Only the Beginning
FADE IN...
Pinehurst Country Club in North Carolina, the fame #2 Course where Payne Stewart beat Phil Mickelson with a par putt on the 18th in 1999 to win the U.S. Open, just months before Stewart's tragic death in a plane crash. Today, Pinehurst #2 hosts Troy Douglas' 2nd Annual Celebrity Golf Tournament for charity. Most of the play for the day has finished, and Troy now stands alone on the undulating surface of the 18th green, wearing a grey, short-sleeve golf shirt and a pair of khaki shorts. He pushes some loose hair out of his eyes and stares directly at the camera, ready to speak.
DOUGLAS:
You know, kids, life has a funny way of balancing out the highs and the lows.
Just about five years ago, right here on this very green, a man experienced one of the greatest highs any professional athlete can ever get. A few months later, that man's chartered jet was lost over the Midwest, and one of the finest men in professional sports was lost. He didn't deserve to die, but it happened nonetheless.
Now, I'm not dead yet, but my life has been full of fate's little balancing acts from the start. I won't get into the details, but let's just say that for all I've gained in this world; fame, fortune, and the like, I've lost just as much, and maybe even more. My mother, my father, and my fiancee are all gone. My professional football career, gone because of a fluke injury on sub-standard turf. My wrestling career, nearly down the tubes because of some of the matches I've put myself through. Tables, ladders, chairs, barbed wire, thumbtacks, various flaming apparatus, plus some of the most dangerous opponents in the world have all taken their toll.
Hell, I couldn't even a simple challenge answered by a single man in the GWE locker room. But, as I've said, life's got a funny way.
No, I didn't ask for a title match with Boogie Smallz. I didn't even ask for a NON-title match with our new Unified World Champion. Originally, I wanted one man, Christian Sands, the "leader" of the New Team Phenom, to answer the call. He didn't step up, and apparently management thought highly enough of me to grant me the first crack at Boogie Smallz.
No, I didn't ask for it. But, I'll take it. And, if I have my way at the end of the night, I leave the John Miller Tribute Show with more than just a title shot under my belt.
Congrats, Boogie, on your title win. You and Miller went through hell, literally, at Battleground Britain. You earned the right to be the first man to carry the torch as the World Champion of Global Wrestling Evolution.
You worked for a long time to get to the summit, Smallz. You shed the tag team label to become a Triple Crown champ here in GWE. But don't think for a god damned minute that your work is over. I've worked just as hard as you, Boogie, to get to this point in my career. I've bled and sweated in the crackerbox junior high gymnasiums, bingo halls, and armories to pay my dues just like everyone has had to. I've gone up against a laundry list of stars: Gemini, Dan Ryan, Rob Sampson, Kevin Powers, and others, and I haven't crumbled underneath the pressure yet.
And Smallz, I don't plan on starting to crack anytime soon.
When we get into that ring at X-perience, it doesn't matter to me that you're the FIRST BLACK WORLD CHAMPION in GWE/GXW history. It doesn't matter that you've had a long and storied career, some of which I happened to follow while you were a tag team wrestler back in the CSWA. It won't matter how much pot you've smoked, or how much medication I've had to take to numb the pain in my back that I've had for six long years.
It'll just be two men, two great competitors, doing battle for the one prize in this business that matters to both of us more than anything else.
That GWE Unified World Title that just happens to be strapped around your waist at this time. That's the brass ring I'm reachingfor, Boogie, and after this match, it won't be on the pole next to the carousel anymore. It'll be in my hands, or more appropriately, over my shoulder or around my waist.
I won't make any cheap sh*t talk about being destined to be World Champion, or about it being "my time to shine". That wasn't, isn't, and will never be my way of conducting business. No, all I can tell you is, come the John Miller Tribute Show, you better be ready for an experience just like the one you and the Steel City Icon went through back at Millennium Stadium.
It won't be in a Hell in a Cell match, but rest assured, it'll be hell nonetheless. Everything I've gone through, all the loss, all the pain, and the suffering, it all culminates in one moment. At X-perience, I'll throw a monkey wrench into the cogs of the universe, and balance out my life for myself.
Destiny? F*ck it. The next GWE Unified World Heavyweight Champion? Hey, there's nobody else in this frame, so I guess you're looking at him.
Best of luck, Boogie. Bring your A-Game. But leave your lackeys at home. We do this the right way, especially with Miller in the building. You owe him that much for graciously passing the torch. I owe it to him for being a mentor, both by example before we met, and by the many ways he's given me a hand since I signed in 2002. This one's for you, John.
That's my part, I'll see ya at the end of the road, this time, with the Unified World Title in my grasp.
Only a matter of time...
...FADE TO BLACK