(It’s a bustling day at Russow Manor as everyone rushes around trying to prepare for the day, except of course for his son Charlie who is, as always, reading a book in the library. Jack and Alanah had spent the night with the new grandbabies so while everyone was busy bustling around trying to prepare things for them...Levi sat in the Cracker Barrel rocking chair he bought just for the occasion...as he sits rocking both of his grandchildren back and forth.)
Levi Russow: What the Hell am I doing...I’m a grandfather now, I don’t have time or the talent to be stepping into that ring with Goddamn ALEX JONES of all people.
Emma Russow: Yeah he REALLY doesn’t seem to like you much.
(Levi looks up and the vision of his BEAUTIFUL wife Emma sways into the room as she sees little Elise start to get fussy as she takes her from Levi who adjusts Patrick over his shoulder.)
Levi Russow: There’s a Paddy boy-o!
Emma Russow: Oh my God they've mixed Russow with Irish.
Levi Russow: Russow was already Irish, love. Irish, Scottish, Norwegian, Native American, and English.
Emma Russow: ...that explains just...SO much.
Levi Russow: Innit though!?
Emma Russow: That’s another thing, I’m worried about Mack...ever since he got his little…”friends”...he's been different.
Levi Russow: Mack is Mack honey...I can’t worry about that anymore.
(There’s an awkward silence for a few moments until Emma breaks the silence.)
Emma Russow: ...you scared?
Levi Russow: PETRIFIED.
Emma Russow: Then WHY? WHY are we doing this again?
Levi Russow: I don’t expect you to get it, love. But I have to make sure my kids are taken care of. Now I know Alex Jones is a beast...I’ve watched enough to know that. But I don’t know if he’s ever REALLY had someone step into that ring and win or lose change everything he knows about RESPECT in this game.
Emma Russow: And why do you think that’s YOUR job? We watch SCW every week! You KNOW what that roster can do! You know there’s just as many people on that show that could take Alex Jones down at any point he slips up. Why, Levi. Why does it have to be YOU?
Levi Russow: Because he called ME to. And if he lets the opinions of one…”decrepit old man”...shake his groups foundation down to it’s little core, than it’s more unstable than I had originally feared and I need to show Lach and Miles they’re better off coming back home.
Emma Russow: ...so that’s it? You feel like they’ve abandoned you?
Levi Russow: NO...I feel like I abandoned THEM.
Emma Russow: …wh-what? Oh…
Levi Russow: I gave Lach a few pointers I saw when he was here helping Alanah train...so I don’t worry about him too much. But Miles? I was harder on Miles than I’ve ever been on any student I’ve ever had before or since. But he stuck it out. He took my criticisms and critiques and now he’s one of the best in the world. I just hope he knows it.
Emma Russow: *sigh* Well...I already know I can’t stop you. Just...be safe?
Levi Russow: Always love.
-Kingslayer-
“GET THE FUCK UP!
WAKE THE FUCK UP!
WIPE THE SYSTEM,
AND BACK THE FUCK UP!
KINGSLAYER...COME AND COLLECT US FROM THE NIGHT!”
Is this what you want?
This is what you’ll FUCKING GET.
...you Motherfucking SHIT.
(We open to the scene of a throne sitting in the middle of a raised red carpet. It’s haggard and broken...it hasn’t seen love for many a year now. When suddenly, Levi Russow steps into the scene and runs his hand along the cracked top of it greeting it like an old friend.)
Levi Russow: I had this made when I won King of the Ring. I used this four times actually. Three different companies but...you take what you can when it boosts the checks, huh?
(Levi takes a deep breath and sits on the throne as it crackles underneath his weight. He exhales with a smile.)
Levi Russow: KING OF THE WOLVES!!! That’s what they call you right? Hmm? The Big, Bad Wolf? You been pickin’ off the little piggies around this company as you please just coming and going. And you think cause you’re carrying that title around that people deserve to just fawn over you. THAT’S...why I’m here, AJ. I’M here cause you need to be taught a lesson in humility and respect. See you blasted me on Twitter saying that I was just taking pot shots and I would never do anything about it. Here we are Bitch, say fuckin’ when!
(Levi crosses his legs as he rubs his temple going on.)
Levi Russow: No...no no no this doesn’t feel right. This doesn’t FEEL like it needs to. I can recognize that...I recognize that I have no dog in this den of wolves. I did. But I made a mistake...see I thought I was protecting Milo and Lach...they don’t need me to protect them. They don’t need a damn thing. I know you’ve shot sideways glances at Lach’s new title...that’s your brand, isn’t it? Bully the fuck out of people until you get what you want? Lemme ask you something, “King of the Wolves”...
(Levi leans forward, wiping his mouth and cracking his neck starting to get a little bit of fire underneath him.)
Levi Russow: You’re a smart lil’ boy...so I know you know what the definition of “Regicide” is. If you’re NOT...the textbook definition is “the murder of ones King or leader’ and I gotta tell ya...Game of Thrones left a bad taste in my fuckin’ mouth and I’ve wanted to try beheading someone ever since Eddard Stark got totally bodied SPOILER ALERT!!!
(Levi shakes his head repeatedly trying to stay in this zone...he had a bad habit of wandering. He couldn’t afford that this time. Not with this trained killer coming for his throat to prove a point to his pack. Levi’s eyes suddenly shift as he stands up straightening his shirt before tooking one loving look back at the old throne as he exits the door...we follow him. We’re now in the hallways of the museum portion of The Russow Academy.)
Levi Russow: Impressive, isn’t it? No no...it’s not all me. See the Russows have been around...well I guess ever since I popped up. See...because until my brothers and I? Russow...wasn’t even a name people could pronounce correctly. “ROO-SEW”. And that’s probably for the best.
(Levi walks up to a door that says “Origins” and enters, taking a deep breath...we’re suddenly walking through the rickety front door of a ramshackle ply-wood shack in the dead of winter.)
Levi Russow: My brother Jesse and I...were born in a small fishing village somewhere on the outskirts of Nome, Alaska to a fisherman and his wife. Also to become known as Satan and Satan’s Bitch. The only reason we know our names was because I was old enough to remember them when the cops finally ripped us away from the fucking beatings I’d take if I couldn’t shoot a fuckin’ deer because I didn’t wanna kill something else that was living. Am I a vegetarian? No? But I don’t pick the vegetables in my side dishes either. You’re not offended, you just want attention. I digress. I was in the middle of telling you WHY taking this fight against me was a baaaaad fuckin’ idea. See we had an Aunt that took us in that knew what kind of family she’d left us behind with. Tore her up inside...broke her heart seeing us again. Thought for years that’s what killed her. Turns out you can’t chainsmoke for 28 years and breathe right...who knew.
(Levi turns into the next room and stands in front of a large painting of a stately orphanage.)
Levi Russow: St. Mary’s...Catholics can only wrap the knuckles of the kids with parents, but when they go home…
(Levi’s eyes suddenly close and he winces as if he’s hearing the shrillest noise in the world blasted at a thousand decibels right in his ears until he shakes it off forcing himself to look away from the camera...tears welling.)
Levi Russow: You’ve never heard horrors so profound as you do in an uncaring orphanage at night. That’s where we took in our third musketeer, Daniel. Made him a Russow cause he couldn’t remember his last name...or didn’t want to. We never asked.
(Levi cracks his neck looking at a portrait of his first mugshot with “STAY WILD!!!” smudged across it with a sign that says “Sundance Canyon Academy” as he walks into the next room. It’s cold.)
Levi Russow: And that was it. I’d busted out...contrary to what you would think about something as beautiful sounding as “Sundance Canyon Academy” as being somewhere that actually gives...ANY sort of a fuck about a disappearing orphan with anger issues. I was stuck...in THIS particular hellhole...until I was 16 and big enough to knock out the attending. But after that...also contrary to what you might have yourself to believe, sports fans, the world doesn’t give a rats ass about a 16 year old runaway orphan with anger issues. But my ANGER issues...are what kept me the fuck ALIVE. You fistfight full grown men by day...by night you steal cars to make up for what you couldn’t earn earlier. So what?
(Levi rubs the back of his head as his eyes squint in memory.)
Levi Russow: You ever hear the thud of a baseball bat hitting a hollow pipe? No one ever said I gots the brains of the bunch. When I woke up, I was on a couch. Now comes the part where I’m supposed to tell you that it was the guy that hit me and he did it to Mr. Miyagi me into the world of wrestling!
...which I would!
...if that were RRRRRRRREMOTELY true.
Levi Russow: No I got cracked upside the back of the head for trying to steal a car...that part happened. No when *I* woke up, I got processed out of jail and given community service cleaning up after the local wrestling shows. I knew it all don’t you know...so I popped off to the boys one day that not a damn one of them could whoop my ass!
...and when they were done whoopin’ my ass…
(Levi laughs to himself then walks up and looks at a picture on the wall of a young him posing with the other wrestlers of his class.)
Levi Russow: And the rest...as they say...is history.
(Levi bounces up and down and cracks his neck clearing his throat loudly.)
Levi Russow: HISTORY...that is...best saved for another time. Don’t wanna go puttin’ the horse before the cart too quick huh? So what was the point of this? Easy answer. YOU asked “who the fuck do I think I am”? I don’t need to hide, I don’t need to run, I don’t even know how to SPELL the word kayfabe. So I’m comin’ out and tellin’ you EXACTLY who the fuck I am. You need anymore references? You go ask Lach and Milo...because at some point and time, they’re gonna be out there…
...after that match...to drag me off of you.
Levi Russow: Because here's the thing you half-cocked, slab of a bitch. I don’t know you. I don’t like you. Can my boys make their own opinions? Of COURSE they can...but if they ask my opinion...and fuck it, let’s call it for what it is, even if they DON’T...I calls ‘em likes I sees ‘em. You’re nothing but a foul, manipulative, power-hungry psychopath who surrounds himself with REAL talent to protect himself and that precious little title to which he so desperately cleaves to. And all I’ve gotten is nothing but gruff for steppin’ up. “Who’s THIS asshole?” “That’s not Jack, why’s he get such a high profile match!?” and I get it, man, if I was a young and hungry competitor in today’s modern society I’d probably be hot under the collar about it to but folks...this ain’t about that title...YET. This is about pushing a guy I’ve entrusted with the careers of two young men I care very much about to make sure he’s every bit as good as he THINKS he is. ‘Cause I know how good he CAN be.
...and THAT’S...what we’ll CALL..
.CHAPTER ONE…
(With that, Levi exits out into the hallway as we hear bumps being taken off in the distance as we fade to black.)
