Post by biggs on Jan 19, 2014 15:59:00 GMT -4
Sunday, January 19, 2014
”I just don’t see how somebody who has lived in Seattle practically their entire life can hate the Seahawks! Have you no civic pride!?”
”It’s not a matter of civic pride. After all, I do love the Seattle Mariners, and we know how much they sucked,” I explain, ”No, it goes back to when I was four years old. I came to the realization that the only reason I rooted for the Seahawks was because my mom and dad told me to. I liked Joe Montana and Jerry Rice, so I became a Niners fan, and have stuck with them since.”
Alice is giving me the fifth degree on my fandom of the San Francisco 49ers ahead of the game, she in her blue #3 Russel Wilson jersey, and me in my cherry-red #7 Colin Kaepernick jersey. Much to my shame, my living room is decorated with half 49ers colors and half Seahawks colors, with streamers and flags hanging from the walls and ceilings, as it was the only way that I would be able to have my friends come over. That being said, my replica 49ers helmet placed to the right of the television set tips the balance in favor of my Niners ever so slightly. That and the fact that I have 49ers cups, red and gold plastic-ware, and 49ers paper plates. The only Seahawks branded part of the place settings are Seahawks napkins, so that way I can wipe my face with them, and if there’s extra left over, maybe blow my nose with them.
Still, I’ll be hostile territory in my own home today, but it’s not something that I’m not used to, being a Niners fan in Seahawks Country. Still, Alice and I have an agreement that no matter which team wins, neither one of us is going to throw a fit, although I question my ability to hold to this. She hates the Niners, and I hate the Seahawks. And despite this fact, we did get engaged two weeks ago. And this time, I was the one to ask.
It’s one of the handful of changes that have overtaken my life in the past few months. For starters,, Alice and I tried going Vegan for about a week or two, but needless to say, it didn’t stick. Tofu is not a substitute for meat, no matter what people try to tell you.
There was also the departure of Matt Smith on Doctor Who. Alice swears up and down that she saw me shed a tear as the Eleventh Doctor regenerated, and while it’s true that I’m going to miss Matt Smith terribly, if I did indeed shed a tear, it was a man tear, darn it!
Finally, the closure of APW has meant that I haven’t stepped inside a wrestling ring since One Night in Hell, and considering that I didn’t even make it into the ring, it’s actually been longer than that, if I want to get technical. I just recently stepped back into the ring in my basement, when my match with “The Madman” Chris Madison was signed for Survive & Conquer a few weeks back. Still, it’s been good for my body to rest up.
”So you’re telling me that at four years of age, you were self aware enough to come to such a logical conclusion about why you liked a football team? I don’t buy it!” Alice shakes her head as she speaks.
”Hey, my brother has been a Chicago Bears fan since before we could talk, so he set the precedent that it was okay to like another team.”
”Then you’re a copycat, following your brother’s lead…”
”Well no. If I was a copycat, I’d like the Bears,” I say with a smirk.
Alice lets out a sigh of exhasperation, ”I guess we’re just going to have to agree to disagree.”
”That’s what I’ve been having to do with my Grandma for years! And everything was fine until the realignment of 2002! Until the Niners and Seahawks were both in the NFC West, nobody had a problem with me loving the 49ers. But once they were put in the same division, everyone lost their minds! Still, go Niners!”
”To which I respectfully respond, go Hawks!”
We hear a loud “GO HAWKS!” from the front of the house. I shake my head as we get up to greet our guests. My neighbor Bill is all decked out in Seahawks blue and green, while his wife, Sarah, has a blue and green sweatshirt on. Their son, Cole, who’s four years old, is also wearing a cherry-red #7 Colin Kaepernick jersey! I kneel down to give the kid a high-five.
”Way to go bud! Let’s go Niners!” I give Alice a sly wink, acknowledging the fact that Cole made his decision at the same age that I did.
”GO NINERS!” Cole shouts at the top of his lungs, throwing his arms up with reckless abandon.
Bill is shaking his head in faux-shame. ”Where did I go wrong with my kid? Why did I tell him he could pick any team he wanted?”
”Because you’re a good father, and your kid has good taste,” I joke back, welcoming Bill and his family to enter my house.
Alice jabs me in the ribs with her elbow, ”Just remember that if we ever have a kid or two…”
”Yeah, knowing my luck, the kid will be a Cowboys fan.”
This elicits laughter from everyone, except Cole, who’s already plopped right in front of the TV. I have the brief thought, “Since when has my life become a family sitcom,” before joining Cole in the living room and getting ready for the game.
Sunday, January 26th will mark my first match in 91 days. I have not wrestled since October 27th, at One Night in Hell, in a match that saw me get thrown off of the War Games Cell and fall over 25 feet to the floor. I would be lying if I said I still didn’t feel the after affects of that fall, or many of the other falls I’ve taken over the course of my ten year career. I knew when I signed up for that match, I would facing the possibility of serious injury, and it did happen, thanks in no small part to my opponent at Survive & Conquer, “The Madman” Chris Madison.
And Chris, before you get all hot and bothered, don’t worry, I don’t hold you personally responsible for what happened to me at One Night in Hell. I don’t blame you for the fact that my back hurts every morning when I get out of bed. I don’t fault you for the fact that my right knee hasn’t felt right in three months. That was the risk I took when I agreed to participate in War Games. Heck, I tried to throw you off the top of the Cell myself, so for me to be mad or upset at you for doing to me wouldn’t just be hypocritical, it would be flat out cowardly of me. That being said, Chris, just because I don’t blame you for what happened to me doesn’t mean that I don’t want to get you back for it!
After all, you don’t make it to the top of this business without having a little bit of a mean streak in you. And also, there’s the little fact that we were already going at it tooth-and-nail before War Games, with my personal crusade against The Black Hand and all. And seeing as how you were a prominent member of that faction before it disbanded, well, that makes you my defacto rival, as it were. My umbrage with The Black Hand may have started with Michael Jennings, but you certainly did your part in building that rivalry, with all the sneak attacks, quadruple-teamings, and even going so far as to set mine and C.J. Gates’ possessions on fire. By the way, I’m still waiting on the check to replace what you destroyed.
But my point is this, Chris Madison, even without the rest of The Black Hand involved, there’s still enough bad blood between us to fuel a rivalry as intense as the one between my beloved San Francisco 49ers and the Seattle Seahawks. And I’ll be honest, I see a lot of parallels between their rivalry and ours.
The most obvious parallel is much like how the Niners and Hawks are built the same, so are we, Madison. You’re 6 feet tall, 220 pounds. I’m 5 foot, 11 inches, 217 pounds. It doesn’t get much closer than that.
Secondly, the Seahawks and 49ers both employ a run-first, smash mouth style of football that wears their opponents down. While neither one of us could be mistaken for a ground-and-pound bruiser, Chris, you and I are perhaps two of the best technicians on the APW roster. Both of us utilize speed based offense, with sound counter wrestling, and a mixture of submissions and high-flying maneuvers. I have no doubt that our match at Survive & Conquer will be a hard-fought, long, drawn-out contest where the winner will come down to who makes the first mistake, just like the NFC Championship Game promises to be.
Thirdly, and perhaps most importantly, we just don’t like each other! I know that going into this match, you want to finish what you started at One Night in Hell, hoping to end my career. Me, I’m looking to embarrass you and prove once and for all that The Black Hand was never going to be able to take over APW the way they wanted to. Because let’s face it, Madison, The Black Hand is no more.
As soon as APW closed its doors, the whole lot of you scattered like the cockroaches you are! Have you even talked to Jennings? How about Niobe? And I’m sure you haven’t talked with the Raabinator himself! Didn’t I talk up and down about how as soon as the going got tough, The Black Hand would show it’s disunity and go every man or woman for themselves? Didn’t I say that The Black Hand was a marriage of convenience, rather than an actual unified group? The bottom line is that when we step into the ring next Sunday Night, it’s just going to be me versus you. And you know what, as much as you don’t want to admit it, I think you’re glad that it’s going to be that way. I think that you’re glad that The Black Hand won’t be around. Because it gives you no excuses, it gives you no easy way out. But it also gives you the chance to prove that you are as great as you say that you are.
And isn’t that what all of us enter this business for? The opportunity to become great? I know for myself that it wasn’t for the health benefits!
You took a step towards greatness when you won the APW Overdrive Championship from Tommy Knox. Unfortunately for you, you did not have a chance to follow that up with a title defense, at least until Survive & Conquer. You may have been recognized as the last APW Overdrive Champion as APW ceased operations, but you have had the luxury of calling yourself the champ for three months without once having to defend the title. And there’s probably a part of you that’s okay with that, that is happy to be called APW Overdrive Champion without having to put any sort of effort into it. But I also know that as a competitor, heck, as a man, there’s another part of you that relishes the opportunity to prove yourself to be the Overdrive Champion.
And who better to prove yourself against than arguably the single greatest Overdrive Champion in APW history? I’m not boasting when I make that claim, not by a long shot. I have earned that right by being the only 3-Time APW Overdrive Champion, holding the belt for a combined 316 days over the course of my reigns. The highpoint was obviously the seven week stretch in which I defended the belt each and every Overdrive heading up to RassleMania VII, where I won a Championship Scramble to defend my belt against Ryan Ruckus, Chris Cyrus, AJ King, and Terry Marvin! That kind of sustained success is unheard of!
Now of course, you won’t have the same opportunity to defend the Overdrive Championship in the same manner that I did, but you do have the opportunity to defend it against me. And while beating me won’t automatically make you the greatest Overdrive Champ in history, it will certainly go a long way in legitimatizing your reign. After all, there is that old cliché of to be the man, you’ve got to beat the man. And if I’m not the man in this case, then I don’t know who is!
This brings me back to my comparison between the Seattle Seahawks and the San Francisco 49ers. In this case, you are the Seahawks. You’ve talked a big game as loud as you can. You’re hungry to prove yourself. You want to show that you just aren’t hype, that you just aren’t talk. But when it comes down to it, you haven’t really shown your championship caliber yet. I know this analogy isn’t one hundred percent on point, as you’ve actually done something the ‘Hawks haven’t, and that’s win a Championship, but my point still remains.
Because like my Niners, I have history on my side. I am a proven champion. Just like the 49ers are on their Quest for Six, I’m on my Quest for Four. I fully intend on leaving Munich the new APW Overdrive Champion. And then I will go on to defend that title at RassleMania X, closing the title out with a Champion that it can be proud of. I know what it’s like to compete at the very highest level in this business, and it’s that experience that will carry me to victory.
If I sound like I’m boasting, if I sound like I’m coming off as an arrogant son of a gun, it’s because I’m just eager to get back into the ring. As I said earlier, I do not blame you for the fact that I’ve been out of action for the past three months. I don’t begrudge you the fact that you tried end my career. But I will hold you responsible.
There are consequences for our actions, Chris Madison. When I took Michael Jennings to task all those months ago, it drew the ire of not just him, but the entire Black Hand. I knew that going in. When you issue an open challenge for your title, and accept me as your opponent, well, you’re setting yourself up for a hard fought, physical match that you won’t be able to just saunter in to and leave the ring five minutes later with your title intact. If you want to successfully defend your Overdrive Championship, you’re going to have to earn it.
But on that same token, I realize the consequences of me accepting your challenge. Just as you will have to earn the right to continue to call yourself the Overdrive Champion, I will have to earn the right to become the only Four-Time Overdrive Champion in APW history! It’s going to be a battle for the ages. It’s not going to come easy to either one of us. Just like the NFC Championship Game, it may very well come down to who makes the first mistake.
I’m going to bring things to a close with two predictions. First off, in the NFC Championship Game, I like the 49ers to beat the Seahawks, 23-17. And in our Overdrive Title Match at Survive and Conquer, I like Biggs, by pinfall. Why? Because I’m quite simply OUT OF THIS WORLD!
”I just don’t see how somebody who has lived in Seattle practically their entire life can hate the Seahawks! Have you no civic pride!?”
”It’s not a matter of civic pride. After all, I do love the Seattle Mariners, and we know how much they sucked,” I explain, ”No, it goes back to when I was four years old. I came to the realization that the only reason I rooted for the Seahawks was because my mom and dad told me to. I liked Joe Montana and Jerry Rice, so I became a Niners fan, and have stuck with them since.”
Alice is giving me the fifth degree on my fandom of the San Francisco 49ers ahead of the game, she in her blue #3 Russel Wilson jersey, and me in my cherry-red #7 Colin Kaepernick jersey. Much to my shame, my living room is decorated with half 49ers colors and half Seahawks colors, with streamers and flags hanging from the walls and ceilings, as it was the only way that I would be able to have my friends come over. That being said, my replica 49ers helmet placed to the right of the television set tips the balance in favor of my Niners ever so slightly. That and the fact that I have 49ers cups, red and gold plastic-ware, and 49ers paper plates. The only Seahawks branded part of the place settings are Seahawks napkins, so that way I can wipe my face with them, and if there’s extra left over, maybe blow my nose with them.
Still, I’ll be hostile territory in my own home today, but it’s not something that I’m not used to, being a Niners fan in Seahawks Country. Still, Alice and I have an agreement that no matter which team wins, neither one of us is going to throw a fit, although I question my ability to hold to this. She hates the Niners, and I hate the Seahawks. And despite this fact, we did get engaged two weeks ago. And this time, I was the one to ask.
It’s one of the handful of changes that have overtaken my life in the past few months. For starters,, Alice and I tried going Vegan for about a week or two, but needless to say, it didn’t stick. Tofu is not a substitute for meat, no matter what people try to tell you.
There was also the departure of Matt Smith on Doctor Who. Alice swears up and down that she saw me shed a tear as the Eleventh Doctor regenerated, and while it’s true that I’m going to miss Matt Smith terribly, if I did indeed shed a tear, it was a man tear, darn it!
Finally, the closure of APW has meant that I haven’t stepped inside a wrestling ring since One Night in Hell, and considering that I didn’t even make it into the ring, it’s actually been longer than that, if I want to get technical. I just recently stepped back into the ring in my basement, when my match with “The Madman” Chris Madison was signed for Survive & Conquer a few weeks back. Still, it’s been good for my body to rest up.
”So you’re telling me that at four years of age, you were self aware enough to come to such a logical conclusion about why you liked a football team? I don’t buy it!” Alice shakes her head as she speaks.
”Hey, my brother has been a Chicago Bears fan since before we could talk, so he set the precedent that it was okay to like another team.”
”Then you’re a copycat, following your brother’s lead…”
”Well no. If I was a copycat, I’d like the Bears,” I say with a smirk.
Alice lets out a sigh of exhasperation, ”I guess we’re just going to have to agree to disagree.”
”That’s what I’ve been having to do with my Grandma for years! And everything was fine until the realignment of 2002! Until the Niners and Seahawks were both in the NFC West, nobody had a problem with me loving the 49ers. But once they were put in the same division, everyone lost their minds! Still, go Niners!”
”To which I respectfully respond, go Hawks!”
We hear a loud “GO HAWKS!” from the front of the house. I shake my head as we get up to greet our guests. My neighbor Bill is all decked out in Seahawks blue and green, while his wife, Sarah, has a blue and green sweatshirt on. Their son, Cole, who’s four years old, is also wearing a cherry-red #7 Colin Kaepernick jersey! I kneel down to give the kid a high-five.
”Way to go bud! Let’s go Niners!” I give Alice a sly wink, acknowledging the fact that Cole made his decision at the same age that I did.
”GO NINERS!” Cole shouts at the top of his lungs, throwing his arms up with reckless abandon.
Bill is shaking his head in faux-shame. ”Where did I go wrong with my kid? Why did I tell him he could pick any team he wanted?”
”Because you’re a good father, and your kid has good taste,” I joke back, welcoming Bill and his family to enter my house.
Alice jabs me in the ribs with her elbow, ”Just remember that if we ever have a kid or two…”
”Yeah, knowing my luck, the kid will be a Cowboys fan.”
This elicits laughter from everyone, except Cole, who’s already plopped right in front of the TV. I have the brief thought, “Since when has my life become a family sitcom,” before joining Cole in the living room and getting ready for the game.
***
Sunday, January 26th will mark my first match in 91 days. I have not wrestled since October 27th, at One Night in Hell, in a match that saw me get thrown off of the War Games Cell and fall over 25 feet to the floor. I would be lying if I said I still didn’t feel the after affects of that fall, or many of the other falls I’ve taken over the course of my ten year career. I knew when I signed up for that match, I would facing the possibility of serious injury, and it did happen, thanks in no small part to my opponent at Survive & Conquer, “The Madman” Chris Madison.
And Chris, before you get all hot and bothered, don’t worry, I don’t hold you personally responsible for what happened to me at One Night in Hell. I don’t blame you for the fact that my back hurts every morning when I get out of bed. I don’t fault you for the fact that my right knee hasn’t felt right in three months. That was the risk I took when I agreed to participate in War Games. Heck, I tried to throw you off the top of the Cell myself, so for me to be mad or upset at you for doing to me wouldn’t just be hypocritical, it would be flat out cowardly of me. That being said, Chris, just because I don’t blame you for what happened to me doesn’t mean that I don’t want to get you back for it!
After all, you don’t make it to the top of this business without having a little bit of a mean streak in you. And also, there’s the little fact that we were already going at it tooth-and-nail before War Games, with my personal crusade against The Black Hand and all. And seeing as how you were a prominent member of that faction before it disbanded, well, that makes you my defacto rival, as it were. My umbrage with The Black Hand may have started with Michael Jennings, but you certainly did your part in building that rivalry, with all the sneak attacks, quadruple-teamings, and even going so far as to set mine and C.J. Gates’ possessions on fire. By the way, I’m still waiting on the check to replace what you destroyed.
But my point is this, Chris Madison, even without the rest of The Black Hand involved, there’s still enough bad blood between us to fuel a rivalry as intense as the one between my beloved San Francisco 49ers and the Seattle Seahawks. And I’ll be honest, I see a lot of parallels between their rivalry and ours.
The most obvious parallel is much like how the Niners and Hawks are built the same, so are we, Madison. You’re 6 feet tall, 220 pounds. I’m 5 foot, 11 inches, 217 pounds. It doesn’t get much closer than that.
Secondly, the Seahawks and 49ers both employ a run-first, smash mouth style of football that wears their opponents down. While neither one of us could be mistaken for a ground-and-pound bruiser, Chris, you and I are perhaps two of the best technicians on the APW roster. Both of us utilize speed based offense, with sound counter wrestling, and a mixture of submissions and high-flying maneuvers. I have no doubt that our match at Survive & Conquer will be a hard-fought, long, drawn-out contest where the winner will come down to who makes the first mistake, just like the NFC Championship Game promises to be.
Thirdly, and perhaps most importantly, we just don’t like each other! I know that going into this match, you want to finish what you started at One Night in Hell, hoping to end my career. Me, I’m looking to embarrass you and prove once and for all that The Black Hand was never going to be able to take over APW the way they wanted to. Because let’s face it, Madison, The Black Hand is no more.
As soon as APW closed its doors, the whole lot of you scattered like the cockroaches you are! Have you even talked to Jennings? How about Niobe? And I’m sure you haven’t talked with the Raabinator himself! Didn’t I talk up and down about how as soon as the going got tough, The Black Hand would show it’s disunity and go every man or woman for themselves? Didn’t I say that The Black Hand was a marriage of convenience, rather than an actual unified group? The bottom line is that when we step into the ring next Sunday Night, it’s just going to be me versus you. And you know what, as much as you don’t want to admit it, I think you’re glad that it’s going to be that way. I think that you’re glad that The Black Hand won’t be around. Because it gives you no excuses, it gives you no easy way out. But it also gives you the chance to prove that you are as great as you say that you are.
And isn’t that what all of us enter this business for? The opportunity to become great? I know for myself that it wasn’t for the health benefits!
You took a step towards greatness when you won the APW Overdrive Championship from Tommy Knox. Unfortunately for you, you did not have a chance to follow that up with a title defense, at least until Survive & Conquer. You may have been recognized as the last APW Overdrive Champion as APW ceased operations, but you have had the luxury of calling yourself the champ for three months without once having to defend the title. And there’s probably a part of you that’s okay with that, that is happy to be called APW Overdrive Champion without having to put any sort of effort into it. But I also know that as a competitor, heck, as a man, there’s another part of you that relishes the opportunity to prove yourself to be the Overdrive Champion.
And who better to prove yourself against than arguably the single greatest Overdrive Champion in APW history? I’m not boasting when I make that claim, not by a long shot. I have earned that right by being the only 3-Time APW Overdrive Champion, holding the belt for a combined 316 days over the course of my reigns. The highpoint was obviously the seven week stretch in which I defended the belt each and every Overdrive heading up to RassleMania VII, where I won a Championship Scramble to defend my belt against Ryan Ruckus, Chris Cyrus, AJ King, and Terry Marvin! That kind of sustained success is unheard of!
Now of course, you won’t have the same opportunity to defend the Overdrive Championship in the same manner that I did, but you do have the opportunity to defend it against me. And while beating me won’t automatically make you the greatest Overdrive Champ in history, it will certainly go a long way in legitimatizing your reign. After all, there is that old cliché of to be the man, you’ve got to beat the man. And if I’m not the man in this case, then I don’t know who is!
This brings me back to my comparison between the Seattle Seahawks and the San Francisco 49ers. In this case, you are the Seahawks. You’ve talked a big game as loud as you can. You’re hungry to prove yourself. You want to show that you just aren’t hype, that you just aren’t talk. But when it comes down to it, you haven’t really shown your championship caliber yet. I know this analogy isn’t one hundred percent on point, as you’ve actually done something the ‘Hawks haven’t, and that’s win a Championship, but my point still remains.
Because like my Niners, I have history on my side. I am a proven champion. Just like the 49ers are on their Quest for Six, I’m on my Quest for Four. I fully intend on leaving Munich the new APW Overdrive Champion. And then I will go on to defend that title at RassleMania X, closing the title out with a Champion that it can be proud of. I know what it’s like to compete at the very highest level in this business, and it’s that experience that will carry me to victory.
If I sound like I’m boasting, if I sound like I’m coming off as an arrogant son of a gun, it’s because I’m just eager to get back into the ring. As I said earlier, I do not blame you for the fact that I’ve been out of action for the past three months. I don’t begrudge you the fact that you tried end my career. But I will hold you responsible.
There are consequences for our actions, Chris Madison. When I took Michael Jennings to task all those months ago, it drew the ire of not just him, but the entire Black Hand. I knew that going in. When you issue an open challenge for your title, and accept me as your opponent, well, you’re setting yourself up for a hard fought, physical match that you won’t be able to just saunter in to and leave the ring five minutes later with your title intact. If you want to successfully defend your Overdrive Championship, you’re going to have to earn it.
But on that same token, I realize the consequences of me accepting your challenge. Just as you will have to earn the right to continue to call yourself the Overdrive Champion, I will have to earn the right to become the only Four-Time Overdrive Champion in APW history! It’s going to be a battle for the ages. It’s not going to come easy to either one of us. Just like the NFC Championship Game, it may very well come down to who makes the first mistake.
I’m going to bring things to a close with two predictions. First off, in the NFC Championship Game, I like the 49ers to beat the Seahawks, 23-17. And in our Overdrive Title Match at Survive and Conquer, I like Biggs, by pinfall. Why? Because I’m quite simply OUT OF THIS WORLD!
