THE LION AND THE DRAGON Pt. 1
Round two felt different, round two in SCW championship opportunities for the young Eddie Lyons, he felt more ready than he did against Peter Vaughn and after a win over BRADDOCK he had a ton of momentum on his side. Still, each of the athletes in that match all had their own goals to accomplish.
Miles Kasey, the new champion was likely looking to keep that newly won championship. Nobody wants to lose their championship in their first defense. Miles would be looking to continue his ring at all costs.
And BRADDOCK? He was likely going to be angrier, and even more dangerous. Here was a man with two straight losses, one to Eddie himself, and the other to HBC, the boyfriend of Miles Kasey. If there were any people BRADDOCK would want to punish, Lyons and Kasey were probably at the top of the list. A third loss for BRADDOCK would be devastating, and something he’d certainly want to avoid.
And then there was Eddie, who not only had his win over BRADDOCK, but a recent victory over Tyler McCulligan and Helluva Bottom Carter as well. The Unbreakable was riding a wave of momentum and looking to continue that through High Stakes by winning his first championship.
Then there was Finn Whelan, who made it clear which championship looked the shiniest. In his arrogance, he only set his focus on Kasey and Harris, not taking into account that in short time Eddie Lyons, or even BRADDOCK could be holding that championship.
And of course, Calvin Harris just might want a rematch to try and regain his championship. There was a ton of paths the division could go down, and Eddie along with Coach Kaiser were set and focused on making Eddies path successful.[/i]
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3:24 PM on a Tuesday
The Lyons Den Wrestling Academy
Charlotte, NC
Off-Camera
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The school was in it’s usual fare, many unnamed rookies went about their usual routines, and Eddie was no different. Kaiser was taking the time to work with some of the other students, now that he was traveling with Eddie, the head trainer wasn’t around as much so he took advantage to help out his other students when he could.
Eddie felt their presence, coming over to him as he was finishing up a set of pushups, his goddamn cousins. Those three gnats were the last thing he needed in his life right now, now collectively calling themselves The Pride and seeking out contracts of their own to no avail. Led by the silver-tongued siren herself Victoria Lyons.
Try as she might, her song wasn’t about to break Eddie, she may have control over the other two but not him.
“What do you want Victoria?” Eddie huffed, annoyed he just wanted to workout and focus on his championship match.
“We just wanted to congratulate you on the success you’ve had recently.” said Victoria. “You know we’re rooting for you to bring another championship to The Lyons Den.”
“Bring A championship to The Lyons Den you mean” said Eddie, “We currently host no champions, only former ones.”
“Well, technically you’re right. But there is the matter of the three of us.” Victoria explained, “Alex, the final PWS United Champion. Vincent Lyons Jr. the final HWL Affliction Champion, and myself, Victoria Lyons the final PWE Victory champion. All of our companies closed before we could be defeated, making us all FOREVER CHAMPIONS.”
She laughs arrogantly as do the two brainwashed males with her.
“Right..keep telling yourself that.” said Eddie shaking his head. “And didn’t HWL resurface for a bit or something after that closure?”
“If they did, nobody beat Vincent for anything so my point still remains.” Victoria insisted.
“Is that all?” Eddie said, still annoyed, “Because I’ve got a big match to prepare for, and would prefer less distractions.”
“Like I said, we just wanted to congratulate you.” said Victoria, “You’re the one acting all hostile. We just want to wish you good luck, and to remind you to you know…be careful.”
“Careful?” Eddie said, raising an eyebrow, “Careful of what?”
“Your Coach.” she said, “He has no faith in you, so he had to go come along and babysit you. You do realize that right? This is how he puts himself back in the spotlight. You think he’s there to help you? He’ll make it all about himself and take all the credit for everything YOU accomplish.”
“You’re wrong.” said Eddie shaking his head, “Keevee wouldn’t do that. He just wants whats best for me, and if he feels I need a little more guidance, then I’ll take it because I know he has my best interests at heart, he has all our best interests at heart.”
“What about us? He hasn’t even tried to find us contracts anywhere!” Victoria complained
“Because he doesn’t want you working just ANYWHERE.” said Eddie getting louder, “If he finds a place for..whatever the three of you are doing he wants to make sure it’s legit cause so many of these places come and go.”
“That’s bullshit, Kaiser is playing favorites again.” complained Alex from behind Victoria.
Victoria raised her hand, calming the wild, more feral member of the Lyon family.
“It’s fine Alex, relax.” she commanded as Alex nodded and took a breath calming himself.
“You know him I get, he’s her twin and they have that weird twin connection….” said Eddie making a motion at Vincent Jr, “But I thought you were smart enough not to buy into her bullshit. But I guess I should have expected it, you need someone to follow since you don’t have Sanders or Calaway anymore. Calaway has moved on to her own SCW career, and Sanders has gone to god knows where. You need to be somebody's puppet right? Why not hers?”
Alex went to lunge forward but was again held back by Victoria. Vincent Jr still remained ever silent.
“I thought so.” Eddie said with a confident grin, he wasn’t going to just be bullied by these three anymore. “I know you just want to drive a edge between Keevee and myself but it won’t happen. Im not interested in being part of your Pride, or whatever you’re calling all of this. I have far more important things to worry about, like winning a championship in a company that’s actually functioning.”
Victoria scowled and stomped on the ground, “This isn’t over.” she muttered as she walked off.
“Vincent. Alex. Come.” she commanded, and the two followed as Eddie just rolled his eyes and went back to his routine, he did wish his cousins well but as he stated, he needed to worry about capturing the Internet Championship.”
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4:01 PM on a Wednesday
Casa De La Kaiser
Philadelphia, PA
Off-Camera
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“How you been? How’s school? You’re in High School now right?”
It was a few years ago when Keevee Kaiser moved his family from California to Philadelphia so he could be closer to The Lyons Den and focus on his trainer duties. He was only slightly disappointed to discover it was in act NOT always sunny there, but at least the cheesesteaks were as delicious as advertised.
It had been hard enough making the 8 hour drive from Philly to Charlotte every week but now he was traveling with Eddie, which meant less time with his family. Luckily SCW was kind enough to allow more time when a Supercard was coming up, so he did have time to visit his wife and two kids, and of course bring Eddie along.
It was a nice home, Eddie sat admiring the living room. Kaiser had worked hard his entire career to be able to have his family in a home like this and hopefully one day he could do the same with a family of his own when it was time for a third generation of Lyons to come into the business, of course that would be years into the future, if ever. Right now it had to be about the current generation of Lyons, it had to be about Eddie.
“Eddie!” a teenage girl said approaching him, and giving him a warm hug. It was young Erin, Keevee’s 15 year old daughter, named after his good friend Aaron Asphyxia and the heiress to the Kaiser throne. Eddie encountered her multiple times down at the Lyons Den, she just hadn’t made the tip down too often since school started back up.
“Hey kid!” said Eddie,
“Yep.” says Erin, “I miss training though. But my dad says that school comes first. That my studies come before my training.”
“And he’s absolutely right.” said Eddie, “Nothing is more powerful than your education.”
“I just..I really want to wrestle.” said Erin “I’m gonna be “The Dragons Daughter” Erin Kaiser, and carry on my dads legacy.”
“I’m sure you’ll be an absolute menace.” said Eddie, “I’ve seen you training and you keep getting better every time. Cleo told me you’re one of the toughest kids she’s met, and you know she’s met some tough people in her life.”
“Cleo said that?!” said Erin with excitement, “That’s awesome! She’s so cool!”
Eddie laughed, “That she is. That she is.”
“And what are you two talking about?” interrupted the voice of Keevee Kaiser, returning from the kitchen with a pair of drinks, lemonade.
“Just reminding your daughter the value of her education.” said Eddie.
“Cleo said I was one of the toughest kids she’s ever met. She told Eddie that!” said Erin happily.
“Did she now?” said Kaiser with a smile, “Well, you know she too would tell you the same thing about your education. She put her career on hold to go back and finish school.”
“I know..she already told me that over the summer too.” said Erin, feeling somewhat annoyed with the adults at this point, even if she knew they were right.
“Did you want a drink sweetie?” asked Keevee, “I didn’t realize you’d be home from school already.”
“No, I’m okay. I’m gonna do relax a bit then do some studying.” said Erin, “Education first. I’ll be down when mom gets home with Sawyer.”
“Alright dear, we’ll be down here if you need us.” said Kaiser, giving his daughter a kiss on the forehead, before she clambered upstairs and disappeared into her room.
“Kids.” said Keevee with a shrug.
“Hows the boy?” asked Eddie
“Sawyer?” replied Keevee, “Just turned ten recently, and becoming a little man of his own. Total mommas boy though, he’s out running errands with Marissa now.”
“A mommas boy, and a daddy’s girl” Eddie said with a laugh, “It’s almost like you wrote it that way on purpose.”
“Are you implying that none of this is real, and it’s being written by a different version of myself to live out some fantasy life he doesn’t actually have?” asked Keevee with a grin
“No, that would be ridiculous.” said Eddie with a laugh, “But you have to admit, mommas boy? Daddys girl? It’s a bit cliche.”
“Well, it is what is.” shrugged Kaiser, taking a drink of his lemonade.
“I suppose so.” said Eddie, taking a sip of his own lemonade. “....Marissa makes really good lemonade.”
“Yeah she does.” Kaiser agreed, “In any case, when we’re ready we gotta do your promo, let Miles and BRADDOCK know how you feel, state your case and all that. I setup an area out back for us.”
“Sounds good to me.” Eddie said, and the two would spend the next hour or so chatting before it was time to record the promo, and get it all sent off to the SCW media.
—-------
5:30 PM on a Wednesday
Casa De La Kaiser
Philadelphia, PA
On-Camera
—-------
Finding a promo location was always one of the more frustrating tasks for Keevee Kaisers talent coming out of The Lyons Den. Usually it was find some random spot, and just let the talent speak their minds, and it was no different as Eddie and Coach Kaiser were in Kaisers own backyard, with only the well kempt landscaping behind them, the flowered bushes were clearly well taken care of.
Coach Kaiser stood by as his student cleared his throat, and let some thoughts mingle as Eddie paced a bit back and forth, before directing his attention finally, to the camera.
“I told you BRADDOCK.” Eddie began with confidence, knowing he already had one over on the big man, “Power alone wasn’t going to be enough to put me away. I hope you take the time to reevaluate your strategy, because I assure you the same tactics, will yield the same result and I’m also certain they won’t work on Miles Kasey either.”
Eddie smirks and raises up a finger.
“I’ll get to you in a moment champ.” said Eddie, “I just want to remind BRADDOCK that this will be the killshot for him if he doesn’t take a step back and rethink some things. You hit hard BRADDOCK, I can attest to that but it takes more than that to become a champion. HBC defeated you, then I defeated you. You can’t afford to take another loss here, and you damn sure don’t want to be the one getting pinned. It would kill your whole image wouldn’t it. Just some brute who gets beat all the time, and in the end really just looks scary.”
Eddie shrugs.
“And since I already beat you once, you REALLY don’t intimidate me now.“ Eddie continues, “I’m sure my words anger you, they may even upset you. But they’re nothing more than the truth BRADDOCK, you’re the one who really needs to step it up. I mean, hey prove me wrong.”
Eddie paused again for a moment, and paced some more, with his coach still standing by for moral support but letting the talent have the floor.
“February 26th, 2023”. Eddie began, “Do you remember that date Miles? I’m sure you do but in case you don’t, that was the date you won the Leo Medallion in PWE. You won a triple threat against Archer, and a third man…me. That night you pinned my shoulders to the mat and walked away with the medallion. I hope you remember Miles, because that fight is coming to you once again, and this time I’ve leveled up as they say, this time it’s going to be me who pins YOUR shoulders to the mat and I’ll be walking away with the gold. I don’t need to beat BRADDOCK, I need to beat YOU.”
That last comment got Kaisers attention, and he motioned to tell Eddie something, but Eddie raised a hand as if to say “let me continue.”
“I know Coach..I know” Eddie continued, “It might be smarter to try and pin the guy I already beat, because I don’t NEED to pin the champion to win. It’s a smart strategy, but I want to to this by defeating YOU, by making sure I pin the actual champions shoulders to the mat.”
Kaiser remained respectful and let Eddie continue onward, but he was going to have to talk to him about this later, he needed Eddie focused on winning the match, even if that meant pinning BRADDOCK instead of Miles.
“That is the honorable way of doing it.” said Eddie, “And that is he way I’m going to do it, because fighting with honor is all I know how to do. You’ve done a lot around here Miles, but your next accolade is about to be “Shortest Internet Championship Reign of all time” because I’m about to take my first championship home to The Lyons Den.”
Eddie paused for a moment, and looked back slightly at his coach who nodded and gave some words of his own.
“You’ve heard that name before, The Lyons Den, haven’t you Miles?” Kaiser said, “Back in PWS you faced off against Cleo Phillips early into her career, and you even teamed with a Russow to try and take down Alexander Lyons and his band of goons. Both times coming up short may I add. Now, I know neither Cleo nor Alex are Eddie, but he was still born in the same orphanage as they were, point is, know damn well what Lyons Den students bring because you’ve faced at least half of my active students before. I promise you Eddie is going to come with the toughness and fighting spirit of Cleo, and he’s going to come with the ferocity and tenacity of Alexander, and he is going to take the Internet Championship and make his mark on SCW as the Rookie Standard and win the award for Future Star of The Year because HE is Eddie Lyons and HE is UNBREAKABLE.”
“Award? What award?” piqued Eddie
“You didn’t hear? The end of the year awards man, you’re up for one and so am I.” said Kaiser, “Now, I personally don’t feel like I deserve to win manager of the year since I just got here, but you’ve been getting better and better and damn well deserve that award.”
“Well, the award would be nice, but the championship is sweeter.” Eddie said back to the cameras, “I may have come up short against Peter Vaughn, but I’m ready now. I’m ready to become a champion and take on whomever may be keeping their eyes on that championship. I just hope those eyes are focused, because when I capture it, I’ll be ready to…watch my six.”
Eddie smirked and winked at the camera, Kaiser took in a deep breath and shook his head.
“That’s right Finn Whelan.” Eddie continued, as his manager threw up his hands behind him. “You want to act like you don’t remember, but you do. You remember giving me hell in my PWE run. You know we have unfinished business, and if I need to win the Internet Championship to get to you, then I will, and I will do it with HONOR BEFORE GLORY.”
Eddie looks back at Kaiser who gives him a “what the hell was that?” look, before sighing heavily.
“Miles Kasey. BRADDOCK….we’ll see you soon.” said Kaiser
As both men look into the camera, it slowly fades out.
—-------
1:19 PM on a Saturday
MGM Grand Hotel
Las Vegas, Nevada
Off-Camera
—-------
High Stakes was a little over a week away, which meant Lyons and Kaiser found themselves back in Vegas, ready to use the next week for any and all final preparations they needed to get Eddie to capture the Internet Championship, or at the very least make getting the win difficult for both Kasey and BRADDOCK.
Kaiser was relaxing, listening to his Raycon earbuds when he noticed Eddie approaching him with a gift wrapped box, he raised an eyebrow.
“What’s this now?” asked Kaiser
“Happy birthday coach!” said Eddie, handing the box to Kaiser.
“Damn, did it sneak up on me already?” Kaiser laughed, “The older I get, I tend to sort of forget these things I guess, or maybe I don’t want to think about the fact I have one more year till I turn forty.”
“Maybe you should open it.” Eddie nodded.
It only took a moment, as Kaiser tore off the wrapping and inside the box revealed a 49er Jersey, #16, Joe Montana.
“The Goat!” exclaimed Kaiser, “No way!”
“No problem, just my way of saying thanks for all the help.” Eddie smiled, as Kaiser immediately put the Jersey on.
“It fits perfect.” Kaiser told Eddie.
A friendly exchange and brohug was shared between the two, before Eddie took a seat of his own.
“So next weekend, big match.” said Kaiser, “How you feeling?”
“I feel ready.” said Eddie, “It just feels right this time.”
“That’s good.” said Kaiser, “Just remember to stay focused on becoming champion, and getting the win.”
“Always.” said Eddie
“You sure about that?” Kaiser questioned.
“What do you mean? I’m always focused.” Eddie replied
“I know you are.” said Kaiser, “But sometimes you get focused on the wrong aspects or people.”
Eddie said nothing, but did give Kaiser a slightly annoyed look.
“Hey, I’m only trying to help.” Kaiser continued, “This past week you’ve talked about wanting to be sure to pin Miles Kasey, and furthermore I feel like you only want to become champion so you can try and get on a pathway to Finn Whelan.”
“Well, Finn has been talking about the Internet Championship..” Eddie muttered.
“He has.” said Kaiser “But right now isn’t the time. If we have to deal with Finn, then we’ll deal with Finn but I don’t need you poking the bear right now. I need you to worry about winning the Internet Championship first.”
“I AM focused!” Eddie insisted, “But Finn drew first blood, not me. I didn’t even know the guy and he chose to harass ME.”
“In PWE!!” Kaiser replied, “You can’t stay hung up on the past, my own career stalled because I couldn’t put IWF or HWL behind me. This is what Finn wants, he wants to be in your head.”
“I’m not afraid of Finn Whelan.” said Eddie.
“Nobody said you were, I just want yo to focus on the task at hand” explained Kaiser, “And that’s winning the Internet Championship. Don’t worry about Finn, worry about Kasey and worry about BRADDOCK. They are who stand in your way of becoming champion, not Finn Whelan.”
Eddie said nothing, only listened, with a slightly grumpy face
“You also need to get it together and understand, pinning BRADDOCK to win this mach won’t make you any less of a champion.” said Kaiser “I’m not asking you to cheat, or be underhanded. I would never ask that of you. I just want you to be a little smarter. I get it, pinning the actual champion might look a little better but you know what’s going to look the best?"
Eddie raised an eyebrow
“Winning the Internet Championship.” said Kaiser, “It’s not about who you beat, but how you do it. You can stay true to your values, and still pin the other man. I can promise you, BRADDOCK isn’t going to care if he has to beat you or Kasey.”
Eddie sighed heavily.
“You just don’t understand.” said Eddie, “I have to do this, and I have to do it my way. I appreciate the support but I still need to fight my own fight, and as far as Whelan goes, maybe he is in my head, but I need him out and for that we need to finish our fight. I will win that Internet Championship, and I will get my hands on Finn Whelan and finish what HE started as well. Maybe it’s time you start looking at this from MY eyes instead of yours.”
Eddie, annoyed gets up and leaves the room as Kaiser tries to protest that he’s only trying to do his job and coach Eddie. It wasn’t going to be easy. He knew Eddie was good, just thick-headed and stubborn at times. Maybe he had some points though, the kid couldn’t get his mind off Whelan, perhaps they did need to fight. Win or lose at least it would put an end to it. But first priority, was getting Eddie to focus properly on how to win the triple threat. Coach Kaiser needed to figure out how to get his students mind right, and he had a week to do it.
[/i]