Post by SalTal on Oct 6, 2012 21:08:19 GMT -4
Internet Explorer-*click*-Favorites-*click*-APW.com-*click*-Survive and Conquer-*click*-Sally Talfourd-*click*-Loading...
"Sally Talfourd presents ..."
is written across the screen, fades out, then
"In association with Action Packed Wrestling..."
is next to appear, holds, then fades out for
"Happy Endings T.V."
Which fades away to a shot of a ticking clocking. Nothing else, just a clock. The time reads 11:28am. And tick by tock the second hand goes around. One jarring tick after another. A white face, black numbers, black arms, a golf screw holding everything together in the middle. Then ... the voice we’ve all been waiting for. At least we get the voice, right?
[Sally] This Sunday, what you see right now is all that matters. A clock. The time. And how long it takes me to beat the World Heavyweight Champion. I need to beat Anthony Bailey quicker than someone can beat anyone else. Quicker than Phil Atken can win a match, quicker than Rebel can win a match. Quicker than Michael Callahan or Shane Borderland can win a match. Well, I don’t need to. That would be a lie. Because, you see, I’ve done the unthinkable before. I’ve done something no one thought could be done. I’ve set the bar so high that only I could set it again.
Think back, APW-ers. Think back to 2010. Think back to the first elimination chamber match I was in. When it was Level-One who was the World Heavyweight Champion, and there was a whole handful of wrestlers vying for the title who were all pretenders and never contenders. Think back to then. I went in number one. I was the first person in the match. In the ring. In a hold or a lock or a sticky situation. And think forward an hour, APW-ers and remember who won that match. I came in at number one and I walked out number one. The one person standing. The one and only winner. The one true champion.
So saying I need to win quickly this week is, you know, an overstatement. I would like to. I would like to have finished my match in the length it’s taken me to say this. But do I need to? No no no. No, I can get the job done first or last. It’s just easier if you’re last.
The clock keeps ticking. Time passes us by. Valuable time. Precious time. Wrestling is all about time. Ten seconds out of the ring. Five second on an illegal hold. Three seconds for a pin. One second of too much pain. Wrestling is time. How long you can last ... how long you can endure ... how long you can handle it. That’s what we’re talking about here. And, unlike some areas of life, the quicker you can be in and out (of the ring!) the better you are for it. The better your body is, the better your mind is. The better the fans are because they know they’ve just seen someone good. And, this week, the better Sally’s chances at winning the World Heavyweight Title are.
[Sally] You know, this map ... all this preparation ... it’s bringing me back. Back to when I was the greatest this company had. When I was the hottest commodity bar none. When none of the Hall of Famers, past, present, and future, could hold a candle to me. When I cemented my legacy in APW history. And I’m left here wondering if I can do it again? Can I get back to that place again? Normally I’d say ‘Yes’ and go and do it. But this time ... this time I’m testing myself, repeatedly, against someone I don’t know if I can beat.
You see, Anthony, neither of us truly knows if one of us is better than the other. Neither of us truly knows what it takes to actually beat the other person. Oh sure, some people might say that at Shockwave you got the win ... but we both know that’s not true. We both know that an assist from Shane Borderland is nothing but taking a hedge trimmer to a garden maze. You might not have asked for it - I sure as hell know I didn’t - but it’s what helped you get the win. And for that, there’s all sorts of question marks over your head. Are you a deserving champion? A proved champion? A regining champion?
But none of them are the biggest question you’ve got running through your pretty little head, is it? That’s a very different question you want answered. Your fans are asking you ... you’re asking ... that little voice is wondering what I think about it all. Do I begrudge you for taking up the opportunity to pin me? You need to know, don’t you? You need to know what I think. It’s not so simple as “Is she still my friend or not?” or “Does she like me any more?” ... it’s more. It’s the whole credibility of your championship, isn’t it? You talk a big game, that you’re going to win, that we’re not enemies, that you’re determined to keep this belt. But ... you don’t even know if you deserve it, do you?
You see, if I say I don’t respect you for pinning me and that I consider you a coward ... your whole reign since then is a fascade. A joke. A simple blip in history where Sally Talfourd should have become champion.
But if I do respect you for taking the pin ... you’re justified. You’re justified in what you said before and after. In what you did. In what you’ve done since. From then to now, you’ll be considered a true champion because you beat the great Sally Talfourd ... and she acknowledges it!
So where do I fall, Bailey? Do I respect you or not?
The clock just keeps on ticking. Time stops for no man. Maybe for a woman, but certainly for no man. Hour after minute after second. Every valuable moment, come Sunday, is worth fighting for. That’s what the real fight is for come Sunday. For time. It’s going to be vicious and it’s going to be tough and, frankly, it’s going to be hell for someone. But that’s the spoils of the fight: Time.
[Sally] The answer to that question, Bailey, comes in this match. I’m not going to give you the pleasure of telling you before our match. You’re going to have to work it out yourself. You’re going to have to come into this match not knowing how I’m going to treat you. And if you can figure it out, you’ll be able to figure out how the chamber match is going to go down.
I imagine that’s something else you’re wondering: Who can you count on for the chamber match? Can you find someone who will have your back? You certainly can’t trust Callahan or Rebel. And we know what Borderland thinks about all of this. Atken is ... Atken. So that leaves us, right? But what if I don’t respect you? What if I don’t want you to win? What if I want to beat you the same way you beat me at Shockwave? I imagine that’s something you’re keen to find out. You’ll get a bit of a preview this week and I guess it’ll be a bit of a challenge for your mind to be able to figure out where I stand.
But I’m not going to tell you like it’s some throw-away comment. I’m not going to be just so open about this. I don’t want to be the bad guy between us. I don’t want to be the heel in all this, but I can’t just be so flippant with the truth. We need the fans to know, we need the roster to know, we need the world to know where we stand. We need to sort out what’s going on between us, yes. But we need to do it properly, in the light that only the ring affords us. It won’t be this week. It won’t be at the pay per view.
I guess it’ll be some time after One Night in Hell, when we know what the truth is, right?
You see, one of us might walk out of that chamber the champion. And then we’ll know what the result at Shockwave should have been, yeah?
No.
You see, the chamber match is still not going to be the true measure of us. Four other buffoons running around? A chamber ... timed entry ... the violence? That’s not how we’re supposed to be measured. That’s not how we need to measure ourselves. No, we need a wrestling match. So irrespective of how that match works out ... irrespective of who walks out champion, whether it’s you, me, or Bumble 1 through 4 ... we still won’t have our answers. No, the question of which one of us is truly the best can only be sorted out in a true wrestling environment. An environment like the one we find ourselves on Sunday.
So maybe we will get some answers sooner rather than later. We’re wrestling hard this week. We’re trying to prove a point. But, at the end of the night, it’s you versus me. One-on-one. And assuming no one ruins the finish this time again, we might just be able to figure out which of us is really the best.
After a few moments of silence, all we hear is the tick-tick-tick of the clock. The only thing that we see. Then the scene starts to fade out, fading away as we’re reminded about the importance of time. After a moment more on the blank screen, there’s a slow fade out and then into...
Sally Talfourd
written across the screen, which in turn fades away as the episode comes to a close.
"Sally Talfourd presents ..."
is written across the screen, fades out, then
"In association with Action Packed Wrestling..."
is next to appear, holds, then fades out for
"Happy Endings T.V."
Which fades away to a shot of a ticking clocking. Nothing else, just a clock. The time reads 11:28am. And tick by tock the second hand goes around. One jarring tick after another. A white face, black numbers, black arms, a golf screw holding everything together in the middle. Then ... the voice we’ve all been waiting for. At least we get the voice, right?
[Sally] This Sunday, what you see right now is all that matters. A clock. The time. And how long it takes me to beat the World Heavyweight Champion. I need to beat Anthony Bailey quicker than someone can beat anyone else. Quicker than Phil Atken can win a match, quicker than Rebel can win a match. Quicker than Michael Callahan or Shane Borderland can win a match. Well, I don’t need to. That would be a lie. Because, you see, I’ve done the unthinkable before. I’ve done something no one thought could be done. I’ve set the bar so high that only I could set it again.
Think back, APW-ers. Think back to 2010. Think back to the first elimination chamber match I was in. When it was Level-One who was the World Heavyweight Champion, and there was a whole handful of wrestlers vying for the title who were all pretenders and never contenders. Think back to then. I went in number one. I was the first person in the match. In the ring. In a hold or a lock or a sticky situation. And think forward an hour, APW-ers and remember who won that match. I came in at number one and I walked out number one. The one person standing. The one and only winner. The one true champion.
So saying I need to win quickly this week is, you know, an overstatement. I would like to. I would like to have finished my match in the length it’s taken me to say this. But do I need to? No no no. No, I can get the job done first or last. It’s just easier if you’re last.
The clock keeps ticking. Time passes us by. Valuable time. Precious time. Wrestling is all about time. Ten seconds out of the ring. Five second on an illegal hold. Three seconds for a pin. One second of too much pain. Wrestling is time. How long you can last ... how long you can endure ... how long you can handle it. That’s what we’re talking about here. And, unlike some areas of life, the quicker you can be in and out (of the ring!) the better you are for it. The better your body is, the better your mind is. The better the fans are because they know they’ve just seen someone good. And, this week, the better Sally’s chances at winning the World Heavyweight Title are.
[Sally] You know, this map ... all this preparation ... it’s bringing me back. Back to when I was the greatest this company had. When I was the hottest commodity bar none. When none of the Hall of Famers, past, present, and future, could hold a candle to me. When I cemented my legacy in APW history. And I’m left here wondering if I can do it again? Can I get back to that place again? Normally I’d say ‘Yes’ and go and do it. But this time ... this time I’m testing myself, repeatedly, against someone I don’t know if I can beat.
You see, Anthony, neither of us truly knows if one of us is better than the other. Neither of us truly knows what it takes to actually beat the other person. Oh sure, some people might say that at Shockwave you got the win ... but we both know that’s not true. We both know that an assist from Shane Borderland is nothing but taking a hedge trimmer to a garden maze. You might not have asked for it - I sure as hell know I didn’t - but it’s what helped you get the win. And for that, there’s all sorts of question marks over your head. Are you a deserving champion? A proved champion? A regining champion?
But none of them are the biggest question you’ve got running through your pretty little head, is it? That’s a very different question you want answered. Your fans are asking you ... you’re asking ... that little voice is wondering what I think about it all. Do I begrudge you for taking up the opportunity to pin me? You need to know, don’t you? You need to know what I think. It’s not so simple as “Is she still my friend or not?” or “Does she like me any more?” ... it’s more. It’s the whole credibility of your championship, isn’t it? You talk a big game, that you’re going to win, that we’re not enemies, that you’re determined to keep this belt. But ... you don’t even know if you deserve it, do you?
You see, if I say I don’t respect you for pinning me and that I consider you a coward ... your whole reign since then is a fascade. A joke. A simple blip in history where Sally Talfourd should have become champion.
But if I do respect you for taking the pin ... you’re justified. You’re justified in what you said before and after. In what you did. In what you’ve done since. From then to now, you’ll be considered a true champion because you beat the great Sally Talfourd ... and she acknowledges it!
So where do I fall, Bailey? Do I respect you or not?
The clock just keeps on ticking. Time stops for no man. Maybe for a woman, but certainly for no man. Hour after minute after second. Every valuable moment, come Sunday, is worth fighting for. That’s what the real fight is for come Sunday. For time. It’s going to be vicious and it’s going to be tough and, frankly, it’s going to be hell for someone. But that’s the spoils of the fight: Time.
[Sally] The answer to that question, Bailey, comes in this match. I’m not going to give you the pleasure of telling you before our match. You’re going to have to work it out yourself. You’re going to have to come into this match not knowing how I’m going to treat you. And if you can figure it out, you’ll be able to figure out how the chamber match is going to go down.
I imagine that’s something else you’re wondering: Who can you count on for the chamber match? Can you find someone who will have your back? You certainly can’t trust Callahan or Rebel. And we know what Borderland thinks about all of this. Atken is ... Atken. So that leaves us, right? But what if I don’t respect you? What if I don’t want you to win? What if I want to beat you the same way you beat me at Shockwave? I imagine that’s something you’re keen to find out. You’ll get a bit of a preview this week and I guess it’ll be a bit of a challenge for your mind to be able to figure out where I stand.
But I’m not going to tell you like it’s some throw-away comment. I’m not going to be just so open about this. I don’t want to be the bad guy between us. I don’t want to be the heel in all this, but I can’t just be so flippant with the truth. We need the fans to know, we need the roster to know, we need the world to know where we stand. We need to sort out what’s going on between us, yes. But we need to do it properly, in the light that only the ring affords us. It won’t be this week. It won’t be at the pay per view.
I guess it’ll be some time after One Night in Hell, when we know what the truth is, right?
You see, one of us might walk out of that chamber the champion. And then we’ll know what the result at Shockwave should have been, yeah?
No.
You see, the chamber match is still not going to be the true measure of us. Four other buffoons running around? A chamber ... timed entry ... the violence? That’s not how we’re supposed to be measured. That’s not how we need to measure ourselves. No, we need a wrestling match. So irrespective of how that match works out ... irrespective of who walks out champion, whether it’s you, me, or Bumble 1 through 4 ... we still won’t have our answers. No, the question of which one of us is truly the best can only be sorted out in a true wrestling environment. An environment like the one we find ourselves on Sunday.
So maybe we will get some answers sooner rather than later. We’re wrestling hard this week. We’re trying to prove a point. But, at the end of the night, it’s you versus me. One-on-one. And assuming no one ruins the finish this time again, we might just be able to figure out which of us is really the best.
After a few moments of silence, all we hear is the tick-tick-tick of the clock. The only thing that we see. Then the scene starts to fade out, fading away as we’re reminded about the importance of time. After a moment more on the blank screen, there’s a slow fade out and then into...
Sally Talfourd
written across the screen, which in turn fades away as the episode comes to a close.
