Post by Meatball-kun on Oct 4, 2014 5:51:26 GMT -6
A Restaurant
Las Vegas, Nevada
After Long Way Down
Chuck Matthews: "I'm fine."
Jessica Matthews: "Just let me look at it."
Chuck Matthews: "I'm fine."
Jessica frowns, reaching again for Chuck's jaw, still a faint shade of pink from the kick earlier that night. Chuck sighs.
Chuck Matthews: "Fine. Here, look."
Jessica leans across the table. She tentatively reaches to touch it, but just as she does, Chuck gnashes his teeth at her, growling at her like a dog. Jessica jumps in her seat. Chuck laughs loudly, and she hits his arm.
Jessica Matthews: "Jerk!"
Chuck Matthews: "Sorry. Seriously though. I've taken worse. I'll be alright."
Jessica looks at him, looking for any signs of dishonesty.
Chuck Matthews: "Now, I DO have a rather painful scar on my back from your ex-husband, and you're more than welcome to-"
Jessica Matthews: "Fine, fine, I get it. I just don't want you getting hurt."
Chuck Matthews: "I always get hurt. That's the job. But, you know...you do it long enough, eventually you figure out ways to deal with it."
Jessica Matthews: "You really enjoy it, don't you?"
Chuck Matthews: "Wouldn't do it if I didn't."
Jessica looks at him. She wasn't in town for the show. Likely, she was visiting her friend...whatever his name was. It was some meathead working in another company. He and Chuck didn't particularly get along...but to be fair, there was an ever-growing list of people Chuck didn't get along with. Again...just part of the job. Jessica takes a drink, and stares for a moment at her brother.
Jessica Matthews: "Have you talked to Sofia?"
Chuck uses the silence to take a long drink from his own glass as he thinks of an answer. The short answer was 'yes.' Chuck and Sofia had talked, somewhat briefly, considering the circumstances. She was true to her word: She wasn't particularly after anything. She wasn't demanding money, or any of Chuck's assets. The way she put it, she felt the marriage was rushed. Maybe it was a mistake. In her mind, she just wanted out of it so she could hopefully find her true soulmate before she got too old. Or at least...that's what she had told Chuck. Incidentally, it was Chuck who was making it more complicated that it needed to be.
Chuck Matthews: "I'm going to talk to Michael about an annulment."
Jessica Matthews: "I figured you would."
Chuck Matthews: "Yeah...I don't think he'll be too happy with me. But I don't think he'll object."
Jessica Matthews: "Really? Your priest friend isn't going to object to you trying to annul your marriage? Aren't those supposed to be really complicated?"
Chuck shakes his head.
Chuck Matthews: "Not if you married a Protestant."
Jessica laughs. Chuck smiles. She may have been the only one he knew who would laugh at that, besides maybe Michael himself. Funny enough, it had almost never played a part in the marriage...their differing religious beliefs, that is. Sofia wasn't a spiritual person. The two of them had decided, when she was pregnant, that it would fall on Chuck's shoulders to teach him the importance of spirituality and education...unfortunately, Chuck never had the chance.
Jessica Matthews: "You don't seem too broken up about it."
Chuck nods slowly, trying to decide how he wants to phrase his next thought.
Chuck Matthews: "I think...I knew it was coming."
Jessica Matthews: "So did Corey and I. That didn't make it hurt any less."
Chuck snorts.
Chuck Matthews: "I think we both know you and I have very different ways of dealing with pain."
He takes another drink.
Jessica Matthews: "Well...you know I'm always here if you need anything."
Chuck nods.
Chuck Matthews: "I think I'll be alright."
------------------------------------------------------------
US-72
Alabama/Mississippi State Line
Thursday
It's dark. The roads are mostly empty, except for the occasional truck making its nighttime trek across the country. A lone car drives down the highway, headlights on, windows up. Here, Chuck drives, alone, heading eastbound into Alabama. It's silent in the car. He's turned the radio off and drives on in silence, apparently deep in thought.
'You really think this little road trip is going to help?'
This was hardly anything new. Some nagging voice, speaking to him from the darkest recesses of his mind. It had been happening for years...sometimes in the form of Paul Matthews. Telling him all the secrets he'd buried away for years...telling him the things he knew, but didn't want to hear.
'You want answers...but are you sure that she's the one who can give them to you?'
Chuck shakes his head, partly to silence the voice, and partly to keep himself awake. He'd been driving for hours. In the distance, Chuck could see where the black sky turned a deep shade of blue. Soon, the sun would rise. Chuck wanted to sleep. He was tired. Beat from the long trip. But he was so close. Another couple of hours, and he'd be in Decatur.
'Why don't you ever visit?'
Chuck sneers as the thought enters his mind.
Chuck Matthews: "I'm a busy man."
He speaks out loud, though he knows it won't help. Nobody was listening. Nobody could hear him. And it didn't help, either. Moments after he speaks, his mind laughs at him, echoing a new thought through his head.
'Too busy to visit your own mother? Now that's a shame...'
Chuck Matthews: "It's complicated."
'It's not. You hold a little Thanksgiving and Christmas get-together every year, and you make sure to attend, just so you can see your family and convince yourself that you're a family man. But you need to be honest with yourself, Charlie. Your son is gone. Your wife is gone. And you've just...moved right along.'
Chuck Matthews: "I'm dealing-"
'Dealing with it? You were a completely different person for a month after Blake passed. Hell, you cared more for the kid than for Sofia.'
Chuck Matthews: "She thought I didn't care about her. She thought she wasn't important to me. She didn't want anything to do with me."
'So why wouldn't you chase after her?'
Chuck pauses a moment.
Chuck Matthews: "Because she was right."
'See? You're only lying to yourself, Charles. Eventually, you're going to have to come to terms with the fact that you really don't care much for other people. You live your life alone, and you like it that way. You LIKE that nobody really knows you. You LIKE that you've pushed away everybody who's ever given a shit about you.'
Chuck Matthews: "And why is that?"
'I think you know the answer to that, don't you?'
Chuck smiles.
Chuck Matthews: "I think we're going to figure it out soon enough."
He glances at his phone, where his GPS directs him towards his destination.
Chuck Matthews: "Sixty miles to Decatur."
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Chuck Matthews: "Well THAT was fun.
I'll give credit where it's due. I lost at Long Way Down. I didn't think I would. I made a critical mistake, and I paid for it. It doesn't happen often, but....well, what's that saying about a blind squirrel and his nuts?
And yet, here we go again, on our happy little trail, ever forward, ever onward, with so little changing in the grand scheme of things. Fiona Collins is still champion. Lexy Chapel continues to run over her competition. Gods & Monsters continues to beat down their competition.
And I guess that means that, regardless of the outcomes, I need to continue to feed you all my riddles. You're starting to crave them, aren't you? They've started to become a staple in your day-to-day life. Wake up, go to work, go through your business, come home, and listen to what Chuck Matthews has to say. Because whether you agree with it or not, I don't think anybody can argue that painful, simple fact: When I talk, people listen.
And why do you suppose that is? Is it out of respect? I mean...shit, you spend a long enough time in this business, eventually people will listen to just about anything you say, right? You've proven that you're there to stay. You've proven that your words hold weight. Or maybe it's something else?
Maybe it's because as much as people would love to deny it, they've come to realize: Chuck Matthews is every bit as smart as people say he is. And so I am. I sit. I observe. I read people. I understand people. That's how I think. That's how I work. If there's anybody in this industry who better understands the mental aspect of this sick little game we play, I haven't met him.
And that's a painful pill for a lot of you to swallow, isn't it? You're starting to realize what I've been saying since the day I stepped foot in EXODUS. This whole "supergenius" thing? That wasn't really my call to make. That's just a nickname they gave me. Something people notice as my career went on. All I did was prove them right. Prove to them that "Yes, Chuck Matthews is most certainly the smartest man in wrestling."
Not that anyone has really been able to disprove that, right? Christ, even now, I keep pulling the same tricks over and over, and nobody's really doing anything about it. Now, there are two reasons for that. Either you don't particularly care if I succeed...or you can't figure out how to put an end to it.
But Christian Kane! Christian Kane beat Chuck!
And I congratulate him for it. Good for you, Sparky. But that was two weeks ago. This is now. And now, I have more important things to do than take a match because it appeases you and calms you down from your perpetual temper tantrum.
Enter Trouble.
Now, this...this could get very interesting, couldn't it? I mean...there's a lot to consider. For one, Trouble has established themselves. They're a tag team that's proven that they have what it takes to be successful. They've proven that they can work well as a team.
And then there's Justin Brooks and Chuck Matthews. Brooks, who manages just fine on his own. And Chuck, who only seems to work well with others when it's convenient for him. But...that's the wildcard, isn't it? There's one scenario we haven't seen out of me yet, isn't there? There's one question that nobody can begin to answer: How does Chuck fare as a member of a team?
What makes Brooks and I an interesting combination is that it's this perfect mesh of my brains and his...whatever it is he wants to call it. Brutality? Violence? Pound-The-Shit-Out-Of-Everything-ness? Whatever it is, Mr. Brooks has it, and he uses it very well.
Then there's me. And I just...baffle you. As I have been. As I do now. As I very likely will continue to do. How exactly do you plan to combat that?
See...I'd like you to think back. Think to all of my losses here. Think of my victories. And in every match, there's always this...this strange commonality. Wrong place...wrong time. When I lose, why is it? Some bizzarre twist of fate that puts me in exactly the wrong spot to take a blow that keeps me down just long enough to cost me the match. A kick from Kane. A shot from Windsor. Or...let's move back even further...
An uncharacteristic moment of overconfidence that allowed Steve Lenton to hand me my first loss.
But..what about that strength? What about that distinct advantage I hold over every opponent? That ability to think ahead? To turn any match into a game of chess? That happy power to predict the moves before they happen, to see the things that nobody else does. And do you know when that comes in handy?
When there's more than two people in the ring.
Is there any doubt? The more people get involved, the better I become. And that's not necessarily because I'm better. It's because everybody else gets worse. People are not trained to handle so many moving variables at once. Their brains can't process it. Mine can. That's how I fight. That's how I win. You throw me one man, I'm forced to rely on my own ability, and my ability to read my opponent. My ability to predict what he'll do before he knows he's going to do it. But you throw two men in the ring with me? Three? That's more variables. That's more pieces.
And that's when I get really dangerous.
And when one of those pieces is on my side of the fight? It makes it all the more difficult, doesn't it?
THAT is my game. THAT is what Wulf and Steverino are fighting. I'll give you some credit, Steve. You've beaten me before. That's not an easy task. But now...can you do it twice? Can you find it in you to tack another loss on my growing losing streak?
More importantly...can you count on Wulf to have your back? Can you count on him to get the job done? To ensure that it won't be YOU fighting the match on your own? I mean, you can talk all you like about how Brooks and I have no history, but at the end of the day, the two of us are damn good at what we do. We're solid competitors in our own right. You put those two together? Why wouldn't we succeed? But you?
When was the last time Wulf did anything noteworthy? What has he done that has made people stop and pause? When has he been deemed a legitimate threat? What can he do that would make either of us stop and think 'Well hold on a second...we may have bitten off more than we can chew here.'
Fact of the matter is, I don't think you can beat me twice, Steve. And I KNOW Wulf can't do it once. He's not prepared for something like this. He's never fought someone quite like me before. And while you can talk him through it all you like, I think you know, deep down in that big ol' Lenton heart of yours: Wulf is outgunned here. He's not strong enough to take on Justin Brooks, and he's not smart enough to go up against Chuck Matthews. No...he needs someone who's powerful enough to overcome the disadvantage. He needs someone with enough raw power to overcome Chuck's intelligence. Brooks' brutality. He needs you, Steve, far more than you need him. He's relying on you to take it home. He's relying on you to get the job done. But to tell you the truth, Steve?
I think this is one burden even you can't bear."
Las Vegas, Nevada
After Long Way Down
Chuck Matthews: "I'm fine."
Jessica Matthews: "Just let me look at it."
Chuck Matthews: "I'm fine."
Jessica frowns, reaching again for Chuck's jaw, still a faint shade of pink from the kick earlier that night. Chuck sighs.
Chuck Matthews: "Fine. Here, look."
Jessica leans across the table. She tentatively reaches to touch it, but just as she does, Chuck gnashes his teeth at her, growling at her like a dog. Jessica jumps in her seat. Chuck laughs loudly, and she hits his arm.
Jessica Matthews: "Jerk!"
Chuck Matthews: "Sorry. Seriously though. I've taken worse. I'll be alright."
Jessica looks at him, looking for any signs of dishonesty.
Chuck Matthews: "Now, I DO have a rather painful scar on my back from your ex-husband, and you're more than welcome to-"
Jessica Matthews: "Fine, fine, I get it. I just don't want you getting hurt."
Chuck Matthews: "I always get hurt. That's the job. But, you know...you do it long enough, eventually you figure out ways to deal with it."
Jessica Matthews: "You really enjoy it, don't you?"
Chuck Matthews: "Wouldn't do it if I didn't."
Jessica looks at him. She wasn't in town for the show. Likely, she was visiting her friend...whatever his name was. It was some meathead working in another company. He and Chuck didn't particularly get along...but to be fair, there was an ever-growing list of people Chuck didn't get along with. Again...just part of the job. Jessica takes a drink, and stares for a moment at her brother.
Jessica Matthews: "Have you talked to Sofia?"
Chuck uses the silence to take a long drink from his own glass as he thinks of an answer. The short answer was 'yes.' Chuck and Sofia had talked, somewhat briefly, considering the circumstances. She was true to her word: She wasn't particularly after anything. She wasn't demanding money, or any of Chuck's assets. The way she put it, she felt the marriage was rushed. Maybe it was a mistake. In her mind, she just wanted out of it so she could hopefully find her true soulmate before she got too old. Or at least...that's what she had told Chuck. Incidentally, it was Chuck who was making it more complicated that it needed to be.
Chuck Matthews: "I'm going to talk to Michael about an annulment."
Jessica Matthews: "I figured you would."
Chuck Matthews: "Yeah...I don't think he'll be too happy with me. But I don't think he'll object."
Jessica Matthews: "Really? Your priest friend isn't going to object to you trying to annul your marriage? Aren't those supposed to be really complicated?"
Chuck shakes his head.
Chuck Matthews: "Not if you married a Protestant."
Jessica laughs. Chuck smiles. She may have been the only one he knew who would laugh at that, besides maybe Michael himself. Funny enough, it had almost never played a part in the marriage...their differing religious beliefs, that is. Sofia wasn't a spiritual person. The two of them had decided, when she was pregnant, that it would fall on Chuck's shoulders to teach him the importance of spirituality and education...unfortunately, Chuck never had the chance.
Jessica Matthews: "You don't seem too broken up about it."
Chuck nods slowly, trying to decide how he wants to phrase his next thought.
Chuck Matthews: "I think...I knew it was coming."
Jessica Matthews: "So did Corey and I. That didn't make it hurt any less."
Chuck snorts.
Chuck Matthews: "I think we both know you and I have very different ways of dealing with pain."
He takes another drink.
Jessica Matthews: "Well...you know I'm always here if you need anything."
Chuck nods.
Chuck Matthews: "I think I'll be alright."
------------------------------------------------------------
US-72
Alabama/Mississippi State Line
Thursday
It's dark. The roads are mostly empty, except for the occasional truck making its nighttime trek across the country. A lone car drives down the highway, headlights on, windows up. Here, Chuck drives, alone, heading eastbound into Alabama. It's silent in the car. He's turned the radio off and drives on in silence, apparently deep in thought.
'You really think this little road trip is going to help?'
This was hardly anything new. Some nagging voice, speaking to him from the darkest recesses of his mind. It had been happening for years...sometimes in the form of Paul Matthews. Telling him all the secrets he'd buried away for years...telling him the things he knew, but didn't want to hear.
'You want answers...but are you sure that she's the one who can give them to you?'
Chuck shakes his head, partly to silence the voice, and partly to keep himself awake. He'd been driving for hours. In the distance, Chuck could see where the black sky turned a deep shade of blue. Soon, the sun would rise. Chuck wanted to sleep. He was tired. Beat from the long trip. But he was so close. Another couple of hours, and he'd be in Decatur.
'Why don't you ever visit?'
Chuck sneers as the thought enters his mind.
Chuck Matthews: "I'm a busy man."
He speaks out loud, though he knows it won't help. Nobody was listening. Nobody could hear him. And it didn't help, either. Moments after he speaks, his mind laughs at him, echoing a new thought through his head.
'Too busy to visit your own mother? Now that's a shame...'
Chuck Matthews: "It's complicated."
'It's not. You hold a little Thanksgiving and Christmas get-together every year, and you make sure to attend, just so you can see your family and convince yourself that you're a family man. But you need to be honest with yourself, Charlie. Your son is gone. Your wife is gone. And you've just...moved right along.'
Chuck Matthews: "I'm dealing-"
'Dealing with it? You were a completely different person for a month after Blake passed. Hell, you cared more for the kid than for Sofia.'
Chuck Matthews: "She thought I didn't care about her. She thought she wasn't important to me. She didn't want anything to do with me."
'So why wouldn't you chase after her?'
Chuck pauses a moment.
Chuck Matthews: "Because she was right."
'See? You're only lying to yourself, Charles. Eventually, you're going to have to come to terms with the fact that you really don't care much for other people. You live your life alone, and you like it that way. You LIKE that nobody really knows you. You LIKE that you've pushed away everybody who's ever given a shit about you.'
Chuck Matthews: "And why is that?"
'I think you know the answer to that, don't you?'
Chuck smiles.
Chuck Matthews: "I think we're going to figure it out soon enough."
He glances at his phone, where his GPS directs him towards his destination.
Chuck Matthews: "Sixty miles to Decatur."
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Chuck Matthews: "Well THAT was fun.
I'll give credit where it's due. I lost at Long Way Down. I didn't think I would. I made a critical mistake, and I paid for it. It doesn't happen often, but....well, what's that saying about a blind squirrel and his nuts?
And yet, here we go again, on our happy little trail, ever forward, ever onward, with so little changing in the grand scheme of things. Fiona Collins is still champion. Lexy Chapel continues to run over her competition. Gods & Monsters continues to beat down their competition.
And I guess that means that, regardless of the outcomes, I need to continue to feed you all my riddles. You're starting to crave them, aren't you? They've started to become a staple in your day-to-day life. Wake up, go to work, go through your business, come home, and listen to what Chuck Matthews has to say. Because whether you agree with it or not, I don't think anybody can argue that painful, simple fact: When I talk, people listen.
And why do you suppose that is? Is it out of respect? I mean...shit, you spend a long enough time in this business, eventually people will listen to just about anything you say, right? You've proven that you're there to stay. You've proven that your words hold weight. Or maybe it's something else?
Maybe it's because as much as people would love to deny it, they've come to realize: Chuck Matthews is every bit as smart as people say he is. And so I am. I sit. I observe. I read people. I understand people. That's how I think. That's how I work. If there's anybody in this industry who better understands the mental aspect of this sick little game we play, I haven't met him.
And that's a painful pill for a lot of you to swallow, isn't it? You're starting to realize what I've been saying since the day I stepped foot in EXODUS. This whole "supergenius" thing? That wasn't really my call to make. That's just a nickname they gave me. Something people notice as my career went on. All I did was prove them right. Prove to them that "Yes, Chuck Matthews is most certainly the smartest man in wrestling."
Not that anyone has really been able to disprove that, right? Christ, even now, I keep pulling the same tricks over and over, and nobody's really doing anything about it. Now, there are two reasons for that. Either you don't particularly care if I succeed...or you can't figure out how to put an end to it.
But Christian Kane! Christian Kane beat Chuck!
And I congratulate him for it. Good for you, Sparky. But that was two weeks ago. This is now. And now, I have more important things to do than take a match because it appeases you and calms you down from your perpetual temper tantrum.
Enter Trouble.
Now, this...this could get very interesting, couldn't it? I mean...there's a lot to consider. For one, Trouble has established themselves. They're a tag team that's proven that they have what it takes to be successful. They've proven that they can work well as a team.
And then there's Justin Brooks and Chuck Matthews. Brooks, who manages just fine on his own. And Chuck, who only seems to work well with others when it's convenient for him. But...that's the wildcard, isn't it? There's one scenario we haven't seen out of me yet, isn't there? There's one question that nobody can begin to answer: How does Chuck fare as a member of a team?
What makes Brooks and I an interesting combination is that it's this perfect mesh of my brains and his...whatever it is he wants to call it. Brutality? Violence? Pound-The-Shit-Out-Of-Everything-ness? Whatever it is, Mr. Brooks has it, and he uses it very well.
Then there's me. And I just...baffle you. As I have been. As I do now. As I very likely will continue to do. How exactly do you plan to combat that?
See...I'd like you to think back. Think to all of my losses here. Think of my victories. And in every match, there's always this...this strange commonality. Wrong place...wrong time. When I lose, why is it? Some bizzarre twist of fate that puts me in exactly the wrong spot to take a blow that keeps me down just long enough to cost me the match. A kick from Kane. A shot from Windsor. Or...let's move back even further...
An uncharacteristic moment of overconfidence that allowed Steve Lenton to hand me my first loss.
But..what about that strength? What about that distinct advantage I hold over every opponent? That ability to think ahead? To turn any match into a game of chess? That happy power to predict the moves before they happen, to see the things that nobody else does. And do you know when that comes in handy?
When there's more than two people in the ring.
Is there any doubt? The more people get involved, the better I become. And that's not necessarily because I'm better. It's because everybody else gets worse. People are not trained to handle so many moving variables at once. Their brains can't process it. Mine can. That's how I fight. That's how I win. You throw me one man, I'm forced to rely on my own ability, and my ability to read my opponent. My ability to predict what he'll do before he knows he's going to do it. But you throw two men in the ring with me? Three? That's more variables. That's more pieces.
And that's when I get really dangerous.
And when one of those pieces is on my side of the fight? It makes it all the more difficult, doesn't it?
THAT is my game. THAT is what Wulf and Steverino are fighting. I'll give you some credit, Steve. You've beaten me before. That's not an easy task. But now...can you do it twice? Can you find it in you to tack another loss on my growing losing streak?
More importantly...can you count on Wulf to have your back? Can you count on him to get the job done? To ensure that it won't be YOU fighting the match on your own? I mean, you can talk all you like about how Brooks and I have no history, but at the end of the day, the two of us are damn good at what we do. We're solid competitors in our own right. You put those two together? Why wouldn't we succeed? But you?
When was the last time Wulf did anything noteworthy? What has he done that has made people stop and pause? When has he been deemed a legitimate threat? What can he do that would make either of us stop and think 'Well hold on a second...we may have bitten off more than we can chew here.'
Fact of the matter is, I don't think you can beat me twice, Steve. And I KNOW Wulf can't do it once. He's not prepared for something like this. He's never fought someone quite like me before. And while you can talk him through it all you like, I think you know, deep down in that big ol' Lenton heart of yours: Wulf is outgunned here. He's not strong enough to take on Justin Brooks, and he's not smart enough to go up against Chuck Matthews. No...he needs someone who's powerful enough to overcome the disadvantage. He needs someone with enough raw power to overcome Chuck's intelligence. Brooks' brutality. He needs you, Steve, far more than you need him. He's relying on you to take it home. He's relying on you to get the job done. But to tell you the truth, Steve?
I think this is one burden even you can't bear."