Opportunity Knocks
Opportunity Knocks
(You lose matches when you're a professional wrestler. It happens, and it can't be avoided. Sometimes you do a damn good job, and other times you just eat the mat faster than you can get laid in a monkey whore-house with a sack of bananas. A defeat can sometimes be very hard to get over, or roll right off your back. Many professional wrestlers have such experiences. That's how they live; if they didn't lose, there wouldn't be any point in competing.)
(Such is one loss on the record of Stephen Waltz, bound to be followed by many more in his extensive future. But he doesn't think any further than a show away. He doesn't see himself as champion, double-champ, or still struggling on the singles roster. He just thinks about his match, and all that it will take to win. He thinks of how he will prepare, how he will go through the process, and how he will finish it off and put the icing on the cake.)
(Never does he think about what it would be like to be champion. Such is the same in the weeks building up to Genesis. And, as it turned out, he never walked away Xtreme Champion.)
Anderson: Don't get downhearted, kid... nobody wins their first title match.
Waltz: Really?
Anderson: Well, of course. Took me a couple tries before I finally took the IC in my first fed. I mean, of course there are a few lucky ones here and there, the guys who appear and win a title just like that, but can you call them champion?
Waltz: ...I don't know, can you?
Anderson: Hell no! To be a champion, you have to BEAT a champion. If you win a title in the very first title match of your career, you got lucky. You know why? Because you didn't defeat a true champ. You beat some poser guy holding a strap for the next big thing, and that's all you've taken. You're now that poser... and it doesn't take long before someone else comes by and bursts your bubble.
(The old man had a twinkle in his eye as he spoke, staring off into space.)
Anderson: A title is something you earn... it doesn't come to you through any easy task. It's NEVER easy, and if it is, then you might as well drop the title before you really think being champion is a walk in the park. You weren't going to win that battle royale, kid... not just because DreamMaker was in that match, but because it was the first title shot of your career, and on a Pay Per View. Miracles just don't happen like that...
(He shrugged.)
Anderson: And if you did win, then it'd be heartbreaking to see the belt stripped away by the first true challenger who steps in your way.
(Stephen Waltz could understand him perfectly. He nodded in agreement.)
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(Scene begins in the evening. We're still at the home of Stephen Waltz, only now indoors. Hours ago, a promotional segment was filmed on his back patio pertaining to the four corners match for the Xtreme Title. But this time around, another issue must be met. Waltz is now ready to talk about his OTHER title match, that which headlines Onslaught. He's never been in the main event, until now.)
(He's walking around his kitchen, apparently in the process of cooking. He looks over a frying pan, stirring through a batch of chili while occassionally glancing at the timer on the oven. He's still dressed in his denim shorts and red Hawaiian t-shirt. This time, a white chef's apron is pulled over his clothes. His hair looks the same, slicked back behind his h
