J-1 Pinnacle - Block A - Round Two - Rogers vs. Thorin

[Kip Whistler]

Round Two in Block A:
Ship's Mast Match - Red Pirate Rogers (2) vs. "Lord" Taylor Thorin (0)

[Red Pirate Rogers]

Pirate King plays and Rogers and the Colorful Crew make their way down the ramp to the Ship's Mast designed ring. There's a large pole in the middle of the ring, that runs up towards the scaffolding and light rigging where there's a crows nest and a long yard arm that holds a furled sail tied tightly against it. As Rogers enters the ring, he bows to the crowd while his crew looks on and then starts to inspect the rigging (a few long ropes down the main mast pole, several footholds along either side of it, and a pair of ropes with pulleys at the end of the yard arms (positioned over opposite corners of the ring).

Mick: Here we go with what promises to be a supremely historic event in the J-1. Not just a J-1 match, but a first of it's kind Ship's Mast match with a full pardon from the East India Trading company concealed at the top of the mast. The winner tonight doesn't have to pin or submit his opponent, he has to capture the pardon. So, Savvy Sean Beeman, I would think that this match would have to favor the veteran seafarer Red Pirate Rogers.
Beeman: That's why you're an idiot, Mick.
Mick: ...I walked into that one.
Beeman: That's another reason you're an idiot, Mick. Look, you can say all you want about Rogers' seafaring days, or his win-loss record, but the fact remains that Lord Taylor Thorin has something that Rogers doesn't, a massive incentive to win this match beyond a tournament. There's a lot at stake here and all Thorin has to do to get it is bludgeon a pea-brained pirate. Given Thorin's intelligence and guts, I would say He has to be the favorite.
Mick: Well, even if we disagree on that, we're in for an extremely unique event!
Beeman: And there's a third reason you're an idiot...if something is historic or unique, it can't be any more or less historic or unique, you're using useless adjectives Mick...get your head together!

While this takes place, Rogers directs his men to leave the ring. Vinny Bambino is the last to go, looking unsure about this, but a hand on his shoulder and a quiet word from Rogers lets Bambino nod his head and depart as well, while Rogers stares up the aisle towards the enterance.

["Lord" Taylor Thorin]

There's a delay, a long delay.  The announcer once again calls Thorin's name, but again no show.  Mozart is playing, but Thorin simply doesn't appear.

The crowd start to get restless.  Red Pirate Rogers in the ring is speaking to the referee who shrugs.  Thorin's theme music stops playing.

After some deliberation with an official outside of the ring, the referee shrugs again and calls for the bell.  He speaks to Rogers, who looks around...is that a look of disappointment on his face?

LERAY: "Well folks I don't know what to say.  It seems the match is underway, just no Thorin.  All Red needs to do is climb the mast and retrieve the scroll."

BEEMAN: "It's a bold strategy by Thorin, let's see how it plays out LeRay."

LERAY: "Red has started the climb..."

The crowd start to murmur as Rogers begins the climb...when they stir more as Lord Thorin appears out of the crowd and jumps Red from behind...shoving him off the mast and crashing to the mat with a sickening thud!

Thorin takes one look at the mast, and what sits atop it before sliding out of the ring and searching underneath it, where he finds a table!

BEEMAN: "GENIUS!!!!!  M'Lord suckered Red in good and proper!"

[Red Pirate Rogers]

OOC: apologies, piloting a new unit gives me far less time to write, since this match has some storyline implications, I’m going to take some time and hope Thorin will write some more too (I’ll post the finish tomorrow after 5—unless someone demands satisfaction sooner)

LeRay: Thorin’s plan must be to knock Roger’s out before climbing but he seems to be having trouble with the table!
Beeman: of course! He has servants to do this kind of work for him!! Besides, no good pirate would have a folding table on board, Roger’s cis screwing him I tell ya!
LeRay: oh brother…

Thor in eventually gets the table set at ringside only to turn around and get hit with a flying cross body. Rogers catches Thorin but seems to get the worst of the table with Thorin slumping down and Rogers flat on his face.

[Chad Shredsbury]

Nov 15, 2023 21:09:32 GMT -5 Red Pirate Rogers said:

OOC: apologies, piloting a new unit gives me far less time to write, since this match has some storyline implications, I’m going to take some time and hope Thorin will write some more too (I’ll post the finish tomorrow after 5—unless someone demands satisfaction sooner)

LeRay: Thorin’s plan must be to knock Roger’s out before climbing but he seems to be having trouble with the table!
Beeman: of course! He has servants to do this kind of work for him!! Besides, no good pirate would have a folding table on board, Roger’s cis screwing him I tell ya!
LeRay: oh brother…

Thor in eventually gets the table set at ringside only to turn around and get hit with a flying cross body. Rogers catches Thorin but seems to get the worst of the table with Thorin slumping down and Rogers flat on his face.

I’d much rather see you guys execute a few exchanges as I’m sure this will be an entertaining contest.

["Lord" Taylor Thorin]

That looked like it hurt both men.

LERAY: "There's something about that table..."

BEEMAN: "It's the Captain's Table LeRay!!!!  Formal invites only!!"

LERAY: "Give me a break..."

Red is up first, grabbing a hold of Thorin's head and smashing it face first into the table again.  Thorin bounces off like a pinball and flops to the ground and begins to crawl under the ring.  Red sees this and goes to stop him, grabbing him by the foot and dragging him out.  Thorin is flailing looking to grab hold of something...

LERAY: "He appears to have gotten hold of a bottle, watch out Red!"

With a crash and and explosion of glass and liquid, Thorin cracks the bottle over Red's head!  Red slumps to the ground and Thorin staggers to his feet, tossing the remains of the bottle on the floor.

BEEMAN: "Captain Morgan's finest Rum!!"

LERAY: "That was despicable, Red is a human man!!!"

[Red Pirate Rogers]

LeRay: After that despicable act "Lord" Taylor Thorin is going after the pardon atop the ship's mast, and Red Pirate Rogers looks down and out.
(The camera goes close up on Rogers and shows a dribble of red running out from underneath his mask and over his lips)
Beeman: There's a real crimson mask for ya...
LeRay: I have to agree with you Sean, Thorin is sore but has made it about fifteen feet up the mast...(there's a cheer from the entryway), what's this now...VINNY BAMBINO! BAMBINO IS COMING DOWN
Beeman: No fair! you don't see Trembleberry there!
LeRay: You also don't see Trembleberry's boss with a shard of a rum bottle in his eyebrow do you?
Beeman: C'mon Trading company it's all hands on deck!
(As Bambino comes down next to Rogers and starts trying to rouse him, we get a picture in picture of the EITC and the rest of the Color Crew in a brawl backstage)
LeRay: It's total bedlam here fans! But it looks like Bambino is getting Rogers up and going towards the ring...but Thorin's slowing down.
Beeman: Ref, interferrence! Disqualify! Disqualify!!
LeRay: If Thorin wasn't disqualified for breaking a bottle over Rogers' head I think Vinny Bambino encouraging his captain can be forgiven...oh my it looks like one of Thorin's goons is on his way down
("Nickel" Nic Blunt has broken free from the pack, but Bambino, satisfied that Rogers is climbing back into the ring runs back and hits him with a spear, picks up Nic and whips him back through the entranceway. The camera goes picture-in-picture again to show Rogers starting to climb, while Bambino looks on mouthing "go on, g'd****t climb!" then switches back to Rogers climbing slowly up behind Thorin.)
LeRay: Rogers is on the move, he seems to be bleeding despite the compress of his mask, and still he's going after Thorin.
Beeman: I hate to say it Mick, Rogers may be a lousy, good-for-nothing, crook...but he's a tough one.
LeRay: No way to measure this intenstinal fortitude, he looks to be about ten feet below Thorin and...oh my god!!!
(Thorin has let go of the mast and falls down, he uses an elbow to catch Rogers, knock the crimson corsair off the mast as well and send them both smacking off the mat. Both men lie bruised and beaten while the fans gasp and then cheer.)

["Lord" Taylor Thorin]

There's a look of almost desperation in Thorin's eyes as he and Red get to their feet, both men take a glance atop the mast before looking again at each other and they meet in the ring fist vs fist.

Blood still trickles down Red's face as Thorin and he duke it out, with Rogers starting to get the upper hand, backing Thorin into a corner where he mounts the turnbuckle...he looks to the crowd who rise in unison...ONE TWO THREE FOUR FIVE SIX SEVEN EIGHT NINE...a brief pause as Red takes in the cheers...TEN!!!

Thorin once again slumps to a seating position as Red backs off and lines him up...running knee!  Oof that looked stiff, Thorin's head snaps backwards but Red's not done.  Raising a hand to wipe away at his own face, looking at the blood that stains his hands.

In the aisle Bambino looks back to the ring approvingly but in the ring Rogers has paused, looking down at his opponent, then looking up to the mast.  Rogers turns and heads to the mast...but that pause has given Thorin a moment to collect himself, and in a desperate lunge sends Red face first into the mast.  Thorin then drags Rogers towards the ropes and folds the top rope over each of Red's arms tying him up!

THORIN: "I have to end you Rogers."

Thorin now turns and heads to the mast and starts to climb again!

[Red Pirate Rogers]

(OOC: Apologies for turning this into a saga)

Beeman: Good luck getting out of that one, ya RAT!
(Vinny Bambino looks disappointed but before he can come to help, he's jumped from behind by Trembleberry and other EITC members)
LeRay: Taylor Thorin is pulling himself up the mast with the greatest effort, he's taken some huge falls tonight and some serious strikes from the former World Champion and he's done it without the interference of his "company". He has put together one of his gutsiest performances ever in the JWA.
Beeman: Every performance is gutsy, but m'Lord is truly amaz--
LeRay: Wait a minute, what is Rogers doing?
(The camera cuts to Rogers who is crouching down and then jumping up...)
LeRay: It looks like he's trying to get out of the ropes by flipping over the top! CanIf  he do it...?
(Rogers jumps again and looks to be almost over...he tries a third time and lands on the ring apron, unwrapping the ropes and ducking out--Fans cheer and Rogers looks up to see Thorin half way up the mast)
Beeman: Not shabby, but I don't think he can catch up to Thorin...
LeRay: If we've learned nothing else, it's not to bet against the Crimson Corsair
(Rogers runs to the turnbuckle where ropes hang from the yard arm, he grabs a rope and kicks the steel steps away, working fast, he loops the rope around the stairs and then hoists the stairs up above his head and into the ring)
Beeman: I bet one of these falls has made him punchy, the steps aren't going to get you up the mast Rogers!
LeRay: I think he's got something else in mind...
(Indeed, Rogers climbs the turnbuckle with the steps, grabs the other end of the rope and throws the stairs again...the weight of the stairs causes the pulley to activate and launch Rogers up towards the yard arm)
LeRay: Unbelievable!!! Rogers passed Thorin! He's closer to the top and the victory!!
Beeman: He didn't climb the mast! He broke the rules!!
LeRay: Two words: rum bottle!

[Red Pirate Rogers]

(Rogers hoists himself up the last few inches to reach the yardarm and climb on top)
LeRay: Rogers makes it to the top of the mast by...admittedly, unconventional means, but he has to walk over to the crow's nest and get the pardon, but Thorin is closing in and he is right by it.
Beeman: See, cheaters never prosper...
LeRay: Didn't you say, "win if you can, lose if you must, but always cheat?"
Beeman: I'm still stuck here with you, I can't have been that prosperous
(Rogers is spotlit, carefully but quickly, walking along the yardarm towards the mast, and the crow's nest)
LeRay: It's absolutely a race now, Thorin going up, Rogers going right...hard to say, but I think Thorin might have a small lead...
Beeman: Where's a stiff breeze when you need one?
LeRay: Thorin has reached the top, he's pulling himself up and over, and he...is...in and he is exhausted! Rogers is almost there, but if Thorin stands up he should have it.
Beeman: Yes! Yes! Stand up and claim your reward, m'Lord!!
LeRay: Rogers has stopped is he letting, Thorin...OH! Cutlass Kick! Cutlass Kick! Thorin is staggered, he may topple out of the nest!
Beeman: No! No!! (Crowd gasps)
LeRay: He's fall--NO! Grabbed by a lunging Rogers! Rogers has a hold of Thorin's legs and with a mighty pull he's got him back in the crowsnest, but Thorin is knocked out, and Rogers claims the pardon! And stands tall! He's won the Ship's Mast Match! He's got a pardon for his piracy! and He's got two more points in his hunt for the J-1 Crown!