We fade in to Ben Jordan standing on a stage in an empty room, just pacing with his head down before looking to his left, staring down the camera.
"Alright people!" Ben says with a cheeky wink. "It's that time again and yep, I know it's the same old, same old formula which I might switch up at some point because people might just get bored of it, but today, we're going for the classic intro, what I've been up to and little chat about the match if that's alright with you lot. I mean if it ain't broke, no point fixing it at the moment."
Ben smiles.
"So it's bloody amazing how I seem to be doing these more and more." He muses. "Last week, this week, Ben Jordan on the show all the time. What's all that stuff about? I go from filling cards when needed to being on every show. Nice change of pace. Bit mental considering I'm not exactly one hundred percent but might as well earn my keep."
Ben stops pacing.
"Speaking of which, earning my keep has been something I have been up to this week believe it or not." Ben tells the camera. "You guys remember Oasis, right? Charity myself and Jamie Dean set up to help homeless gay teens a while ago? It was bonkers getting it set up, lemme fill ya in on it, in case you don't remember. So Jamie wanted to do this for a while and I was and am a charitable fella, I had the money to last me a lifetime and ya know, recent sales of assets from a painless divorce had kept that to be true, so I was and am funding this out of my SCW paycheck. Well, we had a bit of grief from the landlord, who didn't like the fact that we were using the place for homeless gay teens and refused to sign it over to Jamie, ring any bells?"
Ben stops for a second.
"Well, I stepped in as a rival to Jamie to take the place over." Ben says with a smile as he thinks back. "When I say rival, it was all a ploy, because the fella signed over a ninety nine year lease to me and my business partner... He nearly dropped a brick when it turned out Jamie was my business partner, and we've been running this place for donkeys years, except I haven't exactly been around as much as I should have."
Ben frowns.
"What with cutting the gold off my finger, serious bouts of depression and other stuff going on, my support to the place has been mostly financial while Jamie carried the can." Ben admits. "But my time is a little more free now, so JD asked me if I could do some time here and I agreed. I feel like it might actually be good for me, relaxing even."
Ben breathes deeply.
"Little did I know what awaited me when I got back here. Peaceful wasn't exactly what the universe ordered." Ben says with the frown returning to his face. "Actually, it was the start of something I didn't expect and that's what I've been up to this week, being more hands on and wanting to be more foot up someone's you know what."
Ben half smiles.
"You're probably a little confused by that last comment, so let me show you what I've been up to next week and you can figure out where I wanted to plant my boot." He says with a wider grin. "So lets get that airing about now and I'll show ya what that's all about."
Ben rolls his hand around in a circle to get the recording rolling.
Sunday night was another tough night for Ben Jordan but it had been announced, mixed tag team street fight, another match he would not have seen himself in until the strange career trajectory that he somehow seemed to find himself on. He had opted to keep his word to Jamie Dean from last week and head to Oasis for a couple of days to mentor people but knew he would be arriving late. He wasn't wrong as the time was a little after two in the morning when the car pulled up outside and Ben stepped out, nodding his appreciation to the driver before looking up at the security entrance leading to the offices.
"Christ." He said to himself. "I hope I can remember the security number."
He walked towards the nondescript door with his bag over his shoulder and moved to the keypad, tapping in a number and pulling down the door handle. To his half surprise, the door pulled open.
"Ha!" He said to himself in victory. "And they said too many blows to the head will make me forget things."
He walked through the door with a confident strut and up the stairs leading to the offices that he shared with Jamie Dean, hitting a light switch as he passed it. He took the first door at the top of the steps to his right and went in, reaching around the corner to hit another light switch. The office lit up with two desks, one a mess with papers and the other virtually empty. Ben looked at the empty desk and smiled.
"Dunno why he insisted on me having a desk here when I'm rarely here, but hey ho." Ben said to himself as he moved to the empty desk and sat behind hit. He looked at it for a few seconds before moving his head down, resting his hand on his head, then...
Nothing....
Darkness...
Until....
"What the hell?!?!" Jamie Dean's voice could be heard saying.
Ben's eyes opened from a sleep as he looked up slowly, realising he was more tired then he thought when he entered the office and had fallen asleep at the desk.
"Where's the fire?" Ben asked as he let out a huge yawn.
"What the hell are you doing here?" Jamie said surprised as Ben put his head up to smile. "You nearly gave me a god damn heart attack."
Jamie moved to the other side of the office towards a coffee machine and started to pour two cups out. Seconds later, one was sitting in front of Ben.
"I got in early hours of this morning." Ben explained. "I was so taken back by an announcement on an SCW show that happened last night, I had to come here in person and see if it was true. I mean imagine sitting back there, icing me bits up and stuff and seeing this promo from a guy who used to wrestle in SCW about him coming back to SCW for Blast From The Past. I was stunned, I was amazed, I am...."
"Laying it on a bit thick." Jamie said cutting him off.
"Well, maybe a little." Ben admitted. "But come on, it was decent. So how did that happen?"
Jamie took a seat behind his own desk and looked across at Ben.
"I guess I just wanted a change like you did." Jamie said with a calm shrug. "I miss the ring sometimes, and it's a good way to show the kids I'm not just the guy here, that I can do something inspiring."
"Nothing wrong with inspiring the next generation." Ben said with an approving nod. "Doesn't matter if it's in life or in wrestling. Whole point of this place is to do that, keep them safe, inspire, let them go."
Jamie took a sip of his coffee and raised an eyebrow at Ben.
"So what are you really doing here?" He asked.
"Well you said I could be here more, I was in the state so thought I'd drop on by." Ben said with a smile. "Get the feeling that there was more to the invite then you let on the other day."
Jamie gritted his teeth a little and Ben looked across at him with a slight smirk.
"I love being right." He said to Jamie with his smile growing by the second. "So what is it?"
Jamie shifted in his chair, slightly uncomfortable with the line of question, which quickly changed Ben's look from smug to more concern.
"Well?" Ben pushed.
"It's nothing I can't deal with." Jamie said to him with a weak smile. "You don't need to go all Superman or anything."
Ben and Jamie both turned to look at the camera staring at it with smiles on their faces as the turned back to the scene.
"Look mate, if their's issues." Ben told him. "I can help out a little bit. I am gonna be here more often, over the weekends and stuff a bit more often, maybe like every other week and when SCW are in California, can show up every week, so if something is kicking off, let me know."
Again, Jamie shared an uneasy glance towards Ben.
"It's just..." He said before a noise in the background stopped him in his tracks.
Ben raised an eyebrow at Jamie.
"The bloody hell is that?" Ben asked.
Jamie sighed as he looked at Ben. He rubbed the side of his temple with two fingers before continuing.
"It's just your about to find out I guess." Jamie said as he rose from his desk.
Ben sprung to his feet and the two left the office and down the same stairs Ben had walked up the night before and Jamie got to the door before Ben. He opened the door for Ben and Ben quickly walked through. His eyes diverted back to Jamie.
"Explain?" Ben said quickly.
"Protesters." Jamie replied. "They started up last week, apparently this place is unnatural."
Ben sighed deeply.
"I thought we ended this bollocks when we got one over on the landlord." Ben said.
"Did you just use a curse word?" Jamie said surprised.
"Bollocks and arse ain't curse words." Ben said to Jamie. "They're lower scale, but anyway, lemme get rid of these muppets."
Ben confidently walked toward the group of five women.
"The old Ben charm incoming." Jamie muttered, causing Ben to stop and turn back in his tracks to look at him before continuing.
"Can I help ya people?" Ben asked to get their attention.
One women looked at a smiling Ben and decided to take the lead, standing in front of the others.
"Who are you?" Said in a demanding tone.
"Well that depends." Ben said. "I can be the nicest bloke in the world, or I can be an horrible bloke that might not respond well to that nasty tone of yours. The thing is, you don't know which I am at this point, so sweetheart, until you work that one out, I suggest you try and be civil being as you're on my property having a go at some brick walls."
The woman looked shocked, as did Jamie at Ben's tone as Jamie joined in. Ben put one hand on Jamie's shoulder and clicked his fingers, causing the scene to freeze, other then him and Jamie.
"Always wanted to be a part of that." Jamie said with a smile. "But what's that tone for?"
"It's the English accent, it rattles them." Ben said with a wink. "Every bad guy millionaire in those blockbuster movies is English, so they might think I'm one of them and bugger off."
Jamie nodded his head and Ben clicked his fingers again and looked at the woman.
"See, us English don't like to mince words at times." Ben told her. "So what's this all about?"
"I... I... I mean we..." The woman stumbled out. "We think this place is unnatural. We think that there's no place in this area for these people."
Ben nodded seriously, keeping eye contact with the woman.
"All five of ya think that?" Ben asked. "Because this lovely lady here hasn't stopped smiling since I got here so not sure she agrees with you anymore."
Ben smiled towards a blonde woman who blushed instantly.
"We have more on the way!" The woman snaps back
"Bus break down did it?" Ben said with a chuckle. "When you say these people, do you mean homeless people that are no longer homeless? Because you know the way this world is, you could be homeless soon, money's tight for some people, you're one missed payment away from being turfed out on your arse."
"That will never happen, my husband has a good job." She told Ben.
"You have a husband?" Ben said to her before turning to Jamie and lowering his voice. "Brave fella."
Jamie tried to hide a smile.
"If you have issues with the homeless, then I do not get your issue with people like me and JD here, giving them a place to stay." Ben told her calmly.
"It's not that, it's because they're..." The woman stopped talking, unable to say the last word.
"Gay?" Jamie added
"Yes!" The woman yelled out.
"Well that's pretty funny." Ben said. "You have an issue because people are gay and they're here."
"That's right." The woman said, feeling that Ben is now swaying to her side. "They don't belong here, they're disgusting."
"Where do gay people belong?" Ben asked with an innocent tone.
The woman looked at Ben with her mouth open, surprised by the question.
"Guessing you never thought about that one before." Ben said, trying to keep his best serious face. "I mean everyone's gotta be somewhere right? You've gotta be somewhere, they've gotta be somewhere, everyone needs to be somewhere, but I think you should count your blessings here."
"What do ya mean?" The woman said softly.
"Well at least you know where these guys are." Ben said with a casual shoulder shrug. "You call human beings disgusting because who they're born to want, but these guys are here, it's the one you don't know about sweetheart, they're the ones who should be in your thoughts, because you never know when you're living your daily life next to someone who you deem as disgusting."
Ben's words tied her up, and Ben knew he had her on the ropes.
"Did you go for coffee this morning?" Ben asked. "Wait, of course you did, cause I'm gonna judge you like you're judging people. Course you went and bought an expensive coffee cause you're a middle aged American with too much time on her hands. I'm assuming that because well, judging people without knowing them is cool, right?"
The woman still had no reply to Ben.
"Did you ask the guy who grinded the beans if he prefers the arms of gentlemen?" Ben asked. "Or the person who delivered the cups? How about the person who placed that cup in your hands, and I'm gonna presume latte because well, presuming is alright today, right? Did you check any of that?"
The woman looked stunned at Ben.
"Did you grab the mail this morning?" Ben asked "Did you ask the postie what he was holding in his hand last night? How about the fella who bagged your groceries? Just sticking with the presumption theme that you got going on and guessing you didn't. Do you know if they was straight? I'm gonna take a punt and say you didn't ask that, so they too might be disgusting. You've probably walked past more gay people on your way here then you realise, so if you wanna shut down a place for not being the same as you, you're gonna be a very busy lady."
Ben wagged a finger at her.
"But this is not a place you will be getting rid of." Ben told her a little more sternly. "Because well, I ain't letting that happen, unless you wanna buy the place, but that's in the millions and I'll only buy the place next door to you, knock it down and build a skyscraper so I can have more people there. Now this is where I think you should bugger off and come up with a better plan because this place ain't going anywhere."
Ben looked at the woman stomp her feet and storm off. The others quickly followed, leaving Jamie and Ben standing there. As soon as the women are out of sight, the two men burst out in to fits of laughter.
"Now that was something else." Jamie said through his laughs.
"I thought so." Ben said also laughing. "I hate people like that. Self righteous and all that because people see things differently."
"You know she'll be back." Jamie informed Ben.
"Oh I hope so." Ben said with a nod. "Cause I got all the time in the world to put people like that down, adds a bit of fun to life."
The two turned and walked back towards the building.
"You know." Jamie said with a wide smile. "With some of those lines you came out with, you'd make a great Bong villain."
Ben put his arm around Jamie's shoulder.
"Mate..." Ben said as he stopped. "I'd make a great Bond."
The two shared a laugh as they entered the building and the scene faded to black.
We fade back in to Ben in current times on the stage.
"Did you figure out where I wanted to stick me boot?" He says with a smile. "Bloody annoying woman."
Ben clears his throat.
"So yeah, that's been going on this week." Ben says slowly. "It distracted me from some poor attempt at getting under my skin on social media from Alexander Raven, nice try son but I'm not rattled by keyboard warriors, especially when it's not really funny. You're a grown arse man, you can do better the balls joke, what's wrong with you?"
Ben looks genuinely confused.
"It didn't however distract me from what's around the corner." Ben says. "It didn't distract me from you Rodrigo Afonso.... I nearly called you Afonso Rodrigo then for some odd reason, can't for the life of me think why."
Ben scratches his head.
"I still thought about going in to this match with you Rodrigo." Ben says seriously. "Because I actually think this is the perfect match for me to be in at this point. Last week was a bit of a disappointment that Alexander Raven ruined a perfectly good match against a guy I was looking forward to testing myself against. He ruined something that I wanted and I can't help but think this is the perfect chance to remind him just who he's messing with, who he's actually dealing with. It's not disrespect to you Roddy, not at all. It's not a slight on your skills or what you can do in the ring, but it's a chance to show up against an awkward opponent with a skill set that I don't often come across when it comes to getting in the ring. These are the tests I need."
Ben looks at the camera.
"I always feel like I'm on a roll when I'm in the ring all the time, not stop start, not slowing down and mate, I've been booked like a loon lately so very much on that roll." Ben says thoughtfully. "It's a bit of a test to push myself through and show I can handle all comers with different styles as I build towards a crazy freaking match in a few weeks time and there's a reason I see Roddy as a bigger thing then most might. Most might look at this one and go what's the point but in my head, there's a point because you need to put respect on his name mate. Ya need to sit there and think about how this geezer is not a slouch in the ring, you gotta think this geezer knows what he's doing and is pulling up trees, causing a few surprises, doing things understated but effective. Guy walks away with a title opportunity at his own pace, you don't get that by being lucky so Roddy, this is me putting respect on ya name, because you earned it."
Ben runs his hand under his chin.
"And realistically, I'm probably the perfect opponent for you to continue that decent run of taking big names and you probably got me at the right time." Ben wonders. "I mean I'm a bit banged up, I got some plonker breathing down my neck at every opportunity, a match coming up that isn't really my style, so you would think my head could be all over the place and it could very well be, but the thing is, it really isn't. I'm actually blocking out the plonker, I'm blocking out the future challenges because all that matters is getting past you Roddy and getting myself on winning ways as I go towards Blaze of Glory. I know that's there in the future and although I'm not overly thinking about that, I know that I need to build momentum and make people question their actions."
Ben walks a little closer to the camera.
"I think a win over Roddy would be the perfect start." Ben says in thought. "I didn't come up trumps in the last match and that's fine, but this is where I wanna bounce back to winning ways and although a lot refuse to see it, this guy is bloody good. Thing is I've dealt with a lot and know how to adapt and even as black and blue as I am, I think I could still do a number on him and walk out celebrating. It's what I need to do to kick on because I need that momentum, I need that push, I need to repay a lot of faith put in me to show up every week and do what they pay me to do. This is why I need to put on a good show against Roddy and mate, it's gonna happen. There's a lot of great stuff on this card, some proper blinding matches, but this is a show I wanna stand out in and I would think that's more then possible."
Ben breathes in sharply.
"Last few weeks, I've been about constantly and left people talking about me, this week, I want them talking about me winning instead of the geezer who got mucked around again by outside players and people who don't belong near the ring at that time." He says seriously. "I wanna be talked about this week for having a cracking match against a very good opponent and coming out winning, instead of another poxy no contest or draw, because I've had a few of those things lately. It's time for this guy to step up to where he should be and Roddy, you're a tough opponent, you got that golden briefcase with ya which is no joke but I gotta get out there and show you all what I'm all about. These no contests do sod all for me so it's time to step up."
Ben points upwards.
"Contrary to what some believe, I do still have it and I still do have another gear to kick in to at this point." He says with a slight smile. "And this is the week to do so, this is the week to play through the pain, this is the week to show that the heart of the Cockney King still beats hard. Many think I've on the downhill slide, that I'm over the hill, that I'm just too long in the tooth to be doing this anymore, that my best days are so far behind me, they're in another country but nah, I ain't done yet. I still got a lot to prove now that the first in me has been lit once more. A few months ago, I might have agreed, I might have said yeah, my better days are gone, but that fire is burning bright this time, that fire is hotter then it ever was before because I got something to prove to myself, not to others, but to myself. I'm the one who has to get up every morning and look in the mirror and see this big ol' mush."
Ben points to his face.
"I'm the one who has to justify everything to myself." He says with a serious look. "I need to get up in the morning, look in that mirror and tell myself I am someone, I am a top wrestler and this Sunday, I get to prove it against another of SCW's young guns. I couldn't get the job done last week against Reyno but I will do this week. I respect ya talent Roddy but mate, I'm coming in to this match with the intention of walking out a winner. There ain't no ifs, buts or ands about it. This is just what's gonna happen on Sunday."
Ben pauses for breath.
"And I hope Alexander Raven does get a closer look at what's happening on Sunday. Mate, you're welcome to a front row seat." Ben says with a serious tone. "Because this is straight up wrestling, this is what I can do without any problems at all, anyone can swing a chair, but what you're about to see is wrestling class and it's what's gonna mess you up proper."
Ben slowly nods.
"Right, I've probably taken up enough of your time." Ben says with a firm nod. "Roddy, I will see you on Sunday, looking forward to it mate. I wish ya all the best, but I know for a fact who's walking out winner of this one."
Ben points to himself.
"Until then, have a cracking weekend you lovely lot and I'll see you soon." He says with a cheery smile.
"Later's people!"
Ben winks down the camera as the scene comes to an end.
