Post by A.C. Smith on Jul 23, 2013 22:25:19 GMT -4
Our scene opens today in the sun-baked city of Baltimore, Maryland. The city known for crab cakes, the Orioles, and “The Wire” has been trapped in a heat wave for several days, but that hasn't stopped several local kids from taking to a basketball court, where an old-fashioned game of shirts vs. skins is taking place.
In the distance, we see a baby blue Ford Mustang convertible pulling into a parking lot next to the court. The driver's face is partially obscured by a pair of sunglasses, but when he parks the vehicle, turns it off, and steps onto the pavement, we see that it's none other than the Big Apple Asskicker, A.C. Smith.
Smith takes his sunglasses off and wipes some sweat off his forehead with the back of his left hand, all the while gazing onto the court.
A.C.: “Hey Bobby! Stevie! Come on, your mom's putting dinner in the oven and she'll kill ALL of us if we're not home when it's ready.”
The action on the court stops. Several of the kids do double-takes at the sight of the APW Xtreme Champion, and Bobby and Stevie trudge over to the car. Bobby, the older child of about 15 years of age, gets the front seat, while 12-year-old Stevie settles into the back as A.C. puts the key into the ignition and fires up the car.
A.C.: “So who won?”
Stevie: “We played a couple games. We won most of them.”
A.C.: “Way to go, guys!”
Bobby: (muttering under his breath) “Why do you care?”
Bobby is playing on his cell phone, not paying the conversation any mind as Smith backs out and turns onto a main road.
A.C.: “So how's summer going?”
Stevie: “Good! Having lots of fun.”
A.C.: “I can tell. Bobby, what about you?”
Bobby: (rolling his eyes) “Fine. Can't you just drive the car?”
It's clear something is wrong, though Bobby is taking the classic teenage approach of, “say as little as possible and hope the situation blows over.”
A.C.: “I can do that, although you'd probably be wise to cheer up before we get to your mom's house. She doesn't put up with any crap.”
Stevie chuckles from the back seat, and Bobby responds by shooting his younger brother a look that would melt steel.
A.C.: “Wow. This really IS close. We're here.”
Smith pulls the car into Roxanne's very long driveway, stopping just short of the entrance to her house and putting the convertible's top back up. The car gets turned off, and the trio of men young and old(er) exit.
Stevie sprints into the house, stopping only to kick off his shoes once he enters. Bobby, though, saunters slowly, catching Smith's eye.
A.C.: “Hey Bobby, wait up.”
Bobby stops, sighing loudly as if this was the last place on Earth he'd choose to be in at this moment. Smith stands next to him, dwarfing the young man whose recent growth spurt has carried him to about 5'10” or so.
A.C.: “Is something the matter? Did I do something wrong?”
Bobby: “No. No, it's not you. Can I go inside now?”
A.C.: “And mope in there? Not happening. Whatever's bothering you, you get it off your chest now and you move forward from here.”
A pause.
A.C.: “Look, if it makes you feel any better, I promise that I won't tell your mom about anything we talk about. It'll just be us, man-to-man. I want to help you, because when I was growing up, I didn't have an older guy to help me out.
“I know, it's hard to believe I was a teenager once. But trust me, I've been there.”
This breaks Bobby a little bit, as he cracks a slight smile before reverting to his previous state of misery.
A.C.: “What's going on?”
Bobby: “It's...it's this girl...”
A.C.: “Oh, geez.”
Bobby: “Yeah. Her name is Kate, and she's amazing. But she dumped me last night. Said that since she's going to college at Penn State in a few weeks, maintaining a long-distance relationship wouldn't work.”
A.C. shakes his head.
Bobby: “It hurts because, well...”
A.C.: “She was your first love.”
Bobby: “Exactly. She's funny, she's beautiful, and I really thought we'd make it work.”
A.C.: “Nobody enters relationships thinking they won't. You try to get her back?”
Bobby: “Yeah. Two weeks ago, she tried to dump me, but I got her back. I, uh...I made this video of all the pictures of us and set it to music. She said it was sweet, and we, um...”
An awkward pause, signifying the facts of life that neither Bobby nor A.C. are in any hurry to address directly.
Bobby: “Yeah. And it was great. The past couple of weeks were fun, too. We saw each other every day. We saw movies, we went to parties, we went out to eat, and she never indicated anything was wrong until yesterday.”
A.C.: “Trust me, breakups you don't see coming are the worst.
“Look, you're not going to believe this now. But long-term, this might wind up being for the best. If she doesn't want a relationship right now, give her some space for a while. Wait until she comes home for a break, then talk to her. If you still miss her then, see what she says and go from there. If you don't, it wasn't meant to be and she did you a favor.
“And if it turns out she's already gained the 'freshman 15?' Well, that's called karma.”
Bobby lets his guard down, laughing despite not wanting to show any emotion besides the sadness that had previously taken over his soul.
A.C.: “You're gonna be fine. It sounds like a cliché, but there really ARE a ton of fish in the sea. You'll find someone else, someone who makes you happy, and when you do, this is going to seem like it happened in a past life.”
Out of the corner of his eye, Smith spies Roxanne standing in the doorway with a sly smile on her face and an old t-shirt and worn jeans hanging off her curvy body. She's been listening all along, unbeknownst to her oldest son.
A.C.: “Now, you go inside and get ready for dinner. I'll be here for a little while after we eat if you want to talk.”
Bobby: “Thanks. You know, you're OK.”
Bobby turns around, taking a few steps toward the house.
Bobby: “Hi, Mom.”
The teenager then stuns Roxanne by giving her a quick hug as he walks inside. He kicks his sneakers off and races up a flight of stairs, and when he's out of sight and earshot, Roxanne turns back to A.C., now grinning from ear to ear.
Roxanne: “You were amazing.”
A.C.: “No sweat. He's a decent kid. Just a little heartbroken; we've all been there. Nothing I can't handle.”
Roxanne: “You're being modest. He's a good boy, but it's hell trying to get through to him sometimes. I just hope he'll be alright.”
A.C.: “I don't know. Your kind can be pretty devilish at that age.”
Roxanne playfully smacks Smith on the arm as A.C. hands her the keys to her Mustang.
A.C.: “I filled it with gas before I got back.”
Roxanne: “Thanks. You should get inside. Dinner's almost ready, and I...”
Suddenly, Smith leans in and gives Roxanne a long, passionate kiss. The kiss ends, and both parties look into each other's eyes.
Roxanne: “...that was nice.”
A.C.: “I couldn't resist.”
Roxanne: “Well, resist a little while longer while the kids are awake.”
Smith smiles, taking a step towards the house. However, Roxanne reaches out and touches Smith's shoulder, whispering into his ear.
Roxanne: “They usually go to sleep around 10.”
A.C.: (whispering back) “I'm watching the clock.”
Roxanne: “And at 10:01, you'll be watching something else.”
Roxanne smiles, going to her car and pulling it into the garage. Smith, meanwhile, can only shake his head as he walks inside, closing the door behind him as the scene fades to black.
---
Some time passes. It's morning in Baltimore, and Smith is sitting in a black recliner in Roxanne's living room. The kids are asleep, and Roxanne is nowhere to be found. The Big Apple Asskicker is alone, with only the bags he's packed and placed along the back wall keeping him company.
There's a certain happiness that A.C. is carrying, one that isn't usually present but not hard to detect in this case. The APW Xtreme Champion has his brown eyes firmly set on the camera, and after a few seconds, he opens his mouth to speak.
A.C.: “Not a day goes by where I don't count my blessings and be thankful for what I have. I love my job, I have great friends and the best fans in all of sports and entertainment, and I think something really special is happening with Roxie and I.
“At the same time, everything I've had, I've earned. I've never taken the easy way out, not once. Not in my time with the NYPD, not in my wrestling career, and for that matter, not once in a life that's had more ups and downs than a graph of the stock market. I don't sit around waiting for things to come to me, and I've never been the type to complain when things don't go my way.
“In this line of work, you can't afford to do that. I've always been a firm believer that you make your own luck in professional wrestling. The past few months, nobody's had more good luck than me, and that's not by coincidence. I've worked my butt off to become one of the longest-reigning Xtreme Champions in Action Packed Wrestling history, and I've had to fend off a ton of challenges in doing so.
“Michael Jennings? Well, by his logic, everything that goes against him is part of some gigantic conspiracy orchestrated by APW management. I can't deny that from bell to bell, he's got as much talent as anyone else in this company. However, talk about a losing mindset. When he loses, it's never, EVER his fault, and on the other side of the spectrum, when he wins, it's an 'as-expected' result.”
Smith rolls his eyes.
A.C.: “Naturally, his delusional behavior extends well beyond that mindset, as he showed when he addressed everyone earlier this week. It's time for me to inject some truth serum into this little back-and-forth, a dose that I'm pretty sure Jennings isn't going to like too much.
“First and foremost, I think I've shown that I'm not afraid to put my championship on the line against ANYONE, let alone Jennings. Michael Lively is an APW Hall of Famer. Nathaniel Havok is a former World Heavyweight Champion. Guys like Nick Watson and Delikado were both thought of as potential break-out stars. I've beaten them all, as well as a few others, and I've done so in manners that left no doubt as to who the better man really was.
“He thinks he's got some sort of advantage over me because of how ruthless he is. Really, now? That's what I've heard from a LOT of different challengers over the last seven months, that I'm somehow hindered by the way I've looked at things. But see, that very outlook is what's made me so successful. I know exactly how to approach any situation that comes my way. I don't get carried away with wanting to kill people, but that hasn't hurt me one bit over the last 11 years.
“I've won six World titles, headlined cards all over the world, and taken on all comers. More often than not, what I've brought to the table has been more than enough to get the job done. Now, all of a sudden, Michael Jennings thinks that's going to be my downfall? Not a chance in hell.”
Smith shakes his head, and the microphone in the area picks up a slight chuckle before the Big Apple Asskicker refocuses on the camera and continues.
A.C.: “Jennings thinks I've never stepped into the ring with someone like him before. Wrong, wrong, wrong. I've seen every style, every outlook, and every way of thinking over the last decade-plus, and if he thinks anything he brings to the ring this Thursday night in Nashville is somehow going to shock me, he's sadly, SADLY mistaken.
“He says he's going to, and I quote, 'mutilate' me, as if that's supposed to scare me. It doesn't, and empty threats like that never will. What Michael Jennings and others fail to understand is that I spent four years in the NYPD going up against guys who were WORTH being scared of. I never backed down from them. Quite the opposite, actually, as often, I was the one chasing THEM. They were trained not in the art of wrestling, but the art of killing. They had knives, guns, crowbars, and a lot of things that Michael Jennings WON'T have on Thursday night, so why in the name of everything holy would I ever be SCARED of him?”
Smith shrugs, awaiting an answer that's never going to come.
A.C.: “Worst of all, though, in his last couple of sentences, he implied that I didn't deserve to be where I am in the wrestling world. He called me a Tin God, someone he would humble as if he were the Iron Sheik himself. Meanwhile, he called himself the apex predator, which I'm sure he stole from someone who, ironically enough, got where he is in the wrestling world by the same means he knocks everyone else for: Nepotism and the value of his last name rather than skill.
“THIS is where Jennings's theories really go off the rails. See, it's true that the name A.C. Smith carries a certain gravitas to it, but that's not because of backstage stroke, or because of some reason that APW fans don't see on a week-to-week basis. No, it's so much simpler than that, even though Jennings doesn't want to admit it.
“I got where I am because I dug in and worked my ass off day in and day out. I didn't angle for title shots, or demand anything I didn't deserve. I showed everyone what I could do, and everything I could have ever wanted in my chosen profession came in time as a result of the effort I put in. There were no shortcuts, no hidden tricks, none of that. I put my boots on, got dirty, and put forth plenty of blood, sweat, and tears, and what's resulted is a career that's going to go down as one of the best in the history of the business.”
Smith bounces up off the recliner, going to his bags and making sure everything is in order.
A.C.: “Michael Jennings may have all the skill in the world. There's no question he's talented, and that match he had with Evan Harrison that stole the show at Test for the Best proves that. He may very well make the leap into the upper echelon of the Overdrive brand, and in time, he could show that he's got the ability to stay there.
“However, from a mental standpoint, he's FAR from ready for prime-time. He couldn't have been more wrong in his assessment of me, and it's clear he learned NOTHING from the battle royal he mentioned, one he claimed was his primary motivation for beating me this Thursday night. Like so many before him, he has this idea of me as some big, dumb oaf who's been handed everything he's ever accomplished. And like so many before him, he couldn't have POSSIBLY made a bigger mistake.
“He can spout off as much as he wants about how I'm not ruthless enough, or how this will be a war as opposed to a wrestling match. I respond by saying that my record of accomplishments speaks for itself, a record that has included the kind of victories Michael Jennings could only dream of. How I've conducted myself and how I've done business has suited me just fine, and I'm a little insulted that Jennings was blinded by all the conspiracy talk and allowed himself to think otherwise.
“If Michael Jennings thinks that he's got this all sewn up, he's in for a rude awakening. His mindset is all wrong, and as an 11-year veteran of the squared circle, I know what I'm talking about. It's about time people start realizing that, and start thinking of different ways to attack me, because this one? It doesn't work.”
Smith picks up both of his bags and begins to walk out. He leaves the shot, and we hear the door to Roxanne's house shut.
Her blue Mustang revs up in the background, and we hear it drive off as we fade to black.
In the distance, we see a baby blue Ford Mustang convertible pulling into a parking lot next to the court. The driver's face is partially obscured by a pair of sunglasses, but when he parks the vehicle, turns it off, and steps onto the pavement, we see that it's none other than the Big Apple Asskicker, A.C. Smith.
Smith takes his sunglasses off and wipes some sweat off his forehead with the back of his left hand, all the while gazing onto the court.
A.C.: “Hey Bobby! Stevie! Come on, your mom's putting dinner in the oven and she'll kill ALL of us if we're not home when it's ready.”
The action on the court stops. Several of the kids do double-takes at the sight of the APW Xtreme Champion, and Bobby and Stevie trudge over to the car. Bobby, the older child of about 15 years of age, gets the front seat, while 12-year-old Stevie settles into the back as A.C. puts the key into the ignition and fires up the car.
A.C.: “So who won?”
Stevie: “We played a couple games. We won most of them.”
A.C.: “Way to go, guys!”
Bobby: (muttering under his breath) “Why do you care?”
Bobby is playing on his cell phone, not paying the conversation any mind as Smith backs out and turns onto a main road.
A.C.: “So how's summer going?”
Stevie: “Good! Having lots of fun.”
A.C.: “I can tell. Bobby, what about you?”
Bobby: (rolling his eyes) “Fine. Can't you just drive the car?”
It's clear something is wrong, though Bobby is taking the classic teenage approach of, “say as little as possible and hope the situation blows over.”
A.C.: “I can do that, although you'd probably be wise to cheer up before we get to your mom's house. She doesn't put up with any crap.”
Stevie chuckles from the back seat, and Bobby responds by shooting his younger brother a look that would melt steel.
A.C.: “Wow. This really IS close. We're here.”
Smith pulls the car into Roxanne's very long driveway, stopping just short of the entrance to her house and putting the convertible's top back up. The car gets turned off, and the trio of men young and old(er) exit.
Stevie sprints into the house, stopping only to kick off his shoes once he enters. Bobby, though, saunters slowly, catching Smith's eye.
A.C.: “Hey Bobby, wait up.”
Bobby stops, sighing loudly as if this was the last place on Earth he'd choose to be in at this moment. Smith stands next to him, dwarfing the young man whose recent growth spurt has carried him to about 5'10” or so.
A.C.: “Is something the matter? Did I do something wrong?”
Bobby: “No. No, it's not you. Can I go inside now?”
A.C.: “And mope in there? Not happening. Whatever's bothering you, you get it off your chest now and you move forward from here.”
A pause.
A.C.: “Look, if it makes you feel any better, I promise that I won't tell your mom about anything we talk about. It'll just be us, man-to-man. I want to help you, because when I was growing up, I didn't have an older guy to help me out.
“I know, it's hard to believe I was a teenager once. But trust me, I've been there.”
This breaks Bobby a little bit, as he cracks a slight smile before reverting to his previous state of misery.
A.C.: “What's going on?”
Bobby: “It's...it's this girl...”
A.C.: “Oh, geez.”
Bobby: “Yeah. Her name is Kate, and she's amazing. But she dumped me last night. Said that since she's going to college at Penn State in a few weeks, maintaining a long-distance relationship wouldn't work.”
A.C. shakes his head.
Bobby: “It hurts because, well...”
A.C.: “She was your first love.”
Bobby: “Exactly. She's funny, she's beautiful, and I really thought we'd make it work.”
A.C.: “Nobody enters relationships thinking they won't. You try to get her back?”
Bobby: “Yeah. Two weeks ago, she tried to dump me, but I got her back. I, uh...I made this video of all the pictures of us and set it to music. She said it was sweet, and we, um...”
An awkward pause, signifying the facts of life that neither Bobby nor A.C. are in any hurry to address directly.
Bobby: “Yeah. And it was great. The past couple of weeks were fun, too. We saw each other every day. We saw movies, we went to parties, we went out to eat, and she never indicated anything was wrong until yesterday.”
A.C.: “Trust me, breakups you don't see coming are the worst.
“Look, you're not going to believe this now. But long-term, this might wind up being for the best. If she doesn't want a relationship right now, give her some space for a while. Wait until she comes home for a break, then talk to her. If you still miss her then, see what she says and go from there. If you don't, it wasn't meant to be and she did you a favor.
“And if it turns out she's already gained the 'freshman 15?' Well, that's called karma.”
Bobby lets his guard down, laughing despite not wanting to show any emotion besides the sadness that had previously taken over his soul.
A.C.: “You're gonna be fine. It sounds like a cliché, but there really ARE a ton of fish in the sea. You'll find someone else, someone who makes you happy, and when you do, this is going to seem like it happened in a past life.”
Out of the corner of his eye, Smith spies Roxanne standing in the doorway with a sly smile on her face and an old t-shirt and worn jeans hanging off her curvy body. She's been listening all along, unbeknownst to her oldest son.
A.C.: “Now, you go inside and get ready for dinner. I'll be here for a little while after we eat if you want to talk.”
Bobby: “Thanks. You know, you're OK.”
Bobby turns around, taking a few steps toward the house.
Bobby: “Hi, Mom.”
The teenager then stuns Roxanne by giving her a quick hug as he walks inside. He kicks his sneakers off and races up a flight of stairs, and when he's out of sight and earshot, Roxanne turns back to A.C., now grinning from ear to ear.
Roxanne: “You were amazing.”
A.C.: “No sweat. He's a decent kid. Just a little heartbroken; we've all been there. Nothing I can't handle.”
Roxanne: “You're being modest. He's a good boy, but it's hell trying to get through to him sometimes. I just hope he'll be alright.”
A.C.: “I don't know. Your kind can be pretty devilish at that age.”
Roxanne playfully smacks Smith on the arm as A.C. hands her the keys to her Mustang.
A.C.: “I filled it with gas before I got back.”
Roxanne: “Thanks. You should get inside. Dinner's almost ready, and I...”
Suddenly, Smith leans in and gives Roxanne a long, passionate kiss. The kiss ends, and both parties look into each other's eyes.
Roxanne: “...that was nice.”
A.C.: “I couldn't resist.”
Roxanne: “Well, resist a little while longer while the kids are awake.”
Smith smiles, taking a step towards the house. However, Roxanne reaches out and touches Smith's shoulder, whispering into his ear.
Roxanne: “They usually go to sleep around 10.”
A.C.: (whispering back) “I'm watching the clock.”
Roxanne: “And at 10:01, you'll be watching something else.”
Roxanne smiles, going to her car and pulling it into the garage. Smith, meanwhile, can only shake his head as he walks inside, closing the door behind him as the scene fades to black.
---
Some time passes. It's morning in Baltimore, and Smith is sitting in a black recliner in Roxanne's living room. The kids are asleep, and Roxanne is nowhere to be found. The Big Apple Asskicker is alone, with only the bags he's packed and placed along the back wall keeping him company.
There's a certain happiness that A.C. is carrying, one that isn't usually present but not hard to detect in this case. The APW Xtreme Champion has his brown eyes firmly set on the camera, and after a few seconds, he opens his mouth to speak.
A.C.: “Not a day goes by where I don't count my blessings and be thankful for what I have. I love my job, I have great friends and the best fans in all of sports and entertainment, and I think something really special is happening with Roxie and I.
“At the same time, everything I've had, I've earned. I've never taken the easy way out, not once. Not in my time with the NYPD, not in my wrestling career, and for that matter, not once in a life that's had more ups and downs than a graph of the stock market. I don't sit around waiting for things to come to me, and I've never been the type to complain when things don't go my way.
“In this line of work, you can't afford to do that. I've always been a firm believer that you make your own luck in professional wrestling. The past few months, nobody's had more good luck than me, and that's not by coincidence. I've worked my butt off to become one of the longest-reigning Xtreme Champions in Action Packed Wrestling history, and I've had to fend off a ton of challenges in doing so.
“Michael Jennings? Well, by his logic, everything that goes against him is part of some gigantic conspiracy orchestrated by APW management. I can't deny that from bell to bell, he's got as much talent as anyone else in this company. However, talk about a losing mindset. When he loses, it's never, EVER his fault, and on the other side of the spectrum, when he wins, it's an 'as-expected' result.”
Smith rolls his eyes.
A.C.: “Naturally, his delusional behavior extends well beyond that mindset, as he showed when he addressed everyone earlier this week. It's time for me to inject some truth serum into this little back-and-forth, a dose that I'm pretty sure Jennings isn't going to like too much.
“First and foremost, I think I've shown that I'm not afraid to put my championship on the line against ANYONE, let alone Jennings. Michael Lively is an APW Hall of Famer. Nathaniel Havok is a former World Heavyweight Champion. Guys like Nick Watson and Delikado were both thought of as potential break-out stars. I've beaten them all, as well as a few others, and I've done so in manners that left no doubt as to who the better man really was.
“He thinks he's got some sort of advantage over me because of how ruthless he is. Really, now? That's what I've heard from a LOT of different challengers over the last seven months, that I'm somehow hindered by the way I've looked at things. But see, that very outlook is what's made me so successful. I know exactly how to approach any situation that comes my way. I don't get carried away with wanting to kill people, but that hasn't hurt me one bit over the last 11 years.
“I've won six World titles, headlined cards all over the world, and taken on all comers. More often than not, what I've brought to the table has been more than enough to get the job done. Now, all of a sudden, Michael Jennings thinks that's going to be my downfall? Not a chance in hell.”
Smith shakes his head, and the microphone in the area picks up a slight chuckle before the Big Apple Asskicker refocuses on the camera and continues.
A.C.: “Jennings thinks I've never stepped into the ring with someone like him before. Wrong, wrong, wrong. I've seen every style, every outlook, and every way of thinking over the last decade-plus, and if he thinks anything he brings to the ring this Thursday night in Nashville is somehow going to shock me, he's sadly, SADLY mistaken.
“He says he's going to, and I quote, 'mutilate' me, as if that's supposed to scare me. It doesn't, and empty threats like that never will. What Michael Jennings and others fail to understand is that I spent four years in the NYPD going up against guys who were WORTH being scared of. I never backed down from them. Quite the opposite, actually, as often, I was the one chasing THEM. They were trained not in the art of wrestling, but the art of killing. They had knives, guns, crowbars, and a lot of things that Michael Jennings WON'T have on Thursday night, so why in the name of everything holy would I ever be SCARED of him?”
Smith shrugs, awaiting an answer that's never going to come.
A.C.: “Worst of all, though, in his last couple of sentences, he implied that I didn't deserve to be where I am in the wrestling world. He called me a Tin God, someone he would humble as if he were the Iron Sheik himself. Meanwhile, he called himself the apex predator, which I'm sure he stole from someone who, ironically enough, got where he is in the wrestling world by the same means he knocks everyone else for: Nepotism and the value of his last name rather than skill.
“THIS is where Jennings's theories really go off the rails. See, it's true that the name A.C. Smith carries a certain gravitas to it, but that's not because of backstage stroke, or because of some reason that APW fans don't see on a week-to-week basis. No, it's so much simpler than that, even though Jennings doesn't want to admit it.
“I got where I am because I dug in and worked my ass off day in and day out. I didn't angle for title shots, or demand anything I didn't deserve. I showed everyone what I could do, and everything I could have ever wanted in my chosen profession came in time as a result of the effort I put in. There were no shortcuts, no hidden tricks, none of that. I put my boots on, got dirty, and put forth plenty of blood, sweat, and tears, and what's resulted is a career that's going to go down as one of the best in the history of the business.”
Smith bounces up off the recliner, going to his bags and making sure everything is in order.
A.C.: “Michael Jennings may have all the skill in the world. There's no question he's talented, and that match he had with Evan Harrison that stole the show at Test for the Best proves that. He may very well make the leap into the upper echelon of the Overdrive brand, and in time, he could show that he's got the ability to stay there.
“However, from a mental standpoint, he's FAR from ready for prime-time. He couldn't have been more wrong in his assessment of me, and it's clear he learned NOTHING from the battle royal he mentioned, one he claimed was his primary motivation for beating me this Thursday night. Like so many before him, he has this idea of me as some big, dumb oaf who's been handed everything he's ever accomplished. And like so many before him, he couldn't have POSSIBLY made a bigger mistake.
“He can spout off as much as he wants about how I'm not ruthless enough, or how this will be a war as opposed to a wrestling match. I respond by saying that my record of accomplishments speaks for itself, a record that has included the kind of victories Michael Jennings could only dream of. How I've conducted myself and how I've done business has suited me just fine, and I'm a little insulted that Jennings was blinded by all the conspiracy talk and allowed himself to think otherwise.
“If Michael Jennings thinks that he's got this all sewn up, he's in for a rude awakening. His mindset is all wrong, and as an 11-year veteran of the squared circle, I know what I'm talking about. It's about time people start realizing that, and start thinking of different ways to attack me, because this one? It doesn't work.”
Smith picks up both of his bags and begins to walk out. He leaves the shot, and we hear the door to Roxanne's house shut.
Her blue Mustang revs up in the background, and we hear it drive off as we fade to black.
