New Years Resititution

World Attitude Wrestling



Shadow's Thrill Roleplay 1
Previously

Manuscripts

Statues

Self Defense Class

A Night at the Bed and Breakfast

Getting a Little Excited

Dawn... The last day of 2008

(In layman's terms or other idiots, December 31st 2008)



Shadow sits alone on New Years Eve. He is not in his home like he usually is when scenes open like this. He is sitting in a small kitchen chair holding a glass of water in his hand. There is no one else around him right now. There is something weighing heavily on his mind, that much is apparent. His hair is not pulled back into a pony tail, instead it falls forward covering his face as his head is cast downward, gazing at the full glass of water. There is no sounds around the professional wrestler as he sits there wearing black jeans and his own “Shadow” shirt. He debates everything going on, all the recent events involving W.A.W. in the back of his mind.

“Hey Shadow?!” A voice is heard far off in the distance. “Hey come on man! Open the door!”

A loud pounding of flesh and wood is heard as Shadow still does not move. He is lost in thought. No one knows why though. Finally there is a flash to the outside where Slade is standing there in the hallway of the Renaissances Hotel in Dallas. Why Shadow would be staying there and not at his home is unknown at the time. Slade bangs on the door again. He is dressed in blue jeans and his leather jacket. His hair now cut but still blonde on top and brown along the sides.

“Shadow!” Slade calls out. “Yo man! Answer the damn door!”

Some one from down the hall opens their door, a rather attractive woman with red hair, she sticks her head into the hallway and says to Slade.

“Excuse me? But do you mind, some of us are trying to sleep!”

Craven turns to her, “Hey, I’m a little busy here darling, I’ll be at your room in a little bit.”

She scoffs and slams the door behind her. Craven turns back to the door and continues his one way fist fight.

“Shadow!” his voice rings out.

Inside the large man still has not moved. There is no reason as to why he has not moved, or to why he is there at the hotel. The light is just warming the earth as is creeps through the window of his kitchenette. His own shadow is cast along the wall, stretching along the floor of this gloomy room. The room is completely clean, as if he has not un packed anything. Save for the single glass of water, nothing has been used inside the room since he got there forty eight hours before. Shadow, has not slept or eaten anything for that long. Something is obviously bothering him. His phone vibrates again along the tabletop. It reads, “Dita.” but he does not answer it. It’s now known that he is not worried about Ms. Morgan. The banging continues again.

“Dude open this door, or I swear I am coming in!” Slade’s voice is heard again. Outside he places a phone call to the hotel’s front desk.

“Hello,” he beings. “This is Slade Craven, I am up on the tenth floor of your hotel. I have a friend who has barricaded himself inside room 1026. He is not responding to anything and no one has heard from him in two days. “

He pauses for a second.

“Okay, I understand the do not disturb sign has been changed each day refusing things so you know he is alive. I’m just calling to let you know who to send the bill to for the repaired door.”

Craven hangs up the phone and kicks the door hard. A loud crack fills the air as the wood from the locking mechanism splinters away from the doorframe and light from the hallway floods the room. Shadow’s figure still sits at the table, he does not move. Slade walks in and shuts the door behind him, loudly. Finally Shadow stirs.

“What do you want?” He asks Slade.

Craven, shakes his head. “Oh I don’t know, a beer, a night out at The Scoreboard with the rest of Star Wrestling, and perhaps an explanation as to what the hell is going on?!”

Slade looks at him awaiting a response.

“What do you mean?” Shadow asks without looking up.

“Dude, you’ve been here for two days now, no one has heard from you. You haven’t checked your messages, and people have been worried you. What’s the hell is bothering you so much that you refuse to talk to anyone?”

Shadow looks at Slade before he responds. His hair still covering his eyes. His response is blunt, almost defeated.

“Slade, man,” Shadow starts “I’ve never won a singles belt.”

Craven just looks at him.

“If W.A.W. closes this will be the fifth place that shut down before I had that opportunity. Every time I come close to proving myself as a singles superstar, it shuts down. I love working with you man, being in the A.K.A. for all these years has been great, its fun and an adventure, but what if that’s all I ever am to be. What if I never get a shot at another title other than the tag team?”

Craven takes a breath and before he can respond his tag partner continues.

“You, Dita, and Assassin all have held a singles title somewhere, I haven’t. It makes me wonder if it isn’t me, if its you Slade that has brought me this far in the business, that if I didn’t fight along side you, I would never get anything out of the business. I can‘t stop thinking about that. I feel like I am cancer to the business and wonder if I should have accepted your invitation to return to the ring back in February of ECFW. Because then the place might still be alive and thriving and I wouldn‘t be holding you back.”

Slade finally opens his mouth to speak.

“Shadow, man” he pauses again, “Listen, you think that any of that matters? You honestly believe that without being a part o the A.K.A. you wouldn’t be anywhere? Then fine.”

Craven decks Shadow in the face, its not a pulled punch he drive his fist into Shadow’s face so hard that he knocks him off the chair. Slade shakes his hand.

“Damn you have a hard head.” Slade begins, “I hope that got through there dumb ass. You were doing fine before you joined the A.K.A. You were a tag champion, the only man in EEW history to hold both tag titles around your own waist. A one man tag team. You have defeated champions when the title was not on the line, and now after we defeated Leo James and Nightmare in a tag match, when no one though we would do it, you decide to pull this crap? Come on Shadow, you are better than this. Get your head out of your ass, and use the damn thing.”

Shadow rubs his jaw and spits on the linoleum floor, it comes out red. He looks up at Slade still a little shocked at Craven’s method of helping.

“You can’t piss and moan like this dude,” Slade continues. “In every federation, whenever things go like this, you get so close to a title of your own you can taste it, but you fail to realize you have that in the EEW tag titles. You are walked over anyone in your path and still have never been defeated ins ingles competition, unless you count that screw job by ol’e Dick. And if you do then add that to the measure of revenge you are seeking. Or you can sit there, for the rest of your career, blocking punches with your face.”

Slade shakes his hand again, it obviously still hurts, but it has not swollen up, so he did not break his hand on Shadow’s face. He waits for his tag partner to collect himself. Suddenly the door to the hotel room is kicked open again and in from the hallway comes three security guards. They are armed with ’Double Trouble Stun Guns.’ They train them on Slade as they enter the room. The light continues to rise, and the bright sun peeks from behind the blinds and curtains in the eyes of the security guards. The whole room moves in slow motion as it all is up to Shadow as to what is going to happen next. He and Slade both look around the room. Craven has just broken in and assaulted a citizen, that’s what Shadow can say. Slade looks at the guards whose mouths form the work “Freeze!” yet there is no sound emanating from their lips. Craven gazes back down at Shadow holds everything in his hands down. His eyes drift up to Slade’s with a smile.




The scene is now Club Afterlife off Northwest Highway and Loop 12 in Dallas Texas. Shadow is dancing on the floor of the outdoor club in front of the speakers. Others are dancing to the techno music with him. Smoke from the cheesy producer fills the air and allows the laser lights to stream across the open space. Shadow stomps and kicks his feet wildly with the blue blow sticks around his neck and wrists. He twists his hands raving madly but flowing nicely. Then as the song dies down the DJ pauses for a moment as the crowd around the dance floor is parted by security. Slade is walking from the main building of Afterlife with two chains dangling from his hands. On the ends are steel balls. They hand from his hands as he looks towards Shadow with intent. Five security guards follow him. Shadow steps back for a second allowing Craven to walk onto the dance floor which is now surrounded by the other patrons of Afterlife. Slade looks at Shadow for a moment and then a new song cranks up and the guards of the club spread around keeping the people back, two walk in front of Shadow and hold up their arms keeping him back as well. Then someone, an assistant, lights the steel balls one fire and Slade begins to spin. The motions are simple at first as he gets a feel for the weight and pull of the poi. People begin to cheer and applaud as Slade picks up speed and the flames his like sheets in the wind while they spin through the air. Slade continues to spin the poi as Shadow and everyone else watches. Craven has not done this in years, since he was a participant of Scarborough fair with his ex. There are only five more minutes until midnight and Slade is the last act of Afterlife for the tangible year. As Shadow watches Slade spin he contemplates the events of that morning.


Craven was in the room as the guards trained their pansy little stun guns on him. Shadow looked up at Slade, then held out his hand motioning for the guards to hold their ‘fire’ as it might be called.

“Whoa” Shadow said, “Its alright.”

The guards looked a little confused, uncertain as to what to do.

“I couldn’t get the door open, he had to kick it open its alright.”

Shadow reaches up and grabs a complimentary towel off the table and wipes up the blood from the floor before he gets up.

“What happened to your face?” The shortest security guard seemed ballsy enough to ask.

“What’s it look like?” Shadow responded, “He punched me in the face.”

They keep their ‘guns’ trained on Slade who does not care enough about their presence to raise his arms. He just glares at the guards, he is pissed at their presence, he was having a thoughtful and philosophical discussion with his tag partner. These guards were an intrusion.

“What the hell are you’ll doing in here anyway?” Shadow asked them, impatiently. “Residents called about a disturbance, and then the front desk reported a break in. Want us to remove him?” The near midget guard responded.

His tenacity almost made Shadow laugh. Short people were like Chihuahuas. They just loved taking on bigger people, and Shadow could see this pintsize rent a cop wanted to try and take down Slade. But he didn’t know Craven.

“No man,” Shadow shook his head with a smirk. “This here is Slade Craven, my tag partner, and co holder of the W.A.W. tag team titles. You think I want you throwing my tag partner out of the building? What the hell is wrong with you, man? Go on now, and get out.”

“What about the door?” The Halfling asked Shadow angrily as he lowered his stun gun. “Some one is going to have to pay for that.”

“I told them at the front desk I would cover it,” Slade finally spoke. “Send the bill to me.”

“Oh?” The guard asked, before one of his taller, more timid partners could. “And how are we supposed to do that?”

Craven just smirked as he replied, “Here’s my card.”

Shadow’s face turned pale. Usually when Slade said things like that people got hurt. His ‘business card’ was his foot up someone’s ass. But to Shadow’s surprise, Slade produced an actual business card. The writing on it was illegible from Shadow’s point of view. But the shock was enough. The guards left and Slade just looked at his fellow A.K.A. member and erupted in laughter.





Slade is finally finishing up his act. He slows down the poi and lets them drop onto a fireproof cloth that one of the security guards has set aside. They cover over everything as an M.C. a short, but muscular man wearing sunglasses, in a techno club at midnight, and large afro begins to speak.

“Ladies and Gentlemen,” the M.C. named Hair begins. “It’ is now one minute till midnight. So if you would please. Shut up!”

The crowd roars with cheers. Hair laughs as Slade walks over to Shadow, shaking hands with other people congratulating him on his decent poi performance. He is not amazing, seeing as how he has only been practicing for the past few weeks. Hair gets down off the stage and walks over to Slade. The two went to college together back in the day and remained good friends. Slade originally was going to go to Thailand with Hair and train in martial arts, sadly back then he couldn’t afford to go. Shadow didn’t know Hair that well, but he was a good guy, and would have made one hell of a wrestler.

“Okay so let’s get this count going ya’ll.” Hair’s voice rings out over the microphone head set. He walk through the crowd shaking hands with everyone. “Ten…Nine…Eight…Seven…Six…” As he counts Shadow think about his New Years Resolution. He contemplates it as the clock winds down. It clings to his mind as he decides to make a promise to himself.

Hair continue to speak, “Five…Four…Three…Two…One!”

The entire area erupts in a loud cheer, “Happy New Year!”

The loud cheering of the crowd deafens everything. People are screaming at the top of their lungs. Others are waving their glow rods and necklaces in the air in celebration. Time seems to slow down again, as every seems ecstatic at the change of the year. Everyone, including Slade and Shadow, are yelling at the top of their lungs, as if they are rallying in a new era, and second chance on the dawn of a new year.




“So Shadow,” A reporter asks, “What is your New Year’s Resolution?”

The screen now has a Fox 4 News icon down in the lower left hand corner of the screen. Shadow stands alongside Slade in a sea of people at dawn on New Year’s day. They are all dressed and relaxing as the reporter holds the microphone up to Shadow awaiting his response.

“New Year’s resolution?” Shadow replies, “Why don’t you try the word restitution there friend? I’m seeking restitution for what happened to me in the tournament against Allister Black. Rich has been gunning for an ass kicking for a long time. And there isn’t a damn person who was willing to step up and give him what he has coming. The man thinks he has everything, and believes what he doesn’t have, every one ought to just offer. It’s time for the people to get what they truly desire. The isn’t a single fan that wants Juarez to be W.A.W. champion. And while I may not be the next W.A.W. world champion, I sure as hell will fight to keep that pompous ass from claiming it. That is my promise. Refuse to allow him to walk around W.A.W. like he owns the place. And if I don‘t get him at the show, I will sooner or later. I make my promise that Rich Juarez is on borrowed time.”

After that lengthy response, the reporter turns to Slade asking, “What about you? Does the infamous Slade Craven have a resolution?”

Craven smiles as he gets into character before speaking. “You want to know if “The Main Man” has any resolutions? No Slade doesn’t need to make promises or oaths, he lives by one. Giving it to the fans, ‘The Way They Like It!’ Ha!”

He pauses briefly allowing the crowd behind him to responds Slade smiles and raises his arms high. The reporter assumes Slade must be finished because he begins to move the microphone away and Slade snatches it and continues to speak.

“Because come Thrill 6, just as everyone wants to see; Slade, Shadow, and Dita are going to do what they do best. You see, Slade knows things about each of his opponents. While he could go on and on about what makes them tick, ole Slade Craven would like to comment on how Typhoon cannot get around without a health dose of some form of elephant steroids, And with Dick being so full of himself, that its constipating, and Ms. Vixen,” Craven gags at the though of her, “she just gets off on being an obnoxious, over-bearing, self-righteous, bitch! He hates to think of the colonoscopy that must be delivered to clear out their backed up bullshit”

The crowd goes nuts as Slade uses profanity, not something he is accustomed to doing. Shadow reaches over and takes the microphone from Slade. This does not please the reporter who only wants to do their job.

“It is time,” Shadow begins. “for a new day. Everyone knows that we aim to take down the ‘Royal Court.’ Because just as Slade inferred with that nauseating imagery, nothing says ‘Happy New Year’ like a bloody coup. And that’s exactly what the A.K.A. is planning on doing. We have the chance to help usher in the new regime with the loss of James Black and the rising for ‘Goodman and X.’ What more could the people want than to see the people that think nothing of them, people like Vance, Juarez, and Vixen, defeated and humiliated in public. The new co owners are looking to score points with the fans and they did it by giving everyone the matches they want. The people want to seem the Royal Court take on the Ass Kickers Anonymous. And by god, X did the right thing by giving it to them. So with that in mind you better believe that the A.K.A. are firm supporters in ass kicking, and I guess that means that we here in the A.K.A. support Kid X.”

The reporter tries to reach up to grab the Fox 4 microphone but Shadow is a little tall for the guy.

“What about Dita Morgan?” The reporter yells, since he cannot grab his microphone. “Where is she today? Why didn’t you spend New Years with Dita?”

“She had some family obligations to attend to.” Shadow says in response. “But I am sure she will be there when we get in that ring. Dita has the fire every diva should, she never backs down from a fight, and refuses to give up. As for her New Year’s resolution, I haven’t talked to her about it, but when I find out, I will let you know.”

Shadow smiles and hands the microphone back to the reporter, a man who only was gauging the crowd’s response and resolutions. When he saw Slade and Shadow walking through the crowd wearing their leather jackets and sunglasses he thought it would be a good idea to try and get their opinions. However, he did not realize they would hog the mic the way they did. As takes the microphone down the line Slade and Shadow turn and start walking to the back of the crowd. The New Years day parade is about to start and neither of them were ever big fans of parades. They walk through the crowd making their way towards the West End. Slade looks a little cold. Both men are exhausted. Probably from staying up all night.

“Man, I could use some cocoa, dude.” Slade says after a long pause. He says it so innocently and bluntly he forgets how childish it sounds to say something like that.

Shadow just looks at him oddly before saying in response, “Slade, I’m not going to lie to you, that made you sound like a loser.”

The two start to laugh, but not uproariously, just chuckling. Craven hates coffee though, so one can understand he has to find something else to drink in the morning to give him that extra kick of energy. As they walk Shadow’s mind drifts back to the hotel room. The argument and Slade’s choice to knock sense into him rather than talk. He runs his hand along the jaw line, the bruising has gone down, but still is there. It’s a reminder that he is not as useless as he believes he is. Although W.A.W.’s future may be uncertain, Shadow’s career is solidified. He has to stop doubting himself and take things that extra mile. This match, its his opportunity at restitution, at vengeance. Rich Juarez would finally pay for the problems he caused the A.K.A. months back. There wasn’t a damn thing anyone could do about it either. The two men walk on in the chill of the morning. However Shadow knows that no matter what happens over the course of the next few days, something will definitely happen in the next few hours. He needed Sleep. Afterlife did not close until 4 AM and after that they went to an IHOP for breakfast. Now its 7 AM on New Years day. However, 2009 would not officially begin until Thrill 6.