Final Boss

[Nick Knight]

Nick Knight is sitting alone in his hotel suit in the Tokyo district of Roppongi. Down below him thousands of people are enjoying the night life, but he’s decided to stay in and prepare for his upcoming match. A massage therapist had just left and his dinner would be arriving soon. Walking over to the desk he sets his phone down and hits record before beginning to speak.

I was hanging out with my kid a couple days ago, and he was playing his PS5. His forehead was all rumpled up as he focused as if his life depends on it. Every time I looked over his face was a darker shade of red, and he was a little bit closer to the TV. When he reached the end of the couch he just kind of hovered and rocked back and forth like he was having some sort of a fit. Just when I thought I was going to have to wake him from this daze. a chain of expletives that would make a lumberjack blush and dropped his controller to the floor.

I had just watched my son go through every emotion I did back in March. He had the lazer like focus that was absolutely exhausting to maintain, but you know that you must. Your sanity is like a rubber band being pulled in both directions and you just have to hope that you’ve got enough in you to hold on just a little longer. Then the rubber band snaps and you’re exhausted and forced to deal with the fact that you just failed.

Once he had calmed down a little I asked JC what in a video game could have got him so upset. That’s when he told me all about the final boss, and how it is the big fight that the entire game has been building towards. He explained that they are almost always the most difficult enemy in the entire game to beat, and he had just about done it that time.

I felt every single thing that he had felt, because Sabin is my Final Boss.

Knight takes a deep breath and lets it out slowly.

When we fought back in March I put every ounce of my energy into preparing for that match. I walked in knowing that I was going to leave my heart and soul out in that ring, because this was going to be my last shot at the big one. It doesn’t take a genius to figure out that my heart and soul wasn’t enough, and the rubber band snapped. I was absolutely heartbroken and I walked away from IWF, I thought forever.

Circumstances dragged me back into the game, but never once did I think that I’d find myself on this roll. I haven’t lost a match in three months, and no one on the IWF roster has wrestled nearly as many as me in that time. I have made good on every single opportunity that I’ve been given and I find myself standing on the doorway to greatness. Just two more successful title defenses and Angel Blakes is mine, and this time the God of IWF will be revealed to be nothing more than a mortal in stage makeup.

Isn't it fitting that the only man standing in my way is my Final Boss.

Six months ago I would have just handed Sabin the belt and walked out of the ring. I was a broken man, nowhere close to be healed from High Stakes. I would have rather just walked away than risk the humiliation of being beaten again. Slowly that all began to change, thanks to my brothers and sisters in The Revolution my confidence began to return. The things that would have left me curled up in the fetal position and crying like a little bitch were now nothing more than bumps in the road. Losing Mayhem in Manhattan and HTTT bummed me out only long enough for me to remember that I have a truly amazing life that I’m not willing to lose over a couple of wrestling matches.

Now just nine months from our first match I am the most confident that I have ever been in my entire fucking career. I have put down every single man that they’ve put in front of me easily, and when I look around the locker room I don’t see a single man that can beat me. I am The Franchise of IWF and I fucking dare anyone that thinks they’re better than me the door is always open.

Imagine my surprise when I opened up Twitter a few days ago to see that someone finally had the ball to call me out. I was finally going to get a challenger that wasn’t some up and comer, a wannabe rapper, or an over the hill Pax Stormcrow. I was going to finally get to silence any doubt as to who is the greatest Television Champion of all time by once and for all defeating my Final Boss.

Nick pauses for a moment like he’s deep in thought

Honestly, I’m not sure how I am going to feel standing across the ring from Sabin again. I thought our careers were heading in two very different trajectories, but here we are right back where the latest chapter of my life began; the two of us going one on one with ten pounds of gold on the line. The only difference is that this time I’m champion, and I have all the advantages walking into this match. Advantages that began clear back before I decided whether or not I was even going to accept the challenge.

Don’t think for one second that I was going to be some punk and just ignore the challenge, although I know most of the people in this company would. No, I was always going to accept Sabin’s challenge, but after our last match I knew that I was going to have to be smart. I was going to have to push through the fogginess caused by too many chairshots to the head and come up with a plan.

Sabin proved to me at High Stakes that he is better than me in almost every way possible, and I’m not ashamed to say that. He’s younger and doesn’t have over twenty years of wear and tear on his body, which means quicker than I will ever be. He was raised in this business and is constantly surrounded by Hall of Famers and World Champions, which means that he trains with the very best day in and day out. He’s a fucking magician on the mat and he proved that he is capable of submitting me in the blink of an eye.

I wasn’t sure how I could possibly beat him, then it came to me, the one advantage that I have is being a little extra fucked in the head. We’ve all seen Wraith, that dark place that he seems to go for his matches. Most of the time I think it’s just a bullshit character, just a gimmick to get him over with the fans. Every once in a while though, I’ve seen a little glimpse of evil deep in Sabin’s eyes. This time it’s going to take a lot more than just a touch of evil to survive, because we are about to walk deep into the darkest pit of Hell.

Sabin it’s not going to matter if you are quicker than me, because when the ring is surrounded by exploding barbed wire there’s nowhere to run. It doesn’t matter who you spend your days training with, because it can’t prepare you for the feeling of a C4 explosion vibrating your body. I don’t give a fuck how good you are on the mat, because all the BJJ in the world can’t prepare you for having your fleshed turned into yakiniku.

He lets out a slightly psychotic chuckle

Spend all of the time you need in that makeup chair getting your face just right, Sabin. Listen to music, hold your baby girl, read The Complete Works of Edgar Allan Poe, or whatever the fuck it is you need to do to become Wraith. Just know that every last second of it is one that you are wasting, because you are about to step into Nicky’s world. You might know hardcore, you’ve even played around with barbed wire a little bit, but you are about to get a free lesson in the art of the death match from one of the best in the business.

I will make three guarantees for Holiday Havoc

Knight holds up a finger

There will be blood.

He adds a second.

The smell of charred flesh will fill the Tokyo Dome clear to the rafters.

Then he adds a third.

When all is said and done for Wraith it will be…

GAME OVER!!!