Post by bryanpayne on May 22, 2010 0:18:02 GMT -4
(2 years ago, Tokyo Japan, Tokyo Honor Wrestling show.)
A little hint of a smile tugged around the corners of Bryan’s mouth as he painstakingly wrapped his wrists with tape, flexing a his fingers down to make tight fists and rotating them at the limit of their flexibility. Support, not restraint. He knew a few guys on the circuit that taped their wrists until they could barely move their hands did it to make their arms a solid battering ram to attack their opponents with. Trouble with that was if that didn’t work you were totally screwed. And you didn’t beat Bryan Payne by brawling.
His head snapped up towards the door, old hinges squealing with expectation as the massive form of John Henry emerged a lop sided smile standing out sharply against his dark skin and the unsmoked stub of a cigar tucked into the corner of one mouth.
“Hey kid, you almost ready?”
Bryan couldn’t suppress the grin he gave in return. This was in. His big moment, his first ever opportunity to compete for a title… if he won this match tonight he was going to get a shot at the THW Shogun Belt, which was the second most respected title on the independent scene right now. It would mean big things for him. The last two years had been grueling traveling training going from dive to dive taking beatings getting stitched up learning how to turn the crowd into puddy with a little smile and a gesture. There was an art to it. Anyone could just walk out there do their thing and walk out… but the greats all had a presence a certain showman ship about it, and that was the x-factor, something that Bryan had an instinct for which was the reason for John’s interest in him to begin with.
“Born ready John.”
“Now listen, kid,” John started removing the cigar and lowering his massive frame down onto the bench beside Bryan with a heavy grunt, caused by the pain in his knee. John had been a great young wrestler himself once… but like many a dream it had ended tragically with a knee injury in the late 80’s that science just couldn’t fix back then. So he’d taken up the management and training side of the business and become one of the most sought after trainers in Japan. No small feat for a 40 year old African-American. He’d first approached Bryan in a bar, frequented by off duty Army personel, and then watched while the kid who wrestled in small shows for a few bucks tore apart a couple GI’s who owned some money to a Tokyo bookie. The incident had landed Bryan in jail… John had given him the steady employment he’d needed to get out on probation. In fact he’d been released into John’s custody until he turned 21, a fact he’d resented greatly when John had made him stop drinking and hanging out with his friends. Nothing good had every come to him from either… he could see that now a couple years later. He owed this man his life. Now it was time to pay him back by giving him a return on his investment.
“Kid, you need to be careful in there with Echo. This is the biggest match you’ve ever been in, and he’s no joke… now I know you… you’re like a buzz saw on crack when you get like this. You fly right at your opponent and ninety percent of the time… it’s over before they know what hit them..”
“Of course it is John, I learned from the best,” Bryan chuckled and slapped John on the shoulder and then bent down to check the laces on his boots.
“So did he…”
“Say what?” Bryan looked up at John over his shoulder a look of confusion on his face.
“Echo was one of my first students Bryan. After a couple years of trying to make something out of him… I cut him… He’s never forgiven me, and now he’s going to try and make you pay for what I did to him back then.”
Bryan left his boots alone for a moment and sat up straight, his eyebrows knitting into a single line as he regarded John for a moment.
“Why did you cut him?”
“He…” John sighed softly and ran a single hand back over his bald head, “didn’t have the spark kid. He was good, talented… raw. Lot like you. But he was always looking for a shot cut. He never passed up the opportunity to get a free shot in or jump a guy from behind. I never could get it through to him that the real way to get to the top of this business was to make the fans love you…. You make them believe in you kid, down in their guts, know every time you hit the ring you’re about to blow their minds and they will love you… they’ll follow you wherever this business takes you.”
“Couple years huh? About the time you took me on…”
“Yeah.. that’s about right. Look, what I’m trying to tell you here kid is that there are matches you’re going to come across… opponents where the normal rules just don’t apply. You’re going to come across men who really are the top of the food chain… not because they’re better, but because they’re willing to do whatever they have to do to stay there.” John fixed a gaze on Bryan then stabbing him in the chest with a single finger. “That’s why you’ve got to always be better. That’s why you can’t ever sit still for a moment you have to keep pushing yourself. Because there’s a moment in the ring with those type of guys when they’re looking for that easy quick win… and if you see it, and if you hit them right then… it’s game over kid. Game.. fucking over.”
Bryan gave a soft sigh, his face drawing in on itself for a few moments while he mulled over what John had just told him and then he nodded. “Be patient, wait for the opportunity don’t push it…” He nodded again and then lifted his head to look back at John. “This guy really that good John?”
“Not going to lie to you kid. He was the best.”
John always had known how to push Bryan’s buttons, even back then.
(************)
(Wednesday before Mayhem, Seattle Washington)
“Dr. Pain?!” Georgie said her jaw dropping a little bit as Bryan nodded reinforcing her sense of disbelief. “Aww… poor Tim….”
“I’m telling you, the poor kid looked like a refugee from a Frankenstein Movie. But he looked damn good out there… have to admit. I’d hate to see what happens if he gets in the ring with a really big guy though…” Bryan paused whistling softly and just shook his head as he gave an ever so slight shake of his head. “squish… just like grape.”
“Hehe,” she chortled for a moment, “why Bryan Payne, I do believe you’re actually PROUD of your little brother!”
Bryan paused, his fork held halfway to his mouth and then lowered fractionally as he looked back at her across the table and then gave a slight shrug of his shoulders. “Ok, sure, maybe I am a little bit…”
“Next thing you know you’ll be eating red meat… crying a movies….”
“Ogling puppies in store windows…”
“Hey!” Georgie said and a loud thumb could be heard and a soft muffled curse caused by a savage kick to the shin. “Sush! I hate you!”
“No you don’t..” Bryan chuckled softly and chewed on his salad for a few moments. “So how’s the boy doing… really?”
“The… boy?”
“Yeah, our boy..” Bryan smirked a bit and let his fork come to a rest on his plate. “AC.”
“Oh yeah… that.” The joke wasn’t that funny, but it had been told often enough. AC Thunder had had a rough couple of months a freakish singles losing streak, only recently corrected… which had caused the once flamboyant wrestler to turn into a card carrying member of the therapist of the month club. The phrase ‘emo-boy’ had been thrown around along with the joke that it was like Georgie and Bryan were dealing with a depressed teenager. “Well, losing the tag titles didn’t help.”
“I’m sure it didn’t…” he sighed a bit and gave another shake of his head picking up his napkin to wipe the front of his mouth for any stray bits and then left the cloth draped over the top of his plate. “But he’s got to snap out of this sometime, right? I mean he can’t spend the rest of his career like this.”
“One would hope not at any rate… one would hope.” Georgie paused for a moment tilting her head. “So Karen showed me the tape of your latest promo stuff. When were you going to tell me that the bastard cut you?”
Bryan gave a bit of a laugh. “After I beat him… because I knew how you’d react.”
For a moment it appeared there was a mutiny about to take place and then with a soft sigh the moment passed. “Ok, fair enough point. But I hope you see now what I was trying to tell you a couple weeks ago about him.”
“Yeah, I do… I never knew this guy was this much of a coward.”
“Wait… what?!”
Bryan gave a slight shrug of his shoulders as Georgie looked over at him with an expression of stupefied disbelief. There were a lot of phrases the Rebel Child might use to describe Lester Only…. Titanic Asshole came to mind… but coward?
“I’m serious. I mean he takes cheap shots at Pence, the guy never stops looking for a quick and easy way out of every match he’s in. Constantly looking to blind side his opponents. I mean this guy is so afraid of a straight fight I’m not surprised that he talks so much. If I was that eager to avoid having to go to work in the ring I’d talk more too because it’s all he’s got. I mean I guarantee right now he’s sitting somewhere watching my promo with a piece of paper and a pencil trying to find an answer for everything I said to him as though this were some kind of debate contest..” Bryan laughed a bit and gave a slight shake of his head. “I’m afraid it’s not. Doesn’t matter who talks the most, because at the end of the day he’s still got to step inside the ring with me and beat me…. And you know what… I don’t think he can do that anymore.”
“Bryan I-“ Georgie began but was cut off.
“Look, babe, I know what you’re trying to say. And I know this guy has been in the ring with some of the best… .hell he’s been in the ring with me before,” he paused to wink and got a small huff in return, “But you know what this is about. You know I can’t let a guy just behave this way and let it go… it’s not what we stand for and it’s not what Payne stands for. Someone has needed to take this guy down for years… and I’m not talking about title reigns or challenges… ultimately you and I both know that means jack shit anyway… I’m talking about the man. They’ve all built this guy up like Ivan Drago from Rocky 4… some kind of machine wind him up and watch him go… But Georgie I’ve seen the guy underneath that. I saw it in his eyes the split second before I cold cocked him with that steel chair… and again when he got out that knife. This guy is afraid of me Georgie. And I’m not talking about afraid to fight me… he’s afraid I’m right about him.”
“… why didn’t you but that line in your speech?”
Bryan blinked for a moment and looked down at his plate and then both of them shared a brief laugh.
(************)
(A couple of hours before the start of Mayhem)
(The camera opened up to life to show Bryan Payne standing outside the Tacoma dome with hundreds of fans lining up to get into the show as soon as the doors open. He has a microphone in his hand a little cocky little smile on his face.)
Payne: Hell out there APW fans, it’s me, The Revelation Bryan Payne here once again doing my ‘level’ best to get out among you and get a feel for what you the fan are expecting to see tonight at Mayhem. And what better place to do that than out among the people who even now can’t even wait for the doors to open before showing up!
(Bryan crocked a finger towards the camera which followed him from a few feet back as he walked over towards the crowd a few cheers going up as they saw it was him. He grinned looking back to the camera and raised his shades to wink a bit.)
Payne: My public…
(He stepped up to the line gripping hands, even breaking out a sharpie marker and signing the back of a few ticket stubs. After couple minutes of this he lifted the mic from where he’d been holding it under his arm and lifted it up.)
Payne: You there, sir… in the Level One t-shirt, I have to ask. Did your wife actually let you go out of the house dressed like that?
L1 Fan: Aww man.. get out of here with that.
Payne: No no, seriously I mean damn, what is that… supposed to be my blood or something?
(Bryan smirked a bit back into the camera.)
L1 Fan: Yeah well you’ll find out tonight man! He’s going to kick your ass like he kicks everyones ass!
(The people around him started booing jostling the man a bit before Bryan raised his hands up to stop them.)
Payne: Come on guys, leave him alone. I mean this is still America… a free country… he can think what he wants right?... RIGHT?!
Crowd: RIGHT!
(A few of the crowd grumbled mutinously but most seemed to calm down and Bryan nodded pleased at the reaction and then smirked a bit back in the direction of the camera.)
Payne: Even the retarded…
L1 Fan: HEY!
Payne: Seriously man, this guy pisses on you every night. Ruins matches he’s got nothing to do with… all for the sake of his own ego. And you stand there wearing that shirt defending him like its some how cool? Get real buddy the only thing you’re proving right now is that you’re an awful gullible guy.. hey maybe if you’re really really lucky, he might beat you up next.
L1 Fan: Man you’re as-
Payne: Moving right along..
(The camera zoomed to the right to keep up with Bryan as he worked his way on down the line.)
Payne: Oh… oh my, come on Jake, you’ve got to get this in the camera shot, this is just priceless..
(Bryan walked over to a couple with their arms around each other’s shoulders, one was wearing a Pence Weatherlight shirt and the other a John Green. Bryan forced his way in between them looping his arms over each of their shoulders while they laughed and squeezed them in tight.)
Payne: I think I’m going to cry. This is… I mean… it’s just so beautiful. All this love and team spirit!
(He paused biting his bottom lip and gave an obviously rather fake sniffle.)
Payne: So where you guys from?
(Still with his arms around them both, flashing a little grin and a wink.)
Fan Girl: Boise State
Payne: Home of the blue turf… I gotta ask.. is that were the Smurf Orgy went down?
Fan Boy: What?!
Payne: Well I mean years of sexual frustration just bubbling over in a great big bukkake party that forever stained the field…. Blue!
(The girl let gasp and covered her mouth, and the guy looked obviously embarrassed.)
Payne: Now guy, you hold onto this one…. You marry this girl..
Fan Boy: W-what?... I don’t… why?
Payne: True love… isn’t that adorable. She knew what I was talking about…. Think about it…
(He gave the girl a peck on the cheek and shook the guy’s hand before pointing to his left finger and mouthed ‘do it!’)
Payne: Crazy kids..
(Bryan continued to work his way down the line pointing out a few signs one read “The Moment has Passed..” As he continued down the line he paused next to a guy who was holding a life sized cut out of Sally Talford.)
Payne: Oh.. we’ve got to talk to this guy. Yes sir you sir, what’s your name?
(Bryan put the microphone forward and the man pushed his baseball cap back a bit before leaning forward to speak.)
Fan: Stan
Payne: Stan this is uh… quite the plus one you’ve got here.
(Bryan gestured towards the cut out with his thumb)
Fan: Sally is the best!
Payne: I uh… can see that Stan… really.
Fan: tonight is the night?
Payne: The night for….. what exactly?
(The man paused and reached into his jeans digging out a black felt box which he held up and Bryan put his hand over to hide from the camera a moment too late.)
Payne: Security…
Fan: No wait.. I LOVE YOU SALLY…
(Two large men with security written across their backs appeared picking Stan up who fought and struggled to stay in the shot a death grip maintained on the cut out which stuck up high in the air above him as he was physically removed.)
Fan: WE WERE MEANT TO BE TOGETHER!!
(Bryan rolled his tongue around on the inside of his mouth watching the small procession and then looked into the camera.)
Payne: Boys and girls… THAT is why you don’t smoke crack. Just saying…
(The camera panned around along with Bryan as he reached another group of fans several of which were wearing “Revelation” t-shirts and he laughed a little bit to himself pointing off to a tech standing just out of the camera shot who handed him a bundle of signs.)
Payne: Oh see, now these guys know the score…. Hey fellas what’s going on over here?!
Fan 1: Oh dude we’re on TV!
Fan 2: Holy shit it’s Bryan Payne… they’ve got him doing interviews now…?
Payne: Well if you mean by ‘got me’ that I hijacked a camera crew because I got bored sitting backstage listening to Level One give Biggs rim-jobs trying to get his rematch… then yeah. Biggs is a screamer!
(Bryan made a slightly disgusted face and gave an over-elaborate shudder as he handed out the signs to the fans.)
Payne: Guys my PA Karen made these for some of the fans, so I’m going to give them to you… since you have the awesome fashion sense to wear one of my t-shirts to this event. I mean damn guys looking sharp!
(The first read “Only the bitter taste of defeat for Lester,” another, “Level Yesterday,” “L1 where’s your chair?!...” he handed them out and the fans took them a few chuckles as they passed them around.)
Payne: So guys where are you from, gotta ask.
Fan 1: LA
Fan 2: San Diego
Payne: Ahhh… where my mom lives… Hi Mom.. ok guys you can wave too… don’t look at me them them!
(The camera swerves over suddenly to the group of six fans who yell and wave.)
Payne: So I’m guessing you all know each other from somewhere?
Fan 3: Yeah man, we all go to USC GO TROJANS!
Payne: Buddy the only Trojan I’m rooting for is the one who brings the condems.
Fan 1: I heard that
Payne: Ok so, honestly how long have you guys been APW fans exactly?
Fan 2: Uh… two or three years I guess; yeah, we all started watching when Jason over there got us into it Freshman year.
Payne: Cool cool… and now you’re here. So tell me, had you ever seen me in anything before I showed up here?
Fan 1: Dude, you were fucking sick in that War Games match… and that cage fall holy jesus I don’t know how you got up!
Payne: Well my friend that’s because I was born too stubborn to know when to quit… so everyone keeps telling me anyway. So how do you think the match is going to turn out tonight guys?
Fans 1, 2, 3: LESTER TAPS! LESTER TAPS! LESTER TAPS!
Payne: Mmmmm I love the sound of prophecy in the morning. Now guys what I want you to do is the minute L1 steps out I want you start screaming that at the top of your lungs… and don’t worry that same e-mail went out to every fan registered on my website.. just so… you know… since he watches the show now he can get a better understanding of exactly how many people do pay attention to it. I mean the fact that he lives under a rock really shouldn’t surprise anyone, the guy has been doing this so long he actually believes his own bullshit.
(He snickers a little bit and leans over the railing to slap the collected assortment of fans hands before walking a little ways to the right with the camera crew still following behind and the microphone clenched in his left hand.)
Payne: Lester, Lester, Lester. You know… I knew you’d walk out and do your typical step out and make a few crass jokes and surely he’ll just crumble at the very sight of me threatening him…. Surely he can’t help but see the logic in what I have to say…
Got news for you there Champ… oh wait… damn forgot, not anymore.
(Bryan paused whistling softly under his breath and gave a small snap of his fingers in an ‘aw shucks gesture’)
“But be that as it may… The ‘only’ thing you proved with that little pedantic rant is that everything I’ve said about you is right on the nose. You think you’re the best? My friend that claim now has more holes in it than the ozone layer. You’re not the best. My friend it would be hard to claim you were even one of the best at this point… you’ve slipped you’ve slide, you’ve cake walked your way around in this federation until you were so convinced you were unbeatable… you let a guy who had made your personal bitch over the course of a year rip that belt off your waist and make you look like a complete fool.”
“Hell I understand why you’d be mad about that. Shit if anyone had ever gotten over on me that way I’d be pretty angry about it to. Oh wait… no body ever has.”
(Bryan grinned ever so slightly and wagged his finger at the camera.)
“See, like a lot of guys out there, Lester likes to try to revise history to his liking. He’s what we call a reactionary. He doesn’t have the imagination or the energy, or even the ‘care’ to come up with his own material.. so he walks out takes in a big lungful of air with a script of what the other guy said held just out of the camera shot and goes over it line for line… because that’s the only way he has anything to say. It’s the same way he fights in the ring. Level One lives in the past, on his past greatness because he knows… like I do… like all of the APW fans know… the past is all he has left. There is no golden future for you Level One. There’s just a slippery slope down into the oblivion of a return to the independent scene. You’re going to wake up Tuesday Morning Lester and realize that the new model drove out onto the lot last night and ran right the flat fuck over you.”
“Because as good as you were Lester… I’m better. And I’m always going to be better, and day by day, week after week I’m going to prove it. You ask why I came to APW… I came to APW for the same reason I started wresting in the first place. It wasn’t for gold or brass… I came here to kick ass. I came here to step into the ring and compete in front of all these people like the ones you see behind me all lined up tickets in hand. And you know why they came here Level One? They came here just to watch me kick your over-rated, over hyped, mis-informed, myopic ass all over Tacoma. And DAMN they’re going to get their money’s worth tonight.”
(Bryan laughed a little bit and gave a shake of his head.)
“Ignorance about me, The State of Sin, and what I’ve accomplished since I came over to the States isn’t a come back Lester… it’s a medical condition I’m going to fix for you one ego bruising maneuver after another.”
“You want to try to look past me Lester, you want to try to prove something tonight. You bring it on fat boy. You’ve rested on your laurels long enough now it’s time to step down into the ring with me alone so I can kick your ass properly… and oh man am I going to enjoy this. Because what you have failed to understand is what this is really about. See you’re standing… I’m sorry kneeling back there right now tongue extended thinking tonight is about you and proving you are somehow deserving of what… well most people already thing you should have gotten a title shot. But they’re not here to see you get that man.”
(Bryan pulled back laughing again his hand reaching up to wipe the front of his face as he shook his head.)
“Because you were right about something else too. See beating me isn’t going to guarantee you anything… but shit man when I beat you tonight… your hope for a title shot goes pooof… outta that arena off into outer space never to be heard from again… So yes Lester, you are a desperate man. And the Bryan Payne ‘hype machine’ as you put it was built on breaking the dreams of desperate men… like you. Men who thought they were unbeatable like delivering Ryan Ruckus his only defeat EVER inside a cage match. The impossible Lester is what I do. The unbeatable is who I fucking beat. You Mr. Only are just another page, a footnote in the building of my legacy. And when I beat you tonight and go on… and then beat you again and again and again… you’ll know exactly what’s going down. See you said I wasn’t thinking long term Lester but God you’re wrong.. So wrong and you don’t even see it. Your long term is taking the gold away from Pence. Mine is crushing your ego until you retire because you realize as long as Bryan Payne is here kicking your ass coast to coast you will never be a fraction of the man you used to be!”
(The crowd behind Bryan starts chanting again “LESTER TAPS! LESTER TAPS!” Bryan stops a moment tilting his head to one side and then jerking a thumb over his shoulder as he lifts the microphone up once more.)
“Listen to that real close One. Wherever you are backstage… trying to get the taste off your tongue… I want you to hear that. I want you to feel it deep inside your bones, and I want it to burrow deep inside that massive swollen watermelon you call a head... When this match is over, the ‘Only’ thing you’re going to have carved in stone is that you’re a quitter. When this match is over the ‘Only’ thing you’ll have accomplished is proving me right. When I lock the Payne Killer in and your knee is tearing out of it’s joints and you’re writing on the mat in agony… the ‘Only’ tickle you’ll feel is the sensation of seeing the rest of your career flushed down the toilet… all because you picked a fight with Bryan Payne.”
“You say I over-estimate my importance to you Lester. No, I just don’t over-estimate yours in regards to anyone anymore. Because you’re not worthy of it, because you haven’t earned it. Because for too long people have been more interested in kissing your ass than kicking and that’s finished! It’s over, you’ve been doing the same routine copy paste a different name in month after month year after year watching people eat it up because everyone else in the company was buying it. Well Lester… I’m not. You want my respect Lester the ‘Only’ place you can earn that is inside the wrestling ring and if you don’t want it… hey that’s fine too, I’m more than happy to just crush you like the little bug you are and move on.”
“But I can hear you asking… and I can hear everyone at home wondering… ‘Bryan how can you say you’ll always be better than Level One? I mean a couple weeks ago you said if you were in a long series with him you’d win some and he’d win some’ Well, I’m glad you asked..”
(Bryan smirked a little bit and gave a slight shrug of his shoulders.)
“See Lester and I approach this business from very very different paths… because we’re very different people. He’s out to get what he can, make all the money he can, get all the press he can, win all the titles he can… and then get out… presumably to make gay porn. I hear they need fat guys… bears they call them.”
“I’m here… because I love it. I love the blood, and the competition, I love my job being to step out into that ring and fight. And not just brawl… hell you can pay two homeless people and see a bad street fight. No, I get paid because when I fight jaws hit the floor as they watch what I can do… and I get off on it. I’ll admit it freely. I do this because stepping into the ring, the crowd, the excitement is something I love. But I also do it, because when I step into the ring there is a code. There is a Warrior Code that one should always live by… and that, that my friends is where he and I start to diverge… quite drastically.”
“See this business is about standing for something. It’s about making your mind up what you believe in and putting it on the line. Any of us in that locker room our out there in another promotion… hell we’re all talented guys. But what separates the star from the mid-carder isn’t really what we can do inside the ring, it isn’t even what we can do with a microphone in our hands… it is belief in something.”
“Men like Level One, they believe in themselves. In what they want, their desires and dreams and are always looking for the shortest, easiest path to getting them. It’s what makes them cheat, lie, steal, look for anyone and anything to blame for their failures… because hoisting your chain only to your own ego… only to the fulfillment of your own greed and personal fulfillment doesn’t leave room for anything else.”
“Now certainly I believe in myself. I’ve always said if you don’t, then you shouldn’t even step into the ring. If you don’t think you can win, why should the fans? But that’s not all I believe in. No, I believe in things greater than myself, things that set be apart from thugs and punks like Level One. There is a right and there is a wrong in this world and it’s making up your mind to stand up for something and the Courage to fight for it tooth and nail until you win or are dead THAT’s what it means to be a man. That’s what it means to be a warrior. And each and every night I lace up my boots that’s what I become, I become a warrior because there are things in this world, codes that transcend personal fulfillment and greed.”
“There is Honor and Honesty. Standing for something and making sure people know what you stand for. Knowing that when you tell someone something they know they’re hearing the truth… now One, I realize that those two concepts might be a little beyond you right now so we’re going to move on….”
“There is Respect. There’s respect for all these people out here Lester, the ones that make it possible for you to run your mouth every week, make grandiose threats and pick a fight with a guy like me. They are the ones that make you more than a homeless person fighting to star in a youtube clip for five dollars and half a bottle of cheap whiskey. And you stand there and you dismiss them… like they don’t even matter. And you know I don’t even think you believe that Lester, I think that somewhere down inside your heart you just don’t like what you see about yourself reflected back from them. So you heap scorn on them and try to ignore the little voice in a part of you that has blackened and been stained in your pursuit of the short cut, the easy way out, and what you think you deserve.”
“There is Loyalty. Not just to the fans, but to your friends. See you dismiss AC and Georgie and the fact that we’re still friends. Why? Because there isn’t room for friends for a guy like you Lester… because no one likes you very much. And it’s not because you’re Canadian… though god knows that’s reason enough… it’s because of who you’ve let yourself become… and the man you could have been if you’d only had the personal integrity and Rectitude to be that man. If you weren’t too afraid to take the principled path the difficult path. There’s Loyalty to this company, to the Experts, to all the places and the people who helped all of us get to this point we are tonight… our familes, our friends for everyone one of us standing here tonight there are dozens of people who helped ups achieve our dreams. Some of us remember that and some of us… just look for the next person whose back they can step on to get a leg up.”
“There is Benevolence. Because we have been successful it is our duty to give back. To help others learn from our experiences so that some people don’t have to live through what some of us did to get where we’re standing now. I run foundations, speak to at risk kids… Lester sits in a dark room arguing with himself about what his next move is always looking for another quick way… another fix to shore up the cracks in his armor.. another part of his soul he can mortgage off in his pursuit of earning the sense of self-worth he gave away a long time ago.”
“These are the Seven Virtues of Bushido: Rectitude, Courage, Honor, Respect, Honesty, and Loyalty. The path of the true Warrior. That is what will always separate a warrior from a punk and a thug One, and those are the things that will always make someone like me better than someone like you. Tonight, tomorrow, next week, next year, a decade from now, four when you’re sitting alone shining your belt looking at pictures from your past achievements…. And you come across the picture of the people who would have been your friends you steeped on along the way to get the fleeting success that you had. And you’ll stop and look around the empty house you’re in. The wife that left you… the parents, cousins, friends, past associates who won’t return your phone calls… because you used them up while you were cutting up your soul into ever smaller pieces for one more spot light moment…”
“Alone in the dark. A punk, a miserable old washed up has been. And Lester, that journey, that Revelation for you… begins tonight. I’m going to make you a better man Level One. Even if it kills you.”
(Bryan flashes a little smile to the camera as it starts to fade out the "LESTER TAPS LESTER TAPS!" chant continuing in the background a few moments after the shot has totally faded.)
A little hint of a smile tugged around the corners of Bryan’s mouth as he painstakingly wrapped his wrists with tape, flexing a his fingers down to make tight fists and rotating them at the limit of their flexibility. Support, not restraint. He knew a few guys on the circuit that taped their wrists until they could barely move their hands did it to make their arms a solid battering ram to attack their opponents with. Trouble with that was if that didn’t work you were totally screwed. And you didn’t beat Bryan Payne by brawling.
His head snapped up towards the door, old hinges squealing with expectation as the massive form of John Henry emerged a lop sided smile standing out sharply against his dark skin and the unsmoked stub of a cigar tucked into the corner of one mouth.
“Hey kid, you almost ready?”
Bryan couldn’t suppress the grin he gave in return. This was in. His big moment, his first ever opportunity to compete for a title… if he won this match tonight he was going to get a shot at the THW Shogun Belt, which was the second most respected title on the independent scene right now. It would mean big things for him. The last two years had been grueling traveling training going from dive to dive taking beatings getting stitched up learning how to turn the crowd into puddy with a little smile and a gesture. There was an art to it. Anyone could just walk out there do their thing and walk out… but the greats all had a presence a certain showman ship about it, and that was the x-factor, something that Bryan had an instinct for which was the reason for John’s interest in him to begin with.
“Born ready John.”
“Now listen, kid,” John started removing the cigar and lowering his massive frame down onto the bench beside Bryan with a heavy grunt, caused by the pain in his knee. John had been a great young wrestler himself once… but like many a dream it had ended tragically with a knee injury in the late 80’s that science just couldn’t fix back then. So he’d taken up the management and training side of the business and become one of the most sought after trainers in Japan. No small feat for a 40 year old African-American. He’d first approached Bryan in a bar, frequented by off duty Army personel, and then watched while the kid who wrestled in small shows for a few bucks tore apart a couple GI’s who owned some money to a Tokyo bookie. The incident had landed Bryan in jail… John had given him the steady employment he’d needed to get out on probation. In fact he’d been released into John’s custody until he turned 21, a fact he’d resented greatly when John had made him stop drinking and hanging out with his friends. Nothing good had every come to him from either… he could see that now a couple years later. He owed this man his life. Now it was time to pay him back by giving him a return on his investment.
“Kid, you need to be careful in there with Echo. This is the biggest match you’ve ever been in, and he’s no joke… now I know you… you’re like a buzz saw on crack when you get like this. You fly right at your opponent and ninety percent of the time… it’s over before they know what hit them..”
“Of course it is John, I learned from the best,” Bryan chuckled and slapped John on the shoulder and then bent down to check the laces on his boots.
“So did he…”
“Say what?” Bryan looked up at John over his shoulder a look of confusion on his face.
“Echo was one of my first students Bryan. After a couple years of trying to make something out of him… I cut him… He’s never forgiven me, and now he’s going to try and make you pay for what I did to him back then.”
Bryan left his boots alone for a moment and sat up straight, his eyebrows knitting into a single line as he regarded John for a moment.
“Why did you cut him?”
“He…” John sighed softly and ran a single hand back over his bald head, “didn’t have the spark kid. He was good, talented… raw. Lot like you. But he was always looking for a shot cut. He never passed up the opportunity to get a free shot in or jump a guy from behind. I never could get it through to him that the real way to get to the top of this business was to make the fans love you…. You make them believe in you kid, down in their guts, know every time you hit the ring you’re about to blow their minds and they will love you… they’ll follow you wherever this business takes you.”
“Couple years huh? About the time you took me on…”
“Yeah.. that’s about right. Look, what I’m trying to tell you here kid is that there are matches you’re going to come across… opponents where the normal rules just don’t apply. You’re going to come across men who really are the top of the food chain… not because they’re better, but because they’re willing to do whatever they have to do to stay there.” John fixed a gaze on Bryan then stabbing him in the chest with a single finger. “That’s why you’ve got to always be better. That’s why you can’t ever sit still for a moment you have to keep pushing yourself. Because there’s a moment in the ring with those type of guys when they’re looking for that easy quick win… and if you see it, and if you hit them right then… it’s game over kid. Game.. fucking over.”
Bryan gave a soft sigh, his face drawing in on itself for a few moments while he mulled over what John had just told him and then he nodded. “Be patient, wait for the opportunity don’t push it…” He nodded again and then lifted his head to look back at John. “This guy really that good John?”
“Not going to lie to you kid. He was the best.”
John always had known how to push Bryan’s buttons, even back then.
(************)
(Wednesday before Mayhem, Seattle Washington)
“Dr. Pain?!” Georgie said her jaw dropping a little bit as Bryan nodded reinforcing her sense of disbelief. “Aww… poor Tim….”
“I’m telling you, the poor kid looked like a refugee from a Frankenstein Movie. But he looked damn good out there… have to admit. I’d hate to see what happens if he gets in the ring with a really big guy though…” Bryan paused whistling softly and just shook his head as he gave an ever so slight shake of his head. “squish… just like grape.”
“Hehe,” she chortled for a moment, “why Bryan Payne, I do believe you’re actually PROUD of your little brother!”
Bryan paused, his fork held halfway to his mouth and then lowered fractionally as he looked back at her across the table and then gave a slight shrug of his shoulders. “Ok, sure, maybe I am a little bit…”
“Next thing you know you’ll be eating red meat… crying a movies….”
“Ogling puppies in store windows…”
“Hey!” Georgie said and a loud thumb could be heard and a soft muffled curse caused by a savage kick to the shin. “Sush! I hate you!”
“No you don’t..” Bryan chuckled softly and chewed on his salad for a few moments. “So how’s the boy doing… really?”
“The… boy?”
“Yeah, our boy..” Bryan smirked a bit and let his fork come to a rest on his plate. “AC.”
“Oh yeah… that.” The joke wasn’t that funny, but it had been told often enough. AC Thunder had had a rough couple of months a freakish singles losing streak, only recently corrected… which had caused the once flamboyant wrestler to turn into a card carrying member of the therapist of the month club. The phrase ‘emo-boy’ had been thrown around along with the joke that it was like Georgie and Bryan were dealing with a depressed teenager. “Well, losing the tag titles didn’t help.”
“I’m sure it didn’t…” he sighed a bit and gave another shake of his head picking up his napkin to wipe the front of his mouth for any stray bits and then left the cloth draped over the top of his plate. “But he’s got to snap out of this sometime, right? I mean he can’t spend the rest of his career like this.”
“One would hope not at any rate… one would hope.” Georgie paused for a moment tilting her head. “So Karen showed me the tape of your latest promo stuff. When were you going to tell me that the bastard cut you?”
Bryan gave a bit of a laugh. “After I beat him… because I knew how you’d react.”
For a moment it appeared there was a mutiny about to take place and then with a soft sigh the moment passed. “Ok, fair enough point. But I hope you see now what I was trying to tell you a couple weeks ago about him.”
“Yeah, I do… I never knew this guy was this much of a coward.”
“Wait… what?!”
Bryan gave a slight shrug of his shoulders as Georgie looked over at him with an expression of stupefied disbelief. There were a lot of phrases the Rebel Child might use to describe Lester Only…. Titanic Asshole came to mind… but coward?
“I’m serious. I mean he takes cheap shots at Pence, the guy never stops looking for a quick and easy way out of every match he’s in. Constantly looking to blind side his opponents. I mean this guy is so afraid of a straight fight I’m not surprised that he talks so much. If I was that eager to avoid having to go to work in the ring I’d talk more too because it’s all he’s got. I mean I guarantee right now he’s sitting somewhere watching my promo with a piece of paper and a pencil trying to find an answer for everything I said to him as though this were some kind of debate contest..” Bryan laughed a bit and gave a slight shake of his head. “I’m afraid it’s not. Doesn’t matter who talks the most, because at the end of the day he’s still got to step inside the ring with me and beat me…. And you know what… I don’t think he can do that anymore.”
“Bryan I-“ Georgie began but was cut off.
“Look, babe, I know what you’re trying to say. And I know this guy has been in the ring with some of the best… .hell he’s been in the ring with me before,” he paused to wink and got a small huff in return, “But you know what this is about. You know I can’t let a guy just behave this way and let it go… it’s not what we stand for and it’s not what Payne stands for. Someone has needed to take this guy down for years… and I’m not talking about title reigns or challenges… ultimately you and I both know that means jack shit anyway… I’m talking about the man. They’ve all built this guy up like Ivan Drago from Rocky 4… some kind of machine wind him up and watch him go… But Georgie I’ve seen the guy underneath that. I saw it in his eyes the split second before I cold cocked him with that steel chair… and again when he got out that knife. This guy is afraid of me Georgie. And I’m not talking about afraid to fight me… he’s afraid I’m right about him.”
“… why didn’t you but that line in your speech?”
Bryan blinked for a moment and looked down at his plate and then both of them shared a brief laugh.
(************)
(A couple of hours before the start of Mayhem)
(The camera opened up to life to show Bryan Payne standing outside the Tacoma dome with hundreds of fans lining up to get into the show as soon as the doors open. He has a microphone in his hand a little cocky little smile on his face.)
Payne: Hell out there APW fans, it’s me, The Revelation Bryan Payne here once again doing my ‘level’ best to get out among you and get a feel for what you the fan are expecting to see tonight at Mayhem. And what better place to do that than out among the people who even now can’t even wait for the doors to open before showing up!
(Bryan crocked a finger towards the camera which followed him from a few feet back as he walked over towards the crowd a few cheers going up as they saw it was him. He grinned looking back to the camera and raised his shades to wink a bit.)
Payne: My public…
(He stepped up to the line gripping hands, even breaking out a sharpie marker and signing the back of a few ticket stubs. After couple minutes of this he lifted the mic from where he’d been holding it under his arm and lifted it up.)
Payne: You there, sir… in the Level One t-shirt, I have to ask. Did your wife actually let you go out of the house dressed like that?
L1 Fan: Aww man.. get out of here with that.
Payne: No no, seriously I mean damn, what is that… supposed to be my blood or something?
(Bryan smirked a bit back into the camera.)
L1 Fan: Yeah well you’ll find out tonight man! He’s going to kick your ass like he kicks everyones ass!
(The people around him started booing jostling the man a bit before Bryan raised his hands up to stop them.)
Payne: Come on guys, leave him alone. I mean this is still America… a free country… he can think what he wants right?... RIGHT?!
Crowd: RIGHT!
(A few of the crowd grumbled mutinously but most seemed to calm down and Bryan nodded pleased at the reaction and then smirked a bit back in the direction of the camera.)
Payne: Even the retarded…
L1 Fan: HEY!
Payne: Seriously man, this guy pisses on you every night. Ruins matches he’s got nothing to do with… all for the sake of his own ego. And you stand there wearing that shirt defending him like its some how cool? Get real buddy the only thing you’re proving right now is that you’re an awful gullible guy.. hey maybe if you’re really really lucky, he might beat you up next.
L1 Fan: Man you’re as-
Payne: Moving right along..
(The camera zoomed to the right to keep up with Bryan as he worked his way on down the line.)
Payne: Oh… oh my, come on Jake, you’ve got to get this in the camera shot, this is just priceless..
(Bryan walked over to a couple with their arms around each other’s shoulders, one was wearing a Pence Weatherlight shirt and the other a John Green. Bryan forced his way in between them looping his arms over each of their shoulders while they laughed and squeezed them in tight.)
Payne: I think I’m going to cry. This is… I mean… it’s just so beautiful. All this love and team spirit!
(He paused biting his bottom lip and gave an obviously rather fake sniffle.)
Payne: So where you guys from?
(Still with his arms around them both, flashing a little grin and a wink.)
Fan Girl: Boise State
Payne: Home of the blue turf… I gotta ask.. is that were the Smurf Orgy went down?
Fan Boy: What?!
Payne: Well I mean years of sexual frustration just bubbling over in a great big bukkake party that forever stained the field…. Blue!
(The girl let gasp and covered her mouth, and the guy looked obviously embarrassed.)
Payne: Now guy, you hold onto this one…. You marry this girl..
Fan Boy: W-what?... I don’t… why?
Payne: True love… isn’t that adorable. She knew what I was talking about…. Think about it…
(He gave the girl a peck on the cheek and shook the guy’s hand before pointing to his left finger and mouthed ‘do it!’)
Payne: Crazy kids..
(Bryan continued to work his way down the line pointing out a few signs one read “The Moment has Passed..” As he continued down the line he paused next to a guy who was holding a life sized cut out of Sally Talford.)
Payne: Oh.. we’ve got to talk to this guy. Yes sir you sir, what’s your name?
(Bryan put the microphone forward and the man pushed his baseball cap back a bit before leaning forward to speak.)
Fan: Stan
Payne: Stan this is uh… quite the plus one you’ve got here.
(Bryan gestured towards the cut out with his thumb)
Fan: Sally is the best!
Payne: I uh… can see that Stan… really.
Fan: tonight is the night?
Payne: The night for….. what exactly?
(The man paused and reached into his jeans digging out a black felt box which he held up and Bryan put his hand over to hide from the camera a moment too late.)
Payne: Security…
Fan: No wait.. I LOVE YOU SALLY…
(Two large men with security written across their backs appeared picking Stan up who fought and struggled to stay in the shot a death grip maintained on the cut out which stuck up high in the air above him as he was physically removed.)
Fan: WE WERE MEANT TO BE TOGETHER!!
(Bryan rolled his tongue around on the inside of his mouth watching the small procession and then looked into the camera.)
Payne: Boys and girls… THAT is why you don’t smoke crack. Just saying…
(The camera panned around along with Bryan as he reached another group of fans several of which were wearing “Revelation” t-shirts and he laughed a little bit to himself pointing off to a tech standing just out of the camera shot who handed him a bundle of signs.)
Payne: Oh see, now these guys know the score…. Hey fellas what’s going on over here?!
Fan 1: Oh dude we’re on TV!
Fan 2: Holy shit it’s Bryan Payne… they’ve got him doing interviews now…?
Payne: Well if you mean by ‘got me’ that I hijacked a camera crew because I got bored sitting backstage listening to Level One give Biggs rim-jobs trying to get his rematch… then yeah. Biggs is a screamer!
(Bryan made a slightly disgusted face and gave an over-elaborate shudder as he handed out the signs to the fans.)
Payne: Guys my PA Karen made these for some of the fans, so I’m going to give them to you… since you have the awesome fashion sense to wear one of my t-shirts to this event. I mean damn guys looking sharp!
(The first read “Only the bitter taste of defeat for Lester,” another, “Level Yesterday,” “L1 where’s your chair?!...” he handed them out and the fans took them a few chuckles as they passed them around.)
Payne: So guys where are you from, gotta ask.
Fan 1: LA
Fan 2: San Diego
Payne: Ahhh… where my mom lives… Hi Mom.. ok guys you can wave too… don’t look at me them them!
(The camera swerves over suddenly to the group of six fans who yell and wave.)
Payne: So I’m guessing you all know each other from somewhere?
Fan 3: Yeah man, we all go to USC GO TROJANS!
Payne: Buddy the only Trojan I’m rooting for is the one who brings the condems.
Fan 1: I heard that
Payne: Ok so, honestly how long have you guys been APW fans exactly?
Fan 2: Uh… two or three years I guess; yeah, we all started watching when Jason over there got us into it Freshman year.
Payne: Cool cool… and now you’re here. So tell me, had you ever seen me in anything before I showed up here?
Fan 1: Dude, you were fucking sick in that War Games match… and that cage fall holy jesus I don’t know how you got up!
Payne: Well my friend that’s because I was born too stubborn to know when to quit… so everyone keeps telling me anyway. So how do you think the match is going to turn out tonight guys?
Fans 1, 2, 3: LESTER TAPS! LESTER TAPS! LESTER TAPS!
Payne: Mmmmm I love the sound of prophecy in the morning. Now guys what I want you to do is the minute L1 steps out I want you start screaming that at the top of your lungs… and don’t worry that same e-mail went out to every fan registered on my website.. just so… you know… since he watches the show now he can get a better understanding of exactly how many people do pay attention to it. I mean the fact that he lives under a rock really shouldn’t surprise anyone, the guy has been doing this so long he actually believes his own bullshit.
(He snickers a little bit and leans over the railing to slap the collected assortment of fans hands before walking a little ways to the right with the camera crew still following behind and the microphone clenched in his left hand.)
Payne: Lester, Lester, Lester. You know… I knew you’d walk out and do your typical step out and make a few crass jokes and surely he’ll just crumble at the very sight of me threatening him…. Surely he can’t help but see the logic in what I have to say…
Got news for you there Champ… oh wait… damn forgot, not anymore.
(Bryan paused whistling softly under his breath and gave a small snap of his fingers in an ‘aw shucks gesture’)
“But be that as it may… The ‘only’ thing you proved with that little pedantic rant is that everything I’ve said about you is right on the nose. You think you’re the best? My friend that claim now has more holes in it than the ozone layer. You’re not the best. My friend it would be hard to claim you were even one of the best at this point… you’ve slipped you’ve slide, you’ve cake walked your way around in this federation until you were so convinced you were unbeatable… you let a guy who had made your personal bitch over the course of a year rip that belt off your waist and make you look like a complete fool.”
“Hell I understand why you’d be mad about that. Shit if anyone had ever gotten over on me that way I’d be pretty angry about it to. Oh wait… no body ever has.”
(Bryan grinned ever so slightly and wagged his finger at the camera.)
“See, like a lot of guys out there, Lester likes to try to revise history to his liking. He’s what we call a reactionary. He doesn’t have the imagination or the energy, or even the ‘care’ to come up with his own material.. so he walks out takes in a big lungful of air with a script of what the other guy said held just out of the camera shot and goes over it line for line… because that’s the only way he has anything to say. It’s the same way he fights in the ring. Level One lives in the past, on his past greatness because he knows… like I do… like all of the APW fans know… the past is all he has left. There is no golden future for you Level One. There’s just a slippery slope down into the oblivion of a return to the independent scene. You’re going to wake up Tuesday Morning Lester and realize that the new model drove out onto the lot last night and ran right the flat fuck over you.”
“Because as good as you were Lester… I’m better. And I’m always going to be better, and day by day, week after week I’m going to prove it. You ask why I came to APW… I came to APW for the same reason I started wresting in the first place. It wasn’t for gold or brass… I came here to kick ass. I came here to step into the ring and compete in front of all these people like the ones you see behind me all lined up tickets in hand. And you know why they came here Level One? They came here just to watch me kick your over-rated, over hyped, mis-informed, myopic ass all over Tacoma. And DAMN they’re going to get their money’s worth tonight.”
(Bryan laughed a little bit and gave a shake of his head.)
“Ignorance about me, The State of Sin, and what I’ve accomplished since I came over to the States isn’t a come back Lester… it’s a medical condition I’m going to fix for you one ego bruising maneuver after another.”
“You want to try to look past me Lester, you want to try to prove something tonight. You bring it on fat boy. You’ve rested on your laurels long enough now it’s time to step down into the ring with me alone so I can kick your ass properly… and oh man am I going to enjoy this. Because what you have failed to understand is what this is really about. See you’re standing… I’m sorry kneeling back there right now tongue extended thinking tonight is about you and proving you are somehow deserving of what… well most people already thing you should have gotten a title shot. But they’re not here to see you get that man.”
(Bryan pulled back laughing again his hand reaching up to wipe the front of his face as he shook his head.)
“Because you were right about something else too. See beating me isn’t going to guarantee you anything… but shit man when I beat you tonight… your hope for a title shot goes pooof… outta that arena off into outer space never to be heard from again… So yes Lester, you are a desperate man. And the Bryan Payne ‘hype machine’ as you put it was built on breaking the dreams of desperate men… like you. Men who thought they were unbeatable like delivering Ryan Ruckus his only defeat EVER inside a cage match. The impossible Lester is what I do. The unbeatable is who I fucking beat. You Mr. Only are just another page, a footnote in the building of my legacy. And when I beat you tonight and go on… and then beat you again and again and again… you’ll know exactly what’s going down. See you said I wasn’t thinking long term Lester but God you’re wrong.. So wrong and you don’t even see it. Your long term is taking the gold away from Pence. Mine is crushing your ego until you retire because you realize as long as Bryan Payne is here kicking your ass coast to coast you will never be a fraction of the man you used to be!”
(The crowd behind Bryan starts chanting again “LESTER TAPS! LESTER TAPS!” Bryan stops a moment tilting his head to one side and then jerking a thumb over his shoulder as he lifts the microphone up once more.)
“Listen to that real close One. Wherever you are backstage… trying to get the taste off your tongue… I want you to hear that. I want you to feel it deep inside your bones, and I want it to burrow deep inside that massive swollen watermelon you call a head... When this match is over, the ‘Only’ thing you’re going to have carved in stone is that you’re a quitter. When this match is over the ‘Only’ thing you’ll have accomplished is proving me right. When I lock the Payne Killer in and your knee is tearing out of it’s joints and you’re writing on the mat in agony… the ‘Only’ tickle you’ll feel is the sensation of seeing the rest of your career flushed down the toilet… all because you picked a fight with Bryan Payne.”
“You say I over-estimate my importance to you Lester. No, I just don’t over-estimate yours in regards to anyone anymore. Because you’re not worthy of it, because you haven’t earned it. Because for too long people have been more interested in kissing your ass than kicking and that’s finished! It’s over, you’ve been doing the same routine copy paste a different name in month after month year after year watching people eat it up because everyone else in the company was buying it. Well Lester… I’m not. You want my respect Lester the ‘Only’ place you can earn that is inside the wrestling ring and if you don’t want it… hey that’s fine too, I’m more than happy to just crush you like the little bug you are and move on.”
“But I can hear you asking… and I can hear everyone at home wondering… ‘Bryan how can you say you’ll always be better than Level One? I mean a couple weeks ago you said if you were in a long series with him you’d win some and he’d win some’ Well, I’m glad you asked..”
(Bryan smirked a little bit and gave a slight shrug of his shoulders.)
“See Lester and I approach this business from very very different paths… because we’re very different people. He’s out to get what he can, make all the money he can, get all the press he can, win all the titles he can… and then get out… presumably to make gay porn. I hear they need fat guys… bears they call them.”
“I’m here… because I love it. I love the blood, and the competition, I love my job being to step out into that ring and fight. And not just brawl… hell you can pay two homeless people and see a bad street fight. No, I get paid because when I fight jaws hit the floor as they watch what I can do… and I get off on it. I’ll admit it freely. I do this because stepping into the ring, the crowd, the excitement is something I love. But I also do it, because when I step into the ring there is a code. There is a Warrior Code that one should always live by… and that, that my friends is where he and I start to diverge… quite drastically.”
“See this business is about standing for something. It’s about making your mind up what you believe in and putting it on the line. Any of us in that locker room our out there in another promotion… hell we’re all talented guys. But what separates the star from the mid-carder isn’t really what we can do inside the ring, it isn’t even what we can do with a microphone in our hands… it is belief in something.”
“Men like Level One, they believe in themselves. In what they want, their desires and dreams and are always looking for the shortest, easiest path to getting them. It’s what makes them cheat, lie, steal, look for anyone and anything to blame for their failures… because hoisting your chain only to your own ego… only to the fulfillment of your own greed and personal fulfillment doesn’t leave room for anything else.”
“Now certainly I believe in myself. I’ve always said if you don’t, then you shouldn’t even step into the ring. If you don’t think you can win, why should the fans? But that’s not all I believe in. No, I believe in things greater than myself, things that set be apart from thugs and punks like Level One. There is a right and there is a wrong in this world and it’s making up your mind to stand up for something and the Courage to fight for it tooth and nail until you win or are dead THAT’s what it means to be a man. That’s what it means to be a warrior. And each and every night I lace up my boots that’s what I become, I become a warrior because there are things in this world, codes that transcend personal fulfillment and greed.”
“There is Honor and Honesty. Standing for something and making sure people know what you stand for. Knowing that when you tell someone something they know they’re hearing the truth… now One, I realize that those two concepts might be a little beyond you right now so we’re going to move on….”
“There is Respect. There’s respect for all these people out here Lester, the ones that make it possible for you to run your mouth every week, make grandiose threats and pick a fight with a guy like me. They are the ones that make you more than a homeless person fighting to star in a youtube clip for five dollars and half a bottle of cheap whiskey. And you stand there and you dismiss them… like they don’t even matter. And you know I don’t even think you believe that Lester, I think that somewhere down inside your heart you just don’t like what you see about yourself reflected back from them. So you heap scorn on them and try to ignore the little voice in a part of you that has blackened and been stained in your pursuit of the short cut, the easy way out, and what you think you deserve.”
“There is Loyalty. Not just to the fans, but to your friends. See you dismiss AC and Georgie and the fact that we’re still friends. Why? Because there isn’t room for friends for a guy like you Lester… because no one likes you very much. And it’s not because you’re Canadian… though god knows that’s reason enough… it’s because of who you’ve let yourself become… and the man you could have been if you’d only had the personal integrity and Rectitude to be that man. If you weren’t too afraid to take the principled path the difficult path. There’s Loyalty to this company, to the Experts, to all the places and the people who helped all of us get to this point we are tonight… our familes, our friends for everyone one of us standing here tonight there are dozens of people who helped ups achieve our dreams. Some of us remember that and some of us… just look for the next person whose back they can step on to get a leg up.”
“There is Benevolence. Because we have been successful it is our duty to give back. To help others learn from our experiences so that some people don’t have to live through what some of us did to get where we’re standing now. I run foundations, speak to at risk kids… Lester sits in a dark room arguing with himself about what his next move is always looking for another quick way… another fix to shore up the cracks in his armor.. another part of his soul he can mortgage off in his pursuit of earning the sense of self-worth he gave away a long time ago.”
“These are the Seven Virtues of Bushido: Rectitude, Courage, Honor, Respect, Honesty, and Loyalty. The path of the true Warrior. That is what will always separate a warrior from a punk and a thug One, and those are the things that will always make someone like me better than someone like you. Tonight, tomorrow, next week, next year, a decade from now, four when you’re sitting alone shining your belt looking at pictures from your past achievements…. And you come across the picture of the people who would have been your friends you steeped on along the way to get the fleeting success that you had. And you’ll stop and look around the empty house you’re in. The wife that left you… the parents, cousins, friends, past associates who won’t return your phone calls… because you used them up while you were cutting up your soul into ever smaller pieces for one more spot light moment…”
“Alone in the dark. A punk, a miserable old washed up has been. And Lester, that journey, that Revelation for you… begins tonight. I’m going to make you a better man Level One. Even if it kills you.”
(Bryan flashes a little smile to the camera as it starts to fade out the "LESTER TAPS LESTER TAPS!" chant continuing in the background a few moments after the shot has totally faded.)
