“You know I’ve always had it pretty easy in life. Growing up with money will do that for you. But that doesn’t mean I haven’t had to work for things. My Dad, business efficianado that he was poured all of his time and effort into the company he started, at the detriment of his duties as a husband and as a father. And so as a result I was often left to fend for myself. My mother, as I’ve mentioned before was more interested in what the hot party was than cooking a meal for her child. I remember very distinctly times where I wouldn’t see either of my parents for days at a time. And I’m not talking about when I was 16 or 17. I’m talking about 6 or 7. Having to essentially raise myself taught me two very good lessons. First, don’t expect anyone to be there for you, ever. And two, always put yourself before others. I’ve lived my life by those two credos and I would say so far it’s worked out pretty damn well. CEO of a company that brings in Billions every month and now, the King of the XWF. But like all Kings, keeping the crown is harder than obtaining it. That’s not to say that John Madison was an easy match, in fact, to this day it was the hardest thing I’ve ever done and it has changed me, forever. But there is a huge difference between being the hunter and being the hunted. And now, this crown makes me the hunted…well, we’ll see about that.”


Theo steps out of his Black Ford Escalade, walks around to the passenger side and grabs a black duffle bag off the front passenger seat. He unzips it, checks the contents and then zips it back up. He pulls a key fob out of his right jacket pocket, clicks a button to lock the doors and then steps out onto the streets of downtown Phoenix. To his left, the campus of Arizona State University. A great place to find co-eds if there ever was one. On the left, Wild Bob’s Pawn Shop. Theo takes a glance around before heading into Wild Bob’s. The store like so many other Pawn Shops in America is an open space where everything is located behind a glass case, including the propriator of the shop, presumably Wild Bob himself. Theo approaches the man behind the bullet proof glass, duffle bag in tow.


“A man dressed in a snazzy suit like that, don’t see them in this store in here.”

“I would suspect not. Unless of course they were trying to get a gun that was missing it’s serial number.”

“We don’t sell items like that here.”

“Sure you don’t. Anyway, I’m not here for that. I have something of value that I would like to unload.”

“Not sure you are going to get a whole lot for a black duffle bag. Not unless it’s lined with gold.”

“Funny guy. No, not the duffle bag but what’s inside.”


Theo turns around and places the black duffle bag on top of one of the display cases. He unzips the bag, reaches in and reveals the contents of the bag to be the King of the XWF crown. Theo turns around and reveals the prize to the man behind the glass.


“A crown…is it a real crown?”

“You’re the pawn shop guy, shouldn’t you know that? But yes it is a real crown.”

“And Kings wore that crown?”

“In a manner of speaking yes.”

“What does that mean?”

“It means that this is not some historical relic, this crown didn’t belong to the King of England or Julius Caesar, this is the crown that belongs to the King of the XWF.”

“The XWF? That TNA wanna be wrestling federation?”

“Interesting. Most people go with WWE but whatever. Anyway, how much can I get for it?”

“Put it in the box here and I’ll take a look at it.”


Will Bob pushes a button and a silver box extends outward from under the counter that he is seated at. Theo places the crown in the box and again Bob pushes a button this time retracting the box. Bob picks up the crown, examines all sides of it, pulls out a small magnifying monocle, places it in front of his right eye and inspects the crown further. A few moments pass before Bob places the crown back in the silver box and sends it back to Theo.


“$100.00.”

“$100.00 really? Tell you what, how about $50.00 and you throw in that gold chain over there with the big gold $ sign on it.”

“Seriously? That doesn’t seem like something that would go well with your $1000.00 suit.”

“It was actually much more than $1000.00 and don’t presume to know me. Do we have a deal or not?”

“Sure what the hell.”


Wild Bob steps down off his perch, which, reveals him to be a short and chubby man who clearly does not care how he dresses. One might say the man looks like an oversized chode. Wild Bob walks waddles over to the gold chain with the gold $ and takes it off it’s display rack. He then makes his way back to his stool. Bob pushes a button on the register and the drawer pops open, giving him access to the money. He reaches in, pulls out $50 dollars in denomination of 2 $20’s and a $10, places it in the silver box along with the chain, presses the button and out the box goes. Theo grabs the money, the chain and then pushes the box back toward Bob.


“Pleasure doing business with you Bob.”

“You too. Enjoy that chain.”

“Oh I will.”


Theo places the chain around his neck, puts on a pair of sun glasses and heads out of the store. As soon as he makes it out the front door he sees what appears to either be a homeless man, or a man who refuses to work and of course like so many others of his ilk he has a plastic cup in his hand looking for handouts. Theo takes the money out of his pocket that he just received from his transaction, looks at the dirty and discheveled man, and then tears the money into pieces before dropping it into the man’s cup. The man looks up Theo, clearly pissed off at what just happened.


“Hey man what the fuck am I supposed do with that? You tore it to pieces.”

“There’s $50.00 in there, you want it, you work for it. Maybe you’ll get lucky, collect a few more bucks today and you can go to the Walgreen’s over there and purchase some scotch tape so you can put that money back together. It will probably be the first productive thing you’ve done in years you pathetic drain on society.”

“Fuck you man.”


Theo laughs off the man’s comment and instead of getting in his Escalade proceeds to cross the street and head directly towards ASU’s main campus just as classes are letting out, co-ed’s a plenty.