Family is forever….
Dallas, Texas
13 Years Ago
He couldn’t hide his anger any more. His eyes kept trailing from the table, over the floor, and back again. His phone sitting on the table in front of him face down. Alex didn’t want to flick it over, he didn’t want to see the time. He just knew it would make him more angry. Six hours ago Dylan had left the house. Alex had tried to talk to him earlier that day, Charlie tried to talk to him earlier that day. But, Dylan didn’t want to listen. He left the house with tears in his eyes, his bloodshot eyes. His pupils were huge, he was clearly high. But Charlie had grabbed Alex, she told him not to worry. That Dylan would be back and he just needed to blow off steam.
But now the anger had taken over. Alex kept his hand on the table, his fingers moving up and down making a tapping noise as he would constantly look over at the front door. He reached forward flipping his phone, he realised it was 2 o’clock in the morning and there had not been a message, a phone call, a Facebook message. Nothing. Alex shook his head. He pushed the chair out from the table and got to his feet walking to the fridge to grab a bottle of water. He turned and sat back down, his knee bouncing like a nervous twitch.
There was a click, The door opened and Dylan stepped through. He could barely stand up straight, he held onto the door handle so he wouldn’t tip over. He turned, pulling the screen door shut, before walking around and shutting the large wooden door deadbolt and it closed. His breathing was heavy, his body was swaying. Alex shook his head and swallowed hard, pushing down his disappointment, his anger, his sadness.
Dylan didn’t even seem to realise Alex was there. His hand was shaking as it reached out for the wall. He used to steady himself as he moved towards the steps. Alex side and move forward putting his arm across the entryway. Dylan stopped, looked at Alex’s arm and then slowly turned to his brother. His eyes were even more blood shot than before, his pupils had overtaken everything. Alex sighed heavily and stepped back. His arms folded over his chest, Dylan went to take a step up but stopped.
He breathed heavily before turning and looking back at his brother again this time with anger in his eyes. [color-lightblue]“Don’t look at me like that.”[/color]
Dylan’s voice was low, almost like a growl. His teeth ground together as he tilted his head stepping closer to his brother. Even though Alex was older than Dylan his younger brother was still close to his size. At this young age of 22, Alex was still 6 foot tall and 225 pounds. But Dylan was only slightly shorter and 5 pounds lighter. Dylan was shaking. Shaking from anger. Shaking from the drugs. Alex swallowed, he closed his eyes and took a long deep breath. Then Dylan shoved him as hard as he could. Alex hit the corner of the wall, his eyes opened again and Dylan stepped forward.
“I told you to stay out of my life.” He yelled, Alex had no idea what to do. He just moved his arms over his chest and shook his head looking his brother right in the eye.
“I just wanted to make sure you got home safe D” Alex stayed calm. His voice was soft and calm. He put his hands up in a defensive position. It seemed to work for a moment Dylan’s heavy breathing slowing down. He turned and went to step up again to go upstairs. His foot slipped on the edge and Dylan went down onto the landing.
Alex stepped forward, reaching down to help his older brother on. But as he did Dylan stepped back and pulled his arm away throwing it sideways sending a picture frame flying off the wall to the floor smashing into a million pieces. “DON’T TOUCH ME!” Dylan screamed and shook his head putting his hand up. Alex took a few steps back putting his hands up again. He tilted his head to the side and sighed heavily not knowing what to do. Dylan started to breathe heavy again looking around. His eyes started filling with tears. “I don’t, I don’t know what I’m doing man…”
Dylan broke down. He dropped one knee. Alex had no idea what to do again his younger brother needed help. Alex slowly dropped down to one day next to him close enough that he could talk to Dylan but not close enough to set him off again. “D….this has to stop…” Alex reached out, he put his hand on Dylans shoulder. Dylan didn’t flinch, he didn’t lash out. He just cried.
After a few moments he looked up, Alex leaned forward pulling his younger brother to him. He wrapped his arms around him and gave him a pat on the back standing up and pulling his younger brother with him. “Help me…” Dylan’s voice was a whisper, loud enough for Alex to hear. Alex stepped back and smiled giving his younger brother a nod. Then, the light above them clicked on. Alex turned in at the top of the stairs was their sister Charlie.
Her eyes were soft, her hair was tied up in the back and she had just been rows from sleep. She walked down the steps and looked at them both, Dylan silently turned and gave his sister a small hug, he looked in her eyes and smiled “I’m sorry…” Charlie looked at Alex who gave her a small smile she then looked back at Dylan and gave him a hug, before putting her hand on his back leading him towards the stairs. Dylan took his time pulling himself up on the banister towards his room.
As soon as they heard the door close, Charlie turned her attention back to Alex who drank his bottle of water taking a deep relieved breath. “What the fuck happened?” Alex couldn’t help but laugh. He turned and sat down stretching out.
“I don’t know” it was the truth, Alex had no idea what it just transpired in front of him. From the anger and frustration, the lashing out and yelling. The fact that Alex feared for a moment that he would have to get physical with his own younger brother. But then just as suddenly as it came on it disappeared.
Charlie pulled out the chair sitting down across from him. “He apologised. Will he be ok? Kick this shit?”
Charlie's voice seems to go up in excitement. How eyes filled with promise and optimism. She seemed to be incredibly happy. Alex took a long deep breath and leaned forward clasping his hands together. “That little show meant nothing Charlie.” She went silent, she just stared at Alex who folded his arms back over his chest leaning back against the chair. “He’s an addict..he did that to disarm us….and I have no idea what to do.”
Irrelevant.
The sun has just come up, slowly rising over the city of Dallas Texas. Alex Jones was not at home, he was not at the training facility where he spent most of his time now. New York City had been kind to him, he loved it, that’s where he lived with his wife and his kids. It’s where all of his trainees and friends congregated to sharpen the skills and perfect their craft.
But for his first championship defence, Alex needed to go somewhere else. To remind him of what he needed to do and who he was. He leaned down, the key sliding into the lock. He turned it and pulled up on the large metal rolling door. As it clicked at the top Alex smiled looking into the old warehouse where he began his journey.
“17 years. 17 years of blood sweat and tears. 17 years of travelling the world, being the best of what I do, and it all started in this room. it will be 18 years as of November. When I told my old man, he laughed. He thought it was some kind of joke. His firstborn son was going to go and become a performing professional wrestler. To be honest the old bastard would’ve doubted anything that I wanted to do. Now, don’t get it twisted this isn’t some kind of sob story where I’m going to put all of my daddy issues on the line for people to pity me or think that I’m some kind of hero for overcoming the bullshit that was my childhood.”
”No, this is me reminding myself of where I came from. This is me reminding myself of what I’ve been through and where I have been to earn my spot is one of the greatest professional wrestlers on the planet today. This is me reminding myself of why I am relevant now, in the past, and I will be forever in the future. I didn’t actually need the reminding, it’s just fun to go back and refresh ones own image and ego every so often.”
Alex stepped through, his heavy combat boots hit the concrete floor with a third each time he took a step. His black jeans pulled over the top of the boots with a button up white shirt over the top with the sleeves rolled to just beneath his elbows. His black hair tied back in a bun, sunglasses prepared for when he needed to walk back out sat on the top of his head as his eyes started around the large main room.
“This gym is nothing special. There’s nothing here that you haven’t seen in about two or three thousand other gyms around America, even more if you take into account the entire world. And trust me, I know all about the rest of the world. See while Jack Washington was nothing but a insolent child sucking on his mother‘s titty I was travelling the world.”
“I went from here, to Canada, down to Mexico, to Japan, to England. I went to all of those places to learn from the best of the best that I could find. I went down there to taking all of the information that I could about different wrestling styles. I learned, I listened, and I worked as hard as I could to become the best Alex Jones I could be. ” I won, I lost, I was embarrassed, and I embarrassed others. I had friends turn on me and beat me down, and I turned on friends. This is what you do in this business there is nothing different about it. It is a dog eat dog world and if you are too nice in this business? You’ll get eaten alive. But if you’re too big of a prick, everyone will be able to get you and rip your goddamn head off.”
“Not that I’ve ever cared about being hated.“
“I sold my soul to become a part of the dogs of war two years ago, I teamed with Billy Danielson and became a tag team champion, I went back to honor and I made the honor championship mean something again. And now I’ve come to sin city wrestling and through helping others become the best that they could be I have re-discovered that fire that I honestly thought I lost.”
Alex moved further into the gym, his hand reached out and his fingers danced along the canvas. The canvas of an old ring, the same one that he had first stepped foot in as an 18-year-old. A skinny kid who had no idea what he wanted to do once he actually learned the craft of professional wrestling.
“But sin city has helped reignite that.”
“Some people, have said that I have a god complex. That couldn’t be further from the truth. It just goes to show that there are some people in this company who honestly have no idea what it is to actually be successful and the weight that comes down across your shoulders. And there is a difference between being successful in being a champion. That is a lesson that O’Malley hasn’t learned, one that Jack Washington hasn’t learned.”
“When I first came to this company it was because I was angry. I was angry that Honor wrestling, a company that I put my heart and soul into and carried on my back for two years just shut up shop and closed. But, with hindsight being 20/20. Full disclosure, I was wrong. I can admit that I was wrong, I can admit that sin city has done more than an admirable job of living up to all of their promises to the talent that made the jump. This company, it’s the first one that has felt like home in about 10 years. WWH, PPW, IWF, even Honor. None of them actually felt like home. But sin city does. And I get it, you people are not used to seeing weird emotional shit from me. You’re not used to hearing me talk positive about a company or about the people who run it.”
“But, everything seems to have fallen into place with me becoming the world champion. And he is the big secret, the thing that people don’t seem to realise, I didn’t want the championship match straight away. Krieger and I lost the mixed tag team championships and I was fully prepared to earn my way up to facing Griffin Hawkins. I threw the challenge out there because I wanted him to know that I was on his fucking back. I want to know that the target right there between his shoulder blades was in my eye and I was sharpening up the knife to shove it in there and twist it.”
“Hey, I already told y’all I’ve turned on friends before and it will happen again”
Alex shot an arrogant grin. He moved through and around the ring before leaning down undoing his boots. He slid across the apron and got to his feet before wiping them off and stepping through the old ropes. Alex moved around the ring, he hit the ropes, ran across, hit them again before stopping in the centre and quickly changing direction. He smiled and ran his hand along the top right to the top turnbuckle. A four sided ring, the traditional one that was much different than the six sides that we see in sin city wrestling every week
“But, Jack Washington doesn’t have to worry about that. Because me and Jackie boy? We are not friends. We would never be friends. Our outlooks on life and the professional wrestling business are just too different. See, I’m a competitor. Anything I’m in, it doesn’t matter what I compete. On climate control, Jack had a chance to stamp his authority in a match and show the world that he deserved to be in the ring with me. He had a chance to show the world that young Jack Washington was going to fix the mistakes he made against Ben Jordan and was going to snatch the sin city wrestling world heavyweight championship off irrelevant Alex Jones.”
“I watch and study my opponents, I listen to what they have to say. Jack turns things off, because he’s too arrogant to know what he needs to do to become a champion. And that’s the problem Jack, you don’t know how to be a champion. I took this championship off of Griffin because I told him he didn’t have what it takes to be the top guy. The Internet or Roulette championships? They were a perfect fit for Griffin. I proved myself right and showed him where he needed to be, he couldn’t handle it and he quit. And now here you are making the same mistakes.“
“That tag match we had? It was a nice little test. It was a test to see where your head was that and whether or not you were worthy of holding this championship. And it was a test that you failed miserably Jack. You could’ve gone out there and you could’ve put your best foot forward and given it your all. And sure you can look back on it now and say that you tried and the team let you down and you can cry like a little bitch“
“But the sad fact is, you were the one who let them down.“
Alex leans on the top rope. His foot lifting and dancing on the bottom as he smiles to himself. The smell of the gym filling his nostrils and taking him back in time. Making him remember when he was a fresh faced rookie, he thought he knew everything. And through the years Alex has realised his mistakes. But even then he really hasn’t been the veteran that everyone believes him to be until about two years ago.
“You are a challenger for the world heavyweight championship. You could’ve shown leadership, I was saddled with a pair of shitty partners too. But unlike you, I led them to victory. And the worst part about it? You even said you weren’t going to give it your all. Running your mouth about house in city wrestling is a circus? Calling a champions versus challengers match “lame ass”? Why? Because you knew that you were going to lose because you couldn’t step up and actually be someone to lead anything?”
“Jack, how the fuck are you going to lead a company when you can’t even lead a team to victory?.”
“It’s pathetic really. I lead a team of champions. In fact by the time violent conduct ends, we could have the women’s Roulette championship, the world heavyweight championship, and the bombshells championship all in our group. Because I actually show leadership, I know how to build things from the ground up and make them important where is all you know how to do is point out yourself and call yourself the best when you haven’t proven shit. You stood there and told the world that there are five pieces of crap in that match and then there was you.”
“It takes a hell of a lot to be more unlikable than me Jackie boy, but I honestly think somehow, someway, you are even more arrogant than I am and an even bigger douche bag. Congratulations. But being a bigger douche bag, deciding to run your mouth like some kind of demented asshole isn’t going to make you championship material. Calling me irrelevant, when I have been the most relevant person in front of the camera in that ring and behind the scenes in sin city wrestling in the last two years just makes you look like an idiot, you’re not edgy, you’re not smart, you’re stupid.”
“And some people are going to think that I’m just using cheap name-calling. But think about it. Jack Washington, came into this company, stomped his feet, got a world championship match and got beaten by Ben Jordan only to do the same thing when he thought it was gonna be easier to snatch the belt off Griffin Hawkins. And instead he has to face me. He wants to put himself fourth as a champion but has no champion qualities. You’re not a leader Jack, you’re not a leader, you are not a champion and I’m going to expose you as the arrogant douchebag you are. And at violent conduct you are going to see just how relevant Alex Jones can be”
A danger to yourself
Dallas, Texas
13 Years Ago
It felt like any other day at the gym. Alex and Charlie laughed and moved around the ring with others. They locked up, took each other down and tried to make each other tap. They learned, they made themselves stronger as a unit. Alex moves over to talk to Charlie and Spike Kane,an old friend of his. But before they could bring Charlie hit her brother on the shoulder pointing to the entrance. Alex turned to find Dylan standing under the open metal roller door. He smiled at everyone and seemed uneasy on his feet. Alex crowned and shook his head.
He went to go to his brother but Spike reaches out grabbing his arm pulling him back. Alex sighed and Spike shook his head. Dylan has to make his own mistakes. He moved through the gym high giving some of the younger trainees. They were happy to see him. Dylan had always been a very popular member of the gym. He made friends easy, he seemed to be able to relate to strangers better than his own family.
Dylan moved over to the grappling mats, he took off his jacket and revealed that he was in his training gear. He dropped it near the mat leaning down to take his shoes off almost slipping over. Alex went to go to him again, and yet again Spike grabbed him by the arm. Charlie looked at them both and wanted to go to them, but knew what Spike was trying to accomplish. Dylan stepped onto the maths, one of the young trainees who was always friendly with Dylan stepped forward willing to work with him. They went to lock up, Dylan stepped back and lost his balance falling on his back as the tradie landed on top of him confused. Dylan started laughing uncontrollably clapping his hands before being helped up. He still seemed uneasy on his feet and Alex started becoming furious.
This was disrespectful to the gym, and disrespectful to Alex and Charlie as well as everyone who is there training with them and training them to be better at their art of professional wrestling.
Dylan lined up again, this time his shot in for a double leg. The other trainee was able to stuff it and push Dylan down before rolling over and taking Dylan’s back, he was straight away able to lock in a rear naked choke, Dylan tapped out and the trainee let go. But something snapped. Dylan popped up and instead of clapping his hands his entire demeanour changed. He moved across the mats charging at the training before taking him down and throwing hard punches, the train he was able to cover up as others put them back and away.
”Get the fuck off me. Fuck y’all!” Alex is nostrils flared, he moved across the ring, this time Spike didn’t stop him. Alex slid out into the floor before moving across through the group of people who had started watching what was going on. Alex grabbed Dylan by the arms and pulled him backwards shoving him against the wall behind the mats. Dylan shook his head and mood for shoving Alex in the chest. ”You want some now?. Shut you wanted me here.” Dylan Snead and lean back against the wall, obviously having difficulty staying in an upright position.
The other trainees all crowded around and watched them, Charlie moved over to the ropes leaning forward wondering if she should go down there and talk to both of her brothers. Spike folded his arms watching what Alex was going to do next.
Alex folded his arms over his chest and stood in front of his brother, his long hair falling down his shoulders and back. ”I only wanted you here if you were going to work.” Dylan started laughing, almost uncontrollably and in a maniacal way. He slid a bit further down the wall, his leg sitting at an angle as he had trouble staying there. Alex looked away from his younger brother, he failed to hide the disgust in his eyes.
Dylan was able to pick up on this. He stopped laughing and eased his way back to his feet taking a step forward almost stumbling forward into his brother. His finger up pointing at Alex right in the face. ”You don’t get to act all high and mighty. I’m here bro, I’m here to train so let’s train.” Dylan move forward and try to shop past Alex to get to the maths, Alex put his hand on Dillons chest pushing him back lightly, Dylan stumbled back unable to keep himself upright falling back and landing against the wall in a sitting position. He growled and push back up to his feet and then looked over at the ring trying to get there, this time Alex put his left hand against Dylan’s chest and shocked him slightly harder backwards. Dylan again landed on his ass sitting against the wall.
Everybody around them gasped. Dylan looked up angrily, growling again as he pushed up to his feet and this time stepped forward at his brother taking a swing, Alex moved out of the way of the clumsy punch attempt spinning Dylan around grabbing both of his arms and holding him in a restrained position, ”Calm down.” Alex spoke in a calm and measured way. He tried to whole Dylan still, Dylan flailed and moved before throwing his head back, he connected with Alex‘s nose. Alex stumbled back some blood trickling from his nostrils as he failed to see straight.
Charlie looked on in shock, Spike moved forward watching even more intently knowing what was coming next. Dylan turned around looking at his brother, watching the blood drip from his nose. ”I fuckingbtold you Alex.” Dylan stepped forward and landed a hard right hand, it connected with Alex right on the jaw, Alex dropped one knee his hand resting down against the concrete below. Dylan stood above him waiting for Alex to get up. ”Come on Alex! Teach me a lesson Mr high and mighty!”
Alex look down at the concrete, some of the blood from his nose trip down onto it. He shook his head and took a deep breath before getting to his feet moving his jaw around, and wiping the blood from his nose. ”I’m not going to fight you D. But you can’t train. Not in your state.” Alex swallowed hard and backed away from his brother just to be safe. [cooor=red]”You’re a danger to yourself and a danger to others. We don’t want you here.”[/color]
Dylan started to laugh, he threw his hands in the air and looked around at all the other trainees who was staring at him. His laughter slowly faded away and turned into disappointment and sadness as he realised none of them were laughing with him. Everyone was staring at him with the same pity and sadness that Alex had. Dylan slowly looked over his sister, Charlie couldn’t even look him in the face a tear rolled down her cheek as she turned away. Dylan looked down at the ground swallowed hard, he tried to stop tears from welling up in his face.”That’s really how you all feel huh? Well goddamn.”
He pushed off the wall, he stumbled over almost falling. He moved around and picked up his jacket and shoes before turning to walk towards the roller door. He moved slowly and almost stumbled again before stopping and turning to look at everyone. ”Fuck all of you. I don’t need this. I have real friends. REAL FAMILY WHO GIVE A SHIT.” he stormed away, out and down the stairs.
Alex let out along deep sigh, he moved around closer to the ring where Charlie was almost in tears, she leaned against the ropes holding her head in her hands as Spike moved over grabbing a towel. He leaned over handing it to Alex as he wiped away the blood. Speed bike decided to talk, he was usually the silent type, his Irish accent shining through with a bit of the American that he picked up in the last seven years of living in the United States. ”it’ll be alright. Tough love. But...watch him eh?” Alex gave a small nod, but in his heart he knew that his brother was broken. And he had no idea how to fix it.
Context.
A steel folding chairs it’s open right under a large bright light. There is no one around it, just darkness with a few shapes being made out to look like it is in the middle of an office. There is a sound of a door opening, click and heavy footsteps from someone wearing black boots. Alex Jones steps in from the side, wearing said black boots, torn black jeans, and a white and red T-shirt from the band a day to remember. He slowly lowers himself down on the chair leaning back against it throwing his legs straight out in a relaxed position with a long deep breath.
”It seems like I struck a nerve.”
He couldn’t help but smile. Observing Jack’s behaviour and what he said obviously made him get under his skin. It was a good trade off, after all the things of Jack said may not of cause the same reaction, but they did annoy him.
”Sucks doesn’t it Jack?. To do something and have your actions apparently miss construed as to what your true nature is. Although I think we know what your nature is. Although, it is quite funny knowing that if I hadn’t of said anything, if I had stayed quiet and waited, you would not have had anything to open with. Replying isn’t a good move Jack. Shows lack of vision, and lack of creativity. There’s so many things you could’ve talked about when it comes to you me and our match coming up a violent conduct. But that’s what you went with, that’s what you chose. You chose to get so angry about the little quips I made about your lack of leadership.“
“All the things that I said and that have happened in the past and that’s what you choose to open on, of course it wasn’t anything compared to what you kept going with. That’s the difference between us Jack, you are nothing but a childish moron grasping at straws trying to keep yourself on my level verbally because you know that physically while you may look more impressive you don’t have the pedigree, and you don't have the past that I do.”
“I zeroed in on that for a reason Jack.“
“I am a locker room leader. I am someone who walks into a company and people instantly gravitate towards. Love me or hate me that’s just the truth. I am a professional, I am a legend, I am a veteran. I walked in here and the big dog with this company Fenris decided to open his mouth and disrespect me. By the time he was right it’s hot his tail between his legs and fuck off back to Iceland, he knew my name, he knew who I was. And he realised his mistake. He realised who I was and what I could do in that room, he realised that I was a former world champion and a fucking veteran.”
Alex leans forward with a large smile on his face, his hands clasp together into a pyramid just under his chin.
” I moved in on that because I knew you wouldn’t be able to handle it. And here you are commenting on it straight away jumping on it like a dog with a bone. But here’s the thing Jack, you came up with your excuses on why the loss didn’t matter to you, you came up with some bullshit about how a leader knows when to retreat. If that’s true, and you want to be a leader, know when to retreat, and tuck your balls and run now. Leave now. Because I am the one to lead this locker room, I am the one to show everyone what it is to be a true competitor and a true champion. A real champion doesn’t run from a challenge, a real champion doesn’t pack his bags and think better of it and leave other people to do his dirty work.”
“A real champion stands toe to toe with anyone and everyone, uses and loves competition. I don’t care if I win or lose, as long as I go out there and I bust my ass and that’s what I do week in week out, day in day out, and match after match.“
“But, for argument's sake Jackie boy, what would happen if you did become the champion? How long before you face someone who you know is better than you, and instead of staying in that rank and trying to beat them and defend your championship like a real leader, you walk out and take account out just so you keep your championship? How long before you decide it’s just too hard and lay down and let someone who honestly shouldn’t be allowed to touch the sin city wrestling world championship beat you just because you think it’s too hard?“
“How is that being a winner?“
“Spoiler alert, commonsense alert, it’s not Jack. And this is the problem I have with you. See you are young, but you are also old enough and now experienced enough to know the difference. You got into that ring with Ben Jordan and you had a chance to hold the sin city wrestling world heavyweight championship. You had a chance to beat him and show everyone what you’re made of. And then you failed. And in the weeks after that you put up a few fake bullshit reasons and emotions, acting like you actually learn something. Right up until I stepped in and took the championship off Griffin, then? you went straight back to your same Waze and show the world that you don’t know how to adapt, change or learn”
He rolled his eyes, in Alex’s mind he was right. He watched Jack’s verbal diarrhoea, he watched him sit there for 20 minutes and run his mouth and say so much but somehow I’m not saying anything. Rookie move Jackie boy, Rookie move.
”There are some things about you though, that I find admirable. You are worthy of respect in one way. And that is being alone. Not relying on anyone else and being your own man is definitely something that is worthy of respect and something that should be drawn attention to. I’m not gonna sit here and say that you’re a giant pussy Jack, because the truth is you will go up against anyone and watch your own back and I applaud it.”
“With that being said, given your amazing verbal bullshit talking about being a winner, it’s kind of sad that you don’t know what a winner looks like.“
“You went through my entire history, you brought up all of these things about my past names, about the people who I work with and my friends and family. Yet before you went into it you came riding on the whole steroid thing. And said that is the best that I can do? Really? So you spent all that time going over how I told you apart when it comes to walking away in a tag match and having no courage to stand and be a leader but apparently all I said was something about steroids? Are you high? Are you talking rain in circles or you just fucking stupid? I’m sorry I thought I was talking to someone who had an IQ higher than his goddamn shoe size.”
“But still, congratulations on knowing how to use Google, apparently it’s something more than Fenris knew how to do when he first came at me. but somehow you went to all that trouble of googling me, but didn’t watch any of my promotional material from other companies where I go over various nicknames. And names for my moves.”
“But I completely agree, AJ Phoenix was a stupid name. Which is why I started going by my actual name champ.”
Alex winks and puts up a small thumbs up before moving over to the side grabbing the Sin City wrestling world heavyweight championship dropping it over his knee.
” but hey, it’s not like you went over all of my failed marriages, or any of the weird things I’ve been involved in in the past right? It’s not like you brought up the nudes for myself that are circulating around because of my ex-wife. But again, he brought up everything I’ve done in my past a whole bunch of stuff the people in Sin City probably don’t even know about. Or care about. Things that I moved on from and learn from because again I know how to adapt, change and learn. and the fact that you had to go back that far and talk about things that don’t matter when I’ve made so many mistakes and dumb things within the last year that is stupid? It goes to show how far your reach and how many straws you decide to clutch it.”
“Very sad Jackie boy, very sad“
“ I do have to concede something though, you are supposed to be a challenge in my championship. So I can understand why you would come after me and why you would try and make my past look like something to be afraid of, to make fun of, I get it. but, do you really want to go after the rest of my gym? You called Austin just some guy despite the fact that he too has helped this world championship, something that up to this moment you have failed to do. He’s also beating people who you have never beaten. So explain to me again how do you know what a winner looks like when you said that about Austin?”
“But what about Alicia? One good year? The fact that she’s been a champion in every company she’s entered. Well every company that matters. There was some LAW bullshit. She held the championship here for almost a year. She held all the championships in honor, including two at one time. She was the champion of WWH for almost a year. So not only do you not know what a winner looks like, apparently you don’t know how time works. So let me explain it to you dip shit, the earth rotates around the sun, it takes 365 days, 366 during a leap year.. Maybe you should’ve actually listened in school instead of running your mouth like a fucking moron.”
He scoffed and pushed up to his feet holding the world championship belt and his hand before putting it over his shoulder.
”One of the only intriguing and original thoughts in your head, he’s talking about my family and the fact that I have to provide for them. But, it’s wrong. I don’t have to provide for my family, the gym, endorsements, the fact that I didn’t snort away most of the money that I and unlike some guys that I used to work with. It means that my family is well provided for. We have a great life. So if I’m not doing this for something as basic as money, why do I do this?”
“You asked the question of who I was Jack, that’s the thing you don’t know who I am. You can throw out all of the stupid nickname that I’ve used, the stupid stage names I’ve used, you can throw all of that at me and failed to mention all the world titles I won in a very convenient twist of fate. But if I don’t do this for money, if I already have the glory that I want and that just leaves one thing, one small thing. And it’s the same thing that I started talking about before that separates men like you from men like me. From challengers to champions.”
“Competition.”
“I do this because I still have that fire in Me. I still have that fire to be the best, and face the best, and beat the best. You have a chance to get in the ring with me at violent conduct and prove that you deserve to be one of the best. Truth is I thought you already own that right when you faced Ben Jordan. I thought when you got into that room with him and you did everything you could beat him and came up short but still seem to have that need and that want to compete, I thought you were someone who I could relate to. But then, you opened your mouth.”
“And that old adage popped up, it is better to be thought of a fool, than to open your mouth and remove all doubt. You’re a fool Jack, a dancing fucking clown. And violent conduct either the real Jack Washington who almost beat Ben shows up, or the rambling moron who went through my past and twisted it to his own narrative turns up. And I can tell you right now one of those Jack Washington‘s has a chance to beat me and walk away with the world title, and the other one has absolutely no chance at all. Make the right choice Jack, because I don’t want this to be easy."