Post by irobin on Aug 13, 2011 4:21:34 GMT -5
This is it.
Warrior, you have somehow backed yourself into a corner, but that is irrelevant, because one way or another, this all ends at Scars and Stripes. Not just because your career is on the line, but because we’re finally going to meet in the ring as equals, on level ground. No tag partners, no triple threats, no stipulations. It’s just going to be two men slugging it out to see who the best is and it doesn’t need a steel cage or barbed wire ropes or tables for that to mean everything. I may not have been doing this as long as you, but I’ve seen it happen. One lucky chair shot in a no disqualification match that floors an opponent for the count, or a particularly brittle table that splinters, leaving wooden daggers lodged in a fighter’s body. We were both in the five man ladder match at Back 2 Roots where the ladder buckled and collapsed, leaving Danny Tenfold to seize his opportunity and become Pure Champion.
This time, there won’t be any excuses. I lost the submission match because May threw in the towel, in a match that was always heavily weighted in your favour. Did you lose the last tag match because of Roy Viper, or possibly Tenfold again? At least this time, we’ll know for sure, and there will be a result. One winner, one loser, no excuses. No blaming some outside force, your backing group won’t be around, and May certainly won’t. It’s just going to be you and me, facing each other down for the final time.
We’ve come a long way, and for me, being still quite new to this company, you have been a thorn in my side since day one. After all, you were my first opponent in a tag match a very long time ago when I was just a rookie, and you punished me for every mistake I made in that match, it’s incredible to think that this is where we’ve ended up now. I now have the opportunity to retire you, something of an accolade; I’m sure, even if you are just a shadow of your former self. It’s clear to most people that you are slowing with age, and it seems that I’m just about edging things as the favourite right now, but is this a part of your plan? Are you simply bored of this sport now? So bored that you have set yourself a challenge to prove your worth, or walk away before you further harm your legacy?
Is that why you decided to go after me? Was it boredom? It’s been shown that wins and losses don’t matter to you; your willingness to be disqualified has proven this time and time again, so perhaps it is a boredom that comes of doing this for so long. Do you need the challenge to motivate you? To bring out your best? Is that a compliment or an insult? I can’t tell, because on the one hand, it says that you don’t see me as a threat, but the possibility of being forced to retire would spur you on to the win, whilst simultaneously, it might be that you know I can beat you, so you need the urgency of putting your career on the line to motivate you. Which is it? Or is it simply bravado? A cocky act from an arrogant man sure of victory? I will probably never know the answer to this, but it strikes me as a strange move no matter how I look at it. That’s not to say that I won’t relish the chance.
The truth is, I need this win. I’ve been here for almost nine months now, and I don’t really have any achievements to my name. I’ve been in two title matches and lost both, I was a part of the Empire Team that beat Team EUW in the Brand War, but didn’t really contribute much of anything to the cause. In truth, whilst I’ve been here and picked up a decent win-loss ratio, I haven’t done much else. I have a forgotten contract for a Pure Title match, that may or may not be meaningful now that Rivera has retired the Pure Title for his own creation, but that’s hardly something that people will remember me by.
The man that retired Warrior works for me. Sure, it’s not retiring a real Legend like Oblivion, or Xplode, but it will get people talking. It’s something that will be remembered. The likes of Tyreke Bell and his HardKore title reign can be forgotten, even Danny Tenfold’s reign as Pure Champion may be forgotten in the future, but retiring a veteran isn’t so easily forgotten.
Really, Warrior, this match is all on you. You have everything to lose, it isn’t just your match, it isn’t even just the end to the bad blood between us, but it’s your career and reputation on the line too. Admittedly, I’m not a rookie now, and people have accepted that I’m capable of getting the job done in the ring, but for a former World champion to lose to a former model, with no titles or accolades? Well, I think that would hurt your pride far more than any attack I might launch in the ring.
The truth is, I know I’ll never be able to compete with the very best here. I’ve shown a desire to go the distance, a determination not to give up that might rank alongside some of the best here, but it can’t change the fact that my body isn’t built for this. These muscles work, but I don’t have the conditioning, I haven’t taken years of physical abuse. I’ve been pampered; honestly, my muscles and good looks were for show and not for function. That isn’t to say that I can’t throw a punch or throw you, but it does mean that I lack the sheer physical endurance that the rest of you have. I can’t keep going. I want to… But my body can’t.
Maybe you know this feeling too? Perhaps as you have aged, you have felt the strength being sapped from your muscles, or the aches that come after a gruelling match. The feeling of trying, and not quite being capable of doing as much as you want to, knowing that you could have done this if things were different, but never being able to change that. For you, it might be the knowledge that if you were a few years younger, you would still be a dominant force; for me, it’s knowing that if I had started wrestling sooner, I would be a dominant force now. I know that it’s unlikely to happen, because as much as I manage to adapt to this lifestyle, those around me are still working hard, and the gap might tighten, but it won’t close.
I need to make the most of this time now. I only have a few good years left in get my name on that list of immortals, and this is going to be my stepping stone. I will put this bloody rivalry to bed at Scars and Stripes and move on to bigger and better things.
One thing that I haven’t admitted so far is what this ongoing rivalry has cost me. It isn’t just a case of me winding up in hospital a few times, or being kicked out of the Empire or anything so trivial. No, it’s cost me a lot more than that. More than I wanted to admit and, up until recently, more than I realised.
May has left me now. I haven’t heard from her since she walked out of my life some weeks ago, and I don’t expect to hear from her again either. She’s gone, and I know why, she didn’t have to leave me a note, because I should have seen it coming. I could tell before that night that she was worried, and not because she was afraid that I would get hurt, but because she was afraid of what I would do. Perhaps she was afraid of what I had done already. Attacking you backstage, with a pipe… It shouldn’t be my style, but it became my style. It was what you drove me to do. I felt as if I had no choice, but I did. I didn’t have to sink to your level and take such needless cheap shots. I know that now, but I don’t know that I wouldn’t do the same thing again.
How did that feel? I know it registered, I still remember the look in your eyes when you lying on the ground. You had surrounded yourself with allies, you had gotten in with the boss and you were almost able to do what you wanted. It may seem a childish word, but you were the archetypal bully, you held all the cards and could throw your weight around with ease, making other people’s lives Hell with no real repercussions. So, then, just as you felt safe… I brought you back down to earth and reminded you that you were not untouchable and that I was still very much a threat to you. It got your attention, I’m sure.
Unfortunately, it got May’s attention too. I don’t think she believed me to be capable of it, but she had undeniable proof and she did not like it at all. It was the trigger that caused her to walk away, and, as much as I may want to blame you, the truth is that it was all my own work. I didn’t have to do what I did, but I wanted to. I shouldn’t have done it, but I did, and now I have paid the price.
I know what you have lost in the course of your career. Not matches or titles, but things far more meaningful. You lost a wife, you have lost daughters. The things that should have been sacred to you were lost in the pursuit of victories and belts. I see now that I am already walking this same path. I should have done things differently. I should have made May my priority, I should have listened to her, and done the right thing, rather than the thing I really wanted to do. I know now that I made a mistake, but this cannot be in vain. If I can beat you here and now, fairly, with now cheap tactics or shortcuts, then I can stand a chance of redeeming myself. I can hold my head up high and say I beat you the right way. It probably won’t bring May back, but it might at least show that I can do this.
Perhaps it will bring May back to me. I can only hope that she sees my efforts to be the kind of man that I should have been – that she wanted me to be – and that she realises that we might still have a future together. Even if it doesn’t, it might bring back something that I have been lacking of late, and that’s my dignity. My self-respect. I’ve been a mess of late, it’s true, drinking too much as I always do, jumping from depression to anger and back again. I’ve barely been to the gym since the last Vengeance, and I’ve been eating junk. You need only to ask Danny, he’ll tell you that I don’t answer my phone, and when I do, it’s a drunken rant about something. I did fall apart, but now I’m starting to pick up the pieces.
A win would show that my mind is back on track, during our most recent tag encounter, it clearly wasn’t, my focus and determination were not on show that night. At Scars and Stripes, they will be. As much as I’m hoping that May is watching, the truth is that I’m fighting for myself. If I can win this match with no backstage sneak attacks, or in-ring shenanigans, especially if you resort to such underhanded tactics, then I will be able to hold my head up high and say that I won on my own terms, and I did it honourably. It will go some way to restoring my dignity, something that I lost.
And that’s what it comes down to. You’ve taken the best of me, Warrior. Not just taking my best efforts in the ring and withstanding, or even overcoming them, you’ve taken May, easily the best thing to happen to me in recent years, by taking away my humanity. You made me drop to your level to beat you, I became you, and I experienced the same loss that you know, but I was lucky enough to see that. To realise that I must not repeat these mistakes. I have to regain my dignity and my humanity, and whilst pinning you won’t do that, it will at least set me off on the right path again.
You took the very best from me, through months of torment, you have sapped the power and vitality that I was known for, my charisma and drive were crippled, and I was forced to just try to survive in this company with you looming over me. I took a cheap, easy shot to try to level the playing fields, and it might have worked, but it was a trade-off that cost me very dearly. So now, I’m going out alone at Scars and Stripes, where I will right the wrongs of the past, of my past, and I’ll be putting an end to your future.
The gloves are off this time, I’m not interested in playing “nice”, only playing fairly, and that gives me plenty of chance to do what I have to do...
Warrior, you have somehow backed yourself into a corner, but that is irrelevant, because one way or another, this all ends at Scars and Stripes. Not just because your career is on the line, but because we’re finally going to meet in the ring as equals, on level ground. No tag partners, no triple threats, no stipulations. It’s just going to be two men slugging it out to see who the best is and it doesn’t need a steel cage or barbed wire ropes or tables for that to mean everything. I may not have been doing this as long as you, but I’ve seen it happen. One lucky chair shot in a no disqualification match that floors an opponent for the count, or a particularly brittle table that splinters, leaving wooden daggers lodged in a fighter’s body. We were both in the five man ladder match at Back 2 Roots where the ladder buckled and collapsed, leaving Danny Tenfold to seize his opportunity and become Pure Champion.
This time, there won’t be any excuses. I lost the submission match because May threw in the towel, in a match that was always heavily weighted in your favour. Did you lose the last tag match because of Roy Viper, or possibly Tenfold again? At least this time, we’ll know for sure, and there will be a result. One winner, one loser, no excuses. No blaming some outside force, your backing group won’t be around, and May certainly won’t. It’s just going to be you and me, facing each other down for the final time.
We’ve come a long way, and for me, being still quite new to this company, you have been a thorn in my side since day one. After all, you were my first opponent in a tag match a very long time ago when I was just a rookie, and you punished me for every mistake I made in that match, it’s incredible to think that this is where we’ve ended up now. I now have the opportunity to retire you, something of an accolade; I’m sure, even if you are just a shadow of your former self. It’s clear to most people that you are slowing with age, and it seems that I’m just about edging things as the favourite right now, but is this a part of your plan? Are you simply bored of this sport now? So bored that you have set yourself a challenge to prove your worth, or walk away before you further harm your legacy?
Is that why you decided to go after me? Was it boredom? It’s been shown that wins and losses don’t matter to you; your willingness to be disqualified has proven this time and time again, so perhaps it is a boredom that comes of doing this for so long. Do you need the challenge to motivate you? To bring out your best? Is that a compliment or an insult? I can’t tell, because on the one hand, it says that you don’t see me as a threat, but the possibility of being forced to retire would spur you on to the win, whilst simultaneously, it might be that you know I can beat you, so you need the urgency of putting your career on the line to motivate you. Which is it? Or is it simply bravado? A cocky act from an arrogant man sure of victory? I will probably never know the answer to this, but it strikes me as a strange move no matter how I look at it. That’s not to say that I won’t relish the chance.
The truth is, I need this win. I’ve been here for almost nine months now, and I don’t really have any achievements to my name. I’ve been in two title matches and lost both, I was a part of the Empire Team that beat Team EUW in the Brand War, but didn’t really contribute much of anything to the cause. In truth, whilst I’ve been here and picked up a decent win-loss ratio, I haven’t done much else. I have a forgotten contract for a Pure Title match, that may or may not be meaningful now that Rivera has retired the Pure Title for his own creation, but that’s hardly something that people will remember me by.
The man that retired Warrior works for me. Sure, it’s not retiring a real Legend like Oblivion, or Xplode, but it will get people talking. It’s something that will be remembered. The likes of Tyreke Bell and his HardKore title reign can be forgotten, even Danny Tenfold’s reign as Pure Champion may be forgotten in the future, but retiring a veteran isn’t so easily forgotten.
Really, Warrior, this match is all on you. You have everything to lose, it isn’t just your match, it isn’t even just the end to the bad blood between us, but it’s your career and reputation on the line too. Admittedly, I’m not a rookie now, and people have accepted that I’m capable of getting the job done in the ring, but for a former World champion to lose to a former model, with no titles or accolades? Well, I think that would hurt your pride far more than any attack I might launch in the ring.
The truth is, I know I’ll never be able to compete with the very best here. I’ve shown a desire to go the distance, a determination not to give up that might rank alongside some of the best here, but it can’t change the fact that my body isn’t built for this. These muscles work, but I don’t have the conditioning, I haven’t taken years of physical abuse. I’ve been pampered; honestly, my muscles and good looks were for show and not for function. That isn’t to say that I can’t throw a punch or throw you, but it does mean that I lack the sheer physical endurance that the rest of you have. I can’t keep going. I want to… But my body can’t.
Maybe you know this feeling too? Perhaps as you have aged, you have felt the strength being sapped from your muscles, or the aches that come after a gruelling match. The feeling of trying, and not quite being capable of doing as much as you want to, knowing that you could have done this if things were different, but never being able to change that. For you, it might be the knowledge that if you were a few years younger, you would still be a dominant force; for me, it’s knowing that if I had started wrestling sooner, I would be a dominant force now. I know that it’s unlikely to happen, because as much as I manage to adapt to this lifestyle, those around me are still working hard, and the gap might tighten, but it won’t close.
I need to make the most of this time now. I only have a few good years left in get my name on that list of immortals, and this is going to be my stepping stone. I will put this bloody rivalry to bed at Scars and Stripes and move on to bigger and better things.
One thing that I haven’t admitted so far is what this ongoing rivalry has cost me. It isn’t just a case of me winding up in hospital a few times, or being kicked out of the Empire or anything so trivial. No, it’s cost me a lot more than that. More than I wanted to admit and, up until recently, more than I realised.
May has left me now. I haven’t heard from her since she walked out of my life some weeks ago, and I don’t expect to hear from her again either. She’s gone, and I know why, she didn’t have to leave me a note, because I should have seen it coming. I could tell before that night that she was worried, and not because she was afraid that I would get hurt, but because she was afraid of what I would do. Perhaps she was afraid of what I had done already. Attacking you backstage, with a pipe… It shouldn’t be my style, but it became my style. It was what you drove me to do. I felt as if I had no choice, but I did. I didn’t have to sink to your level and take such needless cheap shots. I know that now, but I don’t know that I wouldn’t do the same thing again.
How did that feel? I know it registered, I still remember the look in your eyes when you lying on the ground. You had surrounded yourself with allies, you had gotten in with the boss and you were almost able to do what you wanted. It may seem a childish word, but you were the archetypal bully, you held all the cards and could throw your weight around with ease, making other people’s lives Hell with no real repercussions. So, then, just as you felt safe… I brought you back down to earth and reminded you that you were not untouchable and that I was still very much a threat to you. It got your attention, I’m sure.
Unfortunately, it got May’s attention too. I don’t think she believed me to be capable of it, but she had undeniable proof and she did not like it at all. It was the trigger that caused her to walk away, and, as much as I may want to blame you, the truth is that it was all my own work. I didn’t have to do what I did, but I wanted to. I shouldn’t have done it, but I did, and now I have paid the price.
I know what you have lost in the course of your career. Not matches or titles, but things far more meaningful. You lost a wife, you have lost daughters. The things that should have been sacred to you were lost in the pursuit of victories and belts. I see now that I am already walking this same path. I should have done things differently. I should have made May my priority, I should have listened to her, and done the right thing, rather than the thing I really wanted to do. I know now that I made a mistake, but this cannot be in vain. If I can beat you here and now, fairly, with now cheap tactics or shortcuts, then I can stand a chance of redeeming myself. I can hold my head up high and say I beat you the right way. It probably won’t bring May back, but it might at least show that I can do this.
Perhaps it will bring May back to me. I can only hope that she sees my efforts to be the kind of man that I should have been – that she wanted me to be – and that she realises that we might still have a future together. Even if it doesn’t, it might bring back something that I have been lacking of late, and that’s my dignity. My self-respect. I’ve been a mess of late, it’s true, drinking too much as I always do, jumping from depression to anger and back again. I’ve barely been to the gym since the last Vengeance, and I’ve been eating junk. You need only to ask Danny, he’ll tell you that I don’t answer my phone, and when I do, it’s a drunken rant about something. I did fall apart, but now I’m starting to pick up the pieces.
A win would show that my mind is back on track, during our most recent tag encounter, it clearly wasn’t, my focus and determination were not on show that night. At Scars and Stripes, they will be. As much as I’m hoping that May is watching, the truth is that I’m fighting for myself. If I can win this match with no backstage sneak attacks, or in-ring shenanigans, especially if you resort to such underhanded tactics, then I will be able to hold my head up high and say that I won on my own terms, and I did it honourably. It will go some way to restoring my dignity, something that I lost.
And that’s what it comes down to. You’ve taken the best of me, Warrior. Not just taking my best efforts in the ring and withstanding, or even overcoming them, you’ve taken May, easily the best thing to happen to me in recent years, by taking away my humanity. You made me drop to your level to beat you, I became you, and I experienced the same loss that you know, but I was lucky enough to see that. To realise that I must not repeat these mistakes. I have to regain my dignity and my humanity, and whilst pinning you won’t do that, it will at least set me off on the right path again.
You took the very best from me, through months of torment, you have sapped the power and vitality that I was known for, my charisma and drive were crippled, and I was forced to just try to survive in this company with you looming over me. I took a cheap, easy shot to try to level the playing fields, and it might have worked, but it was a trade-off that cost me very dearly. So now, I’m going out alone at Scars and Stripes, where I will right the wrongs of the past, of my past, and I’ll be putting an end to your future.
The gloves are off this time, I’m not interested in playing “nice”, only playing fairly, and that gives me plenty of chance to do what I have to do...