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 Team SCCW Vs Intolerable Cruelty

What am I doing here?  My time has been and gone...at least that's what people will try to tell me.  Have I been here before?  Fighting to save a company from an infectious disease.  I know I have...more than once.  But this time is different.  It was SCCW last time, a company that meant more than anything else this business has ever offered to me.  But now it's gone.  A company that was only survived by it's alumni.  Some of those moved on completely, some are still fighting for what they used to believe in, only now they fight for COPW.  Wolf is one of those men.  And he needs help.  He's a proud man so he won't admit that for a single second, but when it comes down to it, he needs help to fight back the virus that is Intolerable Cruelty.  So that's why I'm here.  Is it reliving my glory days?  A blast to the past?  No.  This is very much living in the present.  So that's why Wolf and I are here...but one question still escapes me...why is Ted Hurd here?!

Hurd and I had a hellacious match a few months ago and I thought that the outcome of that would have sent him to the hills forever.  When he had to say the words "I respect you" it was a low point for him, especially considering that those words were directed at me.  I thought an Ontario ring would never see him again.  I guess I was wrong.  Maybe he has had a change of heart, maybe being forced to say those words opened up something that had been buried deep down inside of him.  Maybe it uncovered a deep respect for the sport he loves and the people that love to hate him, maybe it's what he needed to set him on the path to redemption for everything he has done in the past.  But then again...maybe it's a ploy to attack me when I'll be most vulnerable.  With Ted Hurd...I'll never know for certain.

The scene opens to find Spike and Jane at Duffer's by the Water, an 18 hole golf course.  Well, actually it's mini golf, I know Spikes 'getting on a bit', but he's not old enough to enjoy a real game of golf yet.  The sun is beating down, showing glimpses of hope that Summer is on it's way to Ontario.  The man known to the world of wrestling as Spike, but to friends and family as Sean, is enjoying a relaxing game mini golf with his fiancé Jane.  I say enjoying, but the game is going the way no man likes it to...the woman's winning.

Jane - What's the matter Sean, can't handle the fact that you're losing.

Spike - No, I don't mind losing, but you could be a more gracious winner. 

Jane - I could, but then I couldn't do this...you're losing...losing...losing

Spike - Very funny.  The games not over yet...let's carry on and see if you're still singing when it's over.

Jane - I will be.

Jane lines up in front of the 15th hole and takes a shot.  After 2 more hits, it's Spikes go.  He lines up...prepares to go for  a hole in one...and then the worst thing imaginable happens.

Spike - Damn windmill!  Who's idea was this?  When in the history of the world has a windmill  ever got in the way of a normal game of golf

Jane - That's why this is supposed to be fun.  If it was boring and simple, no-one would want to play.

Spike - But at least I'd be winning.

Jane - Though you didn't care if you won or not.

Spike - C'mon, you know I was lying.  I always have to win.

Jane - I know otherwise you throw you're rattle out of the pram.  Why do you think you won that game of Monopoly so quickly after you started losing.

Spike - Clever business strategy and cunning.

Jane - Yeah right.  Why do you always have to win?

Spike - I think that's one more thing that's come from wrestling.  I always had to be the best.  The first to arrive...the last to leave, that sort of thing.

Jane - You're definitely going to need that never say die attitude this week.

Spike - What does that mean?  Don't you have confidence in me?

Jane - Of course I do, but let's face it, Intolerable Cruelty aren't exactly going to be fighting fair are they?  You know Kirsta has a backstabbing streak a mile long after she joined the Mercenaries, Josh Phoenix is probably as honorable as I am good at wrestling, and if that Bentley guy is hanging with them then he's got to be bad news.

Spike - Hanging with them?

Jane - What?  Couldn't I pull that off?

Spike - Not even close.  But I know what you mean.  Kirsta is a dangerous person for a woman.

Jane points at Spike with her club jokingly.

Spike - Just kidding.  But in the past she hasn't got the better of me, but she's changed.  She seems more ruthless and willing to do whatever it takes to win now.  She's not the woman I beat back in SCCW.  Josh Phoenix is possibly the most dangerous man on the COPW roster, so having him on their side increases their chances ten fold.  And Dirk might have only been about for a few weeks but making friends like Lewis and Phoenix that quickly means he's here to stay and he means business.

Jane - But do you still think you can win?  I mean you do have Wolf.  He proved the other week that he is trustworthy, even if I do never want to see that sick, kidnapping, son of a bitch again.  Sorry went off on a tangent there.

Spike - I know you'll never forgive him, and in a way, neither will I.  But I have to trust him for this.  And as much as it pains me to say this, I have to trust Ted Hurd as well.

Jane - Are you sure you can?

Spike - No, not at all.  But that's a choice I don't have the luxury of having.  If we're going to win at the Brawl, we need him.  As much as I don't like the guy, he gets the job done.  We need men like that to put a stop to the reign of Intolerable Cruelty.

Jane - Will you though?

Spike - Will we what?

Jane - Stop them.

Spike - Maybe, maybe not.  Even if we win, they will probably regroup and come back at us, but the important thing in moments like this is to show them that people will stand up to them.  We won't sit idly back and let them have a free for all over anywhere.  If you don't fight back...what else is there?  People like me, and Wolf, and now apparently Ted Hurd, don't accept the wrestling world the way it is, we fight to change it.  

Jane - But what if you burn out trying.

Spike - Then so be it.  But anyway, you know I won't quit until my ultimate goal has been reached.

Jane - Having your face appear in a Google image search?

Spike - No, the other one.  Being remembered in Ontario as one of the greats.  The SCCW Hall of Fame means I'll be remembered as a picture, I want everyone to remember me as a person as well.  And moments like this define a career move like that.

Just as Spike finishes talking he walks up to the 18th hole.

Jane - You need a hole in one to beat me.  Nothing else is good enough.  No pressure though.

Spike - No problem, that'll be easy for a pro like me.

Spike lines up but scuffs the shot and needs another to get it in.

Jane - Yes!  You know what that means.  We do what I want this afternoon.

Spike - C'mon , I was kidding.  Let's have a rematch.

Jane - No way.  We're going to the MacLaren Art Exhibit like you promised.

Spike - Jesus, I'd rather go home and crawl into a ball on the sofa.

Jane - Tough, we're going.

Jane grabs Spikes arm and drags him away as the scene fades to black