Pacific Palisades, Los Angeles, California, just a quick stop over on the way to West Wendover, Nevada for a certain Cockney as he meets local resident and co tag team champion, Jamie Dean. Ben Jordan sits in the loft apartment owned by Jamie Dean, looking out of the window at the street below. Jamie walks behind him, clearing his throat and causing the visiting Ben to turn around and look at his friend, Jamie holding out a class of what looks to be coke. Ben gratefully nods as he accepts the offer of a drink.
"Cheers mate." Ben says with a warm smile towards Jamie.
Jamie nods towards Ben, returning the smile to the Cockney.
"You're welcome" he starts "I was thinking."
"That musta hurt." Ben fires back, with a smirk on his face.
"Oh ha ha." The sarcastic response from Jamie comes. "I was thinking maybe we should go do something that suits you, go out somewhere."
Ben takes a sip of the coke in his hand and looks towards Jamie.
"Did you take a whack to the head in training or something?" Ben asks, his eyebrows lowered "I'm a noisy kinda guy at times and you're a coffee shop fella, and you wanna do something that suits me?"
Jamie nods his head slowly at Ben.
"Sure." Jamie says brightly. "I don't see why not, change is good at times."
Ben suspiciously raises an eyebrow as he looks towards Jamie.
"Who are you and what have ya done with the real Jamie Dean?" Ben asks.
Jamie rolls his eyes towards his tag team partner, taking his joke the way it was intended.
"Seriously." Jamie starts "What do ya wanna do? Choose a place and we'll go out."
Ben shrugs his shoulders, looking at Jamie with his lower lip poked out.
"I don't care." He says calmly "You choose."
Jamie playfully taps Ben on the back of the head.
"What part of something you want to do, don't you get?" Jamie asks "If I decide, it wouldn't be doing what you wanted to do, would it?"
Ben scratches his head and looks towards Jamie.
"Alright...." He says with a smile.
Ben clicks his fingers and the scene changes to a noisy, busy area. Irish music blasts through the speakers, lots of fiddles playing as a man dressed in a bright green suit with a large oversized hat on his head, and a big fake ginger beard place two glasses of black stuff in front of the two. Jamie looks around in surprise as he sees others taking bear dressed like the same man with the black drink, placing similar drinks in front of others. On the stage about twenty feet away from the two, five women line up, dancing along to the music in perfect rhythm, performing the traditional Irish river dance. Ben raises the glass of black liquid in front of Jamie and smiles before taking a gulp. Jamie wirily looks at his glass in front of him and takes a sip, making a strange face at Ben.
"People actually drink this stuff?" He asks.
"To be sure, to be sure." Ben says with a fake Irish accent.
"So you brought me to an Irish pub?" Jamie asks.
"No." Ben says "I brought you to an Irish THEME pub. You think boozers in Dublin have a bunch of people serving you beer, while dressed as leprechauns? Behave. Irish bars are like normal boozers, trust me, I know, me and Mickey tore up a few in Dublin in our younger days. This is a theme bar."
Jamie looks around at the stereotypical Irish set up and looks across at Ben.
"Ah Mickey" Jamie says "One of your longest friends."
"My actual longest friend." Ben responds "Yeah, me and Mickey grew up together back home. Day I met him, he saved me from getting me head kicked up by a couple of lads thinking they were hard nuts. No one bothered me in school after that."
"How old was you then?" Jamie asks.
"About five." Ben says with a smile.
Jamie returns the smile towards Ben.
"Well you have made a lot of friends in this business. The Elders act like your friend these days." Jamie says.
"Yeah." Ben responds "They tried to make up for their over the top actions in the past. Everyone deserves a second chance."
"Who's your longest friend in wrestling?" Jamie asks.
"That'll be Drake." Ben responds. "I'll never forget the day I first met Drake Green..."
Let's go back many years as Ben tells the story of how he met Drake Green. For the benefit of you watching, it's almost gonna be like you're there, pretty cool, huh?
ACW show number one, Ben Jordan's wrestling debut. A battle royal containing many men, including Ben, had concluded, Ben unfortunately falling a little short. Disappointment was etched in the Londoners face as he walked away from a familiar face, the face of Casey Williams, signed by ACW as a behind the scenes guy in between his work for SCW. Ben had thought that wrestling may not have been for him after the match, but Casey had somehow managed to change his thought train. Words from a veteran was invaluable but the disappointment still ran through his body. He walked away from Casey and took a seat at a nearby bench, his hands on his head as he looked around. Ben was approached by a man who would become a long time friend.
"You did good out there kid." The voice of Drake Green could be heard saying as he stood over Ben.
Ben looked up, he knew who Drake Green was, he knew Drake had a successful run in another of the alliance's federations. He was shocked to see this man standing over him, picking him out of a crowd to talk to.
"I was proper rubbish out there." Ben said to Drake "I let meself get distracted, took me eyes off the match and it all went proper wonky. I ain't got no one else to blame but meself out there, it was a right two and eight out there. Like taking a shot for the top bins and hitting the back of the stands."
Drake looked at Ben with expected confusion, not encountering too many people from East London on his travels, the slang was relatively new to the future SCW Hall of Famer. He runs his hands through his hair as he looks at Ben.
"I didn't catch a word of that." Drake admitted as he looked at Ben with a confused look on his face.
Ben looked at Drake and pauses for a second, thinking about what he just said.
"Basically, I was saying I was crap out there." Ben said, simplifying it for American ears. "Just wasn't good enough to be in the ring. God knows why they even hired me."
"How many matches have you had?" Drake enquired, taking a seat next to Ben.
"One, that one." Ben shyly admitted. "Until tonight, I was a wrestling virgin."
Drake looked at Ben with his eyebrows raised.
"No chance kid." Drake told Ben with a tone of surprise in his voice. "Not many first timers have been that smooth in the ring."
"I was about as smooth as sandpaper." Ben said with disappointment.
"I'm gonna give you some good advice now." Drake started "You're not gonna win every match, you're not gonna look great in every match. There are gonna be guys that would make you look like shit to make themselves look better. Don't be one of those guys and accept the fact that you won't and can't win everything. Just use things like that to improve and be better next time. A wrestling career isn't a sprint, it's a marathon. Any disappointment, use it to get better."
"Maybe I'm not right for this malarky mate." He told Drake.
"I disagree." Came the response from Drake. "Personally, I thought you looked good out there for a rookie and you will improve as time goes along. Don't throw in the towel just yet, you could be a future world champion here."
A smile crossed Ben's face but a shake of the head quickly follows.
"I doubt it pal." Ben responded. "But cheers for the nice words."
"I gotta go do this thing quickly." Drake told Ben "But when I'm done, let's go for a drink and I'll give ya some advice...."
We come back to Ben and Jamie sitting in the Irish theme pub.
"And he's been one of my closest friends ever since." Ben says to Jamie.
"He was right." Jamie said "Cause you went on to win all three of those titles they had within sixteen months, including holding one for over a year, another for about ten months, and was the last ever top champion."
A smile crosses Ben's face.
"Yeah, I did alright." Ben says "But what about you? Who was your first friend in wrestling?"
"Well not to go all sappy on you," Jamie leans his forearms on the edge of their table, coyly shifting the dark drink away from him, but Ben isn't fooled. He nudges it right back to his tag partner with a smirk. Jamie sighs and takes the glass in hand and continues, "...but I'm afraid I'm not the people person that you are."
"Oh get off it..." Ben starts to say but Jamie shakes his head, stalling whatever Ben was going to say by saying himself, "No, fact is it's true. I may be out going and have fun around people, but when it comes to drawing people closer and making friends?" He shakes his head.
"Yeah. Not so much. I guess that shit all started in school. Never did make very many friends there. Had problems at home that made me introverted in classes, so I pretty much hid in the corner and didn't talk to hardly anyone. Of course it didn't help that I lived in the countryside of Lima and my home had well water that was tainted with sulfur. Made my clothes stink and I went to school with that smell and .. well, you know how kids are."
"Not from experience." Ben leans back in his chair and smiles with a hand resting over his heart. "I was an angel."
"Yeah I'm sure you were." Jamie chuckles, and a flash in Jamie's eyes makes Ben go serious for a moment and he asks, "So, things were pretty rough for you in school?"
"When I bothered to go, yes." Jamie answers. "Got into a few fights. Teachers were really no help, at least most of them. I was pretty much tormented every day, so I usually would find any excuse I could to just stay home. Grades and graduating be damned."
"Never really knew this." Ben picks up his glass for a drink and Jamie replies, "Well it doesn't exactly shed good light on me so you know me; if it doesn't make me look good, I don't share." He winks and Ben just smiles, knowing too well what Jamie was really saying; it was a bad memory and who really enjoys sharing bad memories?
Ben then says, "But you have made some right fine friends, you know. And I'm not just talking about..." He smiles and puts a hand over his chest before continuing, all the while making Jamie smile and shake his head. "I know you had a few at AKBAR, and Sandra and Kathy? Two lovely ladies."
"They are special." Jamie smiles and nods. "Chad as well. Well, it's hard not to make friends when working in an environment like a nightclub. But those three? Very special. Wrestling is different though. It's not as easy to make genuine friends."
"Sure it is." Ben disagrees.
"Well, for you maybe." Jamie laughs. "You're Saint Ben. Everybody likes you. Me? I guess I just don't let people in like you do. To me, wrestling is such a business filled with so much back stabbing, trust is hard to come by. At least where I'm concerned. Look at the Elders and how things went with them. They beaned you with a steel chair and you forgave them. Me?" Jamie shakes his head and takes a drink from his glass. He looks at it in a new light and then to ben, "You know this isn't too bad once you get used to it."
Ben holds up his own glass in a toast and Jamie goes on with his train of thought, "I still haven't forgiven them entirely, and truth be told? I still don't quite trust them. I still think the best thing about their whole team was Master Lily and when they dropped her in favor of Alana? Things went to hell for them professionally. And look how things started with Sammy where I was concerned."
Ben asks, "You mean how you treated her like a right tit?"
Jamie says, "Yes, and I explained to you and her both why. Wasn't just because of Justin, but the way she acted at the time, I felt like she was dissing me and ... well, old wounds. But now I'm happy to say Sammy is one of my few friends."
Ben asks again, "But who was your first?"
Jamie pauses for just a brief moment, then smiles in recollection. "Amy." He nods. "First person I reached out to, actually, and she responded in kind. Amy Marshall. I still don't know why she was into me as a friend. Maybe she needed a friend too? But it started on Twitter when she was talking about her career in adult films, and I mentioned my own past with Can-Am. We just sort of clicked in just the right way."
*sings* Memoriiiiies! Of the way we were... *clears throat* Yeah, sorry about that. You know how we were fortunate enough to have Ben share with us a memory from his distant past? Well now it's the turn of Jamie Dean, where we find ourselves not in a wrestling arena, but at Anaheim, California's Heat Ultra Lounge. It was only three weeks past Jamie's debut for SCW ironically against Ben Jordan himself, where "the Sausage King" and Amy found themselves at the hot spot where the SCW stars had opted for their post-show celebration.
Heat had a high energy atmosphere with sleek and modern decor; perfect for the high energy Superstars and Bombshells that called SCW home. Some of the club regulars had sour expressions on their kissers at 'their turf' having been invaded, but just as many were happy for the celebrity status of these guests and their chance to get close to those celebrities (as if it made them famous somehow in turn). And the employees of Heat were certainly not objecting as the more the men and women of SCW had to drink and dance, the better the tips became!
And on the far side of the club, between dancers and strobe lights of many colors, was a second bar with several shot glasses lined up along the edge. And standing before the rows of tequila filled glasses? Why, Jamie and Amy of course! Jamie was dressed up in his snazziest attire; that of a violet, button down dress shirt and white slacks with matching shoes. Amy, however, was dressed hardcore in black leather; a black vest garment that exposed her midriff and matching pants with high heel boots.
"Ready?" The playful bartender smiled. "And, begin!"
And at his command, Jamie and Amy began snatching shots and downing them quickly, one right after the other! Both consumed six straight shots in record time, and at the last, they both set their glasses down and clenched their teeth and eyes tightly as they felt the warm, invigorating sensation of the liquor coursing through their bodies.
"Good GOD I needed that!" Jamie gasped in a hoarse voice, as Amy laughed and draped an arm around the shoulder of her newfound drinking buddy. Jamie quickly fished some cash from his wallet and gave it a toss to the handsome bartender as he was led away towards a booth Ms. Marshall had the foresight to reserve.
Just as they were about to take their seats, a bell rang behind the bar and Jamie looked up. "What's that about?"
Amy answered nonchalantly as she slid into her own chair opposite him, "Oh they do that every time they get a really kick ass tip."
The thought hit Jamie a moment later, booze and all you know, and he quickly grabbed for his wallet from the pocket of his 'butt inducing' slacks and looked inside, "Shit!" He exclaimed. "My fucking fifty is gone!"
And all Amy could do was laugh...
As does Ben who almost falls from his chair at Jamie's drunken mistake with the bartender. Jamie just shakes his head and runs his hand down his face as he goes on, "And it just kind of evolved. Amy and I started as drinking buddies, really. We danced and laughed, had a lot of fun. We may have even made out a time or two."
Ben almost chokes on his beer as he looks up and Jamie clears his throat, "Don't ask. Point is, after all that, we just started talking. Comparing note son everything from careers to life and, well who can really explain how two people become friends? How did we?"
"Christ, don't ask me!" Ben playfully shoots back.
Jamie goes on, "I don't think it really hit me what we meant to one another until that match I had with Sean Jackson. Got the win over him and he just laid into me after, and what does Amy do? That bad ass chick actually runs out with a steel chair and gets between that nutcase and myself!"
Ben nods, impressed at Amy's daring move to get between the infamous "Mental Rapist" and one of his unfortunate victims. Jamie then chuckles, "Christ, I must have watched that video a dozen times, and the look on Sean's face gets me every time! And she even took a swing at him with the chair before he left the ring!" Jamie smiles, rubbing his fingers along his chin, "I smile every time I think about it and what that chick's been to me."
"Wicked." Ben says with a smile. "Anyway JD, we should probably do that promo stuff before we run out of space?"
"Space?" Jamie asks with a cocked eyebrow.
"Yeah, word limit and all." He says with a smile.
Both Ben and Jamie turn to the nearest camera and wink before facing each other.
"Maybe I shoulda said time." Ben says thoughtfully. "Either way...."
He clicks his fingers and the scene around him freezes. Drinks stop being drunk mid gulp, dancers stop dancing mid step. Ben looks down the camera.
"Alright people." He says with a smile. "It's that time again where me and JD here have to talk about our opponents and well, it's gonna be a familiar chat if you know what I mean cause our opponents just happen to be two fellas we're pretty familiar with, The Elders."
Ben pauses for a second.
"Yep, The Elders again." Ben starts "A team we have a bit of history with, a team who have tried to mend fences with us after a dodgy moment or two and we put it in the past a bit. These lads were booked last week and there was a bit of a twist in the tail there. We know, as per their public contract negotiations with Mark Ward, they're the ones who will be booked as much as possible so we knew we were up against them this week before the rest of ya did, but they took a bit of a shock to the system the other day when they lost to the debuting team of The Black Sheep, taking away their chance of having a title shot."
Ben looks at Jamie, putting his hands out flat in front of him before turning back to the camera on his right and Jamie's left.
"As much as I would have loved to defend the titles against these two lads, this is a smart way for SCW to show you have to earn things around here." Ben says with a shrug. "And one lost cost ya. Well I'd say this is your chance to make up for it Jon, this is your chance to put yourself back in contention Eyesnsane, because beating us two means they will have to give you another shot at the belts, and we're ok with that, but there is one slight problem lads."
Ben holds up a single finger.
"The fact that we hate to lose and therefore don't plan on losing." He says with honesty. "Call it personal pride, call it the fact I don't really wanna lose two on the spin, call it what you like but the truth is, we really hate to lose. Blast From The Past was a lovely distraction, it gave me a chance to spread my wings, team with one of my best friends, which I generally do a lot anyway with JD, but give myself the challenge of something new. That has not taken away my focus, it's not made me think I'm better than I am because of I got to the final, Sammi dragged my arse there, I'm still completely focused on the job in hand and the job in hand is adding credibility to the tag team championship and there's no better way than winning, regardless of the titles being on the line or not."
Ben takes a deep breath.
"Jon, Eyes, you two have no doubt earned a bit of respect from me." Ben starts "And I'm a huge fan of The Elders in general, but when Drake gave me that advice years ago about turning a negative in to a positive, it stuck. I lost the Blast From The Past final, but like I was told back there, let things like that drive me on and that's exactly what I plan on doing. I'm letting it drive me on and I will work my Jacobs off to not let that loss become start of a streak. I don't like those losing streaks so I won't let it happen."
A serious look crosses his face.
"We know The Elders as well as they know us." Ben starts "Believe me when I tell ya this match is as even as they come, but I got a whole lot of heart and I'm gonna use that, I got a whole lot of determination because I lost my last match. The loss to Evie and Lord Raab will push me through this one and help me win. The determination not to lose two on the spin, will get me through this and I will feel that feeling of winning once more. We will show that we're still the team to lift the SCW Tag Team championships to a much bigger level, higher than they've ever been before."
Ben points upwards
"We might not have teamed for a while." He says pointing to himself and then to Jamie. "But it's gonna be like we haven't missed a beat. It'll be like we've been teaming every day forever. It's like riding a bike for us, no matter how long it's been. We will be instantly back to our best when we get in that ring and that is something The Elders will be struggling to handle. There's no rust on us as a team and we will do everything we can to show that and there's no better way to do that then beating a team such as The Elders and we have every intention of doing that."
He pauses for a second.
"So Jon, Eyesnsane..." He says with a firm nod "As always it will be a pleasure to get in the ring with you both but unfortunately for you, me and Jamie are coming in to this match and expect to walk out of this with our heads held high and a victory next to our name. We'll see you Sunday."
Ben points to the camera and nods to Jamie.
"All yours son." He tells him.
Jamie frowns, "If I have to be honest, I'm more than just a little annoyed that this isn't a championship defense. Both Ben here and I have been waiting awhile for a chance to defend our titles. One of the many obstacles where the Blast From the Past is concerned."
Jamie turns to Ben and points a finger toward him.
"And I still think you should have won. But I digress. From what I understand, this match was originally scheduled to be a defense, until Christian stepped in and said that the Elders lost to that n00b team, so they didn't deserve the title shot."
Jamie scoffs and shakes his head.
"That's a crock of shit if I ever heard one. I may not be as close to the Elders as Ben here is, but to say they don't deserve a championship match because of a single loss? How many times do we see people like Travis Nathaniel Andrews and Steve Ramone tank a match, only to get more and more title shots? This match between us and Eyes and Jon? It should be for the titles! Sure the Bad Boys are the Number One Challengers but come on! Ben and I have discussed this a time or two in the past, and he knows full well how I feel about non-title matches in general."
Jamie shrugs and shakes his head with a look on his face.
"They shouldn't even be a thing. if the champion, be it singles or tag, is competing? Then their championship should be on the line. If the champion loses, then they shouldn't be champion any longer. I always thought non-title matches just served as an excuse for a champion to be lazy, with nothing really at risk. But it's a battle even I know I'll not win so no point in bitching about it any more than I already have."
He leans against the table and picks up his glass, looking right at Ben.
"Jon and Eyes deserve a shot, as do other teams in SCW, and soon as Ben and I walk away the winners? I say you and I march right into Mark's office and ask him to let us put the gold on the line."
Ben nods and raises his glass to Jamie. They clink glasses and drink, before Jamie continues.
"And yes, I said we were going to walk away as the winners because that is the whole idea. I didn't wait this long to get to team with Ben again, just to walk away on the short end of the stick. I don't know what's been going on with the Elders lately, but things haven't been going so well for them in the win-loss department and I'll be damned if Ben and I are the ones who end that unlucky streak that Eyes and Jon have been on."
"I mean, it won't be an easy task, beating Jon and Eyes. It never is, and now it'll be even tougher. And I'm not just saying that because they've had a run of bad luck and will be fighting us even harder than normal to re-establish themselves. I'm saying this because how many times has Team BJ faced the Elders now? Three? Four? Maybe more, but the point is; we know each other. Ben and I know what Eyes and Jon are capable of inside of the ring, and they know the same about us. Once you reach that point against a familiar opponent, you know two things."
"One, you know that the fans will be in for a hell of a show because for everything your opponent throws your way, you'll probably see it coming and have a counter for it, and vice versa. Trading holds and moves at the pace the Elders and we are known for is just going to promise everyone out there why Christian ballsed it up by not having this match as a championship defense. What we're going to pull is going to be wasted on a non-title match, but we're doing so anyway because, let's face it, we like winning!"
"And two? Knowing what you know, it just means Ben and I are going to have to pull off a few new tricks that you haven't seen, and you won't be expecting. And we can do that because, hey..." Jamie spreads his arms out with a self-appreciative smile. "We're just kick ass champions like that. And we wouldn't be the champions if we couldn't. But you already know that fellas, don't you? Like I said, we've wrestled each other time and again, and nine times out of ten? It was Ben and myself who had our hands and heads held up high. One loss, and it was for the championships. I admit we couldn't have dropped the titles to a finer team, but it's time to look back to that loss and correct it. It's time to pick back up from where we left off, and maybe, just maybe?"
Jamie raises a glass and winks.
"Next time it'll be for the gold."
Ben nods, satisfied and raises his hands to right everything from his little temporal stasis, when Jamie excitedly reaches over to grab his wrist.
"Ooh! Let me do it!" Jamie pleads.
Ben slowly lowers his hand with an uncertain frown on his otherwise handsome face, "Okkkayyy?"
Jamie raises a hand and snaps -- and the scene changes to a Western saloon in the Old West, and Ben and Jamie are clad in cowboy attire and surrounded by cowboys and gunslingers.
Ben stares at his clothes, then at Jamie who smiles, "Cool! Time travel!"
Ben closes his eyes and sighs, "Bloody hell!"
