Post by Markw on Jul 29, 2016 20:33:51 GMT -5
WFWF Defiance – My Manifesto
The WFWF is a mess.
'But you say that every week, where's the proof?'
Go and watch Exodus. It took about 50 sittings alongside a sick bucket to get through the whole thing, but I managed it.
I saw, roughly, ten watchable minutes. And that was me beating our 'rising' star International Champion.
The rest?
The rest was a disgrace.
Everything else was either a joke, a finesse-less brawl, cheats being cheats or people who need the whole world to hear their voice every week.
It was so bad that you could almost laugh it off, and I almost did. I almost just sat there, laughed at this car crash of a wrestling show and moved on.
But it's really pissed me off.
And then, on top of that, there's this 'Golden Opportunity', which really does sound like a fabulous idea. A title that might actually, genuinely, help to even things up a little. To let the talented but under appreciated, work their way up, get an opportunity to earn a step up the ladder.
At least, it would be a fabulous idea, if that actually was the idea.
But anyone who cares to read the small print, and who has an even remotely critical mind, can tell you that that's not what we're getting. It's not about giving people opportunities in the ring. It's about adding another prop to the soap opera.
Oh, sorry, was I supposed to be all aboard the 'supporter of future talent' Lila Sleater circle jerk? Nah, not happening. Where was the 'supporter of future talent' when Shawn Malakai could select our World Champion using whatever criteria he liked? One of his old cronies like David Williams or Thunder or Wayne McGurk could have been our World Champion, without having to earn it, under Lila Sleater. Where was the golden opportunity for people who had been busting their asses then? Where was the tournament? Where were the equal opportunities?
There's two elements I've got an issue with here. And the first is the most sinister, I suppose.
'When the holder does cash in then the title becomes vacant, and a new Golden Opportunity champion will be crowned in a manner determined by the WFWF booker.'
That's the line I've got a big issue with. The new champion will be 'crowned in a manner determined by the WFWF booker'. For those suckered in by the monarchical undertones that just scream 'everyone's got an equal shot at this thing', I'll spell out the issue.
There's no 'a new champion will earn the belt in a wrestling match' there, is there? It's a prop, that 'the WFWF booker' can hand willy-nilly to whoever she likes. A tool that will let 'the WFWF booker' hand select challengers, without having to justify the selection at all, so that she, or he, can catapult her (or his) own people to the top without them having to bother with the monotony of the whole 'winning lots of wrestling matches' thing that most of us have to deal with.
And they can do it all under the pretence that they're 'a supporter of future talent'.
Not only that, and here's my second issue, but they've very cleverly made the 'Golden Opportunity' a chance for somebody to get a shot at the International Champion. So that when someone they like uses the former to win the latter, they can say 'x is the International Champion, they clearly deserve a shot at the big belt'. And when someone they don't like uses it, and wins the International Championship in spite of the monopoly that's being created here, they can instantly fling any number of people at them to take the belt away.
So if anybody is stupid enough, to come to me, and say 'the WFWF higher ups, Lila Sleater, they're putting in place this fantastic equal opportunities democratic system that's answering all of the questions you've raised', I will respond 'No', only probably not that politely.
This is a transparent attempt to centralise power. And it'd be fine, if it was just about getting people like Trace Demon, Drakz, Lucas Crowe to earn their positions. And maybe that is the intention. But we know, from her recent history, that if you put that much power in Lila Sleater's hands, she's not going to stop there. She is going to create a WFWF for her people, at the expense of everybody else.
I give it three weeks until Dave Demento is back, with a new name, and a new face after another botched plastic surgery, as the hand picked 'Golden Opportunity Champion', just because he's willing to do things most of us shudder thinking about doing to get into Lila's pocket.
I don't like a lot of things, about a lot of the people that this is a measure against. But nobody should be having a street party over this thing. It might look noble. It might even look like it's not important, to the untrained eye. But it is important. And it's not good.
Boy I needed to get that off my chest.
Right, where was I? Oh yeah, Exodus.
At Exodus, I saw something, that I see happen every week. And it shouldn't bother me. The culprit will remain nameless, because they sure as hell aren't the only one. It's a pretty widespread problem.
I saw someone rehearsing an interview.
And I see it all the time.
I see people practising talking to the WFWF cameras, genuinely having to rehearse telling someone they hate them.
Imagine having to prep for interviews. There's a reason I don't need notes, I don't feel the need to prepare everything I say – it's because I actually believe it.
So many professional wrestlers are taught how to sell matches. Taught how to connect with an audience, that they spend as much time on having the right look, on being able to talk, as they do on being able to wrestle.
Why do so many of them feel the need to do it?
I'm sorry, I know I repeat this again, and again, and again, but it's because businessmen are making the talking more important than the wrestling. Those wrestlers doing this for their pay cheque are more concerned about selling themselves and selling a story, than they are about preparing to wrestle, because that's what these fat cats are turning wrestling in to.
Well I'm f***ing sick of it. I don't want to have as big a fight outside the ring as I do in it. I don't want to give them the drama, the story, that they want. That's going to line their pockets, in the short term at least. I want to be able to just wrestle, do it well and for that to be enough to change things.
And yet I find myself in this f***ing Bernie Sanders, Jeremy Corbyn, Michael Foot nightmare position, that I won't actually be able to do f*** all about anything if I don't use one or two of their methods. If I don't give them a little bit of what they want.
Sound angry?
You f***ing bet I am.
It really is tiring, having to appease these corporate b******* if I want to get anywhere. If I want to actually make a difference.
It's difficult having principles. Honestly I wish I didn't, I wish I could just be Trace Demon or Drakz. I wish I didn't care about doing the right thing, that I could just do whatever the hell makes things better for me and not worry about how it effects anything else.
But that's not an option. Because I care. And it sucks.
It sucks having to use the media. It sucks having to use the camera. It sucks having to pick your battles, to bite your tongue and not make a bigger fuss about injustices like the 'Golden Opportunity'. It sucks having to be pragmatic, but I don't want to be on the sidelines waving my 'Bernie 4eva <3' sign and pretending I'm making a difference, I want to take the b******s down.
---
Poppy: “You might not like it, but you're not going to get anywhere if you don't put it in black and white. It might be distasteful, but no one's going to care about this nonsense unless you get it into the press”
Bishop: “I...”
Andy: “That's just nonsense, you vultures are the problem, he needs to do his talking in the ring.”
She was right, I didn't like it.
But, sickeningly, she was kind of right in what she said too (it had to happen eventually). I mean her motives are disgusting, she wants a nice shiny interview with WFWF superstar Joe Bishop so she can get something published and push her foot in the door. It's about personal gain for her and it's disgusting. But going out there and winning isn't achieving things as quickly as I'd have liked, and at the risk of sounding paranoid, I know stuff like the 'Golden Opportunity' is going to be used as a way of keeping people like me away from the big matches that I need as a platform. As dirty as it made me feel, I too had come to the conclusion that one well timed plea in the press could be the move that brings this circus crashing down, and shortly before the main event of a show on the road to SuperBrawl is the sort of time when it would have its biggest impact.
Unfortunately before I could agree with Poppy, she decided she was going to sell the idea some more.
Poppy: “Please, for me?”
She begged twirling her hair like a six year old girl in one of the most nauseating displays I've seen in years. It would have been an affront to every moral fibre of my being, to back down after that.
Bishop: “No chance.”
I replied laughing at her pathetic attempts to convince me, and hoping that she wasn't going to give up.
Poppy: “Come on, all of the big stars do this, all the time.”
Well that just isn't a good argument at all, I don't want to be a big star I want to be the best wrestler. Would be way too demeaning to back down to that.
Bishop: “How many times do I have to say I'm not going to do it?”
Hopefully none, for the love of God come up with something coherent so I can get this over with.
Poppy: “Please it'll help both of us, I get my interview, get my foot in the door, I'm going to be selling you.”
Andy: “Oh come on it's not about Joe getting a friend in the press is it? It's about you getting a story, if it fell in your lap you'd write any old s*** that'll get published”
Well he's right. She ignored her father's blunt take on her career path and looked pleadingly at me.
Bishop: “I can't.”
Because you're doing a s*** job of selling the best course of action, thanks a bunch.
Poppy: “Fine I'm clearly not going to change your mind, you're so f***ing stubborn.”
Oh great. She stormed out, as I watched on completely bemused. Takes a pretty special mind to fail to convince you to do something you decided to do three days ago. F***ing journalists.
---
If history tells us anything, it's that good people, who want to change things, have to make some uncomfortable compromises. Compromises that otherwise like-minded good people, will loathe them for.
That's a sacrifice that has to be made. And those distasteful, uncomfortable compromises have to be made, or the bad guys do what they want with our world. It's not ideal, but nothing ever is. The people who expect 'ideal', who expect to make things better without getting their hands a little dirty, they get nowhere.
It doesn't mean you have to change your core beliefs. You don't have to sell your soul to make a difference. You don't have to abandon anything you really believe in. But, from time to time, you have to get behind or use something, that doesn't sit right with them.
The media are an evil that afflicts our society in so many wonderfully inventive ways. And you'd hope there are areas, professional sports for example, that would be free from such meddling. But, alas, we too are currently one of their play things. As professional wrestlers, most of the time, we're the villains making kids kill each other for no reason, well it's us, video games and TV anyway.
The point is, the press are powerful, Really powerful. They shape everything, including, of course, what the public thinks of professional wrestling. And so, while the press is almost always an invaluable asset to the establishment, that doesn't mean we can't use it as a weapon against them. The right picture, the right headline, making its way into the right paper, can force the establishment to scramble for a new position in an instant.
You saw it with the Civil Rights movement. You saw it with the refugee crisis. You're seeing it with the black lives matter movement. The press, despite being part of the establishment, is an invaluable weapon against them.
How does that relate to me?
I mean I've been preaching against the media involvement in professional wrestling from day one, before this battle even began. Seems like quite the U-turn. Well it's not. The ideal is press-free professional wrestling, but that doesn't mean that they can't help bring about their own destruction. And certainly, there's a place for them – whether they like it or not – when it comes to highlighting the issues with the WFWF as it is. As I say, it's about picking your battles, biting your tongue, being pragmatic, and making the move when the time is right.
They might be vultures, but I don't see why they shouldn't be allowed to stick around long enough to pick apart the right prey.
I guess what stands out when I look at the people who've changed history, who've made things better – or worse for that matter - the one thing they share, is an incredible knack for making sure that Joe Public sees them as the victim, and in fairness most of the time they are.
You can't get away with making heads roll, until people know why they have to roll. And believe me, the WFWF has more than a few heads that must roll.
So that's what I intend to do. A week ago I told Lucas Crowe to learn from history, it wouldn't look good if I didn't take that advice. It's not about changing my goals. It's still about education, it's just about educating as many people as possible, that what these people are doing, to this sport, is wrong. And that I as a professional wrestler, my colleagues, and they as fans are the victims. You've got to use these outlets, once or twice, to throw the evils into focus, it's a harsh reality of life.
---
Bishop: “I suppose...”
Ugh this isn't going to be fun.
Bishop: “I suppose I've got to work with the system a little bit if I want to change it, no one is going to get behind my calls for change, if they don't know I'm calling for it.”
Poppy: “So you're going to do the interview?”
Bishop: “Yes.”
I responded begrudgingly.
Poppy: “Awesome, knew I'd convince you.”
Yeah you did a stand-up job.
Much as I would have loved to have wiped the beaming smile off her face, I decided I'd let her have this win. Damaging that isn't exactly going to be in my interests. I wasn't exactly thrilled about the idea, but it is fundamentally in my interests and it might by me a favour or two down the line.
Bishop: “Let's get this over with then.”
---
---
Poppy: “It's here.”
Bishop: “Great.”
She seemed to be expecting an enthusiastic response as she thrust the magazine in front of us.
Poppy: “You could smile, either of you, this is a big deal for me.”
Andy: “It's a bit difficult to get excited about it, you could be doing something productive.”
Poppy: “That's what I love about you Dad, so supportive.”
He wasn't wrong though, why on earth she'd expect a pat on the back and kiss from Daddy for knowing me at a convenient time, I don't know. Nonetheless, in spite of the fact that my name was plastered all over it, and hers didn't get a mention, she was going to celebrate this one like she'd written the works of Shakespeare. Still it'll serve its purpose for both of us, she gets her article, I spread my message, and hopefully, the long term impact, is that I won't have to use the media to say what I can say with an opponent and that ring.
Bishop: “It'll help us.”
I reassured Andy as his eyes began to flick down the page.
Andy: “'My Manifesto', huh, I don't think it's going to be a Penguin Classic.”
Bishop: “It'll do its job.”
---
Words don't change anything on their own.
That's not particularly insightful I know, it's obvious, but it's relevant.
When one makes a statement, really lays out their plans for the world to see, they have to back it up. They have to follow it up by proving that they meant – and are capable of acting upon - every word.
It's quite apt really, that Defiance is the show where I have to prove myself. Where I have to prove, in that ring, that I am capable of achieving every goal I've outlined outside of it. It is absolutely vital, that against Brandon Bison and Cam Nitta, in the main event of WFWF Defiance, I hammer every point home. You can't follow a rallying cry, a plea to change the whole system, with a lukewarm outing and a narrow defeat to a Cam Nitta or a Brandon Bison. I don't mean to be rude, but that would really undermine what I'm doing here wouldn't it.
On the face of it, it's one I should win. That's the way it's being billed anyway. Cam hasn't been relevant for six years, aside from his brief involvement in inadvertently helping to drive Xavier Pierce out, of course (thanks Cam – not that it did me much good). And Bison has yet to make anything like the impact he would have liked.
I've already learned the hard way, that it isn't wise to expect to get away with turning up against anyone. My first encounter with Dave Demento taught me that, that the person you thought was a joke can make you look very silly if you don't turn up.
I know you're a threat Cam, or at least that you could be. Everyone knows that you could be. Not everyone earns their shot at the World Championship in this place, but you deserved yours. And you failed, Scarlett Quinn was a more than worthy World Champion in my book, there's nothing disgraceful about that failure. Subsequent failures, are a little less forgiveable. In fact, in my eyes, your subsequent failures have been pretty embarrassing. Not necessarily because they happened, but because you're still getting into the Main Event of WFWF shows after doing nothing for so, so long. It's not a great indictment for the sport. And I suppose that makes you one of the difficult pieces to fit into the jigsaw, in terms of my desired WFWF. Because you have the talent to be a huge success, you have the talent to challenge just about anybody here, but one can't help but question the drive.
How many chances should you get?
I don't know. And I'm not in a position to dictate.
But this is a chance for you. A big one.
One you've got to take really. And I hope you really throw everything at it. I hope we see the Cam Nitta of old. I hope we see a Cam Nitta who actually cares about professional wrestling, a Cam Nitta who doesn't let rookies who've barely stepped foot in the ring upstage him.
And I hope, and suspect, that it won't matter too much if we do. Because I'd like to think, that no matter what you bring to the table, I'm well placed to deal with it. You can call that arrogance if you want, I don't think it is. I've spent one pretty intense year doing everything in my power to make sure that I come back as more than just Cam Nitta at his best. More than just a minor annoyance to Scarlett Quinn, Phillip Schneider and Mak Cross.
Bison, we don't know about you. Neither I, nor Cam, nor anyone else does really. The hope is that it's all about to click and you'll prove that you belong in the wrestling ring of a company that purports to be the best in the world. Alternatively you'll be another in Lila's long line of dud signings.
The main event of a big show, in the build up to the WFWF's flagship show, would be a good time for it to click. If not it'll send an embarrassing message to everyone watching, about what this WFWF has to offer. I suppose in some ways, the latter would suit me more. But as I've said, I care. I don't want this place to be dragged through the dirt. I'm just not optimistic.
This is a big opportunity for both of you. A match where you HAVE to step up, and HAVE to make a statement.
But don't make the mistake of thinking it isn't just as big for me. Because it is.
Because I have made a 'statement', and now I HAVE to back it up with a REAL statement, in the ring. I have to prove that all this stuff about what professional wrestling should be, what the WFWF could be, is not white noise from some bitter lifelong midcarder who's going nowhere and achieving nothing.
I can't champion a new WFWF, turn up and lose a match like this. Because the impact would be, that the message would be drowned out by laughs, and that is the worst possible thing that could happen right now. For me, for this fed, and even though you won't agree, for the two of you.
This is the most important match of my career to date, it is a chance to headline a WFWF show with my vision, and as Lila Sleater and Trace, Drakz and co battle it out to tighten their grip, my opportunities to do so are going to become less and less frequent.
This is my shot, and no matter what the two of you bring, I'm not going to let go of it without a serious fight. I've been waving a placard and having a cry for way too long without doing something about it. An unquestionably perfect performance in this match, this main event, in the build up to their big show, is something that can actually make a difference.
Everybody talks, Myself included, I've done way too much of it this week. I've had to. I've had to tell people why I'm doing this and I've not enjoyed it one bit. But the truth is, my manifesto isn't going to be on WFWF.COM, or the pages of some s***ty magazine. Doing those things is a necessity, an important part of spreading the message, but it's really not my medium. My manifesto is going to be in that ring, for the whole world to see, and Cam, Brandon, whether you miraculously raise your game or not, you're going to be more lucky victims of the first chapter.
---
OOC: Well doing this in one long sitting brought back University memories if nothing else. I wanted to try the whole photoshopped magazine interview again partly because it was rushed last time I did it (against Dex I think?), and it is again – even more so this time xD - but it was pretty important to have it there in terms of what I originally wanted to do with this so I figured I couldn't hold off. It's past 2:30am here, and I'm very tired, so apologies for formatting, spelling and grammar issues but I'm pretty sure proof reads in this state are less effective so I'm just going to trust openoffice has got the worst of it.
I dont know good luck 
