"I've Already Been...."

Posts : 6 Join date : 2022-03-21

What do you do when you’ve worked so hard to climb your way to the top, give everything that you’ve had only to watch everything fall to pieces in front of you? What is there to do when the fight you were pressing so hard for winds up consuming you, blowing you all the way back to where you started your destination?

You dust yourself off and keep going. People know by now what I’ve been up to since I lost my title to Big Bad Judy a while back. The part about the situation with the Next Level Championship that’s a little curious to me is that I wasn’t even involved in the decision in that triple threat match but the WOMAN THAT GOT PINNED is IN THE CONTENDERS MATCH FOR THE TITLE THAT I DIDN’T EVEN ACTUALLY GET BEATEN FOR. It’s absolutely crazy. Oh well, such is life. Back on track, I spent my time wrestling in the Southwest Wrestling Syndicate and they had this awesome tournament for the Queen’s Cup. You know who won and got a nice little tiara and got to wear a prom dress before challenging their interim and actual champion to a match for all the gold?

THAT PRETTY BITCH RIGHT THERE!

I remember the first time I lost some championship gold, I went psycho, shaved my hair, hired a big fucking bodyguard and was hellbent on gaining gold again. I was fueled by anger, the feeling that I had regressed and let myself and people who appreciate what I was doing down. But you know what, that first taste of defeat with gold in my hands inspired me. It taught me that I had hubris, some weaknesses that had to be sorted through. And while I don’t believe obviously in the prospect of getting perfect, I’ve learned more and more every time I’ve lost.

I’ve not been just sitting around since I lost my title. I’ve been “in the lab” as they say, working on my chosen craft. I’ve been managing my protege in OWA, making sure that he doesn’t kill himself by doing crazy shit like jumping off of high spots to do leg drops on people laying on top of chairs! I’m learning more and more about this weird little business from all sorts of angles…and that’s bad news for all of you. I’ve even decided to give tag team wrestling a shot for a while. Finnegan Wakefield’s dance card looks full, Big Bad Judy has some challengers heading her way and I apparently don’t feature in any of those plans, so why not give tag team wrestling a shot? I was rooting for Chelsea Creed to win the Next Level Championship, but she came up short. She’s a stand up kinda girl, I’m pretty decent in the ring, so why not team up for a while?

Now, we haven’t decided on anything like a nickname or team aesthetic or all the usual shit, but I think we’ll gel quite well. But it looks like we’re going to have to wait just a little while for that team's debut because I’ve got a date with one of the people who participated in the Sovereign Cup: Harvey Kennedy. I watched his match and I have to say I walked away with the impression that the guy has a very bright future ahead of him. He gave the guy who went on to win that tournament, C, a very tough time. But here’s the thing that startled me when I was digging up some study on the guy.

He’s got pinfall victories over Aren Mstislav AND Christopher Sabertooth. There’s not that many people here in APEX or in the wrestling world in general who can say that. Sure, some people can say both of the wins were a little sketchy because both men were distracted. Fair point. But in this line of work, you’ve got to be able to take advantage of things that pop up out of nowhere that have nothing to do with you. As wrestlers, hell any athlete in any sport, we’re not going to just run roughshod over all of the opposition, all the time. You have to win with a little luck, you have to win with attrition sometimes. And with some of the close calls I’ve had in my career I understand getting lucky breaks here and there better than anyone, so no judgment. But the win over Sabertooth is the one that has me curious, that’s what has me interested in this guy. Anyone who is able to get a win on that guy, fair or foul, is pretty fucking good. It makes me well aware that if my head is not in the game at any time, I can wind up another name on this guy’s hit list that’s crossed off.

I’m not about to just allow that to go down, especially in front of my partner.

I can relate to this guy on a few levels. First, I too have a fairly dubious pinfall win over Sabertooth! Second, I can understand what it’s like wrestling under shadows cast by others. No matter where I go, no matter what promotion I’m wrestling in, most people absolutely fucking LOOOOOOOVE taking digs at my mentor or me. They love saying that I’m no good, that Carlos wasted his time training the little collegiate water polo player and bar hostess from the Palisades. You could say that everything that I do is in one of the greatest shadows ever cast, like a little worker ant in the shadow of the Colossus of Rhodes. I understand that he has a hunger, a drive that people may not understand. I do though. He’s working towards his dream, what he feels is his rightful place.

The main problem, for Harvey at least, is that I’m built the same…yet different. I understand looking to make a name for yourself. I was slumming it out just a little more than two years ago on the independent scene in California before I made good on a mentor’s promise. The first federation I stepped into, I was an unknown, untested commodity. People questioned if I could beat a seasoned MYOJIN. I tapped them out. People questioned if I could overcome men and women who were everything from rookies to megastars to outright legends in a match so insane they called it DreamScape. I won it. And with the right afforded to me, I stepped to the baddest motherfucker I could find and told him, “You’re good….but I’m better. I want what you have and I’m going to take it from you.”

And that’s how I became WrestleWorld’s Shogun Champion…while being undefeated there.

You talk a hell of a lot, Harvey. And you’ve shown promise. But there are levels to making a name for yourself. Shit, in my debut HERE I beat the asses of three random guys to win something in my debut. Now people can poo poo on that all they like, but only two people in this company can say they walked in here and won a title straight away. I did that.

I’m very, VERY guilty of hyping myself up. Sometimes maybe a little bit too much. But there’s one thing that I do know:

There’s not a soul walking this earth that’s more motivated than I am after a setback.

Everywhere I go, I hear speeches about how “This isn’t WrestleWorld, this isn’t Apex Wrestling, this isn’t Project Honor, this isn’t SWWS, this isn’t Random Joshi Promotion #75.” Places change. Opponents change. Title divisions change. The size of the crowds fluctuate. The countries vary on a nightly basis. But you know what the ONE Constant of everything that has happened in my career?

Me.

I’m called the Platinum Standard for a reason. And there’s a long motherfucking list of boys and girls who thought they could measure up because they “wanted it real bad” or they knew some exploding nutsack technique they learned in a Shaolin Monastery or whatever the hell the lame ass origin story is. Is every title reign of mine the stuff of legend? Frankly…no.

But there’s another constant to my career: When gold leaves my hands, more falls into them at a very alarming pace. Because I don’t just wait to impress people and bide my time with my skills, I put myself on the front line and REACH FOR WHATEVER I WANT. And that’s why little ole Emmy, the little worker ant standing in the shadow of the Colossus of Rhodes that is Carlos Rosso, found her way to the top of the mountain Every. Fucking. Where. She. Goes.

So I fell down from the summit. What you have to Understand, Harvey, and what everyone else around here should understand is that I don’t fall to the bottom and just lay down there.

I get my pretty little ass up and soar back to the top…while you’re still struggling to climb to get where I’ve already been.