act thirteen: 'til the bitter end
For so long, I'd thought that reaching this "epilogue" of mine would signify a parting of ways from the business. For so long, I thought... I thought that ending my story in wrestling was going to be one of the most important things for me to do, and that one last run with the NLCW was the way for me to do it.
Hell, there was even a point when I thought, ending things with that match against Champion? Really would have been such a wonderful way to cap off this career of mine... keep things sealed on that final clash between two old friends and rivals, and just live off all the earnings from my success in this career of mine for the rest of my life.
Sure, I came back to the business because a part of me knew that what I'd earned, though it would allow me and my family to live comfortably for the rest of our lives, wouldn't be enough to truly make us happy. I'll be the first to admit that money was a huge thing to me, if only because it would ensure certain things for my family, friends and loved ones in their future that I wanted to make sure were secure. Yet beyond the money, there was another motivation.
At first, I thought it was the fans... the draw of the business comes in large part from the roar of the crowd and their support for you in your greatest struggles. Yet I knew that couldn't be it, after-all... the fans were my family too, weren't they? They were included in the package there, I wanted to make them happy just like anyone else in my life, and so coming back seemed like one of the logical things I could do.
Coming back and trying to raise a family at the same time... it'd have to be something important to make me try such a thing. Yet when I set up the provisions I did so that I'd be able to actually do such a thing, I began to realize that whatever it was, it couldn't be all too distracting. After-all, being a free agent for the NLCW, being under such a flexible contract despite all my influence and control in the company still remaining... that didn't all happen so that I'd just get caught up in the same thing I'd been caught in before.
No, in the end... my return came because something I didn't honestly think of in the first place. My return, my attachments and my connections to the business and its people... it came because of love. It came because of the fire I have within me, not just for writing about this life of mine and the characters I come up with along the way, but because of the love I have for those in my life, both in and out of the business itself.
Me being in the ring fills people with hope, it gets them cheering not because of the violence I serve alone, but because of what I represent. To the fans, to my family, to my friends... I am someone who simply refuses to stay down, even when I've been beaten enough that I've no right to be standing any longer.
Truth be told, the answer to my questions was so simple that I nearly smacked myself for not seeing it sooner. Love! Of course it was love... it was love that put me on my career path in the first place, and it was love that fueled me through the greatest of my trials in wrestling. In a business filled with hatred and violence, I'd always been someone who could get by because of who, or what, I loved. I got by because I wanted to protect them, I wanted to protect what they saw of me and what they believed in and I wanted to protect their future because, in some cases, there were people actually relying on me.
I wanted to keep fighting forward so that when they did rely on me, I knew I could be there for them. I knew that I could pull through for them. I came back to wrestling for so very many reasons in the end, but all of them... all of them were out of love in the end. A love for the fans. A love for my family and friends. A love for the ring. A love for the sport, the competition...
A love for the NLCW.
I came back because I knew, somewhere in my heart, that the place I loved was dying. I came back because I'd hoped that somehow, with enough effort, I could restore life in the company and keep it from going under. It was foolish thinking, sure.... but it was thinking out of love. Reviving the hardcore division didn't work out, and the tag division eventually floundered as well... but I began to realize how such things could never be a one-man effort.
The only effort being made was for the highest prize... because those still bothering to stay aboard with the company were all struggling, all fighting, all reaching for a prize that so many before them reached for after years of struggling just to get within range. They were all fighting for that hunk of gold at the top of the NLCW... and then there was me, with three hunks of gold that meant nothing anymore... and a shot at the hunk of gold everyone was hunting for.
So, instead of waiting around, I made my decision. After talking with the board about the future of the company, I realized that, more than anything... I wanted to be the face of the company when we started moving forward. I wanted to try and set a standard that I knew I was capable of setting, not out of arrogance but, rather... out of hope that there was someone out there who could meet that standard.
Because as much as I hate to say it, as much as I wish it weren't so... Carmine Vestieri is simply not up to that standard. It isn't his gimmick, something that has been done to death throughout the ages in so very many ways... his gimmick is honestly fine as it is. It isn't his personality, either. An asshole is an asshole and shall always be an asshole, Carmine Vestieri is no exception to that rule. He has always been arrogant, he has always withheld any respect from his opponents and he is always underestimating those he comes across.
It isn't his style, which is admittedly impressive and filled with potential for greatness in the future, yet still in great need of work and refinement. It isn't his attitude, which is sour, shallow, and screaming out for attention when all eyes turn from him and to another. No... in the end, it is his skill.
Or, rather, it is Carmine Vestieri's lack of skill as an NLCW Heavyweight Champion.
He is a young buck, a raging fire pushing forward through the dry brush of a roster we've left in this company. He is the very roaring lion he claims himself to be, that vicious animal tearing through the ranks to capture the highest glory that No Limits has to offer. He is quick, he is crafty, he is filled with potential and he is moving forward like a flash of lightning.
But he hasn't learned a damn thing on this quick little jaunt of his to the top of the mountain. He has gone through the motions, he has used everything he knows from the limited career he's experienced up to this point... but he hasn't shown a damn thing worthy of being called a champion.
He stands proud, he stands tall, he stands looking out over the kingdom called No Limits... and he fails to see the people in that kingdom have long since left the lands it sits upon. The NLCW has withered and faded, it's not looking for a self-obsessed champion, a roaring lion atop that mountain proclaiming its greatness to the dried up lands before it... it's looking for a champion to lead its few people remaining forward.
It's looking for someone with the drive to promote competition, to not stifle the fight in the eyes of its youngest warriors. Someone who can lift those up who need the lifting, and shut those down who try to shut us down. And while Carmine Vestieri may believe he can do such things without a care in the world... he simply doesn't have the skill.
He has only reached the apex of his career because there were none left to challenge him along his path, and with that being said... I've decided to step in.
The fact of the matter is, Carmine... this epilogue of mine? It was nothing more than the next step forward in this never-ending story of mine. What I'd thought was the end of one story and the start of the next had turned into nothing more than another chapter, and truth be told... I'm glad.
I'm glad for revelation, it makes my job in the coming days even easier, because I know now what it is, exactly, I'm fighting for... and while the hunk of gold will be an excellent bonus, it sure as hell isn't that alone.
I'm fighting for my future, and I'm fighting for the future of the NLCW.
It's a fight I should have been in since the very beginning, and it's a fight I'm more than happy to participate in now. The NLCW is an important part in this story of mine, it's been a part of many great chapters and I hope to make it an integral part of many more... and the path for that future starts this Sunday, with you.
You believe this story of mine will come crashing to an end should I bother to show up, but the fact remains that the skill you seem to think you have is nothing but a dream of yours, a vision of a future you may one day experience. Yet right now, in these very moments?
Kid, you're out of your league.
The stories of man won't end until the man himself ends with them... and somehow, Carmine, I doubt I'll be ending when Eternity comes a'knocking. This story is far from over, this "epilogue" is far from done... and you'll never be the one who decides when it's time I finish my story.
You can fight all you want for that, Carmine... but your fights will be fleeting, and will be met in nothing but disappointment and failure.
And as for me? Well...
I'll fight for my story 'til the bitter end.
See you Sunday, kid.