The Next Generation: Part 1

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Miami, Florida

February 11th, 2019

Off Camera

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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!”

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Miami, Florida

February 11th, 2019

Later That Day

Off Camera

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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?

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On Camera

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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.”