Post by A.C. Smith on Nov 27, 2012 23:40:43 GMT -4
Our scene opens today inside A.C. Smith’s luxurious New York City penthouse. The last time we saw the inside of it was last week on Overdrive, when a brawl between Jason Kash and Knuckles tore the dining room apart and ruined Smith’s intricately-planned Thanksgiving dinner.
Today, we see the aftermath of last Thursday’s events. Bobby the Bavarian Man-Bitch and Stevie the Slovakian Slobberknocker each have clipboards in their hands, while Smith is seething as he sits at the head of his table drinking coffee.
The room is largely silent with the exception of Bobby and Stevie’s pencils, which rub against the paper and clipboard every few seconds. Bobby interrupts the silence with a damage report.
Bobby: “OK, here’s what I’ve got. You’re out four dishes, a serving platter, a tablecloth, and a chair.”
Stevie: “You’re also going to need a new door for your curio cabinet, and probably new carpeting in here unless you know some way to get a mashed potato stain out of shag.”
A.C.: “Wonderful. Just wonderful.”
The biting sarcasm from Smith’s words echoes around the room as he shakes his head and pours half-and-half into his morning drink. Bobby and Stevie are almost afraid to speak.
Bobby: “I’ll take a look online and see what kind of deals I can get on new stuff.”
A.C.: “Yeah. Yeah, you do that and go make yourself useful for once.”
Stevie: “Ace, we’re sorry. We had no idea this was going to turn into a fight.”
A.C.: “Just go help Bobby find prices on stuff. It’s Christmas season, at least, so things’ll be a little bit cheaper.”
Smith never once makes direct eye contact with his friends. Instead, he almost focuses solely on his drink and the saucer it rests on, only occasionally bringing the smoking cup of hot coffee to his lips for a sip.
Stevie sticks around for a second, hoping for some sign that things will be OK to come from his friend before realizing that that sign won’t come soon. Stevie then shakes his head as he leaves the shot, and Smith finishes off his coffee before pounding the cup down on the saucer, and hard.
Too hard, in fact, as the cup and saucer both crack into several pieces.
Bobby: “Should I add a cup and saucer to the list?”
Smith doesn’t answer. He doesn’t have to.
After a few seconds, Smith shakes his head. The focus that was once on his morning coffee shifts upward to the camera located a few feet away from him. As he looks up, we see that his entire disposition reeks of the age-old, terrifying parental quote, “I’m not mad, I’m disappointed.”
His face isn’t red, and his eyes aren’t locked in their all-too-familiar glare, but his shoulders are sunk and he takes a deep breath, slouching just a bit as the air escapes his lungs, goes up his throat, and leaves through his mouth. After a few more moments, he opens his mouth to speak.
A.C.: “I don’t ask for much. Really, I don’t. And all I wanted last week was exactly what I’d gotten every Thanksgiving for the last 10 years: A quiet dinner with my two best friends. But no. Bobby blabbed to Knuckles, Stevie invited Jason Kash, and all hell broke loose.
At some point, Knucks and Kash will get what’s coming to them. And hopefully, Bobby and Stevie can help fix all the damage they caused. But as unfortunate as last week was, and as unhappy as I am about what happened last Thursday night, it’s all in the past, and the only thing one can do is move forward. That’s a lesson my opponent this week, John Dionysus, would do very well to digest.”
Smith pauses, sweeping the shattered cup and saucer down the table and out of his reach before refocusing his eyes on the camera.
A.C.: “Last week, John Dionysus, a man who I respect a great deal for what he stands for, went on and on about how people said he was on a losing streak. They said he’d lost his edge. And for as much time as he spent trying to disprove it, he didn’t exactly make good use of it. He was at Overdrive, sure, but did he spend any of his time trying to win an elimination match or the ensuing battle royal? No. He, ineffectively, challenged Evan Harrison, who brushed him off with ease.
I’m not going to pour dirt on John Dionysus and call him dead. That’s too much disrespect for a man that’s done some really good things in Action Packed Wrestling. But the truth is that what I think may not matter. If Dionysus has convinced himself that he’s in a funk, using words like ‘pain of defeat,’ ‘ill-fated,’ and ‘a few short steps from oblivion’ isn’t going to make that go away.
I’ve been in slumps before. And the way you bounce out of them isn’t by going back out there, trying too hard, and falling victim to the same mistakes you’ve been making for weeks on end. It’s by going to the film room, to an advisor, to anyone or anything who can teach you what you’re doing wrong, and correcting yourself. John Dionysus hasn’t done that. He’s got a lot of pride in himself because of what he’s done in the past, and he’s convinced he can just work his way out of it. Well, that’s just not true.”
Smith shakes his head, and his eyebrows furrow just a bit.
A.C.: “I’ve been there before, and it’s not a fun place to be. Anyone who thinks I’m there now, just because the last time I was in a ring I didn’t win the Xtreme Championship, has no idea what they’re talking about. Several times, I’ve thought my career was over. For someone who loves this business so much that he wrestles because he wants to, not because he NEEDS to for financial reasons, that’s almost like a death sentence.
I’ve had my ankle shattered. I’ve put my career on the line when a World Championship was at stake. And I’ve gone through more mind games than anyone would ever wish on their worst enemies. But I’ve endured. Not because I’m some superhuman who doesn’t feel pain, but because I’m about the most rational, level-headed person you’ll ever come across in professional wrestling. When things need to change, I change them. And as a result, when people underestimate me, expecting a weaker, less-talented A.C. Smith, they get the rudest awakenings possible.
In fact, the only prior time Dionysus and I have locked up, people were treating me as someone who didn’t deserve the opportunity. I’d just qualified for Test for the Best, and I was the guy looked at as Terry Marvin’s sacrificial lamb. But that was never, EVER going to happen, and before I gave Terry Marvin the fight of his life and almost stopped the Summer of Showtime before it began, I tagged with Marvin against Dionysus and Keaton Saint.
Terry and I don’t see eye-to-eye on many things. He tried, many times, to stick the proverbial knife in my back to make me an easier out at the pay-per-view. Dionysus and Saint had every reason to roll in, work as a team, and decimate Terry Marvin and myself. But they didn’t. And when the dust settled, it wasn’t our current APW Undisputed Champion picking up the win via pinfall. It was me, and John Dionysus was helpless to stop it.”
That memory, one of the high points of Smith’s APW career to date, makes the Big Apple Asskicker smile. Not a fleeting smile, either, but one that stays on his face through a slight chuckle as he opens his mouth again.
A.C.: “John Dionysus should remember, very vividly, what happened that night on Overdrive. That night, I didn’t just win a big match. I went out early in the show, I told everyone what I was going to do, and then I went out and did it. Very few people in this industry can honestly say that they’ve done that. I’m one of them, and that’s not even the best example.
The point is, though, what the world of wrestling ‘insiders’ thinks doesn’t really matter to me. At the end of the day, I’ve made myself a ton of money, traveled around the world dozens of times, and have the greatest fans any athlete could ever ask for. All you have to do to know that I’m over the bullshit that so many in my business get swallowed up by is follow me around for a day. There are few people more focused than me from bell to bell, but once I shower and leave the arena, the stench of backstage politics just washes away.
Can you honestly say the same about John Dionysus? He says he’s not concerned about what people think of his losing streak, yet when we last saw him before one of his matches, that’s all he talked about. He’s trying to challenge Evan Harrison to a match, but Evan wants nothing to do with him. For as much as he’s accomplished in Action Packed Wrestling up until now, Dionysus has become a shell of his former self, and that’s a real shame.”
Smith shrugs.
A.C.: “See, that’s really tough for me to say, because underneath everything, Dionysus and I have a ton in common. We both aspire to handle our business with little to no bullshit involved, and we’re generally mild-mannered, authentic guys who have no problem telling it like it is. When I first came into APW this past spring, Dionysus was one of the guys in the locker room whose influence I looked up to. I said to myself, ‘Self, there’s no reason you can’t be the same guy the fans have loved you for being for 10 years.’
But somewhere along the way, something changed. He allowed whatever losing streak he thinks he’s on to possess him, and as such he’s trying harder and harder to reclaim the glory he once had. When you do that, you tend to leave yourself wide-open for someone else to take advantage, and that’s what’s happened these past few weeks and months. Now, he goes into this Thursday’s matchup with me on Overdrive in Providence with a lingering sense of doubt.
As low as I’ve been during my career at times (and believe me, things have gotten pretty damn low), I never once doubted my ability to bounce back and get the job done. Underneath everything, I’m the same guy that’s won six World titles, retired a long list of distinguished wrestlers, and entertained fans the world over. The word ‘doubt’ has never been in my vocabulary, and it’ll never go there for as long as I’m under contract to Action Packed Wrestling.
John Dionysus, though, may as well have ‘doubt’ as his middle name. He’s been trying, and trying, and trying to reverse this curse he thinks he has, and he’s going about it all wrong. Now, he’s wondering if he’ll ever bounce back, and it’s concerning to see someone pretty much everyone in APW respects struggling so much. But that doesn’t mean I’ll be taking it easy on him this week. Far from it.”
Again, Smith shakes his head. However, before he can continue, Bobby walks back into the frame with his iPad in hand.
Bobby: “We’ve got a figure here for you.”
A.C.: “How bad is it?”
Smith sits up straight as Bobby drops the iPad to his eye level. After a few seconds, Smith’s eyebrows go halfway up his forehead in shock.
A.C.: “Talk about an expensive Thanksgiving dinner.”
Bobby: “Look, we’re sorry. We want to help.”
A.C.: “Good! Pay for everything!”
Bobby: “Well, we don’t want to help THAT much.”
Quickly, Bobby darts out of the frame. As annoyed as he may have been earlier, he realizes Bobby and Stevie are impossible to stay mad at for too long, and despite his head-shaking, he lets a couple of chuckles come out from his throat.
A.C.: “Shit happens, and there’s really no other way to put it. It’s how you respond to adversity that determines how you’ll be remembered. I’ve made a career out of being knocked down, getting back up, and being better when faced with a similar situation the next time. You can’t succeed in wrestling without doing that, and John Dionysus is finding that out the hard way.
I like John. After our match Thursday, I’ll shake his hand and wish him luck going forward. And I hope that if someday he gets Evan Harrison in the ring on a big stage, he can knock some sense into his thick skull, something I tried doing for far too long. But with where his head’s at now, his recent win-loss record isn’t an accident. Instead of going back to the drawing board and rethinking things, he’s displaying Albert Einstein’s definition of insanity, which is doing the same thing over and over expecting a different result. And, in a shocking turn of events, that hasn’t exactly worked out well for him.
This week, I’m afraid his bad luck will continue, this time at my hands. Wins are tough to come by here in APW, where you’re facing the best of the best every single week. But while I feel bad for John Dionysus’s plight, that doesn’t mean I’m going to let up. On Thursday night, you won’t see any food fights, or china breaking, or dining rooms being ruined. What you’ll see is me doing what I do best: Out-wrestling a high-quality opponent and picking up the win.
Nobody bounces back from a setback better than the Big Apple Asskicker. And this Thursday in Providence, I’ll prove that once again.”
Smith slides his chair away from the table and rises to his full 6’8” height before pushing his chair back in. He then gingerly steps around the mashed potato stain left on his dining room carpet before joining his friends in his penthouse living room as our scene fades to black.
Today, we see the aftermath of last Thursday’s events. Bobby the Bavarian Man-Bitch and Stevie the Slovakian Slobberknocker each have clipboards in their hands, while Smith is seething as he sits at the head of his table drinking coffee.
The room is largely silent with the exception of Bobby and Stevie’s pencils, which rub against the paper and clipboard every few seconds. Bobby interrupts the silence with a damage report.
Bobby: “OK, here’s what I’ve got. You’re out four dishes, a serving platter, a tablecloth, and a chair.”
Stevie: “You’re also going to need a new door for your curio cabinet, and probably new carpeting in here unless you know some way to get a mashed potato stain out of shag.”
A.C.: “Wonderful. Just wonderful.”
The biting sarcasm from Smith’s words echoes around the room as he shakes his head and pours half-and-half into his morning drink. Bobby and Stevie are almost afraid to speak.
Bobby: “I’ll take a look online and see what kind of deals I can get on new stuff.”
A.C.: “Yeah. Yeah, you do that and go make yourself useful for once.”
Stevie: “Ace, we’re sorry. We had no idea this was going to turn into a fight.”
A.C.: “Just go help Bobby find prices on stuff. It’s Christmas season, at least, so things’ll be a little bit cheaper.”
Smith never once makes direct eye contact with his friends. Instead, he almost focuses solely on his drink and the saucer it rests on, only occasionally bringing the smoking cup of hot coffee to his lips for a sip.
Stevie sticks around for a second, hoping for some sign that things will be OK to come from his friend before realizing that that sign won’t come soon. Stevie then shakes his head as he leaves the shot, and Smith finishes off his coffee before pounding the cup down on the saucer, and hard.
Too hard, in fact, as the cup and saucer both crack into several pieces.
Bobby: “Should I add a cup and saucer to the list?”
Smith doesn’t answer. He doesn’t have to.
After a few seconds, Smith shakes his head. The focus that was once on his morning coffee shifts upward to the camera located a few feet away from him. As he looks up, we see that his entire disposition reeks of the age-old, terrifying parental quote, “I’m not mad, I’m disappointed.”
His face isn’t red, and his eyes aren’t locked in their all-too-familiar glare, but his shoulders are sunk and he takes a deep breath, slouching just a bit as the air escapes his lungs, goes up his throat, and leaves through his mouth. After a few more moments, he opens his mouth to speak.
A.C.: “I don’t ask for much. Really, I don’t. And all I wanted last week was exactly what I’d gotten every Thanksgiving for the last 10 years: A quiet dinner with my two best friends. But no. Bobby blabbed to Knuckles, Stevie invited Jason Kash, and all hell broke loose.
At some point, Knucks and Kash will get what’s coming to them. And hopefully, Bobby and Stevie can help fix all the damage they caused. But as unfortunate as last week was, and as unhappy as I am about what happened last Thursday night, it’s all in the past, and the only thing one can do is move forward. That’s a lesson my opponent this week, John Dionysus, would do very well to digest.”
Smith pauses, sweeping the shattered cup and saucer down the table and out of his reach before refocusing his eyes on the camera.
A.C.: “Last week, John Dionysus, a man who I respect a great deal for what he stands for, went on and on about how people said he was on a losing streak. They said he’d lost his edge. And for as much time as he spent trying to disprove it, he didn’t exactly make good use of it. He was at Overdrive, sure, but did he spend any of his time trying to win an elimination match or the ensuing battle royal? No. He, ineffectively, challenged Evan Harrison, who brushed him off with ease.
I’m not going to pour dirt on John Dionysus and call him dead. That’s too much disrespect for a man that’s done some really good things in Action Packed Wrestling. But the truth is that what I think may not matter. If Dionysus has convinced himself that he’s in a funk, using words like ‘pain of defeat,’ ‘ill-fated,’ and ‘a few short steps from oblivion’ isn’t going to make that go away.
I’ve been in slumps before. And the way you bounce out of them isn’t by going back out there, trying too hard, and falling victim to the same mistakes you’ve been making for weeks on end. It’s by going to the film room, to an advisor, to anyone or anything who can teach you what you’re doing wrong, and correcting yourself. John Dionysus hasn’t done that. He’s got a lot of pride in himself because of what he’s done in the past, and he’s convinced he can just work his way out of it. Well, that’s just not true.”
Smith shakes his head, and his eyebrows furrow just a bit.
A.C.: “I’ve been there before, and it’s not a fun place to be. Anyone who thinks I’m there now, just because the last time I was in a ring I didn’t win the Xtreme Championship, has no idea what they’re talking about. Several times, I’ve thought my career was over. For someone who loves this business so much that he wrestles because he wants to, not because he NEEDS to for financial reasons, that’s almost like a death sentence.
I’ve had my ankle shattered. I’ve put my career on the line when a World Championship was at stake. And I’ve gone through more mind games than anyone would ever wish on their worst enemies. But I’ve endured. Not because I’m some superhuman who doesn’t feel pain, but because I’m about the most rational, level-headed person you’ll ever come across in professional wrestling. When things need to change, I change them. And as a result, when people underestimate me, expecting a weaker, less-talented A.C. Smith, they get the rudest awakenings possible.
In fact, the only prior time Dionysus and I have locked up, people were treating me as someone who didn’t deserve the opportunity. I’d just qualified for Test for the Best, and I was the guy looked at as Terry Marvin’s sacrificial lamb. But that was never, EVER going to happen, and before I gave Terry Marvin the fight of his life and almost stopped the Summer of Showtime before it began, I tagged with Marvin against Dionysus and Keaton Saint.
Terry and I don’t see eye-to-eye on many things. He tried, many times, to stick the proverbial knife in my back to make me an easier out at the pay-per-view. Dionysus and Saint had every reason to roll in, work as a team, and decimate Terry Marvin and myself. But they didn’t. And when the dust settled, it wasn’t our current APW Undisputed Champion picking up the win via pinfall. It was me, and John Dionysus was helpless to stop it.”
That memory, one of the high points of Smith’s APW career to date, makes the Big Apple Asskicker smile. Not a fleeting smile, either, but one that stays on his face through a slight chuckle as he opens his mouth again.
A.C.: “John Dionysus should remember, very vividly, what happened that night on Overdrive. That night, I didn’t just win a big match. I went out early in the show, I told everyone what I was going to do, and then I went out and did it. Very few people in this industry can honestly say that they’ve done that. I’m one of them, and that’s not even the best example.
The point is, though, what the world of wrestling ‘insiders’ thinks doesn’t really matter to me. At the end of the day, I’ve made myself a ton of money, traveled around the world dozens of times, and have the greatest fans any athlete could ever ask for. All you have to do to know that I’m over the bullshit that so many in my business get swallowed up by is follow me around for a day. There are few people more focused than me from bell to bell, but once I shower and leave the arena, the stench of backstage politics just washes away.
Can you honestly say the same about John Dionysus? He says he’s not concerned about what people think of his losing streak, yet when we last saw him before one of his matches, that’s all he talked about. He’s trying to challenge Evan Harrison to a match, but Evan wants nothing to do with him. For as much as he’s accomplished in Action Packed Wrestling up until now, Dionysus has become a shell of his former self, and that’s a real shame.”
Smith shrugs.
A.C.: “See, that’s really tough for me to say, because underneath everything, Dionysus and I have a ton in common. We both aspire to handle our business with little to no bullshit involved, and we’re generally mild-mannered, authentic guys who have no problem telling it like it is. When I first came into APW this past spring, Dionysus was one of the guys in the locker room whose influence I looked up to. I said to myself, ‘Self, there’s no reason you can’t be the same guy the fans have loved you for being for 10 years.’
But somewhere along the way, something changed. He allowed whatever losing streak he thinks he’s on to possess him, and as such he’s trying harder and harder to reclaim the glory he once had. When you do that, you tend to leave yourself wide-open for someone else to take advantage, and that’s what’s happened these past few weeks and months. Now, he goes into this Thursday’s matchup with me on Overdrive in Providence with a lingering sense of doubt.
As low as I’ve been during my career at times (and believe me, things have gotten pretty damn low), I never once doubted my ability to bounce back and get the job done. Underneath everything, I’m the same guy that’s won six World titles, retired a long list of distinguished wrestlers, and entertained fans the world over. The word ‘doubt’ has never been in my vocabulary, and it’ll never go there for as long as I’m under contract to Action Packed Wrestling.
John Dionysus, though, may as well have ‘doubt’ as his middle name. He’s been trying, and trying, and trying to reverse this curse he thinks he has, and he’s going about it all wrong. Now, he’s wondering if he’ll ever bounce back, and it’s concerning to see someone pretty much everyone in APW respects struggling so much. But that doesn’t mean I’ll be taking it easy on him this week. Far from it.”
Again, Smith shakes his head. However, before he can continue, Bobby walks back into the frame with his iPad in hand.
Bobby: “We’ve got a figure here for you.”
A.C.: “How bad is it?”
Smith sits up straight as Bobby drops the iPad to his eye level. After a few seconds, Smith’s eyebrows go halfway up his forehead in shock.
A.C.: “Talk about an expensive Thanksgiving dinner.”
Bobby: “Look, we’re sorry. We want to help.”
A.C.: “Good! Pay for everything!”
Bobby: “Well, we don’t want to help THAT much.”
Quickly, Bobby darts out of the frame. As annoyed as he may have been earlier, he realizes Bobby and Stevie are impossible to stay mad at for too long, and despite his head-shaking, he lets a couple of chuckles come out from his throat.
A.C.: “Shit happens, and there’s really no other way to put it. It’s how you respond to adversity that determines how you’ll be remembered. I’ve made a career out of being knocked down, getting back up, and being better when faced with a similar situation the next time. You can’t succeed in wrestling without doing that, and John Dionysus is finding that out the hard way.
I like John. After our match Thursday, I’ll shake his hand and wish him luck going forward. And I hope that if someday he gets Evan Harrison in the ring on a big stage, he can knock some sense into his thick skull, something I tried doing for far too long. But with where his head’s at now, his recent win-loss record isn’t an accident. Instead of going back to the drawing board and rethinking things, he’s displaying Albert Einstein’s definition of insanity, which is doing the same thing over and over expecting a different result. And, in a shocking turn of events, that hasn’t exactly worked out well for him.
This week, I’m afraid his bad luck will continue, this time at my hands. Wins are tough to come by here in APW, where you’re facing the best of the best every single week. But while I feel bad for John Dionysus’s plight, that doesn’t mean I’m going to let up. On Thursday night, you won’t see any food fights, or china breaking, or dining rooms being ruined. What you’ll see is me doing what I do best: Out-wrestling a high-quality opponent and picking up the win.
Nobody bounces back from a setback better than the Big Apple Asskicker. And this Thursday in Providence, I’ll prove that once again.”
Smith slides his chair away from the table and rises to his full 6’8” height before pushing his chair back in. He then gingerly steps around the mashed potato stain left on his dining room carpet before joining his friends in his penthouse living room as our scene fades to black.
