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Thaddeus Duke · (05-17-2022)

On Board ‘Tranquility’ || Caribbean Sea || 11:58 PM

The water breaks at the bow as the luxury ocean liner continues to slice through the surface of the sea. The moonlight looms large overhead and the heat lightning continues to light up the midnight sky as Dolly and I continue to converse about what might’ve been. To be clear, I’ve never been happier with my life. The wars are over. The things that needed to be done have been done and you’ll find out more about that in future recorded promos.

Lauren MacKay came into my life like a literal wrecking ball. Most of those that loom on the outside looking in at our relationship don’t give us much of a chance to survive this marriage. It’s fun though, proving them all wrong. It’s been a never ending stream of accusations. She’s after my money, or all the things that I can give her, or she’s screwing this guy, or I’m screwing that chick… ya know what we do? We have a drink, and we laugh at the nonsense. There isn’t anything we do separately, that the other isn’t aware of.

They can all sit in judgment.

Regardless, we’ll stay happy.

If it was about money, she wouldn’t have fallen in love with my children. If it was about money, she wouldn’t have burst into tears when Frankie called her ‘mom’ for the very first time. If it was about money, Lauren Duke wouldn’t have put a bullet in the head of Lincoln Tritter for conspiring to kill both me and Frankie.

While we have fun as we reminisce and wonder what ‘might have been,’ there’s nothing I would change about my life and where it currently sits. If I said I wasn’t the one that put this together, I’d be lying. My contract is up at the end of this month and I needed one last trip with one of my closest friends. The reality is that that’s been my motivation since I put down my father at Fire & Ice. I knew I was mulling retirement, even at the ripe old age of 23. I knew I was not re-signing with the only place I’ve ever really considered home. So what you’ve seen from me the last several months is a swan song of sorts. My career isn’t over and it won’t end at Leap of Faith, but I don’t know when I’ll return to full time competition, and I don’t know where. So I’ve made the rounds with Chris Page in IIW, with Mark Flynn and Corey Smith at the Denzel Porter Invitational, managed to team with Seb Bryce at UGWC… and all comes back to where I started… the XWF… and Dolly Waters.

Dolly might be the last, but certainly not the least.

May 4, 2022 – Backstage at Warfare

Before the first bell, I needed to find some time alone with R.L. Edgar. Time was quickly running out and if I’m gonna get Dolly in a tag team match before Leap of Faith, I legitimately have one last opportunity and I have to take it. Dolly Waters has always been a rock for me. Even when she isn’t in or around the XWF, she was always there for me. Without fail.

Hanging out in a dark corner backstage, I watch as Dolly and R.L. enter the building, rolling their bags behind them.

”Hey, I’ll catch up with you in a bit,” Dolly says to Edgar.

”Yeah okay,” Edgar replies as he heads straight in.

Dolly makes a left and crosses right in front of me. She stops for a moment and turns around, scrunching her nose. I have a distinct scent. One of the perks of the Gucci endorsement is that I have my own, one of a kind ‘flavor’ that no one else can buy. With a shake of her head she turns again and continues down the hallway. With her gone, I rush out to catch up with R.L. Edgar.

”Ralph!” I call out from behind him, but he doesn’t turn. He doesn’t stop. He doesn’t acknowledge.

‘Wait, that’s not his name,’ I think to myself.

”Ry...” I call out but stop myself as I almost catch up to him. What the FUCK is his name!? Regis… Robert… Randall… REGINALD!

”Hey! Reggie!” I call out as I slow up beside him.

”Hey Thad,” he greets me.

”Reg I need a favor,” I preface as we turn a corner. ”I really need you to miss your next match with Dolly.”

Edgar smiles slightly and turns his head toward me.

”Why would I do that?” he asks of me.

”Well… time’s about up,” I remind him. ”We never really had the chance to make Revolution Prime a thing and I kinda wanna team with her one time before I go, ya know?”

”You know how you could fix that without asking me to step out?” he prefaces. ”Sign that new contract Thad. I know it’s lucrative dude. You’ve been one of the two or three top stars in this company for two years solid.”

”I have money,” I remind him. ”It’s never about the money.

“But anyway, I really need you to do me this favor.”

We come to a stop in the hallway and look each other in the eye.

”What’s in it for me?” he asks.

”What’s your rate?” I ask of him. ”I’ll double it. Triple it. Multiply it by ten, I don’t care. You want a million? Ten million?”

He places his hand over my mouth.

”I just wanted to see how far you’d go,” he says as I lick the palm of his hand still clapped over my mouth. ”Gaaah! Man!” he says as he wipes my saliva from his hand.

”You’ll do it?”

”I’ll figure out a way,” he says as he starts to walk away. ”I don’t have the heart to hold you two lovebirds apart.”

Lovebirds? Huh?

”What are you talking about?” I ask and he stops and turns.

”Thad,” he begins. ”There’s been a certain tension between you two since you were both teenagers.

“You have a thing for my niece, Thad. And you always have.”

I…

What?

”What?” I repeat my inner thoughts. ”Reggie I’m a married man.”

He starts coming back toward me and stops just a few inches in front of me.

”That’s never stopped you before and it wouldn’t stop you now,” he says with an extended hand. Hesitantly, I grab his hand. ”Just don’t hurt my niece.”

”I’d never hurt Dolly,” I tell him honestly. ”Besides, we’ve never...”

”Last year?” he reminds me. ”She was helping you out with some shit about your mother. We all saw it, Thad.”

”That was...”

”Relax,” he says as he puts a hand on my shoulder. ”I’m pretty sure the feeling has been mutual for a long time,” he whispers into my ear.

Huh.

With a light slap on my shoulder he turns to walk away.

”That was just a moment of weakness!” I call after him just before he rounds a corner and dips out of sight.

Right?

NOW

Listening and laughing my ass off as Dolly tells me her version of the ‘what if’, I have questions, to say the least.

”First and foremost, I’m already Thaddeus Two, so our Thad would be Three,” I remind her.

”So what?” she laughs. ”We’re not that bright in this scenario.”

”Secondly Dolly,” I begin as I look around the deck of the ninety-three million dollar luxury ocean liner. ”I love you, and I always will… but if you think I’d give away my entire fortune to appease your socialist agenda, you’re dead wrong.”

”Am I really?” she asks with a wry smile.

”I’d give a lot of it away, but if you think I could give up everything you’re just fucking nuts,” I laugh. ”I don’t even know how to be poor!”

”You’re a smart guy,” she says with a light grab of my hand. Also, that’s very much debatable. ”You’d learn. Same way you learned to fight, learned to lead, learned to fly planes, learned to invest in order to double your inheritance...”

”Maybe,” I say, turning my head toward the sky to gaze at the moon. ”And why in the hell, in your scenario, am I jacking off on the toilet?”

”Your wife is 400 pounds Thad,” she replies with a laugh. ”Nobody wants to touch her.”

”Tommy would hit it,” I joke.

SLAP! In the shoulder.

”Stop, you’re gonna make me throw up,” she jokes… probably. Also probably not.

”That’s not how I see it though,” I say, turning to a more serious nature.

”You don’t think?” she asks. To which, I just shake my head. ”In your mind then… how’s it go?”

”Well,” I begin. ”We take off with Rev Prime, so that parts the same. But its not me that wins the world title first. It’s you,” I pause.

She looks up into my eyes.

”Remember retirement ceremony number seven with me and Corey and Heyman?” I ask and she nods. ”I put the belt on your shoulder and I told you it should’ve been you first. I meant that.”

In the moonlight, there’s the smallest hint of a tear in her eye. But, it’s Dolly Waters and she doesn’t get emotional too often. Instead of succumbing to normal human emotion, because god forbid, she turns around and makes jokes.

”Seven!?” she yells at me, causing me to laugh. ”How dare you sir? There’s been at least twelve.”

”I do imagine we might’ve um…,” I pause. ”That we might’ve got together.”

”Pig,” she jokes.

”You literally had me asphyxiating myself as I jack off on the shitter,” I argue, causing us both to laugh.

”Yeah yeah, go on...”

”We probably would’ve married a couple years ago,” I continue on. ”After I’ve given up most of everything I possess, of course. But, we’d have probably retired by the time we were 30. Somewhere in Suburbia...”

”You’ve mentioned that before,” Dolly chimes in. ”Retiring to Suburbia, I mean.”

”It’d never happen,” I remind her. ”Too accustomed to the way things are. I wouldn’t know how to live with less than what I got.”

”Dare to dream,” she jokes.

”We’d probably still have at least five kids,” I say as I turn to face the ocean beside her. ”I love being a dad. It’s the most rewarding thing I’ve ever done in my life. I’m certainly not the best man that I can be but...”

”You’re not a bad man Thad,” she argues. I turn to look her in the eyes. ”It’s like the song says, you’re not as good as you’re gonna get, but you’re better than you used to be.”

”To be honest Dolly...” I begin but pause a moment. ”If we’d have gotten together, I don’t think I’d be the whore that I am now,” I say with a laugh.

”Oh you better believe you wouldn’t be,” she laughs. ”I’d beat the shit outta you.”

”Don’t you dare threaten me with a good time!” I joke back.

”You’re such a pig,” she says. ”So why are you?”

”Why am I what?”

”You’re a fucking slut, Thad,” she answers somewhat coldly. ”Why?”

”I really don’t know,” I answer back as honestly as I can. ”After I broke up with Adi, I started getting attention from very attractive people. I liked it. So… I started giving into temptation and now I can’t stop.”

”Do you like that?” she asks.

”It’s fun obviously,” I admit. ”I don’t know. I don’t know how to turn the switch back off again.”

This is the first time that I can recall being so open and candid about that part of my private life. Yes, my exploits are widely known and I’ve earned the reputation I have. I’ve freely admitted to being a huge slut but while all of that is true, I’ve never really opened up as to the why’s rather than the who’s and when’s.

”It doesn’t hurt Lauren?” she asks.

”No,” I think. ”She’s the same way, really. It causes problems from time to time, but...”

”You love each other,” she interrupts. To which, I just nod my head.

”But anyway,” I return the focus of our late night conversation to the ‘what if’. ”I’d have dedicated my life to you. Our children. Our family. Our life together.”

Her eyes lock onto mine.

”We’d have raised our boys to be compassionate fighters. To help others that can’t help themselves. We’d have raised our girls to be strong and independent. To take no shit. To bust a fucker in the mouth if he needs it.

“We’d have created a wrestling dynasty that’d last generations.

“Long after you, and me, Vinnie and Theo and everyone we know has turned to dust, our children, and their children, and their childrens children would continue on the dynasty, kicking ass… taking names… winning championships… Just like the originals.”

Thing about JB and Tommy… is that they are exactly as advertised.

Oh, you’re just gonna do a promo now. Right.

They are the low low low card kind of guys because you can tell in their promo’s now, and in the past, that they have no fucking idea what they’re up against.

Ever.

And I don’t even mean that in the clever sound byte kind of false bravado ‘you have no idea what you’re up against’ kind of cliched overused drivel you see all over wrestling twitter day in and day out. What I mean, is that if there is a fact that they can nail to the wall… they used duct tape instead. If there was a handle for them to grab on to, they grabbed the lid instead.

Honest to god I have no hate for Tommy, no hate for JB… but jesus christ all fucking mighty how long have these two chodes been doing this? They’ve both been at it longer than Dolly and I and not only do they have virtually nothing to show for it, that evidence as to why that’s the case is ever clearer in every promo they’ve ever released.

They know our names.

They know our professional histories to a certain degree.

But everything else? They jump to conclusions. They don’t know the real story so they just make it up as they go along and hope it suffices as a premium recorded promo.

First and foremost you insignificant shit bags wasting my valuable fucking time, Thaddeus Duke and Dolly Waters have been friends for several years. Never, not even once, have we had a romantic relationship. Aside from one kiss a year ago? We’ve never even had a romantic encounter.

I’m a happily married man to a woman that, by herself, could take out both of you idiots without even breaking a sweat. While clearly marriage has never stopped me from engaging in bedroom activities with other people, not a single one of them have ever been Dolly Waters.

Whether its Frank and Lobo? Tommy and JB? All god damned four of you can step to the fucking plate, because Dolly and I are home run hitters and we’re about to go yard while all four of you classless ass clowns can’t even lay down a fucking bunt.

Clout chasers… for crying out fucking loud.

Y’all learned a new buzzword and decided to work that into your latest shtick while you repeatedly drug look alikes? Is that how this works? Well, I’m not sure if you know this but Rev Prime is going to the pay window because we fucking can. JB and Tommy or Frank and Lobo, or once again, all god damn four of you can show up, but you’re not facing drugged out doppelgangers. You’re facing the real fuckin’ deal. This might be Dolly and I’s last go ‘round so I promise, we’re fixin’ to put a hurt on you just because we fuckin’ can.

Standing here on this ship with the waves around us, it’s peaceful and quiet. For a long few moments I stare into Dolly’s eyes while she stares back at mine. We’ve been down the road a lot, her and I. For years and years, through break ups and heart aches. Through personal traumas and vendettas. Through wars and life in general, there isn’t a person on this rock I trust more than I trust Dolly Waters.

”What?” she asks, cutting the silence.

”Hmm?”

”You’ve been staring at me,” she smiles.

”I could think of worse things to stare at,” I joke and we both lean against the railing at the bow, looking off at the moonlit sea. ”Can I tell you something?” I ask of her, turning once more to look her in the eyes.

”Of course you can,” she answers.

”I uhh… I’ve always loved you,” I admit to her.

”Yeah yeah,” she laughs. ”Best friends forever,” she says as she pries her eyes away from mine.

”Look at me,” I insist. She hesitates for a moment, but relents. ”I don’t mean as friends,” I clarify. For the moment, she says nothing while the emotion builds up within me.

”I always thought I was gonna marry you one day and you left me,” I tell her as a tear escapes my eyes. ”It was always supposed to be me and you. We both know it. But you left me. And I moved on. Garrett, Liz, Adi...”

”Don’t you get it?” she interrupts. ”If I’d have stayed, everything would’ve been different,” she says to me, as she uncharacteristically holds back some of her own emotion. ”Had we have been together, you’d never have ran off and found Alister Henry. You’d have never met Frankie. There would’ve never been an Elizabeth and with that, no Talon, no Caty.

“Everything is exactly the way it was supposed to be,” she argues.

Okay, that’s a good point.

”But I loved you,” I protest. ”And I still love you,” I say while grabbing her hands.

”I’ve loved you too,” she admits to me, finally, after all these fucking years.

”What if I wanted to kiss you right now?” I ask her. She takes her hand out of mine and grabs a handful of my shirt and twists.

”What if I wanted you to?” she asks.

I smile a moment and lay my hand against the side of her face, rubbing my thumb gently just in front of her ear. I reach down while she reaches up, pressing our lips together. Momentum carries me forward and her backward until she loses her balance, landing on deck lounger. Still with our lips locked and me leaning over her, I notice the camera close to me. Palming the lens without removing myself from Dolly, I rip the camera from the XWF production members hand and toss it backward over my head. Several seconds later, it splashes into the ocean.

[Image: 0YhOHbg.gif]

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