Post by The Ace on Jul 28, 2017 18:44:47 GMT
Here I am, just a few days away from not only the single most important match of my professional wrestling career but also the single most important rematch of my life in the Imperial Wrestling Federation - Jake "The Ace" Conway versus "The North Star" Andrew Jacobsen.
One more time for the richest prize in the game today, the Imperial Championship.
A match considered by many inside the business and even some fans outside of it to be not only my second chance, but also my last. Anybody in this industry who has any sort of worthwhile opinion on the main event of Lineage 2017 believes that if you, the reigning and defending Imperial Champion, Andrew Jacobsen put me down again in the ring this Sunday Night like you did a month ago at Bloody Assizes, it will mark the beginning of the end of my time in the business.
Ever since you kicked me in the face and walked out with the Imperial Championship still around your waist, a lot of questions have been raised about my ability to still hold my own against the very best talent in this company today. Questions that were only amplified and bought into sharp focus last week when the reigning Invictus Champion Jayson Matthews shocked the world and rolled my ass up for the three count.
Last Monday Night live on Sacrifice, Jayson Matthews shocked everyone - everyone except me, because apparently I give the kid a lot more credit than some of his peers do, even when he himself doubts my sincerity. I wasn't shocked that a young reigning Champion in this company stepped up and proved his value to me personally.
Not only did Jayson Matthews bring the fight to me last week, he did it without hesitation, and in doing so he demonstrated that not only does he have the heart of a true Champion but also that when the situation calls for it he is ready, willing and able to exploit any opportunity and do whatever is necessary to walk away with the victory.
After last week, there is absolutely no doubt in my mind that not only does Jayson Matthews deserve his position as a Champion in this company, but also that he has learned a lot about what it takes to succeed in this business since the last time I faced him. The Jayson Matthews of 2017 is a far cry from the rapping twerp of seven years ago, and rather than lament that sort of personal growth as a competitor, I applaud it.
You see I may be a lot of things to a lot of people, but one thing I am not is a hypocrite.
I'm not about to stand here and cry foul over Jayson Matthews using exactly the kind of tactics I myself would have had absolutely no hesitation in using had the situation been reversed last Monday. I give Jayson Matthews all of the credit in the world for what he pulled off last week in fact.
Here I am, a decade and a half veteran of professional wrestling giving the men who are the future of our profession the credit they deserve, meanwhile the man who is the present, the reigning and defending Imperial Champion, Andrew Jacobsen apparently cannot bring himself to give an innocent ten year old girl any credit for having her own wishes and her own desires and her own opinions.
So of all the questions hanging over my head going into our match this weekend Andrew, the one I want answered the most - the one I keep coming back to over and over and over again - is not the question of whether I can finally become the man for the first time in my IWF career, but rather the question of why my daughter, my baby girl, Solitaire has never been good enough for you?
Jake Conway had been a professional wrestler for almost fifteen of his nearly forty four years of life, and if there was one thing that he had learned over those last four decades, it was that things never quite followed even the most meticulous and best laid of his plans.
There had been no better demonstration of that fact over the last four years than his time working for Roberto Verona in the Imperial Wrestling Federation. If things had gone according to plan whilst he was here in the twilight of his career, he would have been an Imperial Champion long before now.
If things had gone according to plan, he would have been happy with the professional legacy he was leaving behind.
If things had gone according to plan, he would be at home right now, retired from the only real job he's ever had, but things never quite seemed to work out for him, at least not in the way he imagined and certainly not right away. The path of his career mirrored the path of his life.
The journey to get here, to reach this point in his career, had taken him down many a long and winding road, but the most important thing was that it was not yet over, and through it all Jake had never lost sight of his destination, thanks in no small part to his daughters, Solitaire and Domino.
Through them, Jake Conway had found a renewed sense of purpose and a whole new lease on life, and it was precisely that sense of renewal and vigour that spurred him to go just that little bit further, to strike the punching bag that little bit harder and that little bit faster.
For several weeks now he had been thought of as a manipulator, and as somebody who would capitalise on his own daughter's fandom of Andrew Jacobsen to weasel his way into a rematch that so many of his peers thought he honestly didn't deserve.
Frankly he expected such bitter and twisted cynicism from men like Derek Brooks and Xavier Cross, those men made no secret of just how well they could stir the pot with a couple of controversial statements, but when it was the likes of Jayson Matthews and Andrew Jacobsen who refused to give him the benefit of the doubt and take anything he said at face value, well then he was forced to accept that the one lesson Spike Kane had tried to instill in him from the very first time he ever stepped foot inside a wrestling ring fourteen years ago was as true today as it ever had been.
There were no friends in professional wrestling, just bitter, jaded, jealous rivals.
Bitter because of the love of a good woman he had.
Jaded because of the family he had been blessed with.
Jealous because he stood unmoved and in utter defiance of anybody who ever told him that it simply wasn't possible to be both a professional wrestler and a well adjusted and honest family man.
Jake Conway planted his feet firmly on the ground and rocked the bag with several piston-like shots from his balled up fists, struggling to find an acceptable balance between his anger towards Andrew Jacobsen and his reason for still doing any of this at his age - his daughters.
They deserved the world even more than Andrew Jacobsen deserved a receipt for the knife he had unwittingly plunged into Solitaire's heart. She was still too young to understand entirely, but she was old enough to realise that something had changed about the man she once affectionately knew as Uncle Andy.
In her confusion, she sought all the answers from the only other man she held in any reverence, her father, and whilst Jake had done his best to try and explain why Andrew Jacobsen wasn't nearly as heroic as she remembered him, the words on their own felt so empty and hollow.
And so in a few short days, with a little luck and a lot of perseverance, Jake Conway would ensure that he came home to his daughter with so much more than words.
He would bring home the Imperial Championship, not as her conquering hero, but as her loving father, and in time she would learn that Jake Conway would always be true to his word in all the ways that Andrew Jacobsen never could be.
He just hoped the lesson wasn't any more painful than it needed to be for her.
Tell me Andrew, why is it that you're so God damned willing to give everybody else the benefit of the doubt and take them at face value until they give you a reason not to, but not my sweet, innocent, ten year old baby girl?
After everything we've been through in our respective careers, I understand completely why you would doubt the sincerity of MY wishes and desires, but I will NEVER understand why you would paint my baby with that particular brush. Throughout the years we've been doing this, I've given you plenty of reasons to doubt me, but give me ONE reason - ONE reason why you're so eager to doubt my daughter's sincerity?
Is it because she's a happy and healthy ten year old?
You wouldn't doubt her sincerity of her wish if she was terminal, would you?
No, of course not, you would be bending over backwards to grant her wish then, wouldn't you?
If it were ANY other little girl in the world who had asked to see a rematch between the two of us, you would have gone out of your way to make sure that little girl got everything she was asking for, but because the little girl making demands of your time and integrity this time around is MY daughter, all of a sudden you doubt the sincerity of her intentions?
How fucking dare you, Andrew?
How dare you even insinuate that my baby girl couldn't possibly want her father to get another chance?
Do you have any idea how insulting that is?
If anyone should know better than to discount somebody's value based solely on who their father is, it should be you Andrew.
If the Imperial Wrestling Federation had discounted the value of Andrew Jacobsen because of who his father was, you wouldn't have gotten another chance, much less be standing here today as the face of the organisation. If as your challenger this Sunday, I held you to the same standards that you apparently hold my daughter, I would be looking passed you and I would be dismissing you as the single greatest fluke in the business today, because your daddy never made it in the big leagues Andrew.
Your daddy, Jason Jacobsen, never made it to the top of the mountain in any major wrestling promotion.
Your daddy, Jason Jacobsen, never made it here in the Imperial Wrestling Federation.
It would be so easy to dismiss you as any sort of worthwhile Champion if my only criterion for judging you was who your father is, but I don't, and I never will, because I don't make unfair presumptions of you just because your last name happens to be Jacobsen, so don't you dare presume my daughter's guilt just because her last name happens to be Conway, alright, sunshine?
You know Andrew, I almost wish you had refused her, at least then I could have respected you for standing up for what you believe in, but as it is, you've proven nothing of every virtue you preach except that when you feel backed into a corner you will compromise all of them for the sake of preserving your reputation as the man who gives anything and everything back to his fans.
Which one of us is the manipulative and dishonest one again?
I cannot and I will not acknowledge a man so cynical and jaded as to doubt my baby girl as the best the business has to offer today. I cannot and I will not abide such a man as the legitimate and indisputable peak of our profession, but most of all Andrew I cannot and will not allow such a man to be hailed a hero by anyone.
Not by this company.
Not by our peers.
And certainly not by my daughter.
I haven't always done the right thing Andrew, but ever since I stepped up and finally took responsibility for the lives I've helped bring into this world I've tried to raise them right, and I've tried to teach them some of the most important life lessons one can ever learn.
It's never been easy, but I've always tried to make each lesson as painless as possible for them, because if there's one thing I've never been able to stand it is their rolling tears and their utter heartbreak. You see Andrew, my wife, and especially my kids have always seen me as a much better man than even I consider myself.
They believed in me when I didn't even believe in myself.
Even after everything that has happened between us Andrew, they believe that I'm more than capable of beating you in the middle of an IWF ring for the Imperial Championship, purely on my own merits and wrestling ability - even at my age. They believe that even as a man on the wrong side of forty, I've never needed an advantage against you - and so, because of their absolute and unwavering belief in me Andrew, I am here now, facing you one more time for the most important Championship either of us will ever hold in our lives, one more time - one last time.
One on one.
No weapons.
No stipulations.
Not a single unfair advantage in sight, because I am willing to do the one thing that you're apparently having so much trouble with. I am willing to believe Solitaire when she tells me something. I'm willing to believe her when she says that I can beat you fair and square become the new Imperial Champion. And so you should know Andrew that when we lock up in between those ropes on Sunday night, I have every intention of rewarding my daughter's utter faith in me in every way that your deeply ingrained cynicism apparently will never allow.
I will walk in to Lineage as an old challenger and I will walk out of Lineage as the new Imperial Champion.
I realise now why it is said that if you want something done right, you should do it yourself.
For years I believed Andrew Jacobsen was the best possible role model for my children. For years I watched them look up to you. For years I bought them your merchandise and watched their faces light up as they cheered you on in almost every match you were ever in.
They believed in you without question and without doubt, and yet when the time came for you to return the favour to my daughter, you just couldn't, could you? She's never asked you for much Andrew, because she's always been more than a little starstruck by you - and yet the one time she actually musters the courage to ask you for something in front of the entire world, you work yourself into a fit over how it MUST all be a dastardly plan by me to get another crack at you.
How many years have we known each other, Andrew?
You should know better than to run yourself ragged with conspiracy theories about my daughter being a pawn in all of this. I may gamble and risk a lot, but if you think I would manipulate my daughter just to goad Andrew Jacobsen into a match for his Championship, then being Imperial Champion has given you even more of an ego about your current standing in this industry than I thought.
The Imperial Championship may make you the single most important wrestler in the Imperial Wrestling Federation for now Andrew, but it will NEVER make you the most important man in my life. As nice as claiming the right to call myself the best professional wrestler in the world one more time would be, I will not do so at my daughter's expense.
Frankly Andy, as great as an in ring technician as you are, even you are not worth her innocence.
Fact is Andy, if I wanted another shot at you, I would demand it from you personally and on my terms, but as it is this match isn't going to be on my terms, it is going to be on Solitaire's. She wants to see her two favourite wrestlers compete once more. Our first encounter for the Imperial Championship was a dream match for her - and now my little girl wants to relive that dream.
I will never deny her any of her dreams, Andrew.
Not because I'm her hero, but because I am her father.
For years now I've convinced myself that it was either one or the other. I could either dedicate my life to being her hero or I could dedicate my life to being her father. I convinced myself that I would never be good enough to be both - but now that I've seen just how much your practised and perfect veneer has cracked under the pressure of having the biggest target you'll ever have in your career on your back, I realise that there's a fundamental difference between being a hero to someone and being a hero worthy of someone.
You might be a hero Andrew, but you are not a hero worthy of her.
And so, this Sunday I will once again step up, not as the hero she wants, but rather as the hero she deserves.
The hero I know now that Andrew Jacobsen will never be.
And if after everything I've just said, some small part of you is still utterly convinced that my daughter's desire to see her two heroes clash one more time with everything on the line came from any other place than her heart, then as far as I'm concerned you Andrew, have already forfeited not only any right to call yourself a Champion in this company, but also any right you've ever had to call yourself my friend.
One more time for the richest prize in the game today, the Imperial Championship.
A match considered by many inside the business and even some fans outside of it to be not only my second chance, but also my last. Anybody in this industry who has any sort of worthwhile opinion on the main event of Lineage 2017 believes that if you, the reigning and defending Imperial Champion, Andrew Jacobsen put me down again in the ring this Sunday Night like you did a month ago at Bloody Assizes, it will mark the beginning of the end of my time in the business.
Ever since you kicked me in the face and walked out with the Imperial Championship still around your waist, a lot of questions have been raised about my ability to still hold my own against the very best talent in this company today. Questions that were only amplified and bought into sharp focus last week when the reigning Invictus Champion Jayson Matthews shocked the world and rolled my ass up for the three count.
Last Monday Night live on Sacrifice, Jayson Matthews shocked everyone - everyone except me, because apparently I give the kid a lot more credit than some of his peers do, even when he himself doubts my sincerity. I wasn't shocked that a young reigning Champion in this company stepped up and proved his value to me personally.
Not only did Jayson Matthews bring the fight to me last week, he did it without hesitation, and in doing so he demonstrated that not only does he have the heart of a true Champion but also that when the situation calls for it he is ready, willing and able to exploit any opportunity and do whatever is necessary to walk away with the victory.
After last week, there is absolutely no doubt in my mind that not only does Jayson Matthews deserve his position as a Champion in this company, but also that he has learned a lot about what it takes to succeed in this business since the last time I faced him. The Jayson Matthews of 2017 is a far cry from the rapping twerp of seven years ago, and rather than lament that sort of personal growth as a competitor, I applaud it.
You see I may be a lot of things to a lot of people, but one thing I am not is a hypocrite.
I'm not about to stand here and cry foul over Jayson Matthews using exactly the kind of tactics I myself would have had absolutely no hesitation in using had the situation been reversed last Monday. I give Jayson Matthews all of the credit in the world for what he pulled off last week in fact.
Here I am, a decade and a half veteran of professional wrestling giving the men who are the future of our profession the credit they deserve, meanwhile the man who is the present, the reigning and defending Imperial Champion, Andrew Jacobsen apparently cannot bring himself to give an innocent ten year old girl any credit for having her own wishes and her own desires and her own opinions.
So of all the questions hanging over my head going into our match this weekend Andrew, the one I want answered the most - the one I keep coming back to over and over and over again - is not the question of whether I can finally become the man for the first time in my IWF career, but rather the question of why my daughter, my baby girl, Solitaire has never been good enough for you?
Jake Conway had been a professional wrestler for almost fifteen of his nearly forty four years of life, and if there was one thing that he had learned over those last four decades, it was that things never quite followed even the most meticulous and best laid of his plans.
There had been no better demonstration of that fact over the last four years than his time working for Roberto Verona in the Imperial Wrestling Federation. If things had gone according to plan whilst he was here in the twilight of his career, he would have been an Imperial Champion long before now.
If things had gone according to plan, he would have been happy with the professional legacy he was leaving behind.
If things had gone according to plan, he would be at home right now, retired from the only real job he's ever had, but things never quite seemed to work out for him, at least not in the way he imagined and certainly not right away. The path of his career mirrored the path of his life.
The journey to get here, to reach this point in his career, had taken him down many a long and winding road, but the most important thing was that it was not yet over, and through it all Jake had never lost sight of his destination, thanks in no small part to his daughters, Solitaire and Domino.
Through them, Jake Conway had found a renewed sense of purpose and a whole new lease on life, and it was precisely that sense of renewal and vigour that spurred him to go just that little bit further, to strike the punching bag that little bit harder and that little bit faster.
For several weeks now he had been thought of as a manipulator, and as somebody who would capitalise on his own daughter's fandom of Andrew Jacobsen to weasel his way into a rematch that so many of his peers thought he honestly didn't deserve.
Frankly he expected such bitter and twisted cynicism from men like Derek Brooks and Xavier Cross, those men made no secret of just how well they could stir the pot with a couple of controversial statements, but when it was the likes of Jayson Matthews and Andrew Jacobsen who refused to give him the benefit of the doubt and take anything he said at face value, well then he was forced to accept that the one lesson Spike Kane had tried to instill in him from the very first time he ever stepped foot inside a wrestling ring fourteen years ago was as true today as it ever had been.
There were no friends in professional wrestling, just bitter, jaded, jealous rivals.
Bitter because of the love of a good woman he had.
Jaded because of the family he had been blessed with.
Jealous because he stood unmoved and in utter defiance of anybody who ever told him that it simply wasn't possible to be both a professional wrestler and a well adjusted and honest family man.
Jake Conway planted his feet firmly on the ground and rocked the bag with several piston-like shots from his balled up fists, struggling to find an acceptable balance between his anger towards Andrew Jacobsen and his reason for still doing any of this at his age - his daughters.
They deserved the world even more than Andrew Jacobsen deserved a receipt for the knife he had unwittingly plunged into Solitaire's heart. She was still too young to understand entirely, but she was old enough to realise that something had changed about the man she once affectionately knew as Uncle Andy.
In her confusion, she sought all the answers from the only other man she held in any reverence, her father, and whilst Jake had done his best to try and explain why Andrew Jacobsen wasn't nearly as heroic as she remembered him, the words on their own felt so empty and hollow.
And so in a few short days, with a little luck and a lot of perseverance, Jake Conway would ensure that he came home to his daughter with so much more than words.
He would bring home the Imperial Championship, not as her conquering hero, but as her loving father, and in time she would learn that Jake Conway would always be true to his word in all the ways that Andrew Jacobsen never could be.
He just hoped the lesson wasn't any more painful than it needed to be for her.
Tell me Andrew, why is it that you're so God damned willing to give everybody else the benefit of the doubt and take them at face value until they give you a reason not to, but not my sweet, innocent, ten year old baby girl?
After everything we've been through in our respective careers, I understand completely why you would doubt the sincerity of MY wishes and desires, but I will NEVER understand why you would paint my baby with that particular brush. Throughout the years we've been doing this, I've given you plenty of reasons to doubt me, but give me ONE reason - ONE reason why you're so eager to doubt my daughter's sincerity?
Is it because she's a happy and healthy ten year old?
You wouldn't doubt her sincerity of her wish if she was terminal, would you?
No, of course not, you would be bending over backwards to grant her wish then, wouldn't you?
If it were ANY other little girl in the world who had asked to see a rematch between the two of us, you would have gone out of your way to make sure that little girl got everything she was asking for, but because the little girl making demands of your time and integrity this time around is MY daughter, all of a sudden you doubt the sincerity of her intentions?
How fucking dare you, Andrew?
How dare you even insinuate that my baby girl couldn't possibly want her father to get another chance?
Do you have any idea how insulting that is?
If anyone should know better than to discount somebody's value based solely on who their father is, it should be you Andrew.
If the Imperial Wrestling Federation had discounted the value of Andrew Jacobsen because of who his father was, you wouldn't have gotten another chance, much less be standing here today as the face of the organisation. If as your challenger this Sunday, I held you to the same standards that you apparently hold my daughter, I would be looking passed you and I would be dismissing you as the single greatest fluke in the business today, because your daddy never made it in the big leagues Andrew.
Your daddy, Jason Jacobsen, never made it to the top of the mountain in any major wrestling promotion.
Your daddy, Jason Jacobsen, never made it here in the Imperial Wrestling Federation.
It would be so easy to dismiss you as any sort of worthwhile Champion if my only criterion for judging you was who your father is, but I don't, and I never will, because I don't make unfair presumptions of you just because your last name happens to be Jacobsen, so don't you dare presume my daughter's guilt just because her last name happens to be Conway, alright, sunshine?
You know Andrew, I almost wish you had refused her, at least then I could have respected you for standing up for what you believe in, but as it is, you've proven nothing of every virtue you preach except that when you feel backed into a corner you will compromise all of them for the sake of preserving your reputation as the man who gives anything and everything back to his fans.
Which one of us is the manipulative and dishonest one again?
I cannot and I will not acknowledge a man so cynical and jaded as to doubt my baby girl as the best the business has to offer today. I cannot and I will not abide such a man as the legitimate and indisputable peak of our profession, but most of all Andrew I cannot and will not allow such a man to be hailed a hero by anyone.
Not by this company.
Not by our peers.
And certainly not by my daughter.
I haven't always done the right thing Andrew, but ever since I stepped up and finally took responsibility for the lives I've helped bring into this world I've tried to raise them right, and I've tried to teach them some of the most important life lessons one can ever learn.
It's never been easy, but I've always tried to make each lesson as painless as possible for them, because if there's one thing I've never been able to stand it is their rolling tears and their utter heartbreak. You see Andrew, my wife, and especially my kids have always seen me as a much better man than even I consider myself.
They believed in me when I didn't even believe in myself.
Even after everything that has happened between us Andrew, they believe that I'm more than capable of beating you in the middle of an IWF ring for the Imperial Championship, purely on my own merits and wrestling ability - even at my age. They believe that even as a man on the wrong side of forty, I've never needed an advantage against you - and so, because of their absolute and unwavering belief in me Andrew, I am here now, facing you one more time for the most important Championship either of us will ever hold in our lives, one more time - one last time.
One on one.
No weapons.
No stipulations.
Not a single unfair advantage in sight, because I am willing to do the one thing that you're apparently having so much trouble with. I am willing to believe Solitaire when she tells me something. I'm willing to believe her when she says that I can beat you fair and square become the new Imperial Champion. And so you should know Andrew that when we lock up in between those ropes on Sunday night, I have every intention of rewarding my daughter's utter faith in me in every way that your deeply ingrained cynicism apparently will never allow.
I will walk in to Lineage as an old challenger and I will walk out of Lineage as the new Imperial Champion.
I realise now why it is said that if you want something done right, you should do it yourself.
For years I believed Andrew Jacobsen was the best possible role model for my children. For years I watched them look up to you. For years I bought them your merchandise and watched their faces light up as they cheered you on in almost every match you were ever in.
They believed in you without question and without doubt, and yet when the time came for you to return the favour to my daughter, you just couldn't, could you? She's never asked you for much Andrew, because she's always been more than a little starstruck by you - and yet the one time she actually musters the courage to ask you for something in front of the entire world, you work yourself into a fit over how it MUST all be a dastardly plan by me to get another crack at you.
How many years have we known each other, Andrew?
You should know better than to run yourself ragged with conspiracy theories about my daughter being a pawn in all of this. I may gamble and risk a lot, but if you think I would manipulate my daughter just to goad Andrew Jacobsen into a match for his Championship, then being Imperial Champion has given you even more of an ego about your current standing in this industry than I thought.
The Imperial Championship may make you the single most important wrestler in the Imperial Wrestling Federation for now Andrew, but it will NEVER make you the most important man in my life. As nice as claiming the right to call myself the best professional wrestler in the world one more time would be, I will not do so at my daughter's expense.
Frankly Andy, as great as an in ring technician as you are, even you are not worth her innocence.
Fact is Andy, if I wanted another shot at you, I would demand it from you personally and on my terms, but as it is this match isn't going to be on my terms, it is going to be on Solitaire's. She wants to see her two favourite wrestlers compete once more. Our first encounter for the Imperial Championship was a dream match for her - and now my little girl wants to relive that dream.
I will never deny her any of her dreams, Andrew.
Not because I'm her hero, but because I am her father.
For years now I've convinced myself that it was either one or the other. I could either dedicate my life to being her hero or I could dedicate my life to being her father. I convinced myself that I would never be good enough to be both - but now that I've seen just how much your practised and perfect veneer has cracked under the pressure of having the biggest target you'll ever have in your career on your back, I realise that there's a fundamental difference between being a hero to someone and being a hero worthy of someone.
You might be a hero Andrew, but you are not a hero worthy of her.
And so, this Sunday I will once again step up, not as the hero she wants, but rather as the hero she deserves.
The hero I know now that Andrew Jacobsen will never be.
And if after everything I've just said, some small part of you is still utterly convinced that my daughter's desire to see her two heroes clash one more time with everything on the line came from any other place than her heart, then as far as I'm concerned you Andrew, have already forfeited not only any right to call yourself a Champion in this company, but also any right you've ever had to call yourself my friend.
Well howdy there pardner.