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BOLD!
DARING!
RISKY!
“All my life, people have watched me evolve into the wrestler I’ve become since 1999. However…as the years grew further apart from my debut in the wrestling business at the turn of the century, so did my aspect on just how much wrestling means to me and how serious I really didn’t always take it. I’ve gotten older, yes, but one thing I’ve realized is that if I really want something extremely bad…I’ve got to analyze what that is and actually do it. All my life…in my life of fame and fortune, the further I grew in that business, the further apart and out of touch I got in the wrestling industry…fast forward to 2019, and that’s exactly what has happened. It caught up with me and it got caught up with me hard. Now here I am taking the time as a grizzled veteran of this business and actually THINKING about this from an experienced and wise concept. I’ve got to say…I wasn’t very impressed with what I felt. You see…what I did was ANALYZE MYSELF and I didn’t like what I saw…
“I saw a man who literally bought anything he wanted with the money that I built from the ground up. You see, my Grandfather was a successful businessman. He handed over his company to me…yes, I inherited that company, but then I changed it and built a company and a legacy I inherited MYSELF! I was a very successful businessman…I was the best in what I did but honestly as I got further along…I wanted more. I realized that in my wrestling career, I wasn’t paying it the attention it deserved and that disheartened me. You see, I have always been a fan of the wrestling scene. I idolized it as a kid and it grew on me. I started off as a stunt dirt bike rider with my father before I really ever turned to a wrestling life. But as I got older…I realized that I wanted to do more. I had thought about the wrestling life a lot more and the more I thought about it the more I wanted to pursue it…so I did…and just like starting something new…there were growing pains but it GREW on me! I absolutely LOVED it! It was fucking addicting and it was my drug of choice! The more I experienced with it, the more I wanted and the more I most definitely got.”
“So as my life grew as a wrestler and the further deeper I got in the wrestling business, I again wanted to experience something different. I wanted to push myself as a wrestler but I wanted to push myself as a BETTER wrestler. So I heard about this company called High Octane Wrestling and I gave it a try. Needless to say, upon my arrival, I was humbled and I was humbled HARD! I had come from a company that I was very successful in. PWX, dare I say the name..the company I took out in the back of the pastures and put down myself, actually was very successful for my career. I ended up becoming a three time World Champion and even getting a Hall of Fame nod..but like they tell you in HOW, as even I would recognize as I grew in this company, what I did in that company was utter SHIT and the reason is because HOW is a polarizing and very humbling place. Of course, I didn’t see that in the beginning, but through time, I eventually EVOLVED into a veteran of the business and figured out how the company worked. I was already successful with Hollywood Enterprises so I had my own form of training and methods and once I figured that out in HOW, it worked for me and I eventually rose to the top and became the HOW World Champion, twice. I held the HOW World, ICON and LSD Championships…all the singles championships as the last era of HOW ended in 2016 and closed down.”
“So why the fuck am I telling all you fucks about this? A lot of you already know about my journey to HOW and my success in this business…..but what I HAVEN’T told you all is that there is a moral to my ranting here. You see…all of this is connected and it is simply connected with one word. BEGINNINGS. EVERYTHING starts with a beginning…and though this may not seem like the beginning, it really is one. When I started wrestling for the first time…that was a beginning. When I moved on to evolve my wrestling, it was a beginning. When I went to PWX and became great, in a fucking sense, it was a beginning. When I got to HOW and learned how wrong I was no matter what the fuck I did in the past because it didn’t fucking matter, mind you…it was a fucking beginning. When I rose to the top in HOW and became the World Champion it was the beginning….and when HOW came back in 2019, it was the beginning to pick up where the fuck I left off. But you see, it was the beginning of an END to something because things change. The wrestling industry changes all the time but in HOW, it is constantly changing on a daily fucking basis! HOW truly is a special place to be and, again, a very humbling place to be as it constantly is reminding me….there is a, god of HOW forbid I say it again….beginning once again. And we have arrived to that beginning and I will explain it now…”
“Don’t let me let you guys think I’m getting off track here…this is all CONNECTED here. The beginning is always speaking when it comes. Circling back to when I said I fell in love with the wrestling business and grew with it…as time went by and the more content I was where I was at…especially in HOW, I realized that I was growing APART from the wrestling aspect of everything. I had lost that addiction…I had cut myself off COLD FUCKING TURKEY from it and I didn’t see it! How could I miss something that was so obviously pumping through my veins hardcore? It’s because as I spent more time investing in my company, I felt like I had come to know everything going on in HOW. So I stopped paying fucking attention and like the HOW mantra always does, it hit me the fuck back and it hit me the fuck back, HARD! You see, the three years HOW was closed down, I was knee deep into my company…a company I clearly loved over wrestling because my wrestling career was over at that point. I had no desire anymore to pursue life in wrestling because HOW was the only company where I could see myself at. If there was no HOW, there was no wrestling for Brian Hollywood. I truly believed that. So when HOW came back, I thought I could continue to juggle wrestling life and company business life. But like the constant moral focal point of this story, it was once again….a beginning. That beginning jolted me like a rock…I had cruised through the HOW World Championship return tournament, sure, but after that loss to Halitosis…I really did lose my sight on everything. Fast forward through all the losses after that, I really lost track of myself. I lost track on who I was as a WRESTLER than I was, whereas, a businessman. At the start of the new year of 2020, almost twenty years after I started my life as a wrestler, I took a good look at myself in the mirror and I didn’t like who I was. I had relished all my memories of when wrestling was pure to me like a white substance flowing through my bloodstream. I was once again…HUMBLED! HOW really was calling out to me and I couldn’t just turn my back on the only true greatest thing I had accomplished in my life. So when I say HOW meant the world to me, I doubled down on that motto, and I decided it was time to start a new…yes you guessed it…fucking BEGINNING! I realized that I needed to go back to the very BASICS of wrestling and that’s why I made the decision to leave Hollywood Enterprises and return to my core of wrestling. That’s why I made the decision to really leave everything else out and pursue nothing but wrestling from this point forward and I am putting everything I have into making that a comeback bullet point for me and that’s why I’m going to really show what I have learned in all this as I start anew in HOW and why this next step for me is going to be another beginning…but it’s going to be a beautiful beginning of where this goes for me and that’s why I will work hard for it…not because I need to but because I WANT to! 2020 is going to be the year Hollywood starts a new BEGINNING and it will be a march to GLORY…it truly will be…and my new beginning begins….NOW!”
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Chicago, Illinois
February 16, 2020
It was the next day following the latest Refueled the night before and Brian Hollywood finally started to feel the start of something promising. Sure, one win over Buck Yates was hardly anything to tout about. It was a dark match and it wasn’t something hardly impressive for Hollywood. A win was a win, sure, but this was more than a win was a win for Hollywood for a change. Hollywood believed a win is achieved no matter what you had to do. So why did it not feel like a win for Hollywood? Hollywood felt out of place…and that was rightly justified how he was feeling as he wasn’t accustomed outside of his life of fame and fortune he had just left high and dry. He had quit that cold turkey and it was noticeable to start. He had withdrawals and it was painfully apparent to Hollywood it was going to be a lot harder to accomplish his goal of returning to the basics in wrestling without the comforts he was used to…however, that’s what Hollywood felt he had to do in order to get back in touch with who he used to be….and that was a guy who used to be very well in touch with the wrestling he fell in love with.
Everyone was used to who he was. Everyone expected him to be this Executive who was high on himself and didn’t care what the world thought of him. He knew what he had and what he had was something special. However, what Hollywood didn’t realize was that he was starting to grow more apart from who he was as a wrestler and that was alarming to him to come to find out when he looked at himself in the mirror just a week ago before he laced up his boots to fight Buck Yates. Now, he was getting ready to fight Steve Solex once again and Hollywood didn’t like how things went last time. Hollywood is seen sitting in Phil’s big rig truck parked just outside of a building Hollywood was having a rough time preparing to go into. Hollywood had found it easy to confine in his new friend, Phil Woods, and he started opening up to him about his last match with Steve. Phil had already learned about Hollywood’s past life from his perspective behind the scenes as Hollywood was talking to him about his beginnings and how everything was connected. Hollywood starts to talk to Phil nervously as he tries to briefly forget about where they are currently parked.
Brian Hollywood: “Man, I know you know I have a match coming up in a week against Steve Solex. I didn’t like how my last match with him went. I really didn’t.”
Phil Woods: “Well, I gotta say brother, I know that it was particularly hard on ya when ya lost to him. It was just another loss in a string of losses that ya had compiled up. Do ya think it had somethin to do wit da way he was viewin ya?”
Hollywood thought about that for a brief moment. Of course, he knew Phil was right. However, Hollywood had already thought about that a couple weeks ago. Everyone was saying the same god damn thing about Hollywood and it was ultimately something that angered Hollywood. However, the root of Hollywood’s anger was misplaced at the time. He was mad at everyone else for what they thought of him because he was successful…he never understood why a former two time HOW World Champion would get that treatment….but it was something Hollywood discovered very recently that the root of the anger was placed towards himself. He knew he had gotten out of tune with wrestling. He knew what the problem was but the problem would be could he make a major polarizing change in order to prove everyone wrong? Wasn’t that what Hollywood was once good at? Silencing the critics and seizing the moment for himself? The thought of it surely made Hollywood crack a slight smile before he returned really thinking about the consciousness of his decision.
Brian Hollywood: “You know, you’re right, Phil! I had thought about it…but for all the wrong reasons. You see, I lost touch with who I was. I had been so enveloped in my own vision as a businessman, that when I was on top in HOW, I figured everything I was doing was right. But just like everything in HOW does, it CHANGES! I realized that I had to change with it because that’s what you need to do in order to stay updated with the times. As my career gets deeper with each passing year, I realize that I need to keep myself refreshed. Take a guy like Steve Solex. The guy is obviously the number one dad, right? So how did he get that way? He kept himself fresh but the difference between Solex and myself, was that he kept himself up with wrestling. Everything he does has something to do with wrestling. It took me a long time to figure that out and perhaps it was too long. But with HOW…it’s never too late! I have to keep reminding myself on that. I just am worried right now because I already have one loss in my LBI group…and it may have already damaged my chances on earning a HOW World Championship match at March to Glory…”
Hollywood’s confidence…just like that had fucking tanked as he drapes his head down as his vulnerabilities continue to shocking pour out. He was vulnerable and weakness was starting to seep to the surface. This was not the Hollywood we had all been accustomed to seeing. His emotions started pouring out with no stoppage as a Hollywood, who once was a man to NEVER show his emotions, was all of a sudden showing them like he didn’t know how to block them. Did this change have something to contribute to Hollywood’s recent attitude change towards him wanting to return to the basics in wrestling? Hollywood wanted nothing more than to return fully to the wrestling he missed and it was fucking showing…as Hollywood continues to doubt himself in his confidence, Phil pats him on the back and doesn’t give up on his friend as he offers his advice on Hollywood’s thought process.
Phil Woods: “Look brother…it’s not the end of the world, ya know? Sure, I know how brutal the LBI can be. I surely know how much one loss can affect ya in the LBI. I’ve always enjoyed the HOW unique tournament. But let me give ya my take on it. Ya see, just because ya lost one match in the LBI, it doesn’t mean it’s the end fer ya. Ya still got a shot at advancin if things pan out effectin the other combatants. Ya just gotta dig deep, brotha. Ya just can’t give up on yerself. And so fuckin what if ya don’t advance in the LBI…ya have found yerself a second chance to really go after yer passion of being a professional wrestler. Ya can really fight fer yerself and push yerself if ya truly believe that passion, that love fer wrestling is there. Sure it might be a longer road to glory fer ya…but I honestly believe ya can find yerself back in the championship picture. Ya just got to ask yerself…how bad do ya want it, ya know? And that starts wit fightin Steve Solex. Ya may not advance, but ya can build yer momentum and get a win against Stevey boy and continue that momentum to something bigger. Ya just got to look at all the angles, ya know?”
Of course, Phil was right as Hollywood looks up at him and smiles. Phil was truly the voice to helping unlocking Hollywood’s inner conscious and Hollywood knew it was a long road to success once again and that gave Hollywood fight. Hollywood nods his head and agrees with Phil.
Brian Hollywood: “You know Phil, you are very perspective. I know for a fan that may not be taken seriously because you haven’t been involved with the HOW grind and what goes on in the company day to day…but really, it actually is as simple as that. I just got to WANT IT….and I fucking do want it! That’s why I gave everything up to return to the deepest of roots in wrestling. It’s why I started in the first place because I absolutely love wrestling and it really did make me the man I am today. And that’s why it’s imperative I take the fight to Steve. I have to treat each match importantly, even if I’m no longer in the running to advance. At the same time…maybe luck can be on my side and maybe Redding will stumble. I just gotta keep on winning…focusing on myself first more than anything else. That’s why I am here right now…”
Hollywood points over to the left side where they are parked as he points to the building. Hollywood’s nerves return again as the camera pans over to show Hollywood just outside the Five Time Academy. It was a serious wrestling school and it was no pushover. What was also no pushover was Hollywood and Mike Best’s relationship. But that was truly the remarkable thing about Hollywood’s transformation. His relationship and history with Mike Best was well documented…but here he was…willing to put aside the differences and the bitterness in order to work WITH Mike and conceding his pride in coming to the Five Time Academy in order to better himself as a wrestler. Hollywood takes a breath as he hasn’t taken his eyes off the Academy. Phil takes notice of this, obviously.
Phil Woods: “Yer afraid to go in there….aren’t ya?”
Hollywood didn’t have to say a word. He didn’t want to acknowledge, once again, his insecurities that he wasn’t accustomed to showing. But here Hollywood was…being vulnerable at the expense of paying his pride in the next hard lesson of really returning to the basics and focusing primarily on wrestling. All these lessons were hard knock lessons and nothing Hollywood has done since giving it all up was easy…nor was he expecting it to be.
Phil Woods: “Ya know what ya have to do, Brian. Ya know what? I believe in ya! I know yer relationship with Mike is well documented…but I know yer willin to put that aside to become not only a better wrestler…but as a person. That’s why I know yer gonna walk through those there doors and do what ya need to!”
Brian Hollywood: “I know. That’s why I’m going to. HOW has always had a special place in my heart and I’m going to continue to prove that and further show just how and WHY it means that much to me! Phil…thank you…thank you for letting me really open up to you. Thank you for being a good friend and really helping me on this new journey for me. It’s not easy for me and I just want to say thank you for being there for me in helping me realize that’s it’s okay to be vulnerable and open up to someone in just how much wrestling actually means. I’m going to walk through those doors and I’m going to really prove to everyone…but mainly MYSELF first and foremost, why I want this so god damn much and why I KNOW I can be good again!”
Hollywood extends his hand out and shakes Phil’s hand. The journey to the Five Time Academy has been an interesting one and Hollywood doesn’t believe in coincidences. He knows that things are connected and he really feels like this was meant to be. Phil nods in agreement and smiles as Hollywood opens the door to the big rig truck and grabs his bags.
Phil Woods: “Ya take care of yerself, Hollywood! Good luck in there and I’ll hit ya up when I get to my next destination! This definitely isn’t goodbye, my friend! When I get back in town, we’ll definitely get together and maybe we can talk about yer successes that ya accomplish while I’m on the road, along with my journey as well! Stay safe my friend and go be the best wrestler I know ya can be again in HOW!”
Hollywood nods his head as he shakes Phil’s hand once more before he steps out of the truck. He closes the door and walks to the doors of the Five Time Academy before looking back at Phil and smiling and holds a thumbs up before holding up his hand waving goodbye to Phil as Phil looks back and smiles as well and waves in response as he pulls off and drives off before honking his horn in classic truck style! Hollywood then turns his attention to the doors of the Five Time Academy before taking a deep breath and walking inside as the scene slowly fades to black…
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This truly is my chance at a new beginning. I have come a long way since I started my journey in wrestling but I honestly believe this is where it starts…..AGAIN. Starting a new….BEGINNING! This week I get a chance to step back into the ring with Steve Solex…a man who obviously knows his wrestling. This is my chance at an early redemption but it’s also my chance to start my journey on my own redemption not in my life…but in the middle of the ring! HOW is always full of surprises and HOW has given me a new lease on wrestling life and I can honestly say I couldn’t be more excited!
Our last encounter was an interesting one, Solex. We really tore it up in the ring, but in the end, my pride got the best of me and you were the better man. I can’t brag about that loss…but what I can brag about is just how much our match is going to be….DIFFERENT…this time! I haven’t been more focused than I am now and now my priorities are absolutely more straight. I know what I have to do…and I know what is more important to me. That’s why this time around…I’ve focused more on my wrestling and put time in my training in order to really excel…how was my first week at the Five Time Academy you ask? Heh…well..it was definitely interesting…
It was nothing than I could have imagined…but the fact of the matter is I walked in those doors and was not prepared for what I thought I would expect. The Academy is no fucking joke and here I thought I was a veteran walking into a beginning for most wrestlers starting out. How wrong I was about my perspective on it. I wasn’t treated like a veteran at all…because I truly had to take myself back to the very basics of wrestling. I was asked just how much it meant to me…I was asked how fucking serious I was to be at the Academy and there was no playing around. But I took that opportunity and I grinded it out. It was hard work and it was the hardest work I ever put into something in a long time. I couldn’t even begin to describe the work that I needed to do. But I didn’t have to because I knew WHY I needed to be there, Steve! This is important to me and when we lock up in the middle of the ring on Saturday, I’m going to show you just how fucking important it is to me…mark my god damn words!
Come time for Refueled, you are going to see a different side of Hollywood that you’ve ever seen, Solex, and I can honestly say it’s going to take you by storm. I can’t begin to tell you how serious I am about this. I can’t even begin to tell you about this new beginning for me. But like everything…it all starts with the basics…and it all starts at the very beginning! This isn’t just a beginning for me, Solex, but it’s the start of something new that will only get better and more tuned as time goes on. I am willing to put in the sweat and the tears and really grind it out because that’s how much I really want to focus on this, Solex.
You really nailed me the first time and you pegged me good. There haven’t been a whole lot of men in HOW that have been able to do that. That is credit I will give you, Solex….however, this time around…you really won’t see it coming because you will only see the same man you saw in our last encounter and that will be where the surprise is, Steve…and boy do I have some surprises in store for you! I’m not counting myself out of this LBI yet and even if I do get eliminated if Redding stays on top, but I will keep building my own momentum and that is why I will only keep on focusing on winning…winning…and winning…
You wouldn’t believe the conversation I had with who I had it with at the Five Time Academy and I think everyone is going to be shocked just how much of a transformation our relationship has taken….all because I want to become a better wrestler and that is what trouble you will find yourself in this Saturday, Solex. I’m dead serious because I’m going to find that win…one way or another this Saturday, Solex, and it simply is…
THE BEGINNING!…