Elevating The Gold

[Nick Knight]

{Nick Knight is walking along the shore of San Francisco Bay enjoying the relaxing sound of the water lapping against the shore. There was something about watching and listening to the water that had always brought him peace, a peace he was going to need going into Odyssey. A peace that he was going to need be able to find every day that he is Invictus Champion.

He stopped and turned towards the camera revealing his latest shirt design available on the ShopIWF app. The Invictus Championship was shined up and tossed over his shoulder, the nameplate had been changed to read Nick Knight. A rare smile is on his face as he begins to speak.}

I saw my shrink last week he told me that I have to stop comparing myself to others because all it does is make me think of my inadequacies, which will just feed into the cycle of anxiety and depression that I call my life. Dr. Goode is constantly telling me to focus on how far I’ve come given the shit sandwich that was my childhood, and that it doesn’t fucking matter that I’ve never been the World Champion. Every time he says that I just about walk out of the session, I realize that he’s right.

I should be dead or in prison, but instead, I sit here as the IWF Invictus Champion. When I go home after being on the road I know that I will be greeted by two beautiful women that love me, and a pretty fucking cool kid. My life is a success story, but I still feel this overwhelming darkness pressing down on me. A darkness that I just thought was a part of me, but now I know that the darkness is a part of professional wrestling.

{Knight’s smile quickly turns into a scowl.}

The rest of the world doesn’t seem to see the direction that this great sport is headed, which means I’m left to fight this battle all alone. This company is full of the type of warriors that could help me win this fight, but instead, they just sit on their asses and collect a paycheck. Our champions, the men and women who should be leading the charge against the darkness, would rather take the easy way out and only defend their championships on pay-per-view. They could all be a part of the solution, but instead, they are just a big part of the problem.

Well, I refuse to be a part of the problem and from the day I won the Invictus Proelium Regium I vowed not to be like any other champion in IWF. Just like when I was on my way to becoming the only Decimus Champion in company history I promised to defend this championship at every opportunity. The sad thing is that management seems to be doing everything in its power to stand in my way because they seem to want to kill the business.

Hell, they probably don’t even realize it because they’re a bunch of lawyers, accountants, and TV producers that know jack shit about the wrestling business. They don’t give a fuck if there are asses in seats just as long as we’re getting good ratings on Tuesday night. I’ve sat in on meetings with these fuckers and they would much rather treat this entire industry like it’s some bullshit reality TV show instead of a legitimate combat sport. We would probably all be much better off if Verona just sold the company to one of the big MMA companies.

{Nick lets out a long sigh.}

You’re probably never going to see my name on an employee of the month plaque back at headquarters because, after twenty-five years in the business, I have no problem telling the suits to go fuck themselves, and I don’t give a shit what they think about it. The only thing that I care about is leaving this business better than it was when I started, and there’s no better place to start than making this championship mean something.

The only way that I can ever do that is by taking the power away from the dumb-asses that would only book me on pay-per-views. That’s why every week since I’ve won this belt I’ve grabbed a microphone and made an open challenge for the next episode of Odyssey. I want to be remembered as being the fighting champion, and not the kind of champion who holds on to the belt for over two hundred days and only defended it four fucking times.

I’m also not interested in only wrestling the people that Hunnington Powell and his merry band of fuckups deem worthy. No, I want to wrestle the people that are fucking hungry to be a champion. The kind of people who aren’t just satisfied with showing up to work each Tuesday night to collect a paycheck. I want to face the men and women in IWF who want nothing more than to prove that they are the absolute best professional wrestler on the planet.

Two weeks ago it was Nick Danger who wanted to see if he had what it takes, but he just fell short. I’ve been in the ring against Nick many times and it is the best match that I’ve ever seen him have, he beat the living shit out of me to the point that I’m happy as Hell that we had a week off because I spent every second of it trying to recover, and I’m still pretty fucking far from 100%. That’s alright though, because neither is Vivienne.

Viv might not have been a part of a five-star garbage wrestling classic, but a loss in a tournament like Heiress To The Throne is just as devastating. Her body doesn’t hurt as bad as mine, but her pride has been bruised by losing to some punk kid. I know that getting so close to having a shot to once again be the Women’s World Champion only to have it ripped away from you will fuck with your head, and it can take the best wrestlers weeks to shake off the funk.

The woman that I’m about to step into the ring with is better than the best and could easily be walking into this match completely focused though. There is a special breed of athlete that uses a big loss as the fuel that drives them to the next level. Honestly, the only thing that is on my mind right now is whether or not Vivienne Rodgers is that kind of athlete. Do I have to worry that losing her opportunity to be the Women’s World Champion will be the motivation that she needs to dig deep and become Invictus Champion?

Hell yes, I have to worry because you don’t make it into the Hall of Fame without losing a few big matches along the way. She has been through the fires and came out the other side with thick skin and a bad fucking attitude. Shit, she’s a third-generation wrestler and was born with skin thicker than most of the primadonnas in the business today. I know for a fact that wrestling Vivienne is going to be like fighting a pissed-off honey badger inside of a phone booth, if you can find one anywhere.

When I made the challenge it was my way of give an opportunity to wrestlers that keep getting overlooked. I’m talking people like Tytus Rost, Charlotte Shimizu, Atara Raven, or Charlie Van Ruth. It was my goal to elevate this championship by giving the spotlight to some of the men and women who are just one big-time win away from the main event.

{He smirks.}

Not a single one of them had the guts to accept the challenge. They proved to me that I had it wrong, they weren’t in the main event because they simply don’t have what it takes to be in the main event. Instead, the challenge was accepted by a woman that was born to be in the main event, and she’s been there dozens of times. She is a professional wrestler so talented that she could easily be booked in the main event every fucking week. Hell, Legendary’ vs ‘The Hollywood Butcher’ is a match up so good it could main event Night of the Immortals.

I’m going to be honest, I don’t know if I can beat Viv and that’s a fucking hard thing for me to admit. There aren’t too damn many people in this business that are on my level, but Vivienne is one of them. She has been one of the top females in this company for years holding the Women’s World Championship to prove it. Now she’s hellbent on proving that she is one of the top professional wrestlers in this entire company period, which has painted a giant fucking target on my back.

{Nick runs his hands over his close cropped hair.}

Watching back some of her matches it’s pretty plain to see that she is going to be a fucking nightmare opponent for me. It doesn’t matter that I outweigh her by more than a hundred pounds because she is so technically sound and her submission game is head and shoulders above mine. That’s why I spent as much time as I could the past couple of weeks with my buddy from Team Trauma just working on escapes. She has so much more than submissions though because she knows how to use leverage to her advantage and she is more than capable of dropping me on my head if I’m not careful. Oh, she also has a chin made of concrete so there is no way in Hell I’m knocking her ass out.

The only game plan that I can go into this match with is to stick to the things that I do well. That means hitting really hard with every single throw that I know hoping to just wear her ass out. It means taking a shortcut at every opportunity just to wear her down a little bit more until I can hit Banned In Memphis for a three-count. The most important thing is I just have to keep fighting as long as there is a breath in my body.

Win or lose I know that the Invictus Championship is better off than when I won it. I know that Vivienne will be the kind of Champion that will proudly defend that belt and take on all comers the way that I have done in my short reign, and if I win I damn well know that I will be defending it again when we get to Pittsburgh. The Invictus Championship deserves to be more than just an afterthought and on Tuesday night I guarantee that Vivienne and I are going to put on a match that no one will soon forget.

{A small returns to Knight’s face, this one reaching his ice blue eyes.}

Vivienne I want to wish you good luck, and just like you reminded your last opponent it’s nothing personal.

____________________________________________________________________________

Nick returns to his room after his long walk and as soon as he opens the door four arms wrap around him and he lets out a yelp. No one should have been in his room and he was about to flip until he felt a familiar pair of lips kiss him with a second pair following right behind.

“What are you doing here,” he asks.

“You didn’t think we’d let you spend our first wedding anniversary alone did you,” Penny answers.

“Besides, Becky said that as fucked up as you still you could use treatment tonight and tomorrow both,” Can says.

“I’m glad you’re both here, but I’m not sure I’m going to be much fun tonight.”

“I’m sure we can change your mind, and you can always make it up to us in Costa Rica. We leave in the morning,” Penny says.

“I didn’t bring my…” Cin shoves his passport into his hand. “How did I live without you two.”

“Not very well,” the women say at the same time.

“Very true.”

{The scene fades to black}