Post by Jake Keeton on May 30, 2016 6:13:48 GMT
Wednesday, May 25th, 2016
We open to the front yard of The Keeton home in a beautiful upscale neighborhood in a small town just north of Lexington, KY. Jake Keeton clad in a light gray University of Kentucky t-shirt and camo cargo shorts is kneeled down using a rubber mallet to drive a “For Sale by Owner” sign into the ground as a blue Dodge Charger pulls into the horseshoe shaped driveway. From the drivers side steps his wife Kassie in a pink tank top and denim capri’s. She goes around the car and opens the passenger door and helps Jake’s mother Katherine who is clutching a box of tissues out of the car. Jake stands up to see his mother and wife approaching.
Jake: Mom, I thought you said you were through crying?
Katherine: I thought I was too and then I saw you putting the For Sale sign in the yard and it really hit me that this is real. You’re all leaving me…
She starts to sob and blows her nose, loudly. Kassie pats her on the back and she just cries harder.
Jake: Please Mom, don’t make this so hard. Chicago is only an hour and a half flight from here, and we offered to bring you with us.
Katherine: You know I can’t do that. I’ve got my book club, my garden club, and your Aunt Helen needs me here. I’m happy for you to be starting this new journey but it just hurts that not only are you leaving but so is Jonathan.
Jake: He wants to be closer to The Performance Center since he’s still training there four days a week. JC is gonna be a big deal in a year or two Mom, I can already tell.
Katherine: I don’t doubt it. You take care of that baby.
Jake: That baby is 6’1” and 215lbs.
Katherine: He’s still a baby!
They all chuckle and start walking towards the house.
Kassie: Thanks so much for coming to help pack, Kate.
Katherine: As much as I’ve moved in my life I’m a professional packer.
Jake: Well we need all the help we can get.
Just as they reach the front door a car pulls up in front of the house and parks on the curb. A man in a suit steps out and starts walking towards them. The ladies enter the house and Jake stays on the porch as the man stops in front of him.
Man: Is this your house?
Jake: It is.
Man: My name’s Greg Crawford, I’m interested in buying it…
The scene fades out.
On August 26th I will turn 39 years old. It’ll be the first birthday since my 18th that if someone asks me what I do for a living I won’t be able to proudly say, “I’m a wrestler.” Every time I’ve thought about walking away over these last 20 years I just couldn’t, the thought terrified me and made me feel like my life was over. This time though I’ve never been more content, satisfied, or happy with a decision. It wasn’t a difficult one at all. I realize now that this isn’t the end of my story.
It’s just the beginning of the next chapter.
A chapter where the name Keeton doesn’t become a forgotten piece of the past but a thriving successful name for the future. One that will be talked about for years to come thanks to my son. He has the natural athletic ability, size, speed, and charisma to far exceed anything I achieved and not to to toot my own horn but that’s a hell of a lot.
A chapter that will see me go from being one of the most decorated and successful in ring competitors this industry has ever seen over the last two decades to one of the most highly regarded trainers of the next two. I’ve never half assed anything in my entire life so when I report to the IWF Performance Center Tuesday morning for my first day on the job I’ll show the same passion and intensity I have in the ring for all these years.
Before we start writing that chapter though we’ve got one more loose end to tie up.
JJ Biggs. A man who if you hear him talk you would think he’s a huge name in this business who has a room in his home full of title belts, trophies, and Hall of Fame plaques. Yet he doesn’t, but I do. He’s had moderate success and I think he’s held a World Title or two maybe, but I’ve had eleven of them. Neither of us have achieved the level of success in IWF we have elsewhere and I’ll be the first to admit it bothers me a bit that I never got to be a champion of any kind here even though I’ve defeated quite a few men who have been. I’ve earned the respect of everyone in IWF and have competed in some very memorable matches.
JJ Biggs hasn’t done shit here.
He’ll be remembered as the guy that came in to try and take out Jake Keeton because he’d spent the last 9 or 10 years being eaten up by jealousy only to lose badly to the man he came to IWF to destroy at their biggest show ever and then he’ll quickly be forgotten.
I’m unFUCKINGforgettable, JJ. You’re a “Who?”
What I mean by that is “Who?” is the response everyone gives when someone mentions you, and that’s not just IWF, that’s everywhere. Our paths crossed the first time in 2007 and my first thought was “Who?”. When you got handed a title that was created specifically because you’d failed to capture the same World Title that I would go on to hold a year later I said, “Who?” When you decided to open a promotion of your own in 2012 and called me asking if I’d be the face of your company, again I said, “Who?” Actually I knew who you were by that time so I said “Sure I’ll take your money.” But I was rolling with that whole “Who?” thing. The point I’m trying to make here is that people say “Who?” when it comes to you so much they look like a bunch of fucking owls.
You’re a huge star in no one’s mind but your own.
You spent a year of your life plotting your arrival in IWF by training my son and manipulating him and his girlfriend all to get in my head. I’ll admit that it worked on every account. It worked, Biggs. You did a hell of a job training JC, you had me and him at each others throats, and you almost caused him to KILL his girlfriend. I just want to know what good all of that will have done when you’re flat on your back staring up at the lights at Night of the Immortals while I’m standing over you with my hand raised in victory.
Is that what it’s going to take to make you realize that all the mind games in the World won’t make you a better wrestler than me?
See I think that’s the one thing you’ve failed to understand about all of this. Your plan, just like your career was destined to be mediocre at best because even as well as you executed it the end result was always going to be the two of us facing off inside a wrestling ring and me out wrestling you. I’ve always been a better wrestler than you and that’s why you’re so jealous and want to take me out. I would have faced you willingly without all the sneak attacks, manipulation, and mind fuckery so all that managed to do was piss me off to the point it’s personal and I won’t stop at just beating you. I’m going to hurt and embarrass you at IWF’s biggest show ever in front of a record crowd who will be chanting my name while wishing death upon you and I just might oblige.
Nah, you ain’t worth it. I am going to make it feel like you’re dying though I promise you that.
Then on Tuesday morning I’ll go to work shaping IWF’s future and you’ll just be the name everyone tries to remember but no one can when they’re asked who Jake Keeton beat in the last match of his career.
It was JJ Biggs.
Who?
Friday, May 27th, 2016
The scene reopens to the interior of the Keeton house, boxes are stacked everywhere and things appear to be pretty well finished as far as packing for the move to Chicago. The front door opens and JC Keeton dressed in a green polo shirt and jeans steps into the house.
JC: Anyone home?
“Up here…”
The voice of Jake Keeton rings through the house as JC goes up the stairs and down a hallway. He stops as he gets to a room where the door is slightly cracked.
JC: You in there Dad?
Jake: Yeah, come on in son.
JC looks shocked but pushes the door open and steps into the room to see his father Jake sitting on a stool with an open box in front of him. The walls are decorated with posters, magazine covers, title belts, trophies, and plaques all featuring or belonging to Jake throughout his long and storied career. This was the first time in his life JC had been allowed inside this room. The young man looks around in awe at the accolades and accomplishments his father had racked up over the last 20 years.
JC: This is awesome…
Jake: I’m sorry I never let you in here until now, this has always been a special place just for me but now that you’re in the business too I thought you should see why your old man is as respected as he is.
JC: I always knew why, I’d just never seen all this stuff at once.
JC goes over and picks up a smaller, older looking belt and picks it up.
JC: This is the PWF World Heavyweight Title…
Jake: Yep.
JC: It was your first one.
Jake: Sure was.
JC puts the belt down and then looks up at the wall in front of him to see a plaque that reads “2000 Advantage Wrestling Hall of Fame” with a picture of a much much younger looking Jake with short hair that had blonde tips and a neatly manicured goatee. JC chuckles.
JC: I was only two when you got inducted into the AW Hall of Fame. I can’t believe you went out in public looking like that.
Jake: Hey now in 10 years you’ll see a picture of yourself in some of the shit you wear and wish you could burn it.
JC continues to go around the room just picking up the different belts and reading the magazine covers until he stops next to Jake and sees the open box in front of him.
JC: What’s that?
Jake: It’s old ring gear.
Jake takes a pair of tights out of the box and holds them up.
Jake: You know what these are?
JC: Yep. Those are the tights you were wearing at PWA’s High Stakes 2 Pay Per View. The night you beat Chris Michaels, Omar Owens, and Nighthawk for the World Title. I was sitting ringside. That was right after we found out my cancer had come back.
Jake: Yeah…
Jake’s eyes swell up with tears but he fights them off.
Jake: I want to give this to the IWF seamstress and have her make you some elbow pads or knee pads or something. Would you like that?
While Jake was able to hold back, JC can’t and tears roll down his cheeks and he just shakes his head.
JC: That means so much to me Dad, I’ll wear them proudly.
Jake stands up and hugs his son.
Jake: I know ya will kid, I love you.
JC: I love you too Dad.
Jake lets him go.
Jake: So you want to help me pack this room?
JC nods his head and smiles.
Jake: Well let’s head downstairs and get some empty boxes.
The scene fades on a Jake Keeton promo for the final time.
We open to the front yard of The Keeton home in a beautiful upscale neighborhood in a small town just north of Lexington, KY. Jake Keeton clad in a light gray University of Kentucky t-shirt and camo cargo shorts is kneeled down using a rubber mallet to drive a “For Sale by Owner” sign into the ground as a blue Dodge Charger pulls into the horseshoe shaped driveway. From the drivers side steps his wife Kassie in a pink tank top and denim capri’s. She goes around the car and opens the passenger door and helps Jake’s mother Katherine who is clutching a box of tissues out of the car. Jake stands up to see his mother and wife approaching.
Jake: Mom, I thought you said you were through crying?
Katherine: I thought I was too and then I saw you putting the For Sale sign in the yard and it really hit me that this is real. You’re all leaving me…
She starts to sob and blows her nose, loudly. Kassie pats her on the back and she just cries harder.
Jake: Please Mom, don’t make this so hard. Chicago is only an hour and a half flight from here, and we offered to bring you with us.
Katherine: You know I can’t do that. I’ve got my book club, my garden club, and your Aunt Helen needs me here. I’m happy for you to be starting this new journey but it just hurts that not only are you leaving but so is Jonathan.
Jake: He wants to be closer to The Performance Center since he’s still training there four days a week. JC is gonna be a big deal in a year or two Mom, I can already tell.
Katherine: I don’t doubt it. You take care of that baby.
Jake: That baby is 6’1” and 215lbs.
Katherine: He’s still a baby!
They all chuckle and start walking towards the house.
Kassie: Thanks so much for coming to help pack, Kate.
Katherine: As much as I’ve moved in my life I’m a professional packer.
Jake: Well we need all the help we can get.
Just as they reach the front door a car pulls up in front of the house and parks on the curb. A man in a suit steps out and starts walking towards them. The ladies enter the house and Jake stays on the porch as the man stops in front of him.
Man: Is this your house?
Jake: It is.
Man: My name’s Greg Crawford, I’m interested in buying it…
The scene fades out.
On August 26th I will turn 39 years old. It’ll be the first birthday since my 18th that if someone asks me what I do for a living I won’t be able to proudly say, “I’m a wrestler.” Every time I’ve thought about walking away over these last 20 years I just couldn’t, the thought terrified me and made me feel like my life was over. This time though I’ve never been more content, satisfied, or happy with a decision. It wasn’t a difficult one at all. I realize now that this isn’t the end of my story.
It’s just the beginning of the next chapter.
A chapter where the name Keeton doesn’t become a forgotten piece of the past but a thriving successful name for the future. One that will be talked about for years to come thanks to my son. He has the natural athletic ability, size, speed, and charisma to far exceed anything I achieved and not to to toot my own horn but that’s a hell of a lot.
A chapter that will see me go from being one of the most decorated and successful in ring competitors this industry has ever seen over the last two decades to one of the most highly regarded trainers of the next two. I’ve never half assed anything in my entire life so when I report to the IWF Performance Center Tuesday morning for my first day on the job I’ll show the same passion and intensity I have in the ring for all these years.
Before we start writing that chapter though we’ve got one more loose end to tie up.
JJ Biggs. A man who if you hear him talk you would think he’s a huge name in this business who has a room in his home full of title belts, trophies, and Hall of Fame plaques. Yet he doesn’t, but I do. He’s had moderate success and I think he’s held a World Title or two maybe, but I’ve had eleven of them. Neither of us have achieved the level of success in IWF we have elsewhere and I’ll be the first to admit it bothers me a bit that I never got to be a champion of any kind here even though I’ve defeated quite a few men who have been. I’ve earned the respect of everyone in IWF and have competed in some very memorable matches.
JJ Biggs hasn’t done shit here.
He’ll be remembered as the guy that came in to try and take out Jake Keeton because he’d spent the last 9 or 10 years being eaten up by jealousy only to lose badly to the man he came to IWF to destroy at their biggest show ever and then he’ll quickly be forgotten.
I’m unFUCKINGforgettable, JJ. You’re a “Who?”
What I mean by that is “Who?” is the response everyone gives when someone mentions you, and that’s not just IWF, that’s everywhere. Our paths crossed the first time in 2007 and my first thought was “Who?”. When you got handed a title that was created specifically because you’d failed to capture the same World Title that I would go on to hold a year later I said, “Who?” When you decided to open a promotion of your own in 2012 and called me asking if I’d be the face of your company, again I said, “Who?” Actually I knew who you were by that time so I said “Sure I’ll take your money.” But I was rolling with that whole “Who?” thing. The point I’m trying to make here is that people say “Who?” when it comes to you so much they look like a bunch of fucking owls.
You’re a huge star in no one’s mind but your own.
You spent a year of your life plotting your arrival in IWF by training my son and manipulating him and his girlfriend all to get in my head. I’ll admit that it worked on every account. It worked, Biggs. You did a hell of a job training JC, you had me and him at each others throats, and you almost caused him to KILL his girlfriend. I just want to know what good all of that will have done when you’re flat on your back staring up at the lights at Night of the Immortals while I’m standing over you with my hand raised in victory.
Is that what it’s going to take to make you realize that all the mind games in the World won’t make you a better wrestler than me?
See I think that’s the one thing you’ve failed to understand about all of this. Your plan, just like your career was destined to be mediocre at best because even as well as you executed it the end result was always going to be the two of us facing off inside a wrestling ring and me out wrestling you. I’ve always been a better wrestler than you and that’s why you’re so jealous and want to take me out. I would have faced you willingly without all the sneak attacks, manipulation, and mind fuckery so all that managed to do was piss me off to the point it’s personal and I won’t stop at just beating you. I’m going to hurt and embarrass you at IWF’s biggest show ever in front of a record crowd who will be chanting my name while wishing death upon you and I just might oblige.
Nah, you ain’t worth it. I am going to make it feel like you’re dying though I promise you that.
Then on Tuesday morning I’ll go to work shaping IWF’s future and you’ll just be the name everyone tries to remember but no one can when they’re asked who Jake Keeton beat in the last match of his career.
It was JJ Biggs.
Who?
Friday, May 27th, 2016
The scene reopens to the interior of the Keeton house, boxes are stacked everywhere and things appear to be pretty well finished as far as packing for the move to Chicago. The front door opens and JC Keeton dressed in a green polo shirt and jeans steps into the house.
JC: Anyone home?
“Up here…”
The voice of Jake Keeton rings through the house as JC goes up the stairs and down a hallway. He stops as he gets to a room where the door is slightly cracked.
JC: You in there Dad?
Jake: Yeah, come on in son.
JC looks shocked but pushes the door open and steps into the room to see his father Jake sitting on a stool with an open box in front of him. The walls are decorated with posters, magazine covers, title belts, trophies, and plaques all featuring or belonging to Jake throughout his long and storied career. This was the first time in his life JC had been allowed inside this room. The young man looks around in awe at the accolades and accomplishments his father had racked up over the last 20 years.
JC: This is awesome…
Jake: I’m sorry I never let you in here until now, this has always been a special place just for me but now that you’re in the business too I thought you should see why your old man is as respected as he is.
JC: I always knew why, I’d just never seen all this stuff at once.
JC goes over and picks up a smaller, older looking belt and picks it up.
JC: This is the PWF World Heavyweight Title…
Jake: Yep.
JC: It was your first one.
Jake: Sure was.
JC puts the belt down and then looks up at the wall in front of him to see a plaque that reads “2000 Advantage Wrestling Hall of Fame” with a picture of a much much younger looking Jake with short hair that had blonde tips and a neatly manicured goatee. JC chuckles.
JC: I was only two when you got inducted into the AW Hall of Fame. I can’t believe you went out in public looking like that.
Jake: Hey now in 10 years you’ll see a picture of yourself in some of the shit you wear and wish you could burn it.
JC continues to go around the room just picking up the different belts and reading the magazine covers until he stops next to Jake and sees the open box in front of him.
JC: What’s that?
Jake: It’s old ring gear.
Jake takes a pair of tights out of the box and holds them up.
Jake: You know what these are?
JC: Yep. Those are the tights you were wearing at PWA’s High Stakes 2 Pay Per View. The night you beat Chris Michaels, Omar Owens, and Nighthawk for the World Title. I was sitting ringside. That was right after we found out my cancer had come back.
Jake: Yeah…
Jake’s eyes swell up with tears but he fights them off.
Jake: I want to give this to the IWF seamstress and have her make you some elbow pads or knee pads or something. Would you like that?
While Jake was able to hold back, JC can’t and tears roll down his cheeks and he just shakes his head.
JC: That means so much to me Dad, I’ll wear them proudly.
Jake stands up and hugs his son.
Jake: I know ya will kid, I love you.
JC: I love you too Dad.
Jake lets him go.
Jake: So you want to help me pack this room?
JC nods his head and smiles.
Jake: Well let’s head downstairs and get some empty boxes.
The scene fades on a Jake Keeton promo for the final time.
Well howdy there pardner.