Title: It's been a long time, DEFIANCE.
Featuring: Tom Sawyer
Date: 8/23
Location: The World of Pop Culture
"It's been a long time, DEFIANCE."
The figure that the camera faded in on was familiar. Long blonde hair, big, impetuous grin. Those dazzlingly blue eyes. Lanky, long-limbed frame in an electric yellow tee-shirt for OLW Reindeer Games 2005. And below that... Bluejeans. Canadian. Duh.
"And I know that the first question is probably... Where ya been, Tom?"
The kid twisted his lips up, looking away as he Maroney'd.
"Well, that's complicated. Let's say... I needed a break."
Tom shook his head, looking back to the camera and waving his hand dismissively. Behind Tom hung the black-and-red DEFIANCE banner.
"More important. There's a lotta people who are probably watching DEFIANCE right now who have no idea who I am. So, let me give you the quick summary of my life story."
[The camera faded from the DEFIANCE promo-booth, the footage getting grainy, and sepia-toned. Way back when, it was insinuating with just simple AfterEffects abilities. A song began to play, starting with the big guitar/synth note. An instrumental of Rush's "Tom Sawyer".]
"I'm just a kid from a nowhere town in Canada."
[Footage of Tom Sawyer stepping out from between two curtains, shaking both his fists in the air. In his oldschool blue long-legged tights and a big grin, Tom looked like the teenager that he had been.]
"I loved wrestling when I was a kid. As soon as I got old enough to train, I was in that ring."
[Footage of Tom leaping over the top rope in slow motion, landing with a double-leg-legdrop across the arm of a hapless opponent held in an armwringer by a handlebar moustache'd man in black long-tights.]
"I found a good tag team partner, an experienced veteran named Lucas Harper. We formed a successful tag team. The Foreshadowing."
[Footage of the Foreshadowing holding up a pair of title belts, both men beaming. Then footage from it happening a second time. And a third.
"We had ups."
[Footage of Tom Sawyer and Lucas Harper standing atop an enormous prop mountain in the center of a wrestling arena, holding up a glowing chunk of green plastic.]
"We had downs."
[Footage of Lucas Harper, brutally bouncing off the side of a big Cadillac. The trunk was open, and a huge mountain of a man walked into the camera's view, holding Tom aloft... Aloft for a HUGE powerbomb back into the trunk!]
"I ended up in some kind of interfederational battle royale."
[File footage of the World Wrestling Alliance's lead-in logo to the "Independence Day Rumble 2011". In the ring, Tom Sawyer was pacing, opposite a half-dozen men. With his fists clenched, head shaking wildly, Tom rushed across the ring, leaping into the air, into a freeze-frame.]
"And I won!"
[Footage of a sweat-drenched, exhausted Tom who managed, somehow,
to roll over and onto a passed-out Indian man. A ref dove in, to count one... two... three.]
"And... then... things got kinda muddled."
[Fast-paced cuts, of Tom Sawyer spearing a man through a plexiglass map structure in an airport! The man leaping off the middle rope, to drop both feet into a stomp to a steel chair around Lucas Harper's neck! The man throwing a fireball in Tom's face! Tom being wheeled away on a stretcher!]
"When I finally went home for a vacation... I realized I was running on empty."
[Family footage from a shaky hand-camera of Tom, absolutely drained of energy, sitting in a diner's booth, staring at a single fried egg on his plate. Tom was absolutely motionless, his hair half-fallen across his face.]
"I needed time to recharge my batteries. Working in the WWA had been... exhausting. And I had been going continuously since I was a teenager. I'm 24 now. Five years, gone in the blink of an eye."
[More shaky-cam family footage of Tom perched atop a ladder, a few nails held between his lips as he hammered a nail into a piece of aluminum siding on the top of the aforementioned diner.]
"I spent some time with my parents. Recharged my batteries. Ate better than I had in years. Got to see my parents' dog. All kinds of great stuff."
[Footage from recent DEFIANCE shows. Heidi kicking Kiri directly in the freakin' head. Dentari and YAZ brutally kicking the hell out of a victim. Bronson Box, clawmurdering the sumo. Jonny Booya, putting Kai Scott out.]
"And I became a fan again. I started to watch wrestling like I did when I was younger. Cheering the good guys, booing the bad."
[Cancer Jiles mongo chopping someone. Edward White, cackling as he directed a beating. Kiri, slamming a body into the mat.]
"And I started to realize... DEFIANCE was awful light on the good guys to cheer. I realized that the kids... They don't have a hero, around here."
[A flash of Eugene Dewey... And then Dewey doing the Charlie Brown walk away from Cancer Jiles.]
"There are so few people getting the bad guys' numbers..."
[A flash of Christian Light... And then the Christian Light vs Claira St. Sure fight-poster.]
"Nobody's got any focus on what matters anymore. Making sure there's someone for the kids to cheer, someone they can truly look up to."
[A flash of Heidi Christenson, and her grimacing face at the beginning of the EVO Battle Royale.]
"Nobody's going out there anymore and saying "Hey kids, stand up for what you believe in and for what's right." And that's a cryin' shame."
[A flash of the Rider.]
"And when I said that I was comin', and when I got here, I wanted to be a light in the darkness? I meant it. It wasn't just a lot of pretty words and flashy lingo."
[Footage of a hand, emerging from the darkness. And then a Tom Sawyer walking out of the darkness, connected to the hand.]
"Just like I said to Jimmy Kort, there's an awful conflagration comin'. A mighty storm that none of us can stand up to alone."
[That offering, pleading hand continued to extend to the camera.]
"Jeff Andrews, Jack Cassidy, I know that the two of you probably think I'm a flake, and a screwup. But this is important. This matters. We're on the cusp of falling off a cliff, here."
[Tom closed that fist, and looked down, some of his long, blonde hair falling over his face.]
"And if I can't get some people working with me to be the last line of defense, then your YAZes and your Dentaris and your Jiles and your Whites are gonna run roughshod over us, over the values we represent, and over the people we inspire every day."
[Tommy Sawyer looked down and away, the heavy shadow behind him looming like a dark cloud. He took a long, deep breath before looking back to the camera.]
"Christopher Barton, I don't know where you stand yet. But if nothing else, you're gonna be standing opposite me at Wargames. You and me, man. We'll shake those ringposts, thunder that canvas and then..."
[Tom gave a cheeky grin, bringing a muscular right arm up and across his chest.]
"Well. Maybe I'll win when I come off the top rope with that Elbow. Maybe I'll be keeping you busy when Jeff Andrews hits the Ultraglide. Or maybe the Ripper is gonna carve off a chunka somebody."
"We both have a lot to prove, Chris. We both just came back. We both had success in the past, and want to get back to our winning days. We both tripped in our first DEFIANCE match in however long. So it's gonna come down to who wants it more."
[Tom jerked a thumb at his chest.]
"Nobody wants it more than me. I've got somethin' I need people to believe in DEFIANCE. And I'm gonna have to use you as my inkwell, Chris."
[The former Foreshadowing put his hands on his hips, pursing his lips, looking to the right for a moment.]
"Rich Mahogany... I dunno. I could see you standing on my side in all this. I could see you bein' the Ladies Thriller of the good guys. It wouldn't take a whole lot of change in your mental state. But somehow... I just doubt it'll come around."
[Tommy shook his head.]
"So, rather than the olive branch, it's gonna have to be the sword, Rich. You might have the ladies cheerin' for your trouser turmoil, but by the end of that match, I'm gonna have EVERYONE cheering for my live-action highlight reel."
[Sawyer slammed a fist into his chest, eyes wide, and starting to get that blank haze of insanity in the back of the ol' pupil.]
"Pete... Whealdon. Mister Dolphin Fantastico. Let me pose you a question."
[Tom spread his hands in a most emphatic fashion, jabbing his fingers at the camera. C'mon, fool. Express yourself.]
"You're gonna come on into this match expecting to run shit. You've got the mental insanity on lockdown, you're the craziest competitor in the match, and the one who's gonna run mental rings around the rest of us?"
[Tom stepped back, arm shooting out, finger pointing.]
"Take one part kid raised on teevee and rasslin'. One part energy, straight outta the magic springs that Red Bull bought up in '03. One part the most Manly Madness imaginable."
[Tom slammed a fist into his other hand's palm.]
"That's right, fellas. You've got the chesthair and ladykilling magic. I've got the Madness. And I'm gonna show you suckers exactly what I mean at Wargames."
[Tom straightened his back, holding both arms up and out, to help him project.]
"I have a thesis that shall be delivered! I have a statement that MUST be read! I WILL BE HEARD, AND MY WORD WILL BE THE THUNDER OF THE ONCOMING HURRICANE!"
[Tom's wide eyes stayed lit up, both with energy and light, as the darkness fell and covered Tom, head to toe.]
[Those eyes were all that was left. Dazzling blue, and all mixed up with coke.]
[Er. Savage Manliness. Not that other thing.]
[That would be a bad guy thing to do.]
[Enter Tom Sawyer logo, available on t-shirts, hats, and sweatbands. DEFShop.com.]
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