Post by Shelly Diamond on Jan 30, 2016 15:49:01 GMT
I can't help but wonder as I sit in this lavish office with the Imperial Championship perched on a shelf across from me and the man in the suit with the shark toothed grin sitting behind his oversized oak desk; what Alejandra would think of who I have become.
"So what's your answer?"
He leaned forward in his chair, fingers intertwined before him as he rested on his elbows, poised to strike if I were to give the wrong answer.
"I think you already know."
His grin widened as he leaned back into his luxurious maroon leather chair.
"Good, that's what I like to see from my young talent, ambition, drive, the ability to do whatever it takes to get the job done."
He felt so sure of himself, so confident. In another life I would have gladly kicked him in the face for even thinking about asking me to do what it is he asked me to do but now? Now I just accept that this is who I have become.
A bounty hunter in the employ of Roberto Verona.
"I see great things in your future Zasshu, perhaps one day you and I can main event for my championship."
He looks over his shoulder at the championship belt and then back to me with a sly smirk.
"Good luck tomorrow night and remember, good things come to those who serve."
He stands up with his hand extended toward me, for a moment I question the decision I have made, the mission I have accepted but then the question disappears and I take his hand in mine. A firm hand shake between vile men.
Outside of his office I find the ever dangerous but beautiful Laura Howlett waiting for me, her black skirt and business jacket tight enough to make any man's eye wander. She smiles as she notices me noticing but I quickly look away and begin to head dowan the hall way toward the elevator.
"So what did he say?"
Her heels click clack over the hard wood floor as she rushes up to my side, the both of us pausing before the large metal doors of the elevator.
"You know what he said."
"He wants you to end Rob Diamond's career."
It was not a question but I nod in agreement anyway.
"Good, good this is what we've been planning for."
"It is but he implied that if I fail there would be consequences."
She chuckled at me as the doors opened before us.
"Then don't fail. Either of us."
She stepped before me into the metal box and beckoned me to join her. Again the question reared it's ugly head in the back of my mind. For a moment I thought of turning the other way and walking away from this path but that time has passed. This is my fate now, my future and with unrivaled determination I push all doubt from my mind and join her...
"Forgive me father."
Hours later I find myself within the wooden confines of a dark confessional. It's been almost a year since I set foot in a church and the last time was not a pleasant experience. Growing up in Japan I was not a man of god but my time in Mexico opened my eyes and taught me all religions have something worth teaching.
"What is it that troubles you my son."
I let out a deep sigh before speaking.
"I am a fighter by trade, my job is to hurt people until I am the only one standing."
"And you question whether you do the lords work when you fight?"
"No. I could not care less if I did the lords work inside the ring."
"Then why are you here my son?"
I could feel the slight annoyance in his voice, he wasn't expecting such a direct and possibly insulting answer.
"I've come to ask for forgiveness."
"My son, you cannot seek forgiveness if you don't care about doing the lords work."
"But I seek it anyway. There is man I must face tomorrow night, a man who may or may not deserve the pain I will inflict on him, a man whom I must destroy when we step into the ring."
"My son, you don't have to destroy him if you don't want too."
"That's the thing father, I want to destroy him. I want to hurt him. I want to make sure that he never stands under his own power within a wrestling ring again. I WANT to end his career."
"Why?"
He sounds baffled.
"Because I am broken, father, incomplete. There is a hole in my heart that cannot be filled by anything other than violence and so I wish to flood it with more than it can hold."
"If this is so then why seek forgiveness?"
"I need to know you can come back from the abyss..."
I can hear him breath deeply through the tiny window of the wooden box, he's contemplating what I have said and I am doing the same.
"You could fill the void with the lord."
"I do not want to."
"Then I can't grant you forgiveness for what you're going to do."
"Very well."
My hand pushes the door to the confessional open but the priest speaks up again.
"Wait my son."
"Father, I have sacrificed everything to become a professional wrestler, my home, my family, the ones I love and perhaps even my soul. I think maybe I seek solace in the wrong church, maybe the ring is my church and through the blood of Rob Diamond I will find the peace and forgiveness I desire... You know father... There is a sang I was taught in Mexico, I never thought much of it but now I cannot get it out of my head."
"What is it my son?"
"The devil was an angel too..."
With nothing to offer me there is no reason to stay and so I leave this house of God and begin my journey toward Metamorphosis and the man who's career I must end, Rob Diamond.
"Sometimes I wonder if Rob Diamond even watches Sacrifice."
Laura Howlett, with a confident smirk and dressed to kill stands by my side before the arena that will house the final night of one man's career.
"It's as if you don't even remember the beatings my client has given you all month long. So you got the better of him once this past week on Sacrifice, what about the week before when he left you laying or the week before that?"
She asks her questions in a condesending accusatory tone.
"You think he left you in a heap simply because he attacked you from behind? Mr. Diamond don't pretend to be ignorant when I know you're anything but. You're a ten year veteran of this business, a former world champion and a hall of famer, you know every dirty trick in the book. My client left you laying simply because he is better than you."
"And that's what you're afraid of."
"You've worked so hard for so many years to get to where you are in the business today and things aren't getting any easier. Because of your loud mouth and your inability to shut up you've dug yourself the deepest grave you possibly could and now you act out like a petulant child because the owener of this company we work for wants to put you in your place?"
"Perhaps you are an idiot."
Laura grins to herself as she continues.
"The fact of the matter is simple, my client has been hand chosen by Roberto Verona to end your title reign. It's already set in stone, it's essentially happened, at this point we are just going through the motions to make it offical."
"You've lost Rob."
"And the sooner you realize that is the sooner we can stop leaving you in a bloody mess in the center of the ring. Think about it, you've been through barbed wire, first blood matches, battling friends and respected partners all just to EARN the right to step into the ring with my client. It's over Rob. Your body is to beaten, to broken, you're essentially dead on your feet and all that is left is for my client to bury you."
"And that's what's going to happen."
"Tomorrow night at Metamorphosis the illisutrious and infamous career of Rob Diamond is going to come to a very bloody end. You will be left titleless, bloodless, possibly headless after my client kicks it clean off. You will be left broken and with nothing and the only person you will have to blame is yourself."
I breath in deep, inhaling my surroundings.
"You think I don't know my place in this war. You think I blindly serve Roberto Verona. You think you know why I have targeted you."
"But you know nothing."
"It is true, Roberto Verona has tasked me with ending you but I did not need his word to coax me into doing what must be done, Mr. Diamond. I would have come for you one way or the other eventually. You see, you are a man with a certain amount of cloat and circumstance, people look at Rob Diamond and they see a superstar."
"I see a stain on our industry."
"I see a man who does not respect the ring."
"My place in this war is not as a loyal disciple of Roberto Verona, my place in this war is to bring an end to the loud mouthed braggert that is Rob Diamond. My place in this war is to stand up for what I believe in, the church of the ring, the house of god that is the arena behind me. My place in this war is to serve the only master I have ever cared to listen to and that is myself."
"You are the Man of Steel Champion for the moment and so for the moment you are in my cross hairs and I promise you Rob Diamond, you will not leave Sunday Night the same way you entered it. You will be changed, you will be broken, you will be without your Championship and you will be without your career."
I speak with confidence and a tinge of anger.
"I am so much more than the loyal foot soldier you have painted me as and that is a very painful lesson you are about to learn. You see me as an obstacle to over come, some inconvience that has been put in your path to Roberto Verona and the Imperial Championship. I fear in your ignorance that you are making the mistake of looking past me Mr. Diamond when you should be focused right on me."
"I AM THE FUTURE."
"I am what Imperial Wrestling will become. I am the epitome of Roberto Verona's decree, survival of the fittest is what our match will be locked inside of that steel cage and I tell you now Mr. Diamond there is none more fit than I."
I seeth with rising hatred.
"I am where your path to greatness stops. I am where your career comes to a grinding halt. I am the end of you and the beginning of a new age in Imperial Wrestling. Fore you are the head of the snake that torments Roberto Verona, the cancer attacking Imperial Wrestling's immune system. I am the blade that will cut the head off the Revolution, the cure that will purge you from the system."
"I am the solution to the problem that is Rob Diamond."
"So threaten me, berate me, I am undeterred by your petty threates because I know you Rob Diamond, who you are. I have been watching you for years and though you talk a big game I have never truly seen you follow through on your threats to end anyone."
"You are weak."
"Impotent."
"Was it not who you promised to finally bring an end to the God of Xtremes unholy reign of terror only to find himself lacking when it came time to execute him? Was it not you who let him go when you had him dead to rights on top of that cell? Was it not you who gave him one last chance at redemption only to find your career nearly ended?"
"Did you not fail?"
"And so you will fail again because ultimately that is who you are, that is all you have ever been. You are a failure Mr. Diamond. You failed at being the face of New Championship Wrestling, that was Steve Awesome, you failed at ending Spike Kane in Imperial Wrestling and claiming the Imperial Championship and you will fail tomorrow night inside of that steel cage with me."
I present the arena behind me for all to see.
"This church of Wrestling Gods will be the location of your funeral Mr. Diamond. Unlike you, I am a man of my word."
"Tomorrow night there will be a NEW Man of Steel Champion and you will bow down to my client. The Future Legend! ZASSHU!"
The two of us turn our backs on the camera and head toward the arena, toward destiny and toward darkness...
"So what's your answer?"
He leaned forward in his chair, fingers intertwined before him as he rested on his elbows, poised to strike if I were to give the wrong answer.
"I think you already know."
His grin widened as he leaned back into his luxurious maroon leather chair.
"Good, that's what I like to see from my young talent, ambition, drive, the ability to do whatever it takes to get the job done."
He felt so sure of himself, so confident. In another life I would have gladly kicked him in the face for even thinking about asking me to do what it is he asked me to do but now? Now I just accept that this is who I have become.
A bounty hunter in the employ of Roberto Verona.
"I see great things in your future Zasshu, perhaps one day you and I can main event for my championship."
He looks over his shoulder at the championship belt and then back to me with a sly smirk.
"Good luck tomorrow night and remember, good things come to those who serve."
He stands up with his hand extended toward me, for a moment I question the decision I have made, the mission I have accepted but then the question disappears and I take his hand in mine. A firm hand shake between vile men.
Outside of his office I find the ever dangerous but beautiful Laura Howlett waiting for me, her black skirt and business jacket tight enough to make any man's eye wander. She smiles as she notices me noticing but I quickly look away and begin to head dowan the hall way toward the elevator.
"So what did he say?"
Her heels click clack over the hard wood floor as she rushes up to my side, the both of us pausing before the large metal doors of the elevator.
"You know what he said."
"He wants you to end Rob Diamond's career."
It was not a question but I nod in agreement anyway.
"Good, good this is what we've been planning for."
"It is but he implied that if I fail there would be consequences."
She chuckled at me as the doors opened before us.
"Then don't fail. Either of us."
She stepped before me into the metal box and beckoned me to join her. Again the question reared it's ugly head in the back of my mind. For a moment I thought of turning the other way and walking away from this path but that time has passed. This is my fate now, my future and with unrivaled determination I push all doubt from my mind and join her...
"Forgive me father."
Hours later I find myself within the wooden confines of a dark confessional. It's been almost a year since I set foot in a church and the last time was not a pleasant experience. Growing up in Japan I was not a man of god but my time in Mexico opened my eyes and taught me all religions have something worth teaching.
"What is it that troubles you my son."
I let out a deep sigh before speaking.
"I am a fighter by trade, my job is to hurt people until I am the only one standing."
"And you question whether you do the lords work when you fight?"
"No. I could not care less if I did the lords work inside the ring."
"Then why are you here my son?"
I could feel the slight annoyance in his voice, he wasn't expecting such a direct and possibly insulting answer.
"I've come to ask for forgiveness."
"My son, you cannot seek forgiveness if you don't care about doing the lords work."
"But I seek it anyway. There is man I must face tomorrow night, a man who may or may not deserve the pain I will inflict on him, a man whom I must destroy when we step into the ring."
"My son, you don't have to destroy him if you don't want too."
"That's the thing father, I want to destroy him. I want to hurt him. I want to make sure that he never stands under his own power within a wrestling ring again. I WANT to end his career."
"Why?"
He sounds baffled.
"Because I am broken, father, incomplete. There is a hole in my heart that cannot be filled by anything other than violence and so I wish to flood it with more than it can hold."
"If this is so then why seek forgiveness?"
"I need to know you can come back from the abyss..."
I can hear him breath deeply through the tiny window of the wooden box, he's contemplating what I have said and I am doing the same.
"You could fill the void with the lord."
"I do not want to."
"Then I can't grant you forgiveness for what you're going to do."
"Very well."
My hand pushes the door to the confessional open but the priest speaks up again.
"Wait my son."
"Father, I have sacrificed everything to become a professional wrestler, my home, my family, the ones I love and perhaps even my soul. I think maybe I seek solace in the wrong church, maybe the ring is my church and through the blood of Rob Diamond I will find the peace and forgiveness I desire... You know father... There is a sang I was taught in Mexico, I never thought much of it but now I cannot get it out of my head."
"What is it my son?"
"The devil was an angel too..."
With nothing to offer me there is no reason to stay and so I leave this house of God and begin my journey toward Metamorphosis and the man who's career I must end, Rob Diamond.
"Sometimes I wonder if Rob Diamond even watches Sacrifice."
Laura Howlett, with a confident smirk and dressed to kill stands by my side before the arena that will house the final night of one man's career.
"It's as if you don't even remember the beatings my client has given you all month long. So you got the better of him once this past week on Sacrifice, what about the week before when he left you laying or the week before that?"
She asks her questions in a condesending accusatory tone.
"You think he left you in a heap simply because he attacked you from behind? Mr. Diamond don't pretend to be ignorant when I know you're anything but. You're a ten year veteran of this business, a former world champion and a hall of famer, you know every dirty trick in the book. My client left you laying simply because he is better than you."
"And that's what you're afraid of."
"You've worked so hard for so many years to get to where you are in the business today and things aren't getting any easier. Because of your loud mouth and your inability to shut up you've dug yourself the deepest grave you possibly could and now you act out like a petulant child because the owener of this company we work for wants to put you in your place?"
"Perhaps you are an idiot."
Laura grins to herself as she continues.
"The fact of the matter is simple, my client has been hand chosen by Roberto Verona to end your title reign. It's already set in stone, it's essentially happened, at this point we are just going through the motions to make it offical."
"You've lost Rob."
"And the sooner you realize that is the sooner we can stop leaving you in a bloody mess in the center of the ring. Think about it, you've been through barbed wire, first blood matches, battling friends and respected partners all just to EARN the right to step into the ring with my client. It's over Rob. Your body is to beaten, to broken, you're essentially dead on your feet and all that is left is for my client to bury you."
"And that's what's going to happen."
"Tomorrow night at Metamorphosis the illisutrious and infamous career of Rob Diamond is going to come to a very bloody end. You will be left titleless, bloodless, possibly headless after my client kicks it clean off. You will be left broken and with nothing and the only person you will have to blame is yourself."
I breath in deep, inhaling my surroundings.
"You think I don't know my place in this war. You think I blindly serve Roberto Verona. You think you know why I have targeted you."
"But you know nothing."
"It is true, Roberto Verona has tasked me with ending you but I did not need his word to coax me into doing what must be done, Mr. Diamond. I would have come for you one way or the other eventually. You see, you are a man with a certain amount of cloat and circumstance, people look at Rob Diamond and they see a superstar."
"I see a stain on our industry."
"I see a man who does not respect the ring."
"My place in this war is not as a loyal disciple of Roberto Verona, my place in this war is to bring an end to the loud mouthed braggert that is Rob Diamond. My place in this war is to stand up for what I believe in, the church of the ring, the house of god that is the arena behind me. My place in this war is to serve the only master I have ever cared to listen to and that is myself."
"You are the Man of Steel Champion for the moment and so for the moment you are in my cross hairs and I promise you Rob Diamond, you will not leave Sunday Night the same way you entered it. You will be changed, you will be broken, you will be without your Championship and you will be without your career."
I speak with confidence and a tinge of anger.
"I am so much more than the loyal foot soldier you have painted me as and that is a very painful lesson you are about to learn. You see me as an obstacle to over come, some inconvience that has been put in your path to Roberto Verona and the Imperial Championship. I fear in your ignorance that you are making the mistake of looking past me Mr. Diamond when you should be focused right on me."
"I AM THE FUTURE."
"I am what Imperial Wrestling will become. I am the epitome of Roberto Verona's decree, survival of the fittest is what our match will be locked inside of that steel cage and I tell you now Mr. Diamond there is none more fit than I."
I seeth with rising hatred.
"I am where your path to greatness stops. I am where your career comes to a grinding halt. I am the end of you and the beginning of a new age in Imperial Wrestling. Fore you are the head of the snake that torments Roberto Verona, the cancer attacking Imperial Wrestling's immune system. I am the blade that will cut the head off the Revolution, the cure that will purge you from the system."
"I am the solution to the problem that is Rob Diamond."
"So threaten me, berate me, I am undeterred by your petty threates because I know you Rob Diamond, who you are. I have been watching you for years and though you talk a big game I have never truly seen you follow through on your threats to end anyone."
"You are weak."
"Impotent."
"Was it not who you promised to finally bring an end to the God of Xtremes unholy reign of terror only to find himself lacking when it came time to execute him? Was it not you who let him go when you had him dead to rights on top of that cell? Was it not you who gave him one last chance at redemption only to find your career nearly ended?"
"Did you not fail?"
"And so you will fail again because ultimately that is who you are, that is all you have ever been. You are a failure Mr. Diamond. You failed at being the face of New Championship Wrestling, that was Steve Awesome, you failed at ending Spike Kane in Imperial Wrestling and claiming the Imperial Championship and you will fail tomorrow night inside of that steel cage with me."
I present the arena behind me for all to see.
"This church of Wrestling Gods will be the location of your funeral Mr. Diamond. Unlike you, I am a man of my word."
"Tomorrow night there will be a NEW Man of Steel Champion and you will bow down to my client. The Future Legend! ZASSHU!"
The two of us turn our backs on the camera and head toward the arena, toward destiny and toward darkness...
Well howdy there pardner.