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Finn Kühn · (08-04-2017)

"A fool thinks himself to be wise, but a wise man knows himself to be a fool."

~ William Shakespeare

July 29th, 2017
Universal Studios
Hollywood, CA

Pain.

That was the only thought creeping inside the mind of our protagonist, Finn Kühn as he slowly walked down a corridor. The crowd can be faintly heard in the background chanting "YOU'RE A FUCK UP!", a clear indicator that this was shortly after the Universal Championship match.

"I can't believe Caedus couldn't put that fucker Blingsteen awa-- argh!" Finn's left leg gave out under him, and the only thing stopping Finn from planting face first into the dirty linoleum floor was him grabbing onto one of the boxes holding XWF equipment. "Just you fucking wait, Blingsteen... when I get my hands on you, I guarantee there'll be no Michael Graves to make sure you win."

Finn began to hobble on one leg back to his locker room while still holding onto the boxes, the damage done from his Parking Lot Brawl evident. "I'll give credit where credit's due to that Valerius fucker, he did a number on my leg," Finn muttered through gritted teeth. The issues with his leg was only magnified and compunded due to the fact that only just last week, Finn was caught in a car accident with his best friend, Jon Williams. While Jon managed to only have minor injuries due to the location of the crash, Finn in particular wounded up in a coma with a badly injured leg that hindered his ability to move incredibly. However, not wanting to be a no-show for Savage, Finn sucked it up, showed up and got a win over Chris Valerius-- for better or worse.

Almost there now. Finn tried punching his left leg again to bring some feeling back into it as his mind drifted. Was he truly ready for the big time? Would this injury come back to haunt him? Finn tried shooing these thoughts from his mind. They were like cancer to him, and he needed to avoid them like the plague for the time being as he stepped in front of his locker room door.

Click.

The door slid open as Finn hobbled in, quickly hopping on the bench as he gave a pained expression due to his damaged leg. He'd have to look into getting a knee brace if he wanted to continue competing at this rate...

Finn didn't have long to himself, for as soon as he got his duffel bag to start packing up and head back to Carter's mansion, three distinct sounds made themselves heard.

Knock.

Knock.

Knock.

"Enter."

The door slid open, revealing none other but the XWF's co-owner and now future King of England and current King of the XWF, Vincent Lane. He was looking disheveled, no doubt trying to still comprehend that he is the fucking future King of England. "Oh, this is where your locker room is? Little small... but considering how you've been doing recently, no doubt you'll be moving elsewhere in here soon."

"Vincent," Finn said as he stood up, trying to hide his injured leg and pained expression. Vincent didn't seem to notice.

"Woah, woah, woah dude. Try that again. I'm royalty now. You'll address me as Duke Vincent Lane."

Finn rolled his eyes, figuring it would be best to play along with the owner who was now playing up his heritage. "Fine. Duke Vincent, how can I help you?"

Vinnie smiled in response. "Much better. Anyway, I came to give two things to you. First..." Vinnie reached into his pocket and pulled out an unassuming slip of paper.

"And that is?" Finn asked, raising an eyebrow.

"Your first paycheck, dude!" Vinnie chuckled as Finn took the paper, watching his eyes grow to the size of balloons.

"Th- th- three hundred thousand dollars?! No company is in a position to provide this amount of money!" Finn said in awe.

"Don't worry about the money, dude. We always give wrestlers a light paycheck like that when starting out."

"LIGHT?!" Finn blinked twice and pinched himself to make sure this was happening. "You- you said that was a light paycheck, correct?"

"Yep."

Finn was silent, the shocked look remaining as he studied the paycheck in his hands. If this is a light paycheck, I'd shudder to see what guys at the top of the card are making...

"Anyway," Vinnie started, "There's more. I've been talking with JT about the next Savage card. We've been discussing Television championship contenders since Paulie's busy with the Universal Championship situation, and we're thinking to have you challenging at the next edition of Savage. In the main event. Your first main event, in fact. What do you say?" Vinnie smiled a toothy grin, revealing that despite his shambled look he still had pearly whites for teeth.

Finn was silent for a few seconds before shaking his head. "Sorry boss man, but no can do. I'm trying to get that Universal Championship right now, and I can't have speed bumps like Neville Sinclair slowing me down."

Vinnie's grin was replaced with a frown upon hearing Finn's answer. "Bummer, dude. It's cool though, I'll tell JT you're off the list. See you next week." As Vinnie began to walk out of the room, time began to slow down for Finn as he measured the situation in his head.

Finn had himself become aware once more of the prize Television Champions had-- with an eight week or longer reign, they could 'cash in' their belt for an opportunity at the Universal Championship. Neville himself was nearing the eight week benchmark. It was definitely possible that after King of the Ring, Neville could choose to cash in his belt and maybe even defeat Bruce Blingsteen or James Raven or whoever was the Universal Champion at the time. And Neville as Universal Champ? That dweeb as annoying now with him constantly on Savage as the Television Champion, but imagine him as the top Champion?

Finn furrowed his brow in slow-motion. There was only perks to going for the Television Championship at this stage. If Paul Heyman continued to be the one primarily to decide when title shots would be handed out, Finn wasn't anywhere near the point of going for the Universal Championship yet, being placed around the number 25 spot meant that it was going to be a while before Finn got his wish. In addition, there were other things on the line besides just a title belt. A win here over a name talent could potentially send shockwaves around the company. Your stock would be shot just a little bit higher. More and more people would take notice of you. Respect could be given to you. Not to mention, the amount of money Finn could be getting from this was curious-- Vinnie mentioned Finn's $300,000 paycheck was just a light one, imagine how much Finn could be making bi-weekly as champion.

Plus, the belt did look damn good.

Time sped back up again as Vinnie walked to the door. Finn made his decision. "Vinnie, wait!"

"Mmm? Vinnie turned around to face the Young Lion as Finn nodded.

"I'll do it. I'll go for the Television Championship next week. Tell JT and Neville I'm coming for that belt."

Vinnie smiled again. "Awesome, dude! I'll tell JT right away, make sure it's properly advertised and such, then it's a night around town with Roxy... anyway, best of luck for next week dude, you're gonna need it! Neville isn't gonna play around!"

"I look forward to the challenge," Finn smirked as Vinnie stepped outside of the locker room. As soon as the door clicked shut, Finn let out a deep exhale and went back to his bag to pack up, grabbing his phone and texting Jon the news.

Present Day
Mansion of Carter Williams
Hollywood, CA

THUD.

The door slammed shut as Finn walked through, the spacious and luxurious mansion pitch black aside from one lamp, which had Jon - who was snoring soundly - waking suddenly as Finn stomped through the house, evidently not in a good mood following his brutal match on Warfare with Jack Cain.

"Finn!" Jon yelled, catching Finn's attention. "Where the hell were you? It's 3 AM! I was worried about you dude, you didn't call or text me."

Finn muttered in response, "Was holed up in the trainer's room after my match with him."

There was only one person he could have been- Jack Cain. Finn gave the performance of his life on Warfare and took Jack Cain to his limits, but ultimately it wasn't enough as Jack Cain expertly countered Finn's moonsault with his TKO Knockout Punch. Finn could be seen holding his jaw exactly where the punch connected. Jon looked down at Finn's leg to see if any damage had healed, only to see a knee brace there.

"How did you...?"

"Get the knee brace?" Finn asked while walking once more. "Asked the trainer to help me with it while he was checking me for a goddamned concussion, and after seeing the lack of mobility in it, he gave me the brace and a referral to a couple of private practices."

"That... was a nasty fall you took on Warfare. Are you sure you're gonna be ready for Neville come Savage? Dude's been looking unstoppable lately, and if you couldn't beat Cain, I dunno what's gonna happen with--"

Finn muttered something incoherent while storming off, clearly tired and pissed.

Jon sighed; Finn was nowhere near ready in his current state. He was a born winner. He triumphed through whatever life put in his way during his youth, and if an opponent tried to muscle his way towards Finn, nine times out of ten Finn just pushed them aside like with what happened with Doc Psycho and Chris Valerius.

The one out of ten? Jack Cain.

Finn losing here hit him harder than it would with most, considering he just wasn't used to it. Jon shook his head, knowing he didn't want what they had went through already, between rough childhoods and car crashes and hospital brawls to end in more heartbreak and disappointment. Jon knew Finn needed some training, and he was prepared to seek outside help. This all relied on Carter, of course. While Jon knew the names, he had no possible way to get in touch with him. Carter, while achieving limited success with acting, still got to meet with some big names, and it was possible that a friend of a friend of a friend of Jon's uncle would be glad to help.

It was time to call in some alumni.

~FIN~

Threaded Mode \| Linear Mode Act IV: "Championship"-Class Training - Part 1 of 3
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