Post by Nick Watson on Jul 10, 2013 16:44:01 GMT -4
"Rise to the Occasion and always surpass expectation."
-Nick Watson
*Sensational HQ*
(1 Week Ago)
What does it mean to be sensational? To some it means to be amazing at something, to be the best at some aspect of your life that causes others to turn, and look at you in amazement. To others it means excellence or an extreme amount of flawlessness in execution or performance of a task put out in front of them. To Nick Watson, it meant both.
For many months Nick Watson had been going back and forth fighting matches across the country and by using masks and created identities, Nick Watson had managed to hide who he was, and to stay far away from the limelight that APW had once cast on him during his tenure there. But in time Nick Watson had grown bored of the lifestyle, he wanted to come home, and he wanted the opportunity to wrestle under his real name. But most of all, he wanted to compete against the best in the business and Nick Watson knew no other location that even came close to the APW in terms of talent and potential. However, when he had arrived things had not gone as planned.
When he arrived and saw the disparity and the gutted rosters of Overdrive and Asylum, he paused, and stared in disbelief at what he had thought he would never see. And for one glaring moment, for the first time in six months, Nick Watson hesitated.
Hesitation had been a glaring weakness in Nick Watson's style of fighting before he had left, but that aspect of his style was gone now. It had been replaced with a daring and irrefutable will to compete and to ignite his fans in new and exciting ways. So when he hesitated....he shook it off quickly and demanded reinstatement.
Weeks later, Nick Watson was brought in for evaluation in order to prove he was physically able to compete, and was not simply using APW in some way, shape, or manner as a source of income instead of a way to compete. They soon learned of Nick's increase in weight and loss of fat. In honest, the APW staff was thrilled, and jumped on the opportunity without any sort of hesitation after the evaluation period was over.
Nick Watson, destined to be on Meltdown (the current melting pot of APW which was brimming over with young talent), was quickly disappointed when Meltdown closed it doors, but Jeff offered Nick a contract that was too good to pass up. He would return to his hunting grounds and compete on Overdrive in front of the millions of fans that he had accumulated during his first appearance on the APW scene. With his return to APW imminent, Nick Watson was spending most of his time leading up to Overdrive in the gym, but on this day, Nick Watson found himself sitting down in a meeting room at HQ.
Where was HQ to be exact? It was a small building that Madok had rented for the foreseeable future, where the Sensational Show's crew could meet, and discuss the direction of the show.
Today, was a normal day for Nick. He had been working out most of the morning as could be seen by his sweat covered white t-shirt and his expression of exhaustion. He looked around the room at the company he was keeping and gave a small grin as he tried to get in on the conversation that was currently going on.
"Some one mind catching me up? I sort of missed about half of it."
"You missed half of the conversation that pertained to you? Are you even trying to stay awake over there in the corner?"
Nick's smile faded and a look of apology quickly replaced it as the young lady stared holes into him. The young ladies name was Cassandra Sinclair and she was the Sensational Show's head of staff currently. She was a bright young lady, a hell of a looker, and of course usually was always hard on Nick. Nick didn't mind though, he knew most of the time he deserved it, and as such just took the hits as they came.
"Go easy on him, Cass. He has been working in the gym all day and is clearly tired."
"Thanks bud."
"No, problem bud. Anyway, we were talking about the restaurant meet and greet in North Charleston later this week. We are kind of hoping you will have a speech planned, you know?
Nick nodded his head at Corey. Corey Wilcox had been there since the beginning of the Sensational Show and was one of his best friends in the entire world. Plus, Corey always stood up for him when he was too tired to fight against the "Cass attacks" as they called them. Never called them that when she was around though, mainly out of fear of getting their asses kicked by the fiery red head.
"If it isn't too much trouble. I mean, we did book this gig about a few days ago, and clearly need some material for the fans to listen to.
"Of course I'm going to say something at the meet and greet. I'm not going to be the one dick APW megastar that doesn't bring the fans my "A" game at one of these things."
"That's the spirit. See, Cass? Nick is going to be ready so you can cool your jets, okay?"
Cass flung Madok a dirty look which caused a very visible shift in Madok's appearance. He squirmed a bit and even scooted his chair a bit farther away from Cass' reach just to make sure he wouldn't receive some form of beat down. Tyler, remained silent, instead choosing to sit in his chair listening to the conversation. That was just what Tyler always did, he never really added anything to the conversation during these meetings and usually spent most of his time either focusing on the next training course or what sort of new torturous work out program he could throw Nick threw next.
"So, I think that about covers it. We are pretty much on the ready for the start of Season 2 of the Sensational Show and I can't wait to get things rolling."
"I can't wait either! Man, it has been so long since I've actually done anything with the show, and with your finacial backing, Cass' leadership among the staff, Corey's camera work, and Tyler's training regiments, I'm sure we will make this second season something for the fans to remember."
"Speaking of training..."
The voice of Tyler Osbourne filled the room as the room turned all eyes to him as he smiled a wicked grin. This was the grin Nick had become accustom to during the six months hiatus from all things APW. It was the smile of a man who had found a new way to make someone's life a living hell. And that life was Nick's.
"I have just found a new and quite interesting training method that I would like to start tomorrow for you, Nick."
Sometimes Nick wanted to say no to Tyler's training. There had been cases where he had. He didn't remember much after saying no and to Nick that meant that he better say "yes" for now on instead. Nodding his head and queuing a sinister grin from his personal trainer, Nick Watson's mind began to drift to North Charleston.
It had been a while since Nick had wrestled A.C. Smith and though he knew the task was daunting, Nick was not afraid of the battle that lay in front of him. In fact, he relished the opportunity to right some wrongs that had happened to him in the past on Smith's watch. Nick Watson grinned for only a second as the screen quickly faded to black on his face.
\Scene Fades to Black/
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*North Charleston, South Carolina*
(A Local Restaurant)
It had been a while since Nick Watson had stood in front of a rabid group of fans to spill his guts out about a match or even to explain his side of a story or even his reasoning as to why he had done something that he had did. So it was an odd feeling of excitement that was currently passing over him as he stood in front of over a hundred people, chomping down on 50% off hamburgers, and sipping their free beverages with eyes full of some form of need. A need that Nick Watson was hoping to fulfill with his coming address to the fans of North Charleston.
It was a need for excitement and jubilation. The people of North Charleston were known for their commercial jet construction sites, as a matter of fact they were one of only four places that could even construct those sort of planes,and their ever expanding tourism market which had of course allowed their construction of hotels to flourish around this area. But even though they were known for these things the audience in front of him was not satisfied with the expanding growth of their tourism market or their jet construction yards. No, these fans wanted something more, and Nick, with every fiber of his being, was going to give them everything that they possibly could need.
With microphone in hand, Nick did a mic check, which drew attention away from the food, and drink. The crowd went silent, looking at the Sensational One with a great deal of longing as if calling to him to bring them to the promised land of entertainment. Nick, after finishing his mic-check, quickly engaged the audience with a smile on his face.
"I suppose now is as good a time as any to begin, seeing as how I've interrupted your feasting with my mic-check, and I'm all dressed up to entertain you tonight."
A lady whistled in the crowd and the other's followed suit. Nick winked at the crowd, getting a few laughs, and then nodded his head in approval.
"For the kind of entertainment that lady wants she is going to have to buy me dinner first."
More laughs can be heard as Nick lets out a slight chuckle.
"I usually like to start this sort of thing off by thanking the audience in attendance for coming out from the heat and of course taking time out of their busy schedule to join me tonight out here at the burger shack! For that I thank you and I do hope that by the end of the night I have provided you with some form of entertainment that you can talk about for days to come.
Now, I know some of you out there are judging me right now, and I really can't blame you for that. I mean, I did walk out on APW, and I did run away like a scared little girl from the big names and the scary lights of superstardom. But not a day goes by that I don't think about that one moment of my past, that one moment of stupidity where I ran away instead of sticking around, and fighting my way through my adversity. For the last six months it was all I could think about, every waking moment was a memorial to my failures as an athlete and as a human being. And to some that can drive you mad and to others it can drive you to new amazing heights to sort of shake that feeling away and sort of rebuild yourself in a new light.
For me these last six months, taught me that I shouldn't have been afraid, and I shouldn't have ran...these last six months have been tough, but I persevered. And I did this through training, Indy wrestling, and by just focusing on being better than I ever was. To attempt to try to live up to the nick name "The Sensational One" was a challenge that I set as my ultimate goal and to some extent...I think I achieved that. But to achieve that goal, things had to change, and the most important thing that had to change was myself."
Nick pauses and looks out at the audience, who are showing that they are captivated by the words he is speaking, and with a silent nod, Nick continues on.
"When I first entered into the APW establishment, I always looked at the veterans as unstoppable forces that I never could stand a chance against. And Smith hit the nail on the head when he said that I have never had any luck against him ever and that was mostly because every time I would fight someone with a reference sheet as long and diamond studded as his...well I would tense up. Being tense is never good when you have to light up the sky at night with your red hot flying moves and your lightning quick striking techniques. It took away a lot of what I could do every night, and always slowed me down to the point to where guys like Smith would barely break a sweat against a guy like me.
No matter how hard I tried, no matter what I did...this feeling of just being tense when I would go up against a veteran of Smith's caliber would just cause me so much trouble. It just wouldn't allow me to do the right thing or allow me to compete at a level that I was capable of and I could never shake it."
Nick shakes his head in disappointment and moves over to the stool on the stage that usually was used for karaoke on the weekends. He takes a seat and keeps on going.
"But after leaving APW...that first week filled with depression and remorse got me to thinking of things. It got me to look at myself in the mirror and realize that I shouldn't care about the long lists of accomplishments that my opponents had and instead should focus on doing what I could do or entertaining the people in the audience who had came so far to just watch me fly. To watch me compete against the best and I knew there were people out there who had came to see me due to the sheer amount of cheers I would get.
Why did I care about the lists and the smack talk? None of it mattered! The only thing that should have mattered...was you."
The fans in attendance let out some cheers as Nick gives a proud smile at all of the fans.
"You are all that matters to me. You're my family. The wind under my wings, if you will pardon the analogy. You guys are the Sensational Ones and I'm just, Nick Watson. To me, that realization was all it took. From that point on, I was working harder than I ever had, just to make you all smile, and to entertain you. In the Indy circuit, I became known as a fearless flyer, just because I would want to do something daring and unconventional, just to hear the sound of the crowd go crazy with appreciation of my effort. If I lost, I lost, and I moved on from it because the only thing I needed...was a child's smile after the show as I signed his autograph, posed for a picture, and told him to stay in school.
It was with that purpose that I improved, that I became better, and that when the time came...I was ready to come home."
More cheers as Nick smiles again. A tear forms at the edge of one of his eyes and Nick wipes it away quickly before the fans can see. To be honest, Nick was proud that the fans were welcoming him back, and that they wanted him to be there to spill his guts out to them.
"And my first appearance back...I felt so alive. So full of piss and vinegar. So ready to compete that I rushed to get my contract ironed out, just so I could compete again, and give you fans back even just half of what you had gave me! Then I learn, that my first match back is against A.C. Smith, but this time...I didn't feel a crushing sense of imminent defeat. Instead I felt the need to fight my heart out just to prove him wrong."
Nick pauses again, nodding his head as he feels the building momentum.
"It wasn't too long ago that A.C. Smith told me that I couldn't win against him this week.
That there was no chance in hell that Nick Watson could even come close to beating him and that my match history with him had been spotty at best. I won't lie, the second part is mostly true...I have had a lack of success against A.C. Smith in the past, and it is all my fault for buying in on a subconscious level to him saying I was helpless. But, I know better now.
A week and a half of research, several trips to local gyms, and several sparring sessions with some of the greatest big men that South Carolina can provide can change the whole outlook of a match in an instant. And guess who has done all of the things I just listed?"
Nick points at himself to a bit of fanfare.
"While Smith was punching a punching bag for three hours, without any new footage to go on, and focusing on his hatred for Aubrey J. Parker. I was in a gym: building my stamina, reviewing footage from some of Smith's previous matches over the last six months, and working on a few odds and ends to surprise the big fella with when we stepped into the ring this Thursday. Just another day at the office for me, but to some athletes that is a week of extremely hard work, and that is fine. Not everyone has the same demeanor when it comes to improving their game like me.
Just the cold hard truth. Want to know something else that is completely honest? Smith is so full of himself that to simply listen to him speak I get jitters just thinking about taking that grin off his face with a sick super kick right to the jaw.
I mean, come on...it has been close to ten months since the Sienna incident and he still holding it over my head, talking about how my one big victory in my career was simply a fluke or about how even after the help I didn't pin him so it didn't count as a loss for him. And then he rambles on comparing himself to Mt. Everest and comparing me to a climber who gets winded just climbing hills."
Watson pauses, a confused look on his face as he shakes his head.
"Its because I've never beat him one on one that he pushes out these analogies in an attempt to daunt me from the task before the match has even began, but you see...I'm not falling for it. No, screw the Everest comparison...you are a God damn man! Flesh and blood, you bleed and break just like the rest of us common folk. The only difference is the ego and to what heights that ego can make you climb and to be honest...that is your biggest mistake coming into this match."
Nick smiles and then looks out at the crowd, who are hanging on to every word he is saying.
"You said so yourself that maybe my trip away had helped me and you were right, but to not to the level that you were thinking of. Over the course of this six month period, the Nick Watson that you have known for most of your time here has simply been torn down, and rebuilt from the ground up.
I hired a crew of the best trainers with my manager, Madok Mortalis' money, and then I hired one of the most extreme flyers in the Indy circuit, Tyler Osbourne, as my personal coach to be there as not only motivation, but as a man that knows what I aim to do each and every night. And then when all the hiring was done...they destroyed me."
Nick's smile grows even wider as he lets that bit of information sink in to Smith's and the audience's head.
"And then in a matter of two months, after rebuilding the foundation of my career with hard work, grit, and a lot of physical training they rebuilt me to be so much more than the Nick Watson that you fought at Christmas.
They converted me from being a scared little boy who couldn't deal with the pressure of this business into a man who is not afraid to take the big leap of faith when the match comes down to the last few seconds and the fans are egging me on to perform a death defying leap into the land of the unknown.
A.C. Smith, you were right, the old me couldn't even hold a candle to the hurricane that you are, but the new and improved Nick Watson doesn't care how many months you've been champion.
He doesn't care how many legends you have defeated.
He doesn't care if you think if he can "hang with you one on one" and he sure as hell doesn't care if you think he has ring rust or not.
No, the new Nick Watson only cares about one thing, and one thing only...and on Thursday night I'm going to do that one thing without remorse and with no regret. This Thursday night I'm walking into North Charleston Arena and stepping into the ring with one of the strongest and longest reigning APW Xtreme champions of all time. And in front of a capacity crowd I am going to do two things...
I am going to prove your assessment of me wrong. Prove to you that I can "hang with you" and climb your proverbial "Everest" without fear and without even a single drop of doubt in my whole body.
And then without a single second of thought or deeper reasoning...I'm going to do something that you can't do. Something so Sensational that the crowd itself will stand at attention and chant my name in immaculate chorus. And as you lay on the mat, looking up to the skies above, you will see me...doing what I do best:
Lighting up the sky."
(3,770 Words)
