The scene opens to show a 3 seater sofa in a dimly-lit room. Behind the sofa is a wall, which is painted pale blue, and hanging on the wall, centred above the sofa, is a framed collection of football cigarette cards from the 1930's; the floor of the room is covered by a light brown carpet. Sat in the middle of the sofa is Simon Jones, who is wearing a grey t-shirt - printed on which is a picture of Homer Simpson and the words "the Last Perfect Man - plus a pair of royal blue pajama trousers. Also visible on the sofa, to the left of Simon, is a discarded black PlayStation Controller.
With his right hand, Simon is holding a mobile phone, which he has raised to his ear.
Simon: 'Okay, I'll think about it; bye.'
Simon lowers the phone away from his face, looks down at it, and presses a button; he then tucks the phone into the pocket on the right-hand side of his pajama trousers. As he does so, a noticeably pregnant Jacqueline Jones - Simon's wife - walks into view from the left of the shot; she is wearing a pink and grey striped nightdress. Jacqueline picks up the PlayStation Controller and places it on the floor, to the side of the sofa; she then takes a seat next to Simon, looking towards her husband.
Jacqueline: 'Who was on the phone?'
Simon turns to face Jacqueline.
Simon: 'My sister.'
Jacqueline: 'And how is Sylvia?'
Simon: 'She's good, at least as far as I can tell - although she was calling about work, more so than for personal reasons.'
Jacqueline: 'Her work or yours?'
Simon: 'Both: apparently, now that the SCW heavyweight title is held by a Brit, the editor of PowerSlam - Fin Martin - wants to include an interview with the new champion in an upcoming issue. And guess who he wants to conduct the interview with me?'
Jacqueline: 'Sylvia?'
Simon nods his head.
Simon: 'Ostensibly, with one of the magazine's writers just so happening to be my sister, he thought that Sylvia would have little difficulty in securing an interview with me.'
Jacqueline: 'So when are you going to do the interview?'
Simon holds his hands up.
Simon: 'Whoa! I didn't say that I'd agreed to do the interview.'
Jacqueline frowns.
Jacqueline: 'Why haven't you agreed to do it? Sylvia's your sister.'
Simon: 'It's because she's my sister that I'm uncertain about agreeing to having her interview me - how would you feel if one of your siblings wanted to interview you?'
Jacqueline shrugs her shoulders.
Jacqueline: 'Why would anyone want to interview me?'
Simon: 'It was a hypothetical question; never mind. Look, if it was anyone other than Sylvia, I would probably have no hesitation in agreeing to the interview, but I simply think that it would feel strange to be interviewed by my sister. Besides, my sister has been a fan of wrestling since before I began my career, and has of course known me for even longer - what information can she possibly glean by interviewing me, that she doesn't already know?'
Jacqueline: 'I have no doubt that she would be more than capable of writing an article about you, regardless of whether or not she interviewed you, but such an article would not have the same personal touch to it that an interview would have - without interviewing you, Sylvia won't be able to any put across of your opinions.'
Simon: 'That's true, I accept. But I still think it would feel weird to be interviewed by my sister.'
Jacqueline: 'Well, I think that you should do the interview, if only for Sylvia's sake - it could be beneficial to her career. And you saw what a good job she did back in January when she interviewed Ben Jordan - I'm sure that she'd want an interview with her brother to be even better.'
Simon sighs.
Simon: 'I haven't given her a definitive answer yet - I'll tell you the same thing that I told Sylvia: "I'll think about it."'
Simon leans over and kisses Jacqueline; suddenly, the sound of a doorbell can be heard.
Simon: 'I'll get it - I expect it's Jason.'
Jacqueline: 'You're going to answer the door dressed like that?'
Simon: 'I don't have a much of a choice, do I? And anyway, he's seen me looking worse than this.
As Simon rises from the sofa, the scene fades to black.
The scene opens to show a room that contains just a single item of furniture: a black, steel folding chair, which is directly opposite the camera. Furthermore, the only visible wall in the room is the one facing the camera, which is painted white. Stood behind the chair, examining a half-empty bottle of water that he is holding in his right hand, is Simon Jones; he is wearing a plain black t-shirt, a pair of pale blue jeans, and a pair of black trainers. Simon turns his attention away from the bottle, to the camera.
Simon: 'For those of you that were watching earlier, thank you for following me over to the SCW website. As for those of you that are only just joining me, where have you been? I suggest that you head over to the ACW website now, to catch up on what you've missed - go ahead, I'll wait.'
Simon lifts up his left arm and holds his hand in front of his face, as if to look at an imaginary watch on his wrist; after standing like that for a few seconds, Simon lowers his arm, and continues.
Simon: 'Right, I'll carry on then. This Sunday at Climax Control, I will again be thrust into the spotlight of the main event - a spotlight that I'd yearned for and am now, thankfully, getting the opportunity to become accustomed to, in both SCW and ACW. And like the match in ACW that I will participate in next weekend, the match that I find myself in this Sunday in SCW is also a tag team match. But whilst there are not any titles at stake - as there will be when I compete in Canada - this match is no less important, as there are potential title shots up for grabs.'
Simon grabs hold of the chair with his left hand and drags it so that is positioned further away from the camera; he then walks around the chair and stands in front of it, still looking towards the camera.
Simon: 'I guess I should be flattered that someone would wish to have me be their opponent - or rather, one of their opponents - in their dream match. But then, I know that me being in this match isn't really because of who I am, it's because of what I am: namely, the SCW Heavyweight Champion.'
Simon glances down at the floor and then looks back to the camera.
Simon: 'I have to say that I admire Odette Ryder for what she tried to do, wanting to give away her dream match so that her other half - Gabriel - could have a match with me for the SCW heavyweight title. Gabriel is a very fortunate man; I can speak from experience, knowing what it's like to have a partner that will do anything that she can for you - from what I've seen, Odette appears to be cut from the same cloth as my wife, Jacqueline. And Gabriel of course reciprocates the love that is shown to him by Odette, as do I with Jacqui. But whilst wrestling was what brought Gabriel and Odette together, wrestling was also what, for a while, tore Jacqui and I apart.'
Simon sits down on the chair.
Simon: 'I'm going to do something now that I can't recall having done before, which is to talk openly on camera about my relationship with my wife, and the ups and downs that we've been through; no relationship is clear sailing all of the time - I'm sure even Gabriel and Odette's relationship must have it's moments.'
Simon leans down to place the bottle on water on the floor, to his right; he then looks at the camera again.
Simon: 'I first met Jacqui in October 1999, when I was in my third year at Leeds University, and she had not long begun her course there. I don't remember quite where it was that we met, other than that it was at a party somewhere. What I do remember is that, as soon as I laid eyes on Jacqui, I knew without a shadow of a doubt that I had never seen a girl as pretty as her before, and my aim for that night switched from trying to consume as much alcohol as possible, to trying to talk to her as much as I could, without shooting myself in the foot.'
Simon rubs his chin with his right hand.
Simon: 'I think Jacqui was, initially, a bit wary of my overtures towards her, although why, I don't know; maybe it was the age difference, maybe it was because I'm a Brummie. But I put more work into trying to woo her than I'd done with any girl prior to then - I was so enamoured with her that I made as much of an effort as I could, because then, even if I didn't succeed, at least I'd know that I'd given it my best shot. And the same applies to the way that I prepare for a match - when I exit the ring, even if I've lost, I want to do so safe in the knowledge that I couldn't have put anything else into the contest.'
Simon reaches down with his right hand to retrieve the bottle.
Simon: 'Eventually though, I wore Jacqui down, and she agreed to go on a date with me. More dates followed, with increasing frequency, as our relationship blossomed, soon reaching the point where we were spending the vast majority of our free time together. And that's the way that things were until the summer of 2001, when I graduated from university, and then made a selfish decision, which drove the pair of us apart.'
Simon gets out the chair and stands in front of the camera.
Simon: 'During my time at university, I had trained to become a wrestler, and so upon graduating, rather than trying to find a way to make use of my degree in Mathematics, I wanted to pursue my new-found dream of becoming a professional wrestler. Jacqui, on the other hand, still had a year of her course remaining, and so came the decision that, looking back on it, has me shaking my head: instead of staying in the UK, I opted to relocate to America, where wrestling has a higher profile, and I reasoned, I would have a better chance of finding an opening with a promotion - in other words, I chose wrestling over the love of my life. Of course, everything worked out in the end, but still - what was I thinking? However, after about half a year in the US, I grew tired of the way that the promotion I was in was being run, and so I returned home to the UK - just in time to see a certain someone graduate from university.'
Simon walks around the chair and stands behind it facing the camera.
Simon: 'You know the idiom, "you never miss the water until the well runs dry," or to put it another way, you don't appreciate what you have until you lose it; well, during those half a dozen or so months in the US, it didn't take long for me to start missing Jacqui - you wouldn't have been able to tell that from the appearance that I gave outwardly, and it wasn't detrimental to how I performed in the ring, but how I felt inside was a different matter. So when I got back to the UK, after paying my parents a visit, I quickly went off to find Jacqui, to essentially beg for forgiveness. As I tried to rekindle our relationship, it took more effort from me than it had done the first time - just like when I returned to the ring last year, and I had to work harder than before, to try to resurrect my career. But then, rarely in life do the things that are worth having come easily - whether it's winning a title, or proving how much you love someone, they take a lot of time and effort, although, when you then get what you were aiming for, it makes it all worthwhile.'
Simon places the bottle of water on the chair; he then puts his hands on the back of the chair and leans forward.
Simon: 'Ultimately, Jacqui allowed me back into her life, so much so that she moved to Birmingham, and the pair of us moved in together, as our relationship grew stronger than it had been previously. And so here we are, ten years later, and still together; there's plenty of moments from the past ten years that I could pick out to highlight the strength of our relationship, but I'm going to mention just three. The first one is an obvious one, the date of which was Saturday 26th July 2008 - the best day of my life: the day that Jacqui and I got married.'
Simon takes his hands off the chair and stands up straight.
Simon: 'Yes, as much as winning the SCW Heavyweight Championship meant to me, it was never going to top that day. The other two moments that I'm going to mention from the past ten years are less obvious, at least to those who don't know Jacqui and I that well. A few years ago, I suffered the misfortune of being made redundant, and as I struggled to find work, the only job that I was able to get an offer for was a job in Cardiff - ninety miles away from Birmingham; putting me first, as she always does, Jacqui gave up her job in Birmingham, so that we could both move to Cardiff.'
Simon picks up the bottle with his right hand, unscrews the cap, and takes a drink of water; he then screws the bottle cap back on looks to the camera once more.
Simon: 'Just as an aside, the house that we bought in Cardiff was on Canada Road, which I think is ironic, given that when I left Cardiff, it was to move to Canada, to join ACW. And parallel to Canada Road, in Cardiff, is Australia Road - now, who I do know in SCW that is from Australia? Anyway, carrying on with what I was talking about, last November, ACW asked me to return to wrestling, after nine years away from the ring. I wanted to accept J.J. Dixon's offer, but I thought that Jacqui might take some persuading. How wrong could I be - she was more convinced that it was the right thing to do than I was! So here, I am eight months later, a member of the ACW roster, and also now a member of the SCW roster; plenty of things have changed in our lives over the course of the past decade or so, but one thing that hasn't changed is the strength of the love that Jacqui and I share.'
Simon walks back round the chair, before sitting on it again.
Simon: 'I wanted to talk about my relationship with my wife in part as a comparison to the relationship of my forthcoming opponents - as I said earlier, Jacqui and Odette seem to both be cut from a similar cloth, and Gabriel and I are both very fortunate to get to share our lives with our respective partners - but I also wanted to talk about it to expand upon a subject that I spoke about earlier this month, ahead of my match in ACW against Angelo Vialetti: sacrifices. You see, on that occasion, I discussed the sacrifice that we wrestlers have to make, and how accomplishments such as winning the SCW Heavyweight Championship make all of those sacrifices seem worthwhile. But what I wanted to do today was to illustrate the sacrifices that other people in our lives - in particular, the ones that are closest to us - make to benefit us.'
Simon unscrews the bottle cap.
Simon: 'The match that I will be in this Sunday is a mixed tag team match. Now, if you did indeed follow me over here from the ACW website, then you'll already have heard me state that I'm ambivalent to tag team wrestling. Regardless of that though, I still want to win this Sunday. And then I want to win in ACW, the following weekend, in another tag team match. I want to win every match that I'm scheduled in, and if I ever need to find a reason to motivate myself to do everything that I can to give me the best chance of winning, I don't have to look far - the unwavering faith and support that is given to me by my wife is all the motivation that I need.'
Simon drinks all of the remaining water that is in the bottle; he then screws the cap back on and shifts the bottle to his left hand, before looking to the camera again.
Simon: 'Before I go, I probably ought to say a few words to the Bombshell that I will teaming with this Sunday: Roxi Johnson. Roxi, as I've already mentioned today, the number of tag team matches that I've been involved in during my career can be counted on one hand. But as far as mixed tag team matches are concerned, well, you don't need any fingers whatsoever to count the number of matches of that type that I've been in. I might not be filling you with confidence right now, and with good reason, but all I can do is make a similar promise to the one that I made to Steve Ramone in ACW earlier, which is that I will do everything I can to put in a performance that will require Gabriel to be at his absolute best to beat me.'
With his right hand, Simon rubs his forehead.
Simon: 'I've seen us referred to as being the "uber championship combination," and after telling the tale of former Olympian Steve Genter, I've been trying to think a pair of golden Olympians for me to compare us to; Jason Kenny and Laura Trott, perhaps?'
Simon shakes his head.
Simon: 'No - as well as both being gold medal winning cyclists, they're also a couple away from the velodrome, so that comparison doesn't work so well.'
Simon snaps his fingers.
Simon: 'I know: Roxi, I'll try to be the Max Mirnyi to your Victoria Azarenka; yeah, that works.'
Simon glances around the room, before looking back at the camera.
Simon: 'Well, I've not got much else to say - I'm just going to finish my saying something that I think seems appropriate, given that Gabriel and Odette have recently had a romantic break in Paris: laissez les bonne temps rouler!'
As Simon sits staring at the camera, the scene fades to black.
