Post by hawk52 on Jun 21, 2015 1:59:10 GMT -6
[The scene; a dark room with nothing visible beyond a large television in the center of the screen mounted upon the wall. Beneath that television separated by several feet is a large padded chair. Sitting in that chair is a long haired young man, the light from the television illuminating his face; an unruly mixture of facial hairs from several days of not shaving. The man looks towards the screen, his greenish blue eyes shining from the television reflection. The man brings a remote control from the side of the chair where he presses a button. The screen comes to life as a DVD grinds to play. The title of the DVD begins to play, frozen on a still photo of legendary Puroresu superstar James Goodwin standing in a wrestling ring in his traditional red and black robe. The ring clearly appears to be of Japanese origin, but the location is not immediately evident.
The man stares at the figure of Goodwin with intensity in his eyes; a mixture of awe and sadness. His head lowers and his body hunches forward towards the ground as if in silent contemplation. It is in this pose that the man begins to speak.]
"Do you understand the pressure, the pressure involved in trying to live up to the measure of a man so respected; so feared that by his mere gaze men shrivel and submit? What if that man was your father? What if you were expected to live up to his legacy at all times. And what if...What if that man wasn't related to you by blood? That you weren't his child. That you weren't blessed with his natural talent and charisma? Would you still be able to live up that potential? Could you bear with that pressure?"
"My father was born on May 11th, 1967. He was born into a secure middle class household with his mother Samantha Goodwin and his father Jim Goodwin. By all accounts, my father's early years were happy in a loving family. But that all changed in 1970."
[Another button press--the scene shifts from the picture to a newspaper clip regarding the downsizing of a local manufacturing plant in the outskirts of San Diego, California.]
"Without warning, the plant my grandfather worked at suddenly downsized and my family found themselves with no income. My Grandfather took being unemployed badly; he turned to alcohol to sooth his bruised ego and injured pride. By all accounts my Grandmother then stepped into a position of doing whatever she could to raise money for the family. Someone had to. The situation didn't improve and soon my Grandfather become abusive to both my Grandmother and Father. The abuse became worse and worse as the years past until it reached a critical point..."
[Another button press; this time bringing up a press release regarding the arrest of a sixteen year old boy named James Francis Goodwin.]
"One day, my Grandfather went one step too far. My father had finally had enough and attacked by Grandfather to protect his mother. The two engaged in a violent fight that resulted in my Grandfather falling. or being pushed depending on who you ask; down a flight of stairs. Even with near immediate medical help my Grandfather was severely injured and resulted in permanent paralysis below his waist. He quickly pressed charges against his own son for aggravated assault."
[Another button press. Another newspaper clip detailing the sentencing of James Francis Goodwin as an adult for the aggravated premeditated assault against Jim Goodwin.]
"My father had done what he had to protect his Mother, my Grandmother. My father doesn't know if it was due to pressure from my Grandfather or simply her love for him, but my Grandmother turned her back on my father and testified that it was a premeditated assault with all of Jim's actions enacted in self defense. My father found that the entire family turned their backs on him in his moment in need and with no support from anyone, he quickly found a new home in Prison for assault. Despite being a minor my father spent six years in prison. Not once did any member of the Goodwin family visit my father and once his sentence was up, my father for all intent and purposes vanished from the face of the earth."
[On the screen we flip to a gigantic looking James Goodwin standing next to a rotund man with the word "King" on his chest.]
"It was chance that saved my father from whatever purgatory he existed in. My father attended a pro-wrestling event in St. Louis, his wanderings having brought him there. A man named Sean King, then known as Ringking, saw my father and scouted him for his local pro-wrestling training center. My father stood at six foot ten and over three hundred pounds. He was the perfect opportunity for a young trainer like King. The two bonded and Goodwin began training, making his debut in 1996."
"My father adopted a mask, calling himself "Fireman", a name he admittedly regrets today...My father was never the most technical wrestler but he had natural agility and charisma. He quickly rose up the ranks in independent promotions; primarily due to an ongoing rivalry with Sean King that spanned the entire country. Over time, James's reputation grew and grew and he was invited to join the inaugural roster of Burning Spirit Pro Wrestling in 2001."
[Now the logo of Burning Spirit Pro Wrestling lights up the screen with that same shot of Goodwin standing in the ring from before.]
"It was there, in Burning Spirit Pro Wrestling that the legend was born. My father dropped his mask and became known as James Goodwin. Then it happened, on May 2nd 2002, the night that created a rivalry, that ended a title reign and changed Puroresu forever."
[This time the button press shows a clip of James Goodwin on the second rope hoisting the legendary figure of "Mr. 300%" Kazumi Fujita over his head with a military press, before leaping over and SPIKING Fujita on the back of his neck with a Chokeslam. Goodwin pinned Fujita leading to medical and ring boys scrambling to the aid of the unmoving Fujita.]
"That night, my Father broke the neck of the greatest Puroresu wrestler in history and pinned him. Kazuma Fujita at the time was the inaugural Golden Crown champion for BSPW but my father snatched that away from him with one "Firedrop". Fujita attempted to recover but could not. My father with one move forced the first Burning Spirit Pro Wrestling Golden Crown champion to vacate his championship."
[Screen captures of Goodwin and Fujita wrestling and/or brawling over the years follows including Goodwin throwing a FIREBALL in Kazuma Fujita's face in 2007 followed by a hysterical rant against "FOO-JIT-AH".]
"He was a made man at that point. You don't injure the greatest wrestler of all time and then fade away. Fujita and my Father have never stopped hating each other and that has spread to modern day with Kingdom of Japan Pro-Wrestling where another generation continues the war."
[With a final button press, the scene shifts to James Goodwin holding up a Championship with the words BURNING PARADISE on it with another man holding a similar belt--the person who has been speaking this entire time.]
"Now you know what I have to live up to. Now you know the Goodwin legacy. The question now is.."
[An audible sigh escapes his lips.]
"Who Am I?"
"I was born on March 23rd, 1989 to a couple that by the telling of the Nuns were loving parents. They just had one problem; that of drug addiction. They did the best they could but eventually it came down to drugs or me. They chose Drugs and surrendered me to a local church, where I was quickly sent to the St. Bartholomew Childrens Center. I don't have any memories of my parents and I've never met them. I lived at the Children's Center for eleven years. I was too quiet, too withdrawn to be adopted. I wasn't perfect enough, and soon I wasn't young enough. I was prepared to spend the rest of my adolescence there...until my Father came."
[The man reaches into the chair where he had kept the remote control earlier, pulling out a photo of himself and James Goodwin standing side by side.]
"I don't know what motivated him to adopt me; he's never told me. But he saw something in me...perhaps I reminded him of his past or he just wanted to make a difference for someone. But at eleven years old, James Goodwin adopted me formally into his family. I was happy to be free from the Center but my Father terrified me. In the prime of his career he was a sight to behold. A mixture of terror, awe and eventual love emerged within me for him. He never hurt me; he rarely rose his voice. His presence was what kept me in line and I knew I was safe with him. I took to being a big brother for Jon, his biological son, and I was raised as his equal. James never saw me as anything but his son...but at the same time, as the eldest I was expected to follow him. It was no secret and my Father never minced words. If Fujita's daughter could enter wrestling, then by god, I was going to be even better."
[The remote is raised back up followed by a button press. The DVD player grinds as it switches DVD's. Eventually video begins to play of the young man training with James Goodwin inside of a seedy gym as a youngster watches from the side.]
"I began training under my father two years after being adopted. It was a mixture of pressure and my desire to live up to his standards. The man had reached out and saved me; how could I not try and follow his path? The training was difficult--my father is a giant and his training was built around what he could do but I couldn't do what he could do. How could I? My brother Jon may have inherited my father's size, but the blood that runs through my blood is not of Goodwin blood. As time went on the training evolved to what I could do versus what I couldn't do. With my lack of size I could do things my father couldn't, just as he could do things I couldn't. We found a place between the two extremes where I thrived and worked harder and harder every day for myself and for him."
[The scene shifts to a still picture of the young man holding a championship while wearing a scaled mask with two tusks jutting out around the mouth.]
"At the age of sixteen I had my first match, then I won my first tournament and championship. I was called a natural, a "super rookie", someone who had wrestling in his bones. No one knew of my past, my father simply presented me as his son. Every day I worked to exhaustion to improve. I had to improve. I had to get better, get stronger, get faster, to achieve more. I had to; it wasn't a question of If or Maybe, but that of Must. Every day I trained, every day I worked under the guidance of my father. And like him, I landed in Japan even holding the DYNAMIC DUO Tag Championship in BURNING PARADISE with my father as my partner; his first ever Japanese championship."
[Again the photo of James Goodwin and the young man posing with their tag team championships comes onto the screen.]
"That was the proudest moment of my life. I wasn't just his son; I was his equal. The focus was on him; yes, but I held my own. I impressed, and I proved myself as a worthy heir to the Goodwin throne to everyone watching, and I proved that I could do this to myself. I wasn't a fake, I wasn't copying my Father. I am my own man, and I am just as good as he ever was."
[Again the DVD player stops, this time on a shot of James Goodwin Jr. posing in a Kingdom of Japan Pro Wrestling ring from May 31st at the KANSAI PRO-WRESTLING FESTIVAL.]
"All that back story, all this exposition brings us to the present. I'm here in EXODUS for myself, my Father and to represent Kingdom of Japan Pro-Wrestling. I'm here to do what my father could do; defeat worthy opponents and win championships. And the first step towards that is a woman named Sally Talfourd. It will be the first time in my entire career I will have wrestled a woman."
[The man's face lowers as a smile spreads across his face, his steely glaze locked in to the camera.]
"Know this Ms. Talfourd, I don't care if you're a woman. I don't care who you are. I don't care what you've done. I don't care where you've been. I don't care where you're going. What I care about is Me. I care about myself and my legacy. You are the stepping stone towards immortality; towards not being in the shadow of my Father but to blaze my own path towards my own legacy. My plan is to defeat you, win this little tournament, and then go on to win the EXODUS championship from Chris Strike. Then? I'll crush that fossil Genji Yamato. From there I'll take the HEC Heavyweight Championship from Mamoru Sekishima. And when I'm done with all that? I'll do what my father could never do, and I'll finish Kazuma Fujita once and for all to win the Double Crown. Hell, maybe I'll go take a swipe or two at his estranged daughter while I'm at it."
[The man shrugs in indifference.]
"A sad reality of life is that sometimes, other people have to sacrifice themselves towards the good of another. And Ms. Talfourd you are that sacrifice. When you fall before me, you'll be giving me that extra little essence, that extra little push. In a way, you should be honored to face me, to be able to give yourself to a future legend. Your loss will not be in vain but will assist in building a new chapter in the Goodwin legacy. You've done many things and I know you've trained with the EXODUS world champion Chris Strike. But this, THIS, will be your greatest accomplishment. This will be YOUR legacy, the legacy of being the first to fall, the first to kneel, and the first to usher in the Age of Urizen; the Rise of Samuel James Goodwin and the crowning of James Goodwin Jr."
[The television suddenly turns off leaving the scene in pitch darkness. The only thing audible is the soft breathing of James Goodwin Jr. followed by quiet words.]
"It's nothing personal Ms. Talfourd. It's simply my destiny."