- Messages
- 204
- Points
- 63
Hey, Mia.
I don’t think you entirely understood what I was saying. It’s not your fault, because there are a lot of people in the EAW who talk exclusively in bullcrap, and I don’t.
I say what I want to say, and I don’t ‘veil’ anything. I don’t work to manufacture drama or angst. I don’t try to slip in secondary meaning to what I am trying to say in these promos. I know most everyone else does. I don’t. I am speaking to you and about you as a peer.
I thought about what you said, and I wanted to kind of answer you…..first off, looking at the results of Grand Rampage dispassionately isn’t quite ‘shitting’ on myself, though I can understand why you would see it that way. Call it a ‘post-action report’ of sorts. One of the worst things that someone can do after-action is sugar-coat things that occurred. The consequence of that is you fail to show fault or problems with the things that may have occurred, such as a bad deployment of troops or resources, or maybe an insufficient command structure or secondary options if the primary goal is not possible. If I look at the event with, like I said, rose-colored glasses, I won’t learn jack shit from the loss. The goal is to be objective as possible, be able to say, “Yeah, that was fucked up,” and go on from there. That’s how improvement continues. That’s how we avoid the same mistakes over and over again.
And you bashed me, the military (Kent State), my abilities, my popularity, and you told me thirteen-or-so-times how much better you are than I am.
OK.
Well, I wouldn’t call what is going to happen at Voltage a slaughter. I think we’ll have a good match. I think you’re learning from your experience at Grand Rampage (the same way I am, but you’ll never say so in a promo) and I think you’ll be the better for it. Like I said, I have nothing bad to say about you. You have your own talents and abilities PLUS you have a wealth of knowledge and experience to tap in the person of Donovan Duke. I think that makes you formidable.
Formidable, yes. But also beatable.
Anyone can be beat on a given night in the EAW. This takes up to my other point last time we talked. Am I perceived as a threat by someone in the upper tier of the sport (Donovan, TLA, Minerva, Charlie Marr) to take their position or have an overly-good chance of beating them at a given event? I don’t know, and I doubt it at this point. They see the Holly Arrow match as an exception: Holly having a poor night and me having a night that was very good. Maybe that was the case…maybe Holly was looking past me that night. That being said, she definitely saw me as a threat in her latest match with me a couple weeks ago, in her run-up to facing Minerva.
That’s a good place to be. Want to know why? Because it means that you’ve earned respect.
Earning respect is a hell of a lot better than demanding respect. There’s a whole bushel of people in the EAW that demand respect. Bethany Blue demands respect, even though she’s earned enough for ten lifetimes. Drake Armstrong demands respect, even though he has earned it. There are a lot of people that can’t yet lace their boots that are demanding respect in EAW…maybe because they think they’ve earned it because they made it here. Maybe because they are trying to establish themselves via promo and puffing up their facades like frilled lizards, trying to look bigger and stronger than they actually are, of believe themselves to be. Whatever the cause or the reason, demanding respect isn’t where I ever want to be. I see it in newly-promoted officers from time to time, and it usually proves to be a lack of confidence or a hallmark of inexperience. Earning respect, however…that occurs over time and it is something that is built with action. If I earn respect from my peers, it’s because they have watched me over time and have decided within themselves that what I have done is worthy of respect. It could be winning the big matches, how I carry myself as a Marine and a man….it could be many, many things. In any case, it has to do with my actions over time…my successes or my recoveries after failures…that will produce that earned respect.
If and when I get that, Mia, then I know I’m in the upper tier of this fed. You gave some thoughts about that in your promo…you said that you didn’t like the idea that you treated like “..a rookie who can’t catch a break.” I know that you’re not that, Mia, like I said earlier today and earlier this week. I know you are talented, hard-working, smart, and have no ceiling in this industry. You have no reason to think you’re not able to reach the pinnacle of the sport. Along the way, the Minerva’s and her ilk…the Hall of Famers and the future Hall of Famers…will respect what and who you are.
If they don’t now, trust me, they will, you’re that good.
So, I had better address the fact that I “Don’t what have it takes to be a star.”
I really don’t. I think you’re more right than wrong on that one, Mia. I would disagree that I’m clueless…..being steady and moving forward is the goal, and that isn’t flashy. The wins will speak for themselves…this weekend and on down the road, as I said earlier. I don’t need to be the lightning, Mia. I need to be the storm itself. Cracks of lightning only last a fraction of a second, and the thunder maybe a few seconds. The storm carries both, but lasts much longer. It’s a lot less romantic, but it is what it is.
I did want to thank you for the compliments you gave me about not quitting…..thanks for that. You’re right there as well: I’ll battle you like there’s no tomorrow….like it’s my last match. It just might be, you know….no one knows what tomorrow is going to bring, Mia. There’s not a guarantee of anything. I have plans for the fed, sure, and for the future after EAW and the Corps, but they’re not etched in stone, because we could go to war tomorrow and it’s all back-burnered. I will disagree, respectfully, about going down swinging….the ‘going down’ part of course, but I am sure you expected that I’d have an issue with that, right? I’m coming to WIN, like every week. I am coming to LA to win the match that I have against you, Mia. I have to have that goal in my head. I’m not flashy, I’m not pretentious in my speech, I’m not attractive and I don’t call attention to myself. I work to the goal of representing the Marine Corps and my country quietly and with purpose. I train the best I can, with the mindset that my time in the EAW and the Marine Corps has given me. I have no goal of showing you up, making you look bad, or taking your place in the spotlight. My goal is to pin you in the middle of the ring 1-2-3. That is not personal: I have no enmity with you, and I hope you succeed in everything you wan to succeed in….but that has to start after this week.
It will start after this week.
The push up the ladder has got to start now. Like I said, there are lots of people that are looking to pull both you and I down, Mia. We both have the goal of moving into the rarefied air at the top of the brand, and that place can only be occupied by a few people at a time. There is a mid-card for a reason: Those are people either on the way up, on the way down, or cresting at the top of their ability, unable to get to the upper levels of the business. Lucas Johnson, for all his effort and his time in the fed, was someone whose apex was the middle of the mid-card: A man who developed himself to the best he could, but didn’t have the tools or the know-how to break through. There have been many people like this in the fed, Mia. Maybe a majority….people who made it to the fed and couldn’t deal with the pressure. People that were brought in simply because management knew they didn’t have the complete set of tools, and were cannon fodder for the Elitists whom management wanted to push. Wrestlers who made it this high after maybe putting together a spate of overachievement matches, only to get here, against the big fish, and fail. Sometimes there are workers who are the biggest fish in a little pond, but get into a larger lake and find out they were not so big after all…..there are a lot of reasons. The idea, Mia, is to eliminate those reasons and put away those traits that cause those people to fail: Recognize them, mitigate or eliminate them, and put into practice what you have learned.
Back to my point about earning respect and objectively assessing one’s self. I know you do it, albeit differently than I do, because you’re intelligent as hell and you wouldn’t have come as far as you have if you didn’t learn from your mistakes.
Bring all of that knowledge to the ring on Sunday, Mia. You will need it this week at Voltage. Like I said, I am coming to WIN….there are no moral victories in EAW. Looking good and losing is not acceptable. Having someone tell me that I did really great doesn’t matter a whole hell of a lot if I’m getting the loser’s part of the gate receipts. Performing great doesn’t mean anything unless I show my fellow Marines that I can win against great talent like you.
So, be ready.
Semper Fi.
XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
“Why did she feel as if you were insulting?”
He looked back at Jane, who was propped up on the bed of her hotel room. He had come over to her room after doing cardio: She always checked his knee after his cardio sessions, as they were low-impact and allowed him to get his joint warmed up without getting it hammered by an opponent or the continual jostling caused by the constant movement both in and out of the ring. He was sitting in the desk chair, and they had just watched Mia’s first promo.
“I don’t really know,” he answered. “I think she’s used to her opponent giving her a hard time, or insulting her during their promos. Maybe she was looking for something to make or create locker room buzz. I really don’t know her very well, other than she’s good and gotten a couple bad breaks not of her doing. That and she’s close to Donovan Duke.”
Jane nodded. “Your knee is probably as good as it’s going to get. It hasn’t improved for several weeks. I was nervous when we went to Jordan, because things got kind of crazy over that weekend, but nothing bad happened. That being said, whatever knitting your knee is going to do is done. How does it feel after you have a match?”
“it’s stiff, but it hasn’t really hurt me since I finished rehab.”
“You got no rehab,” Jane scoffed. “Captain Charisma and General Young made sure of that. You’ll probably need another scope in a year, and if you need surgery after that, you will probably be told you have to hang the boots up, or take six months to build everything back up. Either way, in ten years, you’ll be feeling the weather changing the day before it happens.”
Connor nodded. “I’ll let you know when it does.”
She grinned at him. “You think I’ll be round in ten years?”
Connor looked at her, lines around the hazel eyes. “I really hope so.”
She looked at him for a few seconds, and stood up, folding her arms as she did so. “What makes you think I’m going to go anywhere?”
He leaned back, studying her vaguely defensive posture. “I don’t let that thought cross my mind much,” he said. “I know we love each other, Murph, but I also know forever is something that we’ve only talked about around the edges.”
“Oh, I know,” she answered. “It’s….it’s hard to do so…let me put my doctor hat on for a second,” she said. “For all of your work in the wrestling ring and here in EAW, you’re a combat Marine. You also made a life-long commitment to another woman and she rejected that committment.”
“But that’s….
“No…wait wait,” she stopped him. “I am not saying you consciously fear commitment or forever together,” she told him. “I know you love me. I know you do,” she said, her face softening into that look she shared with him at special moments. “And I’m here with you, and I love you, too. But know I understand that there’s a lot going on, and I think the last thing you want with us,” she said, indicating the two of them with her hands, “ is another failure or another loss. This life,” she added, “this wrestling and military life, is not solid. It’s all risk and combat and it’s not solid. The only firm foundation is what you and I feel for each other, and we’ve been….together, of course,” she continued, “but we’ve been put into danger. It’s hard to promise forever, even if you really, really want to, when you don’t think you can give that ‘forever’.”
She folded her arms again, the affection for him in her eyes. “You haven’t done anything wrong, Mike. I know what you want, and I want that, too. I don’t just see what I want to see, like Mia,” Jane said. “Mia has been insulted and toyed with by Elitists during their promos. She doesn’t get exposed to what exactly they think or feel as a person,” she said. “I do. You have never been afraid of telling me what you thought or felt. I know where you stand. If they knew what I knew, they would believe you, too.”
Connor was touched. “Thank you, Jane. I love you.”
She smiled, and grabbed something off the floor. “Now I have to take a shower. You need to go,” she said, then she smiled despite herself. “Unless you want to help.”
He looked up at her and raised an eyebrow. “Really?”
She laughed. “You should have seen your face. Eventually, yes, but not today.”
I don’t think you entirely understood what I was saying. It’s not your fault, because there are a lot of people in the EAW who talk exclusively in bullcrap, and I don’t.
I say what I want to say, and I don’t ‘veil’ anything. I don’t work to manufacture drama or angst. I don’t try to slip in secondary meaning to what I am trying to say in these promos. I know most everyone else does. I don’t. I am speaking to you and about you as a peer.
I thought about what you said, and I wanted to kind of answer you…..first off, looking at the results of Grand Rampage dispassionately isn’t quite ‘shitting’ on myself, though I can understand why you would see it that way. Call it a ‘post-action report’ of sorts. One of the worst things that someone can do after-action is sugar-coat things that occurred. The consequence of that is you fail to show fault or problems with the things that may have occurred, such as a bad deployment of troops or resources, or maybe an insufficient command structure or secondary options if the primary goal is not possible. If I look at the event with, like I said, rose-colored glasses, I won’t learn jack shit from the loss. The goal is to be objective as possible, be able to say, “Yeah, that was fucked up,” and go on from there. That’s how improvement continues. That’s how we avoid the same mistakes over and over again.
And you bashed me, the military (Kent State), my abilities, my popularity, and you told me thirteen-or-so-times how much better you are than I am.
OK.
Well, I wouldn’t call what is going to happen at Voltage a slaughter. I think we’ll have a good match. I think you’re learning from your experience at Grand Rampage (the same way I am, but you’ll never say so in a promo) and I think you’ll be the better for it. Like I said, I have nothing bad to say about you. You have your own talents and abilities PLUS you have a wealth of knowledge and experience to tap in the person of Donovan Duke. I think that makes you formidable.
Formidable, yes. But also beatable.
Anyone can be beat on a given night in the EAW. This takes up to my other point last time we talked. Am I perceived as a threat by someone in the upper tier of the sport (Donovan, TLA, Minerva, Charlie Marr) to take their position or have an overly-good chance of beating them at a given event? I don’t know, and I doubt it at this point. They see the Holly Arrow match as an exception: Holly having a poor night and me having a night that was very good. Maybe that was the case…maybe Holly was looking past me that night. That being said, she definitely saw me as a threat in her latest match with me a couple weeks ago, in her run-up to facing Minerva.
That’s a good place to be. Want to know why? Because it means that you’ve earned respect.
Earning respect is a hell of a lot better than demanding respect. There’s a whole bushel of people in the EAW that demand respect. Bethany Blue demands respect, even though she’s earned enough for ten lifetimes. Drake Armstrong demands respect, even though he has earned it. There are a lot of people that can’t yet lace their boots that are demanding respect in EAW…maybe because they think they’ve earned it because they made it here. Maybe because they are trying to establish themselves via promo and puffing up their facades like frilled lizards, trying to look bigger and stronger than they actually are, of believe themselves to be. Whatever the cause or the reason, demanding respect isn’t where I ever want to be. I see it in newly-promoted officers from time to time, and it usually proves to be a lack of confidence or a hallmark of inexperience. Earning respect, however…that occurs over time and it is something that is built with action. If I earn respect from my peers, it’s because they have watched me over time and have decided within themselves that what I have done is worthy of respect. It could be winning the big matches, how I carry myself as a Marine and a man….it could be many, many things. In any case, it has to do with my actions over time…my successes or my recoveries after failures…that will produce that earned respect.
If and when I get that, Mia, then I know I’m in the upper tier of this fed. You gave some thoughts about that in your promo…you said that you didn’t like the idea that you treated like “..a rookie who can’t catch a break.” I know that you’re not that, Mia, like I said earlier today and earlier this week. I know you are talented, hard-working, smart, and have no ceiling in this industry. You have no reason to think you’re not able to reach the pinnacle of the sport. Along the way, the Minerva’s and her ilk…the Hall of Famers and the future Hall of Famers…will respect what and who you are.
If they don’t now, trust me, they will, you’re that good.
So, I had better address the fact that I “Don’t what have it takes to be a star.”
I really don’t. I think you’re more right than wrong on that one, Mia. I would disagree that I’m clueless…..being steady and moving forward is the goal, and that isn’t flashy. The wins will speak for themselves…this weekend and on down the road, as I said earlier. I don’t need to be the lightning, Mia. I need to be the storm itself. Cracks of lightning only last a fraction of a second, and the thunder maybe a few seconds. The storm carries both, but lasts much longer. It’s a lot less romantic, but it is what it is.
I did want to thank you for the compliments you gave me about not quitting…..thanks for that. You’re right there as well: I’ll battle you like there’s no tomorrow….like it’s my last match. It just might be, you know….no one knows what tomorrow is going to bring, Mia. There’s not a guarantee of anything. I have plans for the fed, sure, and for the future after EAW and the Corps, but they’re not etched in stone, because we could go to war tomorrow and it’s all back-burnered. I will disagree, respectfully, about going down swinging….the ‘going down’ part of course, but I am sure you expected that I’d have an issue with that, right? I’m coming to WIN, like every week. I am coming to LA to win the match that I have against you, Mia. I have to have that goal in my head. I’m not flashy, I’m not pretentious in my speech, I’m not attractive and I don’t call attention to myself. I work to the goal of representing the Marine Corps and my country quietly and with purpose. I train the best I can, with the mindset that my time in the EAW and the Marine Corps has given me. I have no goal of showing you up, making you look bad, or taking your place in the spotlight. My goal is to pin you in the middle of the ring 1-2-3. That is not personal: I have no enmity with you, and I hope you succeed in everything you wan to succeed in….but that has to start after this week.
It will start after this week.
The push up the ladder has got to start now. Like I said, there are lots of people that are looking to pull both you and I down, Mia. We both have the goal of moving into the rarefied air at the top of the brand, and that place can only be occupied by a few people at a time. There is a mid-card for a reason: Those are people either on the way up, on the way down, or cresting at the top of their ability, unable to get to the upper levels of the business. Lucas Johnson, for all his effort and his time in the fed, was someone whose apex was the middle of the mid-card: A man who developed himself to the best he could, but didn’t have the tools or the know-how to break through. There have been many people like this in the fed, Mia. Maybe a majority….people who made it to the fed and couldn’t deal with the pressure. People that were brought in simply because management knew they didn’t have the complete set of tools, and were cannon fodder for the Elitists whom management wanted to push. Wrestlers who made it this high after maybe putting together a spate of overachievement matches, only to get here, against the big fish, and fail. Sometimes there are workers who are the biggest fish in a little pond, but get into a larger lake and find out they were not so big after all…..there are a lot of reasons. The idea, Mia, is to eliminate those reasons and put away those traits that cause those people to fail: Recognize them, mitigate or eliminate them, and put into practice what you have learned.
Back to my point about earning respect and objectively assessing one’s self. I know you do it, albeit differently than I do, because you’re intelligent as hell and you wouldn’t have come as far as you have if you didn’t learn from your mistakes.
Bring all of that knowledge to the ring on Sunday, Mia. You will need it this week at Voltage. Like I said, I am coming to WIN….there are no moral victories in EAW. Looking good and losing is not acceptable. Having someone tell me that I did really great doesn’t matter a whole hell of a lot if I’m getting the loser’s part of the gate receipts. Performing great doesn’t mean anything unless I show my fellow Marines that I can win against great talent like you.
So, be ready.
Semper Fi.
XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
“Why did she feel as if you were insulting?”
He looked back at Jane, who was propped up on the bed of her hotel room. He had come over to her room after doing cardio: She always checked his knee after his cardio sessions, as they were low-impact and allowed him to get his joint warmed up without getting it hammered by an opponent or the continual jostling caused by the constant movement both in and out of the ring. He was sitting in the desk chair, and they had just watched Mia’s first promo.
“I don’t really know,” he answered. “I think she’s used to her opponent giving her a hard time, or insulting her during their promos. Maybe she was looking for something to make or create locker room buzz. I really don’t know her very well, other than she’s good and gotten a couple bad breaks not of her doing. That and she’s close to Donovan Duke.”
Jane nodded. “Your knee is probably as good as it’s going to get. It hasn’t improved for several weeks. I was nervous when we went to Jordan, because things got kind of crazy over that weekend, but nothing bad happened. That being said, whatever knitting your knee is going to do is done. How does it feel after you have a match?”
“it’s stiff, but it hasn’t really hurt me since I finished rehab.”
“You got no rehab,” Jane scoffed. “Captain Charisma and General Young made sure of that. You’ll probably need another scope in a year, and if you need surgery after that, you will probably be told you have to hang the boots up, or take six months to build everything back up. Either way, in ten years, you’ll be feeling the weather changing the day before it happens.”
Connor nodded. “I’ll let you know when it does.”
She grinned at him. “You think I’ll be round in ten years?”
Connor looked at her, lines around the hazel eyes. “I really hope so.”
She looked at him for a few seconds, and stood up, folding her arms as she did so. “What makes you think I’m going to go anywhere?”
He leaned back, studying her vaguely defensive posture. “I don’t let that thought cross my mind much,” he said. “I know we love each other, Murph, but I also know forever is something that we’ve only talked about around the edges.”
“Oh, I know,” she answered. “It’s….it’s hard to do so…let me put my doctor hat on for a second,” she said. “For all of your work in the wrestling ring and here in EAW, you’re a combat Marine. You also made a life-long commitment to another woman and she rejected that committment.”
“But that’s….
“No…wait wait,” she stopped him. “I am not saying you consciously fear commitment or forever together,” she told him. “I know you love me. I know you do,” she said, her face softening into that look she shared with him at special moments. “And I’m here with you, and I love you, too. But know I understand that there’s a lot going on, and I think the last thing you want with us,” she said, indicating the two of them with her hands, “ is another failure or another loss. This life,” she added, “this wrestling and military life, is not solid. It’s all risk and combat and it’s not solid. The only firm foundation is what you and I feel for each other, and we’ve been….together, of course,” she continued, “but we’ve been put into danger. It’s hard to promise forever, even if you really, really want to, when you don’t think you can give that ‘forever’.”
She folded her arms again, the affection for him in her eyes. “You haven’t done anything wrong, Mike. I know what you want, and I want that, too. I don’t just see what I want to see, like Mia,” Jane said. “Mia has been insulted and toyed with by Elitists during their promos. She doesn’t get exposed to what exactly they think or feel as a person,” she said. “I do. You have never been afraid of telling me what you thought or felt. I know where you stand. If they knew what I knew, they would believe you, too.”
Connor was touched. “Thank you, Jane. I love you.”
She smiled, and grabbed something off the floor. “Now I have to take a shower. You need to go,” she said, then she smiled despite herself. “Unless you want to help.”
He looked up at her and raised an eyebrow. “Really?”
She laughed. “You should have seen your face. Eventually, yes, but not today.”
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