Two Samurai
((FADEIN: An empty arena where the double-stacked cage for the "High Life" match rests on top of the ring. Sitting quietly on the glass in the second cage is MEPHISTO, seeming to meditate and picturing the weapons that be hung there.))
MEPHISTO: There is somewhat of a folk tale in Japan that tells of two samurai warriors who are at two ends of a bridge and wish to cross. They draw their swords and prepare to do battle for the bridge and the right of way, but when they look into each other's eyes, they realize each is the other's equal and the battle can end in nothing but a stalemate. So both warriors sheathe their swords and return from whence they came.
When I was in the land of the Rising Sun, within the ranks of Ultimate Japan Wrestling, World Martial Arts Wrestling, and Ten, there was another there, celebrated as a great and horrific warrior. Someone whom others referred to as devastating, but in the East, was simply Phoenix. And this man won titles and ammassed great fame and renown, in short, becomes a gaijin that is almost respected as one born of the Pacific Rim.
But when I came upon this one, when I looked into his eyes, I saw no one that was my equal. Even then, I could tell that he was always, as he is now, just a lost buy looking for his father, for acceptance. He so wanted to be taken in as one of the samurai, bushido. But that was not why I decided to destroy him.
No, it was not even about fame or glory, because I had accumulated my own and would never lack for it. Not about titles for I could always find newer ones to take. It was not even about a challenge because that is always better left to discover while in the midst of the action.
It is not about honor or code, or any of the other rituals I became familiar with from my self-imposed exile, things I never followed in the first place.
I decided to destroy this man, this Phoenix, because he would claim to be following a "Way", as if giving himself over to something greater than something. That he above all men had been gifted and granted. That in this, he could outwrestle, outscheme, and always walk from battles and matches bleeding, but honorable.
While he would act in ways that Americans would find questionable, morality is a different thing across the ocean. Many times, Phoenix had to act as did before others struck at him. He had to stake men, to ruin their lives to build his own. He was a gaijin and this was his path to notoriety. Because simply his own skill would not be enough.
And he could never do worse than I, I who broke men and made them my lackies, I who brought promotions to their knees and still they called and pleaded for me to return. I, the salvation and damnation of the wrestling world of the east, never claimed most of this, because it's better left unsaid.
Let the Phoenix claim whatever credit. It made it better when he'd fall.
I saw through him, saw the shell he was, how he never was a shadow, simply someone lost, needing guidance, but that was never what I'd give him.
I attacked him to expose him. We traded matches, titles, and injuries. For years, and like a Phoenix, he could rising, coming back, and I know why. Even when I hung him over a balcony and the masses splayed below heard him scream, he kept coming back. And I know why.
Because he thought I could be his father, the parental figure who would finally step down to punish him for his misdeeds.
But I had already beaten him, disgraced, and I had no wish to be his father. With everything accomplished in Japan, I left.
Phoenix came later, now crying that he wanted redemption, the futile thing that it is. Simply another attempt to find a father, to find what he misses. Which is fulfillment because despite all that he's won, all he's achieved, he finds it hoolow because there is no one to congratulate him.
Finally, I realized that I had to return, to do what a father couldn't, what most of our peers could not, and that was silence the Phoenix. To keep it from butning again. To prove him wrong, to show him there is no redemption, because the past always comes back. That is there is no grand reward or forgiveness.
There's no father for him either.
Before, I merely beat him, but now, I have to finish what I started.
I have to destroy him.
