Post by Markw on May 31, 2013 14:24:17 GMT -5
WFWF Revolution – Winning Friends And Influencing People
When you're winning, you can tell yourself that you're the best at what you do and you can believe it. But when you're losing, you can only make excuses for so long, before eventually you just have to accept that maybe, just maybe, you're not quite as good as you think you are.
There are only so many times that you can get back up after a man cuts you down.
Where do you go from there?
I guess some would happily accept mediocrity. I'm not one of those people, I'm sick of being a few paces behind the king. I'm sick of being mediocre.
It's easy to tell yourself that you're going to get better, what's difficult is working out how you're going to do that and then having the guts to go out and do exactly that.
That's what I tried to do a few short weeks ago, I tried to rebuild, I tried to become stronger, I tried whatever I could to get myself back on that battlefield with the king. I fought, I pleaded, I begged, I cheated and I did it.
Then I stepped on to that battlefield and he chopped off my head.
---
18th August 2008
A scruffy kid sits ringside as a couple of the wrestlers, in their street clothes, finish setting up the SAW ring prior to the upcoming debut show. The arena (I say arena, it's more of a school sports hall), isn't exactly crowded, despite the fact that there will be a couple of ex WFWF jobbers in action. In fact there can be no more than twelve or thirteen fans in the building, which let's face it probably isn't going to be enough to keep this place afloat.
Next to this young man, who is wearing the shirt of an English football team, sits a similarly aged kid, he looks a lot more respectable in a suit... at an independent wrestling show.
The first, looking a little perplexed at the person who has just taken a seat beside him, offers him a quick smile. The second replies by offering a reluctantly accepted handshake and introducing himself.
“Hello, I'm Jake”
“Hey.”
The kid replies unenthusiastically. Apparently Jake doesn't pick up on that.
“And you are?”
“Joe, Joe Bishop.”
“Do you live here then?” Jake responds to his English accent.
“Sort of, hopefully I'll be moving here soon.”
'Ima Boss' by Meek Millz interrupts that enthralling conversation as Flamez comes out from behind the curtain, he gets a few cheers from the crowd, although the response for the WFWF wrestler and SAW owner isn't all that inspiring. Flamez rolls into the ring, climbs up to the top rope and lift both arms in the air before awaiting the arrival of his opponent.
'Fat Lip' by Sum 41 starts playing on the loudspeakers as a scrawny kid who calls himself Steve Style steps out to half-hearted boos from the handful of people who have turned up to watch this spectacle. He slides in to the ring and locks eyes with his opponent. The two lock up and the bell rings as Jake again tries to lock Bishop into a conversation.
“Why 'you here then?”
Flamez has Style locked in an armbar.
“I've been offered a few try out matches by the WFWF, I've been wrestling for a promotion back home for a year or so now.”
Jake seems shocked by this.
“But you look like a little kid.”
Jake is clearly looking at his football kit as Bishop smiles sarcastically.
“Are these guys any good then?”, Bishop says motioning towards the ring.
Jake is about to respond, but he's interrupted by Steve Style horrifically botching a hurricanrana in the middle of the ring.
“...Yeah, they're great”
Joe, for the first time, seems to be genuinely enjoying this conversation. Allowing a smile to, briefly, appear on his face.
“Do you wrestle then?”
“No. I just go to the occasional show.”
“Why the suit?” Bishop asks the question he has wanted to ask from the moment the boy sat down.
Jake shrugs, but clearly becomes a little more self conscious from this point onwards. The two boys observe what's going on in the ring for a while. It can't really be described as a wrestling match as such, more of an acrobatics contest where a stray leg will occasionally catch one of the other competitors. Eventually Flamez hits the Saving Grace for the victory. A less than impressive match is greeted with a less than impressive response from the crowd.
“It's going to be a long night isn't it?” Bishop asks, Jake nods.
The event drags on before eventually WFWF wrestler 'Spider' beats 'Thug' in the Main Event to bring the show to a close. Over the course of the night the two teenagers have bonded by coming up with what they believe to be ingenious chants aimed at the 'stars' that inhabit the ring.
“Look, I've got a couple of tickets to this XWA show tomorrow, I've been begging my sister to come with me, but she isn't interested.”
Bishop waits for Jake to finish the question, although Jake seems to be struggling with that.
“D.. Do you want to come with me?”
“Sure” Bishop responds, adding, “Don't wear that suit.”
“Don't wear the soccer kit.”
“Football.” Bishop replies this time in a much more aggressive tone.
“See you tomorrow.”
“There's no such thing as soccer.” The arrogant Englishman continues as he begins to walk away.
That would prove to be one of the last shows that little promotion would put on, but it would be hugely influential to the lives of those two teenagers. Maybe not a positive influence.
---
Mak Cross is desperate, desperate, to become the WFWF World Champion. Well I guess everyone in the WFWF is, I don't know why you'd be wrestling if you didn't want to hold that belt.
But there's one tricky little problem for Mr. Cross. You see the current Champion is Scarlett Quinn, who, if you hadn't guessed, is a woman.
Mak Cross likes to come across as a respectful, honest, trustworthy man. A man who treats women in a 'fitting manner'.
In reality Mak Cross is either a sexist or a coward. Or both.
You see the fact that Mak Cross is willing to kick ten types of crap out of a man, but that he won't lay a hand on a woman, that shows that he thinks women are weak. That they need to be protected. Mak acts like a woman who beat him, to win the belt he craves, is inferior. He may say that he's doing it because he's an honourable man, but that couldn't be any further from the truth.
Mak, affirmative action didn't win Scarlett Quinn the WFWF World Championship. Being better than you and Phillip Schneider and Cam Nitta won Quinn that Championship. Don't hide your cowardice behind a wall of political correctness.
---
You know for a long time, my immediate reaction to losing really hasn't been that different to my reaction when I've walked away from the ring victorious. I can't explain it really, I mean of course I enjoy winning matches and of course I hate losing matches. So I must admit it's baffled me a little. Maybe it's just that I've got so much swirling round in my head right now that I just don't know how to react to anything. Maybe my desire to be the best has just been dwindling. Maybe it's just that the outcome of recent matches hasn't really been, well, particularly surprising.
But this loss to Trace Demon was different, and in some ways, made me feel a little more... normal I guess. Because as soon as that hand hit the mat for the third time and the 'King Of Demons' rolled out of the ring still the International Champion, I couldn't have felt any worse. It felt like the world was set to come crashing down around me and in some ways that's a good thing. At least it's the closest I've had to a rational response to a wrestling match in months.
Joe Bishop smashes open the locker room door with a swift kick. He is greeted, to his relief, by a seemingly deserted locker room. Bishop lowers himself back in to his seat, burying his head into his hands, a position that he remains in, motionless, for some time. Eventually he is joined in the locker room by, the ally(that doesn't look right?) of Shawn Malaki, David Williams. Just a few short weeks ago Bishop had tracked down the fellow Brit for the sake of a ten minute argument and maybe a little advice with regards to his match against Reckless, once Williams came back I guess this meeting was inevitable, but it could of come at a better time for Bishop.
“You don't look quite so cocky today?” Williams smirks.
“F*ck Off.” he says through his hands.
“Tetchy. Is this about Trace Demon pulling your trousers down in front of thousands of people?” The cocky Williams asks in a role reversal of their last encounter.
“Look you lost to the 'King Of Demons' before he became one of the best in the WFWF so don't act all high and mighty.”
“You do know your history.”
“No, I got the 'Least Impressive WFWF Returns' box set for my last birthday.”
“And you thought you'd come back and get yourself in the sequel did you?”
This argument started out pretty aggressively, but Bishop is clearly tired and David Williams' heart isn't really in it.
“Very amusing” Bishop gets up an walks out of the locker room, and then out of the building before getting in to his car and burying his face in the steering wheel. He proceeds to mock heabutt it a few times before putting his key in the ignition. Normally he'd have responded to any of David's statements with his fists, but it's kind of difficult to justify that when everything he said is true.
---
Mak if I come to the ring in a dress and high heels will you let me pin you?
I'm kidding of course. Although it would save us both a lot of time...
---
It's easy to pretend you're doing fine when there's something that brings you happiness, whether it's your career or your social life. Sure you might have some issues, but there's something keeping you going.
But when ever chance you take ends up hitting you in the face. When your career and your personal life are quite clearly failing. When you find it difficult to share a room with another human being let alone talk to them. When you fall short of every goal you set yourself as a professional wrestler. It's difficult to pretend.
I guess there are a lot of ways to respond to that. They're options that have been on Joe Bishop's mind for a while. End it all, keep trying to convince yourself that you're fine or do something about it. There's realistically only one option and even if you've tried it before it should still be the only option. You've tried going in to bars, hunting down old fans. But you've got to keep trying. I guess trying to replicate what's worked before is a rational response. Heck, even if it doesn't work it'll be nice to mock those less talented for the first time in years.
Joseph Bishop pulls up outside of a small local wrestling promotion called the UWA, the camera phones of fellow late arrivers come out instantly to get some pictures of the WFWF superstar. Bishop tries to avoid those fans as best possible; throwing a few dollars at the staff at the door as he enters the arena.
The first thing that strikes Joe Bishop is the awful bland logo on the posters in the corridor promoting the promotions next show.
How do you decide where to sit?
There's no one in a suit, which would have been my first choice, although I wasn't really expecting there to be. I guess I should just sit somewhere before people start to think I'm a freak.
Joe does a quick scan of the arena picking out the most attractive/only woman there to sit next to. There's already a match going on so he sits himself down as quickly as possible with no time for interactions.
“Who's wrestling?” Bishop asks.
“E.M.O and my husband Jack” Crap the... Also, who the hell calls themselves EMO? The woman states pointing out the bald man flopping around in a headlock, Bishop looks confused for a moment but decides it would be rude to ask how SHE ended up with THAT.
Bishop, who has already written the young woman off glances to his left to see if he's placed himself next to anyone else. To his left sits a teenager wearing what can only be described as... as... an American Football jersey. He's been written off as well. The match continues for a little while, although it's not particularly impressive and because of the surrounding folk, mocking the wrestlers isn't a viable option right now either.
Eventually Bishop decides to head towards the back of the building to a stall selling merchandise, which he of course doesn't buy. But next to the stand is a kid in his late teens(?) who has grabbed Bishop's attention. Again due to his attire. The kid is wearing a,proper, football shirt, which of course leads Bishop to believe he's English. What's more attracted the attention of Joe though is that the man's shirt is an MK Dons shirt, the club who so famously ripped the heart and soul out of his beloved Wimbledon Football Club, trampling on the teams history.
“What the hell” Bishop begins loudly, pointing at the man's top as he does so “is that?”.
Now a bit of background, pretty much any football fan of any team could have just said that to the man who stands in front of Bishop, so nothing about the club he supports has been given away. The MK Dons fan, who is clearly aware of the WFWF wrestlers fame, stands unsure as to whether Bishop wants a response, probably slightly concerned about the potential for the professional wrestler to snap him like a twig. Bishop decides to spare him.
“Do you come here often then?”
“This is the first show.”
“Oh right... most Indy promotions don't manage that nowadays” Bishop smiles, the Milton Keynes fan doesn't seem to know what he's going on about but he smiles as well.
“So what's your name?”
“Alex.” He responds, accepting a can of beer that Bishop pushes towards him.
“Who do you support?” Alex asks wanting to turn the conversation back towards football, a subject he's much more comfortable with, as is Bishop.
“The real Dons” Bishop responds assertively.
Alex smiled, although he's, apparently, now less comfortable discussing football.
A nervous pause leads to a break in the conversation during which the two observe what's going on in the ring, not much is the answer to that one, as perhaps the dullest man on the planet is in the process of cutting a promo. Luckily for Joe Bishop concentrating on social interaction and wondering whether he should try to rebuild the failing conversation is the only thing that he's paying attention to.
“So why are you in the states?”
“I moved last year, for work. Then I got fired, but I can't afford to go back.”
“Shame.” Bishop responded.
What happened next Alex probably saw as a rich professional wrestler taking pity on him, in reality it was a desperate attempt by a lonely guy to connect with another human being.
“I'm not going to be wrestling on Revolution in a few weeks, I figured I'd go into the crowd to watch, do you want a ticket?”
“Yes!”
“Cool.” Bishop smiled. “Oh and don't wear that.” Bishop motions again to the MK Dons shirt with a look of disgust on his face.
That was surprisingly easy.
---
It may not seem like it at first, but there are a lot of similarities between myself and Mak Cross.
Both myself and Mak have been pretty close to hitting it big in the last month or so. We've both fought to earn a shot at a WFWF Championship in huge matches with some of the biggest stars in this promotion... and we've both fallen flat on our faces.
I've accepted that I lost fair and square. Mak Cross on the other hand apparently didn't care about winning the Championship, he just wanted to make sure Philip Schneider didn't. So I don't know maybe that wasn't a failure for him, maybe he's really satisfied with sitting in the middle of the card alongside Cam Nitta. Maybe he's happy to be mediocre. Personally, I reckon he's just not willing to accept that maybe there are wrestlers out there far better than he is.
I guess for both of us this match is about responding to setbacks, for me it's about trying to rebuild after having Trace Demon kick me to the curve for a second time and for Mak it's about proving that he should be challenging for the World Championship again, if that is indeed his goal, rather than rotting in the dying tag team division with his 'friend'.
It's an interesting dynamic. I like to think of it like we're both in Limbo. We're both stuck somewhere between Heaven and Hell. Glory and Obscurity. I guess that this match is going to come down, quite simply, to which of us is the most desperate, which of us is willing to put ourselves through the most punishment to have another shot at glory.
And I guess which of us is most willing to do that is going to come down to which of us needs it most.
That man is, quite simply, me.
You see Cross, I'll admit, does want to be at the top of the ladder. But I honestly don't believe he needs it as much as me. I'm not sure he wants it as much as me. What happens if Mak Cross gets another shot at the World Championship in a singles match with Quinn? He lies down. It's as simple as that. He loses. So what's his incentive going in to this match with me? What can he possibly gain from this match, a chance to blow another title shot because he's a coward?
Now I know what you're thinking, if I win this match, yeah, maybe I get another chance to blow a title match. Very funny. But at least I give myself a chance. And at least I want that chance. Yes I know that right now I'm not better than Trace Demon and that I'm not ready to be International Champion, I demonstrated that last week.
I'm going to keep putting myself on the battlefield with the King though. Every time I'm cut down, I'm going to drop down, beat guys like you Mak and put myself back in the mix. Because one day, it could be next week, it could a year from now, it could be five years from now, I'm going to be ready and I'm going to be on top. Whether it's wrestling, or football, or making friends and influencing people, if you put yourself in the right position time and time again eventually it's going to pay off. At least that's what I've observed.
But if your default position is, “Ugh I can't hit a woman, I've got to treat women equally; Hang on a second, I'm just punching this guy because Trace Demon told me to”, then of course you aren't going to get anywhere. If you're not willing to give yourself a chance and then actually try to take it then you're gong to fall flat on your face. And I'm going to perch myself down next to a man who has failed to achieve what he claims is his goal and laugh right in his face. Because I've been there man, and trust me when it's happening to someone else, it's f***ing funny.
You can worry about Cam Nitta, about Scarlett Quinn, whatever, it doesn't really matter to me. Because I get you Mak, you're like me. You're lost. You're in limbo. You want to be a good guy, a popular guy, an honourable human being. But deep down you're not, you're a coward. I'm similar, I want the same things as you, but I'm not a coward, because while I'm willing to accept that I'm not as good as the people above me, I'm going to keep putting myself in the middle of that war. I'm not going to make excuses like you do. And whether I'm in my wrestling gear, or a suit, or a dress doesn't matter. Because you're going to fight me with everything you've got and you're going to come out second best. Feel free to work on an excuse for losing to a guy who's nowhere near the World Championship while we wait on that match, because I'm confident, that you're going to need one.
But if you do beat me, then believe me, I'm not going to make any excuses, I'm just going to get right back up and get right back on to the battlefield with you.
