Post by Jesse Marchand on Mar 14, 2021 6:07:22 GMT
Soft pops fill the air as a small flame dances atop a set of logs laid on the ground before Jessé Marchand. He sits quietly on a stump underneath the darkness of the night sky, staring absently into the flame. Amidst the chaos of the tour of England, he's managed to find a serene spot in the English countryside to gather his thoughts ahead of the Roulette.
For the first time in the absence of his tag team partner, he says, "I love the sport of professional wrestling. I've loved this business for a very long time, ever since I was a kid. My parents... they used to have this rickety old ladder sitting out in the back yard, and I'd go out in the evenings after school and I'd climb it rung by rung; and when I would get to the top I'd pretend to pull down the imaginary World Title and hold it up above my head, basking in the cheers of the crowd."
"Fast forward a few years, there I am, a little older, and I'm starting to think why couldn't I actually do that? I didn't want to be one of those people that had a dream, but always had a reason why they weren't pursuing it. Failure... failure is something I could live with. Regret... that's a hard thing to swallow, man. So I took a chance on my dream. I'll be real with you, too- early on, I was failing. There are guys that are walking around the IWF, they'd be ashamed to ever admit that. If you want to laugh at me for that, by all means, go ahead. The thing about failure for me is I won't let myself be afraid to do it. If I fail at something, I just try to step back and ask myself what I learned? If you take something from your failures, they're just setbacks."
"Fast forward a little more, I'm the same guy- with the same love for this sport- walking into Tara Fenix's wrestling school. Truth is, I owe Tara a hell of a lot. Our sport, it isn't an easy one- and a whole hell of a lot more people fail at this than succeed. The amount of work it takes to be good at this is something I can't sit here and explain to you, because I simply don't have the words to do it. The amount of dedication it takes to truly be great at this is astronomical. She took a twenty something year old kid though who only had a vague idea of what he was doing, and she gave me the knowledge and the training to be successful at this. For my money, she's not just the greatest female wrestler in the world today, and the current reigning Women's Champion; she is the greatest wrestler in the entire world today, male or female, bar none. If me saying that rubs anyone in the locker room wrong," he says with a dismissive shrug.
He carefully tosses another log into the fire.
"Life has a funny way of throwing you curves when you least expect them, though. Fresh out of training I head back up to Canada, and I really never imagined myself becoming a tag team wrestler. Hell, if you go ask Travis, he'd tell you the same thing. We talked about this a lot early on in our partnership while we were traveling the roads.. When I first started teaming up with Travis though, man, it was great. Here I was getting to do what I loved, and we were having success. We clicked, too. If you ask some men and women who've been around this business a long time, been in teams, and had success- they'd tell you it doesn't always work out that way. Chemistry, it's an odd thing to try to pin down. So I've been fortunate, you know. He's been like a brother to me in a lot of ways, and I realize that's a term that gets thrown around a lot in this business. What else can you really say though when it's the truth?"
Jessé reaches behind him, producing a replica of the IWF World Tag Team title belts. He carefully drapes the belt over his shoulder, so the face shows clearly for the camera.
"You see this word right here," he says, pointing to the word "World" on the championship belt, "that says world. It's the exact same word they engrave on the Women's title, and the exact same word they engrave on the World Heavyweight title. That means it's no more prestigious- and it's certainly not less- because the honors are equal. That word signifies that you're the absolute pinnacle of your division. It makes you the measuring stick every other competitor is judged against."
"Ever since Travis and I first started teaming, this is what it's been about for me. I want Travis to stand on one corner of that ring while I stand on the other, and I want to raise these belts above our heads as brothers, the same way I raised that imaginary World Heavyweight Championship above my head so many years ago as a child. I want us to reach that pinnacle together, and I want him to feel and hear those same cheers of approval as I do."
He takes the replica belt off of his shoulder, carefully placing it behind him again due to his meticulous nature of keeping things.
For the first time in the absence of his tag team partner, he says, "I love the sport of professional wrestling. I've loved this business for a very long time, ever since I was a kid. My parents... they used to have this rickety old ladder sitting out in the back yard, and I'd go out in the evenings after school and I'd climb it rung by rung; and when I would get to the top I'd pretend to pull down the imaginary World Title and hold it up above my head, basking in the cheers of the crowd."
"Fast forward a few years, there I am, a little older, and I'm starting to think why couldn't I actually do that? I didn't want to be one of those people that had a dream, but always had a reason why they weren't pursuing it. Failure... failure is something I could live with. Regret... that's a hard thing to swallow, man. So I took a chance on my dream. I'll be real with you, too- early on, I was failing. There are guys that are walking around the IWF, they'd be ashamed to ever admit that. If you want to laugh at me for that, by all means, go ahead. The thing about failure for me is I won't let myself be afraid to do it. If I fail at something, I just try to step back and ask myself what I learned? If you take something from your failures, they're just setbacks."
"Fast forward a little more, I'm the same guy- with the same love for this sport- walking into Tara Fenix's wrestling school. Truth is, I owe Tara a hell of a lot. Our sport, it isn't an easy one- and a whole hell of a lot more people fail at this than succeed. The amount of work it takes to be good at this is something I can't sit here and explain to you, because I simply don't have the words to do it. The amount of dedication it takes to truly be great at this is astronomical. She took a twenty something year old kid though who only had a vague idea of what he was doing, and she gave me the knowledge and the training to be successful at this. For my money, she's not just the greatest female wrestler in the world today, and the current reigning Women's Champion; she is the greatest wrestler in the entire world today, male or female, bar none. If me saying that rubs anyone in the locker room wrong," he says with a dismissive shrug.
He carefully tosses another log into the fire.
"Life has a funny way of throwing you curves when you least expect them, though. Fresh out of training I head back up to Canada, and I really never imagined myself becoming a tag team wrestler. Hell, if you go ask Travis, he'd tell you the same thing. We talked about this a lot early on in our partnership while we were traveling the roads.. When I first started teaming up with Travis though, man, it was great. Here I was getting to do what I loved, and we were having success. We clicked, too. If you ask some men and women who've been around this business a long time, been in teams, and had success- they'd tell you it doesn't always work out that way. Chemistry, it's an odd thing to try to pin down. So I've been fortunate, you know. He's been like a brother to me in a lot of ways, and I realize that's a term that gets thrown around a lot in this business. What else can you really say though when it's the truth?"
Jessé reaches behind him, producing a replica of the IWF World Tag Team title belts. He carefully drapes the belt over his shoulder, so the face shows clearly for the camera.
"You see this word right here," he says, pointing to the word "World" on the championship belt, "that says world. It's the exact same word they engrave on the Women's title, and the exact same word they engrave on the World Heavyweight title. That means it's no more prestigious- and it's certainly not less- because the honors are equal. That word signifies that you're the absolute pinnacle of your division. It makes you the measuring stick every other competitor is judged against."
"Ever since Travis and I first started teaming, this is what it's been about for me. I want Travis to stand on one corner of that ring while I stand on the other, and I want to raise these belts above our heads as brothers, the same way I raised that imaginary World Heavyweight Championship above my head so many years ago as a child. I want us to reach that pinnacle together, and I want him to feel and hear those same cheers of approval as I do."
He takes the replica belt off of his shoulder, carefully placing it behind him again due to his meticulous nature of keeping things.
Well howdy there pardner.