Fall.

[Hex Angel]

"So you're here to spill some old blood, huh? What do you consider old? Years that someone's lived, or years that someone's wrestled for the CSWA?"

FADEIN: Eli Flair, in front of a CSWA banner.

"You've really taken Merritt's throwaway phrase of the New Blood up in arms, Autumn... it's commendable. For a catchphrase that I doubt Merritt's thought about for more than ten seconds since he committed it to paper, you've really rallied around it."

"But what does it mean? Hell, you're up in New Orleans against a man who made his CSWA debut in January of 1995. Am I old blood for being here just under ten years? Am I new blood for having a career just slightly larger than half that of Hornet? Or the Windhams? What's your definition, Autumn? Does Steel Viper count as Old Blood because he's been around for a decade, or doesn't he because he never held the World Title?"

"It doesn't much matter, I guess. I'm not what you're looking for. I'm not your quick route to the top of the CSWA."

"That... is what you're doing, right? Targeting all the oldheads to accelerate your rise to the top of the CSWA, right? Why wrestle Suicide, or Donaven Winters, or Nathan Cross for that matter, when you could wrestle Hornet or Eli Flair or Mike Randalls and make your name that much quicker?"

"So, let's just cut all the games and get to it. You want to make your name at the expense of mine. I don't have a name for you to exploit. Six months with the World Title half a decade ago isn't much to base a name on, I'm sorry I can't be more of a shortcut for you."

"But at least I don't give a damn about the whole old vs. new debate. You're just a wrestler, Suicide... and in New Orleans, that makes you just an opponent."

"Which means I've got to hurt you."

"Sorry."

FADEOUT

 

[Darrel]

Cleansing

FADEIN on Autumn sitting in a chair against a black background, with a cocky smirk on his face.

"Pssst... Eli. I'll let you in on a little secret."

(Autumn leans in and motions for the camera to pull in closer.)

"I'm not that much younger than you."

(Autumn leans back and laughs.)

"I guess it's a bit ironic. New Blood fights Old Blood and they're all the same age. Bit of a misnomer, wouldn't you think? But the name doesn't matter. It's only there 'cause it's convenient, a nice little label that may or may not be accurate."

"You talk of purpose, Eli... and you've got mine all wrong. I'm not selfish; I work purely for charitable reasons. This is all for the fans, shock of all shocks."

"You got something right, though. You're nothing, you're worthless, you're washed up. The only thing a victory will net me is the assurance that I've done something worthwhile - I've taken care of someone about whom the fans long gave up caring."

"See, <i>that's</i> my purpose. I guess you could call us 'New Blood' a cleaning crew of sorts. We come in and take out the stale has-beens, the guys who no longer draw."

"Wait, I take that back. You <i>can</i> draw. You can draw flies, because you're a piece of sh*t."

(Autumn laughs.)

"Funny that you called me Suicide. Perhaps you've taken one too many chairshots, and your brains are scrambled. Or maybe at the old age of 32 you've grown senile."

"Whatever it is, maybe that moniker fits me as well. I acknowledge that it maybe I have a deathwish charging into the promotion at full speed, vowing to cleanse everything that's molded over and no longer serves any purpose."

"But I've got a feeling that I'm not going to be the one dying in New Orleans."

"Autum approaches."

FADEOUT

 

[Hex Angel]

"So your purpose, Autumn, is to clear out the stale and trite topcard of the CSWA and make the world safe for people who truly deserve the honor? People, ironically enough, like yourself?"

FADEIN: Eli Flair, surrounded by boxes in his Hollywood apartment, sitting in a comfortable looking chair with a bottle of water in his hands.

"It's not irony, Autumn, that we're all the same age. It's not anything at all. The point of it is that some of us have been here for a number of years and some of us haven't... and for some reason that's reason to fight."

"Makes y'head spin. Maybe not."

Drink of water.

"The problem with your plan is your plan itself. Do you really think you've got a hope in hell of succeeding? I'm gonna take you back a ways and tell you about another group of men who decided that there were a bunch'a old men - age notwithstanding, I'll grant y'that one - who had strangled the CSWA for too long and needed to be removed. They called themselves the Forsaken, and the Future was full of it."

"Yeah. That's it. The Future is Forsaken. Four of the most promising, talented individuals I'd ever seen at the time. Wicked Sight, Kendall Codine, Mason Xavier, and Zero. Yes, that Zero. And where are they now? Are any of them still in the business?"

"I'd share the tale of the Elimination Squad, but it's too laughable to get through."

"Or what about the GXW invasion? The only one left is Dan Ryan, who came in with the attitude of 'I want to wrestle as well as I can.' And he did."

"Why? Why did those groups fail? Was it because they had no talent? Certainly not. Was it because they had no drive? Certainly not. They just didn't understand."

"The people in the CSWA who have been on top for so long have been so, not because of any kind of political stranglehold or deal with republicans... is it that hard to believe that wrestlers such as Hornet, the Windhams, Joey Melton, Randalls, and so forth... are just that f'kin good? Is it so hard for the restof the business to think that maybe, just maybe... the reason they're all still wrestling is the fact that they've got talent that can't be stopped? Hornet has wrestled for sixteen years because the nature of his style doesn't lend itself to career ending injuries - he's a mat wrestler. Mike Randalls... his story isn't mine to tell, why he's just as good, if not better than he used to be. Me, I'm just lucky that I haven't gotten hit with a career ending injury. Although I could be technically honest and say that I've been hit with a few and am just too damn stubborn to give it up."

"Whatever the case may be, it doesn't matter in the slightest to me if the fans give a crap or not. I made a deal with Merritt a long time ago that he'd never put me on the shelf due to injury and I'd never hold him liable for any such injury. Therefore, I wrestle because I want to."

"Drawing power? That's your big finish? Define 'drawing power' in your opinion. From my understanding, I haven't had any drawing power in half a decade because I haven't held the World Title. That honor's gone to Deacon, to Radder, to Aho, to Windham, to Ryan. Or are you defining drawing power as the ability to make a fan give a sh*t about you and your battles? I s'pose then, that the battles I fought with both Troy and Mark Windham didn't 'count.'"

"Of course they didn't count. It's been fashionable for more years than I've been considered an old man to say I've got no ability."

"But let me give you some real words of wisdom, Fall... it ain't no big thing to beat Eli Flair. Some guy named Platoon has done it. The Total Eclipse has done it. Just about anyone in the CSWA that I've wrestled more than once has done it. Some people have taken it as a springboard to bigger and better things, some have done f**k-all with it. What you do is up to you."

"You could be the next Dan Ryan in the CSWA, Autumn... or the next "Hot" Scott. And neither a victory nor a defeat in this match will make or break you."

"But if y'keep up this New Blood - Old Blood crap, y'might as well hook up with Donaven Winters, Summer Sands, and Suicide Spring and call y'selves the Four Seasons... because y'ain't gonna survive on anything but'cha skills. So let'm shine... because you ain't got the staying power to kill me off."

FADE