Post by thesouthsidekid on Mar 29, 2007 18:05:47 GMT -5
It is a dark night. It is rainy. The roads are wet and slippery. A single white car. Looking like a Toyota Camary is driving down the winding, curvy roads. The time looks about 3 O’clock in the morning. We refocus in the car to see a middle aged man, looking like he is about 40, who is a medium build, with a full beard and long hair. He is the driver’s seat and he looks tired. In the passenger’s seat I sat.. I was too looking on the road, trying to help see. The rain was pouring down like someone had taken a large bucket of water and just let it pour, and there was no sign of it stopping.
: You know there is nothing to be ashamed of Josh. I mean you did everything right. Tonight just wasn’t your night.
Robbie, it’s bogus. I should’ve won that match. I don’t like losing!
Robbie was my trainer, and I had been living with him for about a year and a half now. Things were going great. I enjoyed having someone like a father figure to me, since I never really had one for the longest time. See my father was a drug addict and a gang member that got shot in a driveby along with my mother. Some parents. Anyway, after my aunt took me in, she soon got breast cancer and died, and that is where Robbie came into play. We were driving back from a UCW show, where I went up against the number 1 contender for their World Title, and I lost what guys in the back said was a excellent back and forth match. But going against someone and losing was something I didn’t like to do. It made me sick to my stomach, thinking that someone had gotten the better of me. Robbie was trying to calm me down in my distressed, depressed mood. Though despite his best efforts, nothing seemed to work.
Robbie: Josh, it’s your debut. Hell with the skill that you showed out there tonight against one of UCW’s biggest guns. You’re gonna have a bright future. I don’t see what you are so down about.
Yeah what kind of bright future? I’ll never make it to a main stage. Not like this!
Robbie: Josh, everyone eventually loses matches. Look at Goldberg. He eventually had to lose to someone, and it just happened to be Kevin Nash.
His career was never the same afterwards.
Robbie: Ok, bad example.
Look let’s face it Robbie, I’m not crap ok! I mean you should’ve left me in Salem where you found me because I’m a lost cause.
Robbie looks sternly over at me. He didn’t like it when I talked about Salem. I didn’t like talking about it either. It’s hard sometimes to not get down on myself, because I’m never sure what might happen. Robbie might wake me up in the middle of the night and kick me out of his house, just because he don’t want me to live there anymore. His eyes through the passing of the lights are stone cold, but at the same time are showing emotions. I’ve never seen him give me that look though. There was something about it, I couldn’t put my finger on though.
Robbie: With an attitude like that Josh, you will not amount to anything.
Thanks Robbie! Thanks a lot. Why don’t I just quit the business right now, leave your house and save you the trouble! I’ll go back on the streets and find myself back in Salem or worse, dead. Nobody would miss me!
Robbie: Damn it Josh, you are only 15 years old! You’re not even driving yet, and you had a match with one of the top wrestling promotions in the world, against one of their top dogs! And you almost won! You had him beat! You stole the
ing show tonight! What more do you want?
What more did I want? I wanted to win!
I want to win! But I LOST!
Robbie: That’s part of it! Not everyone can expect to go out there and dominate. You went out there though, and left the fans wanting more. Not many can do what you did tonight! It’s not that hard to grasp. I just wish you’d listen to me on this and not be so damn stubborn!
I turned my head away and looked out the window. I can’t believe he just called me stubborn. Just because he may not care about losing, doesn’t mean I don’t! I felt tears start to well up in my eyes. I tried to hide them, but I couldn’t it was too obvious. Robbie looked over and saw me crying in that passenger seat. He reached an arm over.
Robbie: Josh.
I turned and slapped his arm away. I was at my wits end with him at this point. I saw red.
Leave me alone Robbie! I hate you!
This statement hurt Robbie, and I knew it. At that point, I didn’t care. I wanted to die. I felt so angry at everything. With all that emotion balled up inside, I did the only thing I could do. I turned over and started to cry some more. Robbie, I could tell, but I thought I had heard the sound of a sad sniffle in that moment from the driver’s seat. I stopped crying for a moment at my own shock. Robbie is usually a man of strong will. He is a man that shows very little emotion. All business………..
But something happened when I said those three words to Robbie, that had never happened before to him……….
It got to him………it cut him…………
Deeply……..
Funny how guys have done things to him over his career, which spanned over 20 years. Not one of them have been able to do what three words from me did to him.
By this time the windshield was covered in a layer of solid water. Through the windshield from what I was able to see, the road was barely visible as fog also set in heavy which made it all the more difficult. By this point, Robbie was trying to hold back tears of his own. But he finally composes himself enough to speak.
Robbie: Well if it is any consolation, I talked to Randy and he said that he was very impressed with you. You are a natural is what he told me. You have the complete package, but you just need some tightening up on a few things, which will come with time. And Randy is one that is scarce with the compliments. So to get a mouthful like that from him is something special.
I didn’t ’t turn over in response.
What good is gonna make. All I’ll be is a show pony! I’ll be a little attraction that won’t mean anything. And I don’t want that. I want to be World Champion. I want to be the best!
Robbie: Do you want to know why my brother Marty called you Superstar?
I had no clue. But for the sake of my curious mind, I would like to know. But I could let him know I wanted to know.
Not really.
Robbie: Well tough crap, I’m gonna tell you anyway. When he first saw you. He looked at your posture, he looked into your eyes the first time he spoke to you. He said the first thing he noticed was how you carried yourself, hence your posture. He said you had a confidence that you knew that you were good at anything you tried your hand at. It is one of those things that you can’t teach that is important for the wrestling business. Marty has a good eye for these things. He saw potential in you. He sent you to me and I saw the same potential.
I finally turns back around and looked at Robbie. His eyes are red from the crying. I can’t believe I got to him that badly. I still wasn’t convinced that he cared that much. No one has ever cared that much for my success. It has always been about getting theirs. I stayed calm and cool as I could be, trying to let him know that I was going to be mad about this.
What good is the potential if you can’t produce wins. You told me that winning is the only thing!
Robbie: Well maybe I put a lot of pressure on you. I’m sorry Josh. But it’s because I see so much in you.
Really?
Robbie: Really.
Thank you Robbie, and I’m…………..ROBBIE LOOK OUT!!!!
Just then a tree falls in the middle of the road. Robbie swerves to miss the tree and the car hydroplanes out of control. The car breaks through the guardrail and goes off a steep hill. The car flips and slams down the hill while spinning. Finally the car is stopped when it hits a boulder on the driver side. We were stopped. I saw my life flash before my eyes in that moment, but I was still alive and stil conscious. I needed to get out of the car and get to safety. I unbuckled my seat belt and started to crawl my beaten body out of the side of the car. The only thing that separated me was the window. I took my elbow and smashed the window open and crawled out of the car. I was out. Wait, where is Robbie?
Oh crap! Robbie!!
I got to my feet and rushed to the other side of the car. On that side, Robbie is hanging out the window. He is bleeding profusely from multiple places in his body. I saw it and quickly tried to grab him. We needed help. I was panicked and I didn’t know what to do. I wanted him to be safe. The rain was pouring down on us as it began to lightning. The storm was coming hard. I knew there wasn’t much time.
Easy does it Robbie, let’s get you out of here and get to a hospital!
Robbie: Josh, leave me be!
I can’t Robbie, you’re gonna die if I don’t get you out of here!
Robbie: Josh I’m gonna die anyway!
God damnit Robbie, fight it!!!! FIGHT!!!
Robbie: Josh, listen to me and listen to me good ok.
I finally stopped fighting Robbie, as tears start to roll down Robbie’s face. Blood is seeping on the ground and Robbie can barely hold his head up.
Time is running out……….
I want to help him, but I can’t. He didn’t want me too. All the time he helped me, and he didn’t want me to return the favor. But he reached up and grabbed my face. He had my attention. Maybe for the last time.
Robbie: Josh, I’m gonna die right here. But I want you to know something. I have taught you everything that I know. You have the tools to be one of the greatest to ever lace up a pair of boots. I don’t want you to waste it, I want you to embrace it and use it to make yourself into the champion that I know you can be. I can never say that I’ve trained a World Champion, but you, out of all my students, can be the first. You just have to be certain that you are willing to do it
.
Robbie save your……….
Robbie starts to cough as blood comes out of his mouth. He is fading faster.
Robbie: Josh, remember what I said…….*cough* and remember that as ……………..*cough* you go on…………..*cough*………………align yourself with the right people………….*cough*…………………and know that I’m watching over you………………. *cough*
Robbie’s head drops down into the mud. He let go of my face. I quickly grabs his hand and hold it. Robbie with his last little bit of strength raised his head up for one last time.
Robbie: I love you……………………..*cough*…………Goodbye for now……………..
Robbies voice gets much weaker. He is almost to a whisper.
Robbie: Superstar………………………..
And with that last word, Robbie took his last breath and the life sucked out his body. He let go of my hand and fell into the muddy hillside, dead.
I was taken aback. I was a shell of myself. I didn’t know whether to cry, whether to scream. I did the only thing that I could do. I ran. I ran away from it all.
All of a sudden everything starts shaking and it all becomes so fuzzy. The next thing I know I’m sitting up in my bed. It was a nightmare. So real, like I was there all over again. I thought about my last night with my trainer and it made me sick to my stomach, much like the feeling I still get when I lose a match. It made me start to think about my match with Possessed Child at the House Show, and how I didn’t want to lose. It made me think about the New Breed Reign tournament, as I wiped the cold sweat from my brow. Could I be the one living my life in a distorted reality?
Message to Possessed Child
Possessed Child. Growing up, we all had a dream of what we want to be. A doctor, a lawyer, a police officer, a cop, Michael Jordan, and it’s hard to say what else. But there are a select few that want to be a pro wrestler, and fewer actually make it a reality. We are two of them that have made it. I never realized that this is what I wanted to be until that night.
Child, which is what I’m going to call you now. I bring this recollection of a painful memory that I still haven’t gotten over to this day, almost six years later, to show you that this is when I decided to become a wrestler. It was in that moment that I knew, it all became clear to me, like the clouds vanished and the rain stopped falling like in my nightmare. It still makes me sick however that I ran away. And ever since that day, I swore to myself in Robbie’s memory that I would never, ever run away from any confrontation. I will face it head on, no surrender in my heart.
The point to this is just like everything else I’ve been saying, and that is to give you something to think about. It isn’t all about winning or losing, and I discovered that on that day. But if you are a competitor, and you are in this business, then you get that sick feeling in your stomach when you lose. That sick feeling makes us work even harder, and to train even harder to not let it happen again. Child, at the House Show, we find ourselves in a position that both of us want, which is to be one step closer to the New Breed Reign title. I’ve made a goal since the card was announced, and my name was drawn, that I would win this tournament, and nothing can or will be done to stop that! You can try all you want to, but the result will be the same. So with that knowledge, are you going to go ahead and show up, or are you going to run away. The choice is yours, but if I were you, I’d think about it.
: You know there is nothing to be ashamed of Josh. I mean you did everything right. Tonight just wasn’t your night. Robbie, it’s bogus. I should’ve won that match. I don’t like losing!
Robbie was my trainer, and I had been living with him for about a year and a half now. Things were going great. I enjoyed having someone like a father figure to me, since I never really had one for the longest time. See my father was a drug addict and a gang member that got shot in a driveby along with my mother. Some parents. Anyway, after my aunt took me in, she soon got breast cancer and died, and that is where Robbie came into play. We were driving back from a UCW show, where I went up against the number 1 contender for their World Title, and I lost what guys in the back said was a excellent back and forth match. But going against someone and losing was something I didn’t like to do. It made me sick to my stomach, thinking that someone had gotten the better of me. Robbie was trying to calm me down in my distressed, depressed mood. Though despite his best efforts, nothing seemed to work.
Robbie: Josh, it’s your debut. Hell with the skill that you showed out there tonight against one of UCW’s biggest guns. You’re gonna have a bright future. I don’t see what you are so down about.
Yeah what kind of bright future? I’ll never make it to a main stage. Not like this!
Robbie: Josh, everyone eventually loses matches. Look at Goldberg. He eventually had to lose to someone, and it just happened to be Kevin Nash.
His career was never the same afterwards.
Robbie: Ok, bad example.
Look let’s face it Robbie, I’m not crap ok! I mean you should’ve left me in Salem where you found me because I’m a lost cause.
Robbie looks sternly over at me. He didn’t like it when I talked about Salem. I didn’t like talking about it either. It’s hard sometimes to not get down on myself, because I’m never sure what might happen. Robbie might wake me up in the middle of the night and kick me out of his house, just because he don’t want me to live there anymore. His eyes through the passing of the lights are stone cold, but at the same time are showing emotions. I’ve never seen him give me that look though. There was something about it, I couldn’t put my finger on though.
Robbie: With an attitude like that Josh, you will not amount to anything.
Thanks Robbie! Thanks a lot. Why don’t I just quit the business right now, leave your house and save you the trouble! I’ll go back on the streets and find myself back in Salem or worse, dead. Nobody would miss me!
Robbie: Damn it Josh, you are only 15 years old! You’re not even driving yet, and you had a match with one of the top wrestling promotions in the world, against one of their top dogs! And you almost won! You had him beat! You stole the
ing show tonight! What more do you want?What more did I want? I wanted to win!
I want to win! But I LOST!
Robbie: That’s part of it! Not everyone can expect to go out there and dominate. You went out there though, and left the fans wanting more. Not many can do what you did tonight! It’s not that hard to grasp. I just wish you’d listen to me on this and not be so damn stubborn!
I turned my head away and looked out the window. I can’t believe he just called me stubborn. Just because he may not care about losing, doesn’t mean I don’t! I felt tears start to well up in my eyes. I tried to hide them, but I couldn’t it was too obvious. Robbie looked over and saw me crying in that passenger seat. He reached an arm over.
Robbie: Josh.
I turned and slapped his arm away. I was at my wits end with him at this point. I saw red.
Leave me alone Robbie! I hate you!
This statement hurt Robbie, and I knew it. At that point, I didn’t care. I wanted to die. I felt so angry at everything. With all that emotion balled up inside, I did the only thing I could do. I turned over and started to cry some more. Robbie, I could tell, but I thought I had heard the sound of a sad sniffle in that moment from the driver’s seat. I stopped crying for a moment at my own shock. Robbie is usually a man of strong will. He is a man that shows very little emotion. All business………..
But something happened when I said those three words to Robbie, that had never happened before to him……….
It got to him………it cut him…………
Deeply……..
Funny how guys have done things to him over his career, which spanned over 20 years. Not one of them have been able to do what three words from me did to him.
By this time the windshield was covered in a layer of solid water. Through the windshield from what I was able to see, the road was barely visible as fog also set in heavy which made it all the more difficult. By this point, Robbie was trying to hold back tears of his own. But he finally composes himself enough to speak.
Robbie: Well if it is any consolation, I talked to Randy and he said that he was very impressed with you. You are a natural is what he told me. You have the complete package, but you just need some tightening up on a few things, which will come with time. And Randy is one that is scarce with the compliments. So to get a mouthful like that from him is something special.
I didn’t ’t turn over in response.
What good is gonna make. All I’ll be is a show pony! I’ll be a little attraction that won’t mean anything. And I don’t want that. I want to be World Champion. I want to be the best!
Robbie: Do you want to know why my brother Marty called you Superstar?
I had no clue. But for the sake of my curious mind, I would like to know. But I could let him know I wanted to know.
Not really.
Robbie: Well tough crap, I’m gonna tell you anyway. When he first saw you. He looked at your posture, he looked into your eyes the first time he spoke to you. He said the first thing he noticed was how you carried yourself, hence your posture. He said you had a confidence that you knew that you were good at anything you tried your hand at. It is one of those things that you can’t teach that is important for the wrestling business. Marty has a good eye for these things. He saw potential in you. He sent you to me and I saw the same potential.
I finally turns back around and looked at Robbie. His eyes are red from the crying. I can’t believe I got to him that badly. I still wasn’t convinced that he cared that much. No one has ever cared that much for my success. It has always been about getting theirs. I stayed calm and cool as I could be, trying to let him know that I was going to be mad about this.
What good is the potential if you can’t produce wins. You told me that winning is the only thing!
Robbie: Well maybe I put a lot of pressure on you. I’m sorry Josh. But it’s because I see so much in you.
Really?
Robbie: Really.
Thank you Robbie, and I’m…………..ROBBIE LOOK OUT!!!!
Just then a tree falls in the middle of the road. Robbie swerves to miss the tree and the car hydroplanes out of control. The car breaks through the guardrail and goes off a steep hill. The car flips and slams down the hill while spinning. Finally the car is stopped when it hits a boulder on the driver side. We were stopped. I saw my life flash before my eyes in that moment, but I was still alive and stil conscious. I needed to get out of the car and get to safety. I unbuckled my seat belt and started to crawl my beaten body out of the side of the car. The only thing that separated me was the window. I took my elbow and smashed the window open and crawled out of the car. I was out. Wait, where is Robbie?
Oh crap! Robbie!!
I got to my feet and rushed to the other side of the car. On that side, Robbie is hanging out the window. He is bleeding profusely from multiple places in his body. I saw it and quickly tried to grab him. We needed help. I was panicked and I didn’t know what to do. I wanted him to be safe. The rain was pouring down on us as it began to lightning. The storm was coming hard. I knew there wasn’t much time.
Easy does it Robbie, let’s get you out of here and get to a hospital!
Robbie: Josh, leave me be!
I can’t Robbie, you’re gonna die if I don’t get you out of here!
Robbie: Josh I’m gonna die anyway!
God damnit Robbie, fight it!!!! FIGHT!!!
Robbie: Josh, listen to me and listen to me good ok.
I finally stopped fighting Robbie, as tears start to roll down Robbie’s face. Blood is seeping on the ground and Robbie can barely hold his head up.
Time is running out……….
I want to help him, but I can’t. He didn’t want me too. All the time he helped me, and he didn’t want me to return the favor. But he reached up and grabbed my face. He had my attention. Maybe for the last time.
Robbie: Josh, I’m gonna die right here. But I want you to know something. I have taught you everything that I know. You have the tools to be one of the greatest to ever lace up a pair of boots. I don’t want you to waste it, I want you to embrace it and use it to make yourself into the champion that I know you can be. I can never say that I’ve trained a World Champion, but you, out of all my students, can be the first. You just have to be certain that you are willing to do it
.
Robbie save your……….
Robbie starts to cough as blood comes out of his mouth. He is fading faster.
Robbie: Josh, remember what I said…….*cough* and remember that as ……………..*cough* you go on…………..*cough*………………align yourself with the right people………….*cough*…………………and know that I’m watching over you………………. *cough*
Robbie’s head drops down into the mud. He let go of my face. I quickly grabs his hand and hold it. Robbie with his last little bit of strength raised his head up for one last time.
Robbie: I love you……………………..*cough*…………Goodbye for now……………..
Robbies voice gets much weaker. He is almost to a whisper.
Robbie: Superstar………………………..
And with that last word, Robbie took his last breath and the life sucked out his body. He let go of my hand and fell into the muddy hillside, dead.
I was taken aback. I was a shell of myself. I didn’t know whether to cry, whether to scream. I did the only thing that I could do. I ran. I ran away from it all.
All of a sudden everything starts shaking and it all becomes so fuzzy. The next thing I know I’m sitting up in my bed. It was a nightmare. So real, like I was there all over again. I thought about my last night with my trainer and it made me sick to my stomach, much like the feeling I still get when I lose a match. It made me start to think about my match with Possessed Child at the House Show, and how I didn’t want to lose. It made me think about the New Breed Reign tournament, as I wiped the cold sweat from my brow. Could I be the one living my life in a distorted reality?
Message to Possessed Child
Possessed Child. Growing up, we all had a dream of what we want to be. A doctor, a lawyer, a police officer, a cop, Michael Jordan, and it’s hard to say what else. But there are a select few that want to be a pro wrestler, and fewer actually make it a reality. We are two of them that have made it. I never realized that this is what I wanted to be until that night.
Child, which is what I’m going to call you now. I bring this recollection of a painful memory that I still haven’t gotten over to this day, almost six years later, to show you that this is when I decided to become a wrestler. It was in that moment that I knew, it all became clear to me, like the clouds vanished and the rain stopped falling like in my nightmare. It still makes me sick however that I ran away. And ever since that day, I swore to myself in Robbie’s memory that I would never, ever run away from any confrontation. I will face it head on, no surrender in my heart.
The point to this is just like everything else I’ve been saying, and that is to give you something to think about. It isn’t all about winning or losing, and I discovered that on that day. But if you are a competitor, and you are in this business, then you get that sick feeling in your stomach when you lose. That sick feeling makes us work even harder, and to train even harder to not let it happen again. Child, at the House Show, we find ourselves in a position that both of us want, which is to be one step closer to the New Breed Reign title. I’ve made a goal since the card was announced, and my name was drawn, that I would win this tournament, and nothing can or will be done to stop that! You can try all you want to, but the result will be the same. So with that knowledge, are you going to go ahead and show up, or are you going to run away. The choice is yours, but if I were you, I’d think about it.