Vow of Silence #6: Breaking the Silence

[Smash INC]

Keaton Saint in
Vow of Silence #6: Breaking the Silence

Recapturing the Chaos

It all started when Johnny Rebel defended...

That's wrong, let me rephrase it.

It all began when Johnny Rebel took a dive and was willing to drop the Overdrive title to Blade without giving a moment of thought to the other two wrestlers in the ring. For me, the chaos of that moment lit a bulb in my head and I saw the chance to stop Rebel's plan before it had been fully enacted. Knowing what I know now about Terry Marvin's compulsive desire to prove himself as better, I could go back in time knowing that I wouldn't stop myself from breaking up that first pin. This chain of events is the right one, no matter the cost to my mind or my body.

It all started because of that one act, a champion willing to run away from the early signs of confrontation and a challenger willing to take advantage of that knowledge in order to cement himself in the annuls of APW history. Of all the possibilities, Terry Marvin winning that match was a better one than Rebel retaining or Blade sneaking out a win that he didn't deserve. Marvin didn't beat me that night, that has been the reason why this whole thing escalated into what we have now but the point remains. Terry Marvin did not pin me, that gave me enough belief and reason to feel justified in challenging him at Rasslemania.

It gave Marvin every reason he needed to turn into a person solely focused on maintaining any shred of glory he held. It gave him enough reason to turn a match with a definitive ending into something that marked the turning point for our competition. A stipulation like "I Quit" would lead most people to think that the victor would be someone who had brought about a defining win, Terry Marvin may be the only person in wrestling capable of making that stipulation end in controversy.

The history books will mark him down as someone who made me quit in front of a sold-out crowd and millions of fans watching on pay-per-view. The truth is in the match itself, the truth in that match keeps me going and it fuels me to this moment and this culmination of what has come. Terry Marvin stole what I felt was a chance to prove for certain who was the better wrestler in APW, he did it in a stipulation that I wanted to rebel against but knew was written in stone. Terry Marvin outplanned, outsmarted and outgunned me on the biggest night of wrestling in APW.

The knowledge of what happened that night brings us to this moment, it laid out the path for what was to come. Without a definitive end there was no way I could back down and no way I could walk away from what had occurred. Rasslemania went on and in the closing moments Kurt Noble proved himself to be a worthy challenger as he became the Undisputed champion, watching that happen proved to be another moment of enlightenment. It provided the basis for my vow of silence.

Soon that vow will end and the silence on my part will be broken, but that is for when the bell rings and the stage is set once more.

I watched Noble with that title and the knowledge came rushing to me, here was a man I had beaten and a man who had gone on to become the pinnacle of APW. He dethroned a champion who I had beaten in the Experts just before the frozen hell of Siberia began to dawn. The pieces were there and there would always be enough evidence to challenge them again, but that was Kurt Noble and CJ Gates. They may have been fighting for the most coveted prize in APW but for me it was just more evidence that I needed to pursue what I could with Terry Marvin even further.

The truth is, I needed to chase after Terry Marvin because I hadn't beaten him in any way. I enter Survive & Conquer in 2011 and last until the latter stages, Marvin does it this year and outclasses my time by more than double. Proof that he overcame my own feat within that match, this continues in many ways up until this moment. Marvin has had my number for months, he's played a better mental startegy and his compulsion to defend the Overdrive title borders on something I have to admire simply for the pure tenacity that comes with it. Terry Marvin outclasses Keaton Saint in these fields and it is something I find difficult to bear, because if that is a definitive truth then everything I stand up for loses out to a man who is self-entitled, greedy, obsessive and ignorant.

It is a hard mouthful to swallow.

And so with everything that happened I began to learn and understand more about what had passed, the further we moved from that fateful match and Rasslemania began to provide new insight into those happenings. Marvin's alliance with the Sindicate provided further opportunity to learn new aspects of what had happened and what was to happen.

Time passed and important hurdles were crossed, Blade was defeated, Rebel was defeated and each of them was crossed on a checklist of what I needed to know. Four wrestlers in that ring, a champion willing to spit of the legacy of his title, a challenger willing to assist in the corruption of that legacy and the remainder still in a position to care about the title. For all that has come and gone, Terry Marvin has proven that he actually gives a damn about the Overdrive title which is something more than Johnny Rebel. It matters because it provides something.

And yet for all that care, one thing began to emerge. When Rebel was willing to drop the title, I was the one to adapt to the situation first and it wasn't just on a physical basis. I broke the pin, I made things happen and that match continued because I was willing to adapt to a circumstance I wasn't expecting. The chaos that began in that match ended when Terry Marvin won the Overdrive title. Everything since then has been strategy, planning and tactics. Terry Marvin is a great mind in professional wrestling but in that mind he has overlooked one crucial aspect.

When something happens against his plans, I win.

When something happens that he does expect, I take advantage of the situation.

When the circumstance changes, I'm quicker to take the advantage and use it.

Terry Marvin is order, control and planning. But he can't control chaos and that same chaos is his very weakness, the weakness I need to fully exploit to change the circumstances of our encounter to something that is truly even. Marvin's advantage lies in his knowledge of what is to come, when the situation is as he wills it he is almost clairvoyant in what happens in the ring. Take that away and Terry Marvin loses the advantage he clings to like a child holding their prized possession. Loosen that grip and he loses what he holds, if that can happen then I can win.

All it takes is for Keaton Saint to march towards recapturing the chaos, if that happens I will finally be able to prove that I am the better wrestler and bring a true and definitive end to this.

All it takes is a moment of mayhem.

==========


A Crack in the Silence

Time passes for everyone as we look upon a pair of APW cameramen tucked away in the corner of a backstage area comparing backstage stories and ideas for the future. The one with glasses begins to adjust his camera as he accidentally begins to play some recorded footage that reminds him of an earlier event. He looks to his partner and nods.

"Can you believe that?" His partner, the bearded cameraman replies.

"Can you?"

"Yeah, I think they're all trying to sound cryptic these days."

"You think it comes with the territory?"

"I dunno, just seems like the guy knows but doesn't know what he's doing." The bearded cameraman looks at the footage shot by the glasses cameraman, as they view the footage it emerges that the guy they were talking about was Keaton Saint.

"Looks like I got the whole thing."

"Yeah, you want to have a look at your settings though. The white balance doesn't look right."

"I've got it set to company specifics."

"That's your problem."

"Nah, you're just trying to be a free thinker. I'm doing my job."

"I'm doing both." The bearded man continues to look at the footage. "What's this all about anyhow?"

"You mean his reply?"

"Yeah, the super told me that this guy hasn't done an interview in weeks and all he has to say is that?"

"Well, 'soon' could mean a few things."

"Like what?"

"Like er, I dunno man."

"I guess this just feels like a crack in his vow of silence or whatever it was."

"Maybe, but if I were him I'd do the same thing." The cameraman with glasses began to muse.

"What would you do?"

"Keep my cards close to my chest and stay silent until needed, it's not like he broke anything just saying one word for the cameras."

"Well, one word for her you mean."

"Oh yeah?" The bearded cameraman acted with mild surprise.

"Dude has been doing interviews elsewhere."

"You mean the Marvel thing?"

"And others, sounds like a marketing thing to me."

"Could be."

Both cameramen exchanged a glance as they spoke and chuckled as they continued to finish packing their equipment.

"Heh, would you look at that."

"Look at what?"

"Over there, first window on the right."

"Erm, what am I looking for?"

"Not much, was just gonna say that there's a crack in the glass."

"And?"

"Well if I was a religious man I'd be taking it as a sign."

"Good thing I'm a Deist then."

"What the hell is that?"

"You owe me a beer, come on I'll tell you at the bar."

"Fair enough."

Time passes, and even for these men the message of 'soon' began to bring new ideas to the table. The concept may not have been as complete as it was in the head of Keaton Saint but they had an understanding, something that would be complete by Mayhem at least.

==========


The Core of a Saint

"Are you prepared to do anything to win?"

"Yes, of course." Keaton answered in a kneejerk reaction, he began to collect his thoughts as he answered further. "Why else would I even be involved with this if I wasn't willing to go to my absolute limit?"

"You've not answered me."

"I did, I said yes."

"But you only said you'd be willing to go to your limits, that isn't what I'm talking about here."

"Oh no?"

"No, I'm asking you if you're prepared to do anything to win."

"Same thing, different wordplay."

"No, you're just oversimplifying it. Consider what I'm saying here."

"You're asking if I would do anything, I said I'm not going to hold back."

"That only answers part of the question Keat."

"So what exactly are you asking me?"

"Look back at Rasslemania, Terry Marvin did whatever it took to win."

"And you're asking me if I'd buy off a ref in order to win, that is just ridiculous I mean--"

"Keat--"

"--why the hell would I do something like that--"

"Keat--"

"--when all it'd prove is that I'm willing to stoop to his--"

"KEAT!"

"What?"

"You're still missing the point here, I'm not asking you whether you'd cheat because I know the answer to that already." Vic took a deep breath and sighed. "I'm asking you what your limit is and whether you'd do anything in YOUR power to win this."

"I can only do as much as I can."

"That is basically another non-answer, be honest with me Keat."

"I'm trying to answer this but you're looking for something else for some reason."

"I'm trying to get to your core, the heart of what makes you tick in the ring."

"I told you before what keeps me going."

"That was then, this is now."

"Maybe so but you have to look at me, I haven't changed."

"Maybe that is the problem Keat, you've been in wrestling for years, you've been in APW since the beginning of this one and yet you're still the same guy you were."

"Is that a bad thing now?"

"No, I'm just saying that being the dependable one, the respect you've earnt is true and worth something but you're looking at something that goes beyond that. Terry Marvin doesn't respect you and he is depending on you to be the man you've always been, a man and a wrestler with certain limitations."

"But I've grown beyond what I was at Rasslemania."

"And what, you think he hasn't? Terry Marvin isn't going to be the same man you faced at Rasslemania and you need to realise that. The stuff that worked then won't work now and he WILL be adapting his plans to what you've done. You even said it yourself more than once, Marvin plays one hell of a mindgame."

"I just need to be the better wrestler."

"You were at Rasslemania, but he still won. Explain that."

"He bought off a crooked ref, you know that, the whole bleeding world KNOWS that."

"And yet you've turned around and said to me before that it was still legitimate regardless of the outcome. You even said it, you were outsmarted."

"Well he's not going to do that in a cage."

"You really believe that?"

Keaton paused and shook his head in reply.

"Exactly Keat. Being a wrestler isn't just about the drive and heart, it isn't about how physical you can be. You have to be smarter than you are, you have to be willing to take a risk."

"Depends on the risk."

"That's why they call it a calculated risk."

"I know."

"I don't think you're willing to recognise it though."

"Depends."

"On what?"

"On what you truly mean."

"Like I said, I want you to get to the core here. I want to get to your core as well, this is about understanding what must be done BEFORE the bell rings."

"And what if you're wrong?"

"It's a risk I'm willing to take because I actually do have faith in you, the real you."

"There's only one Keaton Saint babes."

"None of that, I'm being serious here."

"I know."

"Well if you know then you can begin to answer me, who are you?"

"I am Keaton Saint."

"And yet you are the only one, the Keaton Saint if you will." Vic pointed at Keaton's chest. "What do you do?"

"I am a professional wrestler."

"And yet you're more than that, you are a champion in CWC, you are an ally to some, an enemy to others and what you do is aligned with the rest of this planet." Vic began tapping Keaton's chest. "You live and breathe, your heart beats and your blood pumps around your body. You are a wrestler and that gives you power but you are more than one aspect."

"Where's all this coming from?"

"Just listen, what do you represent?"

"The fans."

"What else?"

"The power of professional wrestling."

"What else?"

"Erm, you?"

"What else?"

"How many things are you expecting me to answer?"

"I'm just making a point, the most important thing you represent is yourself. The fans never made you Keaton Saint, the power of professional wrestling never told you to go represent the fans and I was never the one to tell you to go wrestle in hardcore stipulations in CWC."

"I did."

"Exactly, you made that choice. The very core of the Saint is you, you make the decisions and you live with the understanding of that. Keaton Saint never gives up, Keaton Saint represents the fans and wrestling and everything else but what YOU do is what makes you Keaton Saint."

"So what exactly are you trying to say?"

"I've seen the tapes Keat, I know what Keaton Saint can do by watching Overdrive. I know that Terry Marvin can do whatever it takes to beat Keaton Saint, he's planned for Keaton Saint. He hasn't planned for you, the man behind the name."

"I'm one and the same."

"No, Keaton Saint is an image." Vic put her arms around Keaton. "Keaton Saint is a tool, a propaganda piece about doing the right thing and living to certain principles."

"Principles that I believe in."

"But then one question remains?" Vic leaned in closer and kissed Keaton. "Whose lips did I just kiss?"

"Mine." Keaton said as his eyes remained focused on Vic.

"Exactly, yours." Vic smiled. "It wasn't Keaton Saint, it wasn't the Patron Saint of Professional Wrestling because it was you and no matter how tied in you are with the image of Keaton Saint, you are still Keat and you are still the man."

"What does this have to do with doing anything to win?"

"Simple, I saw the tapes."

"You said before, I still don't agree with you having seen that."

"It opened my eyes to something."

"Tell me."

"Your persona, your image and a chance to unlock your potential."

"You believe that?"

"I do." Vic laughed. "Remember Keat, Keaton Saint has limitations that Terry Marvin can account for and overcome, but the man who bears that name isn't limited to the same things. If you're willing to unchain yourself and do anything to win, Terry Marvin won't be able to overcome that. Nobody would."

"It sounds tempting but--"

"But you have to be prepared for the consequences of such a thing, that is the core of the Saint. Can you take the consequences of doing something new or are you going to be limited by your own persona?"

"I know what it means."

"If you do, you know why I'm asking you to consider doing this."

"I know, because if I do--"

"If you do it becomes part of the image of Keaton Saint, the purity you've strived for becomes impure. The white coat becomes stained with a blot on the record."

"And I have to consider what that means."

"You're no angel Keat, you just need to realise the truth of what you can do in the ring."

"I already know what I can do, but breaking the silence on that will unleash something that changes the core of who I am, what I do and who I represent. You have to understand that everything would change."

"Does that have to be a bad thing, or are you just fearful of it?"

"It could be both."

==========


Excerpt from Ted's Throwdown
Ted Hunsinger reports for the Rhino Rasslin' Roundup

And as we continue with the countdown to APW Mayhem the match between Keaton Saint and Terry Marvin is beginning to look like an even better prospect than their encounter at Rasslemania. Some would say that this is already going to be a more important match for both men and I would agree to a certain extent. Whoever wins this will have an overwhelming advantage over their opponent and (especially in Keaton Saint's case) the loser would have the acknowledge that the ending of this match would mark a definitive end one way or the other.

This does feel like the last few moments before the end credits play. Even so I ended up learning something quite valuable this week from a surprising source, something I'll explain now to you all.

For lack of a better term, I am a member of what could be loosely described as a power level forum. The location of the forum in this case doesn't matter but the importance is that it is an active hub of discussion over fictional combatants and how they would match up in other locales,dimensions, etc. Goku vs. Superman is only the tip of the iceberg when it comes to these places. So I recently made a few remarks about APW and started to draw up my thoughts about some of the matches on offer at Mayhem, following on from the majority of polls that have been taken the forum have also agreed with a 60/40 split that Terry Marvin would retain.

An interesting stat in that it doesn't deviate much from the other polls that have been taken. The true interest to me (and by proxy, to this column) is how these results were considered. Bear in mind that this is a forum dedicated to bringing up every shred of information on fictional characters so when you have something that involves real people you have a selection of archive crawlers that have immense skill in finding the tiniest shred of info. As the days went on more information was added to the mountain of existing info and whilst opinions changed based on the new evidence, one thing remained constant.

These people were studying this bout to a massive extent.

I think that is the real nugget of gold here, you can establish how a wrestler will perform based on past matches but when something like the Saint/Marvin match comes along that promises to deliver a spectacle, it really does pull in a lot of viewers. As I said before, it ended with a 60/40 split in Terry Marvin's favour for a few reasons that most wrestling fans will be able to relate to. The interesting part of this however is some of the information that came to light during the initial assessment.

I'll go ahead and quote forum member Boshy92 on his/her finds, anyone else mentioned in the original quote has been changed to "[Removed]." Here's the quote:

"I'm starting to see what [Removed] was saying about Saint's potential in this match. The stipulation of their last match was something that most people would expect to go in favour of Saint but Terry Marvin's exemplary planning skills have served him well as showcased by [Removed]'s analysis on the Rasslemania match. What I've found doesn't change my mind on who I think will win, I'm still very comfortable placing my bets on Marvin but this might change the opinions of the more risk-happy bunch of you lot. One thing I recognise from Keaton Saint is his ability to adapt to situations, I got hold of some footage from his time in that indie Britfed as well as some other pieces that further what I'm about to say. Links are below my post."

"Saint's advantage is adaptability and perhaps as an extension of that, misdirection. For someone who has prided himself on being the controlled athlete, most of his better successes have come from areas in which he is not truly versed. This is not a typical hardcore wrestler and yet he's holding an interfed title for hardcore wrestling. It is that atypicalness (is that a word?) that will provide him with the best opportunity in this match, as has been proposed before, we're looking at a strategist taking on a gambler. We've seen this before with stuff ranging from books to film and I still stand by the fact that planning will have greater success than merely adapting to a situation."

"The problem is we can't decide whether Saint's adaptability and misdirection will kick in or not, if it does then we're looking at a completely different playing field than the one we're looking at now. What I would suggest is for everyone to check out my first link and see how Saint adopted new techniques in the indie Britfed situation and then consider how it affected him in the other two links. This man can convert his experience into something stronger and that is a force we can't account for, that makes it gamechanging and it could be what decides the match."

So as you can see from Boshy's quote, there were a couple of links to (copyright protected) matches from earlier in Saint's career, I've seen these before but watching them again with fresh eyes gave me an interesting outlook on the whole situation. This really is a case of planning against happenstance, but I don't think that Terry Marvin has the planning abilities of someone like Batman for example. However Saint could be on par with some of the more eccentric folk, which is strange since for the longest time I've only ever considered him to be the technical wrestler that has one path.

I can only truly say that the winner of this match can only be decided by whoever has the most potential to win. As it stands, I've placed a bet on my belief but it could go either way.

Join me next time as I uncover the truth behind the Noble/Gates fallout and why it was always set to happen.

As always, This is Ted Hun signing out.

==========


Breaking the Silence

I am one man.

A man with a purpose, a purpose that has been building from the point of origin up to now. As we count down the hours to Mayhem, only one thing remains to be broken. The vow of silence.

And it has been that vow which marked my journey from Rasslemania to this moment. I've not sat back and ignored what happened between, oh no. When you look at the accomplishments you can see that everything you've set up has come back in one way or another. Blade fell and I proved myself to him, you damn near broke me in two with that assault but I'm still here preparing to take you on again. Rebel fell and I proved myself to be a better man than him. I've been silent in many ways but I haven't been without action.

All these little things have come to pass and you've tested me with a bunch of remarks, attacks and everything inbetween. I've still been there however, I've still been biding my time and learning just what you are. Everything you've brought to the table up to now has been processed, I've begun to understand what I couldn't do before and I now have something in me that you can't overtake. I just need to be able to unleash it. To do that, the silence will be broken.

The vow of silence was never meant for me, it was something that I had to prepare for mentally and be willing to pass on to you. The vow of silence is your silence, your complete and utter understanding that for one night I will be the better man. The complete knowledge that in one match, there was no other alternative. The vow pushed me further, the knowledge pushed me to the edge. Where I stand now is beyond even that, the time it took finally put me in a place I needed to be.

And that place is capable of beating the best of Terry Marvin.

I am Keaton Saint, the Patron Saint of Professional Wrestling. I do this for the fans and you've heard every single word of that before, it borders on being cliche regardless of how true it is but that doesn't make me a dangerous foe to you, what makes me a danger is what I am and what I truly represent. Time passed and you aligned yourself with a man who is willing to break APW for petty reasons, you aligned with a former champion who was willing to take a dive in order to lose the title without being a true competitor. Maybe you forgot all that when you buddied up with Johnny Rebel, I didn't forget it. It's why I beat him, I never forgot what it meant to see a representative of APW drop to his back like that, for someone to spit on what the Overdrive title meant.

Because that is where we agree on something, this title is meaningful because we're bringing meaning to it. This match means something because we're going into this with everything we have. Overdrive is not just a name, it is a message to every wrestler out there. This isn't just a brand, this is a way of life headed by some of the GREATEST wrestlers on the planet. Johnny Rebel wanted to take that away when he took a dive, I would hope that this is a case of you forgetting what happened but I think the truth is as simple as this. You don't give a solitary bugger who defends you as long as you have some muscle watching your back, forget that Rebel is just looking for a chance to overtake you and realise this. He can't defend you forever.

What makes me a dangerous man is simple.

I'm not Terry Marvin, I'm not a sindicated man and I'm not stuck in one way of thinking.

I am Keaton Saint and I am a free thinker, an open mind and a man willing to go beyond every limit you know in order to succeed. I won't stoop to doing anything to win because I'm not you, I have the tools in my mind and in my heart to go beyond everything you ever knew about Keaton Saint. What remains is that the man you expect may not be the man you receive.

Mayhem will break the silence and whatever happens, this marks the end of something for the both of us.