Post by Gib on Apr 28, 2010 18:27:10 GMT -6
I have walked…
I have walked along dirt roads, grass and flowers lining the sides of the trail. I have witnessed the blooms growing on the ends of the trees as spring approaches, heard the sound of a brook moving slowly uninhibited by water wheel or someone’s dock. No motor tainting the sound of the fawns drinking, not skittish completely comfortable with their surroundings. I have felt the fresh, moist breeze rising from the rougher areas of the brook, its mist refreshing and cool. I have lived…
I have walked…
I have walked along bitter city streets, people bumping into each other. I have inhaled the smell of exhaust and watched the grime collect on the sides of buildings. I have watched people fight each other over the most petty of things and I have heard the sound of screeching tires followed by profanity laced tirades. I have watched a man pay for sex in order to make sure he doesn’t have to go home to his wife and kids. I have lived.
I have walked…
I have walked along busy highways, open and wide like the frontiers of the western age. I have watched people lose their selves in thought; I have heard the bass pounding from the sound system of a el Camino with flames painted down the sides. All these things have been placed in front of my eyes…
I have walked
I have walked with the giants I have slept with the bums. All the things in this world I have lived through. And that is why I have made the decision I have made. I love this business I love the people in it, I love entertaining people, but I can’t truly continue the path that I am on right now. I can’t continue to fight for a cause that is no longer represented.
I have walked along dirt roads, grass and flowers lining the sides of the trail. I have witnessed the blooms growing on the ends of the trees as spring approaches, heard the sound of a brook moving slowly uninhibited by water wheel or someone’s dock. No motor tainting the sound of the fawns drinking, not skittish completely comfortable with their surroundings. I have felt the fresh, moist breeze rising from the rougher areas of the brook, its mist refreshing and cool. I have lived…
I have walked…
I have walked along bitter city streets, people bumping into each other. I have inhaled the smell of exhaust and watched the grime collect on the sides of buildings. I have watched people fight each other over the most petty of things and I have heard the sound of screeching tires followed by profanity laced tirades. I have watched a man pay for sex in order to make sure he doesn’t have to go home to his wife and kids. I have lived.
I have walked…
I have walked along busy highways, open and wide like the frontiers of the western age. I have watched people lose their selves in thought; I have heard the bass pounding from the sound system of a el Camino with flames painted down the sides. All these things have been placed in front of my eyes…
I have walked
I have walked with the giants I have slept with the bums. All the things in this world I have lived through. And that is why I have made the decision I have made. I love this business I love the people in it, I love entertaining people, but I can’t truly continue the path that I am on right now. I can’t continue to fight for a cause that is no longer represented.
My opponents prove that.
They care only about titles and prestige. I care about what made this business in the first place. I want to tell a story, I want people to enjoy a story, you don’t need to hit a guy with a steel chair to prove how much you hate him, or to show how much you want to hurt him. I have changed, and it isn’t for the better, I have been so wrapped up in the soap opera that I have forgotten why I love wrestling, why I have been part of this business for over 20 years now, why I keep coming back.
For the competition, for the love of sport and for the challenge. There aren’t too many 49 year old men in this world that can say they are the best at what they do, and as many times as Angel wants to say I couldn’t beat him fair and square, he needs to realize that when he defeated me at first, he had help as well. I have beaten the best this place has offered up, I have done everything there is to do in this business and I have nothing left to prove.
See there was a time that I wrestled, and it was recently because I literally had nothing else to do, but now I do. I have a son; I have a son that is going to set the wrestling business on fire. I have a son that looks up to me, respects me and emulates me. I can help guide him, mold him and make him a superstar, something that he has always wanted but rejected because of his hatred of everything I stood for.
I am not bluffing, I am not lying and I won’t back down from this promise. When this title, when this title that I have worked over thirty years to gain leaves my waist, I am walking away from an active wrestling role. Sure, I may pop in every now and then to keep things interesting, I may show up if some little piece of crap threatens the balance in this world that I care so much about. But I will no longer take from my child, I will no longer push his feelings aside for my own pride.
If I step away from this, maybe I can start to investigate some other mysteries that have come back into view, maybe I will be able to make right on so many situations I have been wrong about.
(Gib stands in the middle of a desert, the sun beats down and the remnants of the mobile home he burned down are baking in the hot sun. The glare of the metallic frame is bright and Gib stares, at nothing but at everything)
This was my refuge, this is where I lived when there was nothing else for me. Angel, you must remember, this is where I lived before you brought my son and I back together. I was able to put this memory, this life behind me. I was able to bury it like a dead relative; I was able to put it to rest. And that is because someone showed me what it could be like to have a child, to have someone that looked up to you.
Is that what is really bothering you Angel? Is it the fact that you lost the title or the fact that you pissed on the memory of Xander’s mother and he called you on it. I will tell you Angel, you may have gotten the best of him a month ago, you may have gotten the best of him the other night but soon, very soon you will be looking up, barely conscious at the face of Xander as he pins you, as he defeats you. Whether you want to admit it or not, that boy of mine is going to be a huge superstar, he has what it takes Angel, and if I can’t put you away, then I will task him with it. He has plenty of years left and he will end you, twenty three years young, he will take this world by storm and you have been the catalyst.
It is hard to navigate my way through your recent tirades, my belief is that you of course are so mentally unstable that you are unable to remember what you previously said, you tell me you are going to kill me then you say you won’t threaten me, you tell me that I beat you because of Xander forgetting the fact that you beat me because of Xander.
I think the real skeleton in the closet here, behind the exterior decorative paints on your face you are nothing more then a scared little boy trying with all his might to hold on to his dreams, his dreams that he feels are being taken away, his dreams that he feels are being wrongfully stolen by an old man. And I know, I know it bothers you Angel, I know that it bothers you and Wil and every single other person in this federation that Gib, the oldest wrestler here is the World Champion.
I guess I would be embarrassed to.
This is it Angel, no matter what this is going to be our final meeting because either you are going to beat me and I will retire or I am straight up going to kill you. I know you aren’t as confident as you act, everyone does. We can see right through your paint, right through your false pride and see that you are nervous. Me, I don’t care anymore. I really don’t. You can’t do anything else to me that I haven’t had done to me before.
I think the reality of things here is that you know you aren’t special. You aren’t different. You try so hard with your unique fashion sense and emotionally fueled ranting but really when it comes down to it, you aren’t original, you aren’t excellent, and you are nothing.
I know I don’t have it for the business anymore, but there is one way I can see myself staying around, and that is if I slowly, one by one eliminate every piece of **** that is ruining the business. It is you, and your crucifixions and abductions. You are no monster, just as I wasn’t when I was Homeless Harold.
You are a man… A scared little boy… A spoiled brat…
And just as I burned this memory of my previous embarrassments, just as I torched this mobile home that was the source of so many of my heartaches I am going to torch the memory of Angel this weekend, when I face you I see everything wrong with the world today, when I see you I see what is tearing this business apart. And I will fix it.
If I have to destroy every unworthy challenger to my thrown then that is what I do, and it starts with you and William this weekend.
(Gib turns his back to the visage of the charred mobile home as the scene fades as the voice over resumes)
The American flag is one of the most common symbols in our country; it is one that flies above the most important offices and the classiest trailer parks across the nation. It symbolizes freedom, it symbolizes strength, it symbolizes respect and unity.
Or at least it used to, until I saw Wil Washington display it, now it holds a different meaning. It has a different connotation since it is connected to a cowardly and backstabbing individual, a person that would rather put his face on the television, rather incite the roar of a crowd then allow a man to help his son who is hanging from a crucifix to get him down. Wil, you said I was an inspiration to you, you claimed I was a legend. Is this how you treat the people that made your life possible? You whip your proverbial cock out of your red, white and blue pants and urinate all over them? I was looking forward to our match and now it seems that I am more apt to get involved in another clinic in punching and kicking, using items of furniture to incapacitate one another as opposed to putting on a wrestling classic.
But, that is the way the cookie crumbles isn’t it? Instead of being involved in a mat wrestling clinic now we will find ourselves in an outright battle for survival against each other, and against a monster. Will, it is unfortunate that our battle won’t be what it should have been, it is unfortunate that you are being drawn into something bigger and nastier then what you are ready for.
I used to think you were a hero, a patriot. I used to think that you were different but I see now that you are just another person thirsty for attention, thirsty for the spotlight. This isn’t what is going to make you successful, burning bridges with people the fans respect won’t make you successful. Falling apart every time something doesn’t go your way won’t make you successful and you are so close, you are within grasping distance but the problem with this whole situation is that the last couple inches, the last couple inches of any struggle are the hardest inches to gain, they are the hardest to take control of, they are the hardest to reach.
I have made a career by not letting opportunity slip from my grasp. You have the biggest challenge of your life coming this weekend, your biggest chance to make a name for yourself, just make sure that if it comes down to it, the chance for stardom versus the chance for success, choose success because with stardom comes grace and as we all know things always fall from grace, look at the former Angel. Look at the price he paid for his ego, for his desire to be the prettiest girl at prom. He fell, and he fell hard. The stars that burn the brightest are always the first to fade Will, remember that.
Angel was right about one thing though, I am waiting, I am hoping and I am coveting the day that someone beats me so bad that I can finally leave this business, so I can finally hand the reigns over but Will, I daresay that you aren’t the man to do it. If you led this, it would crumble like the great wall of Germany.
And I would leave it up to Angel, but we both know he isn’t man enough to finish what he started.
This weekend, William and Angel I know that most look at me like an underdog, that most still for some reason feel I am too old, too beat down, too tired to compete at this level but I will do what I have done for the past year and a half over which I have exuded nothing short of dominance over everyone I have take on.
People may enter the ring thinking I am a joke or a pushover…
But they leave with respect and Will, you will be no different.
(Scene reopens to a gym, Gib sits on the top of a balcony area looking down at the people below, Xander kneels on a mat as a group of young kids, probably around ten years of age, sit captivated by his words. The camera zooms over his shoulder and then approaches Xander, who has his arm across the front of a persons body, gripping the tricep of the other man)
Xander: This is called a crossface, pull the arm hard across the chest and your opponent will drop that side of their body down. Then, reach between the legs and connect your hands with our cradle grip.
(He turns the guy over, demonstrating the words he just said.)
Xander: The finish to this move is putting your head into their temple and your knee in the ribs like so, this makes it so they don’t wriggle around so much…
(He puts his knee in the man’s ribs and then releases.)
Xander: Ok kids, partner up and try it.
(The camera moves back towards Gib who has a letter in his hands. He appears hesitant and almost scared to read it. The sides of the paper are aged, crumbled and yellowed in spaces. His hands shake as he looks down once again, he speaks softly and too himself)
Gib: All these years, all this time I have coveted something I had right in front of me. I trained Jimmy Zane like a son, when I had Xander behind me all along. I have gone after fans when really, truly they have never stopped loving me, and I have looked for new friends when Adam has been there.
(He lowers his head, his age apparent…)
I have treated Kelly like a little sister, like family with a level of protection that one would request for a daughter.
When out there…
Somewhere…
I have a daughter.
I have a daughter.
I have walked down most paths of life, but this is one I never thought I would travel down, but now know I must.
(He crumbles the paper in his hands for probably the five hundredth time in his life as the scene fades for a final time)