last man standing.

[chaos lite]

"you found yourself a new sensation
but baby it's a jungle out there..."

oct.20.twelve

Last time Aubrey had to prepare for a match, she ended up realizing her mortality. She realized that she could be broken. She realized that she wasn’t invincible. Today, she realized something else.

She was absolutely, one hundred percent vulnerable.

Aubrey and I spent a few days in Las Vegas. She was visiting a friend-- Sabra Nikolayev of SCW fame. I didn’t know of the woman too well and there was admittedly something I didn’t like about the company Aubrey surrounded herself with. All of them were polite enough, but the only one who ever seemed sincere, genuine, and warm was Logan. Maybe it’s just me.

And I turned the camera on during our four-hour drive from Vegas to my Pleasanton home, catching every silly, candid moment Aubrey and I might encounter in the car. I don’t remember how far into the drive we were-- maybe about halfway. Look at the camera if you want specifics. But at one point, I brought up Logan. I brought up the Last Man Standing Elimination Match at One Night in Hell. I brought up the uphill battle Aubrey had in front of her.

She reacted just as I thought she might.

”Last Person Standing.”

I laughed a bit from behind the wheel of the Camaro at her swift attempt at ignoring the subject at hand.

”Okay, Last Person... But what are you going to do? You don’t have Logan there. Not on your side anyway.”

”I didn’t have Logan there in the cage match.”

”Not directly, but he gave you all the tools you needed to win. Literally. You think he’s going to get beaten by his own tactics?”

She sighed and sat in silence. It was always a small, personal achievement to stump the great Aubrey J. Parker.

”What are you going to do?”

”Don’t miss the exit.”

Our turn onto the exit wasn’t graceful, but it wasn’t my concern.

”You only have a week--”

”I’ve thought about it a lot. I’ve thought a lot about what happens if it comes down to me and Logan. And...”

”And?”

”I’ll put him down if I have to.”

It was almost scary how insincere that comment was. I had no choice but to question it, diverting my eyes from the road only for a second to give her a look that made her fully aware of my skepticism.

”You will?”

"...He wouldn't want it any other way, would he? He never took it easy on me before. In the fatal four way that gave Logan the chance to be in this title match, he did everything he could to get the win. At one point it came down to me and him, and he fought his ass off. He never wanted me to give it any less than everything so... Why fuck that up? Why would I let down the one person in APW that actually wants me to succeed?"

She laughed a little bit, but there was a certain air of pain behind it.

"Nobody else wants me here. Nobody wants either of us here."

She really thought that.

"The fans do."

"And we've seen how often their minds can change too... This is a male dominated sport. The last thing these pigs like Shadow, Krunk, and Lively want is to see a woman at the top of their division. The last thing some of these FANS want is to see me as a serious contender.

I hear them cheering, but I know that if I got injured in this Last Person Standing match and was reduced to a managerial role alongside Logan, never wrestling another match in my life it wouldn't make a difference to any of them. They'd still get what they want. Everyone in the back. Everyone in the stands... They don't really want Aubrey J. Parker. They want eye candy.

It’s not me."

I smiled a little bit at that.

"But it got you the attention you always wanted."

"Having Krunk allude to molesting me in the middle of the ring? Putting up with Shadow gawking over me and pointing out every bump and curve on my body when I pass him backstage? This isn't the attention I want."

"It wasn't too long ago that it wouldn't have made a difference."

"Things change..."

And again, I believed her. Weeks ago she would leap at the opportunity for exposure. She giggled at the prospect of the men in the locker room fawning over her. She had been reduced to laughter and rosy cheeks whenever a Tweet or blog entry surfaced even mentioning her name.

Something changed. Maybe it had to do with the concussion. Maybe it had to do with the Tokyodome debut.

To be truthful, I never found out what it was that made Aubrey so resentful... But I think it had something to do with Logan. Aubrey never truly came to grips with what she had to do to win that North American title. She knew as well as I did that if she didn't go through Logan, she may as well have forfeited the title shot. I believed her when she said she wanted that belt. I always knew how much it meant to her.

I knew what something like that would prove.

It wasn't until one week later that Aubrey told me to my face how she felt about Logan's place in the match.

It wasn't until October 27th, 2012 that I believed that Aubrey would put Logan down.




oct.26.twelve

"The closer we come to One Night in Hell, the more I find myself correcting everyone around me. I have to remind everybody, including my tag team partner, that the eight of us aren't competing in a Last Man Standing match.

And that's not subjective. It's not a feminist remark. It's simply inaccurate.

In order for this to be labeled a 'Last Man Standing' match, that's exactly what would need to happen-- there would need to be one man, just one single man left standing on his own two feet by the time the match is over. Yet, I'm telling each and every one of you, that won't happen. When that final bell rings, the seven other Megastars have been eliminated, and the title changes hands-- and I promise, Michael, it WILL change hands-- the only person left standing... Will be a woman.

The only person that'll be able to walk out as a winner is me. Nobody has it inside of them to stop me from reaching that.

Not Vincent Pennington.

Not Michael Lively.

Not Young Mannie.

Not L..."

She hesitates.

We don't get to see Aubrey J. Parker but her voice rings clear as day through the dark. From what we can make certain, the only female North American title contender is speaking to us via electronic voice memo and nothing more.

"It's weird, Mannie. I never really looked at you as a viable contender for the title and it didn't occur to me until today that, that's a closed-minded way to look at things.

Sure-- I don't agree with your lifestyle. I resent you because you were gifted the Tag Team Title opportunity that Logan and I deserved. I think you're an overrated wrestler that's been given one too many easy passes... And myself? I'm an underrated wrestler that has never had anything come the easy way. Not once. Ever.

So I suppose you could say I've got something to prove by knocking you out in this match. Nobody else has been able to do it, and that could be because you've only been fed the fish from the shallow end of this already-microscopic pond. As easily as I could credit you for having one of the most statistically successful comebacks in recent memory, I could nullify that by reminding you the difference in caliber between people like Tek, and people like me.

But why take that risk?

You never had the stiffest competition-- until a tag team match opposite the North American Champ and two of the top contenders last Monday. You couldn't get the job done there, even when you had two people helping you. The circumstances were different though, and I'll grant you that. I don't have a clear enough assessment of what you're capable of-- of where your ceiling is. All I can estimate is that it's nowhere near mine. You're simply... Not as good. That's why you spent your previous days in the Xtreme Title division on Overdrive and never found it within yourself to improve.

I said it before when Krunk claimed you were the only people he respected: Unlike most of the other people on Meltdown, you've SEEN the other side, Mannie. You've dipped your ankle in the pool and you snatched it back out because you didn't like what you felt. What you saw SCARED THE SHIT OUT OF YOU and you'd be perfectly fine with never going back.

You're a grown man making stupid decisions-- like getting arrested for attempting to smoke weed on broadcast television. There's no place for you on Overdrive. There's no place for you on Asylum.

There's no room for people like you at the top of the North American title division.

Then we have you, Streets. You're a guy in this match that actually has a pin fall victory over the champ. You ended the last Meltdown on top. You should have all the momentum going for you, but how consistent have you really been? Half the time, I have trouble remembering that you're even a part of the roster. You don't do anything that makes me think you CAN'T be beaten in this match... You're not a presence on this show, and I can't say your role in the match will be wildly different.

You hit hard and you hit fast. I don't think you need a weapon to hurt people. I do wonder though-- what's YOUR pain threshold? You left. You took a break, then returned with-- if I recall this correctly-- a request to only wrestle six matches per year? Someone as effective in the ring, and on the streets, as you claim to be should be jumping at the chance to establish themselves as a threat. You should thrive in this type of match, right? This is right up your alley. You have no rules. No limits.

But you have also no motivation. No consistency. I don't know what to expect from you this Sunday but that's all the more reason to keep a closer eye on you.

I feel the same way about you, Shadow. Like Mannie and like Wilson, you know what the other side is like. While I'm scratching and clawing my way to the World Heavyweight Championship, you've purposely backtracked in your career in a lame attempt to establish yourself as half the threat Slade Craven tried to make you out to be. People praise you for being a dominant force on Meltdown but they forget what you did to earn that label.

You waved the white flag. You chose to remove yourself from Overdrive and... Well... As we've seen over the past couple of months, you've settled.

And lets not pretend that you were the driving force behind Meltdown the moment you came here because that was NEVER the case. You were never the top star on this show. You're not going to be. You’ve been bitten by that horrible, nasty little tick called complacency and that’s why you’re at where you are now.

Go ahead. You can keep staring at my tits from the confines of your locker room, and I’ll continue draping gold over them when I climb to the top of Meltdown; when M&M climbs to the top of the tag team division, and when I climb to the top of APW and inevitably win the World Heavyweight Title. I’m making that claim because unlike you, I actually stand a fucking chance. I don’t expect you to take me seriously, and I don’t expect you to understand why I’m a threat in this match.

I knocked Vincent Pennington and Krunk unconscious, with two punches. I’ve already proven that I can adapt to the hardcore environment. I did it trapped inside of a steel cage and I’ll be able to do it in a Last Person Standing match with seven other people with gold glimmering in their eyes.

Pennington, you don’t get the satisfaction of an address in this memo. You’ve had your chance to speak ever since the night you ambushed my partner and I, and you’ve chosen to pass it up. Therefore, I’ll do the talking for you: Your silence says that you’re afraid. You’re horrified of what Logan could do to you, or what I could do to you again in this match. Your silence says that you’re smart. You’re smart enough to realize that you have no shot at winning the title this Sunday night and you’d be stupid to try to convince anybody in this match or anybody in Tokyo that you could. But most importantly?

Your silence speaks the truth. After you were forced to drop your façade when everybody in the world saw that you don’t have the raw ability NEEDED to hang with the rest of the people involved in this Last Person Standing match, you had nothing else to say. I haven’t heard a single empty threat from Mr. “Hard Knocks” since the night his team took the fall in that triple-threat tag team match. For weeks, you’ve been radio silent.

I guess you can go ahead and blame Logan and I for that.”

There is a pause in the voice memo.

”Brings me to you, Krunk.

You’re one of the few people in this match that I feel I could contend with if things broke down into a fist fight. I’ve already knocked you unconscious twice. I’ve made you eat your words on numerous occasions and made you look like an idiot for your tirade on Meltdown a couple of weeks ago, claiming that my partner and I were shit, if I may quote you directly.

Shit, you said!

So like the hard-working city girl I am, I decided to go out and do something about that. I’ll be damned if I allow some immature, perverse, mal-educated brat like you run my name into the ground like I’m the communal bimbo and I hope that by this point, I’ve made a believer out of you. And let’s… Get something straight right now: It’s not because I want your respect. It’s because I deserve it.

Much like Shadow, all you see when you look at me is a female. You don’t see a wrestler, and you don’t even see an entertainer. You see a woman. You see curves. You see the occasional curled hair, or the new dress. You choose not to respect me because on top of being one of the most successful newcomers on Meltdown so far, I choose to take pride in the way I look.

And I look damn good. So if that distracts you come Sunday in the Last Person Standing match, I wish you the best of luck. It’s worked out so well for you in the recent past, hasn’t it?”

There is a small, tired laugh.

”Then, of course, the North American Champion himself… Hey, Mike.

I’ll go ahead and fluff your ego a bit here… You’re somebody that I’ve admired since I first came to Meltdown alongside Logan because you speak your mind. You’ve never been hesitant to say what you’re thinking, and without even trying, I’ve seen you burrow your way into the heads of every single wrestler to come onto the Meltdown brand. I liked that. I respected that.

And the more I watched you, the more I was impressed. You never had to change—you did the same thing every week, and the people kept eating it up. You continued to steal the show each week, and you continued to walk away still as the North American Champion.

When I finally got the chance to wrestle you, I realized that I could beat you. There were several times in the match where I knew for a fact that you were done. I was convinced that all somebody had to do was sprawl down on top of you and the match would be called. Of course, back then you had three other people running around the ring, doing everything in their power to make sure that didn’t happen. For the past few weeks, you’ve been able to hide behind a different tag team partner each night. Except on Sunday… Nobody’s watching your back. Nobody’s going to scoop you back up to your feet when the referee nears the ten count.

Nobody’s going to save you.

I’ll beat you. I’ll make it a point to be the person that knocks you unconscious and takes your championship.

This Sunday, Aubrey J. Parker is going to be the last man standing.”




oct.27.twelve

It was around 7:00 P.M when she finally said it.

”I need to be the one that eliminates Logan.”

It caught me off guard. We were seconds removed from a cab ride from the Ribera Steakhouse, to our massive hotel. I didn’t respond to her, because I didn’t know what to say. We hadn’t even been on the subject of the Last Person Standing match.

What she said, however, excited me. For the first time, I felt it. I felt the frustration in her voice. I believed her.

I found it a bit odd that she never mentioned Logan again. Not between then and that fateful night on October 28th, however. She knew as well as I did that it simply had to be put out in the open. If she couldn’t have even been willing to say it, she wouldn’t have been willing to do it.

I can proudly say that Aubrey was ready to do it.

fin