Post by biggs on Nov 7, 2012 19:24:11 GMT -4
”Gosh darn keys! Why aren't you fitting in!?”
I find myself struggling to unlock the front door of my house as I'm being pelted by the ever present Seattle rain. It's half-past midnight, and I've finally returned home for the first time in about a month. It's dark out, and obviously the porch light is not on. The wet keys slip out of my hands, and clank to the ground.
”Son of a gun!” I groan as I bend down to pick them up. Once I get my hands on them, I wipe them off with my coat sleeve, and pull out my cell phone to give me enough light to see which one is the right one to unlock the front door. After a brief moment, I find the key I'm looking for and make my way inside my home, making sure to wipe my feet before entering.
Once inside, I immediately turn on the foyer light, and close the door behind me. No need to let the wind and rain seep in to get me even more chilled than I already am. I leave my bags by the door, and head towards the kitchen. I'm famished, and popcorn sounds good right about now.
As I make my way over, turning on lights as I go along, I notice that other than some minor dust accumulation, the house as a whole is neat and tidy, like nobody has been here in ages. The fact that the house doesn't look lived in at all is a subtle reminder of losing Ellie. Normally whenever I'd return from a long trip on the road, I could tell that she cleaned up just a few hours before I got home, because there'd always be that one thing that she never quite had the time to finish. It makes my heart ache a bit to see the place so clean.
But then again, it's entirely my fault. Not that the place is clean. Before Ellie got here, I'd hire a cleaning service to help with the upkeep. But Ellie never had that growing up, and said it felt weird for her to have somebody else clean up her mess. But it's still my fault that Ellie's no longer here with me.
After my snack, I continue to make my way through the house, heading up towards the master bedroom. As I walk down the halls, I notice things missing here and there, like certain pictures of Ellie and myself, places where she kept her figurines, the like. Each missing item makes me miss Ellie just a little bit more.
Once I reach the bedroom, it's completely barren. The bed, the top of the dresser, the walls, everything is completely bare. ”Well, at least I can put all my Star Wars stuff back up...” I quip, even though there's nobody there to hear it but me. Opening up the dresser, I immediately sense how much lighter the drawers are with half the stuff in them. I rustle my close around in each drawer, trying to give them the illusion of being filled up. Is this what I've been doing with wrestling? Trying to give myself the illusion of being content?
The more I think about it, the more I realize the only times I've really been happy this past month and a half on the road are the times I've been inside the ring. Because those are the only times I haven't thought about Ellie.
After rummaging through the drawers a bit, I pull out a pair of boxer shorts, and A-frame tank top, and my Yoda pajama pants. Ellie hated them, because apparently whenever I put them on, I would talk like Yoda. Even thought she claimed to dislike it whenever I told her, ”Love you, do I!” I always heard her giggle about it, so I knew she actually thought it was cute.
I change into my PJ's, and the brush my teeth. As I swish the mint flavored toothpaste around in my mouth, I use my free hand to feel the cut on my forehead that required 13 stitches to shut after Terry Marvin rammed my head into the plexiglass pod more times than I care to count. In fact, I don't remember how many shots I took to the head, and I have some trouble recalling the final moments of the match. The doctors obviously checked me following the match, and concluded that I didn't suffer another concussion, but blacking out in the middle of a match is an experience that I've had more than once now. It's not a pleasant one, and it kind of confirms Ellie's worries. But only kind of. I didn't actually get another concussion, so to me at least, her fears are still unfounded. It's an empty conceit, but the only one I can make right now to give me any sense of comfort in this lonely place. I'm right, she was wrong, I'm still okay. At least that's what I'm telling myself to get by...
Depeche Mode's “Spacewalker” plays as the words FIRST CONTACT flash across the starry background in big, blue bold letters. The video then switches to Biggs standing in front of the Lincoln Memorial in Washington D.C. He's dressed in a dark navy blue pea-coat with a bright blue scarf and beanie.
”Ladies and gentlemen, one and all, welcome to the absolute best wrestling web-show on the entire Internet, I am speaking about Biggs' First Contact! Now I'm here in our nation's capital, just one day removed from election night, and just one day prior to my tag team match in which I join C.J. Gates in taking on the team of Level-One and John Dionysus. And while I'm absolutely thrilled to be getting another shot at Level-One, considering that this will be not just my first meeting with Dionysus, but also C.J.'s, I can't help but feel like this match was made just so the four of us would have something to do.”
“I mean sure, C.J. and I were able to put our differences aside for the time being inside the Elimination Chamber, but that was just a marriage of convenience. The whole point of that was to try and help the of us last a bit longer inside that steel hell. It worked better for me than it did for him, but moving forward from the Elimination Chamber, I don't really see any benefit from aligning myself with him.”
“I mean C.J., let's set aside for one moment the fact that you cost me seven months of my career, the bottom line is that you and I have such conflicting points of view on what it takes to succeed inside that ring that unless we had a common purpose, I don't really see us functioning as a unit. And while being booked in this tag team match makes us dependent on one another for victory, it's not really the same as it was inside the Elimination Chamber. You see, in the Chamber, we were fighting for the grandest prize in all of wrestling, the APW Undisputed Championship. The stakes literally couldn't be any higher! And as I told you before the match, the reason I wanted it to come down to you and me was because I wanted to pin you specifically to earn my second run as the APW Undisputed Champion. Now granted, this didn't happen, but my point is that in this tag team match, yeah, I want to win, but I don't have the same motivation in this match. Because had everything gone to plan inside the Chamber, I would have had the opportunity to defeat you, and pay you back, even just a little, for what you did to me last year at Christmas Chaos!”
“Tomorrow night, I don't get that chance. By carrying you along, C.J., I don't get to be rewarded for my efforts by getting some modicum of revenge on you, all I get is having to share victory with you. That's not nearly as appealing to me as the idea of getting to knock you silly. I'm just being honest.”
“But on the topic of being honest, C.J., that's one thing you don't have to worry about me on. I'm telling you the truth right now, and even though you probably don't like it, at least I'm giving you that courtesy. I don't like you, you like me, but we both want to win, which means we're still capable of pulling this match out tomorrow night. Because we did prove inside the Elimination Chamber that we are able to coexist, that we can work as a unit. Our double-team beat down on Level-One proved it! So I give you my word, C.J., that from bell to bell, there will be no funny business directed towards you. I will do nothing to intentionally harm or double-cross you. As I always say, I may not be a good man, but at least I'm honest about it. You can trust that I intend on working with you, and not against you tomorrow night.”
“This will give us a distinct advantage over Level-One and John Dionysus, because to my knowledge, this is their first time teaming together. And granted, you can never discount any team that has Level-One as one of its members, but the fact is that these two will not be on the same page going in. Level-One's ego is too big to allow it. And while you and I both have sizable egos, at least we have experience working in tandem. We can, and will, compliment each other in the ring this Thursday. I got a feeling that Lester and John will be wrestling the match as two singles wrestlers that happen to be paired together, rather than as a unit.”
“That being said, allow me to address our opponents for tomorrow night. John, I'm going to start with you, because quite frankly, I just don't really care that much about you. Sure, you've been a steadily rising star on Overdrive, and yeah, you've held the Xtreme Championship. But I've already made it known how much disdain I have for the Garbage Wrestling division. And yes, I realize that you were a big fish in a small pond in that division, that you do have actual wrestling talent, and you don't just resort to using weapons and the like to have any chance of winning a match. But the fact is, John, you still lowered yourself to the Xtreme Championship. Normally, the way it's supposed to work is that having a title belt is supposed to elevate the Mega Star holding it, and in turn, elevating the belt itself. And while it's true that having a Mega Star like yourself carrying the Xtreme Championship certainly helps the Xtreme Championship, it certainly did you no favors. Because the fact is, John, you were above it, at least, you used to be.”
“Just the fact that you participated in that stupid, barbaric monstrosity of a Japanese Death Match Battle Royale shows how you allowed yourself to devolve. What Terry Marvin, Level-One, C.J. Gates, Chris Hart, Kurt Noble and myself did inside the Elimination Chamber was wrestle. Sure, it was brutal! Sure, I'm still healing up from it...”
Biggs points to the scar on his forehead.
”But the bottom line is that what we did in there required skill, heart, and determination in order to succeed. We fought like men, as men. All I saw in watching the tapes of the Japanese Death Match was a bunch of animals going at each other, doing sick, disgusting things that weren't wrestling. You were just as guilty of it as anyone else in that match, John. But let me be the first to tell you, if you dare step in that ring tomorrow night in the same animalistic mindset you no doubt had to have in order to be in that joke of match, well, C.J. and I are going to have to just put you down like the dog that you were that night.”
“I know that you're a smart man, John, I know that you're above the baseness of the Garbage Wrestling division. But you're going to need to switch gears in a big way to have any hope of competing at the level you're going to need to in order to have a chance in the ring tomorrow night! I am excited about the prospect of facing off against you tomorrow night, John, really I am. It will be our first meeting inside an APW ring. I just hope it's the strong, thoughtful, deliberate John Dionysus, and not the animal.”
“Speaking of animals, how are you doing, Level-One, you ol' dog!? Now I know that you're pissed off that I seemingly have your number, at least that's what the folks on the internet are saying, but believe me, Level-One, I'm not buying into that hype at all. Because while I have gotten the better of you in our last two meetings, I also know that before that, every time we faced off, you always emerged victorious. Not that I'm keeping score or anything, but taking in account tag team matches, one-on-one contests, and the like, I think you're still ahead of me either 4 to 2, or 3 to 2, with several indecision thrown in for good measure. Don't think for a moment, Lester, that I think that I'm superior towards you. You have a strong reputation, an absolutely glowing legacy, and like you said, you are generally thought to be the measuring stick to whom everyone else is compared against here in APW, at least you have been these past three and a half years. Gosh, has it really been that long since you got here? The fact is, Level-One, I am well aware of how great you really are. You don't become a Four-Time Undisputed Champion without being great.”
“But Lester, what does bother me is the fact that you act like nobody else's accomplishments mean anything besides yours. And while I can't claim to be free of a self-centered point of view myself, I can at least acknowledge others for their successes. Heck, I just spent a few minutes talking about yours! And while the statue of limitations has probably passed on me being able to rest solely on the fact that I was one of the very few people in this industry who has beaten you for a championship, the reality is that you can never take that accomplishment away from me, Lester Only!”
“Just like you can't take away the fact that it was me who brought your most recent title hopes to an end! You can try to spin my performance inside the Chamber any way you want, the fact is that I hit you with the Spaced Out, then I pinned your shoulders to the mat for the one, two, THREE! You don't have to like it, Lester, but you do have to accept it. I outperformed you inside the Chamber. I outlasted you. I know I say this a lot, Lester, but this business isn't so much about what have you done so much as it's about what have you done lately. And between the two of us, I was closer to becoming the next APW Undisputed Champion than you were. And I know you're campaigning like some politician to try and get another title match with Terry Marvin, but I'm just going to let my performance in the ring do the talking for me. Sure, that might be boring to you, Level-One, but so long as it says wrestling on the marquee, which it still does, I like my chances of getting another shot at Terry. And you can bet that when I do, I won't waste it!”
“Tomorrow night's match may not have the stakes or intrigue that was present inside the Elimination Chamber at One Night in Hell. Heck, it only has half of the wrestlers from that contest! But believe me, John and Lester, that doesn't mean I want to win it any less. Even if it means teaming with a man whom I'd rather not even be in the same building with, even if it means having to deal with garbage wrestling, even if it means having to justify myself to a jerk who just won't be convinced that I'm a serious threat to him, I'm going to do whatever it takes to leave Washington D.C. a winner!”
“Now before I bring the show to a close, I wanted to quickly address a fallacy that Level-One has been perpetuating about me. Level-One has stated that I am a conservative man who lives a Christian lifestyle, going to church, and that I'm showing hypocrisy by divorcing Ellie. First off, Lester, I don't go to church anymore, not after the way they kicked me to the curb a few years ago. That, coupled with the fact that my whole career has been driven by the mantra the ends justify the means, it's a gross fallacy to say that I live by Christian values. As I've said before, I'm not a good man, but I'm honest about it.”
“Secondly, I did not chose to divorce Ellie, she chose to divorce me. It's a small, but important distinction to make. If it were up to me, I'd still be married, trying to work through our differences. The way I see it, she wasn't willing to do the same. I was going to leave wrestling for her. Had she kept up her word, I wouldn't have even been inside the Elimination Chamber, let alone fighting you tomorrow night. And yes, every moment I spend outside of the ring without her, I'm reminded of my failure as a husband, but I was willing to try and work things out. I may have resorted to taking shortcuts and the easy way out inside the ring, but I wasn't going to do that with my marriage. She gave up on me, I did not give up on her. And since she's gone, wrestling has become my first love once more. It's all that I have to fill the void that she's left in my heart and soul.”
“Lester, whenever we face each other, I do not bring up your personal life, I keep things professional. I would appreciate it if you would show me the same courtesy. Not that I expect you to, but it's just one more way in which I prove myself to be better than you.”
“That being said, right now, personally and professionally, I'm feeling some emptiness. I don't think I need to explain why I'm feeling that in my personal life, but as for professionally, there's an emptiness right around my midsection..."
As Biggs is saying this, he makes the "title belt" motion around his waist.
"The fact is, inside the Elimination Chamber, I found myself oh so close to claiming the APW Undisputed Championship! It reminded me how much I want that Title, how much I need that Title! To be so close, and yet so far, well, I don't intend to keep my waist empty for long. The best way to get another title shot is to win matches, and that's exactly what I plan on doing tomorrow night on Overdrive! Why? Because I'm quite simply OUT OF THIS WORLD!"
"That's all the time I have for this week's First Contact. Thanks for watching, and until next time, keep watching the stars!”
The show comes to a close with Biggs walking towards the Lincoln Monument to get a better look at it, and the screen fading to black. The APW copyright and logo appear at the bottom of the screen.
I find myself struggling to unlock the front door of my house as I'm being pelted by the ever present Seattle rain. It's half-past midnight, and I've finally returned home for the first time in about a month. It's dark out, and obviously the porch light is not on. The wet keys slip out of my hands, and clank to the ground.
”Son of a gun!” I groan as I bend down to pick them up. Once I get my hands on them, I wipe them off with my coat sleeve, and pull out my cell phone to give me enough light to see which one is the right one to unlock the front door. After a brief moment, I find the key I'm looking for and make my way inside my home, making sure to wipe my feet before entering.
Once inside, I immediately turn on the foyer light, and close the door behind me. No need to let the wind and rain seep in to get me even more chilled than I already am. I leave my bags by the door, and head towards the kitchen. I'm famished, and popcorn sounds good right about now.
As I make my way over, turning on lights as I go along, I notice that other than some minor dust accumulation, the house as a whole is neat and tidy, like nobody has been here in ages. The fact that the house doesn't look lived in at all is a subtle reminder of losing Ellie. Normally whenever I'd return from a long trip on the road, I could tell that she cleaned up just a few hours before I got home, because there'd always be that one thing that she never quite had the time to finish. It makes my heart ache a bit to see the place so clean.
But then again, it's entirely my fault. Not that the place is clean. Before Ellie got here, I'd hire a cleaning service to help with the upkeep. But Ellie never had that growing up, and said it felt weird for her to have somebody else clean up her mess. But it's still my fault that Ellie's no longer here with me.
After my snack, I continue to make my way through the house, heading up towards the master bedroom. As I walk down the halls, I notice things missing here and there, like certain pictures of Ellie and myself, places where she kept her figurines, the like. Each missing item makes me miss Ellie just a little bit more.
Once I reach the bedroom, it's completely barren. The bed, the top of the dresser, the walls, everything is completely bare. ”Well, at least I can put all my Star Wars stuff back up...” I quip, even though there's nobody there to hear it but me. Opening up the dresser, I immediately sense how much lighter the drawers are with half the stuff in them. I rustle my close around in each drawer, trying to give them the illusion of being filled up. Is this what I've been doing with wrestling? Trying to give myself the illusion of being content?
The more I think about it, the more I realize the only times I've really been happy this past month and a half on the road are the times I've been inside the ring. Because those are the only times I haven't thought about Ellie.
After rummaging through the drawers a bit, I pull out a pair of boxer shorts, and A-frame tank top, and my Yoda pajama pants. Ellie hated them, because apparently whenever I put them on, I would talk like Yoda. Even thought she claimed to dislike it whenever I told her, ”Love you, do I!” I always heard her giggle about it, so I knew she actually thought it was cute.
I change into my PJ's, and the brush my teeth. As I swish the mint flavored toothpaste around in my mouth, I use my free hand to feel the cut on my forehead that required 13 stitches to shut after Terry Marvin rammed my head into the plexiglass pod more times than I care to count. In fact, I don't remember how many shots I took to the head, and I have some trouble recalling the final moments of the match. The doctors obviously checked me following the match, and concluded that I didn't suffer another concussion, but blacking out in the middle of a match is an experience that I've had more than once now. It's not a pleasant one, and it kind of confirms Ellie's worries. But only kind of. I didn't actually get another concussion, so to me at least, her fears are still unfounded. It's an empty conceit, but the only one I can make right now to give me any sense of comfort in this lonely place. I'm right, she was wrong, I'm still okay. At least that's what I'm telling myself to get by...
***
Depeche Mode's “Spacewalker” plays as the words FIRST CONTACT flash across the starry background in big, blue bold letters. The video then switches to Biggs standing in front of the Lincoln Memorial in Washington D.C. He's dressed in a dark navy blue pea-coat with a bright blue scarf and beanie.
”Ladies and gentlemen, one and all, welcome to the absolute best wrestling web-show on the entire Internet, I am speaking about Biggs' First Contact! Now I'm here in our nation's capital, just one day removed from election night, and just one day prior to my tag team match in which I join C.J. Gates in taking on the team of Level-One and John Dionysus. And while I'm absolutely thrilled to be getting another shot at Level-One, considering that this will be not just my first meeting with Dionysus, but also C.J.'s, I can't help but feel like this match was made just so the four of us would have something to do.”
“I mean sure, C.J. and I were able to put our differences aside for the time being inside the Elimination Chamber, but that was just a marriage of convenience. The whole point of that was to try and help the of us last a bit longer inside that steel hell. It worked better for me than it did for him, but moving forward from the Elimination Chamber, I don't really see any benefit from aligning myself with him.”
“I mean C.J., let's set aside for one moment the fact that you cost me seven months of my career, the bottom line is that you and I have such conflicting points of view on what it takes to succeed inside that ring that unless we had a common purpose, I don't really see us functioning as a unit. And while being booked in this tag team match makes us dependent on one another for victory, it's not really the same as it was inside the Elimination Chamber. You see, in the Chamber, we were fighting for the grandest prize in all of wrestling, the APW Undisputed Championship. The stakes literally couldn't be any higher! And as I told you before the match, the reason I wanted it to come down to you and me was because I wanted to pin you specifically to earn my second run as the APW Undisputed Champion. Now granted, this didn't happen, but my point is that in this tag team match, yeah, I want to win, but I don't have the same motivation in this match. Because had everything gone to plan inside the Chamber, I would have had the opportunity to defeat you, and pay you back, even just a little, for what you did to me last year at Christmas Chaos!”
“Tomorrow night, I don't get that chance. By carrying you along, C.J., I don't get to be rewarded for my efforts by getting some modicum of revenge on you, all I get is having to share victory with you. That's not nearly as appealing to me as the idea of getting to knock you silly. I'm just being honest.”
“But on the topic of being honest, C.J., that's one thing you don't have to worry about me on. I'm telling you the truth right now, and even though you probably don't like it, at least I'm giving you that courtesy. I don't like you, you like me, but we both want to win, which means we're still capable of pulling this match out tomorrow night. Because we did prove inside the Elimination Chamber that we are able to coexist, that we can work as a unit. Our double-team beat down on Level-One proved it! So I give you my word, C.J., that from bell to bell, there will be no funny business directed towards you. I will do nothing to intentionally harm or double-cross you. As I always say, I may not be a good man, but at least I'm honest about it. You can trust that I intend on working with you, and not against you tomorrow night.”
“This will give us a distinct advantage over Level-One and John Dionysus, because to my knowledge, this is their first time teaming together. And granted, you can never discount any team that has Level-One as one of its members, but the fact is that these two will not be on the same page going in. Level-One's ego is too big to allow it. And while you and I both have sizable egos, at least we have experience working in tandem. We can, and will, compliment each other in the ring this Thursday. I got a feeling that Lester and John will be wrestling the match as two singles wrestlers that happen to be paired together, rather than as a unit.”
“That being said, allow me to address our opponents for tomorrow night. John, I'm going to start with you, because quite frankly, I just don't really care that much about you. Sure, you've been a steadily rising star on Overdrive, and yeah, you've held the Xtreme Championship. But I've already made it known how much disdain I have for the Garbage Wrestling division. And yes, I realize that you were a big fish in a small pond in that division, that you do have actual wrestling talent, and you don't just resort to using weapons and the like to have any chance of winning a match. But the fact is, John, you still lowered yourself to the Xtreme Championship. Normally, the way it's supposed to work is that having a title belt is supposed to elevate the Mega Star holding it, and in turn, elevating the belt itself. And while it's true that having a Mega Star like yourself carrying the Xtreme Championship certainly helps the Xtreme Championship, it certainly did you no favors. Because the fact is, John, you were above it, at least, you used to be.”
“Just the fact that you participated in that stupid, barbaric monstrosity of a Japanese Death Match Battle Royale shows how you allowed yourself to devolve. What Terry Marvin, Level-One, C.J. Gates, Chris Hart, Kurt Noble and myself did inside the Elimination Chamber was wrestle. Sure, it was brutal! Sure, I'm still healing up from it...”
Biggs points to the scar on his forehead.
”But the bottom line is that what we did in there required skill, heart, and determination in order to succeed. We fought like men, as men. All I saw in watching the tapes of the Japanese Death Match was a bunch of animals going at each other, doing sick, disgusting things that weren't wrestling. You were just as guilty of it as anyone else in that match, John. But let me be the first to tell you, if you dare step in that ring tomorrow night in the same animalistic mindset you no doubt had to have in order to be in that joke of match, well, C.J. and I are going to have to just put you down like the dog that you were that night.”
“I know that you're a smart man, John, I know that you're above the baseness of the Garbage Wrestling division. But you're going to need to switch gears in a big way to have any hope of competing at the level you're going to need to in order to have a chance in the ring tomorrow night! I am excited about the prospect of facing off against you tomorrow night, John, really I am. It will be our first meeting inside an APW ring. I just hope it's the strong, thoughtful, deliberate John Dionysus, and not the animal.”
“Speaking of animals, how are you doing, Level-One, you ol' dog!? Now I know that you're pissed off that I seemingly have your number, at least that's what the folks on the internet are saying, but believe me, Level-One, I'm not buying into that hype at all. Because while I have gotten the better of you in our last two meetings, I also know that before that, every time we faced off, you always emerged victorious. Not that I'm keeping score or anything, but taking in account tag team matches, one-on-one contests, and the like, I think you're still ahead of me either 4 to 2, or 3 to 2, with several indecision thrown in for good measure. Don't think for a moment, Lester, that I think that I'm superior towards you. You have a strong reputation, an absolutely glowing legacy, and like you said, you are generally thought to be the measuring stick to whom everyone else is compared against here in APW, at least you have been these past three and a half years. Gosh, has it really been that long since you got here? The fact is, Level-One, I am well aware of how great you really are. You don't become a Four-Time Undisputed Champion without being great.”
“But Lester, what does bother me is the fact that you act like nobody else's accomplishments mean anything besides yours. And while I can't claim to be free of a self-centered point of view myself, I can at least acknowledge others for their successes. Heck, I just spent a few minutes talking about yours! And while the statue of limitations has probably passed on me being able to rest solely on the fact that I was one of the very few people in this industry who has beaten you for a championship, the reality is that you can never take that accomplishment away from me, Lester Only!”
“Just like you can't take away the fact that it was me who brought your most recent title hopes to an end! You can try to spin my performance inside the Chamber any way you want, the fact is that I hit you with the Spaced Out, then I pinned your shoulders to the mat for the one, two, THREE! You don't have to like it, Lester, but you do have to accept it. I outperformed you inside the Chamber. I outlasted you. I know I say this a lot, Lester, but this business isn't so much about what have you done so much as it's about what have you done lately. And between the two of us, I was closer to becoming the next APW Undisputed Champion than you were. And I know you're campaigning like some politician to try and get another title match with Terry Marvin, but I'm just going to let my performance in the ring do the talking for me. Sure, that might be boring to you, Level-One, but so long as it says wrestling on the marquee, which it still does, I like my chances of getting another shot at Terry. And you can bet that when I do, I won't waste it!”
“Tomorrow night's match may not have the stakes or intrigue that was present inside the Elimination Chamber at One Night in Hell. Heck, it only has half of the wrestlers from that contest! But believe me, John and Lester, that doesn't mean I want to win it any less. Even if it means teaming with a man whom I'd rather not even be in the same building with, even if it means having to deal with garbage wrestling, even if it means having to justify myself to a jerk who just won't be convinced that I'm a serious threat to him, I'm going to do whatever it takes to leave Washington D.C. a winner!”
“Now before I bring the show to a close, I wanted to quickly address a fallacy that Level-One has been perpetuating about me. Level-One has stated that I am a conservative man who lives a Christian lifestyle, going to church, and that I'm showing hypocrisy by divorcing Ellie. First off, Lester, I don't go to church anymore, not after the way they kicked me to the curb a few years ago. That, coupled with the fact that my whole career has been driven by the mantra the ends justify the means, it's a gross fallacy to say that I live by Christian values. As I've said before, I'm not a good man, but I'm honest about it.”
“Secondly, I did not chose to divorce Ellie, she chose to divorce me. It's a small, but important distinction to make. If it were up to me, I'd still be married, trying to work through our differences. The way I see it, she wasn't willing to do the same. I was going to leave wrestling for her. Had she kept up her word, I wouldn't have even been inside the Elimination Chamber, let alone fighting you tomorrow night. And yes, every moment I spend outside of the ring without her, I'm reminded of my failure as a husband, but I was willing to try and work things out. I may have resorted to taking shortcuts and the easy way out inside the ring, but I wasn't going to do that with my marriage. She gave up on me, I did not give up on her. And since she's gone, wrestling has become my first love once more. It's all that I have to fill the void that she's left in my heart and soul.”
“Lester, whenever we face each other, I do not bring up your personal life, I keep things professional. I would appreciate it if you would show me the same courtesy. Not that I expect you to, but it's just one more way in which I prove myself to be better than you.”
“That being said, right now, personally and professionally, I'm feeling some emptiness. I don't think I need to explain why I'm feeling that in my personal life, but as for professionally, there's an emptiness right around my midsection..."
As Biggs is saying this, he makes the "title belt" motion around his waist.
"The fact is, inside the Elimination Chamber, I found myself oh so close to claiming the APW Undisputed Championship! It reminded me how much I want that Title, how much I need that Title! To be so close, and yet so far, well, I don't intend to keep my waist empty for long. The best way to get another title shot is to win matches, and that's exactly what I plan on doing tomorrow night on Overdrive! Why? Because I'm quite simply OUT OF THIS WORLD!"
"That's all the time I have for this week's First Contact. Thanks for watching, and until next time, keep watching the stars!”
The show comes to a close with Biggs walking towards the Lincoln Monument to get a better look at it, and the screen fading to black. The APW copyright and logo appear at the bottom of the screen.
