1 in 14 million? I'll take it.
Oct 27, 2016 18:48:06 GMT -5
Post by Johnny Karma on Oct 27, 2016 18:48:06 GMT -5
15th October 2016, St Paul Minnesota
Insider one of the locker rooms at the Roy Wilkins Arena we witness what has been an increasingly familiar sight for the past few months, as an utterly dejected Johnny Karma enters the room and he looks thoroughly pist avek that, in spite of his best efforts, once again he came up short because of The New Kings’ playing the numbers game at his expense – frustrations which he takes out first on the door, which he shoves open with so much force that it sends a folding chair placed by the door flying across the room, and then Karma takes out his frustrations by picking up that chair and slamming it down hard onto a bench
I am so…
Attempting to complete his sentence, Karma finds it almost as impossible as he almost chokes on his own rage
I can beat them, I know it, but every time…every single time there’s always another one of them showing up to take something away from me, and I am sick of it.
Throwing himself tuches-first onto the nearest bench, Karma holds his head in his hands
Here’s what gets me: for months I’ve been saying that the roster needs to work together and meet them head-on, yet while they’re adding The Usual Suspects what’s the response from everyone else? To wait and see if somebody else will sort out the problem.
As Karma buries his head into the palms of his hands, Cherry carefully approaches him and places a hand on his shoulder – a hand that nearly slips right off due to all the perspiration that Karma is currently drenched in, but she just about manages to keep it in place
I know this is probably not the best time to be saying this, but…
Cherry takes a couple of seconds to carefully arrange the words of what she’s about to say, which also gives her the opportunity to take her hand off Karma’s shoulder and rub the perspiration off her fingers
…have you ever thought that, rather than saying how everyone should band together to combat Cannon, Carmine and the others, that you should’ve actually asked someone for help?
Upon hearing what Cherry says, Karma raises his head out of his hands – but Cherry isn’t quite finished
If you ask me, you could’ve asked Fujiko for help and she’d have given it, you probably could’ve called on Mark Storm or Molly Reid or Nero Darling given they’d been on the end of their fair share of grief, so that’s at least four people who could’ve had your back, but only if you’d asked.
I mean, I get that you want to get revenge given everything you’ve been put through, but this is real life – you can’t be Rambo and take on an entire army single-handed and win, that’s not how real life works. If you try that in real life it’d take a second before you’re a streak of grease on the ground, and that wouldn’t look heroic.
Looking towards Cherry, it appears that Kama has just had a moment of clarity
…
Karma attempts to sit upright, which is quite a struggle given he’s only a couple of minutes removed from taking a beating, almost as if a weight has been removed from his shoulders
…you’re right.
Using the bench itself to help push himself back to his feet, Karma rises with a sense of purpose as he thinks things through
There’s a whole locker room…okay, half a locker room, and I could’ve said at any point “Hey, I keep getting jumped by the same three guys, little help?”
How could I not see something so obvious? It’s not like I’m that Majima guy, talking about journeys I should walk alone because something something warrior, I’m a human being – and the whole point of being a human being is that we can’t do everything on our own, and we need to reach out a hand every once in a while, yet what I’ve been doing is standing around waiting for a hand to be offered to me, and I’ve missed so many hands that would’ve taken mine.
Karma stops in his tracks, as if struck by a moment of inspiration
...and I’ve got a good idea who I should reach out to first.
Turning on his heels, Karma makes for the locker room door and makes his way back into the corridors of the Roy Wilkins Arena so he can looks for whoever he has in mind
17th October 2016, Queens NYC
A few days later we find Karma and Cherry in their usual hangout, Sal’s Deli, where Karma has a conspiratorial look about him as he attacks his chicken Caesar salad, to the point where Cherry points an accusing chili cheese fry in his direction as she asks…
You’ve been awfully quiet today. Is there something on your mind?
Resting his fork on the side of his plate, Karma looks towards Cherry – although just for a second there’s a devilish twinkle in his eye, almost as if he knows something he doesn’t want too many people knowing about…
No, it’s just…I’ve been thinking about what you said the other night, about knowing when to reach out and ask for help, and I’ve been testing the waters to see if I can get some allies to turn things around so things start to get a little too French Revolution for the New Kings, if you catch my drift.
Curious about what Karma means, Cherry can’t help but ask a follow-up question
So who do you have in mind?
Nothing’s agreed, but…
Rather than answer the question, Karma mimes drawing a zip over his lips
…I wouldn’t want to jinx it by saying who I have in mind. Besides, we both know what you’re like when you read spoilers.
I’m not that bad!
23rd October 2016, Coney Island NYC
Waking up on her couch, Cherry glances towards the clock on her phone an discovers her mid-evening nap that was supposed to last half an hour somehow turned into a three hour snooze – very quickly followed by her eyes narrowing as she sees the first couple of tweets on her Twitter feed
Spoiling bastards!!!
Furious that she’s been informed that both Glenn and Abraham die in tonight’s episode of The Walking Dead before she’s had a chance to watch the episode, Cherry punches the cushion nearest to her on the couch with a remarkable amount of force before she gets off her couch and storms out of the room making all manner of NSFW comments as she does so
17th October 2016, Queens NYC
…and we’re back in Sal’s Deli
Here’s the thing: for a long time I’ve been saying that while others are happy to take the low road I shouldn’t stoop to their level, something which must’ve struck a chord with Michelle Obama as she said pretty much the same thing…although judging by the debates, nobody passed that memo on.
Karma shudders at the memory of watching five minutes of what appeared to be two children arguing about whose dad could beat up the other’s dad, but was in fact supposed to be a Presidential debate
Yet the thing with always looking to take the high road is that, sometimes, you lose sight of your surroundings, for example being on the high road might offer the best view – but you won’t enjoy that view for long because you missed the sign saying “WARNING: LANDMINES” that you drove straight past. Sometimes you have to keep an eye on what other people are doing, because just saying “Well I’m on the high road” isn’t so great if…
The flow of Karma’s monologue is rudely interrupted by the notification tone on Cherry’s phone, causing her to glance towards it…and as she does so, her eyes widen, and she looks up towards Karma
…what is it?
You’re not going to like this…
Cherry slides her phone towards Karma, and he picks it up off of the table and reads what’s on the screen…before his eyes narrow slightly, at which point he hands the phone back to Cherry
Unbe…
Karma sinks into his seat as he tries to structure a sentence in his head
So after months of hearing his bluster, with him saying how big and bad he is and blah blah blah, when he finally manages to actually win a title defence he just ups and leaves as if his life’s work is now complete? What a klafte…
Shaking his head in disbelief, Karma picks up his fork and skewers an unfortunate piece of his salad so hard that we hear the fork strike the plate underneath it, accompanied by the sound of the prongs scraping against the plate
So what’s going to happen with the title now?
Once he hears the question, Karma looks up in Cherry’s direction, at the same time wondering the exact same thing – yet also having an idea what could happen
KARMIC TV
I voted Kodos!
After what feels like a couple of Ice Ages – the period of time, not the film franchise that ran out of steam at least two movies ago – we return to the Karmic TV studio where, as always, we are greeted by Johnny karma and Cherry Baum
Hi guys, and after a break we welcome all of you back to Karmic TV, and we’ve missed you all.
Cherry glances towards karma briefly, before she continues
Before we continue, first of all I can’t thank each and every one of you who were so supportive of J-K during the time where he was at his most vulnerable. It’s times like these where you need your friends the most, and it’s good to know that we’ve made a few friends along the way.
Of course, a return to life inside the ring was always going to be tough, and although J-K gave as good as he got there was no fairytale ending at Retribution as Cannon and Carmine’s numerical advantage was just too much, allowing them to take advantage of the referee only having one pair of eyes to steal victory.
However a lot has happened in FWA since then, so to fill you all in I’ll hand things over to the man himself…
Cherry gestures in Karma’s direction, giving him a moment to clear his throat
As you’re no doubt aware by now, having finally managed to win a title defence at the…I want to say twelfth time of asking, Zero McHannon – the so-called man who puts the Z into “putz” – decided that he didn’t have anything to prove so, without warning, he threw down the FWA Championship and threw the whole company into turmoil.
On the one hand I’m almost tempted to say “good riddance” because that’s exactly what he deserves, yet on the other hand it’s almost impossible not to feel slighted by this shady manoeuvre, given how hard many people have fought to even become contenders for the title, to see it suddenly vacated just because the so-called champion didn’t receive jello and ice cream on his birthday, or whatever pitiful excuse he has for acting the way he acted, it’s not a slap in the face to everyone else – because a slap doesn’t hit hard enough.
Taking a breath, Karma deviates from the topic a little
You know what? I’ve had enough of being slapped in the face lately. Life’s slapped me in the face harder than I knew anyone could hit me, I’ve been getting slapped left and right by…
Karma clears his throat
…certain members of the roster, not just when I’m in the ring but they feel the need to mock things they really shouldn’t – and believe me, I will be addressing that soon enough – and now the one thing I’m working towards gets dumped in the trash by someone you can describe as trash and people would think you were paying them a compliment.
I didn’t start my career expecting to spend most of my time asking the universe “What the hell?” when all I was witnessing was one form of shady behaviour or another, I doubt anyone on the roster signed up for that, yet that’s what life seems to be these days: another day, another reason to scream some confused screams into the void. Frankly, I’ve had enough of it for two or three lifetimes.
Yet here’s the thing: because McMoron decided to rage quit the company, that means that the one thing I have been fighting towards is now that little bit closer as there’s no contender’s list to work my way up, and there’s no endless back-and-forth of rematch clauses keeping the same two people in title matches for half the year, now there’s a clean slate and whoever makes the most of it gets the title. Funny how that works sometimes, isn’t it?
Pausing to wipes under his nose, Karma peers off into the middle distance for just a second as he thinks about something, before he brings his hands together
All of which brings us back to the topic in hand, as a solution was needed and the Wildcard Lottery Tournament is it, as sixteen members of the roster had their names drawn out of a hat and were paired up with a random partner, so in the first round they have to co-exist to progress, and in the second round the winning team must fight one another to reach the semi-finals.
The draw isn’t as fool proof as it first sounds, after all there’s nothing to stop someone letting their partner take the beating of a lifetime in the opening round and pick the carcass in the quarter finals, but having a solution is better than trying to muddle on and hope one falls into your lap – something I know all too well…
Karma pauses to give a wry, if somewhat bitter, smile to camera
So after spending a lot longer than I first realised staring at the screen of my phone awaiting updates on who my partner would be, let alone the opponents, it was eventually revealed that Noelle Smith would be in my corner for one match, and potentially standing in the opposite corner for the following one. I mean…you get what I’m trying to say…right?
Anyway, what I’m trying to say is that after a lot of tense tapping and scrolling my partner was revealed as Noelle Smith, and I have to say, that’s a pretty good slice of luck. I mean, imagine if I’d been paired up with Cannon, or Carmine? Trying to coexist with either of them would be like a hungry lion coexisting with a side of beef – it’s just not happening…and, FYI, I’m not the side of beef.
Noelle, on the other hand, she’s one of the good ones.
Yes, the pair of us have faced off a couple of times in the past, and I’m sure some conspiracy theorist on Twitter is going to try and make something of it, but then again haven’t Dan Herrera and Cordy Stevenson faced off a few times in the past? So where’s somebody trying to say there’s a wedge between those two? These things work both ways, you know.
The thing with Noelle is that she’s been here a couple of years and she’s worked her way up, picking up titles and got to the point where she can get into contention for any title and nobody can say she doesn’t belong in the match. If there’s one thing I know, putting my grizzled veteran hat on for a second, is that when you get to the point where nobody can say you don’t belong in a match regardless of who you’re facing, then you’ve made it – which is why she’s in the tournament, because nobody can say she doesn’t belong.
In terms of the opposition, again nobody can say Cordy Stevenson nor Dan Herrera belong, because their histories say they do – and you can throw in the fact that they’re the current tag team champions to underline what they can do, let alone what they have done.
Pausing for a moment as something crosses his mind, Karma licks his lips to moisten them
Here’s something that strikes me: I’ve faced both Herrera and Cordy a few times in my career, yet every single time victory’s eluded me – and that’s something that’s bothered me for longer than I’d like to admit, because after a while when you start facing a wide variety of opponents you start to notice there’s one or two you never seemed to be able to beat. This isn’t about the Wildcard Lottery tournament, this is about something bigger, namely how it’s hard to consider yourself a true contender for a title when there’s that one opponent who always managed to stay a step ahead of you each and every time you faced them. If there’s somebody who managed to stay a step ahead of you, then can you really claim you deserve to be on top of the world?
Then there’s the name that the pair of them have: Status Quo. Apparently they wanted to be known as The Same Old Same Old, but that just wouldn’t fit on a t-shirt in quite the same way.
You see, on the one hand if I look at this tournament as a whole the main thing I think is that the best thing for everybody would be if the whole thing ended with something other than the worst of humanity standing at the end of it with the belt in their hands, because we’ve seen far too much of that lately and it would be refreshing if something else led the way for a change. We’ve had to put up with McMomzer on top, Cannon on top, Chandler Scott before his redemption tour on top, Jimmy Page on top – basically a Chamber of Horrors and that’s just not a pleasant situation to be in. But then I look at the field a little harder, and there’s an opportunity to see the landscape change completely – and for that to happen, that means the Status Quo should be nowhere near it. This isn’t a “You had your time, etc etc” thing…even though the pair of you have both cashed in one of your allocated six retirements prior to winning the titles, this is more about having a new direction with some new faces up top.
Am I saying I’ll be that guy? Who knows, but the point is that I should try and do everything I can to make that happen, and the absolute best thing I can do is finally be able to say that I hold a victory over Dan Herrera, or Cordy Stevenson, or if you want to start throwing around technicalities I could say I have a win over both of you and I can finally tick off two of the most persistent missed chances I’ve racked up since I arrived here.
There’s a whole lot of things I’d like to change about the past few months here, from failing to ask for help when I really needed it to not managing to hit the one move that would have guaranteed I put Chandler Scott down, and not for the first time in that case, so when there’s a chance to stop saying “What could have been…” I’m going to take it, because there’s never been a better chance to see things change than the one I have right now, and the pair of you are standing in my way.
Insider one of the locker rooms at the Roy Wilkins Arena we witness what has been an increasingly familiar sight for the past few months, as an utterly dejected Johnny Karma enters the room and he looks thoroughly pist avek that, in spite of his best efforts, once again he came up short because of The New Kings’ playing the numbers game at his expense – frustrations which he takes out first on the door, which he shoves open with so much force that it sends a folding chair placed by the door flying across the room, and then Karma takes out his frustrations by picking up that chair and slamming it down hard onto a bench
I am so…
Attempting to complete his sentence, Karma finds it almost as impossible as he almost chokes on his own rage
I can beat them, I know it, but every time…every single time there’s always another one of them showing up to take something away from me, and I am sick of it.
Throwing himself tuches-first onto the nearest bench, Karma holds his head in his hands
Here’s what gets me: for months I’ve been saying that the roster needs to work together and meet them head-on, yet while they’re adding The Usual Suspects what’s the response from everyone else? To wait and see if somebody else will sort out the problem.
As Karma buries his head into the palms of his hands, Cherry carefully approaches him and places a hand on his shoulder – a hand that nearly slips right off due to all the perspiration that Karma is currently drenched in, but she just about manages to keep it in place
I know this is probably not the best time to be saying this, but…
Cherry takes a couple of seconds to carefully arrange the words of what she’s about to say, which also gives her the opportunity to take her hand off Karma’s shoulder and rub the perspiration off her fingers
…have you ever thought that, rather than saying how everyone should band together to combat Cannon, Carmine and the others, that you should’ve actually asked someone for help?
Upon hearing what Cherry says, Karma raises his head out of his hands – but Cherry isn’t quite finished
If you ask me, you could’ve asked Fujiko for help and she’d have given it, you probably could’ve called on Mark Storm or Molly Reid or Nero Darling given they’d been on the end of their fair share of grief, so that’s at least four people who could’ve had your back, but only if you’d asked.
I mean, I get that you want to get revenge given everything you’ve been put through, but this is real life – you can’t be Rambo and take on an entire army single-handed and win, that’s not how real life works. If you try that in real life it’d take a second before you’re a streak of grease on the ground, and that wouldn’t look heroic.
Looking towards Cherry, it appears that Kama has just had a moment of clarity
…
Karma attempts to sit upright, which is quite a struggle given he’s only a couple of minutes removed from taking a beating, almost as if a weight has been removed from his shoulders
…you’re right.
Using the bench itself to help push himself back to his feet, Karma rises with a sense of purpose as he thinks things through
There’s a whole locker room…okay, half a locker room, and I could’ve said at any point “Hey, I keep getting jumped by the same three guys, little help?”
How could I not see something so obvious? It’s not like I’m that Majima guy, talking about journeys I should walk alone because something something warrior, I’m a human being – and the whole point of being a human being is that we can’t do everything on our own, and we need to reach out a hand every once in a while, yet what I’ve been doing is standing around waiting for a hand to be offered to me, and I’ve missed so many hands that would’ve taken mine.
Karma stops in his tracks, as if struck by a moment of inspiration
...and I’ve got a good idea who I should reach out to first.
Turning on his heels, Karma makes for the locker room door and makes his way back into the corridors of the Roy Wilkins Arena so he can looks for whoever he has in mind
17th October 2016, Queens NYC
A few days later we find Karma and Cherry in their usual hangout, Sal’s Deli, where Karma has a conspiratorial look about him as he attacks his chicken Caesar salad, to the point where Cherry points an accusing chili cheese fry in his direction as she asks…
You’ve been awfully quiet today. Is there something on your mind?
Resting his fork on the side of his plate, Karma looks towards Cherry – although just for a second there’s a devilish twinkle in his eye, almost as if he knows something he doesn’t want too many people knowing about…
No, it’s just…I’ve been thinking about what you said the other night, about knowing when to reach out and ask for help, and I’ve been testing the waters to see if I can get some allies to turn things around so things start to get a little too French Revolution for the New Kings, if you catch my drift.
Curious about what Karma means, Cherry can’t help but ask a follow-up question
So who do you have in mind?
Nothing’s agreed, but…
Rather than answer the question, Karma mimes drawing a zip over his lips
…I wouldn’t want to jinx it by saying who I have in mind. Besides, we both know what you’re like when you read spoilers.
I’m not that bad!
23rd October 2016, Coney Island NYC
Waking up on her couch, Cherry glances towards the clock on her phone an discovers her mid-evening nap that was supposed to last half an hour somehow turned into a three hour snooze – very quickly followed by her eyes narrowing as she sees the first couple of tweets on her Twitter feed
Spoiling bastards!!!
Furious that she’s been informed that both Glenn and Abraham die in tonight’s episode of The Walking Dead before she’s had a chance to watch the episode, Cherry punches the cushion nearest to her on the couch with a remarkable amount of force before she gets off her couch and storms out of the room making all manner of NSFW comments as she does so
17th October 2016, Queens NYC
…and we’re back in Sal’s Deli
Here’s the thing: for a long time I’ve been saying that while others are happy to take the low road I shouldn’t stoop to their level, something which must’ve struck a chord with Michelle Obama as she said pretty much the same thing…although judging by the debates, nobody passed that memo on.
Karma shudders at the memory of watching five minutes of what appeared to be two children arguing about whose dad could beat up the other’s dad, but was in fact supposed to be a Presidential debate
Yet the thing with always looking to take the high road is that, sometimes, you lose sight of your surroundings, for example being on the high road might offer the best view – but you won’t enjoy that view for long because you missed the sign saying “WARNING: LANDMINES” that you drove straight past. Sometimes you have to keep an eye on what other people are doing, because just saying “Well I’m on the high road” isn’t so great if…
The flow of Karma’s monologue is rudely interrupted by the notification tone on Cherry’s phone, causing her to glance towards it…and as she does so, her eyes widen, and she looks up towards Karma
…what is it?
You’re not going to like this…
Cherry slides her phone towards Karma, and he picks it up off of the table and reads what’s on the screen…before his eyes narrow slightly, at which point he hands the phone back to Cherry
Unbe…
Karma sinks into his seat as he tries to structure a sentence in his head
So after months of hearing his bluster, with him saying how big and bad he is and blah blah blah, when he finally manages to actually win a title defence he just ups and leaves as if his life’s work is now complete? What a klafte…
Shaking his head in disbelief, Karma picks up his fork and skewers an unfortunate piece of his salad so hard that we hear the fork strike the plate underneath it, accompanied by the sound of the prongs scraping against the plate
So what’s going to happen with the title now?
Once he hears the question, Karma looks up in Cherry’s direction, at the same time wondering the exact same thing – yet also having an idea what could happen
KARMIC TV
I voted Kodos!
After what feels like a couple of Ice Ages – the period of time, not the film franchise that ran out of steam at least two movies ago – we return to the Karmic TV studio where, as always, we are greeted by Johnny karma and Cherry Baum
Hi guys, and after a break we welcome all of you back to Karmic TV, and we’ve missed you all.
Cherry glances towards karma briefly, before she continues
Before we continue, first of all I can’t thank each and every one of you who were so supportive of J-K during the time where he was at his most vulnerable. It’s times like these where you need your friends the most, and it’s good to know that we’ve made a few friends along the way.
Of course, a return to life inside the ring was always going to be tough, and although J-K gave as good as he got there was no fairytale ending at Retribution as Cannon and Carmine’s numerical advantage was just too much, allowing them to take advantage of the referee only having one pair of eyes to steal victory.
However a lot has happened in FWA since then, so to fill you all in I’ll hand things over to the man himself…
Cherry gestures in Karma’s direction, giving him a moment to clear his throat
As you’re no doubt aware by now, having finally managed to win a title defence at the…I want to say twelfth time of asking, Zero McHannon – the so-called man who puts the Z into “putz” – decided that he didn’t have anything to prove so, without warning, he threw down the FWA Championship and threw the whole company into turmoil.
On the one hand I’m almost tempted to say “good riddance” because that’s exactly what he deserves, yet on the other hand it’s almost impossible not to feel slighted by this shady manoeuvre, given how hard many people have fought to even become contenders for the title, to see it suddenly vacated just because the so-called champion didn’t receive jello and ice cream on his birthday, or whatever pitiful excuse he has for acting the way he acted, it’s not a slap in the face to everyone else – because a slap doesn’t hit hard enough.
Taking a breath, Karma deviates from the topic a little
You know what? I’ve had enough of being slapped in the face lately. Life’s slapped me in the face harder than I knew anyone could hit me, I’ve been getting slapped left and right by…
Karma clears his throat
…certain members of the roster, not just when I’m in the ring but they feel the need to mock things they really shouldn’t – and believe me, I will be addressing that soon enough – and now the one thing I’m working towards gets dumped in the trash by someone you can describe as trash and people would think you were paying them a compliment.
I didn’t start my career expecting to spend most of my time asking the universe “What the hell?” when all I was witnessing was one form of shady behaviour or another, I doubt anyone on the roster signed up for that, yet that’s what life seems to be these days: another day, another reason to scream some confused screams into the void. Frankly, I’ve had enough of it for two or three lifetimes.
Yet here’s the thing: because McMoron decided to rage quit the company, that means that the one thing I have been fighting towards is now that little bit closer as there’s no contender’s list to work my way up, and there’s no endless back-and-forth of rematch clauses keeping the same two people in title matches for half the year, now there’s a clean slate and whoever makes the most of it gets the title. Funny how that works sometimes, isn’t it?
Pausing to wipes under his nose, Karma peers off into the middle distance for just a second as he thinks about something, before he brings his hands together
All of which brings us back to the topic in hand, as a solution was needed and the Wildcard Lottery Tournament is it, as sixteen members of the roster had their names drawn out of a hat and were paired up with a random partner, so in the first round they have to co-exist to progress, and in the second round the winning team must fight one another to reach the semi-finals.
The draw isn’t as fool proof as it first sounds, after all there’s nothing to stop someone letting their partner take the beating of a lifetime in the opening round and pick the carcass in the quarter finals, but having a solution is better than trying to muddle on and hope one falls into your lap – something I know all too well…
Karma pauses to give a wry, if somewhat bitter, smile to camera
So after spending a lot longer than I first realised staring at the screen of my phone awaiting updates on who my partner would be, let alone the opponents, it was eventually revealed that Noelle Smith would be in my corner for one match, and potentially standing in the opposite corner for the following one. I mean…you get what I’m trying to say…right?
Anyway, what I’m trying to say is that after a lot of tense tapping and scrolling my partner was revealed as Noelle Smith, and I have to say, that’s a pretty good slice of luck. I mean, imagine if I’d been paired up with Cannon, or Carmine? Trying to coexist with either of them would be like a hungry lion coexisting with a side of beef – it’s just not happening…and, FYI, I’m not the side of beef.
Noelle, on the other hand, she’s one of the good ones.
Yes, the pair of us have faced off a couple of times in the past, and I’m sure some conspiracy theorist on Twitter is going to try and make something of it, but then again haven’t Dan Herrera and Cordy Stevenson faced off a few times in the past? So where’s somebody trying to say there’s a wedge between those two? These things work both ways, you know.
The thing with Noelle is that she’s been here a couple of years and she’s worked her way up, picking up titles and got to the point where she can get into contention for any title and nobody can say she doesn’t belong in the match. If there’s one thing I know, putting my grizzled veteran hat on for a second, is that when you get to the point where nobody can say you don’t belong in a match regardless of who you’re facing, then you’ve made it – which is why she’s in the tournament, because nobody can say she doesn’t belong.
In terms of the opposition, again nobody can say Cordy Stevenson nor Dan Herrera belong, because their histories say they do – and you can throw in the fact that they’re the current tag team champions to underline what they can do, let alone what they have done.
Pausing for a moment as something crosses his mind, Karma licks his lips to moisten them
Here’s something that strikes me: I’ve faced both Herrera and Cordy a few times in my career, yet every single time victory’s eluded me – and that’s something that’s bothered me for longer than I’d like to admit, because after a while when you start facing a wide variety of opponents you start to notice there’s one or two you never seemed to be able to beat. This isn’t about the Wildcard Lottery tournament, this is about something bigger, namely how it’s hard to consider yourself a true contender for a title when there’s that one opponent who always managed to stay a step ahead of you each and every time you faced them. If there’s somebody who managed to stay a step ahead of you, then can you really claim you deserve to be on top of the world?
Then there’s the name that the pair of them have: Status Quo. Apparently they wanted to be known as The Same Old Same Old, but that just wouldn’t fit on a t-shirt in quite the same way.
You see, on the one hand if I look at this tournament as a whole the main thing I think is that the best thing for everybody would be if the whole thing ended with something other than the worst of humanity standing at the end of it with the belt in their hands, because we’ve seen far too much of that lately and it would be refreshing if something else led the way for a change. We’ve had to put up with McMomzer on top, Cannon on top, Chandler Scott before his redemption tour on top, Jimmy Page on top – basically a Chamber of Horrors and that’s just not a pleasant situation to be in. But then I look at the field a little harder, and there’s an opportunity to see the landscape change completely – and for that to happen, that means the Status Quo should be nowhere near it. This isn’t a “You had your time, etc etc” thing…even though the pair of you have both cashed in one of your allocated six retirements prior to winning the titles, this is more about having a new direction with some new faces up top.
Am I saying I’ll be that guy? Who knows, but the point is that I should try and do everything I can to make that happen, and the absolute best thing I can do is finally be able to say that I hold a victory over Dan Herrera, or Cordy Stevenson, or if you want to start throwing around technicalities I could say I have a win over both of you and I can finally tick off two of the most persistent missed chances I’ve racked up since I arrived here.
There’s a whole lot of things I’d like to change about the past few months here, from failing to ask for help when I really needed it to not managing to hit the one move that would have guaranteed I put Chandler Scott down, and not for the first time in that case, so when there’s a chance to stop saying “What could have been…” I’m going to take it, because there’s never been a better chance to see things change than the one I have right now, and the pair of you are standing in my way.
