I love going home from time to time, say what you want about Vegas, there ain't no better place to be home. Me, Os and the girls don't get home too often, our London businesses nicely taken care off by my younger brother David, but for some reason, home was calling. I just got the urge to stroll down the Bethnal Green road, pop in the pie and mash shop, have a pint in the Old George and even throw a bet on a ten to one shot in the local bookies. Now I won't chat here for too long in fear of boring a roster member or two, but Os was more than happy to come home, so was the girls and I think Nick was more than happy running the casino without us. I would tell you why but like I said, boring to some, so lets just try for quality over quantity instead of my usual quality AND quantity. Talk about no respect for this art form. Anyway.
It was a bright, yet cold Friday afternoon when Daniel and Osbourne did exactly what Daniel said he wanted to do, take a wander down the Bethnal Green Road in East London. Pie and mash was already sorted at a local shop called Kelly, and done and the slew of familiar faces moving past the market stalls along the road. Daniel looks towards Osbourne on his right as the look to cross the road.
"Good to see the core of the place still the same." Daniel tells Osbourne without looking at him. "Other than these ton of new places they've seemed to have put up."
Osbourne nods as he looks for the break in traffic. Eventually one comes and the two cross the road.
"Money that my brother has laid some of our capital in to those new builds." Daniel says as he and Osbourne move through the crowd.
Friday's in Bethnal Green were a good time, everyone knowing that in just a few hours, the working week was done and it was time to hit the pub. Useless, but very true information there.
Osbourne nods his head and continues to walk, but the two stop as a street trader yells out, selling his goods.
"Well, well, well, Shifty John." Daniel says as he looks at the man.
The man stops in his track, looking at Daniel and Osbourne, his mouth opens but words not coming out of his mouth. Daniel and Osbourne approaches him.
"It's been a while." Daniel tells the man in his late forties.
"Yeah Danny boy." The man stumbles out. "It's been forever. I thought you moved to America."
Daniel waves his finger at the man as he looks at him, a smile on his face.
"Moved is a bit of a strong term Shifty." Daniel tells him. "I went there to make a ton of money, partake in a hobby, but like the saying goes, you can take the boy out of London but you can't take London out of the boy. There was money to be made and I went to make it. A fool and their money and all that bollocks."
Daniel puts his hand on the man's shoulder, but the man flinches.
"Anyone would think you're still worried about the time Kenz tried to throw you in front of a bus for non payment." Daniel says with a smile. "But that is all in the past, but you do remember the deal we made after that incident, right?"
The man looks nervous but slowly nods his head. Daniel looks to his right to see a cafe there.
"Now we've just smashed 2 and 2." Daniel says. "But got time for a cuppa tea and a chat son?"
Daniel puts his arm around the man's shoulder and looks at the cafe. The man nods his head and Daniel walks towards the cafe. Osbourne opens the door and walks in and Daniel and Shifty John walk in the door behind him. The cafe falls to complete silence as they see Daniel but Daniel spies a free table in the corner and point. The three walk towards the table and Daniel calls out to the woman behind the counter.
"Three mugs of tea darling." He says, as is the way things are done in the east end.
Daniel ushers the man to the booth and points, his body sliding next to the wall and Osbourne sits next to him. Daniel sits opposite the man and looks at him.
"Now our deal was very simple if you remember Shifty." Daniel tells him.
The woman behind the counter appears next to the table and puts the three mugs of tea on the table in front of them. Daniel nods at her, knowing the custom is to pay before you leave.
"You kept an eye on some things here and I don't let Kenz chuck you in front of a double decker." Daniel says to him. "So tell me what's been happening in my beautiful Bethnal."
John puts his hand around the mug of tea, both hands warming on the white mug.
"I can't." He tells Daniel. "There's this new little gang, nothing major, but they're coming around roughing up the street traders for protection. If they knew I was talking about it, they'll put me in the canal with bricks in me pockets."
"And you didn't think of mentioning this to David?" Daniel asks him.
"No one sees your brother." John told Daniel as he raised his mug. "He sends people out, he don't get on the street like you do. If he appears, people know they've done wrong."
"So where are these people?" Daniel asks him.
"I can't." John repeats.
Daniel leans over the table, looking at him.
"You're a grass John." Daniel tells him. "It's in your nature to be a grass, it's what you're best at."
John looks uncomfortable in his seat.
"They hang around in that boozer at the end of the road down there by the traffic lights." John says softly, hoping no one overhears his voice. "They spend most of the day in there and come down and bully the locals."
Daniel looks at Osbourne who just nods at him.
"What else you got?" Daniel asks him.
"Just some woman asking questions about you." John says before sipping his tea.
Daniel and Osbourne look at each other and both at John.
"What woman?" Daniel asks him.
"I don't know, but I think she's from south of the river." John says. "She keeps asking about where to find you, some business thing."
"Next time you see her, point her in the direction of David." Daniel tells him.
Before the conversation can continue, a man burst through the door, causing John to instantly go pale.
"That's him." Daniel whispers to Osbourne. "That's the boss of those guys hassling street traders."
"Hurry up and make me a bacon sandwich woman!" He rudely yells to the woman behind the counter.
Daniel tilts his head towards Osbourne who puts his hand on the table, ready to stand up but Daniel shakes his head slightly. The man sees John sitting at the table.
"Why the fuck are you here and not out there making me money?" The man says to John.
Daniel looks at him and smiles.
"Spoken like a true pimp." Daniel says as he raises his mug of tea.
"The fuck are you?" The man says loudly as he looks at Daniel.
"Well sonny." Daniel starts. "I've just been elected as union rep for all the stall holders around here. See, I've heard they've been treated unfairly, so they've appointed me to make sure they're treated fairly by everyone, man, child, or ape."
The man kisses his teeth, a pet hate of Daniel's, and grams his arm, the tea spilling on the table. Daniel looks at it disappointedly.
"Now that's just rude." Daniel says calm as possible. "Now you've just spilled my tea mate, which means someone's gotta come over and mop it up, wasting their time and mine, cause now, I gotta order another cup."
"I ain't your mate, I don't know who you are." The man says with an aggressive tone. "Come around here in a suit thinking you're hot shit."
The man grabs Daniel's suit jacket but Daniel springs to his feet and pushes the man's hand away.
"First off, if you value your fingers, I wouldn't touch my suit, because I would happily sit there for hours taking each and every finger off you with a butter knife." Daniel tells him. "And I don't care it would take hours, I'm a patient man."
Daniel gives Osbourne a slight nod.
"Secondly, you might not know who I am just yet but once I tell you my name, you will know everything." Daniel tells him. "Thirdly, I know all about you and your little group. Running protection in an area you know nothing about. From your accent, you're Brixton and I have a very good friend there called Reggie, who would be proper pissy knowing that people from his manor are trying to get involved in mine."
Daniel moves his head closer to the man.
"But who I am. Well, my name is Daniel J Morgan." Daniel tells him. "And I think you know what that means judging by the look in your eye and what I really hope is just my tea running down your leg."
"Oh shit." The man mutters. "You're Daniel Morgan, I heard you..."
Daniel puts his finger up to his lips, shushing the man down.
"Never mind what you heard." Daniel tells him firmly. "You're gonna listen. You go near anyone around here, ask them for anything, even your mother for a fiver and I'm gonna make sure that you never ask for anything again, because your tongue and your head are gonna get a real quick, sharp divorce."
Daniel puts his hand on the man's shoulder.
"But there's still the matter of you touching my suit and spilling my tea." Daniel says in a dangerous tone. "You know what that means?"
The man slowly nods.
"You're fucked." Daniel tells him.
The camera cuts to outside the cafe. A few seconds pass before a huge crash can be seen, the man flying through the window and to the pavement outside. Osbourne stands looking at him, dusting off his hands. The camera moves back inside the cafe to see Daniel at the counter handing over a huge bundle of notes to the woman who served them.
"That should cover the tea and the window." Daniel tells her. "Don't worry, I'll get someone down here within half an hour to sort that out. Not the first time someone's gone through a window around me."
Daniel looks at the woman, a stunned look plastered on her face.
"You have a blinding day." Daniel tells her and turns around.
He looks at John still seeing at the table, looking surprised.
"Any hassle from these lot, you gimme a bell son." Daniel tells him.
John nods his head and Daniel walks towards Osbourne. Daniel straightens up his jacket as he looks at the crowd, surrounding the man crawling away.
"Should never spill another man's tea." Daniel says to the crowd with a shrug and a smile.
Daniel looks up at Osbourne.
"Anyway." Daniel says. "Fancy that pint?"
Osbourne nods and the two walk away as the camera fades to black.
*******
Daniel lifts a cigarette to his lips, pulling a solid silver lighter from his pocket and flipping the top opening and flicking the wheel, the petrol lighter bursting in to lift with a strong flame. He takes a deep puff, before clicking the lid down, extinguishing the bright, dancing orange flame. He exhales a puff of smoke before looking down the camera.
"Well I guess it's time to do some talking." He says as the smoke partially covers his face. "I asked for a challenge, a big challenge and finally we got just that, not one, not two but three teams to defend our championships against. After the other week with me, I think a challenge is needed cause let's look at things properly, absolutely smashed through Lachlan Kane like he wasn't even there."
Confidence fills the room, emulating from Daniel's area. Daniel had always been a confident man, but when he had something to back this up, it trebled.
"Now clearly, I broke Lachlan." Daniel smirks. "Now this is just me putting two and two together and coming up with an answer but I'm thinking it's four here. I beat Lachlan, fairly easily if I can be honest with you, then I read the preview and saw Lachlan's on it, thought to myself that's a good thing, he should actually come through that and get himself a big supercard match, then I see on Twitter that he'd asked to be pulled out, then I read the My Bloody Valentine III Preview and see his spot was given to Malachi, then I go on social media and see some bloke who just showed up here defending him, some hairy bloke who used to be here trying to kick him up the arse and him himself saying he needs to go back home."
Daniel shrugs with just his left shoulder.
"So clearly, I broke him." Daniel says with more confidence. "I mean he must have thought five minutes of unfocused talking would help him out compared to me putting the effort in focusing on this match would give him the edge? Maybe he didn't rate what I could do and under estimated me, but I broke him."
Daniel takes another puff of his cigarette before blowing out smoke.
"Now you might think I'm bragging here, but there's lessons to be learned here." Daniel comments. "The lessons are don't be a social media bitch, digging at people you can't beat, don't get above your station. This is a lesson that all our opponents should learn for My Bloody Valentine III."
Daniel starts to pace the floor.
"I don't wish Lachlan any ill will, I hope you sort your nut out and come back stronger, I don't wish him anything other than a thicker skin." Daniel says. "But mate, the way you acted is a perfect example on what not to do against me, against us. You took me lightly, you didn't believe you could lose and you did. You showed us no respect at all and I've been speaking about this in hope that Alex Jones, Brandon Sludge and whoever comes out of the Good Shepherds flock has a little bit more respect than you did. You can't buy respect, it's seen and it's earned, and I hope that three men that we'll be facing shortly don't make the same mistakes you do."
Daniel takes another puff on his cigarette as he rolls back his shoulders.
"The perfect example for having respect for someone, without actually knowing them too well it Alex Jones." Daniel says, his whole talk about respect leading up to Alex Jones. "Now Alex Jones demands respect. No one goes in to a match with Alex Jones thinking they're gonna piss it and get through it with their eyes closed, because he is Alex Jones. I'm not saying he's a nice guy at all, cause he's a bit of a dick, I've seen it, I've seen him mock people's promo work, like it makes a difference when it's two men in the ring, I've seen him come across as a guy that thinks he knows everything, and I've seen him step in the ring and lose matches he shouldn't have, like to the earlier mentioned Lachlan for example. Yet something about him just calls for you to respect the man, respect the history that he has created, respect all he has done for this sport."
Daniel waves his finger.
"You can't help but look past his SCW records and at the bigger picture and see that he has done things for this sport not many have." Daniel says as he lifts the hand with the cigarette in closer to his face. "I see that and there is more than a healthy line of respect between myself and Alex Jones from this side, which means he actually stands a better chance than most, because if he's the wrestling mind I think he is, he's gonna have looked at me and Os from top to bottom and formulated a plan to try and get at us."
Daniel puts the cigarette between his lips.
"Ain't gonna matter." He says before drawing smoke in to his mouth and blowing it out.
Daniel removes the cigarette from his lips.
"Soon as this match was announced, I did the exact same thing, knowing you would have a game plan in mind." Daniel says confidently. "I watched your past matches, your past defeats and it looked to me it was getting to you being the top dog in Wolfslair, yet being in the shadow of Austin James Mercer and Alicia Lukas. That's the difference between us and you Alex, we win together, we lose together, you're not like that, cause I can't imagine people being around you when you lose, let alone wanting to try and pick you up."
Daniel flicks the ash of the cigarette down.
"But regardless of that, of being behind stablemates, I still see you as a threat, probably the biggest threat to our titles since we've had them." Daniel says in a calm voice. "Regardless of being ya know, a bit spotty here, you're still Alex Jones, the man who can pull off a surprise a man no one should take lightly and we're not. We're not looking past the fact that you have something to prove here and that you will be giving it your all because I think you want to help Johanna get her first taste of championship gold here."
Daniel was confident in his words as he took another puff of the cigarette.
"So I know you're coming to impress but look at it from our side." Daniel tells him. "You could be the biggest scalp we could claim and that's what we're gunning for. Everyone else in the match ain't had your history son and that's gonna make you a target, a target we're gonna aim at. Just do me one favour and don't pull a Lachlan and not take us seriously, because at My Bloody Valentine III, we're coming for a fight."
Daniel drops the cigarette on the floor and steps on it.
"Now someone we are familiar with." Daniel says with a tilt of his head. "The Good Shepherds."
Daniel and London Underground was familiar with them, a four on four match a while ago in the Mixed Tag Team Championship tournament was the time they met, only because Daniel himself had asked Father Gerald how many of his family he was willing to sacrifice.
"Remember that match we had?" Daniel says with a reminiscent smile. "I asked you how many of your family members you were willing to send in to advance in that tournament and you chose the option of all of them. That was a mistake was it not? Now I'm gonna ask you another question. What are you willing to sacrifice to get the SCW Mixed Tag Team Championships away from us? I think we both know you'd have to make the ultimate sacrifice to even come close to getting these from us, you'd have to pray for so much more than I think the lord is willing to offer you at this point."
Daniel tilts his head sideways upwards, looking above him before turning his head to look back at the camera.
"I do commend the stuff you've been doing in SCU." Daniel admitted. "Tag Team champions, that young un with a championship before she deflected to that all so familiar non descriptive group that seems to appear in wrestling from time to time to try and take over. You've had a hell of a past year Good Shepherds, maybe your prayers are getting answered, maybe you're getting what you want but it stops here with us because these championships ain't going anywhere, not even the power of prayer can help you out on that front ladies and gents. Prayer can only get ya so far and that don't extend to getting your hands on our championship belts. I don't think any amount of divine intervention can help you at this point, but welcome to the big show in a big match that actually means something."
Daniel firmly nods his head.
"And now the rookie group of this story." Daniel says. "The classic underdog tale of two people coming to SCW, well, one coming to SCW with an old face, picking up a total amount of one SCW career win and boom in the championship match."
Daniel shrugs his shoulders.
"This might sound like I'm actually taking the piss but I'm really not taking the piss Trenton Tigers." Daniel says with a smile. "See, I honestly like things like this, a chance where a team can step in and shock the world, it keeps things interesting but I gotta level with you about something. That Brandon guy makes me feel sick to my stomach. It ain't nothing he's said, it ain't nothing his done, but the man just looks proper filthy."
Daniel wasn't lying, the first time he saw Brandon Sludge on television, he couldn't believe his eyes. There was something about the man he didn't like.
"You actually look like God was taking the piss when he made you." Daniel says firmly. "Look like the kinda bloke who would sit there and eat a turkey without carving it. Frankly pal, you look like a disgusting fat slob with no pride in your appearance. I know we all can't look like super models but you mate take the piss. Watching you on screen, you can almost smell the sweat coming off you, that rat on your chin makes me gag. I wasn't overly impressed with what you could do in the ring either, but I reckon you can win a few ugly bloke competitions. If it is me in the ring with you Brandon, for the love of everything, invest in some deodorant or something cause man, you need it."
Daniel shakes his head in disgust.
"But not even that smell is gonna be to your advantage." Daniel tells him. "Nor is Alex Jones experience, nor The Good Shepherds divine intervention. Just don't be a Lachlan after I beat ya all."
Daniel straightens up his shirt jacket.
"And we will walk out with the championships, that's a fact." Daniel says with a smile. "And you know me, I only deal in fact."
Daniel turns his back to the camera as the camera fades.
