A Good Man Goes to War.

[The American Tradition]

Open scene on Phoenix Winterborn. Nothing fancy, just him in his FireSale shirt (now on sale at SEFZone.com) and his championship pair of Steampunk pants. He was wiping the stubble on his chin as he spoke.

"Taylor, do you not remember that I BEAT you in a House of Fun match or whatever you wanna call it, just a few weeks ago to RETAIN the SEW Championship? Do you not remember that? I know that I cracked you more than a few times in the head, but I honestly didn't think that it was enough to cause short-term memory loss, ya know? But regardless, here we go. Comin up on WAR in the Main Event, it's me and you. Once again. For the SEW Championship that you hold right now. I say right now cause come hell or high water, I will be walking out with the title once again, making me a three-time SEW Champion. Now, I'll admit. you got the better of me in our last encounter, I'll admit that. I've always been one to call a spade a spade, and it is what it is. But, with that being said..."

A pause from Phoenix.

"I have issue with the way you carry the championship right now. I take ISSUE with how...with how you hold yourself as a champion. You align yourself with questionable folks, thinking that it's for the betterment of the company. Yeah, I've gone into business for myself a few times, I'll admit that. But the difference between me and you is that when I did it? I KNEW that this company would be better for it in the long run. I did so to make SEF a better place. A more respectable place. A place where people would WANT to come to challenge. People like you. People like me. I did what I did in an effort to help save this place, and Whiteney Marret shared my vision. That's why she chose ME as the one to lead this company. She didn't choose you. She didn't choose Mack. She didn't choose anyone, but me. Cause she KNOWS where I've been. She knows what I've done. She KNOWS what I can bring to the table, and I personally don't see why no one else gets it."

Looking around, he checked his phone for a moment.

"I mean you can go back and LOOK at my stuff from over the years! Both here, and the independents, and everywhere else! I will go out there, and give people the match of their CAREERS, win or loss. And for you to sit there and tell me TO MY FACE! That you don't have to do ANYTHING to retain that championship tonight? You have done lost your god-damned mind! That is an insult to me, to everyone I've faced, and everyone in this INDUSTRY!"

Scrolling through his phone, he stopped on Hollywood Undead's "Kill Everyone". Fitting choice for the evening.

"You don't get it, Taylor. You just don't seem...to understand. I am the future of this company. I am exactly who I say that I am. And the fact that you don't get it. The fact that you refuse to acknowledge it? It doesn't make you a good champion, Taylor. It just makes you delusional. That's all there is to it. With that being said, I'll see you tonight. But you had better be ready to hand over that championship. And when I beat you? When I defeat you tonight Taylor, I want you to shake my hand like a respectable competitor. If not, then we will have no further business. You will NOT get a rematch. At all. I'll see you tonight."

End scene, as Phoenix sits up on a production crate, putting his Beats by Dre headphones on before fading to black.

[Taylor Andrews]

Taylor on her sofa backstage in her dressing room having just watched the promo from her opponent to crack that grin of sarcasm shaking her head with a slight chuckle.

Phoenix, you don't call the shots around here, period. You are not in any position to tell me who I am as a champion when you have not carried yourself as a champion, showing up to defend your title like a champion instead of a chump. Yes in the Hall of Fun match you beat me, you want to hear that, fine, you beat me, but it was closer than the last match we had where I owned you because you failed to carry the ball!?! You don't show up as much as Daddy Mack or myself which is why we DON'T need someone like Whitney to help our career, to push us, to boost us, we do it on our own. We bust our ass without anyone helping make our names famous which are far more famous than your own. You think I am in bed with the wrong crowd, you think Mack is somehow bad for business, that no one wants to face him, yet for years all anyone could do is name drop Mack when he never even showed up in their fed!?! He draws without even being here in the flesh and you seem to not be able to stand that, you can't get over it, well I have. That is why you couldn't beat Mack and why you will not beat Taylor Andrews. Tonight or any other until you recognize that in SEF, your not as good as you think. Last year you spent most of it being carried through your matches and that is not a champion, that is a chump as I said. By the way, you are only a two time SEW Champion if you win tonight as the first World Title you held in SEF was the SEF strap Mack currently holds. That is the problem with you, ya don't get it. Ya claim I don't, but I actually do, I know my position and I know I don't have to pull out anything anymore special than I already have to beat you, except I will, I always do. You don't get SEF Phoenix, you never have, you don't realize your indy cred is put into check when you enter this company. You have to pay your dues all over, show up night after night, bust your ass as hard as I do or as hard as Mack does and make each night as good as the last, or better, like we do. You claim you tear the house down, prove it in SEF, cause your fed cred before SEF doesn't matter tonight or in any other SEF match. SEF has as much respect as any fed in this world because this place has always been a wrestler's company, a place where every pro wrestler in the world can come get a fair crack the same as anyone else. The only hurdle, besides whoever is in your way, you have is what you put up for yourself, so get over it and catch up sweetheart, you got a lot to learn. Around here, your the smalltime player and I'm the big dawg, the next best thing to Mack and he's soon to be old news cause the Golden Goddess is only moving up. Of course he knows this, we all know and we all use each other to get ahead and pay back when he need to. Its how it works and you simply don't work as much as the rest of us. I recognize your talented, but until you show it as much as the rest of us who get ahead, you won't get anywhere. I am bigger than you Phoenix, my name, Taylor Andrews, is more recognizable than Phoenix Winterborn, fact. Now why don't you pull your head from your ass and come up with something that means your bringing a real challenge that means something in SEF. This isn't BUD or whatever fake fed your used to, this is a place where politics don't mean shit, where you don't have to know someone to win a title, or to just wrestle how you want. This is SEF, where the best in the business battle every week on WAR, and we do it more, so step up or move aside little boy blue!!!

Taylor blowing a kiss and turns her hand up in a flip to "talk to the hand" and laughs at herself mocking the stereotypical diva like always as the scene cuts out.