Post by The Ace on Feb 11, 2013 15:22:09 GMT -6
After Collision
02/10/13
02/10/13
Jn the office of the Head of the Starlets, we see the the new and now two time Starlets World Champion, Jenny Williams, surrounded by Callie Jacobsen, Kathleen Conway and the head of the Starlets himself, The Ace. He pops the cork on some champaigne to many cheers from the small group and as it is sprayed over her in celebration, Jenny squeals in delight.
Callie: Congratulations Jenny...
Kathy: That was a hell of a match out there...
The Ace: Come on guys, did you really expect anything less from the second longest reigning Starlets World Champion in NCW history?
The Ace grins, as Jenny admires the Starlets World Championship on her shoulder.
Jenny: Thanks guys. I can't wait to go and celebrate with Xander...
The Ace: Forgive me, we won't keep you long, I promise. I just wanted to congratulate you personally. You once again represent this company as the face of the entire division, but you also represent so much more than that now. You represent the integrity of this office, you represent the crown jewel of my tenure in this position, but most of all you represent me every time you go out there and wrestle, it doesn't matter whether that title is on the line or not, I want you to remember that. You are a symbol of excellence. You are my Queen...
Jenny: I will not let you down Mr Conway.
The Ace: Please call me Jake, my dear...
Jenny: I will not let you down Jake.
The Ace: I know you won't because you've earned this...
The Ace then reaches into his pocket and pulls out a playing card. He hands it to Jenny face down. She flips it over and raises an eyebrow. The Queen Of Spades.
Kathy: Welcome to the kingdom...
Jenny looks a little confused, but shrugs it off.
Jenny: Erm, thanks I think...
The Ace: Think nothing of it, my dear. You went out there tonight and meant business. You got the job done and such diligence deserves to be rewarded, and rewarded you shall be. You will go one on one next week with the woman you pinned to earn back your crown...Jasmine Barrera. Non title of course.
Jenny smiles.
Jenny: No problem.
At this point, taking full advantage of The Ace's open door policy, in walks Emma Danielson. She looks around and sees the champaigne celebration to which she was apparently uninvited. Emma raises an eyebrow as The Ace pats Jenny on the back.
The Ace: Now go party with Xander, I wouldn't want to be accused of keeping you from him. You may be my Champion, but you are his woman and I value my teeth too much to have them forcibly removed by somebody who isn't a qualified dentist.
Jenny saunters off, with a huge smile across her face, she looks again at the Queen of Spades in her hand as she leaves.
Emma steps forward.
Emma: What's going on here, Jake?
The Ace: Ah Miss Danielson, let's try and keep it formal in this office shall we? I'm your boss, the Head of the Starlets Division, try Mr Conway next time.
Emma raises an eyebrow at the cold demeanor she was suddenly getting off the man she had started to grow close to over the last few weeks. Emma looked at Callie, then at Kathy who smirked at Emma in her typical alpha bitch type of way. It started to crystallise for Emma that Kat had made sure she still had her claws in her man. Emma puts her hands on her hips and indulges him with a sigh.
Emma: I'm sorry Mr Conway, what is going on here?
The Ace: A celebration. A coronation of my Queens. You just saw the Queen of Spades. I'd like to introduce you to my Queen of Clubs...
The Ace gestures to Callie Jacobsen who holds up a Queen of Clubs playing card and smiles.
The Ace: And of course, you already know my Queen of Diamonds...
The Ace gestures to his wife, Kathleen Conway who waves her Queen of Diamonds playing card, condescendingly in Emma's face. The Ace then holds up a Queen of Hearts.
The Ace: And if you want to earn your crown Emma, if you want to continue to represent my good name as my Queen of Hearts, I would suggest you start showing some and actually do the job we pay you to do. You whined about not being booked consistently, and now you have been for several weeks, I expect my investment in you to be returned. Go out there and win once in a while and try to do it without needing my wife to watch your back. Kathleen has made enough sacrifices to give you your moment in the spotlight and now its time to prove you are worthy of all you have been afforded. I'm a fair man, I will give you one more chance at redemption. Next week, you will face Mercedes Vargas one on one. Show her the Queen of Extreme and I will show the world my Queen of Hearts....
Emma says nothing. She struggles with her emotions. She wanted to tell Jake Conway that she was not doing this for the money nor the recognition, at least not anymore. Instead she only managed to let two words escape her.
Emma: I will.
Jake nods. Emma then turns to Callie.
Emma: And what the hell have you ever done to earn your crown?
Callie: Simple Miss Danielson. I've done my job.
Emma sneers at Callie and turns away before taking her leave. Callie follows her out but we are unsure if any further words will be exchanged between the two women or whether they will go their separate ways. Kathy steps forward and shuts the door behind Callie, she leans up against the door and cocks her head at her husband, her eyes sparkling like little blue diamonds in a come hither stare that she knew her husband was helpless to. Jake Conway stepped forward, putting a palm flat against the door as he looked at his wife.
Kathy: That's cute you know, the whole four Queens thing...
Kathy lets her hands wander to her husband's crotch. She cups him gently and he flinches slightly, not expecting it.
Kathy: But we both know who has always had you by the crown jewels....
Kathy then smirks as she releases him gently, taking satisfaction in his sigh, she puts her arms around his neck and pulls him down for a kiss. They lock lips and The Ace submitted to his Queen for whom no crown could ever do her justice...
Despite popular opinion around here, I'm not an idiot. I know how this business works, every other week somebody seems to come back to NCW and be hailed a legend upon their return, and if not, don't worry, just because nobody will blow their trumpet for them, they'll quite happily blow their own. They'll tell you point blank of just how legendary they are, what they managed to achieve when they were last here, and sometimes, sometimes, when they're really reaching to pull something out of their piddly ass and give you a reason why you should still care, they'll go back four or five years to make their barely relevant points and hope that people will still buy it.
And the truly remarkable thing is that they often do. See as much as wrestlers will often tell you that this is a very "What have you done for me lately?" kind of business, there is a lot that can be said about the good old fashioned nostalgic pop. Jack Hammond proved it when he popped up quite literally out of the blue it seems, and this past week, the crowd in Louisanna proved it when they popped for the surprise return of Trent Helms.
Maybe it's just me, but after ten years in this business, nothing really surprises me anymore. Everybody seems to return eventually, the perpetual comeback seems to be an oveplayed cliche in this business. In no other line of work can you return to a job you quit, retired or were fired from and still expect to receive a hero's welcome. In no other line of work can you still be considered a valued employee and still part of the team, yet in the business of professional wrestling it all seems to be par for the course.
Nobody ever truly leaves this business and has the good sense to stay gone, even when they really should. I accept that because I have to, so yes, I will accept that Trent Helms is back, but it doesn't mean that I have to accept his reasoning for coming back. You see I'm not one of the bleating sheep, I will not hoot and holler for the return of one of your heroes, even though being in the back, listening to Helms last week, I really wished I could have.
I wish I could have got caught up in the nostalgia, I wish I could have dyed my hair purple in celebration and taken the express shuttle to Planet Helms, but then I realised, as you all will, when you're brought back down to Earth, and after the euphoria subsides that this Trent Helms is not the same man you think he is, the one you want him and need him to be. He admitted that much himself if you idiots would have stopped cheering and really listened to what your hero had to say. Go back and watch it if you don't believe me.
I never believed the day would ever come when I would have yearned to face everybody's favourite spot monkey, the purple permed primate parriah, but here we are. Imagine the war of words we could have traded back and forth. I could have told you I was the Apex of Evolution and you could have dismissed me as a worthless primate who was pushing forty and made enough pop culture references and dazzled audiences with the special effects and overproduced schlock they've come to expect from you.
And if that failed to get you over, you could have always brought back pancake nipples and had her say some disparaging things towards my wife because she still has her rather substantial cups crossed about how she was beaten by my wife for the Starlets Tag Team Championships once - that would have actually all but guaranteed you another pop for nostalgia's sake, especially considering that those titles are now defunct, much like your relevance in the NCW of 2013.
You've campaigned to be in the Hall of Fame, you've waged your wars with your long time friend and once upon a time tag team partner, Adam Knite, and when all of those endeavours were proven to be fruitless and you were knocked back on your worthless backside, you took your hiatus and now you're back for one more run, and because deep down you know you're entirely irrelevant to the here and now and because you know Adam Knite will no longer put himself on the line to keep your piddly ass relevant, you are back to make a plea to the only other man who ever considered you a friend, Steve Awesome.
My former tag team partner. The man who was left laying flat on his back outside an arena and nobody in his bleating fan base even questioned what the hell happened that night. That's how much the fans care, that's how long their memories are.
Steve actually took that time to reconsider his whole career path after that attack. He learned responsibility. He learned where he belonged. Mandi Matthews popped him out a daughter and he tumbled even further down the rabbit hole. As much as some critics want to claim we manufacture drama and conflict for the cameras in this business, Steve decided to go all the way and get all his stuff scripted by Hollywood writers instead of regular old Billy Bob Thomas in the NCW creative offices down in Dallas like the rest of the no talent hacks that think all it takes to be a wrestler is a tight pair of trunks and a killer catchphrase.
Steve Awesome isn't here to entertain all the masses and kick all the asses anymore, he's here to promote his movies, to bolster his ego and to generally phone it in until A Night To Remember when he can have his big match, you know the one that actually matters, the one that keeps his undefeated streak alive for another year.
The Ace suddenly and rather unexpectedly spits at the camera, it dribbles down the lens as he speaks.
It makes me sick. It really does. When men with legitimate wrestling streaks, men who wrestled week in and week out and never left are booed out of the building and sporadically booked or even worse having their integrity questioned by little piss ants like Nathan Webb whilst men who are undefeated at a single PPV are lauded and celebrated and cheered. Given concessions they damn well don't deserve.
I don't care if it's the single biggest Pay Per View of the year, it's still a slap to my face, Xander's face and our World Champion Roberto's face when returning Johnny Come Latelys like you Trent and your buddy Steve think you can just waltz back in here and expect to still be owed something. Expect to be remembered. Expect to be given a damn about.
The Ace steps forward and finally wipes the spit from the camera with a handkerchief. He looks directly into the camera as he steps back.
Let me clear one thing up for you right now Trent, the only profitable collaboration you could possibly make with Steve Awesome the movie star at this point in your respective careers is if you offered to do the special effects for his next Hollywood project. Steve doesn't care about the business, or the fans, and he damn sure doesn't care about you. NCW is a vehicle to help him market his big dumb action movies.
Hell if he couldn't be bothered to pound someone like Caleb Lockwood into the canvas at Metamorphosis, what makes you think he cares enough to help you take this company over, to take it back from the younger stars? Only one thing in NCW matters to Steve, and it isn't carrying your purple follicled ass back to glory for you because you no longer possess the talent or ability to do it yourself.
Dismiss my words as the irrelevant squawks of a parrot if you want, it'd fall right in line with the rest of your outdated material I'm sure, but the fact remains, whatever you think of me Trent, whatever you presume, I'm also the man on the roster who knows Steve Awesome better than anybody else in this company.
The reunion you seek will only happen if you can prove that it'll be of some benefit to him and his ultimate goal of attempting to remain undefeated at A Night To Remember. Maybe you can promise him victory, or maybe just maybe he'll tell you to go screw yourself with an anal probe once he realises that your latest endeavour is every bit as limp as the wrist I once helped him break...
The Ace smiles.
Ahhh there it is, the warm nostalgia of my favourite Trent Helms moment. That's the feeling I was looking for last Sunday, instead all I felt was disappointment. Before this past Sunday I would have told the world that I'd happily take the opportunity to face Trent Helms one on one because if there was one thing I could count on it would be the uniqueness of the challenge he presented.
Little did I know that Trent Helms would actually come back to NCW to be the latest Robby Revolutionary. How tiresome. Another man looking to wrestle power away from the pretty little blonde, forgive me if I'm not absolutely riveted by your quest Trent. Forgive me for not throwing my fist in the air in a show of triumph and utter defiance, still feeling the effects of the Den you know.
The Ace yawns, a very visual display of his thoughts on a returning Trent Helms.
I find it all very telling of what kind of a man you really are Trent when rather than tend to Ashlie, the mother of your child, rather than accept your real responsibility as a father, you'd come back here and try to take responsibility for saving the company. A company that doesn't need saving, and doesn't need you.
Ashlie needs you and you've abandoned her for this foolish errand, maybe even with her blessing because you've convinced her that this is what you love to do, but do you really love this more than you love her? Because from where I'm standing, it sure seems that way. Feel free to lie to me. Feel free to lie to your fans. Feel free to lie to Steve. Feel free to lie to Ashlie. It wouldn't be the first time people have brought lies even when the truth is staring them in the face.
There's an undeniable comfort to be had from sleeping with your head upon the satin pillow of lies, until you smell smoke. Until it chokes you and snaps you out of your slumber, and you squint and you see a dragon standing overhead, convinced it isn't real until it breathes and burns you with the truth. The truth that if you want to try and start a fire, you must first be prepared to burn.
In a perfect world, this comeback story would have Trent Helms redefine and reintroduce himself at my expense, after all what better way to get Steve's attention and really make your case crystal clear by defeating a three time National Champion and the man Steve Awesome revolutionised the tag team division with five years ago.
That was Steve's last great revolution. There will not be another. If you insist on being plugged back into the NCW machine Trent, then you have to accept that you're just another cog that keeps the whole thing spinning.
Many men have declared themselves to be the wrench in the works of this company and failed.
Trent Helms is no different.
Just another tool not fit for purpose.
Kathleen Conway lay in the bed, curled up next to her husband, the sheets preserving her modesty, she has a palm flat against his chest and her head on his shoulder. She sighs in content.
Kathy: I can't believe I was threatened by Emma Danielson. I should have seen that Emma is just like Jenny and Callie, a means to an end. I should have seen that they mean nothing to you and I mean everything. We've been married almost five years, we have beautiful two kids, if you were going to stray you would have done it a long time ago. I see now just how much you've changed Jake...and its about time I accepted that...
Kathy sighs.
Kathy:You've been nothing but true and loyal to me and I've been a bit of a spiteful jealous bitch about the whole thing. I'm sorry Jake, you don't dererve that from me. You deserve so much better. You deserve to be rewarded for putting up with someone like me and having the patience to help me deal with my episodes. So many other men would have walked away long before, but you stayed...it's about time I rewarded your loyalty...
Kathy looks up and notices Jake is asleep and hadn't heard any of what she had just said. She sighs and smiles as she kisses him on the cheek. She then rolls over and takes her cellphone from the bedside table. She thumbs through her contacts and hits the call button. She puts it to her ear and on the fourth ring, a male voice answers.
Kathy: Hello, Dr Fisher. I'd like to schedule an appointment...