Post by Anthony Bailey on Jan 3, 2013 23:28:02 GMT -4
"I have a lot of things to prove to myself. One is that I can live my life fearlessly." – Oprah Winfrey
A chapter called "The Fearless Life" in Bailey’s new book expounds on the fact that he had no choice but to possess bravery in order to achieve his goals and get to where he currently is in life. Standing at six foot two inches and weighing only two hundred and thirty pounds didn’t make him the biggest athlete. But "courage cannot be confined to physical stature," as Bailey so eloquently transcribed. One must put to death any and all fear if they aspire to travel on the avenue to prosperity. There’s no other way. No other shortcuts or detours to take. Trepidation can never and will never accompany success.
{{The scene opens to the inside of the Barnes & Noble bookstore located off of Dale Mabry Highway in Tampa, FL. The hometown hero, as his theme music so powerfully establishes, Anthony Bailey is participating in an in-store visit to autograph copies of his newly released biography entitled “Word of Promise: My Avenue to Prosperity.” The store is pretty packed and rightfully so, seeing that the line of fans waiting has poured to the outside of the building. Bailey, wearing a red and white The Dying Breed T-shirt, black jeans, and a pair of red and white Nike sneakers, takes a brief intermission at the suggestion of the store manager. The fans show their disapproval with a few boos but Bailey reassures them that he would return before they knew it. As he is escorted to one of the back rooms, Bailey decides to use his isolation not for rest and relaxation, but to address the APW fans, along with his opponent, the new World Heavyweight Champion as of Christmas Chaos.}}[/color]
Male Barnes & Noble Employee: Can I get you anything Mr. Bailey? Something to eat or drink?
Anthony Bailey: Hmmm….would I be able to get something from the Starbucks up front?
Male Barnes & Noble Employee: Let me double check with my supervisor just to make sure. We had pizza in the other room for you but I don’t see why something off of the Starbucks menu instead would be a big deal.
Anthony Bailey: Thank you my man, I appreciate the hospitality. Remind me to give you a free copy of my book before I leave, okay?
{{The young man’s eyes light up.}}[/color]
Male Barnes & Noble Employee: Really?? Thank you very much!
Anthony Bailey: Don’t sweat it. You help me, I help you…you don’t help me and I’ll still help you. That’s just the kind of person that I am.
Male Barnes & Noble Employee: Awesome! Let me go check with my manager really quick, I’ll be right back.
{{The young man hurries out of the room and suddenly at the blink of an eye, two girls about the age of eighteen or nineteen, holding copies of Bailey’s book, quickly run into the room gasping for breath. This startles Bailey since he wasn’t expecting anyone other than the Barnes & Noble employee.}}[/color]
Anthony Bailey: Hello….may I help you?
Girl #1: Oh my God!!!! He looked right at me!!!
{{The girl faints as her friend, who is a tad bit bigger than her thank God, catches her with ease just in the nick of time.}}[/color]
Girl #2: I apologize but my friend and I have been waiting in line for a couple of hours and we are very very very big fans of yours! We snuck back here to get your autograph.
{{Bailey can’t help but smile at all of the flattery.}}[/color]
Anthony Bailey: Man, you girls have some guts. You should be rewarded for your bravery, here…
{{Bailey extends his hand out to grab the girl's book. He pulls out a black sharpie marker from his pocket and autographs both books, one which he had to pick up from the floor since the girl dropped it when she fainted. Suddenly the employee returns to the room in shock.}}[/color]
Male Barnes & Noble Employee: You two cannot be back here. This room is for authorized personnel only. I apologize for this Mr. Bailey.
Anthony Bailey: No problem on my end. They didn’t mean any harm.
Girl #2: We honestly didn’t…
Male Barnes & Noble Employee: Fine but you two must come back out front with me. No one is to bother Mr. Bailey while he is back here….oh and Mr. Bailey, I’ll be right back with your Starbucks. What did you want again?
Anthony Bailey: Just a Vanilla Bean Frappuccino. A tall size would be sufficient.
Male Barnes & Noble Employee: Coming right up….hey, what happened to your friend?
{{The conscious girl turns around and mouths “thank you” to Bailey as she and the Barnes & Noble employee both carry her out of the room. Bailey laughs off all of the commotion, faces the camera, and begins to speak.}}[/color]
Anthony Bailey: What an awesome sensation one can get as he is in his hometown around the beginning of a new year, autographing a new book that he wrote and had published for individuals who are dedicated to him and who are extremely supportive of everything he does. Not to mention that awkward moment when two strangers sneak up on you and scare you half to death.
{{Bailey snickers.}}[/color]
For a lot of people who are under the paparazzi’s microscope and reside in the spotlight, especially for a lot of the up and coming APW megastars such as myself, being employed by the top wrestling promotion in the entire world is the corporeal evidence that one has “made it” or “arrived.” Not to mention with all of those New Year’s Resolutions that were just made, I bet the majority of my colleagues have gone AWOL up to cloud nine and refuse to come back down. I mean what isn’t there to be elated about? We ended the year 2012 not as a casualty of false Mayan conjectures, but we ended it spending it with the people that we love the most and we ended it oxygen still in our lungs. What more could you ask for if this was your present reality?
{{Bailey has a seat on a nearby couch and appears to soak in the moment even more.}}[/color]
What more evidence does one need to foster to prove that dreams really do come true? Take me for instance…December of 2011 I walked across the stage at Flagler College’s graduation ceremony in St. Augustine and I was handed my Bachelor’s Degree in Marketing. And December of 2012, only a year later, I walked down the corridors of Madison Square Garden at Christmas Chaos, down the ramp with thousands of people screaming my name, and to the ring to compete against some of this organization’s most elite talent. Not once but twice in the same night. And after that bell rang and to experience being crowned the new Tag Team Champions along with brother from another mother J-Hop, I was exhilarated. Thank God for my brother Jair though. He held on and outlasted our opponents when I wasn’t able. He and I look forward to making a mark in this company as one of its top-notch tag teams and defending our belts with honor and integrity.
And the celebration continued a few days later as I took the city of Las Vegas by storm and brought in the new year with the Undisputed Champion Terry Marvin and a couple of other people that you’d be familiar with. Recently, festivities of celebration, memorable moments, laughs, and tears of joy have permeated my life. I know what components are needed in order for the “party” to keep going so to speak. As jubilant as I am about the new year and the new opportunities that await The Dying Breed, the tag team division as well as the Asylum brand, I see the task before me this Sunday night in Manchester, England with my match against Phil Atken and I know that my approach cannot at all be lackadaisical.
Give me the Phil Atken before Christmas Chaos, or even before One Night In Hell, and I definitely would have taken this match lightly. Why? Because the truth is…Atken was just another face in the crowd. He had his modest cult following of fans here and there and he would do something productive every few months or so, but as they say here in Tampa, nobody was checking for him. Him winning the Surprise of the Year award last night should communicate something whether you agree with my words or not. But I have got to hand it to you Phil…congratulations on beating Sally Talfourd to become the new World Champion. If anyone knows how tough of an opponent that woman truly is, it’s me.
And I also want to pat you on the back for bringing to life and being the immaculate model of the tale of the grisly looking caterpillar that morphed into a beautiful butterfly. When I begin to contemplate your newfound success, it sort of reminds me of Steve Urkel realizing he had an Ivan Drago inside of him all along and that he has finally decided to unleash the beast.
Bailey was grasping to use another relevant analogy out of the understanding that his younger viewers might not catch the “Urkel” or “Drago” references. Unfortunately, that was the best that he could come up with.[/color]
For a lack of better words, you Mr. Atken were once the ugly duckling of APW. Nobody really wanted to deal with you or to even be around you. But before our very eyes, you grew into a swan that people are finally beginning to notice. A part of me wants to keep believing that you are still that same ugly duckling deep down inside. The only thing that appears to change our perception about you is not because you actually became a gorgeous swan with an impressive wingspan, it’s because that piece of gold hanging off of your shoulder has impaired our judgment. And though the person holding the gold is worthy of being applauded, let’s press the brakes a little so we don’t get ahead of ourselves. Champions are born Atken, not made. Authenticity can never be manufactured, just ask Milli Vanilli…
Bailey chuckles at the irony of him using another ineffective correlation. Maybe taking the shortcut and passing by the display containing the Family Matters and Rocky DVD sets and Milli Vanilli’s Greatest Hits CD on his way to the back room wasn’t such a good idea after all.[/color]
Your acceptance speech at the Award Show last night had me baffled. You want to remind APW where it once stood without you being the leader? To my knowledge, we were maintaining just fine. And since when did you ever become the leader? Was it the time you “led” your entourage of Hank and Mr. Dickwood outside to Lucas Oil Stadium’s parking lot after Rasslemania when Julius Farquhar scored the victory over you? Kill the pride before it kills you Atken. You needed that win at Christmas Chaos more than Sally did. Her career is overflowing with significant achievements, titles, and accolades, but yours? I think that I am already going out on a limb by even calling your eleven years of taking up space in this business a career.
Something must have clicked inside of that brain of yours these past few months because this is one of the most amazing turnarounds that I have ever witnessed. Your eleven year “career” was beginning to slow down and you were struggling to stay afloat and keep up with the young guys like me so your plot to work your way up and become the World Champion worked. Whatever scheme you conceived worked and it worked well but as The Promise has said once before, I am in this business for a reason and that is to expose the schemes and dispose of them as well. I don’t abhor you Phil Atken, I’m just opposed to everything you stand for. Your get rich quick scheme approach to the whole World Title situation shows me that you craved the most favorable outcome.
And it’s never wrong to crave those moments, the real question is do you solely crave it yet remain unwilling to put in the hard work to sustain it? Ill will is not harbored towards the new World Champion and his “rags to riches” account because of my upbringing. Because of the way that I was raised, it has always been a bit hard for me to truly admit that I hate someone. I am a man of peace and understanding and hate always felt like that one emotion that should simply be foreign to me. Whenever I would voice my resentment towards a fellow peer, my mother would always so sweetly remind me that “God wants us to love our neighbors as ourselves.” Atken, I know deep down in my heart that I am supposed to love you as I love myself. I also know that the yellow traffic light means to proceed with caution and that the speed limit is enforced for the better of society and not to rob mankind of its joy.
But knowing something doesn’t always give way to suitable application, especially in my case. I have intended to imprint my career with truth and humility and to set the tone as a professional wrestling business standard for years to come. But I am not perfect so I obviously and constantly fall short of this. I have been ashamed of myself at times for stepping outside of the given boundaries or lashing out on social media towards my colleagues and what not…but this? This is something that I am not ashamed of. I am not ashamed to expose my disapproval for Phil Atken, The Unfortunate One. I am not ashamed to say that I am going to do anything that I can to show you that he’s not the true Champion that he claims to be. All of his abominable arrogance will be recompensed this Sunday night inside of that square circle.
Seeing that you are the one who is holding the belt that I will be gunning for again sometime this year, I would say that you are somewhat of a hurdle…or better yet; you are like a thorn inside of my flesh. But you being a thorn in my flesh would be an understatement…you’re more like a rusty nail lodged inside of my skull and I am on the brink of bleeding to death while being diagnosed with tetanus. Might be a little too graphic for your ears but it is the truth. As Champion, you must be willing to be on the receiving end of some hard things and my words will certainly be one of those things. In hindsight, I am grateful for what I experienced in 2012 and even for you outlasting me in the Elimination Chamber at One Night in Hell. I’ve had my fair share of ups and downs but I am grateful for not only the good moments, but for the bad ones as well.
All of those trials that I went through last year has equipped me with the fortitude that I need going into this weekend. The fearless life isn’t only about personal occurrences in the life of Anthony Reese Bailey between December 2011 and December 2012; it is the embodiment of who I am, what I believe, and what I stand for. If you get that warm tingly feeling from being addressed as Phil Atken the leader, then so be it because for the record, I also like being addressed in a specific manner as well. I am proud to say that I am Anthony Bailey…APW’s only Promise…the only Promise that can't be broken. Until this weekend at the Manchester Arena…
{{The scene slowly fades to black as Bailey stands up and exits the room. He is handed his ice cold frappuccino as he returns to the public eye. Bailey is greeted with both loud cheers and applause as he prepares himself to resume his book signing.}}[/color]
A chapter called "The Fearless Life" in Bailey’s new book expounds on the fact that he had no choice but to possess bravery in order to achieve his goals and get to where he currently is in life. Standing at six foot two inches and weighing only two hundred and thirty pounds didn’t make him the biggest athlete. But "courage cannot be confined to physical stature," as Bailey so eloquently transcribed. One must put to death any and all fear if they aspire to travel on the avenue to prosperity. There’s no other way. No other shortcuts or detours to take. Trepidation can never and will never accompany success.
{{The scene opens to the inside of the Barnes & Noble bookstore located off of Dale Mabry Highway in Tampa, FL. The hometown hero, as his theme music so powerfully establishes, Anthony Bailey is participating in an in-store visit to autograph copies of his newly released biography entitled “Word of Promise: My Avenue to Prosperity.” The store is pretty packed and rightfully so, seeing that the line of fans waiting has poured to the outside of the building. Bailey, wearing a red and white The Dying Breed T-shirt, black jeans, and a pair of red and white Nike sneakers, takes a brief intermission at the suggestion of the store manager. The fans show their disapproval with a few boos but Bailey reassures them that he would return before they knew it. As he is escorted to one of the back rooms, Bailey decides to use his isolation not for rest and relaxation, but to address the APW fans, along with his opponent, the new World Heavyweight Champion as of Christmas Chaos.}}[/color]
Male Barnes & Noble Employee: Can I get you anything Mr. Bailey? Something to eat or drink?
Anthony Bailey: Hmmm….would I be able to get something from the Starbucks up front?
Male Barnes & Noble Employee: Let me double check with my supervisor just to make sure. We had pizza in the other room for you but I don’t see why something off of the Starbucks menu instead would be a big deal.
Anthony Bailey: Thank you my man, I appreciate the hospitality. Remind me to give you a free copy of my book before I leave, okay?
{{The young man’s eyes light up.}}[/color]
Male Barnes & Noble Employee: Really?? Thank you very much!
Anthony Bailey: Don’t sweat it. You help me, I help you…you don’t help me and I’ll still help you. That’s just the kind of person that I am.
Male Barnes & Noble Employee: Awesome! Let me go check with my manager really quick, I’ll be right back.
{{The young man hurries out of the room and suddenly at the blink of an eye, two girls about the age of eighteen or nineteen, holding copies of Bailey’s book, quickly run into the room gasping for breath. This startles Bailey since he wasn’t expecting anyone other than the Barnes & Noble employee.}}[/color]
Anthony Bailey: Hello….may I help you?
Girl #1: Oh my God!!!! He looked right at me!!!
{{The girl faints as her friend, who is a tad bit bigger than her thank God, catches her with ease just in the nick of time.}}[/color]
Girl #2: I apologize but my friend and I have been waiting in line for a couple of hours and we are very very very big fans of yours! We snuck back here to get your autograph.
{{Bailey can’t help but smile at all of the flattery.}}[/color]
Anthony Bailey: Man, you girls have some guts. You should be rewarded for your bravery, here…
{{Bailey extends his hand out to grab the girl's book. He pulls out a black sharpie marker from his pocket and autographs both books, one which he had to pick up from the floor since the girl dropped it when she fainted. Suddenly the employee returns to the room in shock.}}[/color]
Male Barnes & Noble Employee: You two cannot be back here. This room is for authorized personnel only. I apologize for this Mr. Bailey.
Anthony Bailey: No problem on my end. They didn’t mean any harm.
Girl #2: We honestly didn’t…
Male Barnes & Noble Employee: Fine but you two must come back out front with me. No one is to bother Mr. Bailey while he is back here….oh and Mr. Bailey, I’ll be right back with your Starbucks. What did you want again?
Anthony Bailey: Just a Vanilla Bean Frappuccino. A tall size would be sufficient.
Male Barnes & Noble Employee: Coming right up….hey, what happened to your friend?
{{The conscious girl turns around and mouths “thank you” to Bailey as she and the Barnes & Noble employee both carry her out of the room. Bailey laughs off all of the commotion, faces the camera, and begins to speak.}}[/color]
Anthony Bailey: What an awesome sensation one can get as he is in his hometown around the beginning of a new year, autographing a new book that he wrote and had published for individuals who are dedicated to him and who are extremely supportive of everything he does. Not to mention that awkward moment when two strangers sneak up on you and scare you half to death.
{{Bailey snickers.}}[/color]
For a lot of people who are under the paparazzi’s microscope and reside in the spotlight, especially for a lot of the up and coming APW megastars such as myself, being employed by the top wrestling promotion in the entire world is the corporeal evidence that one has “made it” or “arrived.” Not to mention with all of those New Year’s Resolutions that were just made, I bet the majority of my colleagues have gone AWOL up to cloud nine and refuse to come back down. I mean what isn’t there to be elated about? We ended the year 2012 not as a casualty of false Mayan conjectures, but we ended it spending it with the people that we love the most and we ended it oxygen still in our lungs. What more could you ask for if this was your present reality?
{{Bailey has a seat on a nearby couch and appears to soak in the moment even more.}}[/color]
What more evidence does one need to foster to prove that dreams really do come true? Take me for instance…December of 2011 I walked across the stage at Flagler College’s graduation ceremony in St. Augustine and I was handed my Bachelor’s Degree in Marketing. And December of 2012, only a year later, I walked down the corridors of Madison Square Garden at Christmas Chaos, down the ramp with thousands of people screaming my name, and to the ring to compete against some of this organization’s most elite talent. Not once but twice in the same night. And after that bell rang and to experience being crowned the new Tag Team Champions along with brother from another mother J-Hop, I was exhilarated. Thank God for my brother Jair though. He held on and outlasted our opponents when I wasn’t able. He and I look forward to making a mark in this company as one of its top-notch tag teams and defending our belts with honor and integrity.
And the celebration continued a few days later as I took the city of Las Vegas by storm and brought in the new year with the Undisputed Champion Terry Marvin and a couple of other people that you’d be familiar with. Recently, festivities of celebration, memorable moments, laughs, and tears of joy have permeated my life. I know what components are needed in order for the “party” to keep going so to speak. As jubilant as I am about the new year and the new opportunities that await The Dying Breed, the tag team division as well as the Asylum brand, I see the task before me this Sunday night in Manchester, England with my match against Phil Atken and I know that my approach cannot at all be lackadaisical.
Give me the Phil Atken before Christmas Chaos, or even before One Night In Hell, and I definitely would have taken this match lightly. Why? Because the truth is…Atken was just another face in the crowd. He had his modest cult following of fans here and there and he would do something productive every few months or so, but as they say here in Tampa, nobody was checking for him. Him winning the Surprise of the Year award last night should communicate something whether you agree with my words or not. But I have got to hand it to you Phil…congratulations on beating Sally Talfourd to become the new World Champion. If anyone knows how tough of an opponent that woman truly is, it’s me.
And I also want to pat you on the back for bringing to life and being the immaculate model of the tale of the grisly looking caterpillar that morphed into a beautiful butterfly. When I begin to contemplate your newfound success, it sort of reminds me of Steve Urkel realizing he had an Ivan Drago inside of him all along and that he has finally decided to unleash the beast.
Bailey was grasping to use another relevant analogy out of the understanding that his younger viewers might not catch the “Urkel” or “Drago” references. Unfortunately, that was the best that he could come up with.[/color]
For a lack of better words, you Mr. Atken were once the ugly duckling of APW. Nobody really wanted to deal with you or to even be around you. But before our very eyes, you grew into a swan that people are finally beginning to notice. A part of me wants to keep believing that you are still that same ugly duckling deep down inside. The only thing that appears to change our perception about you is not because you actually became a gorgeous swan with an impressive wingspan, it’s because that piece of gold hanging off of your shoulder has impaired our judgment. And though the person holding the gold is worthy of being applauded, let’s press the brakes a little so we don’t get ahead of ourselves. Champions are born Atken, not made. Authenticity can never be manufactured, just ask Milli Vanilli…
Bailey chuckles at the irony of him using another ineffective correlation. Maybe taking the shortcut and passing by the display containing the Family Matters and Rocky DVD sets and Milli Vanilli’s Greatest Hits CD on his way to the back room wasn’t such a good idea after all.[/color]
Your acceptance speech at the Award Show last night had me baffled. You want to remind APW where it once stood without you being the leader? To my knowledge, we were maintaining just fine. And since when did you ever become the leader? Was it the time you “led” your entourage of Hank and Mr. Dickwood outside to Lucas Oil Stadium’s parking lot after Rasslemania when Julius Farquhar scored the victory over you? Kill the pride before it kills you Atken. You needed that win at Christmas Chaos more than Sally did. Her career is overflowing with significant achievements, titles, and accolades, but yours? I think that I am already going out on a limb by even calling your eleven years of taking up space in this business a career.
Something must have clicked inside of that brain of yours these past few months because this is one of the most amazing turnarounds that I have ever witnessed. Your eleven year “career” was beginning to slow down and you were struggling to stay afloat and keep up with the young guys like me so your plot to work your way up and become the World Champion worked. Whatever scheme you conceived worked and it worked well but as The Promise has said once before, I am in this business for a reason and that is to expose the schemes and dispose of them as well. I don’t abhor you Phil Atken, I’m just opposed to everything you stand for. Your get rich quick scheme approach to the whole World Title situation shows me that you craved the most favorable outcome.
And it’s never wrong to crave those moments, the real question is do you solely crave it yet remain unwilling to put in the hard work to sustain it? Ill will is not harbored towards the new World Champion and his “rags to riches” account because of my upbringing. Because of the way that I was raised, it has always been a bit hard for me to truly admit that I hate someone. I am a man of peace and understanding and hate always felt like that one emotion that should simply be foreign to me. Whenever I would voice my resentment towards a fellow peer, my mother would always so sweetly remind me that “God wants us to love our neighbors as ourselves.” Atken, I know deep down in my heart that I am supposed to love you as I love myself. I also know that the yellow traffic light means to proceed with caution and that the speed limit is enforced for the better of society and not to rob mankind of its joy.
But knowing something doesn’t always give way to suitable application, especially in my case. I have intended to imprint my career with truth and humility and to set the tone as a professional wrestling business standard for years to come. But I am not perfect so I obviously and constantly fall short of this. I have been ashamed of myself at times for stepping outside of the given boundaries or lashing out on social media towards my colleagues and what not…but this? This is something that I am not ashamed of. I am not ashamed to expose my disapproval for Phil Atken, The Unfortunate One. I am not ashamed to say that I am going to do anything that I can to show you that he’s not the true Champion that he claims to be. All of his abominable arrogance will be recompensed this Sunday night inside of that square circle.
Seeing that you are the one who is holding the belt that I will be gunning for again sometime this year, I would say that you are somewhat of a hurdle…or better yet; you are like a thorn inside of my flesh. But you being a thorn in my flesh would be an understatement…you’re more like a rusty nail lodged inside of my skull and I am on the brink of bleeding to death while being diagnosed with tetanus. Might be a little too graphic for your ears but it is the truth. As Champion, you must be willing to be on the receiving end of some hard things and my words will certainly be one of those things. In hindsight, I am grateful for what I experienced in 2012 and even for you outlasting me in the Elimination Chamber at One Night in Hell. I’ve had my fair share of ups and downs but I am grateful for not only the good moments, but for the bad ones as well.
All of those trials that I went through last year has equipped me with the fortitude that I need going into this weekend. The fearless life isn’t only about personal occurrences in the life of Anthony Reese Bailey between December 2011 and December 2012; it is the embodiment of who I am, what I believe, and what I stand for. If you get that warm tingly feeling from being addressed as Phil Atken the leader, then so be it because for the record, I also like being addressed in a specific manner as well. I am proud to say that I am Anthony Bailey…APW’s only Promise…the only Promise that can't be broken. Until this weekend at the Manchester Arena…
{{The scene slowly fades to black as Bailey stands up and exits the room. He is handed his ice cold frappuccino as he returns to the public eye. Bailey is greeted with both loud cheers and applause as he prepares himself to resume his book signing.}}[/color]
