Post by Teo Blaze on Feb 10, 2019 22:53:52 GMT -5
“Weakness is not a flaw, it’s a problem waiting to be solved.”
As the scene slowly comes into view, the viewer is greeted by a sight familiar to many. The camera is centered on a busy street, with all kinds of colorful individuals walking up and down a long dirt road. On either side of the corridor sits all variety of homemade stalls, proudly displaying handcrafted or unusual wares of every shape and size, voices loudly barking prices and negotiating deals over one another.
And seated on top of one of the stalls in a small plastic folding chair that would not be out of place in a dollar store, one leg crossed over the other and both hands resting under his head, sits the Television Champion with his eyes hidden behind the signature red lenses, which are reflecting the noon-day sun shining bright overhead.
Teo Blaze: You know they say that you should never let the sun get in your eyes.
As he speaks he sits up in the chair, resting his arms on his knees as he looks at the camera with a self-assured grin.
Teo Blaze: But anyone who’s met me can tell you I’ve had the sun in my eyes for years.
The champion turns and looks down over the crowd of people, all pointing and shouting at something different, whether food, knick-knack, or even pet, the sound of bargaining can be heard clearly and crisply.
Teo Blaze: You know, the most common thing I’ve heard people call this place is a ‘flea market’...but I’ve never really liked that word.
The word flea after all refers to a parasitic insect, a being which subsists off of the lifeblood of others without contributing anything of their own.
Teo chuckles to himself as he reaches into his pocket and grabs a toothpick, placing it into his mouth as he lets his gaze wander over to a particularly heated debate between a large fat man with a handlebar moustache and a skinny crone over the price of a cracked bathtub.
Teo Blaze: I’ve met quite a few parasites in my time, and wrestled still more. But this is not the place where you find such people.
Teo holds out the palm of his left hand, gesturing out over the horizon to the long line of stalls.
Teo Blaze: But there is one thing that I can assure you about such places...there is no place in the world where you will ever encounter so much ingenuity, dedication, and above all...hunger.
This is a place that welcomes those of all shapes and sizes who possess a desire, a drive to succeed, who are willing to make any sacrifice, to take any opportunity handed to them and make it into something special, to put on the performance of a lifetime for that one shot to elevate themselves, that one in a million chance to escape the average and reach for the stars.
It’s a feeling that I can relate to, if we’re being honest. And truth be told, when I look at my opponent this week, I sense that same hunger.
With a knowing grin, Teo slowly raises his left hand out, and into frame appears the infinity championship. He glances at it before smiling and immediately snapping the fingers of his right hand. Within an instant, the scene has changed, and Teo now stands in an entirely new location, in the center of a dilapidated and well-worn wrestling ring. Where before Teo had been wearing a WCF T-shirt, he now wears the black and white stripes of a referee shirt. In either corner stands a burly wrestler, one in a singlet with american flag stripes and the other in orange and black tiger-print tights. The sound of a cracked ring bell fills the air and within a second, the two lock up as the flea market crowd roars in approval. Teo leans back against the turnbuckle and smiles as he watches the melee.
Teo Blaze: This takes me back. I used to work the flea market circuit back in my training days, and let me tell you, I don’t think I’ve ever felt a punch to the jaw quite as hard as from these young men.
As if for emphasis, the two wrestlers roll to the outside, smacking against the dirt floor as Teo looks on with a happy smile, as if reminiscing.
Teo Blaze: I’ve talked before about the power that hunger gives a competitor, but I don’t know if I’ve ever seen it demonstrated quite like it was two weeks ago, when Robert Simmons walked in the door he was a nobody, a faceless victim against one of the most talented to ever walk down the ramp. Now he’s the man who beat former champion Bonnie Blue on his first night in the company.
He looks down at his waist, where the Television Championship sits over the referee’s shirt.
Teo Blaze: And now he has his eyes set on dethroning one of the greatest to ever hold the belt in his second match.
Teo places his hands on his chin, stroking it as he looks up at the sky, as if temporarily considering a riddle or a problem.
Teo Blaze: When I look at Robert Simmons, however, there is more there than hunger. I pride myself on being able to see the truths of the world for what they are, and time and time again I have exposed the weaknesses of my opponents, whether it is cowardice, greed, or a willingness to take shortcuts.
But with Robert..? What we have here is a man who prides himself on being one of the toughest sonuvabitches on the planet, a man who through adversity and struggle has, at least in his own mind, compressed a rough lump of coal into a diamond.
As Teo speaks the words his lips curl into a tight smile, exposing a row of chipped teeth. His eyes seem to flash behind the red lenses, as though a spark has appeared within them.
Teo Blaze: Good story...sounds a little familiar.
As Teo speaks, the brawl continues outside, with one of the wrestlers driving the other’s face directly into a display of glass trinkets as the stall owner shouts loudly.
Teo Blaze: A wrestler who through sheer grit and tenacity has overcome hardship after hardship, has been worn down, shapen into something twisted, something broken...but something strong.
Someone with no natural advantages, someone who thrives not on being the biggest in the ring, the fastest and sure as hell not the craftiest, but who at the same time has that something, that little thing called determination, that despite all the odds, despite the tremendous punishment they might take, helps them overcome every obstacle.
Teo’s grin twists into something sharper, almost more cruel, as his eyes continue to flash. Though his expression should suggest joy, there is something behind his eyes, something darker. Though he smiles, it is the smile of a madman.
He slowly raises his hand out towards the camera as if offering a handshake to the viewer.
Teo Blaze: My name’s Teo Blaze. Perhaps you’ve heard of me, Robert.
You see, when you look at the two of us, you might notice something. You think you’ve had hardship? I’ve had men try to take my life in this ring.
I’ve been hit with every single type of weapon that you can possibly envision by real bad men, I’ve had my skull cracked open like an egg and my ribs broken so many times I could open a restaurant. I’ve thrown myself through car roofs, off scaffolds, through tables, onto dirt, concrete, steel, you name it, and I’ve done it without hesitation every. Single. Time.
You want pain? I’ve watched a wrestler I idolized fall to his death in the center of the ring. I’ve had to watch my best friend retired from the sport by injury, and I’ve stood in the ring knowing that I caused that injury.
I’ve been burned, bruised, cut, slashed, electrocuted, crashed cars, kidnapped, and you know what?
I’ve always come back!
Teo’s head turns to the side, though his smile remains, his teeth are clenched, and his breath has become more rushed, more frantic, but still somehow measured.
Teo Blaze: What you fail to realize Robert Simmons is that you know nothing!..Of pain. You think you know suffering? You think you know hatred?
Teo’s eyes narrow, and all at once, his voice changes, the register becoming cold as steel, the words coming from his mouth carrying a strength within them.
Teo Blaze: You don’t know shit.
For years I have carried the banner of the WCF Galaxy across my back, and I have been made to suffer for it by cruel men who look at me with nothing but contempt. Men who took joy in making me hurt, men who given the chance would have slit my throat without feeling a thing.
And with a smile on my face, I have stood before them and I have taken everything. Every blow, every shot, every time someone spit in my face and told me that I was a failure, that I was a fraud, that everything I stood for was nothing more than an illusion, every time someone told me that I should quit.
Teo’s voice is quiet now, almost a whisper, as he speaks. Though the noonday sun blazes overhead, his voice seems cold enough that his breath can be seen in the air.
Teo Blaze: I am not saying you’ve had it easy, Robert.
But you are not in my league.
And the reason I know it..?
The camera pans to the outside, where the wrestler in the singlet has been lifted in the air in a military press, and with a yelp of surprise smashes into a display of decorative snowglobes, sending water and broken glass flying everywhere as people scream in sympathy.
Teo Blaze: Is because you’ve never been broken.
Your name alone implies the pride you have in that accomplishment. “Stone Crow” implies a hardness, a toughness. A carrion bird that survives on anything it can find, and on top of that one practically made of concrete. A survivor with a stone hide... one who can take anything that is dished out.
But the thing is Robert...there’s no such thing as unbreakable.
I have time and again called myself a survivor...but unbreakable?
The twisted grin returns to Teo’s face as if he is considering a particularly cruel joke.
Teo Blaze: I’ve been broken for years, “Stone Crow”... and that is the difference between us.
But before you get it twisted…
I know what it means to fall. I know what it means to be pushed past my limits.
But I also know what it means to surpass those limits.
You..? You pride yourself on your limit never having been reached.
On being able to take anything that has ever been thrown at you.
To some that would perhaps speak to an otherworldy toughness on an impossible scale, a feat unequaled by any throughout history, a point of pride that speaks to just how damned stubborn you are.
Teo taps his forehead with his index finger as he cocks an eyebrow.
Teo Blaze: But you see Robert, I’ve never seen the world like most people. The fact that you can honestly claim that no challenge has ever broken you, that your true limits have never been tested...that just tells me the story of someone who has never had to face a challenge to great to overcome, who has never had to look their own failures in the face and come to terms with the fact that they were just not good enough.
That, Stone Crow…
That is what brings strength.
Not from being able to take anything that’s thrown at you.
But from not being able to.
I speak no hyperbole when I say that I have done things in this company that nobody ever expected from a skinny wannabe luchador with a smile on his face, but I also speak no hyperbole when I say that every accomplishment in my name, every single record, every single moment has brought with it a burden of suffering, of struggle, and you bet your ass of failure.
Because as I’ve said time and time again, victory alone cannot make a person strong!
As Teo speaks, the two wrestlers, now significantly bloodied from their wild brawl, roll into the ring, breathing exhaustedly as they struggle to stand, but still they push against each other, each trying to make the other fall.
Teo Blaze: We are cut from the same cloth, Robert Simmons, but you cannot say what I can say when it comes to sacrifice, when it comes to dedication, when it comes to overcoming anything thrown at you!
Your greatest strength, your toughness, is a drop of water in my ocean, you are nothing to me, and the fact that you defeated Bonnie Blue says leagues more about her than it could ever say about you!
Because here’s the thing, Simmons...she may have underestimated you, and you may have taken advantage of that.
But what you don’t want to admit is that she didn’t push you. She didn’t test you, she didn’t really make you doubt not only if you would win, but whether victory was even fucking possible!
I will.
When I step between those ropes, I carry with me each and every blow, each and every victory and each and every failure...and they all drive me, Robert. They push me to heights that you can only dream of.
You claim a reputation based on your toughness..?
I’ve made a legacy on mine.
And this week, I am going to do you a favor.
For the first time in your life, I’m going to do to you what you seem to think nobody can.
I’m going to break you.
I’m going to crack that stone crow open, and I’m going to let the whole world see what’s really inside.
We can be broken together, Robert.
And when you’re staring up at those lights, when your shoulders have been pinned down, when I’ve driven my knee right into your cranium, when your nose is broken, your teeth cracked, your eyes blackened?
When you look up at me holding this championship over my head and the only thing that you can do, the only comfort in this, your most embarassing, most humiliating moment, will be the tears that come from your eyes when you have to face for the first time that you’ve been pushed past your limit.
And only then, Robert, do you get to mention your name in the same fucking sentence as mine.
Behind Teo, the wrestler in the singlet collapses face first on the mat as the crowd cries in sympathy. Teo turns with a smile as he watches tiger tights holding his hand up in victory.
Teo Blaze: You think you’re a diamond, but you’re too dumb to realize that you’re still that same piece of coal.
And don’t forget Robert…
Coal still burns.
With that, the Champion turns and exits the ring, disappearing into the crowd as the scene fades to black.
