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Thaddeus Duke · (11-09-2021)

One Vanderbilt || Midtown Manhattan – New York City || 12:02PM

Laying outstretched on the lounger in the office of my shrink with my left leg thrown over the back and my eyes staring up at the countless dots and specks of the cheap drop ceiling tile, I breathe a deep sigh. It’s been a couple months since I’ve dropped in for a chat with him. For all intents and purposes, he does a fine job keeping my brain… less muddled. In contrast, I do a fine job muddling it all back up again.

It’s a vicious cycle.

”I was worried about you,” DeVille says from his seat behind his desk. ”Thaddeus?”

Momentarily looking in his direction, ”I heard you.” My mind wanders a moment, before I follow up with him. ”Why?”

What I’m assuming is him letting out some frustration, he removes his glasses and slams them down on his desk. ”I don’t appreciate you playing dumb, Thaddeus,” he says to me curtly. ”You know I follow your moves. You’re all over my television. In wrestling, international news, on Splat, on Morning Star…

“David Tate is dead.

“James is dead.

“You’ve pushed Corey Smith out of your life and with him, Dolly Waters. You brutalized the one person that has stood by your side, unwavering, for more than a year in Paul Heyman. You’ve aligned yourself with one of the most hated men in the business you’re famous in, in Chris Page.”

”Doc I’d prefer if you didn’t talk about Smith and Waters,” I give him a curt response of my own. ”They’ve made their choices and I don’t want to get into it.”

”That’s fair,” he replies quickly and calmly. ”But can I ask why not?”

It takes me a moment. Laying quietly, I’m sure he thinks I’m just avoiding the question but the reality of the situation, is that despite what people think, that I just shoot off my mouth without consideration. The fact is, I actually put a ton of thought into most all of my responses whether its in a public forum or in a private setting.

”I just don’t think there’s much to talk about,” I finally reply to him. ”Thinks deteriorated rapidly and things are the way they are.”

”I’ve heard Alias excoriate you publicly,” he begins. ”He thinks that you were jealous of his friendship with Smith and that’s what ultimately led you to… do what you did.”

I don’t reply immediately.

”Is he right?”

”Alias is always right,” I respond quickly. ”He makes assumptions and reads into things but what he really does, is twists words in order to fit a narrative. I never wanted a fight with Corey Smith. Corey Smith wanted the fight with me.”

”So why did you end your friendship if not to fight?”

”You’re really bad at taking direction,” I say, momentarily looking in his direction. ”I told you I didn’t want to talk about Corey.”

”Yet you’re giving me information all the same,” he retorts quickly.

”He’s disloyal,” I reply to him. ”It’s easy for guys like Alias to sit on their pulpits and judge. At War Games, I said what I felt was true. Corey always gave me a hard time for doing the things I do to protect myself and my family. To protect my people. Yet he was always so ho-hum and uncaring when Alias openly wished for my death.

“Seriously Doc, I do the things I do, as dirty as they may be, to preserve, protect and defend my people and he wants me dead for it. So really, who’s the bad guy in all of this? It certainly isn’t me.”

”Did you consider for a moment that the things you said to and about Corey at War Games might have just broken his heart?” he asks.

Silence.

”You yourself Thaddeus, if someone cuts you emotionally, do you not respond with violence?” he asks, but again I sit in deep thought. DeVille’s chair creeks as he leans back. ”Maybe the two of you are a lot more alike than you are different.”

”I said what I said and he and Alias won War Games,” I finally reply. ”I was just done with Corey as my friend. I was just ready to wash my hands of him and everything to do with him, but it was him that wanted violence.

“I wanted to just move on with my life and my career, leave Corey Smith behind me and go our separate ways, but he wanted the violence, so I gave it to him.

“I gave him everything he wanted Doc, and I’m the bad guy for it.”

”So, amid the distraction of his entrance to the ring and under the cover of darkness, you claim you gave him what he wanted,” DeVille presumes.

”I tried to avoid the violence, but he’s the one that wanted it. So, I did what I always did and gave him what he wanted. Is it my fault his brain is injured? No. Is it my fault one more shot to his head might make him the wrestling equivalent to Stephen Hawking? No.

“Shoot wrestling is a violent sport Lew, he chose to come back to wrestling the first time.”

”And you helped him do it,” he reminds me.

”I didn’t know his brain was fucked up,” I admit quietly. ”At least not to the degree that it is.”

”That’s a valid point,” he chimes in. ”In retrospect, knowing what you know now. Knowing that his brain is as injured as it is… or at least, was...”

”Miracle cures and whatnot,” I interrupt facetiously.

”Would you do it again?” he poses the important question.

Again, I lay quietly in thought. People see and judge what’s on the surface. They see Corey Smith and Thaddeus Duke. They see former best-friends. They see former tag team championship partners. They see two men that came into the business around the same time as boys. They see two guys who are supremely talented in the art of professional wrestling.

”I’m not sure I know the answer to that question,” I finally reply to him.

”Keep thinking, Thaddeus,” he urges.

What’s below the surface is what people fail to see. Yes, I questioned his loyalty. War Games and the immediate aftermath was a test from me to him and he failed. What people don’t see as serious, I do. Like Alias and his want of me being dead. If I’m dead, who protects Frankie? Who protects Talon and Caty?

There’s a lot more beneath the surface that even Alias himself refuses to see. If I’m gone, my kids days are numbered. If I’m gone, it’s only a matter of time before someone eliminates my children and that’s what sticks in my craw. It’s okay if he wants me dead as long as I continue to live, right? Well, wishing me dead is akin to wishing my children dead and Corey defends that. He props that up.

There’s a lot of intelligent people within the Xtreme Wrestling Federation, but I’m the only one that looks at it that way.

”Outside of my day jobs, outside the ring and outside the acting, everything I do is designed to protect my family. He willfully supports wishing death on me. By default, he’s willfully supporting the death of my children. Of which, Frankie loves him to death.

“How can he support a man like Alias? Knowing the kind of life I lead, it can see me dead on any given day. His support of Alias has a trickle effect. If his wish is ever granted, my children aren’t far behind and one way or another, Corey supports that.

“Hell yeah I’d do it all again. Except in the redux version, the mother fucker never walks again. He never talks again. He never again steps inside a wrestling ring, he never again has the ability to betray me or anyone else.”

”That’s with this is all about to you?” he asks but I don’t answer him. ”You’ve espoused loyalty as your top trait for years. Yet you snuck up on your supposed best friend, which in my view, the relationship might have been salvaged through a little diplomacy.

“Cooler heads and so on.

“And you stabbed him in the back.”

”In the life I lead Doc, loyalty is the only thing that matters,” I begin to explain. ”I’m not saying a blind loyalty either. Corey was good at talking me down from some bad places. But there comes a time when lines need to be drawn. To his credit, he tried really hard to straddle both sides but a man can only put up with it for so long.

“I ran out of time, I ran out of patience.”

”You say Frankie loves Corey,” he redirects. ”What has all of this done in regard to their relationship?”

”Not much,” I answer quickly and he just stares at me. ”They don’t see each other as often, but they’re still buds.”

”Using your own logical thinking, Alias wants you dead and by right, your children. Corey supports Alias despite those wishes, so Corey is an undesirable. Frankie supports Corey...”

”Stop,” I interrupt coldly. ”Frankie is only eleven years old. He’s an innocent child that isn’t ready to see things from a ‘big picture’ perspective. It’s unfair to hold him to the same standards as a grown ass man.”

Lewis smiles at me.

”What?”

”I was just testing to see where your mind was at,” he replies. ”I wanted to see if you were angry or upset that Frankie and Corey are maintaining a relationship despite your own relationship with Corey having gone Chernobyl.”

”No, I don’t like it, but I also don’t force my will onto him,” I explain. ”I don’t see any reason at this point to torpedo it and hurt my son in the process.”

”I think that’s a step forward for you,” he says while leaning forward. ”As a young father, it’d be easy to just play the unrelenting dictator and rule over him with an iron fist. Instead, you let him make his own decisions.”

”Frankie has enough on his plate without me putting my serving onto it too.”

”Our time today is about up but before you go, how is Frankie?”

”He’s been pretty good,” I answer with a little bit of a smile. ”His therapy is working I think. He stopped lashing out almost entirely but he still has his moments. He’s looking forward to the new house and designing his dirt bike course.”

”That’s wonderful to hear,” he says with a smile as I stand up and start for the door. ”He’s a really sweethearted boy Thaddeus. You’re young and you’ve taken on a lot by adopting him, but you really are doing a fine job with him.”

For what it’s worth, I appreciate the compliment. Being 22 and fathering someone already half your age is very challenging. Especially when we started out as buddies.

”I think we’re cluing onto something though Thaddeus,” he says as my phone starts to ring. ”So schedule your next appointment with Debbie before you fo and in the meantime...”

Still ringing, Doc!

”...I’d like you to consider a question I have.”

”What’s that?” I ask, retrieving my phone from my pocket. ”Robert, what’s up?” I say into the speaker phone to my attorney as I try and split my attention.

”Do you still love Corey Smith?” DeVille asks.

”...Are you in therapy right now?” Zane asks of me.

”Yes,” I answer.

This has quickly turned into some weird new age version of a Mexican standoff. Three men fall silent. Two questions asked but only one was answered.

Or was it both?

Out in the lobby, I take the phone off speaker and put it to my ear. ”What’s up?”

”We need to meet… soon.”

”If it’s about the house in Newport...”

”It’s not about the house,” he replies quickly.

”Well then I don’t...”

”It’s about Keith Rickle,” he interrupts. His news causes me to sigh.

Keith Rickle.

Frankie’s birth father.

”Robert, you have my undivided attention.”

My apologies for taking time off. You all have my sincerest apologies for allowing my body to recuperate from the beating I’ve no doubt put it through over the last year and half and instead, decided to focus a little more on my personal life and acting. Sorry not sorry though, because I have worked my ass off since the moment I came back to the industry last year and I deserve to take a step back and enjoy the fruits of my labor. I deserve to stay out of the ring whenever I want, because I’ve earned the right to take off.

Yes, you’ve seen my beautiful face on Warfare but I didn’t once get into any physical altercation and that’s by design. Though, had Frankie been at home last Warfare instead in the building, there’s a good chance that Corey versus Thad would’ve happened. At least in its simplest of forms.

Those that pay attention to the XWF… and that’s a lot… probably watched night one of Relentless and thought ‘holy shit, Thad kicked his dad in the face. IS THAT NEXT!?’

Fact is, me kicking that overgrown ogre in the face was a long time coming. Before he ever agreed to step in the ring at Relentless, I warned him to stay away. He didn’t listen. This is my company now, not his. This is my show now, not his. This is my legacy now, not his. This is my name now, not his.

He may have the spot in the Hall of Legends that rightfully belongs to me, but I got everything else. I got the looks. I got the moves.

...No, I’m not breaking into some song and dance…

The fact is, it should be criminal to have what I got. It should be a class A felony to look this good, to be this good, to have the money I have, to continue to evolve and stay at the top of my game the way I have.

I’m so much at the top of my game that it takes people like me to put down those that came before and that’s what you saw at Relentless between me and dear old dad. Guys like him need to know when their time is up and his time was up a long time ago. Sometimes, they just need a little reminding. So if anyone out there in TV land was hoping and praying they were gonna see Duke versus Duke, you were sadly mistaken. You’ll never see Sebastian Duke on XWF television again.

I’m so much on the top of my game that I put the Hart title division in an absolute fucking stranglehold and the only way the company could get it off of me, was to retire the championship while I still had it. No matter who they saw fit to put me in the ring with, whether it was the Rel Dixon’s and Morbid Angel’s or the Robert Main’s and Mark Flynn’s, NO ONE could take it from me. None of them could beat me because not a single man or woman on this planet has the extra gear that I have. There isn’t a man or woman on this roster or in this business that will ever put me down and keep me down.

The Thaddeus Duke Show rolls on, win or lose, because I am this fucking good.

Nah see, when I have a slip up and fail at something, no one is quicker at righting the ship like I am. No one is quite on my level of stardom and that’s why each and every time, no matter how few and far between my failures are, my megastar burns just a little bit hotter, just a little bit brighter.

I am without a championship now for the first time since what seems like the day I stepped back into this company. My entire tenure here has been me either chasing or defending championship gold and if one thing has been made abundantly clear, it’s that there’s nothing more fucking dangerous than Thaddeus Duke stalking you like prey.

So be warned, Corey Smith.

Before we get to Bad Medicine in NEW THAD CITY, before we get to Corey Smith versus Thaddeus Duke, Schism is the next contestant on the aforementioned Thaddeus Duke Show.

This poor son of a bitch has the unfortunate task of facing the greatest thing since sliced fucking bread and I very much plan on watching him flail and fail. I very much look forward to schooling them… gee, where have I seen that before?

Never in professional wrestling has a competitor had dueling personalities… unless you count

Chris Page…

Robert Main…

Charlie Nickles…

Supreme Machine...

Corey Smith…

Okay, so that last one was a joke, but still carries some weight, doesn’t it?

Nothing like a little unoriginality… is that an actual word? Oh well, fuck it… to shine the bright lights of super stardom on thine self.

But Thad, you call yourself the Lionheart...

Yep, true story, but it’s just a derivative of my actual name so suck it.

Schism is coming to play on Warfare. So the question I’m posing, and really it’s the only question that matters. How do you prefer to lose? You wanna get tapped out? You wanna get pinned? You wanna get bloodied first? You wanna lose in a marathon match? Or how ‘bout a sprint?

Anything you want little man, or is it men? Just let me know and I’m happy to oblige.

There’s a lot of question marks regarding this match but the one thing that’s certain, and the two things that are synonymous: Thaddeus Duke… and victory.

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