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"Going Hollywood"
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Topic Started: Oct 14 2015, 12:51 AM (169 Views)
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SaviourSelf
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Oct 14 2015, 12:51 AM
Post #1
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Seasoned Professional
- Posts:
- 1,671
- Group:
- Moderators
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- #607
- Joined:
- March 2, 2009
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-The house we find ourselves in is expansive. From the grandiose bay windows to the cathedral-style ceilings, the Hollywood Hills and Runyon Canyon can be seen off in the distance from the perch it sits on. Marble floors and granite countertops seem like they would fit the man whom sits behind a kitchen island with his son, but the plaque on the wall that reads "Doctor of the Year" makes it quite clear that this isn't his home. It could be, but it's not. Then again, home has always been a mindset, an ideal, never an actual place.-
-Alex LeBlanc does this once a year, he spends a week in a rented home. VRB or AirBNB tends to be a godsend when it comes to this. Every year, he picks a different Los Angeles neighborhood to stay in, prospecting possible purchases and searching for that elusive ideal. This year its Calabasas, epicenter of social media and tinseltown craziness, but reclusive enough to provide somewhere to hide. It's not Montreal, or even Big Bear, but it'll do, and the house; with it's own bowling alley, its whirlpool bathtub in the master bedroom and its 57-inch TV in the living room, gives off more of Blank Check vibe than anything else.-
-Maybe, possible, the idea of Alex being a precocious young man with an open checkbook and the ability, possibly unearned, to fill these house with material possession that don't fill the void but bring the happiness. That could be it. Or it could be that with his youngest son sitting beside him, his blonde girlfriend cooking breakfast and his 8 year old daughter messing around on an iPad, the grind, the houses, the drop-top 6 series in the driveway, and the clothes all represent the idea of making it to LeBlanc. They all represent the idea of finally having made it out of the gutter and the shit-storm that was Montreal and an abusive childhood. They represent the finality of finally having moved passed that to the point of being able to provide a better life for current loved ones. It could be that this and all of the things around it represent achievement. It could just represent survival.-
LeBlanc, patting his son Jake on the head: One day, Jakey, all of this is going to be yours. A house like this, the nice car that Daddy drives, the big pool in the backyard. It's all going to be yours.
4-Year Old Jakey, not quite understanding: Me? Why not Mommy? Why not sister?
-Alex laughs and ruffles his hear, laughing as the Dodger hat rides low on his eyebrows.-
LeBlanc: It'll be yours, Jakey, because while Mommy will take care of it until you're older, there's going to come a day when your sister gets married, a day that Mommy gets old and you'll be the one who has to take care of everyone. You'll be the one who gets to keep and enjoy of all of this.
Jakey: Where's Daddy go?
LeBlanc: Daddy will be around, but when you get older, you're going to get married and have kids. And those kids will be a Noiseux too. But it's going to be your responsibility to make sure they're good boys and girls. Make sure they go to school, make sure they do their homework, make sure they get an education and become someone super important.
Jakey, innocently: Like you, Daddy?
-LeBlanc laughs a little bit and shakes his head.-
LeBlanc: No, Jakey. Not like Daddy. Daddy had to work too hard to get all of these things. He wasn't as smart as you're going to be. Daddy wasn't as smart as you or Arielle. Daddy has to wrestle and go to shows every week because he didn't take advantage of an education. He didn't use his smarts. Instead, Daddy has to work really hard to get all these nice things.
Jakey: Oooh.. what happens if you stop working so hard?
-Alex bites his lip a little bit and smirks at the nature of his son. Unintelligent he is not.-
LeBlanc: If Daddy stops working hard, all of this goes away. No nice car for Mommy. No big house for us. No iPad for Arielle. No swimming lessons for you. No Disneyland trip in December. If Daddy stops working hard, everything goes away. We don't want that though, right?
Jakey: Nooo...
LeBlanc: That's right, buddy. We don't want that.
Jakey: Do other people?
LeBlanc, taking a second: .... Sometimes.
Jakey, doing the most little kid thing ever: ...Why?
-Alex just sighs, and points at Jake's mother and sends him along, taking a minute to himself before he continues. Listening to his father, Jake runs off and leaves Alex alone. Looking out over the hills and seeing the "Hollywood" sign in front of him, Alex kind of laughs.-
LeBlanc: You know, it's fitting really. That sign. The word "Hollywood" staring me in the face. For the longest time, that word was an insult, a derisive term lobbed at me by family members back in Canada because I had left behind the drugs, the abuse, the drama and the shit that followed me like a black cloud from the moment I was about... 6 until I hit my 22nd birthday.
Whenever I did well, or achieved something noteworthy, the vultures would come out and they would ask for a handout. A car payment here, a few thousand there. In the beginning, I would look out for everyone, because loyalties ran deep. Eventually though, I got burned enough times that I stopped reciprocating. When I did? It was "Alex went Hollywood", "Alex got too big time for us", "Alex forgot where he came from", "Alex went Hollywood".
How funny is it that now that I've finally made it, now that an era of my life is finally over, and I've absconded those people from my life, scorched the earth of all of those who were derisive and claimed that I had big-timed them or somehow gone all "industry" and "Hollywood" on them...that Los Angeles became home, and what was once an insult...became a calling card. Became a godamn badge of pride.
I left Montreal wounded, broken and looking for a place to call home, searching for this godamn ideal and I found it in the one place that everyone, my mother included, claimed I had become a representation of.
"Alex went Hollywood..."
You damn right I did. I went Hollywood and I never fucking looked back.
-Getting emotional, Alex stares a hole into that damn sign, his breathing quickening.-
LeBlanc: I came out to the West Coast unsure of anything. I didn't have anything figured out, I didn't even have my godamn name to coast off of. It was a gamble, but I found myself out here. I landed the best jobs and the best gigs I've ever had, I worked with some of the best people I can ever claim as co-workers, I met the mother of my children out here and I BECAME not Alex LeBlanc, but Alex Noiseux out here, godamnit.
I embraced the grind, and I struggled but I clawed, I fought and I battled every godamn day for the better part of a decade until I reaped what I sowed and I EARNED the big house in the Hollywood Hills. I earned the big pool my kids could swim in. I earned the trips to Disneyland with the FastPass included. I earned the hikes up Runyon Canyon, the cars, the clothes and the stability and legacy that I forged through busting my ass, night in and night out because in the beginning? I had NOTHING but my own fucking drive, and a set of big brass balls that allowed me to take a fucking chance on myself.
I EARNED all this.
-Alex points around himself and then outward, toward the sign and the hills.-
LeBlanc: Now...after earning this, after wanting all of this more than I wanted to breathe, after working hard to obtain all of this through sacrifice and hard work, I'm being asked to not work as hard anymore. To step aside. I'm being asked to become a gatekeeper. To merely bow out and take my spot in the Hall of Fame and a cushy gig with the PRW executives, which some would say I earned as well over the past few years...
-Alex wags his finger a bit, trying to hold back how truly incensed he is at the idea of that.-
LeBlanc: I didn't EARN all of this by taking hand-outs. I damn sure didn't earn it by coasting, by being a gatekeeper or working to any less of a degree than I have for the last few years. I didn't earn it by being an also-ran. I earned all of this by being the avant-garde of PRW, the torchbearer and the catalyst of change and progression. I earned it by being the embodiment of honor, pride and professionalism in an era where there fucking wasn't any. I lead the damn charge and spearheaded the revolution that brought us the single, greatest generation of stars that PRW has ever seen. I didn't do that by taking a check and cashing it after a job done half-assed.
-Alex laughs a bit, chuckling to himself.-
LeBlanc: My own son is being confronted with the question of what happens if Daddy doesn't work as hard. He should never even think about the question because it'll never happen. There's too much at stake for me to merely coast. I have lifestyles to maintain, children and a wife to care for, and children whom I have to give a better childhood and life to than the one I was bestowed with as a child.
What example would I be setting if I merely accepted being the "gatekeeper" some of the boys in PRW believe me to be? What would I be telling my son if I stopped working as hard? What would I be telling him if I stopped digging deep into my soul and trying to not only be the elite talent I've been for the past few years, but the man he's always known me to be?
-LeBlanc leans forward a bit.-
LeBlanc: I've embraced the grind, and I've embraced the hustle for the better part of a decade. I've EARNED all of this, the houses, the cars, the clothes, and the lifestyle by being the most dedicated, fearless and driven sonofabitch that PRW has ever seen.
I'm going to keep coming. I'm going to keep marching. I'm going to keep charging at the top with the same vigor and the same passion I always have.
I'm going to do it because I took the connotation of "Going Hollywood" and I flipped it on it's ear, to the point that today, it represents something much deeper and much more personal.
-LeBlanc nods a bit.-
LeBlanc: Did I go "Hollywood?" Damn right I did, and I EARNED every damn thing that came with it.
I have no intention of ever giving any of it back. Not for me. Not for my wife. Not for my kids. Not for my legacy...
-Alex clicks his tongue.-
LeBlanc: ... And certainly not for theirs.
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- 4x PRW Undisputed Champion - 2x World Tag Team Champion - 8x Cyanide Champion - PRW Intercontinental Champion - PRW Triple Crown Champion - PRW Grand Slam Champion - PRW Hall of Famer
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