Post by The Ace on Mar 19, 2016 0:56:11 GMT
Kathleen Conway is sat on the bed in the master bedroom of their luxurious Las Vegas home watching an on demand stream of Metamorphosis 2016 on the large television when her husband Jake walks back in to the room from the en suite bathroom with a white towel wrapped around his waist. He lets out a groan, shaking is head.
"Do we really have to watch this again?"
"No, we don't, but I like to, every now and again," smiled Kathy, "It's kind of inspiring."
"It's pathetic, I should have been more prepared."
"Stop being so hard on yourself, babe. You gave Roberto Verona the fight of his life, and he knows it."
"Maybe, but it still wasn't enough," conceded Jake, shaking his head as he slumps down on the bed next to his wife.
"Is that what you think? Because it's not what I see. I see a man who gave his best friend everything that he promised and more. I see a man who didn't hold anything back, and I see a man who only lost because he became a victim of circumstance. The circumstances just happened to fall in Roberto's favour on that night. On any other night the result could have been different."
"Even if I took your point honey, I still don't see what you could possibly find inspirational about any of that," said Jake.
"Well, for one thing seeing you go out there and give it your all inspired me to do the same in my job, and for another, it made me want to step back in the ring myself."
"Oh, so that's what beating the hell out of Crystal with the Garcia Twins was all about then," smiled Jake.
"She asked for it, don't try to tell me you can beat the Garcias in ANY match if you're not prepared to follow through."
"Noted," smirked Jake, "So...how about a four way?"
Kathy thumped her husband on his chest, almost reflexively as he laughed.
"Oi, you know I don't like to share you with anybody, especially when they're so much younger and prettier than me," said Kathy, sticking her tongue out at him.
"Youth and beauty are no substitutes for love and devotion," said Jake.
"Awwww, and here I thought you were going to tell me how young and pretty you thought I was."
"I would, but I've never had much use for stating the blindingly obvious," smiled Jake.
Kathy now leant over him and kissed him passionately as the referee counted the three on the television as they both lost themselves in each other.
Any man can win the Roulette match.
It's quite a nice little idea, isn't it?
Shame that it's only true in much the same way as it true that any man can be a good husband and father.
In theory each of us have all the tools to get the job done, but the reality is that it takes so much more than you might expect, so much more than you're prepared for. As any good woman will attest to, it takes a special kind of man to step up and carry such an important and worthwhile responsibility in life.
And it is a responsibility I take very seriously these days.
Just because any man can be a good husband and father, it doesn't mean that when they finally get their shot they will be, and in some strange way the same is true about the level of responsibility that comes with being an Imperial Champion and carrying this company I suppose.
It was a responsibility that I just wasn't ready for a couple of months ago at Metamorphosis, I readily admit that. Now I am, and if any one of you in this match want to prove me wrong once again, then you're more than welcome to try your luck and throw me over the top rope and out of your damn way, because if you don't, I promise you that I will not only be the last man to enter this match, but also the last man to leave.
On the surface there is no better match which so perfectly encapsulates the survival of the fittest mandate more than the Roulette. The idea that for at least one match a year you truly are on the same level playing field as everybody else on the roster. Every year at High Stakes, you are presented with this idea of being an equal, and every year at High Stakes, you buy into it.
Hook, line and sinker.
For one match a year you allow yourself to believe that you can rise above your usual station in this company and really become something special. Each and every one of you walking into this contest believe you have the right and privilege to be crowned some sort of annual overnight sensation when it's all said and done.
The problem is that none of you, not a single damn one of you deserve it, any of it.
Not one of you deserve to take from me the one thing I have spent years building.
Nobody deserves a professional legacy that so perfectly compliments their personal one more than me.
I've been in this business long enough now to truly appreciate the subtle difference between each of you and myself. All of you see the road to immortality as a single night, a single stop, but I see it as oh so much more. All of you concern yourselves with just making it to the end of this human lottery, but I concern myself with something much bigger.
For each of you, the best case scenario in this match is that you win a chance at the Imperial Championship, but for me it's a chance at professional redemption. A chance to prove to all of you and to myself that my time as "the man" around here was not denied, merely delayed by a few months.
The history of the Roulette match may be a brief one but already it is rich in the legends of men who became Gods and gypsies who became Champions, and whilst whatever history makes of me may never be quite as grand or fanciful a tale as all of that, I have every intention of making it just as memorable.
I don't know exactly what my legacy in this business will come down to in the end, but I do know that it will be different to the rest of you. If there is one thing I pride myself on being even more than a simple honest man in this business, it is my ability to stand out from the rest of you.
And isn't that what this match is all about, after all?
Standing out, standing tall, being able to separate the wheat from the chaff?
For you this match is about chasing a dream and finding some sense of fulfilment and purpose in your otherwise dull and empty little lives, but for me it's about rewarding those who have never given up on me as much as it is about rewarding myself.
It took me far longer than it should have to realise that it is never enough to simply chase glory in this business, especially a sense of glory as fleeting as victory. It is not enough for me to simply throw as many of you as I need to to win this match and it is not enough for me to have a shot at the Imperial Championship in my back pocket, not any more.
I had the shot and the stage a couple of months ago at Metamorphosis and what I had then was not enough.
Now I understand why. It was because I made the same mistake then that the rest of you are making heading into this Roulette match.
I made the mistake of regarding my shot at Roberto Verona and his Imperial Championship as a foregone conclusion. I was so focused on Metamorphosis being the culmination of my journey back to the top of the mountain that I underestimated just how many hurdles I still had left to overcome before I could call myself a Champion again.
I was seduced by the idea of how perfect my spot on a stage as perfect as Metamorphosis was for me to return to prominence within this industry that I overlooked the cold hard reality that my guaranteed shot at the Imperial Champion was only the beginning of my long road back and not the end.
I will not make that mistake again, and if you doubt me in my conviction for a single solitary second, I promise that you won't when I throw you over the top rope and show the world that you just don't have enough to stand in my way.
If this is to be truly the start of another journey for me, then High Stakes will be the first step in a new direction, and this Roulette will be the North Star that will guide me through the Night of the Immortals all the way back home where my wife and children will be waiting.
Waiting to once again have their incredible faith in me rewarded.
There is nothing else in this world that I have ever felt that is as rewarding as the love I hold in my heart for my family.
I'd do anything for them and I do everything because of them.
They believe that I deserve this and nothing stirs a man into action more than the undying belief of his wife and children.
I will enter this match with a clear numbers advantage not only because I will have drawn the last number but also because I will have drawn from the collective strength of my remarkable wife Kathy and my two beautiful daughters Solitaire and Domino in a way I never have before.
Booking my first class ticket into the main event of the biggest show of the year is as much their dream as it is mine, and trust me when I say that few things in this world are capable of surviving each of the trials and tribulations of this life than a shared dream.
There is nothing quite as resilient as the beating human heart and I promise you this heart is more than capable of beating each and every one of you.
If you doubt that, well then I guess you'll just have to call my bluff won't you?
Just don't expect to get it done if you're not prepared to go all in first.
"Do we really have to watch this again?"
"No, we don't, but I like to, every now and again," smiled Kathy, "It's kind of inspiring."
"It's pathetic, I should have been more prepared."
"Stop being so hard on yourself, babe. You gave Roberto Verona the fight of his life, and he knows it."
"Maybe, but it still wasn't enough," conceded Jake, shaking his head as he slumps down on the bed next to his wife.
"Is that what you think? Because it's not what I see. I see a man who gave his best friend everything that he promised and more. I see a man who didn't hold anything back, and I see a man who only lost because he became a victim of circumstance. The circumstances just happened to fall in Roberto's favour on that night. On any other night the result could have been different."
"Even if I took your point honey, I still don't see what you could possibly find inspirational about any of that," said Jake.
"Well, for one thing seeing you go out there and give it your all inspired me to do the same in my job, and for another, it made me want to step back in the ring myself."
"Oh, so that's what beating the hell out of Crystal with the Garcia Twins was all about then," smiled Jake.
"She asked for it, don't try to tell me you can beat the Garcias in ANY match if you're not prepared to follow through."
"Noted," smirked Jake, "So...how about a four way?"
Kathy thumped her husband on his chest, almost reflexively as he laughed.
"Oi, you know I don't like to share you with anybody, especially when they're so much younger and prettier than me," said Kathy, sticking her tongue out at him.
"Youth and beauty are no substitutes for love and devotion," said Jake.
"Awwww, and here I thought you were going to tell me how young and pretty you thought I was."
"I would, but I've never had much use for stating the blindingly obvious," smiled Jake.
Kathy now leant over him and kissed him passionately as the referee counted the three on the television as they both lost themselves in each other.
Any man can win the Roulette match.
It's quite a nice little idea, isn't it?
Shame that it's only true in much the same way as it true that any man can be a good husband and father.
In theory each of us have all the tools to get the job done, but the reality is that it takes so much more than you might expect, so much more than you're prepared for. As any good woman will attest to, it takes a special kind of man to step up and carry such an important and worthwhile responsibility in life.
And it is a responsibility I take very seriously these days.
Just because any man can be a good husband and father, it doesn't mean that when they finally get their shot they will be, and in some strange way the same is true about the level of responsibility that comes with being an Imperial Champion and carrying this company I suppose.
It was a responsibility that I just wasn't ready for a couple of months ago at Metamorphosis, I readily admit that. Now I am, and if any one of you in this match want to prove me wrong once again, then you're more than welcome to try your luck and throw me over the top rope and out of your damn way, because if you don't, I promise you that I will not only be the last man to enter this match, but also the last man to leave.
On the surface there is no better match which so perfectly encapsulates the survival of the fittest mandate more than the Roulette. The idea that for at least one match a year you truly are on the same level playing field as everybody else on the roster. Every year at High Stakes, you are presented with this idea of being an equal, and every year at High Stakes, you buy into it.
Hook, line and sinker.
For one match a year you allow yourself to believe that you can rise above your usual station in this company and really become something special. Each and every one of you walking into this contest believe you have the right and privilege to be crowned some sort of annual overnight sensation when it's all said and done.
The problem is that none of you, not a single damn one of you deserve it, any of it.
Not one of you deserve to take from me the one thing I have spent years building.
Nobody deserves a professional legacy that so perfectly compliments their personal one more than me.
I've been in this business long enough now to truly appreciate the subtle difference between each of you and myself. All of you see the road to immortality as a single night, a single stop, but I see it as oh so much more. All of you concern yourselves with just making it to the end of this human lottery, but I concern myself with something much bigger.
For each of you, the best case scenario in this match is that you win a chance at the Imperial Championship, but for me it's a chance at professional redemption. A chance to prove to all of you and to myself that my time as "the man" around here was not denied, merely delayed by a few months.
The history of the Roulette match may be a brief one but already it is rich in the legends of men who became Gods and gypsies who became Champions, and whilst whatever history makes of me may never be quite as grand or fanciful a tale as all of that, I have every intention of making it just as memorable.
I don't know exactly what my legacy in this business will come down to in the end, but I do know that it will be different to the rest of you. If there is one thing I pride myself on being even more than a simple honest man in this business, it is my ability to stand out from the rest of you.
And isn't that what this match is all about, after all?
Standing out, standing tall, being able to separate the wheat from the chaff?
For you this match is about chasing a dream and finding some sense of fulfilment and purpose in your otherwise dull and empty little lives, but for me it's about rewarding those who have never given up on me as much as it is about rewarding myself.
It took me far longer than it should have to realise that it is never enough to simply chase glory in this business, especially a sense of glory as fleeting as victory. It is not enough for me to simply throw as many of you as I need to to win this match and it is not enough for me to have a shot at the Imperial Championship in my back pocket, not any more.
I had the shot and the stage a couple of months ago at Metamorphosis and what I had then was not enough.
Now I understand why. It was because I made the same mistake then that the rest of you are making heading into this Roulette match.
I made the mistake of regarding my shot at Roberto Verona and his Imperial Championship as a foregone conclusion. I was so focused on Metamorphosis being the culmination of my journey back to the top of the mountain that I underestimated just how many hurdles I still had left to overcome before I could call myself a Champion again.
I was seduced by the idea of how perfect my spot on a stage as perfect as Metamorphosis was for me to return to prominence within this industry that I overlooked the cold hard reality that my guaranteed shot at the Imperial Champion was only the beginning of my long road back and not the end.
I will not make that mistake again, and if you doubt me in my conviction for a single solitary second, I promise that you won't when I throw you over the top rope and show the world that you just don't have enough to stand in my way.
If this is to be truly the start of another journey for me, then High Stakes will be the first step in a new direction, and this Roulette will be the North Star that will guide me through the Night of the Immortals all the way back home where my wife and children will be waiting.
Waiting to once again have their incredible faith in me rewarded.
There is nothing else in this world that I have ever felt that is as rewarding as the love I hold in my heart for my family.
I'd do anything for them and I do everything because of them.
They believe that I deserve this and nothing stirs a man into action more than the undying belief of his wife and children.
I will enter this match with a clear numbers advantage not only because I will have drawn the last number but also because I will have drawn from the collective strength of my remarkable wife Kathy and my two beautiful daughters Solitaire and Domino in a way I never have before.
Booking my first class ticket into the main event of the biggest show of the year is as much their dream as it is mine, and trust me when I say that few things in this world are capable of surviving each of the trials and tribulations of this life than a shared dream.
There is nothing quite as resilient as the beating human heart and I promise you this heart is more than capable of beating each and every one of you.
If you doubt that, well then I guess you'll just have to call my bluff won't you?
Just don't expect to get it done if you're not prepared to go all in first.
Well howdy there pardner.