Post by A.C. Smith on Feb 13, 2013 17:35:32 GMT -4
Our scene opens today on a frigid February morning in New York City, and where we are would probably carry a “cold as ice” atmosphere even if we'd faded in in the middle of a hot summer afternoon. That's because we're at a cemetery, with headstones neatly lined up across the landscape, one long, sad row in front of another.
Several tombstones have flowers adorning them from loving friends and family members, and we can see that there's a burial in progress on the other side of this particular lot. However, as we pan over to our left, we see something much different, as there's an earth-moving mechanism digging into the ground behind a headstone with the inscription, 'JACOBS,' on it.
We continue panning, and we see the APW Xtreme Champion, “The Big Apple Asskicker” A.C. Smith, bundled up in a thick winter coat and in conversation with a short, stout man in a suit and tie. It's not animated, but we do see that the two men are firm in what they're saying as we begin to listen in.
Man: “So you're telling me we buried an empty casket? What do you take us for, amateurs?”
A.C.: “I'm not saying that. But I AM saying that the woman we all thought we buried about 11 years ago WASN'T an amateur.”
Man: “What happened?”
A.C.: “Well, Mr. Bordon, there was no wake because the funeral home said she was disfigured by the gunshot wounds. Turns out she faked the whole thing and left. She resurfaced about five years ago, but this is the first time I've actually had the heart to do...this.”
We pause.
Mr. Bordon: “So what do you think we'll find after we bring the casket up and open it?”
A.C.: “My guess is she paid someone good money to put about 110 pounds of some material in there so we all wouldn't get suspicious when we carried it to and from the church.”
Mr. Bordon: “Guess we'll find out. Give us a little bit of time to dig and lift, and we'll call you over once we're done.”
A.C.: “Thanks. I appreciate it.”
Mr. Bordon: “Before I go...may I ask what exactly happened since the burial?”
Smith rolls his brown eyes and shakes his head slowly.
A.C.: “It's a long, LONG story.”
Mr. Bordon nods and leaves, but we can't help but get the feeling that he's frustrated about having more questions than answers after his conversation with Smith.
Meanwhile, we see A.C. turn his head just a bit, and as our camera zooms out slightly, we see he's eying a wooden bench to our right. He slowly strides over, taking a seat as he digs out black leather gloves from the pocket of his tan winter coat that's partially shielding him from the cold weather.
Smith slowly puts his hands and fingers into each glove, tightening them with a momentary snap across his thick wrists for the best fit. Once his hands are protected from Old Man Winter, Smith tilts his head ever so slightly to turn back towards the camera, and he opens his mouth to speak.
A.C.: “Unlike a lot of people in the wrestling business, I have no problem admitting that I'm human. You won't see me trying to hide any mistakes I've made or obscuring the truth to fit with whatever spin I'm trying to put on things. That's never been the way I operate, and anyone watching this right now has my word that it never will be.
There have been times where I've chosen putting my life on the line for my duty over stepping back and being reasonable. There have been times where I've been rocked by tragedy, where my life's been in shambles, where a lot of people would have curled up into a ball away from television cameras and not come out until they absolutely had to.
But I'm not one of those people.”
Smith briefly takes a sideways glance at the work being done in the cemetery.
A.C.: “When Tracy...that bitch...”
Quickly, Smith pulls out a flask from his sleeve containing a clear liquid, presumably vodka. He doesn't chug all of it, but he does take a substantial sip before capping the flask and putting it in his coat pocket.
A.C.: “...was supposedly gunned down, I used that as motivation to spend the rest of my life living the way I always thought she wanted me to live it. Unlike a lot of people who have turned their backs on the best fans in the world, I embraced them and set my sights on being the rare nice guy that doesn't finish last, and I've succeeded in that mission.
For those unfamiliar with my history, my ex came back in the spring of 2008 and tried to run me over with an SUV after a pay-per-view. She sent me to the hospital with a broken ankle, but I came back, much to her chagrin. She tried to get Tyler Harrison, the brother Evan Harrison doesn't want to acknowledge he has, to clean up her mess, but she couldn't do it, and in the last big event in AWA history, I exorcized my demons by embarrassing those two on the hugest stage possible.
I haven't heard from that woman since then. A lot of people would leave that kind of a saga in the past and not touch it with a 10-foot pole. But me? Well, as I've said already, I'm different than a lot of others in my chosen profession. I sincerely believe that everything in my past has made me who I am today, for better or for worse, and that nothing can be gained by obscuring the truth.
Which is why what happened last week against Buckson Gooch...is a little hard to swallow.”
Smith pauses as a hearse drives by. It's followed by several cars with “PROCESSION” permits hanging from the rear-view mirrors behind their windshield. Out of respect for the process, Smith waits for the cars to pass before continuing.
A.C.: “When I said that a strap match was right up my alley, I meant it. When I said that the match stipulations did what was usually the toughest part of a match for me, I meant it. And when I said that Buckson Gooch, a guy I respected very much, may be able to win a lot of matches, but not that one, I believed that it was true with every fiber of my body.
But that's not what happened. No, instead of everything I envisioned, the opposite transpired. Now, Gooch has earned himself a shot at my APW Xtreme Championship, something I've known for only six weeks but a prize that I fall more and more in love with every single day.
As usual, the match carries a special stipulation, and this time around, Buckson Gooch and I will do battle in a two-out-of-three falls match. By the end of Overdrive Thursday night in Prince Edward Island, we'll know for sure which one of us is the better man, and we'll know for sure which one of us is more fit to call himself the Xtreme Champion and, by extension, one of the toughest men in Action Packed Wrestling.”
Smith opens his jacket just a bit, not enough to let much cold air touch his upper body but enough to see that there's something under it draped over his right shoulder. He turns his shoulders towards the camera, and we see that he is in fact carrying the Xtreme Championship belt.
A.C.: “I saw what Buckson Gooch had to say earlier this week. As usual, I tip the proverbial cap to him for seeing some things the way they should be perceived. He's not some materialistic guy with a naïve understanding of everything around him, which already puts him above about 75% of the current APW roster. As I did last week before our first meeting, I commend him for that.
However, he seems to operate on the understanding that I don't think he can beat me again. He thinks I'm going to go off the rails after one bad result, and I've never done that in my 11 years of stepping into the squared circle. Anyone who has ever known me, whether they love me or they hate me, will tell you that I'm the most level-headed man in this business. Getting fired up and overdefensive over one loss? That's not my game, and it never will be.
You see, if anything, Gooch woke me up with a win last week in a match I thought I had well in hand. Now, he's on my radar. Now, I'm all the more focused to go into Overdrive and defend the title that I've worked so hard to add some level of prestige to after Harrison and Nick Watson tried to drain all of it in their respective reigns. Now, instead of coming in with exactly the right mindset, like he did last week when he came out with a big win, Buckson Gooch has things backwards.”
Smith pauses and lets that last sentence resonate for a few seconds before opening his mouth to speak once again.
A.C.: “For as much respect as Gooch says he has for me, he’s read me all wrong. Am I annoyed that I couldn’t pull off a win last week in the strap match? Sure. Am I letting it eat me alive and consume me, something that hasn’t happened to me in over a decade? Absolutely not.
I’m at the top of my game, and I know I need to be to defend my Xtreme Championship. But if I’d reacted the way Gooch thought I did, I’d have let my guard down and become that much more vulnerable to anything he tries to do Thursday night.
Gooch tried to convince a lot of people that he’s not a fluke. That was all wasted time. The only person he needs to worry about at Overdrive this week is me, and I know damn well he’s no one-hit wonder. The guy can fight, and in this situation, it’s both a blessing and a curse because I can see him coming. He needs to stop worrying about what other people think and just worry about what he can control.
Instead, though, now that the stakes have been raised, he’s feeling a little more pressure. Now that I’m putting the APW Xtreme Championship on the line on our two-out-of-three falls match, this is Buckson Gooch’s chance to make a huge impact and grab some gold. Instead of telling anyone how that will happen, though, he’s trying to convince people who don’t matter that last week’s match was a fluke. Does that sound like someone who has his priorities in order heading into the biggest match of his young Action Packed Wrestling career?”
Smith shakes his head.
A.C.: “My answer is no, and I think that sentiment is shared by a large majority of people who saw what he had to say earlier in the week. Buckson Gooch should be taking this opportunity and doing everything he can to show he’s not taking it lightly. And instead, he’s trying to convince whatever doubters he thinks he has that he won’t get embarrassed.
To use a sports adage, Buckson Gooch is coming into this with the mindset of ‘playing not to lose.’ He’s more tentative than he was last week, and less inclined to do something that’ll get him a title for fear of me attacking whatever weakness he exposes in doing so. When you play not to lose, you rarely win.
Me, on the other hand? I stopped being tentative a long time ago. Sometimes, it’s bitten me square in the ass. However, I’ve learned from each and every misstep I’ve taken over the past 11 years, and I’m a much better wrestler for it. Every bruise, every scrape, every scar, and every ding tells you something about my evolution from a former police officer to one of the most well-known wrestlers in the world, and it should also tell you that I didn’t get where I am today by playing it safe.
If Buckson Gooch thinks I’m going into Overdrive with any hesitation, he’s dead wrong. Hell, you could put me in a gauntlet match with everyone on the Overdrive roster and I wouldn’t hesitate. I probably wouldn’t win, and I’d certainly go through hell, but I wouldn’t back down from a fight. I never have, and I never will.
Can Buckson Gooch beat me again, for the second time in as many weeks? Sure, he can. But can he do so with the pressure he’s feeling, pressure that’s already gotten to him and altered his thought process going into the biggest one-on-one match he’s ever had in Action Packed Wrestling? That’s a much different question, and it carries a much, MUCH different answer.”
Smith stands up from his position on the wooden bench, and he shakes his long legs out to remove the stiffness caused by the hard surface he’d been sitting on.
A.C.: “I’m as experienced a big-match competitor as you’ll find anywhere in professional wrestling. I’m a six-time World Champion, and I didn’t get there by altering my thought processes after one bad match. I got there through years of practice, years of going up against the best this business has to offer, years of tweaking my style, years of proving that I’d never back down from anyone. It took a ton of time to get where I am today, and I refuse to let one man, one match, one ANYTHING, change the way I do things going forward.
Buckson Gooch is a decent enough human being, a solid father, and a perfectly good wrestler. He got a big win over me last week, and he certainly deserves this shot at the Xtreme Championship. But he’s approaching his opportunity to make a big splash in exactly the wrong way. I consider myself somewhat of an expert in this field; I’ve taken plenty of flack for the way I do things from people who don’t know any better, and I’ve spent the lion’s share of my career shutting those naysayers up.
Maybe I’m human. Maybe I make mistakes and maybe, sometimes, those mistakes are pretty painful. But unlike a lot of people who are able to live with themselves by rationalizing ways they didn’t embarrass themselves, I embrace my faults. I don’t try to convince anyone of anything that isn’t true, and against the logic of plenty of people I’ve beaten along the way, I’ve gotten ahead doing it.
One of those mistakes came last week, when Buckson Gooch beat me in a strap match. I give credit to Gooch for a good win, but that doesn’t mean I’m panicking, nor does it mean I’m wilting heading into Overdrive on Thursday night. I’ve never done either act, and I don’t intend to start now. What I intend to do, though, is go to Prince Edward Island, exact some revenge, and retain a title that I hold near and dear to my heart.
Gooch, the good news is you don’t have to worry about anyone treating you like some second-rate hick from the south. The bad news, though, is that you DO have to worry about the giant you woke up last week. Good luck.
You’ll need it.”
Voice: (offscreen) “Hey, we’re lifting it up!”
A.C.: “Coming.”
Smith walks off-screen, and our scene fades to black.
Several tombstones have flowers adorning them from loving friends and family members, and we can see that there's a burial in progress on the other side of this particular lot. However, as we pan over to our left, we see something much different, as there's an earth-moving mechanism digging into the ground behind a headstone with the inscription, 'JACOBS,' on it.
We continue panning, and we see the APW Xtreme Champion, “The Big Apple Asskicker” A.C. Smith, bundled up in a thick winter coat and in conversation with a short, stout man in a suit and tie. It's not animated, but we do see that the two men are firm in what they're saying as we begin to listen in.
Man: “So you're telling me we buried an empty casket? What do you take us for, amateurs?”
A.C.: “I'm not saying that. But I AM saying that the woman we all thought we buried about 11 years ago WASN'T an amateur.”
Man: “What happened?”
A.C.: “Well, Mr. Bordon, there was no wake because the funeral home said she was disfigured by the gunshot wounds. Turns out she faked the whole thing and left. She resurfaced about five years ago, but this is the first time I've actually had the heart to do...this.”
We pause.
Mr. Bordon: “So what do you think we'll find after we bring the casket up and open it?”
A.C.: “My guess is she paid someone good money to put about 110 pounds of some material in there so we all wouldn't get suspicious when we carried it to and from the church.”
Mr. Bordon: “Guess we'll find out. Give us a little bit of time to dig and lift, and we'll call you over once we're done.”
A.C.: “Thanks. I appreciate it.”
Mr. Bordon: “Before I go...may I ask what exactly happened since the burial?”
Smith rolls his brown eyes and shakes his head slowly.
A.C.: “It's a long, LONG story.”
Mr. Bordon nods and leaves, but we can't help but get the feeling that he's frustrated about having more questions than answers after his conversation with Smith.
Meanwhile, we see A.C. turn his head just a bit, and as our camera zooms out slightly, we see he's eying a wooden bench to our right. He slowly strides over, taking a seat as he digs out black leather gloves from the pocket of his tan winter coat that's partially shielding him from the cold weather.
Smith slowly puts his hands and fingers into each glove, tightening them with a momentary snap across his thick wrists for the best fit. Once his hands are protected from Old Man Winter, Smith tilts his head ever so slightly to turn back towards the camera, and he opens his mouth to speak.
A.C.: “Unlike a lot of people in the wrestling business, I have no problem admitting that I'm human. You won't see me trying to hide any mistakes I've made or obscuring the truth to fit with whatever spin I'm trying to put on things. That's never been the way I operate, and anyone watching this right now has my word that it never will be.
There have been times where I've chosen putting my life on the line for my duty over stepping back and being reasonable. There have been times where I've been rocked by tragedy, where my life's been in shambles, where a lot of people would have curled up into a ball away from television cameras and not come out until they absolutely had to.
But I'm not one of those people.”
Smith briefly takes a sideways glance at the work being done in the cemetery.
A.C.: “When Tracy...that bitch...”
Quickly, Smith pulls out a flask from his sleeve containing a clear liquid, presumably vodka. He doesn't chug all of it, but he does take a substantial sip before capping the flask and putting it in his coat pocket.
A.C.: “...was supposedly gunned down, I used that as motivation to spend the rest of my life living the way I always thought she wanted me to live it. Unlike a lot of people who have turned their backs on the best fans in the world, I embraced them and set my sights on being the rare nice guy that doesn't finish last, and I've succeeded in that mission.
For those unfamiliar with my history, my ex came back in the spring of 2008 and tried to run me over with an SUV after a pay-per-view. She sent me to the hospital with a broken ankle, but I came back, much to her chagrin. She tried to get Tyler Harrison, the brother Evan Harrison doesn't want to acknowledge he has, to clean up her mess, but she couldn't do it, and in the last big event in AWA history, I exorcized my demons by embarrassing those two on the hugest stage possible.
I haven't heard from that woman since then. A lot of people would leave that kind of a saga in the past and not touch it with a 10-foot pole. But me? Well, as I've said already, I'm different than a lot of others in my chosen profession. I sincerely believe that everything in my past has made me who I am today, for better or for worse, and that nothing can be gained by obscuring the truth.
Which is why what happened last week against Buckson Gooch...is a little hard to swallow.”
Smith pauses as a hearse drives by. It's followed by several cars with “PROCESSION” permits hanging from the rear-view mirrors behind their windshield. Out of respect for the process, Smith waits for the cars to pass before continuing.
A.C.: “When I said that a strap match was right up my alley, I meant it. When I said that the match stipulations did what was usually the toughest part of a match for me, I meant it. And when I said that Buckson Gooch, a guy I respected very much, may be able to win a lot of matches, but not that one, I believed that it was true with every fiber of my body.
But that's not what happened. No, instead of everything I envisioned, the opposite transpired. Now, Gooch has earned himself a shot at my APW Xtreme Championship, something I've known for only six weeks but a prize that I fall more and more in love with every single day.
As usual, the match carries a special stipulation, and this time around, Buckson Gooch and I will do battle in a two-out-of-three falls match. By the end of Overdrive Thursday night in Prince Edward Island, we'll know for sure which one of us is the better man, and we'll know for sure which one of us is more fit to call himself the Xtreme Champion and, by extension, one of the toughest men in Action Packed Wrestling.”
Smith opens his jacket just a bit, not enough to let much cold air touch his upper body but enough to see that there's something under it draped over his right shoulder. He turns his shoulders towards the camera, and we see that he is in fact carrying the Xtreme Championship belt.
A.C.: “I saw what Buckson Gooch had to say earlier this week. As usual, I tip the proverbial cap to him for seeing some things the way they should be perceived. He's not some materialistic guy with a naïve understanding of everything around him, which already puts him above about 75% of the current APW roster. As I did last week before our first meeting, I commend him for that.
However, he seems to operate on the understanding that I don't think he can beat me again. He thinks I'm going to go off the rails after one bad result, and I've never done that in my 11 years of stepping into the squared circle. Anyone who has ever known me, whether they love me or they hate me, will tell you that I'm the most level-headed man in this business. Getting fired up and overdefensive over one loss? That's not my game, and it never will be.
You see, if anything, Gooch woke me up with a win last week in a match I thought I had well in hand. Now, he's on my radar. Now, I'm all the more focused to go into Overdrive and defend the title that I've worked so hard to add some level of prestige to after Harrison and Nick Watson tried to drain all of it in their respective reigns. Now, instead of coming in with exactly the right mindset, like he did last week when he came out with a big win, Buckson Gooch has things backwards.”
Smith pauses and lets that last sentence resonate for a few seconds before opening his mouth to speak once again.
A.C.: “For as much respect as Gooch says he has for me, he’s read me all wrong. Am I annoyed that I couldn’t pull off a win last week in the strap match? Sure. Am I letting it eat me alive and consume me, something that hasn’t happened to me in over a decade? Absolutely not.
I’m at the top of my game, and I know I need to be to defend my Xtreme Championship. But if I’d reacted the way Gooch thought I did, I’d have let my guard down and become that much more vulnerable to anything he tries to do Thursday night.
Gooch tried to convince a lot of people that he’s not a fluke. That was all wasted time. The only person he needs to worry about at Overdrive this week is me, and I know damn well he’s no one-hit wonder. The guy can fight, and in this situation, it’s both a blessing and a curse because I can see him coming. He needs to stop worrying about what other people think and just worry about what he can control.
Instead, though, now that the stakes have been raised, he’s feeling a little more pressure. Now that I’m putting the APW Xtreme Championship on the line on our two-out-of-three falls match, this is Buckson Gooch’s chance to make a huge impact and grab some gold. Instead of telling anyone how that will happen, though, he’s trying to convince people who don’t matter that last week’s match was a fluke. Does that sound like someone who has his priorities in order heading into the biggest match of his young Action Packed Wrestling career?”
Smith shakes his head.
A.C.: “My answer is no, and I think that sentiment is shared by a large majority of people who saw what he had to say earlier in the week. Buckson Gooch should be taking this opportunity and doing everything he can to show he’s not taking it lightly. And instead, he’s trying to convince whatever doubters he thinks he has that he won’t get embarrassed.
To use a sports adage, Buckson Gooch is coming into this with the mindset of ‘playing not to lose.’ He’s more tentative than he was last week, and less inclined to do something that’ll get him a title for fear of me attacking whatever weakness he exposes in doing so. When you play not to lose, you rarely win.
Me, on the other hand? I stopped being tentative a long time ago. Sometimes, it’s bitten me square in the ass. However, I’ve learned from each and every misstep I’ve taken over the past 11 years, and I’m a much better wrestler for it. Every bruise, every scrape, every scar, and every ding tells you something about my evolution from a former police officer to one of the most well-known wrestlers in the world, and it should also tell you that I didn’t get where I am today by playing it safe.
If Buckson Gooch thinks I’m going into Overdrive with any hesitation, he’s dead wrong. Hell, you could put me in a gauntlet match with everyone on the Overdrive roster and I wouldn’t hesitate. I probably wouldn’t win, and I’d certainly go through hell, but I wouldn’t back down from a fight. I never have, and I never will.
Can Buckson Gooch beat me again, for the second time in as many weeks? Sure, he can. But can he do so with the pressure he’s feeling, pressure that’s already gotten to him and altered his thought process going into the biggest one-on-one match he’s ever had in Action Packed Wrestling? That’s a much different question, and it carries a much, MUCH different answer.”
Smith stands up from his position on the wooden bench, and he shakes his long legs out to remove the stiffness caused by the hard surface he’d been sitting on.
A.C.: “I’m as experienced a big-match competitor as you’ll find anywhere in professional wrestling. I’m a six-time World Champion, and I didn’t get there by altering my thought processes after one bad match. I got there through years of practice, years of going up against the best this business has to offer, years of tweaking my style, years of proving that I’d never back down from anyone. It took a ton of time to get where I am today, and I refuse to let one man, one match, one ANYTHING, change the way I do things going forward.
Buckson Gooch is a decent enough human being, a solid father, and a perfectly good wrestler. He got a big win over me last week, and he certainly deserves this shot at the Xtreme Championship. But he’s approaching his opportunity to make a big splash in exactly the wrong way. I consider myself somewhat of an expert in this field; I’ve taken plenty of flack for the way I do things from people who don’t know any better, and I’ve spent the lion’s share of my career shutting those naysayers up.
Maybe I’m human. Maybe I make mistakes and maybe, sometimes, those mistakes are pretty painful. But unlike a lot of people who are able to live with themselves by rationalizing ways they didn’t embarrass themselves, I embrace my faults. I don’t try to convince anyone of anything that isn’t true, and against the logic of plenty of people I’ve beaten along the way, I’ve gotten ahead doing it.
One of those mistakes came last week, when Buckson Gooch beat me in a strap match. I give credit to Gooch for a good win, but that doesn’t mean I’m panicking, nor does it mean I’m wilting heading into Overdrive on Thursday night. I’ve never done either act, and I don’t intend to start now. What I intend to do, though, is go to Prince Edward Island, exact some revenge, and retain a title that I hold near and dear to my heart.
Gooch, the good news is you don’t have to worry about anyone treating you like some second-rate hick from the south. The bad news, though, is that you DO have to worry about the giant you woke up last week. Good luck.
You’ll need it.”
Voice: (offscreen) “Hey, we’re lifting it up!”
A.C.: “Coming.”
Smith walks off-screen, and our scene fades to black.
