Post by Mike Laszlo on Nov 22, 2014 20:54:02 GMT
Do you understand what you’ve put me through all of this time? The pain, the suffering, the agony that you’ve put me through is enough to make another man walk away from this business altogether.
The scene fades into Extreme Endurance. The look on my face is frantic as I look from one of my wrists to the other as I’m strapped, helpless, to the top rope. I’m watching that sick son of a bitch grab my fiancé by her legs and lock her in a Sharpshooter. I wince in agony as she cries out for my help and I flail my tied legs to no avail. There’s no use, no saving her unless I give up my dream and I do just that. Angel celebrates his victory as I was finally cut down, scrambling to Alexis’ side. As he celebrated, I scowled and the clip paused on my face. The anger that raced through my veins had to be contained for her sake.
It was in that very moment that I knew I would do anything to get back to the point that I would challenge you in the middle of the ring for your championship again Angel. It was more than that though. It was more than just getting another shot at a title you held. It was about getting a chance to exact my revenge. It was about getting that precious time to get you in the center of that ring and do whatever I saw fit as punishment for what you had done that night.
The sand began to fall from the hourglass that very second in time.
He walked away as I continued to check on Alexis. The camera had gone from the ring, the focus on the main event and I felt a pain within me. It wasn’t a physical pain despite everything I had been put through; it was more an emotional pain. I had let everyone down…and more importantly I had failed her.
It was a feeling that I had never experienced before Angel. It was something that I never want to experience again. You caused me to feel that way. You caused the ground to fall out from under me, a bottomless pit of despair that I have been crawling out of for the last month.
The scene fades in as I stand next to a ladder, my right foot on the first rung.
Since then, since that moment Angel, I’ve done whatever I have to do to climb the mountain again and the first step was beating your henchmen to qualify for the Extinction Event. When I was beating on them, when they should have begged for mercy, and probably did, I saw your face. I went into a zone that I’ve never approached because the minute I saw your face, the fire within raged. It exploded to levels that I can’t even explain with the spoken word and I snapped. I beat the two of them into submission and sent a message to you and the rest of the Age of X that probably barely penetrated your thick skulls.
I climb the ladder to the next rung and turn, leaning up against the ladder itself.
They had to keep me away Angel. They had to keep me from you because they saw what I did to the Brothers Black. They knew that if I got my hands on you before Survival of the Fittest, there would be no IWF Champion in the main event. They had to protect their profits.
I moved up another step on the ladder.
Then came last week. I jumped through another hoop. I proved my worthiness to challenge you again when I made Xavier Cross tap to the Entanglement.
I climbed a few more rungs before turning and sitting atop the ladder, looking down at the camera.
So here I sit Angel. Everyone you have defended that title against, I’ve beaten. Everything that has been put in my way…I’ve overcome. It didn’t matter if it was a Handicap Match, I didn’t care if I had to go through one man, two men, the entire Age of X, none of it mattered as long as the end result was getting back to you.
I hold my arms out to the side as if there’s nothing left.
So now you have to look in the mirror Angel. You have to see past your own façade. You have to see through the charade you’ve put on of being “God” and you have to ask the man behind the face paint, “What happens?”
What happens when you lose the title this Sunday?
What happens when that loss casts so much doubt on you that the Age of X disbands before your very eyes?
What happens when you’re left broken in the center of that ring.
What happens now that all your attention is gone?
I stand and turn, descending the ladder one rung after another until I reach the bottom, turning back to the camera.
Chew on that. Let those questions haunt you. Let those answers that you know soak in. Let it cause you the pain that you’ve caused for so many others. Let it tear and scratch and claw at your very soul. Let it hurt…then know, that that’s only the beginning. Know that the hurt you’re experiencing won’t compare to what you have waiting for you after Survival of the Fittest. Know that it wasn’t caused out of simple competitive desires. Know that it was personal…
Know that it was…revenge.
I turn my head to the left as Alexis appears next to me. She smiles an innocent smile as she looks into my eyes with an innocent smile on her face as the scene fades to black.
====================
Title: So Much For Relaxation
Location: Cleveland, Ohio
Time: 2:23 PM
We were sitting, relaxing, for the first time in a while with all that’s been going on both professionally and personally in our lives. As we sat and enjoyed each other’s company, Alexis and I, there was a buzz at the door. The two of us looked at one another and it was obvious that neither of us was expecting company. Grabbing my tablet I checked the security camera by the door and saw that it was Alexis’ mother waiting at the door.
Mike Laszlo: Were you expecting your mother?
She squirmed a little as she seemed a tad bit confused and off put.
Alexis Caffrey: Um…no? I’ll go see what’s up.
She walks to the door and I can hear it opening. She goes to greet her mother, but instead is hit with a loud blast of shouting.
Alexis Caffrey: Hi M…
Alexis’ Mother: WHAT THE HELL WERE YOU THINKING!?!?
She continued to lecture her daughter as she walked in the door, slamming it shut behind her which caused me to stand up and head for the door.
Alexis’ Mother: All of this time I put a roof over your head. I gave you as much as I could and the minute you have a chance to go back to that scum sucking piece of shit, YOU LET HIM BACK IN!
I walked in on the scolding and hold out my hand.
Mike Laszlo: Whoa there, relax.
Alexis’ Mother: Don’t you tell me to relax.
She points her finger at me.
Alexis’ Mother: You let this all happen. You started it!
I understood her emotion, but there was no need for all of this.
Mike Laszlo: Chill. Let’s go into the living room and talk this out.
She was breathing heavy and was fuming to the point where if it were possible she’d be setting us on fire with her gaze. Alexis and I sat again, her mother wouldn’t. She paced back and forth, a nervous wreck as she looked at us and then scoffed as she looked away before unleashing her rage again, though this time a little more calmly.
Alexis’ Mother: Do you have any idea what you two have done? Do you not understand the lengths I’ve gone to in order to keep you from him? Do you realize how much I’ve sacrificed to give you all I could? I gave up my dignity, my livelihood, my body for you and you betray me like this?
I know my fiancé better than just about everyone, and I can guarantee that was the farthest thing from her mind. She’s never wanted to upset her mother. She’s never wanted to be looked down upon as a disappointment or failure, and judging by the look on her face, that’s exactly how she felt.
Mike Laszlo: I get where you’re coming from.
Alexis’ Mother: Do you? Do you understand what it’s like to have to result to prostitution for the sake of that little girl upstairs? Do you understand how degrading it was; how the only salvation I had was that I was doing it for her?
I felt like I was a little kid being scolded. All I could do was shake my head. I’ve done some things before for the girls, but I’ve never had to resort to that level.
Alexis’ Mother: No. no you don’t. So you don’t understand where I’m coming from, and you should never assume you do again.
Mike Laszlo: I’m sorry. I have to wonder though, what’s the harm in her at least meeting her father. I knew my father. I knew he was a giant steaming pile of crap. It wasn’t til he was killed though that I realized what I missed out on. I don’t want her to have the same regrets as I do.
If you didn’t know, you’re finding out quickly that her mother is very quick.
Alexis’ Mother: So what? This is all about you? This is about the fact that your relationship with your father was horrible? So because of that you’re going to push her into something she doesn’t need?
Alexis felt the need to lash out in my defense.
Alexis Caffrey: Mom!
Alexis’ Mother: Don’t “Mom” me. Because he can’t deal with the fact his father is dead, and the fact that he had no relationship does NOT mean that the situations are the same. I took her (Alexis) from a life of hell and I did my best to raise the young woman you sit next to, the one you supposedly love, and you try to push her right off the edge, right back into that purgatory and for that, you’re rather selfish.
She turned to Alexis.
Alexis’ Mother: Trust me, I know better. Stay away from that worthless man.
She stormed out of the room for the door. Alexis glanced back and forth between me and the walkway which her mother had gone down. She got up and left me there to stir in the verbal tongue lashing I had just received. I could hear her pleading with her mother to reconsider. I sat there stewing for a bit.
Was she right?
Was this more about me than Alexis?
Am I living vicariously through her?
As those thoughts crept through my head, I heard the door close and could hear Alexis’ footsteps as she came back into the room. She could sense something wasn’t wrong.
Alexis Caffrey: I’m sorry.
I didn’t turn toward her. I had my elbows on my knees and my chin in my hands as I stared straight ahead, my voice muffled by my hands.
Mike Laszlo: You have nothing to be sorry for.
She puts her arm around my shoulders to reassure me.
Alexis Caffrey: Yes I do. She shouldn’t be barging in here, berating you like that. She has no right. You’re just acting on what you think is right.
I thought some more before asking the question that was going through my head.
Mike Laszlo: But is she right?
As we sat there together and pondered, the scene fades.
====================
As I look into her eyes…
The scene fades back in to me and Alexis staring into one another’s eyes, the same scene we left earlier.
I think of that night over and over and over again. I think of the tears in her eyes that fell down her face as you nearly bent her in half. I think of all of that, and I see it in my mind and do you know what it means to me Angel? Do you know what I see? I don’t see weakness…
I see motivation.
I turn toward the camera.
I see the motivation that I need to not only beat you, not only take your title, but destroy you. To beat you, I don’t have to become you, because if I did so I would be lowering myself to a level that makes me sick, a level that I despise.
I scoff at the idea, it makes me shutter in disgust as I shake my head from one side to another.
No, I don’t have to become you Angel…I have to do something that I have proven time and time again. I have to show the world that I am better than you. I have to show them again that you are not the God you self-profess yourself to be. You are not the almighty, but instead a leech, a tick on the ass of society that needs to be pulled off and crushed; and as you watch all the rest of your Age of X fall throughout the night, throughout the Extinction Match, you’ll see the final grains of sand fall. You’ll watch helplessly, as I did at Extreme Endurance as your time comes to an end.
I hold up my index finger.
First you’ll watch the Brothers fall to Malaki Toala and Seth Evans.
I hold up two fingers.
Then you’ll watch The Sentinel have no effect on a team that I lead because if need be, I’ll slay the giant myself.
You get it…three fingers.
Then Cliff Clinton will find the flaw in your supposed perfect weapon and he will take him out, weakening your fortress that much more.
Four fingers.
Oh yes, then your Queen shall fall. Ana will get what she deserves. She will fail to live up to her name of Goddess and she will fail to remain Diamonds Champion and Amber Richards will make history once again.
All four fingers are raised in the air with the thumb stuck out to the side.
Then comes the end of it all. You’ll stare across the ring at me. You’ll see the blazing fire in my eyes. You’ll watch as they carry away the last remnants of your team and all the sounds in the arena will cease to exist in your head. You’ll block out every cheer, every boo, there will be a deafening silence until you hear the final grain of sand trickle through and you’ll hear my voice. It will have a single worded message for you…and your reign of terror…
CHECKMATE!
I hold Alexis by my side, a smirk on both of our faces as we anticipate the biggest match of my career to date, the scene, fades to black.
The scene fades into Extreme Endurance. The look on my face is frantic as I look from one of my wrists to the other as I’m strapped, helpless, to the top rope. I’m watching that sick son of a bitch grab my fiancé by her legs and lock her in a Sharpshooter. I wince in agony as she cries out for my help and I flail my tied legs to no avail. There’s no use, no saving her unless I give up my dream and I do just that. Angel celebrates his victory as I was finally cut down, scrambling to Alexis’ side. As he celebrated, I scowled and the clip paused on my face. The anger that raced through my veins had to be contained for her sake.
It was in that very moment that I knew I would do anything to get back to the point that I would challenge you in the middle of the ring for your championship again Angel. It was more than that though. It was more than just getting another shot at a title you held. It was about getting a chance to exact my revenge. It was about getting that precious time to get you in the center of that ring and do whatever I saw fit as punishment for what you had done that night.
The sand began to fall from the hourglass that very second in time.
He walked away as I continued to check on Alexis. The camera had gone from the ring, the focus on the main event and I felt a pain within me. It wasn’t a physical pain despite everything I had been put through; it was more an emotional pain. I had let everyone down…and more importantly I had failed her.
It was a feeling that I had never experienced before Angel. It was something that I never want to experience again. You caused me to feel that way. You caused the ground to fall out from under me, a bottomless pit of despair that I have been crawling out of for the last month.
The scene fades in as I stand next to a ladder, my right foot on the first rung.
Since then, since that moment Angel, I’ve done whatever I have to do to climb the mountain again and the first step was beating your henchmen to qualify for the Extinction Event. When I was beating on them, when they should have begged for mercy, and probably did, I saw your face. I went into a zone that I’ve never approached because the minute I saw your face, the fire within raged. It exploded to levels that I can’t even explain with the spoken word and I snapped. I beat the two of them into submission and sent a message to you and the rest of the Age of X that probably barely penetrated your thick skulls.
I climb the ladder to the next rung and turn, leaning up against the ladder itself.
They had to keep me away Angel. They had to keep me from you because they saw what I did to the Brothers Black. They knew that if I got my hands on you before Survival of the Fittest, there would be no IWF Champion in the main event. They had to protect their profits.
I moved up another step on the ladder.
Then came last week. I jumped through another hoop. I proved my worthiness to challenge you again when I made Xavier Cross tap to the Entanglement.
I climbed a few more rungs before turning and sitting atop the ladder, looking down at the camera.
So here I sit Angel. Everyone you have defended that title against, I’ve beaten. Everything that has been put in my way…I’ve overcome. It didn’t matter if it was a Handicap Match, I didn’t care if I had to go through one man, two men, the entire Age of X, none of it mattered as long as the end result was getting back to you.
I hold my arms out to the side as if there’s nothing left.
So now you have to look in the mirror Angel. You have to see past your own façade. You have to see through the charade you’ve put on of being “God” and you have to ask the man behind the face paint, “What happens?”
What happens when you lose the title this Sunday?
What happens when that loss casts so much doubt on you that the Age of X disbands before your very eyes?
What happens when you’re left broken in the center of that ring.
What happens now that all your attention is gone?
I stand and turn, descending the ladder one rung after another until I reach the bottom, turning back to the camera.
Chew on that. Let those questions haunt you. Let those answers that you know soak in. Let it cause you the pain that you’ve caused for so many others. Let it tear and scratch and claw at your very soul. Let it hurt…then know, that that’s only the beginning. Know that the hurt you’re experiencing won’t compare to what you have waiting for you after Survival of the Fittest. Know that it wasn’t caused out of simple competitive desires. Know that it was personal…
Know that it was…revenge.
I turn my head to the left as Alexis appears next to me. She smiles an innocent smile as she looks into my eyes with an innocent smile on her face as the scene fades to black.
====================
Title: So Much For Relaxation
Location: Cleveland, Ohio
Time: 2:23 PM
We were sitting, relaxing, for the first time in a while with all that’s been going on both professionally and personally in our lives. As we sat and enjoyed each other’s company, Alexis and I, there was a buzz at the door. The two of us looked at one another and it was obvious that neither of us was expecting company. Grabbing my tablet I checked the security camera by the door and saw that it was Alexis’ mother waiting at the door.
Mike Laszlo: Were you expecting your mother?
She squirmed a little as she seemed a tad bit confused and off put.
Alexis Caffrey: Um…no? I’ll go see what’s up.
She walks to the door and I can hear it opening. She goes to greet her mother, but instead is hit with a loud blast of shouting.
Alexis Caffrey: Hi M…
Alexis’ Mother: WHAT THE HELL WERE YOU THINKING!?!?
She continued to lecture her daughter as she walked in the door, slamming it shut behind her which caused me to stand up and head for the door.
Alexis’ Mother: All of this time I put a roof over your head. I gave you as much as I could and the minute you have a chance to go back to that scum sucking piece of shit, YOU LET HIM BACK IN!
I walked in on the scolding and hold out my hand.
Mike Laszlo: Whoa there, relax.
Alexis’ Mother: Don’t you tell me to relax.
She points her finger at me.
Alexis’ Mother: You let this all happen. You started it!
I understood her emotion, but there was no need for all of this.
Mike Laszlo: Chill. Let’s go into the living room and talk this out.
She was breathing heavy and was fuming to the point where if it were possible she’d be setting us on fire with her gaze. Alexis and I sat again, her mother wouldn’t. She paced back and forth, a nervous wreck as she looked at us and then scoffed as she looked away before unleashing her rage again, though this time a little more calmly.
Alexis’ Mother: Do you have any idea what you two have done? Do you not understand the lengths I’ve gone to in order to keep you from him? Do you realize how much I’ve sacrificed to give you all I could? I gave up my dignity, my livelihood, my body for you and you betray me like this?
I know my fiancé better than just about everyone, and I can guarantee that was the farthest thing from her mind. She’s never wanted to upset her mother. She’s never wanted to be looked down upon as a disappointment or failure, and judging by the look on her face, that’s exactly how she felt.
Mike Laszlo: I get where you’re coming from.
Alexis’ Mother: Do you? Do you understand what it’s like to have to result to prostitution for the sake of that little girl upstairs? Do you understand how degrading it was; how the only salvation I had was that I was doing it for her?
I felt like I was a little kid being scolded. All I could do was shake my head. I’ve done some things before for the girls, but I’ve never had to resort to that level.
Alexis’ Mother: No. no you don’t. So you don’t understand where I’m coming from, and you should never assume you do again.
Mike Laszlo: I’m sorry. I have to wonder though, what’s the harm in her at least meeting her father. I knew my father. I knew he was a giant steaming pile of crap. It wasn’t til he was killed though that I realized what I missed out on. I don’t want her to have the same regrets as I do.
If you didn’t know, you’re finding out quickly that her mother is very quick.
Alexis’ Mother: So what? This is all about you? This is about the fact that your relationship with your father was horrible? So because of that you’re going to push her into something she doesn’t need?
Alexis felt the need to lash out in my defense.
Alexis Caffrey: Mom!
Alexis’ Mother: Don’t “Mom” me. Because he can’t deal with the fact his father is dead, and the fact that he had no relationship does NOT mean that the situations are the same. I took her (Alexis) from a life of hell and I did my best to raise the young woman you sit next to, the one you supposedly love, and you try to push her right off the edge, right back into that purgatory and for that, you’re rather selfish.
She turned to Alexis.
Alexis’ Mother: Trust me, I know better. Stay away from that worthless man.
She stormed out of the room for the door. Alexis glanced back and forth between me and the walkway which her mother had gone down. She got up and left me there to stir in the verbal tongue lashing I had just received. I could hear her pleading with her mother to reconsider. I sat there stewing for a bit.
Was she right?
Was this more about me than Alexis?
Am I living vicariously through her?
As those thoughts crept through my head, I heard the door close and could hear Alexis’ footsteps as she came back into the room. She could sense something wasn’t wrong.
Alexis Caffrey: I’m sorry.
I didn’t turn toward her. I had my elbows on my knees and my chin in my hands as I stared straight ahead, my voice muffled by my hands.
Mike Laszlo: You have nothing to be sorry for.
She puts her arm around my shoulders to reassure me.
Alexis Caffrey: Yes I do. She shouldn’t be barging in here, berating you like that. She has no right. You’re just acting on what you think is right.
I thought some more before asking the question that was going through my head.
Mike Laszlo: But is she right?
As we sat there together and pondered, the scene fades.
====================
As I look into her eyes…
The scene fades back in to me and Alexis staring into one another’s eyes, the same scene we left earlier.
I think of that night over and over and over again. I think of the tears in her eyes that fell down her face as you nearly bent her in half. I think of all of that, and I see it in my mind and do you know what it means to me Angel? Do you know what I see? I don’t see weakness…
I see motivation.
I turn toward the camera.
I see the motivation that I need to not only beat you, not only take your title, but destroy you. To beat you, I don’t have to become you, because if I did so I would be lowering myself to a level that makes me sick, a level that I despise.
I scoff at the idea, it makes me shutter in disgust as I shake my head from one side to another.
No, I don’t have to become you Angel…I have to do something that I have proven time and time again. I have to show the world that I am better than you. I have to show them again that you are not the God you self-profess yourself to be. You are not the almighty, but instead a leech, a tick on the ass of society that needs to be pulled off and crushed; and as you watch all the rest of your Age of X fall throughout the night, throughout the Extinction Match, you’ll see the final grains of sand fall. You’ll watch helplessly, as I did at Extreme Endurance as your time comes to an end.
I hold up my index finger.
First you’ll watch the Brothers fall to Malaki Toala and Seth Evans.
I hold up two fingers.
Then you’ll watch The Sentinel have no effect on a team that I lead because if need be, I’ll slay the giant myself.
You get it…three fingers.
Then Cliff Clinton will find the flaw in your supposed perfect weapon and he will take him out, weakening your fortress that much more.
Four fingers.
Oh yes, then your Queen shall fall. Ana will get what she deserves. She will fail to live up to her name of Goddess and she will fail to remain Diamonds Champion and Amber Richards will make history once again.
All four fingers are raised in the air with the thumb stuck out to the side.
Then comes the end of it all. You’ll stare across the ring at me. You’ll see the blazing fire in my eyes. You’ll watch as they carry away the last remnants of your team and all the sounds in the arena will cease to exist in your head. You’ll block out every cheer, every boo, there will be a deafening silence until you hear the final grain of sand trickle through and you’ll hear my voice. It will have a single worded message for you…and your reign of terror…
CHECKMATE!
I hold Alexis by my side, a smirk on both of our faces as we anticipate the biggest match of my career to date, the scene, fades to black.
Well howdy there pardner.