[On Camera]
Angelo Caito: “Foolish intentions lead brave men to their demise. LJ Kasey, you are the bravest man I've met in a long time. You are, because you're letting this overtake you to your demise. The time for games is over, LJ. This is the moment that you've been chasing since it was revealed that Miles Kasey's dumbass half brother was revealed to the world and wanted to do everything it took to be anything close to the man he is. But that's where myself and Brandon do not respect you. That's why he attacked you. The real reason he attacked you, because he does not respect you. I tried protecting you by telling you it was all business and to not retaliate but you refuse to listen like your bone headed brother. This is the predicament you do not want to be in because a match where there are no rules, Brandon has faced and destroyed the best.
Texas Street Fight because SCW management refused to let this man have home country advantage, but they still gave him home field advantage. You see, the Hendrix Compound is located in the heart of San Antonio, Texas. Brandon Hendrix main evented in the AT&T Stadium to over one hundred thousand fans with the largest reaction to ever come from that stadium. Brandon Hendrix co main evented one company's biggest event of the year in a Death Match that stole the show. Have you ever been in a fifty seven minute war for a World Championship, have your heart stopped in the middle of the ring, have your heart restarted, and get up and win the Championship? Have you ever when your health was at its worst, go into the main event, wrestle another sixty minutes and lose because his heart stopped once again? To be left in a cryogenic chamber and only be revived from the coma he was placed in was from a lightning strike sent from the heavens above? No, but that's this man's story..”
[Off Camera- Flashback to the past]
[Two weeks in the hospital… two. The first week, Brandon had given up on life. He was tired of having tubes stuffed down his throat in order to breathe. At this point, he rather not be breathing at all. The second week, things got better. He was taken off the tubes, but was monitored heavily, to make sure he doesn't need any machines or surgery. When he was finally discharged, he needed to still be on watch so he was staying with his mother until further notice. The car ride was silent on the way to the house, and when they arrived at the house, Brandon sits on the couch, looking down at his hands. His mother sits beside him and places a hand on his shoulder.]
Mom: "It's never good to hold in your thoughts and feelings, my figlio. Let it out."
(Brandon looks up at her, tears rolling down his cheeks.)
Brandon: "It's not fair! I finally had everything going my way! I just got signed to my first massive contract, I am about to have my debut match, and this fucking happens!?!"
Mom: "Anthony! I know you're upset, but still watch your language-"
Brandon: "NO THIS IS BULLSHIT! I'M NOT A KID ANY MORE MOM! I'M A TWENTY THREE YEAR OLD WALKING DEADMAN! I'M GOING TO DIE AND YOU CARE ABOUT MY FUCKING LANGUAGE!?!?!?!?!"
Mom: "Of course I care! But you can't think like that!"
(She lifts Brandon's face up.)
Mom: "You give up, and you'll never forgive yourself, and you know that."
Brandon: ".....what should I do?"
Mom: "Do the unthinkable. Everybody wants to write you off, make them write you back into conversation. Don't quit on your dreams son, because if you fight for your dreams…. You'll be shocked how much they fight for you."
(Brandon looks at him mom and nods.)
Brandon: "Thanks mom…. I needed that."
Mom: "What a mother does. But promise me that no matter what happens, you do not quit."
Brandon: "Yes ma'am."
[Both embrace into a hug, and just like that, Brandon wasn't written off as retired before his career got started. No, he was going to make it despite the seventy five percent chance of dying now.]
[On Camera]
Brandon Hendrix: “Yeah, that's my life story, LJ. I'm the guy that gave his life to the ring and to the people. And in return, I become the villain in the story. I came from nothing, a poor little contadino in the worst part of Italy, where people died on the daily. You think I fear you or the possibility? I'm the man who went on a twelve day drinking bender and lost my best friend at the age of fifteen all because he wanted to get me a can of soup from the local market and got shot in a robbery. I fear the pain that you can cause for what I caused you? I don't fear death because I nearly brought it to myself ten years ago. Yeah, I popped ten pills and put the knife to my wrist, praying that God can forgive me for what I was about to do, hoping I get into heaven so I can be with my brother again. But I got stopped and thankfully I did because I wouldn't have my little girl right now. On my calf is a tattoo that says Reasons To Live Gives Reasons To Die. She is my reason to live and die. That means I'm surviving the war we will have in Texas, LJ. That means I'm winning the war. What are your reasons, LJ? Is it your girl? Your special girl there, what was her name again?
Ah yes.
Alexandra.
I see she lives in fairytale land. Like all the stories of David vs Goliath where David defeats the big monster….. but this isn't fairytales….
And you still think LJ has a chance?
Against the true Goliath?
[Brandon chuckles some before continuing to speak.]
Brandon Hendrix: “I can appreciate the fact that you say out loud that you believe in your man, but I think deep down inside your heart of hearts, you know that your soon to be husband is not going to be making your wedding alive. You see, it's hard for me to be motivated in the world of professional wrestling when I cannot do more. Rules bounding me to being less when I want to bring misery to those who step into my way makes me want to not even show up. But, this match…. Oh you got my full attention now. When there are no rules, nothing stopping me from ending your life, I hit GOD mode and I am on another level that only one person beside me has touched, and that person is my brother in arms, Michael Bishop.
I'm on a different playing field when I get this motivated. I'm going to destroy you. No no….. I'm going to fucking bury you in the desert of Texas. Let the rattlesnakes and black widows bite at your deceased corpse, let the maggots and worms feast on your flesh and retrieve your skeleton and donate it to a school for science tests. You're stepping to me like you're trying to be somebody. You're talking big like you can be somebody. When I leave you for dead in Texas, I'ma make you a nobody.
But you can't let that happen, right?
Not LJ Kasey.
Because you're built different, SÌ?
No, you're built like a twink that wants to play heavyweight against the best heavyweight in the world today. And it's only a matter of days when I swat you down like the fruit fly you are.”
[Off Camera: Another Blast From The Past]
Brandon's Thoughts And Dreams:
[This should be the biggest win my career. I can say I was Elena DeDraca's, a TWO TIME World Champion and one of the best in the company all time, fifth loss in Project Honor, fourth in a one versus one environment! This should be an absolutely HUGE deal for me…. But why does it feel…. Wrong? Why does it feel like I didn't win at all, but merely got through because of an injury? I make my way from the stage, passing the ramp, getting applause all around from different higher ups, referees, backstage workers, wrestlers, and so on and so on. But… I can't hear any of it. I can see the clapping of hands in my peripheral vision, but nothing is audible to me. Why am I being this way?! I just beat Elena Fucking DeDraca! I should be happy! Jumping around like a little kid! But I'm walking to the locker room like I'm the loser of this match. I open the locker room door before grabbing the end piece of my wrist tape and peels it back, removing the tape around my sweaty wrists before tossing them into a nearby trash can. I sat down on the folding chair that I had set in front of my locker from earlier in the night when I was preparing for my match up. I started unlacing my boots, but that was as far as I go. I sat back in the chair, looking down at my hands as everything comes back at once: my father's suicide, my attempt at suicide, and the meeting with Brian and his mother. I was mentally and physically exhausted. I just need some shut eye… for one minute. My eyes closed, but everything felt different after a few moments. I felt…. Comfortable… I hear the birds chirping…. Feel the sun rays shining on me.]
"Anthony! Get up! Time to go to school!". [My eyes open, and I sit up looking around my bedroom. I spin my body around and set my feet on the ground as I exit my room, and my nostril is hit with the amazing smell of food from the kitchen down the hall. I hungrily sit down at the kitchen table as a plate is placed in front of me by my mother. I look down at my plate and see eggs, bacon, sausage, and toast with a glass of Orange Juice on the side. Excitedly, I began to dig into my food, enjoying the meal my mother made me.] "I can't believe my big boy is almost done with the sixth grade! Don't forget when you get home to do your homework so that way I can bring you to your aunt's house."
"Yes mom I will.". [I happily said as I finished my meal. I quickly put my plate in the sink and ran to my room to grab my backpack. After making sure all my homework is inside my folders and all my pencils and pens are in my front pouch, I'm good to go. I leave my room and hug my mother goodbye, and I can feel the kiss she placed on my forehead. I leave the house, close the door behind me, backpack straps over each shoulder, and thus I begin my five minute walk up a short hill to the end of the street, where the school bus picks me up to bring me to school and drop me back off to walk home. Other students started appearing at the end of the street, including her, someone who I had grown feelings for…. Lots of feelings. She was a month younger than me, brunette hair, eyes that sparkled like the stars at night, and her smile that warms my heart.] "Oh… hey Brianna.". [She looks over at me, her smiling shining bright.]
"Oh hey Anthony. How's your mom?"
"She's good. She is still working those two jobs. Hoping one day I can make the money so she never has to work again."
"That's sweet of you. She's lucky to have a son like you.". [I peek over her shoulder, and see…. Him. The biggest pain in the ass I have ever dealt with in my life. He was part of the football team, an absolute jockhead if there ever was one. His name is Devin. Dude always picks on me for no reason, and when I try to stand up, he gets his friends to back him up. What makes it worse, is he always tries to put the moves on Brianna. While she doesn't appeal to them, I always worry she would fall for him. I turn my head as I look at the ground while he walks up to Brianna and places an arm around her.]
"Hello beautiful. When will you finally agree to go out with me?"
"With your attitude? Never.". >She says brushing his arm off her. Obviously annoyed, he remains calm in tone.]
"I'm giving you the opportunity to be with the Q fucking B of the school team! You're not thinking correctly."
"Um… No, I'm thinking very correctly. I'm fine without experiencing that."
"No no. No you're not Bri-"
"How about leave her alone Devin?". [He stops talking and slowly turns his head to face me.]
"Are you talking to me nerd?". [He says as he slowly starts walking over to me. Nervous, I swallow my pride and stare at him.]
"Yeah… I am. Leave her alone you oversized pig.". [I say this as he gets in my face.]
"What are you going to do about it?". [He went to push me, but I moved faster and pushed him, watching him fall backwards to the ground. She's shocked. He's shocked. And I was definitely shocked. The bus pulls up, the swinging door opens as Brianna pulls my arm and we get onto the bus together. Pissed off, Devin gets off the road and onto the bus. For safety reasons, Brianna pushes me into a seat and sits beside me, keeping her between me and the walkway. Devin walked by, eyeing me as I stared at him back. He drags his thumb across his throat and mouths "you're a deadman" before heading to the back of the bus and sitting with the other popular kids on the bus. I watch him as he walks past us before I turn my attention back to Brianna.]
"I'm a deadman, aren't I?"
"No no. He won't do anything. All talk and no action.". [I nod slowly as the bus drives off.]
**Later That Day**
[I'm at my locker, getting ready to head to PE class as I place my books and folders into my locker. When I turn around, there stands Devin and his three tools of friends: Jacob, Tracey, and Kevin. I look at all four of them, and see what seems to be socks in their grasps, and when Devin wacks the locker with the sock, and the metallic sound rings off the locker, and I know not only were the socks loaded, but I'm a deadman walking. I push Devin back and sprints off down the hallway, and the four chase me down. Unfortunately, I'm not fast enough to make it up the stairs in time, so Jacob grabs me by the leg and starts dragging me down the stairs. Tracey joins in and grabs my other leg and both drag me behind the stairway… and this was one of the moments I wished I had died rather than to have suffered the pain I did. Wack after walk with the socks filled, whatever it was, well, until one of the socks broke and it was revealed to be a bunch of quarters and coins in each sock that connected with my head and torso. When that sock broke, the person resorted to kicking me, stomping on my arms and neck. Each blow I take, the closer I am to blacking out. By the time they finished with the beating, I couldn't move… I was bleeding badly…. I thought my life was over. Nobody could find me if they weren't trying to look, and nobody was. I was alone… But, I had images of me and my mom, walking around the park together, laughing and smiling running through my head. I had images of Brianna… and her beautiful smile that always made my day… and I knew I couldn't quit. With so much pain in my body, I rolled myself over onto my stomach, and slowly started crawling from behind the stairway to where I could be in view of people walking the hallways. It doesn't help as soon as I'd wish however. And each crawl I do, the closer I am to blacking out again. I tried my hardest to stay awake, but by the time I was getting past the stairway, I couldn't handle the pain and blacked out again. Fortunately for me, getting my head past the stairwell was enough for me to be noticed by a member of staff, who immediately called for the nurses and the principal. The rest after that, I'm unaware of. Next thing I knew, I was waking up inside of a hospital room at the local hospital ten miles from the school. I open my eyes, the pain surprisingly gone away as I look over and see my mom sitting in the chair right beside the bed. I can see the marks down her cheeks, like she's been crying this entire time. Her eyes are red, her hair is a mess.]
"..m…mom…?". [I can barely say, but loud enough for her to hear me. She quickly looks up and nearly starts crying again.]
"Oh my God Anthony?! Oh my God". [She says in a shaking voice. I've never seen her this sad… even when dad left. It hurt me seeing her like that, as she was normally the person who was bringing smiles to faces no matter what, so seeing this hurt me more than I thought. Suddenly, I hear a knock on the door and my attention goes to the door, and I see the reason I got my ass kicked standing in the doorway to my hospital room.]
"B..Brianna?". [I exclaim out as she walks into the room, her jacket placed under her arm as she approaches the bed.]
"I'd thought you'd like to know they found out it was Devin and his friends and they were arrested on counts of assault. And I'm sorry I'm the cause of this Anthony."
"No… No, no need to apologize. He was treating you wrong. Someone had to stand up to him."
"Thank you for doing so.". [She then walks over and gives me a kiss on the cheek]. "I'll see you soon.". [She says before leaving the room. I place my hand on my cheek before looking at my mom, a little flustered from the kiss from my crush.]
"Someone's in love". [She says in a mocking tone. I try to hide my face from her.]
"Shut up.". [Suddenly, I feel something shaking me. And when I uncover my eyes, they're opening up as I look and see a member of Project Honor shaking me.]
"God bless. I've been trying to wake you up for thirty minutes."
"Sorry sorry. I've been… very tired lately."
"We're closing up, need you to go."
"Yeah yeah of course. My apologies.". [I stand up and grab a t-shirt from my open duffle bag, tossing it on before grabbing my bag and leaving the locker room. I make my way down the hallway before getting to the garage where my rental car I have got from the airport is. I open the trunk to the car and put my bag in the back before closing the trunk and getting into the driver seat. I take my phone out from the center console and pull up the Project Honor YouTube where they made an announcement about next week's card.[
"On Proving Ground next week it will be the man who's absolutely on fire in Brandon Hendrix going against Johnny Levy, and get this? It's inside a steel cage. If Brandon doesn't win this match, should Project Honor really make a stand with him as their future?"
[He dropped the phone on the passenger seat, and he turned the car on. He gripped the steering wheel, my eyes focused as he was more focused than he has ever been in my entire life.]
[On Camera]
Brandon Hendrix: “LJ, let me tell you something about myself. I go somewhere, talk stupid shit about how I'm going to be the man of the place, and disappoint early on. I.. I'm so sick and fucking tired of it dawg."
(Brandon chuckles as he rubs his eyes with his right hand before letting out a defeated sigh.)
"Why continue to hype myself up only to be a loser? Why hype myself to the point I'm sending myself bat shit fucking crazy that people are saying that I should lose my daughter before anything happens to her? Fucking hell am I that crazy to you all? Huh? I'm I'm THAT FUCKING INSANE TO ALL OF YOU HUH?!? And to top it off…. It's the people I trust the most saying this. Let me tell you guys a story. And trigger warning, it's not for the faint of heart. It was um.. five years ago that I was told that my… My mother passed away. She was my number one fan in the entire world, especially when nobody knew who I was. She was my motivation to stick to wrestling and do my best to become the best damn professional wrestler in the world. She almost got into a fight during a show IN JAPAN might I add. She flew to Japan to watch me wrestle. Anyway she almost got into a fight with someone in the crowd because they said I sucked…"
(Brandon chuckles a bit before wiping his face of the tears that start falling down his cheek.)
"And when I got the phone call from my father that she died… a part of me died too. That sent… my head into another universe. I have nightmares of that phone call to this day… the sound of his voice haunts me.. and I pictured in my head that… I had people around me for that shoulder to cry on… when in reality… I was all alone…..
Time started to move on, and I was slowly recovering mentally from her passing. So I was at a hotel after a show I was on, and I get a knock on my door. Of course, I open the door and there are two cops there, with looks of sorrow on their faces. That's when I find out that my da…"
(Brandon can't help himself. He puts his head down on his knees, and you can hear the muffled sounds of his cries. He cries into his knees for what feels like a century before lifting his head up, his eyes splashed with red and his cheeks stained from the years he shed.)
"I found out my dad killed himself… and there I was.. a twenty four year old orphan pretty much. That's… that's when I became.. crazy. I can still feel… the metal from the blade running across my wrists… as I sat there, wanting it to be my end… only to become the biggest coward in the world. When I couldn't make one fucking slice…. I went for my nine, and I put the barrel to my head. The echoes of me pulling the hammer of the gun runs through my head on a constant and it scares me sometimes. The sound it made puts fear in my heart. I wanted to pull that trigger… I wanted to END IT ALL!!
….. but I couldn't. I dropped that gun and cried. I went to the morgue he was brought to, and I felt… anger. I wanted everyone else to suffer like I did…. I still do. I mean… this is bullshit man. My friends get to have happier lives. Married, happy families…. Like any of the care that I have nothing….
Or I thought I didn't. Soon later, I get a call from an ex of mine, saying meet at a Cafe. So I did, but she did not show. Suddenly, this small child walks up to me with a note. The bitch couldn't even tell me that I was a dad to this amazing little girl."
(Brandon reaches up to his shirt and lifts up his necklace. It's one of those ones that have a picture on it and it's a picture of his daughter, Raelynn. He looks down at the picture, and for the first time, a slight smile appears on his face.)
"This….. is my motivation. But there's comes a point when everything becomes too much. I loved these fans. I fought through injuries for them. I did everything in that ring for them. But to chant "DIE Brandon DIE", "Go Away"... to verbally attack me in public when I have my daughter with me… to tell a five year old that her dad is a fucking loser… that's when you all turned me to the man I am today. I had to change from that kid to The Don. Now, I've become one of the most respected wrestlers in the world today. Like I said… I'm going to die sooner than anyone else here will. My heart…. Is not okay. Given a maximum of… hell a year at point…. I've made it my vow in this ring to kill each and every single person that gets put in front of me. You want to stand in my way, you have to pay the price of the judge, pray to the jury, and fear the executioner.
I'm the brute I am because of my life, kid. Nothing good ever came from it, so why continue acting it? You're the same way I was. Now you have learned. And at Blaze Of Glory… in the streets of Texas…. It's your final lesson…. And like my parents…. Your final breath. Tell them I say hi and that I love them. And when you're buried….
I'll remind Alexandra the same for you.”
