==========
Miami,
Florida
February
11th, 2019
Off
Camera
==========
Glory
Braddock is no stranger to making an instant impact. In her debut as a
professional wrestler back in 2008 she competed in and won a tournament for a
championship belt. Much later in her career, in her debut with a
wrestling organization known as MWA, The British Bombshell won the World
Championship. Needless to say, it should come as to no surprise that
Braddock would make an impact in her SCW debut against Alistaire Allocco. While she humbled him in her debut, forcing
him to run away, he did manage to get some payback by defeating her at Making
Things Right.
Still,
Braddock has made quite a few waves in her short SCW tenure. In fact,
she’s only been with the company as a full time wrestler for just barely two
months and now she is preparing herself for The Trios Tournament, a tournament
in which she could leave with a contract allowing her the ability to make any
match she wants.
The
Trios Contract is the ultimate goal but an extra perk is the fact that Braddock
will face Alistaire Allocco in the first round. Specifically, her team
faces Allocco, James Evans, and Casterillo, but the mere fact that Allocco is
on the opposing side makes Braddock day. She is itching for a chance to
avenge what happened to her at Making Things Right by eliminating Allocco from
the tournament.
Everything
is in place for Braddock to pull off what would be quite a huge achievement for
her rookie year in SCW. She has talented wrestlers backing her up in the
form of Regan Street (or Helms if you prefer her married name) and Kellen
Jeffries. Their team will also have the homefield advantage as both Regan
and Glory have connections with Miami, the city that will play host to this
year’s Trios Tournament.
Currently
The British Bombshell is utilizing that ‘homefield advantage’ for other
purposes; namely to catch up with her father, the grizzled veteran, a man who
once was mistaken for Sasquatch, the man known as Glenn Braddock.
The
British Bombshell knows better than to take any advantage for granted and she
definitely knows better than to underestimate an opponent. She has thus
flown her father in to help her train for this tournament. Still, they have all week to train; Glory
wants to spend quality time with her first. She doesn’t get much time for
that considering Glenn is still running the Braddock Wrestling School in
London, England and Glory now resides in Miami, Florida. Thus, before any training will commence, she
has brought her father down to a beach so they can just relax and bond.
Glenn
Braddock, though, is no fan of bonding.
Father
and daughter are walking side by side down the beach of Miami. Glory is
wearing a pink two piece bikini and sandals.
Her long blonde hair hangs unrestrained to shoulder length and she has
sunglasses shielding her eyes. Her father is dressed in a pair of navy
blue swimming shorts and a plain white t-shirt and flip flops. He has no such sunglasses to shield his eyes,
thus he is squinting due to the sun’s rays, and perhaps that, too adds to his
already agitated mood.
But
then again, when isn’t Glenn Braddock agitated?
The
sand is softly golden with just the right comforting warmth. To rest on the
beach feels like a cosy hug, one only matched by the sunshine filled sky.
While this appeals to Glory, her father wants to vomit at the thought. As
they walk down the beach, tourists of all sorts enjoying the sand and the
waves, the only marker of time today is the sun above, the moments savoured by
the waves that wash the sands in white lace.
“So
this is Miami?”
Glenn says with a hint of disappointment. “I’ve seen better.”
“How
can you say that, dad?” Glory asks with a wink. “Especially considering
you’ve barely been to any beaches at all!”
“I’m
old and I’ve put my time in. I can say what the hell I want.” The grizzled veteran
growls.
With
every step the sand shifted. With every motion forward there was some backward
and down, just like walking in fresh fallen snow. Yet unlike the crystalline
blanket of white bequeathed by the winter time, the fine grains under foot give
the female warmth from the sun’s rays. And despite the rough and tough
front he puts on, even Glenn has to admit that he somewhat enjoys the
atmosphere.
Like
their sky-bound benefactor the sand is a faded yellow, as if the sunshine
itself is trapped inside these unmelting crystals of silicone and oxygen.
Despite the heat both Braddocks find themselves frozen in place once their eyes
take in the ocean. The waves roll in white tipped, spreading themselves like
fine lace over the beach after they crash in their soft way. There is nothing
noisy about them, yet they have sound. Glory takes in a deep breath and
lets it out, smiling pleasantly.
“Sounds
beautiful, doesn’t it, dad? Musical, in a way.”
“Sounds
like water.”
Glenn says plainly. His daughter sticks her tongue out at him but he
ignores this.
“Well
we’re going to sit down right here and take in the sun, the waves, the sand,
all of it. And we’re going to enjoy it and enjoy the time together.”
“We
could enjoy our time together training for that damned tournament you’re in. Triple
Threat Tournament or Triangle or…”
“Trios,
dad.”
Glory corrects her father. “The Trios Tournament. And we have plenty
of time for that. Right now I just want to be with you. Ok?”
“Fine,” he grumbles “but
if you lose because you didn’t prepare enough don’t blame me!”
“Fair
enough.”
Braddock
lays out her beach towel, as does Glenn. The aged wrestling veteran is
grumbling the whole time and Glory does hear it, she can’t help it, but she
ignores it. She is used to her father’s complaints. It’s just one of his many quirks. She lies down on the towel and smiles
pleasantly, making sure her sunglasses are propped up nicely on her head,
shielding her eyes from the sun. Glenn does the same next to her but he
doesn’t look nearly as comfortable as his daughter.
The
waves are neither the gentle kind that roll up the beach like a overflowing
bath tub, nor the crashing kind that turn murky with golden swirling crystals.
They move with force but die within a few feet. From them comes the salty smell,
that fragrance that conjures fishing fleets and nets of sun-bleached blue cord
hanging out to dry.
With
browning legs curled underneath, dusted with sand like flour on bread, she sits
close to the lapping waves. They feel warm and cool, like tea that's been
forgotten and returned to. Her fingers wriggle in the water, in these lips of
the ocean as she sings. Braddock’s enjoyment is yet again interrupted by
her father’s gripes.
“So
now what?!”
He snaps.
“Just
enjoy the sun! The ocean’s waves!
Enjoy it all!” She motions to a few younger adults and kids
playing. “Look at them having fun! Can’t you have fun?”
“No.”
“Clearly.” Glory remarks.
“Glory,
I thought you brought me down here to help you get ready for that damn
tournament.” Glenn
snaps back at her. “Not for this nonsense.”
“Spending
time with your daughter is nonsense?”
“Maybe
nonsense was a harsh word,” he begins “but we are wasting time with this
crap.”
Glory
looks over at her father who is just staring blankly up into the sky. She
can feel the emotion welling up inside.
She is beginning to wonder if he is right, if this really is just a
waste of time? She wanted Glenn here in Miami with her to prepare for the
Trios Tournament, yes, but she also wants him here so the two of them can spend
quality time together.
She
knows of her status as Glenn Braddock’s star pupil. She recognizes that
she is the best wrestler to come out of the Glenn Braddock Wrestling School.
And while she is grateful for the talents and abilities Glenn shared with
her and gifted her with, she wishes that he didn’t just view her as the heir
apparent to his wrestling legacy. Yet that’s the only way he’s seen her;
in Glory’s mind, he has only seen her as a great wrestler, as the woman who
will carry on his wrestling legacy and complete the work he started, accomplish
the things he failed to do due to his career ending injury.
Glory
has no problem being that person. She has no problem carrying on his
mantle and fighting for the family name. But she also wants him to treat
her like his daughter, like daddy’s little girl, and yet all of her life he has
refused to do that. Glory wants a normal life with normal parents who
treats her like a normal daughter. This
was supposed to be one chance, one opportunity for Glenn to finally give her
that. And yet he still seems to fail to comprehend…
“Wasting
time? Crap?”
She sits up and lowers her sunglasses. “Dad, I did this not just for my sake
but for the both of us, for the sake of our relationship.”
“What
the bloody hell do you mean by that?!” He exclaims. “I thought our
relationship was pretty fucking solid.”
“Sure,
it is solid, if you ignore the fact that I moved to Miami to get away from
you.”
Braddock
can tell by the look on her father’s face that he was stunned by this
unexpected revelation. Quickly she nods her head and continues.
“That’s
right. I moved to get away from you.”
“I
thought you moved to be closer to that bat shit crazy Noel woman.”
“Dad,
I spent all of my life being groomed to become the second coming of Glenn
Braddock. It wasn’t hard to figure out.
You were one hell of a wrestler, the best ever; but you were obsessed
with it and drove mom away.”
“I
had to raise you by myself,” he growls “and I think I did a
pretty damn fine job. Look at you!
You have everything you could ever want! You’re a multi-time world
champion! People called me Britain’s
Best but you? They call you The Best in the World. You surpassed me!”
He
sneers. “You’re welcome for that.”
“That’s
just my point!” Glory
exclaims. “You WERE Britain’s Best wrestler until you were forced into
retirement by a career ending back injury. You decided to groom me into
your heir and you put your entire efforts into that. You never stopped to think about what I
wanted. Maybe I didn’t want to follow in your footsteps? Or maybe I did but I wanted to do it my own
way?”
She
shakes her head. “No, you made me the female version of you. Your
mini-me, your clone. And I felt immense
pressure to live up to your lofty standards because I wanted to make you
happy.”
Glory
reaches up and wipes a tear from her that started to form and run down her
cheek. “But the worst part was the fact that my entire life was
devoted to wrestling. Eat, sleep, breath wrestling. I didn’t get to do what other girls did with
their fathers. Hell, I barely know you now.”
The
British Bombshell lies back down on her beach towel and shakes her head with
disappointment.
“That’s
what this was about, dad. It was a chance for you and I to bond as father
and daughter and forget about us being teacher and student if only for one day.
But like you said, this is just a waste of time, right?”
The
tears are now flowing freely down Glory’s cheek as she lets the emotions flow
freely. She can only imagine the scene she just caused by yelling at her
father but she doesn’t really care right now. It did feel good to get
that off of her chest as she has been holding that in for most of her adult
life. But still, she wishes she could
have gotten through to her father.
You
can’t teach old dogs new tricks, Glory thinks silently to herself.
There
is a little more pause as Glory waits for her father to respond. She
knows her father and she knows he won’t take that kind of talk lying down, so
she expects a lot of vitriol coming her way. When nothing comes she gets
concerned as she sits up.
“Well?
What do you have to say?” Still she hears nothing. “Dad?”
Glory
looks over and notices her father convulsing. She lets out a scream. “Dad!”
==========
Miami,
Florida
February
11th, 2019
Later
That Day
Off
Camera
==========
Today
was supposed to be a day for Glory Braddock to form a stronger bond with her
father, Glenn Braddock. They were always close but not in the traditional
way. They were as close as a trainer can
be to his fighter but that was as close as it got. Glory loved her father
but never felt that he loved her the same way she loved him. The plan was to spend some time with him in a
non-wrestling environment so they could bond and heal a relationship that Glory
felt was not just fractured, but never formed to begin with.
Her
plan didn’t go well at all. It started out with Glenn Braddock
complaining from the moment he set foot in Miami. Eventually Glory
herself got fed up and argued back, causing an obvious scene on the beach.
Then, just when it appeared as if things couldn’t get any worse, Glory
noticed her beloved father lying on the beach and convulsing madly.
Uncontrollably.
It
was frightening, truly frightening, to see her father like that and in that
state. Glenn had always been like a superhero to her. Unstoppable.
Unshakeable. Nothing to bring the
great Glenn Braddock down to his knees.
Seeing
him now, lying on a hospital bed in a nearby medical center, alert and
communicating but still with IVs attached and other machines checking his vital
signs constantly, it is a sharp reminder to The British Bombshell that everyone
is mortal, including her father.
Braddock
stands by his bedside wearing a knee length pink skirt, silver high heeled
strappy sandals, and a white silk blouse. Standing on the other side of
the bed is the doctor who has been taking care of him this entire time.
“Is
he going to be ok, doc?” Glory asks nervously.
“Of
course I’m gonna be ok!” Glenn growls but nowhere near the booming voice he
usually has.
“Easy
there, Mr. Braddock,”
the doctor says with a friendly smile “you’ve been through a great deal with
this seizure, even if it was just a minor one.”
“Seizure?!” Glory exclaims.
“Yes,
lucky for him it was a minor one. Tell me, does he have any history of
seizures?”
“No,
never. This would be his first. What do you suppose caused it?”
“Hard
to say. Strobe lights and other flashing lights have been known to
trigger them. High stress situations constantly could trigger them.” He taps himself on
the head. “Any bump on the head could severely damage the brain and trigger
them.”
Glory
sighs and nods her head. Immediately she thinks back to her father’s long
career in wrestling. He was once a wrestler himself but still remains
active in the sport as a trainer himself. Could the headshots have been
the trigger?
“Doctor,
my father is a wrestler…”
“Was
a wrestler!” Glenn
corrects them. “And there’s no way in hell my damn wrestling caused this
bullshit!”
“Daddy,
hush!”
Glory exclaims. The doctor chuckles.
“Yes,
your father’s activity in wrestling could have caused it, but honestly, it was
probably a combination of things. Though it will take many tests and
studies before I can ultimately determine for a fact what caused your father’s
seizure. Let’s just hope for now that this isn’t epilepsy.”
Glory
gasps slightly. The prospects of her father developing epilepsy is
frightening. She can only pray that this is just a one time deal and not
a sign of things to come for her father.
“I’ll
leave you two alone for a moment.” The doctor turns and exits the room.
Glory then turns back to face her father. Despite his usual angry
mood, Glenn forces a smile on his face.
“I
guess this means I won’t get to prepare you for that damned triangle
tournament.”
“Trios,
dad.” Glory
says with a grin of her own, despite the situation.
“Whatever.”
“Dad,
is there any history of seizures?”
“Huh?”
Glenn
asks, somewhat confused.
“You
heard the doctor. He wanted to know if there was any history of
seizures.”
“You
should know the answer to that.”
“I
only know that you haven’t had any seizures up until left London.” She remarks quietly.
“I have no idea what the hell has happened to you since I left you on your
own. And I think we both know you’re not exactly the most transparent
person in the world.”
“Well
I can assure you that I haven’t had any bloody seizures, epilepsy, or whatever
the fuck the quack was talking about.” Glenn growls. “I may have been
weaker lately, not exactly myself, but no damn seizures.”
“Weaker?” Glory arches her
brow. “How long has that been going on, dad?”
“A
few months. No big deal.”
“No
big deal?!”
She exclaims. “Your health deteriorating is a big deal!”
“I
didn’t think you could call my feeling weak as a deterioration of my damn
health!”
“Clearly
it was.”
Glory snaps back, sighing out of frustration.
“I’m
fine, Gloria.”
“You’re
in a hospital! You had a seizure!
I hardly call this fine!” Glory exclaims as she reaches out and
takes her father’s hand. “Dad, you need to take better care of yourself.
Do you have any idea how scared I was?”
“No…” Glenn’s voice trails
off.
“I
haven’t seen anyone have a seizure before. Until the doctor said
something just now I had no idea if this was major or minor or whatever the
hell it was at all! All I could think about was that this possibly could
be it, that you could be…” Glory cannot, does not, want to finish that
thought.
“Dying?”
“Yeah…”
she
nods her head “...and I didn’t want my last words to you to be those things
I said to you back on the beach.”
There
is a pause as father and daughter stare into one another’s eyes. Finally
it’s Glenn who breaks the silence.
“But
Glory, what you said to me back there, it was all true.”
“Huh?”
“You’re
right, I’ve been too obsessive over wrestling. I obsessed to the point
that I shoved it down your throat whether you wanted it or not. I
obsessed to the point that I damn near killed myself.” He shakes his head. “No
more.”
“What
do you mean by that?” Glory asks, somewhat nervously.
“I’m
not letting wrestling run my life.” He squeezes her hand. “I’m going to
try and give back to you the father you always wanted. And that starts
right now, because I am going to start taking care of myself and that means
eliminating those high stress environments like the wrestling school.”
“You
can’t shut the school down!” Glory exclaims.
“I
can’t shut it down.” He
points out. “I already signed ownership of it to you last year, remember? But
I’m no longer going to run it.”
“Who
is going to run it? Who is going to train the next generation?”
“That’s
for you to figure out.” He states matter-of-factly. “Find someone else
or shut it down. I’m not running it anymore. You were right, Glory. I need to take
better care of myself and I need to be there for my daughter.”
This
isn’t exactly what Glory wanted. She just wanted him to spend more time
with her. Now he’s decided to completely abandon wrestling altogether to
spend time with her. What does this mean for their relationship and what
is the future of the wrestling school that has been so important to their
family for so many years?
==========
On
Camera
==========
The
sun shines brightly overhead in the beautiful light blue sky. There’s
barely a cloud in the sky. As the camera
pans down we find ourselves poolside at someone’s rather nice sized home.
As we zoom in slowly but closer and closer to the French patio doors we
notice them opening up suddenly. The
camera comes to a stop and watches as Glory Braddock steps emerges from the
patio doors. The British Bombshell is wearing a pink dress, black high
heeled pumps, and sunglasses cover her eyes.
A confident gaze is written across her face as she begins to make her
way around the pool with the camera following her every move.
“My
father always loved competing in tournaments. Hell, it was his dream to
compete in the tournament of all tournaments, the Olympic Games.
Tournaments were special to him because they separated men from the boys,
the women from the little girls, the strong from the weak. Tournaments
tested your ability to adapt to ever changing situations and to endure a never
ending series of competition until no one was left except one and that last one
standing would truly be recognized as the best.”
“I’ve
competed in my fair share of tournaments. I won a few, I lost a few, but
I don’t think any tournament compares to the expectations of The Trios
Tournament. Like most tournaments your ability to adapt is tested as you
have different opponents each round and you don’t know who your opponents are
going to be until match time. Like most tournaments your endurance is
tested because if you want to win it all you will have to wrestle three times
in one night. There is one thing that
separate Trios from other tournaments…”
Braddock
holds up one finger “...tag team excellence. Trios Tournament is a tag
team tournament in which you have to get along with two people you may have
never teamed up with, you may not like them, you may not know them, but you
have to get along with them and work with them because if you don’t, if you
can’t put your differences aside, if you can’t put the egos on the back burner
for one night, then you’re probably going to lose.”
The
British Bombshell smiles knowingly. “I’ll be the first to readily admit that
I have a bit of an ego. There was a time I called myself The Best in the
World. But I’m also didn’t garner that
rather arrogant title for no reason. People call me that because I truly
am capable of doing it all. Singles
matches, triple threat matches, and yes, even tag team environments, I can get
the job done no matter what rules you lay out before me. Hell, my first
real success in this industry was as a tag team specialist.”
“In
Global Division of Wrestling it was me and Carrie Storm who dominated 2008 and
2009 as The Allied Powers. In MWA and MCW me and Brittany Lohan mowed
through the competition as Twisted & Sadistic. So placing me in a tag team tournament like Trios
is nothing new to yours truly. And when you combine that fact with the
talent, abilities, and accomplishments of my tag team partners, Regan and
Kellen, then what you have is a team made for victory.”
“Now
I love competition just as much as the next grappler. Going out there and
trying to prove myself against the best athletes in the world is what keeps me
motivated, it keeps me going, and challenges such as this Trios Tournament
really get my blood pumping! There didn’t need to be any further motivation
for The British Bombshell but then SCW just had to add some icing on the
cake. The winning team each gets a
contract to book any match that they want?
Anything that comes to their mind?”
Glory
chuckles lightly. “That could prove to be dangerous if someone like me got
one of those contracts. I may look drop dead gorgeous but I have a pretty
twisted mind. I could think of many
different ways to use this contract. Or better yet, just look at my past
with other companies. Every company I
joined I made an instant impact and within one year I was running the show.
With a Trios Contract, with the kind of power it brings, I could once
again find myself in a position to run the show within a year of joining SCW.”
“As
if that weren’t motivation enough, all I have to do is stop and look up and
down the brackets at my future opposition in this Trios Tournament…” Glory stops walking
and removes her sunglasses.
“Alistaire
Allocco, I still owe you for Making Things Right. Whiny little bitches
like you don’t deserve Trios Contracts.
You just deserve to get your ass whipped all over the ring until you
garner some respect for this business and respect for those who came before you
and gave you the opportunity to compete in this great business.
Casterillo, you were one of Katya and Dark Fantasy’s loyal foot soldiers
at Making Things Right. Throwing your
lot in with little wannabe dictators like Katya is a coward’s act, Casterillo,
and I look forward to making sure you understand the full meaning of Sic Semper
Tyrannis...thus always to tyrants…”
She
sighs and shakes her head “...James Evans, you’re just in the wrong place at
the wrong time. You have an opportunity but unfortunately that
opportunity is against three great athletes, three athletes who want this
opportunity a hell of a lot more than you, Allistaire, or Casterillo. We
want this more than anyone else in the Trios Tournament. We don’t want it to pad our records because
we already have records. We don’t want
it for a mentor or a stupid fashion endorsement deal. We damn sure don’t
want it for a prissy princess bitch like Katya.”
“Regan,
Kellen, and I want to win this to prove that we are the best in the world.
We want this to prove that we can take on anyone and everyone that you
place in front of us and come out on top. We want this because we’re
ready to make some major impacts upon the landscape of Supreme Championship
Wrestling. And when we do win and we do
have those Trios contracts in our possession, know and understand that there is
nothing anyone can do to stop us from shaking things up in a big way. And
remember Sic Semper Tyrannis…”
She
places the sunglasses back upon her head “...thus always to tyrants.”
