The Phoenix Rises
SCW Climax Control #223
Travis Levitt versus Joshua Acquin
The scene opens up on a shot of a dessert. The sun is just starting to rise in the horizon, the morning sky showing the first signs of light, and the rays of the sun slowly illuminating the sandy hill that is todays focus. Standing at the foot of the hill, his long hair hanging loose around his shoulders, is Travis Levitt. Levitt has on a simple sleeveless tee and some jeans, and his eyes are glued on the top of the hill in front of him. Watching the crest of the hell for a few moments and then turning back to look directly at the camera. His hands resting in the pockets of his jeans as he takes in a deep breath and then smiles.
"So, this is it. The moment has almost arrived. Right now, all those months in the gym, all that time away, it's all been leading me to this moment right here. My time to return to where I belong. Back inside that squared circle. Back doing what I love. But before we get there, I guess there are some questions that need answering."
Travis looks back up at the peak of the hill, and then back towards the camera. A slight smile on his lips as he turns to face the camera full-on, clearly starting to find his groove again as he gazes into the lens.
"Who is this mysterious stranger? What am I doing on an officially sanctioned SCW screen? How does he stay so ruggedly handsome? All good questions. So lets start at the start. My name is Travis Levitt. In another life, at another time, I was known as 'The Dragon'. It wasn't just a nickname either. Not just a reference to my tremendous heart and ability to withstand damage. No, I was called The Dragon for a much more practical reason. I use to spit fireballs."
"And I don't mean that stupid flame paper crap some global companies try and pass off as fireballs. I'm talking actual proper fireballs. Now, I could tell you how I did it, but the secret to a good trick is never revealing it. Let's just say food didn't taste the same for me for a long time after I'd stopped. Now, a dude that can spit fireballs is great for the bottom line of a wrestling company. Because he adds to the show. Another trick in their deck."
Levitt makes a few hand gestures as he speaks, acting like the ringmaster of a circus.
"Over there you have the human cannonball, in the middle is the strong man, and just in that dark corner is our fire spitter. Come one, come all, and see our show! Don't mind the clown in a cowboy hat, he'll be gone soon enough."
Levitt stops and pointedly looks directly at the camera, mouthing out the word 'Please?'. Waiting another moment before he winks at the camera and then puts his hands back in his jeans.
"Now, for years, I didn't mind that. Didn't mind being an attraction. I learned my craft. Learned how to wrestle and got better and better. Every week was a new challenge and I was up for it. And the better I got, the more I started wondering if maybe center circle was where I belonged. I picked up a few titles, but that World Title shot alluded me. Didn't matter where I went. America, Canada, Japan, Europe....no-one was willing to give the fire-spitter a shot against their champion. Finally though, I found my chance."
Levitt turns to look back at the hill, eyes judging it some more, but he eventually turns back to the camera.
"World Wrestling Headquarters. Oh I know the reputation. I know just admitting I have a history there is enough to make some of you dismiss me as another nothing. I get it. But I still need to tell you this story. I still need you to understand where I'm coming from. See, back in January 2016, WWH had a World Champion named Randy Fields. And Randy believed he was better then everyone. So Randy did what all cocky champions are prone to do....he issued an open challenge. Threw it out to the world. And the man that answered....was The Dragon."
"I could see it in his eyes the moment I walked out. He knew I had him. I was the last person he expected to answer his challenge, and he wasn't sure he could beat me. And one week later, I came ready to fight. Came ready to take that final step and claim my rightful place as a World Champion. But what I couldn't plan for was fickle fate. It was just a tiny moment....."
He chuckled and shakes his head before sighing softly.
"See, to be a wrestler you have to go through a lot of training. Have to train your body to be at its very peak and ready for anything. To absorb as much damage as we can, night in and night out, and not walk out injured is a miracle. We get trained to take our bumps almost to the fraction of an inch. A slightly wrong landing here or there, just slightly off, and its the difference between a safe landing and a broken bone."
"I'm not going to say what happened was Randy's fault. All I will say is, Randy went for a German Suplex on me, and somehow in the air my body weight shifted. My fault or Randy's.....I don't know. All I do know is I came down hard on my shoulder, I heard a crack, and I knew in that moment I was in trouble. What I didn't realise was it would be the end of my WWH career. You ever hear the story of the one armed man in an ass-kicking contest? Spoiler Alert, he doesn't win the world title."
Travis rolled his arm a little and then smiled as he smacked at his shoulder with a grin.
"The shoulder is fine now. But at the time, it seemed like I was on the top of my game, and I didn't want to stop to properly get the shoulder diagnosed. I just wanted to keep going, despite the pain. So I did what a lot of my peers have done in the past, and I turned to a chemical enhancement. Just a little pick me up to shake off the pain of constantly being dropped on my shoulder. Vicodin."
Levitt lets out a long sigh, as just mentioning the drug is enough to send a shiver through his bones. Just saying the word bringing him back to a time when the drug controlled his life and everything seemed perfect. He looks down at the sand for a few seconds and then slowly raises his head, shaking it gently.
"I use to think I was too clever to ever become an addict. Only addicts let a drug take control of their life. I was better then that. But then.....addiction doesn't play favourites. It doesn't care what your status in life is. Drugs don't discriminate by skin color or social status. They'll fuck you up no matter who or what you are. So after I took that first step, it wasn't long before my body was craving more. Percs. Oxy. Demmies. I tried a lot during those few months. Of course, the downside is....I can't remember those few months much."
Levitt shakes his head and lets out a long sigh. Reaching up to run a hand through his long hair before he raises his head to look into the camera.
"It only took WWH a month to fire me. I thought I was still wrestling well, but the truth is, my game was off, and it was easy to see. But even as WWH turned their back on me, their were still other companies willing to give me a chance. Some independents looking for that big name value of a former WWH star. I was still able to make a living, or at least, enough to feed my habit. I lost my house. Lost my Firebird. And finally, the inevitable, I fucked up in a big way. It was just an accident, but....it was rock bottom."
Levitt looks at the camera again, a far-off look in his eyes as he goes back into his memory banks, but then shakes his head and brings himself back to the here and now. Kicking at the ground for a moment, scruffing his foot among the white sand and then letting out a deep breath before he looks up and into the camera.
"I realised what I had become then. Went to rehab. Got myself clean. Even went to a doctor about my shoulder, and got told that it was a rotator cuff tear. The irony was, all it really needed was some rest and stretching. Just a month of me actually resting, instead of trying to keep myself going top speed, and I would have been fine. But instead, I made the stupidest mistake I could have ever made, and it sent me crashing right into the ground. It cost me everything I love, and it almost cost me my career."
Levitt reaches up to rub at his jaw but then turns and looks back at the hill. His eyes are glinting at the hill, as he turns back towards the camera and smiles.
"But you know what? The bigger the fall.....the higher you can climb."
And with that Levitt turns and dashes towards the hill. Jogging up the hill and kicking up the stand as he goes, it takes him a few moments but he manages to climb to the top, and he looks out with a big smirk. Staring out into the distance, and as the camera looks over his shoulder, we get a shot of Las Vegas in the distance. The early morning light still not quite bright enough to hide the bright lights of the city, and Levitt stares out at it for a moment, and then turns back to stare into the camera, a fire burning in his eyes as he breathes a little harder.
"Sin City. This city right here is a city full of the very worst of humanity. Gambling. Drugs. Prostitution. Alcohol. All of it addictive. All of it found right here. This city is the very worst place for a former addict. See, one of the first things you are taught, is to avoid temptation. To walk away from sights or places that could be a trigger. And yet....I came here. SCW. The very first place I signed with, when I was back on my feet and ready to return. Because I need to prove to myself that I can do this. It isn't enough for me to beat my addiction, or to fight off my habit. I need to conquer it. To look temptation right in the face, and prove I'm stronger then I ever was before."
"I didn't come back to this business to fall on my face again. I'm not here to be a sideshow act. I'm here to stand in the main attraction. To finally win what I never could before. A World Title. And my journey starts in Sin City Wrestling. There were other companies I could have signed for. But this is me proving a point. Me showing that I'm ready for whatever this business throws at me. I'm not hiding from my problems, I'm staring them in the face, owning up to them, and showing that I'm beyond them."
Levitt glances back at the landscape, his eyes glued on Vegas as he just watches for a few seconds and then looks at the camera.
"When I hit rock bottom, I left The Dragon there as a point. No more fireballs. No more hidden tricks. I want everyone to see me for what I am now, not what I was then. The Dragon died in 2016. Now SCW....Now it's time for The Phoenix to rise."
Levitt pulls his hand from his pocket, bringing out a zippo lighter. It has a few flames around the outside as a fancy design, and is clearly the lighter he used to use as The Dragon. Levitt twirls it in his fingers for a few moments, and then kneels down, putting the zippo in the sand, and covering it up.Resting a palm on where the lighter is buried for a few moments, before he looks up into the camera, slowly climbing back to his feet.
"This weeks Climax Control is my first, and some might expect me to be nervous. But after everything I've been through, nerves don't bother me any more. Nothing bothers me. All that matters is proving I can do this. That I can climb to the top of this business, and finally do what I've never done before. Win a World Title. Thats what I go to sleep thinking about. Thats what I wake up thinking about. It's on my mind at the gym, or when I'm out for a jog. It's on my mind when I'm visiting Pandora, and when I'm at home in my apartment. Every waking second of my day, fueled by a single burning thought. Becoming a World Champion."
"Joshua Acquin, you don't me yet. All you know is what you've heard or been told. Some bit of paper somewhere with my history on it. But what you fail to understand is that's old history. The past. The Dragon. You don't know The Phoenix. You don't know what I'm capable of, or how ready I am for this moment. You call yourself Mr. SCW, so I assume your comfortable here. That you have a nice spot, and you're going to fight to protect it. I welcome that belief. Because this week at Climax Control, I'm not coming to destroy you. I'm just coming to use you as an example. It starts with you. Everything that I do in SCW, is going to start with you."
Levitt looks out at Vegas as the city is slowly covered by the sunlight, and a small smirk tweaks at the corner of his lips. Pushing up onto his feet and then looking back at the camera. Levitt stares into the lens for a long moment and then speaks softly but with a determined tone.
"Joshua, you might call yourself Mr. SCW, but all I'm going to call you is the welcome mat. Something to rub my feet on, before I step into SCW and get ready for some actual competition. This is my moment, my time, and I will not fail again. I will not fall again. At Climax Control, its time for Mr. SCW to step aside, as The Phoenix rises."
And with that, Levitt steps away, walking back down the hill, as the scene cuts to black.
