Post by chaos lite on Sept 8, 2013 0:59:13 GMT -4
so many different people to be
that it’s strange
that it’s strange
unspecified.unspecified
”I've spent a lot of time trying to be me.
I've spent lots of time trying to be more than the next Sally Talfourd... I've spent lots of time trying to be MORE than just better than Sally Talfourd. I have spent every fucking second since I came to APW in the August of 2012, trying to forge my own path in this business instead of being limited to a walking comparison of women that made history in their own right before me. I’m not saying anything that everybody didn’t already know.
I get it though. Sally and I? We're a lot alike. We have similar styles in the ring and we have... very similar views on the backstage politics that run rampant through this industry. I’d like to think that we match up so well for the former reason as opposed to the latter though. It's EASY to book Sally vs Aubrey and just watch the asses pile into the seats. After all, we competed in the first ever all-female World Heavyweight Title match back in 2012. We tore the house down, and if you didn’t want to pay money to see something like that again, you’d be an idiot.
Things are different… this is round two, but the game has changed.
There will be no biased, bitter referee interfering on your behalf. There is no fat, pasty little troll in the back trying to steal MY spotlight on September 8th! It’s just you and me, and you WANTED this, Sally… You wanted to make history all over again, and I’ll never turn down the opportunity to beat you in the center of that ring. I have far too much respect for you.
...but I have far more respect for myself, and I would be doing myself an injustice if I let you waltz back into APW after you fucking bailed and ruin everything that I’ve BUILT here on Asylum. I have forged my name in the very fabric of Action Packed Wrestling! I became an entity in the main event!
WHILE YOU WERE OUT, I BECAME THE BEST! While you were getting your ass kicked by Reya Serra among other lesser-appreciated things, I was beating Keaton Saint, Logan Alexander, CJ Gates, Anthony Bailey, and the hearts of every teenage boy across America. I’m the… BEST. And I have everything I need to validate that except for two things… one… one being the APW Undisputed Championship, which was snatched from me by the cruel fucking hand of reality two weeks ago at Shockwave. That one-- that hurt, but I’ll get it. I’ll get back to the Undisputed Championship, but it’s an intangible goal on September 8th in Hawaii. No… the second thing that I’m missing is a clean, cold, victory over you. Over Sally Talfourd. I’m gonna need that… and I’ve come to collect.
When I beat you, there’s no WAY they can deny me a rematch for that championship. I mean-- literally, the only thing standing in front of me is you.
And, don’t get me wrong, Sally… we get along outside of these arenas. I like you. I do. And that’s not something I say about a lot of the idiots in the back, but something that I’ve never been able to understand is what the obsession is with you around here, and why no matter how much I shove my merchandise in the face of all these fans, and no matter how much they eat it up, and-- and no matter how high my MATCHES are rated, and no matter how loud these fans chant ”A-J-P!” or ”WE ALL HATE YOU!”, and no matter whether I won Test for the Best or not, Jeff has never ONCE stuck his neck out for me.
But he’d sell his soul to fucking Satan just to get you to LOOK at an APW contract.
And I hate that.
You left for eight months, and suddenly you’re supposed to come onto this battlefield where I’ve spilt blood whether the show was called Asylum, or Raab-a-Mania, every episode while you were out. I’ll be damned. I may not stand before you with the championship belt that says I’m the best, but I’m the absolute closest you’re gonna get to it, and as long as I am here, Sally, I promise that you will never… hold the APW Undisputed Title again. And I say that with the utmost… respect.
That title... It’s become damn-near everything and it’s a dangerous, horrible cycle but it’s one that I almost enjoy being stuck in. It’s an unenviable position because I feel that every single match I’m in dictates whether or not I’ll ever get a shot again. It’s at the point where any loss is completely unacceptable. There’s no room for error. There are no more days off. We KNEW this was gonna happen eventually, right? We knew that we’d meet in the ring again.
And I think we both knew it’d be here.
I’ve thought about what I would do when this day came. And I always thought about how I’d take out your legs, and I’d just do my best to keep you on the mat where… where you wouldn’t be able to pull off a Makeover, or-- or get any leverage for a Happy Ending. I’d keep you in the most vulnerable position you could possibly be in… on the mat, in a wrestling match, with me. I will make you tap out if I see the chance. If I can come within a fraction of a second of snapping your leg, and I get you to concede defeat, then that’s the route I’m taking. If your pride gets in the way, and you get hurt, and the match continues, and I have to climb on top of you, and beat your skull into that canvas until you don’t know which way is up… then I’ll do that. Whatever it takes.
And I say that with the utmost respect.
Because yoouuu’re WORTH IT, Sally! You are worth me ruining MY credibility by injuring one of the most profitable stars in the entire wrestling industry. I will take that bullet… to make sure YOU get the five-star match you deserve with me.
I know you didn’t come back to the place that made you an international star just so you could lose to a girl that doesn’t even have a World Championship to her name. I know that you’re going to bring your entire arsenal on Sunday, and-- please do! I encourage it-- but before you come charging into this match, all guns a-blazing, I want you to remember something.
In the history books… Aubrey J. Parker is 1-0 against Sal-Tal.
Re-watch the match if you have to, and despite the fact that my victory was awarded to me by means of disqualification, and despite the fact that you kicked out of the Makeunder, I had you down. You were done, and Phil Atken KNEW IT. The stipulation of that match, was that if I were to walk away with the World Heavyweight Championship, the World Title match at Christmas Chaos became a triple-threat. The third man in that picture never intended to have to face two people to win a World Title. Just facing you was bad enough. But then he saw what I did to you. He saw how I was able to hold my own against you… able to match you… and then able to break you down at the end of that match to the point where my World Title win, just four months into my tenure with the company, was inevitable!
...and he panicked. And he screwed me out of my first World Title win.
To compensate, APW gave me a Suicidal Title match. I capitalized, and I won that championship. Then they gave me a Tag Team Title match. And I capitalized. And at Logan’s side, I won that too. And it was great… I wore those championships proudly, for months, but they didn’t-- they didn’t taste like World Titles taste, you know? Yeah. You know.
And even winning Test for the Best, as tainted as it was, gave me this certain euphoria, but it still didn’t compare to the high that I got just for COMPETING for that World Title match.
And then at Shockwave, I felt it. I felt it again. I got that taste-- and I felt that high-- and at first I thought it was because I fell short, but then I started thinking about it and I realized, Sally, that I couldn’t recreate that feeling from December 9th in Cleveland because it wasn’t with you. That moment was sweetened because it was the ultimate chance to prove, that on Sally Talfourd’s best day, AJP is better, and it’s a shame that there has to be a comparison… but if there has to be… then let it be known that you’re not the queen bee.
Let them draw their comparisons.
With the utmost respect, I know something that nobody else has been able to fully accept yet; I know that on my best day, there’s no one that can compare to me.
Not even… you.”
when i look over my shoulder…
what do you think i see?
what do you think i see?
sep.7.thirteen
I’m Cassandra McPherson.
"...and I'm sorry for what you've had to go through... I don't know what's going through your head now... and with everything going on, maybe I'm not your ideal person to talk to about it... but I'm sorry."
I shouldn’t be here.
”It's okay, really. I'm not sure what's going on in my own head some days... but I'm carrying on as best I can under the circumstances. I think I may have a solution worked out though... just a matter of implementing it.”
It’s a long story.
"I just feel like... I've lost my mind. I never meant to bring you into that. I never meant to bring those kind of problems into the ring."
She’d flown to Hawaii without me, and it was no one’s fault but my own. I promised her I’d be there, but I was caught up, swamped with work that I’d put off for the better part of a month. I caught a later flight, the following morning… And my plan was to surprise Aubrey. It seemed innocent enough-- but she hadn’t been in the hotel suite when I came over. With my name listed beneath the occupancy list, I retrieved my key and I entered… and I had been in the master bedroom for no more than twelve seconds before Aubrey walked in, already in the midst of her phone conversation (via-speakerphone) with Logan. I wanted to be excited to hear them speaking for the first time since June. I wanted to run out there and perform some highly inappropriate victory dance, but I couldn’t.
Those twelve seconds were all it took for me to see it. For me to see what I’d feared all along.
"To be honest it's more the other way around. I dragged you along and this is the end result. The biggest mistake I've ever made in the ring was on June 30th... If not for that, you probably would've beaten Terry... but--"
"Ha... you can't blame yourself for something like that. Come on. Terry beat me fair and square and you've spent the past three years preparing me for that one moment... that shot. And I did all I could that night."
Aubrey’s gym bag was lying open, and locked away, in a Zip-Loc baggie were unopened, untouched capsules filled to the brim with Lustrol, the medication Nemo had prescribed. I didn’t have to investigate the pill bottles to know that every pill could be accounted for. I dropped down to a knee and began to peer inside the gym bag. Despite my common sense-- my curiosity got the best of me.
"...and the Test for the Best thing has blown over anyway. Sally's the talk of the fucking town now. Ha, again!"
"She wants the top spot and is still swimming in as much arrogance as ever. If she'd checked the ego eight months ago Atken might not have gotten one over on her. But do you feel up for facing her given what you've just come off of?"
I fumbled through loose articles of clothing… And my thumb brushed over the smooth texture of a Polaroid. Several Polaroids.
"Of course! This is what she wanted, and I'm happy to give it to her. Sooner or later, this was going to happen... this needed to happen..."
I flipped through each of them, and by the third picture, I felt my fingers begin to tremble. My jaw dropped a bit and-- I wasn’t aware of it, but my skin had turned ghost-white.
”Jesus…”
It was barely audible, just above a whisper, but the suite had been dead silent. She had to have heard it. With the pictures in my hand, I froze. I heard her footsteps creaking over the hardwood, slowly drawing near the hallway… Near the bedroom. And with my back to the door, I remained frozen.
"Nothing ever needs to happen unless you're desperate. Sally needed this to happen because she needs to look relevant as quickly as possible. Knocking you off should accomplish that. You don't need this to happen though... not unless you have something to prove. Just make sure you know what your motivations are or you might end up at an impasse..."
She was closer. Maybe five or six steps from that door.
"Ha. Don't I always have something to prove? These motherfuckers are always watching... I always have to be the best..."
Four steps. Three steps.
"But who needs to beat who here?"
I clenched my jaw, ready to face whatever was coming, still white-knuckling those pictures.
And suddenly, she turned. I heard her making her way at a moderate pace toward the door.
”Damnit! I forgot I had to meet up with Tyler at his hotel! I swear, dude, my head’s all over the fu…”
And she was out the door. I dropped the pictures into the bag and pushed myself to my feet, eyes still closed… heart still pounding. I shouldn’t have been there. I shouldn’t have bothered. I shouldn’t have gone behind her back, and gone through her things, and I shouldn’t have… seen… that.
She wasn’t crazy.
Today, if anything, I can confirm that Aubrey is… no. She’s unwell. She’s my friend. She just needs help.
But I’m not staying here. I’m not staying in this hotel with her. And I’m not staying in Hawaii. I’m getting as far away from this person as I possibly can, and I warn you-- don’t get too close. I need to find somebody. I need to salvage whatever’s left… and I know there’s not much.
fin.
must be the season of the witch
