Sometimes They Karma Back (...for More)
Mar 31, 2016 16:50:02 GMT -5
Post by Johnny Karma on Mar 31, 2016 16:50:02 GMT -5
5th March 2016, Boston, MA
At this moment in time Johnny Karma should be jubilant, having proven himself to be the better man and defeated Tony Carmine to lift the Pride Championship title once again - but instead what we see as Karma walks back through the curtain at the Agganis Arena is a man who may have proven himself to be the better man by defeating Tony Carmine, who may have the Pride Championship title belt in his hands, but rather than celebrating instead Karma looks remarkably PO'd about what went down after the match had finished
Five minutes. That's all I needed, five minutes...no, scratch that, two minutes is all I needed to enjoy the moment I have spent so long working for. That's all I ask. Two minutes for the animals to stay in their cages and not fling a handful of their feces at anyone that walks past, just two minutes, but no that's not going to happen. No, instead I have a couple of kuckers jump me from behind before the three of them take it in turns to see who can kick me the lowest and I am sick of it.
Having finished blowing off one lot of steam, Karma grabs a bottle of water from a nearby table and takes a long glug from it – but rather than being the end of him getting a few things off his chest, it was merely a temporary break from hostilities
I’m trying to make this place a little bit better, you know? And for a few weeks it seemed that was what was exactly what was happening as one momzer after another fell, dropping titles or finding themselves with a lot more free time on their hands. For a moment it looked…beautiful, but it turns out that beauty was just a vacuum that somebody was itching to fill, and that’s what happened tonight. And because it happened tonight that means we’ll be hearing from those three on the next show, and the show after that, and so on, and so on, because while most people thought that some of the poison swilling around the FWA well has finally been cleaned out, instead those three saw an opening to get their own brand of gunk in there and wanted everybody to know they’re the ones who are making your stomach churn with every sip.
Reaching the locker room, Karma shoves the door open with an uncharacteristic amount of force, so much that the door remains wide open on its hinges as Cherry follows him into the locker room and closes the door behind him, and inside the locker room Karma slumps on the nearest bench and sighs
I wanted a moment, I’d earned a moment, and that was taken from me because people still think stealing something is the same thing.
Once he’s finished, Karma finally looks down at the floor – and as he looks down, he casts his eyes upon the Pride Championship title belt, and as he looks at the belt it finally starts to sink in that he has achieved something so many doubted he would ever do and it appears a literal weight is being lifted from his shoulders, something which Cherry seems to be aware of as she steps a little closer to Karma
Listen, J-K, I know this won’t be the same as what you were hoping for, but…but I’ve got a suggestion.
Karma looks up towards Cherry
What’re you thinking?
Cherry gestures towards the belt that Karma is holding in his lap
Could you pass me…?
Cherry is a little unsure of how to finish the question, but Karma understands what she’s getting at well enough and passes her the belt
You’re going to have to stand up for this.
A smile starts to form on Karma’s lips, not grinning from ear to ear but it’s obvious that Karma’s mood is improving as he stands up, and as he stands up Cherry clears her throat
Here is your winner and NEW Pride Champion…JOHNNY KARMA!!!
With the belt in her hands, Cherry ducks behind Karma as helps him fix the belt around his waist, and after a little bit of a struggle to make sure the belt stays in place Cherry steps back in front of Karma
Congratulations…champ.
Cherry leans in and kisses Karma on the cheek, and for the briefest moment there seems to be a little frisson when Karma and Cherry meets each other’s gaze when she does so, before Cherry quickly takes a step back and looks towards the locker room door
…you should probably take a shower.
Cherry quickly makes her way towards the locker room door, looking over her shoulder as she steps through into the hallway
I’ll be waiting for you.
Once Cherry leaves the locker room, Karma places a hand on the belt’s faceplate, and in that moment he catches a glimpse of his reflection in a nearby mirror, and upon seeing himself with a title around his waist once more Karma takes a couple of steps towards the mirror, placing a hand upon its reflective surface as he nods towards his reflection to confirm that he’s finally done it
21st March 2016, Queens, NYC
It’s the morning after the night before, or to be more accurate the morning after the card for the next episode of Vertigo has gone up on the FWA website, and we see Cherry is sat in a booth at their regular hangout Sal’s Deli with the remains of a plate of chilli cheese fries on the table in front of her, but as she’s about to polish off the plate she’s distracted by the bell above the door and looks up to see Karma walking in and, once he sees where Cherry’s sat, he walks over and plonks himself down in the booth opposite Cherry, at which point Cherry slides a glass of Coke (with a shot of Sprite in it) towards Karma and he takes a sip before he speaks
So you saw the card then?
Rather than answer the question directly, Cherry turns her smartphone around so Karma can see the match card is on the screen
I guess it doesn’t come as a surprise. If we can’t expect Carmine to wait two minutes before he shows the sportsmanship of a rage quitter and jumps me from behind after I had the nerve to relieve the Pride Championship of his presence, so it’s no surprise it took him no time at all before he resorted that most shameful way to get into title contention, invoking his rematch clause. I guess the only surprise is that he wasn’t demanding it before I’d even got backstage.
Karma reaches for one of Cherry’s fries, only to have his hand considerably slapped away
It’s almost as if he’s heard every single thing I’ve said about people who were born with the moral compass of a rabid dog thinking they can trick their way to the top of the ladder and he missed the point entirely, instead thinking that sounded like a great idea so he decided to rent a cherry picker, bring a couple more people with a similarly broken moral compass to help him on his way, and asked them to make sure the cherry picker was in place before hitting the big red button to see how close he could get to the top before somebody climbing the ladder turned around and saw what he was doing and knocked him back to earth where he’d land tuches-first on his new found best friends. And what gets me most about this is that surely if he’d bothered to ask Johnny Cannon about his recent exploits he might have heard something about how his attempts to climb the ranks by thinning them out only got him so far – something I should know, because I’m the guy who stopped him in his tracks. But it seems all that proved in Cannon’s mind was he couldn’t get the job done on his own, so instead he needed to find someone who was equally shameless at trying to get ahead while dragging everything he touches down. The real shame that comes from that is they found a third person willing to tag along with them, because I guess if somebody hears there might be a shortcut they’ll want to find about it for themselves rather than get left behind while somebody else takes it….
It suddenly dawns on Karma that Cherry is trying to get his attention, specifically she’s trying to make him aware that there’s a remarkably impatient-looking waiter standing by the table who is giving him a look that could quite possible melt steel
Oh…right. Errm, a half lean brisket sandwich with matzo ball soup please. And an iced tea.
The waiter marches back to the kitchen with some heavy-sounding footsteps, almost as if they were annoyed about something, as Karma picks up where he left off
What gets me the most is I am sure Carmine has been telling himself over and over again that he lost the title because of one single mistake he made that led to him losing that second fall – even though the fact there was a second fall proves it wasn’t just one mistake that led to me winning the title from him, and that’s before taking into account the whole match that took place around those two falls. I mean it’s not like it was all Carmine for 90% of the match before I hit my big finish out of nowhere, so if he’s convincing himself that’s the case.
So not only is Carmine looking to get the Pride Championship back in the cheapest, laziest manner possible he’s also hoping his backup can move him up the ranks in the cheapest, laziest manner possible – and no doubt Cannon and Diamond both think they’ll be moving up the ranks in a similarly cheap and lazy way, and all because they saw a gap where Chandler Scott used to stand and decided not only to fill that gap, but also try and make it that little bit bigger.
And now…
KARMIC TV
Brought to you with Pride…Championship
We cut to the Karmic TV studio where we see Cherry Baum greeting us as she always does, with a friendly and slightly overenthusiastic wave, while we see Karma sprawled on his couch – and on the seat next to him rests the Pride Championship title belt, resting comfortably on a silk cushion
Hi guys and welcome to another edition of Karmic TV, and as you might have noticed since the last episode the Karmic family has grown a little bit bigger with the addition of this lil’ fella, the FWA Pride Championship. But rather than having me introduce the newest member of the fam, why not let the man who brought this little bundle of joy into our lives do the honours?
Needing no further encouragement, Karma takes a moment to clear his throat before he introduces us all to the apple in his eye
Why thank you, Miss Baum.
Cherry mouths a few words of thanks back in Karma’s direction
I seem to recall a little bird - a bird with some pretty scuzzy plumage, that is - confidently stating that I would never win another title as long as I remained a member of the FWA roster. And despite this bold prediction, I can sit here right now and say I’ve paid my dues, time after time, I’ve done my sentence but committed no crime. And bad mistakes, I’ve made a few, I’ve had sand kicked in my face and still I’ve come through because I needed to go on, and on, and on and I am Pride Champion, my friends, I kept on fighting ‘til the end…and I’m sure you know the rest.
It wasn’t just Carmine who was gladly predicting a successful title defence, though. That’s the thing with a rooster that likes to cluck its lungs out every morning, people pay attention to it and it becomes all they know, and that’s why plenty of people bought into the idea he’d be walking out with the title because that’s something he’s done plenty of times before…apart from that time he lost the title once already that we’re supposed to forget about, because a rooster doesn’t crow about the time that it got friend zoned by every hen in the henhouse, just like a peacock doesn’t flash its fan when it’s been sat in a puddle of dirty water. But either way, when somebody bends the truth so much that the Eagle Scouts are sending them badges for using the truth to fashion a sheepshank, there’s always going to be people that are taken in by this – as I’m sure plenty of people watching the Presidential nomination race will have noticed.
Cherry checks her watch, just to check if that’s the earliest Karma’s snuck a Donald Trump joke into proceedings
There was, however, one person Carmine failed to convince that this was going to happen: the guy standing across the ring from him. Me. He might have felt confident in the early stages of the match, thinking he’d be getting his way because he’s so used to getting his way – and pretending the times where he didn’t get his way didn’t happen so nobody should mention them – but that’s the thing about me having sand kicked in my face, I still came through, because I kept on fighting ‘til the end, and that’s when Carmine’s world began to shift on its axis. He was thinking it was a matter of time before his hand was raised and he’d be walking back up the ramp with the title in his hands, only to find that things weren’t going to plan – he couldn’t keep me down, because I wouldn’t let him. He tried everything he had, he even decided to be a putz about it and try a few things I have, but he either couldn’t get the job done. But one person certainly did get the job done, and that’s why I have the title.
Yet even though he couldn’t get the job done, he did get the last word.
It should have been a moment where I got to savour the fruits of my labours, but instead the only thing I was savouring was having Carmine, Johnny Cannon and Danny Diamond taking it in turns to try and find that seventh bell to kick out of me, because Carmine wanted not just me but the whole FWA locker room on notice that he was making a power play. Or maybe I’m giving him too much credit and what actually happened was he showed that if you thought he was graceless in victory, he can go one step lower in defeat. Judging by what went down after the last match he was involved in, either option’s valid.
And with that recap out of the way that brings us to this exact moment in time, where Carmine is demanding he have the chance to win the title back at the earliest opportunity. It’s the nakedness of that move that sticks out more than anything else, the fact he lost the belt but he’s immediately throwing his weight around to get another shot at the title because he just can’t fathom the idea that while he thinks he’s the hottest drek around, that’s giving people plenty of reason to scrape him off their shoes. After all, he’s the reason it dawned on me that I’m not somebody who wants to sink below the lowest of the low to scale the heights and that’s what led to me changing my whole outlook – and that’s done far more for me than punting trophies into the crowd did. However, when it comes to punting Tony Carmine’s hopes of regaining the Pride Championship before he’s had the chance to admit to himself that he’s lost it, I’m not interested in punting his hopes into the crowd – I want to punt them clean out of the 2300 Arena, and I don’t care if it’s through the roof or out the door.
At that point Karma lifts the title belt off of its silk cushion and places it firmly on his lap, holding it in place with his free hand as he continues
I said I was going to relieve this title of the indignity it had suffered for too long, and even though I took a beatdown afterwards nobody can say that’s not what happened - but while Carmine though he was sending a message with his actions after the match and when he demanded his rematch, what he’s actually gone and done is handed me the parchment to write my own message, a message that needs to be writ large: you do not get to have things your way anymore.
A month or so ago you had the chance to yay or nay anything that was put to you because that’s the privilege of someone who wants to use a title as a weapon and keep hold of it as long as you want, so you had a whole hand to play before you started to worry about the possibility of losing it all. But now you’ve got one card left, the rematch you were so quick to demand, and because you’re on that last card you’ve gone from a position where you can control everything to one where you’re hoping you get that lucky break at the last second. As much as Carmine will try to deny it, sitting there with your fingers crossed that you manage to hold it together is one heck of a fall from where he once was. But the thing going into this match is that my knowing I can step up in a pressure situation to beat Carmine for the title is almost irrelevant, partly because there’s a big difference between beating somebody for a title and beating somebody to retain a title, but mostly because there’s no reason for me to believe he’ll fly solo in this match and he’ll be throwing the weight of Cannon and Diamond around if that’s what he needs to do.
So that’s the point – last time I needed to wrestle one of the very best matches of my career to shut down Carmine’s attempts to slither out of the ring with the title in his hands, but now I’ve got to wrestle one of the very best matches in my career to shut down his attempts to regain the title while having to keep an eye firmly on the ringside area in case his backup has decided to show up and swing things in his favour. So not only do I have to be great in the ring, I need to be smart – and I need to do that under Pride rules, meaning I have to do it for two or even three falls. I guess I should be thankful there aren’t any rule changes that expect me to ride a unicycle while juggling chainsaws that are on fire, because that’s about the only way that the task in front of me could get any more insanely difficult. But you know what? If I’m going to live up to what I’ve been saying about making FWA great again, then I’m going to have to do it – no excuses, no kvetching, I just have to take my bows, my curtain calls, and prove I can turn back Tony Carmine twice in the space of three shows and become the Pride Champion that I’ve always said I was going to be.
Having finished what he was saying, Karma pats the Pride Championship belt before he places it back upon its silk cushion as Cherry wraps things up
Well I think that wraps things up for another edition, and I’m pretty sure we don’t have to pay any royalties for liberally quoting a certain Queen song, so it’s time for us to prepare to head to Philly for another showdown with Tony Carmine. But until then, from me Cherry Baum…
…and me, the reigning Pride Champion Johnny Karma…
…thanks you so much for watching, drop us a like if you liked it and a subscribe if you loved it, and we’ll see you soon. Bye!
At this moment in time Johnny Karma should be jubilant, having proven himself to be the better man and defeated Tony Carmine to lift the Pride Championship title once again - but instead what we see as Karma walks back through the curtain at the Agganis Arena is a man who may have proven himself to be the better man by defeating Tony Carmine, who may have the Pride Championship title belt in his hands, but rather than celebrating instead Karma looks remarkably PO'd about what went down after the match had finished
Five minutes. That's all I needed, five minutes...no, scratch that, two minutes is all I needed to enjoy the moment I have spent so long working for. That's all I ask. Two minutes for the animals to stay in their cages and not fling a handful of their feces at anyone that walks past, just two minutes, but no that's not going to happen. No, instead I have a couple of kuckers jump me from behind before the three of them take it in turns to see who can kick me the lowest and I am sick of it.
Having finished blowing off one lot of steam, Karma grabs a bottle of water from a nearby table and takes a long glug from it – but rather than being the end of him getting a few things off his chest, it was merely a temporary break from hostilities
I’m trying to make this place a little bit better, you know? And for a few weeks it seemed that was what was exactly what was happening as one momzer after another fell, dropping titles or finding themselves with a lot more free time on their hands. For a moment it looked…beautiful, but it turns out that beauty was just a vacuum that somebody was itching to fill, and that’s what happened tonight. And because it happened tonight that means we’ll be hearing from those three on the next show, and the show after that, and so on, and so on, because while most people thought that some of the poison swilling around the FWA well has finally been cleaned out, instead those three saw an opening to get their own brand of gunk in there and wanted everybody to know they’re the ones who are making your stomach churn with every sip.
Reaching the locker room, Karma shoves the door open with an uncharacteristic amount of force, so much that the door remains wide open on its hinges as Cherry follows him into the locker room and closes the door behind him, and inside the locker room Karma slumps on the nearest bench and sighs
I wanted a moment, I’d earned a moment, and that was taken from me because people still think stealing something is the same thing.
Once he’s finished, Karma finally looks down at the floor – and as he looks down, he casts his eyes upon the Pride Championship title belt, and as he looks at the belt it finally starts to sink in that he has achieved something so many doubted he would ever do and it appears a literal weight is being lifted from his shoulders, something which Cherry seems to be aware of as she steps a little closer to Karma
Listen, J-K, I know this won’t be the same as what you were hoping for, but…but I’ve got a suggestion.
Karma looks up towards Cherry
What’re you thinking?
Cherry gestures towards the belt that Karma is holding in his lap
Could you pass me…?
Cherry is a little unsure of how to finish the question, but Karma understands what she’s getting at well enough and passes her the belt
You’re going to have to stand up for this.
A smile starts to form on Karma’s lips, not grinning from ear to ear but it’s obvious that Karma’s mood is improving as he stands up, and as he stands up Cherry clears her throat
Here is your winner and NEW Pride Champion…JOHNNY KARMA!!!
With the belt in her hands, Cherry ducks behind Karma as helps him fix the belt around his waist, and after a little bit of a struggle to make sure the belt stays in place Cherry steps back in front of Karma
Congratulations…champ.
Cherry leans in and kisses Karma on the cheek, and for the briefest moment there seems to be a little frisson when Karma and Cherry meets each other’s gaze when she does so, before Cherry quickly takes a step back and looks towards the locker room door
…you should probably take a shower.
Cherry quickly makes her way towards the locker room door, looking over her shoulder as she steps through into the hallway
I’ll be waiting for you.
Once Cherry leaves the locker room, Karma places a hand on the belt’s faceplate, and in that moment he catches a glimpse of his reflection in a nearby mirror, and upon seeing himself with a title around his waist once more Karma takes a couple of steps towards the mirror, placing a hand upon its reflective surface as he nods towards his reflection to confirm that he’s finally done it
21st March 2016, Queens, NYC
It’s the morning after the night before, or to be more accurate the morning after the card for the next episode of Vertigo has gone up on the FWA website, and we see Cherry is sat in a booth at their regular hangout Sal’s Deli with the remains of a plate of chilli cheese fries on the table in front of her, but as she’s about to polish off the plate she’s distracted by the bell above the door and looks up to see Karma walking in and, once he sees where Cherry’s sat, he walks over and plonks himself down in the booth opposite Cherry, at which point Cherry slides a glass of Coke (with a shot of Sprite in it) towards Karma and he takes a sip before he speaks
So you saw the card then?
Rather than answer the question directly, Cherry turns her smartphone around so Karma can see the match card is on the screen
I guess it doesn’t come as a surprise. If we can’t expect Carmine to wait two minutes before he shows the sportsmanship of a rage quitter and jumps me from behind after I had the nerve to relieve the Pride Championship of his presence, so it’s no surprise it took him no time at all before he resorted that most shameful way to get into title contention, invoking his rematch clause. I guess the only surprise is that he wasn’t demanding it before I’d even got backstage.
Karma reaches for one of Cherry’s fries, only to have his hand considerably slapped away
It’s almost as if he’s heard every single thing I’ve said about people who were born with the moral compass of a rabid dog thinking they can trick their way to the top of the ladder and he missed the point entirely, instead thinking that sounded like a great idea so he decided to rent a cherry picker, bring a couple more people with a similarly broken moral compass to help him on his way, and asked them to make sure the cherry picker was in place before hitting the big red button to see how close he could get to the top before somebody climbing the ladder turned around and saw what he was doing and knocked him back to earth where he’d land tuches-first on his new found best friends. And what gets me most about this is that surely if he’d bothered to ask Johnny Cannon about his recent exploits he might have heard something about how his attempts to climb the ranks by thinning them out only got him so far – something I should know, because I’m the guy who stopped him in his tracks. But it seems all that proved in Cannon’s mind was he couldn’t get the job done on his own, so instead he needed to find someone who was equally shameless at trying to get ahead while dragging everything he touches down. The real shame that comes from that is they found a third person willing to tag along with them, because I guess if somebody hears there might be a shortcut they’ll want to find about it for themselves rather than get left behind while somebody else takes it….
It suddenly dawns on Karma that Cherry is trying to get his attention, specifically she’s trying to make him aware that there’s a remarkably impatient-looking waiter standing by the table who is giving him a look that could quite possible melt steel
Oh…right. Errm, a half lean brisket sandwich with matzo ball soup please. And an iced tea.
The waiter marches back to the kitchen with some heavy-sounding footsteps, almost as if they were annoyed about something, as Karma picks up where he left off
What gets me the most is I am sure Carmine has been telling himself over and over again that he lost the title because of one single mistake he made that led to him losing that second fall – even though the fact there was a second fall proves it wasn’t just one mistake that led to me winning the title from him, and that’s before taking into account the whole match that took place around those two falls. I mean it’s not like it was all Carmine for 90% of the match before I hit my big finish out of nowhere, so if he’s convincing himself that’s the case.
So not only is Carmine looking to get the Pride Championship back in the cheapest, laziest manner possible he’s also hoping his backup can move him up the ranks in the cheapest, laziest manner possible – and no doubt Cannon and Diamond both think they’ll be moving up the ranks in a similarly cheap and lazy way, and all because they saw a gap where Chandler Scott used to stand and decided not only to fill that gap, but also try and make it that little bit bigger.
And now…
KARMIC TV
Brought to you with Pride…Championship
We cut to the Karmic TV studio where we see Cherry Baum greeting us as she always does, with a friendly and slightly overenthusiastic wave, while we see Karma sprawled on his couch – and on the seat next to him rests the Pride Championship title belt, resting comfortably on a silk cushion
Hi guys and welcome to another edition of Karmic TV, and as you might have noticed since the last episode the Karmic family has grown a little bit bigger with the addition of this lil’ fella, the FWA Pride Championship. But rather than having me introduce the newest member of the fam, why not let the man who brought this little bundle of joy into our lives do the honours?
Needing no further encouragement, Karma takes a moment to clear his throat before he introduces us all to the apple in his eye
Why thank you, Miss Baum.
Cherry mouths a few words of thanks back in Karma’s direction
I seem to recall a little bird - a bird with some pretty scuzzy plumage, that is - confidently stating that I would never win another title as long as I remained a member of the FWA roster. And despite this bold prediction, I can sit here right now and say I’ve paid my dues, time after time, I’ve done my sentence but committed no crime. And bad mistakes, I’ve made a few, I’ve had sand kicked in my face and still I’ve come through because I needed to go on, and on, and on and I am Pride Champion, my friends, I kept on fighting ‘til the end…and I’m sure you know the rest.
It wasn’t just Carmine who was gladly predicting a successful title defence, though. That’s the thing with a rooster that likes to cluck its lungs out every morning, people pay attention to it and it becomes all they know, and that’s why plenty of people bought into the idea he’d be walking out with the title because that’s something he’s done plenty of times before…apart from that time he lost the title once already that we’re supposed to forget about, because a rooster doesn’t crow about the time that it got friend zoned by every hen in the henhouse, just like a peacock doesn’t flash its fan when it’s been sat in a puddle of dirty water. But either way, when somebody bends the truth so much that the Eagle Scouts are sending them badges for using the truth to fashion a sheepshank, there’s always going to be people that are taken in by this – as I’m sure plenty of people watching the Presidential nomination race will have noticed.
Cherry checks her watch, just to check if that’s the earliest Karma’s snuck a Donald Trump joke into proceedings
There was, however, one person Carmine failed to convince that this was going to happen: the guy standing across the ring from him. Me. He might have felt confident in the early stages of the match, thinking he’d be getting his way because he’s so used to getting his way – and pretending the times where he didn’t get his way didn’t happen so nobody should mention them – but that’s the thing about me having sand kicked in my face, I still came through, because I kept on fighting ‘til the end, and that’s when Carmine’s world began to shift on its axis. He was thinking it was a matter of time before his hand was raised and he’d be walking back up the ramp with the title in his hands, only to find that things weren’t going to plan – he couldn’t keep me down, because I wouldn’t let him. He tried everything he had, he even decided to be a putz about it and try a few things I have, but he either couldn’t get the job done. But one person certainly did get the job done, and that’s why I have the title.
Yet even though he couldn’t get the job done, he did get the last word.
It should have been a moment where I got to savour the fruits of my labours, but instead the only thing I was savouring was having Carmine, Johnny Cannon and Danny Diamond taking it in turns to try and find that seventh bell to kick out of me, because Carmine wanted not just me but the whole FWA locker room on notice that he was making a power play. Or maybe I’m giving him too much credit and what actually happened was he showed that if you thought he was graceless in victory, he can go one step lower in defeat. Judging by what went down after the last match he was involved in, either option’s valid.
And with that recap out of the way that brings us to this exact moment in time, where Carmine is demanding he have the chance to win the title back at the earliest opportunity. It’s the nakedness of that move that sticks out more than anything else, the fact he lost the belt but he’s immediately throwing his weight around to get another shot at the title because he just can’t fathom the idea that while he thinks he’s the hottest drek around, that’s giving people plenty of reason to scrape him off their shoes. After all, he’s the reason it dawned on me that I’m not somebody who wants to sink below the lowest of the low to scale the heights and that’s what led to me changing my whole outlook – and that’s done far more for me than punting trophies into the crowd did. However, when it comes to punting Tony Carmine’s hopes of regaining the Pride Championship before he’s had the chance to admit to himself that he’s lost it, I’m not interested in punting his hopes into the crowd – I want to punt them clean out of the 2300 Arena, and I don’t care if it’s through the roof or out the door.
At that point Karma lifts the title belt off of its silk cushion and places it firmly on his lap, holding it in place with his free hand as he continues
I said I was going to relieve this title of the indignity it had suffered for too long, and even though I took a beatdown afterwards nobody can say that’s not what happened - but while Carmine though he was sending a message with his actions after the match and when he demanded his rematch, what he’s actually gone and done is handed me the parchment to write my own message, a message that needs to be writ large: you do not get to have things your way anymore.
A month or so ago you had the chance to yay or nay anything that was put to you because that’s the privilege of someone who wants to use a title as a weapon and keep hold of it as long as you want, so you had a whole hand to play before you started to worry about the possibility of losing it all. But now you’ve got one card left, the rematch you were so quick to demand, and because you’re on that last card you’ve gone from a position where you can control everything to one where you’re hoping you get that lucky break at the last second. As much as Carmine will try to deny it, sitting there with your fingers crossed that you manage to hold it together is one heck of a fall from where he once was. But the thing going into this match is that my knowing I can step up in a pressure situation to beat Carmine for the title is almost irrelevant, partly because there’s a big difference between beating somebody for a title and beating somebody to retain a title, but mostly because there’s no reason for me to believe he’ll fly solo in this match and he’ll be throwing the weight of Cannon and Diamond around if that’s what he needs to do.
So that’s the point – last time I needed to wrestle one of the very best matches of my career to shut down Carmine’s attempts to slither out of the ring with the title in his hands, but now I’ve got to wrestle one of the very best matches in my career to shut down his attempts to regain the title while having to keep an eye firmly on the ringside area in case his backup has decided to show up and swing things in his favour. So not only do I have to be great in the ring, I need to be smart – and I need to do that under Pride rules, meaning I have to do it for two or even three falls. I guess I should be thankful there aren’t any rule changes that expect me to ride a unicycle while juggling chainsaws that are on fire, because that’s about the only way that the task in front of me could get any more insanely difficult. But you know what? If I’m going to live up to what I’ve been saying about making FWA great again, then I’m going to have to do it – no excuses, no kvetching, I just have to take my bows, my curtain calls, and prove I can turn back Tony Carmine twice in the space of three shows and become the Pride Champion that I’ve always said I was going to be.
Having finished what he was saying, Karma pats the Pride Championship belt before he places it back upon its silk cushion as Cherry wraps things up
Well I think that wraps things up for another edition, and I’m pretty sure we don’t have to pay any royalties for liberally quoting a certain Queen song, so it’s time for us to prepare to head to Philly for another showdown with Tony Carmine. But until then, from me Cherry Baum…
…and me, the reigning Pride Champion Johnny Karma…
…thanks you so much for watching, drop us a like if you liked it and a subscribe if you loved it, and we’ll see you soon. Bye!
