Antonio Romano: SWEET! Check it out....they have one of those "test your strength" games. C’mon I’ll nail that thing and win you a stuffed animal.
Ash: I’ll pass. Seriously Antonio, if you win me anymore stuffed animals I’ll have to throw everything else out of my apartment to make room for them.
Antonio Romano: Oh...I’m sorry. I guess I got carried away. Seems they didn’t design these games with guys like me in mind. Like that one where you throw the ball at the milk bottles.
Ash: That was funny though. You know they expect people to aim......not just throw the ball so hard that everything explodes in a hail of glass.
Antonio Romano: Yeah I am sorry about that poor guy’s eye though! But I have heard the eye-patch look is going to be big in 2012.
Ash: Oh yeah pirates are sexy!
Antonio Romano: Heh! Listen Ash.....I’m having fun. Thanks for getting my mind off of things. And remember whatever I say it’s just between you and me right?
Ash: Of course. And my book writer.....he loved the part where I told him the wrestling icon brute confessed he was scared. Should be on newsstands soon! Hahahahaha!
Antonio Romano: Oh you got jokes do you? You know how I am going to put this newcomer Primordial Sin down with Capiche at Road to Ruin? Don’t think I won’t plant you in this ground and bury you there, missy! Of course, I’ll tell the police it was an accident. You slipped fall into my hand and I fell forward with you.
Ash: I could totally kick your ass. You’d better start worrying more about me and less about Primordial Sin. Seriously, why you even worry about hurting him........you know you can take care of yourself.
Antonio Romano: Well of course...I am the future three-time HWA World Champion, the wrestling icon....
Ash: The world’s finest wrestler..... Antonio Romano! So did you develop a game plan yet?
*The two of them walk past the carnival to a small lake and sit down on a bench. Antonio still makes her seem like a dwarf in comparison. Children are running around the lake and throwing bread to the ducks. Antonio shakes his head.*
Antonio Romano: No, in this case there is no game plan and none is needed. I realized how this would go from the very first moment I heard about the match.
Ash: What do you mean Antonio?
Antonio Romano: Logic would dictate that I should go in there and hit them with a big boot. Then follow up and go for the kill. Over power him from the start and go right for the Capiche. I have the speed advantage. I’m certainly stronger and as soon as I stamp his "I was just finished with Capiche" card the match is in the bag. You see, Primordial Sin is probably a big guy so he is going to want to keep the match at a slow pace so he can try and “pound and ground” me. But you see that’s not going to happen, I’m going to keep the match at a fast past, that way, I can take him down and put him out which gives me time to prepare for being the special guest referee in the World Title match.
Ash: Ok, so then what’s the problem? That seems like a game plan.
Antonio Romano: The problem is I know I can’t do it. Not that I couldn’t beat him in a matter of seconds.....I could. I’m still the master of wrestling! I’m still the career destroyer and for the love of god I could snap that bi#ch in two! But I knew when I first heard of this match that I couldn’t end it quickly. Primordial Sin is a plague in this industry. Guys like him think that he can just waltz in here and make a name for himself, well not on my watch missy! I tell people time and time and freaking time again that I am the greatest wrestler alive today and they better respect that, I’ve beaten the best in the wrestling world.
Ash: Yeah and I may not always like the way you get things done but you do get them done.
Antonio Romano: With Primordial Sin It’s like a bad song you can’t get out of your head. In the dark corners of my mind I had always said; mirror, mirror on the wall, who is the best-damned wrestler of them all? And the mirror always replied back: "All the people in all the land know that Antonio Romano is the best at hand!" But then something changed when I asked the mirror now he replied something different. He said: "You might want to kill yourself, so grab a gun. For now, the people feel the newcomer Primordial Sin could be number one!" Primordial Sin...number one? I knew some people felt that way. Ever since that pretender signed with the HWA, people have been saying Primordial Sin is better. They point out how he is going to be the one that takes down Antonio Romano once and for all. Well all that’s going to change at Road to Ruin I will take Primordial Sin out and show everyone why I am number one in the HWA. Primordial Sin probably wants to make me suffer because I am going to take his chance at a successful debut away from him. Yeah right, come on Primordial Sin get real. You know that you are going to need all the help you can get with me but that’s not going to be enough, bring whatever you need but remember it’s going to be YOUR blood on MY hands. Just know this, you don’t know me as well as you think you do, you think this is an opportunity when really it’s going to be a massacre. That’s another reason I don’t want a war…
Ash: Because you’re afraid you can’t stop yourself once you get started?
*Antonio lifts up a stuffed bear and glowers at it. His lips curl up at the ends and quiver. A maddened look glows in his eyes.*
Antonio Romano: Stop? Why would I want to stop? Primordial Sin is everything that stands in the way of me being the dominant force in the HWA. All the talk about how I don’t fit in here, all the comments about me being a transplanted HWA wrestler, all the talk of me being not quite as good as I used to be will be gone. I know what these guys say about me in the back. They think I’m living off of a legend. They think I’m some over-hyped reject from the past who has surrounded himself with hype to hide the fact that he isn’t as good as he says he is. But I will beat Primordial Sin…beat him to a bloody pulp and then go on to become the NEW HWA World Heavyweight Champion. I will be the one standing victorious and then I will have it, the silence I crave. I can’t wait…I will savor it. To look up and see stunned faces.......to hear the collective lump in their throats as it catches their cheers and shoves them deep into their own gullets. I will never stop pummeling Primordial Sin. Long after he has stopped moving and fallen face down in a pool of his own blood, I will continue to kick and punch. And when I have nothing left, when my legs have become too heavy to stand and when my arms have gone numb with pain I will hear the chants of his name in my head and I will keep fighting. I’ll give him the beating of his life...... Primordial Sin will never forget this. I hate him more than I thought I could hate. I want to reach into his chest and yank out his beating heart.
*Antonio shoves his hand into the stuffed bear and rips a hole clean through it. He yanks out the stuffing and holds it to the bear’s face.*
Antonio Romano: I’ll rip out his heart and show it to him. I’ll show it to the crowd and then I’ll autograph it and shove it back in. And then he can sit in the hospital and recover knowing I could have killed him but I spared him. I will spare him only for the joyous fact of knowing that every time he gets an x-ray from now till the end of time that autograph will remind him that I own him. That autograph will remind the fans that Primordial Sin and the rest of the HWA roster are nothing but victims of Antonio Romano.
Ash: And I’ll remember the poor fate of a cute, little, pink stuffed bunny!
Antonio Romano: Primordial Sin will soon share his fate. It’s no longer good enough to get a three count or make him tap. I have to hurt him. He must bleed for me. I will reach into his abdomen and yank out his intestines and then choke him out with them. I will gouge out his eyes and flatten his face. I may very well shove a pole up his ass and fly him as a flag to show anyone who dares say they are better than me just who really is the best! Primordial Sin’s and everyone else’s time in the HWA is a bad nightmare that I am going to wake up from at Road to Ruin. And, at Road to Ruin Primordial Sin and everyone else is going to realize their nightmare is over when I win and show the world that Antonio Romano IS the real deal.....dear god it will be glorious!
Ash: The match is going to be brutal. I just....well I don’t want to see you get hurt. I mean....well you know it’d be a shame for anyone to be put on the shelf for too long or....
*Antonio tosses the bear aside and stares at Ashley. She stammers over her words and then decides she can’t get the thought out and looks away. Antonio seems to soften just a bit.*
Antonio Romano: I’ll never give in Ashley…it’s not how we’re built. People like me…we live to fight. Be it here or in some seedy bar we seek to test ourselves every day. We seek out the strongest and the toughest as if there were magnets drawing us toward each other to some penultimate showdown where in the end...there can only be one left standing. This isn’t a video game...but don’t worry because my victim list is longer than a PSP’s battery life and I’ve not been taken out of the game yet. To be quite honest I don’t know exactly what it is that drives people like me to test myself. I guess it’s just a fighter’s nature.
Ash: But why? Why throw yourself in front of danger at every turn? Can’t you just go to events and watch all the bedlam?
Antonio Romano: Sometimes in life you have to do more than just watch, it’s the blood that drives us....the thought that we awake with. It’s what makes us do those extra push-ups and run those extra miles. It’s behind our every thought and our every breath is ripe with the smell of an impending fight.
Ash: I guess fighting is a part of you. Well than you go out there and you give Primordial Sin hell! Show him why you’re too good to be true!
*Antonio leans in and now both of their faces are close together. Ash takes a deep breath. Antonio’s voice calmly exudes from his lips.*
Antonio Romano: I’ll never stop fighting. No matter what Primordial Sin or anyone else does, there is no force on earth that can hold me down. I’ll keep fighting, even when there’s nothing left, when my body gives out I’ll still bring the fight to them. No matter the pain searing through my body or the blood clouding my vision, I will keep bring the fight to them. I will bring hell to Road to Ruin and all Primordial Sin has to do is show up. I will become his own personal hell and swallow him whole and nothing will escape. My onslaught will never surcease. I will do whatever it takes and be it hell or high water there is nothing anyone can possibly to do to keep me from being the winner. May the devil have pity on Primordial Sin’s pathetic soul after I send him to hell.
Ash: Oh Antonio...just be careful. And good luck.......beat him down...
*She places her left hand on his cheek and smiles. She closes her eyes and leans in with her lips. Antonio’s eyes sparkle and he leans in two. Before their lips can meet a voice calls out.*
Voice: Look mommy, it’s Antonio Romano!
*Antonio and Ashley jump and see a small boy pointing at him. His mother rushes up and takes him by his hand.*
Mother: Yes son....stay away from him. Primordial Sin is going to destroy him at Road to Ruin. I hope he kills you Antonio.
*The mother rushes her son away.*
Ash: What? The nerve of that bi*ch! I’ve half a mind to slap that skank right in her kisser!
Antonio Romano: Don’t bother! I get that a lot. Not real big with women viewers. They think I corrupt their children.
Ash: Still, she could have some manners.
Antonio Romano: Nah! If they hate me I just feel like I’m doing my job of smacking around all their favorite wrestlers. You know....the Primordial Sin’s of the world.
*Ash blushes as she recalls telling Antonio that he wasn’t one of her favorite wrestlers when they first met.*
Antonio Romano: Forget it, come on now I got to test out that strength machine and win you a new stuffed animal. That last one was no good...just like Primordial Sin. No heart! I’ll go make sure the carnival guys remember the name. Then I’ll go train after I drop you off. Got to train for victory!
*Ash smiles and Antonio leads her over to the machine. The carnival workers do not seem happy to see him. Antonio lifts a giant hammer and it smashes down on a platform. The bell rings easily and the worker hands Ashley the biggest stuffed animal of the bunch. She smiles and Antonio glowers at the hammer in his hands…for a second he imagines bashing Primordial Sin in his skull with it.....and then he smiles. Fade Out!*
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