The camera moves in to the face of Ben Jordan, sitting in a worn leather chair, wearing blue suit pants and a black buttoned down shirt. He smiles brightly as he gives a thumbs up.
"Alright people." He says with a cheery tone. "Hope you're all well on this nippy winters day."
He stops for just a second.
"So the news is out, I'm with SCW till the end of the year at least which is amazing. This will mark my eleventh year in SCW."
Ben exhales.
"Eleven years." He says as the words hit home after leaving his mouth. "Bloody long time to be wrestling, bloody long time to do any one job but yeah, I've decided sod it, lets do it. Me being around that long is gonna make the next thing I say sound a little bit odd, but it's true. Sometimes, I think most people don't know who I am. A lot of the time I feel like there's not many knocking around this ol' world that know who I am."
He half shrugs his shoulders.
"Mad innit?" He comments. "I think it passes people by about all the things I've done in that time, all the things I've won, all the things I've actually achieved being who I am and I'm not gonna lie good people, it bothers me at times. I've spent a lot of time doing this and sometimes it feels like I'm a bit of a shadow. Now don't worry, this is not the start of an I'm overlooked thing, far from it, because I do get respect from a lot and a lot reacted well to the news I've put me name down to another contract. That means a lot to me, but I feel like its time to let people know who I am again. So I did a little thing earlier in the week."
He can't help but smile.
"I did this web chat thing, I know, can be a little meh in terms of being creative and all that, but I did it, the fans signed on and they could ask me anything within moderation and I'd be honest, because it is time to reintroduce yourself to Ben Jordan. It is time to speak about who I am now, because we all know if you've been paying attention that I ain't the Ben Jordan I was from a couple of years back. I've had me problems like a lot of people, things have hit me like they would anyone else so I let the good people of the world ask what they wanted to ask, get inside the head of who I am."
Ben taps the side of his head.
"Coulda gone proper wonky but actually went alright." He says with a nod. "Shall we see what happened you lovely lot? I had an absolute blast, mate."
Ben spins his finger around, indicating for tape to be rolled as the old saying goes and the scene switches.
Tuesday evening on the Isle of Dogs in east London in the Jordan residence overlooking the river Thames. The wind rattles around the outside as a storm kicks in, hitting most of the country. Ben walks towards a computer desk, wearing blue jeans and an SCW shirt with the company logo on it. He places down a cup of hot tea and looks at the screen.
"Right." He says to himself. "Gone for a Jimmy, make meself look a little presentable, the dogs on silent."
Bear pops his head up from next to Ben, looking at him but Ben shakes his head.
"Not you ya wally." He says picking up his phone from the desk. "This dog."
He waves his phone towards Bear and Bear turns his head, putting it back on the floor. Ben places the phone back on to his desk.
"Don't want any weird calls while I'm doing this." He says to himself. "We'll just do this and we'll go stick on a film or something, ain't no way I'm heading down the boozer in this weather, even if it's a couple of minutes away, I don't fancy a pint that much."
Ben clears his throat and looks at the laptop in front of him, quickly hitting a couple of keys to bring up his stream. His eyes widen.
"Bloody hell." He mutters "Few thousand already waiting for me to go live. Alrighty, show face, forget any nerves, let's do this."
Ben clicks on a couple of buttons and his face appears on the screen.
"Alright people." He says cheerily. "Cheers for joining me over here, hope the weather is better where you guys are because it's a bit blowy here. I don't need to tell you lot who I am because ya logged on here to see me. Much appreciated. Now here's the plan people. You get to ask me what you want and I get to answer the questions I see and waffle on for a bit. Keep it clean though because this is completely being recorded for SCW right now. I'm saving them all an arm and a leg for not having to send a camera crew my way. You can ask me what you want but again, like Belinda says to Jason all the time, keep it clean."
Ben smiles and picks up his cup of tea.
"So let's crack on, shall we?" He says. "Ask away."
Ben sips on his tea as he looks for a question in the chat box.
"Congrats on your new contract." He reads from the screen. "What's 2024 got in store for you?"
Ben put the cup back down.
"Good start." Ben says with a nod. "Ya know, I have no idea just yet. There's been no major talks of what is going to happen with me, just that I'm signed there if I'm needed. It's one of those things with wrestling when plans can change so fast. It only takes one injury or one thing catching on and you're in the bosses minds to do other stuff. I mean personally I'd like to get those mixed tag team championships, that would be pretty cool."
Ben waits for another question to appear.
"What is your role in SCW?" He reads out loud. "I do a lot of things if I'm honest. I get on the cards when there's space or when SCW want to freshen things up, but I do a lot away from the ring for SCW. So a lot of us do it, it's like an ambassador role really, where we go and use the SCW name for charities and things and I go along to them. The charities are good causes and such, but having the SCW name attached, puts more eyes on them, so I promote a lot of charities under SCW's name. I do a lot of stuff over here that never makes the air. To me, I'm not just a wrestler, I'm a guy who goes and spreads the SCW name and try and help as many as I can. That's pretty much my role in SCW right now."
Ben waits and sips more tea.
"What advice would you give someone just getting in to the business?" He reads. "The same advice as I'd give people in it for five, ten, twenty years. Never stop learning, never stop watching stuff that's around you, especially if you get to the point where you're on television every week. That's where magic happens, that's where you can look around and people and watch them create genius. I saw it last week at Climax Control, and you can never stop learning from that stuff. Just soak everything in. I've been in SCW for eleven years, wrestling for about twelve or thirteen and even to this day, I just learn from all around me."
Ben waits for another question to appear.
"Do you have any retirement plans?" He reads out loud. "Yeah, just eat a lot of pizza, get fat and be the guy in the corner of the pub who talks about when he was a wrestler."
Ben laughs.
"Seriously though." He says lowering his voice. "I always said when I get to forty, or leading up to that, I will think about what I want to do. I'm thirty nine in a few months, so I'm sure the thoughts will creep in that this might be my last contract, and if I decide it is then so be it. I have nothing to regret from my career, I've made a lot of money, I've been relatively injury free and I think that's the way wrestlers should go out. No one deserves to end up crippled for doing a job they love and thankfully, I'm not at the point of being messed up. I still can get up, walk the dog, go for a run and live a decent life and that's what I want when I'm done."
Ben looks for the next question.
"Thank you for making people aware of mental health issue." Ben reads up with a smile on his face. "You're welcome, it is something that needs to be looked at closer at cause so many suffer in silence and it effects so many people around them. People if you are watching this and suffering, please reach out to someone, brighter days are ahead."
Ben nods his head seriously and waits for another question.
"What's the creative process for wrestlers when it comes to coming up with promos?" He reads out loud. "Bloody hell, deep question there."
Ben pauses for a few seconds to think.
"So we're all very different." He starts. "Everyone has their own way of doing it, but for me, I have a ton of ideas written down, it's just what fits the matches and opponents. For me if I'm at a show like last week and find out I have a match the next week, I am working on things on the flight home, I take Monday to decide, then I'm on the phone to Mark, Christian, or anyone else in the office to see if it's possible logistic wise, budget wise, all of that and then things get arranged and I get cracking."
Ben takes a sip of his tea.
"How much of your stuff is completely scripted?" He reads. "None of it really. I bullet point things usually but that's about it. Some people go word for word but that's a bit robotic for me. I mean last week with Despy, everything was natural cause sod all was scripted. Despy don't do scripts, he'll just go off the anyway, so everything was natural and that's the way I like to work. I have in my head how I want things to go, a couple of points to work towards and I do it that way. It goes much better that way then it does if ya sitting there with a huge script. I mean that's why I love SCW so much, because you're not told what to talk about, you're trusted to be creative and that's more relaxing."
Ben brushes the hair from his forehead and waits for something else to take his interest.
"Is it true you nearly signed with another company years ago?" He reads out loud. "It is. I had talks with another place but I got a lot of warnings from people that the place was bad, the guy who ran it would constantly kiss up to people and then bury them, so I opted to not sign there. Money was good but money can't buy ya happiness."
Ben scratches his face and waits.
"Was you disappointed that you wasn't picked in the top eight to challenge for the world championship?" He reads slowly. "Not really. I think the eight that was picked was the right ones. I mean you can have all the history in the world, but you need to look at what's good now, who's active more now and go from there and these eight are the top eight in SCW. I haven't done enough over the last year or so to be considered in that conversation so there was no disappointment from me at all about it. It's been something that has got my attention and made me take notice of what's going on there. I think that's what it was designed to do and get people interested and it's worked. I mean there's been a good spin off for J2H, who is big time involved in things without needing the belt, and gives others a chance to stake their claim, but as for disappointed, nah, not really. Looking forward to seeing who leads the company forward after My Bloody Valentine."
Ben smiles and waits.
"If you could create a group with anyone ever in SCW, who would it be?" Ben reads out loud. "For me, it's gotta be Drake Green, Simon Jones, Max Burke and Sammi. I think that would be an ultimate good guy group that would pretty sweet."
Ben runs his fingers through his hair.
"Do you have an career regrets?" He reads from the screen. "None at all. I think that I could wake away tomorrow and not regret a thing. I think I'm happy with all I've done and could sneak off in to that sunset and not worry about anything. I think I've done enough there."
Ben glances at the clock and back to the screen.
"When will you go in the Hall of Fame?" He reads out loud with a smile. "I don't know, there has been whispers but I'm one of these guys that would take that when my in ring career is done and not before. I think it's one of those things I will only accept when I know that I won't wrestle again. For me, that will be putting the lid on top of that bottle that is my wrestling career so look out for that after retirement, which like I said earlier, could come in the next year or so, might happen a fair bit later. Everyone wants that Hall of Fame spot, people beg for it all the time, seen with my own eyes people who haven't done too much, just beg for it, but I'm pretty chilled about it. If I go in, great, will be when my career is done, if I don't, it's all good. No regrets on that at all."
Ben sips at his tea again.
"What's in the cup?" He says with a chuckle. "It's tea, it's my English side showing."
Ben waits for the next question.
"Why did you move back to England?" He reads out loud. "I thought it was time to come home. I've lived in a lot of places, Canada, Cuba, America, Jersey, etc, but I think things come full circle. I lost a family member a little while ago and I never really spoke about it, but it destroyed me mentally, but things destroyed can be rebuilt, things that break can be fixed and when I was rebuilding my mind, I saw that maybe it was time to be closer with my family and come on home. I could have moved anywhere in the world, when ya have a bit of fame and a bit of wonga in ya pocket, you tend to get accepted anywhere in the world and I coulda gone for the Playboy lifestyle, coulda gone to a small town, coulda moved to suburbia and just been Ben at number ten, but home called, being around my family called and that's what I thought would be the easiest thing to do, it's where I felt comfortable. Even nomads came from somewhere and we all get that call to go back at some point. I guess I just got that call and wanted to be where it all started."
Ben nods seriously.
"Are you still involved with Oasis?" Ben reads out. "Absolutely. I speak to Jamie Dean a couple of times a week and we go over a few things all the time. Couldn't leave them hanging. Work very hard for them, a lot of my SCW cash goes towards that so yeah, very much involved, very much helping JD with that."
Ben waits again as questions fly through the chat box.
"What's going on with you and Sam Marlowe?" Ben reads, with his head jolting backwards. "Get the feeling there's a bit of a romantic meaning behind that question but we're besties, nothing more then that, regardless of what the dragon lady sister of hers implies constantly. Moving on, eh?"
Ben grins widely and looks for another question.
"Can we see Bear on TV more?" He reads out loud with a laugh. "We could try but he's not very good with the mic to be fair, has trouble holding it ya see."
Ben laughs out loud and looks for something else to talk about.
"Is there any strange behaviour in the SCW dressing room?" Ben reads, trying not to laugh. "Lots of it mate. Everyone has their own quirks and ways back there and it's very unique with how things come together and happen so yeah, I'd say there's a little bit more then strange behaviour back there. Thinking it's the same in any job really, always a fella in the office who does odd things, like eating biscuits from a bowl rather then a plate, or things like that. Keeps the days interesting at least."
Ben waits for another question.
"Who do you think will be a breakout star in 2024?" Ben says to himself. "I would think it's actually my opponents on Sunday, Carter and Ariana. I think this is going to be their breakout year. Carter pretty much has everything it takes to be a star. I think that this is the year he shows it to everyone and actually breaks out a little bit."
Ben looks at the screen.
"Can you cut a promo right here for your match on Sunday?" Ben reads out. "Is that something you good people wanna see? I mean I could give it a go if you want."
Ben looks at the screen and looks at the many yes answers coming through.
"Alright." Ben says. "You know how things work. We'll cut to me introducing it, we'll come back and use the same graphic on screen Ariana and a few others do. Thing is, you lot won't see this bit till Friday..."
The camera cuts back to Ben Jordan sitting in his chair from earlier, playing with his phone. He looks up at the camera.
"Oh, erm hello." Ben says with plain look on his face. "Reason he cut back here is to break it down for anyone who might be watching, taking notes or judging..."
Ben winks at the camera.
"Just so people can tell the difference." He says with a grin. "Stick that graphic up there, would ya?"
***Promo time, on camera***
We return to Ben in front of the laptop.
"So someone would have spliced in the promo time, on camera thing graphic by now." Ben says with a wink. "So I guess I should probably start chatting away about the match."
Ben clears his throat.
"What a way to start off 2024." He begins. "I know we're near the end of the first month and blimey does it feel like this month has gone on forever and a day, but this is worth waiting for. I mean what a match for me and Sammi to kick off this year because we're up against one of the best young teams around. Seriously, I said earlier these two were gonna be breakout starts this year and I mean that one hundred percent, so this is a good way for us to start the year as we mean to go on as a team and pick up the win against a couple of good, confident people."
Ben nods seriously.
"And I use the word confident for an absolutely good reason." He says with a serious nod. "And that's because Ariana ran to Twitter or X, whatever you want to identify it as these days and her tweet felt like she was very confident that she was gonna win. Now I hate denting someone's confidence, I really do but you know the old saying that pride comes before a fall? Well so can confidence Ariana. Over confident against a couple of people can be a downfall, talking about Sammi and stuff, thinking you've got her number. This ain't a singles match, her back is covered by me here and I made things clear when I took on the bulldog. I made it more then clear that I get to write my next chapter, I got the pen in my hand and I get to write it and writing it in this instance means I get to put out my story and the story doesn't include losses love."
Ben pauses for a second or two.
"See, those mixed tag titles could be the end goal for us." Ben admits. "Should be the end goal for any team and there's no doubt in my mind the winner of this one gets a huge boost to the top of the line and we've fluffed up chances for those belts before and I told myself never again, so we have no choice but to get through ya. I do like your confidence Ari, truly do, but it's misplaced this time. It's like we know that we need to be better as a team, we know we've messed up our lines on a few occasions, it stops now. Big win against Team GO Ariana, it's the one that sets the tone for me and Sammi so all good being confident and all but sorry, but ya won't be backing it up."
Ben turns his head away from the camera for a few seconds to get his thoughts.
"I know Sammi will have a lot more to say about you." Ben says seriously. "But we know the rules, I am not laying a hand on ya, and time is becoming of the essence here, so I need to speak about Carter."
Ben puts his hands together.
"It's always tough to talk about Carter because we have some slightly unpleasant history, but that aside." Ben pauses slightly. "I know what it's like to be in a major tournament and come up a little short. Personally, thought you had things won in your match against Finn, pretty surprised it didn't work out the way you wanted, and I know that makes it slightly awkward coming in to this match because I know that you feel you need that bounce back win. That means there's gonna be a little more spring in your step, a little bit more determination. I'm sorry mate, but I too have that spring in my step, that determination to make this the best year of my career because it might just be my last. It might just be my swan song and it needs to go with nothing but the strongest performances I can muster up. I know there's a little doubt in your mind after your last match and I know the whole thing in this game is you're only as good as ya last match, but you was proper unlucky."
Ben nods seriously.
"I really thought you had it and know you're a very dangerous because of that." Ben says honestly. "I know the loss makes you want to put things right but I can't let that happen. I respect everything you bring to the ring, I respect everything you do in wrestling and trust me, I know I'm talking to a future world champion, I know I'm talking to a bloke that's gonna get that belt long before I ever get near it again but in the tag ranks, I need to step up. I know you're probably sitting there feeling let down by a lot of things but I share that Carter cause I feel like I've let down Sammi, I feel like I've let her down and I need to change that, I need to be better and getting a win over you and Ariana, two people respected here in SCW, it's a big boost, it does go a long way to getting back my reputation, it goes a long way to making it up to Sammi for being a rubbish partner at times."
Ben looks down in disappointment.
"Because I know I haven't been at my best Carter." Ben admits. "Yeah, I've picked up wins here and there and tried to entertain people along the way, but I ain't exactly happy with myself, I'm not exactly happy with how things have been turning out for me and this is my chance to beat someone with a good record, that's highly thought of here, that's no doubt in my mind, a champion in the making. This is where people's eyes open about me again. It's what needs to be done, it's what I need to do and honestly mate, I'm a little gutted I gotta put a dent in your ambitions to realise my own. It's not something I like doing to good people but needs must when the devil drives."
Ben inhales deeply.
"You'll bounce back mate, trust me." Ben says with a shrug. "You've got singles appeal written all over ya, this will not effect ya in those ranks, but I need this Carter, I need to prove that I ain't a washed up old hack. I put my name on that contract to do big things in SCW again, I put my name down because I need to do those big things again. Beating you and Ari mate, it's a sure fire rocket to the top again. It's the boost I need, it's the boost Sammi needs. Don't get me wrong, I feel rotten about it, absolutely rotten but I gotta look at the places I can do with this win. I gotta look at how high this win will put us and it will send us to the moon."
Ben points up.
"I know this is gonna be one of the toughest matches we could be bouncing in to." Ben says seriously. "But it's gonna be one hell of a reward attached to this. It's almost a championship match without the belts on the line, a match worthy of any show but I know I'm coming in to this with the fire in my heart and willing to do whatever it takes to walk out victorious. I'm doing it for me, I'm doing it for Sammi, I'm doing it for anyone who's ever supported us, for everyone who ever screamed out our names, for everyone that wants us to realise that goal and become SCW mixed tag team champions. This is for them Carter, this is for each and every one of them and I refuse to let them down at all."
Ben looks over at the clock.
"And that people is all we have time for today." He says with a sad look. "Carter, Ariana, we'll see you on Sunday."
Ben nods firmly.
"Thank you all for joining me. Enjoy the show." Ben says with a cheery smile.
He winks at the camera.
"Laters people!"
And with that, the scene fades to black.
