Ash: I'm starting to get a better picture of my dad's life but that still doesn't answer a lot of questions Anton
Anton: Before you can ask questions kid, you have to know what it is you are questioning
Ash: Did you ever see, hear or witness anything that would give any indication that my father was dying, or at least sick.
Anton: Son, in this business, we are all dying and sick. Every time we laced up our boots we were putting ourselves in a volunteered car accident. The mental and physical tolls of what this life demands sends many men, much stronger and greater than your dad, and that pains me to say because Eddie was a great man in his own right, but many of great men have fallen to the demands of what we do. No one is immune to failure in some way when it comes to what we did, or in your case are trying to do. So you need to come at this from a different perspective and stop acting like a victim, as if though you are the only son or daughter that has lost their dad to some unknown and quite disease they dealt with alone. What your dad went through was just another day for most of us. He dealt with it many different ways to try and cope and make sure he was there for your Christmas's, Birthdays, Graduations. He lived two lives and for what it was, give that man a small ounce of gratitude for making both lives work when most of us could barely live in one.
Ash: I'm not playing a victim
Anton: Sure sounds like you are trying to cope with the lost of a man you felt disconnected from and feel as if though you could have done more so instead of just living in the reality fo the situation you decide to seek answers where there really aren't any.
Ash: You don't know shit about me or what I went though Anton, I'm not here for some therapy session to try and figure out if I am dealing with daddy issues, I am here asking an old friend of my fathers, what happened here. What happened in HWA. It wasn't until he got here that our family fell apart. It wasn't until he got here that he fell on hard times and slid down the snowy hills to get away from us while he sank to the bottom of a tequila bottle
Anton: Stop right there kid, you are right, I don't know shit about you, but you also don't know shit about your father. You father had demons son. Demons that he fought everyday of his life. They came in many forms, dressed in high heels and mini skirts. They came dressed as friends and and associates. They came dressed as both opportunity and disaster and he did the best he could with what he had.
Ash: And what was that, what did he have that helped him so much that at the end of it all, none of it mattered. What did he have Anton
(Anton takes a deep breath and walks to the kitchen area. he pours himself another drink and takes it down before pouring another. With a solemn look on his face he wipes his mouth and puts both hands, palm down on the counter top and slowly looks up at Ash)
Anton: He had us. He had myself and Davis. He had Talon. He had Merlyn. He had his brother and your uncle Angel. And though it seems like right now that we didn't help, we had more a arpt of his success to live both those lives than you know.
Ash: Well goddamit Anton, that is why I am here. I want to know, I want to know where were you when he and his so called friend Talon were fighting, where we you when he was cheating on my mother with that ##### Hennessy...
(ANTON CUTS HIM OFF)
Anton: Stop right there. You know nothing about what happened here and I don't think you are ready. You know nothing of his relationships with us and what really went down with Hennessey
Ash: So why don't you tell me and stop keeping this information. I'm a grown man, I can handle whatever you can thro at me. It's the only reason I am here. I wouldn't have come if I wasn't ready to uncover real shit. Right now I only live in a world my dad build for me and the media tore down. I want answer's..
Anton: I don't have all the answers, no one does but if you stop acting with emotion and shut the #### up I'll explain something to you
Ash: I don't want anything explained I want my questions answered
Anton: Then you might as well leave because your fathers legacy cannot be summed up in a few answers. his life, our life in this business is more complicated. I can tell you stories that help you understand who your dad was in this life. I can tell you the good times and bad times but I have no direct answer, that is something you are going to have to figure out with what you learn on your journey
(Ash gets up and stares out of one of the gated windows, out to the busy streets of Manhattan. Watching the droves of people walk buy not being affected by the obvious discomfort of a damp city under gray skies),/color.
Anton: What is it going to be kid?
Ash: Tell me who was Hennessy and why did my dad ruin our family over her
Anton: Sit down kid, have another drink. This is gonna be tough first pill to swallow, as will all
(Ash Slowly turns and drops himself down on the couch as he leans his head back and stares at the ceiling)
Just give it to me
Anton: You dad and mom were going through a lot, I remember because he wouldn't stop talking about how much he loved her and how great she was to you and your brothers and sister. He had a picture of her in every room of his lower eastside apartment and had pictures of all of you also. but, your mother did not make any of it easy. She met your dad while he was in RWF over in JUNO, she knew the life he lived, she knew the tough life he had as a kid, his prior addictions, his battle with drugs and alcohol and she stood by his side through all of it and when he decided to clean up his act he left wrestling for a long time. When his agent told him about HWA he came to check it out and decided now that he was clean he would go back. You and your siblings were already born and he wanted to make money to leave behind for you guys and your mother hated it. She wanted him to use his celerity to land to some Sports Entertainment broadcasting gig or some special appearance, just enough to make money. But that wasn't your dad, he was not going to be some suit and tie, and he hated the media so he wasn't going to sell his soul to become part of it for a check. So, he did what he did and joined HWA. Needless to say, Your parents relationship began to become rocky. He turned to us, us meaning Talon, Davis and I, Merlyn and we were always there for each other. Shit we were taking over HWA. Your dad had a title, Talon had a title, We had the tag titles. I mean we were the goddam stars lifting HWA to absolute new heights of popularity. But, that son of a bitch Senester couldn't handle the spotlight not being on him at all times. Everywhere you looked a billboard with one of us on it. no one was talking about Senester, it was Eddie Phoenix or Talon or DNA and HWA. Senester hated that he was losing control so he became obsessed with destroying us. I mean there were no lengths this man wouldn't go. I know you remember the Talon's dead brother incident and if you don't, Jesus, look it up. I think all the vids have been scrubbed but if you could find it, be ready for some vile shit. The lawsuits that came from the FCC was in part due to why I think HWA folded but that's a different story. I mean he was so obsessed with gaining full control over HWA that he was ready to burn it all down and it had to start with breaking up the friendship of Talon and your dad. Enter Hennessey. A beautiful women walks into the bar and flirts with a man currently heart broken over his marriage being on ice. A few nice words and a hit of cocaine later and your dad was hooked. Now, I'm not giving him a pass, what he did he did and he had his reasons but I can tell you, while he did make the mistake, he regretted having slept with her. So much so he called it off. He was heart broken and torn that his weakness won over and that he wasn't strong enough to walk away and go back to your mom. But, he was also unaware that Hennessy was being used by Senester to work on Talon. Listen when I tell you this very clearly. Talon did not do anything with her. One night Talon went to check on your dad and Hennessey popped up and jumped on him and happened to have someone recording the incident and then had someone manipulate the video to make it seem like they were a thing. Talon never laid down with that women, he cared about your dad to much but it broke your dad. He felt as if everyone was betraying him. She got your father hooked on cocaine once again and started playing with his emotions to ruin his family, his relationships with his friends and by doing this it would eventually dissolve our grasp over the HWA. The fans would feel betrayed and media would have a field day which would give the spotlight slowly to Senester to control and manipulate how he saw fit. When myself and Davis cornered Hennessy and pretty much threatened to make her disappear she admitted that Senester paid her to do it all. She was an escort that had been paid a million dollars to come in and was told she would be part of the entertainment industry and it could launch her acting career but she never knew it would go so far. She was scared and deeply hurt by all she had done and when she was going to do an interview with the local media outlet and spill the beans, she mysteriously got into a car accident that took her life. Your dad who was already in the deepest darkest hole went even darker and destroyed everything he had built, that included nearly killing Talon. Great times went to really bad times real quick. Soon after Senester handed the HWA to all his hand picked cronies. Butch Parker, Hans von Richtoven, that piece of shit Michael Dredge. It went all down hill. We were great Ash. Your dad did some pretty amazing things, hell, we did some amazing things, so before you live on one side of that story or judge your dad you must understand the life he lived. The monster that is this industry. If you wanted the real story of Hennessy, there it is. That's probably the only thing I knew for sure because I directly lived it.
(What seems like an eternity passed, actually 5 minutes before another word was said)
Ash: Does my mom know this
Anton: sorry to say kid, I'm not sure and I really don't give a damn. You mom could have been the last piece of this puzzle. Her support could have made Eddie legendary. I mean an absolute GOAT to the industry but she chose to stand on the sideline and it him go it alone
Ash: you don't get to talk about my mother, you don't know what she dealt with in his absence
Anton: sorry kid, you are right, I don't know what she went through but I do know what she could have been a part of and she chose not to. I won't sit here and say bad things about her because I never really got to know her. I know your dad thought the world of her and that's all I needed, but the truth is your mom is not completely innocent in this and that's all I'll say about that
Ash; I know what you talk about because my mom doesn't even want me here. She was fully against me coming and doing what I feel I must do, but she has no say over what I do. I believe this is the right thing to do and I will carry it out to the end
Anton: you sound like him too. Let me ask you son. What is the end?
Ash: Well now that I know about talon, the beginning is finding him and asking him to train me, the end, well I know on my way to the end I will take down those sons of bitches. Butch, Hans, Dredge and anyone else who sided with that bastard Senester. I know that, but I haven't figured out how all this ends
Anton: Well, you may be lost with the beginning also, last time I heard Talon is completely done with this business, but, if you insist and maybe if you pull at his heart strings he may give lend you some knowledge, here, this is the address to his gym, I know his gym the "Icebox" is still up and running. I would recommend that you start there, but kid. Word of advise, we have all moved on. I wouldn't go ripping Band-Aids off old wounds. Take it slow, let what you need to know come to you. Again, he may or may not help you. I myself haven't spoken to him in many years
Ash: He'll help me, he has to, and if he doesn't. f'k him, I'll do it myself
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