[We come up on Ms Rocky Mountains, dressed sharply in a slightly-too-small French coture outfit, sitting in a mood-lit lounge somewhere in Vegas, chatting with Gaetan LaValle. Somewhere in the background, a jazz band plays expertly. LaValle is, for his part, dressed in a sharp bespoke suit, and drinking a Kir cocktail from a stout highball glass. Ms. Mountains looks over her shoulder, at the camera…]Rocky: Miss Rocky Mountains, here with NWA World Television Champion Gaetan LaValle.
[…before turning back to speak to him.]
Rocky: Well, Gaetan, we’ve just shown you Casey Williams’ video reply to your statement to SCW’s audience. He went down it point by point, adding that he’s unimpressed with your promo work, that he doesn’t care about anything to do with you, and that he’s going to destroy you, and take the TV Title home with him.
He also says you not directly trash-talking him shows a lack of manhood on your part.
[Gaetan smiles, then tilts his head in a way that says “
And?”. He’s clearly not taking the bait, here.]
Rocky: … “
Thoughts”?
[He shakes his head a little, clears his throat, then gently pushes his drink aside. He’s not grinning anymore.]
LaValle: “Casey Williams is a steroidal jackass who mistook a genteel ‘get to know me’ piece
for the fans with something for
him- and, along the way, got
every single useful detail wrong.
The talk is for the fans, the match is for the title, the beating is for your opponent. It's a simple order, yet he seems to beat down the fans, talk to me, and... I don't know
what he thinks the match is for.
He has drawn himself a detailed roadmap to his defeat. In crayon. And he
really didn’t need to make us watch him
shower.”
[He contentedly returns to what he was doing.]
Rocky: Is that all?
LaValle: No. I’m also enjoying a nice drink with a lovely woman…
[He pauses a moment, and sees Rocky's got another question loaded.]
LaValle:...you’re still going to ask me to go on, aren’t you?
I always hate this part, you know- this is where I show some confidence, and people call me 'arrogant'. It's the same thing that lets mooks like Williams think he can call me 'French coward', and get away with it. It's a moronic bigotry, pure and simple.
It's... never-mind. Please, go on...
Rocky: He says he’s going to make you hate him.
LaValle:Make me? What, exactly, can a Casey Williams
make me do? He hasn’t made me
scared, he wouldn’t make me
worry, he isn’t making me
impressed, he can’t make me
lose, and he
won’t make me an
ex-champion.[He tries to end the promo here, again. Rocky makes a ‘go on?’ hand gesture. He goes on.]
LaValle:Alright… assume he COULD make me hate him. Only two men in this sport have ever earned my hatred.
I retired both. If he wants me to hate him, it’s his management, gang, and loved ones that should worry. Not me.
But even
that’s unimportant- I don’t have to hate a man to beat a man. It’s called “
Sangfroid”. Cold blood. That whole “Rar! RARR!” thing is for amateurs. And, as the marquee says, this is Professional wrestling.
Rocky: Backing up a moment. What exactly is he getting wrong about you?
[he starts to shake his head, then stops himself.]
LaValle:I was going to say “I wouldn’t help him”, but… who would it help?
Let’s be honest. The man is twice my weight and a foot-and-a-half taller, but never stopped to ask
why I’m not worried. Maybe he thinks I’m overconfident. Or stupid. Or crazy. But humor me… How many times have I fought for this title?
Rocky: Four?LaValle:Seven. Won twice, defended five times. Two former
World Champions have come after this title, while I held it, and gone home empty handed.
You could call it ‘luck’ or a ‘fluke’ once, but if it was luck
seven times, then he should give up now because that would mean God’s made a personal project of keeping me Champ. We know that’s not the case.
And since Casey thinks the Fury feud’s all I’ve done, let me clear that up too- I wasn’t satisfied with just that, so I challenged the
entire NWA for more action. I joined a hardcore promotion, just for the extra difficulty. This is all public record. Tell me, where do I fight out of?
Rocky: Sorry?
LaValle: My home promotion?
Rocky: BACW.
LaValle: Right. I like Sin City, and I would never knock SCW, but facts are facts- I fight out of the “Stomphouse”, where if they held a child’s birthday party, they’d give it Hardcore stipulations. I volunteered to go there. Why? Because I like the challenge.
Since New Year’s, I’ve fought two former and one
current NWA World Champs there- just to see what would happen... on TOP of my duties as World Television Champion.
The fact is, where I work, three kids pretending to be “Xtreme” would simply be laughed at right before their faces got pushed in.
Speaking of his ‘team’- who’s MY backup?
Rocky: I didn’t think you
had any.
LaValle: Brains
and beauty! I’ve already stared down Sudden Impact- two World Champs- and made them blink. In Canada, I took on a five-man stable by myself- I’m here, they’re not, draw your own conclusions- and I’ve put my one-man “LaValleution” against the entire Uprising.
I’m coming to that ring by myself. Casey... twice my size... keeps reaching for his security-blanket gang for support. It’s his choice, I suppose…
[he shrugs]
LaValle: Who’s the biggest man I ever fought?
[Rocky shakes her head, and Gaetan, gentlemanly, finishes by answering.]
LaValle:Krush Karemesov. 425 pound Sombo machine, banned from Russia’s Rugby team for being too violent. He’s out of the sport, now. Compare Casey-on-the-Mat: a half-trained bar-fighting bushel of bear-turds- barely 370 soaking wet, strutting around like riding a motorcycle and a couple of friends makes him tough.
Me? I work, solo, in a country that resents mine, versus men twice my size, with a name that has “Gae” in it.
THAT’s tough. What do I do for a living?
Rocky: You wrestle.
LaValle: Yes, I do. I pin. I can also put a man unconscious with Savate kicks, or use a submission to make him tap out “
M’aidez!” in Morse Code. What
don’t I do? “Fly”.
You’ll never see me jumping from tall things just for the hell of it. Casey’s already got a long night ahead of him, but if his plan is to hang around to take advantage of a 983 splash or something… he’s waiting forever. That’s not me, that’s not what I do.
But even if I did… Williams- 370 pound, big-strong-tough Williams- has yet to set me aquiver with terror.
Not because I’m the longest-reigning Television Champion since the title was commissioned in
1998 Not because I’ve fended off every jackal coming for my throat, and this title.
Why then?
Because that’s not what this is about. This isn’t about fear, or who’s the best bully in the schoolyard, or who can recite the most lyrics.
This is about the moment where we stop being a bunch of promotions, and start being an Alliance. This is that time, this is that place. It's about skill, and passion, and pure endurance.
And playing schoolyard games cheapens that. And Williams.
Me? It just sort of gives me that little
frisson of joy, when I tell a man what I'm going to do, and they're
still suprised that I can do it.
Eight times.This is about who’s better at the sport. … or, at least, it had
better be.
If it isn’t? If it’s about who can bring the most pain?
That’s me. Who can take the most pain?
Me again. I got off medical leave to earn this title back. I took broken metal shards to the back, on the way- and that’s not even what put me out. If he thinks he's going to scare me, he's got the wrong Frenchman.
And if he's got some kind of trick up his sleeve? Right here and now, I'm giving him time to think of something else to try. Something that will
work. If his plan's anything but the straight-up match the fans demand and are owed, then-even if it works- I will get up and hunt him down. Men have
left the sport rather than face that.
[He pauses, and cools down.]
LaValle: I have the skill, I have the style, and I have the cold-blooded will to hold onto this title. And I've come to like this town, enough to be DAMNED sure they will see the fight of a lifetime.
Casey?
"Prepare to be Eurotrashed."
Au bientot, mon ami.
[With that, he returns to his cocktail, and this time Rocky takes the hint. We fade out as they enjoy themselves.]
