We see Stephen Callaway. He stands with his back to the camera looking out of his hotel room window as the scene opens
Stephen Callaway
"We're moving. On Sunday we don't emanate from a converted gym in front of the un-booked roster. Instead we air from a proper wrestling venue in front of actual fans.
The Sin City website has decided to use this to question if this is my last match for Sin City this Sunday now that Sin City was no longer in Lock Down.
The answer to that is no. No, it is not my last match in Sin City now that Sin City was no longer in Lock Down.
Mainly because I never said Lock Down. I said Flight Ban. I said as soon as I could fly across the Atlantic Ocean and go home then I would. However, as far as I know, that still hasn't been lifted.
So that may been packing my things into the back of a rental car and driving around the US until the ban is lifted. I don't know.
What I do know is that this Sunday isn't my last match for Sin City. They could find a cure for Corona on Friday, administer it on Saturday and the world goes back to normal by Sunday morning and it's STILL not my last match for Sin City at Climax Control on Sunday night.
Because I don't want to go out on a maybe baby, might be, not quite sure, possible last match.
No.
I want to have a LAST match. I want it to be on the match card when it goes up on the website saying 'this IS Stephen Callaway's last match' I want to sit here and do my piece to camera and talk to the people about my thoughts feelings and emotions knowing that I'm heading into my last match. I want it so that when I step through the curtain that there isn't a doubt in anybody's mind that this is my last match.
Right now I can't do that. I can't say right now that the flight ban has been lifted. As a result, I can not say with 100% confidence that Sunday will be my last so Sunday WON'T be my last."
He turns away from the window and sits on the edge of the bed so he's facing the camera,
Stephen Callaway
"But lets for a moment talk about why I'm going. See I've heard it all. I've heard every last comment from 'can't take the heat so he's getting out of the kitchen' to 'he's a loser that's bored losing'
The honest answer is I'm getting older.
See anyone that has read my twitter, at Callaweasy twenty two twenty, or has bothered listening to me knows my feelings on the older wrestlers.
You know the ones. Those that were on TV between 1998 and 2001 at a time when wrestling had an attitude problem. Those that are now in their fifties. Those that took nine years to recover from an injury only to get injured again. Those that can only wrestle one or two times a year but still don't get the message that their body is failing them and fuck off.
I've called them on everything. From being past it in the ring to being addicted to the spotlight so much that they flick a massive 'fuck you' to the younger, newer talent that have been traveling the roads making towns for the entire year.
I don't want to be them.
I don't want to be still hanging around in my late fifties looking like a shadow of my former self. Getting to a point where I have to use an on demand service to show people what I could do when I could move. I don't want to get to a point where the marks on Twitter are tweeting 'that old fart should have pissed of back to Scotland a decade ago instead of hanging around looking like an uneaten haggis and wrestling with all the skill of one hashtag retire now'
This is me getting out.
I don't have that need for the spotlight like some do. OK I perform for it when it shines on me. I'll throw myself off turnbuckles or do pretty, crowd pleasing moves when it shines on me. Hell, I'm sat here talking to this camera in front of me instead of doing some 'scene' just so I can ensure that all eyes are on me when they click on my name.
But I don't need that spotlight on me. I don't live or die based on Instagram likes. As much as I love it when there are fans in the arenas. And I do. I love it no matter if they want to cheer for me or boo me, it's their choice to do so. But as much as I love getting a response from the crowds, as much as I love getting in that ring, there has to be a point where enough is enough.
If I go now then I have a few years to be me before the injuries really set in. My mother has arthritis. Her mother had it too and I know I have it. I feel it my hands and my wrists. I feel it in my knees, And OK it's not beating me, not yet. But I look at my mum and she struggles to walk to the other end of a thirty foot hallway. She can't walk to the local store for milk if she needs it. She can barely lift the kettle to make herself a cup of fucking coffee. I've seen the struggles that she goes through and everything she can't do anymore. She's not even sixty.
I look at her and then I look at me. I'm a fart away from forty and I've been a wrestler since I was in my late teens. I hurt on a daily basis from all the beatdowns and all the bumps I've taken over the last twenty something years. And I know it's going to get worse when the arthritis takes hold of me.
I'm getting out now while I can so I can enjoy some time when I can. Some time where I don't have to spend my weekends flying around the world living in random hotel motels so I can try to move a 300 pound guy around a wrestling ring or have some other 300 pounder try to make me part of the ring. I'm getting out before the arthritis sets in and forces me out."
He reaches to the table at the side of the bed for a glass with a dark orange liquid in it and drinks some.
Stephen Callaway
"Alex Jones. You're probably pissed right now at finding out you're not my last match. And I know I'm not a big trophy name to hang on your wall but I'm sure you'd have loved to hang that banner of 'I ended Stephen Callaway'.
But there's nothing to stop me ending you.
Let's look at it this way AJ, I have nothing to lose. So what's stopping me from taking you out? While I'm still in the US, I'm still part of Sin City. While I'm still part of Sin City, I want to be the top guy here. To be honest, there's nothing I'd love more than to beat my Twitter friend Griffin and take that Sin City Championship from him.
Even if that happens in my last match in the company.
So if I have to take you out and tear you apart this Sunday then I'll do so. I may have handed in my notice, but I'm not done yet."
He stands up and walks out of the shot.
