During the Meltdown match, a mystery partner will enter and team-up with the Original Pulp Hero. Who will that man be? Will he share Alias’s quest for victory in the vicious world that will no doubt surround them?

It’d be a good idea.

“There are too many ideas and too many people. And too many directions to go…”

April 2nd, 2004

Ted Tallison had watched Adaptation, that Charlie Kaufman film starring Nic Cage, on the short flight to Baton Rouge… and of all the lines that could have stuck in his mind; that was the one that stayed with him. This had so far been quite a long week for Ted, but he was happy with what he had accomplished so far. What made it better was the fact that he was able to accomplish this out of the watchful and stubborn eye of Thomas Murphy and the mouse.

Now convincing Thomas Murphy to let him take a leave of absence for this week, to go recruit some fresh and entirely new talent to the fWo roster, was a prickly situation in itself… but here and now, on Sullivan road, in front Blakie’s Pub, was were he hoped to find the lynch pin to this new talent group he planned on bringing in.

Yes Ted was going to a pub, but hey, the location was the choice of the man he wanted to sign. If Ted just so happened to have a casual drink or two… these things happen. Lasting guilt, it seemed, was always easier to handle with a drink or two.

It’s one of the mysteries of life.

Tallison rubbed his hand up across his pale face and through his slowly thinning brown hair, not so much as a nervous reaction to the impending situation… but really just because of the fact that he was in a perpetual state of feeling like shit. He didn’t feel as confident now as he had been during his tour around All-American Wrestling… though maybe he could play that to his advantage in this situation. Tallison knew, walking in, that this man wouldn’t be searching for the greener grass on the other side. Straightening himself up for a moment and pushing away the ever lingering grief that still hung with him, Ted walked into the Louisiana pub.

Almost instantaneously the man, who Ted had wanted to talk to, spotted Tallison from the left side of the healthily occupied pub. It seemed that this man had been waiting, in anticipation, for Ted Tallison also. The chap finished off the quarter filled mug in his hand while he waved over Tallison to talk.

An identifiable smile made itself evident across the man’s face as he stood up to meet Tallison, again. The two shook hands and Ted let out a small touch of a smile from the corner of his mouth… already a slightly bright and hopeful demeanor evident to him, with the prospect of signing this old associate.

“It’s good to see that you’re blowing past that former glory…” Ted said as he sat in the wooden chair across from this old salt, that he could once remember watching fight in CWL dark matches as a naturally gifted but still green rookie.

“You have no idea how many people are simply surprised that I’m still alive, heh…” The man brought his right hand up and brushed it over his goatee. “It’s good to see you by the way, Thump. What’s it been… ten years?”

“Something like that, yeah. Back when the group of us where matched together, on the southern leg of shows if I can remember correctly. A bunch of eighteen year old rookies, marveling at the slow downfall of Angus MacGregor. You know, it would have been nice if they ever would have found a talent to take over for him, but what can you do, right? Sometimes that’s just the way time works against progression…”

“Hey now… what about The Badger?” The man replied with a joking grin. Both men couldn’t help but let out a little chuckle.

“Then we spent that tour getting squashed to warm up the crowd.” Tallison continued with a reminiscent grin, but remembering what he was here for, he snapped out of it. “Call me Ted though; I stopped being called Thumper a long enough time ago.”

“That’s fine with me…”

“Alright, so what I had tracked you down about in the first place… was to talk to you about signing a contract with the Fans Wrestling Organization.” Ladies and gentlemen the small talk portion of this little meeting was now over with… because it was time to play ‘let’s make a deal’. Ted Tallison drew a contract from his jacket pocket and slid it across the table.

The man that sat across from Ted Tallison leaned forward in this bar chair, resting his tattooed arms on the battered table top. He looked down at the fWo contract in front of him, contemplating the situation.

“You realize I have other commitments, right?”

“Something that I’ve already taken into account… Ruaah and Uprising won’t conflict with your other show. I was thinking that you wouldn’t mind an open contract, anyway.”

“Never had anything different.”

“Salary will—“

“Salary’s something we can decide on later, Ted. First let me agree to terms without a cash incentive… and then we can go from there. How’s Disney going to play into what I can and can’t do?” The man questioned, his face was without emotion, as to ascertain which way he was leaning on the signing. He straightened up the cuff of his crisp black and white suit… the type of suit that you’d expect in a Tarantino film.

“Disney… that’s the interesting part to the whole deal, actually. They want to keep there fingers in everything, they want to have a position on every decision made, hell we’re running out of the Mouse House because Disney wants to keep the fWo on a short leash. It’s an interesting situation to say the least… but the large percentage of them can be swayed this way or that way, if the chance arises. There more concerned with the profit coming from us, then the product.”

The man was taken back a bit by Ted Tallison’s blunt response. “So what else do you want to warn me about, so I’ll keep away?” He replied with a smirk.

“Wait until you meet Thomas Murphy.”

A chuckle came from the man, he wondered what kind of guy Murphy could be to garner that kind of response. Once again, the man ran his rough hand through his blonde goatee. This was a major decision… he had to put serious thought into it.

“So why me, Ted? Why ink a contract with me when I’ve got a shaky past, a present that’s been successful only to those who’ve paid attention to the scope of the wrestling landscape and a future that’ll at the very least be exhaustive?”

It really was a mystery, what would bring him to the FWO that first time around.

Ted leaned back in his seat… looking to collect his own thoughts. He always hated the hard sell, though it was something he’d like to think he’d learnt from Silver Fox.

“What can I say… you’re a fresh face. Not only a fresh face but someone with evident energy, viable talent in the ring and your bankable to far enough point when it comes to the recognition you garner. You’d be the best possible de facto leader for the new talent coming in. So yeah, that’s probably why. We can restore some order back to the fWo.

You might not believe it either, but you’ve even got at least a good five years to a decade more to give to the community if you wanted. I’ve even assumed all the responsibility for insurance purposes… just incase you get injured while working a non-fWo show. Now will you sign on, Chris?”

The man thought about Ted Tallison’s offer, but only for a moment. His lips curled to left in a smile that was full of hope for the future, with hope maybe even for that ‘better world’ everyone use to talk about.

“Sure thing.”

The smoke ashes rustled in Alias’s throat.

The man himself was a mystery. A surprise. Certainly unexpected… whether it was the way he first entered the FWO, or when he returned along side Karina Wolfenden. The way he won his first FWO Championship as part of a team. The team. Of a new of FWO. Odd how some things work out.

So what would that mean for his mystery partner revealed later tonight? What else would they have in common with Whiskey Jack?

More then you would imagine.