Post by The Ace on Jan 29, 2016 22:49:03 GMT
January 2nd, 2016.
It was the last day of their Christmas vacation and Jake and Kathleen Conway walked hand in hand outside the Century II Performance Arts and Convention Center in Wichita, Kansas. They came to a stop together almost in the same exact spot where exactly a decade earlier they had first met, or more precisely where they had first been introduced to one another.
Kathy stepped out in front of her husband, turning to face him, his hand still in hers and she reached out and took the other.
"Here we are...again," Kathy said softly. "Brings it all back, doesn't it?"
Kathy smiled at her husband and it was then that Jake realised that the same thing that had first caught his attention all those years ago now held it as uncompromisingly as she held onto him herself.
Those eyes.
That smile.
As crazy as it was back then to admit that he could fall in love with her as quickly as he had, it was even crazier now to think back that he once upon a time he was willing to give her up for his career.
"God, I was such an idiot," whispered Jake.
"I thought so too," said Kathy, laughing.
Her laughter brought instantly brought a smile to his lips. He turned to face the entrance to the venue, she followed his gaze. The place was still closed for the holidays.
"I'm still sorry, you know," apologised Jake, "If I could go back and change things..."
"I wouldn't," said Kathy cutting him off.
Now their eyes met again.
"You deserved so much better from me," said Jake.
"And I got it, and so much more...eventually," said Kathy, "That's all that matters."
She stepped in closer to him.
"Despite what people say, and even despite what I've told myself over the years, part of me always knew exactly what I was getting in to with you. Part of me wanted it, all of it, because I saw what you did for a living as the best of both worlds. I could get the same adrenalin rush without facing any of the same risks I did as a cop. The violence, the drama, the risk, it was both real and not real. It was just real enough for me to feel alive without actually risking my life...or yours. I fell in love with the ideal you represented at that time in my life, Jake..." Kathy trailed off.
"So when did you actually fall for me exactly?" asked Jake, grinning, only half serious. "Was it before or after Genesis hit me over the head with that glass bottle of holy water and completely freaked you out?"
"Afterwards, and hey I didn't know it was sugar glass at the time. It was the first time ever that I had been asked to appear on a segment for TV," answered Kathy.
"Oh I know, it was still funny though," laughed Jake. "I remember you quickly started to unbutton your shirt and pulling out sheets of toilet tissue just in case I was bleeding."
"You would remember that, wouldn't you?" teased Kathy, "I guess you can thank Mongo for deciding they weren't big enough for what they wanted."
"For the record, I've never felt that way," said Jake, pulling her closer to him, her breath caught up in the back of her throat as the two lovers locked eyes.
"What about you? When did you fall for me?"
"A few weeks later. I think I was in Vietnam at the time."
"Vietnam?!" exclaimed Kathy in disbelief.
"Yeah, man, the travel schedule was insane in those days."
"No wonder XHF went out of business, sounds like the company was burning money..."
"Yeah, least Berto has the good sense to only travel around one state per month, and we don't even have to be at every show," said Jake.
"That'll change once you become the Imperial Champion, you know that, don't you?" said Kathy.
"I have to earn the right to face Roberto first..."
"You will," whispered Kathy.
"And you're okay with me having to possibly work a full time schedule again?" asked Jake.
"Yes, because I know how much it would mean to you and to the kids to see you at your best one more time."
"One last time," whispered Jake as he leaned in and their lips met. The wind picked up around them as Jake in his black leather jacket wrapped his arms around his wife as her white coat tails flapped, carrying her heart away with his kiss.
Once again Bertie, you've proven yourself to be a man of your word.
Months ago you made me a promise, a promise before you even won that Imperial Championship in fact.
You promised me that I would get one more shot to prove that I still had it in me to become the absolute best in this business.
You laid it all out for me, you said I'd get a fair chance at becoming the Imperial Champion no matter who was the Champion, and whilst my wife had concerns that you'd find some way to deny me the opportunity once you took the belt at October Revolution, I gave you much more credit.
I thought you might try and delay my opportunity whilst you made a point to the rest of the ungrateful piddly asses on the roster, but I never once entertained the notion that you'd ever shy away from delivering on what you promised.
Why?
Because you never have.
The reason so many of the people who work for you can't stand the idea of you being "The Man" in your own company is the same reason I respect you on both a personal and a professional level.
At this point in your career, you've proven time and time again that you can not only live up to your potential, but if pressed you can and often will exceed it.
But it wasn't always like that, was it Bertie?
No, I was there when you broke into NCW, I saw you come in, shackled with the same suffocating sense of idealism that now holds back the careers of men like Andrew Jacobsen, Nighthawk and Jack Gaither.
You had the same dream they do, the same dream we all do at the core as professional wrestlers.
The dream to be the very best at what we do in that ring.
Now look at you, you've not only realised that dream, you've revolutionised it.
So why did you succeed where so many of your fellow wrestlers have failed, and in some of the most tragic cases, are still failing?
What makes you so damn special?
What makes you so much better than all of them?
Perhaps you're just more naturally gifted, and whilst that may seem true to some part of your magnificent ego, we both know that it's not that simple. No, the one important detail they all overlook about why you are where you are today in this industry Roberto, is me.
I am the one indisputable factor to your continued success in this business, and whilst they all would rather dismiss me as just some middle aged man who for some reason STILL loves his wife and kids and isn't afraid to show it, you and I, we know better, don't we?
You've always known how truly indispensable I am, both in and out of the ring.
You know as well as I do Roberto that when I stand here and tell the world that if it wasn't for your run-ins with me early in your career, you wouldn't have been forced to change, wouldn't have been forced to grow, to adapt or to thrive in this business quite as successfully as you have, I am speaking the truth.
Survival of the Fittest.
The doctrine you now preach, the law of the land you've laid down as the foundation of this company, it all came from the lessons you learned from the one man who is not only your best friend and professional equal, but also the one man who is The Apex of Evolution.
I am the man you owe everything you've managed to build for yourself in this company and in your career up to this point in your life to, Verona.
It's okay, we all start somewhere.
The key difference between you and that small band of clueless rebels that stands so hopelessly against you is simply the fact that when I slapped you in the face with the ugly truth of exactly what it would take to reach the dizzying heights of this industry like you wanted, you listened to me and they didn't.
The advice they shun as the ramblings of a mediocre talent whose time has already passed, you embrace wholeheartedly.
Look where it's gotten you Roberto.
You have everything you've ever wanted.
You have it all.
Because of me.
I never took you under my wing as my student because I decided that I'd rather shake your hand as my friend. I embraced you first and foremost not as a man who I could teach but rather as a man willing to listen.
I wasn't looking to be your mentor Bertie, not because I didn't think I could teach you as much as I evidently already have, but rather because I didn't want you to feel about me the same way I feel about my own mentor, Spike Kane.
For the past thirteen years I've been convinced that there was a better way than the Spike Kane way to be the very best in this business.
You Roberto, all your accomplishments, the titles, the awards and the corporate perks you now enjoy, everything you are today and everything you will be remembered for tomorrow, all of it, is proof that I was right.
More importantly it is proof that that bastard was wrong.
I didn't have to hurt or humiliate you to make you an undisputed force of nature in that ring, Roberto.
So as thankful as I am for everything that you have given me and my family over the last three years, I hope you're as equally grateful for everything I have given to you, as well as everything I have never taken from you.
You and your career is perhaps the greatest legacy besides my own children that I will leave behind in this business, Roberto, so of course I'll always have your back my friend.
You are so much more than my friend or my rival, you are the single greatest investment I have ever made in this industry, and that is why I have been as loyal to you as I have been over the last five years.
I have nothing but the utmost respect for you and everything you're trying to achieve as the Imperial Champion.
There is nobody who believes in what your trying to do and the example you are trying to set for the rest of your roster more than me, but at the same time I realise that as great as you are Roberto, you cannot do it all on your own, and so long as I'm here, you won't have to.
You're the Chief Operating Officer, it is your job to make sure this company runs smoothly, that the shareholders and the sponsors are happy, it is your job to manage the money that your wrestlers earn for you in the first instance.
It is not your job to earn the lion's share of a professional wrestler's wage as the face of the company.
I'm not saying you shouldn't be the Champion Roberto, what I am saying is that you shouldn't have to be a Jack of all trades.
You shouldn't have to be both the face and the heart of your own company.
You can still achieve everything you want to without the ultimate prize around your waist.
Your ultimate goal with this mandate was to light a fire under some of the more complacent members of your roster, you don't need the Imperial Championship to do that Roberto and you never did.
You don't need that title to pull their strings, it gives you no more or less power over all of us than you already have.
You carry the Imperial Championship simply because it amuses you that much more to laud it over them more than you carry it to show the world just how damn good at your job you really are.
And that is precisely why you don't need it nearly as much as I do.
The founding of this company is all the proof that you'll ever need to ensure your place in history as one of, if not the most successful professional wrestler of this generation.
Neither I nor anybody else who ever works for you will be able to come close to that kind of infamy, I know that, and so the best I can try to do is to be seen as the absolute best at what I've done for over a dozen years now one more time.
The only way I can do that is by taking that Imperial Championship from you.
As much as I respect you on a personal level Roberto, I just want you to know that I respect you even more on a professional level.
In my mind there is no better test of whether I should still be here doing this against guys like you, guys who have a decade of youth on me, than stepping in between the ropes and into the ring with the man who was the longest reigning NCW World Champion in company history.
I will give you everything I have this Sunday at Metamorphosis Roberto, because as much as you deserve at least that much from me, my daughters deserve it even more.
You've always put your faith in me and for that you've always had it rewarded.
So I hope you understand me when I say that I cannot betray the faith Kathy, Solitaire and Domino have always had in me any more than I can betray the faith you've always had in me, Bertie.
So please, don't expect me to, my friend.
It was the last day of their Christmas vacation and Jake and Kathleen Conway walked hand in hand outside the Century II Performance Arts and Convention Center in Wichita, Kansas. They came to a stop together almost in the same exact spot where exactly a decade earlier they had first met, or more precisely where they had first been introduced to one another.
Kathy stepped out in front of her husband, turning to face him, his hand still in hers and she reached out and took the other.
"Here we are...again," Kathy said softly. "Brings it all back, doesn't it?"
Kathy smiled at her husband and it was then that Jake realised that the same thing that had first caught his attention all those years ago now held it as uncompromisingly as she held onto him herself.
Those eyes.
That smile.
As crazy as it was back then to admit that he could fall in love with her as quickly as he had, it was even crazier now to think back that he once upon a time he was willing to give her up for his career.
"God, I was such an idiot," whispered Jake.
"I thought so too," said Kathy, laughing.
Her laughter brought instantly brought a smile to his lips. He turned to face the entrance to the venue, she followed his gaze. The place was still closed for the holidays.
"I'm still sorry, you know," apologised Jake, "If I could go back and change things..."
"I wouldn't," said Kathy cutting him off.
Now their eyes met again.
"You deserved so much better from me," said Jake.
"And I got it, and so much more...eventually," said Kathy, "That's all that matters."
She stepped in closer to him.
"Despite what people say, and even despite what I've told myself over the years, part of me always knew exactly what I was getting in to with you. Part of me wanted it, all of it, because I saw what you did for a living as the best of both worlds. I could get the same adrenalin rush without facing any of the same risks I did as a cop. The violence, the drama, the risk, it was both real and not real. It was just real enough for me to feel alive without actually risking my life...or yours. I fell in love with the ideal you represented at that time in my life, Jake..." Kathy trailed off.
"So when did you actually fall for me exactly?" asked Jake, grinning, only half serious. "Was it before or after Genesis hit me over the head with that glass bottle of holy water and completely freaked you out?"
"Afterwards, and hey I didn't know it was sugar glass at the time. It was the first time ever that I had been asked to appear on a segment for TV," answered Kathy.
"Oh I know, it was still funny though," laughed Jake. "I remember you quickly started to unbutton your shirt and pulling out sheets of toilet tissue just in case I was bleeding."
"You would remember that, wouldn't you?" teased Kathy, "I guess you can thank Mongo for deciding they weren't big enough for what they wanted."
"For the record, I've never felt that way," said Jake, pulling her closer to him, her breath caught up in the back of her throat as the two lovers locked eyes.
"What about you? When did you fall for me?"
"A few weeks later. I think I was in Vietnam at the time."
"Vietnam?!" exclaimed Kathy in disbelief.
"Yeah, man, the travel schedule was insane in those days."
"No wonder XHF went out of business, sounds like the company was burning money..."
"Yeah, least Berto has the good sense to only travel around one state per month, and we don't even have to be at every show," said Jake.
"That'll change once you become the Imperial Champion, you know that, don't you?" said Kathy.
"I have to earn the right to face Roberto first..."
"You will," whispered Kathy.
"And you're okay with me having to possibly work a full time schedule again?" asked Jake.
"Yes, because I know how much it would mean to you and to the kids to see you at your best one more time."
"One last time," whispered Jake as he leaned in and their lips met. The wind picked up around them as Jake in his black leather jacket wrapped his arms around his wife as her white coat tails flapped, carrying her heart away with his kiss.
Once again Bertie, you've proven yourself to be a man of your word.
Months ago you made me a promise, a promise before you even won that Imperial Championship in fact.
You promised me that I would get one more shot to prove that I still had it in me to become the absolute best in this business.
You laid it all out for me, you said I'd get a fair chance at becoming the Imperial Champion no matter who was the Champion, and whilst my wife had concerns that you'd find some way to deny me the opportunity once you took the belt at October Revolution, I gave you much more credit.
I thought you might try and delay my opportunity whilst you made a point to the rest of the ungrateful piddly asses on the roster, but I never once entertained the notion that you'd ever shy away from delivering on what you promised.
Why?
Because you never have.
The reason so many of the people who work for you can't stand the idea of you being "The Man" in your own company is the same reason I respect you on both a personal and a professional level.
At this point in your career, you've proven time and time again that you can not only live up to your potential, but if pressed you can and often will exceed it.
But it wasn't always like that, was it Bertie?
No, I was there when you broke into NCW, I saw you come in, shackled with the same suffocating sense of idealism that now holds back the careers of men like Andrew Jacobsen, Nighthawk and Jack Gaither.
You had the same dream they do, the same dream we all do at the core as professional wrestlers.
The dream to be the very best at what we do in that ring.
Now look at you, you've not only realised that dream, you've revolutionised it.
So why did you succeed where so many of your fellow wrestlers have failed, and in some of the most tragic cases, are still failing?
What makes you so damn special?
What makes you so much better than all of them?
Perhaps you're just more naturally gifted, and whilst that may seem true to some part of your magnificent ego, we both know that it's not that simple. No, the one important detail they all overlook about why you are where you are today in this industry Roberto, is me.
I am the one indisputable factor to your continued success in this business, and whilst they all would rather dismiss me as just some middle aged man who for some reason STILL loves his wife and kids and isn't afraid to show it, you and I, we know better, don't we?
You've always known how truly indispensable I am, both in and out of the ring.
You know as well as I do Roberto that when I stand here and tell the world that if it wasn't for your run-ins with me early in your career, you wouldn't have been forced to change, wouldn't have been forced to grow, to adapt or to thrive in this business quite as successfully as you have, I am speaking the truth.
Survival of the Fittest.
The doctrine you now preach, the law of the land you've laid down as the foundation of this company, it all came from the lessons you learned from the one man who is not only your best friend and professional equal, but also the one man who is The Apex of Evolution.
I am the man you owe everything you've managed to build for yourself in this company and in your career up to this point in your life to, Verona.
It's okay, we all start somewhere.
The key difference between you and that small band of clueless rebels that stands so hopelessly against you is simply the fact that when I slapped you in the face with the ugly truth of exactly what it would take to reach the dizzying heights of this industry like you wanted, you listened to me and they didn't.
The advice they shun as the ramblings of a mediocre talent whose time has already passed, you embrace wholeheartedly.
Look where it's gotten you Roberto.
You have everything you've ever wanted.
You have it all.
Because of me.
I never took you under my wing as my student because I decided that I'd rather shake your hand as my friend. I embraced you first and foremost not as a man who I could teach but rather as a man willing to listen.
I wasn't looking to be your mentor Bertie, not because I didn't think I could teach you as much as I evidently already have, but rather because I didn't want you to feel about me the same way I feel about my own mentor, Spike Kane.
For the past thirteen years I've been convinced that there was a better way than the Spike Kane way to be the very best in this business.
You Roberto, all your accomplishments, the titles, the awards and the corporate perks you now enjoy, everything you are today and everything you will be remembered for tomorrow, all of it, is proof that I was right.
More importantly it is proof that that bastard was wrong.
I didn't have to hurt or humiliate you to make you an undisputed force of nature in that ring, Roberto.
So as thankful as I am for everything that you have given me and my family over the last three years, I hope you're as equally grateful for everything I have given to you, as well as everything I have never taken from you.
You and your career is perhaps the greatest legacy besides my own children that I will leave behind in this business, Roberto, so of course I'll always have your back my friend.
You are so much more than my friend or my rival, you are the single greatest investment I have ever made in this industry, and that is why I have been as loyal to you as I have been over the last five years.
I have nothing but the utmost respect for you and everything you're trying to achieve as the Imperial Champion.
There is nobody who believes in what your trying to do and the example you are trying to set for the rest of your roster more than me, but at the same time I realise that as great as you are Roberto, you cannot do it all on your own, and so long as I'm here, you won't have to.
You're the Chief Operating Officer, it is your job to make sure this company runs smoothly, that the shareholders and the sponsors are happy, it is your job to manage the money that your wrestlers earn for you in the first instance.
It is not your job to earn the lion's share of a professional wrestler's wage as the face of the company.
I'm not saying you shouldn't be the Champion Roberto, what I am saying is that you shouldn't have to be a Jack of all trades.
You shouldn't have to be both the face and the heart of your own company.
You can still achieve everything you want to without the ultimate prize around your waist.
Your ultimate goal with this mandate was to light a fire under some of the more complacent members of your roster, you don't need the Imperial Championship to do that Roberto and you never did.
You don't need that title to pull their strings, it gives you no more or less power over all of us than you already have.
You carry the Imperial Championship simply because it amuses you that much more to laud it over them more than you carry it to show the world just how damn good at your job you really are.
And that is precisely why you don't need it nearly as much as I do.
The founding of this company is all the proof that you'll ever need to ensure your place in history as one of, if not the most successful professional wrestler of this generation.
Neither I nor anybody else who ever works for you will be able to come close to that kind of infamy, I know that, and so the best I can try to do is to be seen as the absolute best at what I've done for over a dozen years now one more time.
The only way I can do that is by taking that Imperial Championship from you.
As much as I respect you on a personal level Roberto, I just want you to know that I respect you even more on a professional level.
In my mind there is no better test of whether I should still be here doing this against guys like you, guys who have a decade of youth on me, than stepping in between the ropes and into the ring with the man who was the longest reigning NCW World Champion in company history.
I will give you everything I have this Sunday at Metamorphosis Roberto, because as much as you deserve at least that much from me, my daughters deserve it even more.
You've always put your faith in me and for that you've always had it rewarded.
So I hope you understand me when I say that I cannot betray the faith Kathy, Solitaire and Domino have always had in me any more than I can betray the faith you've always had in me, Bertie.
So please, don't expect me to, my friend.
Well howdy there pardner.