Ben Jordan looks out of the window of his home in East London, England in the early hours of Friday morning, darkness still filling the sky as rain drops down his window. Ben smiles to himself as he look at what most would consider a bleak scene.
"London weather." He says with a smile on his face. "Can't beat it."
Ben turns around towards the camera, a bottle of beer in his hand as he smiles and moves towards a sofa.
"Be with you lovely people in a second." He says as he rearranges the furniture slightly, moving pillows around. "Just a sec."
Ben gets the pillows arranged how he wants them and lays back on the sofa with a small smile on his face.
"I was gonna do this tomorrow morning people, but it's a little after one in the morning here in London and once again, this bloke might have fell asleep on the sofa yesterday afternoon and woke up a little bit ago." He says as he looks at the beer in his hand. "I know most would go for a cup of coffee to get the ol' heart racing but at this time, rather go for something that might make me get back to sleep."
Ben clears his throat.
"So had to get the poor cameraman up from his slumber to help me out, so I can do this for you all." Ben says as he tilts the bottle of beer.
He takes a deep breath.
"Alright people." He says with his thick east end tone filling the room. "Cheers for joining me right now, we're hoping all this airs just before you lot go to bed over there in the states so I can pack up me things and get on a plane in a few hours and head over to you lovely lot."
He clears his throat.
"So you lot know how this works and this is where I give you some rabbit that leads in to what I did, that hopefully ties together at the end." Ben says as he looks down the camera. "And this is no different."
Ben takes a sip of the cold beer from the bottle.
"This is actually something that's been running through my nut for a long time because I see it more every single day of my life." Ben says softly. "You look back on me from a year ago and you'll know what I mean, because there's a couple of things in this world that is an unbreakable promise, and you know with the usual death and taxes malarkey, but there's something else that is inevitable and that my good people, is change."
Ben stops for a second.
"Now it doesn't make a blind bit of difference if we as people spark this change." He says as he slightly shakes his head. "Because it's gonna happen in every single aspects of our lives, regardless of if we want it to or not. It's life. None of us are born with the people we end up with later in our lives, we're all the same and we meet people who change our lives. We turn left on the road instead of right and we have a completely different day. We could meet someone on that left road we wouldn't meet on our right road and your life has changed."
Ben wags a finger at the camera.
"It's not just personal change, but look around you, everything around you from what you save twenty years ago is different." Ben explains. "Some geezer with money who wanted more money decided to rip down your favourite haunts and whack up something that is gonna give him the more wonga and the rest of us live with it."
He shrugs his shoulders.
"But what if you believe that no matter how much things change around you, no matter how different things look in front of your eyes, you can still change them for you?" He asks. "See that's what this is all about because the world can change around us, but we still hold the power to change things ourselves when we need to."
Ben leans forward on the sofa.
"So where is this going?" Ben says in a questioning tone. "Well yesterday, me and Bear, who is snoring his head off in his room, took a walk around a murky Isle of Dogs, the place that I grew up, the place I owned a pub in before the land was bought for stupid amounts that allowed me to become carefree. Selling that boozer changed the Isle of Dogs, it changed me, so I wanted to take Bear around and tell him some stories."
Ben takes a sip from his beer bottle.
"So give this a butchers good people and I will then try and tie it up and explain what all this change talk is about and how it links back to Sunday night for Climax Control. Over to me and Bear from yesterday please."
A cold November morning in the east of London sees Ben Jordan walking down a street. The grey sky threatens to rain, at any second, but Ben walks along the concrete street, holding Bear on a harness lead as the traffic flies by him.
"People are gonna think I'm bonkers walking along talking to you mate." Ben says as he looks down at his dog walking by his side. "I know this is not the green and pleasant lands you're used to running around in, but maybe we could get a weekend place a little further out in the summer for when I'm not working. Maybe a cottage or something near some woods where you can be mates with some happy little fellas."
Bear looks up at Ben as the walk past a couple of people walking towards them, their heads down and moving fast in typical London fashion.
"I have not missed that with everyone being double busy with somewhere to be." Ben chuckles to himself. "But I thought I should show you a little bit of where I am from before you was even a twinkle in your old man's eye."
Ben and Bear walk past a hotel, Ben looking up at it.
"That's been there for donkeys to be fair." Ben says as he looks at Bear. "But me and the boys had some times in the bar in there. Happy hour, a quid a bottle, could load up and just booze. There was a time there was about six of us, emptied all their fridges for a score each."
A down beat look crosses Ben's face.
"I guess that's something that's changed." Ben says in a sombre tone. "No more happy hours anymore, no more cheap beers. Couldn't empty a fridge on that kinda money these days, couldn't empty a shelf for that these day. Something to accept."
Ben walks a little further along with Bear at his side, looking to his right where a big body of water covers most of his view.
"This was a dock going back in the day." Ben tells Bear. "When I was a kid, this place was full of boats, and further down there, by that blue bridge, so many things would dock there. There was naval ships from all over the world that would dock there for a week, the Island was rocking at that point, businesses were booming, boozers were full, everyone made a few quid out of it. I remember being a kid and every other week they'll be something new down there and they'll be open to people to look around. I remember my Nan and gramps, God rest their souls, took me on this hospital ship once that had sailed all over the world helping people and there I was, all snot nosed and short trousered and I was walking around a place where many lives in under privileged countries, places where people couldn't afford the pot to whizz in, were saved. Now look at it."
Ben's eyes look down the water, his mind rushing back to how vibrant things used to be, to how they are now, his eyes looking at the empty spaces.
"Before that, those houses was never there, that was before my time though." Ben says as he pats Bear on the head. "They used to be warehouses, with things coming in from all over the world by boat, not dropped off on a plane and flown over, planes didn't do much cargo work then so everything came in by boat. One of my granddads was a docker all those years ago. Imagine the things he saw that no one is gonna get to see again."
Ben softly sighs.
"I know everything changes and all and you need to embrace it but still." He says to himself. "I mean there used to be people fishing here all day on a Sunday, I used to be here myself in the summer. Good times but things move on. Speaking of which, come on."
Ben ruffles the fur on Bear's head and the two walk down the road a little more and Ben smiles as he looks at a building in front.
"Now that used to be a gaff called Drummonds." Ben says to Bear. "Christ that place used to be bonkers on a Saturday night. Everyone on the Island would go there cause it was after the pubs kicked out because it was open till silly O clock in the morning. The old bill might as well have just stuck a van outside there because they knew it was gonna go off like a Roman candle in there every weekend. Coppers knew the bar staff by name, but we're not walking down that far, I brought you here to show you this."
Ben stops and turns his attention to the road as cars continue to go past on this cold, murky London morning. Ben looks up at what looks like a big office block before looking at Bear. Bear looks at Ben with his head slightly tilted.
"Now I know what you're thinking." Ben says as he looks Bear in the eye. "Why has this geezer walked me around to the other side of the Island, just to show me an office block where the office bods are flying in and out all day."
Ben looks back at the building.
"Because my old mate, that never always was an office block." Ben tells Bear. "That was the site of the pub that was in the family for years before I sold it for stupid amounts of money, that gave the entire family a while new life."
Ben looks proud of that thought.
"Everyone became debt free overnight." Ben says to his dog. "Everyone got a little extra and a new start, even me. It led me on to great things. It led me on to become a wrestler, because I could afford it, I wasn't living with unsteady pay or anything like that. I won't lie though, that change hurt, not only me but a lot of people who spent their time in there. A lot didn't have family and would go there for the company, to stop them sitting at home alone all the time. I feel bad I forced change on them but I knew a lot of them landed on their feet."
Ben swaps glances with Bear.
"I guess getting that cash allowed me to help a lot more people in the long run." Ben says with half a shrug. "I mean without it, I wouldn't have been able to help those charities, or set up Oasis with Jamie and save a lot of people through that. I wouldn't have been able to travel and meet new people and hopefully add something to their lives, but you know, it still hurts looking at that generic building knowing that's where the City Pride was."
Ben lets out a long sigh.
"I guess the change helped out a lot more people over all." He says trying to justify it. "I helped people, a lot more people are working in that building then I could have ever afforded to hire. I mean times were tough sometimes. I never knew at the end of the week if I would have had a fiver or owed a tenner. I guess it's nice not to sit and worry about that now."
Ben crouches down next to Bear.
"I didn't know it at the time, I just saw the pound signs in my eyes, but I guess in the long run, change ain't completely a bad thing if we embrace it. We've changed a lot in the last couple of years, it's time to take it on the chin and move on with it all. Agree?"
Ben looks down at Bear who seemingly gives him a nod.
"Right then." Ben says with a smile. "Shall we hit the cafe for a dirty great greasy fry up?"
Instantly, a smile seems to appear on Bear's face and Ben nods at him.
"I guess you and a greasy spoon will never change, eh?" Ben says with a grin. "I think we needed this change though and although it's not like I remember, I think we got this."
Ben strokes Bear's head.
"Come on, let's get down the cafe before the health inspector beats us to it." Ben says with a serious look.
The two walk away as the camera cuts back to Ben as he is right now.
The camera comes back to Ben sitting on the sofa still.
"Amazing how things can simply change and fairly quickly too." Ben says seriously. "I mean I know I haven't been around this gaff consistently for years but I did used to get home a fair amount to see the place but it's been a bit and place is hardly recognisable."
He slowly shakes his head.
"So where is this linked to me?" He asks himself. "Where is this linked to wrestling? Where is this linked to Sunday?"
He sighs.
"Because I have felt like I'm not the same and I need a bit of a change, especially against our upcoming opponents, Limitless." Ben says softly. "One on one, I've beat Oliver and I ain't taking anything away from that man, because he is the mutts nuts in terms of just how good he is in the ring. He is a special talent, but in tag team matches, him and Eiley have had mine and Sammi's number. They've somehow managed to crack the code of me and Sammi and that is not an easy thing to do."
He looks away from the camera for a second.
"And this is why I need to invoke a little bit of change." Ben says as he turns back towards the camera. "Everything else in this world changes, literally everything, so why can't this change where we can finally crack the cheat code that is Limitless?"
Ben ponders that thought for a few seconds.
"I'm not gonna lie to you people." Ben starts. "When these two were champions, they surprised the hell out of me, proper shocked me because they were two young uns, from a good background that seemed to just have that magic about them, but I thought I'd been around long enough and seen it all and that I would somehow come up with a way to be able to get through that, to be able to find a chink in their armour, to find some way of being able to force my way through and walk out as a champion... And then I got in the ring with them."
Ben's eyes go wide as he exhales.
"They blew me away honestly." Ben admits. "I tried everything that I possibly could and fell right on me mush in a puddle. It wasn't arrogance or anything like that, that made me think I could just get in the ring and just steam through them like a dose of salts, I had confidence in me, I had confidence in Sammi and they were better, but I have been going through that journey of change since we last met and I won't lie, I took the confidence booster match against Bill Barnhart and won and I said something very important when I was leading up to that match."
Ben pauses as he waves the beer bottle towards the camera.
"I said that facing Bill was my reset, it was the start of a blank page to start writing on, it was something where I could renew myself and this all ties in to the change in me." Ben says before exhaling. "This is where the change in me kicks in, this is where I feel that my future, for the first time in a long time, is in my own hands. My life has changed so much over the last couple of years, people have come and gone, my daily routine changed, my mental health changed, the path I was walking on and thought I'd always be walking on, had changed. My career, that too has changed and that spark of beating Bill Barnhart made me see that when I'm on it, when I'm on form, it's hard to stop and this Sunday, I'm gonna be on that form."
His confidence translates to a wide smile on his face.
"With change, you either shrug at it or you embrace it and I am embracing it, I can feel it running through me to the point that I'm confident about Sunday." He says with a grin. "I feel that deep down in my heart, this is where it changes against Eiley and Oz. This is where the tag team losing streak ends against them and I know they're on a dodgy run right now and people could say they've lost it a little since losing the belts, but these two are legit one of the best tag teams in the world bar none. It doesn't mean that we have to work less cause they're on an iffy run, means we need to work harder, much, much harder because they're gonna come in and try and break their iffy streak, so they are gonna be a dangerous team to face but there's something in my head, there's something about the change in me that makes me think we're gonna do bloody well in this one."
He smiles confidently.
"Not taking away from Eiley or Oliver at all." Ben says waving his finger. "These two are top notch but there's something inside my head telling me that we are gonna change our streak, that we are gonna change the tide against these two and have a fair crack at actually getting a win against them. They've been our white whale as a team and make no bones about it, they are the white whale for a lot of teams but they've had our number for a bit and it's time to take it back a little."
He nods his head convincingly slowly.
"I ain't been smiling in the tag division for a while." He admits. "Me and Sammi know the fans expected more from us, and we know we expected more from us. It's hard to say but we've let ourselves down when it came to this. We thought like a lot of you sitting at home that we were gonna be earmarked as champions and we've not got that yet so this is why Sunday means a bloody lot to us both, because it's a fresh start in a tough division and a win over the former champions would mean a hell of a lot to us, it will mean a hell of a lot to every single one of you out there that have supported us, that cheer for us, that want us to be those champions."
Ben looks down the camera with a sincere look on his face.
"We know we're gonna do this for you." He says with his tone matching his sincere face. "We know that we owe you for being behind us, we know that for your support in this harsh division, we need to give you as much as you've given us and it starts on Sunday. There's a bit of determination about me as you can tell, the urge to change our record against Limitless is strong as an ox at this point. It's a challenge every time you put on the boots, it's a challenge every time you step through those ropes, it's a challenge to give it our all and we know they're up for this challenge but so are we. In fact this is the most determined I've been to win a match in a long time, to get that monkey off my back so to speak. This is where I am more determined then I've been in forever to change my career path because I know my time as a wrestler is running out, people know my contract runs out at the end of the year as always, I know that if I want to put my name on another one, I gotta give myself a good base to make 2024 the year I get my hands on those Mixed Tag Team titles and beating the former champions is one hell of a base to put down. This match to me, is the foundation on where my career goes after Sunday."
He takes a second to reflect on his words.
"I either start heading up to where I can have the word champion after my name." He starts "Or just sit down there, getting in the ring with some of the younger guys and helping them out to get their name over. I know neither seem like a bad thing but it's been a while since I've carried around a belt with me. It's been a while since I've met the fans and lifted up gold to show them off proudly and this is a huge step to getting that back. You have to beat the best to be considered the best and Eiley and Oliver as a team, they really are just that, they are what it says on the tin. We have to beat them and I think we will."
Ben nods his head.
"See change is inevitable, nothing stays the same forever and it's something we must live with." Ben says with a straight face. "On Sunday, we change the way things usually go when we face Limitless."
Ben looks at his watch.
"Bloody hell, looks like I've talked your ear off for longer then I thought." He says with a surprised look on his face. "So I'm gonna let you be. You lot have a good night or a good day depending on where you are and I'll see ya on Sunday!"
Ben winks.
"Laters people!"
And with that, the camera fades to black.
