Post by C.J. Gates on May 19, 2012 11:13:32 GMT -4
"This is the moment the fans have been waiting for.
"This is the moment that fellow wrestlers have been waiting for.
"This is the moment that I have been waiting for.
"Ever since Shockwave, people were salivating over the possibility of Kurt Noble and C.J. Gates going one on one for the Undisputed title. The moment when two wrestling titans would clash inside of the ring with everything on the line.
"The only difference is no one thought it would come about the way that it did. Everyone figured it would be the sort of match that starts and ends with a handshake. The sort of match that would be talked about for years for all the right reasons.
"But it seems to have gone the other way, hasn't it?
"Now it's a battle between two men who can't stand one another. Two men who are looking to do the same thing at the others expense - prove themselves. At this point, I don't doubt that you would go to any lengths to do so. I don't doubt that you would do whatever it takes to keep that title.
"But I won't say the same. I can't say the same, because that's not how I roll. That's not what I do when I am inside of that ring. I play by the rules. I treat every match the same. You might feel hurt because of what happened in the month before Mayhem, but I can say the exact same thing.
"You treated me like a fool.
"You took advantage of my generous nature.
"You've proved that 'The Noble One' is simply a moniker, nothing more, and at Mayhem I aim to bring all of that to light.
"I aim to show that Kurt Noble is nothing more than a villain disguised as a hero."
"You're not really going in there again, are you?"
The scene opens up with former APW Undisputed champion C.J. Gates standing at the end of the walkway leading up to his mothers house. The voice brings Gates out of a stupor and he glances around looking for the source. After a few moments of searching, Gates spots a garden gnome walking out of the bushes nearest the sidewalk. The gnome walks toward Gates, puffing on a cigar, a pick axe slung over his shoulder. He reaches Gates and stops, looks up at him, and then turns to face the house as well.
"I figured you wouldn't have come back after the last time," the gnome says as he taps off some ash from the end of the cigarette.
"I just need to talk to her, that's all," C.J. Gates says, reassuringly, making no effort to move closer to the home.
"Oh, I can see how that's working out for you," the gnome says with a laugh. "Maybe you learned from the last time. Maybe then you realized how pointless this whole process is."
C.J. glances down at the gnome. "What are you talking about?"
"Come on, now," the gnome says, looking up at Gates. "She's a loon. Bat shit crazy. Your mother is off her rocker with no plans on getting back on it. I highly doubt you can disagree with that, right?"
"I'd like to be able to disagree with it," C.J. says with a shake of his head. "But with the way she's been acting lately, with all of the shrink visits and the accusations, it's hard to argue against it. She never showed any signs of it before and then toward the end of March she started pointing fun at me."
"And she cost you your match at Rasslemania," the gnome reminds Gates, which causes C.J. to look at the gnome in shock.
"You know about that? About Rasslemania?"
"Of course I do," the gnome begins following a chuckle. "You don't think I just stand in the garden under the tree do you? I watch. When your mother has Overdrive on television, I watch. So I know that she didn't exactly help your case going into what was probably one of the biggest matches of your entire career. If you ask me, none of that was cool. Not in the slightest."
"For a gnome, you're quite knowledgeable." C.J. smirks as he contemplates taking a step forward but instead, remains on the same spot.
"You think she's watching you?"
"Don't you mean us?"
"Please," the gnome says. "I've been standing in her garden for the past twelve years and she has never so much as looked my way. If she's looking out that window right now, she's looking right at you and wondering why you're not going up to the door." Gates chuckles. "You aren't scared, are you?" the gnome asks with a laugh of his own.
"No," Gates answers. "I'm just...waiting."
"No matter how long you wait, she's still going to be a bitch." The gnome flicks more ash off of his cigar and then walks over to a nearby garbage can. He rests the pick axe against the can and then climbs up onto the top so that he's closer to Gates' head. "If you ask me, C.J., I'd just turn around, get in your car and leave her behind. Cut her out from your life. She's only hurting you and she's not going to help you get that title back."
C.J. sighs. "It's not about the title."
"You keep telling yourself that," the gnome says as he pats Gates on the arm. "You can keep denying it, but I think those of us who know you the best will have other things to say about it."
"Those of us?" C.J. starts before taking a step away from the gnome. "You don't even know who I am."
"I know enough about you to know what's going on up in your noggin."
"You've only seen me on television," Gates reminds the gnome, while keeping an eye on the front door.
"And I guess that means I don't know you," the gnome says with a scoff. "Whatever. Listen, you can keep denying who knows you and how much, but what you can't deny is that the woman inside of that house is pure evil when it comes to you and your aspirations in getting that title--"
"It's not about the title!" Gates shouts.
"Fine, fine, forget the title," the gnome concedes. "But she's still not a healthy addition to your life if you want to get your career back on track. After all, she wasn't really in your life last year when you were dominating everything and everyone, but when you finally went back to see her, to talk to her..." The gnome trails off and raises both palms up to the sky. "I'm just saying."
"I know," C.J. says with a sigh and a shrug of the shoulders. "But she's my mom. She's my family. She raised me from a boy and she should know what's going on."
"She knows," the gnome says. "She just doesn't care too much about you and what you've got going on. She's more worried about having you committed then how you're doing inside of the wrestling ring. A mothers love and all that jazz, right?" The gnome laughs. "I'm just glad I left home when I did and never looked back. Who knows, I could have been stuck jousting with raccoons down by the ravine."
Gates ignores the gnome and continues to stare at the door. "But don't worry about my problems, I'm just a lowly gnome keeping the sunflowers standing tall." He runs a hand through his long beard and in the silence that falls between C.J. and the gnome, a child rides by on a bicycle. Both C.J. and the gnome watch him ride off.
"You think his mother is worried about him?" the gnome asks, pointing at the disappearing child with his thumb. "Do you think she's got him on a tracking beacon or something, trying to track and control his every move?"
"Probably not," C.J. answers after a few moments silence.
"And he's no more then ten. And how old are you?" The gnome lets the question hang in the air as C.J. nods his head quietly. "Exactly. The kid is at least half your age and has the freedom that your mother won't let you."
"I have freedom, though," C.J. interjects. "I'm a professional wrestler, I have all the freedom in the world. I travel, I wrestle, I do everything that some people might dream of doing with their lives."
"Yet your mom still stands over top of you like the puppet master," the gnome says with a mocking shake of his head. "And by coming back to her house you are submitting to her once more, showing her that she is still the one pulling the strings."
"I am not a puppet."
"No?" the gnome asks with a smile. "Prove it. Turn around and leave her behind you."
"But..."
"But she's your mother, yeah, yeah we get it," the gnome says. "You're going to have to leave that behind you too at some point, you realize that, right? She's not going to be around forever, so why not cut the cord now and just be your own man."
"I could," C.J. says. "Part of me is against it though. Part of me wants to reconcile and put this entire thing behind us. After all, she's probably just doing all of this because I didn't visit her enough before this year."
"Don't let her suck you in, boy," the gnome says. "You've got to keep yourself strong, head up, power on. Focus more on Mayhem then on this petty squabble." C.J. nods as he and the gnome stand in more silence. The gnome relights his cigar and takes a few puffs, blowing perfect smoke rings as he does. The gnome glances up at C.J., smirks, and then takes another puff. "So, you liking your chances?"
"Chances of what? Going to the front door?"
"Funny," the gnome says with a chuckle. "I meant your chances against the crippled piece of wasted meat. You think you've got what it takes to beat him? After all, that is what he's here for, right? To be your whipping boy?"
"To prove myself, yes," C.J. begins. "Just like he wants to prove himself to be the best by beating me, I want to prove myself as anything other than a fluke. But you want to know if I stand a chance against Kurt Noble?"
"I didn't stutter, did I?"
"I think I stand a good chance," C.J. continues. "I stand a pretty good chance. There's a lot riding against me, sure. Noble has been one of the best people in this business lately, he's taken a stranglehold on the APW and is also fighting abroad as one of the best out there. But to everyone writing me off, they need to understand that I also have what it takes to do just what Noble is doing. I am just as capable of taking the bull by the horns and roaring into battle." C.J. sighs and jams his hands into the pockets of his jeans. "I just..I see it all coming down the pipe and I wonder what's going to come out on the other end."
"Sex joke? Or toilet humor?"
"It's funny," C.J. continues, as if the gnome had never spoken. "Everyone keeps telling me to be worried about what is going to happen at Mayhem, but my mind is focusing on what's going to happen after it. Whether Kurt and I are going to be able to salvage our friendship or if we're doomed to be on opposite sides forever, even though we're fighting the same battles."
"Maybe that's your problem," the gnome says before taking a puff of his cigar. "Maybe you're too worried about the aftermath. That's possible right?" C.J. gives the gnome a quizzical look with brings out a laugh from the gnome. "Okay, fair enough, but still, I think it's beneficial not to worry about after the fact. Worry about what's going to happen in the ring and what levels Kurt will stoop to to get the job done. From my view through the window, I could see...something in his eyes."
"You did?"
"Yeah," the gnome responds. "I can't put my finger on what it is, but I saw something. Something unsettling. Something seems off about him and I think you should be careful."
C.J. sighs as he raises his hands up and rubs his eyes with his palms. "Everyone has been saying that to me. Everyone is telling me to be careful because Noble really wants to keep his title. No matter where I turn, there's someone wagging their finger at me so that I listen."
"Maybe with that many people saying it, there's a good chance that it's true." C.J. shakes his head in silent response, which causes the gnome to chuckle. "Yeah, I figured you'd say that. You're just so blinded about wanting to keep your friendship alive, that you're not willing to see past that to the man that Kurt Noble has become. He's not the same Kurt Noble that was around at Shockwave, who wanted to eliminate the tyranny of APW as much as you did."
"No one is the same as they were then..."
"So you can admit that, but you can't admit that Noble is dangerous?" the gnome says, shaking his head. "That doesn't seem to add up to me. Let me put it to you this way. When Kurt Noble first came around, he was regular, every day Kurt Noble. But since the calender switched over to 2012, he's been pushing Nobledrive down everyone's throats."
"It's catchy."
"It's egotistical."
"He would never."
"How do you know that?" the gnome asks. "How do you know that Noble didn't just see you as easy prey, knowing that if he strung you along as his patsy while you were champion, taking the title from you would be an easy task. After all, he helped you win the title..."
"I won that title on my own," C.J. nearly shouts. The gnome rolls his eyes.
"After he helped you win the title, he's been kind of hanging back, watching out for you, until the lead up to Rasslemania when he got a shot at the belt he truly wanted. He didn't care about the Overdrive strap. He didn't care about fighting Johnny Rebel. Why else do you think they didn't have that tie breaking match? Because Noble didn't care. He figured they could split one-one if it meant that he could get a shot at the Undisputed title. His master plan came full circle and now, he's sitting pretty at the top after having done the exact same thing that woman in there has been doing since the beginning of the year.
"Kurt Noble played you like a God damn puppet."
C.J. Gates shakes his head silently, his mouth hanging open slightly. The gnome takes another puff and nods his head with a smile on his face. "No, he could never...He would never...No, I..." C.J. stammers. "No."
"It all adds up," the gnome continues, taking one last puff of his cigar before flicking it away. "If you look at it from the position of everyone except you, Kurt Noble has been playing you like a fiddle. Hell, I bet even you've seen it, but you just don't want to admit it. So here is what I propose. Turn around and walk away from this house. Leave your mother behind you, flip her off, I don't care. But turn around and don't come back. Take all that resentment and anger you feel toward that bitch, and unleash it on Kurt Noble. They've both been playing you, so it's just a matter of doing to him what you would want to do to her."
"But what if it doesn't work?" C.J. says. "What if I do all of that and I still come out on the wrong side of things. Then I would have thrown my relationship with my mother down the drain just to try and prove myself to Kurt Noble. Is that something I want to do?"
"I don't know, is it?" the gnome asks. "What kind of relationship did you and your mother have?"
"We didn't," C.J. says before trailing off.
"Precisely."
"It's just, it's all hard to fathom," C.J. begins. "It's hard to believe that Kurt Noble had this plan since day one, that he had this idea to screw me over because I was an easy patsy. I don't buy it."
"You don't, or you don't want to?"
"I don't...want to. I want to believe that Kurt Noble is the man that he has said he is. I want to believe that Kurt Noble is the man that everyone can count on and that everyone can trust. I want to believe in Kurt Noble again. I want to believe that at the end of all of this, Kurt and I can continue to work side by side with each other and help stop the efforts of the Sindicate or Terry Marvin or Michael Callahan. I want to believe-"
"You want to believe in a happy ending," the gnome interrupts. "You want to believe in a good fortune and fairy tale happenstance. Well let me fill you in on a little secret, bud, none of that exists. There is no happy ending in all of this. This is no fairy tale. No matter how you look at it, this stuff, it's all real. It's all reality. How many people have warned you about Kurt this week?"
"Four."
"And you're saying that all four of these people are wrong?"
"No, it's not that it's just-"
"You want to believe in the good of man, I know." The gnome shakes his head. "And I'm telling you that none of that is really possible. It's all unattainable. Right now, you need to be worried about yourself and what you're going to do."
"So basically..."
"Basically? Fuck Kurt Noble. Turn around, leave this place and get ready for the real problem. Fuck Kurt-"
"C.J.?"
The voice of C.J.'s mother can be heard from the door of the house. Gates glances down at the trashcan beside him, but the gnome is gone. C.J. looks back up at his mother, who stands with her arms folded over her chest, looking out at her son. C.J. takes a step forward, pauses, and then turns around and walks back toward the car he arrived in. He climbs into the car and drives away as his mother looks on and the scene fades to black.
"Fool.
"That's how I feel right about now. After hearing what everyone has said and letting it stew, thinking it over, the only logical conclusion is for me to feel like a fool. After all, wasn't that your masterful endgame, Kurt? Wasn't that the whole idea of this little play, so that you could prove to everyone how naive and unconvincing I am as anything but a patsy. A puppet. I should have listened.
"It's not like everything was silent for the past year. People told me to be wary of you because of the way everything played out, but I didn't listen. I saw you as a friend and I decided to keep seeing you as a friend because I needed someone that would be willing to watch my back against people like Biggs and Rebel and Marvin. I needed an ally because everyone else in APW was too busy looking out for number one to even care that the entire federation was being infested by villains and evil doers. No one cared.
"No one except me. And, as I once thought, you. However the latter proved to be nothing more than something I made up inside of my head, since at the first opportunity, you decided to drive a wedge between us, to cast me off and laugh as I began my downward spiral. Sure, you can sit there and claim that everything that you did, you did out of the goodness of your heart but in all reality Kurt, I don't think there is any goodness left in your heart. I'm pretty sure that the Nobleness that made you such a stand out has oozed it's way through the death grip you've got on that Undisputed title.
"And even though everyone told me to be careful then, it hasn't stopped them from warning me about you now, Kurt.
"Everyone I run into has been telling me how you can't be trusted to wrestle a good match this week at Mayhem. They tell me how you will stop at nothing to win the title, to stop from becoming just another flash in the pan champion. Not only that, but they constantly tell me how you've been using my as a patsy, reminding me of all the words they said back when it was actually happening, words I was too foolish not to listen to, because I was trying to do what was best for APW, for the fans, and for myself.
"Those tag matches we won together? I wanted to win them so that the fans had a good match to remember, and everyone tells me that you only pitched in to help your own skin. All of the kind words you said to me, I thought you were actually being friendly, that you were actually my ally, but everyone else likes to remind me that you were only doing that to keep me in your good graces, to make sure that I didn't step out of line and see you for the tyrant that you blatantly turned into. And every time someone stops and tells me about it all, I just want to scream. I want to throw things at them because I'm sick and tired of hearing it all the time.
"I'm sick and tired of hearing the truth.
"I could be wrong, Kurt, but all the signs point to you being anything but the Noble One. All the signs point to you being the puppet master that has been pulling my strings since Shockwave. Even back when you were complaining about being under my shadow, even when you were tired of playing second fiddle to me, you were just playing the role of the wounded puppy, looking for a home, trying to find anyone that would reach out to him for help, while I was doing all the work to shoulder the load. You wanted me to pity you while you just let me do everything.
"And I guess it worked. I guess your entire plan worked out well for you considering how I ended up being in the position I currently am. Consider how you walked out of Rasslemania with the Undisputed title and I didn't, I would say that whatever crazy plan you cooked up to win that belt worked out in your favor. And quite honestly, Kurt, that's the sort of play that I can't tolerate. That's the sort of person I can't fathom. The fact that I, at one point, envisioned an Undisputed title match against you that was built entirely off of common respect just shows how naive I was, right? The fact that I let you tag along with me, thinking you were being overshadowed in APW, that just shows how blind I was to the entire ordeal.
"But it all ends at Mayhem.
"As I've said, none of this is about the Undisputed title to me. None of it is about anything more than proving to you, to the fans, to APW and to my family that I am not naive, that I am not a worthless lump, and that I am definitely not playing the role of a fool in this Shakespearean play. And all of that is going to come at your expense, Kurt. All of that is going to happen because I am going to make sure that once the bell rings to end the match, you realize that you were wrong about me. That while you used me to ride your way to the top, you did not do so because of my weaknesses.
"You just took advantage of an all encompassing situation and weaseled your way into it.
"You saw an opening and you decided to play the chance card.
"You saw someone that you could trick into being your friend and you decided to preemptively burn that bridge down.
"And I just can't get over it. I just can't shake all of these thoughts and ideas that have been put into my head. It would be one thing if I was told them and they didn't add up, and they didn't make sense, but they do. That might be the worst part, Kurt, that even if I wanted to give you an out and even if I wanted to call everyone else a lunatic for trying to drive the wedge farther between us, I can't because it's all true.
"Every lie you have told me, every act you have played, every time you tried to make me seem like something more than I was, I know about all of them. I know that you have done whatever you could to try and get on my good side. And the only thing I can do is wonder why. Why a man with your talent has resorted to such tactics to get the job done. Why a man like yourself has suddenly broken and gone over the deep end. Was it the Undisputed title? Was it winning the top belt in the company and realizing that you were a big fish around here?
"Because that is something that I already knew, even before you won at Rasslemania. The moment you walked into APW, I knew that you were going to make waves, Kurt. I knew that it was only a matter of time before one of the greatest wrestlers to grace a ring stamped that home by winning the Undisputed title. And you did just that, but after doing so, and everything that followed that, we find ourselves at a bit of a crossroads.
"Throughout this entire ordeal, you continued to hammer home the point that I was one of the greatest wrestlers in APW. That I was one of the top in this entire business, something that I don't necessarily see. But you keep saying that to solidify your spot as the Undisputed champion, you have to be able to beat me, one on one, inside of that ring.
"But isn't that what you did?
"Isn't that what happened at Rasslemania when it was just you and I left standing in that rind? Johnny Rebel and Blade had already been thrown to the wolves at ringside, and you were staring me down. If you asked me back when you challenged me to this match, then I would say that you had already established yourself as one of the best. If you asked me back when we were still talking, I'd say that you are already one of APW's brightest stars. After all, at that point, I was just glad that you were willing to give me a shot at redemption. I am just glad that, in your eyes, I had earned my rematch at the title.
"But now? After all that has happened, especially after Survive and Conquer, I now see that you aren't exactly a better specimen then Johnny Rebel or Biggs. I see that you have that same inane ability to screw people over, and do whatever it takes to ensure that Kurt Noble is number one in your eyes. I see that you are now turning into the sort of person that I have been fighting against, the sort of person that I have been standing up against since Blade turned his back on me after last years Rasslemania. You are the sort of person that I have been trying to expose since I came into APW nearly two years ago.
"That is the sort of person I see you as now, Kurt. I'd like to be able to see you in a better light, but you've made that somewhat impossible. You've made it hard to look past all of the shit you've pulled, all of the wool you've pulled down over my eyes, all of the lies you spread to me to keep me going on your little train of deceit, just long enough so that you could get what you've been hunting for since you blasted Biggs in the head at Shockwave.
"I should have listened to everyone, Kurt.
"I should have understood that they were trying to warn me. Trying to protect me.
"But instead, I let everything play out as you expected it would. I went from being a friend of yours to just being the fool you've been hoping for. This entire time I've been played for a fool, and you know what, Kurt?
"I'm sick and tired of the games. I'm sick and tired of being tricked and fooled.
"And I am going to put an end to it at Mayhem.
"Everything that you have done has led to this moment. I know that there is no way we can salvage this friendship you and I had, Kurt. I know that after Mayhem, the entire landscape changes for the worse between us. But this needs to be settled. Everything you have done since Shockwave, I guess you could say it needs to be atoned for.
"Everything has consequences, Kurt, and I guess for you, your consequence is everything that happens at Mayhem.
"I used to believe in Kurt Noble, but now I only believe in the North Dakota Cowboy.
"Kurt, it's time to go big or go home."
"This is the moment that fellow wrestlers have been waiting for.
"This is the moment that I have been waiting for.
"Ever since Shockwave, people were salivating over the possibility of Kurt Noble and C.J. Gates going one on one for the Undisputed title. The moment when two wrestling titans would clash inside of the ring with everything on the line.
"The only difference is no one thought it would come about the way that it did. Everyone figured it would be the sort of match that starts and ends with a handshake. The sort of match that would be talked about for years for all the right reasons.
"But it seems to have gone the other way, hasn't it?
"Now it's a battle between two men who can't stand one another. Two men who are looking to do the same thing at the others expense - prove themselves. At this point, I don't doubt that you would go to any lengths to do so. I don't doubt that you would do whatever it takes to keep that title.
"But I won't say the same. I can't say the same, because that's not how I roll. That's not what I do when I am inside of that ring. I play by the rules. I treat every match the same. You might feel hurt because of what happened in the month before Mayhem, but I can say the exact same thing.
"You treated me like a fool.
"You took advantage of my generous nature.
"You've proved that 'The Noble One' is simply a moniker, nothing more, and at Mayhem I aim to bring all of that to light.
"I aim to show that Kurt Noble is nothing more than a villain disguised as a hero."
-----------------------------------------------------
"You're not really going in there again, are you?"
The scene opens up with former APW Undisputed champion C.J. Gates standing at the end of the walkway leading up to his mothers house. The voice brings Gates out of a stupor and he glances around looking for the source. After a few moments of searching, Gates spots a garden gnome walking out of the bushes nearest the sidewalk. The gnome walks toward Gates, puffing on a cigar, a pick axe slung over his shoulder. He reaches Gates and stops, looks up at him, and then turns to face the house as well.
"I figured you wouldn't have come back after the last time," the gnome says as he taps off some ash from the end of the cigarette.
"I just need to talk to her, that's all," C.J. Gates says, reassuringly, making no effort to move closer to the home.
"Oh, I can see how that's working out for you," the gnome says with a laugh. "Maybe you learned from the last time. Maybe then you realized how pointless this whole process is."
C.J. glances down at the gnome. "What are you talking about?"
"Come on, now," the gnome says, looking up at Gates. "She's a loon. Bat shit crazy. Your mother is off her rocker with no plans on getting back on it. I highly doubt you can disagree with that, right?"
"I'd like to be able to disagree with it," C.J. says with a shake of his head. "But with the way she's been acting lately, with all of the shrink visits and the accusations, it's hard to argue against it. She never showed any signs of it before and then toward the end of March she started pointing fun at me."
"And she cost you your match at Rasslemania," the gnome reminds Gates, which causes C.J. to look at the gnome in shock.
"You know about that? About Rasslemania?"
"Of course I do," the gnome begins following a chuckle. "You don't think I just stand in the garden under the tree do you? I watch. When your mother has Overdrive on television, I watch. So I know that she didn't exactly help your case going into what was probably one of the biggest matches of your entire career. If you ask me, none of that was cool. Not in the slightest."
"For a gnome, you're quite knowledgeable." C.J. smirks as he contemplates taking a step forward but instead, remains on the same spot.
"You think she's watching you?"
"Don't you mean us?"
"Please," the gnome says. "I've been standing in her garden for the past twelve years and she has never so much as looked my way. If she's looking out that window right now, she's looking right at you and wondering why you're not going up to the door." Gates chuckles. "You aren't scared, are you?" the gnome asks with a laugh of his own.
"No," Gates answers. "I'm just...waiting."
"No matter how long you wait, she's still going to be a bitch." The gnome flicks more ash off of his cigar and then walks over to a nearby garbage can. He rests the pick axe against the can and then climbs up onto the top so that he's closer to Gates' head. "If you ask me, C.J., I'd just turn around, get in your car and leave her behind. Cut her out from your life. She's only hurting you and she's not going to help you get that title back."
C.J. sighs. "It's not about the title."
"You keep telling yourself that," the gnome says as he pats Gates on the arm. "You can keep denying it, but I think those of us who know you the best will have other things to say about it."
"Those of us?" C.J. starts before taking a step away from the gnome. "You don't even know who I am."
"I know enough about you to know what's going on up in your noggin."
"You've only seen me on television," Gates reminds the gnome, while keeping an eye on the front door.
"And I guess that means I don't know you," the gnome says with a scoff. "Whatever. Listen, you can keep denying who knows you and how much, but what you can't deny is that the woman inside of that house is pure evil when it comes to you and your aspirations in getting that title--"
"It's not about the title!" Gates shouts.
"Fine, fine, forget the title," the gnome concedes. "But she's still not a healthy addition to your life if you want to get your career back on track. After all, she wasn't really in your life last year when you were dominating everything and everyone, but when you finally went back to see her, to talk to her..." The gnome trails off and raises both palms up to the sky. "I'm just saying."
"I know," C.J. says with a sigh and a shrug of the shoulders. "But she's my mom. She's my family. She raised me from a boy and she should know what's going on."
"She knows," the gnome says. "She just doesn't care too much about you and what you've got going on. She's more worried about having you committed then how you're doing inside of the wrestling ring. A mothers love and all that jazz, right?" The gnome laughs. "I'm just glad I left home when I did and never looked back. Who knows, I could have been stuck jousting with raccoons down by the ravine."
Gates ignores the gnome and continues to stare at the door. "But don't worry about my problems, I'm just a lowly gnome keeping the sunflowers standing tall." He runs a hand through his long beard and in the silence that falls between C.J. and the gnome, a child rides by on a bicycle. Both C.J. and the gnome watch him ride off.
"You think his mother is worried about him?" the gnome asks, pointing at the disappearing child with his thumb. "Do you think she's got him on a tracking beacon or something, trying to track and control his every move?"
"Probably not," C.J. answers after a few moments silence.
"And he's no more then ten. And how old are you?" The gnome lets the question hang in the air as C.J. nods his head quietly. "Exactly. The kid is at least half your age and has the freedom that your mother won't let you."
"I have freedom, though," C.J. interjects. "I'm a professional wrestler, I have all the freedom in the world. I travel, I wrestle, I do everything that some people might dream of doing with their lives."
"Yet your mom still stands over top of you like the puppet master," the gnome says with a mocking shake of his head. "And by coming back to her house you are submitting to her once more, showing her that she is still the one pulling the strings."
"I am not a puppet."
"No?" the gnome asks with a smile. "Prove it. Turn around and leave her behind you."
"But..."
"But she's your mother, yeah, yeah we get it," the gnome says. "You're going to have to leave that behind you too at some point, you realize that, right? She's not going to be around forever, so why not cut the cord now and just be your own man."
"I could," C.J. says. "Part of me is against it though. Part of me wants to reconcile and put this entire thing behind us. After all, she's probably just doing all of this because I didn't visit her enough before this year."
"Don't let her suck you in, boy," the gnome says. "You've got to keep yourself strong, head up, power on. Focus more on Mayhem then on this petty squabble." C.J. nods as he and the gnome stand in more silence. The gnome relights his cigar and takes a few puffs, blowing perfect smoke rings as he does. The gnome glances up at C.J., smirks, and then takes another puff. "So, you liking your chances?"
"Chances of what? Going to the front door?"
"Funny," the gnome says with a chuckle. "I meant your chances against the crippled piece of wasted meat. You think you've got what it takes to beat him? After all, that is what he's here for, right? To be your whipping boy?"
"To prove myself, yes," C.J. begins. "Just like he wants to prove himself to be the best by beating me, I want to prove myself as anything other than a fluke. But you want to know if I stand a chance against Kurt Noble?"
"I didn't stutter, did I?"
"I think I stand a good chance," C.J. continues. "I stand a pretty good chance. There's a lot riding against me, sure. Noble has been one of the best people in this business lately, he's taken a stranglehold on the APW and is also fighting abroad as one of the best out there. But to everyone writing me off, they need to understand that I also have what it takes to do just what Noble is doing. I am just as capable of taking the bull by the horns and roaring into battle." C.J. sighs and jams his hands into the pockets of his jeans. "I just..I see it all coming down the pipe and I wonder what's going to come out on the other end."
"Sex joke? Or toilet humor?"
"It's funny," C.J. continues, as if the gnome had never spoken. "Everyone keeps telling me to be worried about what is going to happen at Mayhem, but my mind is focusing on what's going to happen after it. Whether Kurt and I are going to be able to salvage our friendship or if we're doomed to be on opposite sides forever, even though we're fighting the same battles."
"Maybe that's your problem," the gnome says before taking a puff of his cigar. "Maybe you're too worried about the aftermath. That's possible right?" C.J. gives the gnome a quizzical look with brings out a laugh from the gnome. "Okay, fair enough, but still, I think it's beneficial not to worry about after the fact. Worry about what's going to happen in the ring and what levels Kurt will stoop to to get the job done. From my view through the window, I could see...something in his eyes."
"You did?"
"Yeah," the gnome responds. "I can't put my finger on what it is, but I saw something. Something unsettling. Something seems off about him and I think you should be careful."
C.J. sighs as he raises his hands up and rubs his eyes with his palms. "Everyone has been saying that to me. Everyone is telling me to be careful because Noble really wants to keep his title. No matter where I turn, there's someone wagging their finger at me so that I listen."
"Maybe with that many people saying it, there's a good chance that it's true." C.J. shakes his head in silent response, which causes the gnome to chuckle. "Yeah, I figured you'd say that. You're just so blinded about wanting to keep your friendship alive, that you're not willing to see past that to the man that Kurt Noble has become. He's not the same Kurt Noble that was around at Shockwave, who wanted to eliminate the tyranny of APW as much as you did."
"No one is the same as they were then..."
"So you can admit that, but you can't admit that Noble is dangerous?" the gnome says, shaking his head. "That doesn't seem to add up to me. Let me put it to you this way. When Kurt Noble first came around, he was regular, every day Kurt Noble. But since the calender switched over to 2012, he's been pushing Nobledrive down everyone's throats."
"It's catchy."
"It's egotistical."
"He would never."
"How do you know that?" the gnome asks. "How do you know that Noble didn't just see you as easy prey, knowing that if he strung you along as his patsy while you were champion, taking the title from you would be an easy task. After all, he helped you win the title..."
"I won that title on my own," C.J. nearly shouts. The gnome rolls his eyes.
"After he helped you win the title, he's been kind of hanging back, watching out for you, until the lead up to Rasslemania when he got a shot at the belt he truly wanted. He didn't care about the Overdrive strap. He didn't care about fighting Johnny Rebel. Why else do you think they didn't have that tie breaking match? Because Noble didn't care. He figured they could split one-one if it meant that he could get a shot at the Undisputed title. His master plan came full circle and now, he's sitting pretty at the top after having done the exact same thing that woman in there has been doing since the beginning of the year.
"Kurt Noble played you like a God damn puppet."
C.J. Gates shakes his head silently, his mouth hanging open slightly. The gnome takes another puff and nods his head with a smile on his face. "No, he could never...He would never...No, I..." C.J. stammers. "No."
"It all adds up," the gnome continues, taking one last puff of his cigar before flicking it away. "If you look at it from the position of everyone except you, Kurt Noble has been playing you like a fiddle. Hell, I bet even you've seen it, but you just don't want to admit it. So here is what I propose. Turn around and walk away from this house. Leave your mother behind you, flip her off, I don't care. But turn around and don't come back. Take all that resentment and anger you feel toward that bitch, and unleash it on Kurt Noble. They've both been playing you, so it's just a matter of doing to him what you would want to do to her."
"But what if it doesn't work?" C.J. says. "What if I do all of that and I still come out on the wrong side of things. Then I would have thrown my relationship with my mother down the drain just to try and prove myself to Kurt Noble. Is that something I want to do?"
"I don't know, is it?" the gnome asks. "What kind of relationship did you and your mother have?"
"We didn't," C.J. says before trailing off.
"Precisely."
"It's just, it's all hard to fathom," C.J. begins. "It's hard to believe that Kurt Noble had this plan since day one, that he had this idea to screw me over because I was an easy patsy. I don't buy it."
"You don't, or you don't want to?"
"I don't...want to. I want to believe that Kurt Noble is the man that he has said he is. I want to believe that Kurt Noble is the man that everyone can count on and that everyone can trust. I want to believe in Kurt Noble again. I want to believe that at the end of all of this, Kurt and I can continue to work side by side with each other and help stop the efforts of the Sindicate or Terry Marvin or Michael Callahan. I want to believe-"
"You want to believe in a happy ending," the gnome interrupts. "You want to believe in a good fortune and fairy tale happenstance. Well let me fill you in on a little secret, bud, none of that exists. There is no happy ending in all of this. This is no fairy tale. No matter how you look at it, this stuff, it's all real. It's all reality. How many people have warned you about Kurt this week?"
"Four."
"And you're saying that all four of these people are wrong?"
"No, it's not that it's just-"
"You want to believe in the good of man, I know." The gnome shakes his head. "And I'm telling you that none of that is really possible. It's all unattainable. Right now, you need to be worried about yourself and what you're going to do."
"So basically..."
"Basically? Fuck Kurt Noble. Turn around, leave this place and get ready for the real problem. Fuck Kurt-"
"C.J.?"
The voice of C.J.'s mother can be heard from the door of the house. Gates glances down at the trashcan beside him, but the gnome is gone. C.J. looks back up at his mother, who stands with her arms folded over her chest, looking out at her son. C.J. takes a step forward, pauses, and then turns around and walks back toward the car he arrived in. He climbs into the car and drives away as his mother looks on and the scene fades to black.
-----------------------------------------------------
"Fool.
"That's how I feel right about now. After hearing what everyone has said and letting it stew, thinking it over, the only logical conclusion is for me to feel like a fool. After all, wasn't that your masterful endgame, Kurt? Wasn't that the whole idea of this little play, so that you could prove to everyone how naive and unconvincing I am as anything but a patsy. A puppet. I should have listened.
"It's not like everything was silent for the past year. People told me to be wary of you because of the way everything played out, but I didn't listen. I saw you as a friend and I decided to keep seeing you as a friend because I needed someone that would be willing to watch my back against people like Biggs and Rebel and Marvin. I needed an ally because everyone else in APW was too busy looking out for number one to even care that the entire federation was being infested by villains and evil doers. No one cared.
"No one except me. And, as I once thought, you. However the latter proved to be nothing more than something I made up inside of my head, since at the first opportunity, you decided to drive a wedge between us, to cast me off and laugh as I began my downward spiral. Sure, you can sit there and claim that everything that you did, you did out of the goodness of your heart but in all reality Kurt, I don't think there is any goodness left in your heart. I'm pretty sure that the Nobleness that made you such a stand out has oozed it's way through the death grip you've got on that Undisputed title.
"And even though everyone told me to be careful then, it hasn't stopped them from warning me about you now, Kurt.
"Everyone I run into has been telling me how you can't be trusted to wrestle a good match this week at Mayhem. They tell me how you will stop at nothing to win the title, to stop from becoming just another flash in the pan champion. Not only that, but they constantly tell me how you've been using my as a patsy, reminding me of all the words they said back when it was actually happening, words I was too foolish not to listen to, because I was trying to do what was best for APW, for the fans, and for myself.
"Those tag matches we won together? I wanted to win them so that the fans had a good match to remember, and everyone tells me that you only pitched in to help your own skin. All of the kind words you said to me, I thought you were actually being friendly, that you were actually my ally, but everyone else likes to remind me that you were only doing that to keep me in your good graces, to make sure that I didn't step out of line and see you for the tyrant that you blatantly turned into. And every time someone stops and tells me about it all, I just want to scream. I want to throw things at them because I'm sick and tired of hearing it all the time.
"I'm sick and tired of hearing the truth.
"I could be wrong, Kurt, but all the signs point to you being anything but the Noble One. All the signs point to you being the puppet master that has been pulling my strings since Shockwave. Even back when you were complaining about being under my shadow, even when you were tired of playing second fiddle to me, you were just playing the role of the wounded puppy, looking for a home, trying to find anyone that would reach out to him for help, while I was doing all the work to shoulder the load. You wanted me to pity you while you just let me do everything.
"And I guess it worked. I guess your entire plan worked out well for you considering how I ended up being in the position I currently am. Consider how you walked out of Rasslemania with the Undisputed title and I didn't, I would say that whatever crazy plan you cooked up to win that belt worked out in your favor. And quite honestly, Kurt, that's the sort of play that I can't tolerate. That's the sort of person I can't fathom. The fact that I, at one point, envisioned an Undisputed title match against you that was built entirely off of common respect just shows how naive I was, right? The fact that I let you tag along with me, thinking you were being overshadowed in APW, that just shows how blind I was to the entire ordeal.
"But it all ends at Mayhem.
"As I've said, none of this is about the Undisputed title to me. None of it is about anything more than proving to you, to the fans, to APW and to my family that I am not naive, that I am not a worthless lump, and that I am definitely not playing the role of a fool in this Shakespearean play. And all of that is going to come at your expense, Kurt. All of that is going to happen because I am going to make sure that once the bell rings to end the match, you realize that you were wrong about me. That while you used me to ride your way to the top, you did not do so because of my weaknesses.
"You just took advantage of an all encompassing situation and weaseled your way into it.
"You saw an opening and you decided to play the chance card.
"You saw someone that you could trick into being your friend and you decided to preemptively burn that bridge down.
"And I just can't get over it. I just can't shake all of these thoughts and ideas that have been put into my head. It would be one thing if I was told them and they didn't add up, and they didn't make sense, but they do. That might be the worst part, Kurt, that even if I wanted to give you an out and even if I wanted to call everyone else a lunatic for trying to drive the wedge farther between us, I can't because it's all true.
"Every lie you have told me, every act you have played, every time you tried to make me seem like something more than I was, I know about all of them. I know that you have done whatever you could to try and get on my good side. And the only thing I can do is wonder why. Why a man with your talent has resorted to such tactics to get the job done. Why a man like yourself has suddenly broken and gone over the deep end. Was it the Undisputed title? Was it winning the top belt in the company and realizing that you were a big fish around here?
"Because that is something that I already knew, even before you won at Rasslemania. The moment you walked into APW, I knew that you were going to make waves, Kurt. I knew that it was only a matter of time before one of the greatest wrestlers to grace a ring stamped that home by winning the Undisputed title. And you did just that, but after doing so, and everything that followed that, we find ourselves at a bit of a crossroads.
"Throughout this entire ordeal, you continued to hammer home the point that I was one of the greatest wrestlers in APW. That I was one of the top in this entire business, something that I don't necessarily see. But you keep saying that to solidify your spot as the Undisputed champion, you have to be able to beat me, one on one, inside of that ring.
"But isn't that what you did?
"Isn't that what happened at Rasslemania when it was just you and I left standing in that rind? Johnny Rebel and Blade had already been thrown to the wolves at ringside, and you were staring me down. If you asked me back when you challenged me to this match, then I would say that you had already established yourself as one of the best. If you asked me back when we were still talking, I'd say that you are already one of APW's brightest stars. After all, at that point, I was just glad that you were willing to give me a shot at redemption. I am just glad that, in your eyes, I had earned my rematch at the title.
"But now? After all that has happened, especially after Survive and Conquer, I now see that you aren't exactly a better specimen then Johnny Rebel or Biggs. I see that you have that same inane ability to screw people over, and do whatever it takes to ensure that Kurt Noble is number one in your eyes. I see that you are now turning into the sort of person that I have been fighting against, the sort of person that I have been standing up against since Blade turned his back on me after last years Rasslemania. You are the sort of person that I have been trying to expose since I came into APW nearly two years ago.
"That is the sort of person I see you as now, Kurt. I'd like to be able to see you in a better light, but you've made that somewhat impossible. You've made it hard to look past all of the shit you've pulled, all of the wool you've pulled down over my eyes, all of the lies you spread to me to keep me going on your little train of deceit, just long enough so that you could get what you've been hunting for since you blasted Biggs in the head at Shockwave.
"I should have listened to everyone, Kurt.
"I should have understood that they were trying to warn me. Trying to protect me.
"But instead, I let everything play out as you expected it would. I went from being a friend of yours to just being the fool you've been hoping for. This entire time I've been played for a fool, and you know what, Kurt?
"I'm sick and tired of the games. I'm sick and tired of being tricked and fooled.
"And I am going to put an end to it at Mayhem.
"Everything that you have done has led to this moment. I know that there is no way we can salvage this friendship you and I had, Kurt. I know that after Mayhem, the entire landscape changes for the worse between us. But this needs to be settled. Everything you have done since Shockwave, I guess you could say it needs to be atoned for.
"Everything has consequences, Kurt, and I guess for you, your consequence is everything that happens at Mayhem.
"I used to believe in Kurt Noble, but now I only believe in the North Dakota Cowboy.
"Kurt, it's time to go big or go home."
