”You cannot be a hero without being a coward.” –George Bernard Shaw
[The scene sets in on a grassy knoll in the English countryside. The wind blows through the air, which send a slight ruffle through the light colored leaves of the Poplar trees. The hill is overgrown a bit with knee high blades of grass that seem to dance a bit as the gusts of wind roll through. Across the hill we see two people, one man and one woman, run by laughing and shouting. The man is familiar albeit a bit younger than we’re accustomed to seeing. Thomas Knight is dressed in light khakis and a long sleeved thermal white shirt. His eyes are brighter than we are used to and his face is clean-shaven. He chases after a beautiful young woman with dark hair. She too is wearing light colored khakis but her shirt is baby blue with a small color. He chases her up to the top of the hill at the base of a large poplar tree and tackles her two the ground. She out-wrestles him a bit and gets on top of him, wrenching his arm.]
Knight: Ok! Ok, Sadie! I give up.
[Sadie Beckham, a beautiful twenty-three year old with a pearl smile looks into his eyes.]
Sadie: Wank.
[She laughs as she let’s go of his arm and sits. Thomas sits up as well, still smiling as he wipes the broken bits of grass off of his shirt.]
Knight: Would you look at that.
[Thomas points off to the distance over the hill, looking down at the sea. He points to a large cruise ship on the horizon.]
Sadie: The boat?
Knight: Aye. How nice would it be to just get on there and sail away? Leave all this behind us and just start fresh somewhere.
Sadie: Oh yeah. That’s sounds like a great idea, Thomas Knight. Leave me job, me family, and all me friends just to go somewhere with you. You’re not that good looking, ya know.
[Thomas smiles.]
Knight: Wouldn’t it be nice though…to just get away. Do something different.
Sadie: Ya just got back from the navy, Tom. Now ya want to sail away again?
Knight: Aye, with you.
[Thomas leans in and gives her a small kiss on her right cheek. She smiles a bit but you can tell the display of affection from Knight makes her a bit nervous and uncomfortable.]
Sadie: Tom, we’ve been through this. It’s complicated for me.
Knight: Yeah I know. Complicated.
[Thomas swings himself around and plants himself firmly in front of the young woman. He cocks his head and stares in her eyes a bit before running his hand through her silky, dark hair. She shies away at first but after a short moment she leans in to his hand, which is now firmly pressed on the back of her neck. He leans in a bit and smiles before taking his hand back. He grabs her hand and presses it on his chest, just above his heart.]
Knight: You know what’s complicated? Waking up every day and knowing that the love of me life is right here. Knowing that the greatest thing I could ever do in me life is make her happy. To know that the rest of me life starts right here…with you. And I can’t figure out a way to get ya to see that, to get you to look past whatever it is that holds ya back. That’s complicated.
[Sadie smiles at Thomas.]
Sadie: I wish it was that easy, Tom. I do.
Knight: What is it then? There’s something you’re not telling me, Sadie.
Sadie: You really want to know?
Knight: Aye, I do.
Sadie: I-
[The scene cuts out.]
05.05.2014 – Grand Hotel; Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of Congo – 10:15 AM
[The scene fades back in on the light hazel eye of Thomas Knight, frantically opening. It zooms out a bit to see him, present day, laying shirtless on a small cot of a bed in a run down hotel room in Kinshasa, the day after his SCW debut. He sits up but as he does, he groans a bit. He stretches his a bit and rubs the back of his stiff neck. He stands up, wearing nothing but a pair of army green slacks, and heads over to the mirror. He looks over his face and the nice shiner he has sitting beneath his left eye, courtesy of Jericho Hill. He smiles at the bruise on his right shoulder left there from the hard-hitting helmet of Horace Jackson. His right knuckles are bruised over a bit and he reaches for the now melted ice bucket and dumps his hand in there for a bit of relief. He lets out a swift sigh as he hears a pounding on the door.]
KNOCK! KNOCK! KNOCK!
Knight: One minute.
KNOCK! KNOCK! KNOCK!
Knight: Aye! I’ll be right there.
[He turns around and peers over the swanky hotel room. He spots his white t-shirt, draped over a bright pink armchair nestled in the corner of the room. He makes his way over to it and snatches it up. He starts to throw it on over his arms as he walks over toward the front door of his room.]
KNOCK! KNOCK! KNOCK!
Knight: Alright!
[Knight swings open the door to his hotel room, ready to verbally rip apart whoever has been knocking on his door but he’s taken back when he sees SCW Production Assistant Allie Anderson standing in front of him. Her soft brown hair glistens in the light from the hallway as she smiles up at Thomas.]
Allie: I didn’t wake you did I?
Knight: No, not really.
Allie: Good! I’m your ride.
Knight: Where to?
Allie: To the airport, silly.
[Allie gives him a soft, playful poke his arm.]
Allie: We leave in at noon, off to Madagascar.
Knight: Aye.
[Thomas turns around and heads back toward his bed wear he plops down and begins to put on his slightly worn socks. Allie jumps up on to the dresser and kicks her legs a bit as she waits for Thomas to get ready.]
Allie: That was great match last night. Some of the guys in the back said you looked pretty rusty but I didn’t think so. I thought you were great.
Knight: Is that so?
Allie: Yup! Even though that Brock Whitworth guy showed up and dropped you on your head. I didn’t think you looked like a washed up Brit like some of the others guys said.
[Thomas stops and looks up at her.]
Knight: And who said that?
Allie: Oh you know, just pretty much all the guys that were back there watching your match.
Knight: You know it ain’t easy to open a show when you haven’t been in the ring for a few years.
Allie: I know, tell me about it. And to think they’re making you do it again this week against Whitworth…
Knight: Bloody hell. Are you serious? That’s a marquee match up. The berk signed a one match deal for this. That’s a crying shame being the opener.
Allie: Well at least you’ll have the chance to steal the show early on.
Knight: Right.
[Thomas throws on his sneakers a bit angrily. He stands up, grabs his pack and throws it over his shoulder as Allie hops off the dresser, and steps toward the door. Allie cuts him off and stops him in his tracks. She stares up at him with her big, sky blue eyes and smiles.]
Allie: I really did think you were great, you know.
Knight: Aye. Thanks.
[Allie steps in closer and it makes Thomas noticeably uncomfortable.]
Knight: The plane…we catch…have to….Mada…..gascar..
[Thomas pushes past Allie and walks out the hotel room door. She smiles as she watches him hustle down the hallway and the scene fades out.
”Twitter is still pretty brand new to me. It was part of me deal with Goldstein. He told me I had to be accessible to the fans and that I had to build me brand. Fuck that. All it’s done for me is a have a monster Aussie drop me on me head in front a few thousand people. I say that’s building a good brand, huh mate?
Truth is I have no idea why we is having this match in the first place. Seems it started as a virtual pissing contest and has now escalated to you flying out to Africa just to fight me. Should I feel honored? Hell it makes me smile as wide as the sky to put a dent in ya face so I’m glad you made the trip. I’m excited to see what ya really got. I wanna know if ya can live up to all the hype or if you’re like that Jericho berk. Either way we gonna tangle in Madagascar and I think it should be loads of fun.
Just remember when they ring that bell that you asked for all of this. You signed that one-match contract and you got on that plane. NO one forced you and no one begged you. Ya made that stupid mistake all on your own. I ain’t some slop in PWX and sure as hell ain’t no hack from EWC. This is the real show, berk. I hope you know what you got yourself into. I hate to be the one to tell ya but the only thing that they’ll be proud about in Brisbane after Sunday is the fact that ya at least had the stones to get in the ring with the Extreme Hero.”
[The scene fades back in to Thomas and Sadie sitting at the foot of the poplar tree, some time ago.]
Knight: What is it then? There’s something you’re not telling me, Sadie.
Sadie: You really want to know?
Knight: Aye, I do.
Sadie: I’m pregnant, Tom.
[Thomas sits back a bit confused.]
Knight: How-
[She cuts him off.]
Sadie: I thought I was careful but…
[She breaks down and cries out, leaning forward and falling into Thomas’ arms.]
Knight: Hey…It’s all right. Ya got nothing to worry about, Sadie. I’m here…I ain’t running away.
Sadie: But you want to. You want to travel the world and see places and I’m ruining everything.
Knight: You’re not ruining anything, Sadie. I don’t need to go anywhere. Everything I need is right here.
[He puts his hand over Sadie’s heart. She lifts her head up and wipes away a tear before cracking a smile.]
Sadie: How are we gonna make any money. Ya make life four quid an hour at the caff.
Knight: Yeah good story.
[He smiles.]
Knight: You know Bill, right? The hack from the gym?
Sadie: The one with the comb-over?
Knight: Aye. He had a line on some fighting.
Sadie: Bare knuckling? Ya got ya face smashed good in the service, Tom.
Knight: Not knuckling, wrestling. He said there’s some good money in it. Maybe a hundred pounds a match. That would pay for some stuff.
Sadie: Tom…I don’t want to-
[He cuts her off by putting his hand on her cheek.]
Knight: You’re my responsibility now…the both of yas. Yeah?
[Sadie nods her head.]
Knight: Good.
[He leans in to kiss her as the scene cuts out again.]
08.05.2014 – Hotel Les Trois Metis; Antananarivo, Madagascar – 1:00 PM
[The scene fades back in to a hotel lobby. Thomas is standing in blue jeans, sandals, and a black v-neck t-shirt. He is waiting impatiently next to the pay phone in the lobby, pacing back and forth.]
RING! RING!
[He snatches the phone up as soon as it rings.]
Knight: New York! I’ve been waiting here for two bloody hours.
[The voice on the other end is that of his agent, Barry Goldstein.]
Barry: Yeah well with the time difference I was busy sleeping between two of the most gorgeous titties I had ever seen. There was no way I was moving to call your hairy British ass.
Knight: Right. So I’m just sitting here waiting like a wank then?
Barry: Relax I’m here now aren’t I? Look you gotta relax man. You’re in Madagascar now. Not some third world crap hold like before. Have a drink and a smoke. Maybe find a prosti-
[Thomas cuts him off.]
Knight: Look what was so bloody important ya had to keep me waiting by this damn telephone?
Barry: I’ll tell you what was so damn important you ungrateful prick, I just got you a bonus if you pin that son of a koala bear, Whitworth. Knick him the fuck out and you get 20 percent more squids or whatever the fuck you guys call it over there.
Knight: Quid.
Barry: Yeah, I don’t really care. Look are that girl Allie’s boobies as perky as they look?
Knight: Goodbye, Barry.
Barry: Wait-
[Thomas hangs up the phone and turns around. He unfolds his aviator sunglasses and slides them onto his face before taking a walk out of the hotel lobby. He takes off down the main road along the beach. In the distance he can see the SCW crew setting up the makeshift beach arena for Sunday’s festivities. He heads that way as he looks around, taking in the scenery. He passes by groups of people, and relaxes a bit in the more calming environment that he is now in compared to past few weeks. He gets on to the beach, walks past a few palm trees, and stops as the sun hits his skin. He slides his bare feet out of his sandals and digs his toes in to the sand and smiles. He lets out a deep sigh and starts to think about his upcoming task…]
“I didn’t come up with the name Hero. I didn’t ask for the nickname. It was something that was given to me because a promoter thought I was too bland. He thought I was too much of the common man to stand out at all. Unless of course, he made it a point to tell everyone how I was a commoner, that I was one of them. That I was the same as every man or woman in the stands and that it might as well have been them in the ring. Fucking prick was smart ‘cause it worked.
I’m no hero more than you are a hero, Brock. I’m just a man willing to get the shit kicked out of him for money. Some times I win, and sometimes I lose. Plain as Jane. But the thing that makes me better than you, berk…the one trait I have that convinces me I will walk out victorious on Sunday…I’m scared. I’ve never gotten in to the ring without fearing what might happen. Whether it be a generic hack like you or a maniacal freak like Jericho Hill. You all scare me the same. I never know when it might be the last time I step through those ropes and scares the living shit out of me.
I don’t do this for glory like you Brock. I’m no one’s ‘PRIDE’. I’m simply a father who needs to do this to put food on the table for his son. So you can go ahead and beat me right on Sunday. You can slam me head in the mat all you want. It doesn’t bother me ‘cause there is one truth here. I’m gonna win. I have to win. I need to win. You’re just a rung in the ladder this time, mate. Nothing more, nothing less.”
