Post by A.C. Smith on May 29, 2013 11:09:25 GMT -4
Our scene opens today inside an elevator, one going up at a rapid rate. We look down and see three sets of feet, as well as several bags with airline luggage tags on them. Our attention shifts up to the floor indicator, which changes every few seconds.
13…14…15…16…17…18…
DING!!!
The door opens, and our view immediately changes. We see that the three men we were riding with were A.C. Smith, Bobby the Bavarian Man-Bitch, and Stevie the Slovakian Slobberknocker. Each picks up a bag or two, and they step out into a short hallway with a window looking out on New York City from the living room of Smith’s New York City penthouse.
As the men return to their base, though, what they see sitting on Smith’s couch is shocking.
Bobby: “…Roxie?”
Indeed, the woman Smith visited in Baltimore on his way to Rio de Janeiro for Mayhem has made her way up to the Big Apple. Bobby and Stevie are in shock, wondering what’s going on, while Smith takes everything in and answers with a slight smirk.
Stevie: “What are you doing here?”
Roxanne: “After Mayhem, there was no way I wasn’t coming here.”
Bobby: “But how did you get up here?”
Bobby and Stevie look at A.C., but the APW Xtreme Champion doesn’t provide a definitive answer.
A.C.: “I’d like the room, please.”
Stevie: “What kind of answer is that?”
A.C.: “You heard me. I’d like the room. NOW.”
Bobby and Stevie get the message, and they grab the bags before bringing them into a room down the hall. Roxanne, wearing an old blue Police Athletic League sweatshirt that is WAY too big to be hers and matching sweatpants that are tied loosely and hug her hips, gets up and walks towards Smith.
As the camera zooms in on the two, we see the toll Smith’s match with Nathaniel Havok took. The stitches put into his forehead at a Rio de Janeiro hospital are gone, but they’ve left a long mark that we can easily see on closer examination. The bruises around his eyes have mostly healed, but there is leftover blood in his eyes in addition to faint black and blue marks around his face.
Roxanne gets in close, examining Smith’s war wounds closely and with great concern. Suddenly…
SLAP!!!
A stinging right hand hits Smith’s chin, one of the few spots on his face that seemed in good health. Roxanne didn’t rear back or hit with threatening force, but her gorgeous brown eyes have suddenly welled up with tears, she begins quivering, and it’s clear she was trying to send a message.
Just as quickly as she slapped him, though, Roxanne collapses into Smith’s arms and starts bawling.
Roxanne: “You scared me.”
A.C.: “You shouldn’t have been watching.”
Roxanne: “I know, but the kids wanted to.”
A.C.: “Kids these days.”
Smith tries to chuckle off the comment, but it’s clear Roxanne is having none of it. She looks up at A.C. again, and we see a few tears making their way down her cheeks.
Roxanne: “How much longer, A.C.? How much longer can you possibly keep doing this stuff? It’s insane.”
A.C.: “For as long as I’m physically able, Roxie.”
Roxanne: “You damn near killed yourself. You got dropped on thumbtacks. Your forehead got grated like parmesan cheese. And for what? For some title you can drape over your shoulder to say, ‘Hey, look at me, I can take an absurd amount of punishment?’”
A.C.: “It’s more than that…”
Roxanne: “A.C., I…look, you mean a lot to me. More than I was willing to tell myself you did before you showed up in Baltimore the other day. What you’ve gone through as a wrestler, as a cop, as a MAN…how are you still able to walk?”
Smith's smirk turns into a crooked grin.
A.C.: “Because hey, look at me, I can take an absurd amount of punishment.”
The dry humor forces Roxanne into a resigned smile, and we can see she almost feels guilty for letting Smith lighten her mood when she was on her soapbox.
A.C.: “Roxie, you were my partner. You knew me when I was reckless. You knew me when I'd put my life on the line on a whim, and you taught me to be better.
Going up against Nathaniel Havok? That pales in comparison. Did he hurt me? Sure, and the time I spent in the hospital proves that. But I'm still standing. I'm still able to do what I love doing, and that's not going to change while I've got unfinished business on the table.”
Roxanne: “What unfinished business could you possibly have? You've wrestled for 11 years. You've done everything there is to do.”
A.C.: “Not everything.”
A pause. Roxanne is clearly annoyed with the Big Apple Asskicker, but she's unable to verbalize it before Bobby and Stevie stampede back into the living room.
Bobby: “All squared away, A.C.!”
Stevie: “So Roxie, what brings you to New York?”
Roxanne looks up at Smith, who returns her gaze with one of his own.
Roxanne: “A.C., would you like to tell them?”
If the look on A.C.'s face could talk, it would say, “Not particularly.”
A.C.: “Well...she was in the neighborhood...so I asked her to house-sit.”
All three: “HOUSE-SIT?!”
Smith looks like he stepped in a pile of horse manure.
A.C.: “I'm going to get a drink. Would anyone like anything?”
Roxanne: “Yes. But I'll come with you and mix it myself.”
Roxanne stomps into the kitchen, leaving A.C. in the dust.
Bobby: “Uh oh, you're in trouble.”
Smith rolls his eyes, but seems to expect a tirade in the near future. When he walks into the kitchen, that's exactly what he gets, even though both voices are hushed due to the presence of Bobby and Stevie in the next room.
Roxanne: “House-sitting? Really?”
A.C.: “What the hell was I supposed to say? 'The girl I snuck away to see the other day wanted to come up and make it up to me?'”
Roxanne: “You could've done better than THAT. Hell, my 15-year-old son has better excuses for going out and having sex with his girlfriend! You should never be outthought by a hormonal teenager looking for a spot to hook up with his high school senior girlfriend.”
A.C.: “Bobby landed a senior girl? Nice going.”
Roxanne clenches her fist. Her face is red, and it looks like she's using every ounce of her being to stifle the desire to scream.
A.C.: “What would YOU have said? 'Oh, he's just a friend?'”
Roxanne: “Oh, don't make this about me.”
A.C.: “Why, because it backs up my logic? Bobby and Stevie have the combined emotional maturity of a 10-year-old. How could I plausibly explain you being here, looking as gorgeous as you do wearing my sweats, waiting for your triumphant hero to come home so you can massage his pain away?”
A pause. Again, a reluctant, girlish smile comes over Roxanne's face.
Roxanne: “You're not my hero.”
A.C.: “That's right, I forgot. Derek Jeter still hasn't retired, so your heart is otherwise occupied.”
Now they're both smiling.
A.C.: “Look, I'm sorry, but I'm honestly not sure what else I could have done.”
Stevie: “Oh, for Christ's sake, kiss the girl so we can move on!”
Smith's shoulders slump, and he turns around to see Bobby and Stevie standing in the doorway with grins on their faces.
Bobby: “You're a REALLY bad liar.”
A.C.: “Look...”
Stevie: “Oh, relax. For once, we're not here to bust your balls.”
Bobby: “Yeah, really. You haven't had a serious girlfriend since Tracy...”
All four: “That BITCH.”
Bobby: “...and we just want you to be happy.”
Stevie: “Did you honestly think we didn't know about your little detour to Baltimore? It's not exactly rocket science when you're a day late to Rio de Janeiro without telling anybody.”
Smith smiles a shy smile and shakes his head.
A.C.: “Guess I shouldn't have hid it.”
Bobby: “It's no big deal. You think I'D want my girlfriend meeting Stevie before she absolutely had to?”
Stevie: “What?! YOU'RE the one that spilled chili all over Laura's dress a couple of years ago!”
All four people in the kitchen start laughing, and A.C. and Roxanne glance at each other again. This time, they inch closer to each other, and to raucous approval from Bobby and Stevie, they kiss.
The four share a group hug, and our scene fades to black.
---
“Unfinished business on the table.”
We fade back in on A.C. Smith sitting in his living room. This time, he's alone, with only the APW Xtreme Championship draped on his shoulder keeping him company, as it has for the last five months in one of the title's most illustrious reigns in history.
Again, our eyes are drawn to Smith's forehead, and the bumps and bruises from his most recent match at Mayhem provide contours to his facial features that didn't exist before his match with Nathaniel Havok. Whatever tender loving care Roxanne gave him didn't heal everything, and it's clear that the Big Apple Asskicker is in a decent amount of pain.
Still, Smith focuses on the camera in front of him with his brown eyes, and he opens his mouth to speak.
A.C.: “I could have quit professional wrestling many, many times over the past 11 years. There have certainly been instances where I felt like walking away would have been the easy thing to do. Still, there have always been things left undone, whether it's matches I haven't had yet, championships I haven't won, or honors I haven't been able to add to my trophy room.
What I'm competing for Thursday night in Overdrive's main event is a chance at one of them. It's Test for the Best, a tournament that served as my launching pad last summer even though I didn't win it. Last year, I came closer than anyone to stopping the Summer of Showtime. This year, Terry Marvin's not standing in my way, and this year, given everything I have accomplished as the APW Xtreme Champion, I carry more momentum into the qualifying round of this tournament than anyone else.
And yes, that includes C.J. Gates, my opponent this week and a man I carry a ton of respect for.”
Smith pauses and takes a breath before continuing.
A.C.: “Before I go any further, that respect needs to be clarified. Many times, doing the right thing and doing the easy thing are different courses of action. C.J. Gates knows that, and unlike just about everyone else on the APW roster, he doesn't make ethical compromises. He's someone who knows the difference between right and wrong and acts accordingly, a trait that, to be frank, is downright admirable.
Much like me, Gates has made it his mission to take on people with moral compasses of fungi. Over the years, few in Action Packed Wrestling have done it better than he has, and saying otherwise would be wrong.
Of late, though? It hasn't been him cleaning up the garbage on Overdrive. It's been me. One source of garbage, Michael Lively, tried to take my Xtreme Championship on three separate occasions, failed all three times, and cried all the way to Asylum. Another, Nathaniel Havok, wrote checks with his mouth that his wrestling ability couldn't cash. He claimed to be the real Xtreme Champion, since he was stripped of the title when he refused to relinquish it. Well, whatever title he held in his mind was gone after Mayhem, because I proved to be the only person worthy of carrying this title.
Meanwhile, C.J. Gates has continued doing his thing, but with much less success. Sure, he's been kicking around, and he was in the four-way match for the World title at Mayhem. But lately, that's all he's been doing, kicking around instead of kicking it into gear. While I've emerged as the longest-reigning champion on APW's flagship brand, C.J. Gates has just sort of...existed.”
Smith shrugs.
A.C.: “In no way do I disparage what C.J. Gates has done in the past. That said, if we're talking about momentum from recent conquests, I have him dominated. I've taken out the trash better than anyone, Gates included, and Lord knows I've had to go up against some pretty despicable characters in that regard.
Michael Lively, Nathaniel Havok, Delikado, and others have tried their hardest to take this APW Xtreme Championship away from me over the past five months. All of them, with no exceptions, have failed and failed miserably. That's not by accident. When the stakes are at the highest, and when all the eyes of the wrestling world are on me, I've risen to the occasion like nobody else in Action Packed Wrestling.
If anyone thinks this match is over before it starts simply because of C.J. Gates's reputation and what he did years ago, they're wrong. It's time for people to recognize the threat I am, and that my accomplishments in the year 2013 can go toe-to-toe with anyone else's in all of professional wrestling. I'm the Big Apple Asskicker, the best damn Xtreme Champion in APW history, and just as much a threat to win this year's renewal of Test for the Best as anyone in the entire field.”
Smith's nostrils are flared, and it's clear he's getting pretty fired up. He takes a moment to compose himself, and once he does, he continues.
A.C.: “Last year, Test for the Best was the first big event after I signed an APW contract. I thought I wasn't going to be able to compete after I lost to Delikado in a qualifying match, but I was one of four guys who got a second chance in the form of a ladder match in Philadelphia. Nick Watson, Mark Mania, Slade Craven, and I vied for the final spot in the eight-man bracket, and a lot of people made cases for the other three men in the match.
Nick Watson was supposed to be a blue-chip prospect. Mark Mania had main-event experience, and he'd go on to win the Overdrive Championship and have a damn good reign with it. Slade Craven saw himself as a pioneer of ladder matches, and a guy whose style perfectly fit the high-risk nature the match carried with it.
But when the dust settled, and when the bracket was finalized, none of those names were on it. Instead, the name going next to Terry Marvin, John Dionysus, and Keaton Saint was that of the Big Apple Asskicker, A.C. Smith. I proved all of the experts, all of the critics, and some of the people in APW's locker room dead wrong. Now, I have a chance to do that again this Thursday night in Houston, as the 2013 Test for the Best tournament draws near.
I don't know how many people think I can beat C.J. Gates. However, I can probably tell you that the number is nowhere near as high as it should be. That's alright, though, because I'm used to it. Nobody thought I'd make last year's Test for the Best field. Nobody thought I'd beat Michael Lively, an APW Hall of Famer, once, let alone three consecutive times. Nobody thought I'd beat Nathaniel Havok, least of all him.
And, heh...nobody thought I'd beat C.J. Gates in our lone one-on-one encounter to date, either.”
That smirk we saw in Smith's dealings with Roxanne returns to his face.
A.C.: “It's one of the biggest wins of my APW career. That night, I defeated a guy that's won pretty much everything there is to win here in Action Packed Wrestling. He stood for everything I stand for, and had carried one heck of a load on his shoulders for a long, long time.
As much as I respect that, though, the facts say that this calendar year, I've done an even better job of that than he has. And everything I've done, everyone I've gone through and everything I've accomplished, has all served to prepare me for this moment: Test for the Best 2013. It's my second crack at a tournament that gave me invaluable experience last year, and I couldn't be more excited to be in the main event of the tournament's first night.”
Smith rises to his feet, and shakes out his legs before standing tall at his 6'8” height.
A.C.: “They say experience is what you get when you don't get what you want. Last year, that's what happened. Maybe I didn't win Test for the Best last year. But what I did put the wrestling world on notice like nobody has before or since, and I've parlayed that into a five-month-long reign as the APW Xtreme Champion complete with the kind of wins that make fans say, 'Wait a minute, this guy is for real.'”
Before the match, I'd be happy to shake C.J. Gates's hand. After it ends, I'd be glad to treat him to a beer at any Houston bar of his choosing. Being a Texan, he should know plenty of them. However, from bell to bell, regardless of what anyone thinks is going to happen, the fact is that I am going to dominate C.J. Gates. I am going to use the momentum I have, and momentum that he doesn't have, to advance further along in this tournament.
I'm in this to do what I didn't do last year: Win the whole damn thing. This year, I've proven that I'm more than capable of doing exactly that. C.J. Gates is a heck of a wrestler and a heck of a guy, but this Thursday night, he's in for his second early exit from Test for the Best in as many years.
And, heh, with a little bit of luck down the line...it'll be the second straight year where he loses to the eventual tournament winner.”
Smith smiles as he exits, and once he does, our scene fades to black once again.
13…14…15…16…17…18…
DING!!!
The door opens, and our view immediately changes. We see that the three men we were riding with were A.C. Smith, Bobby the Bavarian Man-Bitch, and Stevie the Slovakian Slobberknocker. Each picks up a bag or two, and they step out into a short hallway with a window looking out on New York City from the living room of Smith’s New York City penthouse.
As the men return to their base, though, what they see sitting on Smith’s couch is shocking.
Bobby: “…Roxie?”
Indeed, the woman Smith visited in Baltimore on his way to Rio de Janeiro for Mayhem has made her way up to the Big Apple. Bobby and Stevie are in shock, wondering what’s going on, while Smith takes everything in and answers with a slight smirk.
Stevie: “What are you doing here?”
Roxanne: “After Mayhem, there was no way I wasn’t coming here.”
Bobby: “But how did you get up here?”
Bobby and Stevie look at A.C., but the APW Xtreme Champion doesn’t provide a definitive answer.
A.C.: “I’d like the room, please.”
Stevie: “What kind of answer is that?”
A.C.: “You heard me. I’d like the room. NOW.”
Bobby and Stevie get the message, and they grab the bags before bringing them into a room down the hall. Roxanne, wearing an old blue Police Athletic League sweatshirt that is WAY too big to be hers and matching sweatpants that are tied loosely and hug her hips, gets up and walks towards Smith.
As the camera zooms in on the two, we see the toll Smith’s match with Nathaniel Havok took. The stitches put into his forehead at a Rio de Janeiro hospital are gone, but they’ve left a long mark that we can easily see on closer examination. The bruises around his eyes have mostly healed, but there is leftover blood in his eyes in addition to faint black and blue marks around his face.
Roxanne gets in close, examining Smith’s war wounds closely and with great concern. Suddenly…
SLAP!!!
A stinging right hand hits Smith’s chin, one of the few spots on his face that seemed in good health. Roxanne didn’t rear back or hit with threatening force, but her gorgeous brown eyes have suddenly welled up with tears, she begins quivering, and it’s clear she was trying to send a message.
Just as quickly as she slapped him, though, Roxanne collapses into Smith’s arms and starts bawling.
Roxanne: “You scared me.”
A.C.: “You shouldn’t have been watching.”
Roxanne: “I know, but the kids wanted to.”
A.C.: “Kids these days.”
Smith tries to chuckle off the comment, but it’s clear Roxanne is having none of it. She looks up at A.C. again, and we see a few tears making their way down her cheeks.
Roxanne: “How much longer, A.C.? How much longer can you possibly keep doing this stuff? It’s insane.”
A.C.: “For as long as I’m physically able, Roxie.”
Roxanne: “You damn near killed yourself. You got dropped on thumbtacks. Your forehead got grated like parmesan cheese. And for what? For some title you can drape over your shoulder to say, ‘Hey, look at me, I can take an absurd amount of punishment?’”
A.C.: “It’s more than that…”
Roxanne: “A.C., I…look, you mean a lot to me. More than I was willing to tell myself you did before you showed up in Baltimore the other day. What you’ve gone through as a wrestler, as a cop, as a MAN…how are you still able to walk?”
Smith's smirk turns into a crooked grin.
A.C.: “Because hey, look at me, I can take an absurd amount of punishment.”
The dry humor forces Roxanne into a resigned smile, and we can see she almost feels guilty for letting Smith lighten her mood when she was on her soapbox.
A.C.: “Roxie, you were my partner. You knew me when I was reckless. You knew me when I'd put my life on the line on a whim, and you taught me to be better.
Going up against Nathaniel Havok? That pales in comparison. Did he hurt me? Sure, and the time I spent in the hospital proves that. But I'm still standing. I'm still able to do what I love doing, and that's not going to change while I've got unfinished business on the table.”
Roxanne: “What unfinished business could you possibly have? You've wrestled for 11 years. You've done everything there is to do.”
A.C.: “Not everything.”
A pause. Roxanne is clearly annoyed with the Big Apple Asskicker, but she's unable to verbalize it before Bobby and Stevie stampede back into the living room.
Bobby: “All squared away, A.C.!”
Stevie: “So Roxie, what brings you to New York?”
Roxanne looks up at Smith, who returns her gaze with one of his own.
Roxanne: “A.C., would you like to tell them?”
If the look on A.C.'s face could talk, it would say, “Not particularly.”
A.C.: “Well...she was in the neighborhood...so I asked her to house-sit.”
All three: “HOUSE-SIT?!”
Smith looks like he stepped in a pile of horse manure.
A.C.: “I'm going to get a drink. Would anyone like anything?”
Roxanne: “Yes. But I'll come with you and mix it myself.”
Roxanne stomps into the kitchen, leaving A.C. in the dust.
Bobby: “Uh oh, you're in trouble.”
Smith rolls his eyes, but seems to expect a tirade in the near future. When he walks into the kitchen, that's exactly what he gets, even though both voices are hushed due to the presence of Bobby and Stevie in the next room.
Roxanne: “House-sitting? Really?”
A.C.: “What the hell was I supposed to say? 'The girl I snuck away to see the other day wanted to come up and make it up to me?'”
Roxanne: “You could've done better than THAT. Hell, my 15-year-old son has better excuses for going out and having sex with his girlfriend! You should never be outthought by a hormonal teenager looking for a spot to hook up with his high school senior girlfriend.”
A.C.: “Bobby landed a senior girl? Nice going.”
Roxanne clenches her fist. Her face is red, and it looks like she's using every ounce of her being to stifle the desire to scream.
A.C.: “What would YOU have said? 'Oh, he's just a friend?'”
Roxanne: “Oh, don't make this about me.”
A.C.: “Why, because it backs up my logic? Bobby and Stevie have the combined emotional maturity of a 10-year-old. How could I plausibly explain you being here, looking as gorgeous as you do wearing my sweats, waiting for your triumphant hero to come home so you can massage his pain away?”
A pause. Again, a reluctant, girlish smile comes over Roxanne's face.
Roxanne: “You're not my hero.”
A.C.: “That's right, I forgot. Derek Jeter still hasn't retired, so your heart is otherwise occupied.”
Now they're both smiling.
A.C.: “Look, I'm sorry, but I'm honestly not sure what else I could have done.”
Stevie: “Oh, for Christ's sake, kiss the girl so we can move on!”
Smith's shoulders slump, and he turns around to see Bobby and Stevie standing in the doorway with grins on their faces.
Bobby: “You're a REALLY bad liar.”
A.C.: “Look...”
Stevie: “Oh, relax. For once, we're not here to bust your balls.”
Bobby: “Yeah, really. You haven't had a serious girlfriend since Tracy...”
All four: “That BITCH.”
Bobby: “...and we just want you to be happy.”
Stevie: “Did you honestly think we didn't know about your little detour to Baltimore? It's not exactly rocket science when you're a day late to Rio de Janeiro without telling anybody.”
Smith smiles a shy smile and shakes his head.
A.C.: “Guess I shouldn't have hid it.”
Bobby: “It's no big deal. You think I'D want my girlfriend meeting Stevie before she absolutely had to?”
Stevie: “What?! YOU'RE the one that spilled chili all over Laura's dress a couple of years ago!”
All four people in the kitchen start laughing, and A.C. and Roxanne glance at each other again. This time, they inch closer to each other, and to raucous approval from Bobby and Stevie, they kiss.
The four share a group hug, and our scene fades to black.
---
“Unfinished business on the table.”
We fade back in on A.C. Smith sitting in his living room. This time, he's alone, with only the APW Xtreme Championship draped on his shoulder keeping him company, as it has for the last five months in one of the title's most illustrious reigns in history.
Again, our eyes are drawn to Smith's forehead, and the bumps and bruises from his most recent match at Mayhem provide contours to his facial features that didn't exist before his match with Nathaniel Havok. Whatever tender loving care Roxanne gave him didn't heal everything, and it's clear that the Big Apple Asskicker is in a decent amount of pain.
Still, Smith focuses on the camera in front of him with his brown eyes, and he opens his mouth to speak.
A.C.: “I could have quit professional wrestling many, many times over the past 11 years. There have certainly been instances where I felt like walking away would have been the easy thing to do. Still, there have always been things left undone, whether it's matches I haven't had yet, championships I haven't won, or honors I haven't been able to add to my trophy room.
What I'm competing for Thursday night in Overdrive's main event is a chance at one of them. It's Test for the Best, a tournament that served as my launching pad last summer even though I didn't win it. Last year, I came closer than anyone to stopping the Summer of Showtime. This year, Terry Marvin's not standing in my way, and this year, given everything I have accomplished as the APW Xtreme Champion, I carry more momentum into the qualifying round of this tournament than anyone else.
And yes, that includes C.J. Gates, my opponent this week and a man I carry a ton of respect for.”
Smith pauses and takes a breath before continuing.
A.C.: “Before I go any further, that respect needs to be clarified. Many times, doing the right thing and doing the easy thing are different courses of action. C.J. Gates knows that, and unlike just about everyone else on the APW roster, he doesn't make ethical compromises. He's someone who knows the difference between right and wrong and acts accordingly, a trait that, to be frank, is downright admirable.
Much like me, Gates has made it his mission to take on people with moral compasses of fungi. Over the years, few in Action Packed Wrestling have done it better than he has, and saying otherwise would be wrong.
Of late, though? It hasn't been him cleaning up the garbage on Overdrive. It's been me. One source of garbage, Michael Lively, tried to take my Xtreme Championship on three separate occasions, failed all three times, and cried all the way to Asylum. Another, Nathaniel Havok, wrote checks with his mouth that his wrestling ability couldn't cash. He claimed to be the real Xtreme Champion, since he was stripped of the title when he refused to relinquish it. Well, whatever title he held in his mind was gone after Mayhem, because I proved to be the only person worthy of carrying this title.
Meanwhile, C.J. Gates has continued doing his thing, but with much less success. Sure, he's been kicking around, and he was in the four-way match for the World title at Mayhem. But lately, that's all he's been doing, kicking around instead of kicking it into gear. While I've emerged as the longest-reigning champion on APW's flagship brand, C.J. Gates has just sort of...existed.”
Smith shrugs.
A.C.: “In no way do I disparage what C.J. Gates has done in the past. That said, if we're talking about momentum from recent conquests, I have him dominated. I've taken out the trash better than anyone, Gates included, and Lord knows I've had to go up against some pretty despicable characters in that regard.
Michael Lively, Nathaniel Havok, Delikado, and others have tried their hardest to take this APW Xtreme Championship away from me over the past five months. All of them, with no exceptions, have failed and failed miserably. That's not by accident. When the stakes are at the highest, and when all the eyes of the wrestling world are on me, I've risen to the occasion like nobody else in Action Packed Wrestling.
If anyone thinks this match is over before it starts simply because of C.J. Gates's reputation and what he did years ago, they're wrong. It's time for people to recognize the threat I am, and that my accomplishments in the year 2013 can go toe-to-toe with anyone else's in all of professional wrestling. I'm the Big Apple Asskicker, the best damn Xtreme Champion in APW history, and just as much a threat to win this year's renewal of Test for the Best as anyone in the entire field.”
Smith's nostrils are flared, and it's clear he's getting pretty fired up. He takes a moment to compose himself, and once he does, he continues.
A.C.: “Last year, Test for the Best was the first big event after I signed an APW contract. I thought I wasn't going to be able to compete after I lost to Delikado in a qualifying match, but I was one of four guys who got a second chance in the form of a ladder match in Philadelphia. Nick Watson, Mark Mania, Slade Craven, and I vied for the final spot in the eight-man bracket, and a lot of people made cases for the other three men in the match.
Nick Watson was supposed to be a blue-chip prospect. Mark Mania had main-event experience, and he'd go on to win the Overdrive Championship and have a damn good reign with it. Slade Craven saw himself as a pioneer of ladder matches, and a guy whose style perfectly fit the high-risk nature the match carried with it.
But when the dust settled, and when the bracket was finalized, none of those names were on it. Instead, the name going next to Terry Marvin, John Dionysus, and Keaton Saint was that of the Big Apple Asskicker, A.C. Smith. I proved all of the experts, all of the critics, and some of the people in APW's locker room dead wrong. Now, I have a chance to do that again this Thursday night in Houston, as the 2013 Test for the Best tournament draws near.
I don't know how many people think I can beat C.J. Gates. However, I can probably tell you that the number is nowhere near as high as it should be. That's alright, though, because I'm used to it. Nobody thought I'd make last year's Test for the Best field. Nobody thought I'd beat Michael Lively, an APW Hall of Famer, once, let alone three consecutive times. Nobody thought I'd beat Nathaniel Havok, least of all him.
And, heh...nobody thought I'd beat C.J. Gates in our lone one-on-one encounter to date, either.”
That smirk we saw in Smith's dealings with Roxanne returns to his face.
A.C.: “It's one of the biggest wins of my APW career. That night, I defeated a guy that's won pretty much everything there is to win here in Action Packed Wrestling. He stood for everything I stand for, and had carried one heck of a load on his shoulders for a long, long time.
As much as I respect that, though, the facts say that this calendar year, I've done an even better job of that than he has. And everything I've done, everyone I've gone through and everything I've accomplished, has all served to prepare me for this moment: Test for the Best 2013. It's my second crack at a tournament that gave me invaluable experience last year, and I couldn't be more excited to be in the main event of the tournament's first night.”
Smith rises to his feet, and shakes out his legs before standing tall at his 6'8” height.
A.C.: “They say experience is what you get when you don't get what you want. Last year, that's what happened. Maybe I didn't win Test for the Best last year. But what I did put the wrestling world on notice like nobody has before or since, and I've parlayed that into a five-month-long reign as the APW Xtreme Champion complete with the kind of wins that make fans say, 'Wait a minute, this guy is for real.'”
Before the match, I'd be happy to shake C.J. Gates's hand. After it ends, I'd be glad to treat him to a beer at any Houston bar of his choosing. Being a Texan, he should know plenty of them. However, from bell to bell, regardless of what anyone thinks is going to happen, the fact is that I am going to dominate C.J. Gates. I am going to use the momentum I have, and momentum that he doesn't have, to advance further along in this tournament.
I'm in this to do what I didn't do last year: Win the whole damn thing. This year, I've proven that I'm more than capable of doing exactly that. C.J. Gates is a heck of a wrestler and a heck of a guy, but this Thursday night, he's in for his second early exit from Test for the Best in as many years.
And, heh, with a little bit of luck down the line...it'll be the second straight year where he loses to the eventual tournament winner.”
Smith smiles as he exits, and once he does, our scene fades to black once again.
