Post by Chris Strike on Dec 22, 2012 0:55:10 GMT -4
((OOC: A massive, big thank you to SalTal for allowing me permission to use Sally in this piece...you rock, chica.))
“…Sally might have to find herself a new “pillar,” because this clown Strike is crumbling oh so fast.”
-------------------
Sunday Night Asylum
December 9, 2012
Cleveland, Ohio
OFF-CAMERA
Tossing his elbow pads against the wall with his APW Suicidal title soon being placed out of harm’s way onto the nearby bench (nearly sliding out of it with the way Strike places the gold on it), the gaze on Chris Strike’s face is enough to indicate he wishes he could commit something close to damn near murder upon a soul after his second round against Johnny Knuckles and a second loss against the worthless, spineless piece of absolute crap that he KNEW wasn’t anywhere his level. A second match, a second loss and quite frankly, for a guy that won and now held a championship belt in APW shortly after his arrival, he wasn’t exactly up to the hottest of starts. Two one-on-one losses in a row to a guy who was hunting for his championship belt, the damn near ambush at his hands by Jason Kash prior to this week’s bout against Knuckles. A rather rare moment of frustration behind closed doors for the “God of Thunder” when given the past week…the chaos and the swerve in sinful lands that allowed the SCW Global Heavyweight title to slip through his fingers and then added to a second loss to Johnny Knuckles of all fucking things…
So much for the hot start and so much for the grand future that himself and the Four Pillars promise to deliver if Chris Strike can’t do his part to support his column out of the four. Taking a seat on the bench, he placed his hands through the locks of his hair, about inches away from digging fingernails into his skull as he ran the hands across it before a voice brought him back to reality from his train of thought…
“It’s not entirely on you, Chris.”
Standing by the door of the locker room here Strike was going haywire was none other than another fellow Pillar, the woman whose vision led to the formation of the Pillars – the practical “Cars” to Strike’s “Wham,” Saint’s “AC/DC” and TJ’s “Santana.” Now that we’ve got at least ONE ‘JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure – Part 2: Battle Tendency’ reference in this noise, the look of concern on the current APW World Heavyweight’s champion was a clear one as Chris turned his head to look over in her general direction.
“Are you kidding me, Sal? Did you see what happened out there? I should have him now. TWICE, I should have had him and I couldn’t close.” Chris shook his head in pure, sheer discontent. “I hate that fucking asshole.”
“I know what it’s like to have that level of disdain for somebody. I do. But you went out there and put on one hell of a bout, Chris. Maybe the result didn’t go your way, but being so hard on yourself afterward won’t change that.”
“…not hard enough.” Chris shook his head continuously, the words running through his head like a mantra. “Not. Hard. Enough.”
The expression on Sally’s face changed from a look of concern to something more akin to a sigh followed by a gaze that was probably reserved for somebody that was a little too stubborn at time. Crossing her arms, she made her way inside and leaned against the nearest wall, placing her right foot against the wall, hands behind the back of her head.
“If there was one thing that Apollo was right about you, it’s definitely about your competitive streak.” The mention of TFWF’s ‘Red Comet,’ Strike’s brother-in-law via marriage draws a gaze from the ‘God of Thunder’ that reeks of volatile feelings, enough to make Sally throw her hands up in the air. “What? He’s not wrong, you know…”
True, Sally had known Apollo longer due to their allegiance as the ‘New Experts’ in last year’s tournament. He shouldn’t hold it against her, especially given the issues between himself and Leander were something far more personal, issues that had absolutely nothing to do with her and no one else. “Long story,” Strike explained, waving his hand in the air dismissively. “I’ll tell you sometime when it’s not anywhere near as fresh and enough to send me into a frenzy.”
“Regardless of any issues between you two, this validates my opinion about you all that much more.” Leaning off the wall, Talfourd took a few steps closer to the bench where Strike sat, taking a seat herself. “You keep pushing yourself regardless of what happens out there. Even if you had beaten Knuckles in flawless fashion, odds are that you would have still been criticizing yourself on one or two things you didn’t do as good. I can respect that level of darn near perfectionist you expect of yourself on every given night…it’s why I wanted you as a Pillar in the first place.” Sally gave Strike a firm pat across his back, her own personal reassurance to him on all of those words. “Don’t listen to the background noise that some of the roster has thrown on you since arriving here in APW. You’ve earned your right to be here in Asylum right off the bat after winning your chance to fight for the Suicidal title in Tokyo. You earned your chance to walk into a chaotic environment and you earned your win over Jason Kash for that Suicidal championship.”
The current APW World Heavyweight champion glances down at the APW Suicidal title that is in between them, taking the title and handing it to Chris Strike herself, as Chris gradually places his hands on the other side of the strap and grabbed it, staring at his reflection on the gold and at the lettering around it.
“The facts are there, Chris. Your name is in that championship. You are a Pillar, somebody that has made an impact from the get-go here in APW, somebody that APW was savoring to get for a long time and at Christmas Chaos…in the exact same arena where we are marching together as a team to show the world that Asylum is the must-see brand of APW against Marvin and Hart…you’ll have your chance at redemption.” Sally Talfourd’s own eyes brimmed with determination as she looked on at her fellow Pillar Man. “At Christmas Chaos, TJ and Keaton are going to put on a clinic for the Tap Out title. I’m going to show Phil Atken a thing or twenty about respect. And the ‘God of Thunder’ will show once again that it takes a whole lot more than two matches with ill results to bring him down from his mount.”
“I should bring you around to wrestling events more often.” He finally managed to say, allowing himself a small smile at the APW World Heavyweight champion. “Motivational speaker, much?”
Sally simply shrugged her shoulder, her upbeat attitude definitely showing on the smile. “Just reminding a good friend that one or two losses aren’t the end of the world. We’ve got the Mayans and their calendars for that.”
Chris rolled his eyes at the obvious ‘end of the world’ joke here, given how close they were all drawing in to December 21, 2012. Glancing back at the APW Suicidal title, Strike caught his reflection on the gold once again. The first thing that came to mind was to get some polish on this thing to get it shining even further, to make it stand out with the best of them whenever he was out and about…and of course, it finally hit him. For the past few weeks, he had been so caught up on this idea of proving himself to be bigger and badder than the two men vying for this title that he’d lost sight of what brought him to capitalizing on the opportunity to win this APW Suicidal title in the first place. It was a first step on his road, certainly, but treating it as some simple stop n’ go route and another piece of gold to the collection and the records…
He closed his eyes, sighing at his own foolishness before finally looking away from the title and back at Sally Talfourd.
“Thanks, kid…”
“Pssh, kid? Who was the one throwing elbow pads against the wall again?” The smile curled on the corner of her mouth ever so slightly.
“…don’t tell me you saw that…”
“The door was wide open, buddy. Pretty sure at least five other people besides me saw it.”
“Oh…” Strike gradually scratched the back of his head, sighing. “Great. Fucking figures…”
“Could have been much worse,” Sally said, offering the ‘always look on the bright side of life’ approach. “It could have all been on-camera.”
“The last thing I need, basically.” Strike glanced on towards the door, standing back up to his feet, title in hands. “Well, I should go clean myself up here and…” He glanced over at Sally Talfourd, blinking a few times, realizing something. “Don’t you have a match in another ten minutes?”
“Yup! So I was hoping you’d snap out of your funk pretty fast, considering circumstances…” She stood up from the bench as well, stretching her arms out with a grin. “You’ll be fine. Just go hit the showers, get some rest and put your mind to these next few weeks…you’ve got Mr. Hazy and Mr. Delusional all at once come Christmas Chaos. You show them that when it matters, when the crowd wants it more than anything else to see the good guy succeed…the man who Japan named ‘raijin’ delivers. Just like we’re going to deliver in that Showcase in one more week.”
“…thanks Sally.” Strike exhaled. “Good luck out there with that defense. Parker looks tough.”
“That’s the fun part of it. It’s what Asylum should be every night…fierce competition for its most prestigious title,” Sally beamed, a small nod escaping her as she took a step back. “I’ve gotta go the rest of my stuff. See you after the show, okay?”
“Go get ‘em, Pillar Woman!”
Strike watched as Sally Talfourd flashed him the thumbs-up after turning around and walking out of the locker room, leaving him to his own thoughts once more and in a far more stable state of mind compared to the guy who was throwing elbow pads and about ready to thrash an entire locker room in the process to get his rage out there into the open. He glanced over at the monitor that was turned off just a few feet away, something that hadn’t caught his eye through the course of the night. Quickly, he made his towards it, turning it on and watching as it conveniently placed itself on the current broadcasting of the show at hand, allowing Chris to sit back on the bench again and stare intently at the screen and for what was to come in just a few minutes, to watch two very talented women go at it toe-to-toe for the top prize in all of Asylum in the APW World Heavyweight title.
For now, the APW Suicidal title was a starting point. It was something that he could build on, something that he could raise to a level where with enough title defenses over any and all contenders would raise its respectability, raise its glamour and entice the competition from other divisions and possibly other companies to step forward and take it upon themselves to see what it took to defeat the man holding in and to claim the gold for themselves. In a way, it had been a rather long time since Chris Strike had gotten an opportunity like this one, an opportunity to work his way from the lower portion of the barrel and to place it in an equal footing to those title belts and divisions that were classified as being ‘above it.’ In retrospective, that’s what he felt separated him from Jason Kash and Johnny Knuckles…both men were more than content to be a part of the ‘lower tier’ and simply feed themselves their fair share of accolades by holding gold. They had no interest whatsoever in raising the profile of the Suicide title or the profile of Asylum as a whole, regardless of whether the two’s pretentious trips to dark shows or to Monday Night Meltdown whenever it was that they felt like it.
Before he became a Pillar in Asylum, Chris Strike became a champion first.
The Spider-Man speech about great power and great responsibility surged into mind.
It was a small step in the right direction, at least. The ability and power to do what it took to keep the Suicidal title around his waist, to make his first of many planned defenses against any and all comers who dared to claim their “prize,” who dared to climb up the mountain and step on up to the “God of Thunder” himself. Defending the APW Suicidal title for the first time was the first step. Then the second defense. Then the third. Perhaps surpassing Michael Callahan’s own reign as Suicide champion (back when he called it something like the ‘Pro-Life Championship,’ like the utterly Republican tool that he is) was in the books should he put in the proper hard work and ethic into it all.
Then again, in this division, just hard work and ethic weren’t going to do the trick.
Quickly reaching for his cell phone inside of his duffel bag just a few inches away, Strike brought out his Samsung phone with Android technology and fired off a quick text to his old friend and tag team partner of many years in Japan and beyond. A man of both conviction and a man of violence, the same man who helped Chris Strike discover a rather wild side of himself during his early years in Japan, taking kendo sticks, barbed wire, flaming tables and everything else in between to opponents, in the most simplistic and/or creative ways to cause pain and havoc. Quite frankly, if Johnny Knuckles and Jason Kash wanted to play it that way, then a bit of a refresher course with his old friend Lyn Dallins would do him wonders for the Chaos that awaited him during the Christmas season.
Sally Talfourd had formed the Pillars. It was up to Chris Strike to do his part in helping to steady them.
The only bells that would be jingling would be the ring bell across Kash and Knuckles’ faces if the God of Thunder had a fucking say in it.
“…Sally might have to find herself a new “pillar,” because this clown Strike is crumbling oh so fast.”
-------------------
Sunday Night Asylum
December 9, 2012
Cleveland, Ohio
OFF-CAMERA
Tossing his elbow pads against the wall with his APW Suicidal title soon being placed out of harm’s way onto the nearby bench (nearly sliding out of it with the way Strike places the gold on it), the gaze on Chris Strike’s face is enough to indicate he wishes he could commit something close to damn near murder upon a soul after his second round against Johnny Knuckles and a second loss against the worthless, spineless piece of absolute crap that he KNEW wasn’t anywhere his level. A second match, a second loss and quite frankly, for a guy that won and now held a championship belt in APW shortly after his arrival, he wasn’t exactly up to the hottest of starts. Two one-on-one losses in a row to a guy who was hunting for his championship belt, the damn near ambush at his hands by Jason Kash prior to this week’s bout against Knuckles. A rather rare moment of frustration behind closed doors for the “God of Thunder” when given the past week…the chaos and the swerve in sinful lands that allowed the SCW Global Heavyweight title to slip through his fingers and then added to a second loss to Johnny Knuckles of all fucking things…
So much for the hot start and so much for the grand future that himself and the Four Pillars promise to deliver if Chris Strike can’t do his part to support his column out of the four. Taking a seat on the bench, he placed his hands through the locks of his hair, about inches away from digging fingernails into his skull as he ran the hands across it before a voice brought him back to reality from his train of thought…
“It’s not entirely on you, Chris.”
Standing by the door of the locker room here Strike was going haywire was none other than another fellow Pillar, the woman whose vision led to the formation of the Pillars – the practical “Cars” to Strike’s “Wham,” Saint’s “AC/DC” and TJ’s “Santana.” Now that we’ve got at least ONE ‘JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure – Part 2: Battle Tendency’ reference in this noise, the look of concern on the current APW World Heavyweight’s champion was a clear one as Chris turned his head to look over in her general direction.
“Are you kidding me, Sal? Did you see what happened out there? I should have him now. TWICE, I should have had him and I couldn’t close.” Chris shook his head in pure, sheer discontent. “I hate that fucking asshole.”
“I know what it’s like to have that level of disdain for somebody. I do. But you went out there and put on one hell of a bout, Chris. Maybe the result didn’t go your way, but being so hard on yourself afterward won’t change that.”
“…not hard enough.” Chris shook his head continuously, the words running through his head like a mantra. “Not. Hard. Enough.”
The expression on Sally’s face changed from a look of concern to something more akin to a sigh followed by a gaze that was probably reserved for somebody that was a little too stubborn at time. Crossing her arms, she made her way inside and leaned against the nearest wall, placing her right foot against the wall, hands behind the back of her head.
“If there was one thing that Apollo was right about you, it’s definitely about your competitive streak.” The mention of TFWF’s ‘Red Comet,’ Strike’s brother-in-law via marriage draws a gaze from the ‘God of Thunder’ that reeks of volatile feelings, enough to make Sally throw her hands up in the air. “What? He’s not wrong, you know…”
True, Sally had known Apollo longer due to their allegiance as the ‘New Experts’ in last year’s tournament. He shouldn’t hold it against her, especially given the issues between himself and Leander were something far more personal, issues that had absolutely nothing to do with her and no one else. “Long story,” Strike explained, waving his hand in the air dismissively. “I’ll tell you sometime when it’s not anywhere near as fresh and enough to send me into a frenzy.”
“Regardless of any issues between you two, this validates my opinion about you all that much more.” Leaning off the wall, Talfourd took a few steps closer to the bench where Strike sat, taking a seat herself. “You keep pushing yourself regardless of what happens out there. Even if you had beaten Knuckles in flawless fashion, odds are that you would have still been criticizing yourself on one or two things you didn’t do as good. I can respect that level of darn near perfectionist you expect of yourself on every given night…it’s why I wanted you as a Pillar in the first place.” Sally gave Strike a firm pat across his back, her own personal reassurance to him on all of those words. “Don’t listen to the background noise that some of the roster has thrown on you since arriving here in APW. You’ve earned your right to be here in Asylum right off the bat after winning your chance to fight for the Suicidal title in Tokyo. You earned your chance to walk into a chaotic environment and you earned your win over Jason Kash for that Suicidal championship.”
The current APW World Heavyweight champion glances down at the APW Suicidal title that is in between them, taking the title and handing it to Chris Strike herself, as Chris gradually places his hands on the other side of the strap and grabbed it, staring at his reflection on the gold and at the lettering around it.
“The facts are there, Chris. Your name is in that championship. You are a Pillar, somebody that has made an impact from the get-go here in APW, somebody that APW was savoring to get for a long time and at Christmas Chaos…in the exact same arena where we are marching together as a team to show the world that Asylum is the must-see brand of APW against Marvin and Hart…you’ll have your chance at redemption.” Sally Talfourd’s own eyes brimmed with determination as she looked on at her fellow Pillar Man. “At Christmas Chaos, TJ and Keaton are going to put on a clinic for the Tap Out title. I’m going to show Phil Atken a thing or twenty about respect. And the ‘God of Thunder’ will show once again that it takes a whole lot more than two matches with ill results to bring him down from his mount.”
“I should bring you around to wrestling events more often.” He finally managed to say, allowing himself a small smile at the APW World Heavyweight champion. “Motivational speaker, much?”
Sally simply shrugged her shoulder, her upbeat attitude definitely showing on the smile. “Just reminding a good friend that one or two losses aren’t the end of the world. We’ve got the Mayans and their calendars for that.”
Chris rolled his eyes at the obvious ‘end of the world’ joke here, given how close they were all drawing in to December 21, 2012. Glancing back at the APW Suicidal title, Strike caught his reflection on the gold once again. The first thing that came to mind was to get some polish on this thing to get it shining even further, to make it stand out with the best of them whenever he was out and about…and of course, it finally hit him. For the past few weeks, he had been so caught up on this idea of proving himself to be bigger and badder than the two men vying for this title that he’d lost sight of what brought him to capitalizing on the opportunity to win this APW Suicidal title in the first place. It was a first step on his road, certainly, but treating it as some simple stop n’ go route and another piece of gold to the collection and the records…
He closed his eyes, sighing at his own foolishness before finally looking away from the title and back at Sally Talfourd.
“Thanks, kid…”
“Pssh, kid? Who was the one throwing elbow pads against the wall again?” The smile curled on the corner of her mouth ever so slightly.
“…don’t tell me you saw that…”
“The door was wide open, buddy. Pretty sure at least five other people besides me saw it.”
“Oh…” Strike gradually scratched the back of his head, sighing. “Great. Fucking figures…”
“Could have been much worse,” Sally said, offering the ‘always look on the bright side of life’ approach. “It could have all been on-camera.”
“The last thing I need, basically.” Strike glanced on towards the door, standing back up to his feet, title in hands. “Well, I should go clean myself up here and…” He glanced over at Sally Talfourd, blinking a few times, realizing something. “Don’t you have a match in another ten minutes?”
“Yup! So I was hoping you’d snap out of your funk pretty fast, considering circumstances…” She stood up from the bench as well, stretching her arms out with a grin. “You’ll be fine. Just go hit the showers, get some rest and put your mind to these next few weeks…you’ve got Mr. Hazy and Mr. Delusional all at once come Christmas Chaos. You show them that when it matters, when the crowd wants it more than anything else to see the good guy succeed…the man who Japan named ‘raijin’ delivers. Just like we’re going to deliver in that Showcase in one more week.”
“…thanks Sally.” Strike exhaled. “Good luck out there with that defense. Parker looks tough.”
“That’s the fun part of it. It’s what Asylum should be every night…fierce competition for its most prestigious title,” Sally beamed, a small nod escaping her as she took a step back. “I’ve gotta go the rest of my stuff. See you after the show, okay?”
“Go get ‘em, Pillar Woman!”
Strike watched as Sally Talfourd flashed him the thumbs-up after turning around and walking out of the locker room, leaving him to his own thoughts once more and in a far more stable state of mind compared to the guy who was throwing elbow pads and about ready to thrash an entire locker room in the process to get his rage out there into the open. He glanced over at the monitor that was turned off just a few feet away, something that hadn’t caught his eye through the course of the night. Quickly, he made his towards it, turning it on and watching as it conveniently placed itself on the current broadcasting of the show at hand, allowing Chris to sit back on the bench again and stare intently at the screen and for what was to come in just a few minutes, to watch two very talented women go at it toe-to-toe for the top prize in all of Asylum in the APW World Heavyweight title.
For now, the APW Suicidal title was a starting point. It was something that he could build on, something that he could raise to a level where with enough title defenses over any and all contenders would raise its respectability, raise its glamour and entice the competition from other divisions and possibly other companies to step forward and take it upon themselves to see what it took to defeat the man holding in and to claim the gold for themselves. In a way, it had been a rather long time since Chris Strike had gotten an opportunity like this one, an opportunity to work his way from the lower portion of the barrel and to place it in an equal footing to those title belts and divisions that were classified as being ‘above it.’ In retrospective, that’s what he felt separated him from Jason Kash and Johnny Knuckles…both men were more than content to be a part of the ‘lower tier’ and simply feed themselves their fair share of accolades by holding gold. They had no interest whatsoever in raising the profile of the Suicide title or the profile of Asylum as a whole, regardless of whether the two’s pretentious trips to dark shows or to Monday Night Meltdown whenever it was that they felt like it.
Before he became a Pillar in Asylum, Chris Strike became a champion first.
The Spider-Man speech about great power and great responsibility surged into mind.
It was a small step in the right direction, at least. The ability and power to do what it took to keep the Suicidal title around his waist, to make his first of many planned defenses against any and all comers who dared to claim their “prize,” who dared to climb up the mountain and step on up to the “God of Thunder” himself. Defending the APW Suicidal title for the first time was the first step. Then the second defense. Then the third. Perhaps surpassing Michael Callahan’s own reign as Suicide champion (back when he called it something like the ‘Pro-Life Championship,’ like the utterly Republican tool that he is) was in the books should he put in the proper hard work and ethic into it all.
Then again, in this division, just hard work and ethic weren’t going to do the trick.
Quickly reaching for his cell phone inside of his duffel bag just a few inches away, Strike brought out his Samsung phone with Android technology and fired off a quick text to his old friend and tag team partner of many years in Japan and beyond. A man of both conviction and a man of violence, the same man who helped Chris Strike discover a rather wild side of himself during his early years in Japan, taking kendo sticks, barbed wire, flaming tables and everything else in between to opponents, in the most simplistic and/or creative ways to cause pain and havoc. Quite frankly, if Johnny Knuckles and Jason Kash wanted to play it that way, then a bit of a refresher course with his old friend Lyn Dallins would do him wonders for the Chaos that awaited him during the Christmas season.
Sally Talfourd had formed the Pillars. It was up to Chris Strike to do his part in helping to steady them.
The only bells that would be jingling would be the ring bell across Kash and Knuckles’ faces if the God of Thunder had a fucking say in it.
