What a good two months it has been for us. Looks like we hit SCW at the right time as the seemingly golden generation, a new crop of SCW stars came through and in those two months, four people from Bethnal Green stood out. When you look at the interesting, talented crop of people that came in around the last supercard and early shows, the likes of Aaron Isaacs, Anthrax, Tommy Crimson, The Modern Day Crusader, Caleb Storms, Alice Knight, Valora Thomas, The Motor City Maidens along with me, Osbourne, Charley and Kenz, you could see there's a talented bunch of people there. Yet we stand out a fair bit in that group that can grab SCW gold at any time, we seem to stand out from the crowd a little in the group that can only be described as the future of SCW. But I won't lie, there's a difference between us and them.
They probably sat in front of the box as kids watching the superstars of the past throw themselves around the ring and wanted to be just like them, they wanted to be in the ring in front of thousands, selling out arenas, pushing their limits, wanting the fame, money and glory that goes along with it, but we did not. Bunch of fairies in spandex, grunting and groaning was never part of the plan for us. That put that golden generation streets ahead of us when it came to a bit of passion to try and break in to a business they always wanted to be in.
Now a brief exchange with Aaron Isaacs the other day on that rumour filled place called Twitter sort of sums it up for me. If you wanted to break through, you needed to be trained by the best. Aaron mentioning that he was trained by many, including Kristopher Ryans, who has been nothing short of brilliant since we've been around and what I've heard and seen, a long time before that, but for all our differences on how we got here, this is something we have in common with this future generation of wrestlers, we had to find the best to show us the ropes, we had to find better than the best and eight months ago we did.
Picture the scene, two guys walk in to an empty theatre in the Luxor in Las Vegas....
What sounds like the start of a bad joke, is actually the start of the reason why Daniel J Morgan, Osbourne, Mackenzie Page, and Charlotte Elliot found their way in to Sin City Wrestling. The challenge from Christian Underwood had been made clear the night before, find someone to train you and I'll consider it. Christian was used to people talking to him about becoming a wrestler and dismissed most, but something about Daniel J Morgan seemed different. He also knew that most would step away after day one of training, but stepping away from things wasn't in the Londoners nature. He saw everything in life as a challenge he wanted to beat. He had one foot in the door after that conversation with Christian, he needed the rest of his body to join him. He also knew he was miles behind the rest of the wrestling world when it came to breaking in, his lack of interest in the sport put him at a disadvantage and he needed the best to pull him up to speed and this is where planning came in. The night was spent looking for the perfect trainer, one with patience, one with pedigree, one with experience. He didn't want to trawl shows and look for a wrestler looking for a few extra bucks, he wanted someone he considered the best man or woman for the job. It didn't take long for his eyes to be set firmly on just two people...
On the stage of one of the theatres in the Luxor Hotel and Casino, Gabriel sits on the stage on a wooden chair, his hands cuffed as he tries to pick the lock. Next to him on the stage stands his wife Odette, looking down at their son, Lucas, strapped in to a pram, his eyes locked on his fathers hands, captivated by the lights shining off the silver cuffs. Odette can't help but look at her son with pride before looking at Gabriel.
"If he keeps watching you all the time, one day, he's gonna be faster than you when it comes to picking locks." Odette says with a smile towards her husband.
Gabriel looks towards his wife, his fingers still working on the cuffs.
"As long as he doesn't use that gift to break in to houses or something like that." Gabriel replies with an off the cuff remark. "Or use it to escape the police."
Odette frowns towards Gabriel.
"Our son will never get arrested." Odette firmly tells him. "He's too sweet and innocent for that."
Odette leans down, running her the back of her hand down the smiling youths cheek, who looks up lovingly at his mother. Gabriel watches the two as he drops the cuffs to the floor. Two men can be seen walking down the steps between the aisle, heading towards the stage that the happy family are on. The man in front starts to clap as he walks towards the stage, followed by a much larger man behind him. The attention of the people on the stage move towards the aisle as the two men get to the bottom of the steps and move towards the stage steps, quickly moving up them and moving towards the group, the bigger man carrying a briefcase. Gabriel stands up to look at them.
"Sorry guys, you can't be on the stage here." Gabriel tells them holding up his hand in the universal hand sign of stop.
Daniel J Morgan smiles back at him as Osbourne stands behind him, holding that briefcase firmly in his hand.
"It's alright mate, I have no intention of messing with your dangerous stuff." He says pointing around the stage at the various props, as his eyes fall on a water tank near the back of the stage. "Now that thing right there Os, that is part of my favourite Gabriel Stevens illusion and I can't for the life of me work out how he does it."
Daniel looks back at Osbourne, waving a finger towards the water tank.
"See, what he does Os, is he combines four famous tricks in one go using that thing." Daniel tells him. "The classic straight jacket, water escape, one of the great Houdini's specials, yet half way through, a curtain comes up for just a few seconds and he's standing on top of the tank, still locked up, with a woman in the tank locked up instead, classic metamorphism. Then the curtain goes up and drops again and he's back in the tank and a flash of light later, he's gone, he's not in the tank anymore, he's on that balcony up there."
Daniel points at a balcony to the side of the stage.
"Dry as a bone and trick three, teleportation is in the bag. The crowd goes nuts and he stands on the edge and floats down to the stage from twenty feet up, adding trick four to the mix." Daniel tells Os. "Levitation... It's a top class trick."
Gabriel and Odette look at Daniel as he turns back towards the couple.
"Who are you guys?" Odette asks "You don't exactly look like the usual type of fan boys my husband gets."
Daniel holds up both hands as he looks towards Odette.
"I'm sorry, how rude of me." He says apologetically "My name is Daniel J Morgan, and this is Osbourne. I'm sorry if we surprised you both here, but we are here for a reason, not a pair of crazy stalkers or anything of the sort."
"I'm Gabriel Stevens, this is my wife, Odette" Gabriel says with a nod.
"And who's this little guy?" Daniel asks as he crouches down next to the pram.
"This is our son, Lucas." Odette tells him.
Daniel smiles at the young man in the pram.
"This ones gonna be a little heartbreaker when he's older." Daniel comments as he stands up and looks at Gabriel "Anyway, I have a little bit of an offer for you"
He looks towards Gabriel and then towards Odette.
"Now you two don't seem like the BS type." Daniel says choosing his words wisely around the Stevens' young child. "I'm a businessman from London, as you can probably tell by the accent with you being English yaself, but I want to expand, I want to extend, I want to get involved in the wrestling business amongst other ventures. Now I've always been a firm believer of learning the ropes, starting at ground level before sitting on the big boy seat and waving around a sceptre and calling meself the boss. Never do know how a business works unless you've got your hands a bit mucky doing the grunt work. I could throw money at a company tomorrow and buy in, I could just go it alone but it will just become a money pit."
Daniel focuses his attention on Gabriel, looking at him deeply in the eyes.
"So I, and my associates would like to learn by becoming wrestlers, seeing how businesses work in America." He tells him.
"You mean associate?" Odette adds, looking at Osbourne.
"Associates, my dear." Daniel says as he looks at her. "Obviously me and Os here, but we also have two very tough ladies looking for a break in this game too. Two rough diamonds you might say that could do with a little polishing."
Gabriel looks at the two men up and down, but before he can say anything at all, Daniel decides to continue to sell himself on the couple.
"We did a fair bit of research last night." Daniel tells them. "We even had a little bit of a business meeting with Christian Underwood who told us to come back in six months after we've been trained and he'll have a little peep at us and see what he thinks. It meant we had to find the perfect match for us, and we looked long and hard but only two people stood out. People who had been part of successful teams, people who could sell sand to an Arab, people who has a bit of a track record and you two are the perfect match. There's no ifs, buts or ands about it. No one even comes close to what you two can do. See our ladies need the firm, but fair hand from someone they can look up to, and that would be you."
Daniel points with an open palm towards Odette.
"Someone they can respect. They may be a little rough around the edges, but they understand the hierarchy and invest a lot in respect. You are that person Mrs Stevens." He tells Odette before turning to Gabriel. "And you are a tag team expert, which is where Os and I wanna be, you are someone who don't mince words and draws that respect from everyone, and that is something I can relate to. It's a match made in heaven."
Daniel's confident look translates to Gabriel as he slowly nods his head.
"While I appreciate the words, and while he has the shape, and you have the charisma, I'm already training a female full time, a tag team part time and always working with a current SCW star to keep her skills sharp." Gabriel tells them "So to take on four more would be a stretch."
Undeterred and not used to taking no for an answer, Daniel pushes on.
"It's too good of an opportunity to turn down in my view Mr Stevens." Daniel says with a calm confident smile. "Like I said, I've done my research pretty well and I know these shows of yours draws a lot of money, people will always pay to see something they will never believe or know how it's done. I know three or four nights a week here will net you a quarter of a mil or close to, am I right?"
Gabriel shrugs his left shoulder, tilting his head in that direction.
"But wrestling, it's there in your blood." Daniel says with a wave of the finger. "I know you're still very close to the wrestling world, very much so with people in Sin City Wrestling and I'm sure you get asked to train hundreds a week, at what? A grand and half a month?"
"That's about average." Gabriel tells him.
"Well I was always told if you pay peanuts, you get monkeys." Daniel tells him. "I believe in paying people their worth. If they're worth more than their going rate, I prefer to pay them that, it shows a common decency and respect for one's craft and I believe you're worth more than that, so I came with an offer to show you how serious I am about all this stuff."
Daniel nods towards Osbourne who walks towards the chair Gabriel recently vacated and places the briefcase on top of it. He opens the locks and lifts the top, revealing layers of American dollar bills, drawing the attention of Gabriel and Odette's eyes..
"I wouldn't insult you with an offer for the pair of you with anything less than what you're worth." He tells them. "What you're looking at is one hundred and twenty large. That is your rate Mr Stevens, it's doubled for Mrs Stevens, and an extra bit for yourself. Time and half and a little more, for four people, for six months. Now I'm not even playing on ya Sin of Greed persona here."
Gabriel looks towards the money, his eyes rolling across every dollar bill in the briefcase.
"And if we don't meet your standards within a month, you can cut us loose without returning this." Daniel says as he moves to the briefcase and shuts the lid down. "But this is how much I believe in the four of us as a group. This is how much I believe in the pair of you two as trainers and I hope the challenge appeals to the pair of ya to produce ya first ever proper stable, rather than these fly by night merchants who seem to appear and disappear within weeks."
Having young Henry in the office that fateful day that drew their attention to wrestling had grown dividends, his knowledge and Daniel's words based on his knowledge seemed to be impressing as Gabriel shared a look from his wife, knowing that no one had been this bold before.
"But I won't put pressure on ya to throw me an answer right away." Daniel says as he locks the briefcase and picks it up. "I'm sure there's much to discuss with the missus, but please get in touch with me soon."
Daniel reaches in to his inside pocket and pulls out a business card and hands it to Gabriel, who looks at it intently, and Daniel drops the briefcase next to Gabriel.
"I'm gonna leave this right here." Daniel says, reaching out his hand and offering it to Gabriel, who grips his hand firmly without shaking it.
"Who's to say I won't just take your money and not call?" Gabriel asks seriously.
Daniel turns his head to look around Gabriel's family and back to Gabriel.
"You don't seem like the type anymore." Daniel tells him. "You're the kinda bloke who's word is his bond."
Gabriel nods his head and shakes Daniel's hand. He releases it and turns towards Odette.
"Lovely to meet you." He says to Odette, taking her hand and kissing it, before crouching next to Lucas, putting his finger near the young boy, who wraps his hand around it. Daniel shakes it up and down. "And good to meet you too young un'"
Daniel looks around with a smile before standing up and moving towards the steps of the stage. He steps down with Osbourne in tow and starts to walk up the aisle. Gabriel and Odette share a nod.
"Hey!" Odette calls out, causing the two to stop. "Are your ladies in America?"
Daniel turns around and shakes his head.
"Sadly no." He says "They're back home in blighty"
"Can they be here within three days?" Gabriel asks from the stage.
"Can be here by the morning." Daniel calls back.
"Make it happen." Gabriel tells him "And I'll call you with an address to be at in three days time. Don't let me down."
"Wouldn't make financial sense for me to do that now, would it?" Daniel says with a wink.
He turns around to continue to walk up the steps of the theatre, his trademark smile spreading across his face...
Turns out three days later would be a day where eyes were opened, but I'll leave that to the ladies to explain.
I do find it nice to pull things full circle though, don't you? And this has just become full circle.
Standing in one of the rings of Gabriel's training center in Las Vegas, Nevada, Daniel J Morgan leans on the ropes, dressed in a navy blue suit, white shirt and red tie, while Osbourne stands behind him, his left hand in front of him over his right, while wearing a silver suit with white shirt, and sunglasses.
"See, complete full circle from the story just told, because here we are in Gabriel and Odette's training facility." He says with a smile. "I know, we skipped out on the tour for some personal business. I mean it's all good and true knocking around hotel rooms for a while, but sometimes, you just need a place to call home. This is sorta a home, because this was where it started. Eight bloody months ago, this is where it started and in a little over a week, we add more credit to this place because we will join every other wrestler that has been trained here that has wrestled for SCW on the list of SCW champions. We'll be joining Evie Baang, Devona and of course Charley and Kenz as champions rolled out of this place. Two trainers, one hundred perfect champions on the roll call after High Stakes VII."
He runs his hand over the top rope.
"We thought we were getting one Hall of Famer to help us on the way and in a bit over a week, it will be two." Daniel says with a wink. "Congratulations Odette."
He lifts his right hand up with a thumbs up to the camera.
"I know what ya thinking with us though, I know what's running around your melon, I know there's a question in ya mind." Daniel says firmly "For a couple of fellas with championship aspirations, why make it so bloody difficult for yourself by adding another team?"
He looks back towards Osbourne.
"Probably a fair question." Daniel says to the big man before turning back to the camera. "You could construe that as bonkers but there's a lot to be said about challenging yourself, there's a lot to be said about standing out in the crowd. Name me one other SCW star that would have gone out of their way to make things tougher for themselves when they could have had a piss easy match? Name me one other our there that would risk it all for the greater glory? Most of the time when ya sitting around backstage, waiting for something to happen, you hear people moaning about being booked against lots of people. To those people, man the fuck up and challenge yourself. I know people can say we've beaten them, so they add nothing, but it ain't about them. They're solid enough, begrudgingly pulled in a little respect from me and from the outside, it might look like these guys have blown more opportunities than Spurs at Wembley, but turns out they do add to the match. All their screw ups is making them more and more determined. They're gonna come out with a bit of fire knowing their the underdogs in this one."
He waves his finger at the camera.
"And that is what I like to see." Daniel says with a smile spreading on his face. "It was never ever about them deserving it, because they've already lost to us. It was always about them bringing that fire to the ring, about them trying to prove everyone wrong, putting their nuts on the line for this one knowing it's their last chance to make a bold statement, more so than before, and us looking a damn sight better for putting them out of it once and for all. Beating just The Monstimals was never gonna just be enough to me, or to Os, it was about beating the whole division at once and being as the whole division is us cause everyone pissed off when they lost their chance at gold, this is about us stamping down our authority on the place and this division. Charley and Kenz are doing their part for their division, showing who the bosses are and now it's our turn. Travis, Horace, you wasn't brought in to this match cause I woke up and felt like being a generous soul. It was because you are the exclamation point on the exclamation mark. You're here to make us look better and set us on our way as champions."
Daniel leans back on the ropes and looks down the camera.
"Come on fellas, you've been in the ring with us, you might have made us more aware of ya, but come on, you've now seen first hand what we're all about." Daniel says firmly. "Deep down in your heart of hearts, you know that we're the best tag team to burst on the scene since probably Jet City. You know that we're set to go on a championship run like no other, you're just there as a bit of a side dish rather than the main course. You're there to be part of what is going to be the start of something big for us, so just sit back, relax and enjoy the ride. Don't worry, we'll try make you look good too."
Confidence runs through Daniel's body as he nods his head towards the camera.
"Something else that's been a bit of a convo starter this week has been last week at Climax Control where we was challenged to a steel cage match." Daniel starts "But that was a normal wrestling thing, a challenge to something more, but the talk has been about me saying no to it. Now I don't claim to be a wrestling historian by any stretch of the imagination, but I've done a little homework. It seems that traditionally, the gimmick matches are done after a heated feud, a big rivalry, something to top off something of epic proportion, not a first time match. That just makes you look stupid Monsitmals. Also came to the conclusion that sending some fella in your place to make the challenge, while you two were probably in doors weeping over Bambi or something, also doesn't give you much pull when it comes to things. If ya too lazy to get off your arse and make the challenge yourself, you can't be taken seriously. It's like going back to school and sending ya mate over to a girl you like to tell her you like her on your behalf, it's gutless. It doesn't make you look good at all."
He shakes his head.
"But also looking back, it tends to show this is what The Monstimals are all about really." He says looking away for a second. "Shows you exactly what they're all about. Lets break them down for all you people listening. These are the guys that spend their lives behind masks, now we use many different masks. Some use computer screens as masks and become keyboard warriors, doesn't matter if ya trolling people on a forum talking about cats, or if you're sitting there with a horrible Twitter wrestling rumours account, you're hiding some kind of inadequacy and expecting no come back. Sometimes we use words as masks, like being the guy that brags about having a big chopper to deflect from the fact it looks like a McDonalds fry, or the guy who says he's banged his way through half of south London, when really, the only thing he's banged is a sports sock."
Daniel looks down the camera firmly.
"You Monstimals, you are the McDonalds fry dick, and the sports sock wankers." He says confidently. "Every single time you ask for violent matches, it's because you're hiding the fact that you can't actually wrestle. In fact, you wrestle worse than I did a year ago and I hadn't even seen a show at that point."
He clasps his hands together.
"You're the guys in the pub that can't use their fists, they have to resort to glassing someone, cause if they had to use fists and go toe to toe with someone, they'll be more exposed than an exhibitionist on a Sunday walk." He says confidently. "Now those things that you worked so hard for, that you screamed and clawed for are WRESTLING belts, you work for a company where the clue is in the title. This is not called Sin City Use Weapons And Make People Bleed, this is Sin City WRESTLING. Am I getting it through your thick heads now, Wrestling, nothing else."
He takes a second to breathe, looking at the camera with calmness.
"One more time for you gentlemen." He says with a calm voice "Wrestling. It's meant to be an art form. Your history shows it's really not an art form to you. Constant challenges for violent matches to suit your own needs."
He rolls his eyes.
"Do me a favour and bore off." He says firmly. "Cages, deathmatches, hardcore this, hardcore that, so one dimensional, it's not even funny. Stick figure drawings have more dimensions than you do."
Daniel fakes a yawn.
"You're trying to represent a wrestling company while trying to drag it back to the dark ages, the medieval times of blood and guts to get a reaction." He says looking straight down the camera. "Did it not enter your head that people are desensitised to blood and guts, thanks to the movie business? No one cares if you split people open, they care about being entertained and chaps, you two are not entertaining. You're dull, you're boring, you're one dimensional, you hide your piss poor skills behind violence and you probably have knobs like a McDonalds chip, hence the passive aggression cause you can't match up to most men in many departments."
Daniel holds up his little finger to indicate.... Well, you figured it out.
"We should have beat you in that Battle Royal." Daniel starts "I think everyone knows that but you must have caught the wrestling.... See, I used that word again... Wrestling gods in a good mood, but this time, they're not in a good mood because they're pissed at ya for trying to drag wrestling in to the equivalent of Maggie Thatcher's Britain.... For those who don't get that one, it was a dark place with no prospects. If these two keep the belts and throw their fat around trying to force people in to these matches, SCW's tag division will be a dark place with no prospects."
He takes a breath
"But luckily for you all, Os and I are about to do ya a favour that you won't have to pay back because the reward will be more than worth it." He says firmly. "We'll save the SCW Tag Team division by taking the belts off these gore merchants. We might not be saints, but we're a fuck ton better than these two will ever be and we'll do it by wrestling, not just a random gimmicky call out by someone other than them. If we ever did that, might as well get me old mum to come out and call people out, be just as random as no sack doing it."
He shakes his head in disgust.
"Anyway sock wankers." Daniel starts "You've been put on notice here and as this will probably air long before your last minute rush job, feel free to use everything I said against ya because well, you're low class like that, clearly uncreative if you have to resort to same ol', same ol' dull violent matches, so feel free to rip me apart for what's been said, couldn't give a rats arse if you do. You'll only go on to prove my point about just who you are. Keep on hiding behind those masks boys, you'll still have them left after High Stakes VII, but those titles will have a nice new home."
Another smile comes from Daniel's lips.
"Now you've heard enough from me about how me and Os are gonna take card of Travis Nathaniel Andrews, Horace Jackson, Lord Raab and Samuel McPherson." He starts "But there's a pair of ladies over there that wanna talk to you about defeating the Queens of the long winded, filled with more filler than a candy addicts teeth, promo, The Fallen. So you go and have a listen to that, I hear Kenz is in a bit of a mood, should be entertaining."
Daniel turns to Osbourne.
"Fancy a cuppa tea and a smoke?" He says to the bigger man.
The camera zooms across to the second ring in the facility, where Mackenzie Page and Charlotte Elliot stand looking across to them.
"No fucks given there...." Mackenzie says...
The ladies turn towards the camera... But if you wanna see their promo, switch to it now!
