Better Days #1: Better Days

[Smash INC]

Keaton Saint in...
Better Days #1: Better Days

Mayhem lived up to the name, Keaton Saint failed to deliver on his.

The chaotic night had come and gone, yet Terry Marvin still stood as the Undisputed champion. It was a stark reminder than when it came to the championship, Terry Marvin would do anything to retain it and he would be proud of the actions he took. This was what riled Keaton up more than anything else, it felt like 'fate' was laughing at his efforts to defy the natural order. Terry Marvin had always been a bastard, but the victory at Mayhem was something he was going to revel in for a long time. Regardless of the actions of the New Sindicate, Terry Marvin would be the first to say it was all down to him and it was a feat that should be respected. Just like his volition the previous year led to the use of questionable referees, handcuffs and more. Keaton Saint had come closer than most to beating Terry Marvin but he had never done it. Maybe that made things worse.

The statistics weren't a lie, Terry Marvin was enjoying the most prolific reign of any champion in APW. He was also an enduring champion and one that was weathering the storm of challengers through any means necessary. Keaton had known for a long time that the record would likely stand long after Marvin eventually lost the championship, it wasn't about becoming the champion any more for him. Keaton had to be the one to end Terry Marvin's reign because he knew nobody else doing it would be as infuriating, because then MAYBE Terry Marvin would reflect for a moment longer and then he might understand just what Keaton was trying to relay to him all this time. Terry Marvin was a champion and he enjoyed his success, but he had never given up a moment of it to respect the fans who enabled him to be a part of something where being the champion meant something. Keaton wanted him to know exactly what was missing.

Either way, Mayhem was over and the chance for Keaton to end the reign of Terry Marvin had gone away with the closing moments. Keaton made two calls after the event, the first of which was a clerical one by nature and something to check his options following Mayhem. Keaton knew he had been running out of chances for a long time, Terry Marvin holding any sort of advantage over Keaton was always going to be extra pressure on top of that. But Keaton knew there was more to this tale than his conflict with Terry Marvin, his chances were running out for other reasons as well.

The second call was the more interesting one because of it.

"I've seen better days."

"Please leave a message after the tone." The

*beep*

"Heh." Keaton continued. "I've seen better days, Atken would probably say the same thing about himself but there's not much else I can say about tonight. Mayhem could have gone my way, I was close again and yet I'm here speaking about better days."

"The sort of days I haven't seen in a long time, how does that even work when I can wake up knowing that I'm a bloody globetrotting superstar with no difficulties other than what I face in the ring? It's all too comforting in some way, go wrestle, get paid, go abroad and live the dream." Keaton sighed. "All I ever wanted was to be a wrestler, some of the reality of that is only now unsettling me."

"Are we so willing to lose ourselves in accepting the lifestyle of a wrestler that we'll forego the challenge just to take up the holiday aspect? Terry Marvin won, he celebrates that as if he just had a child but at least he's still treating it like it means something." Keaton paused. "I just can't justify the idea of the Sindicate, new or old. I just can't get my head around the idea that so many will simply settle for serving another, maintaining their own status quo instead of trying to push the limits of what they can do. Maybe that's what makes me different or perhaps I'm going about it the wrong way."

"Surely they all WANT to be undisputed champion, but they're funding the continued reign of a man who would just as quickly praise them or send rabid dogs after them." Keaton sighed. "Is it just easier to take the money and run, take the sponsorship of the Sindicate and support a tyrant? Am I so out of touch with wrestling that I missed the day when it became better to just be a number rather than a progressive sportsman?"

"I've got all these questions, some I want to ask you in person and others I fear are better left unsaid. but they're there and I'm still wondering just what the answers are." Keaton took a moment to collect his thoughts. "Tonight brought some clarity, but I still want more. I still want to be able to come up with my own answer and be certain of it. I'm running out of time to be certain, I still wonder if it's worth thanking you-know-who for that."

"Time has been kind to me, but even I know I was borrowing it. Maybe I should be thankful of that, having a constant reminder of my own limitations as a motivator, but still, something tells me I'm in a position where I want to feel as if I could have done more. Terry Marvin is still a champion and I've probably run out of chances to face him, my time is closer to an end than it was before. The question is..."

"How long have you known?"

"I've known to an extent since before I came to APW, maybe even before I took my first step into the APW ring a year before I put my name down as one of the many. The motivations were different then, but we all change and so does what we fight for. It's strange to think that nearly everything I've been involved with here has something to do with Terry Marvin." Keaton sighed. "He threw me out of the Survive & conquer match in 2011, he was the constant opponent for most of 2012 and tonight he's just become the certifiable nemesis. I was almost 100% before on that but that has to be a guarantee now. I've seen better days than this one."

"How long until I see better days again?"

==========

Cockroach

We're all just trying to make history.

That's the core of professional wrestling, it's a sport founded on the ideal that one or some of us will be able to withstand the onslaught from our foes and make our own history. It's not just about being a footnote in the books, some of us want to write our own history and be certain that it all gets recorded.

Once I establish that, it becomes easier to understand why Terry Marvin would go to any length to secure more time with the Undisputed championship. I've always respected the tenacity of his reign, I don't respect him but I am willing to see why he would do what he does to remain on top. I'm never going to have the same degree of success as Terry Marvin, I have become more and more aware of that as time has gone on. The truth is I take some enjoyment knowing that I'm never going to have that sort of lengthy reign where everything seems to come out golden. It's not how I work, it's not how I perform at my best and it's not how I'd grow as a wrestler.

For me, being a wrestler is about living in a constant state of flux and adapting to the new circumstances that come every day. The ring is the unchanging barrier but what I face within it is always new, always a challenge to overcome or at least admire. To face part of the NEW Sindicate should be getting more of a rise out of me, but the truth is I couldn't care if you were called new, neo, nu or whatever version of the name Marvin's marketing team decided would be best. you're still an opponent and I still have a job to do.

What I'm not here to do is open doors for other people, my time as the Gatekeeper of the sport ended when I was able to ascend to holding the World Heavyweight Championship. All that time spent clamouring for a chance to prove just how far I had come since entering APW. Every part of me, every action I had committed had become a sort of foreplay before actually holding a title and then it came and went by with an unsatisfying conclusion. There is a part of me that believes that it might have been better for my own piece of mind to have not held a title, a case could have then be made that perhaps I was the best wrestler to have never held a title in the whole of APW. Some people like the idea of being the big fish in a small pond.

I'm not one of them. I've had different motivations in my time as a wrestler but they've always been centred on the fact that I can do better, I've always wanted to do better. What I've never done is settle for less and when you made the decision to stand by Terry Marvin that's exactly what you did. Whilst I push and pull, you're willing to let the rope go slack just so you can associate yourself with the Undisputed champion. You settled, you stalled and that is shameful when you consider just how much people would sacrifice just to be a part of APW. You spat in their faces when you settled for being Terry Marvin's call girl.

Enjoy it for what it is, because you can't be genuine on both sides if you're aiming to win Test for the Best. You can't be Terry Marvin's servant if you're aiming to scale the mountain yourself. Think about what happens if you do beat me, if you do go to Test for the Best and win the bloody thing. You've just set yourself a task made harder by your own little faction of betrayal, you sullied the reputation of wrestlers by joining up with Terry Marvin and you'll be just as happy to go to the limits of your physicality just so you can betray your supposed allies.

Make up your own mind, learn something, take a goddamn side and stick with it.

Holding the World Heavyweight Championship was valuable, it told me something that I couldn't explain by myself and despite losing to Callahan there was still an overwhelming sense of relief that I had BEEN there for at least a couple of weeks. I'm not the best of the never-was, I'm a contender for the worst of the ones that DID succeed but that's still a step above everything else I've done in my career.

I used to take pride in being the Gatekeeper of the sport, the idea that I was the man that people had to beat to become part of the elite was heartwarming in some way. It made me feel good knowing I had some sort of reference point to how good I could be in the ring and how much I could influence things above me. It was all an elaborate lie of course, but I was willing to believe it anyhow. Therein lies the core of the problem, I settled for that once. I settled for being the stepping stone for others when I've always known that wrestler was about setting your own standards.

It's why I'm a Paragon. The unparalleled sportsman, the apotheosis of a professional and a wrestler that stands alone. Terry Marvin is the Undisputed champion but he can never be Keaton Saint and that probably eats away at him. If Terry Marvin has doubts about things, maybe you should take that as a warning Aubrey and realise just how far I can go in the ring. I've been beaten before, I have been assaulted on mental and physical scales that most people would cringe just to look at. But I survived the war just like a cockroach would, all the dropped bombs only served as a reminder that you can destroy the shell but you can't kill the man.

Aim for the BEST, that's something you have to prove to yourself if you want to betray your new family and come to the ones that matter. The fans are always here, the Sindicate is just a temporary alternative. Some things last forever, I'm not one of them but you'll have to go above and beyond every expectation to see where I end and your future begins.

We're going to fight and you will see some of the very worst that I have to offer, I'm still an angry man at the end of the day and what YOU did was abhorrent. We will fight and I will endure.

Keaton Saint WILL carry on.