Post by Deleted on Jun 27, 2021 22:07:42 GMT -5
OOC Notes: Introducing a character like Thaddeus to a new crowd is not an easy thing to accomplish. He's been around almost 5 years and before that was an ever-present member of a universe I've created and nurtured since 2012. While I'm not going to rehash everything, I think it's important as I tell stories here in OCW that OCW is aware of the multi-faceted life that Thaddeus leads when he's away from the ring. Even just hitting bullet points, this thing would drone on without end so, I'll likely do a series of these pieces so that everyone in OCW has a better idea of the things I may allude to from time to time in official RP's and it doesn't leave y'all confused.
Woolworth Tower || Tribeca - New York City || 8:49 PM
Standing here on the balcony and staring out across the concrete jungle that I call home, I eagerly await the arrival of Edward Jones. OCW's journalist extraordinaire... I use that term loosely. My entire wrestling career, I have found ways to expand beyond tradition... because fuck tradition... in terms of gaining new viewers and new audiences as a whole. I lead a rather interesting, if not entirely bizarre life outside of the wrestling world and I enjoy showing it to the world.
The more the merrier.
A wrestler by trade, I've also dabbled into other avenues of gainful employment. Acting. Modeling. Once, I even tried my hand at investing in and being part owner of my own wrestling company, but... my talents are far better suited in front of cameras, not behind them. I always felt that my name and my talents gained attention no matter what I did so why not expand my horizons? Why not jump into other avenues in order to bring new eyeballs to the international wrestling community? I wasn't wrong. Five years into my wrestling career and slowly but surely, Thaddeus Duke the wrestler morphed into Thaddeus Duke, the brand.
All the things I do and all the things I am... I enjoy every fucking minute of it.
"Thad?" Frankie, my adopted ten year old son says as he exits the penthouse, joining me on the balcony. "I think that guy from OCW is here," he informs me as he leans against the railing.
"How do you know?" I ask of him and he just looks back toward the inside and points. Turning my head to follow his pointing, I spy Mufasa, my pet lion pacing back and forth near the front door. Turning back into the house, Frankie, as per usual, is behind me like a very small shadow.
"Is this guy an idiot like Steve Sayors?" he asks of me as we make our way across the sprawling bottom floor of my mansion in the sky. Steve Sayors is the backstage journalist for the XWF, my other home. Sayors is a dumb ass.
"I dunno, probably," I reply to him with a smile.
Nearing the front door, Mufasa tails my left side as he emits a couple low growls and gurgles. Not waiting for a knock or a ring, I throw open the front door to see Edward Jones standing on the other side just about to knock. My sudden appearance startles the OCW journalist and he stands there with his fist raised, still ready to knock. To my left, Mufasa belts out a loud roar, throwing saliva onto Edward's slacks. With a ferocious lion present, Edward backpedals several feet.
I say ferocious, but he isn't really. He's a lion, of course he's intimidating, but he's also a docile big cat that loves belly scratches and pets. Mufasa is a good boy. Threaten me, or Frankie or any of his other people and that's a little different. He's a loyal beast and he'd et your face before he'd let harm come to his people.
"Edward," I greet the journalist with a warm smile and an extended hand. Noticing his hesitation to approach, I turn to the lion, "Mufasa go lay down." Mufasa snorts before turning to walk away.
"You have a real live lion?" Edward asks as he accepts my handshake. To which I only nod. "How does that happen in New York City?" he asks as I lead him inside to the sitting room.
"I had two of them," I answer him. "They were rescues from a German circus I bought and closed down years ago. Mufasa's brother Simba was far more excitable, but unfortunately we lost him last year."
Edward and I both take seats in chairs appropriately arranged to face each other. The journalist sits quietly, just gazing in my direction. Taking a page out of a playbook I won't mention, I elect to wait. As the seconds tick slowly by, Edward appears to grow more uncomfortable.
"Is this the first time you've interviewed someone of my caliber?" I ask of him, half joking, half serious.
"Well usually, I get..." his voice trails off.
"The shit jobs," I finish his statement. "Despite what you read about me, or what you think you know about me Edward... I promise, I'm not a bad guy. Do your thing," I insist, trying to encourage him in order to get the ball rolling.
"Thaddeus, by now I'm sure most everyone knows who you are. You have a championship resume that starts in the first few months of your storied career and even today as we sit here, yet more gold is attached to your name.
"What I'd like to hear about and more importantly I think, the fans of OCW and the roster themselves that maybe don't know a whole lot about you, is Thaddeus Duke, behind the curtain. Tell us about your youth."
"My life began really, at fifteen years old. I'd explain what I mean by that but I think in all honesty, I'd just confuse a lot of people so, for all intents and purposes, the story of Thaddeus Duke started in 2014 after I turned 15 years old. I cringe even bringing it up, but I was born into a monarchy. My grandfather founded the modern day Illuminatus after leaving the Catholic Church in the early 70's.
"It started as nothing. Just a small gathering of like minded individuals," I pause to take a breath. "Slowly through the years. During and after the birth of my father, the numbers steadily increased and at one point our population surpassed a half million people."
"What is the Illuminatus?" Edward asks. I did kind of glaze right over that.
"Not to be confused with the illuminati conspiracy theory garbage," I begin to explain a bit. "The Illuminatus was and still is a military state with the initial idea to relieve the world of Catholicism based on ancient crimes hundreds of years ago.
"Under my leadership, ridding the world of Catholicism has been cast aside and instead, we now fight for the right to live."
"Backtracking just a little here, you said you were born into a monarchy. You're a King, in fact," he states.
Hesitating to answer, I nod my head.
"How did you come to power? Sadly your grandfather is no longer with us, but your father is. Would that not make him the King? Not you?"
"He was," I answer him. "Until he wasn't."
"I don't know what that means."
"What it means Ed, is that when I was 17 years old my father made a fatal mistake. A mistake that cost more than 200 Iraqi children their lives," I pause. Not for effect, but because it still takes an emotional toll on me. Even five years later.
"So you're 17 years old and..."
"A year prior, my grandfather put me at the head of his military," I answer him quickly. Anticipating the question he was about to ask. I know it sounds incredibly unbelievable but it's the truth. My grandfathers forces landed in Germany in 2015. Upon staging a coup and temporarily overthrowing the German government, my grandfathers Illuminatus, not yet a 'nation', was within striking distance of the seat of Catholicism... Vatican City.
"At 16 then... you're running a military with its sites set on Vatican City... Were your efforts successful?" Edward asks of me. With all honesty, I have to swallow the urge to be a bit smug because... hell yeah I was successful.
"It's a complicated road paved in the blood of my brothers and sisters as well as my enemies Ed," I begin to explain. "As the clock ticked closer and closer to midnight on December 24, 2015, me, my men and my tanks rolled through Rome. The war was over and all that was left was delivering the surrender and the keys to Saint Peters to my grandfather.
"At the stroke of midnight, the bells tolled bringing in the Christmas holiday. My age rolled over to 17, and I had the Church's surrender.
Lock, stock and barrel."
"Interesting parallel," Edward comments. "You share a birthday with Jesus Christ and on that day, you seized the symbolic home of..."
"My grandfather had big plans for me even in the womb," I interrupt him. "Sharing that birthday with Christ wasn't coincidental.
"Those watching this," I continue on. "But its a church. A religion. Not a military power... that isn't true. While they don't have a standing military, they do have the Italian government backing them and as such, their military to defend them. Don't let the guise of the cloth fool you. They were playing games with the Illuminatus just as much as we played ours with them.
"I tell you this not to toot my own horn, but to preface the battles I had with my own father over his horrible mistake. Through two previous conflicts, fighting beside my men and women rather than sending them to die in my stead. Having my fighter jet shot down. Being shot and shot at. Holding my brothers and sisters as they die... it earned me a lot of fans within the ranks of the Illuminatus Military.
"So when my father made that terrible mistake, it took hardly any effort at all to relieve my father of his crown and figuratively put it upon my own head."
"You mean literally," he attempts to correct.
"I hardly ever wear it," I reply quickly while lightly placing my fingers against my head as if the crown were there. "To be honest monarchical forms of government are archaic as hell and I don't much like being referred to with those royal titles."
"Well, why not install..."
"True democracy?" I finish his question with a laugh. "I tried once two or three years ago. We put together a ballot, even campaigned in favor of democracy which would see my term end after a decade. They voted overwhelmingly to keep the monarchy by about a seven to one clip."
"If being referred to as a King or with royal titles befitting your position make you uncomfortable, then why tell everyone in OCW about it?" he asks and its a fair question.
"Because that job is 24/7 and even if I'm showing my OCW audience something else entirely, some other aspect of my life, the work of leading the Illuminatus Nation still goes on. Things may come up at any time and if I'm relaying some order to some guy no one in OCW has ever heard of, would that not leave them scratching their heads? Confused?" I ask of him rhetorically.
"Moreover, if I'm ever caught laughing at some other competitors bravado... you know how it is... some of these guys are big tough guys that get off by intimidating smaller younger competitors," I pause and stand up.
"Look at me Ed," Jones gives me a once over. "Yeah I'm a good looking guy, I'm not a small guy by every man standards but in the world of professional wrestling I'm probably below average in terms of stature. I'm not being cocky if I'm laughing off some dudes intimidation tactics.
"The fact is Ed, I don't get shaken. 7 feet tall or 5. 400 pounds or one. I don't get intimidated. I'm 22 years old, I lead a nation currently at war with people that want me dead and have tried to kill me numerous times and they'll do so again. I've seen death. I've smelled death. I've most assuredly given death. I've held death in my hands...
"There is nothing about the world of professional wrestling that scares me. I don't do it to put food on the table or buy me expensive cars and boats. I don't do this for the fame or the glory. I do it because I was born into a wrestling dynasty and I've done this thing far better than those in my family that have come before me. I do it simply because I enjoy the thrill of competition."
Turning to the camera...
"It's not you, it's me."
Edward and I sat chatting for a few more hours. My fear is that this is already too much for many to take in. Really, I'm just scratching the surface of what makes me who I am. Being a leader and heading up a military is a major factor of who and what I am. Second only to fatherhood. In the coming days and weeks, my intention is to give OCW, its fans, its roster, a more complete picture of the Lionheart by way of this complete interview.
To this point, they've seen my social media and they've seen my introduction on Piledriver. I always have this way of coming off arrogant and cocky. The fact is, there's a lot more to me than what meets the eye. I'd apologize for the arrogance, but I know how good I am and I don't mind flaunting my many talents whether it's in the ring, on the stick or on the headset at ringside. I'm a master of all trades and on one sells that fact better than I do.
No one does it for us, right?
The cockiness? I promise, it's really just confidence. Since my return to wrestling a little over a year ago, I have had one incredible run with big victory after big victory and it's caused my confidence to not only skyrocket, but also to become virtually unbreakable.
In truth, I look forward to sharing the stage with OCW's finest.
The more the merrier.
A wrestler by trade, I've also dabbled into other avenues of gainful employment. Acting. Modeling. Once, I even tried my hand at investing in and being part owner of my own wrestling company, but... my talents are far better suited in front of cameras, not behind them. I always felt that my name and my talents gained attention no matter what I did so why not expand my horizons? Why not jump into other avenues in order to bring new eyeballs to the international wrestling community? I wasn't wrong. Five years into my wrestling career and slowly but surely, Thaddeus Duke the wrestler morphed into Thaddeus Duke, the brand.
All the things I do and all the things I am... I enjoy every fucking minute of it.
"Thad?" Frankie, my adopted ten year old son says as he exits the penthouse, joining me on the balcony. "I think that guy from OCW is here," he informs me as he leans against the railing.
"How do you know?" I ask of him and he just looks back toward the inside and points. Turning my head to follow his pointing, I spy Mufasa, my pet lion pacing back and forth near the front door. Turning back into the house, Frankie, as per usual, is behind me like a very small shadow.
"Is this guy an idiot like Steve Sayors?" he asks of me as we make our way across the sprawling bottom floor of my mansion in the sky. Steve Sayors is the backstage journalist for the XWF, my other home. Sayors is a dumb ass.
"I dunno, probably," I reply to him with a smile.
Nearing the front door, Mufasa tails my left side as he emits a couple low growls and gurgles. Not waiting for a knock or a ring, I throw open the front door to see Edward Jones standing on the other side just about to knock. My sudden appearance startles the OCW journalist and he stands there with his fist raised, still ready to knock. To my left, Mufasa belts out a loud roar, throwing saliva onto Edward's slacks. With a ferocious lion present, Edward backpedals several feet.
I say ferocious, but he isn't really. He's a lion, of course he's intimidating, but he's also a docile big cat that loves belly scratches and pets. Mufasa is a good boy. Threaten me, or Frankie or any of his other people and that's a little different. He's a loyal beast and he'd et your face before he'd let harm come to his people.
"Edward," I greet the journalist with a warm smile and an extended hand. Noticing his hesitation to approach, I turn to the lion, "Mufasa go lay down." Mufasa snorts before turning to walk away.
"You have a real live lion?" Edward asks as he accepts my handshake. To which I only nod. "How does that happen in New York City?" he asks as I lead him inside to the sitting room.
"I had two of them," I answer him. "They were rescues from a German circus I bought and closed down years ago. Mufasa's brother Simba was far more excitable, but unfortunately we lost him last year."
Edward and I both take seats in chairs appropriately arranged to face each other. The journalist sits quietly, just gazing in my direction. Taking a page out of a playbook I won't mention, I elect to wait. As the seconds tick slowly by, Edward appears to grow more uncomfortable.
"Is this the first time you've interviewed someone of my caliber?" I ask of him, half joking, half serious.
"Well usually, I get..." his voice trails off.
"The shit jobs," I finish his statement. "Despite what you read about me, or what you think you know about me Edward... I promise, I'm not a bad guy. Do your thing," I insist, trying to encourage him in order to get the ball rolling.
"Thaddeus, by now I'm sure most everyone knows who you are. You have a championship resume that starts in the first few months of your storied career and even today as we sit here, yet more gold is attached to your name.
"What I'd like to hear about and more importantly I think, the fans of OCW and the roster themselves that maybe don't know a whole lot about you, is Thaddeus Duke, behind the curtain. Tell us about your youth."
"My life began really, at fifteen years old. I'd explain what I mean by that but I think in all honesty, I'd just confuse a lot of people so, for all intents and purposes, the story of Thaddeus Duke started in 2014 after I turned 15 years old. I cringe even bringing it up, but I was born into a monarchy. My grandfather founded the modern day Illuminatus after leaving the Catholic Church in the early 70's.
"It started as nothing. Just a small gathering of like minded individuals," I pause to take a breath. "Slowly through the years. During and after the birth of my father, the numbers steadily increased and at one point our population surpassed a half million people."
"What is the Illuminatus?" Edward asks. I did kind of glaze right over that.
"Not to be confused with the illuminati conspiracy theory garbage," I begin to explain a bit. "The Illuminatus was and still is a military state with the initial idea to relieve the world of Catholicism based on ancient crimes hundreds of years ago.
"Under my leadership, ridding the world of Catholicism has been cast aside and instead, we now fight for the right to live."
"Backtracking just a little here, you said you were born into a monarchy. You're a King, in fact," he states.
Hesitating to answer, I nod my head.
"How did you come to power? Sadly your grandfather is no longer with us, but your father is. Would that not make him the King? Not you?"
"He was," I answer him. "Until he wasn't."
"I don't know what that means."
"What it means Ed, is that when I was 17 years old my father made a fatal mistake. A mistake that cost more than 200 Iraqi children their lives," I pause. Not for effect, but because it still takes an emotional toll on me. Even five years later.
"So you're 17 years old and..."
"A year prior, my grandfather put me at the head of his military," I answer him quickly. Anticipating the question he was about to ask. I know it sounds incredibly unbelievable but it's the truth. My grandfathers forces landed in Germany in 2015. Upon staging a coup and temporarily overthrowing the German government, my grandfathers Illuminatus, not yet a 'nation', was within striking distance of the seat of Catholicism... Vatican City.
"At 16 then... you're running a military with its sites set on Vatican City... Were your efforts successful?" Edward asks of me. With all honesty, I have to swallow the urge to be a bit smug because... hell yeah I was successful.
"It's a complicated road paved in the blood of my brothers and sisters as well as my enemies Ed," I begin to explain. "As the clock ticked closer and closer to midnight on December 24, 2015, me, my men and my tanks rolled through Rome. The war was over and all that was left was delivering the surrender and the keys to Saint Peters to my grandfather.
"At the stroke of midnight, the bells tolled bringing in the Christmas holiday. My age rolled over to 17, and I had the Church's surrender.
Lock, stock and barrel."
"Interesting parallel," Edward comments. "You share a birthday with Jesus Christ and on that day, you seized the symbolic home of..."
"My grandfather had big plans for me even in the womb," I interrupt him. "Sharing that birthday with Christ wasn't coincidental.
"Those watching this," I continue on. "But its a church. A religion. Not a military power... that isn't true. While they don't have a standing military, they do have the Italian government backing them and as such, their military to defend them. Don't let the guise of the cloth fool you. They were playing games with the Illuminatus just as much as we played ours with them.
"I tell you this not to toot my own horn, but to preface the battles I had with my own father over his horrible mistake. Through two previous conflicts, fighting beside my men and women rather than sending them to die in my stead. Having my fighter jet shot down. Being shot and shot at. Holding my brothers and sisters as they die... it earned me a lot of fans within the ranks of the Illuminatus Military.
"So when my father made that terrible mistake, it took hardly any effort at all to relieve my father of his crown and figuratively put it upon my own head."
"You mean literally," he attempts to correct.
"I hardly ever wear it," I reply quickly while lightly placing my fingers against my head as if the crown were there. "To be honest monarchical forms of government are archaic as hell and I don't much like being referred to with those royal titles."
"Well, why not install..."
"True democracy?" I finish his question with a laugh. "I tried once two or three years ago. We put together a ballot, even campaigned in favor of democracy which would see my term end after a decade. They voted overwhelmingly to keep the monarchy by about a seven to one clip."
"If being referred to as a King or with royal titles befitting your position make you uncomfortable, then why tell everyone in OCW about it?" he asks and its a fair question.
"Because that job is 24/7 and even if I'm showing my OCW audience something else entirely, some other aspect of my life, the work of leading the Illuminatus Nation still goes on. Things may come up at any time and if I'm relaying some order to some guy no one in OCW has ever heard of, would that not leave them scratching their heads? Confused?" I ask of him rhetorically.
"Moreover, if I'm ever caught laughing at some other competitors bravado... you know how it is... some of these guys are big tough guys that get off by intimidating smaller younger competitors," I pause and stand up.
"Look at me Ed," Jones gives me a once over. "Yeah I'm a good looking guy, I'm not a small guy by every man standards but in the world of professional wrestling I'm probably below average in terms of stature. I'm not being cocky if I'm laughing off some dudes intimidation tactics.
"The fact is Ed, I don't get shaken. 7 feet tall or 5. 400 pounds or one. I don't get intimidated. I'm 22 years old, I lead a nation currently at war with people that want me dead and have tried to kill me numerous times and they'll do so again. I've seen death. I've smelled death. I've most assuredly given death. I've held death in my hands...
"There is nothing about the world of professional wrestling that scares me. I don't do it to put food on the table or buy me expensive cars and boats. I don't do this for the fame or the glory. I do it because I was born into a wrestling dynasty and I've done this thing far better than those in my family that have come before me. I do it simply because I enjoy the thrill of competition."
Turning to the camera...
"It's not you, it's me."
Edward and I sat chatting for a few more hours. My fear is that this is already too much for many to take in. Really, I'm just scratching the surface of what makes me who I am. Being a leader and heading up a military is a major factor of who and what I am. Second only to fatherhood. In the coming days and weeks, my intention is to give OCW, its fans, its roster, a more complete picture of the Lionheart by way of this complete interview.
To this point, they've seen my social media and they've seen my introduction on Piledriver. I always have this way of coming off arrogant and cocky. The fact is, there's a lot more to me than what meets the eye. I'd apologize for the arrogance, but I know how good I am and I don't mind flaunting my many talents whether it's in the ring, on the stick or on the headset at ringside. I'm a master of all trades and on one sells that fact better than I do.
No one does it for us, right?
The cockiness? I promise, it's really just confidence. Since my return to wrestling a little over a year ago, I have had one incredible run with big victory after big victory and it's caused my confidence to not only skyrocket, but also to become virtually unbreakable.
In truth, I look forward to sharing the stage with OCW's finest.