There are times that I find myself at a loss for words. Considering y’all can never get me to shut up, that may come as a bit of a surprise. In this business, friendships are hard to come by. Authentic ones at least. I’ve made mistakes in that area as I’m sure we all have. I’m not always the quickest at learning who is and isn’t my friend, but I’m definitely getting better at it. Yet behind the curtain, there are a lot more people than the typical Corey Smith’s, Jim Caedus’s and Dolly Waters’ of the world that I consider my friends.

Real friends, too. Not the business acquaintances that most people you come across are. There’s no shortage of people that have helped me along the way in becoming who I am today in front of the XWF cameras. There’s a number of people that I owe a debt of gratitude to that I’ll never be able to adequately repay. None of us do this on our own. All of us receive advice from our friends and tutelage in the form of getting beat in front of live crowds from our adversaries. All of it teaches you something if you’re willing to listen.

From the time of my debut and my initial run in the XWF that saw the first rise of Thaddeus Duke, to my second, much shorter run that was underwhelming to say the least and I was my own worst enemy… both in front of and behind that curtain. To this last year which has undoubtedly been my best, most successful run that saw Thaddeus Duke rise from the ashes of a burned out failed star and become a catalyst to positive changes within the landscape of the XWF.

When I returned last year I had doubts as to whether or not I could rehabilitate my image. I’d set fire to a lot of bridges in the past and I’ve never hidden from that fact. I’ve been open and honest about it all to anyone that has approached me about things that might’ve happened during the darkest time in my personal life. I’m an open book. Sometimes, too open. But its part of who I am and I don’t mind sharing that with my audience.

No matter where I may go now or in the future, my home is and always will be the XWF. I’ve met some of the best friends I’ll ever have because I just happen to work for the XWF in arguably the greatest time in its history. This is supposed to be about War Games.

I’m sorry.

It just isn’t.

This is Friend Games.

So…














Cheers.







Walking the streets of the Beacon Hill section of Boston, I see the sign and the steps leading to the basement of my favorite watering hole. Cheers. Bounding down the steps in a hurry, I burst through the swinging door and into the famous establishment.

“THAD!” the patrons all greet my entrance in unison.

”How’s life treatin’ ya Thad?” asks the barkeep, Sam “Doc” Malone as I pass by him to the far side of the bar.

”Like I was just caught in bed with it’s wife,” I answer as I hop up on the bar stool beside one of my bestest friends- Clifford “Corey” Clavin. ”Set me up Doc.”

”The usual?”

I nod as Corey side eyes me while drinking his non-alcoholic beverage, because, you know, too young. I go to speak to him as Doc bar slides my beer to me, but Vinnie “Carla” Lane steps in between us.

”What the fuck Vinnie?” I shout out to him. ”This is symbolic, I know it.”

”What the hell are you even talking about?” he asks before turning his attention to Doc. ”Four drafts for the Bastards in the back.”

Peering over my shoulder toward the pool room, Thunder Knuckles and Robbie Bourbon are playing a game of pool with Atara Themis and Vhodka Marie sit at a table watching them and chatting away. Probably planning some evil scheme since neither TK nor Robbie are that clever.

”You’re coming between us,” I finally answer Vinnie and he turns his head to look at me. ”You selected both me and Corey as captains driving a wedge between Continuum.”

”If I might interject...” Doc offers but I quickly shut him down.

”No you may not interject,” I say before talking a swallow. ”You hurt my feelings and now I don’t really want to even talk to you right now.”

”Do tell me Young Duke, how did I hurt your fragile little feelings?”

”Because you abandoned him,” Rebecca “Dolly” Howell cries out as she exits the bar office.

”I what?”

”He purposely didn’t enter the King of the Ring as a thank you to ya,” she says as she enters behind the bar to come face to face with Doc. ”You and Corey protected the tag team titles while he was busy defendin’ the Universal. Only for you to go on and win the crown while leavin’ Thad and Corey behind you.

“Effectively endin’ Continuum as we knew it.”

”Hey!” Corey interrupts. ”Continuum is still a thing!”

”Is it though Cor?” I ask before swallowing the rest of my draft and sliding my mug to Dolly. She pours out another cold one. ”I went and chased the Hart title, you went and chased the Television title. I’m on Warfare, you’re on Savage.

“But where is Continuum?”

”And you sat idly by at MayDay when… “Cor”,” he pauses and uses the finger air quotes, mocking me. ”Cost me the match against Alias.”

”Unlike you Doc, I don’t interfere in places I had no business. And I certainly didn’t place my hand ever so gently on Alias’s leg so that I could take credit for the single biggest victory of his career.”

”Ha! Snap.”

”Alias beat you Doc,” I say before wiping the froth from my upper lip. ”You allowed yourself to make Corey the distraction and he beat you.”

”Damn right,” Corey says with a raise, then a drink of his ice cold mug of root beer.

”That doesn’t make what you did okay,” I fire at Corey around Vinnie. He looks at me like a deer in headlights. ”You know you’re so damn righteous and think everything you do is on the up and up and look man… I love you… and Alias is your friend, I get that but man… but Doc was mine.”

”Was he?” he asks with a bit of a smile. He pauses a moment then raises his left eyebrow.

”Okay so maybe ‘friend’ was too strong a word...”

”Now who’s being hurtful?”

”Shut it Doc,” I fire toward him before returning my attention to Corey. ”You know what loyalty means to me Cor. It’s everything. By favoring Alias when you were supposed to be an impartial referee… that wasn’t very loyal to your Continuum brethren.”

”If I didn’t know any better Thaddeus,” Doc says, and the use of my first name causes me to stare at him in confusion. ”I’d say that it isn’t Vinnie standing in between Continuum… It’s Corey.

“It’s been Corey all along and I think that maybe, he’s been secretly working to sabotage Continuum from the moment you gave him one of my tag team titles.”

”Ya know, you keep saying my tag team titles as if it wasn’t me that won them to begin with,” I say to Doc as I slide him my empty mug. He smiles his Doc smile.

”Can I say something!?” Corey shouts out as if he was afraid for a minute that I was taking Doc’s words to heart.

”Yeah of course,” I say, turning to him as Doc slides another beer my way.

”You’re my friend,” Corey states as he leans his head down on the bar, looking in my direction.

”Hey Vin! Where the fucks our beers asshole!?” Thunder Knuckles calls out from the edge of the pool room.

”I’m coming!”

Vinnie finally walks off to deliver those drafts to the Bastards in the back. ”I’m loyal… to you,” Corey says through slurred speech, his head still lying against the bar.

”Alright honey, yer cut off,” Dolly says to Corey, removing his root beer from his grip.

”What!? It’s just root beer!”

Doc steps toward me on his side of the bar and starts to wipe down the top with a white cloth. ”Haven’t you ever wondered why he would so easily befriend a man that has made no secrets about wishing death upon you?”

”Dammit Doc!”

”Wait no, that’s a good point!” I yell out and turn toward Corey. ”What the fuck man? When the Left Hand threatened your life, I was ready to take the gloves off and go to war. Alias literally wishes me dead and you two are playing Legos and having dinner together or some shit!”

”That’s not true!” Corey shouts defensively. ”We never had dinner together!”

”It was Lincoln Logs,” comes a voice behind me and I about choke on my beer. Turning toward the voice. Alias sits by his lonesome at a table just behind me and Corey.

”What?”

”You said Lego’s,” Alias reiterates. ”It was Lincoln Logs.”

Despite the apparent frequency in which alcohol is involved in some of my promos, I’m not much of a drinker. I’m feeling quite a buzz going after downing three drafts in a very short time.

”Why the hell are you even here?” I ask of him as I step off the stool and approach his table.

Alias points to Corey. ”He invited me,” he replies.

”What is it about me that makes you hate me?” I ask of him, inviting myself to join him at his table. Alias sits quietly, just staring at me. ”It shouldn’t bother me, but it does. You judged me without knowing me from almost the moment you stepped foot back in the XWF.

“Why?”

Again, Alias sits silently staring.

”It can’t seriously be because I beat you in a fucking battle royal,” I offer as a reason.

Once more, Alias stares silently.

”WHAT! THE! FUCK!” I yell out in frustration while standing to my feet and simultaneously flipping the table. Alias jumps to his feet and is ready to go before…

”That’s enough of that,” Theo calls out as he stands between two of his hottest hands with one of his hands pressed against each of our chests. ”I won’t have two of my biggest stars fighting it out in the middle of your friendly neighborhood Cheers bar when none of us are getting paid for it.

“I mean, especially me.”

Behind me, someone grabs me inside my elbow and starts to pull me away.

”C’mon champ,” he says and I turn to see Chris Page. ”Not here brother.”

Page continues to pull me toward the other side of the bar away from Alias, yet I keep my eyes on the Universal champion the entire trip to the far side.

”Save it for Robert Main,” he jokes as he and I sit at a table where I can still keep an eye on Alias.

”That guy just bugs me man,” I admit to Page. ”Hates me for no fuckin’ reason. I mean seriously, give me time. I’m sure I’ll give him plenty of fuckin’ reasons.”

”He doesn’t need any.”

”Nice to see you pullin’ outta your funk,” I tell Page. ”The come down after being the top dog is legit. And nothin’ ever tastes so sweet again,” I admit as Vinnie lays down a couple beers at our table.

”I’ll drink to that,” he says as we clank our glasses together and take a drink.

”I’m gonna have fun kicking the shit out of your ex partner,” I tell him as I slam down my mug. He laughs lightly.

”He’ll be ready for you,” he advises.

”Good,” I say with a pause, finally removing my eyes from Alias. ”Because he needs to be.”

”Heard you gripin’ at Doc about Continuum,” he says and I reply with a nod as he stands up. ”Not everyone you work with is Chris Page brother.”

Page starts to walk away. ”Chris,” I call out and he turns. ”And clearly not everyone you work with is Thaddeus Duke.”

He raises his glass a bit and shoots a bit of a smile before heading off toward the pool room to join up with the Bastards. Sitting by myself for a moment I start to think about the road to where I am now. Without good dance partners, this business gets boring fast. Since my return to the company I’ve had no shortage of good dance partners. From Page to Ned Kaye to Them No Good Bastards and even, I hope, Mark Flynn, should he ever accept my challenge. In one way or another, dance partners give you the motivation to go above and beyond to move the company forward. To generate interest in the product the viewers see on television.

I’d love to sit here and tear down my opponents in this captains match at Savage but, I just can’t bring myself to do it right now. I’ve faced a number of different opponents in the last year and all of them have challenged me in one degree or another.

The only one in this match I’ve ever faced was Demos or Charlie or Thrax or whatever he’s calling himself this week. I’d tear him down but pretty much every time he opens his mouth or appears on television he’s already tearing himself down and he’s always just a little less than he was before. He’s the prime example of what not to do in this business and he’s either too dumb or too stubborn to see it. He approaches this business to not lose and that’s clearly not working which should tell him something, but again… see the previous comment.

Dick Powers? What’s not to love? He’s been a lovable loser for so long that everyone forgets he even works here until he pops in every couple months to take another loss. If by chance he does make it to victory lane, I promise, he didn’t mean to.

Betsy Granger? One of the sweetest of hearts that I’ve ever met. Her and I have never had a proper go in the middle of the ring and I’m not so sure this qualifies as such. Things are too complicated and too diluted for it to really be an actual contest.

She also scores a pretty hot piece of man candy in James Raven so clearly she’s got it goin’ on in more avenues than just professional wrestling. She’s been an ally behind that curtain and a true friend. It’s a real honor to share the ring with her.

I’ve had very little interaction with Miss Fury. She’s been an interesting development over the last six months. She started BoB and built the foundation for the most it-thing in pro wrestling. She took it and molded it with the help of some savvy people from a second rate joke to a world class threat in just over a half a year. It’s an impressive feat and both on Savage and at War Games, I look forward to sharing the stage with her.

Corey Smith?

They expected me to talk shit on my best fucking friend?

That just wasn’t ever gonna happen. I’m sure some time down the road there will be a legitimate match for one reason or another between he and myself and when that time comes, I’ll do what I have to do. This isn’t that time though and there’s nothing on the line except draft choice.

I’ll tell y’all a little secret: I truly don’t care where I pick. First? Sixth? It matters not, to me.

Pin me.

Pay me.

Let me go home to Warfare where I belong.

”Why you sittin’ here all by yourself?” Dolly asks as she takes a seat at the table.

”I was just doing some thinking is all,” I admit to her. On my other side, Corey pulls up a chair, turns it backward and takes a seat, setting down his drink.

”Dawk!” she shouts over her shoulder. Doc looks up at her over the bar. ”Why’d you give him another? I got him off!”

Doc shrugs in response before flipping the towel over his shoulder.

”What!? It’s root beer! How you gonna cut a man off from root beer?”

”Hey,” I interrupt their little tiff as I pull out my cell and show it to Corey.



”If you wanted me on top of you, you only had to ask,” I say with a laugh and he stares at my phone a bit dumbstruck.

”Sometimes I hate you,” he says with a smile.

---

The buzzing in my ear from my alarm wakes me up from a sound sleep. Rubbing the sleep from my eyes, I soon lay there, staring at the ceiling and thinking about the dream I just had. Yet I can’t help but smile.

”I really need to get back in to see my shrink,” I say with a yawn.

I’ve had help a long the way whether its from friends to lean on and grab some advice from or even adversaries that teach you things about yourself that you didn’t know before.

It all matters.

This industry matters.

We all matter.

To the XWF roster, my friends and family, the Universe and all of my viewers. To those that appeared in my dream and so many more that didn’t…

With nothing but love…

Thanks Atty! <3