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VAEVICTIS
Posts : 33 Join date : 2022-03-02 Age : 28
Subject: Pavlov's Bell || vs Liz Karlson [ APEX on TNT ] Fri Apr 29, 2022 10:35 am
PAVLOV'S BELL
"The Absolute Top Cunt" Finnegan Wakefield
"Loss breeds something in a man, be it something that brings them to their knees or something that forces them to go that place further beyond.
I’m not the kind to take a loss on the chin with a sunny disposition. This far into my career, past the point of writing off losses as learning experiences, it does nothing but take food off the table. And that leads to two inevitabilities that I just can’t fucking stand; the people bragging that they’re feasting at your expense and the people lining up thinking they’re next to feed. The former of which already has me seething. I want people to take note of the fact I didn’t say the word defeat. The definition changes when it suits the person, and people try to force their own. Despite that being a word that’ll be hot on the tongues of Arata and Senn whenever they speak my name for years to come -- they’ll proclaim to have defeated Finnegan Wakefield at every opportunity that benefits them. In Arata’s case, another tally against me is just fattening up that already bottom-heavy god complex, the cracks continue to show and I can only pray to gods I don’t believe in that I am there when the ground breaks out from beneath him. On paper, he and Senn will take whatever they can to inch closer to the APEX World Championship. Regardless of what their complexes will allow them to believe; neither of them can claim to have brought me to defeat. Higher Power didn’t reflect on anyone's ability to make that happen. Not in that match, hell; not in APEX as a whole. Though I’m not going to pretend that the tally in the loss column doesn’t bring my blood to a boil, especially to the likes of those wannabe divines -- furthermore not being pinned or submitted. I can own my losses, the defeats that force me to adapt and change what it means to be unapologetically me. Higher Power I reject calling a defeat. I’m not the kind to shift the blame for my own shortcomings, but I am also not the kind to bite my tongue and refuse to say how things really were; Hiroto didn’t bring his all. Whatever strength he mustered to best Arata at Inception, whatever fighting spirit made him the honored giant he is in Japan, that was absent when it was needed most. Chalk it up to nagging injuries, being put in an unfamiliar situation, or simply letting the pressure get the better of him to have rendered him silent -- honestly, it doesn’t matter. Excuses can’t expunge the events. All I can do from this point is to close the chapter. Focus on what lies ahead.
That second inevitable. The hunger of vultures.
They see a tally in the loss column, they believe me dead to rites for them to make a statement. Their pupils grow big, and they start to salivate. Like a dog responding to Pavlov's Bell; they think they can beat Finnegan Wakefield just because he’s coming off a loss. There isn’t a doubt in my mind that’s why Lizzy asked for this match. Get’s a win over the wife-to-be and suddenly she feels bold enough to actually compete on the televised stage to pick off the lesser half. I’m going to go ahead and beat her to the punch on that one because that little zinger hasn’t been done to death by now. The past several months of my career have started to feel the same by now, because I keep hearing the exact same thing on repeat. “You’re a shell of your former self since you abandoned being world champion.” “You’ll never reach those heights again.” “You will just live through Alyssa’s FUCKING success.” It starts to become a blur. And in the mind's eye; it doesn’t matter who says it. There doesn’t need to be a face to such ignorance. All that matters is that it’s rendered silent. And Lizzy, that’s the only bullet in the chamber that I know you have. Everything else you can and will say about me, it’s been said a thousand times before in a multitude of different ways, many of which have been said by that dumb cunt ogre trainer of yours. But that doesn’t matter now, does it? Because you, like he before you, crave my attention. Don’t think it has gone unnoticed. Don’t think your little tweet, stating that I should allow you to be a trainer at my Academy but no, of course I am too scared to, has fallen into the endless tides of vacuous crap with the other idiotic “challenges” you’ve thrown my way. They all too blur together to me, all useless bravado asking -- no -- BEGGING me to compromise my values, all with the sole desire to be blessed with my attention. That is why I refuse to address you as anything other than “Lizzy,” as I view you as little more than a child throwing a perpetual hissyfit, begging for acknowledgment that maybe, just maybe, you are on the level of excellence with the likes of a Jacob Senn, an Alyssa Grace -- of a Finnegan Wakefield.
The sad fact of the matter is that you’re not. You’re far too disputed to be on that level.
Being the APEX World Champion doesn’t mean a fuck thing. The championship can not make you. Am I meant to be impressed by the fact you could beat a Jacob Senn who, sick as it does make me to glorify him, traveled the world, competed in high-profile matches across highly-established promotions, and you got to reap the benefits of that fatigue? Or by beating Alyssa; who week-in and week-out came out in front of a television audience, having match of the night and wrestler of the week performances, all while you got to sit in the back, polishing those platinum plates so your name could look nice and clean for the cameras the few times you felt like coming out and being a champion? No, I can’t say that it does. Say what you will about the quality of competitors fed to me before Higher Power -- disappointing I can agree with -- I at least competed when nothing was at stake. I competed like I had something to prove, even when I didn’t. But you? You have the world to prove but can’t be bothered unless it’s on the biggest stages, for championship acclaim -- or in the case against me? Because you see vulnerability, a short-term pattern you’d love to exploit for that little bit of clout -- that moment of attention. And you’ve got it. Because I have no reason to turn this match down; but I want you to remember that I could have. I could have left you in the dark, and the only reason -- I’ll make that perfectly clear -- the ONLY reason I said yes was because of that championship that you have. Not the person holding it. Because I know that you’re a good wrestler Lizzy, you have the potential to be even a great wrestler when push comes to shove, I’ve seen it. I’m not making the foolhardy mistake of underestimating you -- on the contrary -- be qualified or not, I am taking you as seriously as I would anyone else. But you haven’t even begun to scratch the surface of excellence yet. You got awful quiet on Odyssey between an Openweight Title run and second place in Clash of the Titans. The length of your Victory Pro Women’s Championship reigns I find to be pretty telling. And I couldn’t even begin to express the iota of a fuck I don’t give about the revolving door that is any Project Honor Championship, much less their Tag Team Championships. No, Lizzy; all that tells me is that you burn bright, but you burn out fast. You have moments of greatness, but you can’t maintain it towards excellence. You’re having the run of your career; you’re standing on top of the world. But you’ve put that at risk now, sunshine. Because you were bold enough to ask for this match, but not bold enough to put the title on the line -- the outcome of this match won’t bring it all crashing down, but it will be the precursor. To borrow a phrase from you; I’m sure it’ll be a war, mind, an inorexible effort, but I’m not unsure of the result. Because unlike Senn, unlike Alyssa; I have no excuse to lose here, no minutiae to cushion the fall should it come. But I have every reason to win, and now you’ll be expected to fight on my level, contending with the stakes that I fight under.
You’ll come to find that my level, much like being the subject of my attention, is a bad place to be."