Becoming the Icon [Rocco EOD 1]
Sept 23, 2019 16:42:29 GMT -5
Mongo the Destroyer and Bobby Barratt like this
Post by Steele on Sept 23, 2019 16:42:29 GMT -5
The scene begins as we fade in from black and are greeted by Rocco Rose, recent semi-finalist in the AWF Fired Up tournament, one of two wrestlers who will represent AWF in the upcoming End of Days event.
He stands with his hands together in front of him, fingertip-to-fingertip, head lowered ever so slightly and eyes angled up to pierce through the camera that he stands before.
His chin is dusted with a short, sharp stubble, and a self-satisfied grin is eating away at his lower jaw.
He laughs, quietly at first, but then getting louder. An unnatural, stereotypical evil-villain-esque sort of laugh.
"Why, Rocco, why?"
Rocco lets the words hang in the air as he continues to stare down the camera, almost daring us to answer his question with our own thoughts.
"Ha. It's all I've been hearing for the past couple of days now."
"I told you that I'd speak loudest with my actions, didn't I?"
Rocco slowly raises one of his arms towards a corner of our screen, and through the magic of post-production we see a series of still frames displayed in a picture-in-picture format.
In the first image, Rocco Rose hits a signature superkick on Seth Dillinger during their Fired Up confrontation.
The picture quickly cross-fades into the moment that Seth kicked out, with Rocco sitting with his head in his hands.
Next up we see Rocco holding up his jacket in the corner of the ring, pulling a pair of brass knuckles out of the pocket.
The fourth frame shows Bobby Barratt, Rocco's partner, urging him not to use the foreign object - Rocco sneers at Bobby's hesitance to cheat.
Finally, we see Rocco post-swing, Bobby Barratt mid-way through falling to the mat.
Rocco chuckles to himself as he relives that moment in his mind.
"That one picture says more than a thousand words ever could. Nobody took me seriously before that night. Everybody thought I was 'just some guy' with a big mouth, biting off way more than I could chew. Nobody believed in me. Nobody listened. Nobody paid attention."
The shot cuts briefly to a close up of Rocco's eyes, burning through the camera lens.
"Well do I have your fucking attention now?"
The camera resets to show Rocco once again from the waist upwards.
"We just had a whole tournament to crown a new AWF Prestige Champion and the biggest story of the night isn't Hyperion lumbering out with the ten pounds of gold, but me punching Bobby Barratt square in the mouth."
"And you people are too stupid to be able to see why?"
Rocco slowly shakes his head, with a pitiful condescension.
"Bobby Barratt walked back into this company to a hero's welcome. This is the man who left to go mess about in AXW and take a desk-job as Commissioner, just like Jackson Steele... and just like Jackson Steele he came crawling back and all was forgiven. Everybody clapped and cheered for their little darling Bobby who came back when the AXW ship started to sink - they truly thought he was gonna come in and walk all the way to the final of Fired Up."
"But as it turns out, Bobby Barratt wasn't walking anywhere. He limped along through the tournament as he relied on me to carry him. Who was it who pinned the Ref in our first match, huh? It was me. Who pinned Raiden Ishimori? It. Was. Me."
Rocco raises a hand again and another image appears - this time it's a short video compilation of comments taken from various social media sites and YouTube, all lambasting Rocco for decking Bobby.
"For the past two days all I've seen online is idiot after moron after idiot whining and moaning that what I did 'wasn't fair!'"
"Are. You. Fucking. Kidding. Me?"
"You want unfair? I pinned Raiden Ishimori and took his title away from him but am I recognised as the champion? No. Think about that for just one moment. The man who took Raiden's title off of him isn't considered his successor as champion... but the man who coasted along in the tournament, reaping the benefits of my hard work is apparently worthy of an X-Crown championship shot."
"Don't talk to me about fucking unfair. Bobby rode my coattails into the semi-finals of Fired Up and then just when I was about to get the job done and put Seth Dillinger down for good, Bobby grows a fucking conscience and stands up for one of his greatest rivals?"
Rocco starts laughing once again, this time almost losing control of himself, having to double over and place his hands on his knees to steady himself.
"Are you FUCKING kidding me? Bobby Barratt? The "Prodigal Icon"? One of the dirtiest motherfuckers to ever step foot inside the squared circle is literally piggybacking his way back to the top and he throws it all away because he wants to fight fair? Ha! You literally couldn't make this up. So I knew right then that Bobby was getting soft. I threw a punch, yeah - I wanted to make sure he wouldn't stand a hope in hell of beating me for the title."
"And as a direct result of Bobby distracting me because he was trying to play nice-guy, we lost the match."
"But you know what? I don't care. In fact, Saint Rocco is willing to turn the other cheek. See what I should be doing is challenging Bobby Barratt and putting his ass down for good, taking that X-Crown championship opportunity that was just handed to him away. But I'm above all that. You keep your title shot, Bobert. And good luck."
"We might still cross paths yet."
Rocco takes a moment to break up his promo. He takes a hairband from his jacket pocket, and sweeps nack his flowing blond mane, trying it into a ponytail behind his head.
"But before all of that, I've got other business to attend to. Fired Up was just the beginning - the real test begins now. Tintern Abbey - wherever the fuck that is. End Of Days night one. Caden Yung."
Rocco chuckles to himself.
"Caden. I just fucked over Bobby Barratt. One of the dirtiest players in the game. What makes you think you can get past me, buddy?"
There's a real mocking tone to Rocco's voice. He's completely bought into himself.
"You know what, if you've got any brains at all then you'll join the growing movement of people who want me to be in the X-Crown championship match at End Of Days, just so you can save yourself the pain of tasting my boot at the back of your throat."
"But... you do come from a country where the national pastime seems to be shooting yourself in the foot - which is pretty impressive since you guys don't even have guns over there. So I guess I'll forgive you for thinking you might stand a chance when you walk down that aisle."
Rocco now gestures for another image to be shown on screen - it's a picture of the United Kingdom, only it's upside down and the entire country is labelled "ENGLAND".
"So this is where we're going for End Of Days. Merry old England. Your stomping ground, Caden. Me old mate. A nation that experiences about three minutes of sunshine per year, has a leader that makes Donald Trump look like a rational human being, and uses the word 'food' in the broadest fucking sense. So naturally, you might be expecting to have some kind of home-field advantage."
"Naturally, you'd be wrong."
"You see, I might be a proud native of the greatest country on Earth but I am truly a global citizen. That means that wherever I go, people treat me like their own. They welcome me with open arms, they shower me with gifts, they treat me like the celebrity I am. When I visit your tiny little closet of a country, Caden, they'll toss the Queen over the balcony of Bucking-ham Palace and proclaim me king."
"But enough joking around. Caden - I get it. You're a fucking good fighter, don't get me wrong. Harry's been showing me tapes of your time in AXW and SKS, and I gotta say that out of all the matches those promotions have put on - you've definitely been in some of them."
Rocco laughs out loud at his snide jab.
"OK, alright, alright - you've got the chops. Or should I say, you've got the kicks. You're regarded as a master of... uh.... kicking, I guess. But can you fucking wrestle? After all, this is what we do. You can bring the kicks, Caden, but when you step up against the guy who has been wrestling since he was in junior school, the guy who made the state team throughout high school and college, the guy who could have been wrestling in the Olympics nearly a decade ago if I hadn't gone professional... you need to make a choice."
"Who's your money on? The wrestler, or the kid with the pumped-up kicks?"
Rocco resumes the pose he was in at the start of the promo, hands in front of him, although this time he is looking up at the camera.
"Don't be lulled into a false sense of security, Caden. You might think I failed at Fired Up, you might think you can catch me on a losing streak. But that was just a warm-up. It was never the endgame. Fired Up was about making a statement. I told everybody going into that tournament that I'd speak with my actions, and I made a fucking statement by cracking Bobby Barratt in the jaw."
"End Of Days is where the real fun and games begin. And Caden - I'm afraid you're just a pawn, a minor detail in a much bigger picture than you could possibly ever imagine."
"What I started with Bobby, I will continue against you. And I will not stop until I become the Icon of the XHF Network."
Rocco smirks to himself once more, and we fade to black.
He stands with his hands together in front of him, fingertip-to-fingertip, head lowered ever so slightly and eyes angled up to pierce through the camera that he stands before.
His chin is dusted with a short, sharp stubble, and a self-satisfied grin is eating away at his lower jaw.
He laughs, quietly at first, but then getting louder. An unnatural, stereotypical evil-villain-esque sort of laugh.
"Why, Rocco, why?"
Rocco lets the words hang in the air as he continues to stare down the camera, almost daring us to answer his question with our own thoughts.
"Ha. It's all I've been hearing for the past couple of days now."
"I told you that I'd speak loudest with my actions, didn't I?"
Rocco slowly raises one of his arms towards a corner of our screen, and through the magic of post-production we see a series of still frames displayed in a picture-in-picture format.
In the first image, Rocco Rose hits a signature superkick on Seth Dillinger during their Fired Up confrontation.
The picture quickly cross-fades into the moment that Seth kicked out, with Rocco sitting with his head in his hands.
Next up we see Rocco holding up his jacket in the corner of the ring, pulling a pair of brass knuckles out of the pocket.
The fourth frame shows Bobby Barratt, Rocco's partner, urging him not to use the foreign object - Rocco sneers at Bobby's hesitance to cheat.
Finally, we see Rocco post-swing, Bobby Barratt mid-way through falling to the mat.
Rocco chuckles to himself as he relives that moment in his mind.
"That one picture says more than a thousand words ever could. Nobody took me seriously before that night. Everybody thought I was 'just some guy' with a big mouth, biting off way more than I could chew. Nobody believed in me. Nobody listened. Nobody paid attention."
The shot cuts briefly to a close up of Rocco's eyes, burning through the camera lens.
"Well do I have your fucking attention now?"
The camera resets to show Rocco once again from the waist upwards.
"We just had a whole tournament to crown a new AWF Prestige Champion and the biggest story of the night isn't Hyperion lumbering out with the ten pounds of gold, but me punching Bobby Barratt square in the mouth."
"And you people are too stupid to be able to see why?"
Rocco slowly shakes his head, with a pitiful condescension.
"Bobby Barratt walked back into this company to a hero's welcome. This is the man who left to go mess about in AXW and take a desk-job as Commissioner, just like Jackson Steele... and just like Jackson Steele he came crawling back and all was forgiven. Everybody clapped and cheered for their little darling Bobby who came back when the AXW ship started to sink - they truly thought he was gonna come in and walk all the way to the final of Fired Up."
"But as it turns out, Bobby Barratt wasn't walking anywhere. He limped along through the tournament as he relied on me to carry him. Who was it who pinned the Ref in our first match, huh? It was me. Who pinned Raiden Ishimori? It. Was. Me."
Rocco raises a hand again and another image appears - this time it's a short video compilation of comments taken from various social media sites and YouTube, all lambasting Rocco for decking Bobby.
"For the past two days all I've seen online is idiot after moron after idiot whining and moaning that what I did 'wasn't fair!'"
"Are. You. Fucking. Kidding. Me?"
"You want unfair? I pinned Raiden Ishimori and took his title away from him but am I recognised as the champion? No. Think about that for just one moment. The man who took Raiden's title off of him isn't considered his successor as champion... but the man who coasted along in the tournament, reaping the benefits of my hard work is apparently worthy of an X-Crown championship shot."
"Don't talk to me about fucking unfair. Bobby rode my coattails into the semi-finals of Fired Up and then just when I was about to get the job done and put Seth Dillinger down for good, Bobby grows a fucking conscience and stands up for one of his greatest rivals?"
Rocco starts laughing once again, this time almost losing control of himself, having to double over and place his hands on his knees to steady himself.
"Are you FUCKING kidding me? Bobby Barratt? The "Prodigal Icon"? One of the dirtiest motherfuckers to ever step foot inside the squared circle is literally piggybacking his way back to the top and he throws it all away because he wants to fight fair? Ha! You literally couldn't make this up. So I knew right then that Bobby was getting soft. I threw a punch, yeah - I wanted to make sure he wouldn't stand a hope in hell of beating me for the title."
"And as a direct result of Bobby distracting me because he was trying to play nice-guy, we lost the match."
"But you know what? I don't care. In fact, Saint Rocco is willing to turn the other cheek. See what I should be doing is challenging Bobby Barratt and putting his ass down for good, taking that X-Crown championship opportunity that was just handed to him away. But I'm above all that. You keep your title shot, Bobert. And good luck."
"We might still cross paths yet."
Rocco takes a moment to break up his promo. He takes a hairband from his jacket pocket, and sweeps nack his flowing blond mane, trying it into a ponytail behind his head.
"But before all of that, I've got other business to attend to. Fired Up was just the beginning - the real test begins now. Tintern Abbey - wherever the fuck that is. End Of Days night one. Caden Yung."
Rocco chuckles to himself.
"Caden. I just fucked over Bobby Barratt. One of the dirtiest players in the game. What makes you think you can get past me, buddy?"
There's a real mocking tone to Rocco's voice. He's completely bought into himself.
"You know what, if you've got any brains at all then you'll join the growing movement of people who want me to be in the X-Crown championship match at End Of Days, just so you can save yourself the pain of tasting my boot at the back of your throat."
"But... you do come from a country where the national pastime seems to be shooting yourself in the foot - which is pretty impressive since you guys don't even have guns over there. So I guess I'll forgive you for thinking you might stand a chance when you walk down that aisle."
Rocco now gestures for another image to be shown on screen - it's a picture of the United Kingdom, only it's upside down and the entire country is labelled "ENGLAND".
"So this is where we're going for End Of Days. Merry old England. Your stomping ground, Caden. Me old mate. A nation that experiences about three minutes of sunshine per year, has a leader that makes Donald Trump look like a rational human being, and uses the word 'food' in the broadest fucking sense. So naturally, you might be expecting to have some kind of home-field advantage."
"Naturally, you'd be wrong."
"You see, I might be a proud native of the greatest country on Earth but I am truly a global citizen. That means that wherever I go, people treat me like their own. They welcome me with open arms, they shower me with gifts, they treat me like the celebrity I am. When I visit your tiny little closet of a country, Caden, they'll toss the Queen over the balcony of Bucking-ham Palace and proclaim me king."
"But enough joking around. Caden - I get it. You're a fucking good fighter, don't get me wrong. Harry's been showing me tapes of your time in AXW and SKS, and I gotta say that out of all the matches those promotions have put on - you've definitely been in some of them."
Rocco laughs out loud at his snide jab.
"OK, alright, alright - you've got the chops. Or should I say, you've got the kicks. You're regarded as a master of... uh.... kicking, I guess. But can you fucking wrestle? After all, this is what we do. You can bring the kicks, Caden, but when you step up against the guy who has been wrestling since he was in junior school, the guy who made the state team throughout high school and college, the guy who could have been wrestling in the Olympics nearly a decade ago if I hadn't gone professional... you need to make a choice."
"Who's your money on? The wrestler, or the kid with the pumped-up kicks?"
Rocco resumes the pose he was in at the start of the promo, hands in front of him, although this time he is looking up at the camera.
"Don't be lulled into a false sense of security, Caden. You might think I failed at Fired Up, you might think you can catch me on a losing streak. But that was just a warm-up. It was never the endgame. Fired Up was about making a statement. I told everybody going into that tournament that I'd speak with my actions, and I made a fucking statement by cracking Bobby Barratt in the jaw."
"End Of Days is where the real fun and games begin. And Caden - I'm afraid you're just a pawn, a minor detail in a much bigger picture than you could possibly ever imagine."
"What I started with Bobby, I will continue against you. And I will not stop until I become the Icon of the XHF Network."
Rocco smirks to himself once more, and we fade to black.