Post by The Ace on Apr 7, 2012 12:24:54 GMT -6
The scene opens and we once again see The Ace sat in his Las Vegas home, in what we can assume to be a prerecorded segment, wearing a Will Washington 'Patriotic Punisher' T-Shirt. Behind him is his glass trophy case and from our perspective we see a replica nCw World Heavyweight Championship proudly displayed at the top, above the seated Ace's head, followed by the National Championship underneath, underneath that is the World Tag Team Championship and under that is the now defunct Xtreme Championship.
On the table beside him, at the edge of the shot, placed almost as an afterthought by his eldest daughter Solitaire, is the official nCw Coliseum playset, and stood in the middle of the ring with his arms raised in triumph and a small world championship placed in his hands was an officially licenced Ace action figure.
In The Ace's hands was the DVD copy of Sovereign 2010, The Ace flipped over the cover and looked at the back where all the matches were listed with a little promotional blurb about each one, and then the little box marked bonus features where he had been relegated to, with no blurb just a listing that said: Includes Bonus Wired Webshow Matches.
I knew I was in there somewhere, an afterthought lost in those five little insignificant words, a stark contrast to a year earlier when I had been placed on the DVD cover of this very Pay Per View holding the nCw World Championship in one hand and the biggest grin on my face. The belt still held the name of Jack Hammond, and in the background, looking over my left shoulder was the half sillhoutted face of the 2009 Gladiator - Adam Knite.
That was three years ago, but somehow it felt longer, and I set the Sovereign 2010 cover aside, face up of course because I couldn't bring myself to face just how far I'd fallen in the course of a single year. This time it was the determined eyes of Will Washington looking over the shoulder of Gib, and the longer I held his gaze the deeper the hunger in Washington's eyes seemed to burn, echoing the hunger of Adam Knite that I had been wholly unprepared for a year earlier - and whereas Adam's judgmental eyes had sparked a silent quivering deep within me, Will Washington's determination thrilled me because it was equal only to my own...
As the 2010 Coliseum played on and I scouted the man who was potentially the biggest threat to me this Sunday, not only because he had won one of these before, but because even with my extensive tenure in this company, Will and I had never had the chance to lock up in the ring as opponents ever before, I couldn't help but smile.
As a triumphant Will Washington had his hand raised, he stood there in the glorious high definition of my widescreen television as something I had never been, and would never be, regardless of what happened this Sunday - a Gladiator...
The Ace sat back and addressed the camera from a leisurely, almost too relaxed position.
Will Washington, what can I say about you kid? With you I find myself in the most unique and refreshing position of not being qualified enough to run you down in some ridiculously redundant 'I must trash talk all five of my opponents for the win' fashion, so I'm not going to insult your intelligence by even trying - after all I am not Ricky Johnson, I don't need to cover all the bases explicitly in each of my promos to get my point across. So instead I will simply thank you, because believe me, having a truly fresh opponent to face, some new blood to challenge me doesn't happen very often especially after nine years in this business.
I guess I should also thank you for trying to help set my 'nephew' on the right path, but most of all you deserve thanks for reminding me that this Coliseum will in fact be Ricky Johnson's third such match, and not his second as I had originally thought. It pains me to think that such a man may just have the experience edge going into this match, but then I remember it is Ricky Johnson we are talking about here, and when it comes to men like him and Joe Everyman, experience means diddly because men like that just refuse to learn anything from it.
I think we can both agree that Ricky is just here once again to make up the numbers, the obligatory six of this year's Coliseum, but what Ricky needs to remember is that even though every revolver is chambered for six bullets, a fully loaded revolver only carries five, the sixth is an empty vessel, a placeholder and I can think of no more apt an analogy than that to describe what Ricky's role has been in the past Coliseums and what his role shall continue to be in the Coliseum again this year.
The fact is though Ricky might be content to recycle the same old 'I NEED to win more than any of you' argument that everybody seems to default to when placed in a big time match where they know they clearly don't stand a chance, I will not say I NEED this to reassert my dominance within this company. If you've been paying attention to everything that I have been doing since my return a year ago, you already know I've made my statements, I've punctuated them by laying out the likes of Roberto Verona, Nathan Webb and even Ricky Johnson, so this isn't about making those kinds of statements anymore.
You see Will, I can respect your views on Spike Kane and Ricky Johnson because I share them, and I genuinely mean that - this isn't some cowardly attempt to forge an alliance in an environment where there can never be one, I'm not that stupid and don't let any of these other piddly asses tell you any differently. Anybody who really knows me on any sort of personal level already knows that I'm not going to cry into my early morning Wheaties just because Ricky Johnson doesn't respect me and I mean nothing to Spike Kane.
Speaking of whom, does anybody else find it absolutely hilarious that when Spike Kane is so clearly at a loss for words and has no real rebuttal to his opposition that he just resorts to cursing and taking everything anybody says LITERALLY? Hey Spike, calm down buddy, wouldn't want you to have a heart attack, let me explain something to you alright? When somebody uses an analogy to describe the state of your career, it doesn't mean you should get anal about it and take every word they say literally. Jesus man, when I said Alex burned down your career, I didn't mean it to be taken literally, but given your insecure little rant I can see I struck a nerve to the point where your best retort was 'you have memory problems teehee'.
That's just it though Spike, I don't have problems remembering, infact I remember all too clearly what the legacy of Spike Kane used to mean, not just on a professional level but on a personal one. I loved Spike Kane. I went out and I bought those 'God of Xtreme' T-shirts, the hats, the mugs and the mouse mats. There will never be a bigger Spike Kane fan than me, and it is precisely because I remember how great you were, that I will not allow you to continue to tarnish my memories with this fool's errand that you're on. You don't need this. You don't need the World Title one more time. I don't care how much you want it. I don't really care that you were FORCED to retire, but what I do care about is you and knowing what I have to do to stop you this Sunday. It burns me. I've always been of the mind set that nobody will ever force me to retire so long as I love doing this, so long as I love being the bad guy and believe me, it pains me that I have to be the bad guy in all this, maybe Alex didn't burn your career when he should have, so now it has to fall to me to take a nice long piss on your career to extinguish the flames and try to salvage the legacy you're now so intent on burning to the ground all by yourself. You have nobody to blame but yourself. It isn't Alex's fault that it has come down to this, it's not mine. It's your fault, Spike. It's the stubborn refusal of Michael Patrick Kane to do what's best not only for himself, but for the business as a whole. Is it any wonder your sister has had to work twice as hard to be recognised as a dominant Starlet in this company? She's trying to restore the family name and there you are tearing it down even faster with your retarded temper tantrums and childish insults of how I am a leech and a dumbass. Fact is I just don't care about the circumstances of your retirement enough to spare your feelings and pretend like I understand and that it never happened...
Sorry.
Well, I'm not, but you get the idea. The point is this isn't 2003, your legacy isn't worth spit to anyone anymore, least of all me, you only want me to say that I'm riding your coat tails to make you feel like you're still relevant, that this company still needs you, that I still need you, but the fact is Spike, you're not, we don't and I certainly don't. I'd rather have a less than stellar legacy of my own than one that you can take credit for. You were my way into the major leagues, a foot in the doorway of superstardom and for that I honestly cannot thank you enough, back then you were the guy to know if you wanted to crack the professional circuit, nowadays though its a whole different story, you're just a trainwreck looking for one more paycheck wherever you can get it because you're just too proud to walk away for good.
So the question is how bad do you need the money Spike?
It must be pretty badly if you're willing to lie to your diehard fans about how its all about the adrenalin rush and how nothing can replace this in your life, its a pretty good con, and it would be really heart-wrenching if I was still a Spike Kane fan. The fact is you'll say anything you can to get these sheep to pay your bills, you'll give them that one last little futile hope that the God of Xtreme has one more title run left in him, and this Sunday they'll pay top dollar, they'll sit in the front row, holding up their nice little ALL BLOODY HAIL signs chanting your name all night like good little sheep, but it won't last. Eventually those sheep will go back to doing what they do best, booing their piddly asses off at me because I'll go back to doing what I do best...
Being the bad guy.
Killing the good guy.
Just don't expect to die a hero, Spike.
But then I suppose if you had your way, you wouldn't die at all, you'd want to live forever, just like Nathan Webb, you want this match to be one more staple to the everlasting immortality of your career, just like Nathan Webb you need this to be that one defining match, that epiphany where you suddenly prove to the world that dreams can come true, but the sad fact is though they can, they seldom do. Nathan, I've seen first hand what you're willing to do to get the spotlight so really I'd be the last person to ever count you out of this match, instead I will remind you that the last time you tried to make your name at my expense and steal the spotlight from me, everything you did, everything you went through to capture that one moment, to freeze it and hold on to it like the proverbial ligtning in a bottle...
It just wasn't enough.
Think about it sunshine, is it really all worth it? Not everybody is destined for the top in this business, no matter how much they might personally believe it, just ask Ricky Johnson whose still reaching for that brass ring, or Spike Kane who still believes he has one more run at the top left in him. Having the dream and the belief to be the best is all well and good, but if you just don't have the capability, it ultimately means nothing. Think of all you've sacrificed to get here, I tried to warn you of your folly by making Rose a victim infront of your very eyes and you didn't listen, now you've allowed Amy Marshall of all people to make a casualty of your sister Rose, and you're still not listening...
It's a dog eat dog world around here.
Spiders just get tangled in their own webs.
And lions, well we just feast on the kill we make.
Not as Kings of the jungle but rather as Aces of Evolution.
The Apex.
The scene cuts to a hotel room somewhere in California, she had just got back from a Sovereign Fan Axxess event with her husband and Kathy was glad to be back in her room - she was exhausted from all the photos and autograph signings. She just flopped on the bed, laughing as The Ace went into the en suite bathroom to run himself a bath.
The Ace came back into the room and began unbuttoning his shirt, and Kathy looked up at him and she knew something was bothering him.
Kathy: Tomorrow night you have your chance, you made it back into the main event baby and now you're just one more match from earning back a World Championship, I thought you'd be excited, its all you've been talking about for months...what's wrong?
Jake: Nothing. It's just....
Kathy gets up and walks over to her husband, helping him slip out of his shirt, she lays a hand on his bare chest as he rubs his neck, as the Coliseum got closer a psychosomatic pain in his neck throbbed up and reminded him of another place and another time where he had stepped into a steel structure against seven other men and almost had his neck snapped and his career ended by Chris Kanyon - brother of Curtis.
I had never told Kathy of that night, mainly because I didn't want to worry her, especially with the Coliseum coming up and for all intents and purposes it was the same structure, with the same dangers and the same risks - but whilst I didn't want her to worry too much about me, what bothered me most right now is that the woman who I love, the woman who is my world, the woman who is my wife and has been for almost four years now didn't seem to be worried at all about my personal safety.
Not like she used to be.
Not like Will Washington's fiance was worried about him.
I missed that, and right now I envied Will.
Even though I knew I shouldn't.
Kathy: Just?
Jake: Why aren't you worried about me going into a match as dangerous as this tomorrow?
Kathy looked at her husband, genuinely confused.
Kathy: Should I be? I'm not worried about you Jake because I have no reason to be, I'm not worried because I believe in you, and I know whatever happens out there you will come back to me just like you always do, and Solitare, Domino and I, we will be cheering and we will be waiting for daddy to come home with open arms just like we always have. I learned a long time ago that worrying myself sick before any of your matches or even my own helps nobody. That doesn't mean I don't want you to come home safe...that doesn't mean I don't care....
Kathy takes her husband's hand in her own for a moment before placing it on his chest, so The Ace feels a heartbeat.
Kathy: Feel that? It's not your heart, it's mine, beating inside of you, reminding you with every throb that I'm out there with you. When you step into that Coliseum, I want you to remember this feeling. Remember that I'll always be with you through all of life's wins, losses and draws, just like I promised I would be four years ago...nothing has changed and nothing ever will...
With that Kathy wraps her arms around his neck and pulls him down for a kiss as the scene fades.
On the table beside him, at the edge of the shot, placed almost as an afterthought by his eldest daughter Solitaire, is the official nCw Coliseum playset, and stood in the middle of the ring with his arms raised in triumph and a small world championship placed in his hands was an officially licenced Ace action figure.
In The Ace's hands was the DVD copy of Sovereign 2010, The Ace flipped over the cover and looked at the back where all the matches were listed with a little promotional blurb about each one, and then the little box marked bonus features where he had been relegated to, with no blurb just a listing that said: Includes Bonus Wired Webshow Matches.
I knew I was in there somewhere, an afterthought lost in those five little insignificant words, a stark contrast to a year earlier when I had been placed on the DVD cover of this very Pay Per View holding the nCw World Championship in one hand and the biggest grin on my face. The belt still held the name of Jack Hammond, and in the background, looking over my left shoulder was the half sillhoutted face of the 2009 Gladiator - Adam Knite.
That was three years ago, but somehow it felt longer, and I set the Sovereign 2010 cover aside, face up of course because I couldn't bring myself to face just how far I'd fallen in the course of a single year. This time it was the determined eyes of Will Washington looking over the shoulder of Gib, and the longer I held his gaze the deeper the hunger in Washington's eyes seemed to burn, echoing the hunger of Adam Knite that I had been wholly unprepared for a year earlier - and whereas Adam's judgmental eyes had sparked a silent quivering deep within me, Will Washington's determination thrilled me because it was equal only to my own...
As the 2010 Coliseum played on and I scouted the man who was potentially the biggest threat to me this Sunday, not only because he had won one of these before, but because even with my extensive tenure in this company, Will and I had never had the chance to lock up in the ring as opponents ever before, I couldn't help but smile.
As a triumphant Will Washington had his hand raised, he stood there in the glorious high definition of my widescreen television as something I had never been, and would never be, regardless of what happened this Sunday - a Gladiator...
The Ace sat back and addressed the camera from a leisurely, almost too relaxed position.
Will Washington, what can I say about you kid? With you I find myself in the most unique and refreshing position of not being qualified enough to run you down in some ridiculously redundant 'I must trash talk all five of my opponents for the win' fashion, so I'm not going to insult your intelligence by even trying - after all I am not Ricky Johnson, I don't need to cover all the bases explicitly in each of my promos to get my point across. So instead I will simply thank you, because believe me, having a truly fresh opponent to face, some new blood to challenge me doesn't happen very often especially after nine years in this business.
I guess I should also thank you for trying to help set my 'nephew' on the right path, but most of all you deserve thanks for reminding me that this Coliseum will in fact be Ricky Johnson's third such match, and not his second as I had originally thought. It pains me to think that such a man may just have the experience edge going into this match, but then I remember it is Ricky Johnson we are talking about here, and when it comes to men like him and Joe Everyman, experience means diddly because men like that just refuse to learn anything from it.
I think we can both agree that Ricky is just here once again to make up the numbers, the obligatory six of this year's Coliseum, but what Ricky needs to remember is that even though every revolver is chambered for six bullets, a fully loaded revolver only carries five, the sixth is an empty vessel, a placeholder and I can think of no more apt an analogy than that to describe what Ricky's role has been in the past Coliseums and what his role shall continue to be in the Coliseum again this year.
The fact is though Ricky might be content to recycle the same old 'I NEED to win more than any of you' argument that everybody seems to default to when placed in a big time match where they know they clearly don't stand a chance, I will not say I NEED this to reassert my dominance within this company. If you've been paying attention to everything that I have been doing since my return a year ago, you already know I've made my statements, I've punctuated them by laying out the likes of Roberto Verona, Nathan Webb and even Ricky Johnson, so this isn't about making those kinds of statements anymore.
You see Will, I can respect your views on Spike Kane and Ricky Johnson because I share them, and I genuinely mean that - this isn't some cowardly attempt to forge an alliance in an environment where there can never be one, I'm not that stupid and don't let any of these other piddly asses tell you any differently. Anybody who really knows me on any sort of personal level already knows that I'm not going to cry into my early morning Wheaties just because Ricky Johnson doesn't respect me and I mean nothing to Spike Kane.
Speaking of whom, does anybody else find it absolutely hilarious that when Spike Kane is so clearly at a loss for words and has no real rebuttal to his opposition that he just resorts to cursing and taking everything anybody says LITERALLY? Hey Spike, calm down buddy, wouldn't want you to have a heart attack, let me explain something to you alright? When somebody uses an analogy to describe the state of your career, it doesn't mean you should get anal about it and take every word they say literally. Jesus man, when I said Alex burned down your career, I didn't mean it to be taken literally, but given your insecure little rant I can see I struck a nerve to the point where your best retort was 'you have memory problems teehee'.
That's just it though Spike, I don't have problems remembering, infact I remember all too clearly what the legacy of Spike Kane used to mean, not just on a professional level but on a personal one. I loved Spike Kane. I went out and I bought those 'God of Xtreme' T-shirts, the hats, the mugs and the mouse mats. There will never be a bigger Spike Kane fan than me, and it is precisely because I remember how great you were, that I will not allow you to continue to tarnish my memories with this fool's errand that you're on. You don't need this. You don't need the World Title one more time. I don't care how much you want it. I don't really care that you were FORCED to retire, but what I do care about is you and knowing what I have to do to stop you this Sunday. It burns me. I've always been of the mind set that nobody will ever force me to retire so long as I love doing this, so long as I love being the bad guy and believe me, it pains me that I have to be the bad guy in all this, maybe Alex didn't burn your career when he should have, so now it has to fall to me to take a nice long piss on your career to extinguish the flames and try to salvage the legacy you're now so intent on burning to the ground all by yourself. You have nobody to blame but yourself. It isn't Alex's fault that it has come down to this, it's not mine. It's your fault, Spike. It's the stubborn refusal of Michael Patrick Kane to do what's best not only for himself, but for the business as a whole. Is it any wonder your sister has had to work twice as hard to be recognised as a dominant Starlet in this company? She's trying to restore the family name and there you are tearing it down even faster with your retarded temper tantrums and childish insults of how I am a leech and a dumbass. Fact is I just don't care about the circumstances of your retirement enough to spare your feelings and pretend like I understand and that it never happened...
Sorry.
Well, I'm not, but you get the idea. The point is this isn't 2003, your legacy isn't worth spit to anyone anymore, least of all me, you only want me to say that I'm riding your coat tails to make you feel like you're still relevant, that this company still needs you, that I still need you, but the fact is Spike, you're not, we don't and I certainly don't. I'd rather have a less than stellar legacy of my own than one that you can take credit for. You were my way into the major leagues, a foot in the doorway of superstardom and for that I honestly cannot thank you enough, back then you were the guy to know if you wanted to crack the professional circuit, nowadays though its a whole different story, you're just a trainwreck looking for one more paycheck wherever you can get it because you're just too proud to walk away for good.
So the question is how bad do you need the money Spike?
It must be pretty badly if you're willing to lie to your diehard fans about how its all about the adrenalin rush and how nothing can replace this in your life, its a pretty good con, and it would be really heart-wrenching if I was still a Spike Kane fan. The fact is you'll say anything you can to get these sheep to pay your bills, you'll give them that one last little futile hope that the God of Xtreme has one more title run left in him, and this Sunday they'll pay top dollar, they'll sit in the front row, holding up their nice little ALL BLOODY HAIL signs chanting your name all night like good little sheep, but it won't last. Eventually those sheep will go back to doing what they do best, booing their piddly asses off at me because I'll go back to doing what I do best...
Being the bad guy.
Killing the good guy.
Just don't expect to die a hero, Spike.
But then I suppose if you had your way, you wouldn't die at all, you'd want to live forever, just like Nathan Webb, you want this match to be one more staple to the everlasting immortality of your career, just like Nathan Webb you need this to be that one defining match, that epiphany where you suddenly prove to the world that dreams can come true, but the sad fact is though they can, they seldom do. Nathan, I've seen first hand what you're willing to do to get the spotlight so really I'd be the last person to ever count you out of this match, instead I will remind you that the last time you tried to make your name at my expense and steal the spotlight from me, everything you did, everything you went through to capture that one moment, to freeze it and hold on to it like the proverbial ligtning in a bottle...
It just wasn't enough.
Think about it sunshine, is it really all worth it? Not everybody is destined for the top in this business, no matter how much they might personally believe it, just ask Ricky Johnson whose still reaching for that brass ring, or Spike Kane who still believes he has one more run at the top left in him. Having the dream and the belief to be the best is all well and good, but if you just don't have the capability, it ultimately means nothing. Think of all you've sacrificed to get here, I tried to warn you of your folly by making Rose a victim infront of your very eyes and you didn't listen, now you've allowed Amy Marshall of all people to make a casualty of your sister Rose, and you're still not listening...
It's a dog eat dog world around here.
Spiders just get tangled in their own webs.
And lions, well we just feast on the kill we make.
Not as Kings of the jungle but rather as Aces of Evolution.
The Apex.
The scene cuts to a hotel room somewhere in California, she had just got back from a Sovereign Fan Axxess event with her husband and Kathy was glad to be back in her room - she was exhausted from all the photos and autograph signings. She just flopped on the bed, laughing as The Ace went into the en suite bathroom to run himself a bath.
The Ace came back into the room and began unbuttoning his shirt, and Kathy looked up at him and she knew something was bothering him.
Kathy: Tomorrow night you have your chance, you made it back into the main event baby and now you're just one more match from earning back a World Championship, I thought you'd be excited, its all you've been talking about for months...what's wrong?
Jake: Nothing. It's just....
Kathy gets up and walks over to her husband, helping him slip out of his shirt, she lays a hand on his bare chest as he rubs his neck, as the Coliseum got closer a psychosomatic pain in his neck throbbed up and reminded him of another place and another time where he had stepped into a steel structure against seven other men and almost had his neck snapped and his career ended by Chris Kanyon - brother of Curtis.
I had never told Kathy of that night, mainly because I didn't want to worry her, especially with the Coliseum coming up and for all intents and purposes it was the same structure, with the same dangers and the same risks - but whilst I didn't want her to worry too much about me, what bothered me most right now is that the woman who I love, the woman who is my world, the woman who is my wife and has been for almost four years now didn't seem to be worried at all about my personal safety.
Not like she used to be.
Not like Will Washington's fiance was worried about him.
I missed that, and right now I envied Will.
Even though I knew I shouldn't.
Kathy: Just?
Jake: Why aren't you worried about me going into a match as dangerous as this tomorrow?
Kathy looked at her husband, genuinely confused.
Kathy: Should I be? I'm not worried about you Jake because I have no reason to be, I'm not worried because I believe in you, and I know whatever happens out there you will come back to me just like you always do, and Solitare, Domino and I, we will be cheering and we will be waiting for daddy to come home with open arms just like we always have. I learned a long time ago that worrying myself sick before any of your matches or even my own helps nobody. That doesn't mean I don't want you to come home safe...that doesn't mean I don't care....
Kathy takes her husband's hand in her own for a moment before placing it on his chest, so The Ace feels a heartbeat.
Kathy: Feel that? It's not your heart, it's mine, beating inside of you, reminding you with every throb that I'm out there with you. When you step into that Coliseum, I want you to remember this feeling. Remember that I'll always be with you through all of life's wins, losses and draws, just like I promised I would be four years ago...nothing has changed and nothing ever will...
With that Kathy wraps her arms around his neck and pulls him down for a kiss as the scene fades.
