Post by Deleted on Mar 6, 2017 1:27:01 GMT
“If New Orleans is not fully in the mainstream of culture, neither is it fully in the mainstream of time. Lacking a well-defined present, it lives somewhere between its past and its future, as if uncertain whether to advance or to retreat. Perhaps it is its perpetual ambivalence that is its secret charm. Somewhere between Preservation Hall and the Superdome, between voodoo and cybernetics, New Orleans listens eagerly to the seductive promises of the future but keeps at least one foot firmly planted in its history, and in the end, conforms, like an artist, not to the world but to its own inner being–ever mindful of its personal style.”
As Nighthawk wheels his suitcase into his small hotel room in the French Quarter of New Orleans, which so happens to overlook the city’s infamous and perpetually bustling Bourbon Street, one has to wonder which impish prankster in the IWF arena office decided scheduling a triple-shot in America’s most debauched major city would be a good idea, especially considering one of the shows would take place around Mardi Gras.
But while the stoic and wholesome Chicagoan is looking forward to his 6-man tag team match with his new partner Andrew Jacobsen and his trainee Jayson Matthews against the unhinged Spencer Family one has to wonder if a battle such as this is the right place to make the official debut of a team, or if a war of the sort they are more than likely walking into might serve to create unfixable cracks in a unit still looking to find its footing.
However, while most of the fans who will be showing up at the Smoothie King Center are looking forward to a powder keg of a trios match, the “Wrestling Machine” is quite clearly more concerned about being in position to find a victory for himself and his side and start his new, and as yet unnamed, partnership on something approaching a good start.
However, as Nighthawk lifts his navy-blue USA Wrestling gym bag onto a wicker chair that appears to have seen better days and starts to pull out of the apparel he needs for the training days he has scheduled, as well as his iPad for film study, the insistent ring of his iPhone draws his attention. Reaching into the front pocket of the aforementioned gym bag he smiles and sees his wife Sin is calling him.
(Author’s Note: This conversation took place in Spanish.)
Sin, her honeyed voice sending a shiver up her husband’s back even through a phone line: “I just miss you. I know you have this big 6-man tag coming up, and I know it is going to be one of those brutal fights you always want to try and be avoiding, but I do miss you. In fact, I’ve got a surprise for you.”
Nighthawk, confusion evident in his voice: “What surprise?”
Sin, walking through the front door of his hotel room: “I’m here.”
Nighthawk, smiling as he hangs up his iPhone and rushes to embrace his wife in as close to one motion as a professional wrestler can: “I’m so happy to see you, honey, but what are you doing here? How did you get here so fast?”
Sin, smiling as she sees the absolute love and joy in her husband’s eyes: “I got here so fast because the IWF travel office figured you needed to see me, and because New Orleans is in the same time zone as Chicago so I was able to get here. But that’s not the only reason why I’m here.”
Nighthawk, smiling carefully as he seems to think that he might be walking into a trap but cannot see where it is going to be coming from: “What’s the other reason?”
Sin, her smile fading somewhat as she knows her husband is not going to want to hear this but that it has to be said nonetheless: “Honey, you’ve felt rudderless to me. Like you’re just drifting through the IWF waiting for something to happen, that defining victory to give your life meaning again like it did when you were warring with Terminus, or with Elijah Black, or with any of those great warriors you could lose yourself in a competition with. Moreover, because you have not been able to find that victory, that one big win which gives you the purpose you need, you have been adrift. Something needs to bring you back to the man you used to be.”
Nighthawk: “I know what you mean, because I can feel it too. However, I think Andrew can help me find it. I know what he and I are capable of when we’re on the same page.”
Sin: “For your sake, I hope you’re right. Because I want to see you happy. You deserve it.”
Nighthawk: “You’re here with me in New Orleans. For right now, this is all the happiness I need.”
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
As Nighthawk walks in the front door of Le Boxeur Gym in New Orleans, his eyes quickly wandering to the rows upon rows of hungry fighters who are glancing at him with a heady combination of worshipful awe and rapacious hunger, we see a drastic change in the Chicagoan the closer he gets to the ring.
While in private conversations with his wife Sin he is tender and loving, the mere act of preparing for an athletic competition awakens the cold and highly disciplined “Wrestling Machine” who, right now, looks to be gathering information for his trio of opponents.
Sliding in the ring, immediately popping into the referee’s position as two trainees finish up their drills, Nighthawk allows the mask of hyper-focused competence to crack slightly as they notice who is in the ring with them and take spots on the outside of the ring with the rest of the trainees.
Nighthawk: “I didn’t want to be the guy who shows up at the gym and gives you the same old platitudes about work ethic, and following your dreams. I have been a trainee like you and I have listened, sometimes to the point of absolute boredom, when people would give me those speeches. This is not going to be one of those.
Rather, I am going to tell you the dirty little secret of becoming successful. It is not as complicated as I am making it sound either. It is simply: Learning.
Right now, right at this moment in Le Boxeur, you are here with your trainer and he is teaching you everything he knows. Moreover, right now that is exactly what you need.
However, there will come a day, and I am sure your trainer and I both hope that day is far off from now, when your trainer tells you he has taught you everything he knows. When that day comes, you will have two choices. You can either believe that you know all you need to, and operate that way. On the other hand, you can make the decision that I made, that Andrew Jacobsen made, which is to be willing to leave the security of here and go out and keep learning.
That, above all other things, is how you become successful. The constant, and relentless, search for knowledge keeps you prepared and ready. And if you do that, if that and fair play are the only two guiding principles you’ll keep to, you’ll be as successful as your talent allows you to become.
Now, with my little proclamation out of the way, let us get down to training and to work. I have a bear of a 6-man tag in front of me, and I want to make sure that by the time everyone leaves here, you are one step closer to your dreams of becoming professionals. Not just people playing at this on the weekends for a few bucks, but actual honest-to-goodness professionals.”
And with that, Nighthawk leans against the ropes as the trainees at Le Boxeur head back into the ring to go over their drills.
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
As Nighthawk carries bags of ice back into Le Boxeur we see the gym door yawning open and every single trainee is icing down a limb or staring off into space after apparently having been taken to school with blinding bursts of pure wrestling, as the “Man of 1000 Holds” appears to have reburnished his reputation as the sport’s hardest, and most demanding, trainer.
Clad in a cream-colored Yoshiaki Fujiwara t-shirt, navy-blue wrestling shorts with cream-colored trim, and black mid-top wrestling boots, Nighthawk slowly closes his eyes before opening them with a cold and challenging smile that puts in mind someone who has just remembered how brilliantly dangerous he can actually be if he sets his mind to it.
Nighthawk, his voice cold and chilled like a Minnesota winter: “We live in an era where everyone wants to be let behind the curtain, if there even is one anymore. In most jobs, this is not a big problem. After all, the access and ‘secrets’ one might get on how to become a French-trained chef does not necessarily mean you think you have the skills to become one. To do that, and to do it well, requires training for years and years and countless hours of toil for very little money. When you explain it as a craft, it makes a lot more sense.
However, for some reason, getting that same level of access in this job leads people to think that somehow getting into it is easy. They think, if they know the right people and have some sort of weird unctuous charisma, that doing this job is easy as pie. However, to a man, every single last one of them has learned that is not the case.
Eventually, one way or another, those people who think that this is an easy job are woken up. Men who pride themselves on staying cool under fire, and being lighthearted, sometimes learn that when you poke a demon sometimes that demon rises, and you have to deal with what happens next.
And that fact, that cold hard fact which becomes ever sharper in the light of day, brings me to another. And this fact concerns the three men who myself, Andrew Jacobsen, and Jayson Matthews will be standing across the ring from.
You see, Spencers, there are many cities throughout the world that play a role in this sport’s storied, and sometimes sordid, history. And high on that list is the one we are standing in right now. Whether it be the World title classics of the 70’s and 80’s that took place here on a near-weekly basis, or the sold-out crowds at the Superdome, New Orleans may be a lot of things but it is, at its beating heart, a town for wrestling.
And it is wrestling, not parlor tricks and smoke and mirrors, that will bring your downfall. You may be blessed with faith, and eager to convert, but understand this one thing. I am a wrestler. Andrew Jacobsen is a wrestler. Jayson Matthews is a wrestler. And each one of us, I am comfortable in saying, has also made sure we are as ready for you as we are for anyone else. Therefore, when you lose, when you fall to us three, I want you to understand why.
Our faith is not germane to this story. That is, as is the case for most right-thinking people, a wholly private matter. However, and this part needs to be clear, what we do inside the ring is not. What we do in the ring never has been. And it is there, right in that squared circle, where our statement will be made. And when you fall, when you crumble, it won’t be because of your lack of faith. It will be because of our abundance of skill.
Goodnight Spencers. May sleep give you the courage to go on.”
As Nighthawk wheels his suitcase into his small hotel room in the French Quarter of New Orleans, which so happens to overlook the city’s infamous and perpetually bustling Bourbon Street, one has to wonder which impish prankster in the IWF arena office decided scheduling a triple-shot in America’s most debauched major city would be a good idea, especially considering one of the shows would take place around Mardi Gras.
But while the stoic and wholesome Chicagoan is looking forward to his 6-man tag team match with his new partner Andrew Jacobsen and his trainee Jayson Matthews against the unhinged Spencer Family one has to wonder if a battle such as this is the right place to make the official debut of a team, or if a war of the sort they are more than likely walking into might serve to create unfixable cracks in a unit still looking to find its footing.
However, while most of the fans who will be showing up at the Smoothie King Center are looking forward to a powder keg of a trios match, the “Wrestling Machine” is quite clearly more concerned about being in position to find a victory for himself and his side and start his new, and as yet unnamed, partnership on something approaching a good start.
However, as Nighthawk lifts his navy-blue USA Wrestling gym bag onto a wicker chair that appears to have seen better days and starts to pull out of the apparel he needs for the training days he has scheduled, as well as his iPad for film study, the insistent ring of his iPhone draws his attention. Reaching into the front pocket of the aforementioned gym bag he smiles and sees his wife Sin is calling him.
(Author’s Note: This conversation took place in Spanish.)
Sin, her honeyed voice sending a shiver up her husband’s back even through a phone line: “I just miss you. I know you have this big 6-man tag coming up, and I know it is going to be one of those brutal fights you always want to try and be avoiding, but I do miss you. In fact, I’ve got a surprise for you.”
Nighthawk, confusion evident in his voice: “What surprise?”
Sin, walking through the front door of his hotel room: “I’m here.”
Nighthawk, smiling as he hangs up his iPhone and rushes to embrace his wife in as close to one motion as a professional wrestler can: “I’m so happy to see you, honey, but what are you doing here? How did you get here so fast?”
Sin, smiling as she sees the absolute love and joy in her husband’s eyes: “I got here so fast because the IWF travel office figured you needed to see me, and because New Orleans is in the same time zone as Chicago so I was able to get here. But that’s not the only reason why I’m here.”
Nighthawk, smiling carefully as he seems to think that he might be walking into a trap but cannot see where it is going to be coming from: “What’s the other reason?”
Sin, her smile fading somewhat as she knows her husband is not going to want to hear this but that it has to be said nonetheless: “Honey, you’ve felt rudderless to me. Like you’re just drifting through the IWF waiting for something to happen, that defining victory to give your life meaning again like it did when you were warring with Terminus, or with Elijah Black, or with any of those great warriors you could lose yourself in a competition with. Moreover, because you have not been able to find that victory, that one big win which gives you the purpose you need, you have been adrift. Something needs to bring you back to the man you used to be.”
Nighthawk: “I know what you mean, because I can feel it too. However, I think Andrew can help me find it. I know what he and I are capable of when we’re on the same page.”
Sin: “For your sake, I hope you’re right. Because I want to see you happy. You deserve it.”
Nighthawk: “You’re here with me in New Orleans. For right now, this is all the happiness I need.”
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
As Nighthawk walks in the front door of Le Boxeur Gym in New Orleans, his eyes quickly wandering to the rows upon rows of hungry fighters who are glancing at him with a heady combination of worshipful awe and rapacious hunger, we see a drastic change in the Chicagoan the closer he gets to the ring.
While in private conversations with his wife Sin he is tender and loving, the mere act of preparing for an athletic competition awakens the cold and highly disciplined “Wrestling Machine” who, right now, looks to be gathering information for his trio of opponents.
Sliding in the ring, immediately popping into the referee’s position as two trainees finish up their drills, Nighthawk allows the mask of hyper-focused competence to crack slightly as they notice who is in the ring with them and take spots on the outside of the ring with the rest of the trainees.
Nighthawk: “I didn’t want to be the guy who shows up at the gym and gives you the same old platitudes about work ethic, and following your dreams. I have been a trainee like you and I have listened, sometimes to the point of absolute boredom, when people would give me those speeches. This is not going to be one of those.
Rather, I am going to tell you the dirty little secret of becoming successful. It is not as complicated as I am making it sound either. It is simply: Learning.
Right now, right at this moment in Le Boxeur, you are here with your trainer and he is teaching you everything he knows. Moreover, right now that is exactly what you need.
However, there will come a day, and I am sure your trainer and I both hope that day is far off from now, when your trainer tells you he has taught you everything he knows. When that day comes, you will have two choices. You can either believe that you know all you need to, and operate that way. On the other hand, you can make the decision that I made, that Andrew Jacobsen made, which is to be willing to leave the security of here and go out and keep learning.
That, above all other things, is how you become successful. The constant, and relentless, search for knowledge keeps you prepared and ready. And if you do that, if that and fair play are the only two guiding principles you’ll keep to, you’ll be as successful as your talent allows you to become.
Now, with my little proclamation out of the way, let us get down to training and to work. I have a bear of a 6-man tag in front of me, and I want to make sure that by the time everyone leaves here, you are one step closer to your dreams of becoming professionals. Not just people playing at this on the weekends for a few bucks, but actual honest-to-goodness professionals.”
And with that, Nighthawk leans against the ropes as the trainees at Le Boxeur head back into the ring to go over their drills.
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
As Nighthawk carries bags of ice back into Le Boxeur we see the gym door yawning open and every single trainee is icing down a limb or staring off into space after apparently having been taken to school with blinding bursts of pure wrestling, as the “Man of 1000 Holds” appears to have reburnished his reputation as the sport’s hardest, and most demanding, trainer.
Clad in a cream-colored Yoshiaki Fujiwara t-shirt, navy-blue wrestling shorts with cream-colored trim, and black mid-top wrestling boots, Nighthawk slowly closes his eyes before opening them with a cold and challenging smile that puts in mind someone who has just remembered how brilliantly dangerous he can actually be if he sets his mind to it.
Nighthawk, his voice cold and chilled like a Minnesota winter: “We live in an era where everyone wants to be let behind the curtain, if there even is one anymore. In most jobs, this is not a big problem. After all, the access and ‘secrets’ one might get on how to become a French-trained chef does not necessarily mean you think you have the skills to become one. To do that, and to do it well, requires training for years and years and countless hours of toil for very little money. When you explain it as a craft, it makes a lot more sense.
However, for some reason, getting that same level of access in this job leads people to think that somehow getting into it is easy. They think, if they know the right people and have some sort of weird unctuous charisma, that doing this job is easy as pie. However, to a man, every single last one of them has learned that is not the case.
Eventually, one way or another, those people who think that this is an easy job are woken up. Men who pride themselves on staying cool under fire, and being lighthearted, sometimes learn that when you poke a demon sometimes that demon rises, and you have to deal with what happens next.
And that fact, that cold hard fact which becomes ever sharper in the light of day, brings me to another. And this fact concerns the three men who myself, Andrew Jacobsen, and Jayson Matthews will be standing across the ring from.
You see, Spencers, there are many cities throughout the world that play a role in this sport’s storied, and sometimes sordid, history. And high on that list is the one we are standing in right now. Whether it be the World title classics of the 70’s and 80’s that took place here on a near-weekly basis, or the sold-out crowds at the Superdome, New Orleans may be a lot of things but it is, at its beating heart, a town for wrestling.
And it is wrestling, not parlor tricks and smoke and mirrors, that will bring your downfall. You may be blessed with faith, and eager to convert, but understand this one thing. I am a wrestler. Andrew Jacobsen is a wrestler. Jayson Matthews is a wrestler. And each one of us, I am comfortable in saying, has also made sure we are as ready for you as we are for anyone else. Therefore, when you lose, when you fall to us three, I want you to understand why.
Our faith is not germane to this story. That is, as is the case for most right-thinking people, a wholly private matter. However, and this part needs to be clear, what we do inside the ring is not. What we do in the ring never has been. And it is there, right in that squared circle, where our statement will be made. And when you fall, when you crumble, it won’t be because of your lack of faith. It will be because of our abundance of skill.
Goodnight Spencers. May sleep give you the courage to go on.”
Well howdy there pardner.