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Date: Wednesday, July 16th
Boy...um...here I was sitting here going to talk to you guys about....facing Daniel Malcolm for the millionth time....I am then blind sided by this fact...I’m not in the Own the Pay Per View tournament anymore. I got thrown out of the tournament. My status.....vanished. My name....gone....it’s over....done with...it’s gone. But what happened after that...kind of sent me to Iraq and got shocked and awed. In stead of Jem Williams versus Aidan Collins in two weeks....like it was planned on being...like the moons and the stars and the planets wanted it to be...someone backs out...leaves a spot open....next thing you know Jon Brown’s really weird consultant guy comes in and throws my name back into the ring. Talk about karma.
I mean, for one thing...I thought Jon Brown hated my guts...I have had stories to tell about the time he nearly got me, well, killed in that ring because I was hospitalized and, yet, he wanted me to wrestle. But yet, that’s another story for another day. Like I said, talk about karma. Who would have thought the man that gave up his title opportunity in a three way....gets his shot one on one at Leap of Faith? I am serious. Who would have thought that I, the man that said “Oh no, Aidan...you’re right...Legend versus Legend will definitely be the biggest match...I should not have intruded one bit...you two, go have your fun...I’ll just win the Own the Pay Per View tournament and, just, ‘get winner’ next time” and not but four days later get placed BACK INTO the scene for the Universal title picture? Is that what I am getting at? I mean, screw Josh Hamilton...his story is great...but I waited for my shot and, yet, here I am...given a title opportunity at the Universal champion in a matter of two weeks.
I don’t know about you...but I am flabbergasted...I am actually going to say something that, probably, will shock a ton of you people that watch this. When that consultant guy dude came out...and said what he said...and gave me that shot...I, “Big Tyme” Zach Rizza, was pretty much speechless. I mean, I knew there was a hole to be filled....and I was sure as hell surprised when that hole was six foot nine and could fit a man that’s 275. I was just as shocked....surprised....dumbfounded....flabbergasted, as I said already....and everything else. There was truly nothing that I can say...however, that time has past.
I got over that. Well, I got over that....today, actually. I was looking at the card....seeing the Universal title....seeing Jem Williams.....seeing my name right below that.....and then listening to the sooth singing of Queen. Then...the opening lyrics caught my eye....err....ear. The XWF had an “empty space” in the main event of the Universal title...and there needed to be “another hero” to take his place. Then the chorus struck in.....that really hit me hard....
“THE SHOW.....MUST GO ON!”
Jem Williams, that show will go on. That show that you wanted with Aidan Collins. The one that was supposed to be “Legend V. Legend” WILL go on. Because, I am the top star in the X-Treme Wrestling Federation, right now. I am that “hero” Queen was singing about. I am that man who is supposed to fill that “empty space” that was left by the legend himself. Yes, I am no legend. I know that...but damn it I’m close.
Jem, there’s nothing bad I can say about you. There’s not a damn thing that I can pin on you that would...pretty much...hurt you...make you angry....get you pissed off. Jem, unlike Aidan...James Raven...Daniel Malcolm...and other superstars....you and I....have no quarrels with one another. You and I....are....neutral when it comes to me and you. Hell, the only match...of my recollection...happened when I first started out in the X-Treme Wrestling Federation. I believe it was a tag team altercation...Me and Chasm....versus....yourself and Steve Jason, another legend. By that time, Jem, you were my first taste at someone who, in my eyes, was the shit among shit. You were the man that people wanted to be like. Hell, I am going to tell you straight up....when I was just starting in this business...jerking curtains, yes I did it too kids....I looked through that curtain, sometimes, and just thought to one day be like Jem Williams or Steve Jason. I wanted to be those “legends among legends” that I always talk about when I mention people like Lee Stone...Steve Jason...and, you, Jem.
From the sixteen X-Treme titles...to the countless other belts that I have obtained in the past, though, it seemed to me like....it wasn’t working....I wasn’t going to be that “legend among legends,” hell....it even seemed that I wasn’t even going to be A LEGEND. I was just going to be that “almost legend” that I talked about last week with my match against Sam Hain. I was going to miss that chance....again. Hell, you would have had to change my name to “ALMOST Big Tyme” Zach Rizza...My title of my book would be “ALMOST THERE! ‘Big Tyme’ Zach Rizza Story.” That one moniker will always get me...that guy that “ALMOST won it.” But then, Jem, I got my balls back. I joined up with Lee Stone....Christian Connolly....and the rest of the Vigilantes and I started to get my spunk back..I started to get the step in my giddy up. I started to get the itch that wasn’t there since last February. I started getting that feeling of having Icy-Hot in my britches. I started to get that feeling that I get when I knew something was coming to me...and I have been rolling with it ever since. Lee Stone and Connolly helped me get me back on my feet..helped me feel like I am someone...and helped me to feel like I am a legend again. Helped me feel like I belonged in the same league as an Aidan Collins...or a Steve Jason....or a Lee Stone....or a, yes, Jem Williams.
Jem, this match means a ton to me. There’s so much riding on this. I mean, yes...the Universal title is in your possession and, yes, you are Jem Williams “Legend”...but you got to admit...this is the biggest time of my life. I only got two previous turns at winning the title that you claim. Both of them...left that sour taste in my mouth. One, knowing that I can beat that son of a bitch that I tied and two, knowing that it took, not one BUT, TWO MEN to take me out of competition. So, Jem, you think about it...yours truly never got his one on one rematch for that title and, to be honest, I am pretty damn excited to see that I am going to find myself in a ONE ON ONE atmosphere, instead of having someone else ruin the fun.....with nobody to be able to get in....or out...of that ring due to that giant steel cage that will surround ourselves.
So, I guess you can say...Jem, that at Leap of Faith...there will not be much “Leaping” involved...and, in fact, you and I have no beef with each other, that I know about. It’s just going to be you and I...mano y mano.....in a sixteen foot high steel contraption that can only be climbed, and I doubt any one of us...Jem...will be a coward and try to escape the cage. This match needs a pure winner, my friend. Climbing over the top of that cage, unless the whole fucking ring is on fire and the only way to leave is through the cage, will not determine who that winner really is.
Yes, I would so love to win the Universal title any means necessary...but you, Jem, are a legend and want a good fight...you deserve a good fight from every opponent that you see here in the X-Treme Wrestling Federation and, in my view, escaping the cage with my life and your title...is not justice. You see, if I do that...I will be called a “paper champion” because I would have not beaten you, Jem Williams. If I did that....no one would take me serious as an Universal champion...EVEN THOUGH it says “Universal Champion” on the title that I would of held. I want a match, Jem. I don’t wanna side show...I don’t want to “get lucky” and climb out of that cage with you standing there looking dumbfounded. I want to prove myself...not only to you, Jem, but to Aidan Collins....to Drake Komodo...and to everyone else who thought that I am not good enough to set foot inside the same ring....inside the same building...inside the same STATE as a legend of your magnitude...for the biggest prize of them all, the Universal title. And, finally, I want to do this....for myself...for the man that has to sit here night in and night out...hearing the fans say “When is it YOUR time?” “When are YOU going to have that gold around your waste?” “When, Zach?!” “WHEN, WHEN, WHEN!?”
Ladies and gentlemen, you might think I am crazy....you might think I am stupid...hell, you might even think I am turning a little bit delirious. But the time...to win...is now. The time...to take my spot among the legends of this business....IS NOW! Yes, I know who I am facing...I know what Jem Williams has done in the X-Treme Wrestling Federation...I know what Jem Williams has accomplished and what Jem Williams is all about. I have been here.....five years of the X-Treme Wrestling Federation’s NINE.
But I have done amazing feats myself. I have done many things here in the X-Treme Wrestling Federation. Sixteen time X-treme champion, to name one. Won most of the titles here in the X-Treme Wrestling Federation. About to wrestle ONE HUNDRED MATCHES here in the X.W.F. But, like I said, I haven’t won THAT title yet. I haven’t got the title that will make me up there with the Jem Williams of the worlds.
I feel it, though. I feel that spirit inside of me, baby. I feel that this is my time, Jem Williams. I feel that this time is going to be it....third time the charm...whatever the hell you want to say. I am not coming up for a tie, now. I am not going to settle for second. I am going to come out guns blazing and six shooting, baby. Jem, there’s nothing against you...I have nothing but good things to say about you...I already said that numerous times and I bet that I am going to say this time and time again. I respect you, Jem, and I sure as hell am not going to just pussy foot around that...but I have said this, also, to everyone that I have shown respect to.
“Respect only happens before the first bell and after the last bell.”
And when that “last bell” rings, Jem...I will still have respect for you...and when that last bell rings...I will have YOUR Universal title draped around my shoulder and FINALLY bring it to where it belongs! I, Zach Rizza, am ready to take that next step, now. I, Zach Rizza, am READY to fill that void that Aidan Collins left for you. I, Zach Rizza, will be the one that takes Queen’s song on the Leap of Faith website and bring those word into reality and be that “hero” they were talking about. At the Pay Per View, I will be the one that takes the word “ALMOST” out of the phrase “ALMOST Universal Champion” and, basically, take that same word off of “ALMOST legend.”
At Leap of Faith, no title is safe....especially that Universal title.
ZACH RIZZA
I really hate being in court rooms. I mean, I never liked them when I was a kid watching Perry Mason or Matlock....or whatever the hell the other court room shows were....you know, I probably watched too many Law and Order to drive my girlfriend insane, but that’s another story. I just hate it that it’s 90 degrees.....and sunny....and, yet, I have to come out here....black suit....slacks....dress shoes and look like I give a shit about this ass clown that made a few million off of his “camp” burning to the ground and, basically, scammed everything when he faked his death, as well, and then...somehow....tried to do something with me and the “Tokyo Sun” newspaper that he, somehow, worked for in the past...but let him off because he was, shocking, stealing money from them....again, allegedly. Hell, if they could fry a man for doing what he did....I’d say why waste our time? Get the shooting gallery out here and blindfold this bastard and everyone pay....about ten dollars....to try and shoot a bulls eye that will be attached in six different spots. The head, the heart, the stomach, the right and left leg, and another dunk tank like bulls eye that will remove a platform he’s standing on....and hang the bastard until he turns purple and dies right in front of us. It would be like the “Just or Unjust” show on W.K.T.T in Grand Theft Auto four.
....Damn, now that I think about it...that would be pretty cruel and unusual punishment for this dill hole.
...I’m bad.
...I guess I am really just thinking too much...this whole thing is really long and tedious...I can’t stand just being here....uncomfortable all around me....I have to just take the back row, don’t want people to actually know that I am in the building, right now. Aaaand that doesn’t work due to the flashbulb that just went off into my eye....and, wouldn’t you know? It’s a Polaroid and, again, wouldn’t you know? The guy wants me to sign it for his “kid”.
Do you have a pen ?
The guy says no, I check my pockets....feel a sharpie that I usually keep for kids who won’t stop crying and complaining....this guy is....well, older...and pretty much not going to whine and complain. I simply shrug my shoulders.
Sorry man, I don’t have anything either.
The guy does that reverse nod and mouths “OH!” as he turns back around. I sit there....waiting, again. I look to the sides of me....behind me....and start fixing my tie that I did a little too tightly, for this event. I guess you can call it an event. I mean, it’s a stuffy room...a ton of people in here....and I am just glad that there is a zero point zero zero one chance that I have to get called up to the stand.
We get the “ALL RISE” from the warden. We all stand up...Judge walks in...she is, actually, kind of an attractive judge, if she was younger. I guess you can see she’s kind of like a....M.I.L.F...oh God, that was even gross for me to think about. But I am sure this woman has got things her way sometimes....sometimes not in court...but would you blame her?!
Babe, what are you thinking?
God, that brought me back to a sweet reality...knowing I, also, got a hot girlfriend sitting right next to me...who also can be a M.I.L.F, depends on who you are asking and at what time ha! But her whispers are just to die for.
Eh, just for this shit to be over...that’s all. I could care less about this douche bag. You know that already. I, also, can not stand courtrooms one bit...hell, this is the first time I am here and I am feeling like I am being the one who’s got the charges. You know what I mean?
Of course I do, babe. It is not a cool feeling to be in this place. To know that people were sent to jail....sent to death...or, if they did do it, let go on the count of insanity. And, basically, get free and kill anyone again.
Oh God, please don’t tell me that Mia. I don’t want to think about that, knowing that someone in this room could be, or was, a psychopathic killer.
Oh sorry, babe.
Bah, it’s alright...I doubt that you are seeing some insane people in here. I mean, yeah...that guy does look insane to me...but that’s only to me...I don’t know what all the other people see.
Hun, that’s the warden. He has the right to beat your ass for that...if he heard you. Which I doubt...
After we stand up for a few minutes, we are told to be seated. As the judge, pretty as she is, lays down the law...all I could think about is what Mia said about someone being crazy. I look to the defendant, who looks pretty beaten up and dethrowned from power (I don’t even know dethrowned is a word but oh well). But I guess that’s what you are going to get when you are, basically, are in on your last thread, like this man is. But, hey, there’s nothing this man can do now...I mean, he took money from my client...money that could have been used for training equipment and other stuff that he needed...all down the drain. Just because he was in too deep with some gang? Well, now he’s going to have a whole new set of problems. Bubba’s gunna give him something “too deep” for him to handle when his Japanese salad gets tossed in jail by a man who’s daddy, he didn’t love, went to Dubya Dubya Deuce and hates those damn Japs just like the rest of us....in nineteen forty six, that is.
But as we sit there as the judge gives us the reason why we are all here....in court.....in scorching heat...instead of going to the pool, she finishes up and asks for the prosecution to please stand and start their opening statements. I cross my legs, even though I do not care to hear their side of the story....because I already know what the hell happened. But I shut up and listen, anyways, because I am a good little boy...
Your honor and the ladies and gentlemen of this jury and of the courtroom. This is not necessary...I mean, the man is already an offender....and a man who offends will offend again. The defendant wanted money....the defendant wanted to pay off his bills to the Yakuza crime family....but the defendant didn’t know how to do it. So, he tried to do it....legitimately....and started his own karate center, something that he is known for over seas in Japan. But if he were to do something, like that, we would all be outside....sitting beach side....listening to seagulls chirping...and listening to Eric the Midget getting tormented by Fred pressing those damn buttons, sorry your honor.
I can’t believe he just said that....that was just awesome.
But this defendant didn’t do it legit. The defendant stole money....and then when that got too much, he burned the whole place to the ground....AND WHEN THAT WAS NOT ENOUGH, THE DEFENDANT FAKED HIS OWN DEATH! He pretended he was dead....hid with his mother...and then collected the rest of the damages and it was only days before the Yakuza were to come and collect their winnings...collect the money that this man illegally owned and that, then, the way we found him was because of a phone tap that was from the phone of his mother’s house, that we had legitimately planted in all of his relative known addresses, and lied to many of his former clients....sometimes asking him for credit card numbers....social security numbers.....and other various personal information. The people have seized stacks....and stacks....AND STACKS of documentation to determine this and, when the police came in for the arrest, seized paperwork that filled the mother’s apartment complex.
The defense wants you, the jury, and you, the public, to feel sorry for their defendant. They want you to think of this man....not as the defendant....but as a victim. The evidence points to the defendant as being guilty....the witnesses and other people will point this man at being guilty. But it is not up to the evidence or the eye witnesses or anyone else’s opinion. What matters is, my friends, the opinion of you twelve ladies and gentlemen that sit before this court room today. Your opinion matters, in this case. Your opinion will put this man in jail for the remainder of his life and will put one less criminal, no matter how big or small, on the streets of our fair city....state.......and county.
Thank you.
I sit there thinking...that was a pretty damn good speech. I don’t know how true any of this shit is...but, like he said, it is not up to me...it’s up to those people sitting on those benches and in those seats. I, still, think we should put him into a dunk tank filled with shark infested toxic water...so he has two way to die...slow or quick. But that is just me, and it is not up to me. But I would still love to see that happen some time soon. Fuck cruel and unusual punishment...that’ll work just fine.
But as the defense talks over their strategy....in the corner of my eye, I see a Japanese man...sitting there....sunglasses on....black suit....white collared shirt...with the collar popped around the top of the jacket. Kind of a cool way to go, I think. Hell, I think I did that one day....when I was younger....when I was in the eighties....when Hawaii five oh was friggin sweet. But anyways....I turn my head to see that there are two men to the left...one in each section....and then I turn to the right, and I see another man, same garb, sitting in the same row only different section then the two gentlemen to my left. I shrug my shoulders...not knowing what to think of what I am seeing right now, even though I see the back of the head of one of the other guys....who is sitting a good ways down from me. But I try and avoid those men as much as possible. I am not sure what to do, anyways. Run? Tell the cop? Tell the warden? Tell the judge? Tell...someone?! I just don’t know. I just don’t care. I am not going to be the one who rats him out...they could do me in like they did in the Untouchables and shoot me dead, like Sean Connery.
As I sit there...bored out of my mind...I put my uncrossed foot on the ball and my leg starts to bounce up and down....I am really that bored that I am just thinking about doing that, right now, it’s uncanny to think about why I am doing that I normally don’t think about when I am not concentrating. I mean, I know I do...sometimes...tap, quickly, the hell of my foot up and down...but, still. I never really thought about doing....it. But this damn thing is taking too long...that it’s making me think about it. And it’s so quiet here that I am just breathing heavily and it’s making me think all the damn time and.....
...Whew, before I can say anything out loud that would have to put me in contempt of court. Mia puts her arm around me...and then lays her head on my arm. Sends me back into reality...and the fact that the man defending this ass clown is about to speak up.
This man is not a criminal. Ladies and gentlemen, this man...was caught in an endless loop. He ran a successful business and was caught doing nothing wrong...but just running a successful karate school. This man, that I am defending, has no knowledge of the Yakuza and is being mistaken for someone else. The government just wanted to put their fingers in the face of this poor man and accuse him of being part of a crime family that, honestly, he was not apart of. Ladies and gentlemen of the jury, you will see that the defendant, my client, after the beating that the government verbally gave to him....developed a sense of worry....developed stress from that worry....undeveloped functions from that stress....and caused my client into a depression which, then, caused him to have severe brain loss....which caused my client to lose his memory and go, almost, completely insane.
I mean, you think about it....if you would lose your business....a business that you loved from the moment you started it, because you loved what they are doing.....and then a fire that wasn’t started by you tore through destroying years of work and many of their lives. THEN the FBI comes in and accuses you of doing something and BEING APART of something that isn’t among yourself...something that you aren’t, really, doing. But they just keep bringing it up...tapping phones...breaking in....questioning you daily on what you did, which you didn’t even do....all the while trying to keep your sick mother or father or whatever company in their final days.
Would you have gone insane? I know I would have...and I know, full well, that my client is NOW, thanks to the Federal Bureau of Investigation in need of serious mental evaluations every week due to the trauma that was put on him by the Bureau, the media, and the public.
But it’s your turn to decide this man’s fate, ladies and gentlemen of the jury. I have evidence that proves that my client is innocent of the charges that these men put against him. I have full confidence in my evidence to have my client acquitted of all of these preposterous charges against my client. Thank you judge. Thank you citizens. And thank you, ladies and gentlemen of the jury.
As I sit there, again...trying to stay awake....the battle continues to go on and on about this case...I am sure that this is, surely, not even close to being over.
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