Post by Alex Kincaid on Feb 1, 2018 10:44:42 GMT -5
“I was born in Canada. I live in the States. But I might have been made in Japan.”
Alex Kincaid sounds more than a little uncomfortable being back in the Land of the Rising Sun. Indeed, the leadup to the latest edition to Lights Out has been a whirlwind tour around his old stomping grounds. When the cameras of Union Battleground find him, he’s sitting in a locker room inside the Noshiro General Gymnasium. Off in the distance, we can hear the sounds of a busy night of in ring action. But this is no packed Union Battleground arena show. This is one of the hundreds of small indy startups that’re unlikely to make it through a half dozen shows before they shuts their doors. The kind of place where young, hungry wrestlers make their name.
“So you’ll understand if I can’t help but get a bit emotional when I come back here. Japan’s the place where I really got that chip on my shoulder. When I came over here, I was a rookie. Clean cut. Wanting to go out there and show people what I had. Too scared to stand in front of a microphone, but armed with three thousand super pretty wristlock variations that I was just oh-so-sure was gonna pop the ‘honorable Japanese fans.’”
He snorts dismissively and shakes his head. Those days were a lifetime ago. Now, he stands with practiced confidence. In the old days, he showed up for everything in three piece suits. Now? Slacks and one of his own t-shirts thrown under a blazer. He’s the draw. You don’t need to dress up the draw.
“Of course, the thing about the ‘honorable Japanese fans’ is a thing that we know sort of undercuts all of Japan right? This place is entirely too stuck up its own ass. Yeah, the ‘strong style nonsense’ draws the respectable types but you want to make a real name for yourself? A real name in that ‘YouTube highlights that get you work everywhere’ sense? They ask you to go further, rougher, harder than anybody else in the world. I lost pieces of myself in Japan.
But I gained important ones too.”
He leans back on the wooden bench he’s sitting on to let his head rest against the wall. There’s a moment where he doesn’t seem concerned with the camera, where he shuts his eyes and soaks in his memories of the place. But then, his eyes snap back open. Just like that. Back on task.
“Blake Archer. I’ve been here before. This exact building. Don’t ask me to tell you a date. Don’t ask me to tell you who the opponent was. I don’t think I can. But I could tell you what I did, if I wanted to. I could list off every, single horrible act I committed to that man to make a paycheck that barely got me through the weekend after the show. But what’s the point? All that would do is turn this into the ‘I’m crazier than you’ dick measuring contest that we both know you’re hoping this becomes.
I’m not going to tell you about pieces I lost, or pieces I took. I’m going to tell you about the pieces I gained after I’d been in country about a year.”
Confidence is easy for him. Getting under an opponents skin has never been a problem. But the moments that really connect with the people, the moments of honesty? Those are harder. He laces his hands together and rubs the middle knuckle on his left hand as he tells his truth.
“I met my wife a few days before that. Back home, in Canada. I’d done something terrible to someone she cared about…and I made her do it too. You don’t get to hear that story. Not the whole thing. Long and short of it is, like the red lady says ‘The night is dark and full of terrors’. If you don’t nut up and crack a few of them back you’ll never be safe. She came with me. I think, at first, we didn’t trust each other. She saw this monster who could keep her safe. I saw this girl more beautiful than anything I’d ever seen, with a mind as frayed at the edges as mine. We didn’t care about each other, but we wanted each other. She comes here, she sees me carve someone up. And afterward I’m sitting here on this very bench. And I’m just shaking, because I can barely think straight. You walk to the edge, and you look in sometimes you don’t like what looks back right? She walks in, she kneels, and she holds my hands until the shaking stops.”
He goes to explain more of the story, but then he catches himself. No need to give up his entire life. He smirks, shakes his head and then looks up at the camera again.
“I’m not that kid anymore. I stopped shaking a long time ago and the key to that was to stop wasting my time feeling sorry for what I used to be. I’m a lot of things. I’m a professional agitator, I’m the son of Canadian coal country, I’m a decent husband and I’m stumbling through learning how to tolerate having a teenage girl running around my house. I’m also a damn fine professional wrestler. And you know what’s neat? That part protects the rest. I’m a philosophical kind of guy, and I’ve been locked on one thought lately: How I put my life together by stealing others three seconds at a time.
I’m going to steal three of those seconds from you in Tokyo. Some of it is because hey, that’s what wrestlers do. I win, puts a little more in the coffer. But some of it is because I know Kira and the rest of his goons will be watching from the locker room. Do I think you’ll be a tough opponent? Hell yeah. Absolutely. You’re a big, mean son of a bitch who probably doesn’t like how much I’ve been running my mouth about him. I’m not stupid enough to underestimate someone because I’ve never shared a locker room with them before. Every once in a while you get someone who surprises you because they have something to prove. You get a-“
He stands and folds his arms across his chest, shaking his head at what he’s about to say
“-puppy with big paws. But here’s the thing you need to understand right now. Whether you like it or not? This isn’t about you. This is about the nagging voice in my head that tells me I’ve got to shut Kira up and I can’t think of a better way to let him know what’s coming than to take your head off in front of his countrymen. Last week, I got dropped on my head and my neck is killing me? So what? I’m still going to clothesline your face off. All this family drama has my brain doing cartwheels? Guess what? You’re STILL eating a Finishing Touch. Life’s a movie, Archer, and you’re not the finale. You’re the opening action beat that pays off down the road. Because I beat you, I get that medallion. Then? Kira and I have our faceoff and I put him down hard and fast. Then it’s the Crown of the King Cobra and a clear path to the Bullet King to his throne.
And it starts here. In Japan. See you on the 9th.”
He stands up and takes another moment to look around the locker room. For a moment, his expression softens again. Then he walks past the camera and we slowly fade to black…
Post by Blake Archer on Feb 4, 2018 18:40:51 GMT -5
Title: Visiting our Zodiac Queen | Union Battleground Second Bout Info: L!GHTS OUT #18 / Blake Archer vs. Alex Kincaid _____________________________________________
Her smile was the kind that melted away all fears, her scorn was the type that struck you down. Through good times and the bad it was our mother who was there for us through all of it. Leaving the rest of the labors that we have done, there is something that stands in his way at Union Battleground. Things open up in a Cemetery on a fridged February morning.
Shane Trudex: "Why did you wake me up to drive you out here? It is colder than a witch's tit out here!"
Blake: "I need to say I don't want to say in front of the women."
He reproaches the headstone where his Grandma is buried, he kneels down next to it brushing the snow off making sure things are neat. Next he looks at a stone vase where his mother's ashes are and repeats the same gesture. His former tag team partner pats him on the back.
Shane Trudex: "Ok buddy, I will be waiting for you in the car."
His friend says this to him knowing that Blake would become paranoid if he'd just walked off. Now that he is alone Blake speaks.
Blake: "How are my ladies? I like to think I am doing the both of you proud. Now I am going off to Japan. This place is somewhere I think both of you might have liked. I'm sorry I never had the chance to take you. I am taking my wife. Her excitement fills the voids your absences leaves. This scene it is a lot different than when I ran away at thirteen. I spent three years fighting men illegally, but I mean I guess it built character right? I forget a lot of my time than, but I do remember the wrestling, the feel of the ropes. It hurt... but I loved it. I still do. The pain my body goes through lets me know I am alive. The last year, I plotted and I planned. I created a delusion that I had to see materialize. Somehow, you both always made those delusions come true. I believed in anything, and I accomplished almost everything. Time keeps ticking away, the older I get the more I relate to you. Still it is my pride that is what keeps me going. Knowing that there is something out there that I want and that I need to have. I feel incomplete without knowing what it is like to hold in my hands and defend. I guess I learn a little more about morality every day. For the man that is my opponent wants to make a joke of my moniker. The King of Canines, it is a badge for you, for all the beaten and abused. My wife was born in the year of the dog. I owe this to her, and to myself. So much was stolen, so much wasted time."
This time of year is always depressing, it shows in his face no matter how hard he tries to hide it his eyes give away his sadness. The time of year when our mother was born under the year of the dragon much like one of his best friends he thinks with a grin still brushing snow off the stones.
Blake: "First I felt ashamed about coming here, but Mary-Jane had insisted it would be good for us. She did used to be a doctor after all. Having lost to Joe and to Emery now yet still having support that feels new. This is a whole new game, things get out more and the exposure is surreal. This is everything I ever talked about with the two of you and now I am out here doing it. This is what I always dreamed of. Competition, the more I have the more I want. Yet with all I get my eyes never strayed from the Trench War Championship. Now before me is a piece of the puzzle that when put together will take me to where I've been dreaming. I did it, I saved the GWP World Heavyweight Championship. I have accomplished the biggest test of people saying I was only holding onto a garbage championship. I am a real champion. Along the way I like to think I taught thought I fought a lesson in fighting a real champion. They will always think about that time he beat Blake Archer. Sadly... that exposure has some drawbacks. Yes. I hear you on twitter Mr. Kincaid, but I didn't feel juvenile enough to really say anything. Can you two believe he is trying to push me. A dog fanatic, hardly. I will get to him when it is his turn, no need to rush. Now that time is approaching, the bout for the War Horse Medallion. If Joe advances than I will get a chance to right a wrong. Trust me I was thinking of jokes, but where will that get me? I'm to focused on what brought me to the game to begin with to worry about catty things that Alex Kincaid thinks. I realize I got a road that needs traveled before I get to the prize that I want. Yet all the cards keep lining up for me. I respect that Joe got the better of me and I hope he advances because I'd love to have another shot with him in the ring. Before I let my own mind distract me from things, there was not the right motivation. Now I keep thinking of what I could have done better. Things I will do better against Alex. There are tapes I've seen and I know that if I must I will take the low road. I am a bit ... obsessive like that. My wife claims that is a gift to take such attention to details. Than again at times I can forget the same details. Instinctively I still know what I am doing and I think I held myself back against Joe... Not that I wanted to, but I have personal things I need to overcome. Things I hope don't arise in the ring against Alex. A man my other half is eager to get a hold of, but I tell that demon to back away because this is my journey not his."
He is just a cliche, all his life people mocked him and he slowly let himself get filled with hate. Those times have to stay behind him now for the greater good of his offspring. Somehow the match with Alex has him feeling that extra push. The kind that could unite me with Archer? Our thoughts become mingled lately. Blake has become more thoughtful and takes action a little less.
Blake: "I never took the time to let Union Battleground know about me. This is a moment I have worked towards since I was a small boy. The path I took to get here might not always be the one everyone likes but it still brought me to where I want to be. From the time I was thirteen I traveled with a carnival, they put a mask on me and billed me at the Kid Flash. To survive I had to learn to be fast because the guys that I was put in the ring against didn't care I was still a kid, they would break limbs. Eventually my knack for reversing or escaping submission got me the reputation as a kid Houdini. I am not a slouch and I take every match I have very seriously. I therefore didn't want to show up, because just something in me feels Alex isn't taking me seriously. I respect my opponents simply for being my opponents. Until they give me a reason not to."
He brushes his hair out of his face feeling more exposed now and knowing he has to do this to be taken seriously with what he wants to say. He stands up and looks at us.
Blake: "February 16th. This is a day I must get to and a day I will only get to if I defeat Alex. Whatever I have to do, break your legs to prevent that sharpshooter. Or if I need to pull out some of that natural agile I still posses from when I was a kid. Some things they never change, I think Alex knows this as he is a man on his own path of reincarnation. Well he might be dazzling on the mic, the best thing I got is my fists. So all I have to say is that I know I am prepared for when that bell rings, for looking Alex dead in the eyes and squaring off. It is not about rebounding from Joe because that loss helped me realize that things need to be looked at from a more fierce prospective. What kind of King would I be if I ignored what the people need? Each thing planned so meticulously and I can't let my opponent is jeopardize that."
Last Edit: Feb 4, 2018 20:14:50 GMT -5 by Blake Archer
