Post by Deleted on Oct 17, 2022 12:30:17 GMT -5
OCW Headquarters
One World Trade Center
Lower Manhattan
New York City
I was in town. Early Monday morning I had flown (privately, of course) into Winnipeg with my wife and was even backstage into the late afternoon. Around five I got a call from Nia Johnson, chairwoman of the board at Lions Guard Entertainment, which is, as you know, parent company to OCW. She informed me that she’d be convening an emergency meeting with the board of directors at 8PM and I should get back as quickly as possible. As much as I wanted to return to television that night, business needed to be done and I needed to stave off my return one more week.
“What’s going on?” I ask as I enter the lobby and my assistant, Brandon, is there to meet me.
Brandon Small was once a lover of mine. He’s young, like me. Hot, like me. He has charm and wit for days and I love his company in informal settings. When it comes to business though, all of that goes out the window and he’s just another employee.
“Nia called an emergency board meeting and…”
“Brandon, I know that part,” I interrupt as we step onto the SkyPod elevator. “Tell me what I don’t already know.”
“I don’t really know anything,” he replies as the car quickly ascends into the tower. “I’ve asked what I thought you’d ask so that I could give you the heads up, but… No one is telling me anything.”
“You’re really excelling at your job today, you know that?” I say sarcastically as the car stops and we exit on the 73rd floor of Freedom Tower. Lions Guard Entertainment occupies the entire floor so as soon as the door opens, there’s two visible logos. One for LGE, and one for OCW.
"Why do I like you again?" I ask jokingly.
"Because I got a mouth like a Hoover," he jokes back.
"That'd do it."
Turning to our left and straight ahead is the board room. I can see Nia conversing with other board members as Brandon and I continue to travel in their direction. I hired her. I put a Board of Directors together for the express reason that I didn’t know all things as it pertains to business. I am CEO, that much is true. Yet 90% of the day to day operations are run by the Board. That includes OCW. I like Nia. She’s a strong independent black woman in her mid to late twenties. She blew me away during the interview process and no matter what her future aspirations are, I have no doubt that she’ll take whatever it is she wants.
“Nia,” I greet her warmly as I enter the conference room.
“Hi Thad honey,” she greets me back warmly with a quick friendly hug. I make my way to my seat at the other end of the conference table. Her on one end, me on the other, as the two most powerful entities in the entire company.
“So…” I break the initial silence. “What’s so important that you pulled me all the way from Winnipeg?” I ask without really waiting for an answer. “I was intending to return to television tonight and…”
“Thad we’ve made a decision to appoint a Commissioner to oversee the future booking of OCW,” Nia interrupts me. It’s one of the many things I like about her. She’s blunt and to the point.
“I already have a booker,” I reply as I start to process what she just told me.
“Yes, Leo,” she replies. “He’s been removed from his duties as booker effective three hours ago.”
“You can’t do that,” I protest calmly. “Leo is my right hand man and I need him to…”
“You know how much we love and respect you Thaddeus,” she interrupts me again. “But you hired me to run this company. You hired me to make decisions in the best interest of Lions Guard Entertainment and OCW is a subsidiary of that interest.
“It has come to our attention that something needed to be done about your overreaching power within that subsidiary and that you haven’t been acting in the best interest of the company as a whole.”
“Nia,” I begin, but I’m having trouble finding the words.
“Look,” she continues. “I know we don’t know a whole lot about the wrestling business. That’s why we’ve appointed a Commissioner to oversee OCW.”
“Did you just take my power away from me?” I ask, admittedly getting angry.
“No,” Nia replies. “What we did was hire someone that is well known within OCW circles and also well liked.”
“I don’t care about being liked,” I insist. “All I care about is making OCW the best fucking company on the planet.”
“We understand that Thaddeus,” she tries to plead for my cool headedness. “We want that too. Some things have come to our attention and we had to do our due diligence and investigate.
“The Commissioner will report to us, so that you won’t have autonomous power over them,” she continues on. “Any order you give to them will be approved by the Board of Directors first.”
“Nia, I fucking hired you,” I protest as I stand from my seat. “Now you’re taking OCW from me.”
I begin for the door, but she continues on.
"I'm not taking anything from you. What I'm doing is protecting a rather sizable asset that rests beneath the LGE umbrella. Let’s start from the beginning shall we?” she asks rhetorically. “You banned a mans finisher…”
“I did,” I admit as I stop beside her. “I banned it because he was hurting people with it. He had already put two prominent members of my roster on the injured list with it and I’m not sorry for that.”
“But you chose to announce that decision during the mans match and that distraction caused him to lose, did it not?”
“That’s not my fault Nia,” I protest. “He could have very easily ignored what I was saying and continued to fight and win but he chose to pay attention to me. Do not blame me for other peoples decisions!”
“After that, you had one…” she looks at her notes. “Cyrus Braddock lay a beatdown on him, did you not?”
“I did,” I freely admit. “It was well known I was still recovering from heart surgery Nia. Yet the cowardly little bitch decided to call me out anyway knowing full well I couldn’t fight him like either of us wanted. And as soon as I was cleared for physicality Nia, I came at him man to man and face to face!”
“Your wife now wears an OCW championship, does she not?” Nia asks in an accusatory tone.
“Nia, I really don’t like your tone and I certainly don’t have to listen to this bullshit,” I say angrily as I resume making my exit.
“Don’t you want to know what triggered the investigation?” she asks as I step through the door.
“I don’t fucking care, Nia!” I call back.
“Tyler Norrie does!” she calls out and I stop dead in my tracks. “He’s suing LGE for wrongful termination Thad.”
Emitting a deep sigh, I turn back and lean against the door jam. “I’m not sorry,” I say matter of factly. “No one and nothing will ever make me feel guilty for yeeting that mother fucker off of my roster. No one and nothing will ever force me to forgive that son of a bitch when he pretended to be my friend while he sold out my son!”
“Thaddeus, we’re not saying you weren’t personally justified in what it is you did to Mr. Norrie,” Nia says in her cool calm and collected demeanor. “But was it professionally justified?”
“What?”
“Can you stand there and tell us that you covered all your bases and found just cause to terminate the contract of Tyler Norrie?”
No. No I can not.
“One that doesn’t include the unfortunate victimization of an 11 year old boy?” she asks.
I kinda see it now.
“I really didn’t think of the repercussions, Nia,” I admit to her.
“Thad honey, we aren’t saying that as a father you weren’t justified in doing what you did. Hell, if it was my son, I’d have had him tossed from the top of Freedom Tower and not even thought twice about it.
“But the fact of the matter is Thad, that there was no justifiable legal reason to terminate Mr. Norrie’s contract and that’s what has led us to where we are right now. Due to your actions, we’re on the hook for millions if we lose this case. I understand that the Board doesn’t know the wrestling business like you do but if this company losing millions because of something you did doesn’t fall under my purview, then nothing really does.”
“I get it,” I concede. “I’ll take my medicine.”
“It was never about punishing you, it's about protection,” she informs me.
"If I knew anything about protection..." I start to joke, but she interrupts.
“It is about protecting Lions Guard Entertainment and I will do that to the best of my ability. Even if it means figuratively kicking you in the balls.”
“I respect that Nia,” I say calmly. “But the very next thing you’re gonna do is call Robert Zane.”
“Mr. Zane is your personal attorney Thad, and I think…”
“Yeah he is,” I agree. “But before that he was the most successful corporate attorney in this city. You hire Robert Zane, Nia, and I can guarantee you we will win this case and LGE is off the hook.”
Nia smiles at me for a brief second. Admittedly, in the moment, I wondered what it might be like with her in bed. I have a tendency to grow attracted to the strong independent women of New York. That’s probably why my relationships with Adi Gold and Elizabeth Tate failed and why my relationship with Lauren has withstood a lot of bullshit. At least for now, my relationship with Nia has been strictly professional. It’s likely to stay that way.
For the time being, I’ll play nice and cede some power over OCW to someone else. But make no mistake about it, I still own OCW. And in due time, I will reconsolidate my power all over again.