Post by Mr. PerpetuaLynch Motion on Apr 29, 2016 21:43:00 GMT -5
Justin Tyme Part 3: 
You Money
You MoneyOurs is a duel of the fates Mr. Stone. I figure you being the prospective future movie star would appreciate such a reference. I beg your indulgence for a moment as I take us all on a stroll down the dank, dark alleyway filled with crooks and scumbags some call “Memory Lane”.
June 6th, 2011. Everyone knows this part of the story. It’s the day where our lives and careers became forever intertwined. It is inarguably the day that established the career of Cameron Stone. It’s also the day where mine died. I was a beaten, broken husk of a man hospitalized for several weeks and, at the age of twenty-nine, advised to never compete again. And I never did. Sure I made a few half-hearted returns to the WFWF to make vein attempts at re-staking my claim as one of the preeminent superstars in the industry but after that day I was never competitive. Not after our match. You took years off of my career and off of my life Cameron.
Just because I wasn’t here thought doesn’t mean I wasn’t watching. I watched as you won your very first championship in the WFWF, the National Championship. Then I watched as they transitioned you into being this commentary extraordinaire that was beloved by everyone. Everyone except me. Because even after they brought me in to host the pre-show for Super Brawl VIII you just had to shove your face into the same screen as me to suck away the little bit of spotlight I had left that was shining on me and like the phony you are you shoved your hand in my face and asked to bury the hatchet. And, like the sucker I was trying to pander to the losers and lowlifes that attend these shows, I shook your hand and I agreed to bury the hatchet. In public.
But what happened following the conclusion of that Superbrawl pre-show tells a very different story. See I didn’t sell out on who I am as a person and I didn’t sell out on what I thought of you. As soon as the cameras stopped rolling on that pre-show I walked to the back and tendered my resignation immediately and I told myself I would never associate with the WFWF ever again. I went home and disconnected from all the bullcrap that the world of wrestling had to offer.
It was in the midst of me strengthening my portfolio and re-establishing myself as an important player in the corporate world at the beginning of last year when I caught wind of a smattering of the most interesting rumor I had heard in nearly four years. Cameron Stone was planning one last hurrah before setting the sun on his career as both a professional wrestler and as a commentator. He was checking out. And that’s when it dawned on me. What’s the use in having all this
you money if I never get the chance to say “ you”?Enter Lucas Crowe. Nearly four years to the day that you ended my career I personally bankrolled what is tailor made to be the end of yours. When I met Lucas and gave him the task of delivering me every championship in the WFWF that was the only motive of mine he was capable of focusing on. Because it was genuine. He was new to the game and was unable at that time to see what I had my sights set on. All he had in his sights was the championship opportunities placed directly in front of him. It all came to him so fast he really didn’t have a chance to react to anything else around him. But in the meantime I had my gaze fixed on you and your last attempt at attaining a little bit of glory. And you didn’t disappoint. You played the game exactly how I wanted you to, to a tee.
And now here we stand Cam. You’re walking into this match holding the first championship that I ever won here in the WFWF, Lucas is entering this match with the first championship that you ever won here and at the end of the night only one of those championships will remain. You have implied that once you are no longer the International Champion that it will be all she wrote for the career of Cameron Stone. So allow me to be perfectly clear in case I wasn’t earlier, I couldn’t write a better story of vindication than this one. After nearly five years of torment and nightmares I get to pen the last chapter of your story as Lucas Crowe takes the last piece of glory you are clinging onto and throws what remains of your career into a black hole.
The Wreckers Part 11: I’ve Been Away For Too Long
Some things, I’ve learned, are better done on your own. With Justin heading off to meet with Drakz and Trace to discuss the pay per view it allowed me a window to conduct some business of my own. So for the first time in about four months I was heading home to Detroit. For something like this and with it being so close to a pay per view it’s probably better that no one, not Reo, not Steelheart and certainly not Justin, know where I was headed today. Even as I boarded the plane I was questioning it myself. I could hear nothing but Justin in my head berating me about unnecessary distractions so close to the biggest match of my life. The last time I let my guard down and took my foot off the gas is still very fresh in my mind.
But I didn’t turn back because this isn’t me letting my guard down and this isn’t me taking my foot off the gas. This is me reopening an avenue I closed because I started to let Justin Tyme run more than just my career. This is me utilizing the resources I had available to me from the very beginning. This is me once again attempting to rebuild a relationship that was fractured long before I stepped foot into the WFWF. When I called her after my match with Samael her reception was rather tepid to say the least. Last time Amy had seen me I was kowtowing to Justin’s whim and with every passing week I have had at least half a dozen other people come up to me and tell me exactly what she told me that evening. That Justin Tyme is using me to extend his shelf life of relevance in this industry. But for every time I had someone tell me that, I have had Justin position me in such a way to where I was an attractive option for the likes of Trace Demon and Drakz.
To say my brain has been scrambled by the push and pull of my relationship with Justin Tyme and other people’s outside perception of that arrangement over the last few months is an understatement to say the least. Now you can throw in my association with the owner of the company and the World Heavyweight Champion. People don’t question my ability in the ring but they have been questioning my decision making abilities. But those people are all separated from my situation. It’s everyone else’s job to tell me what they think I should be doing and it’s my job to ignore them in bulk and follow what is in my head. That’s something I had to be reminded of recently. At the end of the day the only person really willing to fight for what’s in my best interests is me.
The plane landed and I made my way through the crowded airport terminal and hailed one of the taxis passing by. I tossed my bag into the trunk, gave the driver Amy’s address and, for the first time in I don’t know how long, I was able to just zone out. I afforded myself this opportunity to finally stand back and look at everything that has happened in my life to this point. If you would have told me a year ago that in one year’s time I would become an internationally recognized superstar and a champion, I would have had you committed to an asylum.
We pulled up in front of Amy’s house, I handed the driver forty dollars and told him to keep the change. He grabbed my bag from the trunk and drove off. I stood there staring at her house for a good long moment, the question of whether I should be doing something like this so close to the biggest match of my life swirled in my head. I keep telling myself I could turn back around and just go meet Justin in Los Angeles but there was some part of me that determined that this could be the ultimate fork in the road. If I turn back now and go meet Justin, then I have made a decision to permanently tether my career to his name. If I go through with what I set out to do today though then I’ll be writing my own story from this moment on.
I took a few moments to mull it over before ultimately to take the long road up the walkway to Amy’s house, paused for a moment before finally knocking on the door. She didn’t keep me waiting for long, didn’t give me a chance to change my mind. The door swings open and there she stood. She is a vision as always.
I think I’ve finally made up my mind.
She says nothing, words would probably fail her at this point. An “I told you so” would be woefully ineffective anyways. She simply gestures me to come in and shuts the door behind me.
For the last ten months or so I have heard it from many people. The same things you told me. Justin Tyme is a snake, that he really doesn’t have my interests in mind and that he’s just using me and my abilities to cling to relevancy or to re-establish himself as a premier mind in this business. But I don’t think that was his intention at all. The more I think about it the more I think that the entirety of my usefulness to Justin Tyme is meant to culminate in this match at Black Hole Sun.
We sit together in her living room, her content to say nothing and just hear me out. It’s a strange change of pace for me, I’m not usually the one that’s doing all the talking but I’ve been through a lot in the past twelve months. Sometimes it’s nice to just unload everything inside the vault and Amy is the one person who has always had the key to that vault. And it’s always going to be that way.
I’ve never had the balls to really ask Justin about his past, his career in the WFWF. At least not in depth in any way. I’ve talked to him about his brief tenure as the International Champion, that topic has come up quite a bit lately actually. But I’ve never really talked to him about how it ended. Cameron Stone ended it. And now I’m able to see it. The big dummy I am took entirely long to notice it. I’m just a tool for someone else’s vendetta. It was never about championships or wins or even relevancy and respect. It was about Justin Tyme getting the last one over on Cameron Stone.
Lucas, Justin Tyme is a man who has built the entirety of his life, not his career but his life that he leads to this day, on being a snake oil salesman. You’re not a dummy for buying into it, the position you were in in your life with your lack of a career and nothing to lose. It made you an extremely attractive option for him.
I won’t lie, it did sting a touch when she dropped the “nothing to lose”. Because when I started this whole thing it was meant to be a means of building an actual life for myself that I hoped she would be a part of. I had her to lose.
But that’s all in the past now Lucas. And nothing good comes from dwelling in the past.
That one hurt too.
What we need now is to enact a strategy that opens up a chance to get you out of Justin’s shadow and into your own spotlight and that’s why I’m glad you decided to come see me. Before we go further though, does Justin know you came out here?
Nah he’s out in Los Angeles discussing our arrangements with Trace and Drakz.
Like moths to a fire, you sure do attract some scummy people.
Yeah but I attracted you once upon a time y’know.
Well even when I was with you I never pretended to be a nice person. You should remember that well.
Oh believe me, I do.
She shoots me a lighthearted yet steely glance. I almost missed having these interactions with actual human beings. Reo has been the closest thing to a person that cares about my well-being that I’ve been around these past few months. It’s refreshing.
What about Reo and Steelheart, do they know where you were headed when you left?
Nope, told them I was heading to Boston a few days early so I could do some sightseeing before the show.
And you trust that they bought into “The Tourist” Lucas Crowe?
Steelheart is a knob and I trust Reo too much for him to act on his gut feeling that I wasn’t being on the level with that explanation.
Alright then. Let’s get to work shall we?
Lucas Crowe Chapter 25: Sledgehammer
This is the part where I’m supposed to explain how I have such deep seeded hatred for Cameron Stone and it will give me nothing but the utmost pleasure to unseat him as the International Champion and put an end to his storied career. But I can’t do that. Because it would be untruthful. I don’t have this burning fury inside of me that is yearning to be unleashed upon you because I have learned in my short tenure here that egregious misuse of that fire inside does no one any favors and in the end it just burns a person up. It consumes them and they get snuffed out at the snap of a finger. At the end of the day I’m just a soldier playing his part in a war much bigger than me. I’ve come to grips with that.
In saying that though, there is no denying what will be coming my way from being on the winning side of this war. Sure there’s the surface stuff and the stuff that will be immediately noticeable. I will have won my third championship inside the span of my first three hundred sixty-five days on the job. A new piece of gold around my waist is immediately noticeable. I’ll also be the one that will forever be the one associated with ending the career of Cameron Stone. With that comes a sort of permanent notoriety. It’s something that should command the respect of my peers but they would never allow me the satisfaction of knowing that I had earned their respect. But that’s fine, they can keep it. I’ll collect it when I decide to call my career quits but that won’t be anytime soon.
But beyond all that surface garbage like new hardware and the audience’s admiration for what I will have just accomplished, when I beat Cameron Stone at Black Hole Sun I will have single handedly permanently altered the trajectory of this industry. Because, as I alluded to earlier, I have had the single most dominant rookie year in recent memory. No one before me has carved the path of destruction that I have in just one year. I’ve main evented shows and am a two time WFWF National Champion already. It is going to be damn hard for anyone coming after me to follow that. So it begs the question, if this what a rookie year for The Motor City Mercenary entails then what’s in store for his sophomore year?
So I guess at the end of the day when the sun has set on your career Cameron Stone you will be able to rest easily knowing that you will never be forgotten. Because your last hurrah consisted of an incredible feel good moment when you were crowned the WFWF International Champion. Finally, the whole run will culminate with you being responsible for putting the icing on the cake of the greatest rookie year the WFWF has ever seen when Lucas Crowe beats you, retires you and begins his reign as the NEW WFWF interNational Champion.
The Wreckers Part 12: Serious Trust Issues
Amy and I picked up like it hadn’t been almost ten months since the last time we saw each other. After discussing business for a few hours the conversation quickly changed into just discussing our lives. We talked about Amy’s promotion from a beat reporter to lead anchor at the local news. She bravely detailed to me a couple of failed relationships she has had in that span of time. I offered to provide a lesson to one particular winner of an individual which she briefly considered but then politely declined. We stayed up until the wee hours of the morning and I probably could have stayed and talked with her all night, it was painful to have to leave but I had a red-eye flight to Boston that I had to catch to avoid any red flags being raised as to my whereabouts.
We opted to avoid any possible awkwardness and bid our farewells punctuated with a nice, friendly hug. Closing the door behind me I reflected on the decision I had made. This might end up being the worst best decision of my life. Only time will tell on that. Getting into the cab I directed him to the airport. The cab driver replied in a thick Russian accent.
Sure thing boss.
.Hey Billy Steelheart, moonlighting are we?
You made very, very stupid decision today Mr. Crowe. You should not have come here.
Alright look, I needed to come here. I needed to weigh all my options. The only stupid thing I did today was underestimate your intelligence and trust motor-mouth Speedwagon to keep his hunches to himself.
Was not Speedwagon my friend. I’m Russian, we pretty much invented spying and intelligence. Speedwagon’s hunch was just bonus.
Yeah but you jus…
Point is Mr. Crowe, I feel like you’ve made rash decisions in the past when left to your own devices. I would hate for Justin to find out you might have made another one.
Well Justin doesn’t need to find out.
Sure he does, he’s boss.
Listen to me you Slavic
, you don’t have tell your boss everything. This isn’t the god damn Soviet Union.There is a long silence from Steelheart. I wonder if he’s processing what I just said or if it’s the end of our conversation. Unfortunately for me it was the former.
OK comrade, I have proposition for you.
This should be a treat.
I’ll not tell boss about your little vacation detour to this hole as long as you win against Cam Stone.
I take a moment to try to figure out if that was seriously all there is to the proposition.
Is… Is that it? Well I’ll just win.
But is proposition so there’s always a “however”
He sure is taking a long time to get to his point.
If you lose then you have no more championships correct?
That’s typically how it works.
Then if you lose I tell Justin Tyme about your meeting with floozy and you have to wrestle me in a match.
I don’t even have to take a moment to think about it. After all, I’ve seen Steelheart sparring with Reo. Even if I did have to step in the ring with him that wouldn’t be much of a punishment. Nor is Tyme finding out about this whole trip to Detroit since he’s going to find out eventually anyways. Man these Russians suck at making deals.
You’ve got yourself a deal there comrade.
Steelheart smiles for perhaps the first time in his entire life because it’s the most awkward looking thing I’ve ever seen. We get to the airport and Steelheart comes to the back and holds the door open for me. He makes it a point to make sure we shake on our deal and I grab my bag and head into the airport. It’s time to ship up to Boston.
