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Order; Six man tag @ BL13
Topic Started: May 24 2016, 10:29 PM (21 Views)
Grady Smith
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10-time World Champion
“GRADY!”

“Christ, I’m not in the house a second and she’s already yelling!”

“Hello..”

As Grady closes the door behind him, already standing opposite him in their entrance way is his wife Janelle, holding her Samsung tablet out in front of her, screen side towards Grady.

”Care to explain this to me?”

(reading from the screen) ”Save fifteen percent on your car insu….”

Janelle pulls the tablet away and turns it back towards her to see the screen. A few swipes later before turning it back around…

”No, this… and trust me, I’m really holding back on some choice words right now.”

We see the screen on the tablet:

”Grady Smith wrestling for shot at 11th World Heavyweight Title on May 31”

”So….”

”So…. What?”

”I thought this little (making air quotes) ‘reunion tour’ was about guidance and education?”

”What better way to lead than from the top, right?”

The smile Grady gave off, attempting to convey the facetiousness in his last statement, quickly disappeared as the look his loving wife was giving him could have burned a hole though the sun.

”Look, what do you want to me to do, Janelle? I wasn’t necessarily going to turn down the opportunity, especially since I’m getting to step in the ring against Alexander and Christopher again.”

”You know just as well as I do that perception will always outweigh reality”





February 3, 2001
Albany, NY


Grady sits on the edge of his bed in his customary suite at the Desmond Hotel in Albany, wearing a black “Just Another Mark” t-shirt with black wind pants. The towel draped around his shoulders indicating he’s probably just cleaned up from another session at the gym.

That was the standard protocol for Grady anyways, especially when he was about to be in big matches. Find a hotel a little bit further away from the arena and go through his “big match routine” as he called it: workout, dinner and drinks, early to bed, then one more workout the day of the event before showtime. So when the big matches were occurring in Albany, everyone knew Grady would be at the Desmond. Well, everyone directly involved in the industry, anyways. The fans would always flood the Crowne Plaza, which was only two blocks from the arena, hoping to catch glimpses of their favorite wrestlers or maybe get an autograph or two.

So as he finished drying his hair and he opened up his laptop, he was shocked to hear the hotel phone ring.

”Hello?”

”Hey, Grady! It’s Corey! How’s it going?”

”Same as always. Just getting ready for tomorrow night.”

”Awesome! Look, I just wanted to let you know that I’ve been thinking about your match tomorrow night, and …”

”I’m still going over, right?”

”Well, I was hoping to bring you and Alex in to talk about it tomorrow afternoon before the match…”

”What’s there to talk about?”

Grady closed the laptop he was just about to use. Having been a veteran of the business for almost five years now, the recently-turned 28 year old already knew where this conversation was headed, and for Grady, not in a way he wanted to hear.

”Look, I know that right now, the Youth and HATE are huge right now, and…”

”So I’m not getting my fourth title reign? It was one of the reasons I came back, Corey.”

”I know, I know, and you’ll get that. But Alex is on quite a roll right now. He’s the longest-reigning World Champion in history. The kid is good, Grady.”

Grady grabbed the phone base off the desk and started to pace back and forth. Fortunately for him, the cord was long enough that it provided him enough leeway to maneuver around much of the suite while still on the phone.

”I know the kid is good. That’s why we’re going to tear the roof off in the main event, and just imagine the pop that will come from the fans when I take the belt back.”

”I know, Grady. I just… I just want to consider all options tomorrow, which is why I want to sit down with you and Alex around, say, 2pm?”

”Don’t you do this to me, Corey!”

”Don’t do what, Grady? I’m not doing anything! I just want you, me and Alex to sit down and look at the long term future of this match.”

”Alex will be fine, Corey. I like the kid, I really do. And I know that the kid is going to have one hell of a career ahead of him. And just picture how great it would be to see that Grady Smith ended the longest title reign in title history!”

”But Grady, the optics of that…”

This is how all of the conversations that Grady had with Collins went. Grady knew that he was one of the top draws in the business. Grady knew that, whether the crowds loved him or hated him, they were always going to react to him. And Grady had learned that, if he pressed hard enough, he was going to maintain that status.

”Optics schmoptics, Corey. Am I getting the belt or not?”

(sighs) ”Grady….”




Jack Adonis: OH MY GOD! Grady just nailed Matt Hoffman with Dead Wrong on the chair! He just broke that chair with the champion’s spine! He covers, and Collins is pushing the referee towards him! NO!! NO! Damnit no...






ONE!





TWO!






THREE!

Jack Adonis: Holy shit! Collins has just helped Grady become -the only- five-time World Heavyweight Champion in the history of the sport, and his second title win in less than a month, having defeated both Alex Haven AND now Matt Hoffman!

*click*

The screen goes black briefly, but the blackness we find is from a flat screen television in the corner of a room. The scene continues to pan out to see that we’re in the office of Grady Smith at his gym, the Future Factory. The images of the industry’s greats all adorn the walls around the television, each one autographed by the men and women represented. We pan out enough to see Grady sitting behind his desk, feet up, glass of some type of whisky in his right hand… Not really the beverage you’d expect to see an athlete drinking in a workout facility. Dressed in workout gear - a black “Grady Smith” t-shirt that’s probably been around for over fifteen years and a pair of black Adidas windpants - Grady throws his feet down off the desk and swings around to face the camera, as if he’s talking to someone sitting in the chair on the opposite side of the desk, still holding the glass in his hands.

”So here we are again. Grady Smith, once again getting himself back into a World Heavyweight Title picture. Now, I know what you’re thinking… ‘Grady Smith, using backstage politics once again to put himself ahead of everyone else… not afraid to use some kind of creative control card to get everything that’s best for Grady and nobody else…’”

Grady holds up the glass, raising the index finger on that hand, waving it back and forth.

”No, not this time. What happened in the past, that was then. And what’s going on in the EWA… this is the now, and they’re two completely different things.”

“The Grady Smith that everyone knew back then, he cared about one person, and one person alone… and that was Grady Smith. And I can sit here nearly fifteen years later after watching that match against Matt Hoffman and admit that. Something a lot of people here that are trying to live out their past fame can’t -- or better yet, won’t -- do. Sure, that Grady Smith would still talk with people, show them things in the business, so on and so on. But I knew that the better I made them, the better I made Grady Smith look. And the better Grady Smith looked… well… “


Grady smiles before taking a sip from his glass

“So what’s changed? So what makes this incarnation of Grady Smith a different man than the one that everyone loves to reminisce about from the turn of the century?”

“One word: Purpose.”

“The purpose of Grady Smith fifteen years ago was Grady Smith. To borrow some language from The Lorax…”

“I’m figgering on biggering… and biggering… and biggering, turning Grady Smith into more titles, which everyone… everyone… everyone needs!”

“Maybe it was right, maybe it ain’t. But to a young man in the prime of his career, the knowledge that he can manipulate the minds of those running the business to get them to bend to his will, that’s a very powerful tool to have in your pocket. That, my friends, was the ultimate source of power. Not the men and women behind the scenes making the matches, but those in front of the camera, on display for everyone to see and enjoy, knowing that they were in control.”

“But for this old man, I have no need for a country. I don’t need to be that manipulative pain in the ass to get what I want. Because frankly, I don’t care. I’ll say what I want, I’ll ask for what I want, and if it’s something that is truly important enough, I’ll just go and do what I want.”

“So what is it that I want, at the ripe old age of 43? What is my purpose now for being here?”

“Order.”

“Because if you look at the EWA now, it’s governed by crisis. One after another, it seems that the only time there’s any law and order around here is when there’s a crisis that is on the verge of erupting. You’ve had some pig farmer that loves to make people ‘disappear’, until he makes someone known disappear, to which he’s now disappeared. You had wrestlers bringing weapons to the arena.”

“And then you have the Youth.”

“The men who have mastered the art of manipulation, generating crises only to perpetuate that, surprise, the only way to solve the crisis is through the Youth, the same men that caused it.”

“Now, did I have a personal stake in their battle with Michael Draven and anyone he’s associated himself with in nearly a year? No, not initially. I came back to attempt to show my son, Martin, the right way and the wrong way to go about this business. That the way Grady Smith was back in 2001 isn’t the right way to handle the business. That, just as he did during his college career, just go out and fight, and people will respect you, and THEN all that money and fame and titles… they’ll all come.”

“But then he had to go and join up with Alexander Haven and Christopher Kage.”

“And now, now I have a personal stake in this crisis.”

“And now, come Tuesday night, the night after Memorial Day, it’s time that I take that first step to restore order in the EWA. To take care of the crisis that the Youth have caused. But I won’t be doing it alone, gentlemen. On one side, you’ll see Laura Seton, and on the other side you’ll see Azarel Goeren. And I’ll be honest, I don’t know a ton about Azarel, but I do know one very, very important thing about those two…”

“Just like me, they know what it takes to beat the Youth, and we plan on doing just that at Battlelines.”

“And with the stipulation that, if we so happen to be victorious, we all get a shot at Christopher’s World Heavyweight Title at the Path of the Warrior Pay Per View… there’s no need for manipulation. Especially after the antics of the Youth over the past month, that’s all the motivation they’ll need to do whatever it takes to be victorious.”

“It won’t right all of the wrongs, but it’ll be a start towards restoring order.”

“As for you, Martin… you and I will continue to have unfinished business. And it will be resolved, one way or another.”


Grady takes one final drink from his glass, emptying its contents before setting it back down on his desk.

“There’s a new method to the madness of Grady Smith, but the end result is still going to be the same…”

“Grady Smith, back on top, restoring order.”


  • 10-time circuit World Heavyweight Champion
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