Transitional Champion. RP1 for Supremacy

[Bobby Barratt]

December 22nd, Cedar Rapids

We open scene as Bobby leaves the Doctor's Treatment Room, following his massive upset over Chris Card, Seth Dillinger and Icons team mate Jack Diamond which saw him become the final X-Crown Champion of 2018. He's just handed off the reigns of the Icon leadership within AWF. Maverick is now the lone Icon. Bobby and Jack are headed off to who knows where and they're taking the entire collection of global championships with them! Bobby beams to himself, recounting Maverick's reaction of being told he was the leader of the AWF Chapter of the Icons. Finally, the kid was going to get the chance to show what he was made of. 

Reporter: Bobby! Any thoughts on your win tonight?

Bobby: Thoughts? Mate I'm number fucking one, right now! What do I need to add to that? I said 2018 would be the year of the Icons and we are closing it out holding the entire Network to ransom! 

Reporter: What does this mean for you and Jack?

Bobby: I told you. Me and Jack have fought time and time. It's business and tonight, I came out on top. He gets that, he knows that he has to earn his way back in. In the mean time, we are going to defend the XHF Tag Team Champions as the cohesive unit that we are!

Bobby barges through the Reporter before he gets chance to ask any more questions. He heads back to his own locker room, locking the door behind him. Bobby slumps down onto the bench at the side of the room. It's here that he would normally be shooting the shit with Jack, going over where the plan succeeded and where it could have been improved. Understandably though, tonight they decided to take separate rooms. Bobby is alone. He finally looks down into his right hand. Looking back up at him is the title Seth Dillinger had used to represent the X-Crown. One Red X marking the centre plate and some amazing decorations adorning the side plates. The heritage of this title...The journey it's been on and the miles it's travelled are all visible in the wear and tear that are seen on closer inspection across both the strap and the plates.

Bobby: This won't do. This won't do at a-

KNOCK! KNOCK!

Bobby: Who the hell is that?! 

Bobby gets up, a curious look on his face, approaching the door. Jack knew where the meet point was after the match. He wouldn't come back to the Locker Room. Emotion is just too raw, right now. Bobby checks through the peephole and sees a middle aged man in a Black suit. This can't be good. Normally any time someone like this knocks on Bobby's locker room door, he's in a world of shit for whatever may have happened that night. Bobby tentatively opens the door.

Bobby: Yeah?

Associate: Mr. Barratt. I'm here on behalf of the XHF Network. First of all, congratulations on your win tonight. Now you've achieved the top honour in the entire XHF Network. 

Bobby: You thought I wouldn't?

Associate: Secondly, I want to run through what the title requires. Being a holder of the XHF Tag Team Championships, I don't need to talk about the Thirty day deadline on defences. What I may need to tell you about though, is the vault....

Bobby: The vault?... Oh shit, yeah!

Associate: The holder of the X-Crown is given exclusive access to a vault at XHF Headquarters in Minnesota. For the duration of your reign, you're allowed to do whatever you like with the place. Think of it as another base of operations. On your first visit, you'll find that it's been cleared of any of Mr. Dillinger's personal effects. Awaiting you, will be the entire collection of Championship belts that make up the X-Crown. 

Bobby: Now that's going to be a sight to behold.

Associate: You can choose any of them to represent your reign. You can use the history that each Championship represents in any way you like to make your reign revelant as you like. The only condition is that when the day comes that you are to hand over the keys...That each title is in a condition that it can be restored. In other words, you can't melt them down, but you can use the plates for things.

Bobby: Sounds fair. Melting them down is too laborious anyway...

Associate: With that, once again I wish you the best. The codes will all be reset for the vault once the clearing has taken place. You'll be needing these.

*The Associate hands Bobby a bunch of keys. Three keys make up the bunch that will get him from the front door of the XHF Headquarters right into his own personal space. Bobby shakes the hand of the Associate before he departs. The door closes and the scene fades on Bobby looking down at the X-Crown Championship belt and a bunch of keys.

---

Current Day, Ohio.

We come back and Bobby sits alone at home. Frost gathers on the windows as the heat from the log effect fire radiates through the house. Bobby is sat back, a glass of 30 year old single malt in his hand. He nurses the glass as he watches the dark liquid lap against the sides as he makes circular motions with it. The motion is almost hypnotic.

Bobby: Well, well, well. What can I say? I said I'd do it. I said I was going to leave AWF, I said I was going to take titles with me. I even told you it was going to be the X-Crown. Did you believe me? Or did you think I was going to play second fiddle to Jack again? Make no mistake, me and Jack are solid....Great, in fact! He's doing his thing and I'm here, preparing for one of the toughest nights of my life....Supremacy. Two matches in front of me and I'm fighting to hold onto control of the Network. The Tag Team Championships are on the line as Jeffrey Viper and Dylan Black or Viper or whatever he goes by now...They finally called their shot and they want it on the big stage. Fair is fair, but I'll get to that more another time. This little chat is all about the main event. A Blind Man's Bluff match, in which I'll be taking on Six other guys. Each guy represents a promotion that want to bring the X-Crown home. Nothing new there...What's new is that for the first time in a long time, the X-Crown has no home promotion. That means that no promotion standing will want me to come out on top. Normally, you'd have fans of AWF cheering on Jack, or Seth...Now? Only the true fans, only the non-bandwagon fans will want the Champion to retain. Why? Simple! As long as this title isn't locked to a fed, then I can show up anywhere, at any time! Tuning into an episode of Anonymous TV? Up pops yours truly...Maybe I go wipe out half their roster! SSS? Well I've already been there within the last few weeks, defending the Tag Titles with Jack! AWF?.... Nope! Not heading back to that place if you paid me! 

Bobby sits up, putting his glass down next to the current incarnation of the X-Crown Championship. He's had it professionally cleaned over the holiday period, but it still shows the wear and tear a title of that age is known to show.

Bobby: You know, of all the Championships that have been inducted into the X-Crown, this title seems to be the one that gets chosen most by Champions to represent the Championship. For some reason, they choose to ignore the lineage and the heritage of the X-Crown and each individual title that makes it up in the name of having one big, bold fucking letter on a name plate. Sure, it looks impactful, but what about the originals? I need to get to the vault, have a good rifle around those belts and see if anything takes my fancy. Sure, I've seen them hanging in the Diamond Lounge for so long, but I've never really LOOKED at them. I've never draped one over my shoulder and looked into the mirror, seeing what felt best, what looked best and what could possibly define my reign. Pure and simple because I wasn't the X-Crown Champion back then. Jack was. It was his moment and it would be disrespectful of me to be lifting his stuff. But now? Now it's MY time in the spotlight! It's MY turn to be seen as point guy. Jack, I love you man, but now it's time to step aside. Time for you to just sit back and enjoy being a Tag Team Champion and time to let Bobby Barratt have HIS moment. 

Bobby picks up the X-Crown Championship belt, admiring what he can make out of his reflection from the centre plate. A smile appears across his face as he takes in what that belt currently represents. A smile we haven't seen in a while. Bobby looks almost....happy.

Bobby: See this? This is a testament...The product of my ENTIRE career! Countless years touring the country back in the UK, the leap I took leaving everything I knew behind, when I signed with Icon Championship Wrestling last year and everything that's occured over the last year. The AWF chapter, the Icons, losing Jenny, defeating anyone that AWF put in my path... You think I'm going to GIVE this up? You think I'm going to be a transitional Champion and roll over, letting this go back to AWF? Or worse? If there is worse! I know AWF are sending one of the only men who have beaten me to challenge me. Raiden Ishimori. A man I had the displeasure of meeting in the ring about a month ago. He came out on top that night...

Bobby raises his glass.

Bobby: Kudos! I can't take that away from you. You hold a victory over indisputably the top man in the entire XHF Network. Don't make the mistake in thinking that will happen again. Don't make the mistake of feeling like you have some sort of fucking psychological edge. Don't feel like because I wasn't prepared for you last time, that I'm not now. You were green as fucking grass in AWF back then. I had a ton of shit going on and I didn't do my homework. Well done, you took advantage of that. Now I've spent time in the ring with you, I know what to expect, I know what this match is going to bring with regards to your striking. Then again, by the time I hit the ring, you might be long gone. Every competitor in this match has a chance of meeting only one person, just like they have the chance to meet EVERYONE back to back. Imagine the toll it's going to take on your body, Raiden. Being drawn number 1 and having to grind through Five competitors, only to be met by the ultimate end game boss....Me. Imagine having Five matches in the bank, your body is broken, fighting for air and the final pod reveals a fresh, reigning, defending X-Crown Champion. Still think you could handle that? I think now. Let's see...

Bobby pulls up his phone. Browsing the dirt sheets, he sees the list of entrants for the Blind Man's Bluff match.

Bobby: Ah! The President! Curtis D. Kanyon managed to wiggle himself into the match too! I wonder if he will put that on the line? Let's make another jump! I mean shit...If I can be the most powerful man in the XHF Network, surely it's not so much of a jump to be the most powerful man in the free world, right? The possibilities! Kanyon, I've seen you in a variety of states this past year. You wore a wig and went bat shit, you feuded with Price in what seems like it lasted forever... Now you're trying to actively close down AXW to get to the X-Crown? I'm pretty sure that's not how it works, buddy... But feel free to constantly pull your own focus away from this match. All it does is make you just as easy pickings as a fucking chef....A CHEF! What the fuck?! How the hell do you get from being a Chef, to competing for the top prize in this business? You know what? I can't do this right now. I got a flight to catch and I gotta get out of here. I've spoken directly to a few of my opponents for this match and you can be DAMN sure it won't be the last you see of me! This match is mine for the taking and I fully intend to retain this Championship and continue to have the whole Network across the table. You gave me this opportunity, and now you only have yourselves to blame! 

Bobby reaches forward, grabbing a remote control and hits a button and the screen flicks to black.