OOC: Thad’s typical gold spoken text will be white for this series in order to stop any confusion and so Corey can keep bogarting the gold! Jerk. Also, the events of this post precede “Rites of Passage” by Corey Smith.

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Coreytopia || Fuckin, Florida || 8:12 AM

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Sometimes I wish I had an invisibility cloak like Harry Potter or something. Don’t get me wrong, I enjoy people. I enjoy meeting them. I enjoy getting to know them. Despite appearances and despite the fact that I exude cockiness and arrogance, when I meet new people I spend the majority of conversations with people I’ve just met, talking about them, not me. I’ve been here in Coreytopia for a little over an hour and I’ve only just now made it to the hallway outside Corey’s bedroom. I love what he does for people. It’s something I wish I could do, but at the same time I’m kind of glad I don’t. Those that have taken up residence here are eccentric, no doubt. And if they see you walking by, they have to let you know just how strange they are.

And they’re definitely strange.

Yet at the same time, I guess we’re all a little strange.

I mean, I’m no different than they are really. How often do you meet someone that went from a newborn infant to 15 years old in the blink of an eye? How often do you meet someone that was stone cold dead for months only to live again? Strange I am, there’s no getting around that.

Today though, I’m just not really in the mood for the oddities that Corey has surrounded himself with. His human zoo of off the wall weirdos some days just has its limits. Maybe I take myself too seriously. Maybe my life that is far different than his doesn’t really afford me the ability to turn it off and just hang loose like Corey and his… tenants? Friends? I don’t know what they are to him. But its important to him and if its important to him then its important to me.

Quietly entering his bedroom, as continues sleeping, I notice his bed is a disheveled mess so to me that indicates the types of dreams he’s been having. Not particularly pleasant ones. Initially, I intended to wake him, but choose otherwise. Fuck it. Let the boy sleep. I’ll just sit in the chair near the huge bay window and chill for a bit.

Taking that seat, I throw my right ankle up on my left knee and just as I’m about to pull out my cell to start my morning Twitter fingers, I catch the glare from the morning light hitting a bare corner of a glossy covered magazine resting on the table beside me beneath a towel. Lifting the towel from the magazine and catching a glimpse of the cover I start to laugh rather boisterous and out loud but quickly catch myself.

”Bigguns,” I say quietly with a chuckle as I grab the mag… and then it hits me… ”God dammit Corey,” I whisper as I quickly drop the towel from my hand to the floor. Looking at my palm like I just accidentally stuck it in a pile of dog shit I wipe it on my shirt and start to peruse the magazine.

Then a thought hits me again. Does he sit in this chair when he….? Fuccck.

Bigguns though? Obviously there’s nothing wrong with larger women. There’s nothing wrong with them at all, but I just never knew he had such a… kink? Fetish? Call it whatever.

”Hey,” Corey says with sleep in his voice.

”Good mornin’ sunshine,” I say with a smile as I peer at him over the top of his porno mag.

Corey sits almost straight up as his vision clears and realizes what I’m “reading.”

”Why you gettin’ in my stash!?” he asks, somewhat red faced.

”Stash?” I question with a smile as I close the magazine and toss it back on the table. ”You literally hid it under your… towel.”

”I’m gonna shower,” he says as he rolls out of bed.

”Thank god,” I joke, causing him to sniff himself.

”Yeah you right,” he says as he disappears into his bathroom.

Left alone for a few minutes as Corey washes, I pull my phone out and start perusing Twitter only to realize the Blue Woman is tweeting about me again. I don’t know what she wants with me but she’s… interesting, to say the very least. At Warfare she had me… I don’t know the word for it. It’s strange though, people on the internet take more of an interest in what I do with my private time than I do.

”So that promo for Warfare,” Corey says as he exits the bathroom while still drying his hair.

”That was fast.”

”I wasn’t that dirty. Anyway that promo,” he repeats himself. ”I’ve been wanting to bring it up.”

”Was that before or after you were avoiding my calls?” I ask him, with a tad more snark than I intended. ”Anyway what promo?”

”The first one,” he answers. Either he didn’t catch my snark or he chose to ignore it.

”What about it?” I ask him as I resume perusing Twitter.

”It sounded like you were about to say something, then changed your mind.”

”I really don’t know what you’re talking about,” I lie… to him? To me? Both?

”Yeah you do,” he insists as he cleans out his ears.

”Corey I really don’t know what you’re referring to,” I say as he sits on the edge of his bed, his head resting slightly askew and giving me a look that I refuse to even look at.

”You started to say something Thad, then you stopped, got out of the chair, left the camera, then came back a minute later and started talking about something else entirely.”

Electing to not say anything, I just continue perusing Twitter and inadvertently give my head a shake at the same time.

”Despite the perception of how I rose to the top, despite the claims of my opponents and my own fucking teammates alike,” Corey says. ”Your voice trails off, then so does the rest of you.

“What did I do?”

”You didn’t do anything Corey, just skip it.”

”Thad,” he pleads, but I try to ignore him as I continue to putz around on my phone. Corey tosses his towel down and stands up, snatching my phone from my fingers. ”Thad! Talk to me man! Did I do something?”’

”It isn’t what you did it’s what you said,” I finally cave. Corey has puppy dog eyes without even trying and they’re easy to fall for.

”What’d I say?”

Shaking my head with a sigh and my eyes shut, I really didn’t want to get into this. I mean, he is my best friend and I should be able to talk to him about anything. And I can. It’s just that I have the backs of those I love, without question, without fail. Always. Corey’s been there for me through thick and thin… but…

”Thad?” he pleads quietly. In response, I stand up and begin pacing slowly in front of him as he sits on the edge of his bed, trying to put together some thoughts.

”The whole time I was Universal champ do you know what I had to do?”

Corey sits quietly with a look of absolute befuddlement on his face. ”Defend it?” he guesses with a smile.

”I had to thwart off attack after attack after attack on me, on my character, on whether or not I was really deserving to serve as champion because of D’Ville’s actions...”

”Yeah but fuck Doc, he’s...”

”And your words,” I say to him as I stop pacing and look him in his eyes.

Looking on at him, I can tell he’s racking his brain trying like hell to figure out what it is that he said that someone might attack me for.

”I don’t understand what...”

”I said my bestie Thad Duke deserved that Universal Championship,” I interrupt him, repeating his own words back to him. ”And by God I made it happen,” I conclude, still repeating his own words.

”Oh shit.”

”So here I am defending myself for even wearing that god damn title because Doc grabbed my leg as if that was gonna make some fucking difference and because you,” I point at him for dramatic affect. ”Went right ahead and claimed credit… for me.”

”But no that’s not what I meant,” he pleads his case causing me to scoff in response.

”I know that’s not what you meant. But perception is reality Corey.

“The perception of that statement was you taking credit for something I worked my ass off to earn, the right way. Only for Doc to put his bony old man hands on my leg and you staking your flag on my title.”

”Why is this only coming up now?” he asks. ”High Stakes was almost three months ago.”

”In comparison to what? Talking about it while I was still champ and giving credence to the bullshit slander?” I ask him rhetorically. ”If it wasn’t for me, Doc might be back at the retirement home by now. If it wasn’t for me, you might’ve got your ass bumped out of that battle royal long before the final four.

“If it wasn’t for me, then neither of you would be tag team champions.”

”Thad, that sounds a little...”

”What? Selfish?” I ask but he doesn’t answer. ”Am I not entitled to put everything and everyone else aside every now and again and think only of myself? I mean, it’s not like it’s a damn pattern, Corey.”

”I dunno, It’s just...”

”I expect the bullshit from Louis, but not you. What he did and you said just set me on a course I couldn’t fuckin’ navigate, because Doc absolutely grabbed my leg and you went and claimed credit right along with him.”

”Perception is reality,” Corey repeats my own words to me quietly. ”Thad… bro I’m sorry. I never meant for that statement to be taken out of context like that.”

”I know. Why do you think I tried not to bring it up?”

”So then….. we’re good?”

”Why wouldn’t we be good?” I ask him with a furrowed brow.

”Well, you were mad and...”

”I wasn’t mad,” I insist. ”It was just frustrating that my best friend unwittingly fed into the slander. I couldn’t talk about it before, but I can now so we did. It’s out, it’s over.

“Let’s move onto the Dolphin Squad and bust some skulls.”

Just then Corey’s bedroom door bursts open and before I can turn around, Dolly Waters jumps on my back and gives me a friendly peck on the cheek.

”Heyyy,” I say with a huge smile. ”How’d you know I was here?”

”It was the Gucci,” she says as she hops down.

I look at her inquisitively.

”Your cologne hot shot,” Dolly elaborates as she starts for the door.

”Where you going? You just got here.”

”Gotta put my Comrades to work! We’ll catch up later,” and just like that, she’s gone.

”If it makes you feel better, you started off your reign against former world champions,” Corey says as I stare off toward the doorway. ”Page started his off with Big D,” he remarks with laughter.

Corey looks at me staring into space, then at the doorway, then back at me…. Then smiles. Finally I snap out of it and look back at him.

”What’d you say? I zoned out.”

”Mmmmhmmm.”

”So all this talk about promos...”

The smile fades from Corey’s face.

”Let’s talk about one of yours,” I suggest as I sit on the edge of the bed next to him. Turning to him with a growing smile on my face… ”Shall we begin?”

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Isn’t it just like Charlie… or is it Demos?… Regardless of what he calls himself, you know exactly who I’m talking about. Isn’t it just like him to promise something spectacular then fail to deliver? I mean, he debuted in the XWF right around the same time that I made my return here and what does he have to show for it? I’ll never deny he turned heads quickly. I’ll never deny that the man has talent. I’ll never deny his toughness. So what’s my point? The point is, for all his head turning talents, his toughness, his seemingly impressive win-loss record…

What is it that he really accomplished?

A rather lengthy reign as Television Champion. And….?

That’s it, really.

After coming in like a wrecking ball the guy was sure to be a force right? In title matches from almost the start against top flight talent like Robert Main and Sarah Lacklan… just to fail time and again. Management clearly saw the error of their ways and put him in the division he was meant to be in: the Television title division. He beats Thunder Knuckles for the title… I already did that. Goes on to defend against some illustrious names like Johnny Legend and Azrael Erebus and Barney Green and Jenny Myst…

Never faced Legend but everyone beat him.

Never faced Azerael Erebus, but everyone beats him too.

I did beat Barney Green when I was Uni champ and made him look damn good in the process. I mean, far better than he really is and that’s not a shot at Barney. I love Barney. But he’s not exactly top shelf finely aged bourbon though is he?

Myst? I beat her more than once.

So…

What is it that makes this reign so special?

Absolutely nothing. Those are the men and women he should be beating anyway so what’s the big deal about Demos? There’s so much nothing to give a shit about this guy that he and Jimson earned a tag title shot like two months ago. Maybe more than that and an actual GM was like “fuck off, I don’t even care.”

That’s what we’re up against folks. Promises made, but never delivered upon. To recap: Demos came in hot with all the promise of a big time main eventer in the making, losing to all the top shelf names while finally settling where he belongs… with a middle of the pack title headlining a middle of the pack show. Why? Because when the lions are ready to feast, the little pussycats stay on the porch where they belong.

What’s more is he knows it.

Why else would some big shot tough guy coming in the way that he did… decide to pussy out of a second shot at the Universal title in the High Stakes battle royal? Because he knew then that he doesn’t have what it takes to hang with the best. It was true then and it’s true now.

Not only has he failed deliver on such a promising start, he even cooked up this grandiose plan to dethrone Continuum as the Kings of tag team wrestling by taking it to wrestlers court, and when it came time for that court room drama… Ole Demos failed to deliver again.

Quite the pattern huh?

Why would the undefeated team of DDS be so afraid of taking on any duo in Continuum and insist on facing only me? Because they’re cowards. The joke is on them though because even without Corey or Doc, I’m pretty confident that I could still successfully defend the tag titles against DDS.

So we’re clear: the Television title is supposed to be on the line on every Savage but here we are with no Television title defense so if we really wanted to make this interesting, I think KHunt should have grown a set of girl balls and stipulated that if DDS loses, the winning member of Continuum gets Demos’ TV title. It might’ve been a different life but Corey is already the best Television champ in the history of that god awful title.

Or is that just too much manning up for Demos for him to willingly put that title on the line too?

By the way, may I just say fuck you Corey for taking all the good shit?

Let’s move on now and discuss tops and bottoms…

…






That’s not a gay thing.

I know.

Big shock.

How about floors and ceilings?

Corey touched on it some but in my own words… A whole lot of men and women walk into the XWF with potential, with a head of steam as they turn the heads of the fans and management and the roster… only to not really be much of anything other than what they always were: pretty good, just not good enough. There’s nothing wrong with being pretty good. If it wasn’t for being pretty good how would we know when we saw elite talent?

That’s what you have in Continuum. Three elite stars of the wrestling industry.

Demos’ ceiling is my floor.

What that means, if, you know, you’re a complete fucking idiot...or Jim Jimson… I know… redundancy… is that Demos when he’s at his very best at the top of his game, might push me to the limit when I’m having an off day. Savage won’t be one of those days. I’ll be at the top of my game because I have the greatest partner in the world while Demos has Jim Jimson. I’d talk more about Jimson but one: I don’t like picking on the mentally challenged and two: Demos is the gift that keeps on giving.

Demos has ridden a wave of pretty good talent mixed with uninspired booking. We all know how it ends with Demos when he faces the elite and god damn if he’s not about to have the worst couple weeks of his XWF life. He wanted Continuum… and now he gets to lose to the three of us...

Consecutively.

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