Post by Deleted on Feb 26, 2024 14:24:07 GMT -6
As the door swings open, I find myself in a concert setting, but there's no one else here. Seated on a navy leather chair, I look out at the empty crowd with a small smirk across my face.
So, why am I here?
Well, because I want to be. I really don't need another reason to be here. I just want to be and figured why not here? I'm already in Shepparton for business reasons - so why not take time to myself? Chuckling, I scan the arena, exhaling.
"It's cute, really. People seem to think they can speak on me. Try and play games, yet they fail to realize that by doing so, they've inadvertedly given me ammo. Bullets to aim in their direction when the time comes for them to stare into my eyes."
Yes. That is a direct shot at the discourse going around online, stemming from Jesse's statement that he considers me 'boring'. I honestly couldn't care less about that. I've made no secrets of the fact that I'm not here to be entertaining. I'm not here to make people like me or pretend that I'm in some sort of circus. I leave that to those who want to claim some sort of persona.
I'm here because I'm a wrestler.
My statements come where it matters the most --- for those of you who mightn't be aware, that's inside the ring. So, if others wanna latch onto Jesse's words, I'll let them. At least it might help them sleep at night or let them believe they are actually saying something instead of just talking for the sake of talking.
Yes, that appiles to Jesse too.
"You see, it doesn't matter what people think of me. Never has. Do you truly think I do this to entertain? To try and get the fans on my side, so that they can turn their backs the moment something goes wrong?"
I chuckle.
"Maybe that's why you do it. Maybe you like being cast aside for the shiny new toy. Maybe it gives you dopamine to hear them chant for you, but it doesn't matter if you cannot get the job done in the middle of the ring. If you cannot go out there and prove you can actually - you know, wrestle."
I shrug my shoulders, a sly grin across my face.
"That's where most of you falter. You fall short when it comes to measuring up in the ring, so you fall back on the ole reliable 'at least I have personality' statement in the hopes that it'll win you brownie points. That it'll make people forget all about your lack of tangible talent."
"Your lack of any qualities that might actually help you when the bell rings and there's nowhere to hide. Nowhere to escape. Those fans aren't gonna save you when the waves are crashing down and you're being swept into the riptide. Screaming into the void, knowing that you had stepped out too deep and cannot turn back."
My eyes narrow.
"That is where I thrive. That is where I am waiting to drag you under and not give you the opportunity to come up for air. Where I am simply going to play you like a fiddle and then finish you when I am done. It is what I have done my entire career. Why do you think I stand atop the throne I do? Why do you think I'm the one they turn to when they want somebody who can stand toe to toe with anybody and come out on top, they come to me."
My smirk widens. It may come across as arrogant to some, and trust me, it is, but it is also the truth. Go look across my career. Every time there has been a marquee name. A wrestler who claims to be at the top of the class. The cream of the crop, I have been the one to bring them down to earth. The one that has acted as their reality check.
Because there are very few people who can truly compete on my level between those ropes. Very few who are as dedicated to ensuring they truly are everything they make themselves out to be as I am.
"It's because when I tell you I am the pinnacle of pure wrestling. When I tell you that my best is the best, I go out there and show it. I go out there and make damn sure that when you leave, you leave being able to tell your children and grandchildren of the clinic you witnessed. One born from reality and not simply a 'gimmick' or an act."
"Something most of you cannot truly say."
I then look over my right shoulder, where a mirror has been placed.
"I want you to tell me what it is you see when you look into a mirror. I don't mean to check your hair and make up, but when you truly look into a mirror. Is it the portrait you truly desire, or the one that you have allowed yourself to pretend to be?"
I then turn my head so that I am facing the 'audience' once more.
"Because it is how you answer that question that shall define just how your legacy shall be written into the sands of time. Are you going to be remembered as the truth you held, or as merely a facade, exposed when the light was shone brightest upon you?"
"The answer lies within your own hands."
A small shimmer is visible within my eyes as I take five steps forward.
"It is you, and you alone that can see it. Can you comprehend it? Can you cling onto it once everything surrounding you has gone up in smoke? Can you keep it close when you are lost within the mire?"
I exhale.
"Time will tell."
It is with those words that I walk off the stage, hoping that the message has sunk in. That they understand that at the end of the day, this isn't about who is the most entertaining or the most fun, but who is the most efficent in the ring.
The one who gets the job done when the lights are on and it is all on the line.
That has been me, no matter what others might choose to believe. It will continue to be me too. That is what they will understand at Tension in Texas.
You can have your games. Your pagentry. Your circus acts --- none of them are going to help you when you're caught in the riptide.
---
I sit inside of my studio, focused solely on a camera set up in front of me. Knowing that I might as well address the 4 people who are going to be sharing the ring with me at Tension in Texas.
Let them see just what they are going to have no choice but to confront inside of the ring.
"You know, as much as some have talked about personality - it appears that they seem to have fallen asleep during that class. Or maybe the dog chewed up their notes - because what they served up as examples was some of the driest statements I have ever heard."
I flash my famed half smirk, knowing that Nathan and Abbigail know I am referring to them.
"But I didn't expect any better. After all, the art of keeping up a facade is futile and cracks are bound to show. Hyprocrisies are bound to come to come to light when you have nothing else but a thin string that is stretching thinner and thinner with each passing second."
"When all you can hold is what you claim to be. Your 'gimmick' as some might wish to call it. Then again, maybe you like it that way. Maybe you enjoy the constant humiliation you recieve when somebody sees right through you and tears away at the veils you have created for yourselves, showing the husk of flesh and bone that lies underneath?"
I chuckle, swiveling on the chair to the right then back to center.
"Or maybe you two are too naive to comprehend it. Maybe you are blinded by your own ignorance and inability to see the truth, even when it stares you in the face. To undsrstand that maybe, just maybe, you're not what you wish to believe you are."
"See, I get it. You have an ego, because you have nothing else. You know that you cannot step to me between the ropes, so you latch onto Jesse's comments. You try to call me boring, when all you did was show yourselves to be uncreative."
I glare forward, knowing these words are likely striking a nerve. Good. I hope they are. I hope Nathan and Abbigail are listening closely, and I hope they try and shut me up in the ring. Maybe then people will actually pay attention to them, which appears to be what they truly want.
"Wouldn't be the first time people who have clakmed something about someone else are that very same thing themselves."
I then remember there are 2 other people in the match. 2 people that honestly, there is nothing I have to say about them. One of them is the stereotypical crazy personality. Something that is as dry and overplayed as the words that left Nathan and Abbigail's mouth, and the other is a martial artist who is world traveled.
Neither of them have poked the bear either, so I'll save my statements to them for the ring. Where it all counts.
"Just know, what is coming at Texas is an exposure. A showcase of what happens when 2 people too big for their birches come to realize that words don't matter. That their little high school act is what is gonna bring them crashing down to earth. Send them into a spiral from which there is no coming back from."
I narrow my eyes.
"And it'll be at my hands."
I lean back. What I have in store for them in a maze from which neither one of them, nor Rylee or Omar is going to be able to escape from. A world designed to peel them like onions and prove once again why I stand where I do in this sport.
I hope this is entertaining enough for you, because I know Tension in Texas will be entertaining for me.
"See you there."
END.
So, why am I here?
Well, because I want to be. I really don't need another reason to be here. I just want to be and figured why not here? I'm already in Shepparton for business reasons - so why not take time to myself? Chuckling, I scan the arena, exhaling.
"It's cute, really. People seem to think they can speak on me. Try and play games, yet they fail to realize that by doing so, they've inadvertedly given me ammo. Bullets to aim in their direction when the time comes for them to stare into my eyes."
Yes. That is a direct shot at the discourse going around online, stemming from Jesse's statement that he considers me 'boring'. I honestly couldn't care less about that. I've made no secrets of the fact that I'm not here to be entertaining. I'm not here to make people like me or pretend that I'm in some sort of circus. I leave that to those who want to claim some sort of persona.
I'm here because I'm a wrestler.
My statements come where it matters the most --- for those of you who mightn't be aware, that's inside the ring. So, if others wanna latch onto Jesse's words, I'll let them. At least it might help them sleep at night or let them believe they are actually saying something instead of just talking for the sake of talking.
Yes, that appiles to Jesse too.
"You see, it doesn't matter what people think of me. Never has. Do you truly think I do this to entertain? To try and get the fans on my side, so that they can turn their backs the moment something goes wrong?"
I chuckle.
"Maybe that's why you do it. Maybe you like being cast aside for the shiny new toy. Maybe it gives you dopamine to hear them chant for you, but it doesn't matter if you cannot get the job done in the middle of the ring. If you cannot go out there and prove you can actually - you know, wrestle."
I shrug my shoulders, a sly grin across my face.
"That's where most of you falter. You fall short when it comes to measuring up in the ring, so you fall back on the ole reliable 'at least I have personality' statement in the hopes that it'll win you brownie points. That it'll make people forget all about your lack of tangible talent."
"Your lack of any qualities that might actually help you when the bell rings and there's nowhere to hide. Nowhere to escape. Those fans aren't gonna save you when the waves are crashing down and you're being swept into the riptide. Screaming into the void, knowing that you had stepped out too deep and cannot turn back."
My eyes narrow.
"That is where I thrive. That is where I am waiting to drag you under and not give you the opportunity to come up for air. Where I am simply going to play you like a fiddle and then finish you when I am done. It is what I have done my entire career. Why do you think I stand atop the throne I do? Why do you think I'm the one they turn to when they want somebody who can stand toe to toe with anybody and come out on top, they come to me."
My smirk widens. It may come across as arrogant to some, and trust me, it is, but it is also the truth. Go look across my career. Every time there has been a marquee name. A wrestler who claims to be at the top of the class. The cream of the crop, I have been the one to bring them down to earth. The one that has acted as their reality check.
Because there are very few people who can truly compete on my level between those ropes. Very few who are as dedicated to ensuring they truly are everything they make themselves out to be as I am.
"It's because when I tell you I am the pinnacle of pure wrestling. When I tell you that my best is the best, I go out there and show it. I go out there and make damn sure that when you leave, you leave being able to tell your children and grandchildren of the clinic you witnessed. One born from reality and not simply a 'gimmick' or an act."
"Something most of you cannot truly say."
I then look over my right shoulder, where a mirror has been placed.
"I want you to tell me what it is you see when you look into a mirror. I don't mean to check your hair and make up, but when you truly look into a mirror. Is it the portrait you truly desire, or the one that you have allowed yourself to pretend to be?"
I then turn my head so that I am facing the 'audience' once more.
"Because it is how you answer that question that shall define just how your legacy shall be written into the sands of time. Are you going to be remembered as the truth you held, or as merely a facade, exposed when the light was shone brightest upon you?"
"The answer lies within your own hands."
A small shimmer is visible within my eyes as I take five steps forward.
"It is you, and you alone that can see it. Can you comprehend it? Can you cling onto it once everything surrounding you has gone up in smoke? Can you keep it close when you are lost within the mire?"
I exhale.
"Time will tell."
It is with those words that I walk off the stage, hoping that the message has sunk in. That they understand that at the end of the day, this isn't about who is the most entertaining or the most fun, but who is the most efficent in the ring.
The one who gets the job done when the lights are on and it is all on the line.
That has been me, no matter what others might choose to believe. It will continue to be me too. That is what they will understand at Tension in Texas.
You can have your games. Your pagentry. Your circus acts --- none of them are going to help you when you're caught in the riptide.
---
I sit inside of my studio, focused solely on a camera set up in front of me. Knowing that I might as well address the 4 people who are going to be sharing the ring with me at Tension in Texas.
Let them see just what they are going to have no choice but to confront inside of the ring.
"You know, as much as some have talked about personality - it appears that they seem to have fallen asleep during that class. Or maybe the dog chewed up their notes - because what they served up as examples was some of the driest statements I have ever heard."
I flash my famed half smirk, knowing that Nathan and Abbigail know I am referring to them.
"But I didn't expect any better. After all, the art of keeping up a facade is futile and cracks are bound to show. Hyprocrisies are bound to come to come to light when you have nothing else but a thin string that is stretching thinner and thinner with each passing second."
"When all you can hold is what you claim to be. Your 'gimmick' as some might wish to call it. Then again, maybe you like it that way. Maybe you enjoy the constant humiliation you recieve when somebody sees right through you and tears away at the veils you have created for yourselves, showing the husk of flesh and bone that lies underneath?"
I chuckle, swiveling on the chair to the right then back to center.
"Or maybe you two are too naive to comprehend it. Maybe you are blinded by your own ignorance and inability to see the truth, even when it stares you in the face. To undsrstand that maybe, just maybe, you're not what you wish to believe you are."
"See, I get it. You have an ego, because you have nothing else. You know that you cannot step to me between the ropes, so you latch onto Jesse's comments. You try to call me boring, when all you did was show yourselves to be uncreative."
I glare forward, knowing these words are likely striking a nerve. Good. I hope they are. I hope Nathan and Abbigail are listening closely, and I hope they try and shut me up in the ring. Maybe then people will actually pay attention to them, which appears to be what they truly want.
"Wouldn't be the first time people who have clakmed something about someone else are that very same thing themselves."
I then remember there are 2 other people in the match. 2 people that honestly, there is nothing I have to say about them. One of them is the stereotypical crazy personality. Something that is as dry and overplayed as the words that left Nathan and Abbigail's mouth, and the other is a martial artist who is world traveled.
Neither of them have poked the bear either, so I'll save my statements to them for the ring. Where it all counts.
"Just know, what is coming at Texas is an exposure. A showcase of what happens when 2 people too big for their birches come to realize that words don't matter. That their little high school act is what is gonna bring them crashing down to earth. Send them into a spiral from which there is no coming back from."
I narrow my eyes.
"And it'll be at my hands."
I lean back. What I have in store for them in a maze from which neither one of them, nor Rylee or Omar is going to be able to escape from. A world designed to peel them like onions and prove once again why I stand where I do in this sport.
I hope this is entertaining enough for you, because I know Tension in Texas will be entertaining for me.
"See you there."
END.