This world is bigger than most people think it is. I've seen it for so long, since I was just a young lad back in the village. We used to gather around one tiny little television. Uncle Bapsingh used to have to bang on the side of the TV while Aunt Krishna fixed the antenna. We waited for minutes at a time sometimes to catch a signal. When it eventually did catch, the TV would come on and for the next two hours, I was in my happiest place - watching wrestling live on television. I got to see legends fight at their prime like Mr. DEDEDE, Brian Daniels, Krysis, Jaywalker, and many others. For years I had dreamed about it. Putting on a pair of tights and entering a ring. Hearing the thousands of fans in the arena cheer for me. Getting to fight to my heart's content, to find some purpose in my life. It's not easy in the village. Pakistan is an unforgiving place. Karachi is the most lively city but it's also the most dangerous. Eventually we saved up enough money to move from our village in the slums of the outskirts of the city to the inside. Where the lights never turned off and the grind never stopped. The sounds of rickshaws could be heard all night long.
With better access to more things in the city, my quality of life began to improve. More nutrition means more growth, and clean water cannot be beat. These are things many people take for granted in places where they are not luxuries, but a guaranteed right. I began to grow, and I never stopped. They eventually realized I was a freak athlete. I played many sports in my teenage years. Cricket, rugby, basketball, and I excelled at them all. However, my first love never left my mind. I never stopped watching professional wrestling. As the years went by and times changed, I began to see some new faces step into the ring with those same legends that I grew up on. Newcomers like Nas, Stark, Scott Oasis, and of course... Jacob Senn, began to make their names. These men would eventually go on to become the next generation of legends and still I watched with awe to see what you all could do. Once I reached the age of sixteen and had to make the choice whether I would go on to college or choose a career in sports, it was an easy decision to make. Money and comfort are luxuries. Passion cannot be bought. And my passion, my ambition, my dream - was to step into a wrestling ring.
I quickly realized however that there is no place in this world more unforgiving than the mat in between the four sides of the ring. Tears are wept, sweat drips off our broken bodies, and blood is shed remorselessly. These are things I had to learn and adapt to. Being over seven feet tall stops being a great advantage as it used to be in sports like rugby or cricket. I was just a bigger target. The trainers in Pakistan do not pull their punches at all on new recruits. They hit us even harder. I thought about giving up. I thought that they had managed to beat the passion out of me. That's when I learned though - the fact that I was able to survive all of that and still be able to graduate wrestling school, to earn my first booking as a real professional wrestler, that made it worth it.
My first match, they paid me in naan and chicken curry. I got to eat for free and it was the best damn meal of my life. I earned it. I had finally achieved my dream. I was a professional wrestler.
You see, from a young age, I did not find comfort in the culture of my country of Pakistan. It was too oppressive. Too many rules. I did not want to pray five times a day. I wanted to eat non-halal food. I did not like that my mother and sisters and aunties would have to cover themselves up entirely just to appease the disgusting men who preyed upon women.
I was instead inspired by the influx of American media into the East. I got to see legends as a child. Mel Gibson, Kramer from Seinfeld, Donald Trump from Home Alone 2, and of course, Bill Cosby was the funniest man I'd ever seen. America was great! And of course, all those heroes aside, I got to watch the greatest wrestlers of all time throw down. It was a great time to be alive and a great escape from the harshness of reality. I fell in love with professional wrestling and like I explained before, I found myself on the precipice of becoming a big name.
This is why I said that the world is bigger than most people think it is.
I began to send in my tapes of my matches here in Pakistan to Western companies. I was so excited when I sent those out.
You know what I heard back?
That I was talentless because I was big. That I didn't know how to work. That having a Pakistani star would not be profitable.
It broke me. I won't lie, it broke me. My faith in everything I loved was shattered. I gave up promising careers in cricket or basketball for wrestling. There was no going back. Once you start taking bumps you're locked in for life. I thought it was all over for me. I thought about quitting wrestling entirely.
Still, I was signed to a small Pakistani independent wrestling company at the time and had a few more matches on my small contract in which they were paying me 500 rupees for each match, which is equivalent to about 5 dollars. That was how little money I was sacrificing my body for, but when you really love something and have passion for it, you'd even do it for free.
The turning point for me actually had nothing to do with wrestling at all. I was at an AC/DC concert in Islamabad, one of my favorite bands growing up. That's when I realized... They fucking suck. They just are not good.
Then I realized, THAT level of mediocrity gets to call itself one of the greatest bands of all time? And they told me I wasn't good enough for American wrestling? Why? Because I'm not some five foot nothing white man who can do an armbar in forty different ways? Does that make me any less deserving of a fair chance than anyone else?
I know how good I am. I know they were wrong. That's when I decided if the big companies wouldn't sign me, then I'd FORCE my way to the top. I sold all my belongings for one single one-way ticket to New York City. I began wrestling for free on the independent scene, where the appeal of a seven foot "Indian" monster since they didn't think "Pakistani" was profitable enough, was a draw to sell enough $5 tickets to make a profit.
Eventually I received an offer from a new rising company called APEX Wrestling. Of course I took the contract. They offered me more money for one year than I'd ever seen in my twenty-five years of living. Finally I found a company that recognizes my potential. I don't need to hide or pretend anymore. I have a place where I can finally go all out and live up to my dreams.
And what a match to debut in, against Jacob Senn. One of the legends I grew up on. Jacob, you might have the respect of the industry but you don't have my respect. You're not special. You're just another little white man who gets glorified for mediocrity just like AC/DC. You think the world revolves around your puny American wrestling where you do headlocks on the mat for twenty minutes and call that work-rate. I'll show you work-rate. I'll show you a seven foot man who can hit a Canadian Destroyer as well as slam you down with a powerbomb. I'll show you and everyone else that the only reason men like you were able to become legends at all was not due to your own talent. The magic I saw in you when I was a kid has been broken. I realize now that it's my duty to rip men like you apart Jacob. I don't care about what you've accomplished. The only reason you and anyone else like you get to be legends is because I WASN'T HERE. But now I am, and now things will change.
You may think the name Jimmy Jihad means I'm some kind of joke. I'll show you that it couldn't be farther from the truth. "Jimmy Jihad" is what any of your stupid American companies would have ended up calling me anyways, because you don't give people like me respect. In that case, I'll take that respect the same night I make the biggest debut this industry has seen in years when I destroy you, Jacob Senn.
by MinaAizawa Thu Oct 13, 2022 3:46 am
Subject: Jimmy Jihad vs Jacob Senn, Promo 1 
