Standards and Practices #3: Definitions

[Smash INC]

Keaton Saint in...
Standards and Practices #3: Definitions

Defining the Truth

"You smiled." John Gainsborough was telling the truth, if Keaton Saint had not known him for so long he would not have believed it himself. "The broadcast got a good shot of it as well, you can't deny it."

"I'm not trying to, I just don't recall it." Keaton answered in return, his thoughts drawn to the match and the aftermath that may have said more about him than he wanted to know.

"It's on the bloody broadcast Keat."

"I KNOW!" Keaton exclaimed, throwing his arms in the air. "I just don't remember doing it. Marvin being downed like that wasn't something I was opposed to, but I just don't recall feeling happy about it."

"Whatever you may think, you smiled."

"It looked more like a smirk to me."

"Not that it matters, every wrestling fan between here and Timbuktu saw that and now they want answers."

"I'm sure they're not the only ones."

"I do as well."

"I get that." Keaton sighed.

"I just don't think you're going to be able to verbalise it."

"Then what do you expect me to say?" Keaton asked.

"I've been thinking about it, we all need some idea as to whether you purposefully meant to hit him."

"I just don't know, I feel like I meant to hit Atken with it but the more I see that replay the more I wonder."

"Keat, I'll ask a question of you." John clasped his hands together and began to rub his thumbs.

"Go on."

"What if you did intend to hit Terry Marvin?"

"Then things have gone beyond my control."

"And that would mean you're in relatively new territory."

"I would guess so." Keaton mused.

"Is that inherently bad?" John posed the question.

"Of course it is, it means that Terry bloody Marvin of all people has gotten into my head just by coming over to Asylum."

"I've been thinking about how to answer that."

"How?"

"It's not too hard, we just need to set a few things up to recreate the moment."

"But they're not here." Keaton stated with emphasis.

"Keat, don't play dumb." John sighed. "We'll use a prop for Terry Marvin and I'll be Phil Atken. You get to play a role you're most familiar with."

"As long as it works."

"It's better than any idea you might have." John smirked.

The first thing to do was to recreate the scene, Keaton paced around for a few moments as he went over what happened on the last Asylum. The chair he was using for the recreation had a similar enough weight and the positions of all involved were similar enough to the actual incident. The obvious differences were there but they weren't going to affect the outcome of this, or so Keaton hoped. John had taken the role of Phil Atken, avoiding the chair as best he could whilst Keaton prepared a swing to either aim for him, the dummy taking the spot of Terry Marvin or the space between the two as a whiffed attack.

It was gruelling work if only for the repetition involved and it felt like a long time had passed before John decided that Keaton had swung the chair enough. Keaton noted that John was dripping a bead of sweat, a slight reminder that even he was risking something just by involving himself in the situation. Keaton felt his own energy deplete during the exercise but it had only really become apparent by the end of it. swinging a chair around for whatever length of time it had been was taxing on his body as well as his mind. That brought him closer to the state he was in by the end of the tag match on Asylum, perhaps that would help him reach the truth of the situation.

"So, can you figure it out?" Keaton asked, anxious to learn the results of John's study.

"I'm throwing out the earlier recreations as you're too fresh in them."

"I was trying to get back to that moment."

"Exactly, the earliest ones here aren't helpful since you're not in the appropriate state."

"So you're saying they were unnatural?"

"Yes." John answered, more engrossed in his work than Keaton's apparent dismissal.

"What about when these recreations become closer to the real thing?"

"I'm just working out the point where you begin to fall into character."

"I hit someone with a chair John, this isn't some game." Keaton responded with a certain amount of annoyance.

"Which is why I'm putting the effort in to find out what really happened."

"I get that, but you're being an arse about it."

"Would you rather I fed you some half-truth or went the full monty with it?"

"You know what I'd pick."

"Then bear with me."

"I need to know." Keaton said quietly.

"We all do, but the problem with this..."

"Don't say that."

"I have to." John replied. "I'd need to look over this a lot more but if you want my immediate opinion."

"Tell me."

"It's inconclusive."

"What?" Keaton shook his head.

"I can't tell for certain if you swung for the fences or just for Terry Marvin, when Phil Atken began to avoid the chair it may have affected your swing but not by a lot."

"I get that."

"I think, though I'm not sure that when you swung you went for Atken."

"But you just said it was inconclusive."

"Just hear me out."

"Well?"

"When you initially pulled the chair back, you were aiming for Atken." John pointed to two sets of videos detailing Keaton's recreation of the incident. "That much I can tell by referencing this against the original video."

"But this is where it gets hazy?"

"Pretty much, I can't tell for sure if you've swung for Atken before he dodged or you swung as he was doing it."

"That doesn't answer whether I aimed for him or not."

"The real problem is that I can't decide whether you went for the attack on Atken only to accidentally follow through on Marvin or you went in for it knowing you'd get Marvin."

"It's still a possibility though."

"Inconclusive, I'd have to examine the frames against the original." John stated.

"But that would take time?"

"Probably too much for what you need."

"This isn't good."

"I've done as much as I can for now."

"I know, I get that." Keaton shook his head. "I just mean that if we can't uncover the truth of this then I can't be sure if I went for Terry Marvin or not."

"Doesn't change the fact that you've got a lot of pent-up anger when it comes to him."

"But did I go for him with the chair?" Keaton asked as he looked to the ceiling. "If I did, that means I'm not in control of my own actions. It means he's in my head."

"You did say that he was good at the mindgames."

"I'm aware of that, I just don't want to believe he's winning them against me."

"All I can say is that you fought him last year, you've got SOME awareness of what he can do."

"I saw what he pulled after we fought as well, I know his structure."

"Take some solace in that then."

"It won't be enough."

"How come?"

"He's still the Undisputed Champion, the last thing I can be right now is uncertain."

"Nice wordplay."

"Not now." Keaton scowled.

"Just making a point."

"I need to know I'm still in control."

"You've got a chance to prove that against Phil Atken."

"If I can beat him again, it matters." Keaton nodded. "If I can beat him, perhaps that can bring some certainty to other things."

"Well yeah, but you need to take things as they come."

"Lest I be swept away."

"Something like that."

"I'm just not sure John, what if I did go for Marvin?" Keaton took a deep breath, signifying his concern with the outcome.

"We'll cross that bridge when we come to it."

==========

Defining Moment

The Asylum enters a city with over 450 years of history and it will be another few centuries before it sees something as important as this again. I know for a fact how important this match is, on a personal and professional level. We're not fighting in the City of God so there's little need to worry about miracles, I'm here for science as well as my own self-belief. A miracle or an unexpected outcome would work against what I aim to do in Sao Paulo, I'm here to prove something beyond all reasonable doubt. when I enter the ring to face you, Phil Atken, it will be to define something that I should have done when I came to Asylum.

Mayhem is just a few short weeks away, but when you look at this match and the tag match in Paraguay things change a little. I came to a conclusion in preparation for our match, Mayhem is already here. It's been here since the match was announced but we've been competing against each other, usually this is down to some sort of mental warfare but this is something else. The true chaos of Mayhem is that it hasn't ended up as a singular match, we've been given a set of hoops to jump through before the grand finale. With TJ, I faced you and that damned Terry Marvin. In Brazil, I get the chance to make a point that won't be forgotten until Mayhem occurs. For me, this is the second of a trio of contests against both you and Terry Marvin. I have no intention of being pinned here either.

What this match can do for me leading up to Mayhem is of huge importance. To be able to define what kind of wrestler I am against some of the best on Asylum is what I dream of, to prove myself in the heaviest circumstances is what I want more than anything else. To be able to take a former champion beyond his limits is something I pride myself in being able to do, to stick it to the dictionary defined bane of my existence in Terry Marvin is a massive bonus. I'm looking forward to this match for many reasons. Calling this match important is an understatement, it's really a monumental one.

Bring everything you have against me, bring all that unspoken stress and anger that I'm in the same title match as you because you KNOW I have some of the same feelings. Bring all that pent up aggression from when I DENIED you the saving grace of a Rasslemania Main Event, remember how close you were to having it and remember that I was the one to beat you. Take all of that in for as long as you need and bring it with you because I want you at your absolute BEST going into this match, because there won't be another chance for either of us quite like this one ever again. I don't care what you have to do to do it, just come at me with everything in your power. If you can do that and if Terry Marvin is the decaying homunculus I believe he is, then we'll have ourselves a big defining moment two weeks before Mayhem.

I'll tell you right now what that defining moment is, it's going to be this Saint marching in to the fires of a hellish match. It's going to be me, withstanding everything in your power and overcoming it in one moment. It will be me, carrying on long after Terry Marvin has seen fit to show his true colours and then I will prove to the people of the largest city in the southern hemisphere and the multitude watching elsewhere that I am the one to watch, I am the most dominant wrestler of the trio and I am going to become the Undisputed Champion at Mayhem.

I aim to do all of this and make it a defining moment, just as I said before. I want to face your very best because I want to BEAT you at your very best. I want to do that and then stare a hole into Terry Marvin so large that he'll wonder why he ever saw fit to antagonise me. To do that would be to show the result of Mayhem two weeks before it happens, but in the time that I've had on Asylum and the memories of a title reign that are fading away by the second I have lost my sense of patience. That patience has taken me down the wrong path, I put way too much time and energy into believing that there was a shred of honour left in the corpse of the man known as Terry Marvin. I left it too long to deliver a reason as to why I was received with such fanfare when I came to APW. I know I'm a good wrestler, the point stands that I have what it takes to become THE defining wrestler of our time. The last year of so has led me astray from that fact and I have been seeking to correct it ever since.

In Sao Paulo, bring your best. Terry Marvin can bring his worst but I will bring what truly defines a great wrestler. The motto of this city sums it up quite well.

"Non ducor, duco."

I am not led, I lead. And I will be the leader of the pack before we enter Mayhem. What matters right now is that I'm aware of what I have to face on the last asylum before it all kicks off in a couple of weeks. Terry Marvin may be the referee but from my point of view it might as well be a handicap match. I'm still opposed to you both, for different reasons but still opposed. I'm aware of what it means to take the advantage against one part of the triple threat but for now, I'm going into this match with a reminder that both my opponents are taking notes on me. Atken, I remember seeing you win some huge matches when a lot of people reckoned you wouldn't make it. I was one of them, I clearly remember how you first won the World Heavyweight Championship last year. Regardless of my efforts, you were the one to reign that night and that continued right up until I took your wings away and I flew to Rasslemania as THE pinnacle of Asylum. I didn't hold that title long, but for one night I was enough of a wrestler to depose you.

Atken, I became a champion in APW by beating you.

Atken, I beat you when it truly mattered.

It matters even more to beat you now, that is why I shall do it again.

Because Keaton Saint WILL carry on.