Post by america on Sept 13, 2020 22:27:34 GMT -5
America ached.
The World Heavyweight Title sat in his hands as the doctors checked him out. He’d gone through hell to get it…an American Title defense feeding directly into the six-way champion’s challenge. Grueling wasn’t the word. His whole body felt like lead, dragging him down toward the ground where he felt like if he touched down he would sleep for a week. His head had a sharp pain leftover from the point of impact where that final headbutt had knocked out a Hangman, giving him all the time he needed to get that pinfall. And now…
The title was in his hands.
He had seen the look on Zaigon’s face. He knew there would be a reckoning of some kind for this. A sacrifice he’d have to make in order to maintain the safety he had enjoyed to date. Whatever the price, he would pay it. Whatever it took to be able to move forward on this path. America Jackson, champion of both the United States and the World. He hadn’t started this looking for glory, but now that it had found him he was sure he’d never be able to let it go.
The title was in his hands.
He thought when he first won the American Title and Zaigon the World that he would be content in second. That any title would suffice. He was amazed at how much heavier the World Title felt in his hands. Not the weight of gold and leather, but the weight of being the absolute best in the world. Of knowing that every single competitor in that locker room was going to come after you because you represented the pinnacle of the industry. It was equal parts terrifying and intoxicating.
The World Heavyweight Title was in his hands.
America exhaled.
“Okay.”
Here we are again.
I know you had questions.
Would the Storm survive the fallout of the World Heavyweight Title change?
Would Zaigon Carter’s departure leave America Jackson alone in APW?
Would I, Riley Denton, continue to represent him in this company now that my employer has left?
The answer is yes.
While Zaigon Carter is finding new success elsewhere, the mission of the Storm remains as it always was. His resources are now under the control of America Jackson, even moreso than they were beforehand. Zaigon Carter knows that he is fighting a cultural war against an industry that wants nothing more than to see him and his beliefs snuffed out. The elites behind this world want the truly elite to be conquered by the mediocre so that they can be controlled.
They want the talented to be less so the mediocre can feel like more.
We will not stand for it.
Take Jason Ryan.
Here we have a man who came in with grand ambitions. He used every trick in the book to sneak his way into a world title shot, which he summarily lost. He then kicked and screamed and whined his way into another and used a lifetime’s worth of trickery and luck to get his hands on a title he should never have touched and exile his better all in a single stroke.
I’ll grant you this, Jason. It was a good play.
But what then? He lost and he lost and he kept losing. He let his ego talk him into a title defense against Zaigon Carter and fell to him both in a non-title encounter prior and in the championship match. Then, having been easily dispatched by his betters, he walked away and had himself a good long sulk. I’m sure he saw Zaigon’s loss as his opportunity. He waited until the man who beat him was out of the picture and thought that would give him the window he needed.
But here lies the problem, Jason.
America Jackson is just as good as Zaigon Carter.
Hell, as an athlete and pure wrestler he may be the best in the world.
You have this idea in your head that you’re a mastermind. That you can find an enemy’s weakness and use it to break them down. With Damon Warrens, you took a shot at the love of his life. You shot him right in the heart and it gave you just enough of an opening to get the kill. But Zaigon Carter…America Jackson…they don’t have any cracks in their armour. They don’t have weaknesses for you to exploit or flaws you can dig in. They’re true world class competitors.
You’re not good enough to polish their boots.
You’ll get your rematch of course. As a former champion, you are owed that much even if you did everything in your power to prevent the man you beat from claiming the same. Prior to your self-imposed exile, America had already accepted a challenge to face you on social media. There’s no fear of you. There’s nothing to fear from you.
You are not a threat to us.
In a just world, you would never have held gold in this world. You would have climbed from the slums and been sent back to fight among the weak and cowardly. You represent an anachronism in this world. A sliver of mediocrity that was able to thrive solely because the truly great had not yet graced this place. Some are saying that America Jackson is selfish for choosing to keep both titles around his waist, but when the alternative for a champion is someone like you? Better to keep the titles represented by greatness.
That’s what it’s about at the end of the day.
Greatness.
In one corner you have an all American champion wrestler who crossed sports and has yet to be pinned or forced to submit in APW en route to becoming the American Champion at the end of his first month and the World Heavyweight Champion in his third. A man who exists as a paragon of everything that makes this country great and will represent this company proudly.
In the other, an opportunistic and talentless addict whose lack of moral fortitude and ability caused him to capture greatness for nothing more than a fleeting moment before scurrying back to the darkness until he thought the tide would carry him high again like a rat sailing through wreckage.
You are a disgrace, Jason Ryan.
APW will not have you.
The World Heavyweight Title will never be tainted by your touch again.
It has found its home around the waist of America Jackson.
A true champion.
A fighting champion.
A champion who will continue to make APW…
Great.
Success meant everything.
The money from Zaigon Carter had given America a life he didn’t think he’d be able to live as it was. He had hired a team to work the farm and it had begun to grow rich again with caring hands. He paid well. He believed in a fair day’s pay for a fair day’s work. The farm hands had come to know the nurses who tended to his mother.
The money from being a champion.
Well, he wouldn’t be worried about bills for a good long while.
America understood Zaigon a little better now.
There was a time when he couldn’t understand what would drive a man to cheat to win a match. He had been raised as a competitor. He believed that any win you didn’t earn was a win not worth having. He hadn’t known about the cheating at first. Watching back tapes he spotted it and knew it was another thing he’d have to let go in order to keep things moving safely. Zaigon was the boss. He could wrestle his matches as he liked, America would do the same. He didn’t have to get it.
Things were different now.
Feeling the rush of victory. Feeling the title in his hands. Seeing what that feeling brought him.
America couldn’t let it go.
When Zaigon offered him money to keep the physical belt, it wasn’t even a question. America knew what the belt meant to Zaigon, what the money would mean to him, and that being the champion was about more than the belt itself. A new strap of leather and gold could be made. It would carry the same weight because it would represent the same thing. His standing.
He knew that it would be so easy to be caught up in the feeling. To let Zaigon’s obsession become his own. To fight to win at any cost. He knew he could fall down a dark path in order to protect what’s precious to him. He knew it and he didn’t care. The world had taken everything from him. It had taken his father, his mother, his innocence, years of his life. Now that he had this moment of greatness…he wouldn’t allow it to be taken away from him as well.
He’d fight and scrape and claw until his hand got raised every single match.
The World Heavyweight Title was in his hands.
He’d never let it leave them.
I am not Zaigon Carter.
All respect to my partner and much love to him as he moves on to other pursuits in this industry. I’ll still be fighting alongside him elsewhere even as I stay in APW to represent you as the American World Heavyweight Champion. He set the path ahead of me and showed me what it took to become World Champion. He showed me how every single person in this company will put a bullseye on your back the second you get this title around your waist. Most importantly, he showed me just how hard I’d have to fight in order to stand here before you as the best wrestler in the world. I respect the absolute hell out of Zaigon Carter, but I am not and never will be him.
Zaigon Carter was afraid.
Toward the end, he became convinced that there was a conspiracy that would wear him down and take his title from him. He feared enemies coming at him from all angles and that fear caused him to lose matches that he should not have lost. I don’t want you getting the wrong impression. He wasn’t all wrong. Management here has fought tooth and nail to keep us from getting everything we set out to. Meanwhile everyone shooting for you…that’s just what it means to be the champion. Having this title around my waist, I can see every fear that got under his skin and started eating at him.
I am not afraid.
I welcome every single one of you to step up and take your shot. You think you can come out here and fuck with the champ, you better bring some goddamn big guns because I promise you that anything shy of a confirmed kill will end with you flat on the mat. Zaigon had his demons whisperin’ in his ear and telling him he wasn’t good enough but I assure you…I know just how damn good I am and I have no problem taking each and every challenger down.
Starting with you, Jason.
See, I was so disappointed when you walked on out of here rather than take your shot at me before. I promised you that when I became the American Champ, you could have your shot on Metal so that you could chase the sting of losing that World Title with the sting of failing to take another. You talked a big game about retaining and becoming a double champ when you beat me. Then what happened?
You lost.
You ran.
I was right there, Jason.
I was RIGHT THERE ready to hand you another loss.
You were so self assured, thinking that a little whipping and the loss of backup would be enough to keep Zaigon down. You let yourself think Jubei would be your biggest problem in that match. Then you stood by and watched as another man lost your title. Then you ran away.
You had an open offer to face me for my title and you ran from it.
You had every chance to challenge Zaigon for your rematch one on one and you ran from it.
You think coming out and talking tough after I just fought two straight matches and beat every single champion in this company makes you shit?
Sit the fuck down, son.
The fact is that you never had shit on the Architects and you hated it.
The fact is that you don’t have shit on the Storm and you hate it.
The fact is that I beat everyone you never could and all you can do is talk shit about it.
You wanted no Troops? That’s just fine by me, because I got a bone to pick and I want to do it with my own two hands. I fought harder’n I’ve ever fought in my life to get to the end of the road at Showdown. I took Phoenix LeStrange on her best night ever and I showed her it wasn’t enough. I took on every other champion including my very own partner, still exhausted from my own defense, I fought through and I won. I had every right in that moment to call myself the best in the world and you had to step out and sully it with your presence.
You nothing.
You absolute failure.
So I’ll tell you how it’s gonna be because you’re thick as all hell and I don’t want there to be any confusion. I’m gonna beat the absolute hell out of you on Metal. I’m gonna take you apart with my own hands and leave absolutely no question of where you stand. Then I’m gonna look past you to the night where I can once again kill two title matches in one night and show everybody just what makes me the absolute best in the world. I’ll leave you in the ring knowing that you’ve seen your last PPV main event, that this title is forever out of your reach because whatever work you’ve done means nothing compared to the greatness I embody as champion.
You were a moment in time as champion, Jason.
I’m a dynasty in the making.
You’ll make an interesting footnote in history.
Former champion.
First defense.
Transitional champion.
But that’s all you’ll be.
That’s all you get.
A pretender to the throne who had his moment of glory.
But the true king’s been crowned now.
Ain’t no room for pretenders anymore.
The best wrestler in the world sits on the throne.
Bow down.
The World Heavyweight Title sat in his hands as the doctors checked him out. He’d gone through hell to get it…an American Title defense feeding directly into the six-way champion’s challenge. Grueling wasn’t the word. His whole body felt like lead, dragging him down toward the ground where he felt like if he touched down he would sleep for a week. His head had a sharp pain leftover from the point of impact where that final headbutt had knocked out a Hangman, giving him all the time he needed to get that pinfall. And now…
The title was in his hands.
He had seen the look on Zaigon’s face. He knew there would be a reckoning of some kind for this. A sacrifice he’d have to make in order to maintain the safety he had enjoyed to date. Whatever the price, he would pay it. Whatever it took to be able to move forward on this path. America Jackson, champion of both the United States and the World. He hadn’t started this looking for glory, but now that it had found him he was sure he’d never be able to let it go.
The title was in his hands.
He thought when he first won the American Title and Zaigon the World that he would be content in second. That any title would suffice. He was amazed at how much heavier the World Title felt in his hands. Not the weight of gold and leather, but the weight of being the absolute best in the world. Of knowing that every single competitor in that locker room was going to come after you because you represented the pinnacle of the industry. It was equal parts terrifying and intoxicating.
The World Heavyweight Title was in his hands.
America exhaled.
“Okay.”
Here we are again.
I know you had questions.
Would the Storm survive the fallout of the World Heavyweight Title change?
Would Zaigon Carter’s departure leave America Jackson alone in APW?
Would I, Riley Denton, continue to represent him in this company now that my employer has left?
The answer is yes.
While Zaigon Carter is finding new success elsewhere, the mission of the Storm remains as it always was. His resources are now under the control of America Jackson, even moreso than they were beforehand. Zaigon Carter knows that he is fighting a cultural war against an industry that wants nothing more than to see him and his beliefs snuffed out. The elites behind this world want the truly elite to be conquered by the mediocre so that they can be controlled.
They want the talented to be less so the mediocre can feel like more.
We will not stand for it.
Take Jason Ryan.
Here we have a man who came in with grand ambitions. He used every trick in the book to sneak his way into a world title shot, which he summarily lost. He then kicked and screamed and whined his way into another and used a lifetime’s worth of trickery and luck to get his hands on a title he should never have touched and exile his better all in a single stroke.
I’ll grant you this, Jason. It was a good play.
But what then? He lost and he lost and he kept losing. He let his ego talk him into a title defense against Zaigon Carter and fell to him both in a non-title encounter prior and in the championship match. Then, having been easily dispatched by his betters, he walked away and had himself a good long sulk. I’m sure he saw Zaigon’s loss as his opportunity. He waited until the man who beat him was out of the picture and thought that would give him the window he needed.
But here lies the problem, Jason.
America Jackson is just as good as Zaigon Carter.
Hell, as an athlete and pure wrestler he may be the best in the world.
You have this idea in your head that you’re a mastermind. That you can find an enemy’s weakness and use it to break them down. With Damon Warrens, you took a shot at the love of his life. You shot him right in the heart and it gave you just enough of an opening to get the kill. But Zaigon Carter…America Jackson…they don’t have any cracks in their armour. They don’t have weaknesses for you to exploit or flaws you can dig in. They’re true world class competitors.
You’re not good enough to polish their boots.
You’ll get your rematch of course. As a former champion, you are owed that much even if you did everything in your power to prevent the man you beat from claiming the same. Prior to your self-imposed exile, America had already accepted a challenge to face you on social media. There’s no fear of you. There’s nothing to fear from you.
You are not a threat to us.
In a just world, you would never have held gold in this world. You would have climbed from the slums and been sent back to fight among the weak and cowardly. You represent an anachronism in this world. A sliver of mediocrity that was able to thrive solely because the truly great had not yet graced this place. Some are saying that America Jackson is selfish for choosing to keep both titles around his waist, but when the alternative for a champion is someone like you? Better to keep the titles represented by greatness.
That’s what it’s about at the end of the day.
Greatness.
In one corner you have an all American champion wrestler who crossed sports and has yet to be pinned or forced to submit in APW en route to becoming the American Champion at the end of his first month and the World Heavyweight Champion in his third. A man who exists as a paragon of everything that makes this country great and will represent this company proudly.
In the other, an opportunistic and talentless addict whose lack of moral fortitude and ability caused him to capture greatness for nothing more than a fleeting moment before scurrying back to the darkness until he thought the tide would carry him high again like a rat sailing through wreckage.
You are a disgrace, Jason Ryan.
APW will not have you.
The World Heavyweight Title will never be tainted by your touch again.
It has found its home around the waist of America Jackson.
A true champion.
A fighting champion.
A champion who will continue to make APW…
Great.
Success meant everything.
The money from Zaigon Carter had given America a life he didn’t think he’d be able to live as it was. He had hired a team to work the farm and it had begun to grow rich again with caring hands. He paid well. He believed in a fair day’s pay for a fair day’s work. The farm hands had come to know the nurses who tended to his mother.
The money from being a champion.
Well, he wouldn’t be worried about bills for a good long while.
America understood Zaigon a little better now.
There was a time when he couldn’t understand what would drive a man to cheat to win a match. He had been raised as a competitor. He believed that any win you didn’t earn was a win not worth having. He hadn’t known about the cheating at first. Watching back tapes he spotted it and knew it was another thing he’d have to let go in order to keep things moving safely. Zaigon was the boss. He could wrestle his matches as he liked, America would do the same. He didn’t have to get it.
Things were different now.
Feeling the rush of victory. Feeling the title in his hands. Seeing what that feeling brought him.
America couldn’t let it go.
When Zaigon offered him money to keep the physical belt, it wasn’t even a question. America knew what the belt meant to Zaigon, what the money would mean to him, and that being the champion was about more than the belt itself. A new strap of leather and gold could be made. It would carry the same weight because it would represent the same thing. His standing.
He knew that it would be so easy to be caught up in the feeling. To let Zaigon’s obsession become his own. To fight to win at any cost. He knew he could fall down a dark path in order to protect what’s precious to him. He knew it and he didn’t care. The world had taken everything from him. It had taken his father, his mother, his innocence, years of his life. Now that he had this moment of greatness…he wouldn’t allow it to be taken away from him as well.
He’d fight and scrape and claw until his hand got raised every single match.
The World Heavyweight Title was in his hands.
He’d never let it leave them.
I am not Zaigon Carter.
All respect to my partner and much love to him as he moves on to other pursuits in this industry. I’ll still be fighting alongside him elsewhere even as I stay in APW to represent you as the American World Heavyweight Champion. He set the path ahead of me and showed me what it took to become World Champion. He showed me how every single person in this company will put a bullseye on your back the second you get this title around your waist. Most importantly, he showed me just how hard I’d have to fight in order to stand here before you as the best wrestler in the world. I respect the absolute hell out of Zaigon Carter, but I am not and never will be him.
Zaigon Carter was afraid.
Toward the end, he became convinced that there was a conspiracy that would wear him down and take his title from him. He feared enemies coming at him from all angles and that fear caused him to lose matches that he should not have lost. I don’t want you getting the wrong impression. He wasn’t all wrong. Management here has fought tooth and nail to keep us from getting everything we set out to. Meanwhile everyone shooting for you…that’s just what it means to be the champion. Having this title around my waist, I can see every fear that got under his skin and started eating at him.
I am not afraid.
I welcome every single one of you to step up and take your shot. You think you can come out here and fuck with the champ, you better bring some goddamn big guns because I promise you that anything shy of a confirmed kill will end with you flat on the mat. Zaigon had his demons whisperin’ in his ear and telling him he wasn’t good enough but I assure you…I know just how damn good I am and I have no problem taking each and every challenger down.
Starting with you, Jason.
See, I was so disappointed when you walked on out of here rather than take your shot at me before. I promised you that when I became the American Champ, you could have your shot on Metal so that you could chase the sting of losing that World Title with the sting of failing to take another. You talked a big game about retaining and becoming a double champ when you beat me. Then what happened?
You lost.
You ran.
I was right there, Jason.
I was RIGHT THERE ready to hand you another loss.
You were so self assured, thinking that a little whipping and the loss of backup would be enough to keep Zaigon down. You let yourself think Jubei would be your biggest problem in that match. Then you stood by and watched as another man lost your title. Then you ran away.
You had an open offer to face me for my title and you ran from it.
You had every chance to challenge Zaigon for your rematch one on one and you ran from it.
You think coming out and talking tough after I just fought two straight matches and beat every single champion in this company makes you shit?
Sit the fuck down, son.
The fact is that you never had shit on the Architects and you hated it.
The fact is that you don’t have shit on the Storm and you hate it.
The fact is that I beat everyone you never could and all you can do is talk shit about it.
You wanted no Troops? That’s just fine by me, because I got a bone to pick and I want to do it with my own two hands. I fought harder’n I’ve ever fought in my life to get to the end of the road at Showdown. I took Phoenix LeStrange on her best night ever and I showed her it wasn’t enough. I took on every other champion including my very own partner, still exhausted from my own defense, I fought through and I won. I had every right in that moment to call myself the best in the world and you had to step out and sully it with your presence.
You nothing.
You absolute failure.
So I’ll tell you how it’s gonna be because you’re thick as all hell and I don’t want there to be any confusion. I’m gonna beat the absolute hell out of you on Metal. I’m gonna take you apart with my own hands and leave absolutely no question of where you stand. Then I’m gonna look past you to the night where I can once again kill two title matches in one night and show everybody just what makes me the absolute best in the world. I’ll leave you in the ring knowing that you’ve seen your last PPV main event, that this title is forever out of your reach because whatever work you’ve done means nothing compared to the greatness I embody as champion.
You were a moment in time as champion, Jason.
I’m a dynasty in the making.
You’ll make an interesting footnote in history.
Former champion.
First defense.
Transitional champion.
But that’s all you’ll be.
That’s all you get.
A pretender to the throne who had his moment of glory.
But the true king’s been crowned now.
Ain’t no room for pretenders anymore.
The best wrestler in the world sits on the throne.
Bow down.
