[Simon Jones]

 Saturday 27th July, 12:35 p.m.

The scene opens to show this view, from the upper tier of the Olympic Stadium in the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park:


The camera spins around 180 degrees and focuses on two individuals in particular, Simon and Jacqueline Jones, who are sat one row from the back of the stand. Jacqueline, who is sat at the end of the row, next to the aisle, is wearing a light purple butterfly print chiffon skirt, a sleeveless cream top, and a pair of sunglasses; Simon, who is sat to the left of Jacqueline, is wearing a pair of dark blue jeans and a red t-shirt, which has the Nike swoosh logo on it.

With both hands, Simon is holding open a copy of the London Evening Standard, visible on the cover of which is a pictue of Jonnie Peacock and an advert for Sainsbury's; Simon is leant forward in his seat, his attention on the newspaper. Jacqueline, however, is sat staring off into the distance, and it is she that is the first to speak.

Jacqueline: 'Remind me again - is this my treat for our anniversary, or yours?'

Simon: 'It's supposed to be a treat for both of us.'

Jacqueline turns to look at Simon, who, seconds later, folds up the newspaper and drops it onto the floor, out of sight.

Simon: 'Of the two of us, I know that I'm the that watches athletics the most, but come on, you do like it too. Plus, this was one of the few major venues that we didn't get the chance to visit last summer - which I know you were slightly disappointed about - so when I discovered that the London Grand Prix was being moved from Crystal Palace to the Olympic Stadium, it seemed like as good an opportunity as any for us to attend an event here. And with this event being called the "Anniversary Games," and with it just so happening to fall on the weekend of our anniversary, I thought that made it even more appropriate for us to be here.'

Simon leans back and turns to look at Jacqueline.

Simon: 'Besides, you can't tell me that you didn't enjoy getting to see Usain Bolt race last night.'

Jacqueline: 'Yeah, I can't deny that - it was good to get to watch him live, at such proximity. Then prior to that, there was Kirani James. And the high jump was entertaining too.'

Simon smiles.

Simon: 'See, I knew that you would enjoy yourself. So what prompted the question that you asked me?'

Jacqueline: 'I don't know, I guess I'm just a bit bored is all, what with there being over an hour to go until the first event of today - nowadays, I can't even kill time by having a drink.'

Simon: 'One of the drawbacks of being pregnant.'

Jacqueline: 'You don't need to tell me.'

Simon turns and glances behind him, over his right shoulder, before looking back at Jacqueline.

Simon: 'How about this, then: as you're unable to have a drink, how about I also give up alcohol? Until the birth, I mean.'

Jacqueline: 'You'd do that for me?'

Simon: 'Absolutely - it's not fair on you to have to sit around watching me drink lager, or whatever else, and be reminded of what you're missing out on.'

Jacqueline smiles.

Jacqueline: 'Thank you.'

Simon smiles back.

Simon: You're welcome.'

Jacqueline leans over to kiss her husband.

Jacqueline: 'I don't think Jason will be too happy when he finds out that you've given up alcohol for the next five months.'

Simon: 'Don't you worry about him - I'm sure Jase can find other people to have a drink with.'

Simon turns his head to look away from Jacqueline, in the direction of the camera.

Simon: 'And I'm sorry that I dragged you here so long before the start of the day's action - I just wanted to try to make certain that we avoided getting caught in the rain that's forecast for later.'

Jacqueline: 'I know you did.'

Jacqueline puts her right hand on Simon's left shoulder; she then turns to also look in the direction of the camera, and leans forward slightly.

Jacqueline: 'If it does rain, we'll be glad that we're not sat in the lower tier again.'

Jacqueline then leans back.

Simon: 'Regardless of whether or not it rains, I don't think you'll have the same need for those sunglasses that you had yesterday evening, when we were sat by the back straight, in the full glare of the sun.'

Jacqueline: 'Maybe not, but I'll still look awesome.'

Laughing, Simon turns towards Jacqueline.

Simon: 'Awesome? Really?'

Jacqueline takes her hand off Simon's shoulder, as she turns to face him.

Jacqueline: 'What?'

Simon shakes his head.

Simon: 'Nothing.'

Simon then smiles.

Simon: 'You're right - you do look awesome.'

Simon leans across to kiss Jacqueline.

Jacqueline: 'It must've taken you a few weeks to plan this trip, so how did you know that you wouldn't be needed in SCW this weekend?'

Simon: 'It was a matter of months, rather than weeks. And to answer your question, when I bought the tickets, I had no idea of whether I was going to have to work this weekend - I took a gamble.'

Jacqueline: 'A gamble?'

Placing his left elbow on his left thigh, Simon slouches forward and rests his chin on his left hand, looking away from Jacqueline.

Simon: 'Yep. If I had ended up having to wrestle in a match somewhere this weekend, given how quickly this event sold out, I can guarantee that I wouldn't have had any difficulty in reselling our tickets. But thankfully, the need for that never arose, and so the gamble paid off - just like the other recent gamble of note that I made.'

Jacqueline: 'Which gamble was that?'

Simon: 'My decision, at the end of May, to leave my comfort zone in ACW and enter the open invitational battle royal in SCW - the gamble that resulted in me becoming the number contender to the title that was then held by Jordan Williams, and eventually resulted in me becoming the SCW Heavyweight Champion.'

Jacqueline: 'Yeah, that gamble definitely worked out well. And three weeks tomorrow, you'll be defending that title for the first time, won't you?'

Simon nods his head slightly.

Simon: 'That's right. I expect I'll be given the news shortly, with regards to who is going to be my opponent at Summer XXXTreme.'

Jacqueline: 'Do you have any clue as to who your opponent might be?'

Simon: 'Well, Jordan Williams believes that him being the former champion should warrant him being given a re-match, although after what happened last Sunday, Gabriel may have now jumped ahead of him in the queue. So they would appear to be the two most obvious candidates. But who knows - I could yet have a surprise sprung upon me.'

Jacqueline: 'Who else do you think might be under consideration then?'

Simon shrugs his shoulders.

Simon: 'I don't know. It's just that there's so many talented wrestlers on the SCW roster, many of whom you could make a case for. For example, there's Nick Jones - the uncrowned World Heavyweight Champion. Then there's Kevin Carter, who, prior to getting himself suspended, was the number one contender for the SCW heavyweight title. And I could go on. It seems that every man in SCW - from Drake Green to Nathaniel Havok, from Lucian Frost to Damien Kingston - has their sights set on my title.'

Simon lifts his head away from his left hand and leans back in his seat.

Simon: 'Which is the way that it should be. Although, the vast majority of the guys on the roster think that they deserve a title shot, even if they've done little in the way of actually earning a shot at the title. I, however, have no qualms about facing whatever challenge that I'm presented with - I look forward to showing that my win against Jordan Williams at Into The Void was no fluke, and that I deserve to be the SCW Heavyweight Champion.'

Jacqueline: 'Well, whoever turns out to be your opponent, I know that you'll do fine.'

Jacqueline kisses Simon on the cheek.

Simon: 'I hope so.'

Simon turns to look at Jacqueline.

Simon: 'You'll be joing me aboard the Royal Monarch, for Summer XXXTreme, won't you?'

Jacqueline: 'If I'm allowed to, then of course I will! Unless there's a risk that I might distract you from your reason for being on board the ship.'

Simon: 'Don't be daft; you only ever provide me with the motivation to succeed - you're never a distraction.'

Simon leans in to kiss Jacqueline.

Simon: 'Being on board a cruise ship will be quite a contrast to us being on the canal, on my parents' narrowboat.'

Jacqueline: 'Indeed it will.'

Jacqueline turns away from Simon, to look in the direction of the camera; moments later, Simon does likewise. After a further few seconds of silence, Simon speaks again.

Simon: 'Come five o'clock, once everything has finished here, you can choose then what we do for the rest of today, and the remainder of our break.'

Jacqueline: 'How much longer is the hotel room booked for?'

Simon: 'Only one more night. I had thought that tomorrow we could catch a train, to go visit my parents, and then go to visit your parents - or vice versa - but after having forced you to indulge my desire to visit the Olympic Stadium, I'll leave it up to you to decide precisely what we do.'

Jacqueline: 'We ought to try to visit both my parents, and yours, if possible - if we don't, and they then discover that we've been in the UK, there'll be murder.'

Simon: 'Exactly what I thought.'

There is another brief period of silence, which is broken by Jacqueline.

Jacqueline: 'What time is it?'

Simon: 'Quarter to one.'

Jacqueline: 'How do you know that, without checking your phone?'

Simon: 'There's a clock down by the finish line.'

Jacqueline leans forward.

Jacqueline: 'So there is.'

Jacqueline sighs, as she leans backwards.

Jacqueline: 'Still over an hour to go, then.'

Simon: 'Colin Murray will probably be out before long, just like yesterday, to start the build-up.'

Jacqueline: 'I wonder if he'll bring out any of the athletes that are going to be competing later.'

Simon turns to look towards Jacqueline.

Simon: 'Mo Farah, perhaps? Even so, I doubt that there'll be anything on a par with the spectacle from yesterday evening, of Usain Bolt being driven on a lap of the track, atop a rocket-ship.'

Jacqueline turns to face Simon.

Jacqueline: 'No, I doubt there'll be anything to match that.'

Simon and Jacqueline smile at one another, and as they then share another kiss, the scene fades to black.


Monday 29th July, 4:10 p.m.

The scene opens to show a football pitch in the foreground, with part of a stadium visible in the background; of the seats that can be seen in the stadium, most of them are royal blue, although some are white, with the white seats forming the letters - from left to right - BCFC.

The camera pans to the left, to focus on another part of the stadium; again, most of the seats that can be seen are royal blue, with the white seats in this area spelling out "THE BLUES." A lone figure can be seen in this stand, occupying one of the seats that makes up the "U" - whilst the person in question is far enough away from the camera so as not to be immediately identifiable, once they begin to speak, it is soon apparent who this individual is.

Simon: 'Welcome to St Andrew's, home of Birmingham City - the football club that I have supported for the better part of three decades. In addition to being a fan of the club, I'm also a former employee, having had my first proper job here, working in the ticket office for a couple of summers in the late 90's, during my breaks from university life. And as a former employee, the club have kindly agreed to allow me to use the stadium as a setting for this clip.'

The camera zooms in closer on Simon Jones, who can now be seen to be wearing a pair of black jeans, and a yellow Birmingham City F.C. jersey.

Simon: 'This time five days from now, Blues will be a few minutes into the second half of their opening game of the new season, against Watford. I daren't think how many hours I've spent here, watching Blues play - this summer is the first for many years that I haven't bought a season ticket. But with me now spending very little time in the UK - as a consequence of my life as a wrestler - a season ticket would no longer be of much use to me; you can add watching my beloved Birmingham City to the list of things that I've had to sacrifice for the benefit of my career. Still, I had hoped to be able to attend the game this coming Saturday, although that's not going to happen now, as I'm needed elsewhere - specifically, I'm needed in SCW.'

Simon gets up from his seat.

Simon: 'Before I start to discuss the match that I'm going to be competing in next Sunday, I want to briefly mention the special edition of Climax Control that took place yesterday - Sunday Night Seduction. I haven't yet had the opportunity to view the show, but I've been told that Sylvia turned up at the venue, looking for me, so, I expect that I'll have a visit from an irritated sister to look forward to, when I return to Canada later in the week; I've also been told that the ladies involved in last night's show put on a great event, so kudos to all concerned. But now, it's time for me to turn my attention to next Sunday.'

Simon turns to his right and walks to the end of the row; he then stops and turns back to look towards the camera.

Simon: 'In terms of what has taken place in the ring, July has not been the greatest of months for me, and it's safe to say that I'll be glad to see the back of it. This month first saw me participate in a singles match in ACW - which ended in a no-contest - and then in two tag team matches, one in SCW and one in ACW, with me being on the losing side both times. Now, after the high that I experienced in June, when I won the SCW Heavyweight Championship, whatever July had in store for me was always likely to be a come-down, but even so, it's still been a more disappointing month - results-wise - than I could've anticipated. So, as we head into August, I need to turn things around, and fast - if I don't, then I'm unlikely to remain the SCW Heavyweight Champion for much longer.'

Simon places his right hand on the back of the seat in the row in front.

Simon: 'Come this Sunday, I'll be in a match that will act as a preview of the SCW Heavyweight Championship match at Summer XXXTreme II, and it's going to be far from easy for me to get back to winning ways at Climax Control - partly because the match is another tag team match, and partly because of the standard of my opponents, Nick Jones and Jordan Williams. As for who is my partner for the match, the man that has that misfortune is Kevin Carter.'

Simon puts his left hand in the pocket of his jeans.

Simon: 'Tag team matches and I mix as well as oil and water. I can probably no longer use the remark that, "you can count on one hand the number of tag team matches that I've been involved in," but whilst I may now have more experience in tag matches, my record in them remains the same - it's atrocious. I'm sorry, Kevin, I don't know what you've done to deserve having me for a tag team partner - I guess that you must've drawn the short straw. The fact that you've been half of the tag team champions in SCW gives me some hope that this Sunday could be a different story. But then, the man that was my partner in ACW last week - Steve Ramone - is also a fomer tag team champion, and that did neither of us any good, so maybe this Sunday won't be any different, either. Perhaps it's going to take something else, like an outside force, for me to be able to be victorious this Sunday - perhaps the city that we'll be in will help me.'

Simon glances down at the floor, before looking back at the camera.

Simon: 'The forthcoming Climax Control will see SCW return to San Diego, a city that has been very good to me. It was in San Diego, at the end of May, that I won on my debut in SCW, to become the number contender to the heavyweight title. And then, four weeks later, San Diego was again the location, as I defeated Jordan Williams to win the title. Two wins from two high profile matches in San Diego - hopefully on Sunday I can make it a hat-trick; maybe I'll even pin Jordan Williams to get the victory, once more, although if Kevin Carter pins my namesake to get the win, that would be okay too.'

Simon removes his right hand from the seat in front and takes his left hand out of his pocket; he then steps to the right, so that he is stood in the aisle.

Simon: 'You know, when I found out that Climax Control was going to be in San Diego, I had considered waiting until the end of the week to record this, so that I could do so with me standing in Presidio Park, again. But then I realised that if I did that, people really might start to think that I'm superstitious. And anyway, it's almost as sunny today here in Birmingham as I expect it is in San Diego.'

Simon raises his right arm and uses his hand to shield his eyes, as he looks up, towards the sky.

Simon: 'There's two other men, who will be involved in the match on Sunday, that I've failed to mention so far: Gabriel and Drake Green. Gabriel will be the special guest referee for the match, which has me casting my mind back to the beginning of June, when I was the referee for a six man tag team match in which Gabriel was one of the participants - I was given the duty of being the referee because of my then-status as the number one contender for the heavyweight title, and I remember, prior to the match, Gabriel stating that he preferred to get to show his abilities against his opponents, rather than playing the role of referee. Well Gabriel, look at how the situation has changed - you're now the one that, just weeks away from getting a shot at the title, will be dressed like a magpie, whereas I'll be dressed like a bluebird; actually, on second thought, that may not be the best analogy, as apparently bluebirds now wear red.'

Simon takes his hand away from his eyes, as he looks back towards the camera.

Simon: 'Just for the record, Gabriel was on the winning team in that six man tag team match, and had Jordan Williams as one of his partners, whilst Nick Jones was one of the three men that they defeated - on that occasion, one of Nick Jones and Jordan Williams was guaranteed to be victorious, but this Sunday, hopefully they'll both be on the losing side, and then at the conclusion of the match, Gabriel will be raising the hands of Kevin Carter and I. And as for Drake Green, following the vicious beating that he sustained last week in ACW, I merely hope that he will have recovered sufficiently to be able to perform his duties as the special guest ringside enforcer.'

Simon turns to look over his left shoulder momentarily; he then turns back to the camera.

Simon: 'With what has happened in London this past weekend, I can't help but think back to last year, 2012, which was such an amazing year for British sport - the centrepiece of which, was of course the Olympic games. The Olympics took place a few months before I resumed my wrestling career, and so, together with my wife, I was fortunate enough to be able to attend nine events. And it was fifty-two weeks ago today that I attended the first of those nine events: weightlifting. Now, lifting weights is something that all wrestlers spend time doing, and some enjoy it more so than others - I don't particularly enjoy lifting weights, but if I didn't do it, I wouldn't have much chance of being successful in the ring. Olympic weightlifting, though, is very different to lifting weights in the gym, and, especially in the case of the more diminutive weightlifters, the feats of strength that they perform on stage usually belies their stature - feats that compare to what we've seen the likes of Despayre and Lucian Frost do inside the six-sided ring against opponents bigger than them.'

Simon turns away from the camera, and walks up the steps, until he reaches the top row of the aisle; he then turns back around.

Simon: 'The second event that I attended was boxing, which, apart from amateur wrestling, is probably the Olympic sport that is most comparable our own - just last week in ACW, I was embroiled in a slugfest with Mickey Carroll, which spilled outside the ring. Like matches in professional wrestling, Olympic boxing matches rarely end by a knockout; my friend, Jason O'Neil, was once so angered by the comments of an opponent that he made it his goal to beat that opponent by knockout, but I've yet to encounter anyone that has riled me to the point of wanting to knock them out - who knows, perhaps one of my opponents at Summer XXXTreme will be that man.'

Simon glances around the stadium, before looking back to the camera.

Simon: 'The next sport that I saw was basketball, but I'm going to skip over that for now, as I'll discuss team sports in a little bit; following an afternoon watching basketball, I then attended a session of swimming. I went to the swimming hoping to see Rebecca Adlington win the 800 metre freestyle, but instead she was upstaged by Katie Ledecky. Also that night, I saw a gold medal winning from someone that was mentioned by Kain two weeks ago: Michael Phelps. Three days beforehand, Phelps had suffered a surprise defeat of his own, when he was beaten by Chad le Clos in the 200 metre butterfly - how many people expected le Clos to beat Phelps? How many people expected Ledecky to beat Adlington? How many people expected me to beat Jordan Williams? The answer to each of those questions is probably the same: not many. But I took great pride in defeating Jordan Williams at Into The Void II, as I put on my own golden performance. And I will continue to take pride in defying expectations in SCW, which will hopefully include me actually managing to win a tag team match, this Sunday, and then going on to retain the heavyweight title, two weeks later.'

Simon walks back down the aisle, stopping by the row that he was previously sat in.

Simon: 'So on to team sports. Now, I already mentioned that I watched basketball, prior to the swimming - well, after swimming, the remaining five sports that I saw were all team sports: handball, beach volleyball, handball again, hockey, and volleyball. And before anyone thinks about calling me a pervert, or something similar, because I watched beach volleyball, don't bother - I began to have such comments thrown my way in May 2011, from the moment I found out I'd gotten tickets for that event. In fact, of the five team sports that I saw, beach volleyball may actually be the easiest to compare to a tag team match - I mean, there are two members on each team, whereas there are eleven players on a hockey team, and how often do you see a twenty-two man tag team match staged? Admittedly, it's more like a tornado rules tag team match than a regular tag match, as both members of each team are on court at the same time, but then, a similar argument could be made about almost all team sports.'

Simon continues his walk down the aisle, until he reaches the front row.

Simon: 'I could prattle away about what Kevin Carter and I are going to need to do to defeat Nick Jones and Jordan Williams - I could spout cliches such as "we need to do all the little things," or "we need to be a well-oiled machine" - but I think the best thing I can do to illustrate the effort that may be required of us, is to use an example from a handball match that I witnessed last summer, between Iceland and Hungary. The two teams met in the quarter-finals, and with fourteen seconds of the match remaining, Iceland - who were already a goal ahead - were awarded a penalty, giving them the chance to seal the win. However, the Hungarians refused to accept defeat, continuing to believe that they could still win; the penalty was saved by the goalkeeper, and the team then executed a fast break, which lead to them scoring with just two seconds left, to take the match into overtime - and to cap that off, Hungary then went on to win in overtime. And it's that sort of spirit - that never-say-die attitude - that Kevin Carter and I are likely to need to call upon.'

Simon puts his hands on his hips.

Simon: 'During the match this Sunday, up against a team of the calibre of Nick Jones and Jordan Williams, it's not unreasonable to think that at times we might well find ourselves on the verge of losing. And if we do, well, like the Hungarian handball team, I believe that we'll have it in us to be able to snatch victory from the jaws of defeat, to leave our opponents licking their wounds, and feeling like the Icelandic team; I just hope to be proved right - we'll find out soon enough.'

Simon takes his hands off his hips; as he turns away from the camera, and begins to walk back up the steps, the scene fades to black.