Post by A.C. Smith on Jul 17, 2013 13:19:23 GMT -4
Our scene opens today outside, in the uncomfortable summer heat of the Carolinas. We see a sign advertising a build for Habitat for Humanity, the charity that builds homes for the less fortunate, and in the distance, we see a team of several dozen people hammering nails, carrying wood, and otherwise assisting in the organization's efforts to build several homes on a plot.
We get closer, and amidst the profusely-sweaty crowd, one body stands out: The shirtless figure of APW Xtreme Champion A.C. Smith. He's wearing only a pair of black gym shorts and worn-out, once-white sneakers, and he's motoring around to assist others and motivate people to keep going, even in the oppressive heat.
In fact, the conditions are so daunting that Smith's two closest cohorts, Bobby the Bavarian Man-Bitch and Stevie the Slovakian Slobberknocker, are camped out underneath a shade-providing tree, pouring water down their throats and over the tops of their heads for relief. Shaking his head at his more out-of-shape friends, Smith walks over with a snarky smirk having made its way to his face.
A.C.: “Unbelievable. You have access to my entire home gym ANY TIME you want to use it, and you're huffing and puffing like you've never had an honest day of work in your life!”
Bobby: “Dude, it's 100 degrees out here, and this isn't exactly easy.”
A.C.: “Don't call me dude.”
Stevie: “All I'm saying is we can't all look like we just stepped off a porno set. Cut us a little bit of slack, OK?”
Smith rolls his eyes, wiping some sweat off his brow and sipping from a bottle of water he's pulled out of the left pocket of his shorts. Once he re-caps it, he looks off into the distance, and his smirk turns into a loving smile.
A.C.: “Boys, look over there and see who's NOT acting like a baby in this whole thing.”
The camera pans left, and we see Roxanne, not just providing support but hauling wood and other supplies as well. She's wearing an old white t-shirt and black shorts of her own, and while she's not built like a female bodybuilder or anything, we clearly see that this is a woman who takes care of her body.
She sees her male friends looking at her, and returns Smith's smile with one of her own as she puts the 2-by-4's down and saunters over.
Roxanne: “What's up, Bobby? Stevie? Couldn't hang with the big girls?”
Smith and Roxanne give each other a celebratory fist-bump, followed by Roxie giving the Big Apple Asskicker a peck on his cheek.
Bobby: “You don't count. You were a goddamn police officer who probably press-slammed people through concrete.”
Roxanne laughs, flashing her pearly whites and showing a genuine happiness to be around her boyfriend and mutual friends.
Roxanne: “This was a really nice idea, A.C. What brought this on?”
A.C.: “It's simple, really.”
Stevie: “Yeah, he picked the hottest day of the year and decided to torture us on it.”
Smith rolls his eyes, acknowledging the joke but not being caught dead laughing at it.
A.C.: “Anyway, I've always loved what Habitat for Humanity does for people. People who can't fulfill the most basic need of shelter get it, and those who play a part in building the homes feel a sense of accomplishment by giving back to the less fortunate. Well, unless you're Bobby and Stevie, who'd probably treat plowing through an ice cream sandwich as a worthy accomplishment.”
Roxanne is laughing so hard she has to grab hold of the tree to keep herself upright as she guffaws. Bobby and Stevie aren't nearly as enthused, but they're too hot and sweaty to come up with a solid comeback, and they begrudgingly concede the round to their friend.
A.C.: “Seriously, though, I love stuff like this. Everything I've done in life hasn't just been about me. It's about the greater good, and doing something that means I'm remembered for stuff outside wrestling. Make no mistake, I love my job, but there's so much more to life than what you do, and I intend to make the most of my time outside the ring.
“I get to spend time with the people I like the most, and I can help out people who need it. Where's the downside?”
We hear the rusting of footsteps on the grass coming from off-screen and getting closer. After a few seconds, we see a bubbly, 40-something woman with a clipboard and a Habitat for Humanity t-shirt strut in.
Woman: “You must be Mr. Smith! We're so happy to have you and your friends here. You're really doing something great and lifting everyone's spirits, and we're grateful for it.”
A.C.: “Happy to do it, Miss...?”
Woman: “Oh, Claire. Claire Holmes.”
The two shake hands.
Claire: “I have to say, you're very handsome in-person. Can't say I'm unhappy about the heat.”
She's blushing at this point, while Roxanne is turning red out of a much different reason: Anger.
A.C.: “...and this is Roxanne. My girlfriend.”
A pause. Roxanne looks at Smith, almost as if the declaration took her by surprise. Meanwhile, Claire looks ashamed of herself.
Claire: “I'm very sorry. I had no idea.”
A.C.: “It's okay. Don't sweat it. Literally.”
Claire manages a slight smile as she slinkers off. When she's outside earshot, Bobby and Stevie start laughing, although A.C. is not amused.
A.C.: “Boys, get back to work.”
Bobby: “But we're having so much fun!”
Roxanne: “ROBERT. STEVEN. Get back to work. NOW.”
There it is again. As we found out last week, Roxanne knows the full names of each of the guys, and when she uses them, she means business.
Suddenly, Bobby and Stevie look much less tired. They bounce up and speed-walk to the nearest house, and Smith looks at Roxanne with an impressed look on his face.
A.C.: “Wow. You're great at kicking people into shape. Must come with being a mother of two teenage boys...”
Roxanne: “Is that what we are?”
A pause.
A.C.: “Is this where we're having this conversation?”
Roxanne: “We might as well, considering that lady over there had a schoolgirl crush on you, wanted to see WAY more than your abs, and got me REALLY angry.”
A.C.: “You think I haven't noticed all the guys here looking at you? Christ, you're kicking their asses and looking like a million bucks doing it.”
Roxanne allows herself a grin.
A.C.: “Look, Roxie. I like you, a lot. You're beautiful, inside and out, and you're probably the smartest, funniest woman I know. You know what my track record is with women, but I think we've got something great here, and I'm in no hurry to leave it behind for anything else.
“So to answer your question...yes. If that's what you want us to be.”
Roxanne: “You've come a long way from the kid out of the academy who didn't say a word to me for two weeks when we were walking that beat.”
Now it's Smith who's smiling.
Roxanne: “I don't know. I guess I was just confused because we hadn't talked about that before. I mean, I knew I felt something for you, and I knew I liked where this was going, but...I don't know, it just feels weird after everything that's happened, for both of us.”
A.C.: “Roxie, look at me.”
Smith reaches out, grabbing Roxanne's hand and looking into her eyes.
A.C.: “I'll never be able to fathom what your ex-husband did to you, and I'll never be able to tell you why it happened. All I can do is promise you that that's NEVER going to be me. I've dealt with way too many scumbags who thought they could do whatever they wanted, to anyone they wanted, without any repercussions.
“I care about you too much to do something like that. You've had it rough as a single mom raising two kids with no father around, and I want to be the one thing you DON'T have to worry about.
“Are we clear?”
Roxie wipes her face. It's unclear if she's fighting beads of sweat or tears, but after a moment, she nods.
A.C.: “Now, I'd REALLY like to kiss you.”
Roxanne: “What's stopping you?”
A.C.: “You're sweaty.”
That breaks the tension, and both A.C. and Roxanne start laughing.
A.C.: “Come on. Let's go make sure Bobby and Stevie don't die of heatstroke.”
Smith sprints off. Roxanne watches him for a moment with a loving look in her eyes, following him a few seconds later as our scene fades to black.
---
We're in a much cooler area when we fade back up. Smith is sitting alone inside a well-lit hospitality room, and the humming of an air conditioner in the background is music to our ears and much-needed relief for the man sitting near it.
A.C. finishes off a bottle of water and throws the plastic towards a nearby recycling bin. The bottle caroms off the cement wall and banks in, drawing a nearly-imperceptible fist pump from the APW Xtreme Champion.
Still smiling a bit, the Big Apple Asskicker turns his attention toward the camera. Smith wipes his brow once to get rid of any leftover sweat, and after he brings his hand down behind the table, he opens his mouth to speak.
A.C.: “The biggest difference between myself and many of my fellow wrestlers has never been size, or strength, or anything that can be definitively measured. No, it's in the ideologies that we all hold.
“Wrestling, by and large, is a me-first business. Everyone looks out for themselves, everyone constantly looks for opportunities to get ahead, and some will take any shortcut they can find in order to get there. For a lot of people, that way of life works and works well. Men and women have made careers on looking for weaknesses and attacking them in underhanded ways when their target least expects it, and hey, if they're sleeping well at night and they're satisfied with how they got where they are, good for them.
“But see, that's never been my style of doing things. I've never carried myself that way, I've never once been categorized as a liar or a cheat, and I recognize that my fans, the best supporters anyone could ever ask for, wouldn't have me any other way. With me, what you see is what you get, and if you ask me an honest question, I'm going to give you an honest answer. Not because the truth hurts, or because it could give me a psychological edge down the road, but because that's just how I'm wired, and that's really all there is to it.
“My opponent this week is 'Madman' Chris Madison, and he's one of those guys who is a polar opposite of me. He's a me-first, me-second, and me-third guy who doesn't have a use for people who can't assist him, as he demonstrated last week when he issued an array of pink slips to people on his staff. The thing is, when you look at life through those glasses, your vision tends to get distorted, and that's exactly what happened when he took to the airwaves earlier this week.”
Smith had been sitting up straight in his white plastic chair, but he crouches over just a bit, adopting an explanatory tone when he resumes talking while never taking his brown eyes off the camera lens.
A.C.: “Madison was wrong about the very thing that drives him. He'd said he wants to beat the longest-reigning Xtreme Champion in APW history. Fine and dandy...except that's not his opponent this week. Sure, I've held my title for going on seven months now, and I appreciate him not treating me like a big, dumb oaf, a mistake plenty of others have made in gunning for the championship I hold near and dear to my heart. But see, the longest-reigning champion actually held the title for 364 days in 2008 and 2009, and his name wasn't A.C. Smith. It was Chris Cyrus.
“Do I want to get to that point? Absolutely. But in order to do that, I need to fend off all comers for five more months. It's hardly a gimmie, but I'm on the fast track to doing that this week already, since Madison is using untruths in order to motivate himself. And yes, I used the plural term because, unfortunately for him, he's up shit creek on several points he tried to make.
“He thinks I'm going to underestimate him. I've never underestimated a single opponent in my 11-year career. I know that this Thursday night here in North Carolina, and for that matter, every single time I defend my Xtreme Championship, I'm going to be in for a fight. Everyone wants what I've got and what I've held for more than half a year, and every time I go out there and put it on the line, I know for a fact that I'm getting everyone's best shot. What's made me the longest-reigning champion on Overdrive isn't me underestimating my opponents, but rather taking every challenge head-on, countering THEIR best with MY best, and having that be enough. There are no off-nights when you're in my position, and I refuse to get suckered into thinking tomorrow night is going to be one of them.
“Most offensive of all, though, he thinks I should be SCARED of him. I've said it before, and I'll keep saying it again and again until I'm blue in the face: When you spend time on the streets of New York City as a cop, you LEARN what to be scared of. I've dealt with guys with guns, knives, bombs, the works, and I emerged from it tougher and better at what I did than I was before.
“Chris Madison? He's a good wrestler with some momentum after a win in that battle royal last week, and I won't deny him credit for that. I know what it feels like to have to fight with your head on a swivel and opponents coming at you from all angles. However, it's not because I've wrestled in a ton of battle royals. It's because I've been in situations where legit tough guys were coming at me, and they didn't want some championship belt. They wanted my life, because I threatened the ways they wanted to live theirs.”
Smith pauses, as if he's reminiscing about a particular moment in the line of duty. After he lets that point resonate for a few seconds, though, he continues, but with a firmness and sense of anger in his voice that wasn't there before.
A.C.: “Chris Madison said he'd be happiest watching the world burn, and that just plain pisses me off, because I've SEEN it happen. I was a cop during 9/11. I saw the towers come down. I saw kids lose their parents, spouses lose their loved ones, and my brothers in arms lose their lives trying to prevent that from happening. People remember where they were when they heard about a bunch of terrorists killing thousands of innocent people in the name of God. Me? I try to forget it.
“Chris Madison, how DARE you even so much as imply that THIS would make you happy? How DARE you rub the misery that everyone else around you would feel right in their faces, with you playing the part of Nero and fiddling while everything around you turned to dust? And how DARE you do that this week, when you're going up against someone who knows first-hand what it feels like to WATCH two towers collapse and take the lives of people who didn't deserve it?
“You're no champion. You're a sadist, and someone who'd stab his own mother in the back if it meant you got her money. And people like you don't DESERVE to be called a champion. People like you deserve to rot in a special section of hell and suffer every day for all eternity, and for you to even think you deserve the APW Xtreme Championship, something I've worked harder than ANYONE else to bring a sense of pride to after Evan Harrison and Nick Watson dragged it through the muck and made it not worth a damn? That's a slap in the face not just to me, not just to my fans, but to anyone who cares the slightest bit about this business and what makes it great.”
Smith's face is as red as a fire truck at this point. His nostrils are flared, his eyes have not blinked or wavered from the camera, and we see some of his veins in much greater detail.
A.C.: “With some people, Chris, getting inside their heads and pushing their buttons like this would be a sign of victory, a sign that your opponent wasn't completely focused on the task at hand. But Madison, what you've done? Well, that just signed your death warrant, because you did something very, very dangerous: You got my attention. And this Thursday night, I will show up in Raleigh with one goal in mind, and only one goal: Give you the biggest ass-kicking of your life, and hopefully knock some sense through your thick skull and into your corrupted excuse for a brain.
“I've dealt with people like you for way too long. Michael Lively, an APW Hall of Famer, thought he could bully me around like I was some weak kid who wouldn't stand up to him. I beat him three times, all cleanly, and all with the Xtreme Championship on the line, and I drove him all the way to Asylum. Nathaniel Havok tried all sorts of mind games to get into my head, thinking it was an absolute certainty that he'd get back what he thought was rightfully his. Instead, I beat him at his own game at Mayhem and left him a bloody mess, and he hasn't been right since.
“Chris, you said you weren't a punk. As usual, you were wrong. You're a selfish, overconfident, no-good SOB who needs to be dealt with by someone who knows how to take out the trash better than anyone else on APW's flagship brand. You're a talented wrestler, and someone who does come in with some momentum. But until you get a clue about what's going on around you, and until you realize that there's WAY more to life than how everything affects YOU, you'll never deserve to be called what you want to be most: A champion.
“Consider yourself lucky, Madison. Some people go through life never learning that lesson, and when it hits, it's too late to change anything. This week, you'll find out exactly how little you know, courtesy of someone who's been through EVERYTHING, lived to tell about it, and will not hesitate to show you how much of a clueless asshole you truly are. They say experience is what you get when you don't get what you want. Well, I sure hope the beating I'm about to give you gets through, because if ANYONE needs a lesson on how to go through life, it's you.
“Fortunately, you've got a very, VERY willing teacher.”
Smith rises to his full 6'8” height, pounding the table in front of him with his right fist as he stands up. We see that he'd been wearing the Xtreme Championship around his waist, and he unstraps the belt before draping it over his shoulder and walking out of the shot.
We then hear a door close off-screen, and a few seconds later, our scene fades to black.
We get closer, and amidst the profusely-sweaty crowd, one body stands out: The shirtless figure of APW Xtreme Champion A.C. Smith. He's wearing only a pair of black gym shorts and worn-out, once-white sneakers, and he's motoring around to assist others and motivate people to keep going, even in the oppressive heat.
In fact, the conditions are so daunting that Smith's two closest cohorts, Bobby the Bavarian Man-Bitch and Stevie the Slovakian Slobberknocker, are camped out underneath a shade-providing tree, pouring water down their throats and over the tops of their heads for relief. Shaking his head at his more out-of-shape friends, Smith walks over with a snarky smirk having made its way to his face.
A.C.: “Unbelievable. You have access to my entire home gym ANY TIME you want to use it, and you're huffing and puffing like you've never had an honest day of work in your life!”
Bobby: “Dude, it's 100 degrees out here, and this isn't exactly easy.”
A.C.: “Don't call me dude.”
Stevie: “All I'm saying is we can't all look like we just stepped off a porno set. Cut us a little bit of slack, OK?”
Smith rolls his eyes, wiping some sweat off his brow and sipping from a bottle of water he's pulled out of the left pocket of his shorts. Once he re-caps it, he looks off into the distance, and his smirk turns into a loving smile.
A.C.: “Boys, look over there and see who's NOT acting like a baby in this whole thing.”
The camera pans left, and we see Roxanne, not just providing support but hauling wood and other supplies as well. She's wearing an old white t-shirt and black shorts of her own, and while she's not built like a female bodybuilder or anything, we clearly see that this is a woman who takes care of her body.
She sees her male friends looking at her, and returns Smith's smile with one of her own as she puts the 2-by-4's down and saunters over.
Roxanne: “What's up, Bobby? Stevie? Couldn't hang with the big girls?”
Smith and Roxanne give each other a celebratory fist-bump, followed by Roxie giving the Big Apple Asskicker a peck on his cheek.
Bobby: “You don't count. You were a goddamn police officer who probably press-slammed people through concrete.”
Roxanne laughs, flashing her pearly whites and showing a genuine happiness to be around her boyfriend and mutual friends.
Roxanne: “This was a really nice idea, A.C. What brought this on?”
A.C.: “It's simple, really.”
Stevie: “Yeah, he picked the hottest day of the year and decided to torture us on it.”
Smith rolls his eyes, acknowledging the joke but not being caught dead laughing at it.
A.C.: “Anyway, I've always loved what Habitat for Humanity does for people. People who can't fulfill the most basic need of shelter get it, and those who play a part in building the homes feel a sense of accomplishment by giving back to the less fortunate. Well, unless you're Bobby and Stevie, who'd probably treat plowing through an ice cream sandwich as a worthy accomplishment.”
Roxanne is laughing so hard she has to grab hold of the tree to keep herself upright as she guffaws. Bobby and Stevie aren't nearly as enthused, but they're too hot and sweaty to come up with a solid comeback, and they begrudgingly concede the round to their friend.
A.C.: “Seriously, though, I love stuff like this. Everything I've done in life hasn't just been about me. It's about the greater good, and doing something that means I'm remembered for stuff outside wrestling. Make no mistake, I love my job, but there's so much more to life than what you do, and I intend to make the most of my time outside the ring.
“I get to spend time with the people I like the most, and I can help out people who need it. Where's the downside?”
We hear the rusting of footsteps on the grass coming from off-screen and getting closer. After a few seconds, we see a bubbly, 40-something woman with a clipboard and a Habitat for Humanity t-shirt strut in.
Woman: “You must be Mr. Smith! We're so happy to have you and your friends here. You're really doing something great and lifting everyone's spirits, and we're grateful for it.”
A.C.: “Happy to do it, Miss...?”
Woman: “Oh, Claire. Claire Holmes.”
The two shake hands.
Claire: “I have to say, you're very handsome in-person. Can't say I'm unhappy about the heat.”
She's blushing at this point, while Roxanne is turning red out of a much different reason: Anger.
A.C.: “...and this is Roxanne. My girlfriend.”
A pause. Roxanne looks at Smith, almost as if the declaration took her by surprise. Meanwhile, Claire looks ashamed of herself.
Claire: “I'm very sorry. I had no idea.”
A.C.: “It's okay. Don't sweat it. Literally.”
Claire manages a slight smile as she slinkers off. When she's outside earshot, Bobby and Stevie start laughing, although A.C. is not amused.
A.C.: “Boys, get back to work.”
Bobby: “But we're having so much fun!”
Roxanne: “ROBERT. STEVEN. Get back to work. NOW.”
There it is again. As we found out last week, Roxanne knows the full names of each of the guys, and when she uses them, she means business.
Suddenly, Bobby and Stevie look much less tired. They bounce up and speed-walk to the nearest house, and Smith looks at Roxanne with an impressed look on his face.
A.C.: “Wow. You're great at kicking people into shape. Must come with being a mother of two teenage boys...”
Roxanne: “Is that what we are?”
A pause.
A.C.: “Is this where we're having this conversation?”
Roxanne: “We might as well, considering that lady over there had a schoolgirl crush on you, wanted to see WAY more than your abs, and got me REALLY angry.”
A.C.: “You think I haven't noticed all the guys here looking at you? Christ, you're kicking their asses and looking like a million bucks doing it.”
Roxanne allows herself a grin.
A.C.: “Look, Roxie. I like you, a lot. You're beautiful, inside and out, and you're probably the smartest, funniest woman I know. You know what my track record is with women, but I think we've got something great here, and I'm in no hurry to leave it behind for anything else.
“So to answer your question...yes. If that's what you want us to be.”
Roxanne: “You've come a long way from the kid out of the academy who didn't say a word to me for two weeks when we were walking that beat.”
Now it's Smith who's smiling.
Roxanne: “I don't know. I guess I was just confused because we hadn't talked about that before. I mean, I knew I felt something for you, and I knew I liked where this was going, but...I don't know, it just feels weird after everything that's happened, for both of us.”
A.C.: “Roxie, look at me.”
Smith reaches out, grabbing Roxanne's hand and looking into her eyes.
A.C.: “I'll never be able to fathom what your ex-husband did to you, and I'll never be able to tell you why it happened. All I can do is promise you that that's NEVER going to be me. I've dealt with way too many scumbags who thought they could do whatever they wanted, to anyone they wanted, without any repercussions.
“I care about you too much to do something like that. You've had it rough as a single mom raising two kids with no father around, and I want to be the one thing you DON'T have to worry about.
“Are we clear?”
Roxie wipes her face. It's unclear if she's fighting beads of sweat or tears, but after a moment, she nods.
A.C.: “Now, I'd REALLY like to kiss you.”
Roxanne: “What's stopping you?”
A.C.: “You're sweaty.”
That breaks the tension, and both A.C. and Roxanne start laughing.
A.C.: “Come on. Let's go make sure Bobby and Stevie don't die of heatstroke.”
Smith sprints off. Roxanne watches him for a moment with a loving look in her eyes, following him a few seconds later as our scene fades to black.
---
We're in a much cooler area when we fade back up. Smith is sitting alone inside a well-lit hospitality room, and the humming of an air conditioner in the background is music to our ears and much-needed relief for the man sitting near it.
A.C. finishes off a bottle of water and throws the plastic towards a nearby recycling bin. The bottle caroms off the cement wall and banks in, drawing a nearly-imperceptible fist pump from the APW Xtreme Champion.
Still smiling a bit, the Big Apple Asskicker turns his attention toward the camera. Smith wipes his brow once to get rid of any leftover sweat, and after he brings his hand down behind the table, he opens his mouth to speak.
A.C.: “The biggest difference between myself and many of my fellow wrestlers has never been size, or strength, or anything that can be definitively measured. No, it's in the ideologies that we all hold.
“Wrestling, by and large, is a me-first business. Everyone looks out for themselves, everyone constantly looks for opportunities to get ahead, and some will take any shortcut they can find in order to get there. For a lot of people, that way of life works and works well. Men and women have made careers on looking for weaknesses and attacking them in underhanded ways when their target least expects it, and hey, if they're sleeping well at night and they're satisfied with how they got where they are, good for them.
“But see, that's never been my style of doing things. I've never carried myself that way, I've never once been categorized as a liar or a cheat, and I recognize that my fans, the best supporters anyone could ever ask for, wouldn't have me any other way. With me, what you see is what you get, and if you ask me an honest question, I'm going to give you an honest answer. Not because the truth hurts, or because it could give me a psychological edge down the road, but because that's just how I'm wired, and that's really all there is to it.
“My opponent this week is 'Madman' Chris Madison, and he's one of those guys who is a polar opposite of me. He's a me-first, me-second, and me-third guy who doesn't have a use for people who can't assist him, as he demonstrated last week when he issued an array of pink slips to people on his staff. The thing is, when you look at life through those glasses, your vision tends to get distorted, and that's exactly what happened when he took to the airwaves earlier this week.”
Smith had been sitting up straight in his white plastic chair, but he crouches over just a bit, adopting an explanatory tone when he resumes talking while never taking his brown eyes off the camera lens.
A.C.: “Madison was wrong about the very thing that drives him. He'd said he wants to beat the longest-reigning Xtreme Champion in APW history. Fine and dandy...except that's not his opponent this week. Sure, I've held my title for going on seven months now, and I appreciate him not treating me like a big, dumb oaf, a mistake plenty of others have made in gunning for the championship I hold near and dear to my heart. But see, the longest-reigning champion actually held the title for 364 days in 2008 and 2009, and his name wasn't A.C. Smith. It was Chris Cyrus.
“Do I want to get to that point? Absolutely. But in order to do that, I need to fend off all comers for five more months. It's hardly a gimmie, but I'm on the fast track to doing that this week already, since Madison is using untruths in order to motivate himself. And yes, I used the plural term because, unfortunately for him, he's up shit creek on several points he tried to make.
“He thinks I'm going to underestimate him. I've never underestimated a single opponent in my 11-year career. I know that this Thursday night here in North Carolina, and for that matter, every single time I defend my Xtreme Championship, I'm going to be in for a fight. Everyone wants what I've got and what I've held for more than half a year, and every time I go out there and put it on the line, I know for a fact that I'm getting everyone's best shot. What's made me the longest-reigning champion on Overdrive isn't me underestimating my opponents, but rather taking every challenge head-on, countering THEIR best with MY best, and having that be enough. There are no off-nights when you're in my position, and I refuse to get suckered into thinking tomorrow night is going to be one of them.
“Most offensive of all, though, he thinks I should be SCARED of him. I've said it before, and I'll keep saying it again and again until I'm blue in the face: When you spend time on the streets of New York City as a cop, you LEARN what to be scared of. I've dealt with guys with guns, knives, bombs, the works, and I emerged from it tougher and better at what I did than I was before.
“Chris Madison? He's a good wrestler with some momentum after a win in that battle royal last week, and I won't deny him credit for that. I know what it feels like to have to fight with your head on a swivel and opponents coming at you from all angles. However, it's not because I've wrestled in a ton of battle royals. It's because I've been in situations where legit tough guys were coming at me, and they didn't want some championship belt. They wanted my life, because I threatened the ways they wanted to live theirs.”
Smith pauses, as if he's reminiscing about a particular moment in the line of duty. After he lets that point resonate for a few seconds, though, he continues, but with a firmness and sense of anger in his voice that wasn't there before.
A.C.: “Chris Madison said he'd be happiest watching the world burn, and that just plain pisses me off, because I've SEEN it happen. I was a cop during 9/11. I saw the towers come down. I saw kids lose their parents, spouses lose their loved ones, and my brothers in arms lose their lives trying to prevent that from happening. People remember where they were when they heard about a bunch of terrorists killing thousands of innocent people in the name of God. Me? I try to forget it.
“Chris Madison, how DARE you even so much as imply that THIS would make you happy? How DARE you rub the misery that everyone else around you would feel right in their faces, with you playing the part of Nero and fiddling while everything around you turned to dust? And how DARE you do that this week, when you're going up against someone who knows first-hand what it feels like to WATCH two towers collapse and take the lives of people who didn't deserve it?
“You're no champion. You're a sadist, and someone who'd stab his own mother in the back if it meant you got her money. And people like you don't DESERVE to be called a champion. People like you deserve to rot in a special section of hell and suffer every day for all eternity, and for you to even think you deserve the APW Xtreme Championship, something I've worked harder than ANYONE else to bring a sense of pride to after Evan Harrison and Nick Watson dragged it through the muck and made it not worth a damn? That's a slap in the face not just to me, not just to my fans, but to anyone who cares the slightest bit about this business and what makes it great.”
Smith's face is as red as a fire truck at this point. His nostrils are flared, his eyes have not blinked or wavered from the camera, and we see some of his veins in much greater detail.
A.C.: “With some people, Chris, getting inside their heads and pushing their buttons like this would be a sign of victory, a sign that your opponent wasn't completely focused on the task at hand. But Madison, what you've done? Well, that just signed your death warrant, because you did something very, very dangerous: You got my attention. And this Thursday night, I will show up in Raleigh with one goal in mind, and only one goal: Give you the biggest ass-kicking of your life, and hopefully knock some sense through your thick skull and into your corrupted excuse for a brain.
“I've dealt with people like you for way too long. Michael Lively, an APW Hall of Famer, thought he could bully me around like I was some weak kid who wouldn't stand up to him. I beat him three times, all cleanly, and all with the Xtreme Championship on the line, and I drove him all the way to Asylum. Nathaniel Havok tried all sorts of mind games to get into my head, thinking it was an absolute certainty that he'd get back what he thought was rightfully his. Instead, I beat him at his own game at Mayhem and left him a bloody mess, and he hasn't been right since.
“Chris, you said you weren't a punk. As usual, you were wrong. You're a selfish, overconfident, no-good SOB who needs to be dealt with by someone who knows how to take out the trash better than anyone else on APW's flagship brand. You're a talented wrestler, and someone who does come in with some momentum. But until you get a clue about what's going on around you, and until you realize that there's WAY more to life than how everything affects YOU, you'll never deserve to be called what you want to be most: A champion.
“Consider yourself lucky, Madison. Some people go through life never learning that lesson, and when it hits, it's too late to change anything. This week, you'll find out exactly how little you know, courtesy of someone who's been through EVERYTHING, lived to tell about it, and will not hesitate to show you how much of a clueless asshole you truly are. They say experience is what you get when you don't get what you want. Well, I sure hope the beating I'm about to give you gets through, because if ANYONE needs a lesson on how to go through life, it's you.
“Fortunately, you've got a very, VERY willing teacher.”
Smith rises to his full 6'8” height, pounding the table in front of him with his right fist as he stands up. We see that he'd been wearing the Xtreme Championship around his waist, and he unstraps the belt before draping it over his shoulder and walking out of the shot.
We then hear a door close off-screen, and a few seconds later, our scene fades to black.
