Re: Round 1: “Formerly High Flying” Jack Harmen vs. “The Main Attraction” Tyler Boyd
(MULTIPLE BURSTS OF STATIC. THE NFW LOGO INTERCUTS. THE NFW LOGO remains on screen, before SHATTERING like glass to reveal the ULTRATITLE trophy behind it.
FADE from the ULTRATITLE trophy to a TRAINING SCHOOL called the ODESSA DUNGEON held in a dark BASEMENT. The ring is flooded with SPOTLIGHTS to simulate a televised show. Numerous other combatants train on punching bags and bench presses that surround ringside. In the far corner, IWF star “The Tiny Attorney” Mary-Lynn Mayweather is talking to a young male about posture and pose during a promo.)
MARY-LYNN MAYWEATHER: If your character has confidence, you’ve got to show that in your stance. Broad shoulders, head held high.
(Mary-Lynn Mayweather, wearing her trademark red skirt suit, stands next to this young male. She inhales deeply, head held high. The young student can’t help but look at Mayweather’s cleavage as she does. His shoulders slump low as he stares. Mayweather notices and mimics this. She slumps her shoulders.)
MARY-LYNN MAYWEATHER: Not like that.
(She reverts to her previous confident pose.)
MARY-LYNN MAYWEATHER: You should probably use this pose in your personal life too.
(The camera pans from left to right, revealing the entire room to be quite spacious. There look to be approximately six total students, one with Mary-Lynn, two in the ring practicing collar an elbow tie ups, another on a bench press, and the final one finishing a quick boxing session with a punching bag. The amateur boxer, 18 years of age, is distracted by Tony Davis, a Rastafarian white guy with a hip hop album. Davis wanders over, carrying three red balls.)
TONY DAVIS: You never know when you’re gonna have to juggle!
(Davis begins to juggle. After a few moments, the boxing student wanders back to the punching bag and continues his routine.)
TONY DAVIS: Hey! I have wisdom! I’m wise. DUMB!... Bo.
(Davis looks from side to side.)
TONY DAVIS: Dumbo.
(The camera pans away from Davis and back toward the ring. As it does, the man formerly known as High Flyer stands from underneath the camera, revealing himself in a close up from the shoulders. His goatee has been dyed green. He can’t contain his Cheshire cat like grin.)
JACK HARMEN: WELCOME EVERYONE, TO THE ULTRATITLE.
(Harmen takes a few steps back to reveal his entire upper body. He wears an NFW shirt proudly, and saunters from side to side with an unusual swagger.)
JACK HARMEN: 128 men vie for the richest prize in this sport.
(JACK HARMEN stands tall. He stares directly into the camera.)
JACK HARMEN: Legends of the past are returning to this circus with less than a one percent chance at being called the Ultratitle victor. Legends of the future look to etch their names in the record books and annuals of professional wrestling in order to craft history. And stars of the present aim to define themselves as the Muhammad Ali of our generation.
(HARMEN smiles.)
JACK HARMEN: I am none of those. And yet I am all of those at once.
(HARMEN shrugs.)
JACK HARMEN: I set up this school a decade ago, so I bet you’d consider me a has been, a returning legend looking to reclaim past glory. Yet just last year I took Rook Black’s NFW National Championship. He held that belt for three years and I took it away from him. And I’m certainly no legend of the future. I’ve established myself as a dominant and entertaining individual that’s captivated audiences across all continents for almost two decades. YES! I’ve wrestled in the main event at Madison Square Garden. YES! I’ve been busted up in the middle of the Tokyo Dome. I’ve wrestled in every continent. YES! I’VE EVEN WRESTLED A HOLOGRAPHIC POLAR BEAR IN ANTARTICA AND SOLD THAT HUT OUT.
(HARMEN smiles. He takes a step back and pauses. He shakes his head from side to side. The boxing student walks behind Harmen over to Mary-Lynn’s station, wiping sweat from his forehead.)
JACK HARMEN: But I am no legend of the present. People have called me a shell of my former self. Said that I lacked the drive, the desire, the motivation to truly be the greatest our sport has to offer.
(JACK HARMEN sighs, lowering his head in shame. Move to a CLOSE UP on Jack Harmen, a tinkle of regret in his iris as his eyes widen.)
JACK HARMEN: And they’d be right.
(HARMEN begins to pace, running his hands through his short crew cut.)
JACK HARMEN: I’ve forgone being the best this industry has to offer. Been there, done that, right? I made my legacy. I’ve won my championships. I’ve made my money. Shiny.
(HARMEN stops and smiles at one of his favorite phrases.)
JACK HARMEN: But the Ultratitle… I… I never thought I’d have the chance.
(HARMEN pauses for a long time, before his smile grows to a beaming grin.)
JACK HARMEN: Now, I do. And I’m going to make the most of it. No longer am I in this sport just to have fun. No longer do I just want to kick a few people’s heads off and don’t really care whether I win or lose. I spent the last three years making professional wrestling into my personal playground. I GAVE the NFW National title back to Rook Black because I didn’t WANT it.
(XCU on HARMEN’s eyes. He stares head, unblinking.)
JACK HARMEN: I WANT the Ultratitle.
(Back to the Medium close up, as Harmen restarts pacing.)
JACK HARMEN: And when I want something, I set out, and I TAKE it. I wanted the IWO World Championship for a year, so I challenged the new poster child and SHOCKED the world. I wanted the FWO Cruiserweight title. I paid my dues, I played some strings of some weak people and I WALKED OUT WITH THAT BELT THREE TIMES. I wanted the FWO World Championship, and I manipulated and deconstructed the ENTIRE main event, I gave up the LOVE of my life, and STILL had to beat THIRTY NINE OTHER PEOPLE to EARN my shot. And THAT? That is exactly the reason why I will demolish the man known as the Main Attraction.
(HARMEN shrugs.)
JACK HARMEN: See Tyler, I see a lot of myself in you. I see the relationship you have with your wife Natalia to be almost a MIRROR image of my relationship with my ex-wife. The difference between us? Your career fizzled out and you got distracted by having a loving wife. I CHOSE this sport over my wife and GAVE up my FAMILY to be a professional wrestler. I sacrificed EVERYTHING to get where I am today.
(XCU on Harmen’s ever growing smile.)
JACK HARMEN: I wouldn’t have it any other way.
(Back to the medium shot. In the background, a few young green workers begin to chain wrestle in the center of the ring. Harmen tries to soften the blow by lowering his shoulders and raising his eyebrows.)
JACK HARMEN: You got the consolation prize Tyler. You took the NORMAL route. Wife, kids, 9 to 5. It’s what a lot of WEAK people do. Me? I swerved from the beaten path and made myself a LEGEND, a man worthy of having a tattoo on his arm that says “Greatest Cruiserweight.” A man who has wrestled in just about every wrestling promotion that EVER mattered. A luchadoric SHAMON who passes on his wisdom to those willing to shed blood, sweat and tears as much as I did to make it where I am today. Jack Harmen faces off against Tyler Boyd in the first round of the Ultratitle tournament?
(Harmen laughs.)
JACK HARMEN: A man who has spent the last three years filing TPS reports for Dunder Mifflin returns to compete with a LUNATIC. The Main Attraction, whose only reign as World Champion lasted weeks battling a man who held the FWO World Championship for A THOUSAND DAYS! A never was or will be versus a legend of the past, present, AND future?
(EXTREMECLOSEUP (XCU) on JACK HARMEN’s mouth and snarling nose.)
JACK HARMEN: Tyler Boyd thinks he has a CHANCE?!
(MEDIUM CLOSE UP: Harmen scoffs.)
JACK HARMEN: Well here’s a lottery ticket. You'd have BETTER odds.
(FADE OUT as Harmen snarls, tearing up a lottery ticket in front of the camera.)
