Post by america on Feb 8, 2021 22:42:26 GMT -5
What makes a good team?
It seems like it’d be an easy answer. After all, there’s any number of things you could throw out and none of them would be wrong. People like to talk about compatibility. The connection between two great wrestlers that makes them work better together. Certainly, my client has been exposed to teams who embody that concept in his time fighting between these ropes. But is that the sole determinant? If compatibility were all that mattered, how did we get here…with two men determined to beat the absolute hell out of each other standing across from you as the Tag Team Champions?
Let’s consider it from the perspectives of their opponents tonight. You have Sky Edwards, truly one of the most promising new talents to appear in this company since the debut of America himself. He’s launched himself through victory after victory, launching himself into the role of Strong Style Champion so soon after his debut and now finding his way into a tag team title shot. When you look at him, you see the potential for a near unlimited amount of future greatness. It’s entirely possible he could stand across the ring from one of our venerable champions and find his moment in the sun against them.
…also, Arthan Ardelean is there.
It’s tough. I have to imagine it really is difficult. To be the clear second best. The guy who’s always a step behind, already earmarked as the support for the real star. Back when Man Made Gods were here, there was a sense that one was on the way to a World Title run. He’d have to skip companies to get it, but the point stood. In a team where someone has that breakout potential, it always feels like the other is just waiting to fall into his shadow.
It was a curse that befell my former employer Zaigon Carter. Walking out there with America Jackson growing by leaps and bounds beside him, all while fighting to maintain the same relevancy. He went on to win the World Title, but he so feared that loss of power…of status…that his eventual betrayal of America in an Action Wrestling ring became entirely inevitable. It cut so deep that for some time after, America was sure that his goal of holding tag gold in addition to his singles successes would remain unfulfilled.
But then…Damon Warrens.
Here was a man America Jackson could count on. The petty jealousies and the fear were nowhere to be found. This man shared the same hunger, the same passion that America did. They knew from the first moment they stood against one another that they were cut from the same cloth. No matter how their personalities differed, no matter how much they would come into little conflicts outside the ring, when they stepped between those ropes they knew they had nothing to fear because they could meet as equals.
That’s what your left hand is lacking. It may stand powerful. It may be filled with all the promise in the world, two young talents coming out here and striving to prove their greatness like the champions who came before them. But where one of you has already had that taste of greatness, the other yet goes hungry.
It’s going to eat at you.
Gnaw away inside.
Then, when victory is so close within your grasp…
You will falter.
Because you cannot stand together.
Because these men can.
It’s not your fault. You should know that. Indie Rebellion, FTH, the Hangmen, even the much vaunted Man Made Gods. My client has assured me that given a shot against any of these talents, he has confidence you’d be able to find your opening. You showed great thought. Picking a stipulation that doesn’t require you to pin either champion or force them to submit. You don’t have to be better than them for a whole match. You don’t even need three seconds. You just need one moment.
Pick any of those former champions, you’d have had it. The moment would be yours and the titles with it. But you’re not up against people here resolving a grudge, finding their own moments, or failing to live up to the expectations placed upon them. You’re facing the two best wrestlers in this company’s history. It doesn’t matter how slight the weakness is. Your weak link will be the thing that causes you to shatter. You are mighty, it’s true. But pressure applied to the right place for long enough still causes the mighty to break.
It’s going to haunt you.
It might destroy you.
But I bid you, try not to lose faith in yourselves.
You are both great.
But the team you’re facing?
They’re flawless.
“Damn man, how much further can you push?”
America is half asleep when Isaiah’s face shows up onto the Zoom call. The time difference has meant either staying up abhorrently late or waking up abhorrently early in order to make the calls work. At first, America had convinced himself that he’d be able to maintain the back and forth needed to keep seeing Isaiah in person every week, but the logistics of making it back home from Japan precluded regular travel. Given the necessity of Isaiah maintaining his working hours as opposed to America’s more flexible schedule, the choice of who would lose sleep to keep contact was clear.
“I’ll be alright.” America dismisses. “Still haven’t settled into the apartment. Once I can get some solid sleep, I’m sure I’ll be just fine.”
“You got one of those fancy toilets?”
“I do. Absolutely going to need heated seats and a bidet installed whenever I’m back home again.”
“Any idea what that’s looking like?”
“No.” The frustration is clear in America’s voice as he says it. “That bastard Jubei has set up his dream encampment here. Half the roster just wants to spend more than a week at home, but we’ve got to jump through the hoops to keep the paycheques coming. At least I was able to get last week off for the trip back.”
“Something I appreciated greatly.” Isaiah said wistfully. “Nothing to do about it, I guess. Gotta keep the money rolling in.”
“At some point, champion’s privilege is going to have to come into play.” America laughs. “No shortage of contenders for big meaty men slapping meat out here. Jubei can find some other guys to fill the card with here and there.”
“You sure you can make that work?” Isaiah asks, concerned.
“I’ll make it work.” America promises. “Or there’ll be hell to pay.”
Who’s next?
That’s the question, right?
Every time I go out, every victory I log into the books, there’s always that lingering question of who the next person out will be. Who’s going to challenge me next? Who’s going to step into the ring with me and put their body on the line to try and be the one who can finally take one of these belts from around my shoulders?
It’s only natural. I’ve been a force of nature in this company for long enough now that the only story you can see left on the table is my downfall. That little moment of hubris that’ll bring him down. That split second where he underestimates a competitor and lets the title slip from his grasp. A lot of people saw me going in there with Felicity Ann Mason and Lexi Hill assuming that it would be the time and place for a new champion to be crowned. I didn’t even have to lose, after all. I just had to be out of the way while someone else won. But still, they brought everything they had, and I showed them that it still wasn’t enough.
That’s what a real champion does. They push and push and push and when you think they don’t have anything left in them, they push just that little bit more. You get that Sky, coming out here defending your title before facing the two best in the world. You have the heart, I’ll grant you. You’re on a heater and you think that’s going to be the magic bullet that ends nearly six months undefeated for each man you’re in the ring against. A hot hand coming in, showing everything he’s got as champ in a tough defense, only to still come out at the end of the night holding fresh gold.
It’s a good story.
Hell, it’s my story.
I walked into Alpha Showdown, defended my title, then went on to win the World Heavyweight Title in a match featuring every active champion in APW.
The best of the best.
So here you are, hoping to be the lightning that strikes twice.
Gotta say, there would be worse ways to go. I’ll give you that much. Being taken out in a mirror of the same journey I had on the way to the top…well, I’m sure there’s a poetry to it which we could all appreciate. It’d make for a hell of a miracle run on your part and you’d even be elevating a partner walking a clear few steps behind you in the doing of it.
Problem is, I may have been a church boy but…
I just don’t believe in miracles.
Everyone keeps hoping for one. Keeps talking up the newest challenger to my thrones like they’re going to have some special formula that’ll solve the problem of me. I have been damn near unbeatable in this ring and still y’all keep stringing two or three wins together and thinking you’re gonna walk out here and kill god. You did the work, right? Time to reap the rewards.
Fact you keep missing is that I keep doing my work too.
You hope and you pray that I’ll be complacent out there, but I see you, each and every one of you. I’ve been saying for months now that you better be hungry as hell, because there ain’t no satisfying the itch I got inside me. I am pushing forward for the one fight that’s bigger’n any of the rest of them and until I get to that moment, I can’t just let myself slip so one of you can have a moment.
Move me halfway around the world, give me defense on defense, put your absolute best out to take me on, even bring in your boys from the bad old days to wash out when they just can’t hang…hell, boss man, you want to get in the ring again, we can settle all the bad feelings between us in your home court. There isn’t a solitary thing that’ll shake me from the throne I’ve built myself here.
It’s funny, really. You went and partnered Damon and I together ‘cause you thought it’d teach us some hubris. That we’d end up butting heads and falling apart and eating a loss that neither of us would ever drop on our own. But it turns out, you give two unstoppable boys some heat, they just set out to forge something even tougher.
You put a team together with a weak link?
That link will break.
But forge with nothing but the strongest steel?
You make something even stronger.
So keep it coming.
Keep laying on the pressure.
I want it.
I need it.
I’m the diamond of this company.
Lay all the pressure onto me.
It’ll only make me unbreakable.
It seems like it’d be an easy answer. After all, there’s any number of things you could throw out and none of them would be wrong. People like to talk about compatibility. The connection between two great wrestlers that makes them work better together. Certainly, my client has been exposed to teams who embody that concept in his time fighting between these ropes. But is that the sole determinant? If compatibility were all that mattered, how did we get here…with two men determined to beat the absolute hell out of each other standing across from you as the Tag Team Champions?
Let’s consider it from the perspectives of their opponents tonight. You have Sky Edwards, truly one of the most promising new talents to appear in this company since the debut of America himself. He’s launched himself through victory after victory, launching himself into the role of Strong Style Champion so soon after his debut and now finding his way into a tag team title shot. When you look at him, you see the potential for a near unlimited amount of future greatness. It’s entirely possible he could stand across the ring from one of our venerable champions and find his moment in the sun against them.
…also, Arthan Ardelean is there.
It’s tough. I have to imagine it really is difficult. To be the clear second best. The guy who’s always a step behind, already earmarked as the support for the real star. Back when Man Made Gods were here, there was a sense that one was on the way to a World Title run. He’d have to skip companies to get it, but the point stood. In a team where someone has that breakout potential, it always feels like the other is just waiting to fall into his shadow.
It was a curse that befell my former employer Zaigon Carter. Walking out there with America Jackson growing by leaps and bounds beside him, all while fighting to maintain the same relevancy. He went on to win the World Title, but he so feared that loss of power…of status…that his eventual betrayal of America in an Action Wrestling ring became entirely inevitable. It cut so deep that for some time after, America was sure that his goal of holding tag gold in addition to his singles successes would remain unfulfilled.
But then…Damon Warrens.
Here was a man America Jackson could count on. The petty jealousies and the fear were nowhere to be found. This man shared the same hunger, the same passion that America did. They knew from the first moment they stood against one another that they were cut from the same cloth. No matter how their personalities differed, no matter how much they would come into little conflicts outside the ring, when they stepped between those ropes they knew they had nothing to fear because they could meet as equals.
That’s what your left hand is lacking. It may stand powerful. It may be filled with all the promise in the world, two young talents coming out here and striving to prove their greatness like the champions who came before them. But where one of you has already had that taste of greatness, the other yet goes hungry.
It’s going to eat at you.
Gnaw away inside.
Then, when victory is so close within your grasp…
You will falter.
Because you cannot stand together.
Because these men can.
It’s not your fault. You should know that. Indie Rebellion, FTH, the Hangmen, even the much vaunted Man Made Gods. My client has assured me that given a shot against any of these talents, he has confidence you’d be able to find your opening. You showed great thought. Picking a stipulation that doesn’t require you to pin either champion or force them to submit. You don’t have to be better than them for a whole match. You don’t even need three seconds. You just need one moment.
Pick any of those former champions, you’d have had it. The moment would be yours and the titles with it. But you’re not up against people here resolving a grudge, finding their own moments, or failing to live up to the expectations placed upon them. You’re facing the two best wrestlers in this company’s history. It doesn’t matter how slight the weakness is. Your weak link will be the thing that causes you to shatter. You are mighty, it’s true. But pressure applied to the right place for long enough still causes the mighty to break.
It’s going to haunt you.
It might destroy you.
But I bid you, try not to lose faith in yourselves.
You are both great.
But the team you’re facing?
They’re flawless.
“Damn man, how much further can you push?”
America is half asleep when Isaiah’s face shows up onto the Zoom call. The time difference has meant either staying up abhorrently late or waking up abhorrently early in order to make the calls work. At first, America had convinced himself that he’d be able to maintain the back and forth needed to keep seeing Isaiah in person every week, but the logistics of making it back home from Japan precluded regular travel. Given the necessity of Isaiah maintaining his working hours as opposed to America’s more flexible schedule, the choice of who would lose sleep to keep contact was clear.
“I’ll be alright.” America dismisses. “Still haven’t settled into the apartment. Once I can get some solid sleep, I’m sure I’ll be just fine.”
“You got one of those fancy toilets?”
“I do. Absolutely going to need heated seats and a bidet installed whenever I’m back home again.”
“Any idea what that’s looking like?”
“No.” The frustration is clear in America’s voice as he says it. “That bastard Jubei has set up his dream encampment here. Half the roster just wants to spend more than a week at home, but we’ve got to jump through the hoops to keep the paycheques coming. At least I was able to get last week off for the trip back.”
“Something I appreciated greatly.” Isaiah said wistfully. “Nothing to do about it, I guess. Gotta keep the money rolling in.”
“At some point, champion’s privilege is going to have to come into play.” America laughs. “No shortage of contenders for big meaty men slapping meat out here. Jubei can find some other guys to fill the card with here and there.”
“You sure you can make that work?” Isaiah asks, concerned.
“I’ll make it work.” America promises. “Or there’ll be hell to pay.”
Who’s next?
That’s the question, right?
Every time I go out, every victory I log into the books, there’s always that lingering question of who the next person out will be. Who’s going to challenge me next? Who’s going to step into the ring with me and put their body on the line to try and be the one who can finally take one of these belts from around my shoulders?
It’s only natural. I’ve been a force of nature in this company for long enough now that the only story you can see left on the table is my downfall. That little moment of hubris that’ll bring him down. That split second where he underestimates a competitor and lets the title slip from his grasp. A lot of people saw me going in there with Felicity Ann Mason and Lexi Hill assuming that it would be the time and place for a new champion to be crowned. I didn’t even have to lose, after all. I just had to be out of the way while someone else won. But still, they brought everything they had, and I showed them that it still wasn’t enough.
That’s what a real champion does. They push and push and push and when you think they don’t have anything left in them, they push just that little bit more. You get that Sky, coming out here defending your title before facing the two best in the world. You have the heart, I’ll grant you. You’re on a heater and you think that’s going to be the magic bullet that ends nearly six months undefeated for each man you’re in the ring against. A hot hand coming in, showing everything he’s got as champ in a tough defense, only to still come out at the end of the night holding fresh gold.
It’s a good story.
Hell, it’s my story.
I walked into Alpha Showdown, defended my title, then went on to win the World Heavyweight Title in a match featuring every active champion in APW.
The best of the best.
So here you are, hoping to be the lightning that strikes twice.
Gotta say, there would be worse ways to go. I’ll give you that much. Being taken out in a mirror of the same journey I had on the way to the top…well, I’m sure there’s a poetry to it which we could all appreciate. It’d make for a hell of a miracle run on your part and you’d even be elevating a partner walking a clear few steps behind you in the doing of it.
Problem is, I may have been a church boy but…
I just don’t believe in miracles.
Everyone keeps hoping for one. Keeps talking up the newest challenger to my thrones like they’re going to have some special formula that’ll solve the problem of me. I have been damn near unbeatable in this ring and still y’all keep stringing two or three wins together and thinking you’re gonna walk out here and kill god. You did the work, right? Time to reap the rewards.
Fact you keep missing is that I keep doing my work too.
You hope and you pray that I’ll be complacent out there, but I see you, each and every one of you. I’ve been saying for months now that you better be hungry as hell, because there ain’t no satisfying the itch I got inside me. I am pushing forward for the one fight that’s bigger’n any of the rest of them and until I get to that moment, I can’t just let myself slip so one of you can have a moment.
Move me halfway around the world, give me defense on defense, put your absolute best out to take me on, even bring in your boys from the bad old days to wash out when they just can’t hang…hell, boss man, you want to get in the ring again, we can settle all the bad feelings between us in your home court. There isn’t a solitary thing that’ll shake me from the throne I’ve built myself here.
It’s funny, really. You went and partnered Damon and I together ‘cause you thought it’d teach us some hubris. That we’d end up butting heads and falling apart and eating a loss that neither of us would ever drop on our own. But it turns out, you give two unstoppable boys some heat, they just set out to forge something even tougher.
You put a team together with a weak link?
That link will break.
But forge with nothing but the strongest steel?
You make something even stronger.
So keep it coming.
Keep laying on the pressure.
I want it.
I need it.
I’m the diamond of this company.
Lay all the pressure onto me.
It’ll only make me unbreakable.
