Not So Silent Thoughts

[J-Hop]

RELEASE YOURSELF
“The Workout Plan”

12/16/12 – “Steel Gym” – New York, NY

Moments and times like these, when you are dealing with stress-issues or just wanting to keep in shape, the gym was your friend. I, never really was a ‘gymrat’ enthusiast. I was fine with how I looked in the mirror but today, I needed it. Not for the pure joy of looking like Arnold Schwarzenegger but for to relieve some built-up anger. Not just me, Anthony Bailey as well. We needed this session to both relieve ourselves as well as strengthen the bond as we were heading into a triple threat tag challenge for the APW Tag titles in a few days. We needed the strength, the chemistry, the mind to be in tact.

I figured a week would be suitable enough, an even time spread from the previous airing of Asylum to the week leading into ‘Christmas Chaos’. Timing was perfect. I didn’t know exactly what to do with myself after Asylum. I couldn’t believe the shit that ‘stale-ass’ Callahan pulled. Fine, he took the match but to go ten steps beyond afterwards, I wanted to sink every one of my knuckles through his grill, re-capturing the ‘Jason Kash’ look. I somehow held my emotions backstage till now, but they were inside, boiling at the tip, wanting release. This session of gym time, I hope could cure.

“Seven days from now, we have to somehow go into the ‘Garden’ and fight the good fight to get those tag titles. It’s going to be a rough ride, but I assure you, we will get it done!” Comforting words like that of what came out of my mouth could only do so much. Anthony was not in the greatest of moods. His eyes stared at the white walls that circled the gym as he sat on the bench.

Stricken with a bat, mercifully, beaten down with a chair, squished and the ultimate sign of disrespect, cigarette bud droppings on the face, if it were me, Callahan would no longer be here with us. He’d be resting with snakes, worms and dirt. However I knew Anthony would be a gentleman and handle it the best way possible. I don’t know how, as with all the bandaging on his face, his body, it was going to have to be a well-put plan, especially being he had to partake in two matches.

“Callahan, he’s scared of you. That’s why he did what he did. I wish I was there in time. I had to battle his friend, ‘Short Circuit’. He’s a goddamn militant robot!” I said as I just looked at Anthony, shaking my head.

He lightly chuckled, “It’s alright, he just makes it worst for himself come ‘Chaos’. But let’s not worry about him right now. We have four other individuals to focus on as well.” Bailey said as he quickly moved to the next subject. I just wasn’t sure how he could fight, feeling like he feels. Again, this was why I appreciated his work ethic, his career. It’s not too many like him.

“Yeah, I know. AJP, Logan, Deruty and Speede. It’s almost like an all-star banquet. They all have weakness; we just need to find them. I have been on my training. I know when it comes to times like these, I’ve looked to be ‘allergic’ to winning championship gold. I know they have that in their scouting report. They have you down for not being 100 percent, although you are like the new-age ‘Iron Man’.” Another chuckle was expressed by Bailey as I looked to try and cheer him up.

I got up off the bench, as I walked around to the other side of the bench where the Assisting Chin-Up machine sat. Stepping up onto it as I took off my “I Luv BK” black and white shirt, tossing it to the side, I gripped the bars, quickly getting to work as Bailey slowly grabbed a pair of the stylish barbells to the left of him. I stepped onto the lever as I held onto the armbars. Pushing down and up, it went, as I could quickly feel the procedure taking shape.

“This is too dope! Assisted chin-ups? I swear man, they keep an eye on the ‘little people’ of the world.” I said, chuckling at my own remark of the exercise machine.

Anthony worked the muscles in his arm as he went up and down with the barbells, with a very slow and moderate pace.

“You do know there has been a change to our match, right?” Anthony said as I just had my eyes closed.

“No.” You could hear the change in tone of voice from that one-word answer.

“It’s still a triple threat, just with the addition of it being elimination-style.”

As he said that, I damn near fell off the machine, foot slipping as I had only the handle bars to use to help me back into position.

“Our game has to be that much tighter. Elimination, those two teams, it’s going to be frickin’ haywire!” I said, after getting my balance back on the machine.

It remained silent momentarily as we both went through with a few reps before pausing again.

“We can’t bother to worry about it. As long as we stick to the script, we will be fine.”

“Well hopefully neither one of us gets ousted or it will be a lot harder to compete, knowing you can’t tag your partner in, therefore looking silly as hell, with your arm out flailing in the air, hoping for contact.” I spoke, responding to that of what Bailey had just said.

“It will never come to that option. We may have not been as a team for long, but our chemistry is in tact. I know you will do all you can to keep us going as I would do the same. There’s four different personalities in that ring that we’re facing.”

I followed in right after…

“Yeah, AJP and Logan both carry that technical, submissive trait. They can deliver deadly holds that will have you tapping quickly if caught. Deruty and Speede, both like to fly around.”

Anthony nodded his head slow as with his free hand, he points as if a lightbulb had gone off in his head.

“Deruty, I wonder how he will fair with his move selection being that he will be participating in that North American title match on Meltdown on the twenty-second. Logan is in there as well.”

I looked over at Bailey, a small, unnoticeable smirk was on my face.

“Battling in a crucial match, just twenty-four hours from another crucial match at the top of an event, that will surely take into their decisions come show time. It could be of help anyways although AJP and Speede will be fresh for the tag.” I said, sounding like I had a plan.

I couldn’t even bank on such thing, even if they were fighting twenty-four hours in two matches, they still would die for what they’re fighting for. The tag titles, looking to never disappoint their following. Me and Bailey, we just had to do our thing and only that and cash in on the opportunities given.

“Either way, it’s going to be a hell of a showdown!”

Bailey nodded as he went back to his barbells.

“No doubt!”

“Since I’m back home, for lunch, how about some of the finest effin’ pizza for lunch!” I asked Bailey as it seemed like a good day, time for it.

“Sounds good to me.” Bailey responded, agreeing on the menu for lunch.

Lunch was settled for now as it was a good three hours away. Me and Bailey went back to work as this was our time to workout, keeping that bond going as it would only lead to a much smoother outcome.

NO PLACE LIKE HOME
“The Mecca”
Promo vs. "M&M" + "Roy Speede/ Donald Deruty

You could smell the signature aroma of what were the local eateries. In the middle, it was the ‘Mecca of All Sports’, Madison Square Garden as it was clearly visible in the entrance, the letters spelling it out with the word “Square” being shortened to “Sq”. It was a home-coming for the young one, Jair Hopkins. Wrestling in front of his fans and his friends, it was going to be the highlight of his career. Although in distance, that of Brooklyn, it was home either way.

Standing out in the chilling air in front of ‘MSG’, Jair with his leather-fur coat, he sat on one of the steel metal trash cans, his feet dangling, just missing contact with the concrete sidewalk. His head was bent down, thinking, thinking of what to possibly say in honor of what was to come, just days away now. “Christmas Chaos” would be here, all red, white and green with a dash of violence. Jair, moments later raised his head up, as he started to slowly shake it sideways.

“People keep taking my kindness for weakness…”

“…Envi, Kash, Callahan, just to name a few … They all have taken me ‘lightly’. They see this “image” and they look to fiddle with it. They look to drive ripples through it to affect it. I get it, I’m a rookie, I’ve forgotten how many months it’s been. The fact is, for whom they’ve seen for months now, they look to get a worthy shot in any fashion they can, to insult, embarrass, deface this young man. With smiles of accomplishments on their acne-filled faces, they see the good in what they’ve done, completely ignoring the consequences of their doings.”

“Someone told me before, I have no “bite”. I don’t have that eagerness to destroy another human with force and intensity. I didn’t come equipped with that ‘wild’ mentality. I’m a kid from Brooklyn with hopes and dreams of being the best in ‘something’. That ‘something’ was this … Wrestling. Didn’t expect it to start with ease, but thanks to some guidance, it became less difficult than I had previously imagined. Those I hurt, it wasn’t on purpose, it was no mistake in the way I perform, it just was a ‘freak’ occurrence. I’ve never been one who seeks to get revenge because I’ve always lived by the quote, “What goes around, Comes around!” I never had to worry about revenge because that deal usually settles itself out in the later goings. However, after what the FUCK I’ve gone through within the past couple of weeks, that quote just might get sidelined for a bit.”

A smirk followed with another ‘thought processing’ expression on his face, Jair looked around before looking back into the camera lens.

“After what transpired last week on Asylum, that seems like the perfect idea. For Callahan and his ‘mindless mutant’, payback is going to be hellacious. Sending your troll out on me, just to get a ‘one on one’ session with Bailey, it was the worst, fucked-up mistake you’ve done in your career, and I’m sure the list is long. To take to Bailey with a bat, sit on him with a chair, then the ultimate disrespect of ‘flicking’ your cigarette bud onto his skin, you’ve earned yourself a personalized tombstone. I know Ant’ is in pain, I could definitely see it but he strives off of ‘odds’. I only hope that in the end, Bailey spares me a little of yourself, Callahan, just so I can appreciate you with a ‘skull-beating’ session.”

“Time will come obviously, Callahan and those days are truly numbered. Bailey has taught me a lot about moments like these where you have to try and restrain from letting the devil overrule you. Wasting words, time speaking on the ill only allows us to forget the present. The present, the two teams who will be seeing me and my partner, Anthony Bailey first, to kick the show off. As much of an upset alert it already is with some critics, we can’t let this slip by. We worked too hard for this in just a short amount of time.”

“I respect the other four individuals, they as teams have fought to get to this point as well. They have the same equal chances of getting this all important “W”. It all comes down to who … who truly wants it more than the other. I’ve watched Aubrey grow from afar. The noise about her, it’s real. We carry a few things in common, the ‘future gem’ of wrestling, being tutored under a respected name, person. She had Logan, I had Anthony. They make a great team, they know their identity. Deruty and Speede, the ‘young guns’ of Meltdown. They have a shot at pulling an ‘upset’ against me, Anthony and Aubrey and her partner, Logan. They’ve been talked about for days, building up to Christmas Chaos.”

Jair nodded his head, remembering those days of being in the shoes of Deruty and Speede.

“I had my share of that spotlight. People and the media, constantly ‘egging’ you for a witty response. Putting more pressure on you than before, because they expect you to pull a ‘miracle’ out of your ass in upsetting the ‘favorites’. They expect their bets to pay off from your work of garnishing a victory in a match where you only had a 33.3 percent chance of winning. The likes of “M&M” or “The Dying Breed”, they see major flaws to where they believe the ‘longshots’ like Deruty and Speede can cash in.”

Jair, he delivers a grin as he just stares into the lens.

“It’s going to take more than that to deject us from our missions of becoming tag team champions. This is our shot, our chance to make that message clear. We aren’t going anywhere, we may be spread thin, as far as our breed, but we’re far from extinction. Beating teams like Envikado, SoS, and others, your notoriety becomes that much bigger, leading you to this exact location. MSG, the Mecca, where all the kids get to put their ‘big boy’ pants on and show out. I expect that out of you two. I expect to see you lay it all on the line for the gold. You hold back, you’ll never advance. People already are claiming you two as ‘champs’ and we’re only three days away. Hype is fun, isn’t it? It’s time to bank on that hype.”

“My past is exactly that, the past. At times and events like these, I’ve come up short, on quite a few occasions, I know that, Anthony knows that and thanks to him and the boost on training, I’m working those ‘kinks’ out. Come ‘CC’, there will be a revised ‘Jair Hopkins’. I’ve grown tired of the disrespect, the vile actions, the corny bullshit of those who did their best to ‘put me down’. They say ‘J-Hop’ ain’t got no aggression to his demeanor…”

Jair hops off of the trashcan and onto his feet as he takes the camera and hold it up.

“Just wait until the 23rd…”