Post by Damon Graves on Oct 1, 2017 20:12:47 GMT -5
Graves Residence
Las Vegas, Nevada
As Summer begins to transition into fall, the nights seem to come earlier, and as dusk arrives, we find former NGW Tag Team Champion Damon Graves standing at the fence in his backyard, staring off into the distance. From behind, we can hear the voice of his wife, Aurora Graves.
Aurora: Thought I'd find you out here…
Damon: Yeah, my own little “Fortress of Solitude”....
Aurora: Not much solitude with me standing here, is it?
Damon reaches over and pulls Aurora next to him.
Damon: Nah, if I REALLY wanted to be alone, I would've taken one of the cars out for a drive.
Aurora: True, but you have been off in your own little world ever since we got home. You were barely there when we met with Julia, and I was concerned when you took off for the studio earlier.
Damon: Just a lot on my mind, is all….
Aurora: This wouldn't have anything to do with Convergence, would it? Normally, you would’ve gone ballistic after losing a title match, but back in the dressing room, you were almost… calm.
Damon: Not completely. Brooklyn was just the exclamation point on a couple of things.
Aurora: Just a couple?
Damon: Yeah, ‘cause it also put a question mark on other things…. Let me ask you a question, and I want you to be totally honest with me… Did you feel kinda, I don't know, relieved that we didn't win the titles back?
Aurora looks startled at her husband.
Aurora: Ok, pod person, what have you done with my husband?
Damon: Answer the question, Harley….
Aurora looks deep into Damon's eyes before responding.
Aurora: Maybe a little…
Damon cracks a bit of a smile.
Damon: So it wasn't just me. Some of the things that Alicia said made sense after Convergence. Perhaps losing the tag belts was a blessing in disguise….
Aurora: I wouldn't go THAT far…
Damon: Ok, poor choice of words, but do you see what I'm getting at? Think about it… how many times have people touted you as a future World Champion?
Aurora ponders this a bit.
Aurora: More than once…
Damon: Oh, come off it, Harley. Even back when we first started teaming, people had you pegged as a main-eventer…
Aurora: It’s not like they’ve been saying that you aren’t championship material, Puddin…
Damon: Sweetheart, I can read the writing on the wall…
Aurora stays silent.
Damon: ...and don’t think for a second that I would ever be jealous of whatever success comes your way. I’ll always be in your corner, cheering you on…
She puts a hand up to her her mouth, trying her best not to laugh.
Damon: What’s so funny?
Aurora: Oh, nothing; just a bad mental image of you in a cheerleader’s outfit…
Damon: And they call ME a smartass.
Aurora calms herself down.
Aurora: OK, in all seriousness, are you 100% certain about this?
Damon: Of course I am. We’ve talked about this, Harley. We both knew that we wouldn’t be tag champs forever. So now that we don’t have to concentrate on THAT anymore, we can focus our energies on singles careers.
Aurora: But what about Rebel Ink?
Damon: It’s not as if we’ll never team up again… we’re simply not letting them pigeonhole us as “just tag team wrestlers”...
Aurora lets that sink in.
Aurora: You know…. I’ve always wanted to feel what it was like to be a singles champion…
Damon: ...and now we have that opportunity.
Aurora leans over and plants a kiss on her husband’s cheek.
Aurora: Anyway, it’s getting a bit late and we still haven’t decided what we want to do about dinner…
Damon: You go ahead, hon; I’ll be along in a bit.
Aurora: I had a thought… How about Hash House A Go-Go?
Damon: Sounds good to me.
Aurora turns and heads back inside their home, leaving Damon alone once more.
Damon: It's kinda funny when you think about it. In a way, it's as if I'm starting over from scratch. For the first time since I stepped into the spotlight on a national level, I'm focused on furthering MY career. That's not to say that Rebel Ink is gone. Oh no, teaming with my wife will always be a blast and a half, so we'll revisit that somewhere down the road. But for now, it’s time to go back to our original plans.
When Aurora and I first started out, We both set out to make our names as singles, but fate and a rather persistent brunette put that on the back burner for awhile. But after Convergence, Harley and I sat down and reassessed things. Do we continue as a tag team, or do we show the world that we can be just as dominant in singles competition? We chose to go the singles route.
Looking back, I might not have been completely focused during our reigns as tag team titleholders. Maybe I had that thought in the back off my mind that I didn't need to try as hard during singles matches because I was already a champion. My trainer warned me about falling into that trap, and perhaps I did lose myself a bit.
But enough of this Sigmund Freud bullshit….
Like it or not, the Graves’ are looking to make all of the singles champions in NGW take notice. We may not be getting title matches straight outta the gate, but we sure as hell ain’t jerkin’ the fucking curtain. While Aurora gets to take on the top dog in the Destroyers, I have my work cut out for me. I get to take on TWO former singles champions. I guess that I have a lot more to prove than my wife does; but then again, I don’t give two shits about proving a goddamned thing.
Trixie, you and I aren't strangers inside that ring, not by a long shot. But you want to concentrate on the one time we went one-on-one against each other. Even if I did the same thing, it wasn't as lopsided as you want to remember it being. Yeah, you came out of that match with a notch in the win column, but I’ll be damned if I didn’t make you EARN it.
You can call me delusional until you use up all the air inside your head, but you’ve never found a valid reason to prove it. If I weren’t a viable contender for the Five Lakes Championship, why did your meal tic... er, boss already put my name in the rankings? One match doesn’t mean fuck all in the grand scheme of things; a lone victory in a singles match doesn’t erase all your tag team losses to me. That alone proves that you can be beaten, and this little grocery list you have leading up to Jew Blazer and his Five Lakes Championship is gonna stop a bit short.
Oh, and let’s not forget Queen Caroline….
Damon rolls his eyes before continuing.
Damon: How’s it going, “Your Majesty”? Remember me? I’m the guy you’ve faced on numerous occasions and have NEVER beaten. Apart from a few brief words on social media, nobody’s heard a friggin’ thing from you since Convergence. Did you forget that you even have a match at Dissension? Trust me, O’hara, neither I nor Bimbo Barbie have forgotten, and with a future shot at Blazer’s title possibly coming to the winner, one would think that YOU of all people would be the most enthusiastic about it. After all, Blazer beat YOU to win what became the Five Lakes title, so I figured you’d be doing everything in you power to get it back. Guess I was wrong; If you don’t give a shit about this match, just stay the fuck home and let me deal with Devlin Scott’s favorite plaything.
Dissension marks the full return of NGW… and it also marks the rise of Damon Graves.
With that, Damon makes his way back inside his home.
Fade to black.
