Post by C.J. Gates on May 29, 2013 12:09:09 GMT -4
"Test for the Best.
"This is one of those moments that everyone looks for, one of those events that everyone is anticipating. Two years ago, I managed to go through the entire tournament and won the whole thing, going on to be the first Test for the Best winner to win the Undisputed title at Shockwave.
"Last year, things didn't work out as well as I would have liked. Biggs, potentially still upset at what happened those two years ago, sent Stan Everdeen to distract me allowing Terry Marvin to score the pinfall and move on to the next stage, while my hopes were thrown into the trash and left to wait until the next year.
"Until this year.
"What might be better is that in the qualifying round, I get a little chance to make up for a misstep I made last year. It was about nine or ten months ago when A.C. Smith and I last faced and it was then where Smith managed to beat me inside of the ring. Believe me, I take nothing away from what Smith did that night. He was the better man and in the end, he got the win over me.
"I just know that I could have been better. I know that there was a lot on my mind then, and I know that I probably wasn't as focused as I could have been. I'm not trying to tarnish what Smith did by saying that the C.J. Gates he beat wasn't me. No, he was just the better man that night. Plain and simple.
"But now I get the chance to make it up to myself. I get the opportunity to redeem myself in my own eyes by going toe to toe with the large man one more time in what might only be the second time we've ever fought. But I'm sure it won't be the last, and I'm sure that the fans don't need me to redeem anything. I'm doing this for myself.
"I'm doing this for me, to show myself that the last few Pay-Per-Views aren't what they seem at face value. Those losses to Terry Marvin and Level One, they aren't who I am.
"But it won't be easy. I know that. This isn't someone like Branden Harvey or Tyler Graves that we're talking about. This is A.C. Smith, one of the most dominant Xtreme champions in APW's recent history.
"And I just have to hope that A.C. Smith doesn't make me history.
"I just have to hope that I can rebound from a recent string of bad luck.
"I just have to recapture what catapulted me to the top two years ago.
"And if it all goes according to plan, it might be my time to shine once again."
"You've got to stop this, mom," C.J. Gates says to his mother inside the living room of her house. His mom is busy preparing tea and coffee in the kitchen, but Gates and his friend Vincent James are sitting on the couch.
"Stop what, dear?"
"The gambling," Gates says. "You know how many people I've had come to my office asking me for money I don't have because you've been gambling."
"What's that?" she asks as if she can't hear. Gates looks over at James.
"Every time," Gates shakes his head. "Every time it was something to do with her, she acts as if she can't hear."
"It could be legit," James suggests. "She is getting older after all."
"I know, I know," Gates says. "I just didn't want to be here too long, you know? I just wanted to talk to her about all of this so that I didn't have anymore goons coming to my office."
Mrs. Gates emerges from the adjoining kitchen with a tray of cups. Two are filled with coffee and one is filled with tea. She rests the tray down on the coffee table and takes one of the coffee filled cups and sits down in a deep chair. James leans forward and grabs the tea while Gates sits back on the couch.
"Have a drink, C.J." Mrs. Gates says, motioning to the tray.
"Mom, I said I didn't want one," Gates responds. "I just want to get this whole situation dealt with."
"Is he always like this?" Mrs. Gates asks James, who glances over at Gates.
"I plead the fifth," James responds before taking a sip of his tea, with his pinkie extended.
"You don't need to worry so much," Mrs. Gates says to C.J. "What I'm doing isn't hurting anyone, so there's no need to get yourself all worked up about it."
"No ones getting hurt yet," Gates fires back. "But I don't want it to turn into a situation where I end up paying because you can't stop betting. And I don't mean with money either, I'm talking about my legs being broken."
"Don't worry dear-"
"And betting on me? What the hell? Talk about no pressure, right? Just seems stupid to bet on your own soon."
"But I was doing it before you lost the title-"
"And why? Because I was a champion? No, mom, that doesn't make it right. None of it is right. None of what you did was right. And now I'm going to pay for it because you couldn't learn to stop."
"C.J.!" Mrs. Gates shrieks, causing James to jump. "How dare you speak to me that way."
"What way?" Gates says. "The way you should be talked to after what you've done."
"Don't even!" Mrs. Gates cuts him off. "I tried to tell you, but you didn't want to listen to me! You spent all this time worrying about your stupid record when you could have been worrying about your mother."
"You never said anything about any gambling!"
"No, but I spent the better past of six months trying to get you to stop wrestling. I knew that I wouldn't be able to stop gambling, but I figured if you stopped wrestling, I wouldn't have a reason. But you wouldn't listen. You wouldn't listen!"
"That's," Gates starts before trailing off. "You were trying to have me committed!"
"I just wanted you to stop so that I would stop. So I could stop."
"Mom, I-"
"Save it," she says, raising a hand. "I don't need to hear it."
An awkward silence falls in the room as James looks uneasily from Mrs. Gates to Gates before sipping his tea. Mrs. Gates sips her coffee while Gates just lets out a long sigh.
"Mom, I just don't want to see anyone get hurt."
"No one will get hurt," she says, placing her coffee cup down. "Trust me on that one."
"Trust you?" Gates asks. "I had Bruiser and Brawler in my office not too long ago, telling me that you were going to be the reason why I couldn't wrestle after they broke my legs permanently."
"You don't know too much about me, do you, son?"
"About you?" Gates asks, looking to James for help. "I know you're my mom and I know you tried to throw me into an asylum, apparently to help stop you gamble money away. What else is there to know?"
"You need to know that I am not going to let some hired muscle push me around. At least not before my hired muscle pushes them around."
"So what, now I'm your hired muscle?"
Mrs. Gates smiles at her son before chuckling softly to herself. "No, you are not my hired muscle. You just like to jump to conclusions. Trust me when I say that you don't have anything to worry about."
Gates stares at his mother for a long time before sitting back against the back of the couch. "How can I trust you."
"You just have to. But believe me, you have nothing to worry about. If anything happens and if anyone is coming to you to break your legs, I will make sure to do something about it. I will protect you."
"You?" Gates smirks. "You, protect me?"
Mrs. Gates nods. "I'm not just another pretty face, you know."
"But how?" Gates asks. "How in the world will you be able to protect me?"
Mrs. Gates picks up her coffee cup and takes a sip. Still holding the cup in her hands, she smiles at her son.
"I have my ways."
"Will my match with A.C. Smith be as crazy as she is?
"I hope not. If there's one thing I look forward to when fighting A.C. Smith, it's that I know I don't have to worry about any weapons being used to soften me up. Even though he's the Xtreme champion, he knows that he doesn't have to resort to those tactics because I'm not going to resort to those tactics.
"He knows that I am not going to rely on a chair or a pair of brass knuckles to get a win. I'm going to work my ass off to do so. I know that I am going to have to give it my all, because even if I put out a great performance, sometimes that isn't enough.
"And sometimes, the opponent is just better. Like I said, A.C. Smith was the better one of us, and it showed with how prepared he was. Maybe I was too focused on the Elimination Chamber at the time, regardless, Smith was prepared and Smith have me telegraphed to a tee."
"He saw the Market Crash coming and he made sure to be ready. I'm sure I could spend, and probably will spend, countless hours reviewing this tape, going over and over and over it to try and figure out where I made a misstep. And I don't know if I'll find one. A.C. Smith was just that good that night.
"What might be more telling, is that, at the time, that was seen as an upset win for Smith. Maybe it's just me, but if Smith were to pull the same feat off this week, if he was capable of beating me one, two, three in the middle of the ring, I wouldn't see if as an upset. I wouldn't see it as anything more than one man who has put in so much work to get where he is finally realizing all of his potential and finally putting it together.
"Then again, I might be a bit ignorant to what he's done in the past. Still, I wouldn't say that he would score an upset win. Hell, at this point, it might be more of an upset if I am able to beat him. After all, we're two men trending in opposite ways. A.C. Smith is heading north while I am starting to falter, starting to fall back down to earth.
"This week will go a long way to proving if that is true or not."
"Well, that was interesting," Vincent James says as he and C.J. Gates walk down the driveway away from the house of Mrs. Gates. "I wonder what she meant by 'I have my ways'. Kind of cryptic."
"Kind of?" Gates shakes his head. "It fits with her though. You never know what she's going to say. I just hope she doesn't get herself hurt or killed during all of this."
"Gotta have faith," James says. "Or at least hope that nothing bad happens."
"Yeah," Gates says.
"And don't let what she said get to you. Don't throw in the towel just to save her."
"I wasn't going to," Gates says, but James shoots him a look. "Okay, it crossed my mind, but I wouldn't have seriously considered it. There's too much still to do, too many people still to battle against. Too many events to compete in. It's just frustrating."
"I can see that," James says. "But hey, forget all of the stuff that happened in there and focus in on the important stuff. Focus in on A.C. Smith."
"It's funny," Gates says with a chuckle. "The way my mom is going, and the way she's talking, it's almost like we need to send some police officers to her to keep her safe. Just so happens that I'm facing off against a former police officer inside of the ring."
"Smith was a cop?"
"He was," Gates says. "An honorable profession. And after everything that has gone on, and with how horrible the world is, I have nothing but respect for them. They've earned it. A.C. Smith has earned my respect."
"Definitely. He's got mine too."
"And you don't even know him."
"I don't have to know him to know that he was one of the few men protecting the every day citizen from the ways of evil."
"Good point."
"So what made him stop?" James asks. "What caused him to throw in the towel and start wrestling?"
"I guess he wanted more," Gates says. "Maybe after all he had seen as a cop, something like this would prove to be a little more fun then the every day grind of locking up gang bangers and taking down coke heads. But really, it's not my place to wonder why he's doing something."
"No?" James asks. "I figured that would be your big goal this week."
"Unlike people like Havok, I'm not going to obsess over his past, at least not too much. I'm not going to wipe my ass with the accolades that Smith earned on the force like Havok seemed to do last week. A.C. Smith has earned way more than that. No, instead, I'm going to focus on his wrestling."
"And focus on winning Test for the Best."
"That could be an added bonus," Gates says. "But it's going to take a lot. It's going to take a bit of work to get myself into that position, and I know that Smith won't just give me the match. He's a former cop, not a mime."
"A mime?" James asks. "What? No, you know what, never mind."
"All I meant is that his training as a cop will mean that he knows how to handle himself," Gates says. "He's not going to give up, and he's not going to be intimidated. Not that I intimidate, but you know what I mean. He's going to bring the fight to me."
"Is that a bad thing?"
"Not at all," Gates says.
"I wouldn't have it any other way."
"You think we would have fought before.
"Given the roster, you figure we would have met at least once between then and now. But maybe that's the way it's designed for people like you and I, A.C. Maybe we are only supposed to meet up when there is something to fight for. The first time, we were fighting for bragging rights, for the opportunity to show just which one of us truly deserves to move forward. Now we fight for the right to move on in the Test for the Best tournament.
"The difference now, is that people can see you as a legitimate threat to winning this tournament. People can see you as a potential Test for the Best winner. Maybe that was the case last time we fought, but now, now everyone knows it.
"I mean, you haven't exactly been resting on your heels, waiting for things to come your way. No, you've been making sure to earn your credit through all of your hard fought battles defending that Xtreme title. You've defeated men like hall of famer Michael Lively, the up and coming Buckson Gooch and most recently, the full-of-himself Nathaniel Havok. It's not like you're beating average Joes for the wins. You've been facing some stiff competition and coming out on the other side victorious.
"So maybe part of me is worried. Part of me was hoping I would be able to have a good shot at being the first person to win the Test for the Best tournament twice, but to do so, I have to get through someone who has done nothing but earn his spot in this tournament. And what I mean by that, is it's not like you were just added to the mix because you're a member of the Overdrive roster. It's not like you were just given the opportunity because you were a champion. You were added because you deserve it.
"Maybe I'm unsure of how to handle it. I mean, my first time in this tournament, I faced men and women who were downright underhanded in their actions. I beat Sally Talfourd, Johnny Rebel and Shane Borderland to win, and at the time, there wasn't a good one in the bunch. But now...Now things are different.
"And that doesn't mean I'm going to go easy, it just means it's different. It just means that for once, I am going up against someone in this situation that I can legitimately stand back and say 'that man deserves to go on'. 'That man deserves to win the entire tournament'. For once I know that if I lose, if I am pinned or submitted, then I would have lost to a man that deserved it.
"But I'm still going to bring my A game to the ring, A.C., as I'm sure you expect me to. I'm going to work as hard as I can to get the win, because, well, it's something that I want.
"After all of the hardships I've come across in the past year where my record is concerned, this is something that could get my back on the right track. This is the sort of win that could lift my spirits and help me to forget everything else that I've been through. Sure, I've had title matches, but it seems that no matter what, I always come up just short. And that is something that I need to change. That is something that I'm hoping this will help me change.
"Don't get me wrong though, A.C., this is also a match that I am looking forward to for other reasons. I said it before, it shocks me that we've only really fought, one on one in the past year, especially since you're the sort of man that could push me to my limits, the sort of man that could better me.
"You're bigger than me, you're stronger than me and you've been doing this thing longer than I have. But all of that, that will help me get better. All of that will make me try that much harder to get things done, that much harder to make sure that I come out on top. And through that, I am going to end up being a better person. A better wrestler. Win or lose.
"Of course, though, I'm going to try and win. I'm going to try and get the victory while doing all that I can to give the fans a match that they want to see. However, chasing that win won't be easy, especially with the momentum that you currently have on your side, A.C.
"You're right, I've been floundering. I've been doing nothing with my time lately except giving bad guys a battle and making them earn their victories. I've been doing nothing but taking on the best of the best that APW has to offer and trying as much as I can to stop them. Level One, Terry Marvin, Michael Callahan. Those are the names that I have been trying to stop with no success. I don't have the wins on my side to give me some momentum. I don't have the accolades around my waist to give me that drive.
"But I don't think I'll need it. Maybe I'm just trying to be optimistic, but the amount of wins someone has doesn't necessarily matter. I mean, prior to beating Level One at Christmas Chaos, I wasn't lighting the world on fire, but I still managed to be the better man that night. I didn't need to rack up months and months of momentum just so I could come into that match with a head full of steam.
"So maybe that's how we differ. I don't need the momentum to win a match, and you do. No disrespect, I'm just saying that if you didn't have that title around your waist, if Nathaniel Havok had beaten you at Mayhem, what kind of tune would you singing then? What kind of hope would you have for winning this entire tournament? If you're banking a win all on momentum, then maybe you are just lucky to still have the title.
"Again, no disrespect intended, A.C. Trust me. After all, it was you who said you don't know how many people think you can beat me, and when I heard that I did the only thing that was logical.
"I raised my hand.
"I know that you are capable of beating me, and not because you already have. Based on what you have done recently, based on who you have beaten, and based on what I haven't done, yeah, I could see you coming out on top. I could see you turning this match into a launching pad of sorts, one that will take you to the peak of APW. But even though I know that, I am not going to let that keep me down. I am not going to let that get into my head and force me to come up short. I am not going to let that thought beat me.
"Because just like you, I want to win. Just like you, I want to go through this entire tournament and come out with my arms raised on the other side. Our reasons are different, however. You want to win so you can solidify yourself as a top competitor, so you can do what you came so close to doing last year and gain a legitimate shot at the World Heavyweight title.
"However, I want to win so that I can turn around my recent fortunes. I want to win so that I can begin to climb out of this rut. Everyone has to start somewhere, right A.C.? So maybe this is my spot. Maybe this tournament is when I begin to finally turn things around, when I finally begin to turn aside opponent after opponent.
"You've had a good reign as the Xtreme champion, and I tip my hat to that feat. Especially with a title that every one seems to want to get their hands on. Maybe that is what has me worried. You've done such a good job at defending it, but you've also done a good job at showing me that you can take a lot of punishment and you can dish it out, too. With or without weapons.
"So maybe I realize that you aren't going to go down easily.
"Maybe I understand that you aren't just going to lay down for me.
"But really, I wouldn't want it that way. I wouldn't want to take an easy win against you because, like I said, this is the sort of match that can make me better. This is the sort of match that can turn around my recent fortunes.
"I wish you luck, A.C., because I know that this won't be easy on either of us.
"It's time to go big or go home."
"This is one of those moments that everyone looks for, one of those events that everyone is anticipating. Two years ago, I managed to go through the entire tournament and won the whole thing, going on to be the first Test for the Best winner to win the Undisputed title at Shockwave.
"Last year, things didn't work out as well as I would have liked. Biggs, potentially still upset at what happened those two years ago, sent Stan Everdeen to distract me allowing Terry Marvin to score the pinfall and move on to the next stage, while my hopes were thrown into the trash and left to wait until the next year.
"Until this year.
"What might be better is that in the qualifying round, I get a little chance to make up for a misstep I made last year. It was about nine or ten months ago when A.C. Smith and I last faced and it was then where Smith managed to beat me inside of the ring. Believe me, I take nothing away from what Smith did that night. He was the better man and in the end, he got the win over me.
"I just know that I could have been better. I know that there was a lot on my mind then, and I know that I probably wasn't as focused as I could have been. I'm not trying to tarnish what Smith did by saying that the C.J. Gates he beat wasn't me. No, he was just the better man that night. Plain and simple.
"But now I get the chance to make it up to myself. I get the opportunity to redeem myself in my own eyes by going toe to toe with the large man one more time in what might only be the second time we've ever fought. But I'm sure it won't be the last, and I'm sure that the fans don't need me to redeem anything. I'm doing this for myself.
"I'm doing this for me, to show myself that the last few Pay-Per-Views aren't what they seem at face value. Those losses to Terry Marvin and Level One, they aren't who I am.
"But it won't be easy. I know that. This isn't someone like Branden Harvey or Tyler Graves that we're talking about. This is A.C. Smith, one of the most dominant Xtreme champions in APW's recent history.
"And I just have to hope that A.C. Smith doesn't make me history.
"I just have to hope that I can rebound from a recent string of bad luck.
"I just have to recapture what catapulted me to the top two years ago.
"And if it all goes according to plan, it might be my time to shine once again."
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"You've got to stop this, mom," C.J. Gates says to his mother inside the living room of her house. His mom is busy preparing tea and coffee in the kitchen, but Gates and his friend Vincent James are sitting on the couch.
"Stop what, dear?"
"The gambling," Gates says. "You know how many people I've had come to my office asking me for money I don't have because you've been gambling."
"What's that?" she asks as if she can't hear. Gates looks over at James.
"Every time," Gates shakes his head. "Every time it was something to do with her, she acts as if she can't hear."
"It could be legit," James suggests. "She is getting older after all."
"I know, I know," Gates says. "I just didn't want to be here too long, you know? I just wanted to talk to her about all of this so that I didn't have anymore goons coming to my office."
Mrs. Gates emerges from the adjoining kitchen with a tray of cups. Two are filled with coffee and one is filled with tea. She rests the tray down on the coffee table and takes one of the coffee filled cups and sits down in a deep chair. James leans forward and grabs the tea while Gates sits back on the couch.
"Have a drink, C.J." Mrs. Gates says, motioning to the tray.
"Mom, I said I didn't want one," Gates responds. "I just want to get this whole situation dealt with."
"Is he always like this?" Mrs. Gates asks James, who glances over at Gates.
"I plead the fifth," James responds before taking a sip of his tea, with his pinkie extended.
"You don't need to worry so much," Mrs. Gates says to C.J. "What I'm doing isn't hurting anyone, so there's no need to get yourself all worked up about it."
"No ones getting hurt yet," Gates fires back. "But I don't want it to turn into a situation where I end up paying because you can't stop betting. And I don't mean with money either, I'm talking about my legs being broken."
"Don't worry dear-"
"And betting on me? What the hell? Talk about no pressure, right? Just seems stupid to bet on your own soon."
"But I was doing it before you lost the title-"
"And why? Because I was a champion? No, mom, that doesn't make it right. None of it is right. None of what you did was right. And now I'm going to pay for it because you couldn't learn to stop."
"C.J.!" Mrs. Gates shrieks, causing James to jump. "How dare you speak to me that way."
"What way?" Gates says. "The way you should be talked to after what you've done."
"Don't even!" Mrs. Gates cuts him off. "I tried to tell you, but you didn't want to listen to me! You spent all this time worrying about your stupid record when you could have been worrying about your mother."
"You never said anything about any gambling!"
"No, but I spent the better past of six months trying to get you to stop wrestling. I knew that I wouldn't be able to stop gambling, but I figured if you stopped wrestling, I wouldn't have a reason. But you wouldn't listen. You wouldn't listen!"
"That's," Gates starts before trailing off. "You were trying to have me committed!"
"I just wanted you to stop so that I would stop. So I could stop."
"Mom, I-"
"Save it," she says, raising a hand. "I don't need to hear it."
An awkward silence falls in the room as James looks uneasily from Mrs. Gates to Gates before sipping his tea. Mrs. Gates sips her coffee while Gates just lets out a long sigh.
"Mom, I just don't want to see anyone get hurt."
"No one will get hurt," she says, placing her coffee cup down. "Trust me on that one."
"Trust you?" Gates asks. "I had Bruiser and Brawler in my office not too long ago, telling me that you were going to be the reason why I couldn't wrestle after they broke my legs permanently."
"You don't know too much about me, do you, son?"
"About you?" Gates asks, looking to James for help. "I know you're my mom and I know you tried to throw me into an asylum, apparently to help stop you gamble money away. What else is there to know?"
"You need to know that I am not going to let some hired muscle push me around. At least not before my hired muscle pushes them around."
"So what, now I'm your hired muscle?"
Mrs. Gates smiles at her son before chuckling softly to herself. "No, you are not my hired muscle. You just like to jump to conclusions. Trust me when I say that you don't have anything to worry about."
Gates stares at his mother for a long time before sitting back against the back of the couch. "How can I trust you."
"You just have to. But believe me, you have nothing to worry about. If anything happens and if anyone is coming to you to break your legs, I will make sure to do something about it. I will protect you."
"You?" Gates smirks. "You, protect me?"
Mrs. Gates nods. "I'm not just another pretty face, you know."
"But how?" Gates asks. "How in the world will you be able to protect me?"
Mrs. Gates picks up her coffee cup and takes a sip. Still holding the cup in her hands, she smiles at her son.
"I have my ways."
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"Will my match with A.C. Smith be as crazy as she is?
"I hope not. If there's one thing I look forward to when fighting A.C. Smith, it's that I know I don't have to worry about any weapons being used to soften me up. Even though he's the Xtreme champion, he knows that he doesn't have to resort to those tactics because I'm not going to resort to those tactics.
"He knows that I am not going to rely on a chair or a pair of brass knuckles to get a win. I'm going to work my ass off to do so. I know that I am going to have to give it my all, because even if I put out a great performance, sometimes that isn't enough.
"And sometimes, the opponent is just better. Like I said, A.C. Smith was the better one of us, and it showed with how prepared he was. Maybe I was too focused on the Elimination Chamber at the time, regardless, Smith was prepared and Smith have me telegraphed to a tee."
AC and Gates slug it out with Smith getting the better of it. He scoops C.J. up for the Big Apple Slam, but Gates manages to wiggle out of it and to his feet. But Smith recovers and lifts him for the Gorilla press, Gates floats over and rolls Smith up with a Sunset Flip
1
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2
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THR- NO!
Gates goes for the Market Crash… Smith blocks it and scoops him up….
Harvey: BIG APPLE SLAM!
He makes the cover.
1
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2
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THREE!
Winner: AC Smith
Harvey: HE DID IT! AC Smith with a huge Upset here.
1
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2
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THR- NO!
Gates goes for the Market Crash… Smith blocks it and scoops him up….
Harvey: BIG APPLE SLAM!
He makes the cover.
1
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2
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THREE!
Winner: AC Smith
Harvey: HE DID IT! AC Smith with a huge Upset here.
"He saw the Market Crash coming and he made sure to be ready. I'm sure I could spend, and probably will spend, countless hours reviewing this tape, going over and over and over it to try and figure out where I made a misstep. And I don't know if I'll find one. A.C. Smith was just that good that night.
"What might be more telling, is that, at the time, that was seen as an upset win for Smith. Maybe it's just me, but if Smith were to pull the same feat off this week, if he was capable of beating me one, two, three in the middle of the ring, I wouldn't see if as an upset. I wouldn't see it as anything more than one man who has put in so much work to get where he is finally realizing all of his potential and finally putting it together.
"Then again, I might be a bit ignorant to what he's done in the past. Still, I wouldn't say that he would score an upset win. Hell, at this point, it might be more of an upset if I am able to beat him. After all, we're two men trending in opposite ways. A.C. Smith is heading north while I am starting to falter, starting to fall back down to earth.
"This week will go a long way to proving if that is true or not."
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"Well, that was interesting," Vincent James says as he and C.J. Gates walk down the driveway away from the house of Mrs. Gates. "I wonder what she meant by 'I have my ways'. Kind of cryptic."
"Kind of?" Gates shakes his head. "It fits with her though. You never know what she's going to say. I just hope she doesn't get herself hurt or killed during all of this."
"Gotta have faith," James says. "Or at least hope that nothing bad happens."
"Yeah," Gates says.
"And don't let what she said get to you. Don't throw in the towel just to save her."
"I wasn't going to," Gates says, but James shoots him a look. "Okay, it crossed my mind, but I wouldn't have seriously considered it. There's too much still to do, too many people still to battle against. Too many events to compete in. It's just frustrating."
"I can see that," James says. "But hey, forget all of the stuff that happened in there and focus in on the important stuff. Focus in on A.C. Smith."
"It's funny," Gates says with a chuckle. "The way my mom is going, and the way she's talking, it's almost like we need to send some police officers to her to keep her safe. Just so happens that I'm facing off against a former police officer inside of the ring."
"Smith was a cop?"
"He was," Gates says. "An honorable profession. And after everything that has gone on, and with how horrible the world is, I have nothing but respect for them. They've earned it. A.C. Smith has earned my respect."
"Definitely. He's got mine too."
"And you don't even know him."
"I don't have to know him to know that he was one of the few men protecting the every day citizen from the ways of evil."
"Good point."
"So what made him stop?" James asks. "What caused him to throw in the towel and start wrestling?"
"I guess he wanted more," Gates says. "Maybe after all he had seen as a cop, something like this would prove to be a little more fun then the every day grind of locking up gang bangers and taking down coke heads. But really, it's not my place to wonder why he's doing something."
"No?" James asks. "I figured that would be your big goal this week."
"Unlike people like Havok, I'm not going to obsess over his past, at least not too much. I'm not going to wipe my ass with the accolades that Smith earned on the force like Havok seemed to do last week. A.C. Smith has earned way more than that. No, instead, I'm going to focus on his wrestling."
"And focus on winning Test for the Best."
"That could be an added bonus," Gates says. "But it's going to take a lot. It's going to take a bit of work to get myself into that position, and I know that Smith won't just give me the match. He's a former cop, not a mime."
"A mime?" James asks. "What? No, you know what, never mind."
"All I meant is that his training as a cop will mean that he knows how to handle himself," Gates says. "He's not going to give up, and he's not going to be intimidated. Not that I intimidate, but you know what I mean. He's going to bring the fight to me."
"Is that a bad thing?"
"Not at all," Gates says.
"I wouldn't have it any other way."
------------------------------------------------
"You think we would have fought before.
"Given the roster, you figure we would have met at least once between then and now. But maybe that's the way it's designed for people like you and I, A.C. Maybe we are only supposed to meet up when there is something to fight for. The first time, we were fighting for bragging rights, for the opportunity to show just which one of us truly deserves to move forward. Now we fight for the right to move on in the Test for the Best tournament.
"The difference now, is that people can see you as a legitimate threat to winning this tournament. People can see you as a potential Test for the Best winner. Maybe that was the case last time we fought, but now, now everyone knows it.
"I mean, you haven't exactly been resting on your heels, waiting for things to come your way. No, you've been making sure to earn your credit through all of your hard fought battles defending that Xtreme title. You've defeated men like hall of famer Michael Lively, the up and coming Buckson Gooch and most recently, the full-of-himself Nathaniel Havok. It's not like you're beating average Joes for the wins. You've been facing some stiff competition and coming out on the other side victorious.
"So maybe part of me is worried. Part of me was hoping I would be able to have a good shot at being the first person to win the Test for the Best tournament twice, but to do so, I have to get through someone who has done nothing but earn his spot in this tournament. And what I mean by that, is it's not like you were just added to the mix because you're a member of the Overdrive roster. It's not like you were just given the opportunity because you were a champion. You were added because you deserve it.
"Maybe I'm unsure of how to handle it. I mean, my first time in this tournament, I faced men and women who were downright underhanded in their actions. I beat Sally Talfourd, Johnny Rebel and Shane Borderland to win, and at the time, there wasn't a good one in the bunch. But now...Now things are different.
"And that doesn't mean I'm going to go easy, it just means it's different. It just means that for once, I am going up against someone in this situation that I can legitimately stand back and say 'that man deserves to go on'. 'That man deserves to win the entire tournament'. For once I know that if I lose, if I am pinned or submitted, then I would have lost to a man that deserved it.
"But I'm still going to bring my A game to the ring, A.C., as I'm sure you expect me to. I'm going to work as hard as I can to get the win, because, well, it's something that I want.
"After all of the hardships I've come across in the past year where my record is concerned, this is something that could get my back on the right track. This is the sort of win that could lift my spirits and help me to forget everything else that I've been through. Sure, I've had title matches, but it seems that no matter what, I always come up just short. And that is something that I need to change. That is something that I'm hoping this will help me change.
"Don't get me wrong though, A.C., this is also a match that I am looking forward to for other reasons. I said it before, it shocks me that we've only really fought, one on one in the past year, especially since you're the sort of man that could push me to my limits, the sort of man that could better me.
"You're bigger than me, you're stronger than me and you've been doing this thing longer than I have. But all of that, that will help me get better. All of that will make me try that much harder to get things done, that much harder to make sure that I come out on top. And through that, I am going to end up being a better person. A better wrestler. Win or lose.
"Of course, though, I'm going to try and win. I'm going to try and get the victory while doing all that I can to give the fans a match that they want to see. However, chasing that win won't be easy, especially with the momentum that you currently have on your side, A.C.
"You're right, I've been floundering. I've been doing nothing with my time lately except giving bad guys a battle and making them earn their victories. I've been doing nothing but taking on the best of the best that APW has to offer and trying as much as I can to stop them. Level One, Terry Marvin, Michael Callahan. Those are the names that I have been trying to stop with no success. I don't have the wins on my side to give me some momentum. I don't have the accolades around my waist to give me that drive.
"But I don't think I'll need it. Maybe I'm just trying to be optimistic, but the amount of wins someone has doesn't necessarily matter. I mean, prior to beating Level One at Christmas Chaos, I wasn't lighting the world on fire, but I still managed to be the better man that night. I didn't need to rack up months and months of momentum just so I could come into that match with a head full of steam.
"So maybe that's how we differ. I don't need the momentum to win a match, and you do. No disrespect, I'm just saying that if you didn't have that title around your waist, if Nathaniel Havok had beaten you at Mayhem, what kind of tune would you singing then? What kind of hope would you have for winning this entire tournament? If you're banking a win all on momentum, then maybe you are just lucky to still have the title.
"Again, no disrespect intended, A.C. Trust me. After all, it was you who said you don't know how many people think you can beat me, and when I heard that I did the only thing that was logical.
"I raised my hand.
"I know that you are capable of beating me, and not because you already have. Based on what you have done recently, based on who you have beaten, and based on what I haven't done, yeah, I could see you coming out on top. I could see you turning this match into a launching pad of sorts, one that will take you to the peak of APW. But even though I know that, I am not going to let that keep me down. I am not going to let that get into my head and force me to come up short. I am not going to let that thought beat me.
"Because just like you, I want to win. Just like you, I want to go through this entire tournament and come out with my arms raised on the other side. Our reasons are different, however. You want to win so you can solidify yourself as a top competitor, so you can do what you came so close to doing last year and gain a legitimate shot at the World Heavyweight title.
"However, I want to win so that I can turn around my recent fortunes. I want to win so that I can begin to climb out of this rut. Everyone has to start somewhere, right A.C.? So maybe this is my spot. Maybe this tournament is when I begin to finally turn things around, when I finally begin to turn aside opponent after opponent.
"You've had a good reign as the Xtreme champion, and I tip my hat to that feat. Especially with a title that every one seems to want to get their hands on. Maybe that is what has me worried. You've done such a good job at defending it, but you've also done a good job at showing me that you can take a lot of punishment and you can dish it out, too. With or without weapons.
"So maybe I realize that you aren't going to go down easily.
"Maybe I understand that you aren't just going to lay down for me.
"But really, I wouldn't want it that way. I wouldn't want to take an easy win against you because, like I said, this is the sort of match that can make me better. This is the sort of match that can turn around my recent fortunes.
"I wish you luck, A.C., because I know that this won't be easy on either of us.
"It's time to go big or go home."
