Post by Robbie A on Aug 11, 2022 7:02:40 GMT -5
Fade in, we are in New Orleans City Park, and the NLW Tag Team Champions, Riley Richards and Leon Chant are stood front and centre, both are in summer attire and have the shades to match. Leon removes his shades first and turns to his tag partner.
“Summer holidays are over kid, it’s time for us to go back to work.”
Riley removes his shades and looks a little disappointed.
“What? How can that be? It only felt like we went for a break just yesterday?”
“Time’s a bitch like that. But let’s not be ungrateful, we’ve been able to rest up, heal some wounds-“
“I got to channel my inner Cheez and stream on Twitch for the first time in forevs’!” Riley beams, Leon however looks confused, he stares him down briefly before exhaling a large sigh.
“…Well I’m glad that I still can’t understand half the things you say.” Leon shakes his head. “Anyway, we’re back NLW! Let’s be honest we were always going to need a small rest after busting our humps since we won the NLW Tag Titles. And we’ve not just been doing that, we’ve been repping NLW across the Network, some things that you know about, some things you may not…”
“Like me taking care of Goldbear II for Mr Arnold?” He faces the camera with an innocent smile. “I’m learning to speak bear!”
Chant looks a little put out by this statement, it’s not your everyday statement after all. He reluctantly acknowledges his partner however.
“It’s...uh, it's true…GUNS is a weird place folks.” He shakes his head to recompose. “But anyway, we’re now we’re back in New Orleans, ready to do what we’ve been doing for what seems like forever, but forever has been the last six months…time really is a bitch…but in those six months we’ve been taking on each and every tag team that BB Gunn put in front of us. There’s been quite a few, I’m not sure I remember them all. Just like time, memory can be a bitch.”
“I remember them!” Riley helpfully informs him.
“Of course you do.” Is Chant’s slightly defeated reply, he goes to move on, but senses his partner is itching to say more. He sighs and gestures toward Bristol's Finest. “I’m gonna’ have to let him list them now otherwise he’ll be a hyperactive nightmare for the rest of the day…”
“So we’ve beaten The End, The Hot Tag Express and The Goons…” Riley starts rattling them off almost before Leon can finish his sentence.
“Who scurried off elsewhere, tails between legs.” Chant overlaps his partner.
“…then there’s been The New South…”
“Imploded and losing to Trixie Mars in the G1.”
“…The Straight Edge Society, The Tilted Cartridges and The Crinkly Bottom Boys…”
“Do any of them still work here? Oh, Cheez does…another Trixie Mars victim, the rest of them though…?”
“I think so?” Richards shrugs. “But anyway, that’s the lot so far!”
“So far! I’m glad you say that kid, because we now have a new challenge, and that’s in the form of The Ronin. Daisuke Miyazaki and Takuma Okazaki…wait a minute, Takuma Okazaki? Chant stops to think for a moment. “Is that the same guy I beat at Masquerade last year? Defending the Heavyweight Title in the process?”
“That is, Leon.”
“Thought so…Man it’s been a while, hasn’t it Takuma? Where’ve you been all this time, Big Tiger? You and I went to war alongside Eli Dresden and Al Jabroni and then you vanished! And now you’ve reappeared with a friend, I do hope you stick around longer this time!”
He smiles, but Riley looks a bit shocked at Chant’s sudden bitchy-ness.
“What? They wanted to go straight shooting at us! What harm is a little return fire going to do?”
“I mean…they did rip us about our SCCW performances.”
“They sure did, and they weren’t wrong. We weren’t at our best over there, and we got punished. But let’s be honest, MCCW was, and now SCCW is a fickle place. They labelled by Chantsistant, yet were clinging onto my ankles when I beat Nelly for the North American Title. You could still taste the salt when you and I walked into that building week after week. It doesn’t stop there though, SCCW acts like Big Richard Energy is a big deal yet he couldn’t score a damn win in JROK’s King of Hokkaido tournament!”
“Hey Leon, we’ve teamed with him, should we…?” Riley attempts to pour water on this fire but Leon is not budging.
“And what happened? He was sparked out by The Saga. The freaking Saga! These guys, they wanna’ make a big deal out of us not succeeding in SCCW, but memory, just like time, is a bitch, because as my memory serves there’s not many SCCW or MCCW alums that make it big elsewhere in The Network, sure, rejects from here have made it there, but the travel’s generally gone in one direction!”
“Hey Leon, are you sure you got enough rest?” Riley says hesitantly.
“Oh I got plenty kid, maybe too much...but just enough to set these two guys straight! But hey, it’s not just them throwing all levels of disrespect at The Academy, month after month the best tag teams in The Network get mentioned, and where’s our nod? Where’s our recognition for being the best tag team in NLW for six months? Hell, teams who you listed of earlier get mentioned despite us taking them to school! We could beat Top of the Class tomorrow and I begin to doubt if it would make a difference.”
Leon sighs.
“You, Riley, are the XHF European champion, I’m a multi-time NLW Heavyweight champion, and yet our opponents would rather make semi-clever jokes about things that happened a lifetime ago…”
“Some of it was only last year…”
“Time, just like memory-“
“Yes, it’s a bitch, I know Leon, you keep saying and it’s becoming a bit disturbing, maybe you’ve been out in the sun a bit too long." He looks at him with genuine concern. "Why don’t you go take a walk back? I’ll finish up here, yeah? Go get some water…maybe have a nap?”
Chant growls. Slowly he nods and places the shades back on his face.
“…Fine. I’ll be at the gym.”
He takes off, but not before giving the camera a final glance, and another growl. Riley watches him leave for a short while, long enough for him to be out of earshot anyway.
“Sorry about him you guys, I think he’s a bit too eager to get back to action.” He grimaces. “Still, he did have some valid points in amongst what was almost a Mr Arnold style rant…The Ronin have come out and flat out disrespected us. Look, we’re used to it, we’ve been used to it from day one, and it’ll probably follow us for a long time to come, but it won’t put us off our game. You may not have seen us for a couple months, but I hope you haven’t forgotten just how much we care about these titles. Sure, summer may have ended early for us, but the same won’t be said for our title reign.”
He smiles.
“We’ll beat you, just like we beat all the other guys. That’s just what me and Leon do! And it doesn’t matter if it comes from an Homage, or a pop up powerbomb, or even the Final Lesson, one way or another, we find a way. I mean come on, we won a first blood match against two opponents that going in we weren’t even sure could even bleed!” He laughs. “So we’ll see you at Ascendancy, Ronin. You keep thinking we’ll be a pushover, and we’ll add your name to the list with all those other teams.”
He places his shades back on his face and looks off camera.
“Come on G.B.II, time to go!”
“RAAAAAAAAAWR!”
Riley starts walking off and is followed by the lumbering presence that is Goldbear II.
“I know, he is extra cranky at the moment, I’ll get him some food as well.”
“RAWR!”
“Of course I’m going to feed you first! I learned my lesson on that from last time…”
We can hear a snuffled exhale from the bear before fade out.
“Summer holidays are over kid, it’s time for us to go back to work.”
Riley removes his shades and looks a little disappointed.
“What? How can that be? It only felt like we went for a break just yesterday?”
“Time’s a bitch like that. But let’s not be ungrateful, we’ve been able to rest up, heal some wounds-“
“I got to channel my inner Cheez and stream on Twitch for the first time in forevs’!” Riley beams, Leon however looks confused, he stares him down briefly before exhaling a large sigh.
“…Well I’m glad that I still can’t understand half the things you say.” Leon shakes his head. “Anyway, we’re back NLW! Let’s be honest we were always going to need a small rest after busting our humps since we won the NLW Tag Titles. And we’ve not just been doing that, we’ve been repping NLW across the Network, some things that you know about, some things you may not…”
“Like me taking care of Goldbear II for Mr Arnold?” He faces the camera with an innocent smile. “I’m learning to speak bear!”
Chant looks a little put out by this statement, it’s not your everyday statement after all. He reluctantly acknowledges his partner however.
“It’s...uh, it's true…GUNS is a weird place folks.” He shakes his head to recompose. “But anyway, we’re now we’re back in New Orleans, ready to do what we’ve been doing for what seems like forever, but forever has been the last six months…time really is a bitch…but in those six months we’ve been taking on each and every tag team that BB Gunn put in front of us. There’s been quite a few, I’m not sure I remember them all. Just like time, memory can be a bitch.”
“I remember them!” Riley helpfully informs him.
“Of course you do.” Is Chant’s slightly defeated reply, he goes to move on, but senses his partner is itching to say more. He sighs and gestures toward Bristol's Finest. “I’m gonna’ have to let him list them now otherwise he’ll be a hyperactive nightmare for the rest of the day…”
“So we’ve beaten The End, The Hot Tag Express and The Goons…” Riley starts rattling them off almost before Leon can finish his sentence.
“Who scurried off elsewhere, tails between legs.” Chant overlaps his partner.
“…then there’s been The New South…”
“Imploded and losing to Trixie Mars in the G1.”
“…The Straight Edge Society, The Tilted Cartridges and The Crinkly Bottom Boys…”
“Do any of them still work here? Oh, Cheez does…another Trixie Mars victim, the rest of them though…?”
“I think so?” Richards shrugs. “But anyway, that’s the lot so far!”
“So far! I’m glad you say that kid, because we now have a new challenge, and that’s in the form of The Ronin. Daisuke Miyazaki and Takuma Okazaki…wait a minute, Takuma Okazaki? Chant stops to think for a moment. “Is that the same guy I beat at Masquerade last year? Defending the Heavyweight Title in the process?”
“That is, Leon.”
“Thought so…Man it’s been a while, hasn’t it Takuma? Where’ve you been all this time, Big Tiger? You and I went to war alongside Eli Dresden and Al Jabroni and then you vanished! And now you’ve reappeared with a friend, I do hope you stick around longer this time!”
He smiles, but Riley looks a bit shocked at Chant’s sudden bitchy-ness.
“What? They wanted to go straight shooting at us! What harm is a little return fire going to do?”
“I mean…they did rip us about our SCCW performances.”
“They sure did, and they weren’t wrong. We weren’t at our best over there, and we got punished. But let’s be honest, MCCW was, and now SCCW is a fickle place. They labelled by Chantsistant, yet were clinging onto my ankles when I beat Nelly for the North American Title. You could still taste the salt when you and I walked into that building week after week. It doesn’t stop there though, SCCW acts like Big Richard Energy is a big deal yet he couldn’t score a damn win in JROK’s King of Hokkaido tournament!”
“Hey Leon, we’ve teamed with him, should we…?” Riley attempts to pour water on this fire but Leon is not budging.
“And what happened? He was sparked out by The Saga. The freaking Saga! These guys, they wanna’ make a big deal out of us not succeeding in SCCW, but memory, just like time, is a bitch, because as my memory serves there’s not many SCCW or MCCW alums that make it big elsewhere in The Network, sure, rejects from here have made it there, but the travel’s generally gone in one direction!”
“Hey Leon, are you sure you got enough rest?” Riley says hesitantly.
“Oh I got plenty kid, maybe too much...but just enough to set these two guys straight! But hey, it’s not just them throwing all levels of disrespect at The Academy, month after month the best tag teams in The Network get mentioned, and where’s our nod? Where’s our recognition for being the best tag team in NLW for six months? Hell, teams who you listed of earlier get mentioned despite us taking them to school! We could beat Top of the Class tomorrow and I begin to doubt if it would make a difference.”
Leon sighs.
“You, Riley, are the XHF European champion, I’m a multi-time NLW Heavyweight champion, and yet our opponents would rather make semi-clever jokes about things that happened a lifetime ago…”
“Some of it was only last year…”
“Time, just like memory-“
“Yes, it’s a bitch, I know Leon, you keep saying and it’s becoming a bit disturbing, maybe you’ve been out in the sun a bit too long." He looks at him with genuine concern. "Why don’t you go take a walk back? I’ll finish up here, yeah? Go get some water…maybe have a nap?”
Chant growls. Slowly he nods and places the shades back on his face.
“…Fine. I’ll be at the gym.”
He takes off, but not before giving the camera a final glance, and another growl. Riley watches him leave for a short while, long enough for him to be out of earshot anyway.
“Sorry about him you guys, I think he’s a bit too eager to get back to action.” He grimaces. “Still, he did have some valid points in amongst what was almost a Mr Arnold style rant…The Ronin have come out and flat out disrespected us. Look, we’re used to it, we’ve been used to it from day one, and it’ll probably follow us for a long time to come, but it won’t put us off our game. You may not have seen us for a couple months, but I hope you haven’t forgotten just how much we care about these titles. Sure, summer may have ended early for us, but the same won’t be said for our title reign.”
He smiles.
“We’ll beat you, just like we beat all the other guys. That’s just what me and Leon do! And it doesn’t matter if it comes from an Homage, or a pop up powerbomb, or even the Final Lesson, one way or another, we find a way. I mean come on, we won a first blood match against two opponents that going in we weren’t even sure could even bleed!” He laughs. “So we’ll see you at Ascendancy, Ronin. You keep thinking we’ll be a pushover, and we’ll add your name to the list with all those other teams.”
He places his shades back on his face and looks off camera.
“Come on G.B.II, time to go!”
“RAAAAAAAAAWR!”
Riley starts walking off and is followed by the lumbering presence that is Goldbear II.
“I know, he is extra cranky at the moment, I’ll get him some food as well.”
“RAWR!”
“Of course I’m going to feed you first! I learned my lesson on that from last time…”
We can hear a snuffled exhale from the bear before fade out.
