his mind he’s probably saying “Got a year, no rush, when the time is right the time is right.” Which is true, until you factor in the fact that now one of Philidor is the champion.That briefcase means absolutely nothing until it’s cashed in, at the moment he’s carrying a highly prized fashion accessory that he’s got no say in using. I can’t imagine for a second that him trying to cash in on Blake would go anywhere other than disastrously bad for him and his aspirations to being upper management at that company. I can imagine it right now, within seconds of that 3 count happening and him holding aloft that title belt, guaranteed he’ll be summoned to HR to explain himself - then being summarily dismissed.
So that little fashion accessory he has now, he’s not gonna be able to use it until Blake is no longer champion. When’s that gonna be? She already proved she can go on long title reigns, is he just gonna let it expire or what?
Or, one day, will he shock us all, grow a pair of testicles and become a man, not an underutilised talent that let his career peak at winning all-in and never taking the next step because he’s scared of the future almost as much as he’s scared of Corey Bull?
My guess is the former, because everything I’ve seen of Carter Shaw so far screams to me that he has no balls, that he’s comfortable with his lot at peaking with the all-in briefcase, to be subordinate to Ash Blake. That being said, it is his path to choose, he hitched his wagon to a different light, one which is only going to take away, rather than nourish his own.
Zooey thinks on this as Kidsgrove starts to prepare his coffee.
DESCHANEL
But anyway, you got no backup?
Kidsgrove laughs and brings her in for a tender kiss.
KIDSGROVE
I got you, that’s literally all the backup a man will ever need.
DESCHANEL
But it’ll be good if I can fight though right?
KIDSGROVE
To protect yourself when people come after you? Yeah.
DESCHANEL
So if you aren’t training me, who is?
KIDSGROVE
I’ve had a look, but the training schools I’ve seen won’t be good enough for you. You got the basics, you’ve had them for a while, we need to look at more elite training.
DESCHANEL
What about someone in AW, like Lissie or something?
KIDSGROVE
Lissie?
DESCHANEL
Yeah, she’s inspirational, one of the best, all about giving power to women, makes sense.
KIDSGROVE
It does, but then you got the problem that one day she could be one of those who comes after you.
They both think for a while, trying to rack their brains as to who can help Zooey.
DESCHANEL
Didn’t you say you had someone in place last week?
KIDSGROVE
I had someone in mind, but I’m not sure it’s the best idea.
DESCHANEL
No?
KIDSGROVE
My old trainer, he’s excellent and will do everything we need him to, but I’ve been asking around and since I finished with him, he’s had a certain reputation when it comes to women. Nothing has ever come of it and he’s never been charged, but when there are allegations, y’know? I’m not sure I’d be comfortable.
DESCHANEL
If he’s the best then…
KIDSGROVE
I mean we could go round the training schools, see if you get along…
DESCHANEL
If I turned down jobs with directors who had a certain reputation I’d be a waitress. Give him a call, at least speak to him.
KIDSGROVE
You sure?
DESCHANEL
Positively! What’s the worst that can happen, right?
FADE OUT
END