==========
Off Camera
==========
Dr. Henry
Van Stanton knows the Braddock family all too well. His father was the man who ended Glenn
Braddock’s active wrestling career during a match. Henry would get involved in wrestling
himself, not to be like his father, but so that he could one day have a chance
to make up for his father’s past misdeeds.
Van Stanton would become President of Global Championship Wrestling
where he would spend over a year sacrificing his job and his own physical
well-being fighting to liberate Julia Braddock and her sister Glory Braddock
from slavery to Aphrodite Noel and her Camelot group. He failed Glory, but he did manage to
liberate Julia and he would become Julia Braddock’s manager in IWC and later on
in UWA as well so that he could keep an eye on her and to make sure that she
would not be lured back into the Aphrodite Noel trappings as Glory did.
Needless to
say, Henry Van Stanton is not too happy with his young client right now, as
evidenced by the scowl on his face as he sits on a stool in a far corner of the
Braddock School of Wrestling on the outskirts of London, England. And one can understand why Dr. Van Stanton is
scowling right now. He dedicated a great
deal of his life fighting to save Julia from having to live under the Noel
name, and what does she go and do?
Julia
willingly goes and agrees to once again become Julia Alexis Noel, daughter of
Aphrodite Noel.
Glenn
Braddock is Julia’s trainer as well her uncle and Glenn, on the other hand, is
dealing with this news differently than Henry.
It was Glenn’s daughter, Glory, who convinced Julia to once again become
Aphrodite’s daughter after finding out that Mary Ford, Glory’s mother, had
secretly been having an affair with Peter Braddock, Julia’s father, which made
Mary Ford Julia’s real biological mother.
The news that Mary, Glenn, and basically the entire Braddock family had
been lying to her the entire time had driven Julia over the edge, it drove
Julia to the point where she felt she could not trust the Braddock family any
longer.
He can
understand the anger of Julia, he can see why she no longer trusts him or any
of the family. And he understands why
she would want to disown the Braddock name.
They were not honest and trustworthy with her, they lied to her all of
her life. Why would she want to be
associated with them?
In that
sense, Glenn almost feels lucky to still have Julia in his life. Julia still wants to be associated with him,
even after the news broke. And while he
is upset that the Braddock family name may perhaps die with him, he will not
show up publicly. He will not argue with
Julia. He will continue to keep a
straight face and act business as usual.
It’s the best he can do, in his mind, if he wants to maintain a
relationship with Julia.
Julia’s
manager, Dr. Henry Van Stanton, does not like this at all. He does not like it one iota but he can only
watch and seethe from afar as Glenn trains Julia in the ring with one of the
sparring partners, a female of the same height and similar weight and build as
Abigail Lindsey, who just so happens to be Julia’s opponent at Olympus.
Olympus is
UWA’s biggest event and it is coming up in two short weeks. Julia Braddock will be facing Abigail Lindsey
for the vacant UWA Hybrid Championship in a submissions match, a match that
highly favors the technically savvy Julia Braddock, but this is also a match
that Julia isn’t quite sure she is worthy of competing in.
In the
recent Queen of the Ring League, a round robin style tournament to crown a new
Queen of the Ring Champion, Julia Braddock only managed to win one match,
against Grace Morningwood. Outside of
that one win, Julia has been on a nasty streak of losses and draws ever since
leaving the IWC Riot brand for the new upstart Uprising brand, which would
eventually become the UWA.
Yet despite
her lackluster performance, David Helms sees fit to grant her an opportunity to
claim a vacant championship, the vacant UWA Hybrid Championship, on the
grandest stage of them all. Winning a
vacant championship to become the first holder of that title, putting your name
in the history books in a historic event such as Olympus would definitely put
Julia’s wrestling career back on track.
Defeating
Abigail Lindsey will be no easy task, even if it is a submissions match, a match
that Julia is favored in. Abigail
Lindsey has done something that Julia has not: she has won a world
championship, and she won it on the biggest stage. Now Julia faces Abigail on another big stage
for a championship and on this stage Julia knows that she has to win.
“Hold nothing back!”
Those words
that seem to drip with venom from the voice of Glenn Braddock are directed at
Julia’s sparring partner. This young
woman not only is Abigail’s height and build but also has the same hair color
as Abigail, blonde. Glenn takes this
sparring business seriously and he wants this sparring partner to give Julia
all she can handle.
The blonde
sparring partner nods and then charges Julia, wrapping her up and taking her
down in a double leg. She proceeds to
pour on rights and lefts without any break or hesitation. Julia manages to kick her off and scramble
back to her feet. The woman charges
again but this time Julia sidesteps her, sending her into the ropes. She comes back and Julia hip tosses her. The woman scrambles to her feet, charges, and
Julia connects with an arm drag deep into an arm bar.
Glenn grins
pleasantly as he claps, applauding his niece’s accomplishment.
“Good job, Julia! Now keep it up!”
The sparring
partner slowly but surely fights up to her feet. Julia keeps wrenching the arm bar in tighter
and tighter. The blonde woman reverses
the arm bar into an arm bar of her own.
Julia then counters again, this time into a hammerlock. The woman breaks it with elbows to Julia’s
face. She runs off the ropes and comes
at Julia only to get floored with a Julia Braddock dropkick. Julia immediately goes back to the arm bar.
“Perfect!”
Glenn is
enthusiastically supporting and encouraging his niece. Henry Van Stanton, however, does not share in
his sentiments. He shakes his head with
disappointment as he watches the proceedings in the ring.
Meanwhile,
Julia transitions the arm bar into a crossface submission. It isn’t long until the woman taps out and,
of course, Glenn Braddock is ecstatic.
“Excellent!
Perfect! Good job!”
Glenn is
rarely this happy. It’s clear to Henry
that Julia is being appeased. Glenn is
showering her with these kind words of praise and adulation just to keep her
happy. And that’s enough for Henry as he
gets up off of the stool he was sitting on…
“Glenn…can we talk?”
“I am kind of busy, Doc…”
“Now.”
Glenn sighs
as he turns to face Julia Braddock and her blonde Abigail stand-in sparring
partner.
“I want you ladies to go another round. And as for you…”
He points a
finger in the face of the sparring partner.
“...remember, hold NOTHING back…”
She nods her
head.
“Right.”
Julia and
the woman begin to spar once more.
Meanwhile Glenn Braddock steps through the ropes of the wrestling
ring. He walks down the steel steps and
begins to make his way over towards Dr. Henry Van Stanton. The grizzled veteran British athlete stops in
the far corner where Henry is standing.
The two men, both of whom are close to Julia in their own unique ways,
glare at one another, eye to eye. Glenn
is the one who finally breaks the silence after several moments of a tense
stare down.
“What do you want?”
“I want to know what is wrong…”
Henry pokes
a finger in Glenn’s chest.
“…with you.”
A sneer
crosses the face of the legendary British amateur grappler. He doesn’t like being questioned to begin
with and to be questioned by the son of his arch nemesis makes this even worse.
“Not a damn thing is wrong with me, Van
Stanton.”
“I’m not so sure. Lately your actions have made me question
your judgment.”
“Look, you pencil necked geek…”
He pokes a
finger into Henry’s chest.
“…let’s just leave this arrangement the way
we originally had it, ok? You handle the
business side of things, you manage my niece’s career, while I handle the wrestling
side of things. You got that?”
“This has nothing to do with how you train
her, Glenn. As a matter of fact…”
Henry
smirks.
“I am quite impressed with her progress.”
“Yeah?”
“Indeed.
I can tell she has improved and should be quite ready for Abigail
Lindsey when the date of Olympus comes.”
“So if you don’t have a problem with my
training, then what IS your bloody problem with me?!”
Henry
snickers.
“Don’t play the fool.”
Henry pats
him on the head, to which Glenn responds with an angry grunt.
“It doesn’t suit you, my friend.”
Glenn shakes
his head.
“I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
Henry stares
into Glenn’s eyes. The angry rage from
earlier when Glenn thought Henry was questioning his wrestling and training
abilities has dissipated. Instead Glenn
looks saddened, almost grieved. Henry
reacts to this by placing a comforting hand on Glenn’s shoulder.
“I think you know exactly what I’m talking
about.”
Henry
motions to Julia Braddock, who is once again performing quite well against the
blonde sparring partner.
“And furthermore, I think you don’t like it
any more than I do.”
“Henry, I…”
Glenn turns
around to face Henry and throws a right hand, knocking the much younger Van
Stanton to the floor, right on his backside.
This draws the attention of both Julia and the other woman, who look on
in shock as Glenn Braddock stands over the fallen Van Stanton, pointing an
angry finger down at him.
“…I think you should mind your own bloody
business!”
Henry slowly
starts to push himself up off the floor as Julia cautiously makes her way over.
“You know I can’t do that.”
“That’s pretty damn obvious.”
Before Glenn
can react, Henry throws a right hand of his own, knocking Glenn to the floor
now. Julia quickly drops down to the
floor to aid her fallen uncle.
“GLENN!”
She holds
his head but Glenn quickly swats her away, pride taking over and not allowing
him to receive any kind of assistance from anyone.
“I don’t need any help!”
He pushes
himself up and points at Henry.
“But he’ll need a damned RAF fighter fleet
to protect his scrawny ass! I plan to
tear him apart!”
Henry and
Glenn both try to get at one another but Julia gets in between them, holding
them back, keeping them apart.
“GENTLEMEN!
PLEASE!”
Henry backs
off first and eventually Glenn backs off as well. Julia looks over at her uncle and then over
towards Henry, hoping one of them can give her an answer.
“Will one of you two please tell me what the
hell is going on?!”
Glenn
doesn’t say a word in response. He just
growls angrily under his breath, growls that are directed at Henry Van
Stanton. The good doctor just sighs and
nods his head.
“Fine, I’ll be the bigger man and answer
this one. But I think you’d much rather
your father say it than I do.”
Julia
furrows her brow.
“What do you mean?”
“Because he’ll just appease you. He’ll just tell you everything that you want
to hear, not everything that you need to hear.”
Julia throws
her head back and laughs.
“Glenn Braddock NEVER appeases, Henry! You should know this!”
“You can say that all you want if it helps
you feel better, but deep down inside you know that he has been just saying
everything you want him to say, and he’s been saying just to keep you happy,
because he is afraid…”
Julia
frowns.
“Afraid of what?”
“Don’t listen to that scrawny bastard!”
Julia
ignores her uncle’s exclamation.
“What could he be afraid of?”
Henry points
at Julia.
“You.
He’s afraid of losing you.”
Julia turns
to face Glenn Braddock, the man who has trained her all of her life. A man who, in many ways, helped raise
her. Needless to say, she finds much of
this hard to believe.
“Is this true, uncle Glenn?”
“Julia, it…”
He turns
away from his niece in shame, shaking his head.
“…it’s none of my business.”
Julia sighs
and turns back to face Henry.
“What’s he talking about, doctor?”
Henry places
a hand on her shoulder.
“Julia, I’m sorry, but I am going to
perfectly blunt with you about this.”
“About what?”
“Julia…you are a BRADDOCK and you need to
drop this Noel garbage immediately.”
Julia’s eyes
grow wide. She wasn’t expecting her
manager and friend to say this.
“Henry…”
She turns to
face Glenn, who still has his back turned towards her.
“Glenn…do you agree with him?”
Julia turns
back to face Henry, her eyes narrowing as she studies him closely and
intensely.
“Henry…”
“Julia, please understand that I do
understand. You like Aphrodite. I get that much. But you are a Braddock…”
She nods her
head.
“…yes, and I still go by that name when I’m
competing, because the Braddock name is feared and respected in most wrestling
circles.”
“And yet you disrespect the Braddock name by
this charade of legally being a Noel.”
Julia grits
her teeth in anger.
“Charade?
Henry, the only charade was the claim that the Braddock family ever
cared about me.”
“They did…”
The young
woman shakes her head.
“They didn’t! They lied to me all of my life about who I
really was!”
Henry Van
Stanton tries to place another hand on Julia’s shoulder but she swats it away.
“People make mistakes, Julia.”
“Yes, and this one was a big mistake on
their part!”
Henry sighs
and looks over at Glenn.
“Glenn, my friend, help me out here!”
Glenn
Braddock turns to face Dr. Henry Van Stanton with that angry look in his eyes.
“She’s an adult and can make her own damn
decisions, whether I bloody well like those decisions or not!”
“Is that so?”
Henry tries
to get to Glenn but Julia once again gets in his way. Henry sighs and steps back. He shakes his head in disappointment.
“Is this how you want it, Julia?”
She nods her
head.
“Yes.
I’m sorry, doctor, but this is how I want my life.”
“In that case, you have another decision to
make. The fact is, Julia, if this is how
it will be from now on, then I cannot work with him any longer.”
Henry points
a finger at Glenn, who reacts with a typical Glenn Braddock growl. Julia’s eyes grow wide with shock.
“What are you saying?”
“I’m saying that you can either have Glenn
as your trainer or me as your agent…but not both…”
Henry turns
and starts to walk away. Julia turns and
looks back at Glenn, almost pleading with him to stop Henry. But Glenn just
shrugs his shoulders and turns and walks in the opposite direction, back
towards the ring. Julia then turns back
to face Henry. Henry has made it to the
door when Julia shouts after him.
“Henry, wait! Come back!”
“You know how to get in touch with me,
Julia. Contact me when you have made a
decision. I want to know if you want me
to continue to work with you or if you want me to sever ties with our
association for good. I do not like
being kept waiting on the edge of my seat.”
Henry pushes
the door open and walks out. Julia
begins weeping, worrying that Henry may have just walked out of her life.
==========
On Camera
==========
The UWA logo
flashes upon the screen. Then we cut to
a standard gray backdrop. Some of the
cameras and lights are in the shot, oddly and strangely enough. Julia Braddock then enters the scene from
stage right. The beautiful blonde is
wearing a form fitting strapless teal mini dress with lavish filigree
patterning and a skirt that is plastered with sequins for a stunning
finish. Her long blonde hair hangs down
to below the shoulders in waves. Her
feet are encased in strappy high heeled shoes.
She faces forward with a knowing half-grin on her face.
“Obviously, there is no fancy setting
today…I’m also not in some special location…you don’t get either of those,
because today is going to be different.
Today you get a different kind of Julia Braddock. This is me being incredibly real because this
is an incredibly serious situation. And
we’ll start by talking about the Queen of the Ring League which was…”
She laughs
ever so lightly as she shakes her head.
“…well, let’s be completely honest, it was
not my crowning moment. Now sure, I had
a draw with a great wrestler like Selena Frost.
She is SCW’s reigning Best of the Best winner and a former multi-time
singles champion in other organizations.
Most wrestling experts would say that a draw against her is nothing to
be ashamed of…”
Julia
frowns.
“…but you don’t know me. None of you really and truly know me. For me, that’s not something I can be proud
of. A draw is failure. A loss is failure. Anything less than a victory is failure. I failed to defeat Siqua and while you can
argue that it was due to interference from a Sinistry operative, I still failed
to defeat Kathryn Pearson. The only
person I actually gained a victory over was Grace Morningwood. As a matter of fact, ever since I left the
IWC Riot brand for the IWC Uprising brand, which would eventually evolve into
the powerhouse wrestling organization we have here today known as UWA, I have
only had one win…and the rest of my matches have been losses and draws…”
She shrugs
her shoulders.
“…why would I keep doing this to
myself? Most would have just given up
after a slump of this magnitude. Most
would have quit. Why do I keep doing
this to myself? Am I just a glutton for
punishment? Do I just enjoy this string
of failure after failure after failure?”
A hard,
stoic, much more intense look passes across her face.
“No, I keep doing this because I am a
competitor. So even though I fell flat
on my face in the Queen of the Ring League, I still keep going forward to
compete against the next challenge. And
the next challenge before me is another wrestler who has arguably been in a bit
of a slump ever since losing the IWC World Championship…”
Julia waves
at the camera.
“…hi there, Abigail, my dear cousin. Second cousin, to be precise. Now just as I said about myself and my own
situation, no one would have blamed you for giving up after you got into your
long slump. But you’re not one to give
up, are you? And neither am I. This family doesn’t give up so quickly. This family fights on and while I may not be
family by blood, your first cousin, Aphrodite Noel, did adopt me into the
family. I am her daughter and she is my
mother and she told me not to give up.
She told me to keep fighting. And
I know you will keep fighting as well,, which makes our match all that much
more interesting, because you and I are both are at a crossroads in our
careers, as we are both in slumps, and we are facing one another for the UWA
Hybrid Championship in a submissions match at Olympus.”
“Now most wrestling experts would argue that
a submissions match favors me. And maybe it does, because I do have the blood
of the Braddock family running through my veins. Glenn Braddock is my uncle and trainer…”
Julia taps
her head.
“…and he has filled this head with an
unbelievably large number of submission and technical wrestling knowledge. At the same time, that means the pressure is
on me, isn’t it?”
She nods her
head.
“The pressure is on me because if I win,
that’s great, I become UWA Hybrid Champion and my career is back on track. If I lose, however, well I just lost to
someone whose submission skills are not supposed to be near the Braddock family
level. I just lost to someone whose
submission skills are not supposed to be anywhere near my own. I’m the one left looking even worse than I
already do. And when you think about it
like that, a loss here at Olympus in a submissions match to Abigail Lindsey
could be the death of my UWA career.”
She grins
knowingly and shakes her head.
“Now please, ladies and gentlemen at home,
don’t read too much into this. I’m not
putting all of my eggs into one basket by any means. I’m just stating the true magnitude of this
situation I find myself in, a situation that Abigail doesn’t really find
herself in.”
Julia nods
her head.
“And you know I’m right, don’t you? If you lose to me at Olympus, if I tap you
out at Olympus, it won’t affect you, now will it? You’re not the one with the submission
background and thus you don’t have that pressure on your shoulders, weighing
you down, pressuring you not just to perform but to win. At the worst, a loss for you could
potentially bring the wrath of Cindy Todd upon you, and event that’s not a
guarantee. It only depends upon how
important the UWA Hybrid Championship is to the New Eden cause. And that’s if you lose. But if you win…”
She throws
her head back and laughs.
“…oh but if you win, you get the claim to
fame that you tapped out a Braddock. You
tapped out someone who is supposedly a submission specialist. And you will definitely be back on track
while I am flushed even further down the toilet.”
Julia turns
around to get a good long glimpse at her surroundings, the random cameras
scattered here and there and the lighting equipment scattered around here and
there, and then she turns back to face forward.
The blonde beauty sighs.
“I ditched the flash and the flare because
this was very real for me. So allow me
to get very real for you, Abigail. I do
not deserve this championship opportunity.
You yourself said that you do not deserve this championship
opportunity. And yet one of us will
become champion, while neither one of us deserves it by our own admission.”
Julia shakes
her head.
“But this sport isn’t about winning as many championships
as possible. And I’m sorry to break it
to you, cousin, because I know you enjoy this, but this sport shouldn’t be
about playing mind games with other people, either. This sport is about competition and here at
Olympus we have a rare opportunity, and I’m not talking about the Hybrid
Championship. We have a rare opportunity
to show the UWA what you and I can do in straight up competition, not ricks,
and no games. Just competition.”
The blonde
grins knowingly. She shakes her head
again.
“Unfortunately for you, dear cousin, that’s
as far as you will get. The fact is that
I have to win this.”
She nods her
head.
“Yes, yes, I know, it’s said so many times,
wrestlers claim they NEED to win so often it’s become one of those corny phrases,
in a way. But for me this is very real…”
She motions
to her surroundings yet again, the cameras and the lighting equipment around
her.
“…just as real as this setting. This is as real as it gets for me because I
am quite literally at the bottom of the barrel.
I have been a miserably bloody failure ever since I joined the Uprising
brand and eventually UWA, and I am damn lucky to be in this position now
competing for a championship, competing for the right to insert my name
permanently into UWA history. I know
damn well that I do not deserve this opportunity and yet I know I have to make
the most of this opportunity I have before me, because eventually, someday,
these opportunities will cease.
Eventually, if I continue to fail, if I continue to lose, no one will
want to see me. If I continue to be a
disappointment and a letdown, then UWA will no longer see value in me.”
She shrugs
her shoulders.
“It wouldn’t be anything personal on their
part, it would just be business.”
She balls
her right hand up into a fist and smacks it up against the palm of her left
hand.
“But that’s why I HAVE to win, Abi! That’s why I cannot afford to lose to you at
Olympus! And if you still don’t get it,
let me put it to you this way. If you
continue in your slump here in UWA, you at least still have a future
somewhere. You have New Eden as a
support system. Many in UWA may not
understand it, many may not want to understand it, but at least it provides a
future for you. It provides something you can fall back on.”
Julia pats
herself on the chest.
“What do I have, Abi?”
She shakes
her head.
“Without this sport, I have nothing. Without professional wrestling I AM
nothing. Somehow, someway, I must make
this work, and that means defeating you at Olympus. Making you tap out at Olympus to become the
first ever UWA Hybrid Champion would not only put me permanently in the UWA
history books but it would give my wrestling career just the springboard, just
the spark it needs to get going back on the right track.”
She points a
finger at the camera.
“That’s why I need to win, Abi. That’s why I need this win more than you or
anyone else can ever imagine. And I will
not leave Olympus without it.”
The camera
fades to black.
