- Event: Refueled XXVI
“The time inches closer and closer to War Games…and I feel like I’m nowhere closer to where I was at when I beat Stevens just to qualify for the PPV. My qualifier match wasn’t to qualify for the actual main event, it was merely just to qualify for the PPV itself. Now I know what you’re going to say…don’t even dare begin to bitch for being able to qualify for the PPV Hollywood! Just being on the War Games card, with how stacked and hot that PPV is, should be an achievement in of itself! Now don’t get me wrong, I agree with that statement one hundred percent…that’s not where I’m going with this whole thing. I’m more than honored to be apart of this great PPV. I’m more disappointed in myself with how I feel the meter has barely moved since I beat Stevens. I had lost a match against Zeb Martin, another HOW rookie which didn’t help matters for me, then I had an opportunity in the lethal lottery and it didn’t matter what match I could have had…it would have been an opportunity at something…and then NOTHING! I mean there was even some additions to some matches and STILL Hollywood didn’t get chosen for a single damn thing! Sure, the next week I notched a win against another rookie…yes, believe it or not, I actually won the fucking match! Miracles happen in this company every week, amazing isn’t it? But what has actually transpired since I beat Stevens? This week, I’m in another opener against, yes you guessed it…another HOW rookie. Only this rookie seems to have some particular HATE ingrained in his step. I’ll address that here in a minute.”
“But that’s what I’m getting at…it doesn’t feel like the meter is going forward…even in the least bit. It’s been a growing frustration because all I’ve been doing week in and week out is make myself better not for just myself, but for this company. So I started thinking to myself…what am I going to have to do in order to change my destiny moving forward again? I have pondered that very question all fucking week and the more I think about it, the more it angers me. My fortunes the last several months hasn’t improved. I looked beyond the things I had been doing in life and adapted in a way I felt would be therapeutic and would help me become a better wrestler. I was serious when I said it and I backed up those claims week in and week out. I never folded, I only pushed onward. So again, here I am asking what is it I need to do in order to get myself forward further. So you can bet your ass I’ll be doing more this week than wrestling a simple opening match. It’s going to be more than a basic opener. We’re only a few short weeks away from War Games and you can bet the card is going to start to take more shape over these next couple weeks. The window of opportunity, dare I say it again, is starting to close and I’m going to have to step it up another gear if I want some results to fly in my favor. That starts with my opponent this week. I said he was another HATEr and that man is none other than Hughie Freeman.”
“What more is there to say about a HATEr than Hughie Freeman? I mean, I think I had a harder time understanding what the man was talking about rather than point out just how out of date he is with Brian Hollywood. I mean this guy was talking all serious about how he wanted to teach me a lesson and that I needed to get out of my mansion. Dude, the mansion was yesterday’s news…I mean, are you already so out of depth with who I am? You went on and on about how you think you know me so much, but yet you know so fucking little, Hughie. But I’ll leave you to make that one mistake that everyone has been making with me as of late, and one that all rookies seem to make every time. You really should hear yourself, Hughie. You sound like a god damn broken record. I mean, I guess after all this time, it feels like I’m listening to myself on replay and I don’t like how I sound. I guess I now know how frustrated everyone was with listening to me. I can kinda see how it sounds, from that point of view. But I digress, even I will own up to the beat of a broken record. If anyone understands it from a point of view more than anyone, it’s me. I may not be used to these kind of pep talks with myself, but they are oddly therapeutic in a sort of way. Shoot me now before I start sounding dumber…”
“So here we are…a few weeks away from War Games and Hughie and I are set to do battle. What oh what are we in store for? From one billing perspective, a whole lot of HATE…but then again, from another one’s perspective, another lesson in humility. The difference here is I’M that humility, Hughie, and it’s going to hit you in the face like a fuck ton of bricks. It seems nowadays and lately, I’ve found a particularly fond interest in providing humility to people. But here’s why that’s ok in my regard…it’s because I’ve taken those few steps back and put in the work to make it that way. It wasn’t something that was just granted to me, it was something that I EARNED the right to do. You may not see it from my point of view, Hughie, but that’s something that makes me feel pretty fucking great when I go to sleep at night. Sure, where I’ve laid my head sure doesn’t feel nice at night, but the way I feel, does…and it’s what helps me wake up in the morning and get out of that particularly uncomfortable bed. That’s why this week on Refueled I’m going to give you a few welcoming tips to HOW and why you should ALWAYS be keeping your eye on what I’m doing…because I’m the most unpredictable motherfucker in that regard, Hughie, and that will never fucking change no matter how much I may have around myself.”
“So this week, I’m going to bring the pain, but more importantly, I’m going to bring the lessons in adapting and always keeping your eye on the prize. Never take your eyes off of your opponent…not once because once you do that, you lose the ability to see what they have up their sleeves and I promise you Hughie, while you turned away, I slipped something special up my sleeve. This week on Refueled, I’m going to slip that out of my sleeve and will dish that straight onto you so hard, it will become a basic instinct on just making that a constant permanent lesson! We are all the masters of our game in some way, and this week you will find what makes me the master of my own game, Hughie! You will find out that Brian Hollywood is everything he says he is and it’s something you surely will find that you will HATE more than anything else! I love nothing more than to dish out that reality check each and every week to every one I face because it’s the simple truth that keeps us honest and forward with HOW.”
“Nothing is more important than honesty and we all must stay honest with ourselves and to our opponents. The truth with you, Hughie, is you’ve already let the lies and the untruth dominate your world here in HOW and you haven’t even stepped into the ring yet! Truth is if you even took a little time out of your apparent busy schedule in how I operate nowadays, you would find that I’m nothing like the man I used to be here in HOW. You did get one thing right, though. You figured out that I am a former HOW World Champion. That was the easiest thing to figure out. However, like all of us, we ALL must find that way to adapt and I feel like that is the simplest thing you’ve missed with me and yet, it’s the most important and complicating quality that defines us all as wrestlers. How fucking dare you ignore that fact and how dare you allow yourself to be so ignorant about it. I will wipe that ignorance from you and I will do so with such basic instinct, it won’t even be fucking funny.”
“I will give you one thing though, Hughie…you’re fixing to give yourself quite the debut and I know that you truly believe that one hundred percent. Problem is you’re blinded by everything else around you and that will be the error that I will expose the fuck out of you when we lock up this Saturday night. You see, while you look to have an impressive debut, I look to find a way onto that War Games card than just a mere opening act…and if I am doomed to stay an opening act for War Games, than it’s going to be an opening match that I dictate and it’s going to be one that’s going to keep people talking about. While I recognize an opener can be an easy complacency, I also recognize that it’s an opener that generates buzz and keeps people talking about it that is the true magic. You don’t have to be in the main event to do that. There is magic all around a card on a show and it’s how and what you do with that magic to make it worth something on a card, no matter where the place on it. I look forward to the opportunity in using my magic in making the best on my place on the card and I’m going to keep dealing with the hands that I’m dealt with the best of interests that I can and believe it or not, I’ve actually got a great manager that has helped me realize that. For better or worse, Alan Ventura has taught me a few things that I never thought I could learn at my stage in my career.”
“So this Saturday, it will be to find that magic and how to use it in our opening match, Hughie. There won’t be enough hate that you can bring in our match that can stop me from achieving victory because I will always believe that if I keep believing in myself, I can find that way to victory and I will do so this Saturday because in the end, Hughie…it will continue to just be….”
“A basic instinct.”
===================
Brian Hollywood: “So tell me again, how do you know it will work?”
Alan Ventura: “I already did fuckface, and if I tell you so in any other form again, I’ll become brain dead for the rest of my miserable fucking life!”
It was another day in the office, or gym so to speak, at the Five Time Academy as Hollywood was training harder and harder for his upcoming match against Hughie Freeman for Refueled. It was starting to become a basic ritual that Hollywood was taking the rite of passage to be facing off against HOW rookie after rookie, and it was something Hollywood was sadly becoming used to. Still, that didn’t stop Hollywood from particularly being a little frustrated and a bit fearful after two of his three fights against HOW rookies.
Brian Hollywood: “It’s just…I feel the pressures of facing rookies week in and week out as something that I’m actually scared of.”
Alan Ventura: “What, so are we all of a sudden afraid of the big bad, little wolfie?!”
Brian Hollywood: “NO! You obviously aren’t getting what I’m saying jackass!”
Alan Ventura: “After being stuck with your miserable ass for so long, believe me, I obviously know exactly what you’re talking about! Look…you facing rookies isn’t such a bad thing! I know you’re dying to get your rockers off to getting out of this rookie ruck, but if you can’t get over the fear of facing rookies, than how else the fuck are you going to take that next step? Hell, how the fuck do you plan on being a HOW World Champion again queerbait? You have to get out of that phase if you want to be a worthy champion again and I think deep down…you know exactly that to be the truth!”
Of course Hollywood knew Alan was right. It was just that Hollywood was so distracted by the fact that War Games was getting closer, and here he was STILL facing rookies in the opener. Hollywood knew, though, that Alan was right. Even though the two had a fond disdain for each other, Alan genuinely cared for Hollywood’s success…otherwise he wouldn’t have been wasting his time with him. Hollywood nods his head as he realizes Alan is right, as always.
Brian Hollywood: “It’s always hard for me to accept that you’re right. However, I know that you mean well. I know that facing these rookies is an opportunity to get better and better. Hell, I’m aware that some of these rookies will even make names for themselves and I know that it is a particularly great feeling in being able to beat them for the very first time in their very first match knowing that some of them will become champions. It is really telling about a man knowing how he can read another man…even if it’s their first outing in HOW. That’s why I will use this opportunity in making these repeated opportunities to keep getting better and better. The fear is still there…but I know I have to get over that…and I WILL! You have my word on that!”
Alan Ventura: “Good…because you’re word don’t mean shit on that fucker! You have to mean that for yourself and if you can truly mean that for yourself, than I do believe it’s a start and a start in the right direction! Now…let’s get pounding because that match is approaching fast and you best be ready for your match against Hughie Freeman!”
And with that, Hollywood nods his head as he and Alan lock up in the middle of the ring as Hollywood’s determination and endurance goes up as the scene slowly fades to black…