End of an Era: Part 1

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Off Camera

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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?”

“It’s not my place to say.”

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.

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On Camera

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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.