Post by Eli Goode on Aug 29, 2022 17:47:00 GMT -5
“There are many secrets hiding in the world. Most people wish they could find them all, but their search would be fruitless. I remember a time when I needed to know why I was pulled toward the darkness. That was the greatest secret to me. Why is something drawing me to want to hurt people? Why does a part of me want to make people feel pain? Those were always the questions that would run through my head, and I could never find an answer to those questions. No, those were the mysteries of my life. However, this past month has answered those questions.
I’ve been trying to get in contact with Katie, but she hasn’t gotten back to me. I know she’s scared of what Stephen Stratford did to her, but I just want to know if she’s ok right now. I’m scared of being left in the dark. I’m scared not knowing if she is ok. All I know is that she left for her parents. I wish she would just call me. I wish she would call my sister. I need to know something; otherwise, I’m going to keep losing my mind until something bad happens. I don’t want anything bad to happen.
I don’t like feeling this way. I feel lost and alone. I feel hopeless. It’s as though I’m floating in the ocean on a raft with no sign of life. The sun beams down as sweat rolls down my skin. This feeling of isolation haunts my dreams. The Sandman comes to me in my sleep and sprinkles his sand in my eyes. He tries to give me peaceful dreams, but the Boogeyman comes in after him and causes those peaceful dreams to turn into nightmares. My worry becomes stronger through the nightmares. I hate it.
Katie, if you see this, please let me know if you’re alright. I’m worried sick about you. Tell me that Will is safe too. Stratford crossed a line by visiting you, and I’m going to make him pay. I promise you that much. He’ll pay for invading the sanctity of your privacy. He’ll pay for forcing you to run from your home. He’ll pay for even coming near you. I know I don’t know what he did, but I don’t care if it was even a simple conversation. He knows better than to just go to a wrestler's house unannounced.
Katie, I promise you that this won’t happen to you again. I’ll do everything in my power to keep you safe. If you don’t trust me after this, I wouldn’t be surprised. If you choose to leave me after this, I wouldn’t blame you. I won’t even get mad at you for that. All I want for you now is your safety. That’s all I ever really cared about. That’s why I never wanted you to come to a LevelUp show. I didn’t want people like Larry Tact, EAB, or others to find a way to exploit me through you. I never wanted that.
Stephen Stratford broke the unwritten promise of never bringing loved ones into work. He knows better than that. Because of that, I’m going to make him wish he never crossed you. I’m going to make him wish he understands what it means to cross me. Katie, I will never forgive myself for this. I will never fully know how to properly ask for your forgiveness either. I just hope you hear this message. I hope that you see that I wish I could fix this. Katie, I love you, and I’m going to make this right."
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Off-Camera
The quiet takes over the house that was once filled with joy. The echoes of laughter stay, but they are merely ghosts of the happiness that lived there. Eli Goode sits alone in Katie’s house hoping for her to walk back into her home. He wants her to run into his arms with the joy restored to her body. He wants to see her smile. He wants to see her eyes. He wants to hear her voice. However, he continues to wait and wait with the door never opening.
After EXP 30, he has forced himself to train for his eventual match against Stephen Stratford, but his resolve leaves him every waking day. All he thinks about is Katie. All he wants to do is keep Katie safe, but Stephen broke that safety. Stephen broke the cardinal rule. Eli looks up at the television screen. He sees his reflection in the black expanse and wonders what would happen if he visited Demi Stratford. What if he returned the favor to Stephen? Sure, Demi is a competitor in LevelUp, but Eli has ways of frightening people. He did it for a long time as his Other Half. It would not be hard to go back to that time.
No, he should not stoop down to Stephen’s level. Visiting a person’s family? No, Eli would never do that now. He rehabilitated himself. He is not the Eli that did not care for people’s well-being. He wants people to be better than before. He does not want to hurt people, but Stephen Stratford wants to hurt people. Maybe Eli should give Stephen some of his own medicine. What would be the harm in hurting Stephen through Demi? She can protect herself. Eli could call it self-defense. People would believe that. The audience would believe that too. But Katie would not believe that.
No, Katie would know Eli was lying. Katie would know the truth, and she would judge him for it. She would make him remember everything he did to Demi. She would make sure that Eli always felt shame for the lows he went to cause harm to Stephen Stratford. No, he cannot hurt Demi. He needs to find a better way to hurt Stephen. He knows he can hurt him in the match, but there has to be another way. There must be a psychological way. Otherwise, Stratford would have won. Eli is wondering if Stratford has won anyway.
Suddenly, the doorbell rings. Eli quickly turns his head toward the door. He jumps from the couch and runs toward the door. He shouts Katie’s name and quickly opens the door to see his sister Lacy at the door. All the excitement of seeing Katie has disappeared. He slouches and walks away from the door and back to the couch. Lacy slowly walks into the house and looks around. She takes in that the house is covered in silence. She looks over and sees Eli sitting back down on the couch staring at the television.
She closes the door behind her and places her purse on a nearby table. She walks up to Eli and sits in a chair across from him. He keeps his focus on the television as she speaks with him.
“Eli, hey… Look, I know you’re feeling a bit blue for not having Katie here, but you have to…”
“Have to what, Lace? Move on?”
She sits up in the chair as Eli refuses to look at her. She clears her throat trying to find the right words to comfort him.
“No, not move on, but you can’t just sit here a sulk all day. There’s a world out there that needs you, and all you do is sit here. Have you eaten anything? Have you slept?”
“I do leave, Lace. I don’t make it a public event when I do. Everything that I want has been taken from me because of someone breaking an unspoken oath. He took what was precious to me and crushed it in his hand. You don’t understand how much that hurts me.”
He slightly tilts his head toward her. His gaze never meets hers, but she knows that this is a step in the right direction. She crosses her legs and looks intently at Eli.
“Eli, I know what it’s like to get hurt. Sure, maybe not to the extent that you’re currently in, but I still know what hurt feels like. I know the pain that bubbles inside of you when you can’t do anything to fix it. I understand it, but you can’t just sit around and let that pain fester inside of you. You have to go out and do something about it.”
Eli finally sits up on the couch and looks at Lacy. Slight annoyance appears on his face as he looks at his sister.
“Do you not think I want to do something about it? Do you not think that I go through every single scenario on what I could do to fix this? I think about everything. I think about calling her, but I know she’ll never answer. I think about making Stephen Stratford pay, but I know that’ll make me no better than him. Lacy, I want to do something. I want, with all of my being, to do something to make him pay. I want to find a way to bring Katie back home, but I know that if I try to do anything it’ll make things worse. That’s why I sit hear in silence. Because I don’t want to make things worse.”
Eli stands up and walks away from Lacy. He keeps his attention away from her trying to calm himself down. Lacy follows him with her eyes realizing that she struck a nerve. She stays seated trying to think of what to say. She closes her eyes and slowly stands up. She walks over to him and places her hand on his shoulder. He turns around and reveals tears running down his face. Lacy grabs him for a hug as Eli finally releases the pain that has been inside of him.
Suddenly, the silence of the house disappears. The sound of Eli’s sobbing takes over. The pain of not having Katie has finally snapped Eli. The idea of not being able to do anything has pushed him to his breaking point. After weeks of trying to find a way to avoid it, Eli, finally, lets go of all of the pain that has rested on his shoulders. His sobbing slowly dies down. His sister slowly lets him go. He takes a few steps away from her and looks away from her.
He tries to catch his breath, but that causes him to get choked up. Lacy walks into the kitchen and grabs him a glass of water. She takes it back to him. He takes the glass and takes a few sips of water finally regaining some sense of composure. He places the glass next to Lacy’s purse. He takes in a few breaths to keep himself calm. He looks over at her and tries to force a smile on his face. Lacy, instead, places a hand on his shoulder.
“Don’t force it. Don’t pretend you’re ok.”
“I have to. If I’m not ok, who’ll believe in me?”
“Eli, everyone still believes in you. Sure, you’ve got problems, but everyone does. You don’t have to smile all of the time. Especially not now. Look, Katie is going to come back to you. She just needed to be somewhere safe right now. If the same thing happened to me with Brett, I’d also leave. However, once I knew everything was safe, I’d go back to him. You have to believe that Katie will come back to you.”
“But how will she know everything is safe if she won’t answer me?”
Lacy sighs trying to find the right words. She moves her hand from Eli’s shoulder.
“I don’t know. I honestly don’t know. Maybe she’ll be watching the show. Once she sees you beat Stephen Stratford, that’s when she’ll know that everything is safe. You’d have proven that you could handle messes. Even if you lose, she’ll know that it’s safe to come back. Stephen is after one thing, Eli. Sure, he wants to let out your dark side, but he truly wants one thing you have.”
Eli turns his head to his trophy wall and sees the Courage Championship. He walks over to it and places his hand against the glass. He takes in a deep breath and looks back over to Lacy.
“He’s going to break me just to take this. These mind games won’t be enough to take this away from me.
Eli walks back up to Lacy and hugs her. She responds with a hug of her own. The two look at each other, but this time the smile on Eli’s face is real. Lacy responds with a smile as well.
“Thank you. I really needed this.”
“That’s what family’s for. Plus, I’m the only person that can really get you back into gear when Katie’s not around. Show Stratford that you can’t be broken. Of all the people I know, you’re stronger than all of them. Everyone believes in you, Eli. Remember that.”
Lacy lets go of his arms and walks back over to her purse. She takes her purse and walks out of the house. Eli stands alone in silence again. He pulls out his phone and plays a song. He connects his phone to the speakers as “Bridge over Troubled Water” by Simon & Garfunkle plays. He closes his eyes and takes in the words. He looks back at the Courage Championship. He takes in a deep breath and slowly lets it out.
“Alright Stratford, it’s time.”
-----
On-Camera
“Pain. That’s all I’ve been feeling these past few weeks. The pain of not being able to make it right. The pain of not being able to help the people I need to help. The pain of wanting to hurt the people that hurt me. That’s been the only thing inside of me. It took many days to figure out how I needed to act. Many days of meditating. Many days of finally figuring out that hurting people the same way they hurt me doesn’t make things right.
No, that’s something I can’t do. What I can do is plead to Katie. Katie, if you see this, let me know you’re alright. I’ve probably made the same message over and over again. I just want her to know that I miss her. I want her to know that everything’s going to be ok. I… I want her to know that… She’ll be safe again. I’m going to make sure that she’ll be safe. Both she and Will will be safe.
However, I wouldn’t need to make these assurances if it wasn’t for you, Stephen Stratford. You invaded the safety of my home. You found my family, and you made sure to leave a message for me. I don’t know how you found them, and I don’t know why you did this. All I know is that you did the one thing I’m refusing to do. If this were another time, I’d have found your family. I’d have found them, and I would’ve broken them. Sure, you only damaged mine psychologically, but yours would’ve been physically broken. I can assure you of that.
You see, I wouldn’t care that your wife is a wrestler. I would’ve found a way to break her. She could’ve had security around her, and I would’ve broken them. I have gone through so much punishment that it doesn’t matter how much of a fight she would’ve put up. I would’ve found a way to break her in half. Then, I would’ve gone after your parents and any siblings you might have and your associates and anyone else you might hold close to you. Blood would’ve been spilled, and it would’ve been all because of what you did to my family.
However, that’s not me anymore. I know better than to do that now. No, now I handle my business in the ring. Because it doesn’t matter if I hurt your family. No, that’ll make your resolve stronger. That’ll make you want to beat me even more, and that’s the thing you never realized Stephen. Am I filled with pain? Yes, I am. It is boiling inside of me to the point I may break down in tears again. I’m not afraid to show that side of myself to people. I want to be able to show people that pain doesn’t have to control you.
So, it’s not going to control me in our match, Stephen. In fact, I’m shocked that we haven’t been put in tag matches against each other. Trent really held back on booking that for us. It’s because he knew what would happen when we meet face-to-face in the ring. He knew that we would want to tear each other apart, and that’s what’s going to happen. When we meet each other, I’m going to make you regret ever crossing me or my family. I’m going to make you wish you’d have never met Katie.
Stephen, you may be focused on winning the Courage Championship, but my focus will be on making you suffer. I love being a champion. I love being able to carry the Courage Championship with me to show people that I was able to overcome the odds. This championship symbolizes what it means to have real courage. Courage is about having strength in the face of pain and grief. Pain and grief. I hope you remember that, Stephen. I have the strength to persevere no matter how much pain I’m carrying on my shoulders. I have the strength to overcome the grief that you have made me feel for weeks.
So, at Combat Evolved, I’m going to make you pay for your intrusion. I’m going to make you wish you never crossed me. However, I’m going to do it the right way. You’re going to be hoping for me to attack you with a weapon. You’re hoping to see me succumb to my pain and grief, but I will show my courage. I will prove to you and the LevelUp fans why I am the Courage Champion. Stephen, you’ve been a nuisance to me for too long now. It’s finally time for you to get what’s coming to you.
Katie, I’m sorry if I go overboard. I hope I don’t, but if I do, I’m sorry. I never wanted this to happen to you. I never wanted you to be a part of this side of my life. I wanted to be on the sidelines watching me. I never wanted you to be involved in this action. I promise you, after Combat Evolved, this will never happen to you again. Your privacy will never be invaded again. I know it’s an empty promise, but it’s the best I’ve got.
Stephen, you should be happy that I’ve only decided to go after you. This could’ve ended much worse if I went after Demi. Life is hard as it is. Pain is hard to let go of, but it’s something that needs to be done. Overcoming pain shows courage. Stephen, you’ve shown that you have no courage. You’ve shown you’d rather fight someone when they’re at their weakest. I pity you.
At the end of the night, only one person can hold the Courage Championship above their head. Stephen, I’m going to prove that I am the better man. I’m going to prove that I am the example of what this title is meant to be. I am the symbol of Courage. I always have been, and by overcoming my pain and grief, I will prove to the crowd that they also have the courage to overcome.
How will I make it right? Simple, by proving that I’m better than you, Stephen. I’m not just better. No, I’m going to be walking out of Combat Evolve with the Courage Championship. It’s because I’m simply… That Damn Goode.”
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Off-Camera
Eli Goode sits in his locker room. He hears the roar of the crowd as the show starts. He takes in a few deep breaths trying to calm himself. Suddenly, he hears his phone ring. He looks at his bag and pulls out his phone. He sees Katie’s name appear on the screen. He gently smiles and answers the phone.
“Katie? Hey, are you alright? I’ve… I’ve been worried about you.”
He sits for the next few minutes talking to Katie hoping that he can fix any problems that may have arisen because of Stephen Stratford.
I’ve been trying to get in contact with Katie, but she hasn’t gotten back to me. I know she’s scared of what Stephen Stratford did to her, but I just want to know if she’s ok right now. I’m scared of being left in the dark. I’m scared not knowing if she is ok. All I know is that she left for her parents. I wish she would just call me. I wish she would call my sister. I need to know something; otherwise, I’m going to keep losing my mind until something bad happens. I don’t want anything bad to happen.
I don’t like feeling this way. I feel lost and alone. I feel hopeless. It’s as though I’m floating in the ocean on a raft with no sign of life. The sun beams down as sweat rolls down my skin. This feeling of isolation haunts my dreams. The Sandman comes to me in my sleep and sprinkles his sand in my eyes. He tries to give me peaceful dreams, but the Boogeyman comes in after him and causes those peaceful dreams to turn into nightmares. My worry becomes stronger through the nightmares. I hate it.
Katie, if you see this, please let me know if you’re alright. I’m worried sick about you. Tell me that Will is safe too. Stratford crossed a line by visiting you, and I’m going to make him pay. I promise you that much. He’ll pay for invading the sanctity of your privacy. He’ll pay for forcing you to run from your home. He’ll pay for even coming near you. I know I don’t know what he did, but I don’t care if it was even a simple conversation. He knows better than to just go to a wrestler's house unannounced.
Katie, I promise you that this won’t happen to you again. I’ll do everything in my power to keep you safe. If you don’t trust me after this, I wouldn’t be surprised. If you choose to leave me after this, I wouldn’t blame you. I won’t even get mad at you for that. All I want for you now is your safety. That’s all I ever really cared about. That’s why I never wanted you to come to a LevelUp show. I didn’t want people like Larry Tact, EAB, or others to find a way to exploit me through you. I never wanted that.
Stephen Stratford broke the unwritten promise of never bringing loved ones into work. He knows better than that. Because of that, I’m going to make him wish he never crossed you. I’m going to make him wish he understands what it means to cross me. Katie, I will never forgive myself for this. I will never fully know how to properly ask for your forgiveness either. I just hope you hear this message. I hope that you see that I wish I could fix this. Katie, I love you, and I’m going to make this right."
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Off-Camera
The quiet takes over the house that was once filled with joy. The echoes of laughter stay, but they are merely ghosts of the happiness that lived there. Eli Goode sits alone in Katie’s house hoping for her to walk back into her home. He wants her to run into his arms with the joy restored to her body. He wants to see her smile. He wants to see her eyes. He wants to hear her voice. However, he continues to wait and wait with the door never opening.
After EXP 30, he has forced himself to train for his eventual match against Stephen Stratford, but his resolve leaves him every waking day. All he thinks about is Katie. All he wants to do is keep Katie safe, but Stephen broke that safety. Stephen broke the cardinal rule. Eli looks up at the television screen. He sees his reflection in the black expanse and wonders what would happen if he visited Demi Stratford. What if he returned the favor to Stephen? Sure, Demi is a competitor in LevelUp, but Eli has ways of frightening people. He did it for a long time as his Other Half. It would not be hard to go back to that time.
No, he should not stoop down to Stephen’s level. Visiting a person’s family? No, Eli would never do that now. He rehabilitated himself. He is not the Eli that did not care for people’s well-being. He wants people to be better than before. He does not want to hurt people, but Stephen Stratford wants to hurt people. Maybe Eli should give Stephen some of his own medicine. What would be the harm in hurting Stephen through Demi? She can protect herself. Eli could call it self-defense. People would believe that. The audience would believe that too. But Katie would not believe that.
No, Katie would know Eli was lying. Katie would know the truth, and she would judge him for it. She would make him remember everything he did to Demi. She would make sure that Eli always felt shame for the lows he went to cause harm to Stephen Stratford. No, he cannot hurt Demi. He needs to find a better way to hurt Stephen. He knows he can hurt him in the match, but there has to be another way. There must be a psychological way. Otherwise, Stratford would have won. Eli is wondering if Stratford has won anyway.
Suddenly, the doorbell rings. Eli quickly turns his head toward the door. He jumps from the couch and runs toward the door. He shouts Katie’s name and quickly opens the door to see his sister Lacy at the door. All the excitement of seeing Katie has disappeared. He slouches and walks away from the door and back to the couch. Lacy slowly walks into the house and looks around. She takes in that the house is covered in silence. She looks over and sees Eli sitting back down on the couch staring at the television.
She closes the door behind her and places her purse on a nearby table. She walks up to Eli and sits in a chair across from him. He keeps his focus on the television as she speaks with him.
“Eli, hey… Look, I know you’re feeling a bit blue for not having Katie here, but you have to…”
“Have to what, Lace? Move on?”
She sits up in the chair as Eli refuses to look at her. She clears her throat trying to find the right words to comfort him.
“No, not move on, but you can’t just sit here a sulk all day. There’s a world out there that needs you, and all you do is sit here. Have you eaten anything? Have you slept?”
“I do leave, Lace. I don’t make it a public event when I do. Everything that I want has been taken from me because of someone breaking an unspoken oath. He took what was precious to me and crushed it in his hand. You don’t understand how much that hurts me.”
He slightly tilts his head toward her. His gaze never meets hers, but she knows that this is a step in the right direction. She crosses her legs and looks intently at Eli.
“Eli, I know what it’s like to get hurt. Sure, maybe not to the extent that you’re currently in, but I still know what hurt feels like. I know the pain that bubbles inside of you when you can’t do anything to fix it. I understand it, but you can’t just sit around and let that pain fester inside of you. You have to go out and do something about it.”
Eli finally sits up on the couch and looks at Lacy. Slight annoyance appears on his face as he looks at his sister.
“Do you not think I want to do something about it? Do you not think that I go through every single scenario on what I could do to fix this? I think about everything. I think about calling her, but I know she’ll never answer. I think about making Stephen Stratford pay, but I know that’ll make me no better than him. Lacy, I want to do something. I want, with all of my being, to do something to make him pay. I want to find a way to bring Katie back home, but I know that if I try to do anything it’ll make things worse. That’s why I sit hear in silence. Because I don’t want to make things worse.”
Eli stands up and walks away from Lacy. He keeps his attention away from her trying to calm himself down. Lacy follows him with her eyes realizing that she struck a nerve. She stays seated trying to think of what to say. She closes her eyes and slowly stands up. She walks over to him and places her hand on his shoulder. He turns around and reveals tears running down his face. Lacy grabs him for a hug as Eli finally releases the pain that has been inside of him.
Suddenly, the silence of the house disappears. The sound of Eli’s sobbing takes over. The pain of not having Katie has finally snapped Eli. The idea of not being able to do anything has pushed him to his breaking point. After weeks of trying to find a way to avoid it, Eli, finally, lets go of all of the pain that has rested on his shoulders. His sobbing slowly dies down. His sister slowly lets him go. He takes a few steps away from her and looks away from her.
He tries to catch his breath, but that causes him to get choked up. Lacy walks into the kitchen and grabs him a glass of water. She takes it back to him. He takes the glass and takes a few sips of water finally regaining some sense of composure. He places the glass next to Lacy’s purse. He takes in a few breaths to keep himself calm. He looks over at her and tries to force a smile on his face. Lacy, instead, places a hand on his shoulder.
“Don’t force it. Don’t pretend you’re ok.”
“I have to. If I’m not ok, who’ll believe in me?”
“Eli, everyone still believes in you. Sure, you’ve got problems, but everyone does. You don’t have to smile all of the time. Especially not now. Look, Katie is going to come back to you. She just needed to be somewhere safe right now. If the same thing happened to me with Brett, I’d also leave. However, once I knew everything was safe, I’d go back to him. You have to believe that Katie will come back to you.”
“But how will she know everything is safe if she won’t answer me?”
Lacy sighs trying to find the right words. She moves her hand from Eli’s shoulder.
“I don’t know. I honestly don’t know. Maybe she’ll be watching the show. Once she sees you beat Stephen Stratford, that’s when she’ll know that everything is safe. You’d have proven that you could handle messes. Even if you lose, she’ll know that it’s safe to come back. Stephen is after one thing, Eli. Sure, he wants to let out your dark side, but he truly wants one thing you have.”
Eli turns his head to his trophy wall and sees the Courage Championship. He walks over to it and places his hand against the glass. He takes in a deep breath and looks back over to Lacy.
“He’s going to break me just to take this. These mind games won’t be enough to take this away from me.
Eli walks back up to Lacy and hugs her. She responds with a hug of her own. The two look at each other, but this time the smile on Eli’s face is real. Lacy responds with a smile as well.
“Thank you. I really needed this.”
“That’s what family’s for. Plus, I’m the only person that can really get you back into gear when Katie’s not around. Show Stratford that you can’t be broken. Of all the people I know, you’re stronger than all of them. Everyone believes in you, Eli. Remember that.”
Lacy lets go of his arms and walks back over to her purse. She takes her purse and walks out of the house. Eli stands alone in silence again. He pulls out his phone and plays a song. He connects his phone to the speakers as “Bridge over Troubled Water” by Simon & Garfunkle plays. He closes his eyes and takes in the words. He looks back at the Courage Championship. He takes in a deep breath and slowly lets it out.
“Alright Stratford, it’s time.”
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On-Camera
“Pain. That’s all I’ve been feeling these past few weeks. The pain of not being able to make it right. The pain of not being able to help the people I need to help. The pain of wanting to hurt the people that hurt me. That’s been the only thing inside of me. It took many days to figure out how I needed to act. Many days of meditating. Many days of finally figuring out that hurting people the same way they hurt me doesn’t make things right.
No, that’s something I can’t do. What I can do is plead to Katie. Katie, if you see this, let me know you’re alright. I’ve probably made the same message over and over again. I just want her to know that I miss her. I want her to know that everything’s going to be ok. I… I want her to know that… She’ll be safe again. I’m going to make sure that she’ll be safe. Both she and Will will be safe.
However, I wouldn’t need to make these assurances if it wasn’t for you, Stephen Stratford. You invaded the safety of my home. You found my family, and you made sure to leave a message for me. I don’t know how you found them, and I don’t know why you did this. All I know is that you did the one thing I’m refusing to do. If this were another time, I’d have found your family. I’d have found them, and I would’ve broken them. Sure, you only damaged mine psychologically, but yours would’ve been physically broken. I can assure you of that.
You see, I wouldn’t care that your wife is a wrestler. I would’ve found a way to break her. She could’ve had security around her, and I would’ve broken them. I have gone through so much punishment that it doesn’t matter how much of a fight she would’ve put up. I would’ve found a way to break her in half. Then, I would’ve gone after your parents and any siblings you might have and your associates and anyone else you might hold close to you. Blood would’ve been spilled, and it would’ve been all because of what you did to my family.
However, that’s not me anymore. I know better than to do that now. No, now I handle my business in the ring. Because it doesn’t matter if I hurt your family. No, that’ll make your resolve stronger. That’ll make you want to beat me even more, and that’s the thing you never realized Stephen. Am I filled with pain? Yes, I am. It is boiling inside of me to the point I may break down in tears again. I’m not afraid to show that side of myself to people. I want to be able to show people that pain doesn’t have to control you.
So, it’s not going to control me in our match, Stephen. In fact, I’m shocked that we haven’t been put in tag matches against each other. Trent really held back on booking that for us. It’s because he knew what would happen when we meet face-to-face in the ring. He knew that we would want to tear each other apart, and that’s what’s going to happen. When we meet each other, I’m going to make you regret ever crossing me or my family. I’m going to make you wish you’d have never met Katie.
Stephen, you may be focused on winning the Courage Championship, but my focus will be on making you suffer. I love being a champion. I love being able to carry the Courage Championship with me to show people that I was able to overcome the odds. This championship symbolizes what it means to have real courage. Courage is about having strength in the face of pain and grief. Pain and grief. I hope you remember that, Stephen. I have the strength to persevere no matter how much pain I’m carrying on my shoulders. I have the strength to overcome the grief that you have made me feel for weeks.
So, at Combat Evolved, I’m going to make you pay for your intrusion. I’m going to make you wish you never crossed me. However, I’m going to do it the right way. You’re going to be hoping for me to attack you with a weapon. You’re hoping to see me succumb to my pain and grief, but I will show my courage. I will prove to you and the LevelUp fans why I am the Courage Champion. Stephen, you’ve been a nuisance to me for too long now. It’s finally time for you to get what’s coming to you.
Katie, I’m sorry if I go overboard. I hope I don’t, but if I do, I’m sorry. I never wanted this to happen to you. I never wanted you to be a part of this side of my life. I wanted to be on the sidelines watching me. I never wanted you to be involved in this action. I promise you, after Combat Evolved, this will never happen to you again. Your privacy will never be invaded again. I know it’s an empty promise, but it’s the best I’ve got.
Stephen, you should be happy that I’ve only decided to go after you. This could’ve ended much worse if I went after Demi. Life is hard as it is. Pain is hard to let go of, but it’s something that needs to be done. Overcoming pain shows courage. Stephen, you’ve shown that you have no courage. You’ve shown you’d rather fight someone when they’re at their weakest. I pity you.
At the end of the night, only one person can hold the Courage Championship above their head. Stephen, I’m going to prove that I am the better man. I’m going to prove that I am the example of what this title is meant to be. I am the symbol of Courage. I always have been, and by overcoming my pain and grief, I will prove to the crowd that they also have the courage to overcome.
How will I make it right? Simple, by proving that I’m better than you, Stephen. I’m not just better. No, I’m going to be walking out of Combat Evolve with the Courage Championship. It’s because I’m simply… That Damn Goode.”
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Off-Camera
Eli Goode sits in his locker room. He hears the roar of the crowd as the show starts. He takes in a few deep breaths trying to calm himself. Suddenly, he hears his phone ring. He looks at his bag and pulls out his phone. He sees Katie’s name appear on the screen. He gently smiles and answers the phone.
“Katie? Hey, are you alright? I’ve… I’ve been worried about you.”
He sits for the next few minutes talking to Katie hoping that he can fix any problems that may have arisen because of Stephen Stratford.
