Post by The Ace on Jun 22, 2017 19:54:46 GMT
A lot has already been said by the IWF marketing machine about our history, Andrew.
We go back a hell of a long time in this business. We've been up and down the road, travelled across oceans and continents together. In all that time, we've shared many things, from wrestling rings and hotel rooms to rental cars and road stories. It's almost hard to believe that the two of us have been sharing the spotlight and tearing down the houses in arenas all across the world for years now.
We were doing this long since before Roberto Verona was even in the business, and now we're the ones working for him.
If that doesn't say all you need to know about how this this life can have a perverse sense of humour sometimes, I don't know what does.
It's almost funny looking back at how this has all worked out for the both of us, and whilst I could spend hours telling the world about the exact details of where we came from and how we got here today, it is probably best left to the social media sports analysts, men and women who make their entire careers from getting caught up in the minutia of such things.
The simple fact of the matter is that I don't need to go back quite as far as I could to tell you everything you need to know about Jake "The Ace" Conway and "The North Star" Andrew Jacobsen. I only need to go back to the night that the road back to the top of the mountain in professional wrestling should have ended for both of us.
January 31st, 2016 - Metamorphosis.
I'm sure you remember it just as well as I do, Andy.
It was the night both of us were forced to face the harshest reality that anybody in this business ever faces...
The reality of being thoroughly unprepared.
On that night, you were not prepared to beat Warren Kane, and I was not prepared to beat Roberto Verona.
On that night, you couldn't save your career, and I could not redefine mine.
On that night, neither of us could walk away as a Champion here in the Imperial Wrestling Federation, and so whilst you were forced out of the company, I was forced to walk a different path altogether. But for as different as our roads back to the pinnacle of this industry have been over the last year and a half Andrew, some curious quirk of fate has always kept them perfectly parallel.
And now here we both are, on the same road again - on a collision course.
Something has to give at Bloody Assizes. One of us will find our career path diverted once more by the better man, and as bitter a moment as that might be for us Andrew, at least this time both of us can take some solace from the fact that whoever the better man is revealed to be on Sunday Night...
It won't be Roberto Verona...
Jake Conway stood in what had become one of the spare rooms in the house he grew up here in Birmingham, England. Many years ago, this small house had been a hive of activity. The Conway Brothers didn't have much growing up, but they had always been happy here.
Even after all these years, the Conways had remained relatively close, making it a point to get together every Christmas usually, even though they hadn't seen Jake's youngest sibling Jason for the last few Christmases - ever since Laura's death in fact...and as fate would have it, Jake Conway and Andrew Jacobsen was set to be a main attraction in NCW even back then.
The more things change, the more they stay the same, thought Jake, allowing himself a small smile, as he took down his poster of the 1989 Batman logo that still hung undisturbed by his parents after all these years. This used to be his room, but for now it had been designated Solitaire and Domino's room for the couple weeks they were home again, and as such Solitaire had insisted on a brand new Andrew Jacobsen as Imperial Champion poster being hung here for as long as she was here at Grandpa's.
He rolled up the old poster neatly, careful not to damage what it still meant to him even after all these years, before hanging up the Andrew Jacobsen poster, with just enough care to satiate his ten year old daughter as she stood, watching in the door way.
"Just so you know, I resent you making me do this, Soli," said Jake as he smoothed out the smiling face of Andrew Jacobsen as he pinned him firmly up against the wall, the symbolism not entirely lost on him in the moment.
"What do you mean, Daddy?"
"I mean replacing The Dark Knight with The White Knight, it's almost sacrilege."
"Well, we all have our heroes, Dad. You have yours, and I have mine."
"So you've definitely forgiven him then?"
"Mommy says we all make mistakes, and we all deserve a second chance - she said you wouldn't be here if she hadn't given you a second chance, but now she's glad she did because you're the best example of how people can change. Sometimes the best thing you can do is to never give up on a person..."
"Oh, Mommy said that, did she?"
Jake looks over his shoulder to see his starry eyed daughter nodding, a look he assumed that had been inspired by the man who now adorned the wall.
"She's a smart woman, your Mommy," said Jake as he stepped back and gestured towards the poster, presenting the finished job to his daughter.
"Oh thank you, thank you, daddy," said Solitaire as she ran up to embrace him. Jake caught her and lifted her up into his arms, hugging her tightly and kissing the top of her head as he hugged her tightly.
"You're very welcome, Princess."
Still embracing his daughter, Jake caught Andrew Jacobsen, posing with the Imperial Championship, a sincere smile on his face, and suddenly it was less a poster but more a mirror for Jake Conway, reflecting the man he could be, the man he should be.
The hero Solitaire deserved, but not the one she needed right now.
Right now, she didn't need him to be a hero, she needed him to be her father.
It wasn't as glamorous as being her hero, but it was still the best job in the world, and unlike the man in the mirror, it was not a job he'd ever be forced to walk away from...
For over a year now the greatest accomplishment of my professional career has been stamped with an asterisk.
I beat Roberto Verona on the grandest stage of them all - technically.
I ended the single greatest Imperial Championship reign in the history of this company - technically.
I cannot allow and I will not allow my professional legacy in this business to be defined by technicalities.
When I earn the right to call myself the best professional wrestler in the world today, it will be undisputed. When I prove myself to be a real life superhero in the eyes of my children, it will be irrefutable. And when I finally reward the unwavering faith my wife has had in me for nearly a decade now, it will be undeniable.
So you see Andrew, as much as I respect you for finally realising your full potential, you should know that I will never be the kind of man, the kind of hero, or the kind of role model that I've always encouraged my own children to look up to.
I will never be you, Andrew, that's not meant as a slight.
If truth be told Andy, part of me has always envied what you represent to not only my babies but the millions of other kids whose faces light up whenever you walk into a room - you're a hero to them, a real life paragon of virtue. The world needs more men like Andrew Jacobsen, perhaps now more than ever, given the world we live in.
People need hope, people need ideals, and people need inspiration.
You are their hope - even without the Imperial Championship.
You are their ideal - even without the Imperial Championship.
You are their inspiration - even without the Imperial Champion.
So you see Andrew, you really don't need the Imperial Championship as much as I do.
You'll still be asked to grant hundreds of Make-A-Wishes because even without that belt over your shoulder, the spark of life will still be momentarily renewed in the eyes of all the sick and dying children every time you walk into the room. You are a hero because of who you are as a man, not because of the fourteen pounds of scarlet leather and lustrous gold you carry - and that is something that I will never take away from you.
Why would I even want to?
I didn't force a hard reset of your moral compass by sacrificing my Man Of Steel Championship almost two years ago just to skew it all over again now. No, I didn't save you from yourself back then, I didn't save you from Cyrus Daniels two weeks ago and I didn't watch your back against Bob Pooler and Jayson Matthews last week because I'm a hero or a good man...
No, Andrew, I did it because I am every bit as selfish as you are selfless.
I was simply preserving the man I helped restore in millions of teary eyes.
I was simply preventing the millions of hearts I helped heal from shattering all over again.
I was simply ensuring that nothing - absolutely nothing - would jeopardise all of my hard work getting back to this point in my career.
Nothing is going to jeopardise me finally collecting upon what I have been denied since Night of the Immortals III.
Not Roberto Verona's corporate power.
Not Cyrus Daniels' sheer brutality.
And most certainly not Andrew Jacobsen's self sacrificing instinct.
I may never be capable of extraordinary heroism, but I learn from my mistakes and my oversights, and now that I have protected you, my long time friend and my long term investment, there will be no excuses for either of us, no matter what happens on Sunday.
Now that I have protected the selfless from the selfish, there will be no more asterisks placed upon my career accomplishments, there will be no more technicalities placed upon my victories and there will be absolutely no doubt in anybody's mind who the better man is.
And then, when I am indisputably named the new Imperial Champion for the very first time in my career, maybe, just maybe I will see the stars in the eyes of my own flesh and blood that you have always seen.
I will never be a hero to millions like you are, Andrew, but I will be a hero to two very special girls in my life.
One more time.
One last time.
Everything I have done here in the Imperial Wrestling Federation has been for them, for my little girls, Solitaire and Domino, and that is another reason why I had to make absolutely certain that their dashing hero I saw with my own eyes on February 6th 2017 was protected over the last few weeks.
I needed to make sure the debt I owed the hero who saved their mother from Spike Kane that night was repaid in full.
Now I've repaid my debt, it's time for you to repay your debt to me.
Not only the debt of that Imperial Championship you inherited from Cable who himself inherited it from Roberto Verona at my expense, but also the debt you owe me for kick starting your re-evolution and giving the people who look up to you their hero back.
Five weeks after I saw the hero return for myself, on March 13th 2017 I heard that man, that hero I was still indebted to, solemnly promise to compete with honour and dignity, and whilst everybody else saw Andrew Jacobsen christened a Man Of A Thousand Holds by Nighthawk himself that night, I saw Andrew Jacobsen rechristened as The North Star in the eyes of my babies.
I saw the hope renewed in their eyes.
I saw the North Star begin to ascend once more on that night, and now here you are, at your peak, shining the brightest you have in years. It is no wonder they look up to you, idolise you, and whilst I have no intention of shattering their hero worship entirely, I have every intention of making sure they don't lose themselves completely in the perfect fantasy you represent, by teaching them a lesson about the value of hard work and never giving up on your dreams and ambitions.
You may be their hero again, Andrew, but I will always be their father.
And as their father, I have a responsibility to teach them how the world really works, even in the absence of heroes. I have a responsibility to temper their wildest fantasies, and to to balance them with the stark realities in life.
As their father, I have a responsibility to teach them the difference between fantasy and reality.
In fantasies, the hero always wins. In reality, it is never that simple, and as their father, I have a responsibility to make certain that they grow up with a solid appreciation of the difference.
I'm sure to somebody like you Andrew, somebody who doesn't actually have kids, but is in the business of making all their dreams come true, it seems cruel to manage their absolute innocence like that, and I admit it is a tough, sometimes even grim responsibility.
Nevertheless, as a parent, it is not a responsibility I take lightly.
And as a parent, it is not a responsibility I can or will ever be able to walk away from, even if I have to play the villain opposite the hero one more time.
One last time.
We go back a hell of a long time in this business. We've been up and down the road, travelled across oceans and continents together. In all that time, we've shared many things, from wrestling rings and hotel rooms to rental cars and road stories. It's almost hard to believe that the two of us have been sharing the spotlight and tearing down the houses in arenas all across the world for years now.
We were doing this long since before Roberto Verona was even in the business, and now we're the ones working for him.
If that doesn't say all you need to know about how this this life can have a perverse sense of humour sometimes, I don't know what does.
It's almost funny looking back at how this has all worked out for the both of us, and whilst I could spend hours telling the world about the exact details of where we came from and how we got here today, it is probably best left to the social media sports analysts, men and women who make their entire careers from getting caught up in the minutia of such things.
The simple fact of the matter is that I don't need to go back quite as far as I could to tell you everything you need to know about Jake "The Ace" Conway and "The North Star" Andrew Jacobsen. I only need to go back to the night that the road back to the top of the mountain in professional wrestling should have ended for both of us.
January 31st, 2016 - Metamorphosis.
I'm sure you remember it just as well as I do, Andy.
It was the night both of us were forced to face the harshest reality that anybody in this business ever faces...
The reality of being thoroughly unprepared.
On that night, you were not prepared to beat Warren Kane, and I was not prepared to beat Roberto Verona.
On that night, you couldn't save your career, and I could not redefine mine.
On that night, neither of us could walk away as a Champion here in the Imperial Wrestling Federation, and so whilst you were forced out of the company, I was forced to walk a different path altogether. But for as different as our roads back to the pinnacle of this industry have been over the last year and a half Andrew, some curious quirk of fate has always kept them perfectly parallel.
And now here we both are, on the same road again - on a collision course.
Something has to give at Bloody Assizes. One of us will find our career path diverted once more by the better man, and as bitter a moment as that might be for us Andrew, at least this time both of us can take some solace from the fact that whoever the better man is revealed to be on Sunday Night...
It won't be Roberto Verona...
Jake Conway stood in what had become one of the spare rooms in the house he grew up here in Birmingham, England. Many years ago, this small house had been a hive of activity. The Conway Brothers didn't have much growing up, but they had always been happy here.
Even after all these years, the Conways had remained relatively close, making it a point to get together every Christmas usually, even though they hadn't seen Jake's youngest sibling Jason for the last few Christmases - ever since Laura's death in fact...and as fate would have it, Jake Conway and Andrew Jacobsen was set to be a main attraction in NCW even back then.
The more things change, the more they stay the same, thought Jake, allowing himself a small smile, as he took down his poster of the 1989 Batman logo that still hung undisturbed by his parents after all these years. This used to be his room, but for now it had been designated Solitaire and Domino's room for the couple weeks they were home again, and as such Solitaire had insisted on a brand new Andrew Jacobsen as Imperial Champion poster being hung here for as long as she was here at Grandpa's.
He rolled up the old poster neatly, careful not to damage what it still meant to him even after all these years, before hanging up the Andrew Jacobsen poster, with just enough care to satiate his ten year old daughter as she stood, watching in the door way.
"Just so you know, I resent you making me do this, Soli," said Jake as he smoothed out the smiling face of Andrew Jacobsen as he pinned him firmly up against the wall, the symbolism not entirely lost on him in the moment.
"What do you mean, Daddy?"
"I mean replacing The Dark Knight with The White Knight, it's almost sacrilege."
"Well, we all have our heroes, Dad. You have yours, and I have mine."
"So you've definitely forgiven him then?"
"Mommy says we all make mistakes, and we all deserve a second chance - she said you wouldn't be here if she hadn't given you a second chance, but now she's glad she did because you're the best example of how people can change. Sometimes the best thing you can do is to never give up on a person..."
"Oh, Mommy said that, did she?"
Jake looks over his shoulder to see his starry eyed daughter nodding, a look he assumed that had been inspired by the man who now adorned the wall.
"She's a smart woman, your Mommy," said Jake as he stepped back and gestured towards the poster, presenting the finished job to his daughter.
"Oh thank you, thank you, daddy," said Solitaire as she ran up to embrace him. Jake caught her and lifted her up into his arms, hugging her tightly and kissing the top of her head as he hugged her tightly.
"You're very welcome, Princess."
Still embracing his daughter, Jake caught Andrew Jacobsen, posing with the Imperial Championship, a sincere smile on his face, and suddenly it was less a poster but more a mirror for Jake Conway, reflecting the man he could be, the man he should be.
The hero Solitaire deserved, but not the one she needed right now.
Right now, she didn't need him to be a hero, she needed him to be her father.
It wasn't as glamorous as being her hero, but it was still the best job in the world, and unlike the man in the mirror, it was not a job he'd ever be forced to walk away from...
For over a year now the greatest accomplishment of my professional career has been stamped with an asterisk.
I beat Roberto Verona on the grandest stage of them all - technically.
I ended the single greatest Imperial Championship reign in the history of this company - technically.
I cannot allow and I will not allow my professional legacy in this business to be defined by technicalities.
When I earn the right to call myself the best professional wrestler in the world today, it will be undisputed. When I prove myself to be a real life superhero in the eyes of my children, it will be irrefutable. And when I finally reward the unwavering faith my wife has had in me for nearly a decade now, it will be undeniable.
So you see Andrew, as much as I respect you for finally realising your full potential, you should know that I will never be the kind of man, the kind of hero, or the kind of role model that I've always encouraged my own children to look up to.
I will never be you, Andrew, that's not meant as a slight.
If truth be told Andy, part of me has always envied what you represent to not only my babies but the millions of other kids whose faces light up whenever you walk into a room - you're a hero to them, a real life paragon of virtue. The world needs more men like Andrew Jacobsen, perhaps now more than ever, given the world we live in.
People need hope, people need ideals, and people need inspiration.
You are their hope - even without the Imperial Championship.
You are their ideal - even without the Imperial Championship.
You are their inspiration - even without the Imperial Champion.
So you see Andrew, you really don't need the Imperial Championship as much as I do.
You'll still be asked to grant hundreds of Make-A-Wishes because even without that belt over your shoulder, the spark of life will still be momentarily renewed in the eyes of all the sick and dying children every time you walk into the room. You are a hero because of who you are as a man, not because of the fourteen pounds of scarlet leather and lustrous gold you carry - and that is something that I will never take away from you.
Why would I even want to?
I didn't force a hard reset of your moral compass by sacrificing my Man Of Steel Championship almost two years ago just to skew it all over again now. No, I didn't save you from yourself back then, I didn't save you from Cyrus Daniels two weeks ago and I didn't watch your back against Bob Pooler and Jayson Matthews last week because I'm a hero or a good man...
No, Andrew, I did it because I am every bit as selfish as you are selfless.
I was simply preserving the man I helped restore in millions of teary eyes.
I was simply preventing the millions of hearts I helped heal from shattering all over again.
I was simply ensuring that nothing - absolutely nothing - would jeopardise all of my hard work getting back to this point in my career.
Nothing is going to jeopardise me finally collecting upon what I have been denied since Night of the Immortals III.
Not Roberto Verona's corporate power.
Not Cyrus Daniels' sheer brutality.
And most certainly not Andrew Jacobsen's self sacrificing instinct.
I may never be capable of extraordinary heroism, but I learn from my mistakes and my oversights, and now that I have protected you, my long time friend and my long term investment, there will be no excuses for either of us, no matter what happens on Sunday.
Now that I have protected the selfless from the selfish, there will be no more asterisks placed upon my career accomplishments, there will be no more technicalities placed upon my victories and there will be absolutely no doubt in anybody's mind who the better man is.
And then, when I am indisputably named the new Imperial Champion for the very first time in my career, maybe, just maybe I will see the stars in the eyes of my own flesh and blood that you have always seen.
I will never be a hero to millions like you are, Andrew, but I will be a hero to two very special girls in my life.
One more time.
One last time.
Everything I have done here in the Imperial Wrestling Federation has been for them, for my little girls, Solitaire and Domino, and that is another reason why I had to make absolutely certain that their dashing hero I saw with my own eyes on February 6th 2017 was protected over the last few weeks.
I needed to make sure the debt I owed the hero who saved their mother from Spike Kane that night was repaid in full.
Now I've repaid my debt, it's time for you to repay your debt to me.
Not only the debt of that Imperial Championship you inherited from Cable who himself inherited it from Roberto Verona at my expense, but also the debt you owe me for kick starting your re-evolution and giving the people who look up to you their hero back.
Five weeks after I saw the hero return for myself, on March 13th 2017 I heard that man, that hero I was still indebted to, solemnly promise to compete with honour and dignity, and whilst everybody else saw Andrew Jacobsen christened a Man Of A Thousand Holds by Nighthawk himself that night, I saw Andrew Jacobsen rechristened as The North Star in the eyes of my babies.
I saw the hope renewed in their eyes.
I saw the North Star begin to ascend once more on that night, and now here you are, at your peak, shining the brightest you have in years. It is no wonder they look up to you, idolise you, and whilst I have no intention of shattering their hero worship entirely, I have every intention of making sure they don't lose themselves completely in the perfect fantasy you represent, by teaching them a lesson about the value of hard work and never giving up on your dreams and ambitions.
You may be their hero again, Andrew, but I will always be their father.
And as their father, I have a responsibility to teach them how the world really works, even in the absence of heroes. I have a responsibility to temper their wildest fantasies, and to to balance them with the stark realities in life.
As their father, I have a responsibility to teach them the difference between fantasy and reality.
In fantasies, the hero always wins. In reality, it is never that simple, and as their father, I have a responsibility to make certain that they grow up with a solid appreciation of the difference.
I'm sure to somebody like you Andrew, somebody who doesn't actually have kids, but is in the business of making all their dreams come true, it seems cruel to manage their absolute innocence like that, and I admit it is a tough, sometimes even grim responsibility.
Nevertheless, as a parent, it is not a responsibility I take lightly.
And as a parent, it is not a responsibility I can or will ever be able to walk away from, even if I have to play the villain opposite the hero one more time.
One last time.
Well howdy there pardner.